Michelle learned to embroider at age 6 from a kit her Mom bought at the grocery store. A year or so later, she found a learn-to-knit kit in the toy aisle of the same grocery store, and prevailed upon Mom to buy that for her also. It wasn’t until she was in high school that she asked Mom to teach her to crochet.

Mom not only taught her the basic stitches, she also taught by example that if a pattern didn’t look or fit quite the way you wanted it to, you changed a stitch, added or subtracted repeats, etc. Sometimes you could even take a part of one pattern and use it on another. All of this pattern “mixing and matching” was a lot of fun – but even more fun, Michelle discovered, was taking everything she knew and translating a picture in her mind to a finished gift for a friend or family member!

A charter subscriber to Annie’s Pattern Club, which encouraged members to design and submit original patterns, Michelle decided to try writing down her ideas. As a result, her first attempt, a hot mat, was published in the December 1980 issue. It was a couple of years before she attempted to write anything down again – up to then she never made an item the same way twice. However, after winning an Annie’s Pattern Club contest with her rose christening dress and seeing it in print in 1986, she was hooked on designing!

For many years, she was a frequent contributor to Annie’s Attic publications, working in both thread and yarn. She also won first place in the Baby division in Herrschners Grand National Afghan Contest in 2002, and Grand Champion with another baby afghan in the same contest for 2003.

Now, she is an independent crochet pattern designer specializing in doll outfits (this week!) -- and also a crochet pattern vendor for Annie’s crafts.