This week I would like to feature a friend of mine, which I get to know her through Facebook. An Onwer of a popular online store Da' Knit which supplies knitting material, yarns and etc etc. A nice sweet girl who is from Sabah. I've personally inspired by her handmade (Knitting and crochet) and due to that I've sent her the interview note and here is her answer.
Q1. Tell us about yourself
A: Hi :) I am known with the name of Ery/Sindarery/Da'Knit among my crafter friends that i met all of them via online :) I'm married to a wonderful Turkish man since 2011. I'm working as a teacher, teaching chemistry and english in a secondary school in Sabah. I graduated from Universiti Malaysia Sabah in Ed with Science. As hobbies, I like watching cartoons especially Sponge Bob and playing games. I also like to spend my time with playing piano ( I learnt to play since I was 8 years old ). Besides that, reading blogs is what I love to do too. Ah.. also, the thing that I can never resist is always YARN! I am very crazy about Yarns. As conclusion, I'm just a simple girl who loves to do knitting and crochet during my free time and share this passion with my friends in my blog at
www.aheys.com
Q2. How did your 1st learn your knitting?
A : I love this question :) It reminds me of how I was so afraid to start this new hobbies though I was very eager to try it out! I've been thinking about starting this new hobby almost all the time and yes, it was somehow stressing coz I know that once you knit, you will need to spend more!:p
However, finally it started at the end of 2009.. it was close to school holidays and my husband ( also my special one and my best friend :) ) suggested me to fill in my free time during the school holidays with learning a new language. Hahaha.. however, after given deep thoughts, I finally take the step to try out knitting instead of learning new language :p
The only problem about this is how to get the knitting tools to start learning since unfortunately knitting is not very well known in Malaysia. Hmm..
Then there was one day, i was wandering around in a mall inside KK (Kota Kinabalu) during the earlier days of the school holidays. While walking.. I suddenly remember there is a small shop just in front of the escalator at the first floor, with a name of Meelo, a craft shop. Yup. I am sure most Sabahans know this place!
So I decided to go inside to have a look and because it was my first time stepping into the store, I was shocked beside surprise to see the yarns collections they have and lucky me! I found knitting needles :) Totally it was heaven! There were metals also bamboo needles, Without having second thought, I grabbed two pairs of metal needles, and two balls of Sakura Yarn, went to the counter, paid and came back home immediately.
Just after I reached home, I began to try out the needles and the yarns with making random stitches...oh momy.. it was s bit funny that I kept slipping off the yarns from the needles and never managed to stick even one stitch over it due to the slippery surface of the metal needles, and yes, it was hard for a first try!
After few days passed, I decided to come back again to the same shop and bought the bamboo. Unexpectedly.. the result of using bamboo was much easier than the metal. It did helped me to regain my confidence back! Few hours struggling of being stubborn, at last, I decided to look for more information and tutorials from the youtube.com.
Alhamdulillah.. Slowly I managed to memorize every basics of knitting thanks to the tutorials in Youtube.Com. I bought some books afterwards too, but yet from my opinions, youtube is very effective for knitting lessons than referring to the books :)
So.. just in a month, after mastered all the basics and more comfortable handling the needles, i converted back to the metals and finally, the first project that I successfully knitted was a muffler for my husband :) Thankfully, he likes it a lot! :) I believe that there is nothing impossible when you really go for it, thus, giving your best at something will result satisfaction and successful.
Since then.. I always search for more information, patterns, tutorials etc almost everyday when I got my free time. Most of the time, I was all learning by myself without any helps other than internet and books. Alhamdulillah.. because of this, I learnt many new things and I'm glad I chose to knit.
Q3. What make you decide to start an online shop?
A : I decided to start an online shop with my husband support, due to the reason that I really love knitting and enjoy all the yarns I experienced with. I want to share the passion with everyone who loves to knit and I wanted to share more types of yarns to all knitters around Malaysia. In Malaysia, we often stick to cotton and acrylic types, especially we don't have much choice to try out different yarns with a reason of limited sources to find good and quality yarns. With helps and supports from my husband, my family, and few of my friends, I gave myself a chance to take this challenge with a mission, everyone can knit and enjoy our yarns :)
Also, there are lots of quality yarns out there which is hard to be found in our local yarns shops can now be found easily via online and they need to try them out! With the availability of variety yarns nowadays, you have more opportunities to knit more quality handmade projects for your lovely ones or even for yourself. This is our main mission. Hopefully, in time, our small online store will brings more supplies especially in knitting and crochet for everyone around the world. InsyaAllah.
I am sure there are a lots of online stores now that provide yarns and tools for knitting and crochet. However, I believe, competition is always what you need to make sure you will always give the customers your best services. Without competition, you'll never know what your weakness is and especially, in the things you love to do!
Q4. I know you make a lot of custom items, is there a particular order that stands out for you and why?
A : Alhamdulillah.. after a while, order started to come slowly... and I feel very happy when someone putting their trust on me to knit something for them :) Besides, it helps me to enhance my knitting skills and be creative. Thanks to my colleagues, especially Myra.. if it isn't because of her, I will not have a chance to have my own customers now :)
Among all the orders I made, the one that I really love is the Baby Helena dress, which I was making for my colleague :) (pattern from knitty.com)
Why I love this dress because it was my first time making a lace dress, though it looked like a complicated dress, yet, it was very easy to knit! Once you learn the pattern's rhythm, it's just a piece of cake! Besides, this dress is a raglan knitting, one of my favorite technique. The things that made me most happy is when my colleague said she really loves the dress! All the hardwork was really worth!
Q5. What would you like to tell/ share the other crafters out there?
A : To all crafters out there, don't give up so fast when you learn something new, Knitting is actually really fun besides crochet. I do crochet after learn knitting and yet I enjoy crochet very much, however, knitting should not be put aside too :) I often hear people complaining how hard knitting is which is actually not true! Once you set your mind with thinking 'knitting is difficult' then believe me, it will always be. Be confident and practice makes perfect is what you should do!.
There are many tutorials can be found easily in the internet as well such as in youtube.com or knitting websites by the expert and experience knitters who are willing to share with us with no profits!
I hope and wish that some day, knitting will be as popular as crochet too in our Malaysia because I really believe that no matter how, everyone can knit! :) I feel blessed to be involved with knitters from a group called Malaysia Knitting Club (FB) like Angah, Marlyna Nurrie, Ritia Gitieg, Eija Jhan, Mikko, Hasnida, Noraida and more members who are expert and very skillful knitters :) I'm glad to know them all and wish to get more friends in the same field as well :)
No matter how, always believe in yourself!
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Despite of the sharing, Sindarery would like to share her TUTORIAL to all craftzmaniac readers.
You can also check her website as follows:
