Monthly Archives: January 2011

Some flowers for mom – and you!

I was walzing through a yarn shop a few months ago, and I called my
mom to ask if there was anything I hadn’t knit for her yet. She reminded
me of the tams we used to wear all the time (I say ‘we’ but I really
mean ‘they were hers and I destroyed them’) and how she wished she had
one again. It had been a looooong time since she’d seen one in a store.
So, I said, “I’ll see what I can do.” I picked up some yarn and got to
thinking.

My mom’s favorite garden flowers are impatiens. So, I figured an
impatien-like design would be nice. Leaves make a pretty good crown –
yeah, that’ll work. And a few days later, I brought the result into the
office:

Immediately, I was descended upon by Chroma-bearing coworkers saying “THIS MUST BE A PATTERN!”

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Kromski Spinning Wheels

The Kromski family has been making spinning wheels for more than 100 years. In their local cultural museum, you can find a spinning wheel made by Daniel Kromski’s grandfather. It’s no surprise that Kromski wheels are not only well engineered but they have several designs to suit any style preference. Ranging from simple modern to wood-turned embellished, you will find a wheel worthy of the investment of money and creative energy.

There is a Kromski Spinning Wheel Owners group on Ravelry that is bursting with information on each Kromski from spinners who use and love them. Where better to get advice on which wheel to buy?


The Fantasia is the newest in the Kromski collection. Yes, thoroughly modern in every aspect, but the concept and design are obviously Kromski.

 

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Spindling my yarns

Our Knit Picks Drop Spindle is an affordable introduction to drop spindling. Notice how I didn’t say, ‘introduction to spinning’. Thanks to Abby Franquemont’s book, Respect the Spindle,
drop spindling is no longer considered to be a ‘training exercise’ or
‘a first step towards real spinning on a spinning wheel’. More about
spinning wheels later. 

After you become comfortable spinning
yarn with your first drop spindle, you will want to collect more
spindles. Abby explains that there are practical, as well as esthetic,
reasons for expanding your spindle collection. Between the two, I can
justify nearly any spindle purchase.

Practical reasons usually
involve your wanting to spin different weights of yarns. My Golding is
perfect for DK/Worsted weight yarn. But, if I want to spin anything
lighter, I definitely need to use a smaller spindle.

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TNNA wrap up

Angela and I went to the TNNA winter show in Long Beach, CA last week. It was a little different for us than other shows we’ve attended – this time, instead of just walking the floor as a retailer, we were exhibiting as wholesalers! We’ve just started selling our needles to local yarn stores, and it’s possible that they’re already at a shop near you. Alisha made this initial list of LYSs that carry Knit Picks needles, and we’re adding new stores faster than we can udpate the list!

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Introducing Jenny!

I wanted to introduce you to the newest member of the Knit Picks team, Jenny!  Jenny’s our new Education Coordinator, and she’ll be writing tutorials, managing the podcast schedule, and creating new videos for techniques and virtual classes.  She’s already hard at work on podcast episode 151, and it should air this Thursday, January 20th.
 

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I’m knitting a hat…

Some of you may have seen the video of me getting a seed stitch
lesson from Kerin during our lunch break last week.  In the video, I was
working on what ultimately became a long swatch of different stitch
types.  After realizing that my swatch was never going to be a scarf
that anyone would want to wear, I decided to try knitting a hat.  On
Friday night, I sat down with my 16″ circulars and a ball of yarn and
had my entire 2″ band done before I noticed the part in the pattern that
says “be careful not to twist your ring of stitches.”  Oops.  At this
point, my entire row had been twisted and turned close to 50 times and
the whole thing looked like a hot mess.  After getting confirmation from
my mom over the weekend that there was no salvaging my work, I decided
to start over. 

Now I’m curious: what are some of the trials and
tribulations that you all have run into?  Being such the beginner that I
am, I could really use some tips from people who have knit up a few
hats in their day.  What specific things should one look out for?  Do
you have any (really easy) pattern suggestions?  I’d love to hear any
advice that you have.  Thanks in advance for your help!

-Alisha

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Winners of the Dangerous Contest!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this giveaway!  We had some
really fun comments and we always love reading all of them. 
Unfortunately, we were only able to pick three winners.  To make our selections, we used a random number generator that chose our winners based on the number of their comment. 

Our winners!

#29 – Katherine R. from Knightdale, NC

#209 – Kris G. from Baltimore, MD

#384 – Sarah B. from Bountiful, UT

Our winners have each been sent an email and as soon as we hear back from
them, we will ship them their prize. Hopefully Katherine, Kris and Sarah
will make some really cute monsters and share pictures with us.  If
they do, we will be sure to post them!  Thanks again everyone!

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Dangerous Contest

This contest is now closed.  Thank you so much to everyone who participated!  To find out who won, click here.

Why is this Dangerous?  Because if you win this book you will be overloaded with cuteness!

If you are a regular reader of the blog, you know that I love Rebecca Danger‘s creatures (and anyone who sees my desk can confrim it).  So I am so excited for her book, The Big Book Of Knitted Monsters – it’s full of 20 awesome monster pattterns!

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