I’m an artist, graphic designer and avid crafter, but the bulk of my professional experience is in knitting. I started my career in fiber arts when I founded Pick Up Sticks, a knitting design company, in 2003. Throughout the life of the company, we’ve sold patterns and kits in nearly 850 knitting stores in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. I wrote two books on knitted felt and am currently a knitting expert on the PBS show Knit and Crochet Now.

See a comprehensive summary of my work here.

PRESS AND ACCOLADES

My knitting designs have been featured on the cover of Interweave Knits and Knitting Today magazines.

In 2008 I was honored as a notable Women Entrepreneur for Country Living Magazine.

My products have been featured in national magazines including Country Living, ELLE, and Sunset.

TV

I have appeared on several national and local television programs in addition to Knit and Crochet Now, including DIY Network’s “Knitty Gritty” and  “Shay Pendray’s Needlearts Studio.”

HISTORY

I didn’t have a background in design or pattern writing, but I was an avid knitter and I was desperate to transition out of my 10-year career in journalism. My need to create something visual, tactile and original simply trumped my desire to hunch over a computer all day. I was toying around with a few original knitting designs when a friend came over with a felted bag. I fell in immediate love. I simply could not believe her bag had been knit. That’s the moment I figured out I CAN DO THAT, and I became a student of knitted felt.

I was pregnant at the time and ended up on a three-month confinement due to complications with the pregnancy. This very scary period turned out to be a boon: It gave me the space to create a set of original knitted felt hat patterns. And it allowed my baby boy to be born full-time, fat and happy. After his birth, my mom (and business partner) and I hit the road with my designs. We toted along my three-year-old and a brand new baby as we made sales calls to knitting stores throughout Northern California. A rep spotted my line in one of the stores and asked if she could carry me. That’s when my career as a designer took off. Here’s my original line from 2003. The patterns are available at www.pickupsticksonline.com:

In December 2010, my family moved from the Bay Area to Burlington, Vermont, so Pick Up Sticks moved, too. When we relocated, my mom and I decided it wouldn’t be possible to continue our business partnership across country, so I now run the business by myself. (Of course she still helps out when she visits from California!) When we moved, I also decided to only sell my patterns online — I will no longer be carrying yarn after I’m finished liquidating my inventory. I run the business from my home studio in Burlington and I still regularly release knitting designs, but I’m expanding my portfolio to include graphic and surface design, sewing and embroidery.