Staff & Instructors

CYNDY ATEN has been knitting and crocheting since childhood - the exact details are shrouded in the mists of time, though she knows that she was taught by her mother and at least three other women, and then taught herself more from books.  (She taught herself to play tennis from a book as well – fortunately the knit/crochet self-teaching was more successful than the tennis.)  She knit her way through medical school and did very well, largely due to the fact that she was the only person who stayed awake through all the lectures.  (In addition, her long-suffering husband got a beautiful Irish fisherman’s sweater out of it.)  While in pediatric residency in Connecticut, Cyndy fantasized that she would rather be working in a yarn shop (no night call required), and also that someday she would live in Missoula, after hearing Kim Williams’ regular radio commentaries from KUFM during her daily car commute.  Fast-forward through a career first in pediatrics and then in college health in New Haven, CT (knitting and crocheting all the while) to January 2009, when she decided with daughter, Gini, that it was time to open that long-dreamed-of yarn shop in Missoula.  And so they did, on September 4, 2009.  Cyndy loves both crocheting and knitting, can’t seem to sit anywhere without having her hands busy, and is always eager to learn something new.  It’s great fun to be able to share what she’s learned over the years - thanks to all of the willing students.  (You know who you are!)

GINI ATEN ERVING has been knitting since childhood, although her knitting activity really spiked during college, when she apparently had way too much time on her hands and spent hours creating and re-working elaborate sweaters of her own design.  (One interesting reminder of this overzealous time in her life is the very intricately cabled pullover made out of...dark purple...mohair.)  She also was sure that she personally discovered the technique that she has since learned is known to the greater knitting world as "the Kitchener Stitch."  (Ahh, the hubris of youth.)  Now, in her more mature years, Gini continues to have a thing for color, is a "soft" junkie, and loves to teach and help customers and friends with all things yarn-related.

EMILY BOWMAN-BROWN learned to cast on, knit, and purl from a friend when she was 18, and taught herself pretty much everything else from the Complete Idiot's Guide to knitting and crochet.  She was an obsessive hat knitter for years, until she spent a long, dark year in Fresno, California, where knitting became a distraction from missing family, friends, and Missoula in general.  While there, she branched out from hats, and knit many socks and her first sweaters.  Now Emily is obsessed with sweaters (check out what she's wearing when you're in the shop) and might have to build a walk-in closet to hold them all, plus another closet for all the yarn she has collected that is intended for future sweaters!  Right now school has forced her knitting life to be reduced to looking at patterns before she falls asleep, so that she can dream about knitting them.

ALISON REINTJES began knitting in 2007 after attending an hour-long Learn to Knit evening at her local library. She didn't learn much that first night but it got her hooked.  A year later she was pregnant with her twins, Bea and Lauris, and since their birth, she has made baby and kid clothes galore: t-shirts, pants, bibs, hats, overalls, sweaters, and more.  Occasionally, she even fits in an adult project for herself!