Hiding in plain sight, Eileen is a daughter, sister, student, teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, knitter, designer, friend, and writer.

Today, Eileen is a full-time care partner for her husband of fifty years. Turning to research, “how do I get myself out of the situation I’m now in,” led her to hours and hours of reading, attending care partner support groups, sharing common challenges with friends who found themselves in similar situations, all proving to be incredibly helpful. Often, she found herself reading biographies of women who moved into better places, knowing that their life challenges were daunting. What powered these women to move forward, enabling them to climb up to the next rung on the ladder, to survive and survive well?

Eileen Adler began her professional career as an early childhood and elementary school educator while simultaneously teaching knitting lessons. Eileen has designed dozens of knitting classes and developed extensive curricula including comprehensive PowerPoint presentations. Her original designs exemplify nuances for each lesson enabling students to hone their skills to grasp a new concept quickly. Her first book, Matching Knits for Girls and Dolls, was published in 2007, and since then, her patterns have been featured in books and magazines. Eileen is passionate about helping survivors of breast cancer; she designed hand knitted prostheses, “Bust Buddies” and “Softies” for these heroic women. With the help of many knitters, over twenty-five dozen pairs of breast prostheses have been given to women all over San Diego County and beyond. Her latest published pattern is “It’s a Wrap! Parkinson’s” donates the proceeds to Rock Steady Boxing for Parkinson’s disease.