Staff

Owner — Judy Amonett

Staff

Ruth Cutting

Angie Gossen

Rose Graham

Virginia Martinez

Michael Miller

Sharon Patterson

Sandy Zeringue


Instructors

Ruth Cutting

Angie Gossen

Angie is half Cajun French and half German and grew up in Acadiana (Southwest Louisiana). She says making handmade items and teaching others how to make them is what keeps her sane, grounded and focused. Handwork has been passed down in her family for generations. Her mother taught her how to embroider at the age of five, and she’s been creating handmade items ever since. Her mother also taught her to crochet when she was 8 years old.

Angie has a wide range of skills: tatting, knitting, crochet, embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, hand quilting, smocking, beadweaving and jewelry making. She has even won ribbons at county fairs for her quilts.

Rose Graham

Rose Graham’s first knitting teachers were her mother and grandmother, and she has learned from all the knitters and weavers, dyers and feltmakers she has known. Among her current teachers are the students whose questions puzzle her and whose friendship she treasures.

She has learned historical and ethnic techniques from Tilly Marchwinski, Linda Romens, Melissa Leapman and Sally Melville. With Anita Mayer and Valentina Devine she has studied creative freeform knitting and with Judy Dercum and Candace Eisner Strick fine finishing and precise techniques. Katherine Cobey’s artistry inspires her; Brandon Mably’s colors give her new eyes.

Virginia Martinez
Virginia Martinez, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother (of Trinity and Ella) learned to crochet from an Aunt in Victoria, Texas, many, many years ago. She was taught to crochet not by a written pattern but by looking at another crocheted piece at the age of seven years old. In later years she taught herself to crochet from written patterns. Most recent classes she has taken are with Lilly Chin and Robyn Chachula.

Virginia is very patient in her teaching of the basics of crochet.

She is looking forward to crocheting with Houston`s very own published designer and famed Drew Emborsky “The Crochet Dude.”

Michael Miller
When he was a little boy in Ohio, Michael wanted to make something, so his mother taught him to knit facecloths. He went on from knitting to make things in lots of ways: macramé, rug hooking, needlepoint, cross stitch, pine cone wreaths, gluing string onto things – everything. This wealth of experience was to be expected in Michael’s family of fiber workers; his mother and grandmother knitted, tatted, and crocheted.

He honed his eye for color and design with a fine arts major in college and then he did what any self respecting arts major would do and got a job in retail where he continued his experience in merchandising with Joske’s, Lord & Taylor, and F.A.O. Schwartz (now he designs and knits toys!) He also managed to do painted faux finishes all around town. Today he has his own consultancy for non-profits in Houston.

Six years ago Michael took up the needles again to help a friend learn to knit. He crawled into the attic and dug out his mother’s knitting tools, and that year everyone got scarves. Michael has developed his old/new love and is now a master of knitting techniques especially color work and pattern and stitch work. And he still enjoys teaching people to knit.

Sharon Patterson
While fairly new to Houston, Sharon Patterson is not new to knitting. Like so many others she learned at a young age from her mother and grandmother, both of whom always had a project close at hand. Although, where you and I knit for the challenge or pleasure, they were producing out of need.

She also quilts and needlepoints but knitting has always been her first love.

Sharon is currently involved in working towards the Master Knitter’s accreditation.