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Today, I bring you a giveaway from SouleMama Sponsor, Coastal Knits. In Alana and Hannah's words:
"Knitwear designers Alana Dakos and Hannah Fettig are two friends living on opposite ends of the United States. They have come together to produce Coastal Knits, a compilation of ten fresh designs inspired by Alana's California and Hannah's Maine coastlines. Each design captures the essence of their favorite local destinations, and is accompanied by photographs and essays on the location's special meaning to the designer. It is a personal, inspiration-based collection of sweaters and accessories that knitters of all levels will appreciate. "
Follow along with Hannah on her blog, Knitbot, and Alana on hers, Never Not Knitting.
SouleMama: Tell us about your background. What path led you to the work you do today?
Hannah: We met a few years ago and have kept in close contact ever sense. We both self publish knitting patterns and sell them on-line and wholesale to yarn shops. We would often go to each other to bounce ideas off and ask advice. Working at home, alone, it's really nice to have someone to connect with who completely understands what you're trying to do! At the beginning of 2011, Alana was thinking about self publishing an entire book of patterns, but was nervous to try it alone. I liked the idea of a collaboration, and quickly the ideas were flowing. The fact that we lived on opposite coast lines seemed like an interesting theme, and we each were immediately inspired to design.
SouleMama: What does a typical day at work look like for you?
Alana: Being a work at home mom, my typical work day is fairly chaotic! I'm sure that Hannah can relate to this as well. I often get the majority of my work done during the time when my six year old is at school and my 3 month old is napping, but I squeeze in little spurts of productivity in between my daily routine of doing laundry, playing barbies, and changing diapers. :) I am always going in and out of the office answering quick emails throughout the day. It's crazy, but I am glad to have the type of job that allows me to stay home with my kids.
SouleMama: What inspires you?
Alana: I find that nature is what inspires my design work the most. Botanical elements and warm earthy colors seem to keep making a regular appearance in my knitwear design.
SouleMama: What's your favorite part of your job? The most challenging?
Hannah: There are a lot of things I love about my job. I love working with yarn, I love my industry, and I love the freedom that comes with self publishing. The challenge is that it's a lot of work to self publish! When you have small children you have to be balanced about how much of a project you can take on at once. It can be hard to shut your brain off or switch gears when you're in innovation mode.
SouleMama: How do you keep yourself motivated and avoid burnout?
Hannah: It's taken me awhile to come around to this as I am not by nature a scheduled person, but I've had to schedule my work / creative time into my life so I can be sure it happens. My husband also has a creative job. We try to communicate at the beginning of each week to be sure that we each have the time and space we need to accomplish what we'd like.
Alana: I've made an effort recently to reserve the majority of evenings and weekends for family time. This is hard for me because there always seems to be so much work to do! But when I stick to this schedule it really does help me to maintain balance and motivation. Those emails can always wait until Monday. :)
SouleMama: Is there a special place that inspires you?
Hannah: Coastal Knits was a great place to talk about what inspires me. For the collection Alana and I each chose 5 locations that are especially meaningful to us and featured these, talking about what makes that particular spot so special. I am very inspired by Maine, by the ocean that's steps from my door, by our rocky coast line. I'm also inspired by the hard working people in my community, we know a lot of people who own their own businesses and it's inspiring to be among them.
SouleMama: What's the product or offering that you are most excited about right now?
Alana: Very soon Hannah and I will be releasing some more patterns inspired by our coastlines.. this time for little ones!
SouleMama: How are your children incorporated into your work?
Alana: I've always enjoyed involving my daughter as much as possible! She has modeled almost every one of my children's designs, she has helped me package up orders, and she has even appeared as a guest on my knitting podcast. I have tried to instill a creative spirit in her since she was very young, while making work time also fun for everyone. I hope she will look back on these moments with fond memories.
For today's giveaway, Coastal Knits is generously offering the following to TWO winners:
~ a copy of Coastal Knits, signed by the authors!
(It's a 92 page soft-cover book featuring 10 original designs.)
In addition, Coastal Knits is offering SouleMama readers 15% off your copy of Coastal Knits. Enter code "soulemama" at checkout. Offer valid through February 29th.
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Thank you to Coastal Knits!
To enter today's giveaway, please leave a comment (one entry per person, please) in today's post. I'll close comments by 8am EST on Sunday, and announce the winner(s), chosen via Random Number Generator, shortly after. Comments closed! The winner's are...
Yay! I love Alana's blog and all of her patterns.
posted by: sharon s
oh man oh man! if i don't win I will be buying this one for sure! beautiful!
posted by: mariah655
