| Susan B. Anderson Susan B. Anderson has been knitting for the past 28 years and designing for about half of those. She has written four books, Itty-Bitty Hats, Itty-Bitty Nursery, Itty-Bitty Toys, and Spud & Chloë at the Farm. A fifth book is set for release in January 2013. Susan designs and curates the blog for Spud & Chloë (www.spudandchloe.com/blog) and also writes her personal blog (susanbanderson.blogspot.com). Recently, she filmed and released two online courses with Craftsy. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| Laura Bryant Laura Bryant is founder and creative director of Prism Yarns. She has written 6 books, including Artful Color, Mindful Knits and The New Knitter’s Template (with Barry Klein). She is well known for her color expertise, exploration with hand-dyed yarns, and innovative approach to garment shape, developed through years as a working artist. Laura has published designs and articles in many magazines, including Vogue Knitting and Knit Simple, and has published over 70 booklets for Prism. | |
| Christine Bylsma Chris retired from a career in marketing communications and advertising to pursue her artistic passions—knitting and texture play. She teaches workshops coast-to-coast for guilds, TNNA, conferences, shops, and in her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. In addition, she has her own line of knitting patterns available through retail yarn stores and online. Her approach to knitting is that the process and end product should both be a joy, and she designs with that in mind. Chris is noted for her Crayon Box Jacket and inventive Ladder Scarf and Ladder Shawl. She encourages knitters to “color outside the lines,” where it’s more fun, and to think outside the box (she has occasionally been accused of actually not having a box). | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| Faina Goberstein Faina Goberstein is a prolific knitwear designer, author, and a professional teacher. She is the co-author of best-selling book 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. Her class, Sizing Knitwear Patterns, is one the most popular classes on Craftsy.com. Faina is best known for her elegant and well-fitted classic designs showing off textures, cables, brioche, and slip stitch techniques. She is fascinated with many knitting techniques and loves to pass her excitement to her students. Unusual slip-stitch technique is Faina’s latest obsession. Her new book The Art of Slip Stitch will be released in August of 2015. | |
| Franklin Habit Franklin Habit is the author of It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons (Interweave Press), a regular contributor to Knitty, and proprietor of The Panopticon (the-panopticon.blogspot.com), one of the most popular knitting blogs. He travels widely to teach and speak about lace, colorwork, and the history of knitting. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| Barry Klein Barry learned to knit at his family knitting store, where every sweater was designed with custom instructions. His love of design and love of knitting comes through in the yarns he designs for his company. Barry believes in “letting the yarn do the work” and follows through with this concept in the classes that he teaches. It is all about the yarn, the properties of the yarn, and what can be done with it to ensure proper fit and a true love of what you just knit. Barry can be seen on Knitting Daily and has written many books on knitting and DVDs on knitting and design. | |
| 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. Her next book is due out in the fall of 2012. | |
| 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 have appeared in Vogue Knitting and in Interweave Knits. Her articles on couture knitting technique have been featured in Vogue Knitting, 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| Mary Jane Mucklestone Mary Jane Mucklestone loves to knit, especially with color. She's the author of 2 new books featuring stranded colorwork; the stitch dictionary 150 Scandinavian Motifs, and Fair Isle Style a contemporary take on colorwork featuring 20 projects from 18 popular designers. Her first book 200 Fair Isle Motifs was an instant classic and has been translated into many languages. Mary Jane travels the world to study traditional knitting techniques and to learn more about the history of the craft. She's a popular teacher specializing in lively, fun and informative classes. She feels lucky to be invited to teach all over the world, and is eager to share knitting knowledge with her students. She aims to give students the courage to try something new! Mary Jane's inventive handknitting designs are featured in many books and magazines as well as on her website MaryJaneMucklestone.com. | |
| Laura Nelkin Laura Nelkin lives in upstate New York, where the sunny season is short and there is plenty of time to be indoors and knit. Though she has a degree in apparel design, she took to knitting 7 years ago and hasn’t looked back. Laura is currently enamored with lace, and incorporating beads into it, so most of her designs lean in this direction. She also has a passion for knitted jewelry and has been exploring creating wearable pieces. Laura travels often to teach these techniques and more at workshops around the country. When Laura is not designing or knitting, she is whipping up yummy feasts with her family, gardening, riding her bike, and taking time to play! | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| Candace Eisner Strick Candace Eisner Strick has been immersed in music and knitting for most of her life. Retired after sixteen years of teaching cello, she now concentrates on desiging, 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 classes, but thoroughly enjoy her sense of humor as well. Appropriately, “strick” mean 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 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. | |
| 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. | |
