In my hometown
My name is Ruth Garcia-Alcantud. I was born in Valencia, Spain, sometime around the springtime of 1982.
With a father into fashion (purchasing and collection creating for a menswear chain) and a mother into maths and computer programming – it’s hardly a surprise I ended up transforming my artistic passion into a clothes/maths combination – knitwear.
After a tormented (or maybe I did the tormening?) school journey through a Catholic school, I thought my not getting into Art & Design school meant I should pursue a career in Business Management (because they are SO related, right?) and after 3 years and a beautiful journey of self-discovery in England, I did what every responsible person would – I quit. Being bored into digits and politics wasn’t for me.
I saved money, packed up my bags, moved to London. And while searching for a job, I stumbled upon Liberty’s of London – one of the most beautiful and breathtaking buildings ever (and one you shouldn’t miss if you’re visiting England).
Liberty’s building showers you with taste, patterns, colours, opulence… and yarn. I looked at the Rowan corner, and all of a sudden it hit me – how about making something pretty? I met my then flatmate at the cinema, with a bag full of pretty string and 2 sticks. “I’m taking up knitting!!!”. He smiled, like you do to crazy people when they tell you “I’m going to be famous” and off we went.
Truth is, I wasn’t starting from scratch. My grandmother has already had a post dedicated on this blog, but it bears saying again – she taught me to knit when I was around 5/6 years old, I remembered everything pretty straight away and I made a scarf.
Realising how incredibly boring rectangles are (and remembering how all those University books were rectangles – horror!) I decided to go into garments. I made my first cardigan (in Felted Tweed, of course) which I still wear with pride, and never looked back.
Knitting has seen me through good and bad. I found a job, progressed quickly, hated my job for sucking the life out of me, quit my job, moved 5 times in 3 years, realised the man I lived with was the one for me… and has made me find the most incredible friends I ever knew. I can proudly say my friend’s circle is at least 90% knitters. Because we rock.
Things I am:
- opinionated, empathic, colourful, ever-changing.
Things I’m not:
- hypocritical, silent, extremist, careless.
I’m a big fan of good well-scripted television and cinema, favouring a story with a real feeling over anything that glosses over stuff.
I love reading essays and biographies, something that can teach me about others or about things I don’t know.
I haven’t read a fiction book in over 2 years with one exception – The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I’ve read it 4 times in those 2 years.
Music is my life, I have music on all the time when I’m working on knitting and patterns – you can see what I listen to on the left column, My Last FM. I don’t do popular music or radio play. I love a good guitar and a good drum beat – rock and heavy metal. If it’s live, even better.
I dye my own hair – at this point I’m quite confident saying no one has seen my real hair colour in over 12 years. I love changing it.
My glasses are not only a need but a statement. I love wearing them.
I’m a recovering nail-biter.
I love sweets, candy and chocolate. Some think I’ve a superhuman tolerance to sugar.
My life is full of Hello Kitty stuff. You name it, I’ve either seen it or have it. It’s the only “cutesy” thing in my life – I’m much more into edgy, breathtaking, thought provoking stuff… but HK has been with me throughout my life.
I’m messy – yet I go through cleansing phases where everything is tidied up (i.e., my yarn is organized by drawers by weight – fingering all together, fibre all together, chunky at the bottom… )
So there you have it. If you like this blog and you like my patterns, it’s highly likely that I’ll like you back – keep in touch with me on the networks over on the left hand column, I’d love to hear from you!!
