April feature: Ellen Straubinger

See Ellen's blog here!

Hi! My name is Ellen Straubinger and I live with my husband and three children near
White Rock, BC.

I grew up in Germany where I learned knitting, crocheting and sewing in 5th grade. My
friends and I we would knit every opportunity we had and sometimes we were allowed
to knit during class. From the beginning I designed my own patterns. I remember
making a sleeveless sweater with the side seams open and thought it was the coolest
thing.

I studied Business Administration in college, but I took every Art class I could also a life
drawing class, which forced me to quite a bit of explaining when my kids found my
drawings last year.

During college I sewed a lot, but came back to knitting when my children were born.
Always on the hunt for the perfect colour I started to dye my own yarn and decided to
sell it on Etsy in October 2006.

I like to knit with natural yarns, but wool is my favourite. Since I have started spinning I
would like to explore more the wool of different breeds of sheep.