1. What is your business name & where do you live?
Hi, my name is Elizabeth Mareno, but everyone calls me Biz. It was the name my brother gave me as a baby, and it just stuck with me. My business is Bizzy Crochet and Design & I currently live in Florida, but I am originally from Wisconsin.
2. What are 3 adjectives that best define your business:
Three adjectives I would use to describe my business would be creative, original, and supportive.
3. How did you get started designing?
I started designing in the early 2000’s when my kids were small making Pokemon characters for my son and American Girl doll clothes for my daughter.
4. What is your favorite part of designing?
My favorite part of designing is the opportunity to allow myself to be creative. Taking a thought or picture in my head and making it come to life is very rewarding. My second favorite part has become the interaction with the people that use my patterns. I love empowering others to feel accomplished and get their creative juices flowing. Especially when they tackle a pattern they never thought they would be able to do and they end up learning all sorts of new things and feel so proud of themselves.
5. What is most important to you when choosing yarn for a design? Look? Feel? Weight?
It’s kind of a mixed bag for me. I don’t have a single yarn that I work with, so depending on the design I want to create, sometimes it’s the fiber content I want to use that I look at first and then the weight. Sometimes it’s the look that I want at the end that determines which way I go. I sort of equally look at weight and fiber content at the same time.
6. What is your favorite yarn.
Hmm. I pretty much love most yarns. If it comes from Hobby Lobby, I tend to love it. But, I have also found several other yarn lines that I really enjoy working with from getting to know other fiber artists and being introduced to what they use and where they shop. My top three would probably be: Anything from the Yarn Bee line at Hobby Lobby, Paintbox DK Cotton, and Scheepjes Whirl
7. Which project are you most proud of?
I love a lot of what I’ve designed, but probably the one I am the most proud of at this point in my design career is a cardigan my cousin asked me to make for her daughter-in- law. It took me a couple of months and a ton of work, but it turned out amazing. It is not a pattern I will ever publish, but it is the project I am most proud of.
8. What inspires you when you create?
Oh gosh, I feel like I’m inspired by everything. But if I had to really choose my greatest
inspirations it would be nature, children’s fantasy (decorating and play), Christmas, and
necessity. All of my designs will fall into one or more of those categories.
9. If you could tell a beginner one thing about crochet, what would it be?
It’s an amazing creative outlet as long as you give yourself a lot of grace when you are learning.
Don’t put pressure on yourself to be perfect right away. Just keep plugging and try everything.
There is no stitch that is impossible. And if you run into one that you struggle with, set it aside and come back to it another time. You will probably find that it’s a much easier task the second time around.
10. Where can we find you online?
Online you can find me and my patterns on
Facebook: https://facebook.com/BizzyCrochet
Instagram: https://instagram.com/bizzy_crochet
My Website: https://bizzycrochetanddesign.com
My Blog: https://bizzycrochet.blogspot.com