Dianna Judge - Owner, Longmont Yarn Shoppe

Hello and Welcome to Longmont Yarn Shoppe! I’m Dianna, the proud new owner of this beautiful shop and the leader of this amazing team. I am so lucky to be a part of this community and to continue the legacy of Longmont Yarn Shoppe.

My love of yarn began at 8 years old when my grandmother taught me to make a simple granny square. Since then, my love of crochet has grown exponentially. Originally from the East Coast, I moved to Colorado in 1999 to attend CSU in Fort Collins. I began teaching crochet to my friends in college and realized how much I loved sharing my passion with others.  It wasn't until I was in my twenties that I finally learned to knit. 

My husband and I spent a few years traveling the country for work and I had the opportunity to teach crochet at a few different independent yarn shops.  In 2022 we returned to Colorado with our son (and way more yarn than I left with!)  

Theresa White - I have lived in Longmont all my life  and have always liked to keep my hands busy with various crafts.  Over the years I have learned to Sew, Knit, Crochet, Needlepoint, Cross Stitch, Bead and make porcelain dolls. 

Knitting and Crochet are the two crafts I have done the longest.  I love to learn new things, which is why I enjoy working at Longmont Yarn Shoppe!  I also love to help others and am always happy to help our customers with their latest projects.  Sometimes I'm referred to as Lacy Knits - and helping to teach lace at LYS is something I am excited about!

Cheryl Szydlo - Before I was 10 when my family moved to Colorado my paternal grandmother taught me to sew and I also enjoyed embroidery. I don’t have a vivid memory of my mom teaching me to knit but it was sometime in that same timeframe. My first project memory is of a sweater I knit in the 6th grade for a friend. I’m afraid it had very long and much too narrow sleeves that could’ve fit a stick figure, LOL! It didn’t deter me from a love of the craft and knitting has been my go-to creative outlet ever since despite forays into quilting and needlepoint too. I knit for hire when I was pregnant with my first child – working from home in Glenwood Springs and blasting out sweaters in bulky mohair yarns for a woman who sold them to an upscale sports store in Vail. I got to move back to my hometown of Estes Park soon thereafter, began working for the Yarn N’ Needle and became a partner in that business from 1984 until 1987. I loved everything about my time there but my favorite thing was teaching classes. I have always knit more for friends and family than for myself and love creating just the right thing to gift.

I was thrilled to discover Longmont Yarn Shoppe soon after it opened and am proud and grateful to be a part of the community created there. Currently I am excited to be a part of the staff and always look forward to sharing and creating with coworkers and customers alike.

Eileen Persichetti -I’ve had my hands on fiber my entire life!  I first learned to sew and knit at age 10 through the Colorado 4-H program and learned to crochet in college.  I have also worked a lot of counted cross-stitch patterns, made limited attempts at tatting, and then finally re-learned knitting in 2015.  My stash is alive and well and growing, and there are always more projects on my wish list than on my done list.  I love a great sweater and the challenges of all types of projects from mittens to socks.  I’m particularly fond of gansey, cable, and textured patterns.  My Ravelry library has nearly 1,500 patterns and there are a “few” more stored off-line.  While there are always 24 hours in every day, I eagerly attempt to fill every one of those hours with some type of needlework.  It’s such a joy to learn new techniques with every project, pattern, and class – and most especially, from my fellow needlework artisans!

Robin Bryant- I have been interested in fiber arts since I learned to sew as a child.  I started knitting in my early 20s, but set it aside when I got distracted by clay and became a potter.  After 35 years of working in clay, I started knitting again and haven’t looked back.  I have now transitioned from one artistic community to another and am so excited to meet and to learn from our talented staff and customers!

After living in Boulder for 30 years, raising children and working at the University, I moved to Longmont in 2011.  I discovered the Longmont Yarn Shoppe soon after it opened and have been a long-time customer.  I am thrilled to have received an opportunity to join this amazing team and community - its a dream come true!  I really enjoy helping customers find beautiful yarn and supplies for their projects!

Jennifer Thompson-Miller - Jennifer brings her background in marketing, psychology, counseling, art history, science, and metaphysics to the knitting classroom. A yarn and color designer, Jennifer is the creator of Theodora’s Pearls, nationally-known handpainted and hand-dyed yarns, featuring unusual and luxury fibers. Jennifer is dedicated to promoting creative confidence in every knitter, enhancing knitting skills, and encouraging new and innovative experimentation in yarn! A self-taught artist, sourcing inspiration from the natural world, folk art, and historical textiles, she shares her own creative journey as an example of how you can express yourself through fiber, creating beauty, harmony, and functionality.

Jennifer teaches at Stitches and appears regularly at fiber festivals and yarn shops around the country. She is happy to call Longmont her home base and LYS!!

Heather McChesney- Heather Is a native to Boulder county, raised in the mountains above Boulder. She is married, has two wonderful children, a beautiful dog, several cats and an angora bunny.

As a child her mom kept her and her sister busy with fabric, yarn, beads and books which led her to her continual desire to create beautiful things. Heather learned to knit and crochet when she was less than 10 years old and mostly crocheted off and on in her youth. In college Heather took fiber arts classes in between the classes for her child development degree and fell in love with fiber even more. She started spinning with a drop spindle, knitting, dyeing, and wet felting. After college and once Heather started her family her fiber arts passion became something that she did more frequently and she started to teach her children and the children in her daycare.

After doing daycare for eight years, Heather moved on to become a full time Realtor in Longmont. This transition allows Heather to be more present with her two kids, the flexibility to create more, and the ability help people in our community. Christmas of 2018 her husband and mom gave her her first spinning wheel which quickly became her favorite creative outlet. Heather loves to spin, knit, needle felt, crochet, quilt and is learning to weave with her handspun wool.

Deborah Coccoli - I have been living in Longmont, Colorado for the past 12 years. I graduated from Johnson State University in northern Vermont and graduated with a Bachelors of Arts degree with a license to teach Art k-12. 

 

I discovered 2D dry needle felting a couple of years ago and am hooked. It’s such a calming and creative way to make art. My day to day work focuses on felting and painting. I’m inspired by the Colorado landscape, farm animals and illustrations from beloved children’s books. I am a member of the Longmont Artists’ Guild and the Boulder Handweavers Guild. My work has been shown locally, most recently in MECO’s. I hope to see you in one of my classes so I can share my passion with you!

Mary Balzer -  Mary has been weaving and playing with the fiber arts for 30 years and is still having fun.  Coiling is a technique that incorporates her love of vessels and circles, perfect metaphors for the “circles of life” in which we all go round, one way or another.  She has exhibited her vessels in CO, NM, FL, and WA galleries, as well as national basketry shows, and has been teaching the coiling technique since 1995.

Laura Goodrich-  After working as an engineer for 24 years, Laura shifted her focus to the family and discovered machine knitting over 10 years ago.  She enjoys combining her love of sewing and knitting to create beautiful garments and wearable items.  In addition, she enjoys employing her engineering skills to restore machines to working condition when possible.  Laura served as President of Generic Knitters for two years and was a founding partner of The Fuzz Knitting, a Knitwear company based in Colorado.

Nancy Jencks - In a previous life, Nancy worked as a sales engineer and project manager. When she retired from the corporate world, she followed her heart and began working at a yarn store that supported all fiber related arts/crafts. She is an experienced sewer, spinner, weaver, crocheter, and hand knitter who put most of that aside when, after a long hiatus, she got back into machine knitting. She hasn’t sold her floor loom yet, but she has moved it into a storage area to make room for more knitting machines.

Nancy loves to make useful things. Her mother taught her to sew at age 12 and she's been learning new ways to make things ever since. She can spin, weave, hand knit, crochet and of course machine knit- often combining these skills into a single project. She and Laura started Yarn Squirrel Knitting to introduce the fun of machine knitting to those who have more stash than they know what to do with! 

Yarn Squirrel Knitting is a company dedicated to inspiring people to machine knit. Laura and Nancy teach in-person classes and provide pop-up machine knitting studios, focusing on helping students visualize what they’re doing and why. Their goal is to bring new machine knitters into the fold so that they can experience the satisfaction of creating unique garments that fit.

Andee Graves  is a crochet designer, writer, teacher and artist living in the mountains of Colorado with her family and an evolving menagerie of 4-legged friends. She combines a life-long passion for crocheting, sewing, and crafting with a strong interest in mathematics and medical science. She is endlessly intrigued by the "magic" of creating fabric or an object from nothing but hook and string, and invites you to join her in a class to expand your own crochet and crafting journey.

 

Andee has taught crochet, needle felting and injury prevention classes to students of all ages. She has her Level 1 & 2 Certification as a Crochet Instructor from the Craft Yarn Council. Her teaching has included classes and private lessons at her local yarn shop and schools, as well as at national festivals and conferences. She loves the versatility of crochet and enjoys designing projects that are entertaining to work up. She is passionate about passing on the crochet techniques that she has mastered and teaching others the love of working with yarn and hook. She has been a member of the Crochet Guild of America since 2008 and served on the National Board of Directors from January 2018 – July 2020.

Andee has been writing about crochet techniques, designing, and healthy crafting practices for her blog (www.Mamas2Hands.com) and other publications since 2009. Her articles and designs have been published in Interweave Crochet, Crochet World, Crochet! Magazine, ILikeCrochet.com, and RedHeart.com. Her independent pattern line M2H Designs was launched in Fall 2010 with a focus on creating “teaching” patterns that include tutorials for techniques that are used in the pattern.  

Christie Nielsen - I come from a very crafty family, and different projects from 

Sandi Avila -  I was born in Greenwich, Connecticut and moved to Boulder in 1975 and have never ventured too far from here. I enjoy living where you can appreciate the outdoors year-round and knit in every season. During a month-long visit, my German grandmother taught me to knit, that was 40+ years ago. I have been knitting non-stop ever since, I always have something brewing on the needles.

I continued my journey in knitting and found my true passion was knitting sweaters. I really enjoy the evolution of a sweater more than any other project. I am excited to become an instructor as I love to share my passion with others and help them dispel the fear of a fitted garment.

As an added bonus, I found a husband who encourages my knitting habit; he ventures with me to knit shops when we are traveling, its always on the itinerary.

It was in the last two years that I found my knitting clan at Longmont Yarn Shoppe and love the sharing, encouragement and support we bring to each other. It’s a wonderful community to be a part of.

David Johnson is a tapestry weaver with extensive professional experience employed at the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts as well as the Appalachian Center for Craft. More recently David has taught for the Tucson Weavers Guild as well as the Intermountain Weavers Conference in Durango, CO.

Upcoming workshops include The Weavers Guild of Rochester, NY and the Sedona Weavers in AZ. In 2021 he will collaborate with the Spanish Peaks Tapestry Weavers in presenting "Crossovers in Tapestry: a Southwest Conference" in Pueblo, CO. David is currently president of the Rocky Mountain Weavers Guild.  To see some of David's work visit his website, ArachneWeaving.com

Kathy Partridge is an avid knitter and social media maven who has lived in Boulder County since 1975, the past 15 years in Longmont. Her grandmother taught her to knit when she was a child, a testament to Grandma's patience as Kathy is lefthanded.  Kathy dropped her needles to pursue a full-time career.  She picked them up again in 2006 when her then teenage daughter, a talented crocheter, took her to a big box store to buy yarn for a school project. Starting with skinny novelty yarn scarves, Kathy graduated to hats in the round, and then a class at a local yarn store introduced her to magic loop, stranded colorwork, and sock knitting.  Kathy loves how the Longmont Yarn Shoppe offers so many opportunities to explore even more new techniques. Since Kathy was constantly on the computer for her job, she was naturally an early Ravelry member, where she has posted over 500 of her knitting projects to date. Almost daily, as LongmontKathy, she explores new patterns and yarns on Ravelry, and networks with Wool-Aid, her online charity knitting group.

Mark Reihm – Mark’s fiber journey began with an interest in rope making and knots as a Boy Scout. In his early teens he took up macrame, making art pieces for his family and friends. In the late 90s he was inspired to become a weaver, expanding fibercraft demonstrations offered in the RenScots Living History Village, a Colorado Scottish heritage nonprofit. He has demonstrated spinning and tartan weaving throughout Colorado and the front range for nearly 25 years.

Darla Landfair – Darla was apprenticed to a German lace maker at age 12 in Ripley, West Virginia after watching her for hours at a local fair. She taught herself to knit and crochet in high school, with the help of a local artisan. Her spinning journey began at age 30, when she met Maggie Casey at Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder Colorado. Challenged finding soft wool yarns to knit a baby sweater for her first child, she attended Maggie’s beginning spinning class to learn to make her own yarn.

Weaving classes followed soon after, and she has never looked back. She rediscovered her love of lace making and is active with the Rocky Mountain Lace Guild. Darla is also an accomplished costume designer, and assists with spinning wheel and loom evaluation and restoration.

Donnie Herrington -  I began my fiber story in the fall of 2012 with a set of slippery, metal needles and some squeaky, bulky yarn. Teaching myself to knit from online videos with the help of a good friend via texting, I created my first garter stitch scarf. Naturally, it was a gift for my mother. Finishing that scarf, my goal was to perfect that scarf with better edges, no mistakes, and more even stitches.
I moved to Longmont in February 2014, looking for a new place to call home. A few months later, I took a drop spinning class with the incomparable Maggie Casey. While I loved the experience and the storytelling from Maggie, I knew it would really take time from my knitting. I decided I probably wouldn’t be a spinner at this time.
Later that same year, I started a crafting group with our local LGBTQ organization, Out Boulder County, at the urgency of our director to expand the organization outside of Boulder proper. The group, Work in Progress, has been meeting almost every Thursday and we have taught dozens of people to knit and crochet.
I began working at LYS in June of 2016 and couldn’t ask for a better, chosen tribe to call family. You could certainly say I’ve found my home here in Longmont and at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe.

Amanda Eastman - Amanda picked up Needle Felting in 2017 after seeing an online tutorial and never looked back. After discovering how much she loved it and that she had a real talent for fiber art, she opened her Etsy store “The Felted Fox Studio” in 2018 and has continued to hone her craft, improving more and more with each creation. In 2022 she expanded her business and started felting full time. She loves the freedom of being able to create anything from felt and cannot wait to see what the future holds with this fun and endlessly creative medium. When she is not making adorable art with wool, Amanda works as a Conservation Educator at the Denver Zoo and loves to spend time outdoors, nature photography and her dog Annie

Robin Wilton- Robin Wilton has earned a BFA with a concentration in Weaving from CSU in Ft. Collins.  She has been weaving for about 50 years. Known also as “the Weaving Lady”, Robin specializes in doing programs about weaving and spinning to Denver metro area children in schools and at events.   Robin has taught Inkle Weaving for shops and weaving guilds throughout the Front Range for many years. 

Pamela Schwab - Pamela currently lives in Longmont, Colorado where she cares for a small flock of sheep. Like so many, she learned a variety of needle crafts as a child but sidelined her interest while studying art and architecture. However, when her interest in textiles was reawakened as an adult, her training in architecture quickly lead her to begin designing and publishing her own knitting patterns. From there, her interest became all-encompassing, and she now prefers to spend as much time as possible with her hands on wool: from shepherding and preparing raw wool, to spinning and dyeing yarn, to completing knitted or woven objects. She’s always looking to expand her knowledge and expertise, and loves sharing her obsession with others.

Beth Fowler - Beth After retiring from a corporate career that spanned 42 years, I am excited to pursue my love of fiber art full time. I started weaving in the eighties on a 4-shaft table loom. I now use both 4 and 8 shaft floor looms depending on need. There are endless opportunities for exploration with both. Through the years, I experimented with many fiber related activities: quilting, garment sewing, bags, felting, dyeing and surface design to name a few. I especially enjoy how to combine color and texture into my work. I am excited to push into new directions, always ready to learn, share and collaborate with my extended fiber family.

Karen Taylor - Crocheting and knitting are my passions and I practice them daily. I enjoy the creative process, learning new things, and sharing that knowledge with others 

I learned to crochet as a teenager when a lady I babysat for taught me the basics. My mother tried to teach me knitting, but it never really caught on with me until later in life when I learned about continental knitting. That approach had similarities to how I hold the yarn for crochet so with the help of online videos I mastered knitting.  I have been “bi-stitchual” for over fifteen years now, but crochet will always be my first love. 

I have lived in Colorado for decades aside from a few years in Seattle. I currently live in Berthoud with my husband, our two adorable Cockapoos and my substantial yarn stash. I have seven grandchildren, who provide me continual opportunities for new projects.

I retired from a career in software development, and I have transferred my love of learning new things from that job to my craft projects. With the availability of worldwide resources on the internet, there are always new horizons for even the most experienced knitters and crocheters. I look forward to continue sharing my knowledge and skills in teaching others.

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Gail Sundberg-Douse - Founder, Longmont Yarn Shoppe  As a kid I was always making things and somewhere along the way I learned to knit.  I had many adventures knitting in my youth- some went well, others not so much.  

After nursing school I had time to learn to spin and weave.  In 2005 my sister Susan purchased Alpacas- establishing “Wabi Sabi Farm” & I started knitting & spinning in earnest to demonstrate the continuum of Alpaca fiber from the back of the animal to finished product. Later I was asked by the Longmont Recreation Dept if I could teaching knitting- I said "yes!"

After a wonderful career as a RN I was ready to make a change. In September 2012 Longmont Yarn Shoppe opened its doors in the heart of downtown.  The store is the same location I used to buy candy and other trinkets when I was just a kid....the Marlou Shop.  The response from the community in having a LYS has been incredible -  I am so happy that I took the plunge!  None of my success in life or at the store would be possible were it not for the support of my husband - Mark, and my family, Michael, Austin, Max and Emma. I am ever grateful to them all for putting up with my piles of yarn and projects around the house over the years.