TINA ROUNSAVELL, President from 2019 to 2020
Tina Rounsavell was the Guild’s President during the trying times of the pandemic (2019 to 2020), leading the team that enabled us to continue meeting via Zoom.
Tina started coming to the Guild in about 2007. She used to sneak out of the office to go to meetings when there was a speaker she wanted to hear. Since she was self-employed, her boss was flexible about it. Now that she’s retired, she can go on retreats, which she loves.
The Guild and its wonderful members became an important part of Tina’s life once she started volunteering. Her first big role was as Programs chair in 2015-2016. She enjoyed meeting and working with all the speakers, but Steven and Stephen’s visit was the highlight of her term. Her 2019-2020 term as President included the challenge of settling into a new meeting place, Temple Solel, and then introducing meetings on Zoom during the lockdown.
Tina’s mother taught her to knit when she was about eight. She came from a family of knitters so she was surrounded by the craft as she grew up. By the time she was in junior high, she was making her own sweaters. She has enjoyed many other needlecrafts over the years, but never really stopped knitting.
She taught her kids to knit when they were growing up. Her daughter, Marie, is now a wonderful knitter. Marie recently joined the Guild and travels from Los Angeles for meetings and other events when she can.
Tina mostly makes garments for herself, sticking to items and colors she will actually wear. She’s tried nearly every kind of knitting — socks, lace, toys, blankets, even a Nativity scene. Lately, she’s been having fun exploring embroidery on knitting.
She spent most of her career as a freelance editor working on nonfiction books. Reading is still a passion. She also does a lot of embroidery. She’s currently enjoying sewing garments by hand; she says it’s a bit like knitting and much more relaxing than using a sewing machine.
Tina grew up in the Los Angeles area and attended Occidental College. Her family first moved to North County in the late 70s for her husband’s job. She has two grandsons and has fun knitting for them. When the older boy was five, he helped her design a Ninja Turtles hoodie he wanted. Since then, she has knit the boys a total of four Ninja Turtles sweaters, two each as they outgrew the old ones. She is so over that now!
— Tania Marshall
