How to Make Your Own Starting Points Baby Booties

It seems that every other project of mine lately seems to be yet another baby project! I’ve had everything from baby blankets to tiny sweaters and hats on my needles over the last few months and I find myself constantly on the look out for quick projects that I can whip up. So, it was to my delight when I came across these super-adorable Starting Points Baby Booties! These faux suede booties are not only lined
with a super soft sherpa fleece to keep your little one’s feet toasty
warm, but the cuff on the inside of the booties holds a mesh tape that can
be directly knit or crocheted into – simply brilliant!

If you haven’t seen these before, they are truly the go-to solution for last-minute gifts (especially for all of the baby showers that I have been attending lately). And to show you just how easy-peasy these baby booties are to work up, we’ve create a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to attach the cuffs into the mesh lining and voila, you’ve got a super-cute gift that looks fancy and impressive!

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Congrats to our Holla Knits Winners

It’s great to see so many entires!  We all love Holla Knits & hope you will too!

Our winners:

Winner #1

Teressa!

who wrote: What a fun collection! I love it!

and

Winner #2

Carmen!

who wrote: I loved following along on the blog hop to see the comments everyone makes on the patterns. Thanks for the chance to win!

Congratulations to you both – and good luck to Allyson & the rest of the Holla Knits crew!

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Color in Spinning

You’re spinning? Isn’t it just too much fun?

Once you are confident with your skills, I know you are going to be happy for years as you feel all sorts of fibers slip through your fingers. But, handspinning isn’t just a tactile experience. Color is a whole other world of spinning. I think it is even more fun because it is a way for you to add your own color preferences to spinning.

Color in Spinning by Deb Menz is a large book but Deb’s lessons make working with color completely approachable. The page sizes and quality paper provide a excellent canvas for the large, colorful, detailed photos.

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Introducing Holla Knits – and a contest!

Contest is over!  We’ll announce winners later today!

 

All of us here at the Knit Picks office have been a fan of Allyson Dykhuizen and her blog Sweatshop of Love for quite a while now.  So when she told us of her new project, we were excited to be a part of it.

Holla Knits is a fun new site, dedicated to bringing bold & challenging designs that are sure to tempt you into knitting (and wearing!) right away.  The first collection for Spring/Summer was recently released and includes designs from Allyson, Katie Canavan, Emma Welford, and Lily Ubbelohde – all fantastic up & coming designers.

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Sheep Scrubby Dishcloth

A few months back, several of us made our own dishcloths from a pattern template that Kerin created. We wanted to celebrate the release of Dishie – plus we thought it would be really fun. And it was! We kept them really easy – just knits & purls – and they seemed to be popular with a lot of our customers. Kim went a bit more complex with hers but still wanted to put it out as a free pattern. And now it’s ready!

It’s her Sheep Scrubby Dishcloth!

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Podcast Episode 186: Interview with Allyson Dykhuizen from Holla Knits

This week we bring you another bonus mini-episode of the Knit Picks
podcast! Stacey gets a chance to catch up with designer Allyson
Dykuizen, who began designing under the name “Sweatshop of Love.” After
spending some time teaching and designing, Allyson decided to broaden
her design skills by creating Holla Knits – a collaborative collection
between designers that focuses on a young, fresh, and modern aesthetic.
Hear more about the designers and ideas behind Holla Knits as well as
how Allyson began knitting, transitioned into the world of knitwear
design, and what inspired her to create Holla Knits!
You can find the first Holla Knits collection here:
Holla Knits Spring/Summer 2012 eBook
 
3 easy ways to listen…
Subscribe in iTunes Episode 186: Interview with Allyson Dykhuizen from Holla Knits RSS feed

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A Quick, Green & Leafy Shout Out

Okay, perhaps the term “shout out” has significantly diminished since Carson Daly’s tenure at TRL? Regardless, the Full Circle sale ended on Monday and I wanted to heartily thank everyone for its success!

FullCircleWorsted_Family_WN12

As you’ll recall, for the entire month of April we offered our Full Circle line at a 10% discount, with an additional 10% going to charity in celebration of Earth Day. With your generous help, Knit Picks will be donating over $1,600 directly to the Arbor Day Foundation. Each and every dollar goes a long way toward planting trees, purifying water and generally beautifying and enhancing the planet. It was a true honor to partner with such a great organization and our Full Circle yarn was the perfect, soft, 100% recycled wool accomplice. Thank you all, you’re lovely!

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