Interview
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Knitting For All
Kerry Kimber is the founder of the very successful ‘Knitting For All’, offering award-winning knitting and
crafting classes for all ages – ‘Kids Knit’ for children, ‘Young People Knit’ for teens and ‘Knit Night & Day’
for adults. Kerry has recently joined forces with Rowan and so we catch up with her to find out more about
how it all started, why the teaching and passing on of crafting skills is so important to her and her vision
for the new partnership with Rowan…
“My passion for getting people knitting started several
years ago when I decided to teach my own children
how to knit. Knitting had been an important part
of my childhood and I wanted them to experience
the same calming, creative and therapeutic benefits
that I had enjoyed. I had previously been an art and
design teacher and so I drew on my knowledge of
how children learn and what motivates them and
created an approach to teaching knitting that would
ensure success. Today all four of my children happily
knit and my teenage son is now incorporating hand
and machine knitting into his art and design school
work.
I launched the Kids Knit programme in 2010, and
Young People Knit and Knit Night & Day followed
soon afterwards. Knitting For All Ltd was created to
provide a hub for all these knitting activities to come
together.
“Since then the Knitting For All team and myself
have gained a wealth of knowledge and experience
in the delivery of our courses. We have established
ways of doing things that really work. Our
12
copyrighted patterns and carefully chosen yarns are
a crucial part of our teaching technique, as is our
approach to classroom management.
“Now classes are provided in various parts of
Britain and the Republic of Ireland and they
continue to grow to cater for demand. With a
solid business model in place, franchising was the
obvious and best way to expand. Our franchisees
own their own businesses teaching Knitting For
All programmes and running events. They enjoy
a wealth of support, training and resources from
Knitting For All to ensure that they can confidently
run successful and popular classes.
“We have always been passionate about using
good quality, natural fibres and Rowan Yarns
have been a firm favourite from the start. We
always start children in our Kids Knit classes with
Rowan Big Wool which they adore. It’s perfectly
smooth, comes in a fantastic range of colours and
is wonderfully chunky. It’s important that the
ROWAN