Hello! This is me, Beth. I have been a knitter and an off an on again (currently on) crocheter for about 8 years now. I've had a lifelong love of textiles and used to make dozens of yarn dolls to play on my Kinex Motorized Ferris wheel when I was 12 or so. Kinex for those not in the know, is sort of like a plastic erector set.
I've done cross stitch, latch-hooking, embroidery, weaving, sewing, dyeing, and spinning, but none of these things comes as close to my heart as knitting. When I learned to knit, the first thing I bought was a stitch dictionary. I would sit and try to make different swatches out of the book. There were many things I didn’t understand such as that a YO is not a stitch, but an action. I made many ugly misshapen swatches and threw my needles down in disgust more times than I can count (and used lots of expletives) but I didn’t give up. I kept at it and eventually my skills grew to the point that I wanted to share the joy of accomplishment and learning to make with others.
Designing knitting patterns feels like coming home. It is literally the most satisfying job I've had in my life. I spend most of my time with needles in my hands and I think knitting has taught me to let go of perfectionism, learn to persevere, have patience with myself, and when I inevitably make mistakes, to fix them and move on. I feel also like I've learned the joy of attending to detail, of really finishing something in all ways so that it is, while not perfect, as good as it can be.
I also spend time making visual art of the linoleum print variety and sketching designs and ideas. Recently I've been making art about knitting, because its something I have very intense feelings about and the long process from inception to final product helps me to process it.
So that's a little bit about me and knitting. The nuts and bolts are that I have a B.A. in Art from Northern Illinois University, I live in downtown DeKalb, IL above a shop with Eli, my partner of 6 years, and Asuka (pronounced oska) a demanding but adorable orange tabby cat. I make my living teaching knitting classes and designing knitting patterns.
Here is a nice photo of Eli. No really, he hates being photographed so this really is a "good" one.
