Elizabeth Zimmermann

An influential knitting pattern designer, teacher, and writer, Elizabeth Zimmermann advocated knitting techniques to speed progress and simplify pattern creation. She enthusiastically championed Continental knitting, where the working yarn is carried in the left hand, as opposed to the English or American style where the working yarn is carried in the right hand. She also advocated knitting in the round on circular needles rather than back and forth on straight needles. Zimmerman encouraged knitters to understand the mathematical and geometric concepts inherent in knitting. Zimmermann and her family moved from the UK to New York, eventually settling in Wisconsin. There, she established Schoolhouse Press, arguably the most important knitting publisher of the 20th century. Zimmermann's daughter Meg Swansen took up the reins of Schoolhouse Press upon her mother's death.