World Crafter. Alison. Montreal, Canada.
World Crafters are people who make things in different parts of the world. Some turned their hobby into a profession, some are balancing a day job with small crafty business, some chose to keep their hobby and just enjoy making, creating and giving. Behind each stitch is a story…
Almost a year ago I found the coziest and prettiest Instagram account - @la.reserve.design. Every time I see these chunky, cozy, textured, cabled big knits I just want to wrap myself in them. Today the maker and owner of La Reserve Design, aka Chunky Thick Wool Blanket Specialist, Alison, is talking about yarn, inspiration, craft social media and makers community.
Do you remember your first stitch? What was the beginning of your knitting story?The first thing I ever knit was a long circular tube made from a children's spooling kit given to me by my grandmother. I remember being so proud of my first "knit" project, which was pretty much a useless tube of uneven stockinette stitches. When I was a bit older my grandmother taught me how to do the garter stitch. I think this is how most people start knitting - a relative or friend teaches them the garter stitch and then for years all they can knit are squares or rectangle scarves! My grandmother is a wonderful lady and without her I would have never picked up a pair of needles, but her knitting lessons pretty much ended with the garter stitch. Since then I have taken many workshops, watched pretty much all of YouTube, and continued to learn as much as I can from friends and family about the craft.
What made you turn your hobby into business? Was it a conscious decision or it just happened on its own?Turning my hobby into a business was definitely not a well thought out or calculated plan! I was all over the place the first couple of months I tried to sell my knitwear - making yarn runs every couple of days, not calculating my costs or time properly, and basically trying to figure it all out on the fly. I love knitting large chunky blankets, which, as you probably know, are very satisfying to make but quite costly in terms of yarn consumption and labour. I decided to list some of my items on Etsy on a complete whim. I remember turning to my fiancee and saying: "What have I got to lose? Worst comes to worst I'll never sell anything, but the upside is I can continue to fund my craft addiction without spending my paycheck on yarn every month." 
I would love to talk about social media a little bit. How important is the social media for a successful craft business right now? How to find a healthy balance between being active on social media and still devote enough time to your business?
This is an amazing question! The truth is I've never been very active on social media in my personal life (I'm that person who has had the same profile picture since 2012). I was very hesitant to get involved with social media at all for my knitting because I felt 'it just wasn't me'. I started an Instagram account for La Reserve Design as a way of connecting to all of the beautiful and inspirational makers I had stumbled across online, without any intention of growing my following or even posting my own content. I very quickly became addicted to the whole thing. I love the instant feedback and I am constantly blown away by the support and creativity of the handmade community that has developed on Instagram. I've been so lucky to connect with some amazing makers, and have even become involved with a community called Our Maker Life, which is holding an offline makers' meet-up this summer!
I remember you opened a very interesting discussion in your Instagram feed about sharing the process of your work with others and how it can actually turn against you, when some people can overuse it and even steal your ideas. Did you find a way to balance the desire to share your knowledge and the need to protect your copyright?
The supportive and creative nature of this IG community inspired me to share my process online like an open book, and I'll admit I was very naive to the fact that there might be consequences to trying to grow a business while revealing all my makers secrets. After this realization I threw the question out there on IG, and I was overwhelmed with comments and messages that confirmed that this is something that as a community we all face. While I recognize that there is nothing proprietary about knits and purls, it's hard to feel like your ideas are being copied or re-sold without care for the time and effort it took for their initial development.
This issue is something that I talk about all the time with the Our Maker Life team as we try to strategize ways to encourage everyone to create their own patterns and find their own identity online, along with giving credit to the makers they were originally inspired by to create. I recently began taking over the Our Maker Life blog every week with "Tip Tuesday", where I share one of my makers secrets with the community at large. For me, this is my way of staying open about my process and connecting with everyone while maintaining some control over what I chose to share.
Having a craft business definitely requires some skills that go way beyond actual knitting/crochet. From your experience, what things did you have to learn apart from your craft to keep your business going?
I'm definitely still learning all the skills that make a good business run smoothly! I had to seriously up my photography game to be able to sell things online (just through photos). I've also had to learn a lot about accounting and bookkeeping to keep my craft business healthy. When I first started selling my knitwear, my father, who runs his own business, sat down with me and crunched the numbers so to speak. It taught me a lot about looking at the big picture of my small project and trying not to get bogged with too many creative ideas before making sure it makes overall sense for my business.
Do you have a clear "dream" destination for your business or you just enjoy what you have right now and go with the flow? The dream for my business is to turn La Reserve Design into a full time (or almost full time) job. I'm not sure what that job looks like yet, but I'm sure it'll involve a lot of hard work to get there. I wouldn't call it a "go with the flow" attitude, but more like I'm on a very flexible plan at the moment.The series are called "World Crafters", as I believe our surroundings can have a great influence on our work. Would you mind telling about your corner of the world? What's it like? What energy does this place have? I was born and live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and I agree that my surroundings have definitely had a large influence on me and my work. Canada is known globally for a couple of things, but it's reputation for cold, long winters are no joke. I think this is why I love chunky knits so much. Sometimes I see beautiful, intricately knit scarves with lace patterns on them and I think:"When would you wear that? The snow and wind would blow right through the hours of work that went into this design!"
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