meet your knitting instructor

Jessica kaufman, m.a. craft education

I founded HappyGoCrafty while living in Brooklyn 2013. During that time I was traveling all over NYC and New England teaching knitting at workshops and to private clients, as well as online.

My interest in handknitting is rooted in helping new knitters to feel empowered understanding how to create their own patterns, freeing them from the page. My philosophy is that we are all intelligent enough to create, without adhering strictly to written instructions, and that once we understand how our gauge works and how our bodies are shaped, we can create whatever we can envision.

Knitting that really grabs me is stranded colorwork, top-down pullover sweaters, texture/pattern created with purl bumps, and working with locally and ethically sourced wool.

 

about the photos on this page

I believe in giving craft artists credit whenever possible. I’m wearing a batik dress sewn from fabric made by Anwar Baat (Gujarat, India), with whom I studied in 2018 at his home studio. I knit my seed-stitch shawl in alpaca sport weight from a local fiber producer (but I’ve forgotten which). Asheville photographer Eliza Bell Photography made this portrait on my 40th birthday, in the Pisgah National Forest close to where we live.