KNITTING AND KNICK-KNACKS

KATIE JONES, KNITWEAR DESIGNER

Katie Jones (right, with the Telegraph’s Jessica Salter) opens the door wearing a gingerbreadman jumper and pompom earrings. “I love Christmas,” she says, “as you can see. My mantra is: more is more.” Her east London home is packed full of her – and her animator husband’s – creations: from the wool macramé plant holders she made for her wedding, to crocheted baubles and pom-pom snowmen peeping from plant pots.

She started crafting as a child. “I made things with my mum and granny and would customise everything I wore,” she says. After studying fashion knitwear at Central St Martins, Jones founded her sustainable fashion brand, handmaking everything in the UK and selling in stores such as Selfridges. But she always crafted on the side, making “knick-knacks” in front of the television. Now, she teaches craft workshops: “I find increasingly that adults want something to do with their hands that’s not just swiping at their phones. I call crafting ‘meditation for the restless’.”

She runs a series of Christmas workshops, teaching others how to make the decorations she made as a child. She also designs for corporate clients: she is busy making 2,000 pom-poms that will make up 40 wreaths for the fragrance company Miller Harris.

As I leave, Jones admits she has a housemate who is rather more minimalist in his tastes. “He wasn’t brought up in England, so I’ve told him that it’s just tradition in the UK that we have decorations up from November,” she says with a smile. “Don’t tell him.”

For details on workshops, and for free patterns, visit katiejonesknit.co.uk