Original Handmade Felted Designs, WoollySomething

Miss Eileen’s Etsy Picks for October 14 was WoollySomething. Here is the interview.

Harvest Pumpkin Knitting Pattern
Tell us a bit about yourself My name is Marie Mayhew. I was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I am pretty much a city girl. The big open black sky at night frightens me a bit. I love the streetlights and noise. I am married for 27 years to my dearest friend and husband, John. We have two teenagers, Hannah (13) and Isaac (16). I have been designing knitting patterns for about 10 years now. I learned to knit when I was 35 years old and Isaac was 6 months old. Thus, I am fairly new to knitting and I absolutely love it! It relaxes me and I consider it my recreation as well as my business mode of operation.

What are your favorite materials? Wool, colorful wool. My patterns are knitting and felting designs. I give the instructions on how to knit something really big and loose, and then throw it into the washing machine to shrink it down to the perfect size. Playing with wool, whether in yarns or roving, is really like playing with play dough. I love clay too, I guess. Play dough smells better than wet wool does, that’s for sure.

Wool Owl Knitting Pattern
What are your favorite color combinations? I really love robin’s egg blue and brown together. I never tire of it. It truly is the perfect combination. It is hard to find the right yarns in my favorite colors sometimes. I also love anything green, every shade of green. And if you add a little pink to that, then I probably will like that too.
        Robin’s Egg Blue Roving Pack
What is the first thing you can remember making by hand?
How and why did you make it? It probably had to do with drawing. As a kid, I drew all the time. I loved to draw and write. My favorite item was my handmade Benji book stories. My mom gave me a ready-made book with blank white pages. I filled it with my made-up stories about Benji the bear and his friends. I illustrated it with simple drawings of bears, owls, rabbits and others. I loved bears as a kid. I remember having a lot of fun writing and illustrating that book. Two books actually. But I probably threw them away in one of my cleaning phases. My goal is to create a few felted characters that recreate some of those old ideas, like Benji Bear, for instance.

Wool Holiday Ornaments Knitting Pattern
What inspires you? Whimsical items and colorful medium combinations will often inspire me. Walking through a specialty store can inspire me to go home and start creating. Nature inspires me too.

Where do your ideas come from? Again, I get so many of my ideas from nature itself. I love the color combinations of leaves, grasses, bird’s eggs . . . They are all absolutely perfect in and of themselves. And the detailing found in nature can take your breath away. You need to slow down enough to notice it though most times. I truly love detail. The more the better! God is an amazing detail Artist, my true inspiration!

What are your greatest challenges? How do you overcome them? Not having enough time in the day! I have so many ideas and so little time. Working out of your home can be hard too. When do you ever punch out for the day? I found a fun saying by Mary Kurtz. She said, “The only time needlework comes before housework is in the dictionary.” I love that! Yes, I would rather knit than clean the house. And running your own business can be a challenge too, the paperwork, etc. Knowing people that are good at what they do helps me a lot. Thus, I hire a bookkeeper and so forth. It is worth every penny I spend on these services. It frees me up then to do what I love the most. And I am finding it is really all about balance. Work and play. I definitely need to play more. The early creating stages of a new pattern can be really playful though in so many ways.
       Wool Tooth Bear with Pocket for First Lost Tooth

Who is, or was, your greatest inspiration? Two people come to mind: Alexander Stoddard and Martha Stewart, believe it or not. Alexander Stoddard, early on taught me to start living in the moment, to make ordinary things an experience and to pay attention to the little things and to my senses. Martha Stewart really pushes things to a 15 for me. Details, details, details. But, she can really frustrate me if I follow her instructions exactly. If I make her project my own, listening to myself as I make it then I am a lot happier. She leaves out too much information in her instructions. Thus, I have become a bit wordy in my pattern writing over the years. My customers are appreciative, I have been told.
What is your favorite thing to do with your creativity? Knit things, of course. Make gifts for my kids and friends. I used to love to host my kid’s birthday parties. Having a theme and carrying it through. Making a cake to match. I love to cook and bake, as well. I used to decorate cookies, but now there doesn’t seem to be enough time. Plus, my eyesight isn’t what it used to be. Overall, I would say my favorite thing to do with my creativity is to decorate, no matter what the medium.

   Wool Birds Knitting Pattern


Why should people buy handmade? Any tips of wisdom on selling handmade? Handmade is unique, one-of-a-kind. Special. And in this day of processed everything, it is really refreshing to buy something handmade. It supports someone you can put an actual face to. My bit of wisdom on selling handmade is to listen to you. Let whatever is inside you come out. Don’t be shy. Surprisingly, people are waiting to hear what your art has to say. We need you and your art.

What have been the most valuable lessons learned from other artists? The biggest one is ‘just do it’. I need to stop thinking about it, worrying about it and obsessing about it. Just do it. Worry about the details later. I have found that once I start, then the details start to flow. I have also found that when I am really stuck on something, and I am striving too much to make something work, then if I stop and rest from it for a while, the idea will play out in your mind perfectly.

Apart from creating things, what do you do? I garden in the warmer months. I love to weed the best. Trimming back the dead head. I also love picking vegetables right off the vine. I always wanted to be a pioneer as a kid. But now I love luxury hotels best. Not that I get to use them too often. I am going to a lot of my kid’s soccer and baseball games and school concerts. My husband was laid off a while ago, so spending lots of time with him and getting to know him in new ways has been fun. He is helping me grow my business right now. And finally, I am learning to sit more, and be a bit more still. I am amazed how learning to be still can really help your creativity a great deal.
    Wool Candy Corn Knitting/Felting Pattern 
What are the web addresses for your work? My business website, ‘That’s Woolly Something’ is www.woollysomething.com and my Etsy Shoppe’s address, in which I sell my patterns and sculptures, is www.etsy.com/shop/woollysomething.
Are you offering my readers any specials? Sure. If your customers purchase my Harvest Pumpkin pattern, featured in last week’s Miss Eileen’s Etsy picks, then they will receive another pattern, Woolly Candy Corn, for FREE, a $5.00 savings.
Thank you again for this opportunity. I really appreciate it and all you do. Take care
I love these patterns. They are adorable. Check them out. I think you’ll love them, too.
Post by Eileen
MissEileen (vintage and vintage inspired)
GoofingOff (sewing supplies on Etsy and Artfire)
MetalWoodsnWater (unique and sometimes downright weird)