2025 Instructors
Rusty Boyd
Rusty Boyd has been a crocheter since the age of 9. At age 34, he took his first knitting class and was “hooked.” Since that time he has taught himself to knit lace, cables, stranded, mosaic and more. After attending his first Men’s Knitting Retreat, Rusty had his first pattern published by Skacel for their Simplicity Men’s Booklet. He has also been published by Love of Knitting, Love of Crochet, and self published on Ravelry. He is the Founder of the Southeast Men’s Knitting Retreat, which began in 2011 providing a weekend getaway for like minded male fiber enthusiasts. The father of 2 adult children, Rusty lives in Whitakers, NC with his husband, Kevin, an Australian Shepherd named Oliver, a spinning wheel, 2 weaving looms, and a very large yarn stash.
Jenn Lampen
Jenn is an avid knitter, knitting instructor and knitwear designer, publishing under the name Synaptic Stitches which comes from a combination of her background in neuroscience and her love of creating designs that keep your brain engaged and always teach you something new. She loves creating brioche designs and coming up with new ways to combine stitches, colors, and techniques. She is an advocate of fearless knitting and believes that any knitter can knit any pattern with a bit of patience and the right resources. She loves supporting knitters in taking on new challenges and learning new skills. Jenn finds inspiration in a variety of sources, including classic cable motifs and the puzzle of creating brioche versions, and in the branching, organic patterns of plants that are mirrored so well in the structure of brioche knitting. When not knitting, she loves baking, hiking, swing dancing, and listening to audiobooks. She is a major chocoholic and can usually be found with a mug of drinking chocolate while working on her designs.
Rachel Offerdahl
Rachel and her sister grew up spending summers with their aunt and uncle, crafting, gardening, and hiking. She learned to knit when she was nine, and began doing so in earnest after moving to Boston for college - what's more fun to layer than knitwear? A couple years and a couple jobs after graduating from college, she asked for a job at a local yarn shop. She treasures the seven years she spent there, learning by helping customers, teaching classes, and leading knitalongs. While knitting is her first love, Rachel also spins, sews, crochets, embroiders, quilts, and makes socks on her circular sock knitting machine. She believes everyone is creative, and relishes helping people find and refine their crafts. She and her husband live in Durham, NC, with their two dogs and three cats. Rachel also enjoys hiking, cooking & baking, and trialing in various scent sports with the hounds. Her current knitting muse is her sweet little toddler niece, Ada.
Amie Palmer
Amie Palmer is a lifelong fiber arts enthusiast who believes there are two types of projects: the ones that require concentration and those meant for meeting up to chat with fellow fiber artists. She always has at least one of each in progress. Based in Durham, NC, Amie loves teaching for local yarn shops and regional fiber festivals. She has taught at Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival, New York Sheep and Wool Festival, Carolina Fiber Festival, Blue Ridge Fiber Festival and a variety of knitting retreats. She is TKGA member and TKGA Certified Knitting Judge as well as a CGOA member with Master’s certification in both Fundamentals and Advanced Stitches & Techniques. When not teaching, she is a technical editor for knit and crochet patterns. Using her background in engineering, Amie breaks patterns and stitches into simple chunks to make them accessible to anyone. Her classes encourage understanding the “why” of a technique to enable the “how” of bringing a project to life. Amie’s favorite projects include custom-fitted sweaters, brioche knitting, and exploring the technical side of knitting and crochet. Her sweaters and colorful felted purses have won awards at the North Carolina State Fair and Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival. She can be reached through email at amie@DaisyAndCloverDesigns.com, on Instagram as DaisyAndCloverDesigns and on Ravelry as amiep. Her website is www.DaisyAndCloverDesigns.com.
Amy Wentley
Amy has been knitting most of her life and explored many other crafts including crocheting, quilting, bead making, embroidery, weaving and spinning. About fifteen years ago, she embraced knitting and began teaching on the advice of her son who said, "Mom, you should knit more. Knitting makes you happy!" Since then, Amy has been teaching knitting in person, on Zoom and at schools, retreats and events. She loves to teach beginners and to lead her students to grow and embrace challenges. She draws on her previous career as a technical writer to translate complicated patterns for intermediate and advanced knitters and turn that information into engaging classes that help her students achieve impressive results. She has written a number of patterns including the award-winning pattern "Baby Turtle Frenzy Blanket," available on Ravelry. Amy offers over 100 videos on her YouTube Channel providing instruction on techniques supporting the many classes she taught. Follow her YouTube channel at youtube.com/chaiknucklesknitting
Lynne Yengulalp
Lynne is a mathematician, teacher, and knitter. She works as a professor in the math department at Wake Forest University and regularly teaches knitting to students, faculty, and staff during a weekly “Commit to Knit” group on campus. When she is not knitting or doing mathematics, she enjoys adventure motorcycling and traveling. Lynne learned to knit as a child from her mother and likes to knit sweaters for her. She most enjoys colorwork but also likes knitting small cats and birds.