Hello and welcome to my home page! My name is Janet Pace. I have a degree in Clothing and Textiles from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and have always loved to sew and work with my hands. I began my design career in 1986 after winning the state sweepstakes award in the "Sew with Cotton" contest with one of my smocked dress designs.
My first line of patterns included smocked fashions in women's sizes and Battenburg Lace collar patterns. I was blessed to have entered that market at a time when lace making was beginning its revival. I also made a video on making Battenburg Lace and expanded the line to include home decorating and craft items from lace.
Later, after recovering from a back injury, I discovered the knitting machine and would spend many sleepless nights thinking about how to combine sewing and knitting. I became a Brother dealer and soon developed a new line of patterns for "cut and sew" as well as shaped garments. One of my favorite projects has been inventing "filet-knit" a transferred lace technique which has the look of filet crochet. I have recently become the Artisan Knitting Machine dealer for Arkansas. You can learn more about Brother and Artisan machines by visiting the Knitting Machine page of this site.
I have taught at some major machine knitting seminars as well as club workshops, but feel the need to quit travelling to save my back and devote more time to designing. I hope this web site will allow me to stay in contact with all my knitting friends and make lots of new ones!
I also make knitted baby afghans, two of which have a special place for personalization with machine embroidery.
My latest venture is creating sterling silver and gold filled wire wrap, sculptured, and Precious Metal Clay (PMC) jewelry. I studied wire under Sue Rowand, Jessie Donnan and Ruth Anne Moore at the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts. I also studied under Preston Reuther, Master Wire Sculptor. I was privileged to study PMC at William Holland under Mary Ann and Ken Devos, who have been instrumental in working with the Mitsubishi Company in the development of PMC since its beginning. I am now certified as a qualified artisan with the PMC Guild. My Silver Solder teachers include Allan Brown, Dan Haga, Vicki Prillaman, and Will Smith. I studied Cold Connections under Kim St. Jean and Chain under John Fetvedt.
I love to teach jewelry classes and have been teaching since 2006.