Why Sandra is learning new skills in order to pass on the ones she has
Wandering round this gloriously colourful little shop in the delightful seaside town of North Berwick on the east coast of Scotland I had an entirely unexpected encounter, or rather, I should say re-encounter, with Heydayer Sandra (62)
As well as its wonderful clothing and homeware, the shop, which is owned by Sandra, sells a colourful selection of knitting yarns and equipment (not shown because they’re at the back of the shop and I forgot to take a picture of them, sigh….)
As I was regaling my friends with tales of my hopelessly inept knitting attempts during my time as editor of Woman’s Weekly Sandra came over, asked whether I was Diane Kenwood, and then reminded me that I had come into the shop on one of my past visits to the town and written about it in my Editor’s letter!
Of course we ended up having a thoroughly good catch-up chat, during which I discovered Sandra has just started a clever new enterprise to introduce people to the joys of knitting and other crafts, which has mean her having to learn a whole new set of skills herself.
When I bought the shop 17 years ago, it was a cafe and a flower shop. The following July I separated the flowers into a different premises in the town and kept the cafe and an element of retail. To fill the quiet spells in the winter I decided to run a series of six craft workshops with coffee and cake, basically to get bums on seats! We did a different craft skill each week including crochet, needle felting, patchwork and knitting.
After that initial six weeks, a core group evolved who wanted to keep meeting, so we developed a knit and natter group. There was no-one selling wool in the area at the time and members of the group were frustrated that in order to do the projects they wanted to try, they were having to go out of town, and in some cases as far as Edinburgh (an hour away) in order to get the yarn they needed. Because of the mail order business I’d started with my late parents and late brother, which sourced items that were made by family businesses using traditional manufacturing techniques, I already had a contact at New Lanark Mill (which is based in New Lanark, between Glasgow and Edinburgh) so I started to stock yarns from them, and the yarn side of the business grew from there.
My mum taught me to knit when I was about four. The funny thing is I can’t remember being taught, either to knit or crochet, but I also can’t remember a time I didn’t do them both. Before I started school I had a pair of plastic red knitting needles that were probably about 6 inches long and I knitted scarves for my Tressy & Tiny Tears dolls. I particularly remember a Christmas when I was about nine and everyone in the family got something that was hand made. My brother got a bobble hat. My mum, dad and granddad all got different scarves. And both my grandmas got crocheted tea cosies which were even lined (Mum helped me with that part). They were very 1970s colours - purple, turquoise and white and they had turquoise cotton lining inside.
I think there are several things that put people off learning to knit. Very often it’s a confidence thing. People worry about making a mistake and not knowing how to fix it and I do understand that. You don’t see that so much in younger children, because they don’t have a fear of failing.
To anyone thinking of starting knitting I’d say the best way is to begin using super chunky wool, size 10mm knitting needles, and doing a very simple project that doesn’t involve a lot of techniques. A scarf is a classic beginners project, it’s straight, only 17 or so stitches in a row, so you don’t have to commit a lot of time to achieve one row. You can put it down and pick it up at any point and you can see progress very quickly because of the size of the wool and the needles. And if you do drop a stitch, it just comes off the needle and very obviously sits there, so you can easily get hold of it and put it back onto the needle again. Being able to finish a project quickly when you’re first learning is also a very motivating thing. It gives you the interest and confidence to go on and make something else.
When I was learning to knit, my mum would show me how to fix any mistakes I made. I'm trying to fill the gap of not having someone you can refer to by creating an interactive tutorial website, Wool School, to add to my existing YouTube channel. It’s launching later this month (October) with just beginner knitting, crochet and macrame, but there are big plans to include all sorts of textile crafts demonstrated by various tutors. The interactive element will come from live clinics which will begin early next year (on zoom) during which people can contact us and ask for our help with any problem they have.
The website will have very simple tutorials for about 10 basic skills, with a set of projects you can achieve with as few as five of those. Then you can decide which new skills you want to add and what project you want to tackle next as a result. So users dictate the direction of their individual learning journey.
It’s been quite a learning journey for me too creating Wool School, because technology isn’t something I’m comfortable with. Although initially I was commissioning other people to create all the content, because I really want it to be exactly as it would if I was standing with you and showing you myself, I’ve ended up being far more hands on that I had planned!
It’s exactly like having the confidence to give knitting a go. I’ve had to try out and learn all sorts of new technology skills in order to make Wool School what I want it to be. I think that translates across all sorts of areas of learning. You need to get over the fear that holds you back and just give it a try.
You can also find Wool School on Instagram @thisiswoolschool and Facebook thisiswoolschool
