Brixton Purl

Dear self It's ok not to have made your wardrobe yourself. It's ok to buy clothes in shops. Sure, you've knitted a lot of sweaters, shawls, hats, etc. but you don't have to weave your own fabrics and sew your own clothes - you make a lot of other things! What about the print on the wall you made? Or the necklace? You made those! Be proud of things you've made or accomplished, even though it may not be your whole outfit.  May is a fantastic month and on social media a lot of the peope I follow celebrate Me Made May, a celebration of a home made wardrobe. I can sometimes feel the pressure to join in the choir, but the truth is that I've made the decision not to make my own clothes. I want to spend my time on other things and I'm happy to go shopping for my clothes. During MeMadeMay I sometimes have to remind myself that it is OK to wear store bought clothes. For some people it's not a choice, they may not know how to sew, in my case it's more of a ch...

I'm going to stick my neck and say something that shouldn't be controversial; it's ok to buy commercial yarn from big brands. Don't get me wrong, I use a lot of yarn from indie dyers and small mills and absolutely love it, but I don't have to choose one or the other. They serve different purposes. I work for a yarn company/retailer, we're somewhere north of 100 employees and we sell commercial yarn. Buying yarn from a larger company supports all the employees and the suppliers as well. It takes a larger customer group to make enough sales to pay the costs, but there are a lot of people making a living. One of the arguments used to encourage buying from indie sellers is that you support local, you support the people working there. I want to make the same claim for buying from bigger companies. There are a lot of people involved making a living, and the area they live in might not be your local, but it still benefit from all these people in work. Without my sal...