Category Archives: Yarn

The Lonely Tree Shawl

One of the projects on my "someday" list has been a worsted weight shawl. I've always wanted to have a a touch of Kirsten Larson and Laura Ingalls in my life... even if the weather isn't always quite right and I'm not about to be tossing one over my shoulders before I head out to milk some sassy milk cows in the dead of winter. At least not any time soon. Sylvia Bo Bilvia's Lonely Tree Shawl has been in my Ravelry queue forever, just waiting for the perfect yarn to cast on with.

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Say “HI!” to the New Stroll Tweed

Check out our new Stroll Tweed yarn! Once, a few years ago we had a yarn with the same name, however we've gone back to the drawing board when it came to the tweed nepps since then and I'm delighted to show you what we've come up with! I love the rich color palette we've chosen and the new natural-colored flecks. I love using the Stroll family for washable fingering weight projects (especially baby sweaters!) and Stroll Tweed. The minute we opened the box of our photography samples I grabbed a bag of the Indigo Heather (the prettiest purple-blue I've EVER seen!) and got to work picking out a pattern.

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Something old, something new

When I went back to visit family on the east coast a few months ago, I had the opportunity to grab some hand-me-downs from my granny's house. I was able to go back in time and send myself an entire box of my great-grandmother's linens! What amazes and inspires me about the treasure trove of table dressings I now possess is not just the quality of the work, but the quality of the care shown by my great grandmother and my granny over the last 75-100 years.

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A statement blanket

As you may have noticed in my last crochet post, I'm hard at work on another monstrous crochet project. I've taken a break from the wee stitches of doilies and settled in with some repetitive Circled Squares in Chroma! Finny isn't the only one who is rather smitten with this afghan-in-progress. My other little guy has been seeking out any part of it - loose squares and all - to nestle in to. But most of the time it's draped across the couch - I'm already using it, even though it's not even halfway assembled yet!

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Crochet Week: Curio Luminarie Cozy and Hanging Planter Pattern

I'm pretty sure that I just took my crochet skills to a whole new level this past launch when I released my very first pattern (the Luminarie Cozy and Hanging Planter Pattern) as part of Knit Picks, for free! I can't tell you how excited I am to share what I've been tinkering with since we got our first samples of our new Curio crochet thread in the office.

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Falling in love with thread crochet

To understand the doily, you must make the doily.I really get this now. As a kid and even into adulthood, my brother and I would use 'doily' as a way to denote that something was old fashioned or fuddy-duddy. (e.g: "geez, dad, why don't you put those vinyl records with your doilies?") But then along came Curio, and everything changed. Since beginning my crochet quest earlier this year, I've really come to love the intricate patterns in fine gauge crochet items like doilies and trims. Not that I didn't find them beautiful before, but being able to really see the work in them was a new experience. With Curio gleaming like a new day on my desk, I couldn't help it. I looked for some free vintage doily patterns, and started wading through my first attempt.

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Palette Galore!

I think that by now, we're all pretty familiar with the gorgeous shot of the Palette family that's been in the catalog and on web since September of last year. I know it particularly well because Kerin and I are the ones who sat down and sorted each ball into the lovely color order that you see here and I'm the one who sat down AGAIN and resorted it after the photography department was done with it in order to label each ball correctly in catalog. I can't tell you how long this took, only that I'm getting pretty good at spotting the differences between Thicket and Briar Heather!

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New Brava colors!

Brava!  What better name could this luscious yarn be called but Brava! It's a standing ovation in the acrylic yarn world. Now we have added 8 new colors to the Brava Worsted Weight yarn line!  I personally love the pastels!

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Two New Stroll Hand Painted Colors!

One of my favorite parts of my job here at Knit Picks is picking new colorways for Imagination and Stroll Hand Painted. It's always fun to make twenty or so different colorways pulled from some of my favorite photographs, natural formations or time periods. Then we all get together and cull the herd of possible yarns down to two, three or however many we need to round out the existing yarn line. We only needed two new faces for Stroll Hand Painted this time and I'm really pleased with what we decided upon!

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Coming Full Circle with a free pattern!

Have you seen the awesome sale on Full Circle yarns and fiber? This is your last chance to get it before it’s gone for good! When it first came in, I snagged some Full Circle Bulky. I love the way the colors worked together, and recently I knit up a super warm, super chunky cowl using 7 colors. It only took me about an evening and a half to make the cowl, and it used up little leftover bits of each color – it’s really a great way to use leftover bits of any bulky weight yarn! So, I wrote up the pattern for you, and it’s available free from our site. There are also four-color and two-color versions listed in the pattern, with approximate yardages needed for each color. Bulky yarn is so difficult to stash-bust because there really aren’t too many uses for ...

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