Ever since she was a young child, my Fiancée Alya had a deep passion for knitting that she learned from her Grandmother. Born and raised in a very small village a few hours outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, Alya was a single child raised by her Grandmother and Mother. She never knew her Father, he left before she could even form her first memory and passed away without a single word ever spoken to her. From a very young age Alya learned about how harsh life can be, but she also learned to find beauty even in the most insignificant things. She held fast to things in her life that made her happy, illicited feelings of love, and inspired her to dream.
To this day, her family, Mother and Grandmother, are very near and dear to her heart. Alya works tirelessly every single day to provide for her widowed Mother and ailing Grandmother and she takes care of them just as they did for her when she was growing up. They saw Alya through the most formative years of her life and cultivated within her the most compassionate soul, a breathtaking artistic mind, and a heart made of pure love. Their support of Alya culminated in her completing her educational career as a business graduate from the esteemed German University in her beloved city of Almaty. She is the first in the history of her family to achieve such educational heights. During this momentous time of her life, Alya's Mother offered her this piece of advice, "Never lose sight of your dreams because the path to achieve them is paved with the bricks of true love and happiness."
Through it all, with these guiding words ever-present in her mind, Alya never forgot her knitting needles. She always kept them close to her, as she dreamt that one day she would use her knitting talents to make a better life for herself and her family. There are a scarce few visionaries in this world who are courageous enough to believe in themselves and chase their dreams, no matter what challenges they may face in an indifferent world. I am very proud to say that Alya is one of these very brave, brilliant, and beautiful people, whom I am so lucky to have in my life as my true love and my muse. Let us take a few moments to learn more about the miraculous story of Alya's KNITLOVE in her own words...
A little confession of love...
I fell in love with knitting needles and yarn a long time ago. Back in the fourth grade, little Alya knitted socks for the whole family with incredible passion.
I didn’t yet understand that this would stay with me for the rest of my life.
As the years passed and I grew older, knitting turned out to be not at all a “cool” hobby by the standards of all high school students. It was much cooler to be able to dance or play basketball. I chose dancing!
I hid my knitting in a nearby drawer, but never forgot about my favorite knitting needles.
During university, everything changed, the eternal bustle, work, constant lack of sleep. I was only thinking about how to snatch an extra hour of sleep from this life, there was no talk of any knitting. Although, sometimes I allowed myself to look into my favorite drawer and see what yarn I still had, in the hope that one day, I will definitely start knitting...
And this day has come.
One day, a friend of mine showed me a very beautiful bag and hat that were knitted by hand, I was shocked, I didn't know what to say. It was so beautiful. It was possible to buy such things only in St. Petersburg.
And then, I decided to buy MY FIRST HOOK. This is him, in the photo, my favorite friend and helper (pictured below).
It was 2020, the year KNITLOVE was born, then there was a lot more, but more on that another time...
Sincerely Yours, Knitting Love,
Alya
As I write this heartwarming post, I am actually wearing a very special pair of knitted socks that Alya made for me as a present for our first Christmas that we celebrated together. I supplicate you, dear reader, to look deeper and check out Alya's KNITLOVE Instagram page, so that you can witness all of the beautiful and wonderful things she has to offer to the world. Just like GivingGarb, KNITLOVE is founded on true and passionate love. Alya has been able to grow her business to not only support herself and her family, but she is now able to provide jobs with a good living wage to other women in Almaty and her home village. So, with every KNITLOVE purchase, you are not only helping to support Alya and our family, but you are empowering women within her community with the ability to live independently, in a country that traditionally has not been very supportive of this type of lifestyle for women. For our customers residing in the United States, KNITLOVE will work in partnership with GivingGarb to fulfill orders through GivingGarb's Etsy storefront. It is there where you will see all avilable KNITLOVE merchandise accesible for purchase.
In the future, Alya and I hope to create collaborative collections between KNITLOVE and GivingGarb, so that we can offer our followers something truly unique that will elegantly showcase their gracious and generous spirit. To learn more about Alya and KNITLOVE, please click the link below.
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