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.
Meet the team »
This week’s marks the opening of the About.com 2013 Readers Choice Awards!
From now until February 11th, you can nominate your favorite blogs, designers, books, yarn company, and needle brand for the award! We look forward to this every year so I thought I’d show you some of my suggestions – you can nominate up to 3 for each category!
Read more »I’ll start this giveaway post with an important story that will most likely bore you: Do you love satchels? I do. For Christmas I received (which is to say, “purchased with great selfishness”) a small black satchel which DOES make me look like an awesome British schoolteacher, but DOESN’T actually hold much. Prior to this, I used a gigantic old clunker a la Mary Poppins’s carpetbag; it held everything your mind could imagine and substantially more, it defied laws of nature, and it always had an extra reusable bag tucked in there somewhere.
Moving along: I live in Portland and, as anyone who has seen the critically-acclaimed documentary Portlandia knows, it’s particularly vital that I keep reusable bags in my life. How to continue looking awesome and British while still being environmentally responsible?
Most of my reusable bags are of the general, folding variety—with the oft-lost plastic bit for base support and vaguely awkward shape for storage. Thankfully, our new 24/7 Bags from Flip & Tumble are nothing like that, quite literally reducing to the size of a peach; in fact, there’s my on-the-fly slogan for this bag: “More portable than an apple!”
Additionally, they’re quite strong (comprised of ripstop nylon) and roomier than they ought to be (2x the size of a plastic grocery bag). Yes, these bags are essentially my valentine this year—and now all you lucky folks have a chance to win one of your very own!
Read more »
I
have Jury Duty… for the next 30 DAYS! Once the shock wore off, I
started to plan some projects to work on during the down time. I had
already been thinking about trying to tackle a crochet toy and the note
that I could only bring crochet hooks, not knitting needles past the
courthouse security sealed the deal. I hunted through my Ravelry
queue for something challenging enough to be interesting but easy
enough to learn and remember where I was each time I was called up. I
settled on Nekoyama’s Amineko Crocheted Cat, he was just the right size and had such a sweet little face!
A moraine is a deposit of rocks and debris left by glaciers as they
advance and recede. Moraines often add some really interesting terrain
to the existing land, resulting in crazy looking hills and land that
looks folded or striated. Glaciers make for some pretty spectacular geologic
features – moving bits of the Earth from place to place, bit by bit,
blurring the line between ‘here’ and ‘there’.
Musing on those glacial effects resulted in the Moraine Pullover!
It
might be hard to see where to draw a comparison, but in the stitch
patterning of Moraine, each ‘point’ recedes and advances through colors,
leaving its mark in the next ripple.
It was just about this time last year when I created a little list of crafting resolutions for myself. Looking back over my list just a year later, I have to admit that it felt pretty good to see my goals in relation to all of the things that I’ve been able to try over the past year. I’ve explored the world of crochet more and have a few projects under my belt (including an in-progress blanket!), I learned a lot about fiber and silk hankies, but my number one goal was to move from a drop spindle to a spinning wheel. And I’m pleased to report that I’ve utterly and completely gone head over heels for spinning! I’m collecting fiber just as fast as yarn, and having so much fun pairing my handspun yarns for special projects and gifts.
If you’re like me and are ready to (or have just made) the transition from spindle to wheel, but need a bit of extra guidance – be sure to check out Kelley’s Wheel Spinning class! This 6-part video class covers everything from the basics to fiber choices and the mechanics of your wheel to spinning and plying.
Winter doldrums getting your down? Those grey skies and dark days seeming monotonous? Well, there is good news – we have new Chroma colors!
Chroma is one of our favorite yarns – in fact, our favorite meetings are the ones when we are deciding on new colors! (Second favorite – naming them all!) We have been particularly excited to show you this batch.
Read more »Bringing
together enchanting colorwork and captivating cables – Illuminated
Lines captures the magic of Celtic art and culture with six exquisite
designs. Hear all about how Kerin’s interest in Celtic culture inspired
this new and exclusive pattern collection. Kerin and Jenny talk through
each of the six patterns in Illuminated Lines, starting with the
inspiration for each design, how that translated into the concept and ultimately into the knitted pattern in addition to the design details that make each piece a unique combination of traditional and modern. Kerin
also shares tips and tricks throughout to help you try a variety of new
and intriguing techniques with confidence. Explore and celebrate the wonderful traditions of Celtic
history with Illuminated Lines as Kerin shares her design journey with you.
Illuminated Lines is available as an eBook and as a printed book here:
Illuminated Lines eBook
Illuminated Lines printed book
And don’t forget – you can …
I’m free! The holidays have passed and I have wrapped and mailed the
very last of the knit things since I last posted. But now that’s all
done with (until my mid-July panic about making presents begins again)
and now I can move on to projects that I’ve squirrelled away for quieter
times. I have a box of the special buy Chroma Worsted stashed since this year’s Cyber Monday sale (oh all those lovely blues!) which I’ve finally been able to start dipping into.
This week, Kelley gets a chance to talk with Amy Clarke Moore, editor of
Spin-Off and Jane Austen Knits magazines from Interweave. Amy shares
her story of how Jane Austen Knits started and talks about her
collaberation with members of the Jane Austen Society who provide the
depth and details in the wonderful articles throughout the magazine. If
you are a fan of Jane Austen, you’ll love this behind the scenes look at
this wonderful publication.
This year, I haven’t been as excited about the holidays as I have in the past – I’m usually the one making all the cookies and sending all the cards but I haven’t been as motivated this time around. Part of it has been the fact I seem to be busier with other projects than I have been in previous years and part of it has been the sad stories on the news recently (I don’t think I need to remind you of those). But mainly I think it’s because this will be the first Christmas without my grandmother, who passed away last summer. I was very close to my grandma and she was the first person who tried to teach me knitting and crochet when I was very young (even if it didn’t catch on until much later) and over the last few years, it was wonderful to have this connection with her. We would tell each other all about the projects we were working on when I came to visit and I would always try to bring her some yarn from my stash for her to try out, since most of her yarn came from big craft shops.
Every year, she would crochet a new afghan for her children and grandchildren and they are dear treasures to all of us. This year, as my way of keeping the tradition going, I decided to crochet an afghan for my mom.
