ABOUT
Hello, I’m glad you’re here.
White Branch Knits started the way most good things do – quietly, with a lot of swatching. I’ve always been the kind of knitter who reads a pattern twice before casting on, and somewhere along the way that habit turned into a love of the patterns themselves: how they’re written, how they’re structured, how a good one can make a knitter feel capable of anything.
Why I knit
Knitting gives me something to do with my hands while my mind wanders — and it turns out that wandering is where most of my favorite designs come from. There’s a rhythm to it that feels a little like reading a good book slowly.
Why I design
I design the patterns I want to knit myself: pieces with quiet detail, thoughtful construction, and instructions that respect the knitter’s time. I want every pattern I release to feel like it was written by someone who has actually knit it — because it was.
Why I love technical editing
Editing patterns for other designers lets me sit inside someone else’s ideas and help them come through clearly. There’s a particular satisfaction in catching the one dropped stitch count that would have confused a hundred knitters — and in handing back a pattern that reads just a little more beautifully than before.
When I’m not knitting
After more than 35 years in Chicagoland, I recently traded Illinois for the Kansas City area — and a decade-long career in local government for the chance to give White Branch Knits my full attention. When I’m not surrounded by yarn, I’m usually planning my next road trip, cheering on the Cubs, visiting a local brewery or yarn shop, or exploring somewhere new with Gigi, my rescue pup, along for the ride.
I’m also a longtime geocacher with more than 25,000 finds, so “vacation” usually means seeing how many interesting places I can discover along the way. I especially love hitting the road with my little teardrop trailer and camping in state parks. My adult son has started his own adventures working for the railroad and living in a neighboring state, which gives me one more reason to keep traveling.
Knitting has been part of those adventures for more than 25 years. My mom taught me, and I’m at least a fourth-generation knitter — so wherever I wander, there’s almost always a project tucked somewhere in the car.
