By Paige Whipple
Jessica Dove’s face lights up as she recounts the nights when she and her best friend spent hours unraveling her knitting yarn.
Dove, who knits items for her up-and-coming accessories business, laughingly admits that she has “way too much yarn,” and can’t seem to keep it organized.
“I have three full-sized storage containers full of yarn and it’s always tangled,” Dove said. “When my best friend and I lived in the dorms, we would stay in the common room until four in the morning and we would sit and unravel these balls of yarn. One time it was so tangled that it was like a big necklace, so she just put it on and tried to unravel it from around her neck.”
Now, thanks to social media, the Towson University senior scored a nomination for Baltimore’s Emerging Accessories Designer contest and turned her knitting hobby into a business with nationwide customers like music country singer Shania Twain’s violist and fiddle player.
“My Nana taught me how to knit,” said Dove, who is majoring in mass communications. “She’s very Italian and she said, ‘All Italian women need to know how to knit.’ So, she taught me when I was 5.”
For years, Dove has knit every day as a form of therapy because “if I get stressed out, I can knit — make something and be productive to get rid of my stress.”
That stress can keep her fairly productive. Dove knits everything from scarves and hats to bikinis and crop tops.
“I put lining in the bikinis, though,” Dove said. “It doesn’t work out too well when you just have a knit bikini and no lining.”
Dove said the idea to sell items didn’t dawn on her until three years ago. That’s when people began noticing and admiring the hats and scarves she donned for the cold weather.
“I came to school wearing a scarf I had made, and someone asked me where I got it,” she said. “They asked me to make them one, and more people starting asking me to make them things. I made a Facebook page to organize myself, but I didn’t expect it to get really big like this.”
When the Facebook shop began to grow, Dove created a name for her brand, “Made with Love by JDove” and began posting her items on Etsy as well as social media.
“Surprisingly, I get a lot of orders from Instagram,” Dove said. “Random people can find me because I use a lot of hashtags. I just made a big package for the woman who plays fiddle and viola for Shania Twain. She found my page from a hashtag, which was awesome.”
But it didn’t end there.
Twain’s band mate, Andrea Whitt, modeled in Dove’s collection on the musician’s lifestyle blog, BohoBunnie, promoting Dove’s shop to a national audience.
Much to Dove’s delight, the items got rave reviews.
“I was determined to showcase these gorgeous handmade knit pieces by Made With Love by J Dove,” Whitt said in the post. “This young college student is so extremely talented with her knit creations! This cardigan, boot toppers and headband are all a part of her super affordable and absolutely stunning collection.”
Alicia Bonner, a 19-year-old from South Carolina, discovered Dove’s shop through a friend on Instagram. She found a scarf that she loved and asked Dove to make her one. Throughout the process of her order, Bonner said Dove sent pictures to make sure the color and thickness of the scarf were just right.
“I think it’s really nice how she basically custom makes orders,” Bonner said. “She asked a lot of questions to make sure I was getting what I wanted.”
Custom orders like Bonner’s and Whitt’s are how Dove makes most of her business.
“I’ll get an email from someone who says they loved a hat on my page, but they want it in purple instead because they love purple,” Dove said. “My stuff is custom, so some people like a more modern look, some people want clean looking and some people want fringe, so none of the items look exactly the same.”
Instagram was also the outlet that led a fashion blogger to nominate “Made With Love by JDove” for Baltimore’s Emerging Accessories Designer, a major award given at an annual show put on by Fashion Awards MD, a group that recognizes Maryland residents who have contributed to the fashion world.
“The blogger follows me and sent me a picture saying that she nominated me for the Emerging Accessories Designer award,” Dove said. “Out of the blue, she liked my stuff, nominated me for it and even put me on her blog.”
The contest, run by a board of Maryland-based fashion designers, is important to Dove, who said she would love to win and have a “tangible” notation of her success.
“The Emerging Accessories Designer is a Maryland accessories designer who is starting to be noticed in the Maryland fashion community,” she said. “They’re someone this community wants to see more of. If I win, it will mean that my efforts weren’t for nothing. If I win, I’ll become more invested in my brand.”
Dove’s clientele continues to grow on social media outlets. Her Facebook page has more than 900 likes, and she commands nearly 1,500 Instagram followers.
Followers flock to her pages and customers keep coming back not just because they like her items, but because of the good experience they have while buying from Dove.
“The best part about the items is that they’re really reasonably priced, but still good quality,” Bonner said. “I paid $30, including shipping, and it was well worth the price. She’s really sweet. It means a lot to me when an owner is genuine.”
Dove purposefully keeps her prices low because seeing overpriced items on Etsy drives her crazy. She saw a listing on Etsy for a scarf and immediately got sticker shock even though she wasn’t looking to buy it.
“I know what yarn they used,” she said. “It’s $2 from Walmart, and they were selling this scarf for $79.”
Because almost all of her items are custom made, the prices can vary.
“Scarves are $20 to $35, and headbands and hats range from $15 to $20,” Dove said. “Sweaters cost more because they take a long time and a lot of materials.”
She said the revenue from her sales “is definitely more than my paychecks from working in retail,” and she’s been able to save the money because a scholarship pays for her schooling. Dove has made between $1,000 and $2,000 a year, but said that profits vary from season to season.
“Although I don’t pay for my tuition, my business has allowed me to have spending money and to become independent from my parents,” Dove said. “Between my business and my part-time job, I don’t have to live off my parents at all. I have way more orders this year. I would say that my customer base and orders have grown at least 40 percent from when I started.”
Dove, a Calvert County native, plans to move to Las Vegas in July to attend law school for a year and pursue a career in public relations.
“For that year, I’ll have it for a side job and see how it goes,” she said. “I’m going to have to change the way I market to my customers because warm weather and knits don’t really mix, so I’m going to have to market on Etsy a lot more.”