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Knitting Books
I've written four knitting books. The Knitted Rug is available today. Arctic Lace will be out in Fall 2006. The other books are about designing your own sweaters using ethnic knitting techniques from around the world. They won't be coming out until 2007, but you can check in here for updates and sneek peaks, or sign up for my mailing list.

Charity and Activist Knitting
Over the past year, I've become very interested in charity and activist knitting. To give back to everyone in the knitting community who have been so supportive of my work, I've created a blog called Knitting for Change, where I post free patterns for charity knitting projects, knitting lessons, links to charity knitting websites, and personal essays.

Knitting Design
I learned to knit from my grandmother when I was a little girl. I didn't make anything from then until I was in my 30s, but when I started knitting again, it became an overwhelming obsession. Since 1999, when I moved to Colorado where the weather is cold enough to wear wool, I've learned to spin and have knitted a cubboard full of wool sweaters for myself. I've also designed projects for yarn companies, magazines, and books.

Here are a few examples:

This flirty tank, designed for Cherry Tree Hill Yarn, is made out of a cotton ribbon. It has crochet lace motifs at the waist, is knitted in stockinette and seed stitch, and trimmed out with crochet picots. If you know how to crochet, this is a quick project that you can make in a couple of weekends. I originally designed it in a silk boucle yarn that has since been discontinued. But the design adapts easily to any summery yarn.

I designed these "Uncommon Gardening Gloves" for the Spring 2004 issue of Interweave Knits. I used a cotton yarn that has just a tad of elastic in it to create a stretchy fabric for snug fitting gloves. Youc can get back issues of the magazine at the Interweave web site.

These easy raglan sweaters are knit in stockinette stitch. This was one of the first projects I designed. The body is knitted in one piece, and the sleeves are knitted separately. The pieces are joined and the yoke pulls it all together. My grandmother made the black-and-white version in the 50s. The green version is my modern adaptation using hand-painted, textured yarns.

This Amish oval rug was in the the Spring 2005 issue of Interweave Knits. I used a double strand of worsted weight cotton yarn so I could combine colors easily. The issue also includes my article on American rug knitting traditions. You can get back issues of the magazine at the Interweave web site.

These three sweaters were in Knit-n-Style magazine. The three garments use the same yarn in three different weights to make light, medium, and bulky pullovers. You have to take your time knitting them because there's a lot of trinity stitch, which uses a purl-3-together decrease to make the berries. It's hard on the hands if you knit nonstop for hours!