Mary Ann Stephens

I’m a wife, a mother of 3 boys and 1 very goofy golden retriever, “Gracie”. I grew up in Binghamton, NY, went to college in Baltimore, moved to NYC, then SLC, then landed on Long Island.

My mother taught me the basics of knitting when I was 5, but I was not bitten by the Stranded Knitting Bug until I was expecting my first son. I had always admired Nordic and Fair Isle knits, but was afraid that, in tackling a whole stranded sweater, I’d “bite off more than I could chew”. It turned out that tiny baby projects were the perfect, liberating canvas for experimenting and making stranded skills my own.

I’m a Wall St. refugee who turned her passion for Nordic knitting into a design and web retailing business. I began publishing my designs in 1998. In 2002, I became a Dale of Norway dealer and started Kidsknits.com and Skiknits.com. All of my designs - kids and adults - are together now under Kidsknits.com, where you’ll now find tons of Dale of Norway, some Shetland Spindrift, Debbie Bliss and some delicious Malabrigo. You’re also welcome to visit my Two Strands blog (you can get to it from Kidsknits.com, too.) You can also find several of my designs on twistcollective.com.

If you need to contact me directly, you can send me a private message through Ravelry, but I check my regular email more often: mas@kidsknits.com. Happy knitting!