I was born in 1991 in a very small village in northern Italy with an amazing landscape and a less amazing school system; that's way I left it when I was 18yo and I've been moving around since then.

Since I was a teenager, I've always wanted to become a fashion designer; but, long story short, I didn't have the chance to study fashion and costumes until I was 26yo. Even if I followed a different academic path, my love for design never died and while I was going through very hard times, mentally-wise, I started to crochet to relax, and I loved it.

I was 23yo, just graduated and with a nice job when, all of a sudden, I started to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. That's been the worst time of my life.

I basically couldn't do anything because everything was giving me tachycardia and most of the time I felt as if it was impossible for me to breathe.
Obviously, I went into therapy and it helped me so much I'll never thank my therapist enough for that, but I also started to crochet to relax and to do something just for myself.
Even if my grandmas used to crochet and knit, when I started to do it they were gone, unfortunately, so they couldn't teach me anything and I learnt to crochet from YouTube channels (Bella Coco, Ahuyama Crochet, Lana y Ovillos and many more). My love for crochet grew so much and so fast that in just one year it became my only activity besides work; at least until I started to feel better and I had the chance to take my life back.

I told you this story, because that's what's behind my brand's name: Birch Knots.

"Birch" is a sacred tree according to Norse mythology (I define myself as a Pagan) and, among other things, Birch is a tree of regeneration, which loves to grow after fire has otherwise burned the surrounding brush down. Birch is a tree of healing and rebirth, and that's how I felt after those hard times: dead and reborn.
Then, we have the word "Knots", which can be read with two different meanings: crocheting or knitting means to create knots with yarns for a specific purpose, and, at the same time, Birch (as any other tree) has knots on its barks and we can interpret those knots as scars that make the tree less smooth but stronger.
That's the way I feel: a tree full of knots, definitely scarred, but equally strong.
And because crochet helped me during my healing process, I thought "Birch Knots" was an appropriate name.

Even if many things have changed in my life, my love for crocheting, sewing, drawing and, in general, everything that concerns fashion and costumes, never died, it grew actually, it grew so much that I decided to make it my job and here I am!