A B-ewe-tiful Design
In true knitting tradition, we are a mother/daughter team. Jane (mom) was taught to knit by an aunt who was an expert. Jill (daughter) learned from a family friend who was very much influenced by Elizabeth Zimmermann. Their knitting journey together started after Jill was married. She called home and said she could not watch another football game with her husband without having something to do and started asking me about knitting. I found her a book written for lefties and she was off. Shortly after that we were visiting Jill in Indianapolis and she and I were off to find yarn shops. We picked out yarn for her to make a sweater and we have been talking knitting ever since.
A trip to Stitches East generated so much enthusiasm in us that in 2004 we began Kindred Spirits Yarn Studio. During this time we began designing patterns, first for teaching aides for our classes and later as a whole other business. We also attended shows where we set up as a vendor and also taught classes. After 5 wonderful years as shop owners, a move to Michigan (by Jill) caused us to close the shop.
We are now focusing on our design work and have continued to attend shows and teach. We have taught at Knitter’s Fantasy, Knitters Day Out, The Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet festival and knitting retreats as well as yarn shops.
We recently completed a trunk show for The Brown Sheep Co. There are 14 items in the trunk show that shop owners can request from Brown Sheep to have on display in their shops.
Currently we are preparing classes that we can teach together. The benefits of team teaching will be that while one is teaching the other can be floating in the room to help individually. Also, Jill can knit both lefthanded and righthanded so we will be able to help both knitters. We can both knit American and continental styles of knitting.