Meet Golden Peak Media’s Yarn Advisory Board Members

✓Let the Interweave Knits Winter 2024 issue transport you to a winter wonderland of cozy knits! This remarkable edition features 14 extraordinary projects to immerse yourself in the uniqueness of specially crafted yarns.

Introducing the inaugural Yarn Advisory Board, a vital stride in our commitment at Golden Peak Media and Interweave to enrich the fiber world with unparalleled content. Our relentless pursuit of inspiration and community-building through educational events, publications, patterns, videos, and more drives us forward. Recognizing the collaborative nature of our mission, we are thrilled to share the assembly of our valued advisory board.

“I’m delighted to have community support and voices to guide us in creating the best products and solutions for makers. We’re fortunate to have such a good group of advisors. I look forward to working with them as we build the crafting community.”
Jeffrey Litvack, CEO, Golden Peak Media

Comprising ten individuals, this board harnesses decades of collective experience within the fiber community. Over the upcoming year, yarn aficionados and store proprietors will share their invaluable perspectives on pivotal subjects, trends, and innovative products. Delve deeper into this announcement to get acquainted with each board member’s remarkable background.

Yarn Advisory Board Members

PJ Bartl | Interweave+ Member

PJ Bartl is a self-taught knitter and crocheter who rediscovered her passion for fiber arts after retiring from a career in information technology and project management. She’s an avid member of the Interweave+ community and built her skills through online resources, including using Interweave’s digital magazines. These days she enjoys knitting Shetland lace in fine yarns from her home in Canada.

Louis Boria | Brooklyn Boy Knits

It was literally all a dream for the founder and creator of Brooklyn Boy Knits. Louis Boria turned to Youtube to feed his curiosity for the art. What went from just knitting for friends turned into something much bigger and warmer. Stereotypes don’t paint men as knitters and Boria is breaking barriers through Brooklyn Boy Knits. His friends loved their handmade gifts so much that they soon told their friends and before he knew it Brooklyn Boy Knits was reaching people beyond Brooklyn.

Marie Greene | Olive Knits

Marie Greene is the founder of Olive Knits^TM and Knit Camp®, and the author of five books on knitting, including The Joy of Yarn (coming September 2023). Her renegade knitting tricks and cheerful teaching style have helped knitters around the world knit with skill and confidence. You’ll love her candid insights, brilliant tips, and real-life stories that will not only teach and inspire you but will keep you laughing along the way. Marie lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, an overgrown puppy, and two kitties.

Barry Klein | Trendsetter Yarns

Barry Klein is the owner and designer of yarns and patterns for Trendsetter Yarns. More than 34 years ago, Barry and his mom started Trendsetter with the idea of bringing the most exciting textured, fashion, and luxury yarns to the knitting customer. Barry continues to guide the company and create yarns that truly set the trends. Barry has been a voted member of the “Top 10 Men Who Knit Throughout History” and is an Interweave Top 20 2023 honoree.

Toni Lipsey | TL Yarn Crafts

Since turning her crochet passion into a career nearly a decade ago, Toni Lipsey has built a catalog of crafty knowledge in TL Yarn Crafts that includes hundreds of beginner-friendly patterns and easy-to-follow tutorials. She draws her inspiration from the desire to immerse herself in a cozy life bursting with color. Her current obsessions are temperature blankets, Tunisian crochet, and anything granny squares. When she’s not crocheting, you can find Toni cuddled with her fur babes Sheba and Pepper, as well as her husband, watching true-crime thrillers in their metro Detroit home. Toni is also an Interweave Top 20 2023 honoree.

Lee Sartori | CoCo Crochet Lee

Lee Sartori is the crochet designer behind CoCo Crochet Lee and author of four books, including Friends: The One With Crochet in 2023. She can be seen as a guest host on the popular PBS/CreateTV Show Knit and Crochet Now, as well as a cast member of Annie’s Creative Studio where she demonstrates fun crochet skills and patterns. Lee’s passion is designing modern, wearable garments, and adorable amigurumi. Lee lives in Halifax, Canada with her two children Noël and Conan, her amazing husband Sean, her adorable bunny Neville Longbottom, and two cats Ginny, and Toast.

Caroline Sommerfeld | Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts

Caroline Sommerfeld has always been fascinated by fibers and yarn. She is the Founder and Creative Director of Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts, a hand dye company begun in 2008. More than 25 years of intensive fiber study has led the company to specialize in sustainable, eco-friendly custom yarns utilizing heritage wool breeds, and they are dyed in unique color palettes enjoyed around the world. Caroline also loves to design, and her work has appeared in various publications including Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, and Wool Studio. You’ll find the main body of her work available through Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts, where she invites you to join her in sharing her passion for fibers, yarn, history, and knitting!

Safiyyah Talley | The Drunk Knitter

Safiyyah Talley is an author, knitwear designer, teacher, blogger and the True Crime & Knit podcaster who works out of her home in scenic Indiana, USA. She is the author of Knit 2 Socks in 1: Discover the Easy Magic of Turning One Long Sock into a Pair! When she is not knitting, Safiyyah either spends her free time hiking with her photographer husband, her toddler son Beau, and chocolate lab, Arya, or enjoying the rural Indiana landscape with her two cats and angora rabbit.

Dana Williams-Johnson, Ph.D. | Yards of Happiness

Dr. Dana Williams-Johnson learned to knit in 2011 and has since become the prolific knitter behind Yards of Happiness, a blog where she shares her fiber adventures with her sidekicks Jellybean and Kiwi. In 2023, Dana earned a Ph.D. from Howard University after defending her dissertation “Stitches of Progress: Knitting Consciousness and the Changing Power of Black Women’s Work and Leisure.” She is now a tenure track Assistant Professor at H.U.

Laura Zander | Jimmy Beans Wool

Laura Zander is the co-owner of Jimmy Beans Wool. She and her husband Doug worked as software engineers during the dot-com era in the SF Bay Area. Witnessing the dot-com boom’s decline, they left their jobs, moved to their Tahoe home, and opened Jimmy Beans Wool 20 years ago. A $30,000 personal investment was their springboard to transforming Jimmy Beans into a thriving entity, meriting four Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies accolades. In the past five years, Laura introduced della Q, Madelinetosh, Jimmy’s SmartStix, and Simply Shetland to the Jimmy Beans Wool brand family, along with her latest venture, Yarn Citizen, a sustainable yarn line.

We are excited to have these creative minds lending their voices to our team as we endeavor to make your experiences with us the best they can be!

Please join me in welcoming our Yarn Advisory Board members to Golden Peak Media and Interweave.

Say hello in the comments below and share something you enjoy about yarn!

Expand Your Yarn Knowledge

Meet Golden Peak Media’s Yarn Advisory Board Members