| Susan B. Anderson Susan Anderson has been knitting for 30 years. She has authored five popular knitting books, Itty-Bitty Hats, Itty-Bitty Nursery, Itty-Bitty Toys, Spud & Chloe at the Farm, and Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Knit Toys. Susan has been writing her well-read and award-winning knitting blog, www.susanbanderson.blogspot.com, for the last eight years. Susan’s true passion is teaching knitting workshops, which she is honored to do both nationally and beyond. | |
| Lorilee Beltman This former yarn shop owner's experience providing answers to curious knitters taught her the value of delivering an honest answer with kindness. Lorilee’s continental knitting video has more than a million views on YouTube, but she appreciates all knitting styles. She urges her students to try projects that introduce new techniques. Since 2009, she has enjoyed her students at national events and looks forward to meeting you in class! | |
| Wendy Bernard Wendy Bernard is a knitwear designer and author of Custom Knits, Custom Knits 2, Custom Knits Accessories, and Up, Down, All-Around Stitch Dictionary (all STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books). She also has an independent pattern line under the name Knit and Tonic. | |
| John Brinegar John Brinegar has been involved with fiber arts since age 17. His work has been published in Vogue Knitting, Knit Simple, Interweave’s knit.wear, and Elle Man, as well as featured in the collections of Tahki Stacy Charles and New York Fashion Week runways. John is known for his teaching style, which embraces the motto “No knitter left behind.” He is currently finishing a 10-piece collection of couture garments for Fall/Winter 2014 using unique stitchwork and wildly original construction, which will be featured as a fashion short video on TaintedWool.com, with select patterns being available. Check out John’s Craftsy class, Seaming Beyond the Basics, and please visit wrongsidefacing.blogspot.com for the latest updates, including the opening date of John’s first solo knitwear exhibition in New York City, entitled “I would never wear that” (March 2015). | |
| Nancy Bush Nancy has a passion for traditional knitting techniques and uses of ethnic patterns. She has a degree in Art History and did post-graduate studies in color design and weaving in San Francisco and Sweden. She has published articles and designs in many magazines including PieceWork, where she is currently a member of the editorial advisory panel. She teaches workshops in the United States and abroad, is the author of Folk Socks (1994), Folk Knitting in Estonia (1999), Knitting on the Road, Socks for the Traveling Knitter (2001), Knitting Vintage Socks (2005) and Knitted Lace of Estonia: Techniques, Patterns, and Traditions (2008), all published by Interweave Press. She owns The Wooly West, a mail-order yarn business in Utah. | |
| Chris Bylsma Chris retired from a career in marketing and advertising to pursue her passion, knitting. She planned to spend time at home in Madison, WI, knitting and gardening. Instead she has her own line of patterns and travels extensively doing workshops from coast to coast and knitting cruises throughout the world. Her greatest joy is sharing her knitting knowledge to empower other knitters. | |
| Amy Detjen Amy loves everything about knitting and knitters. She was the “List Mom” of the original Knit List for more than five years, which was the Ravelry of the 1990s. Amy is passionate about solving stubborn knitting problems and helping knitters over hurdles. She doesn’t design too much, but would rather teach and talk about knitting. She teaches at Vogue Knitting LIVE events and has been Meg Swansen’s assistant at her Knitting Camp for 19 years. Amy co-authored Knitting with Two Colors with Meg Swansen, and has two popular Craftsy classes: Custom Yoke Sweaters, which has lots of tips on shaping for circular sweaters, and Simple Sweaters: Stranded and Steeked, which teaches knitting with two colors and how to steek your work! | |
| Donna Druchunas Donna Druchunas escaped a corporate cubicle to honor her passions for knitting, world travel, research, and writing. She is the author of six knitting books, including Arctic Lace and Successful Lace Knitting. Donna also writes regularly for Piecework magazine and has a column on ethnic knitting traditions on Knitty. Donna gives talks and teaches knitting workshops in the United States, Canada, and Europe. She has just finished writing a book about knitting in Lithuania, and her new book series, Stories in Stitches, features historical patterns and essays. She lives in Vermont with her husband, mother, and three cats, who all help her test the usability and comfort of her finished knitted items. Visit Donna’s website at www.sheeptoshawl.com. | |
| Rosemary Drysdale Rosemary Drysdale is a designer and teacher of knitting and embroidery. While growing up in Northern England, she learned to knit socks at age 7 and was introduced to embroidery by her grandmother. Rosemary studied textile science in college, earning a distinction in needlework studies. After relocating to the US in her early twenties, she enjoyed a decade-spanning career as an embroidery and knitting teacher and designer at Pratt Institute and FIT in New York. She’s traveled the world lecturing and promoting her publications. More recently, she was a yarn store owner and is currently Knitting Editor at Vogue Knitting and Knit Simple magazines; she is also a consultant and designer in the yarn industry. Rosemary’s book Entrelac (Sixth&Spring Books), was published in November 2010, and her latest, Entrelac 2 (Sixth&Spring Books), publishes October 2014. | |
| Rhonda Fargnoli Rhonda Fargnoli is the owner/designer of Coastal Colours Yarn, a Connecticut-based yarn company that creates 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 20 years. Rhonda is the faculty advisor to the new Hand Knitting Design Certificate at Rhode Island School of Design. She has been featured in articles about teaching knitting design courses in Vogue Knitting, and her knitting designs have been published in Noro magazine and Knit Simple. Fargnoli has also designed for several yarn companies, including Blue Sky Alpacas, Koigu, and Sheep Shop, and is a contributing writer for Fiber Art Now magazine. Her passion is also creating clothing and items from third life clothing and her students at RISD/CE have created items for Green Eileen, for Eileen Fisher. | |
| Norah Gaughan Norah Gaughan is the author of Knitting Nature, Comfort Knit & Crochet Afghans, and Comfort Knit & Crochet Baby. In the past she’s worked as the design director at JCA /Reynolds, including overseeing the Artful Yarns & Adrienne Vittadini Yarn lines. More recently, Norah was the design director at Berroco for nearly nine years, where she published fifteen eponymous booklets and headed up the design team. Over the years Norah has freelanced for most of the leading yarn companies and knitting magazines and has also designed pattern stitches for 7th Avenue. Now working independently, Norah lives in a small hand-built house in New Hampshire. | |
| Susan Guagliumi Susan Guagliumi’s career as an education specialist in the machine-knitting industry has spanned more than 25 years and included positions with three knitting machine companies, culminating with the position of Education Director for Studio by White Knitting Machines. During those years she oversaw all dealer education, consumer publications, videos and workshops. Her garment designs and technical articles have appeared in both hand- and machine-knitting magazines. She is the author of two hand-knit collections for Creative Publishing international: Knitting Cuff to Cuff: Twelve Sweaters One Way (2007) and Knitting Saddle Style: Twelve Sweaters One Way (2008). Hand-Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitters (and the companion video) remains one of the most popular machine-knitting books ever published. In March 2010, More Hand-Manipulatd Stitches was published; it is available through Susan’s website (guagliumi.com) or Amazon.com. | |
| 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. He recently founded Yarn Shaming (yarnshaming.tumblr.com), because while he loves yarn, yarn does not always love him back. 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, 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. | |
| Amy Herzog Amy is incredibly passionate about helping women make sweaters they love to wear. She is the author of Knit to Flatter (STC Craft, 2013) and designs sweaters that flatter the figure and are easy to modify. She is also a knitting expert on American Public Television’s Knit and Crochet Now. Amy teaches classes across the country and on Craftsy, and her sweater designs have been featured in Twist Collective, Knitscene, Interweave Knits, Knitty, and more. Amy was born to dual passions: technology & crafting. For many years it appeared the two would live separately: Computer science research director by day, knitting everywhere else, each jealously fighting for her attentions. Slowly, quietly, they became friends and allies, resulting in a glorious bit of serendipity: CustomFit, a smart, easy-to-use sweater pattern generator. | |
| Anna Hrachovec Anna Hrachovec is a Chicago-based designer and artist who combines her passions for knitting and Japanese-influenced character design to create adorable and unusual toys that all ages can get excited about. When she's not designing patterns to share with her fellow knitters, she is working on character-based art pieces, installations, and animations. She has written four books of patterns for knitted toys, the newest of which is Huge & Huggable Mochimochi. Her patterns and blog can be found at mochimochiland.com. | |
| Mary Scott Huff Mary Scott Huff is the author of The New Stranded Colorwork, Teach Yourself Visually Color Knitting, and Character Hats, coming in 2014. Mary fled the realm of Information Technology to pursue a more yarn-centered way of life. The many friends she found along the way have helped her become a nationally recognized designer, teacher, and author. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Mary shares a wee little house there with her husband, two children, some Scottish Terriers, and more yarn than is strictly necessary. You can join Mary on her adventures playing with string at www.maryscotthuff.com. | |
| Maggie Jackson Maggie Jackson was brought up on a small dairy farm in Northern Ireland where at six years old she was taught to knit and began her journey from quiet farmer's daughter to award-winning international knitwear designer! She was trained as a Fashion designer and did ready-to-wear for 25 years, selling to Nordstom and Neiman Marcus in the US as well as having her own retail shop in Ireland. Today, Maggie supports the Maggiknits Collection, showing at Vogue Knitting LIVE and Stitches, doing fashion shows, workshops, book-signings, and International and National retreats, with the aim of sharing her knowledge and encouraging knitters to think outside the box! Also telling an Irish yarn here and there with her own Irish sense of humor! Check out her work at www.maggiknits.com, www.maggiknitsretailgalleria.com, and www.youtube.com/maggiknitsdesigns | |
| 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. | |
| 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 Knitting the Perfect Fit and The Knit Stitch Pattern Handbook, as well as numerous publications and DVD's from Leisure Arts. She's currently at work on her most exciting book to date! | |
| Catherine Lowe Catherine Lowe is known for her original and unique construction techniques and her pairing of luxury fiber with elegant design. She has developed an approach to hand knitting that rethinks the traditional technical and design vocabularies of the hand knitter and translates the distinctive elements of haute couture dressmaking into refined techniques. Her designs as well as articles on couture knitting techniques have appeared in Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits, and she has been profiled in Interweave Knits, Knitting Lessons by Lela Nargi, and in KnitKnit: Profiles + Projects from Knitting’s New Wave by Sabrina Gschwandtner. | |
| Jen Lucas Jen has been designing just about as long as she has been knitting. She has produced many accessory patterns over the years but is most well-known for her shawl designs. She is the author of the best-selling book Sock-Yarn Shawls. Jen’s patterns can be found on Ravelry as well as in several magazines, including Knit Simple, Love of Knitting, and Knitscene. She lives in a yarn-filled house in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband, Alex. jenlucasdesigns.com. | |
| Patty Lyons Patty Lyons (pattylyons.com) is a nationally recognized knitting teacher and technique expert who is known for teaching the “why,” not just the “how,” in her pursuit of training the “mindful knitter.” She specializes in sweater design and sharing her love of the much-maligned subjects of gauge and blocking. After deciding to leave her previous life as a Broadway stage manager to follow her passion and work in the knitting world, Patty managed a New York City yarn store, and then in 2008 she joined Lion Brand Yarn to create the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in New York City, where she served as the Studio Director for five years. Patty now teaches nationally at guilds and knitting shows around the country such as Vogue Knitting LIVE, Stitches, and the Knit and Crochet Show (the official show of TKGA and CGOA). Patty’s popular classes can also be found online at Knitting Daily and Craftsy, and her “Improve Your Knitting Class” was named Craftsy’s most popular class of 2013! Patty designs for yarn companies like Cascade and Takhi Stacy Charles, and her designs and knitting skill articles have been published in Vogue Knitting, Creative Knitting, Knitter’s, Knit 1,2,3,and Knit Style magazines, where she also writes a knitter’s advice column called Patty’s Purls of Wisdom. | |
| 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. | |
| Nancy Marchant Nancy Marchant was born in Indiana but now lives and works as a graphic designer in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She has written articles for Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, and Knitters, as well as a number of Dutch knitting magazines and is the author of Knitting Brioche, the first and only knitting book devoted exclusively to the brioche stitch. She maintains a website on the subject at www.briochestitch.com and teaches brioche knitting both locally and at large yarn shows. | |
| Kristina McGowan Kristina McGowan is a New York City–based knitwear designer. Her first book, Modern Top-Down Knitting, was published in 2010, and her second, More Modern Top-Down Knitting, in 2013, both by STC Craft. | |
| Laura Nelkin Laura Nelkin lives in upstate New York, where the sunny season is short, leaving plenty of time to be indoors knitting. Though she has a degree in apparel design from Cornell University, she took to knitting years ago and hasn’t looked back. Laura is currently enamored with lace, and with incorporating beads into knitted jewelry, so most of her designs lean in this direction. She travels often to teach these techniques and more at workshops around the country. Laura has a line of knitting kits and patterns, and runs mystery knit-alongs multiple times a year through her website, nelkindesigns.com. Her first book, KnockOut Knits, will be released by Random House in September 2014. | |
| 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. She is the author of Lovely Knitted Lace: A Geometric Approach to Gorgeous Wearables (Lark). | |
| Dora Ohrenstein Dora is one of the leading American crochet designers. She has published five books for major publishers, including Custom Crocheted Sweaters: Make Garments That Really Fit (Lark Books), The New Tunisian Crochet (Interweave Press) and most recently The Crocheter’s Skill-Building Handbook, releasing December 2014 by Storey Publishing. Her webzine www.CrochetInsider.com is one of the most well-read crochet sites on the web. She writes about crochet technique, trends, and history, and she teaches online advanced crochet classes at Crochet Insider. | |
| Kristen Rengren Kristen Rengren is a knitwear designer, long-time collector of vintage clothing and ephemera, and former vintage clothing dealer. Kristen designs frequently for Twist Collective, and her work has also been published by Vogue Knitting, Interweave, and in several books and other publications. She is also the author of Vintage Baby Knits (STCh, 2009). Kristen teaches workshops on math for knitters as well as on pattern alteration and design. You can see her work, including her slowly but surely growing line of independently published patterns, at http://www.ravelry.com/designers/kristen-rengren. | |
| 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. Her Craftsy class, Custom Cabled Pullovers, launched earlier this year. 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 iPhone/iPad app called KnitSpeaker. | |
| Candace Eisner Strick Candace Eisner Strick has immersed herself in music and knitting most of her life. Now retired from 16 years of teaching cello, she concentrates on designing, writing, and teaching knitting. Her newest book, Strick-ly Socks, features a revolutionary and amazingly simple way of knitting socks. She is the author of six other books, has been published in numerous magazines, and has taught nationally and internationally since 1998. She is the creator of her own line of yarn, Merging Colors, and her own line of patterns under the name of Strickwear (www.strickwear.com). Candace’s students say they not only love learning from her but thoroughly enjoy her sense of humor as well. Appropriately, “strick” means to knit. | |
| 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 next book with Lark Crafts will be published in spring 2015, and she is currently at work on a book for Sixth & Spring, which will be published in fall 2015 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. | |
| Cully Swansen Cully Swansen is the grandson of master knitter Elizabeth Zimmermann and son of knitting designer Meg Swansen. Cully writes patterns and edits books for Schoolhouse Press, a business founded by Zimmermann in 1958. Cully edited Elizabeth’s garter stitch designs for the book Knit One Knit All and produced Knitting with Two Colors, which includes his take on centering a color pattern. One of Cully’s first original designs, a cabled hat and sweater, was published in Vogue Knitting in 2010. His latest work is the Circular Stranded Surprise Jacket, a variation of the iconic Baby Surprise Jacket his grandmother designed for him. Cully teaches at Meg Swansen’s Knitting Camp and has become a go-to-guy to answer technical questions at Schoolhouse Press. | |
