Olive Knits

Marie Greene is a mak­er.

When she was bare­ly dou­ble-dig­its, she learned the lyri­cal lan­guage of knit­ting, a skill inher­it­ed at her grandmother’s side.

An end­less cre­ative out­let, knit­ting pro­vid­ing con­tin­u­ous learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and a con­stant chal­lenge. And for a mul­ti­tasker, like Marie, it was also a great com­pan­ion activ­i­ty that com­ple­ment­ed her life through­out the years. Whether dur­ing her time as a project man­ag­er in hos­pi­tal finance, while rais­ing her three boys, or with her activist and com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­ing activ­i­ties, knit­ting could (and did) hap­pen any­where.

Even­tu­al­ly, Marie’s hob­by turned into a pas­sion that launched a new career — knitwear design­er — allow­ing her to join her ana­lyt­i­cal skills with her cre­ative side.

“It’s some­thing I’ve known my whole life, but I def­i­nite­ly didn’t turn it into a busi­ness on pur­pose. I sort of fell into that,” she said.

And while Marie may spend many hours rapt in yarn — she is an entre­pre­neur after all — when she steps from her cre­ative cocoon, she nev­er far from her cre­ative com­mu­ni­ty. In addi­tion to lead­ing the Salem chap­ter of the Ris­ing Tide Soci­ety, a group that helps and sup­ports those involved in cre­ative busi­ness­es, she also loves to write, cook and trav­el.

“I just got back from a cou­ple weeks in Europe where I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to teach knit­ting, vis­it a cou­ple coun­tries, enjoy some great food, and see some ter­rif­ic archi­tec­ture which real­ly inspired me,” Marie said. “I take a lot of ideas that I come across while I am trav­el­ing, espe­cial­ly in regards to archi­tec­ture, and I trans­late it into my designs.”

But for Marie, the act of cre­ativ­i­ty goes beyond her job a pat­tern design­er, beyond the art of knit­ting. She’s also a fiber guru, an obses­sive food­ie, an ama­teur gar­den­er, a wife and a moth­er. Encom­pass­ing it all, Marie is a mak­er. And being a mak­er exceeds the act of just creating…it’s telling a sto­ry, shar­ing a piece of his­to­ry, pass­ing on a tra­di­tion. It’s self-expres­sion. It’s art. It’s func­tion. And it’s also the top­ic of her “idea worth spread­ing” that she’ll share at TEDxSalem V on Jan. 6.

Speak­er: Marie Greene

Lives in: Salem. Marie, her hus­band and three boys moved to Salem — on a whim — just over four years ago. “We came out for a vis­it and just felt so con­nect­ed to the com­mu­ni­ty. We knew instant­ly we were home.”

Job: Knitwear design­er at Olive Knits

Favorite book: Essen­tial­ism: The Dis­ci­plined Pur­suit of Less by Greg McK­e­own. “There are oth­er books I love but as some­one who has the ten­den­cy to want to do all the things all the time, that book is a real­ly good reminder. Helps me come back to cen­ter, to what I am here for, what I real­ly want to accom­plish. I reread it every 6 months. It helps me check in with myself.”

Favorite food: Cheese and wine (Her rec­om­mend­ed wine is any Stoller Reserve Pinot)

Favorite movie: Fly Away Home. “It’s so super cheesy, but I total­ly love that movie.”

Guilty plea­sure: Nordic noir. Grit­ty, moody for­eign crime dra­mas on video or audio.

Fun Fact: Marie is chron­i­cal­ly ear­ly. “I wake up ridicu­lous­ly ear­ly in the morn­ing — 3:30 a.m. is my aver­age wake up. I am such a morn­ing per­son. All my best stuff hap­pens in the morn­ing.”

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Get your tickets for TEDxSalem V

TEDxSalem V is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag Sat­ur­day, Jan. 6, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Pur­chase tick­ets here. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com.