On the next edition of Fiber Hooligan (12/08/14) my guest will be designer Kyle Kunnecke. Kyle spent his childhood as the creative kid who wouldn’t sit still. As an adult, he's always working on multiple projects, including designing knitwear patterns, creating products for his shop, teaching, and helping others find ways to use the fiber arts as tools to combat depression, anxiety, and feelings of isolation.
His passion for using creativity to help others began in high school. While living in Phoenix, AZ in 1989, he was involved in peer educational theater; teaching about issues such as teen pregnancy, date rape, prejudice, homophobia, HIV/AIDS and peer pressure. Realizing the value of connecting the arts with education, Kyle continues to use his work as a mechanism for change.
In 2003, after moving to Los Angeles, he learned to knit from his former theater director, and began to contemplate the ways the craft might be used to share information and unite communities. As the years progressed, he worked to increase his knowledge, starting a website, blog, and attending the first Men’s West Cost Knitting Retreat. In 2009, he organized a worldwide project receiving more than 200 squares from over 50 knitters and crocheters to make a blanket for a knitter who was battling testicular cancer in Holland.
In 2010, Kyle moved to San Francisco to pursue work in HIV prevention and public health, and also began releasing knitwear patterns. Original designs can be seen published in numerous knitting and fiber arts magazines, in books, and under the Kyle William label on his website www.kylewilliam.com.
In 2013, he curated Good Deeds, Volume One: Hats as a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Connections; a Palo Alto, CA based nonprofit that helps folks touched by breast or ovarian cancer. The collection of 15 knit and crochet patterns includes information about the organization as well as facts and resources related to breast cancer.
Kyle believes creativity has the power to heal, and that when we share our story with others, the world becomes a better place. I think is a pretty remarkable guy. I hope you’ll join us for what I know will be an inspirational show.
