Pattern Shift

#19 - Floor, Tama en Maaike talk about their experience as a member of the Conscious Knitting Club

June 03, 2021 Saskia de Feijter Season 1 Episode 19
Pattern Shift
#19 - Floor, Tama en Maaike talk about their experience as a member of the Conscious Knitting Club
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Show Notes Transcript

In this episode I welcome Floor, Tama en Maaike who have been active founding members of the Conscious Knitting Club. 

We talk about what made them decide to join, how the club is structured, what the value has been to them and how much time they invest. 

This interview was such a great experience for me because these women really proved to me that what I had envisioned for the club has become a reality. Connecting to other knitters and getting to a deeper level of consciousness about what and why and how we knit. 

I hope you'll enjoy this episode and if you want to become a member of the club, we'd love to have you, just go HERE and scroll down to see the special membership plans.

In my podcast A Smaller Life, I talk to makers and business owners in my industry (and sometimes beyond) about making conscious choices and growing your brand by actually going smaller.

Please share the episode and the podcast as I rely on you, my Wollies, to expand our community. Spreading the word is all done organically without paid advertising.

Please rate, review and subscribe. It only takes a couple of minutes but means the world to me. Do it on apple podcast by clicking the subscribe button, scroll down and rate by tapping a star and review by clicking 'write a review'. It helps to spread the word!!

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GMT20210525-105734_Recording_640x360

Tue, 5/25 3:57PM • 1:01:35

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

knitting club, people, instagram, knitting, nice, conscious, knitter, sustainable, yarn, bit, community, club, important, buy, topic, little bit, life, natural dyeing, thinking, choose

SPEAKERS

Maaike, Tama, Floor, Saskia de Feijter

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Recording in progress. Hello, everybody, and welcome to our little gathering of myself and a few members of the conscious knitting club. Our conscious knitting club has been active for almost a year now. And these three women that are here with me, have been members of the club for all that time. We call them our founding members because they were brave enough to step into the unknown. 

 

I wanted to start a club with knitters that wanted to go beyond just reading on a website about a yarn, and then figuring out, where does the yarn come from? How were the animals treated... all of that. I thought there was a need for people to get together and go deeper into that matter, not necessarily when it comes to techniques, but also when it comes to the way we buy, who do we support, who needs our support, but also a little bit about fibers and about how to treat your yarns and all of all of the things AROUND knitting. 

 

We had to take it from zero to what it is now. And we did that together. I had a basic plan, but together, we have figured out what works when we come together as a group, what people need and what they want to learn. And, for instance, when I was writing long pieces of text, Maaike said, it would be really nice if we could listen to the text. So I took some time and I, I recorded the text. We took this time to make it into what it is now. 

 

So that's a short explanation of what the conscious knitting club is. And I would like to hand over the mic to you guys. And if you could just shortly Introduce yourself, maybe say your first name and then explain in a few words what kind of knitter you think you are. 

 

Tama  

I'm Tama 37. I'm not a beginner anymore. But sometimes in my head, I'm a beginner. So adventurous intermediate. I think. 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

That's how I I've gotten to know you, too. Yeah.

 

Tama  

Yeah. So I'm willing to try everything. I think it's fun to try new things. Yeah, it's a relatively new hobby to me. I've not been so intensively into it. But since I've started joining the club, I've been spending much more time with it and enjoying it. Much more, much more.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Thanks, Maaike. 

 

Maaike  

Hello, I’m Maaike. But mostly online people know me as ‘Breielaar’. I haven’t been knitting for long actually, for about eight years. I think I started knitting when I was pregnant with my daughter because I just wanted to make something for her. So that's how it all started. And then I met a very inspiring mentor Loret Karman, I just really dove into it and knitted a lot a lot a lot and I think now I'm a… . What am I Saskia?

 

Saskia de Feijter  

I don't know. I'm not necessarily looking for your level of knitting. But how do you see yourself, like the adventurous knitter like Tama said, what kind of knitter?

 

Maaike  

Yes I think adventurous and yeah, I feel there's a long lifetime study which I started eight years ago and really dive into and I learn new things every day but I'm also designing and test knitting and advising so became a bigger part of my life. 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

And floor. How about you? Oh, I can't hear you for some reason. The washing machine killed her earbuds. They're clean but broken. Yes, there she is. 

 

Floor  

Okay, so my name is Floor. And I have very clean earbuds. I'm 33 years old. I'd say I'm a little bit of a functional knitter and a little bit of a therapeutic knitter. I just need knitting to function. Actually it's my downtime. My me-time. And if my hands are moving, my head will stay in a nice slow pace.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah. Do you have a busy head?. 

 

Floor  

Well, well, I'm a doctor. So you need to take a break. 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Alright, so um, who wants to tell me? How did you end up in the conscious knitting club? Except don't say that I forced you.

 

Floor  

You didn't? No, you didn't force us. But I think for me, it's because I already came to your shop practically once a week. And when I heard of it, and I just loved that idea. And that's how I got into it.

 

Maaike  

Yes, for me, you are my local yarn shop. Although I live in Schoorl, which is up in the north in the Netherlands and Rotterdam is much more in the South. It's I think two and a half hours by train. You are my favorite. You WERE my favorite yarn shop. So I came often and visited often for someone that lives that far away. And I followed your work and your online activities. So when you started this new idea, I was very excited to find out what it was, because everything I'd seen till then from you was very interesting. So…

 

Tama  

I visited the shop only once. I'm originally from Rotterdam, though. So the tagline 'geen woorden maar draden' made me very happy! So I decided to follow you on social media. So I think last summer, you did the ‘three days of fun’ challenge. And I decided to join that I remember because we want we're on a holiday. We were in this tiny house. And I was like; “One hour a day for three days I’m gone into the bedroom. No one interrupt me. I'm doing this!”

 

Saskia de Feijter  

I organized the ‘three days of fun’ as a way to get people interested in the conscious knitting club. And what we did together we made our… wait… it was a long title, future knitting vision boards. So we worked on our vision for the future and actually took some some focused time together to think about whether we even had goals or if we even knew what our knitting style was, or did we even have like, things that we could see as some sort of a red thread into our personal vision for knitting. And it was really fun. And from that, lots of people joined the conscious knitting club. So I think we ended up with 30 people in the club, some of which were not active, some of which were active, but not visible. And you guys definitely were active AND visible. And this is very interesting topic to talk about, because, um, this is definitely something that is different than social media is. Can somebody say a little bit about that? Why is it important in the conscious knitting club not to just read what's happening, but also participate?

 

Maaike  

Yes, because well, compared to, for instance, Instagram, that's more just looking almost like for no reason. Now, that's to negatively stated. It can also be inspiring. But you're looking…  and here it is much more about sharing and learning. So if you just look far less will happen compared to when you participate in things or do the assignments and join the meetings. Yeah, it's really more like a learning curve. For me, at least.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Did you have any goals you wrote down at the beginning of the conscious knitting club? Anything you you wanted to grow towards to?

 

Maaike  

I don't think so. Sorry. Because I think I was already informed in many of the things. Like choosing your yarn consciously and knowing where it comes from. But yeah, more on an in intuitive base. You hand out tools to do that and to look different at your stash, because of course, not everything is sustainable, which is fine. You know, you can also use it. Not throwing it away is also sustainable, in a way or giving it away, whatever you do. 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Anyone else had goals?

 

Floor  

I think I sort of had goals because like you said, Maaike, I already had this on my mind. Working towards a more sustainable lifestyle, in terms of our planet. And so I already had a project for myself not to buy any clothing and stuff like that. So I was already doing that a little bit. Themes that I thought were important, I made a whole page, a word field in my bullet journal. The conscious knitting club just made it more much more structured. And I tried to use the different pieces of homework that we got, to use them for not only knitting, but that's a personal thing. I tried to use them for other things as well because I was already on the path of thinking bigger. And so I actually made a lot of changes last year and I think this just helped.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

That’s amazing to hear that you've also used this in other parts of your life. Because that is my dream... That is exactly what I hope for; to do this with people in their hobby in what they love doing so that it can trickle down into their whole lifestyle. Sometimes it's the other way around. Some people are very conscious and then sometimes they forget ‘oh wait… in knitting, I can make conscious decisions as well’. So people come from both angles but I love it if it's like starting to be a way of life. 

 

Tama  

My main goal was to be more conscious. It's a bit general maybe but more conscious about my craft and about what it entails and about the yarn and the patterns and the stuff I would accumulate with it. Because I know my stash was relatively small. So I did want to choose any new yarn I bought knowing where it was from and how it would be sourced. Sustainably and ethically. 

What I think one of the most interesting assignments was, at least for me, which stuck a lot is the conscious checklist. A worksheet with I think 20 or 30 ways to be sustainable or make ethical choices. In the Netherlands we easily say ‘duurzaam’, sustainable, but there is a lot of greenwashing. So making that list for myself, thinking it trough and having three top things which I really want to look at when buying new things, or not buying new things, actually, that helped me a lot, not only in my yarn choosing. So yeah, what floor said, also in other points of my life, with other stuff I acquire or not acquire.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

This is actually a really good example because I was going to ask you about what does it look like, a month in a conscious knitting club? And what do you do, but this is a really good example. I started this list with all conscious choices I could think of, and then we shared it with the group and we asked the group, “What can you add?”. And that is, a difference between Well, social media, obviously, but also a course where I am the teacher and I teach you things, and the whole community. The conscious knitting club is not like that. We work together and I'm more of a guide, like I drop things, and then hopefully people pick them up. And that's why it's so important to do things together and to connect with each other. Because although I do have a whole bunch of experience, I'm just one person. And I remember we had that conversation where we added some more things to it that I didn't even think about and then we shared it with the group. You can imagine, in a couple of years, this list will grow. And we might take things out or we might we might tweak them a little. It's a joint effort. It's really a community effort, which is something I really, really love and not because I have to do less, which is not true, lol but because it's so much more. It gives a lot more value to the whole thing. 

 

Maaike  

Getting back to when I joined. I think you started this at the start of the whole COVID thing, right? And I think that also made it even more interesting for me, because sustainability and also the way we live, and also how we treat our hobby. The whole picture, how we live and how we deal with what we buy, where we buy, etc, became even more important. And we are still on that in the club. But in general, it's not all about vaccination, which is good. I've just been vaccinated. But I regret that the general discussion kind of moved or is just getiing more focused on getting back to normal life. And I think it's important that we get back to a more normal life, more freedom, but in a different way. Yeah. So that made it also more interesting for me to join. It was this moment in time. I think for the coming years. It's very important to think about how we want to live on this earth and how we want to treat our animals, which is, of course, also a big topic in yarn.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah, exactly. And how to keep this discussion current and not let it sink down with the reopening of of the world. Yeah, definitely.

 

Floor  

Yeah. Because you can already feel that people have such a high drive to get back to what was called ‘normal’ which was actually unhealthy. But yeah, people are booking a flight. And it's kind of hurting. But that's personal.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah. And I think we need people that are open about their conscious choices, and obviously to their friends to their family. Like they are wearing a button; ”This is what I choose!” And “This is what I want to do!” 

And at the same time, I also want to ask; did you have the feeling that this whole consciousness, it can be a little bit like, YOU HAVE TO LIVE THIS AND THIS WAY!! Did you feel any of that? Because that would be bad.

 

Floor

Oh, no! That's also what I was thinking, I needed to add that it's not only for the fanatics. We are fanatics here, but it's not only for them.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

No, definitely not, no, no, there's no judgement.

 

Maaike  

No, no, no. And you also make very clear that you can change little things, and you can change everything at once. And it's up to you.

 

Tama  

Yeah, that's why it's important to do the work. Because if you do the work, you'll notice, okay, these are the things I can change or am uncomfortable with. Things I can do now or don't want to do because I don't have finance or not the opportunity or the circumstances. So I think that's related to each other. Like with Instagram, you only take and now you have to give a little but then you gain thought it's a very personal process within a community. Where everyone lets you do the process on your own way and support you.

 

Maaike  

But I also find interesting is that you give different views on it. For instance in the interview with Saskia Maas from Ovis et Cetera in the whole sustainable community, natural dyeing, solar dyeing that's the whole thing. And you to talk about acid dyeing and advantages of that compared to the natural dyeing. And I think that is really interesting that you also deconstruct. You're not into the hype. It doesn't feel like we are joining a kind of hype like, “oh, let's all wear a summer hat and a dress.”  Well, that's a bit what I see on Instagram, you know, this kind of very fashionable, sustainable people. But it really goes into the depth of what is natural, dyeing, is it sustainable? With the dyeing you also didn't give a conclusion, like ‘this is better than natural dyeing’. But you kind of give the different options to think about and it's really nice.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

I really think it's important that consciousness is just being ‘aware of’ and then making your own choices. And obviously, I hope people will make the quote unquote, ‘right choices’. That's for them to decide. And also Jules from woolen flower will be on the podcast, and we'll be talking about the natural dyeing process. So we'll get the whole picture, which is really cool. 

So who wants to talk a little bit about how the conscious knitting club is structured? Like, I mean, there's going to be a little bit of a change, it's going to change for the better. But how did we move through the topics?

 

Floor  

For the past nine months we have had a monthly topic. And then weekly, or almost weekly, assignments. Some were bigger, some are smaller. And with a lot of variation in the assignments, sometimes you have to work with someone. Sometimes you have to do something on your own. There was the option for a lot of journaling, for yourself to gather your thoughts and try to develop an idea of where you are. And I think that was nice. Due to the variation I think there is something for everyone and because of the monthly topics, if there is a topic that doesn't really spark your fancy, you will notice a new topic the next month. So I think that's nice. Yeah.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

And I think as the founding members we only touched the first layer. So we got the obvious things out of the way. And I try to go deeper and give some something extra. But I think when you stay a member of this club, which sounds like a sales pitch, but the longer your in it, the deeper it gets. Can you please tell the people that I'm not paying you to be there? 

 

Floor  

No, she's not paying. I had to wake up at one o'clock. My night shift. I will be forever grateful. Thanks. 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

One of the topics that people are anxiously waiting for is mending. But I structured it in a way that that starts at the beginning. And then it's a logical flow in a way. So we'll really get to that soon. And what happens now is we have moved to a new structure. It looks like a course in a way. So people that come in, new members of the conscious knitting club will actually get a lot of that information. But it's like Tama has said, the actual value is in doing the work and connecting with the other people. So you'll have a library of information. But things will add to that library as we go. And we might go back to certain topics, because that's important, too, to go back to things like the conscious checklist. And that will also mean that when you didn't have time to do all the exercises, when you come back to a new topic, you have some time to go extra deep or you can be part of the research team and add some information that we didn't have before. So there's definitely something for every level and for all knitters you can be a beginner knitter… I'm saying all of this, but don't take my word for it. 

 

Floor  

No it's true. I was thinking it's all MAKERS actually. Yeah, yeah!

 

Maaike  

I was also thinking before… if you're just watching I think it doesn't work so well. You have to be active but for me personally, I think the two of you are really active but I have periods that I can be more active and less active because of my personal life.  You can go in different levels and for a while I mainly listen to things and made the main assignments but I did not do all the journaling and then the next month you can dive deeper into it also depending on the subject. I don't know if you are happy with that answer Saskia but but yeah, you can follow it on different levels. If you don't have so much time, you can still follow it on a kind of basic level. And if you have more time, you can go deeper into it.

 

Saskia  

Yeah, I think that's what almost half of the group has been doing. Because I can see they are there, but they're not always connecting to the other people. After we've made the changes I'm definitely going to have more exercises that like, like put a little bit of cheese in front of their hole. That sounds weird. Anyway, I'm gonna lure them out.

 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

No, because it's definitely true that you will get and understand the value when you do the work. I really got goosebumps when Tama was explaining that because that's exactly what it is!! I've done the same in other groups. And I ended up with really good friends and really deep insights just from doing the work. And it's not a lot of work. Well, do you think it's a lot of work? 

 

Tama

No, it's not. And like Maaike said, sometimes you just don't have the time. And that's fine. There's no one who's going to tell you, you need to do your assignment. But it's so nice when you like, have an evening and think, Okay, I'm going to spend, even if it's just half an hour, I'm just looking what the community has to offer and picking a topic that you want to work on at that time. And commenting on other people's posts and seeing what they've made or posting what you've made. I'm more of a lurker than an active member on other platforms. But this platform …It's just really open and nice to be able to participate. It's just natural, because it's just nice. Yeah, it's just a very nice community where you don't have to look at you know… You can go okay, I'm very proud of the sweater and everyone goes “Yay you made a sweater!!“ Or you say; “Look, I've chosen this yarn is it a good choice?” And they reply: “Maybe look at this yarn instead.” Yeah, yes, it's very nice people like that surrounding you.

 

Maaike  

Yeah, and you can also choose to put notifications on or off and which notifications you want to get. Because first I had everything on and then it all came in my mailbox. LOL. But then you adjust it and and you know, then it's all Okay.  And like I said, it feels like a safe place. Instagram used to be that for me, too. But then the whole discussions came, well… there have been a few of them, where you could get attacked for what you said. After that, it doesn't feel safe, but this one does. And also, yeah, you know, people have never been attacked or questioned. People are really nice to each other, or just don't respond. That's also fine, you know, but there's not like a, I see that often even on podcasts that people can be really so critical. Opinionated? (Saskia) Yeah, but I don't see that here. 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

In all honesty last week or the week before we had one person who came in to look for knitters for projects in the community though. The conscious knitting club is very protected. And this was in the general community. And I talked to her and we worked it out. But it was one of the reasons that I did one of multiple reasons that I decided to also make the general community paid because I think safety in the group is so necessary if you want to be able to share with other people. I think online or in a local yarn shop, it's the same thing. it's a vibe, it's a feeling you see people you hear their voices while they type or in a zoom call or in an assignment. And you really have to feel safe in order to make this a success. So that's really nice to hear Maaike that you feel safe. And that's definitely one of my priorities. 

 

Floor  

I was still thinking about what you said about how much work it is how much time you can put in and I think in the new course format, while the 0% is already bugging me…

Yeah, so in our accounts the process is now 0% completed. While I am actually 100% completed. 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah, yeah. Okay, I have to explain this. I've moved the conscious knitting club from a group, it's a more basic platform within the general community. I'm waving my hands around like in the podcast, nobody will see my hands… but I moved the conscious knitting club into a course structure. And the cours structure means that you can, at the end of each lesson where you have watched the videos, and you have read the information, downloaded a PDF, all of that you can click 'Done'. And then you move to the next one. And you see the percentage of the work that you have done. And so these people have done a lot of work already but they are at 0% now.

 

Floor  

So what I was going to say, which I think it's important, if you have, for example, if you're busy for a while, but then you have a week of vacation in this concept, it will be way easier to just sort of pick up the pace a little bit and do a lot of things. Because sometimes I was just, I was just ready for the next topic, and there was just no work to be done. And this concept with the course formats would be ideal to just…

 

Saskia de Feijter  

pick up things. Yeah. And I think if we grow in the future, and if I can dream a little, if I, if I might even have an assistant at a certain moment, then we can, we can go even deeper and, and have maybe different levels of or an extra assignment for those that really want to dive in. But yeah, this is a thing that is growing for and with the people that are in the club. And we will continue to do that. But also that one of the things we learned and is that there was still a little bit of lack of connection. So we will probably connect people to each other to have like little work groups where they can maybe meet up together and talk about the work and then report back. Which makes it so that you have a little bit more accountability, so that you can really have some more time with a small group. And I'm really looking forward to that, because I have the experience that that is actually one of the most fun things about these kinds of gatherings. Yeah, so what, which is, would you say is Wait, no, this is this is a difficult question. Let me phrase it correctly. Hmm. I think one of the topics in the conscious knitting club is about the ability to choose. So am I choosing this? Or that? Or both? am I spending my time here? Or there? Or both? Um, has that changed for you? Do you? Do you feel like you're choosing more? is are you still everywhere? online? Or? And what are your wishes when it comes to that?

 

Floor  

Well, so I'm only on Instagram. It’ the only other platform I’m on and I started following less and less people. And my Instagram is now on a little bit of a hiatus trying to see if I can go without. So I think I did concentrate more and try to consume more on just one platform, actually, instead of multiple. And then then I choose this platform because there's more connection.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

It's a weird question but the reason that I built this is actually for me, because I was overwhelmed by all of the different platforms. And I'm trying to build something that offers all of the things that I got from different platforms. So I'm dreaming of a future where I can also offer courses and workshops with other teachers. But that's for the future. I have to build this from the ground up too. So let's take our time with that. But yeah, some people are hesitant, because what I hear a lot is  “Oh, it's another thing”. Because we also have a specific app to download on your phone for the community, which is really convenient, but some people say there's another app. And my vision is that there might be, this might be a reason to let other things go because you have one platform where you can have a lot. But maybe you don't feel that way. So I'm curious to see to see how after nine months, this has changed for you. And be honest!

 

Maaike  

This is really something different from Instagram, because Instagram, I follow more for visual inspiration. And also, I have a lot of friends that I've also met in real life and are now I know, through Instagram and who are not all yet on your platform. So and also for the designing thing. I have a bit broader network there. But I, for instance, I used to scroll down and follow everything. I don't do that anymore. And with Facebook, I'm on it but it's for my former life in a theater. I'm kind of it still exists, but I don't do anything. But the Ja, Wol community is something different. Which also could come into place a part of the other thing. Yeah, but for me, it's now still something different. To be honest, yeah.

 

Tama  

Okay. Yeah, I think I agree, because I didn't lose any other socials. So Instagram, I'm just a tiny bit on Facebook for some courses I follow, but not active at all. But what I do notice is that I choose more consciously about where I spend my time, because I tend to lose myself on Instagram. And then you know, I'll check it and then half an hour later think, like, I like get sucked in. And I don't I know that that's a feeling I really don't like if I spent half an hour on Instagram, I know it's been too long. And it's not building me, usually not building me, at least not if I'm there half an hour. Whereas if I go to the, the conscious knitting club, and I lose myself there half an hour at least have learned something. So it makes more sense to go there sometimes. Okay, wait, let me check that and let me you know, contribute there. And then you actually do something much more active and your mind gets more engaged. Which is such a difference with Instagram, we just go into some kind of zombie mode, which is somewhat satisfying, but also not at all. So making it slower.

 

Floor  

I like the club where it is a bit slower. Yes, that's very nice. And it has to be said that there's no advertisements, which is, it seems silly, but when you're scrolling through Instagram, you just get bombarded with all kinds of things you really don't like so you can follow the people you like or follow the accounts that you like but you'll still get things that you don't want to see. Yes,

 

Maaike  

yeah. And the algorithms are also really annoying. On Instagram, I know how to turn them off, you just sent them a nasty message. But yeah, I don't watch the feed anymore. I look for specific friends and I look what they've been doing. And you know, I also have too many contacts to do that it takes too much time, like, and that's nice about this club, that it's no advertising, no algorithm. And also it's all dedicated people. So it's now Yeah, that makes it safer, but also more concentrated on in kind of content what it is about?

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah, it's almost I think, I would say it's more like a village compared to a metropolitan or something. And that will change even more when the charging for the general community start so it will become a small village at first but hopefully you will grow it but not too large. Like um I've done some studying when it comes to pricing with respect for the for the customer. And one of the things they asked you is What does money mean to you? Why do you want money and like working through all of the awkwardness around money which I have a lot of. But basically, my wish was I would love to earn enough with this thing that does good to be able to keep it small. So my wishes, not only don't even want to grow this into like knitting Facebook or whatever, I would hate that. I want people to genuinely feel the connection to each other and make friends and learn from each other and be able to give and receive and learn how to give and receive. Because not everybody is really comfortable with doing that. And it's about that whole process and, like, having enough money to sustain myself, the network, and the community in a way that keeps it small, but small and safe. But fun, that that is the goal in the end. And it's definitely not easy. But you guys are doing such a wonderful job. And it's so amazing to see that it actually works. And that people are getting something from this and see the value of it. That is that is really amazing. I have a few small questions. And before we end our conversation, what is important is I can hear you say that you are not really crazy social media people as is. So you maybe you were already really conscious about being online. So you were able to add this to the things that you are doing. But what does that mean? How much time would you say you spent on a daily or weekly basis in the knitting club? Like minimum maximum, like, what do you think? 

 

Maaike  

for me, it differs a lot. For instance, like yesterday afternoon, I think I've been there. I was also talking to you, but like for hours. And then I'm just a bit following for a week or two. And sometimes I just do for half an hour. So it's it's it differs a lot.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Some people drop by but you really visit here like, “I'M HERE!”

 

Maaike  

If I'm there I respond. And I yeah, then I do something. Yeah, I'm not really a watcher. So if I'm there I do something, but sometimes I'm just not there. 

 

Floor  

I think I'm online almost as much as you.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

I think that might well be the case. Dear people, dear listeners, you must know it's just not realistic. This is not what people do. I mean, she's really invested in this. 

 

Floor  

But I have no children. I and I think that besides being a doctor, my life is kind of chill. And I think this is important. And I think it's fun. And also a little bit I want to make it a success. So those are the things that drive why I'm there a lot. And I think that makes me a little bit more invested than most but yeah, and it's not a problem for me. I like it. It's an important thing now. So

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah, I think Tama you'd be the more of a general user. So what would it be for you?

 

Tama  

It depends a bit per night. Usually, it's, you know, when the kids go to bed, I spent a little time on it. So it depends a bit on if there's a lot of homework or not. If there's homework, I can spend an hour if not probably 15 minutes, half an hour or none. It's not that I need to be there every day. But yeah, if you just you know, visit and say this is a fun post or I'm going to comment on this and this is fun. I spend 15 minutes on it. Or an hour if you want to spend more time on your homework and see. Yeah, be really more dedicated. I think that's the range a little bit. Yeah. And weeks where are kind of I'm busy with everything. Sometimes my head is just not in it. I mean, that's fine, isn't it? Yeah. Then I come back next week. And then, you know, you take a breather.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah, yeah. Cool. Okay, so I'm gonna leave with this last question. So if people are on the fence, if they're like, Oh, that sounds really cool, but I'm not sure if I have time. I'm not sure if I want to spend the money. What would you say to get them in? Get them to go over the fence? What would you say? 

 

Maaike  

I think we have a free trial, right? 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah, you do a free trial. And you can choose a monthly or a yearly. So you can also do just one month and get really deeper insights and then decide it's not for you. Absolutely, yeah,

 

Maaike  

yeah, I would just say try it out by a free trial or a month and see if it's something for you. Because I also think it only works if it's something for you. And if you are active in it. Yeah, in whatever form, but you know, yeah.

 

Floor  

I saved so much money.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

You saved money?

 

Floor  

Yeah. Because I didn't buy any clothing. I didn't buy any yarn. Yeah, I bought one. Yarn clubs I might usually have fallen for. I didn't do that.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Because you were really focused on working with your stash that was your goal. 

 

Floor  

Yeah. And if I may give an example. So I'm making a baby blanket. Because all my friends are having baby babies. It's apparently a thing in COVID times,

 

Saskia de Feijter  

apparently.

 

Floor  

And, but I didn't want to buy any superwash yarn anymore. So I asked around in the community and people just said ‘I have some’, ‘I have some it's a little bit of green and a little bit of this and that’. And I just gathered this all and I'm making the blanket of all these people's leftovers, the people from the community. So I didn't I did not spend any money. And everyone's happy actually. And I'm making this blanket in a very sustainable way.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah, it's really cool. Which is not to say that we force you to work from stash, we just to teach you the options, what you can do. And if you want to buy we talk about how. You are extreme in every way floor. LOL

 

Floor  

You don't have to be like this, it’s just… you can. And I know it's quite a lot of money every month. But yeah, you can. It will help you in ways that is bigger than just this amount of money. And that I can say this because I do really believe in this concept. So but also, I'm aware that I'm a doctor, and I've got some money to spend.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yes, but to go in on that topic. We do offer scholarships. So if you feel like it is too much, but you are really invested, and you really want to go through this process with us. You are very welcome to send me a message to apply for a scholarship. 

 

Tama, do you have like, a sales pitch? Do you have a sale? LOL

 

Tama  

I think it's an investment. There's not a lot of clubs I invest in or sometimes I think “well, this will be the next big thing”. So I buy a course or something. And then you drop out and think well, this wasn't for me. I think this was for me. Like I know I invest money in it every month. So that makes me accountable. I'm an obliger. I am very much from the outer accountability. So for me, this helps tremendously. And it helps me not only with my knitting but like I said, it's more than just because it trickles over the rest of your life. Yeah, I think it's for me, it's a very good investment. And like Maaike said, Just try it out and visit and see how we are. You’ll see what fun.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

And the good thing is, if any of us smell you can’t smell it. Secondly, what's the worst that can happen? 

 

Do you guys feel like if the world is reopening… How do you look at spending time online? We don't do zoom calls a lot, try to keep them a little bit to a minimum but we also want to see each other and want to talk to each other. So do you feel like when the world will open, will you move away from that kind of online thing? Or is it something that you've, you've learned that has different ways in different forms? And that could stay for you? This is the worst question ever. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, no,

 

Tama  

It makes sense for me if the threshold for a zoom meeting for me is much lower than traveling somewhere to meet people. So you know, sitting at home thinking, Okay, wait, it's now and then just join. Because the threshold is much lower, I noticed something for me, it's much easier to do. So I will definitely be continuing that. Although I'd love to see more people in real life as well. Yeah, I think it's a very handy tool.

 

Floor  

I'm just hoping to combine more people in real life and be doing this as well. Yeah.

 

Maaike  

Yep. Yeah, I was just thinking before you asked this question, and it would be nice to come together one day.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Oh, we will. Like most of us are from the Netherlands. We do have an international group of people. But there's no way I will not organize something that's gonna happen.

 

Maaike  

But for for now, for me, I live in Schoorl, which is not the end of the world, but it is far away from everything in the Netherlands, and relatively far. So yeah, all online has become quite important already before COVID. Because, well, when you go for, I used to work in the theater, my husband's is in the theater. You know, I saw 250 performances a year. But now I really think before I go and travel off to Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam see something. And I was also thinking that this year, I participated in Shetland wool week in a workshop, which, of course, the circumstances are really sad that there's COVID, and I can't do the festival. But otherwise, I would have never been able to participate in workshops by a Shetland woman. So yeah, it's also interesting to see what it can give us in the future. And like you're saying that Mary Jane Mucklestone is there? And maybe she's going to give a workshop in the future? Who knows? Who knows? You know, that that that would be really interesting.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, in a way, the shop was really limited. Because there was a lot of people that came into the shop that weren't that interested in these kinds of stories and information. And now we can gather people around that do feel the same way. And like we have a doctor here, somebody that that used to work in a theater, we have an engineer-type-person. There's so many different people in the community, but we all share common values and a way of knitting that goes a little bit deeper than just get a get a nice color and start knitting. 

 

So with that, I wanted to ask you to tell me what you're wearing. Because I can spot you are all wearing hand knit items. And we'll end with that.

 

Floor  

So I'm wearing this sweater. And actually Saskia daughters daughter picked these colors.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yes, that's true. And it's an amazing sweater.

 

Tama  

I'm wearing my first knit sweater. All the color work is at the bottom. I think from Boyland Knitworks from Caitlyn Jenner. No, that's not Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn Hunter. 

 

Yeah, is that yes, exactly. And it's from little sheep middle gray sheep wool.

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yes. Cool. I like the neckline. Yes, it's getting offshoulder feeling the eighties. Very nice.

 

Maaike  

I'm wearing is a really nice cardigan. It's really soft. But I didn't make it myself. But this is show from sustainable wool, which is completely coincidence. 

 

Saskia de Feijter  

Yeah. Lovely. Yeah. Wearing a design by Anna Maltz. Yes Kokon yarn. And that is also sustainable in many ways. But again, it doesn't really have to be. The important thing is that you know about things and you can choose accordingly is that way too. Sometimes I get confused with all the English and the Dutch. You girls, thank you so much for your time, and your generosity and your active participation in the club. And thanks so much for explaining to people what it is like being honest. And so that they don't have to take my word for it. Obviously, this is a promotion, but in a different way. Like I hope it's more transparent than it would be if I would have like an advertisement or something. So thank you guys so much, and I'll see you in the club. Yeah. Thank you.