Meet the Designer + Weaver

Hi, my name is Ellen and I love to knit and weave! I'm a fiber artist, knitting pattern designer, technical editor and weaver with a background in engineering and education. Fun facts... I'm a mostly monogamous knitter. I don't stash yarn (GASP!), but I do stash rags for weaving. I loved my dog, but identify as a cat person.

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The Chilly Dog - Skillful Knitting Unleased

Pattern Shop | Ravelry | @thechillydog on YouTube

In 2011, I was working at a high stress, low pay job and I needed some sort of change in my life. The Chilly Dog was created as my personal balance between "do what you love" and "don't quit your day job". My hope was to share my general crafting knowledge, in blog form, and inspire others to create something wonderful with their own two hands. In 2013, with the encouragement of my blog readers, I also began designing and self-publishing knit and crochet patterns, selling them first on Ravelry, then in my online shop. (And, yes, I left the aforementioned job.) After creating and hosting my first knit along for the blog in 2017, I realized just how rewarding it is to design a pattern and then produce all of the learning materials a knitter would need to successfully complete a project. I narrowed my focus from general crafting to knitting.

Now, I make the most of my time by designing patterns that focus on essential skills and stitches knitters may not be familiar with. Then I build a series of companion video tutorials demonstrating the techniques. This system gives you on demand support as you knit one of my patterns.

KYLMÄ KOIRA - Handwoven by The Chilly Dog

Handwoven Shop | Artist Portfolio

One of my earliest memories is of the magnificent floor loom that lived in my paternal grandparents' basement. The strings, the treadles, the beater.... Everything about it was fascinating. Over the years, the loom inspired my passion for textiles and in 2020, I learned to weave, both on a rigid heddle loom and a small floor loom. However, I didn't know much about the floor loom of my dreams. I envisioned my grandmother weaving fine fabric on the massive loom because in my mind weaving was probably woman's work in her generation. I was completely wrong! Decades later I learned the loom was actually used by my grandfather who taught himself how to weave sturdy rugs in his 50's after a trip to visit relatives in Finland.

The loom of my memories was likely Grandpa's first loom which he purchased, used and later sold. In true Finnish-American style, he eventually built two rug looms of his own. One of those looms has been lost, but the other moved to my aunt's basement after her parent's passing and lived there, unused for about 30 years until she learned I was a weaver. Then, Grandpa's rug loom was kindly passed on to me so I can continue the Finnish-American rug weaving tradition.

Like Grandpa, I now scour thrift stores and garage sales for weaving materials to give a cast off textile a completely new life as an artwork or rug that will be used and enjoyed for decades to come.