Alex @alexrooted
There’s a certain kind of person who feels most at peace when their hands are busy. I’m not talking about “busy” in the rushed, frantic sense that so many of us are all too familiar with these days. I’m speaking to the rhythmic tending associated with a rural life, where one flows through routines of building, cooking, stacking, planting, feeding, mending, knitting, weaving, and so on.
When I first connected with Alex of @alexrooted, I felt an immediate sense of familiarity in the way she spoke about her life, her work, and the routines that shape her days. I quickly learned that our stories are surprisingly similar.
Alex began building a tiny home beside a friend who was building his own. During the process, they fell in love and eventually abandoned the idea of two tiny homes, moving into one together. Phil and I met while apprenticing through Young Agrarians. After the farming season ended, we began building our own tiny home. Like Alex’s partner, Phil is also a carpenter. So much of our relationship has been shaped by building together, learning together, and figuring things out as we go.
I think there’s something transformative about creating a home with your own hands. It changes the way you move through the world. The process taught me patience and resourcefulness, and fundamentally changed my relationship to beauty. Rather than setting out to replicate something beautiful I’ve seen on Pinterest, I think more about what is available to me, how it can serve a needed purpose, and how everything can work together.
That same philosophy lives inside both of our work.
Alex weaves baskets from willow she grows herself. I knit garments from local wool. Although we work with different regional materials, our intentions are similar. We both design for utility as much as aesthetics. Rural life doesn’t leave much room for objects that exist only to be looked at. The things we own need to function well. They need to hold up through repeated use. But that doesn’t mean they can’t also be beautiful.
Most days, Alex wakes with the sun. After morning cacao and movement outside on her deck, she begins weaving. Some baskets take three or four hours to make, while others take much longer. When she isn’t weaving, she’s tending to her willow patch, organizing materials, working in the garden, farming alongside neighbouring households, handling the behind-the-scenes work that comes with running a small business, or resting.
“Living rurally, there’s always something to be done,” she told me.
I think many people who live rurally deeply resonate with that feeling. There’s always something that needs to be planted, fed, harvested, fixed, cleaned or maintained. The work never really disappears, but when you begin to approach life with the mentality of tending rather than completing, the work itself becomes grounding. The peace comes from keeping your hands busy and your mind still.
And the joy often comes from the moments in between.
Alex spoke beautifully about the importance of noticing small things in daily life: watching a bird build a nest outside the window, appreciating a handmade mug, or pausing for one slow breath before moving onto the next task. Those moments can feel insignificant from the outside, but I think they are what build a meaningful life.
One thing I especially appreciate about Alex’s perspective is the way she speaks about making things by hand.
In a recent voiceover she shared, she said:
“Making something with our own hands reminds us that we aren’t just passive consumers, we are creators. Reskilling is part of how we come back to ourselves and our communities.”
I’ve thought about that quote often since hearing it.
Skills like weaving, knitting, gardening, preserving food, building furniture, and repairing clothing were once ordinary parts of daily life. Somewhere along the way, many of those skills became outsourced, industrialized, or forgotten entirely. But I think there’s a growing hunger to reconnect with them again. So many of us are longing to participate more fully in our own lives and communities, but don’t know where to begin.
The weaving work that Alex does, and the messages she shares through her social media channels, feel like a gentle invitation back into that way of living. I encourage you to take the first step toward learning that hands-on skill you’ve always been curious about, and to notice the subtle ways it changes how you relate to the world around you. You may find that slowing down, creating something with your own hands, and participating more fully in daily life is exactly what you needed to feel more grounded, present, and connected.
If you’d like to follow along with her work, you can find her here:
- Website
- Instagram: @alexrooted
- YouTube: Alex Rooted
- TikTok: Alex Rooted
Her next basket collection release is June 21st at 5 PM Pacific.
