It’s almost the end of the summer, and we need to clear out a little room in our warehouse for the heavier winter yarns, so we’re having a one-week-only lace yarn sale! Lots and lots of colors are on sale in all of our lace yarn lines – Shimmer, Alpaca Cloud, Shadow, Shadow Kettle Dyed and Gloss Lace.
Do you knit lace in the fall and winter? I do – year round! I love knitting lace because it is very interesting – you can choose a pattern that is relatively easy or very intricate. And, lace knitting takes up hardly any room. I have a vacation including a plane flight coming up, and I’m already planning which lace project to take because I know the lace will keep me occupied during the long flight, but it’s compact enough that I can knit away without annoying my seat neighbors …

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Shopping for yarn online can be a maddening guessing game. Is that a Teal or a Turquoise strand in Shimmer Hand Dyed Shallows? Will Comfy Sport’s Seafoam and Marlin clash or compliment each other? Its a lot to ask from your computer screen, but on Knit Picks, we’ve recently added full-color, 300 pixel close-ups that bring each yarn color to life. As always, our team of photographers takes great care to achieve real-life color accuracy, but you shouldn’t have to squint to see all those beautiful colors!
Still not sure if Fennel is the right color for your new lace shawl? Our most popular yarns also have a detailed written description of the colors and transitions you’ll find in the yarn.
The best part? You can view multiple pop-ups at the same time to compare different colors from the same yarn line!
Step 1: Find a color that catches your eye and click …

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Have you seen Handknit Heroes yet? It’s the first graphic novel for knitters, and it’s pretty awesome. Not only did the first issue feature twins with superhuman powers and a mom who is secretly working to invent bullet proof fibers, it also included a pattern for the POW! Hooded Scarf, designed by Erssie Major.
Stephanie Bryant, the comic’s author, took a few minutes to answer some of our nagging questions about what it’s like to write a graphic novel for fiber enthusiasts.
Q. What inspired you to create a graphic novel for knitters?
A. Like all great inspiration, I came up with the idea at a SnB knitting night at my local yarn shop. We were talking about how much fun the comic-inspired knits like Wonder Woman wristlets are, and I had this idea that you could do an entire knitted superhero costume pattern, with various colorways …

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I’ve
always been curious about dyeing yarn, but I was intimidated by the safety
precautions you need to take with dyes that aren’t food safe (although now that
Kelley and Kerin have given us some pointers, I am feeling more confident). Then
Nina pointed me towards the What a Kool Way to Dye group on Ravelry, and I
couldn’t wait to give Kool Aid dyeing a try. My local grocery store didn’t have
a huge variety of flavors, so I picked up two of everything they had.

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I’ve recently been exploring natural dyeing methods, and I was really excited when we started carrying a Indigo Dye kit.  What makes indigo dyeing a little tricky is that indigo is not naturally water soluble, and you need water to help the fabric absorb the dye.  So the indigo in this kit is reduced into powder, and when you add it to a bucket of water, it is a yellow green color because the oxygen was removed.  You add wet yarn or fabric to the indigo and hold it in the dye bath for only a couple of minutes.  When you remove the dyed yarn, it is a bright green color and you can watch it turn blue as it comes into contact with oxygen.  I have a more in depth tutorial for dyeing with this Indigo Dye kit here.  

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I have never dyed yarn before, and honestly I was intimidated. What I
have dyed a lot though is frosting and white chocolate. I love the
“gel” food coloring that you can buy at Michael’s or any store that has
a “cake decorating” section. This isn’t the liquid food coloring drops,
this is food coloring in a gel form so the color is super
concentrated–you don’t need much to get a really vibrant color. Try it
in melted white chocolate, then spoon your white chocolate into a zip
loc bag, cut off the corner and drizzle over thick pretzels that you’ve
dunked in melted caramel–so yummy and they make a great personalized
gift for sports team lovers, or…oh wait, what was I talking about?

 

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