Amy Hawley

Acting President & Programming Director

Amy was taught to knit by her grandmother when she was seven years old. Her grandmother needed help making small scarfs for a church bazaar, and thus began Amy's love for charitable knitting. Amy temporarily put her knitting on the back burner when she got married and started a family, but in 2006 she took up knitting again, taking classes at local knitting stores and challenging herself to learn more techniques. Amy has a project with her wherever she goes, plus many more on needles at home. She loves all things cables and has visited over 20 yarn shops throughout Minnesota.

Email Amy | Ravelry

Jess Long

Secretary

Jess learned to knit from her aunt when she was young. She crocheted a little in college, but picked up knitting after college and hasn’t been able to stop since then. When she isn’t knitting, she’s thinking about knitting. Jess always has a pair of socks on the needles.

Email Jess | Ravelry

Mona Phaff

Treasurer

Mona was taught to knit by her Mom--a prolific knitter--when she was seven years old. Her first project was a pair of baby booties for her second grade teacher using fingering weight wool and very long, steel needles (double points!) held with one under her arm. Mona continued to knit intermittently until she caught the knitting bug in 1996 when she moved from South Florida to Boston, which has a rich fiber community like Minnesota. Later she moved to Minneapolis and immediately joined the Knitter's Guild. Mona enjoys knitting garments and Afghans and continually challenges herself to learn new techniques. Socks remain her favorite project and she always has a pair or two or three on the needles.

Email Mona | Ravelry

Karen Cyson

Operations Director

Bio to come.

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Shelley Hermanson

Yarnover Director

Shelley has been knitting since 1952. Her mother taught her to knit to keep her quiet. She has chaired the Yarnover committee since 2000.

Email Shelley | Ravelry

Betty Hanna

Service Director

Betty retired in 2011 from a 40-year career in nursing. She remembers her aunt teaching her to knit a scarf (unsuccessfully) when she was about 8 years old. What little she retained was put on the back burner of her brain for many years. The urge to knit didn’t resurface again until she was in her early 30s and wanted to knit a Norwegian sweater for her grandmother. She read a book about how to knit a Norwegian sweater, asked a friend to help her cast on, and away she went! Since then, she's knit over 40 Norwegian sweaters for family, special friends, and charity donations. She also enjoys the variety and creativity that knitting has to offer and usually has multiple projects on her stash of knitting needles and yarn. See our Charity Knitting Page for more information about our current projects and donation process.

Email Betty

Kathy Lewinski

Member Experience Director

Kathy has always been into crafts, but didn’t teach herself to knit until after college. She really got hooked while living in San Francisco when a friend opened a knitting store. To pitch in, Kathy started knitting up fun (and odd) things for window displays, as well as teaching classes. In the last couple of years, she has started designing her own knitting patterns (many of them available for free on Ravelry!) with toys and mittens being her primary obsessions.

Email Kathy | Ravelry

Susanna Johns

Marketing Director

Susanna assumes that she learned to knit from her grandma, with her mom as the back up tutor, but she was so young she cannot actually remember. As a kid, she became fascinated by the story of Molly (of American Girl Doll fame) knitting socks during WWII. Later, as a high school exchange student in Austria, Susanna was finally taught to knit socks by her host mother. From there, knitting eventually became her primary hobby.Susanna is grateful for the friendships she has gained from the knitting groups she has been a part of over the years. As the Marketing Director, she is excited about the opportunity to promote (well, let's be honest, brag) about the mission and the talent of the members of the Guild.

Email Susanna | Ravelry

Kate Westlund

Social Media and Technology Director

Kate became enthralled with knitting when she was a young girl and saw a fellow young person knitting on a plane. She implored her mother to teach her everything she knew, which as it turned out was only casting on and knit stitch. Once Kate learned to purl from the book in this very same beginner's knit kit, there was no end in sight. (Although Kate has a penchant for misplacing every day items like keys and sunglasses, she still has and uses many notions from that kit.) Kate is the type of knitter who doesn’t always swatch, which is sometimes obvious in her finished projects.

Email Kate | Ravelry

Pam Duffy-Kope

President

Pam has been president since 2009. She keeps tabs on the various committees, sends out reminders of meetings, chairs the meetings, arranges the programming and sees to the many other duties that come with being the go-to for the Northern Lights Affiliate (NLA).

Pam has been knitting for many, many years but took a break while raising a family, etc. She rediscovered knitting in 2006 when she discovered all of the new lovely fibers that were available. She was hooked. Pam loves knitting hats and mittens, which are needed in the Northland. She also loves to felt slippers, bags and anything else that can be felted. She sells her knit wear with Shari Carlson, the former NLA secretary. They call themselves Two Peas in a Pod.

Email Pam

Leona Krieg

Secretary

Leona taught herself to knit when she was 16 from a book purchased at the local F.W. Woolworth store. She later learned on a trip to Sweden that her paternal grandmother's occupation was listed as Sticherra. Leona never had the chance to meet her grandmother, who passed away when her father was a young man, but she's proud to be carrying on the family legacy.

Leona likes patterns that are a challenge (which is perhaps why she doesn't get a lot finished!) One of her favorite projects she's ever completed is an Aran sweater with a 40-row repeat -- perfect for those 30-degree-below Duluth winter days.

As a volunteer at the Lake Superior Zoo barnyard, Leona loves working with the sheep, goats and other wooly animals. She also has two cats, Indy and Waffle, who are equally fond of yarn.

Carol Peterman

Treasurer/Membership

Pam has been president since 2009. She keeps tabs on the various committees, sends out reminders of meetings, chairs the meetings, arranges the programming and sees to the many other duties that come with being the go-to for the Northern Lights Affiliate (NLA).

Pam has been knitting for many, many years but took a break while raising a family, etc. She rediscovered knitting in 2006 when she discovered all of the new lovely fibers that were available. She was hooked. Pam loves knitting hats and mittens, which are needed in the Northland. She also loves to felt slippers, bags and anything else that can be felted. She sells her knit wear with Shari Carlson, the former NLA secretary. They call themselves Two Peas in a Pod.

Email Carol

Shannon Szymkowiak

Cable Gram Contributor and Web Site Consultant

Shannon is our Cable Gram contributor, writing the "Knitting In The Northland" articles.

She has been a member of the NLA since its inception in 2003, but has been a member of the Minnesota Knitters' Guild since 2001 when she lived in the Twin Cities.

Shannon has been knitting since 2000, when a chance meeting with a woman at a work event turned her on to a neighborhood knitting group. From the first day, she felt like knitting needles belonged in her hands. Shannon has a weakness for Merino wool and creating hats, but in recent years has experimented with a large-scale lace project and keeps learning new techniques to keep things interesting.

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MaryBeth Olsen

Charity Knitting

MaryBeth organizes the Northern Lights Affiliate Charity Knitting Program. With input from the Guild, she decides what charity we knit for each year.

MaryBeth has been knitting for 11 years. She mostly enjoys two-color Norwegian-style knitting. She has made sweaters, hats, mittens and a lot of ornaments. MaryBeth’s current obsession is Arne and Carlos dolls -- she has made 14 to date!

Email MaryBeth