"There is something about the hands of an artist. The painter's fingers almost permanently stained with pigment, the nimble hands of the weaver in constant motion, the poetic rhythms of the potter."
Margaret O'Leary Margaret O’Leary didn’t start out to be a knitwear designer, but she was familiar with the craft. Watching her mother knit for eleven children was something she took for granted. “I guess it just soaked in,” she says in her musical Irish accent. O’leary immigrated to the United States from County Kerry in 1988. She sold her first sweater in 1990 – a sweater she had hand-loomed herself. Never at a loss for inspiration, O’Leary believes a designer can be forever innovative, especially with the new yarns that are constantly being developed. “We always want something new,” she adds. “It’s a challenge to work in something new. Part of the creative process in knitting is mixing a yarn from one company with yarn from another company and just creating one’s own. O’Leary says she really designs to please herself and her friends. Each season she asks herself what is missing from her own wardrobe and then designs it.
