Janice Straker began work as a designer for the Balfour Company, in Attleboro, Massachusetts, at the age of seventeen. Interwoven with the raising of her two daughters, her later careers embraced the applied and fine arts as an oil painter, jeweler and interior decorator while living in Westport Point, on Cape Cod, in Dartmouth and on Nantucket Island.

Janice joined forces with daughter Penny in 1964 in the small seaside village of Padanaram, where Penny had opened her first yarn shop two years earlier. Penny discovered that many of the patterns which her patrons requested were not available. Penny and Janice began designing and writing directions for customers, and this team of “best friends” quickly evolved into a special and creative mother/daughter pattern design partnership, which spanned more than twenty years.

Simple typewritten instructions grew into a more professional, shop-friendly design. In 1975, mother and daughter opened a second shop on Nantucket, which flourished and provided a wider view of knitters’ needs throughout the country. Penny discovered her love of writing and, in 1980, began to publish the Straker designs. Today Penny Straker brings 23 years of on-floor yarn shop retailing to her designs and pattern-writing.

Although they designed independently, Penny and Janice were each other’s toughest critics and strongest champions. Janice passed away in 1985, but many of her timeless, classic designs remain favorites for today’s knitters and are offered in our collection of patterns.

Janice’s illness and death, and Penny’s marriage and the raising of two sons forced the selling of the Nantucket shop in 1983 and the closing of the Padanaram shop in 1985.

While restoring and building an addition to her 19th century house, Penny extended her love of the outdoors and design to landscaping and eventually to a new career as a professional gardener. Since 1991 she has worked in, managed, and designed in a variety of properties along the coast of Dartmouth and Westport Point as Penny Straker Gardens.

Penny missed knitting too much, an integral part of her life from the age of five. She reestablished her knitting pattern business in 2001 and continues today to work in both careers. The updating and reprinting of Straker classics, the sketching and knitting of prototypes of new designs, and the production of an annual press run are ongoing throughout the fall and winter months.

Cathleen Ormonde, Penny’s associate and friend since the Sixties, continues to bring her proofing and editing skills to the pattern writing and her expert knitting and finishing to our model knitting. Elizabeth Newton joined us in 2008 as an assistant, contributing to many facets of our company, including proofing, editing, marketing and shipping, allowing us to fill our orders promptly throughout the year.