Hi!

I’m a knitter, designer, crafter, reader, blogger, student and soon-to-be-optician, wife and mother from Montreal, Quebec (Canada).  I’ve got two little boys; Jakob (born May ’07) and Henri (born Jan ’09), a cat named Sam, and am married to my best friend.  My funny, annoying, cute, irritating, sexy, frustrating, charming and aggravating best friend. 

I learned how to knit as a child but never really took it up until I was older.  When Yannick and I met I decided I’d knit him a sweater for our first holidays together.  I didn’t know anything about gauge and just found a pattern I thought would look good, chose a nice acrylic from Zellers, took an old set of needles that my grandmother had given me, and cast on.  (Let’s ignore the fact that there was NO WAY the chosen yarn would work with the chosen needles and give me anything resembling the chosen pattern).  I knit through some university classes but after 2 weeks only gave me 4 inches of really stiff fabric on really tight needles (it was worsted-weight yarn) I gave up.  I went online and decided I’d teach myself to crochet.

I stuck with crochet for quite a few years, and still do it from time to time.  I had crocheted sweaters, shawls, blankets, toys and such.  I was so into crochet that I amassed the beginnings of a stash, both of books, patterns and yarn, and told everyone who would listen how knitting sucks, was too slow and too fiddly.

When friends of  Yannick’s invited us to watch the Superbowl with them I wanted to make the wife a thank-you gift for the huge spread of food she’d prepared.  Fun-fur-type yarns had just come out, and I knew that G would love a scarf made with Bernat Boa.  Unfortunately I’d chosen black, and in the feathery yarn it was impossible to see my stitches.  I realized I’d have to suck it up and knit it just so I could keep track of the number of stitches on the needle.

I knit it.  And two days later Yannick said, “You know, that really didn’t take you that long”.  And I realized that it didn’t suck quite as much as I’d remembered.  I was a member of the Crafter’s Choice book club and decided to try out their Reader’s Digest Learn To Knit kit.  By the time I’d finished the little cabled purse out of the provided materials, I was hooked.  (No pun intended).

I’ve been knitting ever since.  I can’t seem to stop designing, although 2 kids and working full time and school and such don’t give me as much time to get my own designs out as I would like.  I keep working at it and hopefully you’ll see more of my designs on these pages and in Ravelry soon.

I’ve had some designs published elsewhere, such as a pattern in the Stitch ‘n Bitch Page-a-Day calendar, and in the Robyn’s Nest Sock Club Kits.  I’ve also done knitting-for-hire for a local yarn shop, and for some local knitwear designers.

My online wishlist can be found here.

You can find me on Ravelry under the user id jenniferlori.  Here is a link to my own designs, and here is a link to my notebook.

I have a Frappr map of blog visitors located here.

You can email me at handmadebyjennifer[at]gmail[dot]com or use the contact form on this website.