Malia Mae Joseph

Malia Mae Joseph is an Afakasi Samoan-American yarn shop owner living in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Born in Germany, she comes from a military family, and in the USA called Colorado home.

Malia opened the yarn shop that would eventually become ‘Stephen & Penelope’ in a tiny shoebox space on a retail side street in Amsterdam in 2011. It was called ‘Penelope Craft’ back in those days, and when American designer Stephen West joined, they just stuck the names together. It’s hard to explain who Penelope is sometimes, but the short answer is that Malia is Penelope!

At Stephen & Penelope her role is to manage all branding and marketing, design new products in the ‘S&P’ line and develop the ‘West Wool’ yarn line. In the time she has spare, she designs her own hand knitting patterns, a skill she is continually developing.

Her designs can be found on Ravelry under her designer name maliamae and at Stephen & Penelope.