I have lived in Orkney all my life. Raised in the West Mainland, my mother taught me to hand knit when I was 5 years old, and by the time I was a teenager I was knitting cardigans and jumpers for myself. After I married I moved to the East Mainland parish of Deerness, where I have lived for over 40 years.

I began working at Scapa Knitwear in Kirkwall in 1976. I was part of the full time staff assembling the garments in readiness for shipping to Belgium. Although the actual knitting was carried out by outsourced knitters, it was here that I developed a real interest in machine knitting.

Following my time at Scapa Knitwear I knitted for a number of other local knitwear firms, and continued to knit in my spare time as a hobby, making jumpers for friends and family. I discovered that I thoroughly enjoyed designing my own knitwear, creating my own patterns and relished the challenge of making these work on the machine and ultimately for the end product.

In 1986 I began selling my knitwear at the Orkney Craftmen’s Guild Exhibition, which was held every July for around three weeks. It was here that I gathered interest from local craft and gift shops, and The Quernstone in Stromness was one of the first to begin stocking my knitwear.

I continue to sell my knitwear at a number of local shops today, and a full list is available to view on the ‘stockists’ page.