Sandi Rosner learned to knit in the late 1970s from the instructions in the back of a magazine. She has made her living in the yarn business since 1999. Sandi has owned a local yarn store, been the creative director for a large yarn company, and has worked extensively as a freelance designer, technical editor, teacher and writer. She is the author of 4 books, most recently 21 Crocheted Tanks & Tunics: Stylish Designs for Every Occasion. Sandi is currently the Technical Content Editor for all things yarn at Interweave.com and Interweave Knits magazine.

Alexa and Emily write of their beginnings…”One fateful day years ago, the two of us met while working at a knit shop in Vancouver, Canada. We came from different career paths (Alexa from teaching and Emily from architecture), but had both begun to dabble in pattern design. In 2010, we headed out for a weekend visit to Tofino, one of our favourite places. At the beach, walking and talking under a starry sky the idea of Tin Can Knits began. We dreamed of publishing a book. In 2011 we began to dream bigger, aiming to turn knit design into a day job. Now, 13 years later, we have a catalog of 193 patterns and 11 collections, and it keeps on growing!”

SYLVIA OLSEN is a master storyteller, historian, knitter, designer, and award-winning, best-selling author. She spent seventeen years buying and selling Cowichan sweaters in a shop behind her home on the Tsartlip First Nation Reserve near Victoria, BC. Since then she has studied the history of the knitting tradition and how it fits into the broader scope of knitting traditions around the world. With her daughter, Joni, Sylvia works in Salish Fusion, the Olsen family business that creates knitted things. Sylvia’s latest book, “Unravelling Canada: A Knitting Odyssey“, tells the story, sometimes conflicted, sometimes celebratory, of her six week knitting tour across the country that examines the natural spaces and cultural geography of this great land through a knitting lens. In her presentation Sylvia will talk about the history of the Cowichan Sweater and the Coast Salish knitters, one of Canada’s most exceptional knitting stories.