Follow along and discover your next inspiration as we cast on for projects we love, explore new techniques, and dish about the latest and greatest from Knit Picks.
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I have inched up to SpillyJane’s Cupcake Mittens like they were a wild tiger. I fell in love with the design, bought the pattern and even chatted with SpillyJane on one of my podcasts. Of course, while we were still in Mexico, I didn’t easily have access to Palette yarns. I decided that I could wait until I could try making a raid on our office yarn stash.
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So, as I’ve mentioned before that I have an incredible amount of lace weight yarn just lurking around in the shadows of my yarn stash. Everyone else in the office seems to have learned their lesson (aka that they just won’t ever get around to knitting with lace weight yarn) so they steer well clear of it whenever a stray skein winds up in the office. I, on the other hand am more than happy to snap each and every one of them up and take them home with me. Well… almost anything, and by anything I mean just the blues!
This means that I’m always prowling Ravelry, our own pattern section and all the available books in the office for lace weight patterns. ANYTHING to put this lovely, light yarn to good use. Eventually I found A. Westbrook’s free crochet Lacy Feather and Fan pattern on Ravelry. I loved how open the pattern was, the simple two-row repeat and that I could really easily turn this into a cowl. SOLD!
Read more »Michelle Miller has been part of the IDP program from the very beginning – her Knitting Project Bag has been one of our most popular patterns! I’ve known Michelle for several years now and last summer we discussed doing a collection of her beautiful lace work. She came up with a gorgeous proposal and the result is the stunning Ballerinas in Pink collection!
Michelle was inspired by the artist Degas’s series of impressionistic paintings from the turn of the century. (see some of the artwork here). Using a similar color palette, all of Michelle’s designers are stunningly beautiful and a wonderful addition to any lace lover’s pattern collection.
Read more »Light and airy lace – the epitome of summer knitting! Although it can look intimidating, the basics of lace lie in the added yarn overs to create an open fabric. Throughout the main body of the lace pattern, you’ll often find these extra increases paired with decreases in order to keep the stitch count the same. However, yarn overs can also be used to create the shaping found in shawls.
If you have dabbled in lace or are new to the world of shawls, Kerin’s How to Knit Lace video class is sure to be your go-to guide for creating elegant lace wraps and shawls. This 12-part video class begins with a brief overview of lace knitting, then moving into the basics of how to determine the right yarn, fiber type, and color that will make your shawl shine! Next, you’ll follow along with Kerin as she shows you how to cast on and make the yarn overs that will create your lace motif.
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A couple of weeks ago, Glenna C. posted a note on how she decided to keep two pairs of socks on the needles at the same time. One would be an “easy” sock while the other would be a more challenging sock. Her theory was that she would then have a sock to knit when she needed something “mindless” and another sock to serve as a mental distraction.
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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.
Read more »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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When Hunter Hammersen sent me a preview of her new book, The Knitter’s Curiousity Cabinet, Vol. II, I was drawn to her Vanessa Antiopa socks. I liked the geometrical design. And, it turns out that it makes the pattern very easy to follow. I knit them using Gloss Fingering in Tranquil.
Read more »This week, Jenny talks with Knit Picks designer Kerin about her latest pattern collection, Light Basics. Hear all about the inspiration for this collection which focuses on using fingering weight yarns for all of its designs. In addition to talking about the collection as a whole, Kerin shares some insight into her design process and talks about the design details that go into creating larger sizes while maintaining a comfortable and flattering fit. Next, Kerin and Jenny talk through each of the 6 designs while highlighting specific design and construction details. And if you’re interested in learning about how to customize any of the designs, Kerin has a few tips and ideas on how to use the included knitter’s graph paper!
And be sure to check out the link below to find the eBook, printed version and individual pattern downloads for this collection:
3 easy ways to listen…
In honor of KP Crochet’s launch, the Knit Picks staff is taking this week to focus on all our favorite, hook-tastic products and projects.
I, like my fellow coworkers, love to crochet. So I’m so excited to present Serenity, our first very first crochet collection!
This gorgeous book has 8 patterns by 8 different independent designers and I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to work on. We wanted a variety of types of patterns included and we especially wanted to include garments, which is somewhat difficult to find for crocheters. We also wanted to highlight lighter weight yarns – everything from lace to worsted.
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