I started knitting whilst I was working in America at a summer camp in 2010 when my friend taught me to knit. I knitted on and off for a few years, until my friend Aimee and I started up a craft group in a local pub. Aimee was a crocheter and I was fascinated by her funny hook, so inspired by her, I grabbed a hook and some youtube videos and never looked back! 

Cut to 2018. I was leaving a job where I was miserable and I was making far too many crochet things than I could give to my friends, so I decided to start selling them. Sitting next to a canal in Venice, at peace with the world, The Crafty Bird was born. It wasn't until the next year when I was making hat and struggling to make yarn pom poms, or find really good quality faux fur ones that I started to make my own. I figured I'd pop a few spare ones online, people seemed to like them and pom poms and faux fur took over my life!

During the pandemic in 2020, I was furloughed for a bit and then made redundant from my job in Emergency Planning (the irony!). I decided to diversify and learnt to sew and to make project bags, and my yarn dying friends encouraged me to learn to dye too. I'd done a class at my local yarn shop a couple of years before, so I knew the basics, and along with advice and encouragement from my friends I worked on developing my skills. During this time, my local Yarn Shop and Tea Rooms - Sconch - took me in and gave me a job so that I could survive whilst developing my business. They taught me so much about yarn, retail and the industry, got me back into knitting and supported me and my business, to the point where I was able to move across the country in 2021 to Wiltshire and make The Crafty Bird my whole life!