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by Knit Picks Staff on May 25, 2010
Just like we wish that peace on earth wasn’t only on Dec 25, we’ve decided to extend “Earth Day” to at least an “Earth Week.” Katie made these awesome rear view mirror hang tags and/or a placard for your dashboard to help you remember your reusable grocery bags. By the way, that’s the first time I’ve ever used the word “placard” did I do it correctly? I went digging through those dark, sad recesses of the cabinets around the printer and found a bunch of abandoned file folders. I literally had to wipe the dust off of them. I cut one side of the folder to 8 1/2 x 11 and stuffed it in the printer. It worked! Then, since I work for a knitting company, I threaded a tapestry needle with yarn and stuck it through the top and Viola, hang tag! I’ll keep ... |
Category Archives: Inspiration
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 25, 2010
I’m pretty confident that I’m not the only knitter who’s been eagerly anticipating the release of this yarn! It combines so many of my favorite fiber-y things: tweed, deep, dimensional heathered colors, and a wool-alpaca blend! So you can probably understand why I was so hot to start a project with it RIGHT AWAY. Those colors above are the ones I’m working with, in the Heavy-Worsted weight. My first order of business was to swatch, which I did with Snowshoe, the lightest color, so I;d be able to see the stitches clearly. Here’s what my swatch looked like: The larger section was knit on US 7 needles, the smaller on on US 6. I had to go down to size 6 needles to get my gauge (I’m a loose knitter) and before blocking, the fabric felt a bit stiff, ... |
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 25, 2010
Our grand prize winner of the POW! contest is Kate Palmateer. Kate wins a copy of Handknit Heroes and 7 skeins of Wool of the Andes in the color of her choice. The two runners up who will each receive a copy of Handknit Heroes are Marta and Darlene M. Thompson. Congratulations!!!! All three winners have been notified by private message. And thanks to everyone who entered, reading about your superhero powers was really fun! < |
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 25, 2010
My SO is a volunteer coordinator at his office and they like to volunteer in the community every few weeks at least. For Earth Day, I *strongly hinted* that perhaps helping out our favorite local park would be the best way to go. So, last Saturday morning, we put on our gloves, grabbed our clippers and joined up with his coworkers at Tryon Creek State Park to pull ivy! English Ivy, while pretty, is an invasive species here. If left unchecked, it would kill every plant and tree in these amazing forests. Over the past 12 years, volunteers have cleared 180 acres of ivy from Tryon Creek – one quarter of the park. And oh, what a difference! It takes a long time to clear, but for me, giving a few hours’ hard labor is a small price to pay for keeping our favorite park healthy. |
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by Alison on May 25, 2010
Since Earth Day is coming up, this week we’ll be featuring some Reduce/Reuse/Recycle tips on the Knitting Community. Here’s a video tutorial on how to recycle old, worn-out t-shirts into soft cotton ribbon yarn. All you need is a t-shirt that’s been through the laundry recently and a sharp pair of scissors. I’ve been thinking about making a bulky mat for the laundry area in our garage. I’ve been looking at patterns like Absorba (Ravelry link) from Mason Dixon Knitting. The sample swatch in the video was knitting up at about 3 stitches to the inch in garter stitch, which would work perfectly for the pattern and also let me put all of Dan’s ancient grubby white t-shirts to good use! I also think this could be a good project for teaching a beginning knitter, since the t-shirt yarn is bulky and you remove the whole “Oh, but I’m not good at ... |
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 25, 2010
This is the OpArt Baby Blanket from Fall 2008 Knitty. I immediately fell in love with it because not only is it not overly baby it appeals to the graphic design side of me. At the time I wasn’t pregnant but knew that was part of the upcoming plans so I kept it in the back of my mind. So when we did get pregnant and we finally found out it was going to be a boy, I knew this was the perfect blanket and seeing as my husband is a huge GA Bulldog fan I was able to make him happy by picking red and white, still high contrast and kind of like a candy. Anyway, the original pattern was knit up in Swish DK but being that this is a July baby and I know I won’t block it everytime ... |
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 25, 2010
Note: If you’re just in it to win it, scroll down and read the bold print. I think it’s something that’s happened to every knitter. You put hours into knitting a present for someone- picking the right yarn, finding the perfect pattern, knitting, ripping back, knitting again (maybe that’s just me). In the end, you think you have the most perfect gift ever created. You just know they are going to LOVE it. And then they open it… and….nothing. No squeals of delight. No bear hugs of appreciation. All you get is, an “oh gee, thanks” and then the knitted item you toiled over ends up in a drawer or the bottom of a closet. Despite the heartbreak, some of us just can’t seem to stop ourselves. We feel compelled to knit things to give away. The staff here at Knit Picks feels your pain, and ... |
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by Alison on May 25, 2010
Two weeks ago, Angela and I both saw the new craft documentary “Handmade Nation” at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in downtown Portland, OR. The movie explored the lives of indie crafters and the DIY movement, and there were tons of crafty-folk in attendance. They had a kiosk set up for people to take pictures of themselves showing off their handmade goods, and they later published all those photos to a Flickr stream. That’s me! I had a two-fer, since I was wearing my Tempest sweater and a scarf I made out of my handspun (Ravelry link). The lighting isn’t the greatest, but I’m just tickled that they posted photographic proof of my attendance. There’s Angela! Her lighting’s much better, so you can see her linen-stitch scarf (Ravelry link) in Imagination. If you’d like to see more crafters sharing their projects, ... |
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by Kelley on May 25, 2010
I had a lovely chat with Cookie that will be my podcast on April 29th. To prepare for the interview I carefully read through Sock Innovation and it is such a fantastic contribution to the knitting world. Just looking at the photos of Cookie’s intricate socks can be intimidating. I know because that was exactly my reaction. “Why in the world would I knit socks with that much textural detail?” Well, I read Cookie’s book and did a complete 180! Then I talked with her for the podcast and I’ve not only decided to join the Sock Innovation Knit-A-Long but I am going to knit the Lindsay socks with Gloss Parsley using Harmony DPNs. I love the beauty of the Harmony needles and I don’t think I want to have two of Cookie’s socks on a Magic Loop at the same time. A bit too mind-boggling since her designs often mirror each ... |
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 25, 2010
The UFO KAL has been an inspiration to me… I had started a pair of socks a couple of years ago (well that’s how long it’s been since KP has sold the yarn!)… it was very sad, laying in a forgotten bag, the needles stripped (two circs) from it… the color was Memories “Easter”… The name inspired a deadline–get it done by Easter! I finished knitting them using the magic loop method (I used Options fixed circulars in 40″ size 2) and I’m excited to say, I met my deadline! they were done last night and I’m sporting them today!!! I got the pattern from “More Sensation Knitted Socks” by Charlene Schurch. and I’ve got them pictured on the new sock blockers tool from Knit Picks… I’m so inspired by finishing this project that I’m contemplating a knit-a-long from the book “Knitting Goes Large” by ... |
