Today we have a day in the life of feature by Cherylline Price of iLE AiYE. And I know you’ll be curious about the name. iLE AiYE is a Yoruba word literally meaning ‘House of Life’. When translated into English it means ‘Mother Earth’.

Over to Cherylline.

‘Quite often I’ll pick up my knitting needles before 7am . . . ‘

Most days, even during my holidays, I wake up at 6am. I adore early mornings. I love the lighting, the stillness, and my quiet time before my partner and son raise their heads. Not to mention my noisy parrot.

The first thing I do is put the coffee pot on and almost simultaneously switch on my PC. Then I sit for at least half an hour, checking emails, my website activity, paying bills, processing orders, or browsing the web. Quite often I’ll pick up my knitting needles before 7am and start my favourite pastime. Knitting. I’ve always got a project on the go, so I feel better about myself if I can knit a few rows before I head out to work.

I work part-time at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, such an inspirational environment which I totally soak up. I head out of the door at around 8.30am. I can’t stand London Transport so whatever the weather - rain, snow, sun, wind (I hate the wind) - I’ll cycle to work which generally takes me 30 minutes. By 12.30 midday my shift is complete and it’s time to head home. After running errands - grocery shopping, posting orders, collecting some beads from the bead shop or buttons from the button shop - I generally reach home by around 2ish.

‘If I’m Sitting I’m Knitting’

When I walk in through the door I make a fresh herbal tea for my partner and me and sometimes a light snack. I’ll sit for a few minutes to settle into the environment, then within no time my hands start twitching and I’m reaching for my knitting needles. I’ll generally knit straight out until around 6ish. After making and eating the evening meal I’m back with my needles and knitting until around 9.30. I can’t sit around anymore just watching TV or listening to music. I read someones slogan recently - ’If I’m sitting I’m Knitting’ - that’s me too. But if I’m not knitting then I’m beading or updating my websites, or cutting up fabric and attempting to make a skirt, or a dress, or a bag or a hat. Or organising artists for the weekly Art fayre that I run each Saturday in South West London.

If I’m on holiday from my little part time job then from first thing in the morning till last thing at night I’ll be making something, or experimenting with something else and mostly during holidays I’ll be wet felting. I love felting but I find I have to dedicate extra hours to this process, so I tend to only practice it when the college is closed and I’m on a long break.

‘I love my freedom to express, experiment, learn, and play’

My days just run away with me. I love everything about my days. I love my freedom to express, experiment, learn, and play. I’m my own boss 90% of the time. I love knitting with new yarns and visualising what will come of my new ideas. I can’t read knitting patterns so everything I do is inspired from what I see around me, the colours and texture of yarns, fashion on the streets of London or fellow textile artists.

The worst thing about being an independent designer is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I need at least 48 hours! I have so many ideas spinning around in my head with just not enough time to carry them out. Plus I wish the general public would stop comparing the cost of handmade goods to those of Primark. I mean I like a bargain just like the next man/woman, and I try to reflect this in my retail prices, but I do feel independent designers have to sell themselves short too often.

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Thank you Cherylline.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 10:33 am and is filed under A Day in the Life of, Knitwear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.