CRITTERS CRAFT ARTIST CATHIE BISSON –
NEEDLES ‘CRITTERS’ FOR THE KIDS AND THE INNER CHILD IN ADULTS ALIKE!
Business owner of ‘Life In Stitches’ Cathie Bisson – a lady with a sophisticated name and a down-to-earth spirit topped off by a traditional passion that she’s managed to turn into a very alternative and non-traditional marketing endeavor – is one lady that is super smart and seriously talented. She also loves to laugh as humor gets her through tough times, hence the name of her craft business, ‘Life In Stitches’.
As a crafty artist, she toils away in her spare time making hand-crafted, from-scratch animals and fun, cute characters out of simple craft yarn. After talking with her for a while, you get surprised the more you find out about her and her new business venture which brings joy to many kids and adult-kids alike.
With a science background, this multi-faceted artist is going places in the craft world! When you meet her, she brightens up the place with a great smile full of immediate warmth, and then you see the handiwork of her skills when you take a visit to her vehicle parked outside, which is full of these colorful and adorable ‘critters’.
Her talent comes through her hands that serve as a “blessing to others” to hear some of her friends tell it, and to see the evidence of this in her many crocheted critter-characters, it’s obvious Cathie Bisson is worthy of being called an ‘artist’. She can create on a level unlike most average crochet-makers or typical grandma-type knitters who tend to roll yarns into afghans for your sofas and beds.
SO HOW DOES ONE GET INSPIRED – FOR IDEAS, OR TO ENGAGE IN A HOBBY AT ALL?
It’s a hobby that she’s turned into ‘unique and different’ from past craft shows she’s done as well as varied life experience and as a way to chill after a long hectic day in the office, but it is time-consuming in a giddily happy sort of way, so when she gets carried away in knitting, her crocheted inventions’ sessions can linger longer than she expected. She will report that she looks at the clock without one bit of regret. For instance, a very detailed horse she was so caught up in making took her ten hours to create! (See video link below of all the different ideas and critters she has for sale which make great gifts and stocking stuffers for Christmas too!)
The wonderful stuffed-animal type critters such as cats, hippos, elephants, bears and so many others – are each intricately woven to a fine precision, every detailed and nuanced loop of yarn rolling off her needle tightly secured, every fiber of every thread perfectly wrapped and stitched with so much bright and eye-popping color, dynamic in texture and design. Every creative endeavor to make the rarest and imaginative knitted ‘critters’ as she calls them.
“I like to make my own ideas by just experimenting and mixing and matching different playful combinations of things, but I also love it when my kids pitch in to help inspire me. Some of my critters are based on a famous animal like Garfield, the cat, or a movie or cartoon character or superhero so the list of ideas I can do with this is pretty much limitless. I don’t think I could run out of ideas.”
‘SPINNING YARN’ – CAN BE A BLESSING OR A CURSE: YOU GET TO DECIDE!
Some people don’t have any hobbies, nor do they ever try to discover talent within themselves. Others are so bored they morph into drama queens and turn minor challenges of nothingness into great big somethings, but talented people do the same, only with a positive twist. Bisson is one such person who can take a bit of nothing (just a roll of yarn) and spin it into a whole lot of something with her diverse and beautiful creations (see images this page) with the result of brightening up people’s lives. On the other side of this same coin, most people will take a boring or simple story – insist on calling it a ‘yarn’ by spinning it into a huge gossipy rumor with the destructive result of injuring someone’s reputation or even life. Which person would you prefer to be – or to be around?
Most people are so easily distracted these days by the plethora of unhealthy vices and spend their spare time on video games or watching reality TV or pursuing empty pleasures that can harm their health. So many people exist but they don’t really live. They end up watching each year pass the calendar only to see their empty or chaotic lives unravel like fine threads from a yarn spool as life passes them by in the process. The verdict of this reality is that time ghosts us all much quicker than we realize.
Though it’s also true that most folks do work hard however, in their ‘day jobs’ as folks love to call them, and after all the stress of work, running errands, taking care of their homes and kids, plus trying to work overtime to keep up with paying bills, there is little time left to enjoy their life. And when some free time or retirement comes, they sleep the rest of that time away or just become a couch potato. But this typical choice of a life story is not the case with Cathie Bisson, a Northern Kentucky resident, and local craft artist.
Says the soft-spoken and pleasant Bisson, “I just love to make things that other people can also enjoy as much or almost as much as I do and it’s just so relaxing. I find myself sometimes getting lost in what I’m doing that it’s very easy to lose track of time,” she says with much enthusiasm – her energy very present, positive, focused, and relaxed, which is a definite sign that someone is happy with their own sense of inner peace and joy. And joy is what people feel when they embrace a hobby or a craft that is their own, something they do naturally that doesn’t require rules, rigid expectations or bosses hovering over their head to hound their every move.
A HOBBY IS NOT WORK, YET IT IS…IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE CONTEXT OF THE WORD ‘WORK’ DOESN’T IT?
“I did a bit of this work – which I really don’t consider work – but I did it with some friends of mine from church and we did it for charity, but then it just really took off and now, I have a booth at a local craft shop where sales are doing well, so things took a nice turn I hadn’t expected,” she says. Expected or planned, anyone’s hobby that becomes a business – even small, can take on the stress of what typical ‘work’ is, where one feels obligated to babysit and be responsible for it in a way that feels burdensome, but Cathie doesn’t see it this way. She says with a glow in her eyes, “I love what I am doing with this and I can’t wait to see where this goes. It’s the best hobby and I really enjoy it a lot.”
Now that my friends, is the complete definition of the word SUCCESS! You don’t need fame and frenzied attention, you don’t need wealth and power and mansions and fancy cars – you just need to find what makes you happy, what rocks your world. It can’t be defined by just a partner or a spouse either. It’s what’s inside of each of us that goes beyond anything other human beings or tangible, external pleasures in the world can bring us.
It’s that deeper inner joy that comes from doing something that is organic and pure and part of what you were put here on this earth to do. It may seem simple but that is just it: simple, free of drama, and a whole lot of fulfillment. That’s what we’re missing in our culture today. Maybe we could use a bit of Cathie Bisson’s attitude and life spark to rub off on so many of us!
Check out Cathie Bisson’s amazing critter collection at this location:
Mercantile 1820, 120 N Main St, Williamstown, Ky.