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Master Hand Knitting Committee Reviewers
In July 2019 Robin committed to the Master Hand Knitting program and received her certificate in October 2023. Taught to knit by her mother over 60 years ago, MHK was both a challenge and the most fun project of all.
Robin has taught knitting at her LYS and especially enjoys children, beginners, and the “I could never knit socks” customers. She led a once a month knitting book study group. The discussion and experimentation with techniques in Margaret Radcliffe’s books culminated in a live workshop with Maggie.
At Wiawaka Center for Women, Robin organizes an August knitting retreat. Fifteen years ago it started as a day trip and today most participants stay for 4 nights. Relaxing, sharing, knitting, and a mini fiber related workshop are on the agenda.
Her office and knitting library are Robin’s favorite place to knit. She loves to explore different techniques and garment construction. Projects requiring varying degrees of concentration are always ready to go out for tea with friends, soccer games or the movies.
Although Eric taught himself to crochet when he was 10 years old, he didn’t learn to knit until the spring of 2020 with the convergence of the Covid pandemic, a move to Minnesota, and the realization that he didn’t own a proper scarf. As the pandemic continued so did the knitting, and he became fascinated by the cleverness of stitch techniques and knitwear construction as he made garments and accessories for his family. Since then, he’s always had a project on the needles that he can use to teach himself something new. He loves complicated cables, lace, and non-traditional construction techniques.
He started the Master Hand Knitting program because he viewed it as a great system for building best practices before he developed too many bad habits, and he completed the program in 3 years in 2025. He gives credit to the MHK program for developing him as a knitter from nearly the ground up. He was honored to join the Review Committee, and he loves helping others to work through problems and experience those “light bulb” / “Eureka!” moments.”
Mary learned the basics of knit and purl as a preteen but didn’t knit again until her retirement. Wandering through a yarn shop on a vacation in Colorado, she was captivated by the colors and textures. Returning to Michigan, she began spending time at her local yarn shop, joining groups and classes. Mary discovered she could follow patterns to create gifts and garments.
In 2012, Mary took a finishing workshop taught by Arenda Holladay on Mackinaw Island. Learning how to look at stitches, as well as using standards to question and understand was fascinating. At that event, Mary’s knitting adventure grew from a hobby to an obsession.
Mary’s Master Hand Knitter journey began with Basics, Basics, Basics in 2012, and with a few detours along the way, culminated in 2022.
Mary retired from a career in education, as an elementary teacher, principal, and parttime university lecturer. Other than living in Hawaii during her high school years, Mary is a lifelong Michigan resident. She and her husband live north of Ann Arbor, where she is active in her local knitting guild and teaches knitting classes.
I learned to knit, crochet, embroidery and quilt as a young girl. I knit left handed, left to right, and twisted every stitch. In more recent years I did more quilting, but after retirement I again took up knitting. I attended a class at the John C. Campbell Folk School. I was introduced to TKGA and Arenda’s videos by the instructor, Charles Gandy, a TKGA Master Hand Knitter. I took the Basics, Basics, Basics course, which lead to the MHK course. It took me two years to complete MHK. A reviewer since 2019, I learn something from each submission I review.
In 2019, my husband and I completed our second cross country bicycle trip. Our first such trip was from Central Florida to the Oregon coast, both trips were self-supported. We have hiked a majority of the Appalachian Trail. We live in Lakeland, Florida.
My most precious knitted garment is a flat-knit Fairisle jumper I made for myself when I was about eight. I remember choosing the yarn in a small shop in Largs (Scotland), but what makes it extra special is that I knit the front, my grandmother knit the back, and my mother knit the sleeves. Miraculously our tensions match, and the sentimental value it acquired from this unusual collaborative origin saved it from being unpicked and repurposed.
After knitting a bear in a plaid dress by Julie Williams as a gift and being amazed at the detailed cast-on and seaming instructions, I found Suzanne Bryan and Roxanne Richardson on YouTube and then TKGA.
The MHK program led me to read many books connected to knitting, trade e-mails with Annemor Sunbø, attend yarn festivals, and meet knitters and spinners. Before the MHK program, I don’t think I ever really followed a pattern to make a garment, let alone write one, so the program has truly expanded my horizons.
Cindy Dell has been knitting for about 55 years! She was taught at the age of 11 by her Norwegian grandmother using size 7 Boye needles and Red Heart yarn. She made a very long and obnoxious red and white striped scarf!
Cindy started Level 1 in April of 2010 and finished in January of 2011. Level 2 was started right away in February of 2011, and completed in September of that year. She started Level 3 in August of 2014, but life got very busy and she finished 9 years later. Early in 2014, she bought the yarn for the sweater where it sat in her craft room until by a whim, she attended the TKGA Next Level Conference in the spring of 2022. She was so inspired that she contacted TKGA on Monday morning and got started again with Level 3. She passed in October of 2023.
Cindy is a Professor Emeritus of Education from Montana State University Billings, and has also taught knitting at her LYS for more than 20 years. She is currently enrolled in the Knitting Instructor Certification course. She also weaves, spins, dyes yarn, sews, and dabbles in crochet and embroidery. As long as she has fiber in her hands, she is content. She is a member of the Yellowstone Valley Knitting Guild and the Prairie Hand Spinners Guild.
Cindy has a husband of 45 years, two incredible children of whom she is so proud, and a grandson Caleb. She has always been into crafts, and owes it all to her sweet grandmother.
Christina was a self-taught knitter who began after college. When she found about the Masters Program, she started with the Basics class and then went on to slowly finish the Masters program, taking six years to get through it. She joined the Review Committee in 2012 and has designed and published in Cast On. Christina’s day job is leading a nonprofit which was very helpful when TKGA transitioned to a nonprofit in 2016. Christina led the business side of that work, negotiating contracts, scoping the IT design, doing the legal filings and writing the bylaws. Christina is on the TKGA board, serving as secretary and considers that her talents are better used by TKGA on the organization side. She leads the team putting on the virtual conferences.
Alicia learned to knit as a child, but took a break from it during grad school, not returning to knitting until her own children had grown up enough to be able to cook for themselves. It was a good thing, because new knitting design ideas can consume Alicia to the point where her family might have starved.
Alicia took 4.75 years to work through the Master Hand Knitting Program, where the first thing she learned was humility. She is still growing as a knitter through TKGA and through her local knitting guild, Twisted Stitches of Central New York, where she is Vice President. Alicia teaches at her LYS and enjoys knitting her own designs the most. Her Level 3 Fair Isle sweater, The Stony Bones Cardigan, features fossils in layers and won the Guild Award, First Place in Arts & Crafts Department, and First Place in Division at the 2023 New York State Fair. She continues to knit, design, teach, and learn, wondering how she will ever top that one.
Alicia is also Chief Scientific Officer of a biotech company in Upstate New York and travels often for work. She shares her life with her husband of 34 years, two little dogs, and three black cats.
Mary Beth learned to knit from her mother as a child and has been an active knitter ever since. In college, you could find her knitting away on Icelandic sweaters while watching soap operas with friends in the community room of the dorm. From there, graduate school and new jobs meant frequent moves around the Northeast of the USA. In each new city, the priority was to find the local yarn shop for yarn and patterns, as this was before on-line yarn shops and Ravelry. With marriage and as a young mom of 3, the portability of knitting worked well, as she spent countless hours courtside at basketball games or swim meets knitting away on socks, shawls and hats.
Mary Beth has worked and taught knitting at her local yarn shop. She has done test knitting for numerous designers, including knitting several of the designs for “A Fine Fleece”, by Lisa Lloyd, published in 2008. Still, she was looking to build a deeper understanding of the mechanics of knitting, to gain experience with design and to learn more about the knitting tradition. She started the MHK program in the Spring of 2022, earning her Masters in the Fall of 2025. The program delivered in these areas, but in addition, some of the greatest lessons were about humility, persistence, and appreciation for the kindness of others.
Thankfully, her family members are all knit worthy, especially her husband, Charlie, who still wears the sweaters she knit early in their marriage over 30 years ago. The future looks bright as there is now a grandbaby to knit for, new yarns to discover, and new skills to master. Mary Beth looks forward to giving back to the TKGA community as a reviewer for the MHK program.
Mary Elizabeth (Mary Beth) Jacobs learned to knit when she was 10 years old. (If you’re interested in the full story, see “Mrs. Anchor’s Vest” pattern, Cast On May-July 2015 (Summer 2015) issue.) In 2009, finding herself as a stay-at-home mother with three small children under the age of six, knitting enjoyed a full resurgence in the Jacobs home.
Mary Beth passed MHK L1 in April 2011, passed L2 in January 2013, and in April 2015 Mary Beth passed L3 and became a Master Knitter. Mary Beth has served on the TKGA Master Hand Knitting Committee from April 2015 to present.
In summer of 2016, Mary Beth was part of the inaugural TKGA Board of Directors working to launch TKGA as a 501c3 not for profit, by helping to form the corporate framework, establishing the accounting structure, assisting in creating policy, and adopting sound business practices to ensure TKGA’s longevity. Mary Beth has served on the TKGA Board of Directors as Treasurer from TKGA’s June 2016 incorporation to present. Mary Beth is also a member of the Editorial Committee for TKGA’s Cast On Magazine.
Mary Beth first published in TKGA’s Cast On Magazine in the August-October 2013 issue and has been designing and writing technical articles for Cast On ever since.
Carole was taught to knit continental style when she was in high school by a friend’s mother. The mother’s only caveat to teaching her was that she had to prove she could learn to correct her mistakes. Once she could knit, purl and repair, Carole was her own. She started with a simple crew neck and then a ski sweater with diagonal stripes. Although she did some knitting in college and actually taught a dorm-mate, Carole really did not knit much until after she retired.
The tremendous advances in fiber, textures, colors, and the wealth of information over the internet reawakened her passion for knitting. Carole took advantage of online and in person classes to expand her skill set, but continue to favor sweaters, afghans, and scarves.
As Carole is always looking for a challenge, and something diCerent, the TKGA Master Hand Knitting certification program sparked an interest in 2012. Finally, after several restarts, Carole committed to completing the program in 2019. She joined all the Virtual Masters Days and found them tremendously useful. In the middle of working through Level 3, she put everything on hold and took Suzanne Bryan’s Bootcamp – all three levels. This provided the fine tuning needed to finish master’s worthy swatches and projects. Carole was awarded her Master Hand Knitting Certification in June.
Carole occasionally teaches at her LYS and local retreats. She enjoys helping others solve their problems and has also helped repair some treasured knitting. What’s next – maybe explore advance cable-work and when she finds the right project, some more Fair Isle.
Kim’s grandma and aunts taught her to crochet and knit as a child at 8 or 9 years old.
She vividly remembers struggling to get the knit column of stitches to line up properly on the Pixie Slipper Sox from the Mary Maxim Knitting and Crocheting for Beginners book, the green one with a knitting monkey on the front.
Knitting got put on the back burner during Kim’s school years as sewing and horses were her free time choices. After college, life got very busy while she raised a family, and she became the bookkeeper for their family business. During those years she enjoyed sewing (especially when their daughters were small), quilting, cross-stitch, and other needle arts. All that changed about ten years ago when her sister came for a visit and showed her a “new” way of knitting. She was fascinated with what turned out to be continental knitting. Knitting became an addiction.
She joined a knit group at her local yarn shop in Cody, WY, There she heard about TKGA and the Master Hand Knitter program. She was intrigued by the opportunity to learn, improve, and get feedback from experts. She thought that when she began Level 1 that she was a good knitter since she had knit dozens and dozens of hats in the round. But she was in for a rude awakening. She didn’t know how much she didn’t know!
When their youngest left for college and she “retired” from homeschooling after 23 years, it was a perfect time for her to shift from teaching to learning. Her goal was to finish the MHK program by the time he graduated. She began Level 1 in April 2018 and passed Level 3 in March 2021. Her son beat her by a few months, but they both finished.
Kim is interested in writing patterns, teaching knitting, getting additional TKGA certifications, and continuing to dive down knitting rabbit holes. She also loves to spend time with family, travel, go camping in the Wyoming mountains, read, and play the piano. They have five grown kids (four daughters and one son) and eight precious grandkids (ages 7 and under!) that provide her with lots of knitting opportunities.
The year Jacque McClure was contemplating retirement and mulling what to do to keep her hands and mind active, a friend guided her toward the MHK program. Her friend had learned about it at one of their LYS where their Knitting Nurse and the first Iowa City Master Hand Knitter was advising patrons who had questions, or needed coaching and support. About that same time local crafter/artist/author Michelle Edwards published her delightful book, A Knitter’s Home Companion which included an essay titled “The Master Knitter.” After reading the book, Jacque was hooked and began to wonder what she would do after she breezed through the program. Well, the program was not a breeze but was engaging and enlightening. Five and a half years later, in spite of several life events diverting her attention, she earned the title of Master Knitter.
Jacque remembers her grandmother taught her to knit when they sat together her grandmother’s screen porch in mid-summer during her elementary school years. Her grandmother helped her salvage an Aran sweater that she worked on in high school and was impressed when she later learned to knit lace all by herself. Her mother is also an adept knitter. The family tradition continues with her daughter, an excellent knitter, and her oldest granddaughter who is learning. Jacque is plotting to help direct some of the other four grandchildren to take up the needles.
Ranging from 1 to 10 the grandkids provide wonderful opportunities for knitted gifts. Until they or their parents tell Jacque to stop, she plans to continue the tradition of a hand-knit birthday garment for each child every year. Charity projects help her use up stash – the options there seem endless and are rewarding. Now and then she makes something for herself or the household.
Thanks to the TKGA programs, Jacque has acquired a reasonably sized personal library of reference books rather than a hap-hazard collection of pattern books. Most important though are the knowledge, skills, and confidence she has gained through the MHK program that the things she produces are so very much better than that first Aran sweater.
Unable to successfully teach her small daughter to knit, Caroline’s mother resorted to teaching her crochet – subsequently, Caroline’s first fiber arts project was a ghastly crocheted hat that covered a roll of toilet paper. That was the end of Caroline’s fiber adventures for many years. Fortunately, some 30 years later, Caroline and her mom revisited the knitting lessons, and Caroline has been knitting ever since.
Caroline started the MHK program in the fall of 2019 and earned her MHK pin in Feb of 2023. She credits the MHK program with preserving her sanity throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, while simultaneously taking her knitting from “mediocre” to “pretty darn good.” Caroline went on to complete the TKGA Knitting Judge certification program, and is currently working on her Knitting Instructors certification. She holds a leadership position in her Central NY Guild, has taught several classes at her LYS, has published her first article in Cast On magazine, and has judged a couple of knitting competitions.
A retired science and geometry teacher, Caroline enjoys sharing knowledge with others, and igniting the spark of learning. She is thrilled to join the MHK Review committee, and is honored to be able to give back to an organization that has benefitted her so much.
I have done crocheting, cross-stitching, Hardanger, quilting, and a (very) short stint of bobbin lace. Seems like a new craft started at every new stage of life.
A friend taught me to knit around 2002. Since then, I have knit many socks and lace shawls for myself and as gifts for family and friends. Along the way, I learned from experience many “what not to do’s”.
I heard about TKGA and the MHK program in the winter of 2017/2018, and joined TKGA shortly thereafter. In March 2019, I started Level 1. I completed Level 3 in May 2024.
While working through the MHK program, I learned a lot about knitting. I tried many techniques I either had avoided or never knew existed. The MHK program made me feel like a student again, and I have much more empathy for others who are learning something (anything) new….it’s hard work.
My husband is a retired, happy, volunteer sound guy. We have two adult sons with whom we are well pleased.
Dee Dee has enjoyed many crafts through the years. With guidance from her grandmother and mom, she learned crochet, macrame (anyone else a child in the 70s?), counted cross stitch, sewing, and quilting. She taught herself to knit in the early 2000s when eyelash and other novelty yarns became popular. Later, a friend introduced her to the world of local yarn stores, hand-dyed yarn, online instruction and yarn clubs. She dove into the deep end and hasn’t stopped since, beginning MHK Level 1 in September 2021 and completing the program in April 2025.
Living in a warm-weather climate has influenced Dee Dee’s fiber choices. While her favorite fiber to knit with is wool, linen and cotton blends are generally a more practical choice for garments. She enjoys knitting garments with lace, cables, or a new (to her) technique as well as knitting toys for baby gifts.
Dee Dee lives in Georgia with her husband of 36 years. While they don’t have children of their own, they enjoy spending time with their nephew and niece as well as the children and grandchildren of their “framily.”