Crafting a business over lockdown

Amy Snell came from a career in marketing to set up her own knitting instructing and designing business, Devious Knitter, which has gone from strength to strength over lockdown with online classes and video podcasts to connect with the virtual knitting community.

Amy told SWL: "Knitting has occupied various places in my life at different stages. When I was a young mother and often felt isolated, I started reading knitting blogs and knitting bulletin boards, partially to learn and become better at my craft, but also as a means of connection to a wider world of people who also liked the things I liked."

"The virtual knitting world started to feel like home to me."

One of the many things Amy loves about knitting is how tactile and colourful it is; different textures and styles of yarn and an array of colours lend themselves to different projects and she compares it to drawing or painting with thread.

Her friend who originally showed her how to knit likes to joke that she "infected" Amy with knitting.

Amy went from teaching this friend and her own children some new stitching skills, to running knitting clubs at schools teaching parents and children to knit and volunteering in the community teaching retirees, secondary school students, work colleagues and anyone else who had an interest in knitting. 

She used virtual knit-ins and knit-togethers on Zoom over lockdown to help combat feelings of isolation and found new events and opportunities in the process.

Her career in marketing at the time did not leave her much time to dedicate to a knitting blog or publishing her own knitting designs, but when her youngest son went to college, she started to think about giving it a go.

In the year before the pandemic hit, she went to knitting retreats where she realised that she already knew a lot of what the talented knitting teachers were demonstrating.

"There was a niggling little voice in the back of my head that would once in a while crop up and say, “Maybe you’re good enough at this to be on the other side of the classroom, teaching this stuff for real and getting paid for it.”

She was spurred into action during the early months of the pandemic when a new virtual festival called Fiberworld put out a call for knitting instructors.

Amy found that she really loved it, especially as she was used to presenting on Zoom because of her marketing job and she could combine her knitting-teaching skills and her virtual-presenting skills.

She used multiple cameras so her students could see her hands and created her small business from there which now focusses on teaching and designing new patterns.

She also used her business as a springboard to collaborate with others in the knitting industry, particularly those from Fiber, to start a video podcast Would Knit Be Fun on Youtube. She uses the platform to promote knitting as a skill and help out her fellow knitting businesses.

Of course, there have been challenges along the way: "Like all small businesses, you have to wear so many hats. I had to learn how to build a website, where to host it, how to sell things on it. I have to market that business and keep up a social media presence. I didn’t really know the knitting industry from a businessperson’s perspective, so I had a lot to learn there."

However, the benefits massively outweighed the challenges, as Amy put it: "There have been huge upsides, though. In this time of separation and isolation, launching a business in the knitting industry has brought me new connections and new friends."

Former Rolls-Royce engineer, Sarah Hodgkinson, launched her own business during the pandemic in which she hosts creative workshops and produces home craft kits for beginners and enthusiasts alike.

Before the Covid pandemic struck, Sarah had spent 14 years in Engineering in the aerospace industry which was then hit with redundancies.

"When considering what my next steps should be I wanted to give something a try that would mean I could do what I loved whilst making a living."

Sarah had a choice to make and told SWL: "For me it felt like the right time to take voluntary redundancy and give something a different a go."

"Whilst I didn't have plans of a craft business beforehand it was a fairly easy decision that its what I should do.

"This way I could combine what I love with creating a business."

"Craft has always been my way to unwind."

Her Granny taught her to knit as a young girl and the passion for crafting stuck from there.

Now Sarah sells a range of eco-conscious craft kits covering mosaics, needle felting and sewing for beginners with detailed instructions and high quality materials wholesale and from her website.

Sarah also ran a series of outdoor workshops last summer and initially wanted teaching to be the primary focus of her business.

"Getting to spend time with like minded people has been fantastic."

However, Covid limitations on gatherings and successive lockdowns made that focus much more difficult so instead she decided to launch her take home kits which have been a great success over the winter in particular.

Her company had its first birthday last month and Sarah has found she has a far better work life balance with her crafting business plus the satisfaction every time one of her kits sells.

Sacha Beee went from making dangly earrings from leftover threads from her Grandmother's sewing box, to a successful sustainable accessory business after university.

Sacha started her business back in 2018 to channel her inner creativity and learn new skills.

She mostly creates beaded jewellery and recycled candles and told SWL: "The whole purpose of my business is to use materials that we already have to create new pieces."

"Over lockdown I was really given the time to focus on my business and reconnect with things that I had loved doing when I was younger."

For Sacha over lockdown she could not source her beads, wire and other materials for her jewellery from charity shops and her typical sources, so she started a scheme called BeadCycle where people could send her their old jewellery in exchange for a voucher and she could remake it.

She explained: "This was a perfect solution as it connected me with my customers and always was in line with my businesses’ values of sustainability."

"I love to show that just because something is second hand, it isn't second best."

Sacha mentioned several personal benefits from her business, one of which is the peace of being able to switch off from technology and sit down and focus on the creativity of designing a new collection.

Another has been the skills she's learned and developed; from marketing and photography to sales, finance and more.

A specific challenge that Sacha has faced since starting her business is tackling competing expectations with fast fashion: "I find that so many high street brands create cheap and tacky versions of what I create, and sell them for such low prices making my prices seem unreasonable.

"I think for a lot of small businesses this is an issue."