Sandra Rigsby

To the public, Sandra Rigsby seems to be a typical Midwesterner. She grew up in Oklahoma. She attended high school, got good grades, hung out with friends, and applied to college.

Secretly, Sandra has been a lifelong knitter, mentored by a long line of competitive speed knitters such ‘Purlescent’ Patty Belafonte, and Desdemona ‘the Steeking Streak’ Whitehorse, as she made her way into the ranks of speed knitting. It was between her BS in microbiology and plant biology and Master’s in entomology working with burying beetles and burnt carcasses at Oklahoma State University that her professional speed knitting career was derailed.

At the semi-regional invitational knit-off, Sandra was paired against ‘the Pattern’ Pete Jablonski, the ‘bad boy” of the speed knitting circle for the finals of the hat and headgear competition. Coming into the final heat, Sandra and the Pattern, were dead-tied with 3 points each. They each knew that a lucrative sponsorship deal and being on the cover of the premier speed knitting monthly magazine, “Woolin’ Around” was on the line.

Sandra was using her chosen speed needles, a hand-carved wooden set custom for her wrist angle, and a unique cross of Eastern and Lever knitting styles. Unfortunately, Sandra was not prepared for the lengths the Pattern would take to win. According to her, he had swapped out her competition-safe wool yarn for bamboo yarn instead. This would rapidly prove disastrous and life-changing. With the friction generated by the needles moving at blurring speed and the use of flammable bamboo fiber, Sandra’s project burst into flames, scorching her fingers and catapulting the Pattern into the lead.

Sandra completely taken aback, launched herself at the Pattern, ripped the ski mask he had almost completed out of his hands, pulled it on herself, then performed a perfect Chicali Backcracker followed by an El Amarre forcing the Pattern to admit what he had done.

Unfortunately, Sandra’s injuries ended her speed knitting. Not wanting to leave the spectacle of speed knitting behind, Sandra kept the ski mask from her encounter with the Pattern as a trophy, donning it she ‘turned the heel’ to her fan’s delight. Sandra now performs Lucha libre wrestling as the knitting-themed luchadora, Crewel-la. She is known as an innovator in the square circle introducing such moves as the buttonhole stitch, a variation of the bow and arrow submission move, and the pom pom, an aerial maneuver where she launches herself off of the top of the turnbuckle, slams into her opponent, springs back to the ropes, then again to her opponent repeatedly.