Veera Välimäki lives and designs in a small village in Southern Finland. Her aesthetic focuses on clean lines and modern silhouettes, elevated by fresh, intentional details. She is drawn to knits that are both effortless to create and timeless to wear: pieces that remain wardrobe favorites year after year.

Shawls and sweaters are Veera’s two favorite things to knit. She is truly a master of casting on for new sweaters, fueled by a love for garter stitch, the versatility of short rows, and the excitement of a new project.

An accomplished author, her two most recent books, My Dream Knits (2025) and Stripes (2021), were published by Laine Publishing. Her collaboration with Joji Locatelli, the Interpretations series, has reached its landmark 10th volume.

Veera’s work has been featured in leading publications across Finland, Europe, and the US. She has taught at prestigious knitting festivals worldwide, sharing her expertise with communities throughout the US, the UK, and Central Europe.

Aleks Byrd is a knitwear designer with roots in Estonia, Canada, and the USA. Aleks' passion is creating modern patterns with a connection to the past using little-known traditional techniques for unique wearable designs that are fun and rewarding to knit for all levels of knitters. Her portfolio of designs includes individual patterns as well as those published in The Knitter magazine, Laine Magazine and her books such as Kindred Knits –  Patterns from My Estonian Family Archives. Her book Traditions Revisited – Modern Estonian Knits brings together her designs and teaching as an introduction to Estonian knitting, both traditional and traditional-inspired.. Aleks teaches workshops to demystify the deceptively easy techniques used in her patterns all over the world in the UK, Europe, Canada, the United States and Australia. Aleks especially loves sharing traditional knitting techniques from Estonia with knitters around the world to expand their view on what knitting can be.