Knit Picks Staff Blog (594)

Sneak Peak - New Spring Yarn

It's that time of year again! We have some great new cotton and lace yarn coming in for Spring 2010. Diedre handles all of our yarn orders, and she places a separate order for an early air shipment of samples so we don't have to wait until the container of yarn arrives by boat. This system lets us keep the shipping costs for the bulk of the yarn low, but we get to use the samples ahead of time for catalog samples, kit development, and other projects.

Here's… Continue

Added by Alison on February 8, 2010 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Ideal Knit-A-Long (KAL) for first-timers!

I launched my

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Added by Kelley Petkun on February 8, 2010 at 5:30am — 3 Comments

Don't believe that groundhog!

Maybe it's just foolish optimism, maybe it's the strangely calm winter we're having here in the Pacific NW... But I say, spring is coming early! Early, I say! Hear that nature?

Why so excited about spring? Well, because I can show off my Fancy Feet!

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Added by Kerin on February 5, 2010 at 6:24pm — 12 Comments

Interview with Erica Jackofsky

Erica is definitely a favorite around the Knit Picks office - she was one of the first designers we contacted for the Independent Designer Partnership Program after seeing her beautiful designs on her website and on Ravelry. And not only is she an wonderful designer, she's an incredib… Continue

Added by BabblingStacey on February 5, 2010 at 12:00pm — 3 Comments

Podcast Episode 130: Remember When

Kelley chats with Stacey, Angela, and Alison about how they learned to knit and the tricks they learned along the way. 3 easy ways to listen... … Continue

Added by Knit Picks Podcast on February 4, 2010 at 7:52am — 8 Comments

Mitten, mitten, who's got the mitten?

Well, I have been working on a mitten knitting video series, and a Knit-A-Long so that we can all have mittens!! I think the middle of winter is a perfect time to learn something new and quick to… Continue

Added by Kelley Petkun on February 2, 2010 at 3:00pm — 18 Comments

Interview with Talitha Kuomi

As the coordinator for the Independent Designer Partnership program, I've seen so many fantastic patterns & met so many wonderful people that I'm so happy to share with the knitting world! As an ongoing series, I'm going to be posting interviews with many of the designers, to get to know them & see what motivates them in their designing.

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Added by BabblingStacey on January 29, 2010 at 8:30am — 3 Comments

Podcast Episode 129: Color in Design

Kelley chats with Christina, the new Catalog Manager for Knit Picks, about selecting colors and projects for the print and online catalogs.

3… Continue

Added by Knit Picks Podcast on January 28, 2010 at 8:30am — 5 Comments

Beep Beep! Transportation Playset!

This was just way too much fun to design!

Kerin and I collaborated on the Land and Sea Playset kit, and it was a realy treat, since this is exactly the kind of toy my brother and I loved as children! I wrote the patte… Continue

Added by Nina on January 28, 2010 at 7:00am — 4 Comments

Roxy Lady!

I must admit, there's something about foxes that I think is totally adorable. I think of them as 'puppy kittens'. Just too cute! So, when we were all throwing ideas back and forth about what would make a cute stuffed animal, it just had to be a fox! When I went to swatch to get gauge for Roxy Fox, I couldn't stop. I ended up with most of Roxy and both her pups.

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Added by Kerin on January 22, 2010 at 5:43pm — 5 Comments

Podcast Episode 128: Stretching Your Knitting Budget

Kelley and Kate chat about clever ways to stretch your knitting dollar. Book Review

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Added by Knit Picks Podcast on January 21, 2010 at 9:00am — 5 Comments

Slouchy Hat Madness

The past few months I've pretty much just working on projects for other people & last week I decided I needed to do something quick for myself...which turned into 2 quick projects, which turned into 3! All were slouchy hats - I think I may need an intervention! :) First was Ysolda Teague's Ripley pattern (Ravelry link)

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Added by BabblingStacey on January 20, 2010 at 1:05pm — 4 Comments

Gifts revealed...

Now that the holidays are over and my sisters' birthday has passed (they're twins), I can finally blog about what I've been knitting since last summer! When I cast on, I had no clue that my mom's socks would take longer to knit than my dad's Harry Potter scarf. That was my first project on size 0 needles (and probably my last!). Mom saw the yoga socks in a magazine and wanted a pair to wear with her flip flops now that she's moved from sunny Florida to North Carolina. Like a good daughter I obl… Continue

Added by Angela on January 19, 2010 at 3:00pm — 4 Comments

There may be something to this New Years thing after all!

Maybe the holiday season is hectic so that we appreciate the quiet that follows. Time to ponder plans for the New Year, as I have been doing. Lots and lots of rain combined with a fire in the fireplace makes for a productive weekend. Sorry, Linda, but it was raining so hard on Friday that I didn't want to go out to find a Hot Chocolate Pot. But, it will be a priority for next week! Let's play the "Remember This?" game!… Continue

Added by Kelley Petkun on January 17, 2010 at 7:24am — 11 Comments

Erica Jackofsky's colorway for her Shiver Scarf....

....and my color selection.

I know y… Continue

Added by Kelley Petkun on January 14, 2010 at 1:28pm — 9 Comments

New Tutorials Page

Hi Everyone! We have been working on improving our tutorials, reorganizing them in a logical way, making them easy to search and navigate, and adding more content. Now if you click on the tutorial tab in the Knitting Community, you will be redirected to the new tutorial site. Here is a link.

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Added by Kate on January 14, 2010 at 9:13am — 8 Comments

Podcast Episode 127: Refresh Your Stash!

Ready for a new year of knitting? Kelley and Tina chat about different ways to reorganize the yarn and projects in their stashes. Book Review Cardigans by Louisa Harding 3 easy ways to listen...… Continue

Added by Knit Picks Podcast on January 13, 2010 at 1:20pm — No Comments

Crafty Vacation

I went home to Northern California for Christmas, and although I've been back for a week, I haven't had a chance to blog about it until now! While in Northern California, I took a day trip to San Francisco to visit friends from college and to check out some art museums. I know that there is quite a bit of debate within the knitting community about what is art and what is craft and whether knitting should be recognized as an art. Still, I kept seeing folk art and traditional crafts in art museums… Continue

Added by Kate on January 12, 2010 at 4:00pm — 12 Comments

Movies to rip by

I was chatting with a friend yesterday and she had discovered a mistake in the ribbing of her current project. I loved her solution to this knitting disaster. As she said, "You can't really go back and fix ribbing easily. So, I slipped my Julie/Julia DVD into the machine and laughed my way through 10 inches of ribbing ripping!" That got me thinking. When I had to rip out my Shiver Scarf, I chose to wait until we wer… Continue

Added by Kelley Petkun on January 11, 2010 at 9:00am — 14 Comments