KnitnPurl Ocean – Love Affair with Needle Craft

A few months a go we featured an all woman team from Dubai and Bosnia who weaved fun and magic through their needlework from their home based enterprise called Handy Trendy.

Today, we’re happy to showcase a similar talent of yet another wonderful lady from Goa who has taken out time to pursue her dreams and passions.

Most mothers are supermoms; it is just not possible to manage work, home, husband, children with such élan if you don’t have a passion for life and a thirst for learning something new to go with it.

Mums are special and possess super human strength, patience and determination – and we at The Lifestyle Portal can prove it to you in our latest interview.

Meet Reena Bino, a 39-year-old B. Sc., PGDCA from Goa who works at a pharmaceutical company, is a wife and a mother to an 8-year-old son and who also finds time to purse her hobby – a unique form of needlecraft.

This super busy mom writes short stories and articles on whatever inspires her. She loves photography and in her free time she likes to learn a new art and currently the latest on her learning list is Paper Quilling.

“But my passion and something very dear to my heart is Knitting. It’s enjoyable, fun and relieves the day’s stress; whenever I am sitting, I am knitting,” smiles Reena.

What inspired you to start ‘KnitnPurl Ocean’? When did it all begin?

After dabbling in art, crafts and knitting for several years Reena has taken part in plenty of online contests where her work has been appreciated. But there was no particular platform where she could showcase her work to the world.

“It’s my passion and dedication towards my work and the appreciation that I get from people because of which KnitnPurl Ocean was born. Now my Facebook page is viewed by many people and I get a lot of feedback and appreciation for my work. I am now currently working on my website and a knitting blog that I’m quite excited about it.”

Investments made

“My basic investments are for the varieties of yarn that I purchase for knitting. For baby accessories I purchase the baby soft yarn which is of higher quality and gentle for the tender skin and the cost is also on the higher side. For other crafts I buy the materials locally. The material costs have tremendously increased in the recent years compared to what it was earlier,” shares Reena but that hasn’t stopped this lady from doing what she loves!

Challenges faced

Reena mentions, “Many a times knitting is confused with crochet which is totally different. Crochet is done with one hook whereas knitting is done with five to eight double pointed, steel, aluminium, wood or bamboo needles.”

She continues, “More so, ‘Ctrl –Z’ or undoing what you’ve done in this art is very difficult, as one has to open all the stitches and redo the work. It’s time consuming and at times disheartening when people compare it to crochet. So what I do is I attach a pamphlet with every product so that customers understand that this is knitting and how it is done.”

Also jotting down a new pattern and knitting it takes a lot of time.  But Reena likes to experiment with different patterns and new knitting stitches; and right now her enterprise is a one woman show, where she’s into creating, packing and also dispatching her products; but since since this is her passion she’s enjoying every moment of her work.

“Nothing is possible without the support from family, and I must mention that my husband extends all the moral support required and appreciates my work and it wouldn’t have been possible without him,” adds Reena.

What makes KnitPurlOcean so unique?

For Reena, KnitnPurl Ocean is very unique as she feels there are not many who knit doilies and other home décor knitted items with set of five or eight double pointed needles.

According to her, KnitPurl Ocean’s creations are very unique with beautiful patterns where each individual pattern has its own persona and an identity of its own.

She further adds, “Sometimes I jot down my own patterns to suit customised orders. I put in a lot of effort in creating every single piece, which consumes lot of time, patience and energy. The yarn is personally selected by me, the doilies are mostly knit in white and beige colour, unless a customer specifies a particular colour to match the furniture. The final knit product is of much superior quality and it’s something one can treasure for its lifetime, something that brings a smile on everyone’s face, something that makes one wonder “How beautiful is this”.

Formal Training in Knitting

It is hard to believe that Reena has no ‘formal training’ in knitting, but she did pick up the art and learnt the basics of knitting from her mother at the age of eight. 

“It was a memorable moment when I knitted my first dolly where I handled all the five needles together and it was perfect. After this it has been a continuous journey, trying to self learn more difficult patterns, the different types of knitting stitches and experimenting them to create new patterns.  I knit doilies and booties for babies, scarves, bookmarks and lots more,” adds Reena.

Sourcing raw materials

For knitting products Reena purchases her yarn from the local shops in Goa and online yarn stores.

She mostly orders from the Red Heart Cotton brand, and for the baby shoes (booties) she buys the yarn from the Pony Craft Store or for the baby soft yarn she orders online from the US.

Products & Pricing

Knitting is time consuming and it’s purely handmade. It requires a lot of patience, concentration, personal effort, care, passion, creativity and minute detailing in every product. The doilies are knitted with a set of five or eight double pointed needles and the booties and other accessories are knitted with set of two and three double pointed needles and sometimes circular needles.

“My knitting products range from small doilies in round, square and oval shape, table mats, table runners, centre pieces for glass and wooden furniture, dining table set, knitted mobile cases, scarves, bookmarks for book lovers, customised knitted set for the living room furniture, baby booties, bay hats and baby blankets all within the price range Rs. 250 to Rs. 5,000.

You can buy her products as gifts for special occasions or can be used to do up your home. So if you are looking for unusual presents, gifts for house warming, wedding, anniversary or just any function, these knitting products are the perfect for any occasion.

Marketing, promoting & selling

As of now, most of Reena’s work is available on her Facebook page KnitnPurl Ocean where you can message her or write to her on this email address – knitnpurlocean14@gmail.com. 

Reena is currently working on her website where people will be able to buy her products online and read her fun knitting blog.

Also very soon you will be able to buy her products on some of the online sites that help sell and promote handmade products.

Care & maintenance

The knitting doilies are knitted with cotton thread. All these products should be hand washed. Machine wash is not recommended.  The Doilies can be starched, dried and ironed to give a stiffer look. The booties are basically for babies, they can be hand washed as well as washed in machine.

Future plans

KnitnPurl Ocean offers a vast choice of Knitting Doilies, Aluminium Embossing, Glass Painting and plenty of creative products which can be used as home décor and as gifts for any occasion. Reena plans to add more collections for customers to get a wider choice.

Her future plans is to start a website  where her products would be available online for buying and where she can share this artform of knitting  and connect with likeminded people everyday.

“ I have big dreams and big vision.  I have to remodel things to turn my passion into a full time career. One thing I need to focus on is being a part of exhibitions and make people aware of this art form and handmade products and the time and effort it takes to create any handmade product.  I want people to recognize knitting since there are very few people across India who do knitting. After launching KnitnPurlOcean on Facebook I have been getting messages and emails from people appreciating my work.  There are lot of queries for organising knitting classes and workshops, but at the moment I am just focusing on my work and my website.”

Get featured at The Lifestyle Portal:

We invite entrepreneurs, writers/ authors, film makers, culinary artists, hobbyists, designers, organic farmers, bakers, chefs, home based entrepreneurs, Facebook entrepreneurs to showcase their talents through The Lifestyle Portal. 

Get in touch with us with a short bio about yourself and a little note about your venture if you’d like to get featured on our website for a nominal fee.

What’s more, you can also sponsor special contests to connect with our readers!