About Our Teachers

Jane Bigleow is co owner of Kindred Spirits Yarn Studio and Kindred Spirits Design Studio in Franklin, PA. She teaches all levels of knitting at KSYS and also designs many of the patterns used for class projects. Her designs are also sold thru KSDS and other LYS's. She enjoys teaching and watching students realize the comfort that knitting.

CarlaK has a long history in the needle arts, particularly in crochet and knitting. She claims to have the 'yarn gene' which contributes to her success. She teaches at Natural Stitches, the coolest new knit shop in Pittsburgh. Everything from beginner classes in knit and crochet to advanced techniques are in her curriculum. She offers private lessons at Natural Stitches for anyone who would prefer those instead of a class atmosphere. She also designs and is planning to release her own line of patterns. She claims to eat and sleep in her spare time but we think she knits in her sleep, too. She has taught previously at the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet festival and was a favorite among students.

Robyn Chachula’s winding path to her crochet career began as most, not in the industry. A graduate from Penn State University in Architectural Engineering and pursued a career as a Structural Engineer. Her specialty is historic preservation and renovation. “So my day job may seem like a far cry from crochet fashion design, but for me, they are one in the same. They both use my ability to take a big project and break it down into little items that I can understand, then piece them back together for the overall big picture. My career also has helped me become fluent in crochet symbols which you see in most of my patterns.” Her crochet designs fall in the space between the Catwalk and the Target shelves. She designs for the intermediate crocheter that is ready to take the next step in their craft, but are not so complex that they will fail. She has been published in a number of national magazines and books. She can also be seen as a guest on Knit and Crochet Today on PBS. Her first crochet book will be available from Interweave Press in Fall 2008. You can see all of her architecturally inspired pieces at www.crochetbyfaye.com.

Laun Dunn is a 15 year veteran knitter and a graduate of Lycoming College with a BA in Theatrical Costume Design. Having a farming background motivated her to explore the different fiber species and breeds, added with her passion for design and color led to the formation of Dunn Spun Yarn & Fiber.

Lorraine Ehrlinger is a TKGA Master Knitter and a certified CYC instructor who has taught for local guilds, festivals, yarn stores and TKGA conventions. She has been a needlework judge at Cuyahoga and Geauga County Fairs. Lorraine has published numerous designs in books, magazines that include: Cast On, TKGA, Creative Knitting, Woodland Woolworks Catalogue. Her teaching experience includes classes in: socks, lace, hats, vests, cable sweaters, Aran knitting, Intarsia, Fair Isle and felted designs. Lorraine lives in Cleveland Hgts, Ohio and is the owner of Fig Leaves, a dressmaking/alterations shop.

Victoria Fergus has had over thirty years teaching experience including K-12 and higher education. At the college level, she has taught art education courses, 2D foundations, 3D foundations, ceramics, crafts, graphic design, drawing, art for main-streaming, graduate seminar, and art education graduate studies. She also has experience in teaching museum based outreach programs as well as working as an exhibition and display consultant for museums. She started using crochet as an artistic medium while working on her doctorate. “I see my crochet work as a combination of the 3D and 2D training I had.” Her work has been exhibited in national and international textile exhibits and numerous one-person shows.

Nancy Griffin is the owner of Otter Creek Store in mercer, Pa. She has been knitting and spinning for over 30 years. Nancy loves fiber arts and sharing her skills and original patterns with her students and customers.

LaVerne Kemp is a weaver and fiber artist who designs one of a kind clothing from her bold and textural handwoven fabrics. She generously incorporates wool, silk, rayon and cotton to create her unusual and colorful pieces of “art to wear,” sometimes weaving feathers, ribbons and other weavable materials into her cloth as well as using vintage trims and antique buttons and findings. LaVerne earned her B.F.A. in Art and Education from California University of Pa. She is a teaching artist through the Pa Council on the Arts and other schools and agencies which has given her experience in teaching in both formal classrooms and various other fiber related workshops. She has also taught at the Pgh Center for the Arts, Gateway to the Arts and the Pgh Board of Education. Her work has been shown in numerous invitational and juried exhibitions such as the African American Museum of Dallas, Texas, the Hub Gallery at PSU, and the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

Wini Labrecque is a textile artist with interest in a wide variety of techniques and a very strong passion for fiber. Since the late 1980's, utilizing natural fibers, Wini has been spinning, weaving, knitting and felting from raw form to finished product. Her handspun skeins and woven/knit goods are sold at area art festivals and in area specialty shops.

Once exposed to alpacas and their wonderful fiber, she has been utilizing and promoting the fiber to everyone who will listen. Wini teaches classes in beginning spinning, felting, and/or weaving to individuals or small groups. She is also partner in a business called Fleece To Fashion USA that provides custom fiber services from handspinning to finished knit or woven clothing out of alpaca owner's own alpaca fleece. She also is a Fiber Arts judge as well as a judge for hand spun and mill spun skein competitions. “Alpaca With A Twist" yarns and home grown alpaca fiber, roving and yarn are available from her farm.

Beth Lutz, owner of Uncommon Threads in York, Pa, has been knitting and crocheting since she was about 9 yrs old. Eight years ago, she had the opportunity to open a small yarn shop with 4 friends. Over the years, while some of the girls dropped out, the popularity of the shop continued to grow and we moved to a larger location. We teach classes year round, with Lace, Fair Isle and technique classes being personal favorites. Seven years ago, she also decided that she needed fiber animals that could be raised for her own personal fiber stash, so she now has a herd of about 20 alpacas as well as the store.

Annie Modesitt is a native of Ohio. She taught herself to knit at age 25 before a move from NYC to Texas. The Texas tenure didn't last, but knitting did, and upon her return to the NY area Annie began knitting for other designers and designing for major knitting magazines. Her work has appeared in Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting, Knitters Magazine, Cast On, Family Circle Easy Knitting, McCalls Needlework and several family oriented magazines.

Author of Confessions of a Knitting Heretic, Knitting Millinery and editor of the 2006 Accord Crochet Pattern A Day Calendar and the collection of fiber essays, Cheaper Than Therapy, Annie has contributed to many knitting books including Stitch N' Bitch, Scarf Style, Wrap Style, the Vogue Knitting Book, and Weekend Knitting and Holiday Handknits. Twist & Loop (Potter Craft, 2006) and Men Who Knit And The Dogs Who Love Them (Lark, Jan 2007) Annie's the inventor of the astoundingly clever Flip Knit, a low tech, portable alternative to knitting videos. For more info on Annie, her work, patterns, books and more go to; www.anniemodesitt.com. Her Vogue’s Cover “Cocoon Circular Sweater” was selected the favorite cover issue for Vogue Knitting magazine.

Ellen Oehlbeck is from Mercer, Pa. Knitting is her first passion, teaching is her second. Her grandmother taught her to knit at the age of 5. She is a Certified Extension Master Knitter Instructor through the Craft and Yarn Council of America, and The National Homemakers’ Council, Inc.. Has been teaching for over 20 years in public schools, knit shops, Knitters Fantasy and at home.

Karen Page, a fiber arts teacher at CAPA, has spent her fourth summer studying feltmaking in Kyrgyzstan, where she presented at a round table discussion with felt makers from around the world. Karen's creativity and expertise reflect her experience in the art field and in the art world. Her felt making is imaginative, creative and colorful.

Susan Radford was born in England to an English Mother and Irish Father. This ancestry lent the English Fair Isle and Irish Aran knitting techniques, which are incorporated and modernized to create her unique designing styles. During the war-stricken period of her youth, clothing was rationed and yarn and yarn goods were easier to find and she became quite clever at making something out of nothing much…….so her knitting career began.

Cynthia Spencer has always cared about reading and writing--and she even expected to become a professor to study these subjects. Her Ph.D. in ed. psych. was about how students learn to write. But the year after she graduated, a series of events led to her co-owning a knitting and quilting store near Penn State called Stitch Your Art Out. The store has been open for almost 5 years, and Cynthia continues to care about reading and writing: She works hard to help her customers understand how to read knitting patterns, and also writes patterns for her side business, "Really Clear Instructions."

Adina DeRoy-Stouffer is a native Pittsburgh artist and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. Her design studies have taken her as far away as Rome, as she continues the family tradition in the jewelry industry, designing, creating, and selling jewelry. She is also a fiber artist, knitting and selling her designs and work throughout the area. She teaches jewelry making, knitting, and fiber arts at various locations, including Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Sweetwater Center for the Arts

Carla Sturgis is the owner of Victoria’s House of Needleart, LLC, Duncansville, PA. She has been crocheting for 41 years and knitting for 20+ years. She’s known by her customers and friends as a “sockaholic” because of her love to knit socks. She’s a member of TKGA, TNNA, Knitter’s Day Out Committee, and a Blair County knitting guild. She is also a partner of Tadpoles for Ewe, a hand-dyeing yarn company based in central Pennsylvania.

Jill Bigelow-Suttell is co-owner of Kindred Spirits Yarn Studio and Kindred Spirits Design Studio in Franklin, PA. She is past president of the Wooly Wonders knitting guild. She teaches all levels of knitting at KSYS as well as traveling to other shops to teach. She also designs patterns that are available thru KSDS and other LYS's.

Jean Wise has been doing some form of needle arts since she was a little girl. She has done bobbin lace, tatting and has 29 pieces of her handmade lace in the Smithsonian! She recently moved back to PA from Ohio where she was a charter member of the Western Reserve Knitting Guild, the 1st chartered Knitting Guild in the US, where the dues have remained the same since its’ inception in 1984. She taught many knitting and crochet classes at yarn stores in Ohio and currently is teaching classes at Yarns by Design.

Judi Anne Rodosovich Worthington, CCRNC,OSRNC, BSN, MSN, NP (sorry no degrees in textiles)
Judi Ann went into the textile business, on a part time basis, in 1983. Upon retiring from DCHC/SWMC in 1990 she began running a small knitting, crochet, cross stitching store on a full time basis. She presently teaches knitting and crochet techniques at the Parks and Recreation Dept's for Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Lancaster. She has also taught for the Dayton Knitting Guild, Dallas Knitting Guild, Fiberworks Yarn Shop and Stitches. Judi Ann has a passion for people and yarn and is lots of fun in the classroom.

Kathy Zimmerman - an accomplished knitter, teacher, and nationally-recognized knitwear designer is the owner of Kathy's Kreations, a yarn shop specializing in quality handknitting yarns and accessories. Her designs are currently featured in KNITTER'S, Knit Simple, Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting magazines. Kathy is a freelance designer for CLASSIC ELITE YARNS, FIBER TRENDS and NASHUA HANDKNITS. She is best known for her designs featuring textures and cabled stitchwork patterns.