Julie Pongrac, Master Knitter My life has never been without fibre. Both my parents came from large families that valued self-sufficiency. Knitting and sewing were life skills handed down or skills as important to thrift as managing a budget. An essential part of this notion of thrift was the use of quality fabrics and fibres to produce garments of that would last the passage from one sibling to another. Born into a family of six children, as the fifth child, I was exposed to beautiful fabric very early. As soon as I could manage a needle and thread I was doing handwork. Eventually I would learn tailoring from my mother. It was my father, however, who taught me to knit. He would have learned this skill to support his brothers in the forces in World War II with socks and blankets. It is in this legacy of nurturing that I commenced my lifelong love of this craft and it is still in this spirit that I create works of art with my knitting. A wrap or shawl is the universal symbol of swaddling and comfort. Today as a fibre artist I utilize this rich legacy as part of my storytelling process. Julie Pongrac is a Vancouver based fibre artist who designs hand-knit works of art, some wearable and some just as art. Born in Ontario, the province of beautiful waters, she was raised in the tradition of interacting with her natural environment. This resulted in a love of landscape first expressed in watercolour painting. Landscape is still the main inspiration of her distinctively west coast knitted designs. Working mainly in hand-knitted lace and intarsia techniques, her contemporary style is aimed at deconstructing our notion of traditional uses of these techniques to view them as tools for translating colour and texture into landscapes that embrace the human form. More recently, she has applied this same approach to creating her own fibres through natural dying and spinning techniques to facilitate a greater creative range. Ms. Pongrac’s work has been displayed in Canada and recently at the 2009 Cheungju International Biennale in South Korea as part of the largest international exhibit of Canadian fine craft.