Anabel Sousa

Name: Anabel Sousa

Age: 33

Location: Paris

Profession: Free lance artisan

Craft(s) of Choice: Weaving, crocheting, knitting, and a little bit of sewing

Blog: http://crearescreer.wordpress.com

I started when I was a little girl. My mother knitted and crocheted and she passed me the first tips. Then I went to an art school and not many years ago I went into weaving. Now I’m fascinated by the possibility of create everything starting for a simple thread.

Beverly Army Williams

Name:  Beverly Army Williams        

Age:  39

Location:  Granby, CT

Profession: College freshman composition professor and fiction writer

Craft(s) of Choice: Knitting, spinning, weaving, embroidery, crochet

Blog: http://www.wbnm.typepad.com

My Gram was an avid stitcher.  She and her four sisters loved to crochet, although only one of them could read a pattern.  Aunt Franny would find an afghan or layette that she liked and teach the pattern to the other sisters, who would make endless items from memory. 

At nineteen, I decided I would use the road trip to our family reunion in Ohio to learn to crochet from Gram.  We worked with a small crochet hook and fine thread.  Gram wasn’t much of a teacher; she would rather rip out and fix my mistakes herself than show me what to do.  Somehow, though, I created my first doily—a bit wonky, but clearly a finished project.

It would be a few years before I taught myself to knit, but once I did, I was enamored. Until I moved to New Mexico for graduate school, I knit by myself.  Once there, though, I found a community of knitters, several of whom remain dear friends, despite my move to Connecticut.  We met every Tuesday night, and those gab sessions were my respite from academia.  My skills developed, and I found myself taking on more challenging projects, knowing that I had a posse of knitters ready to help me if I got stuck.  In the same way Gram learned from her biological sisters, I learned from my “knit sibs.” More than the product or the process of my creativity, it is my crafting community that means the most to me.

Erin Evans

Name: Erin Evans

Age: 25

Location: Georgia, USA

Profession: Freelance artist and crafter

Craft(s) of Choice: Sewing mainly, but also crocheting, knitting, weaving

Blog: http://erinmevans.blogspot.com/

This is much harder to put into words than I thought it would be.  After much thinking and debating I have come to the conclusion….I craft and make art because I have no choice.  It is something that I have always been drawn to.  I been making things for practically my entire life, and I devoted so much time and effort to my art degree (which has a concentration in textiles and fibers, much which uses typically traditional crafting techniques and materials)  There is something simply magical about making things with your hands.  Each stitch is not just a plain old stitch; it’s a stitch that is done with effort, thought and love.  The stitches that are made connect us with our past, I’m sure in each of our histories there was a seamstress, weaver, knitter or crocheter.  Crafting is something that connects the older generation and the next.  I can remember sitting with my grandmother while she would work on these huge afghans and there was something just memorizing about seeing the finished product.  To this day we have one of her blankets we call “The Magic Blanket” that she crocheted, there is something about this one blanket that you cover up with is and you know a good nap isn’t far behind.  I can’t imagine my life with out making things and I hope to continue the tradition.

Julie Anderson

Name: Julie Anderson

Age: 39

Location: Joliet, IL

Profession: Knitting Designer

Craft(s) of Choice: Knitting, spinning, weaving, paper craft, braiding, book binding, embroidery, and much more!

Blog: http://www.boogaj.com

I remember the first time I picked up the knitting needles. My mom was a knitter and her mother before her, so when I was old enough, she got me a skein of yarn and pulled out some of her mom’s knitting needles and I started on a garter stitch scarf. There were many mistakes and wobbly parts, but I loved it anyway. It was years before I knit anything else, but I still remember that first scarf with affection.

Julie Kornblum

Name: Julie Kornblum   

Age: 49

Location: Woodland Hills CA

Profession: Fiber Artist

Craft(s) of Choice: Weaving, Basketry, Knitting, Sewing

Blog: http://www.juliekornblum.blogspot.com

My earliest memories are my mother sewing across the room while I played with fabric scraps on the couch. Growing up, I did it all: embroidery, crewel, beading, macramé, decorated Christmas tree ornaments and Easter eggs, knitting and crochet taught by my grand mother; and sewing, sewing, sewing and sewing.

When I landed in Los Angeles at the age of 20, it didn’t take me long to find the fashion industry and the Fashion Design program at Los Angeles Trade Tech. I worked as a patternmaker for several years. I met my husband (of 21 years) and our daughter was born. I wished to advance myself further than patternmaking, and I went back to school to pursue my BA degree in Art; and our son was born. While my children were in elementary school, I also learned to write grants and headed a major playground renovation project. During the first seven years of the 12 it took to get my degree, I taught Sewing, Draping and Patternmaking at Otis College of Art and Design.

Since graduating from California State University Northridge in 2002, I have participated in a variety of art projects, groups and exhibitions. I’m the chair of an EcoArt group in Southern California, and I belong to several fiber arts and weavers’ guilds. I recently won awards for my basketry pieces in two juried shows, and I’m in the process of preparing for my first solo exhibition. What began as playing with fabric scraps has become a life.

Sofi Mandil

Name: Sofi Mandil

Age: 10

Location: Des Moines, Iowa

Profession: Grade School Student

Craft(s) of Choice:: Needle Felting & Weaving

Blog: http://earthsessions.blogspot.com

When I was 9 years old my taught me how to make felted people. I was really excited because it was really fun and I was really good at it. Then one day I got tired of making only people so I decided to think of something else. I started bending the pipe cleaners – at first I tried to make a bunny but then its tail was too big and it looked like a shark. Then it reminded me of fish so I made a mermaid. The first mermaid I ever made was actually fat but then as I made more and more I got better at it. Then one day my mom told me about a farmer’s market so I decided to make a lot of mermaids and have my own booth. It was really fun because for their display I used actual sand and I made them sit down on cute rocks. A lot of people stopped and admired the mermaids and it made me feel happy. I asked mom to make me a website. We spent so long trying to choose a name. We even looked through the dictionary. Eventually we found a name that was just right. It was ‘Earthsessions with Sofi”. I hope you visit my BLOG and website – Lambs are Fuzzy, Sofi