Dawn Barker is the creative force behind the new knitting technique, assigned pooling, which she created to reconcile her passion for dyeing variegated yarns and her disdain for knitting them. Through countless hours exploring the dynamics of color pooling and textured stitches, she developed this compelling knitting method that remarkably mimics embroidery on knitted fabric. Using assigned pooling and other intriguing ways of producing wearable art, she designs clean modern knitwear in classic, deeply saturated colors. A lifelong fiber lover and fine artist, Dawn started Barker Wool in 2017 to share her hand-dyed fine yarns and innovative knitting designs with the world. She is happiest existing somewhere between the extreme freedom found in dyeing and the order necessary to create useful, wearable designs with her yarn.

She lives in Amarillo, Texas with her husband and two sons.