Author: Hannah Swain

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Hannah has wholeheartedly embraced the Nordic knitting tradition. Even as her yarn stash threatened to take over their small apartment, Hannah decided to start sewing. Her partner is very tolerant of her fiber-related addictions but does not like pins or needles. Previously a Microsoft SharePoint consultant, Hannah now works as a WooCommerce Happiness Engineer on the payments team at Automattic.
By Hannah Swain Posted on

Fred’s monochrome sweater (Jón 91149 by Hulda Hákonardóttir)

This sweater came into being the Sunday morning that I asked Fred, “If you would hypothetically like a sweater, what would you prefer?” I was at a stage where I … Continue reading Fred’s monochrome sweater (Jón 91149 by Hulda Hákonardóttir)

View over Lisbon, Julia Amosova
By Hannah Swain Posted on

When good manners and equality clash

I’ve never thought very much about all of the different angles around the concept of men opening doors for women. I mentally shrugged my shoulders, thanked people when they held the door for me, held the door for others and went on with my life. Sweden is very much into gender-equality, so it hasn’t come up. After a few days of having multiple men hold the door for me as a polite gesture, I’m surprised at just how surprised and startled I am by it.

By Hannah Swain Posted on

A (semi) typical work day for me, February 2017 edition

As a WooCommerce Happiness Engineer at Automattic, I spend some of my time directly helping customers. I also get to travel quite a bit, to different conferences and to meet my colleagues all over the world. I’ll focus on a day at home (just outside of Stockholm, Sweden), because the other days are anything but typical.

By Hannah Swain Posted on

The experience of switching to Colemak

When I joined Automattic, I found that using different keyboard layouts like Dvorak and Colemak are common and encouraged – as are most things that will help you be more efficient.The idea is that if you spend so much of your day at your computer, you might as well be efficient at input. The idea seemed neat, so why not?