Hi there and welcome!
I started designing knitwear in October 2011. I have a bachelor’s degree in fashion design, but never linked my love of knitting and crocheting with my designing until then! I started knitting during college at Middle Tennessee State University in 2002. I picked a worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles for my first scarf…. and it got old really quickly so I kind of gave up for a while. I only made my scarf long enough to get a grade!
Skip a couple of years and I was living in North Carolina with my husband who was in the Army at the time. The guys got deployed and a friend of mine said she wanted to learn to knit so I told her I knew the basics and we started making scarves… and scarves… and well, more scarves! That’s the only thing I knew how to do. Eventually though I tried a hat in a super bulky yarn that ended up way too short! But it was too late – I was hooked! (Well, not actually because I still didn’t get the hang of crochet for another two years!)
When I finally learned to crochet it was 2006 and I was teaching elementary art back in my hometown area of Nashville, TN. I couldn’t see the stitches because in knitting they are all on a needle, so the V’s didn’t make much sense to me, but somehow I finally got the hang of it and then it was second nature – it felt even more natural than knitting! Now I was really hooked!
From that time until 2011 I casually made things to give away as gifts and an occasional item for myself, although those were few and far between. I decided to create a few things for the TN State Fair and everything I made placed first or second! So that sparked a desire to see if I could design. I sent out several submissions to quite a number of magazines, knit and crochet, and in December 2011 I got my first two acceptances – one for Crochet Today! and the other for Crochet World.
Since then things have been going almost nonstop. I worked from December until June without a break from designing, doing all the stitching myself – even working four projects in a month! On top of all this, I am a full-time high school teacher, a wife, and mother to three young boys. Let me say, sometimes getting time to sit and work on a project is next to impossible!
So far I have completed patterns for several issues of Crochet Today!, Crochet World, Crochet! I Like Crochet, and have knitting patterns in issues of Your Knitting Life, Vogue Knitting, Knit Simple, I Like Knitting and Creative Knitting. I have also created patterns for Red Heart yarn and self publish free patterns on my site when I get a chance.
So, that’s me and kind of an overview of how I got to where I am now in my design career. So far, I’ve had over 80 designs published – most of which are crochet, but my knitting is picking up steam. I can’t decide between the two – I love them both so much! So this site is a combination of my love for yarn, whether it be crocheted or knitted. 🙂
