Knit Stars | August 30, 2026
🧶Let’s cross the bridge together
BY SHELLEY BRANDER
When I think about the moment, my veins still turn to ice.
It was about 15 years ago, and I was in my Mini Cooper convertible, frozen at a full stop in high-speed, rush-hour traffic, in the middle of a highway overpass.
For a few terrifying minutes, traffic whizzed around me. I couldn’t move. I was absolutely paralyzed with fear.
Finally, I put the Mini in reverse, inched my way to the shoulder, and with car horns blaring all around me, backed my way off the overpass.
This was rock bottom in a debilitating fear of bridges, overpasses and heights that I wrestled with for more than a decade.
After years of therapy, intentional exposure to my fears, and even hypnosis, I was able to trace my bridge fear back to the time I was driving my three babies cross-country for our annual family trip to the Florida Gulf Coast.
I was driving across the Mississippi River on the Vicksburg bridge, surrounded by semi trucks, when I experienced a massive panic attack. It took all I had to keep the car steady and make it to the other side.
From that point on, my world started to shrink inward, as it got harder to cross large bodies of water, then rivers, then overpasses, culminating on that fateful day in the Mini.
Ironically, I now live on the Florida Gulf Coast – on an island. I cross bridges every day.
And as Founder of Knit Stars, my life is filled with daily challenges and adventures, as I fly around the world filming documentaries and masterclasses with top teachers in their own home studios.
I try to live by the Eleanor Roosevelt quote: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
I share all of this with you because most likely, there’s something in your creative life that scares you a little bit. Maybe it’s as small as trying some colorwork, or as big as designing and publishing your first pattern.
This is why, recently, we’ve started releasing some of our most popular masterclasses as Singles, so you can address your next challenge in one easy step.
