Meet Hannah Thiessen Howard | Author & Fiber Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hannah Thiessen Howard and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Like many creatives, art has always been a part of my life. My mother is a painter, an art instructor and graphic designer. My father is a musician, and so I have always been surrounded by creativity and encouraged to pursue my own creative outlets. I colored and drew and painted, read lots of fantasy and science fiction writing, and did a lot of hand sewing and knitting. I learned to knit from a shepherdess when I was about 8, and at the time, and for a long time, it was just an additional medium for creative expression–I had no clue it would become my life’s focus!

Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, the messaging was very much about finding a passion and then dedicating your time to pursuing that passion, so when I got really deep into painting as a teen, that’s what I decided might be the best course of action for me. I decided to go to college for Fine Art, without very much direction on what I would do afterwards with that degree.

Once I got to college, I realized pretty quickly that the world was changing (this was around 2008) and that I might not be able to find employment in fine art the way I had hoped. I made a pivot into fashion design and it really drove home for me how important the knitting had become to me–but my focus wasn’t in making garments or designing garments for mass manufacturing. I wanted to work in the yarn industry directly, and had a deep fascination with the materials.

Through the internet and a site called Ravelry, I was able to connect with other fiber artists and eventually with yarn companies and brands. One of these brands, Malabrigo Yarns, agreed to have me as a intern for the summer (their winter), and so I went to Uruguay to learn from them in 2009. After the experience visiting wool farms, watching the wool being dyed and interacting directly with the customer, I didn’t want to go back to the fashion program, which seemed really focused on mass manufacturing and very little hand-work, so I dropped out and began my career in the yarn world.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My career in wool has been a very winding path! In the beginning, I was really just operating within the gig economy: picking up odd jobs that used a variety of my skills to help small businesses with marketing, blogging, writing copy for newsletters and social media. I picked up photography and videography skills to fill needs and learned a lot as I went along. Freelancing became a way of life for me in between bigger jobs, of which I’ve had a few–some of them noteworthy!

I had the opportunity to get really deep into the subscription box market when it first emerged on the scene, through two different companies, Yarnbox (2012 – 2015) and then KnitCrate (2016 – 2020). As the Creative Director of both, I got to exercise all of my talents and skills to build community, select material and eventually design materials to be manufactured for these clubs. The work I did for subscription boxes, for sending out thousands and thousands of packages each month and planning them so far in advance–that’s really given me an understanding of the industry and the customer and also just what exactly people are looking for. It also opened my eyes to the massive amount of yarn being made and sold every day, every month. Through this work, I started to question and investigate the sustainability of craft and craft materials, even when they’re made with natural fibers. This really instigated the writing of my first book.

Slow Knitting (2017, Abrams) is the first of the two books I’ve written, and it came at a time when crafters were just beginning to look for more information on how their yarns were made, where things came from and were sourced. In this book, I told the stories of several small to mid-sized yarn producers and partnered them with knitting patterns that celebrated the unique textures of heritage wool breeds. Sheep are like any other domesticated animal, and over time, we’ve really developed a range of sheep breeds that have wool that serves a variety of purposes. This has been forgotten a lot in the modern era in favor of a lot of softness, sameness–the rise of synthetic fibers has done a huge disservice to the wool market. So my goals now are really focused on highlighting the unique properties of wool and how versatile and interesting and engaging this fiber can be.

In 2020, I released my second book, Seasonal Slow Knitting (Abrams), which talks more about the introspective process of being a knitter, how we relate and celebrate and connect back to our craft throughout the year. There’s a common misconception that knitting is a cold weather only activity, but that is not the case! Fiber artists are working with wool year round and there are so many materials and connection points that our craft can bring us back to throughout every season. People are using knitting as more than a functional way to make clothing or as a craft to express creativity, it’s a meditative process. It’s a type of therapy for some folks, so I really wanted to explore that relationship.

Now, my work is even more about telling these stories and making these connections and helping others make them, too. I do this through my writing but also through some of my other projects, like By Hand Serial magazine (www.byhandserial.com) and as President of the regional Fibershed, The Greater Cumberland Fibershed (www.gcfibershed.org, www.fibershed.org). This organization (Fibershed) is really leading me in new directions and in many ways, helping me get to the root of the fiber I love: the farms and the animals that produce wool.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh gosh! I think if someone was coming to Spring Hill for the first time, I would of course take them up into Nashville for a day out. I love thrifting and secondhand shopping in the city, and some of my favorites are Garage Sale Vintage and Anaconda Vintage.

As we move towards Franklin, I’d take them to lunch at a newer Italian spot– I love Culaccino because it reminds me of one of my favorite places to eat in Maine (Nina June in Rockport, ME). Really light and fresh Italian food. High quality salads, great wine.

I’m a big fan of coffee, so we’d have to hit two of my favorite spots: 1819 Coffee in Thompson’s Station, which has a fabulous greenhouse-building feel and is a great place to grab a drink with a friend, and then Awaken Coffee in Spring Hill, which has a beautiful coffee bar backed by a floral stained glass window I can’t get enough inspiration from!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I really have to thank the mentor that I had at age 8 who taught me how to knit: Mary Hal Davis. At the time I met her, Mary Hal was a well known regional fiber artist and shepherdess. She was raising sheep in Georgetown, KY, and my family was living in the area at the time. Mary Hal began inviting me–and other children from the community–to her house on Sunday afternoons to explore different fiber crafts. We started with knitting, and then we would do things like try spinning on a spinning wheel, or dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid in a crock pot. Over time, the other kids sort of dropped off and it became just Mary Hal and I, spending Sundays together. These were really special times for me, and they cemented that knitting could be something that was both personal and community-oriented. Wool became a magic material for me that would always lead me to the next thing, and I have to contribute that entirely to Mary Hal–without her, I would not have learned to knit at all.

Website: https://www.slow-knitting.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahbelleknits

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-thiessen-howard/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hannahbelleknits

Image Credits
Katie Starks
Jenn Bakos
Amelia Bartlett