A Pair of Baby Shoes Inspired a Dream

I am excited about today’s podcast episode. My guest is Melanie Knight of Starry Knight Design. I first met Melanie 30 years ago, when she was about 11 years old. She’s a wife and mom now, and owner of a very successful sewing-related business.

Some of my newer blog readers (welcome!) may not know that in June of 1994, about nine months after the husband and I moved to Montana, I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. We had just bought the property we’re living on now and DD#1 was about 15 months old. I had been sick for several weeks. My doctor thought I had a sinus infection and had given me antibiotics. One day, I woke up with an enlarged lymph node on the side of my neck that was pressing on my vocal cords. I went back to the doctor and insisted that he figure out what was happening.

One of the first people I became friends with here in Kalispell was a woman named Judy. Her husband and mine worked together on several construction projects and we got to know their family well. Judy homeschooled their three daughters—Melanie was the oldest—and that day, she kept DD#1 for me while I was at the doctor’s office.

The doctor called the husband and me into the office and said that they had determined I had leukemia, but that I needed to be on the next plane out of Kalispell because there was no way they could treat me here. I called my mother and let her know I would be arriving in Cleveland the following day to be admitted to the Cleveland Clinic for treatment.

I wanted to take DD#1 with me, but I was so sick that I could barely manage myself, let alone a busy toddler on a trip involving three flights through several big airports. It was obvious that I was going to have to leave her here with the husband. Judy offered to keep DD#1 during the day while the husband was working. That was a hugely generous offer. She and her girls kept DD#1 every day for the month of June until the husband could bring her to Cleveland to be with me there.

Judy and I didn’t see each other as much as our girls got older and our lives changed, but we tried to celebrate important events together. We attended Melanie’s wedding and the baby shower for her oldest son, and Judy came to DD#1’s high school graduation and wedding shower. I ran into Judy a few years ago at the grocery store and she told me about Melanie’s very successful business in Corvallis, Montana, about an hour south of Missoula.

Sadly, Judy passed away last January. When I started the podcast, though, Melanie was at the top of the list of people I wanted to interview. We had a great visit over Zoom and I got to hear all about how she started her business making leather shoes for babies and toddlers.

(Photo borrowed from the Starry Knight Design website.)

If you’re following the podcast, I hope you’ll enjoy this episode.

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Still no actual sewing here, although I’m almost finished with my Robert Mahar embroidery project. Yesterday was podcast editing day, which took most of the morning. After lunch, I tended to the indoor lettuce system, cleaned up a bit around the house, put away a bunch of canning jars, and organized my indie sewing patterns. I’ve pulled out a few that I want to work on in the coming months, including the Alina Fulton Blazer and the Itch to Stitch Andes Jacket. That Andes Jacket is going to be a fairly involved project, I think, because I know I am going to have to lengthen the pattern.

While I was at church on Sunday, I talked to Pat. She took my bin of 5” squares and turned it into six comforter tops. We’re going to have an all-church comforter-tying party on February 24. The comforters will be donated to Mennonite Central Committee to be given out where needed.

Tomorrow is the rescheduled serger mastery class, so I’ll need to stop in at the store today and see if I’ll have any students.