Dreams Are Made Of

Text by Dalya Turunç. Images courtesy of Ava Blanchette.

Jackie Airut Murphy is a 26-year-old knitwear designer based in New York. She began knitting as a hobby, but quickly became immersed in making hand-knit pieces for friends and family. That impulse soon turned into an Instagram page under the handle @fillesheureuses, which is French for “happy girls.”

After moving from Seattle to New York last year, Murphy invested in a knitting machine and began producing her most popular design – ponchos, on a custom-order basis.

Recently, she designed and knit a series of garments to raise funds for immigrant legal defense, selling out of every item and raising nearly $1,000, transforming her small business into a community-driven effort.

How did knitting first enter your life, and what changed when you began sharing your work publicly?

I started knitting in December of 2020. It was still very much the pandemic, and I became pretty obsessed with it. I feel like I’ve tried hobbies in the past and they didn’t stick as much, but knitting certainly did. And then I recently started posting more about knitting on my knitting account @fillesheureuses and that has been really exciting.

I’ve always had that account but it was more so like my burner for random pictures. Then, at the beginning of last year, I really started to focus on showing my work and posting tutorials and getting more people involved in the fiber community.

Now I’m growing that community and meeting new friends, and it’s been really rewarding. 

You moved to New York from Seattle last January. How did being in NYC change the way you think about fiber arts as a community, and how does the city show up in your work now?

I would say there is so much of a greater community than I realized here. Especially coming from the Pacific Northwest, in my mind, I was like, “I feel like, if I meet knitters, it’ll be here.”

When I moved, so many people had reached out to me to get a coffee and knit. It has been really fun to meet new friends and understand what other people are making. Everyone here is so unique and so themselves. And I’ve been doing a lot of custom work.

Hearing what people want to wear has really influenced me as well. I not only like the fiber arts community, but the people interested in it, and it has definitely influenced what I’ve been making. 

You’ve been making and selling custom ponchos. What was it like to see people actually wearing and moving through the world in something you designed and made by hand?

It is so rewarding and so fun.

I grew up wanting to be a fashion designer but I kind of suck at sewing, and never really fell into that world. So this has been really an extension of myself, a way for me to express myself. When they’re wearing it, I feel like they have this sense of personality and armor.

In the past, I’ve only made things for friends or family, and now seeing strangers send me pictures when they wear it, it seriously makes my day. It just inspires me to make more.

After I’m done with my regular nine to five, I go home and start knitting again. 

You machine knit hats, fingerless gloves, and shorts to support immigrant legal defense efforts in response to ICE enforcement. How did you come up with the idea? 

I was staying up late. I wanted to be creative. But there was some guilt behind it. I was trying to figure out what that was really like stemming from.

I felt like I wasn’t doing enough in terms of bringing awareness. I’ve seen others in the fiber community step up. That was really inspiring to me.

I have a knitting machine, and that’s allowed me to produce more than I could by hand. Last weekend, I decided that I’m just gonna make as many as I can in a week, and I’ll do my first drop like I’ve never done a drop before.

People were genuinely excited about it. It’s a way to be involved and support a really good cause beyond just giving money.

Nowadays, when you sit down to design, what tends to lead the way – a material you’re drawn to, a mood you’re chasing, or specific knitting references you’re thinking about?

Different kinds of mediums mixed together have been really important to me. I’ve been adding buttons or beads and that kind of thing to knitwear and making it more unique.

In my drop, I had a pair of fingerless gloves with beaded jump rings. A lot of it is from living in New York, seeing everybody’s unique style has been really inspiring, making things that are semi-practical, semi-fun and whimsical. 

What are you working toward right now or hoping to explore next in your knitting and design practice?

I think expanding the community and maybe making it like a forum where we can all collaborate. Not necessarily knitwear designers but fiber artists in general – like sewers, quilters, whatever it might be.

And because it is such a huge community, and it continues to grow because of social media and because of other trends, and, like, thinking about what I could do in a week, if I really set my mind to it.

If other people all came together and did the same thing, we would have so many items and more opportunities to do good with the craft that we love so much.

That’s definitely been top of mind. Even this conversation has made me start to think about what I should do next, really leaning on the New York community as a whole and seeing where my mind goes in terms of knitwear. So, I’m just trying to grow the community, build my confidence, and try new things.

* This conversation has been edited for flow and clarity.