Technically I'm not an artist. I'm a gardener and landscape designer.

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Last spring, my sister was just learning how to knit. She’s a friend of Lee Andersen, who encouraged her to play with yarn and make something for FantasyWood. I have been knitting and crocheting for over 30 years, she was helping my sister over the phone. When I asked what she was knitting, she said a tree sweater. That caught my attention, so after learning more about the project, I decided to make some with my scrap yarn. After three decades of knitting, I have lots of yarn and odds and ends. Then Lee asked me if I would make a ManneqART piece. I decided to give it a shot.

 

Lee suggested that I might make something for my sister and her two kids to model. I had never made anything like this before, and with only a month before the competition, I started knitting in my spare time. I didn’t have a definite plan, but hoped the piece would look like a big crazy butterfly. It wasn’t finished for pictures and didn't have enough time for it to look exactly how I envisioned it, but Lee encouraged me to bring it anyway. Now I’m excited about next year!