I am the descendant of many generations of needleworkers. My great-grandfather was a Russian immigrant tailor; his daughter, my grandmother, sewed in NYC’s notorious sweatshops. My Dutch mother made our clothes, worked cross stitch pieces that decorated our walls, and crocheted lovely afghans to keep us warm. Her sister, my Aunt Hetty, crafted freeform appliqué wall hangings and excelled at knitting, sewing, and embroidery. And my Dutch grandmother, my Oma, learned to knit at age 6 and continued until her late 90s—she lived to be 103 ½. At large family gatherings in the Netherlands, my many great-aunts would all be stitching away in their laps. After all, idle hands are the devil’s workshop.

I loved working with needle and thread as a child—cross stitching, sewing clothes for my Barbies, and later creating costumes for my high school theatrical productions. But knitting? Despite trying many times, it just never felt good to me. As an adult I followed an academic path, completing my MA in psychobiology, then changing course and earning a PhD in the psychology of gender from Yale. After graduation, I worked at Nickelodeon and co-founded BUST magazine—a funny, smart women’s magazine informed by my feminist ideals. In the early days of BUST, my needlework was a bit of a secret hobby since feminism still frowned on these kinds of “womanly arts.” But at a certain point, I began including craft projects in BUST. I felt it was important to reclaim these skills and prove that the work of our foremothers deserved to be valued and revered. It was around this same time that I decided to tackle knitting one last time. This time, it clicked.

Desperate to discover more, I started a small group called “Stitch ‘n Bitch” at a local NYC café, where I taught newbies to knit and learned from those more experienced than me. After I wrote about the group in BUST, readers were inspired to start their own groups in Chicago, Los Angeles, and eventually all over the world. That grassroots movement caught the attention of a book editor, who invited me to write my first Stitch ‘n Bitch book. Its unexpected success led to four more books, a yarn line with Red Heart, and knitting cruises to the Caribbean and tours of Italy—all while I continued serving as co-publisher and editor-in-chief of BUST. For 30 years I juggled both worlds, running the magazine while writing books and leading workshops. We sold BUST a few years ago, and these days I’m semi-retired but still teach classes at conferences and events whenever I have the chance. I split my time between my home in Brooklyn, NY and helping to care for my elderly mother in Jackson, NJ. I’m currently obsessed with learning to spin yarn, and always looking for new ways to expand my stitchy horizons.