Marie Haigh started knitting several years ago when her first niece, Kathryn Ann, was born. She learned the craft from her mother-in-law, a woman who had been knitting since childhood. Her interest in designing knitwear began when she started making adjustments to published designs in order to accommodate her family’s short statures as well as her uncontrollable desire to purchase the yarn before locating a suitable pattern. The majority of her initial designs were created specifically for a local alpaca farmer. Currently, she is working on a book.

Marie has a unique approach to designing. Each design is first drafted by hand on graph paper and a drawing pad. Later, assuming the design survives the original design phrase, the pattern is transposed into a wire-bound notebook using industry standard abbreviations and instructions. Then, the pattern is test knitted and edited. Finally, the pattern is built into a pdf document and published.

Marie resides in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, USA with her husband and golden retriever. She blogs at knittedgems.com.