From Modeknit yarns, Annie Modesitt

From Modeknit Yarns, Annie Modesitt visited Yarn Thing with Marly Bird today!

Annie says she learned to crochet as a child, at about age 7. Women who worked for her dad in his coat factory, would give her crochet lessons on Saturday mornings. She learned to knit as an adult. She lived in New York, making decent money, and transferred to Dallas, and learned to knit at the going away party before that move. She continued to knit while at work in a very cold, windowless room waiting to process. That time (she likens to prison) was practice to perfect her skills.

When she left that job, she found work knitting for designers, eventually working for a bit of time at Vogue Knitting. The pay was not as good as when she lived in New York earlier but realized the truth that if you’re happy with your life, you don’t have to earn a lot of money. She said she went everywhere and did a lot of knitting, including for Broadway shows, and designers like Marc Jacobs. Annie continued to design, write books, and contribute to magazines and now she is has a yarn company, Modeknit, which is indie-dyer business. She says she’s pretty much the luckiest person she knows.

Kathleen Pascuzzi is her business partner, Annie says she’s phenomenal, has a background in retail especially in jewelry. In fact, a lot of the earlier yarns they offered were named colors of gemstones. Currently, their favorite yarns are offered in a line called ‘No Spoilers’, based on tv shows like the ‘Walking Dead’ and the BBC’s ‘Sherlock’. Currently, her daughter Andi has her creating colorways based on ‘Steven Universe’, called Crystal Gems which is gender neutral.

Since her last visit to Yarn Thing, Annie released a book, Knitted Wraps & Cover-Ups. Annie is a fan of a garment included called an Armory. There are pieces for all skill levels, with a variety of interests like entrelac, cables, lace and slip-stitch, garments that include boleros, capes and shrugs.

Annie and hubby Gerry are about to move from their current home, now that the kids are out of the house, and they are very excited about the potential of the house and neighborhood. The new yarn dying studio will work to her needs so well, to hear her is to nearly hear her poetic.

To follow Annie Modesitt, visit her website: modeknityarns.com, her Facebook page, Ravelry Designer, Twitter, Pinterest, among other online places.

Also if you’d like to hear her earlier visit to the Yarn Thing podcast from 2009, CLICK HERE. You can watch this visit in Marly’s Facebook page, as a behind-the-scenes video. If you missed getting to hear THIS visit LIVE, you can still listen to the ladies at this link, which is where it aired originally but now has been archived: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yarnthing/2016/08/23/from-modeknit-yarns-annie-modesitt or in your favorite podcast catcher like iTunes or Stitcher Radio.