2011 Teachers > Bios
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Lorilee Beltman knits in Michigan in the company of her "Yarnie" friends- customers from her former shop, City Knitting. Providing answers for a steady stream of questioning knitters taught her the value of an honest answer delivered with kind instruction. She believes that challenging oneself and finding answers is the best route to a happy knitting life. Her continental knitting video is #1 on youtube with well over a half million views. Beside teaching continental, she enjoys teaching from patterns that employ techniques new to knitters. For her, a classroom full of curious knitters is a most happy place.
Since 2009, she has enjoyed her students at national events such as Sock Summit and Stitches, and she looks forward to meeting you in Columbus. |
| JC Briar about teaching knitting: This is an after-effect of being a technique freak, I suppose. Doesn’t everyone want to know a handful of ways to start a circular doily? How to hand-wind a perfect ball of yarn? “Of course they do,” my subconscious says. Fortunately, my conscious knows effective teaching doesn’t happen by accident, so I actively work on my teaching skills. I recognize that different students have different learning styles, and try to adapt to match each student’s needs. |
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Beth Brown-Reinsel has been teaching knitting on the national level now for more than twenty years!
I look back on these years with feelings of wonder and gratitude. I am doing things I never imagined possible — I have developed a network of friends, students, and colleagues that span the continent and the world, writing about knitting, creating and marketing my own line of knitting patterns, and even financially supporting myself and my children with what I love to do — teaching knitting! |
| Amy Detjen teaches at Meg Swansen’s knitting camp, and has been called an “outstanding knitting visionary” who is both witty and infectiously charismatic. |
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Candace Eisner Strick learned both music and knitting at the age of three, and has followed these two loves all her life. She was co-director and cello instructor of the Suzuki String Program of Mansfield, CT for 16 years. She is the author of Sweaters From a New England Village, Sweaters From New England Sheep Farms. Beyond Wool, The Quilter's Quick Reference Guide, and Little Box of Crocheted Bags. Candace designs for yarn companies while she and her husband run their internet based business, www.Strickwear.com, which features her exclusive designs, and her new line of yarn, Merging Colors. When not doing the above, she is
riding her bicycle. She lives in rural Connecticut with her pianist/knitting husband and 2 birds. She has
three grown sons, all of whom know how to knit but refuse to do so. |
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Nicky Epstein is a world renowned knit wear designer, teacher and author of over 20 bestselling books. Her knitting and crochet books are highly original resource books, to historical books for which she has won the National Independent Book Publisher’s Award for Best Craft Book Of The Year…three times! Her innovative, fashionable, whimsical and award winning designs have appeared in every major knitwear magazine, in museums and on television, and she has taught classes to knitters around the world and hosted many Vogue Knitting Tours overseas as well as others. |
Fifty years ago, Martha Gifreda’s mother taught her to knit in an (unsuccessful) effort to keep her quiet. Her prize winning hat design features knitted-as-you-go I-cord.
For over 25 years, Ruth Lantz has specialized in dressmaking, weaving, machine/handknitting, and croshet. A former gallery owner, she produced wearable art sold in galleries across the country.
She now does more experimental work and is a curator for the Ohio Craft Museum.
Ruth also teaches
a knit module to the fashion design students at Columbus College of Art and Design.
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Debra M. Lee is a
certified CYCA
teacher and an avid
designer. She enjoys
combining
color, texture, and
structure into silhouette-
flattering
styles. Her designs can be found in Knitters, Knit ‘n Style, and A Gathering
of Lace. As an accomplished teacher,
Debra encourages her students to knit
with confidence and adventure. |
| Judy Pascale launched her career as a professional knitting instructor and designer in the early 1990's. She is now exclusively teaching knitting and design classes with the emphasis on customizing desired fit. |
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When Sarah Peasley was pregnant with her first son and looking for the perfect yarn for that first baby blanket, she discovered a new yarn store in town (short-lived, alas). The owner introduced her to the local knitting guild. That was in 1990, and that’s when her knitting life really took off. In January 2000, she taught at another yarn store for three years, showing over 150 different students how to knit Continental style, how to make socks and hats, how to finish their knitting projects, how to work Fair Isle and Entrelac, and how to design their own sweaters, among other things. Sarah says, I provided my students with detailed handouts and lots of moral support. I encouraged them to contact me with any questions or problems, committed to see them through to the end of their projects, even long after the classes were over. |
Gayle Roehm is a former management consultant who now devotes herself to fiber arts, especially knitting. Her designs have been featured in Knitter’s, Interweave Knits, A Gathering of Lace, and other publications. She has traveled throughout the world, speaks Japanese and has knitted with Japanese designs for many years.
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Dana Root, an ergonomist, will share her passion for ergonomics and love of knitting while the knitter will learn: Why the body is at risk for knitting discomfort, knitting methods that may cause soreness, and solutions for reducing knitting discomfort.
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Tracey Schuh owns and operates Interlacements Yarns in Abrams, Wisconsin. Tracey is a multitalented fiber artist who is passionate about working with color and texture. Initially a weaver, she has now expanded her horizons to encompass all mediums of the art. She loves creating art using found objects. Tracey's enjoyment of teaching has her designing new classes all the time, so stop by and say hi. If there's a class you've always wanted to take, she probably also has it on her list. Tracey loves the exciting invention and re-invention that comes with both learning and teaching! She invites you to introduce yourself and create a new idea with her. |
| Jill Bigelow-Suttell is co-owner of Kindred Spirits Yarn Studio and Kindred Spirits Design Studio in Franklin, PA. She is past president of the Wooly Wonders knitting guild. Jill teaches at festivals and yarn shops all around the Great Lakes area, including Pgh Knit and Crochet Festival, Knitter’s Day Out, Knitter’s Fantasy, Ann Arbor Fiber Expo, Kindred Spirits Yarn Studio, Yarn Cravin’, Yarn Garden (of Michigan), Rae’s Yarn Boutique, and Knit A Round. She is co-owner of B-ewe-tiful Design. Her designs have been published by Knitty.com, Dark Horse Yarns, Schulana, and Cast On magazine. |
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Mary Beth Temple designs patterns for and write about knitting and crocheting. She is author of The Secret Language of Knitters and Hooked for Life: Adventures of a Crochet Zealot. |
Amy Tyler has been knitting and designing for 20 years, spinning for nine years, and teaching for over 30 years (dance, biomechanics, neurophysiology, motor learning, statistics, and fiber!).
Amy's fiber arts work is heavily influenced by both her fine arts training and her science training. Common to both is an appreciation for pattern recognition and composition. The result is her focus on texture, three-dimensional structure, and knitting techniques that require handspun yarns. Most recently, she has been exploring the use of slip stitch patterns in her knit designs; creating hats, felted bags, socks, shawls, and sweaters that use slip stitches to create textural effects with various yarns. Her recent spinning projects have been focused on creating combinations of yarns that are different but complementary, by varying fiber blends, yarn thickness, plying strategies, and colorways.
| Anna Walden is a practicing psychologist and has been making clothing since she was old enough not to poke her eye out with a needle. She was cofounder and co-owner of Twisted Sisters although she recently decided to leave in order to pursue her passion for designing out-of-the-box knitting and sharing her passion through teaching. Twisted Sisters has published seven pattern books and multiple individual designs for magazines and other venues. She specializes in putting together unexpected elements to make wearable garments into wearable art. |
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