How it all Began…
My daughter’s baby blanket using an abundance of Hedgehog Fibres. Find all the yarn details on my Ravelry page.
Today is my daughter’s 7th birthday. We’ll find out why that’s important in a minute. First, let’s start out with a brief introduction and how I got into knitting in the first place. My name is Danielle, creator and designer behind Frost Flower Fiberworks. I live in New Jersey and I am a long time knitter. My knitting journey began about 25 years ago, straight out of college. As an Architecture major we had a very rigorous schedule of projects and deadlines. At the time, it was very stressful and overbearing. Lots of sleepless nights and vending machine meals. What I didn’t realize was how much I would miss that level of intensity when it was over. I needed something to fill the void. But what…. On a whim, I decided that I would try knitting. I liked that it was tactile, portable, had rules but you could be creative within them. I gave myself tasks and goals every week and soon enough, I was knitting! Like, every day. Staying up into the night. Reading about stitches and techniques and designers. I was obsessed with my new hobby.
Now, things, of course, changed and my knitting kind of ebbed and flowed for awhile. But fast forward to about 9 years ago. I was pregnant with our son, my nesting instincts kicked in and I wanted to knit all the things for him. I was knitting tiny sweaters and blankets. Every moment I could sneak in at work I would knit a few rows. I had 2 sweet little sweaters and a beautiful gray, black, and neon yellow baby blanket. But when baby arrived, needles were down. I didn’t know how to manage my time to allow for any creativity.
About a year and a half later, baby #2 on the way. Little did I know that this was it…. The catalyst. The start of everything. I wanted to make her a hot pink baby blanket. So I began searching for the right color. There it was: Hedgehog Fibres Harajuku. It was incredible! As I investigated the site, the more inspiration I found. Yarns like I had never seen before. Speckles! Merino and cashmere! Weights other than worsted! 3-ply! 4-ply! Single-ply!!! What in the world was single-ply??! It opened up a new world to me. So many possibilities. That hot pink blanket? Well, after I saw all of the other colors it became a striped blanket, the hot pink featuring prominently of course. This was the project that launched nearly a hundred more. And to think it’s all because of a website that I stumbled upon based on a crazy idea for a hot pink baby blanket.
So here we are, my daughter’s 7th birthday. 7 years since my creative world expanded and exploded. Never would I have dreamed that I would have stacks and stacks of hand-knit shawls and sweaters in my closet. Never would I have dreamed that I would have the courage to start writing my own knitting patterns. Never would I have dreamed that I would start a blog to talk about my favorite topic, knitting. And the best part? Never would I have dreamed that my little 7 year-old would love to knit with me!
