Lauren Rad is a knitwear pattern designer who teaches high schoolers about the American legal system. Most mornings, you can find her curled up in her pink wingback chair with a hot mug of tea and some hand-knit socks on
her always-cold feet.

Knitters can memorize her designs
quickly, and they are super soothing, so you can take them anywhere or work on them while doing other things. That's because, for her, knitting is a mental health tool. She uses it as a mindfulness exercise and as a fidget spinner, depending on what she needs, and having to keep stopping to check the pattern doesn't work well for either of those purposes.

She knows she's not the only one who does this, so she writes her patterns for the stressed knitter who needs to relax and who finds meditation helpful; the overwhelmed knitter who has trouble focusing or sitting still in long meetings; the fidgety knitter who wants to watch a movie but also wants to keep working on something. You're her people. She is one of you.