MEET COLLEEN LUKOFF, PHILANTHROPY CHAIR 2025 – 2026
Working as Philanthropy Chair, Colleen Lukoff has logged in over 1900 items since assuming the position in 2023. Under her guidance, the Guild has provided 15 local charities with handcrafted items either donated by Guild members or by San Diego area crafters using yarn provided by the Guild. Click here to see some of the organizations supported and the types of items they need.
Colleen joined the Guild in 2020. She learned about us from member Debbie Cravets, a fellow member of Temple Solel (our former meeting location). A long-time crafter, Colleen learned crochet from her mother. She’s done embroidery, needlepoint, quilting, and counted cross stitch before daring to try knitting. Being left-handed, she was under the impression it would be awkwardly difficult. With the encouragement of a knitting friend and a male employee at a local yarn shop, a knitter emerged. She discovered she was better at knitting than crochet. She went from working crocheted blankets in durable basic yarns to the delicious fibers available at stores dedicated to providing internationally sourced yarn options. She is now admittedly drawn almost exclusively to natural fibers.
A lover of texture, she has incorporated pattern motifs and cables in the many garments she’s made for her five grandchildren and cold-natured husband. She makes socks for herself.
Colleen is a fifth-generation Northern Californian. She graduated from South Tahoe High School and San Jose State University where she met her husband of 50 years. They relocated to San Marcos in 2004, lured by her daughter and family. She appreciates being involved in the lives of the next generation.
Following a career in fund development for non-profits, Colleen delved into her family’s history and maintains an extensive family tree and helps organize periodic family reunions in the Lake Tahoe area where her great grandparents lived. After tracing her ancestry to a member who fought in the Revolutionary War, she joined a woman’s service organization with 189,000 living members, The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. She is also quite active in other area civic groups.
We are fortunate Colleen has turned her non-profit and community outreach experience to our knitting Guild and its Philanthropy efforts.
— Tania Marshall
