Category Archives: Inspiration

New Tutorials Page

Hi Everyone! We have been working on improving our tutorials, reorganizing them in a logical way, making them easy to search and navigate, and adding more content. Now if you click on the tutorial tab in the Knitting Community, you will be redirected to the new tutorial site. Here is a link. We now have over 100 tutorials, and I have tried to curate them so you can find exactly what you need in categories. Just starting out? Check out the Beginner category, which will show you all of the techniques that you need to get started, without overwhelming you with more specialized or advanced techniques that you don’t need quite yet. Or if you are working on a specific project, like your first sweater or hat, click on the Projects category and you will find all tutorials you need that are related to that specific project. Working on ...

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Crafty Vacation

I went home to Northern California for Christmas, and although I’ve been back for a week, I haven’t had a chance to blog about it until now! While in Northern California, I took a day trip to San Francisco to visit friends from college and to check out some art museums. I know that there is quite a bit of debate within the knitting community about what is art and what is craft and whether knitting should be recognized as an art. Still, I kept seeing folk art and traditional crafts in art museums all over and over again! I thought that you might be interested in what I saw. I started out in Berkeley, and literally stumbled upon Lacis Museum of Lace and Textile by accident. This place is an amazing resource for all things lace. Knitted, crocheted, tatted, bobbin, woven…they were all represented at Lacis. There were antique lace ...

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Movies to rip by

I was chatting with a friend yesterday and she had discovered a mistake in the ribbing of her current project. I loved her solution to this knitting disaster. As she said, “You can’t really go back and fix ribbing easily. So, I slipped my Julie/Julia DVD into the machine and laughed my way through 10 inches of ribbing ripping!” That got me thinking. When I had to rip out my Shiver Scarf, I chose to wait until we were out to dinner with friends so it wouldn’t hurt so much. Then I starting wondering which movies I would watch while ripping. I know the actual ripping doesn’t take long but I am including getting started again so that you have your project back on track. As much as I admired my friend’s choice to laugh as she ripped, I have to admit that sometimes I could do with a good cry. It may ...

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Comfort Through Color

You know what I find myself wanting most at this time of year, when the grey Northwestern winter feels like it will never end? Color! This is the New Traditions Afghan, which I designed hoping to soothe the post-holiday winter blues. At this time of year, I always need a little bit of extra cheerfulness and a shot of color is a surefire way to provide that! The geometric blocks themselves, which borrow their star motifs from traditional quilt blocks, are bright and colorful, while the borders between them are worked log- cabin style (which is another quilting technique that has long been used by knitters–or did quilters borrow it from us??) in a neutral palette. I loved designing a piece that owes debts to two different craft traditions, and I loved that I got to use my math background in working out the geometry of the quilt blocks! ...

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I’m back from lace purgatory

I finished it. If I wasn’t making it for my mom I would have never finished it. It was great travel knitting. It went with me to Austria, Germany, Italy, Yellowstone for New Years, and lots and lots of meetings at work. The pattern is the Shoulder Shawl out of Victorian Lace Today. I used Shimmer Lace Weight Yarn in Sherry . It has several errors. I had to fix no less than 5 dropped stitches once it was done. Luckily the hand dyed color hides errors and Alison helped me block it which really brought out its beauty. I’m happy I finished it, but I can’t promise you’ll ever see me work with lace weight yarn again. I’m the one that likes to double strand WOTA Bulky. Now where did I leave that Twinkle book and my size 17 needles… ...

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Toys Toys Toys!

I don’t think anyone who’s seen me posting on here will be shocked that I started the Toy KAL (have you joined yet? Join & show Angela & me some new toy patterns to squee over). I love making toys – funny I guess because I pretty much only make them for myself, usually to guard my desk. I’ve blogged about my office buddies before. Now there’s a new one to add to that group I haven’t thought of a name for him yet – any suggestions? In any case, I used the new Wiener Dog pattern by Cheezombie from our new Independent Designer Program. In fact, I have the original sample here too: The Original Wiener Dog is only visiting for a bit longer, then he goes home to cheezombie. I’ll miss him but at least I got my new guy to watch over things. Also, I’m ...

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New Kits and Designer Interviews!

Your January catalog is just about to arrive in your mailbox, but here is a sneak preview of what is inside! We have 6 new kits, and since this is the colorwork themed catalog, these kits feature a lot of interesting techniques to incorporate color into your knitting projects. Working at the Knit Picks office, I get to hear about all of the interesting details and construction techniques that Kerin and Nina integrate into their designs, that aren’t apparent at first glance. We have created designer interviews so you can get a better look at the kits and hear about their design process. Land and Sea Play Set Heath Vest Fancy Feet Anklets Roxy Fox Lusekofte Sweater New Traditions Afghan <

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Independent Designer Program

Have you seen our new pattern program yet? I am so excited to be working on this – we have received so many awesome designs that my knitting queue grows longer day by day – something that was never a problem before but now is getting a bit out of control! Here are a couple of patterns I’m dying to knit RIGHT NOW: Pink Pigtails (and Armwarmers Too!) by Toni Carr Miss Marple by Star Athena Aspen Mittens by Jennifer Adams I wish I could knit them all, to be honest. Unsurprisingly, I’ve already started the Wiener Dog – my poor blind & deaf puppy is sitting here on my desk, waiting for some eyeballs & ears. Best part of this program (other than having super awesome patterns for only $1.99) is the fact the designer keeps 100% of the sales ...

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Heaps and Heaps of Color!

It’s our color work catalog, and to say we’ve made this one a doozie would be an understatement. Get your color fix with bold brights soaked with every luscious hue imaginable—Kristin Nicholas’s book helped us out there. But we also know color doesn’t have to mean rock ‘em sock ‘em craziness, so we’ve put together a soft romantic section as well. And finally be sure to check out the cutie overload in the woodlands section, fun animals, adorable kids projects (and the male model isn’t half bad).This was really a fun catalog to make, we hope you enjoy the preview and look for the real thing in your mailboxes soon. <

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