designs.
“I'vealways
foundpatterns
confusing,so
I ammost
comfortable making
patterns up as I go,” she reveals.
“I always advise throwing out other
people’s ideas and ‘growing’ your own.”
Be inspired by others, but interpret
their ideas in your own way, is
Merrin’s advice.
It’s the final embellishing of a
piece that really transforms her
designs. “Adding 'bits' to bring a
piece to life is where I have asked myself
the 'dare I?’ question. The answer is always,
‘why not?’”. Her brave approach leads to fun
and colourful creations. Along with wool,
Merrin uses all sorts of materials – including
acrylic and cotton yarn, shredded t-shirtfabric,
hessian and old jumper sleeves. She embellishes
her cosies with flowers, gumnuts, pompomsand
wire-shaped characters. “It’s also fun to zhuzhup
an old tea cosy with some new
embellishments,” she says.
Over the last 14 years, Merrin has been
making crazy tea cosies. She learnt her
knittingskillsfrom her older
sister.“I come from a
verylarge family
andalthough my
mother was a
superb
knitter,
she never
had the
time to
pass on her
skills,” she
explains. Merrin
has used these
talents to
develop her
own style and
has started her
own business.
She sells her
cosies under the
business name
AlkameArts at her
marketstall, where they
grabtheattention ofHomespun 21