She Is Sew Creative- Karyn from Maizy Moo Knits

Welcome to another edition of She Is Sew Creative, where I share my favorite creative friends with all of my dear, sweet readers.

You can find my previous She Is Sew Creative guests here.

A big congratulations to Heather from Mother Your Business who was the last creative friend we featured. She was just shortlisted as one of the Top 30 Vancouver Mom Bloggers by Vancouvermom.ca! You can read Heather’s interview with us here.

This week our featured creative friend is Karyn from Maizy Moo Knits. I was trying to remember when I first met Karyn so I decided to dig back through my emails. In January 2011 Karyn ordered a shirt from my shop Lilikoi Lane for her daughter’s 4th birthday. Shortly after she sent me a photo of her daughter wearing the shirt and I was blown away by how beautiful her little girl was and how cute the doll that she was holding was.

I was selling on Hyena Cart at the time. It’s such a tight knit community there that I soon realized that Karyn had her own shop, Maizy Moo Knits, where she sells the the cutest handmade doll clothes for Waldorf dolls. Karyn’s sister, Suzi, also has her own store, Puddlefoot Dolls, where she sells her handmade Waldorf dolls (I hope to feature Suzi as a She Is Sew Creative artist soon). Soon after discovering Karyn and Suzi’s shops I became obsessed with handmade Waldorf dolls and regularly stalked both of their shops on Facebook to keep up to date with all of the cute items they both were making.

Karyn also has a great eye for fabric and I’m constantly drooling over the fabric that she adds to her collection. I think if we knew each other in real life we would become fast friends.

I interviewed Karyn (photographed below with her beautiful family) so that you all could get to know her and learn about her creative process.

Tell us about you and your shop?

My name is Karyn Gragg. I live in the beautiful wine country of Northern California and am the mama of two beautiful children. I specialize making hand knit woolens and clothing for children and Waldorf inspired dolls. I enjoy working with domestically sourced, humanely raised, hand-dyed wool yarn and other natural fibers.

I have a passion and love for knitting, sewing, dolls and all things lovingly handmade.

Where did you get the idea for your shop name?

My shop name was inspired by my youngest daughter. Her nickname is Miss Maizy Moo.

Where do you find creative inspiration?

I find inspiration from nature, vintage patterns, clothing catalogs (like Mini Boden), other knitters, my own children, my sister. It doesn’t take much to inspire me to knit.

Where do you do your work?

I typically knit in the evenings after the kids are in bed. I have a favorite spot on the couch under the lamp where I will sit and knit late into the night (I’m a total night owl).

Do you craft items other than what you sell? If so what is your favorite craft project?

Most of my crafting is done to sell but I also enjoy sewing and knitting for my daughters and I especially love knitting for new babies. My go to baby shower gift is a hat and booties.

If you could learn one new craft skill what would it be?

I would like to perfect my crochet skills. I’m mediocre at best.

Other than your own Etsy shop, tell us about one Etsy shop that is your favorite?

Mariengold Dolls Etsy shop is one of my favs. I love Maria’s patterns and her dolls are absolutely beautiful.

Where can we find you? 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/maizymooknits
Instagram: maizymooknits
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/maizymooknits/
My shop: www.hyenacart.com/maizymooknits

I wanted to leave you with this image. This little beauty is Kailani, she is a Puddlefoot Doll that Karyn’s sister Suzi made for me and she is wearing a Maizy Moo Knits Sweater. This is her sitting on my desk at work where I hid her because she was a Christmas gift for Bean two Christmases ago.

If you love dollies as much as I do you will be curious about what dolls are in Karyn’s photos. Doll’s include:

Bamboletta Dolls
Pooki Dolls
Winterludes Dolls
Dragonfly’s Hollow
Mariengold
Puddlefoot Dolls

If you have a little girl in your life that loves playing dressup with her dolls make sure to check out Maizy Moo Knits. Thank you so much for visiting with us Karyn!