Meet the Artist: Peg Mayor
By Kelli Comer
Inspiration can be found in many forms, even with just a simple glance. What may be overlooked as a pile of hodge-podge to the untrained eye opens up a world of opportunity for local knitter Peg Mayor.
“My very favorite way to create is to have a pile of materials and no set plan,” Peg says. “Making something out of nothing might be my superpower. For many years, I had an Etsy shop selling handbags and accessories made from upcycled and thrifted sweaters. When I design something to knit, I usually start with the ball of yarn and go from there. The creative challenge of figuring it out gives me endless inspiration. If I can visualize the end product, I can usually figure out how to make it.”
Peg teaches classes in stranded colorwork and other knitting techniques at Around the Table Yarns in Shaker Heights. This spring, she will be teaching a steeking class and a beginner stranded colorwork class. Steeking is a technique used in stranded colorwork where knitting is cut to create the armholes, neck openings, etc.
“Steeking can be terrifying at first, but once learned, it opens a beautiful world of color and tradition,” Peg explains.
“I’ve had two epiphanies regarding knitting. The first was early on when my local yarn store in Seattle taught me how to do the math and design my own garments,” Peg says. “Back then, there was no internet so knitting a garment meant finding a book or printed pattern you liked. It was very limiting compared to today with websites like Ravelry and a global marketplace for digital patterns. My second ‘aha moment’ with knitting came when I discovered the Fair Isle tradition of colorwork knitting. The subtle shading and the painterly flow of the patterns have me completely obsessed. I visited the Shetland Islands last summer which only reinforced this passion.”
A native of southern California, Peg has a B.S. in computer science and business from the University of Puget Sound and an MBA in operations from the Tuck School at Dartmouth. She used these skills in a short manufacturing career that culminated as plant manager of an automotive components factory for TRW. She then stayed home to raise her three sons. Never one to sit still, Peg made the most of her time waiting on carpools and shuffling her sons to their activities by working on her knitting on-the-go.
“I’ve always known I have a balance between my left and right brain,” says Peg.
“I love music but enjoy numbers and details—I can lose myself in choosing colors for a project but can equally obsess over the mathematical calculations of a design.”
To reach Peg, you can email her at ragingwool@roadrunner.com. To find out details about Peg’s classes and her schedule, visit AroundTheTableYarns.com. To learn more about the artist and her work, follow her on Instagram @PegMayor.