Follow along and discover your next inspiration as we cast on for projects we love, explore new techniques, and dish about the latest and greatest from We Crochet.
Meet the team »
Hi friends! My name is Liz and I’m very happy to be a part of the WeCrochet team as the new book designer! I’ll be working to put together crochet books that contain very fun and cute patterns for you to make and enjoy!
I absolutely adore crafting and making whatever my heart desires. I primarily do punch needle art and machine tufting to make rugs. As I continue tufting, my yarn stash continues to get bigger and out of control so I recently took up knitting and crocheting to use up all the yarn I have.
However, as much as I try to not bring home more yarn it somehow keeps finding its way into my home. I’m really excited about this new crafting journey I’m on though and am looking forward to making myself cardigans because that’s all I wear and even some hats for my cats!!
Punch Needle Pillow
Tufted Worm Rug
When I’m not doing textile art, I spend the majority of my time illustrating! I also enjoy making cute things out of clay, sewing plushies and embroidering. I have two cats, Zeke and Mabel, who are the sweetest little things you’ll ever meet, but that doesn’t stop them from stealing my yarn! I try not to spend all of my time crafting so outside of art you could probably find me re-watching tv shows I love or playing video games.
Zeke on one of his walks!
Mabel sleeping on one of my rugs!
A drawing I did of me and my little family!
I’m so excited to join the WeCrochet family and to learn lots more about crocheting and knitting! I hope you all like the books I make for you too and enjoy making the patterns inside!
Hello everyone! My name is Alena Ruman and I am so excited to introduce myself as the IDP Program Administrator!
In case you do not know, the Independent Designer Partnership is a platform where Knit Picks and WeCrochet host patterns from independent designers that showcase the gorgeous yarns under our brands. Designers retain all rights to their patterns as well as receive all revenue from pattern sales. I have been a designer in the IDP program for many years and I’m excited to now work on the other end to make it even better for our designers and customers.
I grew up as a crafty kid in northeast Ohio and knitting was one of the many things I dabbled in. It wasn’t until high school that I zeroed in on it being the hobby for me. I had a great art teacher who took me under her wing and showed me this wonderful world of fiber art outside of the knot filled scarves I made as a child. I learned by finding patterns that were just a bit outside of my skill level, then my teacher would walk me through step by step until I got it and the project was complete.
A few years later, a friend of mine asked me to make him a hat “with the zig-zag stripes like Charlie Brown has on his shirt.” That first special request pushed me off the ledge into designing. I have now designed more than 70 patterns, with hats being my favorite to both knit and design.
A few hat samples from Alpaca farm yarn
I continued knitting and designing mostly as a hobby while becoming burnt out at a job that no longer fulfilled me. I had a dream that I could make knitting and fiber art a full time job, but thought that would only happen decades down the line. After a few years, I quit that unfulfilling job, packed up my car, and moved to an alpaca farm where I interned for a little less than a year. I spent my mornings doing chores while occasionally getting spit on, and my afternoons learning other kinds of fiber art like needle felting, weaving, spinning and crochet for the first time. I loved every second of it!
I discovered a deep connection with the entire process of turning fiber into yarn, then yarn into design and garments. For me, when I hold a skein of yarn, I hold both the past and the future. The past includes the farmers who grew/raised the fiber and everyone who skirted, milled, spun, and dyed that skein. The future is the yarn’s potential of what it can be made into, where that final project will go, and what it will mean to the person using it. Yarn also connects us in the present to everyone in the past who made and used yarn to clothe themselves as well as everyone in the future who will pick up knitting needles or crochet hooks.
When my time on the farm ended, I knew this was the industry I wanted to be in forever and that there was room for me in it right now, not far in the future. I earned a Masters of Art in Art and Culture Management where I soon had the reputation in the department of being “that knitting lady.” Toward the end of my degree program last spring, I began working as an associate at the Knit Picks and We Crochet warehouse in Columbus, Ohio. I had been a Knit Picks customer since college so walking through the aisles stacked floor to ceiling with yarns and tools I already loved was magical. In September, I moved all the way across the country to Vancouver, Washington to step into this new role as IDP Program Administrator at headquarters.
My hope is that my work to make more patterns available. We can all be inspired by each other to keep loving fiber art. I am so excited to work with all the incredible designers in the IDP program to showcase the gorgeous yarns in the Knit Picks and We Crochet family!
It’s time once again for a little thing we like to call Meet the Team, the blog post where you meet someone on our team! Today we are introducing Katelyn, our new Outreach Coordinator! She’s the person who is responsible for all the patterns you see in our magazine and collections. If it has to do with patterns, Katelyn probably has to do with it!
We are so excited to welcome Katelyn to our team, and also to learn more about her with a fun little interview. Read on!
How long have you been crocheting and when did you fall in love with crochet? I have been crocheting for about 11 years consistently. I learned how to crochet because I wanted to learn to make a granny square like my great grandmother did. My mom couldn’t remember how to connect the square so I learned from a Klutz book. Once I learned that I was hooked!
What was your first crochet project? Technically my first crochet project was a simple double crochet scarf in the back loop, at the time I didn’t know that it was common to go under both loops. My first real project where I followed a pattern was the Summer Breeze Cardigan from Crochet Today!
What do you wish you had known when you first started crocheting? Honestly, I was fortunate that didn’t know anything when I started so I didn’t know if something was wrong or scary. When I started there weren’t many blogs or video tutorials to teach you things, or at least I didn’t know about them. My first project was a sweater, so no fear there! I hope people can remember when they start that this is all a journey, it is just a stick and string. Enjoy the process and be proud of how far you grow all the time.
I hope people can remember when they start that this is all a journey, it is just a stick and string. Enjoy the process and be proud of how far you grow all the time.
What is your favorite thing to crochet? I prefer to crochet cardigans and blankets. Every baby I know has gotten a baby blanket. My two kids always try to get me to make things for them but this year I started to make more for myself!
What’s your favorite of your crochet projects? I think that my favorite project that I have made so far was a sweater that I added a mosaic band to. Really I combined two patterns that I had made to make a sweater. I can’t wait for the weather to get cool so that I can wear it again!
Do you have a favorite crochet stitch or technique? I don’t know that I have a favorite but I have learned that I don’t really like slip stitch anything. I have a project that uses it for the ribbing which is in time out because I just can’t get my tension right for it!
Current favorite WeCrochet yarn or product? So far I have only gotten to work with Lindy Chain and have LOVED it! I really can’t wait to try out Hawthorne and something tweed!
Biggest yarn/crochet-related pet peeve? Please don’t crochet over your ends! That drives me NUTS!!! I feel like people do themselves a disservice to all the work that they have done if they don’t weave their ends in completely. The end up coming out and look unfinished!
Do you have any current crochet goals? I took a class on Tunisian crochet about two years ago and only made one simple blanket after that. I have a goal to make at least one Tunisian garment this year! I love the look of Tunisian.
What do you hope to bring to the WeCrochet team? It really is a dream to get to work for a yarn company. Being able to get up every day and work with yarn and designers is so amazing. I hope that I can bring a different perspective to the team when it comes to picking themes and patterns that will help to diversify the content that gets put out. I hope that my love of color and crafts can shine in my future work.
Anything else we should know? I am so excited to get to join the WeCrochet team. I can’t wait to get my hands on all of the amazing patterns that are available. I am excited to get to know the WeCrochet community better and learn from everyone at the company and in the community.
