Follow along and discover your next inspiration as we cast on for projects we love, explore new techniques, and dish about the latest and greatest from Knit Picks.
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A few weeks back, I talked about the difficulty in choosing a new sweater pattern to work on. I see so many beautiful patterns, it’s hard to make up my mind! But I finally decided to challenge myself and crochet my first sweater:
I went with the Fiji Cardi! I enjoy crochet and this was one of the best sweaters I’ve seen – plus I have some lovely new Chroma to use.
Once you are confident with your skills, I know you are going to be happy for years as you feel all sorts of fibers slip through your fingers. But, handspinning isn’t just a tactile experience. Color is a whole other world of spinning. I think it is even more fun because it is a way for you to add your own color preferences to spinning.
Color in Spinning by Deb Menz is a large book but Deb’s lessons make working with color completely approachable. The page sizes and quality paper provide a excellent canvas for the large, colorful, detailed photos.
Contest is over! We’ll announce winners later today!
All of us here at the Knit Picks office have been a fan of Allyson Dykhuizen and her blog Sweatshop of Love for quite a while now. So when she told us of her new project, we were excited to be a part of it.
Holla Knits is a fun new site, dedicated to bringing bold & challenging designs that are sure to tempt you into knitting (and wearing!) right away. The first collection for Spring/Summer was recently released and includes designs from Allyson, Katie Canavan, Emma Welford, and Lily Ubbelohde – all fantastic up & coming designers.
A few months back, several of us made our own dishcloths from a pattern template that Kerin created. We wanted to celebrate the release of Dishie – plus we thought it would be really fun. And it was! We kept them really easy – just knits & purls – and they seemed to be popular with a lot of our customers. Kim went a bit more complex with hers but still wanted to put it out as a free pattern. And now it’s ready!
This week we bring you another bonus mini-episode of the Knit Picks
podcast! Stacey gets a chance to catch up with designer Allyson
Dykuizen, who began designing under the name “Sweatshop of Love.” After
spending some time teaching and designing, Allyson decided to broaden
her design skills by creating Holla Knits – a collaborative collection
between designers that focuses on a young, fresh, and modern aesthetic.
Hear more about the designers and ideas behind Holla Knits as well as
how Allyson began knitting, transitioned into the world of knitwear
design, and what inspired her to create Holla Knits!
You can find the first Holla Knits collection here:
Holla Knits Spring/Summer 2012 eBook
Okay, perhaps the term “shout out” has significantly diminished since Carson Daly’s tenure at TRL? Regardless, the Full Circle sale ended on Monday and I wanted to heartily thank everyone for its success!
As you’ll recall, for the entire month of April we offered our Full Circle line at a 10% discount, with an additional 10% going to charity in celebration of Earth Day. With your generous help, Knit Picks will be donating over $1,600 directly to the Arbor Day Foundation. Each and every dollar goes a long way toward planting trees, purifying water and generally beautifying and enhancing the planet. It was a true honor to partner with such a great organization and our Full Circle yarn was the perfect, soft, 100% recycled wool accomplice. Thank you all, you’re lovely!
Buttonholes seem like the simplest of closures but you will want to take careful consideration of the size of your buttons relative to the size of your garment as well as the function of the button (is it decorative or utilitarian?). To help make this potentially tricky process a bit easier, we have created a guide to three different buttonhole styles – including the one row buttonhole, two row buttonhole, as well as a buttonhole for ribbing.
Usually shank buttons are best for knitted garments since the button shank gives more vertical clearance for the thickness of the knit fabric. If you are using a flat button, you may want to create a shank by wrapping thread or yarn around the stitches that attach the button to the fabric. Wrap the stitches between the button and the fabric, then secure the thread or yarn with a knot at the back side of the fabric.