Knitting By Heart
Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America

Knitting By Heart

Regular price $35.00 USD
Sale price $35.00 USD Regular price
Decades in the making, KNITTING BY HEART by Renate Hiller and Mikae Toma, presents a living process of creation that can spark new ways of working for knitters at all levels. Inspired by the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, who sought to bring together practical and spiritual life in manifold ways, this is more than a pattern book or a manual of technique. 

In an era of fast fashion and digital overwhelm, KNITTING BY HEART arrives as a soulful invitation to slow down, create with purpose, and reconnect to the ancient rhythm of handwork. It takes knitters on an organically unfolding journey, moving from simple headbands and scarves to unique tunics, sweaters, and jackets made with natural fibers and plant-dyed colors, in a mood of loving devotion and spiritual striving. The result is both beautiful, functional clothing for the body, and refreshment for the soul.

Renate Hiller
Inspired by the work and holistic design impulse of Rudolf Steiner, Renate has worked with teachers, children and parents in Waldorf Schools, as well as adult students at Sunbridge College (today Sunbridge Institute) and at the Fiber Craft Studio. She has served the development of the Fiber Craft Studio for 35 years and was one of the founding members of the Applied Arts Program, a 4-year part-time program for handwork teachers, now in its 13th cycle. She invites her students -- and now her readers and fellow-knitters -- to work with loving attention and spiritual striving to embark on a rich path of inner development while honing their skills and creating beautiful, functional pieces of clothing.

Her love for handwork -- and knitting in particular-- has evolved over many years and goes back to her childhood in Germany, with her mother and grandmother as her first teachers. She is indebted to several other important teachers, foremost among them legendary Waldorf teacher Grete Froehlich (1900 – 2001), who mentored Renate during the last 15 years of her life and opened Renate’s eyes to spiritual dimensions, inner qualities, embodied in all of nature: the ever-evolving shapes, forms and colors we are surrounded by.

Mikae Toma
Mikae served to develop and nurture the life of the Fiber Craft Studio for 12 years.
After returning to her home country of Japan in 2014, she has continued to explore the realm of artistic handwork inspired by works of Rudolf Steiner, developing courses and workshops for the people of Japan. She strives to bring a meditative way of working through living into the qualitative aspects of color and form while inwardly carrying a spiritual picture of the human being. She currently teaches online as well as traveling.
While growing up, Mikae was already a quiet observer who enjoyed working with her hands and liked to figure out how things are made. Later, while studying Waldorf early childhood education in Germany, she experienced how the living environment is woven by color and form in the classroom of the kindergarten, opening the door to a world of organic wholeness. She then went to Sunbridge College (later Institute) in Chestnut Ridge, NY to study Anthroposophy as the foundation for a spiritual view of the human being and the world. She soon met Renate Hiller and began the journey together to explore the realm of handwork, first as student and later as colleague.

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