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	Mary Anne Oger, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada MAO is a creative, self-taught machine knitter, well-known for her classic, wearable designs and her knack for adding common sense and humour to machine knitting. She is adept in textures and great finishing techniques which can be used by all knitters, any gauge, all machines. Mary Anne's original designs have been published in 'Canada's Fashion Machine', 'The Carriage Trade', 'Machine Knit America', 'Machine Knitters Source' and 'KNITWORDS'. With almost 200 seminar and workshop credits all over North America in the past 10 years, her popularity and teaching skills are undisputed. Attending the NEC at Sandown Park, Esher in London, England in January 2000 as 'Special Guest Speaker' was a major highlight of her career. Beginning publishing in November 1994, Mary Anne has set high industry standards for quality work with her books and patterns, 'Mid Gauge Classics', 'Casual Classics', '50 Ways to Love Your Knitter', 'Do It On a Double Bed!', '4 Letter Words Coat', 'I Won't Pull the Wool Over Your Eyes!', 'Knitting on the Edge', 'Mid Gauge Magic', 'The Neck's Best Thing', 'Sassy Skirts' and 'The ABZ Book'. Currently, she is the editor/publisher of 'KNITWORDS', a quarterly magazine, for all machine knitters, distributed world-wide. Just completing the 10th year of publication, featuring patterns and articles and advertising for the specialized machine knitting industry, 'KNITWORDS' provides an important link for the hobbyists, designers, dealers and suppliers. The first issue came off the press June 25, 1997. Mary Anne says, 'It's hard to believe I've been doing this for almost 10 years!!! It seems to have gone by in a flash. The good news is that I am as excited about working on our next issue as I was of the very first and I can honestly say that I am as proud of each individual issue as I am of the current one. People were saying for the first 30 issues, 'Wow, this is one is better than the last! How can she keep this up?' I still have plenty of ideas!!!' KNITWORDS magazine features designers and contributors who share the same high standards and attention to detail. Meet some of our regulars...
	Margaret Heck, Minnetonka, Minnesota After working as a public school teacher and school administrator for 30 years, Margaret retired in 2001. "Retired" is a misnomer since she and husband own the Edina Creamery (two ice cream parlors in the Minneapolis area) and put in many hours running the business. She regrets that owning a small business interferes with knitting time! The scoop on knitting: she learned to knit at a young age and bought her first knitting machine in 1989, a Brother 260. In 1999 she added a Brother 970. She loves every aspect of knitting and has recently begun designing garments for herself and her family with the aid of DesignaKnit. Norwegian sweaters are a family favorite, the more elaborate the design the better. Margaret says, "It is my fervent hope that machine knitting stays alive and well for many years. It's an endlessly fascinating hobby and I couldn't live without it!"
	Eileen Montgomery, Burlington, Ontario I have been machine knitting since 1986. Although I have several electronic machines, I specialize in patterns for punchcard and manual machines. My patterns and articles have been published in 'The Carriage Trade', 'Machine Knitters Source', 'Canada's Fashion Machine', 'Machine Knitting Monthly', 'News & Views', 'KNITWORDS' and 'DAK Link'. Since 1993, I have published nine books of patterns and techniques for machine knitters. I have demonstrated at seminars in Canada and the United States as well as teaching regularly for Cardiknits in Hamilton, Ontario and the local machine knitting clubs.
	Evelyn McNabb, Nanaimo, British Columbia I'm a self taught machine knitter and fibre artist. My studio includes knitting machines in 7 gauges, 2 antique circular sock machines, and a few very rare knitting machines and accessories. I enjoy a variety of fibre arts that include traditional rug hooking, spinning, weaving and dyeing wool yarns and fabrics for fibre projects. My first knitting machine was acquired in the mid-1980s and was great for intarsia knitting. Initially, I enjoyed the speed with which a garment could be produced with a knitting machine, but I now enjoy the process just as much, and credit that enjoyment to the wealth of knowledge and experienced I've gained through MAO's books and KNITWORDS magazines. In 2004, I started the Vancouver Island chapter of Project Linus in memory of daughter Emily and I would encourage all machine knitters to support their local chapters with the gift of a hand made blanket every now and then. When I'm not in my fibre studio, my large family of 10 keeps me pretty busy. I'm proud and honoured to be included as a KNITWORDS contributor.
	Deirdre Packer, Havre Boucher, Nova Scotia Deirdre purchased her first knitting machine in 1976. Working in Human Resources management, she knit as a hobby until 1987. At that time, living in Sarnia, Ontario, she opened a retail store for machine knitting and sewing. In 1995 Deirdre and her husband retired to Nova Scotia where she now enjoys knitting and designing. Previously published in Machine Knit America and Canada's Fashion Machine, she has been a regular contributor to KNITWORDS since the beginning. She owns and uses most of the machines available. Her fashionable designs are usually made on the Japanese machines. As well as machine knitting, she is an avid sewer, as well as sometime weaver and spinner. When she is not knitting or doing something fibre related you can usually find her walking in the woods or exploring the many miles of seashore near her home.
	H. Morgan Hicks, Seattle, Washington Morgan Hicks inspires in his seminar and television appearances, promoting the "creative health" aspects of machine knitting and all needle craft. He has the ability to excite readers with a steady stream of original fabric designs, innovative techniques, and popular courses for all levels of experience. The Design Compendium Disk Sets 1-17 comprise a large series of knitting design "artwork." Morgan educates students of fiber arts in textile color and design, fabric-making techniques, and needlework applications, including hand and machine knitting, crochet, weaving, and embroidery. He also entertains individuals, guilds, and large groups with a sharp wit, light spirit, and positive outlook. With a career providing dozens of magazine articles devoted to machine knitting, he is prolific with ideas and shares them freely.
	Eileen Bator, Maryland Eileen is a Technical Writer in the software industry by day, and an avid fiber artist during her free time. She has dabbled in all sorts of crafts, from crocheting to macrame, jewelry making to sewing, tapestry weaving to machine knitting. Combining her flair for writing with her fiber obsession, she has written machine knitting patterns, interviewed industry vendors, and written the quarterly features, "Amateur Artist" and "Knit Chat" for KNITWORDS.
	Doris Dungan, Thunder Bay, Ontario Doris Dungan began her lifelong interest in textiles and garment design at an early age, sewing her first outfit when she was 9 and knitting her first sweater soon after. She began sketching designs, and was encouraged to create garments by her parents who kept her well supplied with yarn and fabric. Always having more ideas than time to execute them, she purchased her first knitting machine in the mid-80's by placing an ad in the local "Wanted to Buy" classifieds, and selecting a Singer standard gauge punchcard machine from the 5 responses received. From the frustrating experience of teaching herself to knit a first garment using multi-stranded industrial yarn in a dark colour, she has developed her machine knitting skills through further experimentation and research, attending workshops and interacting with other local knitters. Most of her knitting now is done on Brother machines using natural fibres. Doris' designs have been featured in 'The Carriage Trade' and 'Canada's Fashion Machine' and she has been a regular contributor to 'KNITWORDS' since the design which appeared on the cover of Issue No. 1. Many of her designs are for infants and children. Doris also enjoys giving knitting workshops. Other current interests include quilting, sewing, machine embroidery, gardening and reading. In her "other lives", Doris is a professional musician who has just completed her 25th anniversary season as a flutist in the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, and who has taught music since graduating from high school. For over 15 years until her retirement in 2004, she was a supervisor in the Computer Services Department of Lakehead Public Schools, where she provided support and training for administrative computer users.
	Catherine Hall, Burlington, Ontario Published books titled "A Bounty of Beautiful Bags" and "Best Friends". Published patterns in KNITWORDS Magazine and Machine Knitters Source. Machines: Brother 970, Singer 700, LK140 Mid-Gauge, Singer 155 Chunky. On-Line business retailing yarn and knitting related products. I teach machine knitting classes of all levels in my studio and design for magazines and custom work for my clientele. I was commissioned by local historical business park to teach hand knitting classes. Students and customers are my greatest source of inspiration. Wanting to design knitwear to suit the individual taste, and a preoccupation with color and texture keeps me 'forever knitting'.
	Lucie Biesenthal, Thunder Bay, Ontario Lucie bought a Passap E 6000 in 1994 and proceeded to teach herself to machine knit - a painfully long haul. The many self-taught Passap knitters out there can certainly relate to this. Prior to that she had been hand knitting (since she was ten) and needed to speed things up as the addiction to create fabric was seriously taking over. The focus of her knitting has always been construction and finishing - optimizing the knitting and assembly of each piece to create garments that are classic, stylish and comfortable, well able to stand the test of time. Previous jobs that she really enjoyed were building electronics and wiring Government of Ontario Bi-Level GO transit trains. Hobbies include embroidery (to take a break from knitting), bird watching and gardening. She now currently spends much of her time on knitting and sewing/quilting projects for her husband, four children, their spouses, two new grandsons and KNITWORDS of course!!!