Our trio of new Knit Picks mugs are here and I’m so thrilled with how they turned out! It was a long process to turn them from ideas and sketches into actual objects but ultimately very satisfying. Turns out it’s really cool to drink coffee out of a mug you had a hand in designing, who knew? And it’s always awesome to add some crafty love to everyday objects. I wanted to give you all a little peek into our process for designing these mugs.

When Alison, Heidi and I started discussing this project,  we knew right away we wanted to do several mugs, each with a different design, one cute, one design-y, and one with our Handmade is Love logo.

Heidi, whose ability to draw adorable animals is rivaled only by her love of kombucha, sketched the most endearing scene of two friends knitting and sharing their love of yarn. I love the delicate lines and the little details, like the steaming cup of tea and the small mouse who’s sweating as she’s valiantly trying to hold that yarn ball high.

For the design-y mug, I was inspired by all of the charts I see on a regular basis. Often the symbols form a really beautiful pattern, as they’re elegant and minimal. I knew that if the grid wasn’t there a chart would read as an attractive pattern to the average non-knitter, but a knitter would know the secret language behind these symbols and pick up on the hidden meaning. I chose YO, k2tog, purl, and ssk symbols as they’re classic and there’s a lot of contrast between the static circles and the dynamic diagonal lines.

Handmade is Love is of course our guiding philosophy here at Knit Picks, so we just had to highlight it on a mug. I originally had it in red on a white background, similar to the tote, but ultimately felt that a white logo on a soft blue background was more intriguing. It’s also different from the other two mugs, which do have white backgrounds. As for the shape of the mugs, we just wanted a classic 12 oz mug with straight sides to really put the focus on the artwork.

Now that we have these great mugs, I’m really looking forward to curling up with some Earl Grey tea and a warm, woolly project while the rain comes down outside. What about you- what’s your favorite hot beverage to drink while crafting?