FK chats to Lara and Susie, crochet extraordinaires of Brisbane based label Knot Another Etsy Store.
Can you tell us about your fabulous label and where the name comes from?
Knot Another Etsy Store is a Brisbane-based duo that aims to show off the merits of eccentric crochet. The name comes courtesy of Lara’s 9 year old son, and describes us perfectly. We like knots, we’re on Etsy and like a good pun, everything we make is a little bit fun.
Who are the team behind Knot another Etsy Store and what are their roles?
There’s two of us (Lara and Susie), but we’re really just different parts of the same mind. Lara is the chatty tall one with a knack for faces and remembering exactly which cactus you adopted and Susie is the shorter one crocheting furiously at the market stall.
We both work pretty much equally on everything we make although Lara is definitely better at finding cute pots while Susie can turn herself into a one-woman cactus sweatshop.
What inspires you daily?
Our inspiration comes from a variety of places including real life plants we come across to the amazing crochet work people are producing. Seriously, the things people can do with crochet is insane!
What is your workspace like? and what is your creative process?
Unfortunately, we don’t have a dedicated studio yet, but we each have a little corner at our homes as well as having learnt to take a ball yarn and a hook with us everywhere. If you leave us in one spot long enough, we tend to take it over with wool, pots and eco-friendly poly fill.
The first step in our process is always finding the perfect pot. Which generally means lots and lots of op-shopping and rummaging. Once we have a pot, Lara crochets the dirt and then passes it over to Susie to come up with the final cactus and sew it all together.
Where do you source the great mix of materials for your range? and are their challenges in doing so?
We try to re-purpose as much as possible with the yarn used in rugs coming from upcycled offcuts from the clothing industry and the stuffing is from an Australian company that turns recycled plastic into hobbyfill.
Most of our cactus pots are sourced from op shops, garage sales or our mother’s cupboards. Sure it takes a little more time and might not be as cheap as purchasing it new, but each item is unique, different and has its own history.
The biggest challenge with all of the rummaging we do is making sure that we don’t purchase too many oddities for our homes!
What new projects are you working on and where would you like to see Knot another Etsy Store in the future?
We’re looking to finally branch out (see what we did there!) into new plants, and we’re very close to finalising some crocheted bonsai trees and hanging plants. Our life long ambition has always been to make it to Portland, Oregon and what we’d love to do is crochet our way across the States, leaving crocheted cacti wherever we go!
