During her 6 years in Jackson, Tyler held quite a long list of jobs before finding her true calling as a residential counselor at CV Ranch in August 2013. Because Jackson Hole is a resort town, jobs are hard to find and often temporary, since most ski/outdoor companies don’t have as much of a demand during the dreaded off-seasons. Tyler’s resume, to name a few, included: nanny, restaurant hostess, sales associate at a sporting good store, tech at a physical therapy practice, ski rentals associate, receptionist at a real estate company, receptionist at a resort, receptionist at a doctor’s office…. If you know Tyler, you would know that answering phones at a desk is not for her. The receptionist jobs were very short-lived (I think one lasted less than a week) as they bored her to tears. However, this is where her love for knitting began. She had to find some kind of creative outlet during those less-than-stimulating jobs, so she challenged herself to learn how to knit.

These are just a few samples from her large body of work.

Her first masterpiece was a sweater for her mom. This was obviously not the final product but it eventually turned out beautifully.

 

 

Christmas 2013 she knit personalized hats for all ten of the 10-11 year-old C-V ranch boys under her care. These hats are from that collection. One boy was obsessed with batman, so he got the one on the left. Another boy loved Star Wars, so he got the one on the right, which is inscribed with “May the force be with you” in a 360 pattern. She spent the better part of two months preparing these hats to make sure they were all finished by Christmas. These boys were used to expecting very little for Christmas, so this was the most special gift many of them had ever received. Maybe because it was a hat of their favorite superhero, or maybe because it was a hat made by their favorite superhero.

 

 

Our family was lucky to often get personalized pieces from her as gifts. Here’s a hat she made for me for Christmas one year in my favorite color.

 

However, the most thoughtful gift she ever knitted for me were these mittens. Confession: a long, long time ago I was indeed a Twi-hard (but in my defense I had read all of the Twilight books, obsessed over them & then moved on way before the movies became popular). Tyler surprised me with a replica of the mittens that Bella wears in the first movie. Be still, my Twi-heart. I may hate Twilight now, but I am still obsessed with these mittens.

Here’s Josie modeling her own pair of Tyler mittens.

 

 

These are a pair of wool socks she made for Will. Crucial for the freezing Jackson winters.

 

 

 

This one was originally made by Tyler as a beaded necklace, but it doubles as a collar for her nephew Bean.

She spent weeks working on this knitted blanket for sweet Hunter Strandberg in time for his birth Feb 14, 2015. Hunter is Tyler’s cousins Wesley and Keller’s son and the first great-grandchild (of Gran’s) in the Strandberg family (does that make sense? basically he is the first baby we have had in our family in many years and Tyler adored him). Thank goodness she was able to see his precious face in person.

This may have been her cutest piece ever. This is Briar, the son of one of Tyler’s oldest and dearest friends Raggs, wearing his personalized Briar Bear hat. Briar also might just be the luckiest little boy ever, because he also got a personalized Christmas stocking knitted by Tyler. This was Tyler’s first attempt at a classic Christmas stocking, and it turned out so great that she was planning to start selling them.

How lucky we are to have these cherished pieces with us forever. She sure did keep us in stitches.