Category Archives: Inspiration

Harry Potter House colors

I have to admit that I’m not the hugest Harry Potter fan in my family. My dad and my sister have both read all of the books, and I’ve only read, um, 2 chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. BUT I have seen all the movies. Since my dad is such a big fan, I’m thinking of knitting him something from Charmed Knits for either Christmas or his birthday in March (his birthday is looking likelier and likelier as Christmas gets closer and closer!) Picking colors for a lot of the projects in the book is pretty easy since Alison Hansel used lots of Knit Picks yarns, but since we’ve introduced some new colors, I’ve been thinking a bit about which yarns I’d actually choose. This post on Ravelry was the final push I needed to compile a list of all the ...

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My Friday

One of my favorite tasks here at work is to proof the podcast every Friday. It’s half an hour of knitting/listening enjoyment. I bring a small knitting project to work with me every day to be on hand for meetings, lunch, etc. My current “mindless” project is the Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery, originally published on knitty.com. I’m knitting this one in Essential for my sister-in-law for Christmas. The Essential yarn is soooo soft, it will feel so cozy on her neck and will keep her warm without being too bulky. And what is Kelley’s podcast topic this week? Hat and scarf knitting, especially for stash busting and gift giving. Serendipity! (I listen to the podcast on RealPlayer here in the office. I don’t know why, but this funny dancing sheep is the visual that RealPlayer runs along with the audio.) ...

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Prayer Shawl is on its way

I am astounded at how quickly this shawl knit up and how happy I am with the results. It feels light as a cobweb and is a perfect size. Long enough to wrap generously around my friend’s shoulders. It is also narrow to fit on a hospital bed. The blocking went quickly with the use of blocking wires. I had thought about wetting it at the office but I love the smell of Kookaburra wash so much that I soaked the shawl at home while Bob finished his breakfast. I wrapped the shawl in a towel, let the bundle spin around on the spin cycle of the washing machine and tossed it into the back of my car. By the time I had it blocked out, it was practically dry. I used my plant mister to dampen it to set the pattern.

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Knitting a Guitar?

This DVD cover certainly captured my knitter’s imagination! If you go to the Young at Heart site, you can watch the trailer. And, the best part is watching the knitting needles working in the very beginning. I’ve put this movie on the top of list in NetFlix! <

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Border Help?

So, I am working through my lace yarn stash. I’m sorry I keep showing you all discontinued colors in my projects. About a year ago, when we put the discontinued lace yarn colors on sale, I bought a TON (while, not quite literally, but enough to keep me knitting for a long while, obviously). On the upside, this enabled us to bring in lots of new, delicious colors of lace yarn for your enjoyment! I absolutely love the shape of the Curved Shawl from Victorian Lace Today. It’s the only shawl I’ve ever worn that actually stays in place during the day. I knew my hand-dyed yarn was a little busy for a lace pattern, so I decided to make a shawl in simple garter stitch, but with the curved shawl shaping. I’m going to use two hanks for the body of the shawl and ...

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Baby boom

Lately it seems like all I’ve knit are baby gifts. Since we launched Comfy this Spring I’ve made two baby sweaters from it, and while I’m sick of baby sweaters, I must say that I still love the yarn! I knit this Pea Pod Baby Sweater (an Interweave Knits pattern) for a friend’s newborn baby boy in Comfy Honeydew. I couldn’t resist going with the light green of the original pattern. I love the little details of the pattern, like the leaf accents in the edge ribbing, though I suspect that the sleeves are too long for a baby. I started the pattern when I was home sick, which is never a good idea and resulted in several froggings until getting it right. I must say the Comfy held up like a champ.

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Aarggh! Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

All of us here at Knit Picks, including Sheldon, would like to wish you and yours a very happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day, mateys. In honor of this auspicious holiday, we’re giving you a sneak peek at one of the new upcoming colorways of Imagination– Pirate King. We hope you like it, it will be available in late February. If any of you land lubbers try to steal it before then, we’ll have to make you walk the plank! Buccaneer Humboldt got in on the fun sporting a Kettle Dye eye patch and a stitch marker earring and protecting his booty of blueberry crumble bread. How are you going to celebrate? Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum? ...

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What do Pirates knit with?

YARRRN!! Fer scurvy knittin’ pirates like meself, every day is Talk Like a Pirate Day! But for the rest of ye, September 19th is the day. As for me, I’ll be sailing off in me good ship this weekend to knit with me newest booty. That is, if I can get it back from the Dread Pirate Sheldon! (and yes, that’s really my license plate!) <

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Prayer Shawl Comfort

What can you do when you live clear across an entire continent when a friend calls and tells you that she has breast cancer? Thankfully I was able to walk down to our Knit Picks yarn stash and find 10 balls of Suri Dream in Gloxinia – the perfect color. The Prayer Shawl Ministry was started by Janet Bristow and Victoria Galo in 1998. Susan Izard and Susan Jorgensen published Knitting Into The Mystery which is an excellent introduction into the rituals of prayer shawl knitting. A very good introduction into the process and a good reference for starting prayer shawl ministries. But, there was really only one pattern so it was a bit limited in terms of yarns that would look good with that pattern. Then Janet and Victoria used their years of Prayer Shawl experiences to write The ...

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Behind the scenes of a photoshoot

Last week I had a day out of the office shooting a sweater for an upcoming magazine ad. I love location shoots–they’re a lot of hard work, but the results are worth it. Plus, it’s nice to get out of the normal office routine. This shoot was especially fun because I was going for a bit of a retro look, and we had the perfect model and location to pull it off. The model, Jenny, is a software marketer by day and one of Angela’s roller derby teammates by night (derby name of Vixen). Jenny has the retro style I was wanting, so I asked if she would be a model for us. She also agreed to let us photograph her in her natural setting: her very cool condo and her car that was her grandfather’s. Above you can see Jenny in the distance during ...

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