Customer Spotlight...Ginny Schweiss

Ginny Schweiss, like many knitters, learned to knit as a child, on dime-store needles and Red Heart yarn. Forget Barbie dolls and her store-bought dresses--Ginny’s collection of Breyer horses wore the fanciest hand knit blankets in the country. Her first wearable design came out of necessity years later, when she had a dance to go to in high school and needed a top. It didn’t occur to her to look for a pattern. It didn’t even occur to her that it wasn’t normal to just sit down and knit a sweater, her first. While one might think this smashing, early success would lead to a long, illustrious career in design or any other fiber related industry, one would be way off target. Instead, she chose a route of physical therapist-turned-novelist, which prompts most people, upon hearing this, to pause, look confused, and wonder how one possibly led to the other.

Today, she still uses the same needles, and two grandkids play with the horses. Her office has made a visible transition from that of successful novelist to adventurous knitter. Research books peek out from behind the usual stash of colorful cones and skeins. Walls with writing awards are lined with knitting machines.
Her Butterfly sweater is the first project she designed on Garment Designer. She says the hardest thing for her is to keep anything simple, as once a design is underway, her imagination is always striving to make it unique, maybe memorable, definitely perfect, but not over-the-top. She loves designs that fit, texture, colorwork, and beads. Stitch Painter is on her wish list.

Ginny lives in St. Louis, MO. She can be found a few places on the web:
www.ravelry.com  - Beaded Pony Designs 
www.novelsites.us   - maintaining websites for other authors and knitters
www.jennamcknight.com  - her Jenna McKnight author website
http://jennamcknight.wordpress.com - occasional blogs about knitting and favorite rants