Your Neighbor: Debra Lambert

Neighborhood: Eastwood Oaks
Your neighbor since: 2005

Debra Lambert sits surrounded by hanging hand-knit creations, shelves overflowing with wool and piles of colorful batts of fibers. Lambert, owner of Picasso’s Moon, a yarn shop in downtown Sarasota, recently hosted the third annual Art Yarn Fiber Festival.

Lambert, who has lived in Sarasota since she graduated from the University of Arkansas, says that she can’t think of a better way to spend her days.

“You’re making one-of-a-kind art all the time,” she says. “It’s so much fun to see how creative you can be.”
The Arkansas native started knitting after taking a job at a yarn store to pay for college. She says the job taught her everything she knows.

“I just walked into yarn accidentally, and it’s now come a full circle,” she says.

Today, Lambert can be found transforming fluffy, colorful bundles of wool into texture strands of yarn on her spinning wheel while chatting with other knitters who frequently visit her.

In 2005, Lambert founded Knit and Bitch, a weekly social circle for Sarasota knitters.

“The group is a way to bring the community together and to help each other share the excitement of what they’re working on,” she says.

Seeing an interest in knitting and art yarn, a form of yarn that incorporates more than one type of fiber, Lambert co-founded the Art Yarn Fiber Festival with fellow knitter Kim Perkins. Perkins sells art yarn through her company, Batts in the Bellfry.

Although her history with knitting has come full circle, Lambert’s story with yarn has yet to cease spinning.
Lambert hopes the festival, her knitting groups and creations inspire members of the community explore the world of knitting that exists in Sarasota.

“It’s a wonderful community,” she says.

IN HER OWN WORDS: “I love the beach and am definitely a warm-climate person. I think we live in paradise.”

Contact Harriet Sokmensuer at [email protected]