All About Annies Craft Festival with Kara Gott Warner

All About Annies Craft Festival with Kara Gott Warner made for a SPECIAL Wednesday episode of the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird.

Kara says she began knitting at about age 12, it was her grandmother that taught her. She lost interest as kids do, until about early 20’s. Kara worked in the garment industry of New York City and found a yarn shop that drew her like Mecca. ‘Her peeps’ welcomed her, and she realized she wanted to learn more about knitting and design. Later on, she attended a TNNA and met Michele Fortune, Executive Vice President of Annies, who has become her boss.

As Editor of Creative Knitting, which is published by Annies, Kara focuses each issue on a central theme, puts out a call for submissions and approaches the designers they work with regularly, plus keeping up with trends in knitting, yarns, fashion.

Annies also produces video as online classes. Many of the Yarn Thing podcast guests have mention being included in this educational opportunity. In fact in just the knitting category, Patty Lyons, Kate Atherley, Beth Whiteside,  Tabetha Hedrick and Kara herself have shared their knowledge with students. Knit and Crochet Now is a tv show that airs in most areas of the US on local PBS stations. (Not mentioned: There’s big changes happening there, too, with Deborah Norville stepping in to host.)

Annies Craft Festival, the first ever event from Annies, hopes to encompass ALL craft as the Publication company does. This event is taking place in Ft Wayne, IN, the weekend of October 30th, through November 1st. The website for the event is at this link, she whetted our appetite for the market place  but also the events that are happening during the event like the Gala Dinner Friday night where Debbie Macomber will be speaking and the Crafts and Cocktails evening on Saturday that Kara herself will be hosting.

As if, with all this, Kara Gott Warner was not busy enough, she began podcasting Power Purls earlier this month. This has 10 episodes up already with guests like Trisha Malcom in the first episode! (Trisha is the editor of Vogue Knitting.) Since then, she’s had Patty Lyons, Norah Gaughan, Stephen Be and Stephen West, Beth Whiteside, Jeanne Carver of Imperial Stock Ranch, which is an impressive list already. Kara says about 99% of her friends now are knitters, she hopes to draw from these friends the real stories of the yarn industry.

If you’d like to continue following Kara Gott Warner, here are some helpful links to pick and choose your bookmarks. Her Website, which also offers link to her first podcast program The Morning Cooldown,  The Power Purls Podcast website, Facebook page and RAVELRY Group, it can also be found in iTunes for your listening pleasure. Kara’s Twitter, if her schedule permits (!) she may offer a new design, so you can follow her designs in Ravelry, also, which we didn’t have time to get into.