Laura Dobratz lives in Winter Haven, Florida where she is surrounded by beautiful yarn, lakes and palm trees and is inspired by a community of makers. She was taught by her aunt to knit as a teenager and has had needles in her hands ever since. From the very beginning, she loved to combine stitch patterns and explore shapes in knitting; often making pieces without a pattern. In 2010, she opened Four Purls Yarn Shop and works there alongside her husband and amazing staff. Two of her four “Purls,” Aspen and Emma, dye crazy beautiful hand-dyed yarn, Emma’s Yarn, in the adjacent studio. In January 2016, Laura published her first pattern to Ravelry and it made it to the number one spot, encouraging her to become more focused on publishing patterns for all knitters to enjoy. Like most designers, she has a notebook full of ideas just waiting to be written. Laura’s style focuses on beautiful but simple to memorize patterns. She believes that knitting should be relaxing with small bursts of challenges.