Monthly Archives: May 2010

Tutorial Photoshoot


This is Spencer, our intrepid photographer. He’s getting all his lights set up in my kitchen so we can photograph a special dyeing tutorial for our June catalog. We were very fortunate to have an overcast day so we didn’t have to deal with bright sunlight coming in the kitchen window.

This is Alison, who has outlined every photo we need to take to go with the step-by-step instructions she’s written. The only free space in the whole kitchen for her to take notes was between the burners (don’t worry – they weren’t on at this point!) on the stove.

Hard at work. Honestly, tutorial photography days are really fun! What I like best is the “behind the scenes” look of all the piles of supplies and things that are just outside the …

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May Projects

The wonderful lace and after five projects are arriving in the mail… !

These are the projects that the Knit Pick’s test knitters have knitted for our May catalog using new spring yarns. The oohs and aahs are heard throughout the building – I even caught our catalog manager in my office sneaking a peak in the boxes that had just arrived. She said she couldn’t stand the wait any longer It becomes like Christmas every day! Here’s a sneak peek of some of the projects…
I’m frantically getting the July catalog projects out the door… it’s always a hustle and bustle in the Knit Picks office. Of course the hustle and bustle usually follows me home, so I just haven’t been able to stop for even a little while so I can start a new knitting project… but I will. Hopefully by this time next …

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, we’re having a “pot(luck) at the end of the rainbow”. Doesn’t everything look delicious? Alison baked that bread from scratch. I had no idea she was so multi-talented!

In addition to wearing a green sweater and gorging myself on bread, vegetable pie, red pepper and asparagus curry, strawberries, and chocolate, I’ve decided to get into the spirit of the day by making a list of all our green yarns. I love making lists. Here we go.
Lace weight:
Lost Lake Heather (Shadow)
Moss Heather (Alpaca Cloud)
Tide Pool Heather (Alpaca Cloud)
Fingering weight:
Green (Palette)
Mint (Palette)
Grass (Palette)
Ivy (Palette)
Verdan…
Terrain Twist (Essential)
Lily Pad Multi (Essential)
Meadow Multi (…Woodland Sage (Gloss)
Arugula (Felici)
Grass (Risata)
Sport weight:
Cilantro Heather (Telemark)
Rosemary (Telemark)
Pesto (Telemark)
No…
Grass (Shine Sport)
Green Apple (Shine Sport)
Moss Heather (Andean Treasure)
DK weight:
Lime (Crayon Boucle)
Spumoni (Twist)
Moss (Merino Style)
Asparagus (Merino Style)
Key Lime (Cot Lin)
Moss (Swish DK)
Asparagus (Swish DK)
Grass (Elegance)
Worsted weight:
Pampas Heather (Wool of the Andes)
Thyme (Wool of …

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Getting ready for Fall ….er, Spring?!

It’s so odd as a garment designer always working several seasons ahead. We’re just about to start work on some new Fall patterns – warm, richly colored, cozy knits. But as for me? I can’t wait to don my summer dresses already! Give me SPRING!
I am so glad for yarns like Shine Worsted and the new Comfy. They allow me to swatch new cable patterns and ideas for fall, but use a warmer-weather palette. Right now with the sun shining over my shoulder, I can’t even think of donning a wool coat – which makes designing one pretty hard to do! But with cottons, I don’t have to worry about the heat of the yarn getting in the way of my sun-shiny daydreams. Not to mention the bright, warm colors look fabulous against my Spring wardrobe!
But I must say I am just drooling for the new Fall yarns. The colors …

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Styling new yarn

A lot of my job entails staging pretty pictures of yarn, which can be hard work! You see, center pull balls are wonderfully convenient for the knitter, but they aren’t particularly photogenic, so I often end up skeining dozens and dozens of balls of yarn. This week I’m preparing to shoot some photos for web graphics. Luckily, Gloss (middle row) already comes in skeins, so my work there is done. I’m not so lucky with the Comfy (top) and Risata (bottom). So far I’ve got 3 skeins down and 21 more to go! I guess there could be worse jobs than twisting up yarn all day… 😉 <

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New Calendar!

It has been a busy day on my desk… New books galore are coming in.

But I’m really excited about the new calendar – which will be available this summer. It’s the 2009 “Never Not Knitting” from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot. It’s 365 days of wit and wisdom. So if you enjoy her blog, what a wonderful addition to your desk! Watch for this in the coming week where it will be in the Upcoming Releases section. If you click on “save for later” it will put it in your stash, we’ll email you when the calendar arrives at the warehouse! <

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Meet the newest member of the Knit Picks’ family!


Katie’s still out on maternity leave, but she brought her baby boy into the office to say hi to everybody.

He’s so tiny and sweet! Kelley’s Elegance alpaca and silk shawl kept him nice and toasty in the office. It’s not exactly one of our baby patterns, but it sure did the trick.

Xena wanted to meet the newcomer too.
Welcome little one! And come back soon Katie, we all miss you!
P.S.: The adorable baby booties were knit by our very own Nancee. Nancee works in customer service. She used Dancing to knit up those little booties. We don’t stock Dancing anymore, but Risata would make a good substitute. <

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More Sock Knitting


I was on vacation last week, doing a HUGE basement repair project, which means hardly any knitting happened. Every time I sat down for more than 10 minutes, I fell asleep! Also, what I’m knitting on is kind of secret. I can at least tell you that it is our Bare Essential yarn, which Alison dyed using Jacquard Acid dyes in purple, emerald and sky blue, but that’s about it. For now, enjoy the stripes!
I always bring my knitting to work because it’s perfectly acceptable here to knit during meetings, but I especially look forward to Fridays because I am guaranteed to have half an hour of knitting time while I proof Kelley’s podcast. Her interview with one of my favorite designers, Kathleen Taylor, will go up later today. …

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New desktop wallpaper

I’ve updated our downloadable desktop wallpaper for spring to freshen things up.

We kept the popular flirty socks and Bare ice cream images up there, plus added some of Christy’s spring yarn catalog images (Comfy, CotLin, Crayon & Felici) and my spring yarn ad image. By popular request, I’ve added a 1280×800 monitor resolution option too.
Enjoy! <

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Vote for your favorite dye color(s)

Yesterday, I dyed some samples of Jacquard Acid dye colors we don’t currently carry. For comparison, here are the colors we do carry. Do you see any colors in the photo above that you’d like us to carry? Please leave a comment with your vote(s) – yes, more than one choice is allowed!
Top row, left to right: navy blue, gun metal, periwinkle, violet, spruce, brilliant kelly green
Bottom row, left to right: scarlet, russet, aztec gold, golden yellow, silver gray

Separately, a customer called in to ask what happens to the tweed nebs in our Bare Essential Tweed when it is dyed. Since I had only used Kool-Aid dye on Essential Tweed before, I dyed a sample in our darkest Jacquard color, jet black (if you love black Essential Tweed, you can get it already dyed here). The nebs might …

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