Heya! My name's Kikine and I live in France (in the Pyrenees, it's stunning here and I pinch myself every single day!). I'm originally from Quebec but moved to Florida when I was 10 then England as an adult, my accent is a mess! I get to use my French again though... 'Hourra!' to that!
My husband and I met while snowboarding in Whistler in 2001 and we haven’t stopped snowboarding since. How very lucky I feel to have found someone to have that much fun with!
I love creating, be it with yarn or sewing cute things with felt, I just love 'making'. My mom's super crafty and this apple definitely didn't fall far from her tree. ♥
A lil' about how K Beanies came to be...
I started this yarn life as a knitter when my grandma very patiently taught me how to knit a pair of socks. My hubs had gotten me a knitting book, yarn and knitting needles for Christmas in 2005, so I had a tiny bit of practice and felt ready (I so wasn't!). She used to make these cool socks for my dad who would wear nothing else on his feet during the harsh Quebec winters and I was determined to learn how to make these! I did eventually get the pattern down after many many missed stitch rescues from G-ma. She's actually won sock knitting contests...an absolute wiz with those needles! After that visit, I started making chunky woolly socks for everyone and anyone...for every occasion. Everyone needs socks right!?
Well, that was really the beginning of my love affair with all things 'yarn'...I am well and truly addicted!
Crochet is something I learned a couple of years later while doing a snowboarding season in Chile. A local girl saw me knitting one of my pairs of socks and asked if I knew how to crochet (which is super popular there)I didn't, so she taught me the basics and I was away. I spent all of my spare time making beanies when we came back to England. If you ever pick up a hook and learn to crochet you'll see, it's so addictive! The colour combos are endless.
I worked at a ski & snowboard shop and the owner was kind enough to let me sell my beanies there. They sold really well so with the pennies I made I was able to buy more yarn and also create a tag to sew onto each hat that I made. I could see that lots of people liked the idea of designing their own beanies so I decided to start this website and the response was amazing right from the start. I was lucky enough to be in Huck magazine a couple of years into this adventure...the highlight of my crocheting career so far!
I love what I do so much and super thankful to every customer for their purchase. I absolutely love making these beanies. Quality is really important to me so I make every beanie myself with lots of care and attention to guarantee just that. It may take a bit longer than a mass produced beanie but hopefully you'll love it that much more because it was truly lovingly handmade especially for you.
Thank you for visiting my website and taking the time to read a little bit about me and K Beanies. I hope to hear from you soon!
Kikine St-Jean
K Beanies