I have written about the stories behind stitch work, concealment safes, junk rig boats, and the games that astronauts play in space.

I am the author of four books: The Creative Instigator’s Handbook: A DIY Guide to Making Social Change Through Art (2022), Strange Material: Storytelling Through Textiles (2014), Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti  (2009 & 2019) co-authored with Mandy Moore; and Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery (2011), all published by Arsenal Pulp Press. I also write for a variety of publications on craft and culture, such as Digits and Threads, Designer, Desktop, Works that Work, Applied Arts, Seamwork, and I was included in the anthology Craftivism.

I’ve been called a Shameless Woman by Shameless magazine and a Lingo Maker of the Year by Mclean’s magazine, My creative projects and books have been featured in major publications including W magazine, The New Yorker, Vogue Knitting, the BBC, Irish Public Radio,  the Guardian UK, CBC, and the Globe and Mail, and I’ve been quoted as a craft/textile authority in the New York Times, the Tyee, and The Globe and Mail.

As an author, I enjoy delivering lectures and workshops of all kinds. I’ve toured across North America three times, talking in places such as The Smithsonian, Powell’s Books, Textile Arts in Brooklyn, the ICA Boston, WordFest Calgary, the Kingston Festival of Writers, the Toronto International Festival of Authors, LitFest Edmonton, and McNally Robinson Winnipeg. More importantly, I once had an author event at the Vancouver Island Regional Public Library in Courtenay, where my grandmother and mother both had long careers serving the public and where I was a library page in my teens.

I hold a BFA in creative writing and art history from UBC, a Masters Degree in Publishing from SFU, and as of 2026, I am pursuing an MFA in writing fiction.

Born in the Comox Valley, I live in Vancouver, Canada, the unceded ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh.