About Melanie

Hi! I'm Melanie, proprietor of Stellar Notions and the maker behind Galactic Knits. I've lived a rather idiosyncratic life up until this point and I don't see any reason why I should stop now!

For starters, (not really the beginning but I have to start this story *somewhere*) I earned my Ph.D. in astrophysics and published several scientific papers on galaxy evolution, but ultimately decided not to pursue the life of an academic. Instead, I galavanted off to Silicon Valley and worked in the tech industry building Artificial Intelligence applications (basically, teaching computers how to do fancy looking things with fancy looking math). But then I was laid off in 2022 and decided to try my luck in the fiber industry!

I started knitting in 2019 (I'm just barely a pre-pandemic knitting convert!) and it's become the greatest obsession of my life, so I've gotten really good at it really fast. And that's allowed me to do all kinds of things: design knitting patterns, teach classes, test knit, tech edit... the list goes on.

... And then I discovered sewing! (you've been waiting for my story to tie into this website, right?) While knitting will likely always by my first love, there's something deliciously satisfying about finishing a project in days rather than weeks!

I love making bags using sourced fabrics from a variety of places -- that random tablecloth from the thrift store, or a pile of discarded bolts at the box store -- I scoop up what I can and do my best to make something new and beautiful from discarded fabrics. Creating cohesive and stylish color palettes from an idiosyncratic pile of fabrics, zippers and straps just brings me immense joy. And I hope that joy infects you too, every time you open one of my bags to gaze lovingly at the yarn (or whatever precious cargo) resides inside.