| Lorilee Beltman Lorilee happily sees no end to where your knitting curiosity can take you, so she enjoys helping knitters make new discoveries. Since 2009, this former yarn shop owner has enjoyed her students at national events and looks forward to meeting you in class! Her articles and designs have been published in books including The Ultimate Hat Book, in magazines, and in online mags. She is a Craft Yarn Council certified knitting instructor and an instructor at Craftsy. Lorilee grew up in Pittsburgh, spent thirty years in west Michigan, and now calls Seattle home. For more about Lorilee go to lorileebeltman.com. Find her knitting techniques column "try this..." at Knitty.com. | |
| Steven Berg “Be inspired. Be brilliant. Be limitless.” Steven Berg is a fiber artisan armed with a wealth of experience, a daring sense of style, and a firm belief in the transformative power of creativity that knitting or crocheting offers to all who are brave enough to push the boundaries. He began his career early, creating custom knits for Barbie dolls and family members alike. This naturally led him to become a star student in fashion design at Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Parsons, and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Following graduation, Berg found inspiration in the fashion capitals of the world, leading him to a career as Design Director and VP of design at Munsingwear, Perry Ellis, and other international design houses. In later years, his creative work brought him back to his favorite medium, the one that always inspired him the most: the imaginative world of fiber arts. Today you will find Steven in his store, the Yarn Garage: 6,000 square feet in a 19th-century firehouse adorned with chandeliers, animal prints, and his eclectic collection of objets d’art from his international travels. Steven has changed the definition of “yarn shop” forever. Steven’s knitwear designs and “chunky funky” creations have caught the attention of Hollywood celebrities and stylists. His creations have been featured in national publications and are available on popular knitting websites. Steven reminds all fiber aficionados: “The possibilities are endless. There are no mistakes, only variations. And always remember to glam it up!” | |
| Wendy Bernard Wendy Bernard is a knitwear designer and author of Custom Knits, Custom Knits 2, Custom Knits Accessories, Up, Down, All-Around Stitch Dictionary, and Knitting All Around Stitch Dictionary (all STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books). She also has an independent pattern line under the name Knit and Tonic. | |
| Twinkie Chan Twinkie Chan designs and crochets unique, food-themed accessories in San Francisco. Her second crochet book, Twinkie Chan’s Abode a La Mode: 20 Crochet Projects for Your Home comes out in April 2016, and she is also an instructor for Creativebug. | |
| Lily Chin Lily M. Chin is an internationally famous knitter and crocheter who has worked in the yarn industry for more than 25 years as a designer, instructor, and author of books on knitting and crochet. She has created garments for the collections of designers from Ralph Lauren to Diane von Furstenberg. Her work has been on the backs of celebrities and super models. She was named a “Master Knitter” by Vogue Knitting. She is regularly cited in media across the US, include the Late Show with David Letterman, CNN, the New York Times and more. Lily Chin has lived in New York City all her life and has been involved in some aspect of the fashion industry since age 13. | |
| James Cox James Cox began knitting 37 years ago. Since then, his eye for men’s knitwear designs has flourished along with his career as an advertising art director and teacher at the Art Center College of Design. Backed by market research to determine what men want in knitted garments, he launched James Cox Knits hoping his knitting kits inspire knitters to make more handcrafted gifts for men and boys, or if they’re one of today’s male knitters, for themselves. James’s designs have been published in Knit Simple; James Cox Knits has been featured on the cover of Apparel News and on numerous blogs; and a JCK kit will be included in the Nominee Gift Bag for the Academy Awards. Visit jamescoxknits.com | |
| Ben Cuevas Ben Cuevas is a Los Angeles–based interdisciplinary artist. He picked up knitting as a hobby in his early twenties and quickly realized the sculptural capabilities of the craft, later incorporating it into his work as a fine artist. Following earning his degree in Mixed Media Installation Art from Hampshire College in 2010, he was awarded an artist’s residency at the Wassaic Project, an arts collective in New York State, where heknit a complete human skeleton. Cuevas’s work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions at galleries, museums, and alternative spaces in the US and internationally. bencuevas.com | |
| Amy Detjen Amy Detjen was the “List Mom” of the original Knit List for more than four years, then started KnitU. She’s very proud to have been Meg Swansen’s assistant at Meg’s Knitting Camp for more than 15 years. Teaching knitting and helping people learn about their knitting options is something Amy is passionate about; she loves helping people solve problems. | |
| Edie Eckman Edie Eckman is a best-selling author, teacher, designer, and editor who loves both knitting and crochet. She teaches around the country and online at Craftsy.com and Creativebug.com. As a teacher, designer, and technical editor, Edie is on a mission to ensure that pattern instructions are as clear as possible to the greatest number of knitters and crocheters possible. She is a lifelong learner and considers her students the best teachers ever. Her books include The Crochet Answer Book, Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs, Around the Corner Crochet Borders, and others. Find her on all the usual social media and at www.edieeckman.com. | |
| Rhonda Fargnoli Rhonda Fargnoli is the Education manager at Makers' Mercantile in Kent, WA. Makers' is owned by the Skacel Yarn Collection.She was the owner /designer of Coastal Colours Yarn, a Connecticut-based yarn company that created hand painted yarn from natural dyes and botanical extracts. She studied fashion and textile design at Chamberlain School of Design and has taught art and studio art for more than 22 years. Rhonda is the Faculty Advisor to the Hand Knitting Certificate Program at Rhode Island School of Design/CE. She has been featured in articles about teaching knitting design courses for RISD/CE in Yarn Market News and Vogue Knitting, for her Vogue Knitting Challenge class for teens, which included the winning student’s design. Rhonda's recent RISD graduates, have been published in several magazines, and books. something she is most proud of. Fargnoli has also designed for several yarn companies, including Blue Sky Alpacas, Koigu, and Sheep Shop, and her knitting designs are published in Noro magazine and Knit Simple. Rhonda is also a contributing writer for Fiber Art Now magazine. | |
| Miriam Felton Miriam began knitting as a teenager, as a natural next step from sewing, crochet, and needlepoint. She's been designing and publishing since 2005, including her first book, Twist & Knit: A Dozen Patterns for Handspun, Hand-dyed and One-of-a-Kind Yarns. Her current love is combining all crafting in her curated email newsletter called CrossCraftual. Miriam’s work features textural details and clever techniques, with positive/negative space playing a prominent roll. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her partner and 2 cats, Ekho & Stormageddon. | |
| Jacqui Fink Jacqui is a crafter of hand-knitted oversized textiles and installation works made from a selection of beautiful natural fibers and raw materials. With a strong focus on naturally colored, high-grade unspun wool from Australia and New Zealand, she creates bespoke woollen blankets and throws (the "Woollies") using large-scale knitting needles. While the Woollies are the mainstays of her company, Little Dandelion, she also crafts woollen installations both extreme in their scale and the physical challenge they represent for one pair of hands. Each piece is as much a feat of endurance as it is a loving creative process. As her quiet rebellion against mass production, she ensures that each piece is a one-of-a-kind creation: something very personal for the user, lusciously tactile to the touch, highly textural by nature, and meticulous in its construction. This is slow craft in its truest sense. | |
| Faina Goberstein Faina Goberstein is a prolific knitwear designer, author, and a professional teacher. She is the co-author of the bestselling books The Art of Slip Stitch and The Art of Seamless Knitting, and her designs can be found in Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, Knit.Purl, Knitscene, Twist Collective, Interweave Crochet, and various books. Faina is best known for her elegant and well-fitted classic designs showing off textures, cables, brioche, and slip-stitch techniques. She teaches in person at various venues nationally and abroad as well as on Craftsy.com. She is fascinated with many knitting techniques and loves to pass her excitement to her students. Unusual slip-stitch techniques is Faina’s latest obsession. | |
| Franklin Habit Designer, teacher, writer, and illustrator Franklin Habit is the author of It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons (Interweave Press, 2008) and proprietor of The Panopticon (the-panopticon.blogspot.com), one of the most popular knitting blogs on the Internet. On an average day, upward of 2,500 readers worldwide drop in for a mix of essays, cartoons, and the continuing adventures of Dolores the Sheep. Franklin’s varied experience in the fiber world includes contributions of writing and design to Vogue Knitting, Yarn Market News, Interweave Knits, Interweave Crochet, PieceWork, Twist Collective; and a regular columns and cartoons for Knitty.com, Ply magazine, Skacel Yarns (Fridays with Franklin), and Lion Brand Yarns. Several of his independently published designs are available via Ravelry.com. He travels constantly to teach knitters at shops and guilds across the country and internationally, and he has been a popular member of the faculties of such festivals as Vogue Knitting LIVE!, Stitches Midwest and East, and the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. | |
| June Hemmons Hiatt June’s book, The Principles of Knitting, first appeared in 1990, and was soon recognized as the definitive work on knitting techniques. It went out of print in 1997, used copies were scarce, and it soon commanded very high prices. June realize a second edition was needed and set to work again. She spent ten more years rewriting the entire book and adding new material; the second edition appeared in 2012. This big book, with more than 700 pages and more than 900 illustrations, contains everything you could possibly want to know about the craft of knitting. You will not only find written instructions with clear graphics, but June explains how each technique works, compares it to similar ones, and makes suggestions for how to best use it. June will be giving her popular Stitch Gauge class about the innovative, accurate method of doing a gauge that was first introduced in The Principles of Knitting. Since her book was published, June has turned her attention to reintroducing the technique of working with a knitting belt. This method—once widely used by production knitters in Europe—has been almost forgotten everywhere except in Shetland, where it is still in active use. It is known as one of the fastest ways to knit and also makes it possible to produce a remarkably even fabric. Perhaps even more important, it is very easy on the body due to the minimal motions used—those who knit with a belt tend not to have repetitive motion injuries. June and her son Jesse have redesigned the traditional knitting belt, making it more stable and comfortable to wear, and Jesse makes each one by hand. June will be giving a talk on Shetland Knitting, and a class on how to use a knitting belt, and she and Jesse will be demonstrating them in their booth in the marketplace. For more information about June, her book, and the knitting belts, see www.principlesofknitting.com | |
| Romi Hill Romi Hill lives on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Northern Nevada, where the high desert nights are cool and the air is clear and crisp. A lifelong crafter and knitter, she is inspired by the natural surroundings in her corner of the world, and her designs have an organic flow. She specializes in lace of all weights, and you can see her full pattern collection on Ravelry. Romi’s lace book from Interweave Press, New Lace Knitting, was published in September 2015 and features timeless patterns for garments and accessories. She loves dark chocolate with chili peppers, and she’s a sucker for a great pair of cowboy boots. | |
| Deborah Jarchow After many years of teaching knitting and crochet, Deborah discovered weaving in 1996 and her love of fiber, texture, and color came together. Since then she has worked full time as a weaver and artist, including teaching fiber arts, creating and selling wearable art, giving lectures, and showing in local, regional and national exhibits. Her work has been exhibited at many galleries and museums across the country including the Gerald R. Ford Museum. She has won numerous awards and written articles for national publications. Her work has been commissioned by many churches and is in many private collections. Since 2004 she has been an artist in residence, teacher, and weaver at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo, CA. She loves helping knitters discover the joy of weaving. | |
| Kyle Kunnecke San Francisco designer Kyle Kunnecke has a not-so-secret passion for colorwork. Tirelessly creative, he puts himself to sleep at night dreaming of new design concepts, collaborations, and outreach projects. Through his fiber workshops he provides inspiration to his students; exploring the skills necessary to continue their personal knitting journeys. His patterns are published in numerous knitting books and magazines, by yarn companies, and under his label, Kyle William. Learn more about Kyle and his work: www.kylewilliam.com | |
| Melissa Leapman A popular teacher and prolific designer, Melissa Leapman is the author of several bestselling knitting and crocheting books. Her most recent titles are Mastering Color Knitting and Stashbuster Knits (Potter Craft), as well as numerous publications and DVDs from Leisure Arts. | |
| Patty Lyons PATTY LYONS (http://pattylyons.com/) is a nationally recognized knitting teacher who is known for teaching the “why” not just the “how” in her pursuit of training the “mindful knitter”. Patty teaches nationally at guilds & knitting shows around the country such as Vogue Knitting LIVE, STITCHES, and the Knit and Crochet Show and her popular classes can also be found online at Interweave, Annie’s and Craftsy, where her “Improve Your Knitting Class” was named Craftsy’s most popular class of 2013! Patty designs and knitting skill articles have been published in Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, Knitter’s Magazine, Cast On, Knit Style, Knit 1,2,3 and Creative Knitting magazines, where she also writes a knitter’s advice column called “Patty’s Purls of Wisdom”. Patty’s designs have also been included in pattern collections from Classic Elite, Kollage, Takhi Stacy Charles, Cascade, Universal and Noro. | |
| Trisha Malcolm Trisha Malcolm’s life in needle crafts began at the age of 4 and has spanned summers knitting, sewing, crocheting, and embroidering at the beach, months backpacking around the world, and academic years as a high school needlework teacher. An editorship at McCalls Needlework and Craft magazine led to a career in craft publishing, including her time as the Craft Editor at Family Circle Magazine Australia and other publications before she took over the helm of Vogue Knitting in 1997. Her role at the company has expanded in the ensuing years, to encompass Knit Simple magazine, a book publishing division (publisher of the Stitchionary series, Knitopedia, and more), custom publishing, and stitching-themed events. Trisha lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her son. | |
| Joan McGowan-Michael Joan McGowan-Michael is the founder of White Lies Designs knitting patterns and the author of Knitting Lingerie Style (STC, 2007). The thread that runs through all of Joan’s work is the celebration of romance and the feminine form. She believes that all women are beautiful no matter what their size and strives to help enhance that beauty through the clothing she designs. All of her styles are available in a wide range of sizes from petite to plus. See more at www.whiteliesdesigns.com. | |
| Sally Melville Sally Melville has published 6 books, and each is full of the kind of mostly simple, wearable pieces she loves to design. In addition, she has an extensive teaching schedule, traveling around the world and speaking to wonderful folk who can appreciate the perfect buttonhole, who love the textures and colors and techniques of knitting, who want to be more intuitive about their craft, and who know that life is about learning. | |
| Shannon & Jason Mullett-Bowlsby Shannon & Jason Mullett-Bowlsby, aka the Shibaguyz, are the DIY duo behind Shibaguyz Designz, a versatile design company that uses their unique flair to combine fashion, fiber, and photography into a cohesive whole. Their detailed and upscale designs can be seen in magazines like Interweave Knits, Crochet!, and Noro Knitting; in collections for yarn companies like Mango Moon and Tahki Stacy Charles; and publishers like Quayside, Leisure Arts, and Lark/Sterling. Their newest book, Designer Crochet: 32 Patterns to Elevate Your Style, is available now, with their next book coming Spring 2016! The Shibaguyz live in Seattle with their three Shiba Inu, who, more or less, support their ventures as long as time is taken for walks and treats. | |
| Brooke Nico Brooke Nico began designing by sewing her own wardrobe, inspired by drape and color. She brought her talents to knitting almost ten years ago, first exploring modular construct then lace. Next, Brooke opened Kirkwood Knittery, a yarn shop in St. Louis. Brooke’s designs have been featured in several magazines, including Vogue Knitting and Debbie Bliss magazine. As a dedicated teacher, Brooke guides knitters through the intricacies of techniques to make their projects as polished as possible. | |
| Alasdair Post-Quinn Alasdair Post-Quinn is the author of the critically-acclaimed book Extreme Double-Knitting: New Adventures In Reversible Colorwork and a smattering of other patterns, mostly also double knitted. He has been working to push the boundaries of double-knitting since 2003. He has a new book in the works entitled Double or Nothing, which will be out sometime in late 2016. Alasdair lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife and cat; his day job is in computer repair. In his spare time, he travels around North America to teach, and he’s hoping to slowly transition to spending more time designing, publishing and teaching double-knitting techniques and patterns. For more info, please visit www.double-knitting.com | |
| Gayle Roehm Join us and learn about Japanese knitting from Gayle Roehm, who has been teaching knitters across the country how to enjoy these beautiful designs. Gayle majored in Japanese studies, speaks Japanese, and lived in Japan during and after her college years. She went on to business school and worked as a management consultant all over the world, including many visits to Japan. An avid knitter throughout her career, she has been using Japanese patterns for many years. With the rise of the Internet, anyone anywhere can find a wide range of Japanese books and patterns, and her classes have been popular at events such as Stitches, Interweave Knitting Lab, Vogue Knitting LIVE, Yarnover, Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat, Sock Summit, and more. Gayle’s designs have been published in Knitter’s Magazine, Interweave Knits, A Gathering of Lace, and by yarn companies. For several years she translated Japanese patterns for Dancing Fibers (now Sunrise Yarns/Diakeito), and she prepared the Japanese section for the book Knitting Languages. She also sells original work at a local fiber arts gallery. | |
| Carla Scott Carla Scott is currently editor in chief of Knit Simple magazine and executive editor of Vogue Knitting magazine. She has been working with Vogue Knitting since 1982 and has enjoyed hosting the VK Tours for the past 10 years. She created and edited the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary book series and is closely involved in the various knitting books published by Sixth&Spring Books. A knitter since the age of 7, Carla has had a career in the hand-knitting industry spanning more than 30 years, working for various yarn companies, knitting magazines, and book publishers in New York City. Carla lives in Manhattan with her husband and daughter (who is also a knitter). | |
| Leslye Solomon Having taught more than 20 years of sold-out classes at national and international seminars, Leslye Solomon is an enthusiastic, energetic, and empathetic teacher. Her classes include comprehensive sweater designing, hands-on sweater finishing, and easy-to-learn (or switch to) continental knitting. Leslye has published a number of sweater designs and editorials, and she has produced numerous instructional DVDs. Her well-photographed, studio-produced DVDs include the following titles: The Hand-Knitter’s Guide to Sweater Finishing, The Absolute Best Way to Learn How to Knit, The Hand Knitter’s Guide to Buttonholes and Bands, The Hand Knitter’s Guide to Making Socks, and The Hand Knitter’s Guide to Making Socks on a Single Circular Needle. Her recent project has been the completion an exciting new, patent pending, iPhone/iPad app called KnitSpeaker. | |
| Carol Sulcoski Carol Sulcoski is an attorney turned fiber artist: after the birth of her oldest child, she retired from the practice of law and began knitting in earnest. She is the author of Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarns and co-author of Knit So Fine (both Interweave Press). Her knitting designs and articles have appeared in Vogue Knitting, Knit Simple, KnitScene, St.-Denis Magazine, Knitty.com and other publications. Carol also creates hand-dyed yarns and fibers as Black Bunny Fibers, and she began her own pattern line in 2009. She lives with her family outside Philadelphia. | |
| Anne Weil Anne Weil designs knitting and crochet patterns as well as craft projects for the modern maker. She writes the blog Flax & Twine (www.flaxandtwine.com) and is author of the book Knitting Without Needles: A Stylish Introduction to Finger and Arm Knitting. Anne fell in love with the modern shift in scale and luscious loft that arm knitting brings to any project. Anne teaches how to apply traditional knitting techniques, including cables and lace, to arm knitting, and she has developed new techniques for creating wide fabrics with finger knitting. Anne is a freelancer for MarthaStewart.com. Her projects have been published in Mollie Makes and on Design*Sponge, Design Mom, Apartment Therapy and more. Anne teaches classes nationwide, as well as online at Creativebug.com. | |
| Julie Weisenberger Julie learned to knit in Europe and had a small sweater company in the ’80s selling to Nordstrom, Henri Bendel, Mark Shale, and a number of small boutiques across the country. Her main focus, however, has been on designing for and teaching hand-knitters of all shapes and sizes. A knitter should be rewarded with comments of “great sweater, where did you buy it?” as opposed to “you made your sweater, didn’t you?” Julie teaches every step toward that goal—flattering designs knit with elegant construction techniques using interesting yarns. For more than 20 years she has delighted in teaching knitters to enjoy the process of knitting as much as the end result. | |
