Patterns
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About Lilypad Knits

When I was a child, it seemed that everyone around me were knitters. Both of my parents knitted, my oldest sister was a knitter, our neighbors knitted, my godmother knitted. When I expressed an interest at age seven in learning to knit, my left-handed Mom sent me across the street to learn from one of my neighbors. I can clearly remember the traditional long, wavy garter stitch scarf that was my first project, as well as the feel and colors of the yarns and the smell of the metal needles. When my Mom unearthed those old straight needles a couple of years ago from the bottom of a drawer, it was like meeting up with old friends. We had a pattern in our family for knitted slippers that we all wore, and would knit for each other as gifts. We also all sewed, and from an even earlier age I was as comfortable behind my Mom's Elna as if I had been sitting there since birth. Somewhere around age 11 I became interested in crochet, and because there were no nearby mentors I taught myself from the patterns in the women's magazines my Mom subscribed to. I crocheted for years, making gifts for family and friends, and the odd project here and there for myself.

During the fall that my husband and I got married, we took a trip back to where I grew up - New York's mid-Hudson Valley - to visit my siblings who all still live there. One of my sisters lives not far from what I still consider to be the most beautiful yarn shop on earth, and every dark fall evening as we drove by that shop on our way back to my sister's house, we would pass this jewel-box of an old house-turned-shop that just glowed from inside with all the gorgeous colors of merino yarn on display. It wasn't long before our curiosity was overwhelmed and we stopped in one day on our wanderings, and I fell in love with yarn and knitting all over again. I bought a sock kit and a set of double points, and picked up a knitting book from the bookstore, and sat in the evenings cross-legged on the bed, knitting my first project in more years than I care to think about. Before we left the Hudson Valley to come back here to Tucson, we went back to that magical shop and I bought several patterns for sweaters, and it has been straight down hill since then.

About a year later I developed asthma, and had to quit the work I had been doing for 20 years. I spent a couple of months unable to work because of my breathing problems, and found that when things were especially difficult that I also had trouble concentrating on reading - my first love. This meant that every time I sat down I picked up my needles and knitted until I was soon relaxed and able to breathe comfortably again.

I soon found work as a knitting instructor in our LYS, where I also work a few days a week and spend all my money. For some reason, the principles of knitting just make perfect sense to me, and I love taking on challenging projects and learning more and more about my beloved art. I wish that there was enough knitting time in each day that I could work on all the projects that are swirling around in the back of my mind and in my yarn cabinet.

The designs you find here are things that filled a niche for me or for my students. I hope they will be just exactly what you have been wanting, too.

The name Lilypad Knits comes from a story my sister told me a few years ago. I am the youngest of four children, and it seems that when my Mom was in the hospital delivering me, my Dad took the other three kids out boating on a lake that was covered with water lilies in bloom, and that she always associated my birth with those water lilies. I have always loved water lilies, and her story made me understand why. Lilypad Knits signifies the beginning of my new life.