Jean Greenhowe

Read more about this wonderful designer below.

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With over 40 years as an expert in her field, Jean is now regarded as the foremost designer of patterns for irresistible knitted dolls and toys. Bringing a fresh and totally new approach to the art of three-dimensional knitting is Jean's exciting contribution to the world of knitting.

From an early age she was always busy making things, yet she was temporarily put off by knitting in high school when making a pair of dowdy brown school socks as part of her needlework project. How she remembers those utilitarian, itchy socks! Needless to say, Jean's love of knitting revived with her fashion creations for Vogue Knitting and other magazines throughout the 1960s.

For 24 years Jean also worked for the UK's Woman's Weekly magazine, designing everything from fancy dress costumes, to musical miniatures, rag dolls and soft toys, until her very first knitted dolls came off the needles in 1980. From this beginning, her knitted characters blossomed into the Jean Greenhowe Designs' success story of today. Her work has been exhibited on several occasions and she has also created numerous puppet characters for children's television programs.

Jean is renowned for producing patterns for items which would appear to be un-knittable. Moreover, she achieves the end-results in the simplest possible way so that her patterns are easy enough for beginners to follow. With no formal training, Jean believes that this lack of tuition is the key to her originality and innovativeness.

She has received thousands of fan letters over the years from knitters expressing their admiration and the joy in reproducing her designs and the ease with which they can be made. Many of these letters also mention the wonderful fundraising activities from those who make her designs for charity.

Originally from Lancashire, Jean now lives in Bonny Scotland. In 1988 she established her publishing company, Jean Greenhowe Designs and is now well-known all over the world.

In-between knitting projects, she loves collecting - everything from vintage knitting books and patterns, to driftwood and pebbles from the beach. She also enjoys watching old movies. As a young girl her ambition wasn't to be a world-famous designer, she wanted to be Betty Grable!