Kate Atherley is an internationally-known and best-selling knitting author, teacher, and editor. She has written twelve books about various aspects of knitting, including a series of four about customizing projects for perfect fit and style. The best-selling Math for Knitters, aims to help knitters of all levels take control of their projects. The combination of her university degree in mathematics, professional experience in software development and usability, and training in garment and fashion design give her a unique perspective. She lives in Toronto with her partner and their rescue dog Winnie.

Jacey Boggs loves fiber and has spent almost three decades helping other people love fiber. Learning to spin on a secondhand wheel bought off eBay, Jacey has taught spinning all over the world, once paid off a house with a yarn called Vitreous Humor, and started a publishing company by accident — now home to PLY, WEFT, and PURL magazines. Jacey rock climbs, has three wonderful kids, and spins, knits, and weaves every day. You can find her in Portland, Oregon.

Steve is an experienced shepherd, dedicated to the sheep industry. His sheep operation includes raising 150 – 200 lambs per year and selling directly to a packer. He lambs several times a year.

Steve started his sheep career in high school showing club lambs. Currently Steve and his mother own Shepherds Hope Farms, which run 150 ewes in an extensively managed confinement operation. Steve served on the MSBA board of directors for three years and was elected president of MSBA in October of 2023. He currently serves as the Delaware Farm Bureau vice president, Sussex County Farm Bureau president, and serves on the American Farm Bureau Federation promotion and education national committee. He is also very active in ASI where he serves on the National Lamb Promotion Committee. Steve currently serves on the American Lamb Board as the eastern region small producer.

Maggie Casey has been addicted to spinning since the last century and while some people are proud of their wine cellars, she much prefers her fleece basement. She was co-owner of Shuttles Spindles & Skeins until it closed in 2020. Besides teaching spinning at Shuttles, she also teaches at the Estes Park Wool Market, Maryland Sheep & Wool, the Ply Guild, SSK and SOAR. She holds Part 1 of HGA’s COE in Handspinning, is the author of START SPINNING, EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO MAKE GREAT YARN and several LongThread downloads and writes for Ply magazine.

Roy Clemes grew up in his family’s woodshop and is a master craftsman and fleece aficionado. He attends fiber festivals around the country to instruct spinners, felters, fiber growers, and professional fiber artists in the art of fiber preparation. His family’s business is now in its sixth decade of operation, having shipped fleece and fiber art equipment around the world. Roy frequently contributes to PLY and SpinOff and is the president of Lambtown Festival, the largest sheep and wool show in California. He and his family live in the SF Bay Area with their spinners flock of two sheep.

Carson Demers is a life-long crafter, a physical therapist who specialized in musculoskeletal rehabilitation and ergonomics. He literally wrote the book (and published it too!) about ergonomics and knitting. Knitting Comfortably: The Ergonomics of Handknitting is now in its 6th printing and available on his website. Carson’s passion and experience in fiber arts combine with his professional expertise in physical therapy and ergonomics to create a unique skill set that he eagerly shares with the fiber community. He has taught throughout the US and internationally and is a frequent contributor to several fiber and craft related publications. His aim is to keep us all creating healthfully and comfortably ever after. Visit him online at www.ergoiknit.com.

Jill Duarte spends their days geeking out about all things fiber, diving into the nuances of fiber preparation, color, and the act of spinning. As owner of HipStrings, Jill is dedicated to the resurgence of modern craft that is based on a foundation of technical and historical knowledge. This approach is reflected in the fiber, yarn and tools they’ve developed and produce. Jill shares their insights as a regular contributor to PLY magazine, with the goal of making the technical aspects of craft accessible to all.

Kira Dulaney has been teaching fiber arts classes since 2002 and travels across the country. Her teaching focuses on providing valuable information in a stress-free environment and supporting students through the learning process. Kira designs knitting and crochet patterns and kits that are interesting to make and easy to wear.

Curiosity, exploration and an ever expanding plan for world domination are central to the work of knitwear designer and indie hand dyer, Kim McBrien Evans. Known for designs that turn abstract ideas into colour-filled hand knit reality while simultaneously fitting and honouring every body, Kim aims to revolutionize sweater fit, sizing, and how diverse bodies are represented in the yarn world.

Kim believes all bodies are good bodies and deserve clothing that fits. She also believes that clothing should be dynamic and exciting to make and to wear. Kim is the author of The Knitter’s Sweater Fitting Bible (David & Charles).

Amelia Garripoli spins, weaves, cranks, and nalbinds her way through fiber festivals across the USA. A fiber instigator, she sparks creativity through workshops, articles, fiber arts judging, her books Productive Spindling and Power Spinning, and instructional videos on support and Turkish spindles. A childhood immersed in needle arts led to a lifelong love of fiber arts. Find her at askthebellwether.com.

Heather Hutchinson is the District Manager of the Frederick County Soil Conservation District.

Sara Kidd is a University of Maryland Agriculture and Food Systems Extension Educator for Frederick County. She specializes in farm health and safety as well as beginning farmer training and has a background in sustainable agriculture and extension education. She also owns a solar grazing company and raises Katahdin hair sheep on her farm in Thurmont, MD. 

Kate Larson, editor of Farm & Fiber Knits and former editor of Spin Off, loves using fiber arts as a bridge between her passions for art and agriculture. She keeps a flock of Border Leicester sheep and teaches handspinning and knitting throughout the United States. Kate is the author of The Practical Spinner's Guide: Wool (Interweave, 2015) and several videos, including How to Spin on a Charkha (Interweave, 2016). Follow her woolly adventures at katelarsontextiles.com.

Laura Lineman is obsessed with knitting and spinning. She is a developmental editor for the Ply Spinners Guild and Purl Magazine. Laura is also a regular contributor to PLY Magazine and has taught at retreats across the country. If you ask her what her favorite spin to knit project is she will loudly say, “don’t make me choose, I love them all,” but will quietly whisper, “socks.” She cohosts the Knitgirllls podcast. She currently resides in Mississippi with way too many spinning wheels and a Great Pyrenees named Purl.

Mike Michener is Executive Director of the American Sheep Industry Association. Mike brings more than 35 years of experience working at the intersection of agriculture, global markets, and public policy, with a consistent focus on expanding opportunities for producers. His background includes growing export markets, reducing trade barriers, and strengthening demand for U.S. agricultural products, along with extensive work on food security and supply chain resilience to help agriculture better withstand disruption and build long-term stability.

A native of rural Iowa, Mike grew up with deep ties to agriculture that have shaped his lifelong commitment to producers and rural communities. He is a U.S. Army veteran and brings a global perspective grounded in practical agricultural experience, with a strong commitment to ensuring ASI delivers meaningful value to sheep producers nationwide.

Jillian Moreno is the author of the best-selling book Yarnitecture: A Knitter’s Guide to Spinning: Building Exactly the Yarn You Want. She is passionate about investigating the structure of yarn and color, and using them in intentional ways in knitting, stitching and weaving. She believes all yarn is beautiful and useful and enthusiastically encourages her students to feel joy making and using their handspun. Jillian believes in making yarn you like and want to use, she throws ‘must’ and ‘should’ out the window, though does enjoy the fun that comes from ‘it depends’. Combining technical and intuitive approaches to spinning, her students gain confidence as well as solid skills to build any yarn they can dream of. In her classes, Jillian shows there is never only one way to make a yarn. Knowing and seeing the outcomes of a variety of spinning skills frees students to build unique and useful yarns to use with any project they have in mind.

Mary Jane Mucklestone is happiest when making things — a handknitting designer who loves the process as much as the finished piece. With a background in art and textiles, she travels the world studying traditional knitting techniques. She’s the author of six books specializing in colorwork, including the stitch dictionaries 200 Fair Isle Motifs and 150 Scandinavian Motifs, which sit on thousands of bookshelves worldwide. When not off on a teaching adventure, she splits her time between Portland, Maine, and Seattle, Washington.

Emily Parker is the owner of Wildling Knits and is a long-time teacher and knitter who pulls inspiration from nature. She knits for her family which includes two young kids and enjoys teaching others how to knit for themselves and their loved ones.

Kimberly Radcliffe, "The Unapologetic Raw Fleece Enabler", has been making yarn exclusively from raw wool for over 15 years. She has judged fleece at several fiber festivals, and taught many classes on fleece selection, fiber processing, and spinning. Kimberly is passionate about all things fiber and enjoys sharing her knowledge with others. Her favorite yarn to spin is cobweb lace where the singles are so fine they can barely be seen!

Deborah Robson is a fiber generalist who specializes in spinning, knitting, and weaving,
although she experiments with all aspects of textiles. She is the fiber author of The
Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook and of The Field Guide to Fleece, in collaboration with
livestock expert Carol Ekarius. For fourteen years she worked at Interweave Press,
editing both books and Spin-Off magazine. She has a DVD set now available from Long
Thread Media and a class on wool types available to premium members at Craftsy.com,
has done several guest appearances on KDTV, and is writing focused fiber-topic
monographs.

Dr. Geoff Ruppert, DVM, is a shepherd and a veterinarian from Fairfield, PA.  He has been raising purebred Corriedale sheep since the late ‘70s and started a separate flock of Merino sheep about 10 years ago.  He has been using artificial insemination since 2001 to achieve his goals.  The importation of Australian ram semen from both breeds has had a profound impact on wool quality in each flock.

Dr. Ruppert started judging sheep on the Maryland State 4-H livestock judging team.  Over the years, he has served as a judge for the Black Sheep Gathering, the National Corriedale Junior Show and the National Merino Sale, among others. He has also judged Corriedale junior sheep at Bendigo, Australia, the world’s largest sheep show.  As a wool judge, he has also worked with fleeces at the Estes Park Wool Market and the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  

As a judge, Dr. Ruppert believes in following the score card of each breed closely.  He is an advocate for good breed character within each breed, and for placing strong emphasis on sound wool quality, correct structure and feed-efficient, easy keeping sheep.

Charan Sachar is an artist whose work reflects his passion for the fiber arts, like knitting, spinning, weaving, and quilting. He loves to accept challenges and approaches the making with a “what if…” attitude. Charan specializes in creating art yarns with textures, using traditional spinning techniques and pushing them an extra step to create unique yarns and using these yarns in projects.

Erica Sanko is Senior Director of Market Analysis & Producer Programs at the American Sheep Industry Association, where she leads national initiatives to strengthen industry competitiveness, enhance producer resilience, and advance education and data-driven market insights. Prior to joining ASI, Erica was the executive director for the California Wool Growers Association and the California Pork Producers Association, a senior agricultural economist within the California Department of Agriculture and served as the lead market analyst for sheep at the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver.

Erica is originally from the Sacramento, California area, raised in an agricultural family operation that included row-crops and registered Hereford cattle.

Joan Sheridan is a weaver, knitter, spinner, fiber explorer, and owner of Heritage Spinning and Weaving in Lake Orion, Michigan since 2000. She confesses that every room in her house holds fiber tools and projects, and “bored” is absolutely not in her vocabulary. Joan has taught and presented at conferences, festivals, for guilds and shops, and on tour in Norway. She has articles and patterns published in several magazines. Her more than 90 original knitting patterns can be found on Ravelry. Joan specializes in building solid foundations for knitters and weavers so they can take their skills and soar.

Angela Tong is a Chinese American fiber artist and ceramicist based in Pennsylvania. A former Boston native, she studied at Massachusetts College of Art before continuing her design education at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her creative practice now spans knitting, crochet, and weaving, and her designs appear in books, magazines, and yarn company collections. A dedicated instructor, she leads workshops across the country and online, encouraging makers of all levels to explore new skills.

Kristen Walsh is a published author and award-winning artist. She has been creating art and teaching for 30 years using fiber and felting as her primary medium. Her work is in private collections and has been selected for many juried gallery exhibitions around the United States. Recently she has published a felting book, Layers: Felted Art Projects Sparked from the Soul.

Kristen enjoys teaching and finds great satisfaction in helping people find the creative spark she believes lives in all of us. She teaches out of her own studio, art centers and galleries, fiber festivals and teaches in-depth multi-day workshops on location.

Cindy Wolf, DVM, taught small ruminant health and production to veterinary students at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine for 34 years.  For the past 8 years she has been working primarily on her family's regenerative grass farm where they raise beef, sheep and goats. She also works part-time as a solo veterinary practitioner.  She has served on the Secretary of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Animal Health, AVMA’s Animal Welfare committee and has chaired and continues to serve on AVMA’s Animal Agriculture Liaison committee.  She chaired the AASRP’s Student Educational Opportunities committee for more than a decade, and currently co-chairs the USAHA’s subcommittee on Scrapie and ID as well as ASI’s Animal Health committee.  

She has been a leader regarding animal identification for the sheep industry relative to Scrapie eradication and animal disease traceability.  Her interests include ways to improve flock productivity while also improving sustainability and profitability.