Interview : SpaceCadet Creations

Hi guys! I am really happy to introduce you a new post tag, {Interview} ! For time to time, I will post the answers of a fiber artist, and talk a little bit about him/her.

All pictures are under copyright of SpaceCadet Creations

The first person answering my questions is Stephanie from SpaceCadet Creations. She is a lovely, smart and dedicated to her art yarn dyer. Her business, SpaceCadet Creations, is growing and growing and she is having more and more success! Here is what she has to say!

1. How would you describe your work in three words? SpaceCadet Creations is all about modern, funky, and fresh!
2. Where do you get your inspiration? Absolutely everywhere – the world is full of colour! But in truth, I get the most of it from inside my own head. I have something called synesthesia – it’s a condition where the senses don’t fully separate during infant development and what it means for me is that I literally see colours all the time. I know it sounds crazy to anyone who doesn’t have this, but it’s true! Hearing music makes colours dance before my eyes, and physical sensations, such as stubbing my toe or feeling a warm breeze, creates colours in my mind. As a dyer, it means I have colour inspiration constantly!
3. What is your favorite hand made gift to give? I absolutely love creating colourways for my friends and giving them yarns that are custom-made just for them. And for my friends who don’t knit or crochet… wait, what are those?!?
4. If you had an extra hour in a day, what would you do with it? Probably sleep! I’m a total nightowl and happy to stay up and work to 1am, 2am, later… but the world doesn’t work that way and expects me to be up before noon, so I am perpetually short of sleep!
5. Is there other crafts beside fiber crafts that you like? I love to cook! Does that count as a craft? And having moved back to the US after living all my adult life in Britain, I find that the foods that I can get here are completely different from the what I got there, so cooking has become an adventure all over again. It’s been a lot of fun, discovering new ingredients and new recipes that work in the US!
6. Are you a perfectionist? In some areas and not in others. I try to be very precise in my dyeing – I see a colour in my mind and I want to recreate it exactly, which can be a bit difficult as I dye strictly from primaries and hand-mix all my colours. I also like my dyeing to look really tidy: nice clean changes of colour, not much splotchiness. It’s funny, because I know a lot of my customers aren’t nearly as fussy about it as I am – some of them even like the splotchiness. And there I am, trying to keep my dyeing all perfect, but you should see my house – half the time it looks like a bomb’s hit it!
7. Favorite sense: sight, hearing, smell, taste or touch? I think smell, because it’s so very evocative. The smell of something from my childhood will take me straight back there! The smell of kettle on a gas stove takes me right to my grandmother’s kitchen in Yorkshire… the smell of Imperial Leather soap does too. And there is nothing, nothing, nothing like the smell of the warmth in the air on a spring breeze!
8. Do you have a key phrase that keeps you going? Like a mantra? One day, quite a while ago now, the phrase “it’s ok to struggle” popped into my head. I’d been working on something difficult, really struggling with it, and beating myself up for not getting it straight away… when those words popped into my head, and I realized I needed to stop beating myself up, and to stop expecting myself to get everything right the first time. It’s only through struggle that we learn, and only through struggling that we improve. So, it’s ok to struggle, whether the struggle is with some big issue in my life or just in dyeing skein after skein before finally hitting the perfect colour.
9. What is the best advice you’ve ever received? I actually think it’s the answer to the previous question, to know that it’s ok to have to try, try again.
10. What do you wish for yourself and your business? I am thoroughly enjoying creating my colourways, talking to my customers, and watching my business grow. It is such a an exciting time right now! We’ve done our first knitting festival (Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet), we’re about to do HomeSpun Yarn Party in the DC/Baltimore area on March 27, and – I am SO EXCITED about this – we’ve just launched SpaceCamp, the SpaceCadet’s new yarn club, with subscriptions open until the end of the March. It has been such a whirlwind of exciting activity around here! So, I guess, to answer your question, what I really want for myself and the business is for all this excitement and fun to never, ever end!

Thank you so much Stephanie for being so generous! I think you answered my questions like a pro!

Like she said in her answers, don't forget to go look (and subscribe to) at her Yarn club! It's a incredible opportunity to support an artist and knit with gorgeous yarn! Her banner will be on my blog until the subscription time ends. Oh, and just to let you know, I plan on winning her giveaway on her blog...

You can also reach Stephanie on these following platforms:

Website

Yarn club info (subscriptions open until 31 March)
Current contest (ends Thurs 17 March)
Twitter @SpaceCadetCreat
Facebook
Ravelry Group

You would like to be featured? You are a fiber artist? Contact me at fallingstitches[at]gmail[dot[com]