Category Archives: behind the scenes

Fair Isle Tip of the Week with Andrea Lum

Perhaps you've picked out your favorite fair isle knitting pattern now (perhaps it's from our new collection, Creative Color: 2016 Fair Isle Collection ) but you're not in love with the exact colors the pattern uses. How can you go about substituting colors effectively, in fair isle knitting? Andrea Lum talks us through yarn progression and substitution, so you can knit the fair isle garment of your dreams.

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Staff Projects: Neck Adornments

Knit Picks staffers are keeping busy this summer by making adornments for their necks. From beginner projects to advanced, our team is working with color and texture to produce some gorgeous accessories that sure will come in handy when the cooler months come around. Check them out, and maybe you'll cast on for a scarf, cowl, or shawl very soon!

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Knitting in Public

Did you craft in public this past weekend? We held a lovely get together in Colonel Summers Park in Portland, OR. There was free yarn and books, prize baskets, lots of chatting and crafting, and unfortunately, a good amount of rain. Nevermind! We headed under the park's picnic shelter and carried on. No, those aren't our wet socks on the line, but samples from Toasty Toes, all in a row!

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Dispatches from The Beginners

With some recent staff changes here at Knit Picks, we have a number of employees who are new to knitting.  It's fun to check in with them to see how they're progressing. I love to hear about their trials, and how they're completing projects and gaining confidence along the way. You might remember Alexis from the podcast she did a while back on being a newbie. She's been working on a scarf from our Learn to Knit Club Kit, and look how well she's doing! Here are the dispatches from the Knit Picks Beginner Knitters, in their own words.

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Take your child to work day
Take Your Child To Work Day

Featuring Guest Blogger Theodore Fish April 28 was National Take Your Child To Work Day, and we participated here at Knit Picks by inviting my ten year old son Theo to our office for the day. He was very excited to spend the day with us, and we've asked him to write about his experience in today's blog post. Take Your Kid To Work Day ~by Theodore~ This is about my adventure visiting my Mom’s work and office! I got to see all the offices and different jobs that people do there. I got to help out with some of the jobs and did a good job at it. My mom said I was very fast!

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Meet Alexis!

We've made a few changes in the office recently and I'm pleased to introduce you to one of our newest Knit Picks team members, Alexis! For the past year Alexis has been working in our photography department and assisting on all the Knit Picks photo shoots but she's recently moved upstairs to join our Purchasing Team. Now, instead of wrangling lights or photographing endless skeins of yarn, she's placing orders for cool new tools and making sure we have all the great colors of Palette always in and ready to ship. We asked her some quick questions about her crafty background and her experience working here over the last year and a half! Hi Alexis! Just how long have you worked here?

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Staff Projects: Bright and Gradient Color

The KP gang has been busy knitting these days. The staff projects completed lately have been bright and colorful, with a great mix of favorite patterns made in new ways, and new yarns tried out for the first time. Check it out, and maybe you'll get inspired by one of us!

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Meet Your Teacher: Heidi

Meet Heidi: Newlywed, Art Director, and Avid Crocheter. Heidi loves color, and she loves using colorful yarns to crochet blankets for her friends and family. Heidi teaches our online course on our Crochet Beginner Blanket (pattern available for free, here). We thought you'd might like to know a bit more about her, so I asked her some questions, below!

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Learn to Knit Club: Meet Your Teacher, Stacey!

Are you new to knitting, or do you have a friend who's been wanting to learn for a while now? Our new Learn to Knit Kits come in three levels, perfect for beginners of all levels. Each kit contain needles, yarn, a yarn needle, an instruction booklet, and a pin to wear when you've completed your project, all in a handsome box great for storage or giving. We also have tutorials for each of these kits, so any new knitter will be instructed by a Knit Picks staff member, each step of the way. The scarf pattern in our Level 2 kit was written by Stacey, who also teaches the class!

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Back to school with the Knit Picks Team

In celebration of our new (free!) downloadable e-booklet "Back to School Knits", I asked the team here at Knit Picks to bring me their favorite school photos. I love school photos - they're moments that last forever, and don't the clothes you wear in them just bring you right back to that age? Here we are, in all our glory: From the top: Jenny, our Marketing Director in her first school photo living in this country!, Alison, our fearless leader, in her favorite apple dress, Kim, our Design Director, whose freckles are killing me, Holly (that's me!) - Can you tell it was the 80s? I loved Dorothy Hamill and Annie, passionately, Hannah, our Catalog Director - school photos in the Northwest involved flower baskets! and Emily, our Graphic Designer. Those sleeves! Truly, a classic. We all agreed on 2 things: We all look the same now as we did back in the day. There's just something in your features that just never changes. It makes me so intrigued as to what my children will look like when they grow up! Also, whether you grew up in the 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s, the bowl haircut is always in fashion. Always. Do you have any great stories of school photo day? Do tell in comments!

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