Our Instructors:

Faina Goberstein is an independent knitwear designer, author, and professional teacher based near San Francisco, CA. Taking an early retirement from a long career as a math professor gave Faina a chance to let her creativity and long-time passion for knitwear design become a second profession. Faina's interest in a wide assortment of knitting techniques and stitch patterns is evident in her designs and topics of her inspirational classes. Faina is a great communicator and energetic teacher who cares about her students and focuses on sharing her knowledge and excitement about the craft. She teaches at Vogue Knitting Live, Interweave Yarn Fest, and various venues such as guilds and yarn shops around the country and abroad.

Follow Faina on Instagram @Faina.go to see the links in her bio to current classes and workshops taught through Virtual Vogue Knitting and via Zoom as well as online classes on Craftsy and Interweave. Faina designs for her own line of patterns, FGDesigns. Her designs often appear in internationally recognized magazines such as Rowan, Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, Knit.Purl, Cast-On and in numerous books. Faina is best known for her elegant and well-fitted classic designs.

Karen Frisa has worked as a knitting instructor since 1998, teaching for local guilds and shops as well as at regional and national knitting conferences. She worked as the Knit Doctor at STITCHES events for several years and especially enjoys working one-on-one with students, helping them with specific questions about their knitting.

Her day job as a knitting technical editor, working mostly for Interweave, exposes her to a wide range of knitting techniques, methods of garment construction, and pattern-writing styles, which in turn informs her teaching. She likes to explain the "why" of what's happening, not just the "how."

Her articles have been published in Interweave Knits, Knitscene, and Sockupied magazines. In her free time, she enjoys cycling, sewing, spinning yarn, and playing her trumpet.