Molly Mixtures: our story!

Hi! We are sisters Melissa and Amanda, and we run Molly Mixtures!

We started our business this year and it’s our indulgence for all things knitted and sewn. We design and make our own individual creations, inspired by things we see or places we visit. When either of us finds a fabulous fabric or wool we simply have to have it! Creating has become a passion and hopefully others will love what we love too.

Our dad taught us to knit when we were younger – initially French knitting, then on to knit one row, purl one row. He must have had so much patience! There is only a year between us and to be honest we’ve always been close friends, working together in a call centre, having children at the same time and going on to work in schools with young children. We have only really knitted and sewn for pleasure over the years, making the odd jumper, curtains and fancy dress costume for the kids.

At Christmas one year, Melissa’s husband bought her a ‘small knitting projects’ book and we were both intrigued. Molly Mixtures evolved about two weeks later! Initially it was tricky trying to decide what to make – what would sell? How would we market our new venture? We went to a few craft markets and joined Etsy.com as ‘Mollymixtures2014’ and really it was trial and error as to what worked well initially. We have learned so much over the past year that we really can’t believe we’ve only been going for such a short time. Starting our blog MollyMixtures.com was a huge step for us but encouraged by family and friends we persevered and now update the blog with our new ventures regularly – in fact we really quite enjoy blogging now!

In summer Melissa went on holiday to Turkey and while chilling by the pool she watched an episode of the TV series ‘Outlander’. Inspired, she went on to develop her own patterns for ‘Outlander inspired’ arm warmers, which have since gone on to become a great success for our business. Melissa uses various types of wool, but the Aran/Alpaca mix by James C Brett works well and creates a soft, comfortable and warm glove. She is considering publishing her patterns for sale - something she has never tried before. She has so many designs in her head and hopefully will soon have the time for more creations. She prefers to knit with circular needles, mostly KnitPro interchangeable, as they are easy to control, bear the weight of the work in progress and are smooth to knit with. They also prevent too many dropped stitches!

We both still thoroughly enjoy our work and meet regularly for business lunches! We hope that you have enjoyed our story and that we in turn have inspired you to keep knitting!

Read more from the dynamic duo that is Molly Mixtures over at www.mollymixtures.com.