Who is Janet Szabo?

It all started when…

I remember being fascinated by fabric and sewing as far back as fourth grade. My teacher had a scrap bag under the sink in the back of the room, and I was allowed to raid it and use the scraps after I finished all my work. I also learned to knit around that time. My mother sewed a lot of our clothing—she took Stretch & Sew classes and made my sister a bathing suit—but I somehow managed to graduate from high school without ever taking a home ec class. Really, that would have been far more useful to me than calculus.

I knit all through college. After graduation, when my husband and I were living in York County, PA, I learned to spin wool and other fibers. When we moved to Montana, he said to me, “You’re always knitting. Can you find a way to make money doing that?”

[There are perils associated with making your hobby a business, but I’ve studiously ignored them.]

My self-published finishing book came out in 1996. I began teaching knitting locally in 1998, then branched out. I taught for Stitches events and for The Knitting Guild of America. I completed the Master Knitter program from TKGA. In 2000, I began publishing Twists and Turns: The Newsletter for Lovers of Cable Knitting, and continued that for ten years. Along the way, I wrote and self-published two more books: Aran Sweater Design and Cables: Volume 1.

In 2010, I took a break from knitting and became a medical transcriptionist. I truly loved that work, but I was replaced by a computer just 10 years later. I also took up quilting. In the midst of a pandemic, with no clear idea of what I should do next and with no desire to “retire” at a relatively young age, I approached a local quilt store owner and asked her if there were any classes she wanted to offer for which she needed a teacher.

“Do you know how to use a serger?” she asked me.

As a matter of fact, I did. I began teaching serger classes there, then clothing classes, and now I am teaching in Kalispell and Missoula, Montana as well as in Washington state.

In August of 2023, on a whim, I decided to start a podcast. The Straight Stitch: A Podcast About Sewing and Other Fiber Arts was born a few weeks later, and I am having great fun with it.

My knitting patterns and back issues of Twists and Turns can be found at the Big Sky Knitting Designs website. I also keep a blog of my fiber-related and homesteading activities here. Enjoy!