Fiber Arts, Sustainable Fashion, and Starting a Blog with Jeanette of New Wave Knitting
If you go to the about page on the New Wave Knitting website, you’ll quickly learn that New Wave Knitting is all about celebrating a love of crafting, fostering a positive and fun fibers community, and promoting sustainable fashion. You can also find a quick blurb about me on that page as well as to the right of this post. However, if you’re interested in diving into the creation of the blog, the values and ideas behind it, and learning more about who I am, then this blog post is for you. I was lucky enough to be interviewed on the Recovering People Pleaser podcast, where I got to chat with my online pal Lauren about all of these things. Below, you’ll have access to either listen to the podcast and/or read the written transcript of our conversation to learn more about New Wave Knitting, and me, Jeanette.
Please note that this podcast interview took place a week after launching New Wave Knitting, in January 2022.
Lauren: Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about what you do.
Jeanette: My name's Jeanette, and I am the person behind New Wave Knitting, which was until recently just a place where I was sharing what I was making, knitting, and test knitting. But just this past week, I launched my blog, which is the New Wave Knitting blog! On the blog, I talk about the knitting community, knitting culture, sustainable fashion, and all that fun stuff.
Lauren: That's awesome. How did you pick the name New Wave Knitting? It's a great name.
Jeanette: Before I was New Wave Knitting, I was doing some stuff with embroidery. I had this whole account and Etsy shop dedicated to my work. I called myself Wavy Days before New Wave Knitting, and I just liked that nostalgic feeling that came from the name.
When I realized I wanted to focus more on knitting, I wanted a name that kept that ~wave~ to it, because I liked the vibe of it. But also, there's a whole bunch that goes behind the name of New Wave Knitting, like the idea of this younger generation of knitters, what that means, and fostering that culture. That's kind of what the name is supposed to represent.
Lauren: That's huge. It feels like there is this… gatekeeping is the wrong word for it, but with the older generation of the knitting community, there is a surprise that comes with young people being into textile art. It's been really cool to see the knitstagram community really get behind each other and lift each other up.
Jeanette: I do want to say too, that I get kind of worried with the idea of saying that New Wave Knitting is more geared toward the younger generation of knitters because I have so much respect for older knitters. Without them, we wouldn't be where we are. I mean, knitting is mainly taught generationally, which is so cool. But the more traditional culture of knitting can be quite exclusive. And knitters themselves are diverse. There's always been diversity in the knitting community, but the representation of our diverse community hasn't been there. Typically, what you see on the covers of Vogue Knitting is a white woman, you know. I want New Wave Knitting to be a platform for the newer generation, but also a platform that's inclusive to different designers, different ages, different income levels, and so on.
Lauren: I saw you posted something recently about using acrylic yarn, and I didn't know that there was discourse around using acrylic yarn, but apparently, there is a lot of discourse around it. That conflict seems like something that comes from this older wave of knitters, and maybe we're coming into a new way.
Jeanette: Yeah, actually one of my favorite designers and designers, Kate from Mezzo Makes (@mezzomakes), posted a Reel recently about snobbery that she has experienced at a local yarn store. And yeah, it might be because they are older, white knitters, but her take on it was that some of these types of knitters say, “if you can't afford the best supplies, then what's even the point of even knitting?” And then she mentioned how that mentality is just not, you know, wholesome. It's not inclusive. It starts to make other knitters feel bad. A lot of other knitters responded to her, I guess, and said, yeah, we've experienced this as well.
This should be a place where we really celebrate the craft of knitting. So, traditionally acrylic is not “the best,” but I mean, it's much more affordable. And some people are allergic to wool. Anyway, acrylic vs. wool is a whole thing that I can go into, but what’s important is just being inclusive of people's decisions.
Click here to learn more about the most and least sustainable yarns.
Lauren: Tell me about launching your blog and the thought process behind deciding that was the route you wanted to go versus like, I don't know, TikTok or YouTube. Also, what that has meant to you in the launch and everything since this last week.
Jeanette: decided on the blog as a platform because writing is more my jam. I listen to a lot of entrepreneurial podcasts (I’m obsessed), and one important thing I’ve learned is to find what works for you.
So my background is actually in English language arts. I was an English teacher, and I worked in libraries.
Lauren: The last episode I recorded was with my friend who is a bookseller and we did a whole little thing about how English teachers are the best, like the backbone of society, and we're bowing down to you.
Jeanette: Well, I quit after one year haha.
Lauren: Hey, ya still did it. I still respect it. That's hard work.
Jeanette: Oh, it was so hard. Oh my goodness. But yeah, I've always been a big reader, and I enjoy the act of writing. I just have never really been a fiction writer. So I was like, oh my god, the blog, this is it! Like, this is where I can channel what I really enjoy to talk about something that I really enjoy.
So that's how I decided on using a blog, and the launch went really well. I was planning on it for a little while before launching. I actually started going to a school in Montreal, Canada, where I am right now, for fiber arts last fall. But that ended up being more time-consuming than I was hoping. I ended up dropping out after the first semester, super recently.
Lauren: Congrats.
Jeanette: Thank you. I think it's so important to be able to realize when something's not working and to pivot, which is why I also quit teaching. But yeah, because the program was more of an arts versus crafts culture, and I'm very proudly a craftsperson. I just felt like what I was bringing to the table wasn't really welcomed.
Anyway, I was planning to hopefully launch it a little while ago but didn't have the time because of school. After I finished that last semester, I was like prepping, prepping, prepping, but it was coming to the point where I was realizing that it wasn't going to happen unless I just said I was going to do it.
Just announcing that I was doing it and putting it out there helped me just to do it. It was a “done better than perfect” kind of thing. I mentioned it on social media like a week before I launched. People, like the entrepreneurs in the podcasts I listen to, will probably say that you should hype it up a little bit longer than just a week.
However, I was super happy with how it was received. I got a lot of great feedback on Instagram and got people to sign up for my newsletter, and there was a lot of traffic to the blog itself. It was just really great. I'm really excited about it.
Lauren: That's so awesome. Do you feel like you had a community going into it and do you feel like this has strengthened your social media community?
Jeanette: Absolutely. I gratefully got to a thousand followers just at the end of 2021, and getting to your first thousand is so big. Even if I didn’t have that many people following me, I still would’ve gone through with it, but it was great to know that I had people.
You know, I have my Instagram, and online friends. I think also test knitting for other designers and helping out within the community has really helped me to build that community further. I've been finding since launching the blog that I've got a lot of great feedback from followers, new and old. It's really great to see and to hear and to feel.
Lauren: That's so cool. I love that. How did you get into test knitting?
Jeanette: My first test knit was for the Let’s Boogie Cardigan for Cam from ahoneyknits (@ahoneyknits).
Lauren: And we love her. She just is great.
Jeanette: Yes, she's the best! And it's my favorite, most worn knit so far.
But Cam posted her call for test knitters for the cardigan, and I realized, like, why not me? At first, I felt some imposter syndrome. Like, I've never test knit before. I'm definitely not a designer, yet anyway. So I was feeling a little nervous about it, but it was a very easy process. And the people within the process, whether it's the designer or the knitters that you're working alongside, they are very supportive and helpful.
If anyone feels intimidated about test knitting, I urge you to just do it. Brush that to the side and just give it a try if it’s something you want to do.
Lauren: I love that. So I know that you want to talk about sustainable fashion and how making your own clothing can fit into that in your blog. What has your relationship been with fashion, and how has that relationship grown with sustainable fashion and the knitting world?
Jeanette: As a teenager, I was always one to thrift a lot, but mostly because I wanted the ironic t-shirts and the cool, old sweaters, you know? I wasn't doing it so much for the moral aspect. It wasn't until the past couple of years that I started becoming mindful of the global impact of the clothes that I wear, as well as the impact of the fashion industry.
Click here to learn more about the basics of fast versus slow fashion.
In my closet, to be completely honest, I have a lot of stuff from back when I wasn't as sustainable. For example, lots of H&M exists in my closet, but part of being sustainable is just not tossing those items and still getting use out of them now that I have them.
Now, I am really mindful of what I buy. Poshmark is my best friend haha. But yeah, just buying used or from small makers is a great way to build a sustainable wardrobe. Although buying from small makers can be hard because it's very expensive, I would love to be able to buy more items from seamstresses. That’s the dream, down the road, to have more handmade pieces.
And then part of it is making my own wardrobe. I created a freebie called the Free Knitwear Capsule Wardrobe Checklist, which is a checklist you can download. I also created its partner, the Knitwear Capsule Wardrobe Blueprint, which is a robust Canva template. I created these because I needed them. Basically, they help me plan out what I want to make, what I want to put into my closet, and what I know I will wear.
“There’s nothing more sad than an unworn knit.”
Something prevalent, not just with me, but with other knitters too, is that we'll knit up like some super cool pattern. Like, the pattern is awesome and it's hard to resist making, but it’s actually not your style. So it might not get worn very much. Or maybe it's made with this absolutely gorgeous yarn color, but that color just doesn't look good on you. So then it doesn't get worn very much. And then your closet is filling up with all of these handmade knits that are absolutely beautiful, but they're just not being worn. And there's nothing more sad than an unworn knit. So much love and time go into it!
So, the checklist is a good starting point, but with the blueprint, you're able to use that checklist that you get in the freebie, but you can customize it to yourself to fit your tastes and style. You can also plan out exactly which patterns fit into those checklist items. So say you want to make a striped tee. But you have five striped tee patterns in your saves. You can narrow down which pattern will work best to fit your closet. You're able to just plan it all out, including what yarn you want to use and what color you want to make it in. You can even hyperlink where to access the pattern and where you can buy the yarn. All of these components help me so much in making sure that I will wear every item that I make, and also helps me when it comes to picking my next project.
One thing that bugs me in the knitting community that I want to work against is the idea of turning out quick knit after quick knit because that starts to toe the line of fast fashion, where you start making more things than you'll realistically wear. One really cool thing about knitting is that you're able to make things that you'll actually wear. So I like to promote being mindful and enjoying the process and making things that will actually make up your closet.
Click here to learn the benefits of designing your own knitwear capsule wardrobe!
Lauren: I love that so much. I, dear listeners, cannot recommend it enough. As somebody who wants to get more into making more of my wardrobe, but thinking about a capsule wardrobe, it's very easy to feel like you have to go and buy all of the pieces when you often already have a lot of them.
I loved that the blueprint prompts you to ask yourself, “Do I already own this? Did I already make this? Do I already have this?” I don't think my wardrobe will be mainly made of knits by me anytime soon, but it gave me a really good outline of what I already have and what I wanted to do next, which was really cool.
Jeanette: And the point is too, as you said, your whole wardrobe is not going to be made up of knits anytime soon. That's a big point, right? The point isn't having this long list of things that you want to make super quickly. But it helps to be mindful of what project you might want to work on next. For us who like to knit, we tend to jump from one project to the next. Like, your hands are itching as soon as you finish a project.
The blueprint helps you to figure out what project you can do next. Say that you want to do one project but realize that the yarn you want is out of stock or something, then you can go to a different project instead because that yarn is in stock. It just helps to plan out the whole thing.
Lauren: That's so cool. I love that so much. Amazing. Thank you. Speaking of pieces, do you have any favorite pieces that you've made for yourself or for others?
Jeanette: Honestly, my favorite is the Let's Boogie Cardigan from @ahoneyknits. And I get so many compliments on it too.
Lauren: Do you believe in the sweater curse? And if you could explain, that would be amazing.
Jeanette: Yeah! The sweater curse is when a knitter knits up a sweater for their significant other, typically before they are married, and then they break up after that.
I would say that there is some truth behind it, so I do kind of believe in it. As I said earlier, so much love and time go into making a knitted garment, and a knitted sweater is no easy feat. It takes a lot. So, if you were to put a lot of effort into the thing and give that to somebody who doesn't take care of it super well (like maybe they aren't hand washing and it's wool) or they just don't wear it very often, or whatever, then you can be like, “Why the heck aren't you wearing this thing that I put so much time and love in to?!” So maybe sometimes, it brings up some of those other underlying issues within a relationship.
My closest experience with the sweater curse is that I just made my partner a hat, and he hasn't worn it yet. But to be fair, I haven't blocked it yet for him haha. So it's on me, I can't be mad.
Lauren: Do you have advice for folks that want to get into knitting or another creative hobby? Also, with knitting, in particular, there are a lot of words that go into knitting that we don't use every day. Do you have any advice on getting those into your vocabulary?
Jeanette: Yes. For people who want to get into crafting, whether it's knitting or something else, I highly recommend starting slow and starting with something that you really want to wear or use. It helps to maintain that motivation. But give yourself permission to make mistakes and give yourself time. Know that you are going to make mistakes and that it's not going to be perfect the first time, and just enjoy the process of learning.
Recently, (I was so nervous about this) I taught myself how to crochet. As a long-time knitter, I was so intimidated to learn how to crochet because the movements are quite a bit different and the construction is different.
But I found a pattern I wanted to make. Before jumping into the pattern, I looked at what kinds of stitches the pattern required. I practiced those stitches until I felt comfortable enough to dive into the pattern. But also, I was like, “okay, if you mess up no big deal, it's just practice.”
So I'd say take it slow. Make something that you want to wear or use and then allow yourself time to make mistakes.
In regards to knitting lingo, I plan on doing a blog post on some different knitting community terms, like “sweater curse,” for example. But in knitting, it's different because we have those fun, community terms, but then we also have the actual technical abbreviations that you find in a knitting pattern. For those, I highly recommend just Googling them as they come up.
Lauren: Are you working on anything right now? You keep talking about blog stuff. So obviously all of that, any knits, any upcoming projects that you're super stoked about?
Jeanette in the Maid You Fall Dress
Jeanette: Ideally, down the road, I would like to make designs, but I'm just not there yet. I'm really enjoying just knitting. I'm trying to not pressure myself to be a designer and just kind of let it come when it comes.
Basically, I'm really enjoying just making really cool stuff, learning as I go, and test knitting.
One project that I'm really hyped about right now is test knitting for Vanessa of ōSHən Knits (@oshenknits). She's got some really awesome designs, and I'm test knitting the Maid You Fall Dress. It's like a milkmaid kind of top to it, with long sleeves, and a skirt. I think you can do short sleeves if you want, but I'm going to do long sleeves. With the skirt, you can either leave it whole or make a slit up the side, which I'm very excited about.
(I have since finished the Maid You Fall Dress, and I absolutely love it!)
One thing that's really cool with her designs is that they're extremely customizable to your body. They're intermediate patterns, but they allow you to calculate your waist measurements, your bust measurements, all of it so that it fits you perfectly.
Lauren: That's so cool. That feels huge on the sustainable front as well. Like, literally stuff that you will wear because it was made for you.
Jeanette: Yes. And it’s also super size-inclusive, which is awesome because that's one problem with sustainable fashion. For plus-size people, there aren’t as many options, unfortunately, to be sustainable. Many handmade or sustainable brands don't make larger sizes.
One great thing, that's starting to become the new norm, I think, Is making designs that go up to like 5XL so that more people can make them and wear them.
Lauren: Instead of just small, medium, large. That's awesome. I'm just so excited to continue to watch the knitting community. It feels like it's been on an exponential curve for like 10 years or something on social media. It just continues to peak and people keep changing the game and it's so sick. It's really, really awesome. And having it be traditionally female-led as well. I think that there's a lot to be said about being inclusive to people who aren't women and making spaces as well. It's really awesome to see something like this be led by so many women.
Jeanette: Yes, I love the queer aspect of it as well. Because I find that there are so many queer makers. I'm a queer maker myself.
Lauren: And I'm a queer maker too.
*collective yay*
Jeanette: Also to see the gender stigma behind it. Like, we're seeing a lot of male knitters enter the scene. Some of them are queer, some aren't. But just to see how diverse the knitting community is. It's just very cool.
Lauren: It allows people to have a platform to explore and experiment and share. And to have it not be competitive either. Like, you need each other to test knit each other's designs. It's so symbiotic and that's really awesome to see.
Jeanette: I was mentioning some of the acrylic versus wool debate, right? There's some stuff there, but as a whole, I think the knitting community is such a positive place and it's so lovely to be a part of. That's a big reason why I wanted to launch this blog. I really love being a part of it. And I wanted to immerse myself in it even more.
Lauren: Do you find yourself knitting, like any free moment or is it like you're watching TV and so you pick it up. Like, how does that go down for you?
Jeanette: Yeah, it's mostly in the evenings or if I have a slow morning. I definitely knit in front of the TV most of the time. But I haven’t actually had much time to knit the past few weeks because of the blog launch. I've had so much to do just on the business side of the blog. Recently, my day job ends at 3:00 PM. Then I take like a little, maybe an hour-ish, break. And then from like 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM, I'm typically working on blog stuff. To wind down, I’ll spend like an hour, an hour and a half, knitting before bed.
When I find that my batteries are running low and on Fridays (Fridays, I give myself permission to not work on any blog stuff), I'll just sit in front of the TV and binge whatever dramatic show I’m watching for hours. Right now, I’m watching Pretty Little Liars haha. It really helps me to recharge my batteries. It's like, you feel productive, but really you're just chilling on the couch. You know what I mean?
Click here to learn more about the amazing impact that knitting has on anxiety!
Lauren: You're hacking productivity. You're hacking capitalism. That's awesome. Well, my final question for you is, are you a recovering people pleaser?
Jeanette: For sure. I think people-pleasing impacts so many parts of your life, right? People pleasing can really take a toll on you, but I've been working really hard to recover from people-pleasing.
I've made a lot of tough decisions to get where I am right now. And those tough decisions were tough because I knew that not everyone would love the outcome. But I think it's so important to be able to value your own opinion and know what’s best for you rather than necessarily asking a lot of people for advice. It’s important to follow that intuition, even if it's super awkward or tough or complicated.
“I’m really on a good path that is really bringing me joy now.”
Like, quitting my teaching job, transitioning away from that, going to school again in Montreal for fiber arts, then quitting school, now doing the blog. But I think I'm really on a good path that is really bringing me joy now.
So I'm really glad that I am a recovering people pleaser.
Lauren: Yeah, I love that. It's wild thinking about the recovering aspect. Those big decisions that you made and now being able to talk about them like they are blips on the map, but I'm sure at the time it was a whole process of considering who was going to be affected by that decision.
Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Once again, this is so exciting. Do you have any final thoughts for the listeners?
Jeanette: Thank you so much for having me here. I'm so excited to be part of your podcast, and for being one of the first few episodes.
I'm really active on Instagram @newwaveknitting, and you can also check out the blog at newwaveknitting.com. On there, you can get the Free Knitwear Capsule Wardrobe Checklist, which can really help you get started on making your sustainable wardrobe. Or you can grab the Knitwear Capsule Wardrobe Blueprint!
I hope you enjoyed either listening or reading my interview on the Recovering People Pleaser podcast! I loved being able to talk to Lauren about my background, values, ideas, and projects, and I hope this gave you a better idea of what New Wave Knitting is all about. Make sure to check out the Recovering People Pleaser for more interviews with cool people and makers! And give the podcast a follow on Instagram.