Candi Jensen

Candi Jensen was our guest on the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird. Candi and Marly have been friends for a while, in fact Marly things of Candi as her ‘Crochet Godmother’. Candi recalls that after her first crochet books with Vogue Knitting, Marly wrote to her and they’ve been friends ever since.

One of the things that has been admired about Candi is that her work is not the dated crochet projects that it seems everyone imagines it to be. Designing since 1983, she’s learned crochet can be beautiful and following it, seeing it featured on the runways was something she wanted to spread the word about, sharing the astounding growth. She loves seeing the designers like Tommy Hilfiger and Chanel feature crochet. Amazing when you remember this can’t be done by machine!

Candi recalls a babysitter taught her to knit as a way to channel her energy, but it became a thing she always did, keeping her hands busy and loving the colors of the yarn. Moving to San Francisco in 1967 when knitting, crochet and macrame were the crafts to do, she embraced it all, creating things for her children. By 1980, she went to work with Crystal Palace yarns. At that time, Lola Ehrlich was the editor of Vogue Knitting, and Candi was able to get her attention and help by sending her yarns wrapped in eclair wrappers, in a box. She got a lot of help with writing patterns and began a path of designing as a profession.

Another turn in her career, was working in television, producing the Knit & Crochet today, which later became Knit & Crochet Now. Starting without any knowledge of HOW TO produce a television but being told she could do this by those who did know how, believing in herself, making mistakes and learning from them, she has worked at that project for ten years and was actually nominated for an Emmy.

Attitude has been the biggest area of change that Candi has noticed. Yarns have changed, a project’s popularity comes and go, but the attitude of people who are embracing it and then designing with crochet has become an interesting path to follow. Mentoring and influencing new creators is a direction she hopes to follow, especially through television.

Candi Jensen can be followed in Ravelry (designer page) and Facebook, also Pinterest. This is the not the first visit Candi has made to the Yarn Thing podcast.