Peppermint Creek Collective: gloves

Karen Doyle, Artist/Knitter

PCC: Tell us a little about yourself
KP: Hi! My name is Karen and I am an Australian who now calls the USA home. I came to live here after meeting my wonderful husband online, we are both avid video gamers and often play side by side on our computers. Having traveled all over Australia growing up I have this wanderlust embedded deep inside me to move around and see new places. Living in Southern California is very beautiful and the weather is amazing but I would also happily live some place where it's cold and snowy too.

PCC: What do you create?
KP: I make different kinds of fun knitted accessories for all ages like coin purses, fingerless gloves and legwarmers. I love the idea of handmade and knowing that something you own is unique and perhaps one of a kind. That has become the focus behind my Etsy shop KnitPeddler, to create unique, cute items and entwine this with the traditional art of knitting.

Ladies Flower Glove

PCC: What made you want to become an artist?

Dream/Wish Pouch

KP: I have had a love for art and crafty things since childhood. I would spend hours drawing and creating things like birthday and Christmas cards for my family, teaching myself calligraphy and having my Mum show me how to do tapestry and knit. My creativity stuck with me and led me to study traditional Visual Arts & Design at college. It was then that I decided I wanted to do children's book illustration. After graduating I was given a wonderful opportunity by a friends Mum to illustrate her self-published book for little kids. It was a great experience which I thoroughly enjoyed. Now I am so happy to be able to blend my love of drawing with my passion for knitting

PCC: Tell us about your process. What materials do you use?

Kids Ice Cream Gloves

KP: I usually start with writing and drawing my ideas in a sketchbook. Then I work them up to scale and figure out details like what colors and materials to use. I make my drawings into templates once I am happy with the design then onto the knitting process. My primary material is yarn, wool as it is called in Australia, and I decorate most of my pieces using felt, embroidery thread and other things like buttons. I have a healthy addiction to yarn and all the beautiful colors and textures there are to be found. If there is yarn to be found in any store I will find it and end up coming home with at least a couple of balls tucked under my arm. :)

PCC: What are you passionate about outside of your art?
KP: I love animals (especially cats), winter and rainy weather, cuddling up with my husband and our two cats with a good book or movie, playing video games and watching anime. I also love enjoying the wild beauty of nature wherever I am.

PCC: Anything else we should know?
KP: I love working with customers to create a special custom made item for them, even if it's as simple as a specific color they would like. I am always happy to accept custom orders, so feel free to message me.

PCC: How do we find you?

Etsy ~ www.etsy.com/shop/knitpeddler
Facebook ~ www.facebook.com/knitpeddler
Pinterest ~ www.pinterest.com/silpionelf
Twitter ~ twitter.com/KnitPeddler

Other Items from KnitPeddler that we love:

Toddlers Bear Gloves

Elephant Purse

LadyBug Purse

Girls Pink Star Gloves

Fox Purse - Back

Alicja Piotrowska, Artist/Designer

PCC: Tell us a little about yourself please.

Black & Red Top Hat

FA: My name is Alicja Piotrowska and I live with my family and four cats in beautiful old town Toruń in Poland. For many years my job was make photography for the local daily newspaper and I liked it very much. But I lost my job like many people in Poland.
Then by coincidence I discovered a new passion - felting! By mistake I felted my lovely wool sweater and it was like a revelation. Felted wool is a wonderful material from which you can do everything - flowers, hats, scarves, clothes, boots, toys, carpets and even houses (see Mongolian yurts)!

PCC: What is your process?

Nuno Leaf Scarf

FA: Felting is the oldest method to obtain strong, warm material.
I learned felting art myself by using the Internet and looking over the work of the masters. Through years of experiments with wool I worked out my own technique and unique style. Especially I love to create original fancy sculptural hats and colorful scarves inspired by nature. The basic material is the Australian merino wool and silk, but I like to experiment with unusual additions like Polish linen, bamboo fiber, and even the hair of other animals like dogs and cats. Often I reach for recycled materials with beautiful structures and colors. All my designs are one of a kind, I do not like to repeat patterns. In felting process I use only hot water and Polish natural gray soap.

It gives me great joy when my customers are enthusiastic about my products! I want my designs to bring people the same joy I have when I create it.

FCC: What inspires you?

FA: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was my first book reading myself. And I'm Alice and Mad Hatter at once :)
Another passion are my four cats. I'm crazy cat lady too. I have three black cats and one black and white. They love wool too. Sometimes I make cats toys for them.
I enjoy spending free time with my family. I have two children, 32 years old son Mikołaj who works on the renovation of monuments in our beautiful medieval town, and 17 years daughter Ida who is student of artistic school. I also love spending time with good literature, and I like to listen to very different music - I like both folk rhythms, blues, classical music or hard rock and metal sound. I love to work with music.

Sometimes I do with my friends photographic walks with camera around our beautiful and unique city. We have many interesting exhibitions with our photography.
I love a trip to the village and to the forest too, close encounters with nature.
Everything could be inspiration for my work!

PCC: How do we find you?
Links:etsy : www.etsy.com/shop/filcAlki
blog: www.filcalki.wordpress.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/FilcAlki/148687825236064
pinterest : www.pinterest.com/filcalki/filcalki/

More designs from Filc Alki that we love: