Announcing the Interweave Top 20 Yarn Honorees for 2023

As part of our Maker Festivals Lancaster 2023 event, the Interweave Yarn team was excited to highlight 20 stand-out individuals in our industry. We were thrilled to select honorees in the following categories: Trailblazers, Community Leaders, Trendsetters, and Rising Stars.

Read on to learn more about each category, who we decided to spotlight, and join us in congratulating them in the comments.

Related: Meet the Interweave Beading + Jewelry Top 20, Quilting Daily Top 20, and the Artists Network Top 100

Top 5 Trailblazers

Each of these five honorees has inspired us by following their passion and inviting us to join them. Whether developing new techniques, bringing innovative yarns to market, championing natural fibers, or advocating for diversity and inclusion, these Trailblazers make our knitting lives richer every day.

Nancy Marchant

Nancy Marchant, a.k.a. the Queen Mother of Brioche, published her first pattern in 1974. She has studied the nuances of the brioche stitch and developed new and exciting stitch patterns and techniques for achieving beautiful brioche and tuck stitch results. She is the author of Knitting Brioche, Knitting Fresh Brioche, Leafy Brioche, Tuck Stitches, Knitting Brioche Lace, and Brioche Knitting. She’s recently started developing woven patterns in knitting. See her work at www.briochestitch.com.

Knit: Nancy Marchant’s Bi Color Brioche Pullover which appeared in Interweave Knits Spring 2005

Clara Parkes

Clara Parkes has dedicated her life to exploring the stories behind, and qualities of, all the fibers that we wear on our bodies—and taking readers along for the journey. Through her wool advocacy, writings, workshops, books, and television and radio appearances, Clara champions the notion of paying closer attention to what we put on our bodies and where it came from. See her passion on display at www.thewoolchannel.com. 

Read: Clara Parkes, The Yarn Seer

Kim McBrien Evans

Curiosity, exploration and an ever-expanding plan for world domination are central to the work knitwear designer and indie hand dyer, Kim McBrien Evans. Known for designs that turn abstract ideas into color-filled textile reality while simultaneously fitting and honoring every body, Kim aims to revolutionize sweater fit, sizing, and how diverse bodies are represented in the yarn world through research, pushing the design envelope, education, and collaborations with makers worldwide. See her work at www.indigodragonfly.ca.

Read: Meet Kim McBrien Evans: Fiber Artist, Knitter, and Instructor

Jeanette Sloan

Jeanette Sloan is a knitwear designer, tutor, and founder of BIPOC in Fiber. She’s written for a number of magazines where her 2018 article “Black People Do Knit” discussed the lack of BIPOC representation in the fiber community. The same year she began the POC Designers & Crafters list to highlight people of color working with fiber; that list, posted on her blog, sowed the seeds for BIPOC in Fiber which she founded in 2019. See more of her celebrated work at www.jeanettesloandesign.com

Barry Klein

Barry Klein is 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.” Shop his yarns and patterns at www.trendsetteryarns.com

Knit: Barry Klein’s Chroma Cardigan from Wool Studio Vol. XI

Top 5 Community Leaders

The honorees in this group embrace collaboration and believe that elevating others is the key to their success. Supporting others in need is not only their passion but their cause.

Laura Nelkin | Knit for Food

Laura Nelkin is a prolific and innovative knitwear designer. She is known for her complex but accessible designs that challenge knitters to think about their stitches in a new way. Laura is also the founder of Knit for Food, a 12-hour knitting marathon that raises funds for food insecurity and hunger. In 2023, knitters raised $340,000. 100% of the money raised is equally divided between Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels. Visit www.nelkindesigns.com for more of Laura’s work.

Read: Join the Knit for Food Knit-a-thon

Austin Rivers | Knit the Rainbow

Austin Rivers (he/him) is a nonprofit founder; diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant; activist; and professional actor. He received his double Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Musical Theatre from NYU, his Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Central Florida, and is starting his PhD in Change Leadership for Equity & Inclusion from the University of Central Arkansas this Fall. Austin is the founder and Board Chair of Knit the Rainbow, Inc., a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes handmade knit and crochet winter garments for homeless and at-risk LGBTQ+ youth. Find out more at www.knittherainbow.com.

Read: Knit the Rainbow: Providing Winter Warmth for Vulnerable LGBTQ+ Youth

Jonah Larson | Jonah’s Hands Library

Jonah Larson is a 15-year-old crochet prodigy from LaCrosse, Wisconsin. His infectious enthusiasm and commitment to giving back have earned him a worldwide following. Jonah is most proud of his philanthropic work and has funded his first Jonah’s Hands Library in Ethiopia in the rural village where he was born. He is currently raising money to build those same children a science lab. Donate to his project by visiting www.jonahhands.com where you can donate to his Go Fund Me.

Read: Catch Up with Crochet Prodigy Jonah Larson

Jennifer Simonic & Masey Kaplan | Loose Ends Project

Loose Ends Project was launched in September 2022 by Jen Simonic (of Seattle, WA) and Masey Kaplan (of Portland, ME) as an effort to match projects that have been left behind due to death or disability, to volunteer finishers. More than 9800 volunteers have signed up worldwide to complete projects and then return them to the loved ones for which they were being made. Anyone can submit a project to be completed or sign up to be a volunteer finisher at www.looseendsproject.org. 

Read: Loose Ends Project: Volunteers Picking Up Stitches for Deceased Makers

Robin Tome | Artists for Peace

When Orchard Weaves’ artist Robin Tome saw the atrocities happening in Ukraine, she quickly rallied a group of fiber artists to raise funds for the relief effort. Within a few short days, the list of contributing artists grew to an international community of more than 170 individuals. She’s gone on to organize several art auctions, and together fundraising efforts have garnered more than $56,00 which has been donated to various causes. Follow @artistsforpeace_auction on Instagram to learn more. 

Read: Artists for Peace Helping Ukraine

Top 5 Trendsetters

These influential members of our community are showing us all how to stand out from the crowd via their creative use of yarn. Their projects have us grabbing yarn and casting on again and again, while always wondering what they’ll do next.

Stephen West

Stephen West’s shawl designs and innovative use of color have helped him become an internationally recognized and respected designer. His simple, clean, architectural designs have now been knitted by thousands of knitters all around the world. Stephen has taught workshops throughout the United States and internationally in Finland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, Israel, Iceland, UK, and Amsterdam where he co-owns Stephen & Penelope, a yarn boutique in the city center. Hop over to www.westknits.com to see his work.

Kate Burge & Rachel Price | Spincycle Yarns

Rachel and Kate are besties, business partners, lifelong natural fiber enthusiasts, brave color explorers, hip-hop connoisseurs, and committed makers for life. Together they are the creative brains behind Spincycle Yarns. Rachel and Kate are both self-taught dyers specializing in a “dyed in the wool” technique, which allows variegated colors to elongate and play together in the spinning and plying process as fiber becomes yarn. Find their skeins at www.spincycleyarns.com

Toni Lipsey

Since turning her crochet passion into a career nearly a decade ago, Toni has built a catalog of crafty knowledge 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. Follow her daily crochet journey on Instagram, @TLYarnCrafts, and pick up her book and patterns on www.tlyarncrafts.com.

Read: Toni Lipsey’s 5 Designer Secrets for Temperature Blankets

Amy Christoffers

Amy Christoffers is the designer of Savory Knitting patterns. She was also the design director at Berroco Yarns where, in addition to designing knitwear, she creates the concepts for the Berroco pattern collections and photoshoots. Amy is the author of New American Knits (Interweave Press 2014), and her work has been published in many periodicals, including Interweave Knits. Explore her trendsetting designs, including her popular Pressed Flowers series, at www.savoryknitting.com

Tina Whitmore | Freia Fibers

Born in England, Tina Whitmore attended assorted progressive schools before graduating with a BFA in photography in San Francisco in the 80s. A lifelong knitter and knitwear designer, she expanded her skills to dyeing yarn in the early 2000s, rapidly evolving from dyeing self-striping yarn to creating deeply saturated, smooth-flowing—and previously unseen—gradient dyed yarn. While adding new colors every season, Tina continues also designing exclusively with her Freia Yarns creating projects for knitters that keep them engaged and coming back for more! www.freiafibers.com is the place to find her spectacular yarns.

Read: All the Rage: Ombré Yarns

Top 5 Rising Stars

These artists and makers have been working for less than a decade and are making waves in the industry while producing creative innovative, quality work.

Kendall Ross

The action of hand-knitting is how Kendall Ross processes emotions, experiences, and memories. She is inspired by the exercise of using a historically woman-dominated skill to communicate her personal stories of being a modern young woman. In her work, Kendall celebrates the feminine, overlooked moments of young womanhood through exciting and colorful hand-knit garments. Her compelling designs can be found at www.idknitthatco.com.

India Rose Crawford

India Rose Crawford is a content creator who brings together her love of knitting and short-form videos. The focus of her work is a humble knitted frog and his companion toad. India Rose gives her audience insights into Frog and Toad’s ideal life of thimbles full of tea, strawberry pieces baked in bottle caps, and lazy afternoons on gingham picnic blankets. Follow Frog and Toad’s adventures on Instagram @indiarosecrawford.

Read: Yarn-y Content Creators Who Have Us Reeling

Andrea Gaughan

As a designer, Andrea Gaughan strives to create knitting patterns that are supremely wearable and a joy to knit. She hopes her designs can become staple pieces for makers interested in slow fashion, sustainable living, and self-empowerment. Andrea began knitting out of a desire to create beautiful and functional objects from sustainably sourced materials. For her, knitting has since grown to also be about community, creativity, and the celebration of all bodies. Cast on one of Andrea’s designs by visiting www.andreagaughanknits.com

Tomomi Yoshimoto

Tomomi Yoshimoto has loved drawing pictures since she was a child, and she thinks of knitwear designs as if drawing a picture. Currently, while working as a medical worker at a hospital during the week, Tomomi is constantly searching for designs that many people can enjoy. She lives in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Her captivating designs are found on Ravelry @Tomomi Yoshimoto

Ekene Ndukwe Obiukwu

Ekene Ndukwe Obiukwu began is crochet career in 2017 with a simple mission: to change the stereotypes about the quality and durability of crochet products. He expresses himself through crochet and see his work as stuff that disrupts. His slogan is, “I don’t make Bags, I make Art.” Visit www.thatcrochetguy.com to see Ekene’s bags for yourself!

Of course, no roundup in this industry can ever cover the full depth and breadth of our incredible community—which is why we hope to keep this tradition of recognition going for years to come.

We hope you’ll join us in congratulating all our Top 20 honorees of 2023!