Gwen Bortner
Le Grand, CA USA
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Specialty |
Entrelac
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| Contact Information: |
No mailing address is available...
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| Favorite Knitting Book |
Designing Knitwear -- Deborah Newton
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| Favorite knitting reference |
Vogue Knitting
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| Classes |
I teach a variety of classes from Beginning Knitting through complex design and technique. My most popular classes are:
- Entrelac (Intro and Advanced)
- Knitting with Alternative Fibers
- The Numbers of Knitting
- Simply Color
- Knitting Lanuage (Reading Your Knitting & Charts)
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| Biography |
Gwen Bortner is a Craft Yarn Council Certified Teacher and is accredited by the Professional Knitwear and Designers Guild in both teaching and design. Her Seamless Entrelac technique was featured in Threads July 1994 and again in Taunton Press’ Great Knits. Her math background made designing and writing patterns a natural extension to her love of fiber and knitting in particular. In the summer of 2001, Gwen gave up her executive career to found Knitability, LLC and launched www.knitability.com in the fall of that same year.
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| What is your knitting mantra? |
Knitting is Fun...Knitting is Fun (just ask my students)!
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| What inspires you? |
It depends, sometimes it is a pattern stitch, sometimes it is a yarn, other times by other works of fashion.
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| Confess - when it comes to hiding your yarn, what are your secrets? |
Luckily I have a great husband who never cared how much yarn I had. Now that I have a business, it has become a bit of a mute point.
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| What is your idea of knitting heaven? |
Up at our cabin in the Sierras in Spring or Fall, a fire in the stove and my husband reading to me!
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| How many UFO's (Unfinished Objects)do you have going at once? |
I can't count that high. Actually, I am not sure. Many are still packed from our move and others are literally decades old. However, I almost always have 2-4 active project going at any one time.
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| My yarn stash equals the GNP (Gross National Product) of ... |
My personal stash really isn't that big, but since I sell yarn too, I don't feel the need to stash.
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| Whom would you like to see accept an Academy Award wearing your creation? |
I would love to see any one of the actress knitters wearing one of my designs that she knit herself -- that would be too cool.
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| What knitting commandment do you most like to break? |
Are there knitting commandments? I missed those!
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| What frequently-asked knitting question do you hate to answer? |
There is no knitting question I hate to answer -- I love to be asked questions.
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| What is your most dog-eared knitting reference? |
The most dog-eared references are the first three Barbara G Walker treasuries.
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| How long can you last without knitting? |
I can last years without knitting, because I have. But I have also found that I am a better person, on the whole, when I am knitting regularly.
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| If you were stranded on a deserted island, what one yarn, book, or gizmo would you want along? |
I would want as much of Knitability's Serendipity yarn as possible. It is my very favorite to work with and since it is 50/50 silk and wool, it would probably also be handy to have for things other than knitting!
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| How many hours have you knitted non-stop - and why? |
I knitted about 14-18 hours non-stop while watching the coverage of 9/11.
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| What do you want your knitting epitaph to say? |
She made knitting fun!
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| Who would you like to greet you in knitting heaven? |
All my relatives before me who have shared their creativity and talent with their children allowing it all to be passed to me.
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