Shannon Okey, multitalented celebrity of the fiber and craft world, will be at Lakewood Public Library on Tuesday, November 11 at 7 p.m. in the Main Library auditorium where she will discuss her book, How to Knit in the Woods. There will be books available for sale and signing at this free event.

When you read about Shannon Okey, you start to wonder how she ever finds time to practice her craft! Shannon runs her own publishing venture called anezka media, which publishes books and related items by independent authors and artists. She is a columnist for knit.1 magazine and she hosts the Knitgrrl Show, a live, call-in radio show for knitters and other fiber artists. She is a co-owner of Stitch Cleveland, a workshop space where she teaches sewing, knitting, spinning, dyeing, felting and embroidery. Stitch Cleveland opened in 2007 and it also houses her studio. If that isn’t enough, she has written not just the Knitgrrl series but she is also the author of Spin to Knit and Crochet Style plus she edited and wrote the instructional text for Just Sock, Just Gifts and Crochet Style as well as co-authoring Felt Frenzy and AlterNation. How to Knit in the Woods was published in 2008. Although Okey continues to teach around the country, she is currently cutting back on the amount of travel she does in order to concentrate on Stitch Cooperative, a pattern distribution by and for designers as well as her other projects which include a new DVD series.

Okey calls herself an "urban spinner," one of a new generation of knitters, designers and spinners who put a new twist on old traditions. Today is a great time to be a fiber artist due to people like Shannon who don't accept tradition as the way it always has to be done.

Shannon got into spinning and knitting when she moved to Boston in 2002 and found herself living around the corner from a yarn store. She says that Lucy Lee of Mind’s Eye Yarns in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was instrumental in taking her knitting skills to the next level, and teaching her how to spin. Shannon knitted her first cardigan within a month and then asked Lee to order her a wheel, even though she didn’t know how to use one. Okey signed up for lessons when the wheel arrived. She has since learned different methods of dyeing, plying, and other yarn customizations.

Her advice to those who are new to spinning and knitting is to experiment. In an interview at lovetoknow.com she states, “it’s only wool . . . it’s only dye, it’s only a stitch. You can tear it out or overdye it or mix it with something else if you don’t like the first results. Does a pattern call for purple and you hate purple? Change it! Over 75 percent of all knitters knit a pattern in the same color as the sample in the magazine or book. As a spinner, you have the chance to make yarn no one’s ever seen before . . . and by that same token, knit a pattern in a way it’s never been knit before. So do it! ‘’

Okey’s book Knitgrrl appeared on the New York Public Library's 2006 Books for the Teen Age list, a list of titles recommended by librarians for younger audiences. It also garnered a starred review from Booklist. Knitgrrl 2 was nominated for a CraftTrends Award of Creative Excellence in December 2006. Both Knitgrrl books are geared to beginning knitters and are filled with colorful illustrations by Canadian illustrator Kathleen Jacques.

Shannon has made appearances on several television shows, including DIY Network’s Uncommon Threads and Knitty Gritty and on HGTV’s Crafters Coast to Coast.

Okey was born in Medina, Ohio and currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her boyfriend and their furry “children.” Anezka is the dachshund pictured in Felt Frenzy and How to Knit in the Woods. Spike the cat is featured in Knitgrrl and Felt Frenzy and Giles is the feline baby of the family.

Come and meet Shannon Okey at Lakewood Public Library on Tuesday, November 11 at 7 p.m. and put a little fiber in your life.