Until her move to Ottawa in 2008, Sally Melville lived in KW. While there and in the mid-80’s, she—with friends—established the KW KNITTERS’ GUILD. Sally taught regularly for the guild, but she also hired workshop leaders from around the world, and those teachers encouraged her to both travel to teach and to publish.

Over the course of her publishing career, she wrote seven knitting books (including THE KNIT STITCH, a best-selling learn-to-knit book which sold 300,000 copies and has been translated into French and Russian) and published a variety of patterns on Ravelry. But her favourite work is her last—KNITTING PATTERN ESSENTIALS—a book that teaches Sally’s favourite skill (pattern drafting) and puts those skills into the hands of every knitter. 

The travelling to teach took her around the world and to Denver where she put much of her teaching expertise onto the Craftsy platform. She retired in 2019 after a wonderful career—speaking to folk who can appreciate the perfect buttonhole, who admire the textures and colors and techniques of knitting, who love to wear what they knit, and who know that life is about learning.

In/near Kitchener-Waterloo:

Laura Nelkin is a prolific and innovative knitwear designer and pattern maker. She is known for her complex but accessible designs that challenge knitters to think about their stitches in a new way. Taking inspiration from her home in the gorges Fingerlakes Region of Upstate New York, Laura loves incorporating elements into her designs that reference the landscape around her.

Laura has traveled all over the country to teach classes and workshops on some of her favorite techniques. She loves to share her enthusiasm for knitting with others!

Laura has an extensive line of self-published patterns, knitting clubs (The N Club, and Lola’s Choice, kits, knit-a-longs, and online classes through Craftsy and YouTube. Her patterns are challenging yet accessible thanks in large part to extensive video tutorials. Laura makes sure that no knitter is ever left behind!

When she isn’t designing or knitting, Laura loves to work on her handmade wardrobe, garden, whip up yummy feasts, travel, and spend lots of time outside.

In/near Kitchener-Waterloo:

Taiu Landra – Koigu Yarns Koigu has been family owned and operated by the Landra women for over 30 years. Maie Landra and her daughter Taiu have worked together since the beginning to raise sheep, discover new creative ways to dye and knit, network with the yarn community and grow Koigu Wool Designs into the global brand it is today. Taiu will be joining KWKG on Feb 13 to talk about incoming colour trends and provide a mini trunk show of some of Koigu’s newer garments.

In/near Kitchener-Waterloo:

Amy is the editor of Knitty Magazine (knitty.com). She’s also the publisher and founder of the magazine. 21 years ago, it came to her in a dream while sitting on her living room couch that she should start an online knitting magazine to feature the knitting design talent she’d been seeing on blogs all over the world in one tidy, professional-looking website. Knitty is a knitting and fibercraft magazine made available at no charge to everyone on the planet thanks to crowdfunding. Knitty publishes 4 seasonal issues every year, and sprinkles bonus content in between, just for fun. As for Amy, she’s allergic to wool and sensitive to all animal fibers, which is a such a funny condition for a knitting magazine editor. Ha. She manages to survive by working with plant fibers, silk, and a few select camelids. She’s not suffering much.

Amy’s current obsessions include her amazing dog, Sky; starting up a ukulele group in her (relatively) new hometown; learning to harness the power of her ADHD brain for good instead of evil; plus a whole lot of mindless knitting. 

She lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with her partner, Mark, and his [their!] two cats, Brody and Tasha, plus Sky, of course. 

In/near Kitchener-Waterloo:

Julie Crawford is the creator of Knitted Bliss, where she’s been blogging for over a decade! She’s a knitwear designer and an embroidery designer, and creates knitting-themed embroidery kits as well as ready-to-use designs to help you embroider on your knits and fabrics quickly and with confidence. Find her at knittedbliss.com

Want to try embroidering on knits but don’t know what to do, or where to start, or even any embroidery stitches? Don’t worry, Julie Crawford of Knitted Bliss Stitching is going to take us through every step of embroidering this pretty snowflake. Even if you have never embroidered before! Grab a swatch or knit of your choice, and some embroidery thread, and stitch with Julie in real time this entire snowflake!
Materials you’ll need to have ready for our zoom workshop: -a swatch or knit you want to embroider on

– an embroidery needle (it’s just a sewing needle with a long eye, most people have some kicking around and don’t realize it)

– scissors

– embroidery thread in a colour of you choice, that preferably contrasts with the knit

– the pre-printed snowflake stitch and stitch will be sent to you 

Here’s how to get your free snowflake stitch transfer.

Julie will provide the transfers to the Guild, and we’ll get them to members who have registered for the workshop in two ways.

Please refer to your newsletter sent to all members for instructions to receive your pattern.

In/near Kitchener-Waterloo: