Hello lovely friend! Thank you so much for joining me here at Knits Please. I’m Jess, and Knits Please is the place where I express my creativity through simple knitting. If you’ve been around for a while, or you follow me over on Instagram, it’s likely that you’ve seen quite a lot of my face, but you may not know too much about me, and what I do when I’m not knitting.
I’m Jess, I’ve just turned 31 and I live with my partner Sam in Leeds in the north of England. My life has taken a poetic kind of full-circle route – I was born in Leeds and spent the first four years of my life here before relocating down to Kent when my Mum met my step-Dad. Then, 24 years later I found myself moving back to my hometown in 2018 to be closer to Sam’s sisters and new-born nephew. I really love this city, and I’m grateful to work at Leeds Community Foundation, a grantmaking charity that supports local community groups and gives me an incredible insight into all of the amazing work that goes on right here on my doorstep. I’m really proud to be able to play a small part in making this a city where people can thrive, and I’m excited to do more.
When I’m not knitting you’ll often find me reading. A few years ago, after many years away, I got back into reading in a big way. When I was a kid I was obsessed with Jacqueline Wilson and would devour her books but in my teens and early twenties I really fell out of the habit. Now though, I’ve always got a book on the go, and will generally try anything a friend recommends.
I’ve got an incredibly sweet tooth, and always like to have some chocolate on-hand for an evening snack. I used to bake all the time, and even had a dream to open my own cake shop one day, but these days I prefer to keep things simple and usually buy in my treats instead of making them. I’m a regular patron of The Wren Bakery, and when I do bake I tend to go for banana bread or biscuits, though you could quite easily tempt me with something chocolate.
I’m passionate and completely unapologetic about striving for my own happiness. I had something of a breakthrough in late 2019 which led to a lot more self-prioritising and I don’t ever intend to go back. Each and every day I think about the simple, small things I can do to make sure I’m living a life that brings me joy, that aligns with my values and that maintains my health and wellbeing, and honestly I couldn’t be prouder of myself for it.
I’m really, really, hoping that we can buy a house in 2021. We planned to in 2020, but with one thing and another (most notably the disappearance of 5% deposit mortgages for first time buyers) it just didn’t work out. While I’m really keen to own my own property and stop renting, the real driver for me is to have a home where I can start to put down roots. We were already saving for a deposit before we moved to Leeds and into the flat we live in now, so it’s always felt temporary and as a result we’ve not really made it our own. There’s no personality here, it’s pretty stark, and I’m so ready to create a place that we’re both really happy to call home.
What’s something about you that people might not know? And is there anything else you’d want to know about me? Drop a comment below to let me know!