Monthly Archives: October 2011

Project ideas?

I recently finished spinning a bunch of the roving that I had dyed with Greener Shades dyes back in February.  I was trying to work my way through a bin of older fiber before I allowed myself to play with my new goodies – thinking about it, it’s kind of weird that I create so many rules for myself while working on tasks that are supposed to be purely recreational.  

Anyway, I ended up pulling out several braids of dyed Merino that seemed the most fun, then spun them each into a lofty 2-ply bulky weight yarn.  I had split each braid in half and then predrafted the fiber without splitting it further, resulting in long color repeats for each single ply.  When I plied them together, I got a nice barberpole effect that should work up as subtly shifting stripes.

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The Making of a Cover

NV Catalog Cover

November is almost here! And that means that there’s a new catalog in the works. In the spirit of cooler weather and cozier knits, the next cover is a tiny fiber village! I spent the past two winters in a tiny town in rural Vermont enjoying deep snow, icy ponds and farm houses blanketed with snow so this season I couldn’t resist recreating some of those memories with soft, cozy fiber.

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Little Introduction

O hey, everyone! My name is Jenny and I’m a brand new,
pleased-as-punch addition to the Knit Picks staff. As time goes on, I hope to
share all my beautiful, botched or just plain shrug-inducing projects with you!
It’ll be fun, I promise. 

First and foremost, I don’t knit. And frankly, how are you
all doing it? Was I merely born with the dexterity of child wearing thick
mittens? The needles! The way you must hold TWO of them!

On the other hand: 
Crocheting.

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And the winners are…

Thanks for a great contest!  We randomly chose 2 winners for the contest – each will win the toy of their choice, along with a copy of the the pattern, which designer Ann Marie Ivins generously donated.  They will also receive as a copy of Linda Permann‘s excellent new book as well!

For Quinao, the winner is:

Beth Rudo!

Who wrote: My favorite crochet pattern is the Tunisian Mitered Square afghan. I’m making one right now. And I would love to have Qinyao. 

For Roxy, the winner is:

Marie/Underground Crafter! 

Who wrote: My favorite crochet pattern of all time is probably Monet Pineapple, by Janie Herrin (RIP). This was my very first pineapple and I made several afghans from this pattern as gifts. I would love the Roxy, please, if I win. Thanks for offering the giveaway! 

Thanks everyone!  I think these will go to very happy homes!

 

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Fun Freebie Friday!

 

All of use here in the office read lots of crafting blogs – we’re all bigtime crafters so we like to keep up with what’s going on!  One of our favorites is Sweatshop of Love, the wonderful blog by Allyson Dykhuizen. We were delighted when she submitted some of her designs for the IDP program.  Now she has a cute little free pattern with us too!

Presenting the Tinfoil Tiara Brigade: The Headband Pattern!

 

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Crochet Contest

 

Conest is over – thanks everyone!  We’ll announce the winners soon!

 

One of the best things about this job is the fact that I finally was
introduced to crochet, much to my mom’s delight.  She had tried to teach
me so many times but it never stuck until about a year ago – and now I
have so many great crochet patterns to choose from!

Two of my all time favorite crochet designers are Ann Marie Ivins and Linda Permann
– both of of whom I’ve discussed here on the blog.  Because I think
they are both so wonderful, I figured I’d hold a blog contest to
celebrate them!

Picture 864

 

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Under the influence of yarn

There are so many reasons to love yarn, and those reasons are as
different as the crafters who use it. But, what we can agree on is that
using yarn confers a benefit to us. (Otherwise, why would we keep on
using it?) One of the greatest benefits for me, is that yarn and
knitting give me a way to pass time that otherwise would be wasted, or
spent doing something much less pleasant. It allows me to take those
little chunks of time standing in line at the grocery store, in the
waiting room at the dentist, riding the train, etc., and turn them into
productive moments. When you’re an on-the-go type of knitter, it’s kind
of amazing how much time you never knew you had! But, sometimes, life
throws you a situation in which waiting is all you can do, and unless
you have something to keep your brain busy, it drags on forever. Like
the hospital!

We checked in at 7am. I pulled out the little sleeves as the nurses went through the pre-op procedure.

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Podcast Episode 170: Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival

During the last weekend in September, the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival took place here in Canby, Oregon! OFFF is one of Alison’s favorite fiber festivals and this year, she was able to get Kelley, who has never attended OFFF before, to join along! Hear all about the different fibers, yarns, animals, and other treats Alison and Kelley discovered at OFFF. Next, Kelley talks about about reworking a pair of socks currently on her needles and shares her own stitch pattern that she created for the socks (see pattern below). Lastly, if you have too much fiber or undyed yarn that you have spun up, Kelley reviews two books on natural dyeing and how you can use what you find in your backyard or kitchen to create unique yarns.

Books Reviewed:
Harvesting Color by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts
Dyes from Kitchen Produce by Setsuko Ishii


3 easy ways to listen…

Subscribe in iTunes Episode 170: Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival RSS feed

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REFERENCE-DRAFT

So for the blog,
it’s pretty easy.  This is the code:
 

Stash
blog

?media=blogpost

 
So when you want to link to
something in the blog to our site, you would add the code to the end of the
address.  For instance:
 
This is the website address for
palette:
 
https://www.knitpicks.com/yarns/Palette_Yarn__D5420132.html
 
So then you would add the code to
the end, so it would look like this:
 
https://www.knitpicks.com/yarns/Palette_Yarn__D5420132.html?media=blogpost
 
And that’s
what you would paste in the link box when talking about Palette in a blog
post.
 
 
 
The only odd
thing that would happen is if there is already a
? in the web
address.  For instance:
 
This is the
regular address for the Uptown Chic
eBook
 
https://www.knitpicks.com/cfPatterns/EBook_Display.cfm?id=75019D
 
You can’t have
more than one ? in the web
address, so you’ll change the second one to
&. 

 
So it would
look like this:
 
https://www.knitpicks.com/cfPatterns/EBook_Display.cfm?id=75019D&media=blogpost
 

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Casting On Video Series

It is becoming that time of the year when a lot of seasonal knitters are starting to pick up needles once again and new knitters are tempted to drive right into projects. Which is exactly why we have three new video tutorials to make sure that your projects get started without any problems! This video series is all about different ways of casting on.

Casting on stitches is the very first step in any project – and nothing takes away the excitement for a new project faster than running into somethign new or unfamiliar at the first step of your pattern. Generally, I use the long tail cast on for most of my projects. This is a quick and easy cast on that I find works for a lot of things. However, there are many different cast ons and one of these just might suit your project better than others. Sometimes you need a stretchy cast on, while other times you might need something firmer. Either way, knowing the many different ways of casting on gives you the option of choosing a cast on that best fits your project and its needs.

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