About
Creating something with your own two hands is one of the most satisfying things to spend your time doing. Wrapping yarn around two sticks time after time and being able to create anything you want is very impressive!
But there’s the catch. We can’t knit anything we want.
We can only tackle knitting projects that we’re confident enough to tackle.
So we take classes and pour over books, and try new patterns in order to learn more and hopefully through gathering more knowledge gain confidence. And that works… to an extent.
Because confidence doesn’t come from just learning more. Confidence comes from being able to understand what impact your actions will have.
Confidence comes from learning something, implementing it, and then experimenting and testing the limits of what you’ve just learned. It takes a specific kind of teacher, designer, or author to make a space for that kind of learning to take place.
Helping people find their success is what brings me joy.
I believe in abundance — that an idea shared, processed and implemented grows in value. As a long-time teacher, I love to work with individuals and groups to identify problems, develop solutions, boost confidence, and achieve results. Nothing makes me happier than lending some of my confidence to another knitter so that they can gain the skills they need in order to reach their goals.
When I left high school my plan was to be a math teacher, but that future was quickly hijacked as I discovered computer programming (you can see where I get my appreciation of knitting math and techniques). With a degree in computer science firmly in hand I worked in the industry for years, ultimately managing the IT Operations department for a competitive phone company. By the time I laid myself off at the dot com down-turn in 2000 (along with dozens of people from my department), I had accomplished many of my career goals and was ready to try something new; so I turned to my life-long hobby of knitting.
In October of 2001 I founded my company, Knitability, LLC, creating and selling kits called “Class in a Bag” to make it easy to learn techniques even when you don’t have a teacher nearby or can’t make it to a larger show.
Through this I eventually found my true passion in teaching. Once I started teaching I never looked back.
Within a couple years I became a recognized name on the national teaching circuit, where I continue to teach today. I teach not only knitting, but also small business development, and how to improve your teaching. You can find more about my teaching here.
In 2013 I felt called to start using my business and leadership experience to help others find their success. While I continue to teach to knitters and fiber industry professionals, I also speak and consult on the topics of business success and leadership. Whether I’m providing a keynote address to a crowd of 1,000 or consulting one-on-one, empowering people to achieve their own success is what I do best.
Ready to Supercharge Your Knitting Confidence?
Learn how I can help here.If you’re also interested in small business development, or having me come to speak at your business event or conference, visit GwenBortner.com.
“This class was very useful. My pages of notes are full.”
“Gwen was very clear with her explanations on her presentation.”
“Thank you for an excellent, informative class. These [points] are all so true and it is nice to see someone who cares about business and [is] willing to educate others. Again, thank you!”
– Student Feedback –