Yarnivore

Well if a carnivore is a meat-eating animal, then a yarnivore is a yarn eating animal, right? OK, well we don'tactually eat the yarn, but the term is meant to describe the enthusiasm that often develops once a person starts to work with yarn. Before you know it you are consuming yarn like a hungry animal, unable to satisfy your appetite for yarn.

Melanie & her husband are the owners of Yarnivore. Melanie learned to knit in 2003 out of a desire to knit herself a sweater. She spend the next few years making gifts for her friends and family, but didn't actually knit herself a sweater until 2006! An environmental engineer by education, she abandoned her career to open a yarn store and turned her hobby into her job! She learned to spin in 2006 and enjoys making and dyeing her own yarn too. Melanie doesn't like to be "held back" by patterns and prefers designing her own. Since moving to San Antonio, sleeveless tops have become her favorite thing to design and knit.

What Wendy don't know about knitting ain't worth knowing! Well, almost. Her fiber life began at age 8, when she learned to crochet in 4H. Many afghans and doilies later, she found herself wanting to make a crocheted sweater, but the pattern called for KNITTED ribbing. "I can do anything for 2 inches!" declared fearless Wendy. After the sweater came knitted slippers, then more and more knitting. Eventually, crochet and knitting alone weren't enough for our intrepid yarn explorer. Soon she began spinning, and dyeing yarn and fiber, and even designing her own patterns!

Julia was taught to knit by her mother in law, Cecile, in 2004. Her goal was to be knitting socks within a year because all of her reading about knitting suggested they were much more comfortable (no seams!). She met this goal with some self-patterning Opal and quickly found sock yarns and sock making irresistible. Her preferred method is the traditional cuff down style on five double pointed needles. She also loves knitting accessories such as purses, totes, cell phone and iPod cases, often felting them.

Pamela came to Yarnivore in the summer of 2007 when she had to complete an internship for her high school. She was hired to work before Christmas and has stayed on since. She learned to knit when she was six from her grandmother, then again when she moved to San Antonio two years later. She has been knitting non-stop ever since, and often knits in class (she goes to ISA where this is perfectly normal). She enjoys exploring new creative ideas with knitting, most recently having used lace knitting to create the illusion of snow for an English project.

Rebecca the intern (or slave, as we fondly call her) first learned to knit when she was 6. She really began to knit passionately at age 13, when Yarnivore hired her mother Wendy to work at Yarnivore. She's become a major yarnaholic since then, and spends as much time as she can at the store. She learned to spin and now uses her skills to express herself in a way that she never did before. She admits that she is an addict, but says that if anyone approaches her about rehab, they had better remember that she carries sharp needles.