SonderAndWhimsy

I've been knitting since I was a teenager, but it has only been within the last few years that I've really gotten into it, as I started to learn how to do more stitches and to follow and create my own patterns. I've loved making knit pieces for my own babies and now, thanks to the encouragement of friends and family, I'm ready and excited to share my work with a larger audience, you!

Naming my shop was one of the hardest choices. There were a few names I loved, but they were unavailable. I really tried to focus on words that fit my vision for the products I would be offering, both as I start out and into the future. I wanted a name that was playful and creative, full of wonder and charm, with a touch of my personal quirkiness. Finally I had it. Sonder and Whimsy.

Sonder and Whimsy? What does that mean? Let me tell you:
The lengthy definition of "sonder" is: "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk."
As I finish each bonnet, I begin to think about where it will end up after it is purchased and sent to it's new home. I imagine it arriving in your mailbox, where it will take it's place in your unique and individual life, and I wonder what that might look like. For that reason, "sonder" felt very fitting for my name.
"Whimsy" is defined as playfully quaint or fanciful behavior or humor, which is a characteristic I both associate and hope to encourage in the small humans for which these bonnets are being made.
Along with this name, I've chosen the otter to be my shop mascot. Otters are typically seen as playful, intelligent, quirky, and creative, which I felt fit my vision for what I want this shop to be.

And with that, I welcome you to Sonder and Whimsy! Thank you for being here.