Today I have a lovely interview and generous giveaway from Ann over at Simply Playing.
Linda: Tell us about the beginnings of your business and how it has developed and grown.
So, at first I only made toys for my son. But after a while Sam had pretty much all he needed, but I didn’t want to stop making these knitted toys. After inundating friends with gnomes, cats etc. I turned to Etsy as a way to be able to keep creating and sharing my love of wool toys. My shop has grown over the years with items changing some, but always wool based material. After a short while I turned to only using plant dyed wool as I felt that even deepened the handmade natural quality I wanted my toys to have.
Linda: What is your creative process?
Ann: My mood changes very frequently so I like to have many projects going on at once all in different stages. One day I’ll want to only knit, the next day only sewing and stuffing toys will do. Sometimes the rhythm of spinning is all I can think of to fill me up. When I get to creating, it’s very random and really is woven throughout my entire day. My son is now homeschooled which gives me more freedom and time to sit in my little corner of the living room, pick something from the basket beside my chair and knit, sew, stuff etc. I will pretty much always end my day with knitting as a release for any worries and stress.
Linda: What do you enjoy most about your business?
Ann: What I enjoy most about my business is how I feel when I finish making a toy, a doll blanket or a skein of yarn. Knowing that each item really began with a bit of wool and then transformed into this warm soulful object filled with love, really makes me happy. I mean you can’t help but smile when you have a knitted gnome in your hand – it just makes you feel good inside.
Ann:Coming soon to Simply Playing will be handspun yarn that will either be in it’s natural color or plant dyed. I’ve always purchased my plant dyed yarn so I am very excited to be taking on this part of the process myself.
Giveaway:
Ann is generously offering this beautiful hand knit bunny, knitted in a luxurious hands-pun wool and angora blend. Isn’t he gorgeous? Here is a link to the listing on her shop for you to read more about this lovely giveaway item:)
Ann is also offering my readers 15% off items in her shop for the month of September with the code NaturalSuburbia15
To enter this lovely giveaway for this beautiful handmade bunny, please leave a comment in this post. To earn extra entries, please share about this giveaway on your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram pages and leave extra comments here each time you share:)
The winner will be chosen on Wednesday the 18th of September and will be announced here.
Congratulations to Kathleen for winning the beautiful bunny.
Ann, thank you so much for sharing about your business with us today and for your lovely giveaway:)
Have a wonderful weekend friends:)
I would be very honoured to promote your handmade business, if you would like to sponsor on Natural Suburbia you can contact me at lindadawkins@mweb.co.za