Homespun E8 | Tian Connaughton

hi everyone welcome to Homespun where creativity and Community come together I am your host Misty Don and today I'm joined by Tian Ken a talented Knitter crocheter designer and Tech editor Tian has a fascinating story of how she made the jump from corporate finance to pursuing her passion for handmade crafts she's here to share her experience and her determination to create wearable garments that fit everybody [Music] hey everyone it is Misty welcome to Homespun this week I'm here with Tian conon Tian welcome thank you so much for having me yes thank you so much for being here I'm so glad you were able to join me can you tell everyone a little bit about yourself well in the year 197 I'm just kidding um well I am I am a Knitter a crocheter designer um I Tech edit patterns I like helping other knitts crocheters really find their own style and find clothes that fit their bodies I started out crocheting and knit in accessories things like that blankets and then eventually you know I started wanting to wear things that I made yeah so then I ventured into creating sweaters what got you knitting in the very first place in the first place I started crocheting oh okay crochet was the the entry point the entry yes I I learned from a coworker um way back when I was working in corporate um I had just gotten married came back and this new woman was working there and I'm like's this new person trying to take my job um she wasn't yeah um but she was always in the break room crocheting and we would watch TV but she'd be crocheting and watching TV at the same time and I thought that was really interesting that her hands are still moving while she was focusing on I am envious of that skill yes and I I wanted that I wanted to have a hobby cuz I have one back then and she just we went to Walmart one day got some yarn got some hook not the fanciest stuff yeah and I was literally hooked from there I love that I love that so so for how many years did you just strictly do this as a hobby oh for years um so I started in 2001 I didn't start cro um I didn't start knitting until 200 sixish okay U my mother-in-law she knits a lot and she for years wanted me to learn ever since we got married in 2001 and I was like I'm okay with one hook I don't need two needles those are complicated like what what is that um but I I was home with my son when he was two okay um and I started to watch Home and Garden Channel nitty-gritty show because when you have a 2-year-old they don't do a lot and I was bored and I thought well let's try this needle thing it looks cool the fabric is very different than knit and I started watching started playing with it while while he was taking naps and things like that and it was just like another Gateway right so I had that one trigger with crochet and then knitting and it just exploded from there so do you have one that is your true love more than the other I don't uh they both have their own place right for crochet I would love for crochet I love to make blankets and stuff like that big projects for Knit I like anything else um because the fabric is so different um it it just depend on what the project is okay that I choose which one I want to do so I have another question for you since you seem to do both quite well and frequently I have heard that if you learn one before the other that it makes learning the other one difficult like if you learn knitting first it's harder to learn crochet and vice versa do you did you find that in your life I didn't think that for myself I thought it was similar traits right it's just a needle and a hook or a you're still just manipulating yarn just manipulating yarn pulling it through the hole and right so I figure if you know one then it's a little bit easier to understand the concept of like where the the yarn is going to go that makes sense I I understand that so I someday I will learn to crochet I learn to knit my grandma taught me how to knit but I'm going to hold you to it I hope so yeah I'm going to send you some YN I would love that I hope we can we can you know cross that Hill together and I can I hold your hand confidently get there so tell people a little bit about your passions as a designer within knitting and crochet yeah so my passion now at this very minute is sweater making um I'm really loving the idea of wearing clothes that fits my body that I can go into the yarn store pick out some yarn and come home and with a hook and some string or needles and I can make something that I walk out into the street and people are like o I like that did you make it and not in like a snarky way no but there there's something really exciting and wonderful about that it's it's it's a little bit of pride in the work that you've done and there's nothing wrong with celebrating that yeah and you walk a little different you kind of hold your shoulders back and you're like yeah I made this and it fits me exactly I know when you walked in today I immediately complimented your beautiful sweater and he said I made it and and it's absolutely gorgeous and there is something really amazing about having something that fits you which leads us to your book you have this great book cardigans for everybody and I love this because everybody is worthy so do you want to talk a little bit about this yes I would love that so the idea of the book is that I want everybody not just everybody but every type of body to be able to see themselves in handmade clothes um when I started out knitting and crocheting patterns weren't in my size and I'm not like a ma a huge person but I can imagine someone who's bigger than me going into you know a yarn store and looking for patterns and never seeing the their sizes um so I wanted to create something where no matter what you look like I don't care if you have narrow shoulders wide shoulder big arms I played Sports so I have large upper arms you're strong that I exactly this body has done a lot right so I wanted to be able to celebrate that instead of always putting myself down and like I need to lose another 10 pounds I need no I this body has done a lot it's it birthed a whole human being that's right so I wanted to celebrate that and show other women men non-binary people if you like a pattern you don't have to follow exactly what the designer say yeah you can go out and adjust the gauge you can adjust the yarn you can adjust where you want to flatter and not flatter um to to achieve your perfect fit yeah I that's really intriguing to me I mean I'm very tall and so finding things that fit me is quite challenging I have long arms a long torso and so I can completely relate so the idea of being able to see something that I like and know how to make the tweaks to that would be really wonderful and so you go into all of that I go into how to find a pattern you like there are four patterns in the book two knit two crochet just to give you some sort of idea of like jumping off point but you can use any pattern you see out in the world and I I teach based on the idea of start with a Swatch swatching is not punishment it's information so start with the Swatch see what fabric you like from that swatch from that stitch pattern and yarn combination and then with some simple math that I walk you through in the book step by step because I know a lot of people don't like math that's a dirty word for a lot of people I know I know swatching math I I get I get into fights over those but um I show you exactly how to use math and your Swatch information to make tweaks to the pattern because if you're tall you're going to want your sweater to be a little longer yes and then if you've made adjustments to that sweater how much yarn are you going to need right because now you're not following the designer's instructions so you don't have their numbers so now you have to figure out am I going to play yarn chicken or do I figure out the map to know exactly how much Yar I need I love that and I show you all of that that's so valuable so much information and just put it all in here in a digestible way that people can understand and then apply to to their project which is really really cool so is there something that you would recommend for like me who I I've done some basic knitting I've done just a dangerously bad at crochet like it was rough but is there something that you would recommend if they've never worked with yarn what would you say start here some folks say start with like a scarf or a blanket I say what do you want to make right what do you want to wear because if I'm telling you to make a blanket and you're not feeling it you're not going to finish it right but if you're like oh I want to make socks okay let's start with socks and let's work through it step by step or if you want to do a sweater it's possible I don't want to limit folks to like just like do washcloths or do squares do whatever you want because there are tons of tutorials out there that will walk you through it it's just a matter of what do you want to do that's that's a great point because you're way more likely to stay and be committed to to the the struggle of learning through it if it's something you're excited about I love that thought that's really really cool and knowing that there will be struggle either way I might as well end up with something I'm going to like Anyway absolutely instead of just another scarf or another blanket and there's nothing wrong with scarf and blanket but if that's not what you want to make you're not likely to finish it no it's true sometimes because I've made so many washcloths now I will just knit a washcloth really quick just it's almost like a pallette cleanser for my brain but it doesn't excite me and so having a project that is actually exciting and interesting like that's always what brings you back right and that's what you want you want to keep creating and keep making new things yeah I wonder if you would be interested in making socks like just get some colorful yarn and I know I would be interested but it's a little scary it's all scary yeah I mean you're going to be scared anyway you might as well end up with something you like I love that I love that attitude to just Dive Right In well and and honestly it's interesting how like for me I work mostly with quilting fabrics and I'm comfortable now with the process of learning and creating and messing up but the idea of yarn is a little scary um but Sarah Delaney reminded us today like it's just yarn you just pull it out and start over and so it's true there's a lot of freedom there and um just learning as you go which is is really exciting and fun yeah so I'm not a quilter what would you have me try would you say oh it's too much don't do it oh never exactly absolutely not yeah and so I I think that it's the same in that regard and I as a designer am always looking for things to be functional and useful and like if I'm making it for something I want to think about them their needs and what they might like and I think that applies to both crafts you know and and just making sure that we're excited about what we're working on and and I would ask someone the same thing well if you want to get into quilting have you seen something you like what what excites you what are you interested in so same same concept yeah and I like to tell my students whenever I'm teaching either you know business related or craft related you know just look at your historical data have you been a failure your whole life likely you haven't you have some proof that you've actually succeeded at some stuff so whenever you're feeling kind of like oh no I'm going to fail is that true yeah and isn't the worst thing and it's it's usually not it's usually not it's just yarn it's just fabric exactly and so you touched a little bit about uh your business background can you share some of that and what you do yeah so I have a background in corporate finance I worked in it for about eight years um the last company I worked for was a big big company International um and it was my position was eliminated it went overseas um got my my um what's the word severance package got my sance package um because I live in Massachusetts at the time this was around 2012 you didn't you could just buy insurance off the market so because I carried the insurance it was a little easier for us to transition from like oh well you're getting laid off you don't have to go back to a job right then um my son was young at the time he was about 8 so it was a time for us to really think about what do I want to do next um I'm I'm thinking about that every single day but at the time it was like okay my son is little he's in school um what kind of parent do I want to be do I want to go back to corporate or do I want to pursue knitting and crocheting a little bit more than what I was doing in the evenings so can you tell us a little bit more how you transitioned to have this be your career transitioning is still happening after what what is it 12 year 13 years it's still an ongoing process but I think for me it was using my corporate background um and just really figuring out what business do I want um I I still don't know exactly what kind of business I want even though it's been over a decade but it's a it's about really thinking about what kind of Life do I want um like I said my son was little I wanted to spend more time with him I want to be that Mom that went to all the games and embarrassing right and I really kind of figured how can I have this business work around that so pattern making right nit and crochet patterns I could do that in the evenings I could do that while he was in school um then I started doing some tech editing which is me looking at other people's patterns and checking it making sure it was correct um I was lucky enough to get some really great opportunities to work with big manufacturers yarn companies and help them with their patterns so so it's a matter of just like one step at a time yeah start with a few patterns get really really good at those make some sales then try to figure out what else can I do so I added the pattern making then Tech editing and then business support for other designers talk tell me more about that the business support side yeah so I love this part because a lot of us creatives are not business s we go into this as a hobby a love our free spirit free spirit it doesn't pay the bills no ites so i p i really look at it as yeah you can still have all that fun bit but let's think about what works in your business uh taking a more critical look at what do you want your life to look like that's the first step and then figuring out what's working in your business right now so if you have five patterns and only two of them are selling you might really love the ones that aren't selling but you really have to like look at it and think okay the ones selling let's focus on that let's make some money and then we can transition to other things um one of the things I teach my students is about a CEO day not just working in your business filling orders making all the sales but really thinking about taking a day to sit back and look at what's working in your business what marketing should I be doing what what Outreach should I be doing to other businesses um and thinking about collaboration not just what you can get but what you can provide to the industry so it's really about blending Financial savviness with okay I love this but this just actually working I love that idea of taking a step back and and having that CEO day because I know it's so easy as a creative whether you're running your own business or working in a creative field to just kind of get your head down and get like so hyperfocused on the day in and day out and so that's a great reminder to kind of pull back and refocus and think about what's ahead and you might not be able to do a CEO day could it be a CEO hour yeah and you're just looking at your books and don't be scared of your books when I started even though I came from a finance background looking at those numbers were scary when you started seeing those negatives but if you don't look at them then you don't really know what is working and what you should be pursuing so even though it's scary please look at your numbers yeah if you don't identify the problem you can't solve it right exactly exactly that makes great sense so is there anything else that you um since you have made the leap from you know a corporate professional to a creative professional what would be your like number one recommendation for someone making that jump number one recommendation um I would really have you go back to your why why are you doing this and also what is your vision for the future sure you want to make money but do you want to be able to stay home with your kid kids and if you do what does that look like do you want to be quilting or knitting and doing all this stuff 24 hours out of the day and then not really seeing your kids yeah so then once you figure out your vision for the future then you can go out and look at opportunities that fill those gaps like collaboration or working for a big brand or whatever else but you have to start with your why and your vision for the future and then bring it all together so what was your why my why was my family I wanted to not commute an hour and a half one way every day or some days when it was really snowy be stuck in the on the road for 3 hours um and my family not really knowing what's happening right so when I had the opportunity you know the great layoff it was just an opportunity to think about now what what do we want to do what do we want to do as a family yeah and refocus exactly I love that that's great exactly so can you tell me a little bit about the adjustment for your family as a whole for your son or your husband as you made that transition to being home more yeah so my boys really love it because they come home to a hot meal um most days I still do take out quite often we're human yeah exactly but for my son see him seeing me be a entrepreneur has really pushed him to want to become an entrepreneur he has a day job but now he's thinking about what else is possible because there's not a lot of entrepreneurs in my family or my husband's family we just see people going to work coming home and just you know that's it but I think for me I wanted to leave that Legacy for him where he can just pursue whatever he wants right he can go out and he can say hey I want to try this and try it I know that he has that security blanket at home if he needs to come back and you know readjust but I want him to be able to go do whatever he wants to do and when I have an idea we sit at the kitchen table I kind of present my idea is not for approval but to let them know what I'm thinking so that he can see how I'm thinking through different parts of my business I love that and what an incredible example for him in his life to see you make that leap for the things that matter to you and to figure out how to make that work for your family and your life I think that's really admirable and I'm sure it will bless his life I hope so for years to come I hope so I just want him to be able to see something and to pursue it and not just think that is just one way to live but to go have Adventures you want to be a rocket scientist go for it yes you want to be a twitch star fine it's fine it is right if it's bring if it's bringing him joy and it lifts him up and and and provides a fulfilling life I think we place a lot of judgment and criticism on things that are really not necessary um especially if it's not affecting us dayto if it's not if it's not hurting us then why why can't we just be encouraging and cheer people on and exact and let them figure out their own path because I say often if if someone had asked me in high school if I would be teaching quilting as a profession I would have said no you know there ex there was no part of me that thought even though I learned to sew with my mom and my grandma and spent so many times doing that and I loved it it was nowhere on my radar and if I had been so fixated on that thing that I thought I was going to do I wouldn't be where I am now exactly and that's a great message for folks who are thinking about transitioning either by choice or by situation that you know just because you think knitting and crocheting and quilting is silly it doesn't have to be no why can't we just be silly sometimes I don't think we have to be serious absolutely what's wrong with that what's wrong with doing something that just makes you happy fulfills you creatively and and challenges you in new ways that doesn't feel like the end of the world if you make a mistake but as a business coach I'm going to bring you back to your numbers and to absolutely have your eyes wide open but still have fun yeah I think you can have both exactly and that's the beautiful part of it exactly so to Circle back to some of the things you cover in your book about sizing and making patterns fit for you can you share maybe some of what you've learned in the industry about why patterns are written the way they are and uh how they came to be how the sizing is the way that it is just share some of that knowledge if you mind so that's a big pet peeve of mine um when you're knitting uh when you're designing garment or pretty much anything there are standard sizing right um the craft yarn Council they do an amazing job having very size inclusive uh information out there that's good however there are people who just don't fit into those standards um of course there are patterns out there that you can find that range from like extra small to like 6X 7x but I'm but as a tech editor when I was working with a lot of designers and yarn manufacturers and and people who are making patterns I was finding that they were just using incremental increases for a size so they might grade a pattern for extra small and then just add numbers for the other size which wouldn't really make sense so you would have like a sweater for a person that's small that fits them perfectly and they look great as a model but when you got to like the larger sizes the sleeves are super long the armhole is like down to your ways um because as you're increasing the chest size they're increasing other numbers oh interesting which made it not fit people who have real bodies and my question used to be do these designers actually know people that are bigger sizes to know that just because my chest is a certain size that doesn't mean my arm is like a gorilla's arm right yeah it's it's a real human trying exactly so when I want so when I started this book I was really thinking about the people I knew who were struggling to find sweaters that actually fit them sure the pattern said it was size inclusive and it went up to a six and 7x but when you look at at the numbers you look at the schematic it do make sense right they would have this neckline that just didn't fit the shoulders were just off and I wanted to not just provide more patterns for people to follow I wanted to give them a template to say hey this is these are some of the things you really want to think about when you're making sweaters for yourself right so maybe you think about how you want the sweater to fit do you want it to be snug do you want it to be oversized um because just because you're a larger person that doesn't mean you want a sweater that's a Mumu exactly you might want to be you might want it to be you still have clothes fit you absolutely look like it fits you right you might want to have a crop top even though you have a belly who cares car right so you might see a sweater that's published that is for a larger person that just looks like something your granny would wear and there's nothing wrong with granny's I love Granny's but that's not what I want to wear sure right so the idea is I want you to look at your own body I want you to stand in the mirror see what you look like and figure out where do you want to add more ease which is more room in your sweater and where do you want to be more snug maybe you have narrow hips and you're like oh I want it to like snug in or maybe I want a pum or whatever sure and I want you to be able to just look at your body where the swe you want and know that it fits you and not just be big on the shoulder and just so I can imagine that like that process was very frustrating in the moment right trying to find things that fit and constantly not getting there so what was that process like as you actually worked on the math and the design to make it work for everybody yeah it was a matter of just having conversations with folks on social media and really all the work I've done with working with other designers and yarn companies teed in their patterns to see this doesn't quite work this works really really well and now I'm not telling you knit this pattern or crochet that pattern I'm saying find a pattern you like and then here's how we can tweak it make it fit exactly the way you want absolutely that that's such an incredible journey to be like searching for this thing yourself seeing the frustration then working in the industry seeing it on that side as well and being able to marry those two problems into a great solution yeah there's a big Fiber Festival that happens in Rybeck New York it's where all all the knits crocheters yarney people like to go and they all make sweaters that look alike they go on the hill and they take then they take pictures but if everyone's making the sweater for the hill to take pictures there's usually people my size and bigger who are just like that's what that everyone else is making is not going to fit me or I made it but it doesn't look really good it's not your favorite yeah exactly but I did it because all my friends were doing it and now I look stupid in this thing and I have to wear it exactly because we all agree to take this photo and I'm in the back tweaking and pulling on it and you don't want that when you're wearing a sweater you want to put it on and just be yeah so if you are one of those folks who are like hey I want to go make that sweater like all my friends it com in my size technically but there's some things I want to tweak this book will help you to figure out where you make those adjustments and then you won't run out of yarn because you figured out how much yarn you'll need based on the math in the book that's amazing and hopefully not buy more than you need either because you've got those right numbers to work from because I tend to fall either in one of those camps I like over by and then I'm like I'm not a stash lover I know so many people love a stash but I I like to buy for a purpose for a purpose and so this concept is right in line with my brain so if you have like one ball of yarn at home yeah and you're thinking of a pattern make up a Swatch follow the instruction in the book on how to make a Swatch do all the math to figure out how much yarn you need then go buy the yarn so now you're in the store and you're not picking up like 20 SK when you only need five EXA yes that that would save me for sure that will save you and then you come home and you know the pattern is going to fit you won't run out of yarn so now you're motivated and excited to make the make the thing because you know it's gonna be amazing I love that so is there someone in the industry or maybe a different industry that inspires you I get inspiration from a lot of places um I try not to follow people to copy or just to see what they're doing but I do like Gigi made it gay uh she is an amazing woman on social media she talks about patterns that she's making she's really big on orange she's an orange lady um but she talks about different things that she's making she talks about inspir um she talks about inspiring and motivating people not just to knit and crochet but in life in general and I think for a lot of us when we go to social media there's like so much negativity to see one of her posts it's just like okay that's so nice I can go back to life yeah abolutely she Breathe Into You and I think orange gets a bad rap I amazing it's a great color it's a great color I agree I never used to like colors and look at me yeah and now you're just shining I love it corporate was black and gray and now that I'm not incorporate I can do whatever I want I love that yeah and you've just fully embraced it I am that's so beautiful thank you so much tion for being here and sharing your story and and the info about your book I think people will really find that valuable can you also let everyone know where they can find you online and on social sure my Instagram is knit designs by Tien even though I do more than knit that's the handle I had way back in the day so I've kept it and you can also find me at my website TNC con.com wonderful thank you so much for being here again I truly appreciate it and I hope I'll see you again soon thank you yeah so much [Music]