My name is Kate and I’m a semi-professional knitting pattern writer and needlework designer who also happens to have a Ph.D. in nineteenth-century British literature.
After receiving my doctorate in English Literature and facing a job market that was grim even before our current recession, I got a job as a pattern writer working for a well-known knitting designer here in Los Angeles. We’ve worked on four books together and I’ve written over a hundred handknits patterns for her knitting boutique. Working with this designer has inspired me to start designing my own knits and to rededicate myself to my other love, cross stitch.
I am currently in the process of launching my own needlework design company, Wordsmith Designs. My designs draw their inspiration from literary sources and many are based on the aesthetics of the nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts movement.
I firmly believe that cross stitch is poised to enjoy the same kind of popular and stylistic renaissance recently enjoyed by knitting. Cross stitch can also be hip and sophisticated, and, for the sake of this craft we love so well, we should all work together to bring cross stitch (kicking and screaming, if necessary) into the 21st century. I continue to be inspired by both crafts equally, as well as by crochet, quilting, sewing, needlepoint, beading, and just about any paper, fabric or fiber craft you can think of. In particular, I love projects that combine two or more of these different crafts.
If you want to get in touch with me directly, use the contact form at the bottom of this page.
About the Name of this Blog
The name of this blog, The Lyf So Short, comes from the first lines of Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem “The Parlement of Foules”:
The lyf so short, the craft so longe to lerne
Th’assay so hard, so sharp the conquerynge
The first part — “The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne”– was the motto of The Craftsman, the journal of the British Arts and Crafts movement. I’ve long admired the Arts and Crafts aesthetic which embraced and celebrated handmade objects in the face of an increasingly industrial world.
I also figured this was a good name for a stitching blog since we all seem to have more stash than we could ever handle, and there always seems to be “just one more technique” on the horizon to master.
Happy Stitching!
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