Atia Azmi is a knitter, sewer, blogger and podcaster who is known for her creative use of colour in her makes and her home. Atia speaks about the joy of using knitting as a creative outlet where she can combine colours.

Visit Atia's website: www.thebrightblooms.com

Follow Atia on Instagram @thebrightblooms

The Uncut podcast: Uncut Podcast

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🧶Join us at our next webinar Knitting for Attention and Focus. We will explore how knitting and crochet can support concentration, attention and mindful awareness, particularly for people who struggle with restlessness, distractibility or overwhelm.

🧶 If you'd like to learn more about how to use knitting for your self-care, check out our course Self-Care One Stitch at a Time.

🧶Catch up on our on-demand webinars:

The Healing Power of Knitting where we take a deep dive into the mental health benefits of knitting

Unravelling Burnout where we look at how we can use knitting as a tool to prevent burnout

Here's how to stay in touch:

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📲 Follow us on Instagram at @knittingistherapeutic and @drpaularedmond

View the transcript for the podcast on the captivate player

Yarn and patterns discussed in this episode:

Ysolda Ysolda | modernknitting patterns | free tutorials | online workshops

Ravelry Ravelry

Knitty.com Content: Knitty.com - Deep Fall 2021

Penguono sweater by Stephen West Penguono (gumroad.com)

Holiday slipover by petite knit Holiday

Slipover – PetiteKnit

Poet sweater Sari Nordlund Ravelry: Poet pattern bySari Nordlund

Dragonflies sweater Joji Locatelli Ravelry:Dragonflies Jumper pattern by Joji Locatelli

The Plumpy Shawl by Andrea Mowry Plumpy — Drea Renee Knits 

HHF - Luxury HandDyed Yarns – Hedgehog Fibres

Cartography sweater by Tin Can Kits Cartography pattern |Tin Can Knits

Scout Shawl by Florence Spurling ScoutShawl – Florence Spurling Studio (shopflorencespurling.com)

Knitty.com’s Forecast Sweater Knitty: editorial win05

London Underground sock yarn: TrailingClouds — **pre order** Nimbus sock yarn in MIND THE GAP (bigcartel.com)

Lace shawl: Ravelry: Clothildepattern by Kristen Hanley Cardozo

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter yarn Shelter Yarn | 100% USA-GrownTarghee-Columbia Wool | Brooklyn Tweed

Camarose Snefnug yarn SNOWFLAKE (camarose.dk)

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:01

Hello, and welcome to the Why I Knit podcast. My name

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:04

is Dr. Mia Hobbs, and I'm a clinical psychologist who's

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:07

passionate about knitting and its benefits for our mental

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:10

health. Each episode I interview a knitter and ask them why they

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:14

knit and how it has benefited their mental well being. This

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:17

week on the podcast I'm talking to Atia Azmi, Atia is a knitter

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:21

and sewer and Instagrammer, and she shares her colourful makes

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:24

and beautiful interiors on Instagram, @thebrightblooms.

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:28

She's also one of the hosts of the uncut podcast, a podcast for

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:31

makers, there are links to Atia's Instagram account, and

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:36

the uncut podcast and one of the patterns that she talks about in

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:39

the show notes. Hi Atia welcome to the podcast.

Atia Azmi: 00:00:45

Hi, thanks for having me today.

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:47

Thanks so much for talking to me. And I wonder if

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:50

we could start just by you telling me where your story of

Mia Hobbs: 00:00:53

knitting began.

Atia Azmi: 00:00:55

So I was always quite interested in learning, but

Atia Azmi: 00:00:58

there wasn't anybody who was willing or able to teach me and

Atia Azmi: 00:01:01

my mum did knit at some point in the 80s. I guess there used to

Atia Azmi: 00:01:05

be some half finished sort of mohair fluffy jumpers around.

Atia Azmi: 00:01:09

But she was always quite busy. And she wasn't doing it at the

Atia Azmi: 00:01:11

time. So I didn't get a chance to learn. And then when I was at

Atia Azmi: 00:01:13

university, just before my final exams, at university, I decided

Atia Azmi: 00:01:18

that would be a great time to learn to knit and procrastinate.

Atia Azmi: 00:01:22

So that was like when YouTube was first becoming available. So

Atia Azmi: 00:01:27

those were tutorials available on them. There's a couple of

Atia Azmi: 00:01:29

other websites that I used to learn as well. So it was

Atia Azmi: 00:01:32

essentially self taught using videos and things online. And

Atia Azmi: 00:01:37

there wasn't that much of an online social media community at

Atia Azmi: 00:01:42

that time, but there were blogs available. So I think I just

Atia Azmi: 00:01:46

used to find people through that and learn a bit, people like

Atia Azmi: 00:01:50

Ysolda. Were some of the like, some of the knitting companies

Atia Azmi: 00:01:54

that were around or earlier on. And then obviously ravelry came

Atia Azmi: 00:01:57

along after that, as well. And that became quite a big sort of

Atia Azmi: 00:02:01

knitting community.

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:02

Okay, so you, I'm really interested in the

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:05

procrastination element. Because I also learned in the well, I

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:10

really learned I learned as a kid and then relearnt when I was

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:13

started my doctorate in clinical psychology, and I found it quite

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:16

helpful. Having something with the end, like you could do a row

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:21

of knitting, have a 10 minute break for revision, I don't know

Mia Hobbs: 00:02:24

how you found it. Whether it was helped

Atia Azmi: 00:02:26

I think was in wasn't necessarily helpful in that it

Atia Azmi: 00:02:31

spent a lot more time on the knitting than I probably should.

Atia Azmi: 00:02:35

But, I mean, at that stage, it was kind of, I think, I was

Atia Azmi: 00:02:39

always really interested in sort of the colour colours and

Atia Azmi: 00:02:41

textures. I don't if you know, you know, Noro yarn, because

Atia Azmi: 00:02:44

like all the different sort of variegated colours, so I just

Atia Azmi: 00:02:47

really wanted to try new things like that. So. So I think I just

Atia Azmi: 00:02:52

got really absorbed in doing that. And I just remember that

Atia Azmi: 00:02:55

my tension was really tight. So it was really, you know, like

Atia Azmi: 00:02:59

when the tension really tightening hands just got really

Atia Azmi: 00:03:01

painful. So that's just my main memory that I have at that time.

Atia Azmi: 00:03:05

But I don't really remember a lot about, you know, how it

Atia Azmi: 00:03:09

affected my revision, essentially. So I think it was

Atia Azmi: 00:03:12

just, it was just a case of it's, you know, something to

Atia Azmi: 00:03:15

take your mind off other things. And, you know, just a bit of an

Atia Azmi: 00:03:20

escape really, yeah.

Mia Hobbs: 00:03:21

Yeah. I felt like that was really important for me

Mia Hobbs: 00:03:24

when I was training to have that something completely different,

Mia Hobbs: 00:03:27

not related to psychology.

Atia Azmi: 00:03:30

Yeah, I also say that I find it really useful when I

Atia Azmi: 00:03:33

was doing the hospital shift work as well, because at that

Atia Azmi: 00:03:37

stage, I don't know if it's the same now for junior doctors, but

Atia Azmi: 00:03:40

there used to be a bit of downtime, where nothing much was

Atia Azmi: 00:03:43

happening on a long shift. So it was always really helpful to

Atia Azmi: 00:03:46

just have the knitting there. And, you know, might not get to

Atia Azmi: 00:03:49

do very much of it. But it was available, particularly on a

Atia Azmi: 00:03:52

long night shift, it sometimes be quite good to know you've

Atia Azmi: 00:03:55

made some progress on some things. Yeah. I think I also

Atia Azmi: 00:03:59

remember, some, someone once said, when you're like a new

Atia Azmi: 00:04:03

mother as well. And you've got something to show for your, for

Atia Azmi: 00:04:07

your day, which is, you know, material that can be kind of

Atia Azmi: 00:04:10

quite helpful psychologically as well. Because otherwise you're

Atia Azmi: 00:04:13

just doing chores or doing chores or feeding, you're doing

Atia Azmi: 00:04:16

other things, but not really, at the end of the day. It feels

Atia Azmi: 00:04:19

like you're not really achieved anything. Whereas gonna do them

Atia Azmi: 00:04:21

all again tomorrow. Yeah, exactly. And there's nothing

Atia Azmi: 00:04:24

material that's come out of your day. So that also was a stage

Atia Azmi: 00:04:28

when I found it really helpful as well.

Mia Hobbs: 00:04:30

That's a good point. And I just wondered about what

Mia Hobbs: 00:04:35

you were making at the beginning.

Atia Azmi: 00:04:38

So at the beginning, I remember making things like

Atia Azmi: 00:04:41

scarves What else did I make I remember I used to use knitty

Atia Azmi: 00:04:47

which was the sort of free online magazine quite a lot. So

Atia Azmi: 00:04:50

I made a few patterns from that and Rowan magazine as well. So I

Atia Azmi: 00:04:53

made some like chunky mittens what else did I make at that

Atia Azmi: 00:04:58

stage? Those are the I think initially, I just start with

Atia Azmi: 00:05:01

those sort of small projects. And then the first big thing I

Atia Azmi: 00:05:05

made was on a trip to South Africa. And my husband always

Atia Azmi: 00:05:08

complains that I spent the whole time on that trip when it was

Atia Azmi: 00:05:11

like a road trip, just like looking at my knitting is like,

Atia Azmi: 00:05:16

Oh, look, there's something like really interesting compounds,

Atia Azmi: 00:05:19

like where the wildlife, I missed it. And it was a really

Atia Azmi: 00:05:23

long flight. So it was, you know, is good to have that time.

Atia Azmi: 00:05:26

And at that time, I think now, people are a bit more worried

Atia Azmi: 00:05:29

about taking knitting on flights, because they take your

Atia Azmi: 00:05:32

needles off you, but at that time, it was fine. And the other

Atia Azmi: 00:05:36

thing about that was that at that time, all my purls were

Atia Azmi: 00:05:39

crossed. So when I actually came back with my knitting, all of

Atia Azmi: 00:05:44

the bit that was not circular, where I was knitting and then

Atia Azmi: 00:05:47

purling a row, all the stitches were crossed on the purl rows.

Atia Azmi: 00:05:52

So it wasn't actually particularly good knitting at

Atia Azmi: 00:05:55

the end of the day so it was a bit of a waste. But I remember

Atia Azmi: 00:05:59

that I just really enjoyed also discovering the South African

Atia Azmi: 00:06:03

knitting shops and things. So because I have quite an

Atia Azmi: 00:06:05

interesting, they use a lot of bamboo and different things as

Atia Azmi: 00:06:08

well. So that was quite

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:09

yarn, or needles?

Atia Azmi: 00:06:11

Yeah, bamboo yarn. Well, I don't remember the

Atia Azmi: 00:06:13

needles, but I picked up some bamboo yarn out there as well.

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:17

Cool. And I know that you're obviously known for

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:20

sewing as well, I wondered where knitting and sewing like which

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:23

started first, whether they're related to each other or

Mia Hobbs: 00:06:27

completely separate?

Unknown: 00:06:29

Yeah, I would say I'd kind of thought of it quite

Unknown: 00:06:31

separately, there's, with the knitting, I feel like it's more

Unknown: 00:06:35

of a kind of relaxing hobby that you can do. You could take it

Unknown: 00:06:39

with you places you can sit on the sofa and do it. So I tend to

Unknown: 00:06:43

do that when I'm like, in the evenings or when I'm need to

Unknown: 00:06:46

wind down a bit. Whereas the sewing feels a lot more active,

Unknown: 00:06:49

like, you've got to cut things out, you've got to get down on

Unknown: 00:06:53

the floor, and pin things and all of that. So. And also, you

Unknown: 00:06:57

can only really while you're sewing, you can only really sew

Unknown: 00:06:59

I mean, you might be able to listen to a podcast or

Unknown: 00:07:01

something, but you can't really do much else. Or you have to be

Unknown: 00:07:04

in a specific place. So I kind of see them as slightly

Unknown: 00:07:08

separate. But, you know, I kind of try and use them in

Unknown: 00:07:12

complementary ways. So that if I'm making something, I think,

Unknown: 00:07:15

what can I What have I knit that will go with this thing? Or, you

Unknown: 00:07:18

know, when I'm knitting again, just looking at the colours in

Unknown: 00:07:21

my wardrobe and seeing what will match with with things? So they

Unknown: 00:07:24

complement each other in that way,

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:26

Sure. Thank you. And why do you So you mentioned kind

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:31

of knitting is more, calming? Why do you think you've kind of

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:34

carried on with it? Now you don't need it for presumably for

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:37

procrastination purposes? What do you think makes you pick it

Mia Hobbs: 00:07:41

up and keep doing?

Atia Azmi: 00:07:43

Well, I just really enjoy using different textures,

Atia Azmi: 00:07:47

and working with colours. So I feel like sometimes when

Atia Azmi: 00:07:51

knitting, if you're knitting something very small, you can

Atia Azmi: 00:07:53

use colours in quite a bold way, in a way that you wouldn't

Atia Azmi: 00:07:56

necessarily with a really big project, like a dress or

Atia Azmi: 00:08:00

something like for example, something like socks, no one's

Atia Azmi: 00:08:02

really going to necessarily see them. But you can wear something

Atia Azmi: 00:08:07

like really bright or just clash colours or that sort of thing.

Atia Azmi: 00:08:11

One of the projects that I made last year during the lockdown

Atia Azmi: 00:08:14

was the Penguono jacked. Stephen West. Yeah. And it's something

Atia Azmi: 00:08:20

that I'd actually cast it on quite a long time before and

Atia Azmi: 00:08:24

just done like about, you know, a few inches of the of the sort

Atia Azmi: 00:08:27

of the back, but that was just such a great and great way to

Atia Azmi: 00:08:32

play with lots of colours from my stash. Just use it lots of

Atia Azmi: 00:08:35

bits and bobs and just really enjoy the putting different

Atia Azmi: 00:08:39

stripes together or do it having different coloured welts next to

Atia Azmi: 00:08:42

each other and that sort of thing. So now, I enjoy it more

Atia Azmi: 00:08:46

as a creative thing. Just like I said, with with different

Atia Azmi: 00:08:50

textures and colours, and just, you know, enjoying the process

Atia Azmi: 00:08:53

more.

Mia Hobbs: 00:08:55

Would you say you're more of a process person than

Mia Hobbs: 00:08:57

for the end than a project knitter, like for the end

Mia Hobbs: 00:09:00

result? Or is it a balance of both,

Atia Azmi: 00:09:03

I would say is that it's more a product thing. It's

Atia Azmi: 00:09:06

always been more of a product thing for me in terms of I

Atia Azmi: 00:09:09

really want to make and wear the finished product. But I was

Atia Azmi: 00:09:14

finding that I would get a bit frustrated because I'm quite

Atia Azmi: 00:09:15

slow, just because I don't have loads of time to knit so. So

Atia Azmi: 00:09:20

then I've tried to choose things where I enjoy the process a bit

Atia Azmi: 00:09:23

more as well. I do enjoy the process to some extent, but I'm

Atia Azmi: 00:09:27

not a fast knitter So just you know, it takes me quite a long

Atia Azmi: 00:09:31

time to get anywhere with things. So I've just got to

Atia Azmi: 00:09:34

enjoy the process a bit more. Otherwise, I don't really get

Atia Azmi: 00:09:37

anywhere and then you get a bit frustrated. I used to kind of

Atia Azmi: 00:09:40

make lots of I still do sometimes, but make the list of

Atia Azmi: 00:09:42

the next one I want to make and make lists of projects and

Atia Azmi: 00:09:45

things. But because it takes so long as there's almost no point

Atia Azmi: 00:09:49

in just making a long list and then never managing to get

Atia Azmi: 00:09:52

through it. It's better to just enjoy the thing that you're

Atia Azmi: 00:09:55

making while you're doing it. And I find that knitting in that

Atia Azmi: 00:09:58

way is much more of a slow craft then sewing because with sewing

Atia Azmi: 00:10:02

at the most, it might take me a week or two to finish something.

Atia Azmi: 00:10:06

Whereas knitting, it may be, you know, several months, or I'll

Atia Azmi: 00:10:10

leave something while come back to it. So it might be over a

Atia Azmi: 00:10:12

year, but before something's actually finished, so it's just

Atia Azmi: 00:10:16

a, you know, I do have to slow myself down at it to be able to

Atia Azmi: 00:10:19

enjoy it more.

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:20

And would you ever look at something and see how

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:22

it's made? Or what it looks like? And think, no, I wouldn't

Mia Hobbs: 00:10:25

make that because of the process.

Atia Azmi: 00:10:28

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things nowadays, where

Atia Azmi: 00:10:31

I mean things with I suppose garments with smaller than four

Atia Azmi: 00:10:35

millimetre needles, I will most likely not, not decide to make

Atia Azmi: 00:10:39

because I know that I'll just end up just, it'll just be so

Atia Azmi: 00:10:42

slow that I'll just feel like I'll never get there. The last

Atia Azmi: 00:10:47

couple of things I made were on 10 millimetre needles, which was

Atia Azmi: 00:10:49

a Holiday Slipover by Petite Knit, which is, which is a

Atia Azmi: 00:10:52

really quick project. And I've really enjoyed making that. So

Atia Azmi: 00:10:57

I'd say my comfort zone is probably five to eight

Atia Azmi: 00:11:00

millimetres. So you get somewhere fairly quickly. But

Atia Azmi: 00:11:06

like other projects, like obviously mittens and things

Atia Azmi: 00:11:09

like that, which you you don't really want really thick, then

Atia Azmi: 00:11:13

those I'll use smaller needles for.

Mia Hobbs: 00:11:16

Okay, that makes sense. So you are much more

Mia Hobbs: 00:11:18

about the project, the end result and getting that kind of

Mia Hobbs: 00:11:21

fix.

Atia Azmi: 00:11:22

Yeah, I mean, yeah, do you know the Poet's sweater?

Atia Azmi: 00:11:27

You seen that one it's by Sari, I've forgotten the surname but

Atia Azmi: 00:11:32

it's just really beautiful lace sweater and in fingering weight

Atia Azmi: 00:11:36

yarn or 4ply yarn. And I really want to make that one, even

Atia Azmi: 00:11:41

though I know it will take me absolutely forever. Yeah,

Atia Azmi: 00:11:43

there's a couple of things where I'll have to get through it to

Atia Azmi: 00:11:46

get the result that I want. And you know if it's worth doing

Atia Azmi: 00:11:49

that, but yeah, there's a few projects that have a choose

Atia Azmi: 00:11:52

which are about fine and wait just

Mia Hobbs: 00:11:54

with the lace also make you think twice about it.

Mia Hobbs: 00:11:58

Because obviously lace would be slower than stockinette for

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:00

example.

Unknown: 00:12:01

Yeah, I actually quite enjoy knitting lace. So I've

Unknown: 00:12:04

made quite a few lace projects, I made the dragonflies sweater,

Unknown: 00:12:09

which is by Joji Locatelli. And that one, it was it was quite

Unknown: 00:12:14

slow. But the result is just so nice. And the back is just plain

Unknown: 00:12:19

stocking stitch as well. So it was it went faster than I

Unknown: 00:12:22

expected. And that was DK weight yarn. So it wasn't too, too

Unknown: 00:12:25

thin, either. And that's when I actually really enjoyed wearing

Unknown: 00:12:29

as well.

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:31

Okay, that's interesting, because I find I

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:33

like doing complicated patterns, because I feel like it keeps my

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:36

brain. I need that level of brain engagement. I think in the

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:40

process to feel relaxation. I think if I'm knitting just

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:43

stockinette, it's too easy, almost. And my brain still can

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:46

still think about what I'm cooking for dinner or about

Mia Hobbs: 00:12:50

work.

Unknown: 00:12:52

Yeah, yeah, it varies. So like, if I'm watching

Unknown: 00:12:54

something, then or like, say, I don't know, I'm sitting with

Unknown: 00:12:59

family or something, then I quite liked something, which is

Unknown: 00:13:01

just really straightforward. They don't need to think think

Unknown: 00:13:03

about at all and your fingers are just kind of working almost

Unknown: 00:13:07

on memory. Muscle memory. But there Yeah, I do enjoy those

Unknown: 00:13:11

projects, sometimes where it's, you know, you're forming a

Unknown: 00:13:14

pattern. And you're like having to think about that. But yeah,

Unknown: 00:13:18

so I kind of go with like a couple of of those quicker

Unknown: 00:13:21

projects, and then a slower project that I can pick up now.

Unknown: 00:13:24

And then. So at the moment, I'm also doing a brioche knit scarf

Unknown: 00:13:27

as well, like a shawl. Yeah. And I do find that it's actually

Unknown: 00:13:31

quite, I don't know, do you know, brioche do you do brioche?

Mia Hobbs: 00:13:34

It's probably one of my very few untouched untouched

Mia Hobbs: 00:13:38

knitting techniques. So it's on my list, you know, my radar, but

Mia Hobbs: 00:13:41

I haven't ventured there yet,

Atia Azmi: 00:13:43

yes, I didn't start I didn't try brioche at all until

Atia Azmi: 00:13:47

again, in lockdown. Where I was like, this is one of something

Atia Azmi: 00:13:51

that I don't know, then let's give it a try. So I made the

Atia Azmi: 00:13:54

Plumpy shawl by Andrea Mowry, which was a two colour brioche

Atia Azmi: 00:13:58

because I saw the kit on Instagram and I just really

Atia Azmi: 00:14:00

liked the colours in it. It was a Hedgehog fibres kit. So I just

Atia Azmi: 00:14:03

went for that one. And I really, really enjoyed the process is

Atia Azmi: 00:14:07

not as difficult as it seems. When you when you first learn it

Atia Azmi: 00:14:11

at first, it's a bit of a learning curve. But then once

Atia Azmi: 00:14:13

you've picked up the skill, then it does get much more easy. So

Atia Azmi: 00:14:18

it's just one of those projects. I find it with crochet as well

Atia Azmi: 00:14:20

where it takes me a little bit of time to get back into it

Atia Azmi: 00:14:24

because I've slightly forgotten the technique. But then once you

Atia Azmi: 00:14:28

once you start again, then it's really quite straightforward.

Mia Hobbs: 00:14:31

Yeah, okay. Thank you. And I wondered, I suppose

Mia Hobbs: 00:14:36

part of this podcast is about hearing from knitters about the

Mia Hobbs: 00:14:40

impact of knitting on their kind of mental well being and whether

Mia Hobbs: 00:14:43

there's anything kind of in that sense that you get from

Mia Hobbs: 00:14:46

knitting.

Atia Azmi: 00:14:47

Yeah, I think the main thing I get from it is that

Atia Azmi: 00:14:50

there's never a time when you just feel bored or like you have

Atia Azmi: 00:14:53

nothing to do and you don't have, I don't know, I suppose

Atia Azmi: 00:14:57

like that kind of loneliness. People get I mean, I always

Atia Azmi: 00:15:01

think back to when our children were young, because that's kind

Atia Azmi: 00:15:03

of, I suppose the time in your life when you're really on your

Atia Azmi: 00:15:06

own quite a lot. Or you don't have time for sort of yourself

Atia Azmi: 00:15:11

as much. And I think because I always had the knitting at that

Atia Azmi: 00:15:14

stage, I always felt like I had something to do. And I had that

Atia Azmi: 00:15:17

kind of community, as well. So you're still having that kind of

Atia Azmi: 00:15:21

interaction with people? And also, you know, just something

Atia Azmi: 00:15:26

that you can pick up and put down easily. It's kind of in a

Atia Azmi: 00:15:29

way, yeah, kind of like an occupational therapy, I guess,

Atia Azmi: 00:15:31

in a way that you've always just got something that you're on

Atia Azmi: 00:15:34

hand that you can do. Yeah, I mean, I've done that. I haven't,

Atia Azmi: 00:15:39

I wouldn't say that has been the time in my life where it's been

Atia Azmi: 00:15:42

really, really difficult wherever needed. That kind of as

Atia Azmi: 00:15:46

a coping strategy. But on a sort of lower level, it's, it's

Atia Azmi: 00:15:49

always been really helpful to have in the background.

Mia Hobbs: 00:15:51

Sounds like you used it a little bit in lockdown. I

Mia Hobbs: 00:15:53

don't know whether you did that deliberately. But like learning

Mia Hobbs: 00:15:55

a new technique or something like whether that was a

Mia Hobbs: 00:15:59

deliberate thing to think, yeah, this is what I'm doing in

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:02

lockdown. I'm getting brioche out of it.

Atia Azmi: 00:16:03

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I didn't necessarily think of it

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:04

Yeah, I do the same. I was knitting a Strange Brew by

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:06

in that way. I mean, it was I had more time. And you cannot

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:11

you need that headspace to learn something new. So it was really

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:15

useful to have it at that time. And it's nice to look back and

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:19

see that, you know, particularly that Penguono project that I

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:22

mentioned, just have a like a concrete like a souvenir of

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:26

lockdown. Like because it was just a whole winter when I just

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:29

spent with that project. And sometimes it's good to have I

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:34

kind of deliberately choose a project to take away with me

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:37

somewhere sometimes because you kind of like we were just away

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:40

for a few days. And I spent all the time on one project. And

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:44

then it kind of reminds you of that afterwards. So that's a

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:48

nice way of of using knitting as well.

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:55

Tin Can knits. Do you know that? Yeah, actually, no, I think it's

Mia Hobbs: 00:16:58

called a Cartography. One Yeah, no, my husband to a large

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:04

sweater. And then I finished it in lockdown, and then realised

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:07

that some of the motifs looked a little bit like the Coronavirus.

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:12

This really is a covid sweater. In a way, I hadn't quite meant

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:17

for it to be. Yeah, but it is quite I like having something

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:21

that feels like oh, yeah, that was the jumper I made on a

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:25

certain holiday or something. Yeah. And how about sewing, I'm

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:29

interested in whether that is different in terms of how it

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:33

fits in your life or what the craft gives you. Because I think

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:36

like you said, it's not quite as real, maybe a relaxing take

Mia Hobbs: 00:17:41

everywhere type. Craft,

Atia Azmi: 00:17:43

yes. So I tend to sew when, when I've got some time,

Atia Azmi: 00:17:48

like if I've got a weekend, like a day free in the weekend or

Atia Azmi: 00:17:51

something. And that's the time when I really enjoy it, when

Atia Azmi: 00:17:54

I've got a whole day, I would just do a bit of the cooking and

Atia Azmi: 00:17:57

a bit of the washing and those bits and bobs that you need to

Atia Azmi: 00:18:00

do. And then you know, going back to the sewing in between.

Atia Azmi: 00:18:03

So I don't know I have I don't know how to describe that,

Atia Azmi: 00:18:07

really. But it's it's just in a way, you've got to have time to

Atia Azmi: 00:18:11

do it a different way to knitting where you can just pick

Atia Azmi: 00:18:15

it up and put it down. And then and then it's just I think

Atia Azmi: 00:18:19

because you make something much more quickly with the sewing,

Atia Azmi: 00:18:22

then you can have a sort of very quick end point in sight. So you

Atia Azmi: 00:18:26

can be like, today I'm going to finish the skirt or something

Atia Azmi: 00:18:29

like that. Whereas with knitting, it's would be rare for

Atia Azmi: 00:18:33

me to be able to have a very set goal point.

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:37

Yeah. Okay, that's interesting. So it's a bit more

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:40

about like, I don't know, giving yourself like that time to

Mia Hobbs: 00:18:43

immerse yourself in the sewing.

Atia Azmi: 00:18:45

Yeah, I mean, I tend to say a bit on weekdays as

Atia Azmi: 00:18:48

well. Like, for example, yesterday evening, I just cut

Atia Azmi: 00:18:52

out my pattern ready to sew, so probably this evening, I'll be

Atia Azmi: 00:18:56

able to sew that. But I enjoy it much more. And I've got that

Atia Azmi: 00:19:01

sort of good amount of time to spend on it. And there's no kind

Atia Azmi: 00:19:04

of, like, if I'm sewing on a weekday, I kind of have to make

Atia Azmi: 00:19:08

myself go and do the cutting, even though I you know, I'll

Atia Azmi: 00:19:12

enjoy it. And once I'm doing it, but a bit more like you've got

Atia Azmi: 00:19:14

to take that time out of your day to do something. Yeah. Yeah.

Atia Azmi: 00:19:19

And whereas like if you've, you know, you kind of fitting it in,

Atia Azmi: 00:19:22

in between lots of things on a longer period of time, then it's

Atia Azmi: 00:19:25

just more relaxing.

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:26

I have to say that I think that's why I knit much

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:29

more than I sew because it's just like, because of the

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:33

portability. And you can do it in five minutes, whereas sewing

Mia Hobbs: 00:19:36

is just to get everything out. Takes longer. Yeah,

Atia Azmi: 00:19:41

yeah, I'm lucky that I actually have everything out

Atia Azmi: 00:19:43

already on a sort of set, sort of dedicated table, so it's a

Atia Azmi: 00:19:48

bit easier in that way. I think I'd find it much more difficult

Atia Azmi: 00:19:50

if I had to, you know, organise myself every time to get

Atia Azmi: 00:19:53

everything out. So yeah, so having that space set aside is

Atia Azmi: 00:19:57

it makes it much easier

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:00

For me the cutting, I feel the slight kind of. I don't

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:04

love that bit.

Atia Azmi: 00:20:06

No, I don't enjoy cutting as a necessary evil. So,

Atia Azmi: 00:20:11

yeah, I don't have a dedicated space for cutting. So that has

Atia Azmi: 00:20:14

to that just goes on the floor at the moment. Yeah, maybe one

Atia Azmi: 00:20:19

day I'll get enough space for a cutting table

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:24

I'm interested also in like the end product, because

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:28

it sounds like you are very interested in getting to the

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:30

project. And whether there's an impact on your kind of, I don't

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:35

know, mood or happiness about wearing or giving or the

Mia Hobbs: 00:20:40

finished articles, whether it's knitted or sewn.

Atia Azmi: 00:20:45

Yeah, I always feel really, you know, it's always

Atia Azmi: 00:20:48

the kind of the high point of the project when you finally get

Atia Azmi: 00:20:50

to wear a project that you made. With knitting, I tend I haven't

Atia Azmi: 00:20:55

really given people a lot of knitting recently. I mean, I, I

Atia Azmi: 00:20:59

think I wasn't knitting that much for a while. And then I was

Atia Azmi: 00:21:02

just doing these kind of like longer term projects. For

Atia Azmi: 00:21:04

myself, I think I haven't really made a bigger project for like a

Atia Azmi: 00:21:08

jumper for anyone else for a long time since my children were

Atia Azmi: 00:21:12

quite small. But like, when I've given people small gifts, like a

Atia Azmi: 00:21:17

bonnet for a baby or those sorts of things, then they always get

Atia Azmi: 00:21:22

a lot of pleasure out of that as well. So it's really nice to be

Atia Azmi: 00:21:25

able to do that occasionally. So I do have that in mind for over

Atia Azmi: 00:21:29

the next few months as well just to make a few gifts as well just

Atia Azmi: 00:21:33

I think that a small amount of knitting is appreciated in my,

Atia Azmi: 00:21:37

my view is appreciated as much as a big project. So I don't

Atia Azmi: 00:21:41

know if you find that. So if you make someone a hat or like

Atia Azmi: 00:21:44

booties or something small, you even if you spent the same

Atia Azmi: 00:21:49

amount of time making really big fancy blanket or something.

Atia Azmi: 00:21:53

probably appreciate a small gift as much as the big one.

Mia Hobbs: 00:21:56

I think I never quite know with knitted gifts. Like I

Mia Hobbs: 00:21:59

made a Scout Shawl. I don't know if you know that by Florence

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:03

Spurling. So it's, it's looks like a patchwork,

Unknown: 00:22:07

the new isn't it a new one.

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:11

And it looks like kind of patchwork as in sewn

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:14

patterns on different squares, but it's in kind of a shawl, but

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:17

it involves doing colour work on both sides. It's knitted flat.

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:21

And so I'd never done colour work on a purl row before

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:25

personally. And I saw the pattern, I thought, Wow, it's

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:30

amazing. I wanted to make that because I quite I am attracted

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:33

to more and more complicated things. Because I think my brain

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:37

needs that in order to kind of absorb in the process and switch

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:41

off from other stresses. And I knitted it for a friend's 40th

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:46

And I was she's not a knitter. And I was then kind of think Is

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:50

it random gift. It was a July birthday. And I'm feel like I'm

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:56

knitting lots of love in it and thinking about her when I'm

Mia Hobbs: 00:22:59

knitting it. But I'm not quite sure whether that feels the same

Mia Hobbs: 00:23:04

as the recipient, or whether it feels like

Atia Azmi: 00:23:06

Yeah, yeah, I think I learned my lesson, giving

Atia Azmi: 00:23:10

something very complicated somebody because I made a lace

Atia Azmi: 00:23:12

Shawl in a cashmere silk yarn, which has like a lace weight

Atia Azmi: 00:23:17

yarn. And I gave it to my sister and I never saw it again, never

Atia Azmi: 00:23:21

saw her wear it again. I think it's highly likely that it's

Atia Azmi: 00:23:24

just like stuffed in a cupboard somewhere or gone to the charity

Atia Azmi: 00:23:26

shop or something. And like, you know, I would have liked to seen

Atia Azmi: 00:23:30

that shawl again. Unless I really think I'm not going to

Atia Azmi: 00:23:36

use it or as it like, I don't know, like, if I know someone's

Atia Azmi: 00:23:39

really going to appreciate something then then I'll give it

Atia Azmi: 00:23:41

to them. Like there's a few friends I know that they would

Atia Azmi: 00:23:44

absolutely love knitted hat for their babies or something. I had

Atia Azmi: 00:23:48

a friend who used one for I think two years same one for her

Atia Azmi: 00:23:52

daughter. I can't remember if I made it a big size or not. But

Atia Azmi: 00:23:56

it was like, crammed on her head till she was two or something.

Atia Azmi: 00:23:59

So like, those are the sorts of people that you feel they will

Atia Azmi: 00:24:02

really appreciate the gift. Yeah, but yeah, so I guess it's

Atia Azmi: 00:24:06

just a learning thing. And a lot of sewists say this as well,

Atia Azmi: 00:24:10

that they they don't really make things for other people as well.

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:14

I mean, I feel like I got I wanted to make it for the

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:17

process. If you see, my friend really seemed to appreciate it,

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:21

but you never quite she thinks what am I going to do with it.

Atia Azmi: 00:24:25

Yeah, there's always that thing of like, Yeah, I

Atia Azmi: 00:24:28

mean, whether it's gonna be a long term, you know, something

Atia Azmi: 00:24:31

that they're going to appreciate or enjoy as well. But it's

Atia Azmi: 00:24:35

difficult to know, isn't it? And I think when people ask you for

Atia Azmi: 00:24:38

something and you make it for them, then that's what is the

Atia Azmi: 00:24:41

best way that you know that they definitely do want it.

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:44

Yeah. I had a friend recently who wanted me to

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:46

recreate a knitted hat. So her for her son who'd grown because

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:51

he was a baby and had a hat that he loved. And then now he's two

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:54

and didn't fit the hat anymore and she had the yarn and it was

Mia Hobbs: 00:24:58

like a chunky weight yarn. So it literally took an evening, maybe

Mia Hobbs: 00:25:04

to do the pom pom as well. But yeah, that was very appreciated.

Atia Azmi: 00:25:09

Yeah, I think it's now getting to the point after

Atia Azmi: 00:25:12

sort of nearly 15 or 15 years plus that I'm, you know, I don't

Atia Azmi: 00:25:16

need another shawl I don't need, you know, whatever it is, and

Atia Azmi: 00:25:19

then, and then you think that you can make it and give it to

Atia Azmi: 00:25:23

somebody who will appreciate it or, I don't know, I think it's

Atia Azmi: 00:25:27

quite difficult to give away or, or, you know, throw away things

Atia Azmi: 00:25:32

that you've made and put a lot of time and effort. And so now,

Atia Azmi: 00:25:36

in that in a way that slows me down as well, knowing that I

Atia Azmi: 00:25:39

actually don't need this, think about what would I do this thing

Atia Azmi: 00:25:43

once I've made it, so, but I don't think I'll stop knitting

Atia Azmi: 00:25:47

in a way for the process as well as I think I do find that quite

Atia Azmi: 00:25:50

enjoyable. So even if even if I slow down my sewing in my

Atia Azmi: 00:25:54

knitting and make something like set a bit more complicated, or

Atia Azmi: 00:25:57

something that's going to take a bit longer than that can be a

Atia Azmi: 00:26:00

good way of just not adding to your, you know, knitted

Atia Azmi: 00:26:03

products, and enjoying the process.

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:07

I made a lace dress once it was actually a pattern

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:10

was for a top. And I just carried on and felt like if I

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:15

was on the tube and the tube got stuck for an hour, I was never

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:18

gonna run out of knitting, it was easy to carry the yarn

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:20

because it was lace. So you had so much yarn on one tiny ball.

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:25

Yeah. And it was it did feel quite comforting apart from when

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:27

the needle broke off from the cable. Yeah, isn't ideal. And I

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:36

wondered about your thoughts as a GP about whether you ever feel

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:42

like I know that there's this idea about social prescribing

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:45

and the idea of being able to prescribe, I don't know,

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:47

knitting group to somebody whether that ever you see people

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:50

and you think I wish that was an option? I don't know if it is an

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:53

option. But whether you ever feel like people could benefit

Mia Hobbs: 00:26:57

from some kind of making? Maybe not knitting? Maybe something

Atia Azmi: 00:27:00

Yeah, I definitely think it can be really helpful

Atia Azmi: 00:27:00

else?

Atia Azmi: 00:27:03

for people's mental health, I can't say that we've ever, I

Atia Azmi: 00:27:07

mean, I've not come across a knitting therapeutic group

Atia Azmi: 00:27:10

locally. But I would definitely recommend, you know, to some

Atia Azmi: 00:27:13

people, if that was something that was available, I know that

Atia Azmi: 00:27:17

there used to be this, there are obviously knitting groups

Atia Azmi: 00:27:21

running, I used to run one myself, about 10 years ago, I

Atia Azmi: 00:27:25

think now. And it was really just that regular interaction

Atia Azmi: 00:27:30

with people is I think the most helpful thing, just tell them

Atia Azmi: 00:27:33

that even if you're not necessarily the best knitter, or

Atia Azmi: 00:27:37

like, it's just more about that interaction with people and just

Atia Azmi: 00:27:41

slowly making progress on something. And that's mostly if

Atia Azmi: 00:27:44

I see somebody who's suffering from anxiety or depression, I

Atia Azmi: 00:27:48

think the main thing that that you kind of want them to do is

Atia Azmi: 00:27:51

just make really small steps to improve their mental health. And

Atia Azmi: 00:27:56

because everything, like a really big thing can be just so

Atia Azmi: 00:27:59

overwhelming, that you just want them to just make it do

Atia Azmi: 00:28:02

something small for themselves to say that they can feel they

Atia Azmi: 00:28:05

make progress. And knitting can be really good in that way.

Atia Azmi: 00:28:08

Because you can physically see your progress once you've done

Atia Azmi: 00:28:11

something. So yeah, I'd definitely recommend that if it

Atia Azmi: 00:28:14

was available.

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:16

I have found that quite helpful just to, you know,

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:18

for some of the people I work with the idea of being able to

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:21

see progress on something, even if it was just a few stitches or

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:26

one row in a day. And also being quite a good for a distraction.

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:32

Like if you're trying to, I don't know, stop ruminating

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:36

about something to be able to then do you know, knit for 10

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:41

minutes or crochet for 10 minutes? Yeah. Could you tell me

Mia Hobbs: 00:28:49

about a significant knitting project for you?

Atia Azmi: 00:28:54

Let me think if we go back a long way, a project I

Atia Azmi: 00:28:58

don't actually have this anymore, but I made the Knitty

Atia Azmi: 00:29:01

Forecast cardigan. I don't know if you you know that one is it

Atia Azmi: 00:29:06

was a quite an ambitious project for me at the time. It's like

Atia Azmi: 00:29:08

bobbles and I think there's like bobbles, ribbing and lots of

Atia Azmi: 00:29:13

kind of joining here and then it's got a collar and all sorts

Atia Azmi: 00:29:16

of things going on. So yeah, I think I should have kept that

Atia Azmi: 00:29:20

jumper right. I think I gave it to my sister different sister.

Atia Azmi: 00:29:24

Okay, I have 3 sisters. My other sister is also a knitter. And

Atia Azmi: 00:29:28

she really appreciated it and I think she wore it quite a lot.

Atia Azmi: 00:29:31

So yeah, that was one where I just learned lots of different

Atia Azmi: 00:29:34

skills were there and it was. I think I just really enjoyed that

Atia Azmi: 00:29:38

satisfaction of just learning lots of new things and having

Atia Azmi: 00:29:41

something to show for at the end. Yeah, so that's probably

Atia Azmi: 00:29:45

one I would consider to be quite significant one. Yeah,

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:49

I think that might be one of the reasons I haven't

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:50

tackled brioche yet because I feel like I need to feel like

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:53

there is uncharted territory in the knitting world. I can still

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:56

learn new. Remember the first time I turned a heel and a pair

Mia Hobbs: 00:29:59

of socks? So I think I stayed up until one o'clock in the

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:02

morning. So I was literally following the pattern and didn't

Mia Hobbs: 00:30:04

know what was gonna happen next, which was quite exciting.

Atia Azmi: 00:30:06

Yeah, yeah, it's quite a magical process. I just

Atia Azmi: 00:30:09

recently finished a pair of socks that I started, I think

Atia Azmi: 00:30:12

five years before. I like finished one completely. And the

Atia Azmi: 00:30:16

second one, it was a really quite complicated cable pattern

Atia Azmi: 00:30:20

on 2.5, whatever millimetre needles, and it's just like, I

Atia Azmi: 00:30:24

couldn't face going back there again, especially, I didn't know

Atia Azmi: 00:30:27

which row of the cable I was on. So but then I just I think

Atia Azmi: 00:30:32

someone was someone was running us kind of like a finish it

Atia Azmi: 00:30:34

finish it off October kind of challenge. Okay, I just need to

Atia Azmi: 00:30:38

do this. And then I've just picked them up again. And I

Atia Azmi: 00:30:41

think it only took me a week and a half or something to finish

Atia Azmi: 00:30:43

it. But yeah, that's because I don't know if you find this, but

Atia Azmi: 00:30:47

when I'm not finished something, I don't want to start the same

Atia Azmi: 00:30:50

type of project again, until I finished that one. So like, for

Atia Azmi: 00:30:55

example, like, right, the socks, I just didn't start another pair

Atia Azmi: 00:30:58

of socks. Yeah, until I wanted those ones done. And then lace

Atia Azmi: 00:31:02

projects and things like that. tend to just want to finish that

Atia Azmi: 00:31:05

one off before I start another one. So and with quilts as well,

Atia Azmi: 00:31:08

I've had a quilt that was not finished for about three, four

Atia Azmi: 00:31:11

years as well just needed binding, there's nothing else

Atia Azmi: 00:31:13

that needed doing. So, so I just like have that bit of a mental

Atia Azmi: 00:31:18

block because I know that otherwise I'll end up with like

Atia Azmi: 00:31:20

20 piled up things that are not finished. And I just think that

Atia Azmi: 00:31:24

will just never be it'll just become too overwhelming. So

Atia Azmi: 00:31:27

yeah, so it's good to get those socks done and I think now can

Atia Azmi: 00:31:31

move on to I plan to make my husband a pair of socks that the

Atia Azmi: 00:31:34

company the name of the yarn company, but she does a TfL

Atia Azmi: 00:31:37

London Overground stripes. So I had that I had that for years

Atia Azmi: 00:31:44

and years and years. And I was like maybe this will be the

Atia Azmi: 00:31:45

time. I actually finally get to make those.

Mia Hobbs: 00:31:48

Yeah, and are they sock weight. They're not?

Atia Azmi: 00:31:51

Yeah, yeah, they're not. But it's just a stocking

Atia Azmi: 00:31:53

stitch. So yeah, we'll be a bit quicker than a cable pattern,

Atia Azmi: 00:31:56

hopefully.

Mia Hobbs: 00:31:57

Yeah, I quite like having sort of a hat on the go

Mia Hobbs: 00:32:00

without as long as it's not complicated because that is

Mia Hobbs: 00:32:02

quite good for in a zoom training or on a bus. Yeah. That

Mia Hobbs: 00:32:07

kind of in the background project. Okay. I always ask

Mia Hobbs: 00:32:11

about knitting high and knitting low. I don't know if you could

Mia Hobbs: 00:32:15

think of any particular highs or lows. Oh,

Atia Azmi: 00:32:19

let me think. Knitting high. Yeah, I mean, I

Atia Azmi: 00:32:23

think probably finishing a laceweight project is always a

Atia Azmi: 00:32:27

bit of a knitting high. Let me think I haven't made laceweight

Atia Azmi: 00:32:31

project in quite a long time. So probably that same shawl that I

Atia Azmi: 00:32:34

mentioned earlier. I shared that on my Instagram recently,

Atia Azmi: 00:32:38

because I took some photos of at the time it was it was yeah, it

Atia Azmi: 00:32:42

was such a beautiful pattern. So I was really

Mia Hobbs: 00:32:44

what was that remind me which pattern that was?

Atia Azmi: 00:32:47

It was I forgotten everything now. I think it was

Atia Azmi: 00:32:50

it's on ravelry so I can have a track and let you know. But

Atia Azmi: 00:32:57

yeah, so that was probably one knitting lows generally when you

Atia Azmi: 00:33:01

just have to unravel a whole project that hasn't gone well

Mia Hobbs: 00:33:06

does that get any easier, do you think?

Atia Azmi: 00:33:09

No, not really, I mean, the with the 10 millimetre

Atia Azmi: 00:33:12

needle project that just in the holiday slipover? I did have to,

Atia Azmi: 00:33:15

I think I was on holiday and I hadn't got a I just had my

Atia Azmi: 00:33:19

little knitting guage ruler. I hadn't got a proper measuring

Atia Azmi: 00:33:22

tape or anything. So I'd knit it a few centimetres shorter than I

Atia Azmi: 00:33:26

wanted it. So I had to unravel all of my ribbing, about five,

Atia Azmi: 00:33:29

five inches of ribbing about three or something on the front.

Atia Azmi: 00:33:34

So that was a bit annoying to unravel it all. But because it

Atia Azmi: 00:33:38

was 10 minutes. It was fine. It wasn't too bad. Yeah. Yeah, so

Atia Azmi: 00:33:44

yeah, that's probably I haven't had any terrible disasters I can

Atia Azmi: 00:33:47

think of. I've had my children cutting up balls of yarn now. I

Atia Azmi: 00:33:54

don't remember them doing it with anything very precious.

Mia Hobbs: 00:33:56

Okay. Wait. So you've got rules about the knitting

Mia Hobbs: 00:33:59

stash? And children,

Atia Azmi: 00:34:01

so we, we have a cat now. So she does, like, she's

Atia Azmi: 00:34:05

not too bad with the yarn. But when I was knitting with

Atia Azmi: 00:34:09

Shelter, the Brooklyn Tweed yarn recently, and it's quite Soft it

Atia Azmi: 00:34:13

will, just, you can easily just break it with your fingers

Atia Azmi: 00:34:17

easily. Okay, so there were a lot of ends to weave in and that

Atia Azmi: 00:34:21

jumper because she just kept like finding the end and just,

Atia Azmi: 00:34:26

you know, clawing at it or biting it. So, yeah.

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:32

My last question was about the greatest gift knitting

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:35

has given you for the rest of your life. So anything you've

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:38

kind of feel like you've any way that you feel that you've

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:40

benefited from knitting that spills over into life in

Mia Hobbs: 00:34:44

general.

Atia Azmi: 00:34:46

Um, well, the first thing that came to mind was just

Atia Azmi: 00:34:50

having my stash which is quite extensive. And that will

Atia Azmi: 00:34:54

definitely be a gift that keeps giving for many years

Atia Azmi: 00:34:59

Are you still adding to it?

Atia Azmi: 00:35:00

I am trying not to I did just get the yarn for the second

Atia Azmi: 00:35:05

holiday slipover, because I really like the Camarose Snefnug

Atia Azmi: 00:35:09

yarn. And it's just, it's, I mean, I mostly buy hand dyed

Atia Azmi: 00:35:14

yarn or used to when I was adding to my stash quite a lot

Atia Azmi: 00:35:18

in the past. But this one is just one of my favourites or

Atia Azmi: 00:35:20

more commercially dyed yarns. Yeah, it's just really soft and

Atia Azmi: 00:35:23

it doesn't pill or get ruined, you know, even two years later

Atia Azmi: 00:35:28

after knitting my first jumper, and that is still looks perfect.

Atia Azmi: 00:35:31

So that's probably, you know, one of the best ones I've used.

Atia Azmi: 00:35:35

But apart from that, I'm gonna try not to really add to my

Atia Azmi: 00:35:38

stash too much anymore. Particularly as I feel the cost

Atia Azmi: 00:35:42

of yarn is a lot more than it used to be. It's not cheap.

Atia Azmi: 00:35:46

Yeah, yeah. So I think beyond that I already have will stand

Atia Azmi: 00:35:49

me in good stead for quite a long time. Yeah. But in general,

Atia Azmi: 00:35:53

just being part of the wider sort of knitting and crafting

Atia Azmi: 00:35:57

community has probably been the best thing that has come out of

Atia Azmi: 00:36:00

it for me. So I mean, I would say mostly, yeah, I would say

Atia Azmi: 00:36:05

knitting has been big a big part of that for me as well,

Atia Azmi: 00:36:08

particularly a few years ago, and there was lots of

Atia Azmi: 00:36:10

conversations happening about diversity. And I think there's a

Atia Azmi: 00:36:14

bit of an awakening in the sewing community as knitting

Atia Azmi: 00:36:16

community initially, is where it started. So that I found really

Atia Azmi: 00:36:20

valuable and it's created lots of opportunities and friendships

Atia Azmi: 00:36:25

for me, which I wouldn't have had otherwise. So. Yeah, I think

Atia Azmi: 00:36:29

that's been the most valuable thing for me and just having a

Atia Azmi: 00:36:32

hobby that's for life, really, that you know, that you'll be

Atia Azmi: 00:36:36

doing, as long as you can. Somebody was telling me recently

Atia Azmi: 00:36:40

that she can't knit anymore for arthritis. And I was like, Oh,

Atia Azmi: 00:36:42

my gosh, that's like, my worst nightmare. prevent that, as far

Atia Azmi: 00:36:48

as possible.

Mia Hobbs: 00:36:49

Yeah. I just want didn't want to let you go

Mia Hobbs: 00:36:52

without asking about specifically about colour. And

Mia Hobbs: 00:36:56

because I associate you in your Instagram with all these

Mia Hobbs: 00:36:58

beautiful, bright colours, and wondered how much of a part of

Mia Hobbs: 00:37:04

that is about the appeal. And whether that feels like, I don't

Mia Hobbs: 00:37:08

know, part of your drive for knitting is to get to play with

Mia Hobbs: 00:37:11

the colours or to have like, almost like wearable art? I

Mia Hobbs: 00:37:15

don't know.

Atia Azmi: 00:37:17

Yeah, I tend not to go for complicated patterns.

Atia Azmi: 00:37:21

Yeah, as much as something in the colour that I want, or like

Atia Azmi: 00:37:25

a colour combination. So like stripes, or whatever it is. So I

Atia Azmi: 00:37:29

think colour is a big drive in, in my knitting at the moment.

Atia Azmi: 00:37:34

Like, for example, I, like, you know, I might be like, I just

Atia Azmi: 00:37:37

really want a yellow jumper or something. So it's not

Atia Azmi: 00:37:40

necessarily that it matters what the pattern is, or like, it

Atia Azmi: 00:37:44

might be just really basic, but it's the colour and introducing

Atia Azmi: 00:37:47

that and having that in my wardrobe. And with knitting, I

Atia Azmi: 00:37:49

feel like when you're when you've got your knitting, you're

Atia Azmi: 00:37:51

with it for a long time. So if you've got lots of colour in

Atia Azmi: 00:37:54

there, particularly over the winter months, it can be really

Atia Azmi: 00:37:57

therapeutic. And that way, you've got a kind of colour

Atia Azmi: 00:37:59

therapy just right there in front of you. So that's one of

Atia Azmi: 00:38:03

the main things that I enjoy about my knitting at the moment.

Atia Azmi: 00:38:07

So is a lot about colour for me, and just, and also sometimes a

Atia Azmi: 00:38:13

bit of a challenge. So like, for example, I've got a yarn and a

Atia Azmi: 00:38:17

kind of dark maroon red, and it's not necessarily coloured

Atia Azmi: 00:38:20

normally use, but then I can think about how would I pair

Atia Azmi: 00:38:24

that with other things and make that work with my wardrobe? So I

Atia Azmi: 00:38:27

really enjoy just being creative with the colour combinations for

Atia Azmi: 00:38:30

that as well.

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:31

Okay. Yeah, that's really interesting. Well, thank

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:35

you so much for talking to me. And I'm sure there'll be people

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:38

who want to follow you on Instagram to hear your podcast.

Mia Hobbs: 00:38:42

Can you just remind me how they can connect with you?

Atia Azmi: 00:38:47

Yeah, of course, it's. So my Instagram is the

Atia Azmi: 00:38:51

bright blooms. And I also have a website, which will be more

Atia Azmi: 00:38:54

frequently updated which is the bright blooms.com and our

Atia Azmi: 00:39:00

podcast, which is kind of more general making and sewing

Atia Azmi: 00:39:02

podcast is called uncut. And you can find that at uncut podcast

Atia Azmi: 00:39:07

underscore on Instagram.

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:08

Okay, Super, thank you so much for talking to me.

Atia Azmi: 00:39:11

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:16

Thank you for listening to the Why I Knit

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:17

podcast. If you'd like to find out more about therapeutic

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:20

knitting you can follow me on Instagram at knitting is

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:23

therapeutic. Or check out my website therapeutic

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:26

knitting.org. To be notified when a new podcast is released.

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:30

Please subscribe on your podcast app. If you or anyone you know

Mia Hobbs: 00:39:34

would make a great guest for the podcast then please get in touch