Website Updates!
by on May 26, 2011

You may have noticed we’ve made a couple of changes to the way our yarn and tools pages display on the Knit Picks web site.
You can see a good example of the yarn page changes on the Shine Sport
page.  The biggest change to the yarn pages is that we’ve added a new
tag, “Goodbye”.

Items
that show a “Goodbye” tag on the top are those that are being
discontinued. We are committed to labeling all discontinued items as
soon as we have made the decision to no longer carry them.  We’re hoping
this will help you with project planning and give you the opportunity
to stock up on discontinued colors you love while they’re still
available. “Goodbye” yarns, books, and tools are not necessarily
discounted, it’s just a heads up that we are not re-ordering them once
our current stock is gone.

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Tags: News


Podcast Episode 160: Behind the Scenes – New Tonals and Dishie
by on May 26, 2011

Alison got a chance to chat with our art director, Christina about the development of all the new tonal colorways for Shadow, Stroll, Swish and Wool of the Andes. Kelley dishes about her love for Dishie and talks about knitting with cotton yarns. Hear all about Kelley’s fiber fun and what she is currently working on in the “What’s On My Needles” segment.
Kelley also reviews the book Knitted Socks East and West by Judy Sumner.
 
3 easy ways to listen…
Subscribe in iTunes Episode 160: Behind the Scenes: New Tonals and Dishie RSS feed
 

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Tags: New Products, Podcast, Yarn


Customer Questions about Dishie
by on May 25, 2011

Many times, our customer service department receives questions about our
new products with regard to their washability, durability, texture and
so on.  Recently, a couple days after the launch of our new Dishie line,
a customer called in and asked our wonderful representative, Daryl,
whether the yarn colors would bleed or fade in the wash.  She also
inquired whether the texture and feel were comparable to one of our
competitors’ 100% cotton yarn. 

When we are selecting new yarn lines, we always go through a vigorous
vetting process to determine whether the yarn is up to our standards. 
As soon as we receive the yarn samples, we distribute the yarn to two or
more knitters and/or crocheters to swatch.  We do this for three
reasons: to test gauge, to make sure the spin is consistent, and to see
how the yarn looks once it’s worked up.  Once we have swatches in place,
we essentially beat one of them up.  We wash it in hot and cold water,
we put it in the wash with heavy items, and test to see how it will hold
up with a lot of abuse.  Next, we wash another swatch according to the
care instructions that we recommend.  Once we know how the yarn works up
and holds up, we make our decision.  One thing that we hadn’t done in
the past is bleach the yarn.  Until now.

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Tags: News, Yarn


Say hi to Dishie! (and find out how to win a $20 gift card)
by on May 19, 2011

Thank you to everyone who participated!  This contest is now closed.  To find out who won, please click here: WINNERS

I am so thrilled to introduce you to our brand new yarn- Dishie. Dishie is a hard working worsted weight yarn, made of 100% cotton with a tight spin and high absorbency. Dishie is made of tougher stuff than super-snuggly Comfy or the organic cotton in Simply Cotton, which were designed specifically with garment knitting in mind. Dishie is more of a multi-purpose yarn well-suited for projects like dish cloths, market bags, baby bibs, but we made sure the finished yarn is still soft enough that it’s a pleasure to knit. Dishie is also one of our most affordable yarns at only $3.99 for 100g ball, and comes in a rainbow of colors.

Dishie is the darling of the Knit Picks’ office right now, we’ve never knit so many dish cloths! Kerin even made up a dish cloth template for us so that we could each design our very own dish cloth pattern which are now available as free patterns. She also re-formatted the template to create a downloadable DIY Dishcloth free pattern. Now we want to see what you can come up with.

Send a PDF, word doc, or jpeg of your own charted dishcloth pattern, or a photo of a knit or crocheted dishcloth you designed to contests@knitpicks.com by May 15th, 2011. It’s up to you whether you want to use the DIY Dishcloth pattern or free style it- anything goes! We’ll randomly select 3 winners and give them each a $20 gift card to Knit Picks. The winners will be e-mailed and their names will be posted here on the blog, along with some photos of a few of our favorite submissions.
Now I’d like to show what our staff dreamed up to give you some inspiration…

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Tags: Contest, New Products, News, Office Gossip, Yarn


Dishcloth Design Winners!
by on May 19, 2011

We are so pleased with the wonderful response we received from the Say hi to Dishie contest! 
Thank you to everyone who submitted their dishcloth designs, I can’t
tell you how much fun we had looking through all of them.  We have
selected three grand prize winners who will each get a $20 gift card to
Knit Picks. 

Our winners are:

Sabrin Rehnke with her Giraffe dishcloth

Continue reading to find out who the other winners are and to see the dishcloths that earned honorable mentions.

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Tags: Contest, Fun


My visit to Doernbecher
by on May 11, 2011

This past Friday, I had the honor and privilege to visit with a woman
named Peggy Adams from Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland,
Oregon.  Peggy works as the Child Life Specialist in the Family Resource
Center and is working hard to arrange a program for the parents of
children to participate in while their sons and daughters receive
treatment.

I reached out to Peggy a couple weeks ago because I thought she might
know of some local charities who might benefit from yarn donations. 
After speaking with her for a few minutes, she mentioned that she was in
the process of starting a knitting and crochet class for the parents of
kids at the hospital.

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Tags: charity, Fun, News, Yarn


New Yarn Review Videos
by on May 10, 2011

As new yarns have been coming out, we have been working hard to make
sure that we have our brand new yarn review videos to go along with the
latest Knit Picks additions! By now you have probably seen Dishie –
a new worsted weight cotton yarn that as the name suggests, is the
ideal choice for dishcloths, home accessories, market bags and more! Alison gives her review of Dishie in this video and has some wonderful ideas for this soft, yet sturdy yarn as well as tips for using Dishie for garments.

Another thing everyone here at Knit Picks is super excited about is
the release of all the new and amazing Tonal yarns! In addition to Shadow and Stroll, we now have a beautiful selection of subtle, tonal colors in both Wool of the Andes and Swish Worsted!
Both of these new additions come in 100 gram skeins and the colors are
just so inpiring – my mind goes right to sweater knitting, even though
summer is (hopefully) right around the corner! I just love the depth and
texture that the tonals add to any project. You can also hear more
about the new tonals as well as tips for working with these hand dyed
beauties in Alison’s yarn review video.

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Tags: Fun, Inspiration, New Products, Yarn


Socks!
by on May 6, 2011

It seems this week around the office, everyone is talking about socks! (well, maybe it’s just me.)
For one thing, this week we finally got to share our beautiful new colors of sock yarn!

newsockyarn_4-11 

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Tags: Events, New Products, Yarn


The dish on Dishie
by on May 6, 2011

So, as in most operations where secrecy is paramount, we use ‘code
names’ for our yarns and patterns before they’re released. That way, we
can say things in ‘code’ to each other and avoid tipping off the… oh,
wait. Actually we just use working titles, because that’s easier than
thinking of ‘formal’ names right off the bat. Usually, these working
titles are scrapped and something more descriptive takes their place.
(For instance, I’m sure a lot more people would want to make the ‘Shift Tote‘ than the ‘Intarsia bag’.) Sometimes, though, the working title sticks and you get things like Dishie!

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Tags: Independent Designer Partnership, Inspiration, Knit Picks Designers, Yarn


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