Today we’d like to introduce you to Marilyn Woodruff.
Hi Marilyn, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have been a lifetime professional musician and an IT leader for about 20 years. In 2018, I was searching for mindfulness practices to help me fulfill my desire to become a better leader at work, and after arriving early to a rehearsal, on a whim, I went into the nearby local yarn shop to pick up a skein of yarn and a set of knitting needles. My grandmother had taught me to crochet when I was very young, but I HATED it. Like REALLY hated it. I spent my whole life up to that point thinking that I hated all fiber arts, but I had friends who were knitters, and they all had been telling me how meditative it is and urging me to give it a try. I thought to myself, “what do I have to lose? If I hate it, I’m in it for the cost of some cheap yarn and needles.” …. famous last words!
Needless to say, I did NOT hate it. Adding that second needle to the crochet hook concept seemed to unlock something in me. Within the first couple weeks of knitting, I knitted a sweater for myself (and given that I’m not a skinny Minnie, that was a tall order) and immediately was looking for how to improve on what I had created. Inside of my first year, I was teaching knitting, test knitting for designers, creating samples for yarn stores and indie designers, and had the beginnings of a studio.
In mid-2023, I got laid off from my corporate IT job and decided to spend a couple months figuring out what really drove me and who I wanted to be. I’ve always been self-motivated, and I would have NEVER independently decided to take a sabbatical to find myself. But when the opportunity arose, I grabbed on with both hands. I did a lot of soul searching and had a lot of hard conversations with myself. I determined that yes, I love being a corporate leader, solving problems and developing teams. I also determined that I didn’t want that to define me forever. I kept playing music, working with my ensembles, and took the rest of my time to start my own knitwear design business, At Knits’ End Designs. My goal was to start a concept that could ramp up over the next 15 or so years and fulfill me in retirement. What happened was that I LOVE teaching knitting and designing patterns, and that business has exploded.
Within a couple of months of starting At Knits’ End Designs, I was invited to step back into an IT leadership position and decided that I was not yet ready to leave that part of me behind, so now I have two full-time jobs that I love and a full-time music hobby. My knitters play music with me, my IT folks are learning how to knit, and I am having the time of my life knitting, leading and performing in musical ensembles, and working with my IT team.
Aside from knitting and music, I love to read, cook, travel the world, and collect wine. I have the world’s cutest/sweetest dog, Simon, who, as an 11-year-old puppy, keeps me on my toes. Autumn is my favorite season for many reasons–the cool, crisp air, being able to wear my knitted garments, and football season!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Starting a business is hard, no matter the type of business or the size of your goals. Starting a business after you’ve been laid off from a job that you thought you were perfect for is a huge internal struggle. There is so much doubt and worry and “what if” that comes along with stepping out of the comfort zone into the unknown. My value of courage was definitely my guidepost…I knew what I wanted to do, but fear was there. Doing what I knew I needed to do in spite of the unknowns was hard but necessary.
But once you’re standing in the new comfort zone, man, does it feel great!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The key to everything to me is to live my values of integrity and courage every day. Across the board, no matter whether I’m at work, performing, teaching, playing, or designing, I bring my integrated whole self with me. I truly believe that I have found what success I have due to my willingness to step up to challenging issues, be real with my teams and ensembles, and stay true to myself in the process.
I started playing piano when I was 5 years old and began my musical career in middle school as a professional church musician in western Oklahoma. I would fill in as the pianist for 7 different churches in 3 different towns that were 30-45 miles apart from each other. I had an interesting childhood, as my mom was a sole-proprietor CPA and my dad was a first-generation computer engineer. My grandparents were farmers and also flipped houses before that was a thing. I grew up as an only child in a small town, so I was involved in all of the things my family did and learned major MacGuyver life skills at a young age (anyone need drywall? a new roof? medicate a cow? welding?) that were rooted in resourcefulness and self-reliance. Those experiences really shaped my interests and focus. I am never content if I’m doing the same things day after day, and I am always interested in learning something new.
I started playing clarinet in middle school and majored in clarinet performance in my undergraduate in college at the University of Oklahoma (Boomer Sooner!). I had planned to become a band director, but it was clear to me early in my program that while I love to teach, I do not love to teach in a school setting.
I moved to Plano in 2008 for my IT job after receiving my MBA at OU and immediately joined the Plano Community Band (PCB) in the clarinet section, where I still perform and lead as the President of the Board. Joining the PCB led me to the Plano Clarinet Choir (PCC). I performed with the PCC for a year before they asked me to become their Artistic Director, which I agreed to do in 2009. We weren’t all that great as a performing ensemble, but we had passion and drive to improve. My goal as their leader was to develop the group into one that would eventually be able to represent DFW on the world’s largest stages, which we have now done twice. We were invited in 2023 and 2025 to perform at the annual convention of the International Clarinet Association, ClarinetFest, which was most recently held in July in Ft. Worth. I love both the PCC and PCB groups because they represent musicians of all ages (22-83), all backgrounds, and have anywhere from a couple years of playing experience all the way to doctorates in music performance. It is a joy teaching them and learning from them. So many of the things I learn by standing in front of them each week helps me in my IT job and when I’m teaching knitting — how to break down concepts, how to meet people where they are and lead them to where you want them to be, and how little things can make a huge difference in your own life and others.
As an IT leader, my long-term focus is on building successful teams by creating a stong organizational culture and aligned values. I attended Harvard and was working toward my second master’s degree when I realized that in order to be successful as an IT leader, I needed to be able to lead MYSELF first. Through this journey, I realized that for me, mindfulness was the key I’d been missing. I had been so busy being busy, and I just didn’t want to make time for the hard work of being still and knowing myself. Once I received my degree, I continued my journey of self. Enter knitting.
Learning to knit was a joy — not fun in that I was perfect the first go; I was NOT. It was really the first time I made a total hash of things and was able to silence the inner perfectionist and go with whatever happened. My mantra in knitting is “It’s just sticks and string,” which keeps me focused on while it may seem life-and-death to me, having to rip back an almost-done sweater I have spent 100 hours making is better than wasting very expensive yarn on a garment that fits like a circus tent. One of the most interesting things to me is that so many knitters fear making a mistake, but as a knitwear designer, my goal is to knit things and rip them out to make them better! I think it is an excellent metaphor for life and provides an interesting perspective on what is important. By being willing to fail, I have learned how to succeed.
I am known as a knitting teacher who is focused on learning and teaching the WHYs of knitting and how to focus on the small details. Yes, you are able to knit. Now, how can you make it even better so that someone doesn’t say “oh, that’s homemade;” instead they say “WOW, that’s HANDMADE?!” I think every knitter can learn how to break free of the knitting pattern and use it as a general guideline to make a finished object that sings to their soul in the same way that you can learn to read a kitchen recipe and then use it as a general guideline rather than stressing over whether you got a pinch too much salt.
I travel the world with teaching alongside other knitting teachers on knitting cruises, I teach at local and national retreats and yarn stores, and I teach online via my website. I also believe that nothing about knitting is truly hard — it is just a mindset, so I create YouTube videos to visually explain for knitters who are visual learners workout a teacher at hand. I really want the knitter to succeed without frustration.
I am most proud of the fact that whether you know me from my “real” IT job, or from music, or from knitting, you know ME, not just some angle or hologram of my whole self.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I am the biggest Brene Brown fangirl on the planet. Just as I was starting my adventure in finding myself and my time at Harvard, I met her, and her teachings and experiences have truly shaped who I am today. Her books Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, and Dare to Lead have been foundational cornerstones.
I am a lifetime learner, so I spend a lot of time knitting and listening to quantum physics, biology, history, and any other topic that catches my fancy. And I’ll go ALL THE WAY down the rabbit hole. My current favorite podcasts are The Rest Is History, Startalk with Neil Degrasse Tyson, and The Ancients on History Hit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://atknitsenddesigns.com
- Instagram: @atknitsenddesigns
- Facebook: @atknitsenddesigns
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marilynwoodruff/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@atknitsenddesigns for knitting, https://www.youtube.com/@pcchoir for Plano Clarinet Choir
- Other: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/at-knits-end-ravelry-store
Image Credits
all images by Linda Bourn and Marilyn Woodruff
