Featured Crafter
Lisa Margreet Payne
Name: Lisa Margreet Payne
Age: 34
Location: East London, UK
Profession: I’ve been taking a sabattical in Stockholm, Sweden this summer, and spending time developing my craft.
Craft(s) of Choice: Knitting… although I’m becoming increasingly fond of crochet
Blog: http://www.lisamargreet.blogspot.com
My Granny taught me to knit, crochet, sew and make awesome fairy cakes when I was five years old. The first thing I made with her was a tiny knitted “Jerry” mouse from the cartoon “Tom & Jerry”. Since then I’ve knitted, crocheted, stitched and baked with various degrees of success over the years. (Tip: Never try to bake with a broken heart.) I am also a writer of short stories and other fiction, I sing in a band and I’m an aromatherapist.
I’m now at a stage in my crafting where I want to sell my hand-made projects to lovely people who appreciate these kinds of things: custom hand-made knits; Burlesque style fascinators (knitted or stitched), reworked vintage patterns such as crocheted snoods, and making hand blended aromatherapy products. I’ve also recently acquired a Brother knitting machine and two Adana printing presses and have grand plans for even more hand-made creations in the future. Just as soon as I learn how to use them!
I’m a member of the East London Craft Guerrilla www.craftguerrilla.com where we are fighting a war against mass produced tat! We are running a series of monthly craft markets, workshops and craft events such as nights of cocktails, cheesy music and crafting, and I have a shop on Etsy www.lisamargreet.etsy.com. Crafting has moved from my hobby into my obsession and I’m constantly thinking of the next pattern: I look at the pattern made by the leaves on the trees and I turn it into a crocheted shawl in my mind, I look at flowers and they become my next fascinator!
Being part of the craft revolution is very exciting, I constantly have at least five projects on the go at once which is where websites such as Ravelry are invaluable for keeping track of it all! The internet has made it so much easier to feel part of the community of crafters – wherever you are in the world. I daily check the blogs of at least five different crafters all in different countries.
