Meet Jill Tamminen

We were lucky to catch up with Jill Tamminen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jill, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

In the past, I never thought of myself as a resilient person. I also don’t think one person, or event, built resiliency in me. Like many people, I thought I was just experiencing “Life.” Something would happen, I’d get down on myself and then confidence would drop. Then something positive would happen, and I’d bounce back.


I was raised with the term Sisu. It’s a Finnish word that roughly translated means courage, perseverance, and strength. That strength is an inner, quiet, keep-me-going strength that’s rooted in gratitude, joy, nature, and faith. That, along with knitting, cooking, yoga, meditation, and writing, were all great foundations to build resiliency.

When my Dad was diagnosed with Cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, it gave my childhood knowledge of Sisu a whole new meaning.

I was fortunate enough to live close to my parents, and I watched my Dad go into chemo appointments, massive surgeries, and sit slumped in a chair, barely able to move. My Mom would diligently and tirelessly take care of him, often going days without sleep. My sister transferred her job in the US Coast Guard to be with us, and my husband, who is also in the Coast Guard as a helicopter pilot, extended his tour so we could stay close. My support came in a more subtle way.

My Dad is a life-long Green Bay Packers fan. So shortly after his diagnosis, and knowing this road was going to be arduous, I went out and found the most obnoxious green and gold colored yarn. I purchased every skein in the store. 
The next day, during an early morning appointment, I casted on a blanket and started knitting.

I knit through those appointments, surgeries, and sitting next to him slumped over in the chair. During one 16-hour surgery, many people in the waiting room who were also fret with worry about their loved ones, came up to me with a smile, wanting to feel, touch, and hold the blanket on my needles. They would tell their own stories about so-and-so knitting, and it brought a moment of reminiscence, happiness, peace, and comfort to their stressful day. I taught my sister how to knit on that blanket. That in itself brought about ripples of laughter in the “Quiet Room” of the chemo floor, as her attempt looked more like pile-driving a tractor then a delicate hand on the needles.

For my Dad, I knit love, health, and comfort into the blanket. 
For me, I knit strength and resilience. 
A wonderful unintended outcome was I also knit laughter and joy amongst onlookers.

Today, Dad is healthy and strong, and he still uses that blanket everyday. 

I started my knitting design and instruction business, Knit Sisu, a few later and then my mindfulness and wellness business, Daily Sisu, came naturally after that.

Through it all, I learned that there isn’t one way to build resilience. It’s a practice. It’s experiences. More than anything, resiliency is rooted in love of others, and myself.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am the owner of Knit Sisu, a knitting design and instruction company. The foundation of Knit Sisu is to encourage, support, and uplift knitters through support, transparency, collaboration, and accessibility.  Knit Sisu’s designs and classes have been internationally recognized, published with Laine Publishing, and used in many collaborations including the Malabrigo Knit-A-Long. Over the years, I have learned what knitters want – and more importantly, do not want – in their knitting experience. A lot of confidence and resiliency can be found through knitting, and I’m thankful to help people find this.

Also, as a certified meditation and yoga instructor, I am passionate about helping others tap into daily mindfulness practices. I started Daily Sisu as a way to showcase the many ways to make mindfulness techniques an easy part of daily life. While I always knew knitting was a form of active meditation, the catalyst behind Daily Sisu happened when I started noticing a huge crossover in how I was incorporating present-moment awareness strategies into my knitting classes. As not everyone is a knitter, Daily Sisu includes breathwork, meditations, recipes, book recommendations, journaling, and other simple, accessible mindfulness habits to use on a daily basis. While this has been an active personal practice of mine for 25+ years, I felt called to turn this passion into helping others.

Whether it be a knitting technique class, relaxing yoga session, guided meditation, or discussions around other wellness-based mindfulness techniques, I’m here for you. I meet online with clients privately or in group settings, and host events and classes around the nation, all geared towards helping people achieve their individual goals.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1 – Live in the present moment. Experiencing the present moment helps validate what we learned from the past, and can provide clarity to proactively plan for the future. The spiral of ruminating on the past and/or future, kills resiliency.

2 – Have a Beginner’s Mind. A mind that is open to always learning will be more receptive to ideas, creative solutions, and guidance.

3 – Practice Gratitude. Actively practicing gratitude trains the brain to be more understanding and compassionate. Taking a moment to be thankful, even for the smallest thing, is an active meditation, and harnesses an energy of groundedness. In an adverse situation, this can create space to choose a response, rather than jump to a reaction.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Collaborations are wonderful – yes! In addition to individual clients, I am always happy to work with companies, corporations, small businesses, universities, sports teams, gyms, etc. – mindfulness practices (including knitting) are beneficial anywhere.

Contact Info:

• Website: knitsisu.com | dailysisu.com
• Instagram: @knitsisu | @dailysisu
• Facebook: Jill Tamminen | business pages: Knit Sisu | Daily Sisu
• Linkedin: Jill Tamminen