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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I have been so happy the past few weeks – one of my favorite designers, Toni Carr, released her new book – Knits for Nerds!
I’ve known about this book for awhile & have been so very excited. See, I’m a nerd so this hits me right at the sweet spot.
Read more »Several of us in the office have eReaders and lament when they get scratched or banged up from putting them in our bags. If that’s the case with you, check out our Freebie Friday pattern this week!
This is Cozy Fire – a new pattern by Danna Rachel Cauthern! Designed to use on your Kindle Fire or Kindle 2 or 3, this cute little case will keep your eReader nice & safe!
Read more »I’m now three weeks into the knitting of hubby’s new sweater. That’s
about the longest I can usually pay attention to a project – but I’m
only through the sleeves!
I think this proves a couple of rules of knitting for other people.
1: Don’t underestimate how long things take to knit, and 2: If you let
the recipient pick the pattern, be prepared to face the consequences!
I did some pre-searching through all of my pattern books and found
several all-over cable designs that were nice and rhythmic and easy to
memorize. I presented these to my hubby, and his reaction was pretty
dry. So I let him look through my books, and he picked quite possibly
the most difficult cable pattern he could have! It’s the Baroque Cable
from Barbara Walker’s third treasury.
The long tail cast on is probably my favorite go-to cast on. I love the rhythm of it, how quickly my stitches appear on the needles, and how it has a bit of stretch to it while still being sturdy. I also find that when I use the long tail cast on, my next row is always very easy to knit. It is also the cast on I primarily use for most of my projects, unless the pattern specifically states otherwise (and even then, there have been times I turned to my trusty friend – the long tail cast on).
Having had such a good relationship with the long tail cast on, I was shocked when I learned that it wasn’t always the go-to choice for other knitters. Some mentioned it was too finicky, that it looked confusing, or just that it seemed like too many steps for a simple cast on. And being such a big supporter of the long tail cast on, I couldn’t resist making this video tutorial all about the long tail cast on – filled with step-by-step instructions as well as a few tips and tricks.
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I have had Sara E. Kellner’s Vintage Rabbit pattern in my Ravelry queue for ages while I waited to have enough of just the right color yarn for it. So, when I discovered a mini stash of Wool of the Andes Worsted tucked away in a basket: two balls of Painted Desert and one ball of Oyster Heather I already had the perfect project in mind!
Read more »With Spring fast approaching, it’s almost time to start putting away
the woolen sweaters and coats. But you’ll still need something to keep
the chilly air at bay! How about the cheerful new Lilypad Shawl kit?
This shawl features a bold design of lily pads and flowers on a pond.
The lilies are worked in intarsia, and their simple shapes and coloring
are good for someone new to the technique. (If you need some pointers
on Intarsia, check out this video tutorial!) 
The best way to create extra special projects is to use a yarn that is equally extra special! And knowing the different properties of luxury fibers will help you to make the very most of out of every stitch. No matter if you are looking to make a luxurious sweater for a friend or family member or perhaps you simply want to indulge in a one-skein wonder, you’ll find a variety of luxury fibers that are sure to suit your project.
This project has been a long time in the making! I dyed my fiber last year using Greener Shades dyes, then spun it into four different 250g skeins of bulky weight 2-ply, and now I’ve finally transformed it all into a finished object.
When I’m stash busting or using up unlabeled yarn, I tend to create my own patterns that are a) extremely basic and b) allow me to change plans mid-stream in order to work around yarn shortages. For this project, I decided to do a basic crochet ripple afghan – I wanted something soothing that let me really enjoy the texture and colors of my handspun without concentrating on a difficult stitch pattern. I also planned on creating stripes of varying widths so that I had more options for using up the majority of my yarn.
Read more »Did you notice something new about our new kits this month?
We now have kits featuring patterns from our favorite IDP designers! We are so excited to introduce this to you – you get the pattern & the yarn together for a discount and the designer still gets 100% of the pattern sales.
Read more »Are you as happy as I am it’s Friday? Well this week’s Freebie Friday pattern is a great pattern by Nadya Stalling – her Slavic Star Hand Bag
