Susan Strawn teaches history of costume and various other textiles courses as an assistant professor in the Apparel Design and Merchandising Department at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Before entering academic life, she was an illustrator, photostylist, and sometimes writer at Interweave Press in Loveland, Colorado. When she was eight years old, her grandmother taught her knitting basics, and she has never since been without a knitting project. During the summer, she knits in Seattle.