The founder of Andycrafts Ann Baker holds The City and Guilds of London Institute Certificate in Creative Studies Machine Knitting which she studied at Sheffield and Rotherham College of Technology in South Yorkshire. She is a member of the Guild of Machine Knitters and a qualified teacher.

Ann creates her garments in a wide variety of yarns and techniques . While she keeps a small stock of childrens garments she normally designs and supplies to order. Her garments have been supplied to many countries including France, Italy, Portugal,India,Belgium and Russia.

Ann first became involved with knitting for the Chernobyl Children from Belarus in 1999 when she gave each child and helper a jumper from her range. She has repeated this each year since. She has also sent dozens of other knitted items to Chernobyl.

Ann who has always been interested in the Knitting Craft developed her skills from traditional hand knitting through to computer aided electronic knitting machines.

She has worked with computer aided machines for many years and has developed her own designs some of which can be seen on this site.

Her 2005 design is based on "Philippi" which can be seen on her design page.This is an interesting interpretation of a design from mosaic floor tiles designed 2000 years ago now converted to a garment design suitable and popular in 2006.

Ann's latest design project is connected with her 2006 holiday in China.

The two initial parts of this are based on The Summer palace & the Temple of Heaven both in Beijing.

The Summer Palace design is based on what we thought of as a bandstand at least there were Chinese musicians using it and the Temple of Heaven based on an ornate building.

Full details of these projects can be seen by going to Ann's design page from this link

Ann is willing to do displays of her work for Church and community groups in the High Peak or areas within 20 miles of Buxton or further provided she is given sufficient notice.

While Ann would not profess to be an expert she does have a lot of experience in using the Pfaff and Passap electronic knitting machines, which she is prepared to share should you have a problem.