12 knittingmag.com
Tell us about your career. Do you knit full-time?
I wish I had a career in knitting. I feel like I am still on the fringes
trying to get in. I have only sold a handful of my patterns online, as
it is really hard to gain exposure.
Other than that, I work as a PowerPoint specialist, designing
custom-made presentations for clients to deadlines. So knitting is
mostly done on an as-and-when basis. Sometimes, I’ll knit on the
bus or Tube just to make time for my hobby. That’s how I got my
designer name Bored Knitless – I noticed there were a lot of people
who were bored on public transport or waiting in the queue at the
hospital. So, I thought that if I’m knitting at least I won’t be like that
- bored witless. Hence the name Bored Knitless!
When did you learn to knit and how?
I learnt to knit in November 2015. It’s a bit of a long story. It was
after a life-changing incident, as a consequence of which I was
unable to travel as well as work in my normal job. Unfortunately,
my partner and I were broke and a lot of things changed for us
inancially and in terms of future plans.
So one day we ended up going to the pound shop. I didn’t know
they sold yarn and, even more surprising, my boyfriend went and
bought some. He told me his late mum used to knit and it reminded
him of her. I was so touched by this and was curious to see if he
could actually knit!
He started knitting a scarf as it was super cold that day, but after a
few hours of frustration he abandoned the project. I was worried as
we didn’t have money to waste, so I picked up the yarn and decided
to make a cowl. I remembered that when I was a child, my mum
tried to teach me to knit, but I never took to it. I used to wonder how
my friend’s gran could knit nice elaborate jumpers with cables, but
we (my mum and I) couldn’t even knit a scarf!
Anyway, I went on the internet to ind out what to do next for the
cowl and the rest is history. So thanks to technology, I taught myself
to really knit.How did you come to appear on Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas?
My goal was to get on the show, as this was more important than
winning, especially with all the exposure. I knew the entry process
would be tough, so to make sure my application stood out I sent
a video link along with my application form, as I thought if the
producers were tired of trawling through multiple application forms
at least that way they could still see my design!Tell us about your experiences on the show.
Where do I begin? Firstly, I thought I’d use the long train ride to
prepare for my short challenge on the show [to create an item from
scratch in two hours]. But there were no free tables in my carriage
to work on, so in the end I talked to the person sitting next to meEMERGING KNITWEAR DESIGNER CHERYL LOWE – AKA BORED KNITLESS – IS
LOOKING TO MAKE HER MARK ON THE FIBRE WORLD AFTER WOWING JUDGE
DEBBIE BLISS IN KIRSTIE ALLSOPP’S KIRSTIE’S HANDMADE CHRISTMAS LAST YEAR
Cat on wth... BORED KNITLESS