Monthly Archives: February 2013

Podcast Episode 209: Interview with TECHknitter

This week, Kelley chats with TECHknitter about her “chart chart”
technique
and all things lace. Kelley first begins by giving a brief
overview of lace knitting and its components, along with the different
ways that lace patterns can be presented. Kelley goes over both written
and charted directions, before introducing TECHknitter’s “chart
chart” method
, which she first posted about on her blog back in 2007. Learn more about this compelling way to knit lace as TECHknitter chats about the history of lace and charting methods, as well as helpful tips and tricks.

And TECHknitter was kind enough to share some handy visual aids that show the “chart chart” method in action!

An example of a Tabulated Pattern (a proto-chart-chart)

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Billow Photo Contest!

You’ve seen our projects in Billow over the past 2 weeks…now we want to see yours!

We are all very much in love with our Billow projects and want to see what our friends have been doing with our newest yarn.  So we’re having a contest where you can win a $100 Knit Picks gift certificate!

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Foreign Correspondent’s Cowl

I found out a week ago that a wonderful, dear-to-me-friend would be
visiting Seattle this weekend and my first thought was that I definitely
wanted to knit her a little present. However, a week isn’t much time to
whip a present up and I wanted to make sure it was something she would
want to wear in the mild climes of Arizona. So I began trawling through
my magical Ravelry queue and found Lexy Lu’s Foreign Correspondent’s Scarf.
I loved the lace pattern, the simple repeate and the fact that I could
easily turn it into a cowl if I didn’t have time to knit a full scarf.

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First Light Giveaway – The Winners!

Hi folks—first, thanks to everyone that participated in the First Light book giveaway! Congratulations to Doris Kidd, Heather Korb and Sarah Bacik, our randomly selected winners. Here’s are their favorites amongst the First Light patterns:

“Loving the the Tule sweater. Debating what color to do it in . . . So many choices.” – Heather

“I love the Infinity Cardi. I would love to make it this spring.” – Sarah

“I love the Infinity Cardi…intriguing construction always is fun.” – Doris

If you didn’t win this time, never fear: We will continue to do giveaways as often as possible! Have a great Wednesday.

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First Light Giveaway!

Contest is now closed – We’ll be announcing the winners soon!

 

We’re all terrifically excited about First Light here. In fact, it’s a first for us: 14 gorgeous patterns by 12 different designers—all coming together for varied-yet-harmonious collection. You can download individual patterns for $4.99 or score the whole lot in the printed book version for just $19.99. The best part? Each printed book also comes with a free PDF-version of the book—perfect for throwing on your laptop or tablet for on-the-go continued crafting.

But first, try your luck at a contest!

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Jury Duty Pullover

I just can’t get over HOW SOFT THIS YARN IS! I’ve been looking forward
to our very first shipment of our brand new yarn, Billow, since the day
we decided to add it to our lineup for 2013. I love the soft, luscious
color palette, the wonderfully tactile thick-and-thin strand and… did I
mention the color palette?!

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Harmonious colors in Fia

If you’ve been intrigued by the Celtic motifs of the Fia Pullover but aren’t so keen on green, here are a few more suggestions of colors that would work well for this pattern!

Fia
looks best in two colors of the same family: two pinks, two blues, two
greys, and so on. The most important thing to look for is a difference
in value – how different the colors are in brightness. Choose the
‘background’ color first, which in the case of Fia is the darker color.
From there, compare colors in the same family that are a lighter version
(check out the great color descriptions with each one!). Colors that
are only a touch different, like Delta and Whirlpool for instance, won’t
contrast enough with each other to show detail. But if you like Delta,
Sky and Clarity are in the same family and would make a better match.

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The Ultimate Billow Blanket

When our latest yarn Billow first arrived to the office, I was in the same boat as all of my crafty coworkers: completely head-over-heals, need to have it in my life, in love with this yarn. Unfortunately, this caused me great anxiety as I am very much a one-at-a-time project kind of gal – but Billow was just so tempting! Considering I was going to break my “one project” rule for Billow (I have an in progress cowl on the needles), I methodically rummaged through my books and patterns looking for the perfect project.

my ultimate billow blanket, nestled nicely on top of my couch

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