Meet British Sustainable Crochet Designer Steel & Stitch in this Domestika Diary

Emma Friedlander-Collins takes us on her daily routes around Brighton in the UK, which is home to her leading brand: Steel & Stitch

Ever since she was a girl, Emma Friedlander-Collins has used the things she finds around her to create clothes and art. Sea shells, dry branches, leaves, the fauna of Brighton (the British seaside city where she lives)... it all inspires her upcycling, sustainable, crochet collections.

Emma has tens of thousands of social media followers and has been featured in articles in The Guardian, Mollie Makes, and Simple Crochet. She’s also written several books and has made her brand Steel & Stitch a big source of crochet inspiration.

This Domestika Diary takes us on a journey around her studio out on her walks, ready to come home full of ideas. Don’t miss the video:

She describes the little studio where she keeps her books and bric-a-brac from her walks as her ’little cave’. It’s filled with everything from feathers to dried flowers. And the walls are covered in colorful illustrations. She draws almost every day, and she also writes articles and feeds her social networks.

Her creativity really comes to life when she walks along the beach with her kids. ”I love the beautiful colors and textures I find in the shells and pebbles,” she says, as she looks for more references in the sand. ”I take them home and turn them into a color palette.”

The same process occurs when she heads into the woods. The variety of dried leaves she collects helps her to choose the perfect colors to combine in a crochet project. And then it’s time to start the third part of her day: she spends hours and hours crocheting at home.

Love this video? Remember you can learn how to transform your wardrobe using basic crochet techniques in Emma’s online course: Upcycling with Crochet for Beginners.

English version by @studiogaunt

You may be interested in:

- Domestika Diary: Hannah Rubinstein.
- Domestika Diary: Silvia Ferpal.
- 7 Free Tutorials With DIY Ideas to Easily Repair Your Clothes.
- What is Sustainable Design?