A word with Haafner Linssen

Tell us about yourself… I live in a 19th century cottage in a lovely historic town near Amsterdam, close to the sea. I share my life and house with my partner of 20 years and two rescue dogs we’ve adopted from Romania. The dogs are also very much into crochet – mainly to munch my work though. Ha ha!

How long have you been blogging?
I began blogging in 2012, soon after I started crocheting. I still don’t know what possessed me to share my beginner’s work with the world then, but I’m glad I did. And when I say “world”… well, let’s say the two or three readers I had at the time!

Have you made new friends through blogging? Some established crochet bloggers stumbled across my blog and did a feature on my work. One of them was the amazing Vanessa from CocoRose. That gave a kickstart to my blog. That’s what I love about blogging: it’s easy to get in touch with others.

Do you use any other social media? I spend way too much time on Instagram. It’s still quite an interactive medium and it’s a quick way to share inspiration. I always try to answer every comment, because I really appreciate it if people leave a sweet comment. That’s what makes social media, social, isn’t it?

How did you learn to crochet? Ah! I taught myself by watching videos on YouTube. There are so many great tutorials there from people who just want to share their love for the craft. It’s an amazing and empowering tool.

How did you start designing? It kind of happened, at first by altering an existing pattern to make it more to my liking and it took off from there. I’m always aiming for that synergy of material, colour and pattern, where it all falls in place.

What item in your studio/workspace couldn’t you live without? In my studio I’ve surrounded myself with a staggering amount of yarn… cotton, bamboo and linen mainly, it’s like an enormous explosion of colours and texture. I guess it’s the colourful equivalent of a white canvas for a painter, or a blank page for a writer. It’s exciting. It’s up to the artist to create something new, something beautiful or delicate or just plain weird!

What are you working on at the moment? I always have a lot of projects going on at the same time. I find that creativity stimulates creativity. Apart from working on new designs I’m working on my first collection for a shop I will be opening, and there are plans for workshops in London this autumn.

Who are your favourite other bloggers, designers or authors? I’m absolutely smitten with the Japanese aesthetics. Craft in general is greatly esteemed in Japan. And I’m always eager to find new-to-me techniques in the Japanese books. I’d love to do workshops there. Actually, I think I might add that to my project list! Also, I love the work of the Finnish designer Molla Mills, I find she has a very refreshing and contemporary take on crochet.

Read more about Haafner at byhaafner.blogspot.com