I live in Southern California with my wonderful husband, David, our Rottweiler, Hansi, our poodle/terrier mix, Oliver, and our two cats, Amy and Mr. Bean. I became interested in crochet in the summer of 2003. I bought some instructional books and taught myself. I found several websites on the Internet that were also very helpful. Later on, I learned Tunisian crochet and cro-hook through the Internet. Then in spring of 2006, I decided I wanted to learn how to knit. First, I bought some knitting looms and made a few items that way, but then I decided I wanted to know how to knit with needles. I bought instructional books on traditional knitting with needles and learned how to knit, also with the help of some excellent websites. In January 2009, I bought a Silver-Reed SK280 knitting machine, which is a standard 4.5 mm gauge knitting machine with 200 needles and a punch card. Machine knitting is extremely quick as far as knitting plain stockinette items. The Silver-Reed knits fingering weight and lace weight yarn. The punch card is heavenly to use for knitting Fair Isle items. I love my knitting machines as well as all the methods I mentioned to make items.