Crafted on a 1975 muscle-powered knitting machine, Sima Said’s merino shawls are sought after from Bridge to Hollywood

Social media can be a very dark place at times, but you cannot deny how it has made the world smaller. On its positive end, It can create the connection of two people on different sides of the globe. It could even spark an interaction between, say, an independent business in Canterbury and a Hollywood icon.

Sima Said moved to Bridge in late 2019, having worked in the fashion industry for almost 20 years. Buying a vintage, hand-powered knitting machine from eBay for £20, the designer certainly didn’t think that within three years she’d have a business selling handmade shawls across the world. But the pandemic, and ultimately lockdown, changed a lot of things, for a lot of people.

“About 10 years ago, I started working for a knitwear designer and she taught me how to do everything,” says Sima. “She was 70 odd and had a little shop in Camden. But she was doing something completely different than anybody else. Sustainable, handmade and creating something out of nothing.”

Like many others, when lockdown kicked in, Sima was stuck at home with not a lot on.

“All I had was this machine and a few ideas,” she recalls. “So I started experimenting, creating my own art and knitting it. I’d never really used Instagram or anything, but my sister set up a page for me. And it started selling.

“I've always wanted to get my ideas down and make them. It was a passion and when they start selling, of course, you get really excited.”

Handmade in Bridge was born.

Using all-natural merino yarn, Sima set about turning her ideas into pieces in the Fair Isle knitwear style.

“When I was previously working in fashion, it was more pattern cutting and working with fabric,” she says. “The difference between knitwear and working with fabrics is you’re actually creating your designs. So it's much more satisfying to actually knit something out of your head than to buy a piece of fabric and then cut it up and make something out of it. “Fair Isle knitwear - you know all the Christmassy jumpers that come out - well, I wanted to take the traditional technique and push it into making something a lot more arty.”

For now, Handmade in Bridge is becoming known for its stunning shawls and wraps, all crafted in-house and inspired by Sima’s love of folk tales, myths, antique textiles, architecture and sculpture.

“I’m always trying to create something completely new,” says Sima. “I'll be watching something like a black-and-white movie and see something in the background. Or, for example, I love Agatha Christie’s Poirot and I would see something like a piece of tapestry in it and I will try to draw it out.

“Once a design is completed on paper, it is transferred onto a punch card. And then that goes into my very old vintage machine and I would basically start knitting it out row by row. It’s all manual. No electricity, no computers, nothing.”

The physical nature of the work (Sima says she has one arm like Popeye!) means that it usually takes about a week to complete a shawl.

“I do it one by one,” she says. “So when I get an order, either through Instagram or the website, I've got enough yarn supply to make it and post it. It has to work like this for now, but in the future, if my hands get really tired, I will have to get somebody else to help me out.”

WIth some 20 orders a month now coming in, Sima’s move to full-time on the business was inevitable. And with Hollywood icons taking a keen interest in her work, there’s much to be excited about.

“Do you know Sharon Stone?” Of course we do.

“So, somebody wanted to buy her a piece of mine. And of course I was like, ‘Surely there's no way…’ But I posted it to her and she now follows us on Instagram. And whenever she sees something of mine, she puts it on her stories.

“I got a lovely email from her and a lovely message about how she loves her shawl and how much she wears it. It was really nice.”