More about me and my partners in craft

My name is Katrina King and I have been surrounded by creativity my entire life, first through my grandmothers and mother and now through my own curiosity and the influence of my close friends. I started designing patterns in 2013 and have been published in PieceWork, Knitting Traditions, Vintage Crochet, Knitter’s Magazine and HandWoven. Other crafts beyond knitting, weaving and crochet that I enjoy are tatting, kumihimo, spinning, counted cross stitch and hand embroidery. Inspiration for my pieces comes from a wide variety of sources; the paintings of Van Gogh and Monet along with epic fantasy novels written by Jacqueline Carey, George R.R. Martin and Roger Zelazny. My goals at this point in life are to raise my two teen daughters to be strong, independent women and build a creative art filled life for myself.

Rapunzel

Rapunzel was the first loom I purchased back in 2008. She is a cherry 8 shaft baby wolf loom from Schacht Spindle Company in Boulder Colorado. Until recently most all of my weaving products have been created with her included the collaboration with Dave Lawrence published in Handwoven’s Nov/Dec 2014 issue.

Flynn

Flynn, my second loom was added in a unique way. I was borrowing the loom from a local yarn shop and asked how much the owner would like for it because I loved the portability. She often throws sale events with lots of food and a party atmosphere and told me just to bring a cake to the next sale. He is an 8 shaft loom made by Dundas Loom Company who sadly are no longer in business. My daughters named him after Flynn Rider from the movie Tangled to go along with his counterpart Rapunzel.

Susan

Life is a circle in so many ways, the planet rotates making the sun rise and set, it circles the sun creating seasons and the passing of time, we as humans are born, live and die. Susan is the passing of sorrow into joy. Shortly after my husband’s passing a friend’s mother passed after a long battle with cancer. She too was a weaver and her family wanted her craft items to go to someone that would understand and appreciate not only their physical value but the sentiment that goes into creating. Hence the maple 4 shaft Schacht baby wolf loom I received is named Susan in her honor. We are still getting to know each other and slow weaving together in my watercolor technique.

Maximus

One of the joys of craft is that everyone is drawn to a different aspect, some appreciate color, others texture, for me it’s pattern. I love complexity. To accomplish this in weaving you need lots of shafts. I can do some amazing things with 8 but have to admit that I’ve often lusted after having more. Hunting around on the internet I found that Ashford recently did a limited run of 32 inch wide 16 shaft looms and I was able to get one of the last two the company had in stock. Did I need a 32 inch wide weaving loom? No, did I want it? Oh yes! Maximus was an easy choice of name because he is the largest and then my daughters reminded me that it’s also so the name of the horse in Tangled so he fit right in. As is my tradition I keep the first piece created on each loom. Max will be in charge of the complicated patterns and I currently have some fine silk that I can’t wait to jump into.

Max