Why this particular craft? I love knitting and crocheting because I adore yarns of all kind. I love how they smell and feel to the touch. I can spend hours and hours in yarn or craft shops. This kind of craft does not require a special place for practicing it or a large quantity of instruments –  you just need a place to sit down, make yourself comfortable, and you can start knitting. I have worked in the Ukrainian Academy of the Internal Forces for more than 20 years, and the job has always been a bit stressful. Knitting has become a way of distracting myself and getting some rest.

Have you tried plenty of other crafts? I tried all kinds of things - embroidery, papier mȃché, textile doll-making, needle felting, paper clay doll-making and whatnot…

Is it hard to find time to craft or is it a profession? When still working I practiced all my crafts at night, sometimes sleeping for only three or four hours. Now that I am retired, crafting has become my job.

Where do you draw inspiration? It’s a difficult point to explain. Inspiration is always a spontaneous process. Sometimes, ideas are just born out of nowhere, some come out of a colour or texture. Sometimes, seeing a yarn gives me ideas of what can be made from it.

What was your stitching starting point? When I started knitting, I would sometimes re-knit my projects six-seven times - learning from my mistakes and trying to get the best result I could. Every next project would be better and better and that would always bring inspiration and pleasure from the project beautifully made. My toy passion started with Tilda textile dolls. I started with a bunny. I had been sewing it for so long and so diligently that, when it was finished, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It seemed to me flawless. When I look at it now, after so many years, I cannot help but smile – now it seems to me as if it were made by a child.

What’s your family structure? I’m a wife and a mother of a grown-up daughter. And, of course, there are always animals. I have loved them since childhood - especially dogs. When I was little, my parents wouldn’t buy me a dog, so when I was older, I saved and saved and one happy day I bought myself a puppy. At first, my parents told me to give the dog back, but gradually it became the love of all the family, and my father wouldn’t part with it. Since then, there has always a pet in my family – a cat or a dog. The home without a pet seems empty and dull to me. Of course, having a pet is always troublesome, but all these troubles seem nothing in comparison with the emotions that the pets bring into your life.

 Nelly Shkuro, KnitAmiracle –