Alice Beltran

Alice Beltran lives in Long Beach, California with her family, who she loves covering in handknits.

She recently opened a new shop of  beautiful hand-crafted jewelry for handknits, CostumeJewelryHabit. Michelin rating: Worth a Detour.

Alice learned to knit when she was a child, from books about knitting, with rainbow variegated yarn that was mostly purple. Knitting Without Tears was her mainstay, and she can remember the moment she pulled it off the library shelf. It was bound in plain, aged red among a bunch of glossy, crackling covers. It still speaks to her. She writes: “I like simple forms that allow for endless variation. My favorite patterns are ones where every project that emerges from it is meaningfully unique. I also love to spin. I don’t have a sheep in the backyard. Yet . . . (Why don’t I have a sheep in the back yard? I could get a really small one, and it would be tame and take little lumps of carrot out of our hands!) I’ve taught beginning knitting in my local yarn store and rarely knit things that don’t require significant design input because I like making it up.”

She grew up on Archie comic books. Later on, Len Deighton’s Action Cook Book showed her that comics could be instructive.