The Story of Hand Finnished (so far, as we're just getting started!)
Hi, I'm Emma and this is the story of Hand Finnished, my pride and joy! Hand Finnished was born in 2017 when I moved back to Finland from New Zealand, where I'd been living for well over ten years. In Auckland I had been working as a project manager (and loving it!), but in Finland the job market was quite different. I was reacquainted with the Finnish knitting scene through Facebook groups, and started spending more time with this dear old hobby of mine. I had been knitting and doing other arts and crafts since I was a kid, but during my years overseas it was quite a lonely hobby, with no knitting community around me. It was quite something observing the trends and enthusiasm of the local knitting scene.
The Buy and Sell -groups of knitted items were a fascination to me. One thing became an odd realisation very soon: copyrighted patterns we being made and sold by a lot of knitters, without a permission of course. Often people would go and comment on these sales posts, making the seller aware she was in the wrong. Customers would then ask where they could purchase the design in question, and the answer was a strict NOWHERE. What on earth is the customer supposed to do with that, I thought! I found it strange that nobody had spotted this open wide opportunity in the markerplace, and decided to go for it myself.
Nothing happened overnight of course, but I started reaching out to designers and knitters and slowly developed a catalogue of designer patterns sold as ready products and a team of knitters who would knit the orders. While the exclusively sold designs were (are!) definitely an attraction, it also became clear that a lot of people just wanted a reliable registetred company to purchase these products from. In Finland most people in the craft industry operate by themselves, making products to a small number of people in their circle. We no longer live in a time where everyone knows someone who knits, so Hand Finnished became a welcome source of hand knitted goods for many.