Shaina Bilow

 

I started knitting in high school - October of 2000 to be precise - and I haven’t put down the knitting needles since. During college, I was working in a local yarn shop and realized that there was a need in my community for a yarn store that offered custom designs, accessible yarn stock, and friendly help. So, after graduating, I did what every English Language and Lit major does… I opened a yarn shop with my mother and sister.

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Our shop enabled me to grow and learn in ways I never could have imagined when writing that initial business plan. During my five years at The Skein Attraction, I became adept at pattern adjusting and custom pattern writing and taught private lessons tailored to individual needs as well as topic-specific group classes to enhance the skill set of my customers. Ready to move on from the retail setting, I took the skills that I’d honed at the shop and opened Shaina Bilow Designs in 2013, offering open-topic weekly group classes and private lessons from my home studio.

 

While deciphering tricky pattern instructions for my students, I saw how needlessly complicated many of the available knitting patterns were. I began publishing my own designs: Simple, clear instructions that knitters can pick up and feel confident following. To provide extra support on my patterns, I created a YouTube channel and offer quick and reliable tutorial videos there. Knitters now have a place to look for instructions they can trust.

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In 2020, I began teaching more extensively for local yarn shops, knitting guilds, webstores like WEBS yarn, and at knitting events like Vogue Knitting Live. As people got to know my comfortable, clear, and enthusiastic teaching style, they were signing up again and again for my workshops.  Since then, I’ve introduced themed knitting goodie boxes, like my annual Hanukkah Knitting Box, as well as destination knitting experiences to my customers.   

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My experience within the knitting industry has been extensive - as a consumer, a yarn shop owner, a designer, a teacher, and a yarn dyer. Knitting is thrilling in that there is always something new to learn and try – a new color, fiber, stitch pattern, or design. Knitting evolves with our styles and needs, whether we knit for loved ones or to show ourselves some love. My patterns and workshops are designed with that in mind and I’m immensely grateful to be a part of so many knitters’ creative journeys.​​​​