Meet the Designers
For the 2025 Yarn Tour, we invited local, Tennessee-based fiber enthusiasts to submit their original ideas in a pattern contest. Meet the 2025 winners of the Pattern Contest and learn more about their designs below! We encourage you to follow them online and support their creative journeys!
If you have bought a ticket for the 2025 Yarn Tour, then your Travel Pack will include the 2025 Pattern Book, containing all 8 winning designs. After this year's Tour has ended, we will share additional options for accessing these patterns.
Click on a designer's name to learn more about them
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Janice Krauser: Reflections Cowl
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Jennifer Myrick: Stranded but Loving It Beanie
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Kimberly Keaveny: Linen Helix Cowl
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Melissa Durko: BirkenSocks
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Nickie Fox: Pop & Go Scarf
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Raquel Bridgen: Pocketful of Posies Cardigan
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Shannon Hewitt: A Traveler's Yarn, Kerchief
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Stephanie Showalter: Adventurous Reader Standing Case
Janice Krauser
Reflections cowl
Janice has been doing needlecrafts since she can remember. She learned crochet from her grandmother at age 7. She still has the toilet paper hats she crocheted. Her grandmother, her mother, and she could all crochet, knit, and do needlepoint, but her mother preferred to knit, her grandmother preferred crochet, and she preferred needlepoint. However, there are only so many needlepoint pillows one can have. After retiring from education, Janice picked up knitting and has been going strong ever since.
She now lives in Maryville, TN and continues to knit and crochet at her local yarn shop, joining their Wednesday Knitting Group. Changing up patterns, and helping others with their knitting has allowed her to continue teaching. It’s rewarding when someone catches on to a new skill.
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She got her two Ugly Christmas sweaters done to rave reviews and now is attempting to make a top look like a pineapple! We’ll see how that works out.
Jennifer Myrick
stranded but loving it
Jennifer Myrick is a knitwear designer and alumna of the University of Tennessee
loving life with her non-knitting husband in the scenic mountain town of
Gatlinburg. When she’s not crafting cozy pieces, Jennifer loves traveling and
exploring local yarn shops around the world. From Rhinebeck to Rome, Jennifer’s
yarn adventures fuel her designs, which are as diverse and eclectic as her travels.
She learned to knit as a child but became completely obsessed over 20 years ago.
Jennifer is the devoted mother to two adult children and a joyful Labrador
Retriever Barley. She and her husband are the owners of Myrick’s Jewelry, a
charming shop specializing in fine jewelry, fun accessories and vintage treasures.
But Jennifer’s heart isn’t just in her knitwear designs and jewelry business – she’s
also an area coordinator of Food for Kids, a division of Second Harvest, helping
fight child hunger in her community.
Kimberly Keaveny
linen helix cowl
Kimberly has lived in Middle Tennessee for 8 years, settling in Burns, TN where she enjoys life with "Big Daddy" (her spouse), her kitties, and her chickens. While she works in healthcare by day, she spends her free time knitting and travelling, usually at the same time. Kimberly has been knitting for more than 40 years; about 15 years ago, she really started digging into technique and perfecting her craft.
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Recently, she visited Ireland and fell in love with the craft of creating and dyeing yarn and invested in a large knitting loom that she can use to create the treasures she saw abroad on our home soil. Kimberly enjoys creating soft, flowy fabrics that are vibrant and full of happy colors. Creating this pattern for the 2025 GTYT is a fun way to take the next step in her fiber journey! Happy Knitting!
Melissa Durko
birkensocks
Melissa is the owner of The Bees Knits Yarn Shop, located in Knoxville. She is a self-taught crocheter & knitter. She loves anything with bright pops of color, enjoys color-work, and often works off-pattern to customize her projects. Her mission is to share her space with the community as often as possible and inspire those around her to be creative, no matter what the craft. She strives to make fiber arts more accessible and inclusive through the use of knitting machines at her store.
In addition to fiber arts, Melissa enjoys expressing creativity through food. She was a professional baker in a past life and when she isn’t at the shop, you can find her in the kitchen, baking treats to share during her shop’s community events! You can find out more about community events, knitting machine classes, and Melissa’s shop by visiting the website: www.thebeesknits.com or via instagram @thebeesknits
Nickie Fox
Pop & Go scarf
Nickie Fox is a creative individual who has been crocheting since she was eight. Nickie lives in Vonore, where she is a pastor, but teaches in Sevierville. Crochet is not only a method of relaxation for her but she also enjoys passing on the love of crochet to others. As a pastor, she starts prayer shawl groups in each church she serves. She fosters the use of fiber arts in these groups as blessings to others by making prayer shawls, lapghans, and baby blankets, as well as hats and scarves for veterans.
There are many stitches that Nickie likes to use, such as the V-stitch or C2C, but the bobble stitch is her favorite go-to crochet stitch that she uses in interesting ways to add texture to her creations. You can find her patterns on her Esty shop or Ravelry under her designer name Wayfaring Crocheter.
Raquel Bridgen
pocketful of posies cardigan
Raquel has a life long love of learning and being creative. She began crocheting when she was very young. She often jokes that she has crafting ADD. She is constantly learning new skills to add to her repertoire. Raquel also loves to challenge herself, and this year, she decided to try to write patterns of some of her creations.
Along with crocheting, her current favorite crafts include knitting, quilting, weaving, and making wire wrap jewelry. If it has anything to do with fiber she has it or is about to acquire it!
Raquel also loves reading and can often be found sitting on the couch with the cat in her lap reading and crocheting (or knitting) at the same time. The challenging part in that equation is the cat! Tolkien is one of her favorite authors. She and her
daughter often crochet together and fangirl about different
books.
Shannon Hewitt
A traveler's yarn, kerchief
Shannon Hewitt first learned to crochet when she was around 7 from her mom. She would stitch occasionally through the years, but it was in 2009 that she really set out to learn more stitches and about different techniques. In doing so, she opened up a whole new love of crochet and fiber arts. Taking a string of yarn and adding some loops to get a finished item is what she loves most about creating with yarn. “It’s definitely like magic!”
While loving crochet, she also has interest in knitting and spinning. Learning about the different crafts and different ways to create even has her now teaching others how to crochet and knit at her home base yarn shop, Clinch River Yarn Company. Helping people try a craft they have always wanted to learn or learn a new skill or technique in a craft they enjoy is something she truly enjoys! She always shied away from teaching crochet in the past, but has found she truly loves this part of her fiber life. She even teaches knitting now, too!
When she isn’t at the yarn store teaching, or working as a nurse, she is working on her own creations for her online business, Toodle Loop. Mainly doing commissions or markets, she now has a website and is excited to be opening her online store front in the near future.
Stephanie Showalter
adventurous reader standing case
Stephanie comes from a crafty family where she learned to cross stitch from her mother and learned how to sew and the basics of crochet from her grandmother. Nine years ago, she rediscovered her love of crochet and has since expanded in the fiber arts to include tunisian crochet and knitting. In 2020, she began designing patterns for her home to bring comfort and a smile to her young children. She focuses her pattern writing on home decor items like garlands and coasters, using simple stitches to create unique designs. After moving to Knoxville for college 17 years ago, she and her husband decided to stay and raise their family there.