Melissa's Blog (42)

Preview of Stroll Tonal

You've probably heard the podcast of the spring yarn preview, so I thought I would give a little more background into the Stroll and Shadow Tonals. When Tina asked me to design the colorways of these yarns, I thought it was a great idea. Because the Tonals are hand painted, we have exact control over just how variegated the yarn is--something that we could never quite achieve with the old kettle dyed… Continue

Added by Melissa on February 26, 2010 at 3:11pm — 20 Comments

Winner of the photo contest!

Congratulations to October Phillips, winner of our Behind the Scenes Photo Contest. Thanks to everyone who sent in their guesses. The answers are:

Photo 1 - Town Slippers - 40130 (the spats specifically)…

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Added by Melissa on November 18, 2009 at 7:24am — 7 Comments

Photo behind the scenes & a contest!

Now that our November catalog projects are online and catalogs are in the mail, I thought it would be fun to show you a few "behind the scenes" snapshots of our catalog shots. Often we have to put ourselves and our models in ridiculous looking situations to get that lovely and natural looking shot. To make things a little interesting, we've decided to make a game out of it. Can you guess what the product is we're shooting? (Hint: It's either a kit or a book project.)

Contest… Continue

Added by Melissa on November 3, 2009 at 9:30am — 10 Comments

Alice's autumn hat

When the weather turned chilly, I realized that Alice had outgrown all the hats she had as a newborn last winter. Knitting to the rescue! I'd had my eye on the Aviatrix Baby Hat pattern for a while, so that was an easy choice. Then I just had to go stash diving for the perfect yarn. I landed on… Continue

Added by Melissa on October 20, 2009 at 7:44am — 20 Comments

Winner of the HUB gift certificate!

Remember the Portland contest I posted a few weeks ago? Sorry about the delay in picking a winner--we had lots of great entries, and I got sick last week, so it was a double whammy. We had so many awesome ideas suggested that we ended up choosing the top 10 entries and then drawing a random one from those. The lucky winner is Gwyneth who posted the following suggestions:

1. The… Continue

Added by Melissa on October 9, 2009 at 10:11am — 3 Comments

Contest for Portland Metro knitters!

A lot of components go into creating great photos for our catalog and web site, and one important component is location. (It's not just true for real estate!) We like to get out of the studio as much as we can to capture the natural lighting and inspiring backdrops of the area in which we live. Since we're headquartered in Vancouver, WA, we do a lot of shooting in Portland, the gorge, Camas, and Vancouver. It really brings that "Pacific Northwest" feeling to our photos I think. Anyway, remember… Continue

Added by Melissa on September 22, 2009 at 3:45pm — 43 Comments

Finished my Classic Lines Cardigan!

I'm done! I'm done! I calculate that my Classic Lines Cardigan is the most stitches I've ever knit for one project--coming in around 76,000 stitches (38 size). Eeep! I'm glad I didn't make that calculation before I started! I squeeked this one in under the 6 month mark, and it fits like a dream, so I'm quite proud.

Angela helped me take some photos. It's very windy outside, so it was… Continue

Added by Melissa on September 22, 2009 at 11:25am — 14 Comments

Need a little mystery in your knitting?

I've put up the details of my Mystery Colorwork KAL! Head on over and check it out!

(Here's my color swatch for a little eye candy.)

Added by Melissa on August 28, 2009 at 2:57pm — 6 Comments

83 colors, 1 photo

Since we released our new colors of Palette, I've heard a lot of knitters mention that they would like to see a photo of all the colors lined up to be able to compare… Continue

Added by Melissa on August 21, 2009 at 7:24am — 28 Comments

October catalog photoshoot

It's been a busy few weeks for me, let me tell you, and I'm not even talking about the Sock Summit craziness. The September catalog is still in the printing & mailing process, while at the same time we're shooting the photos for the October catalog and planning projects for the Winter catalog. Whew! I wanted to take some brief time to show you a glimpse of one of our October photoshoots, and to introduce you to your new KP catalog manager/designer, Christina.…

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Added by Melissa on August 12, 2009 at 8:01am — 5 Comments

New Stroll Hand Painted

Have you seen the new hand painted colorways of Stroll sock yarn (formerly Essential)?

I had the great pleasure of designing them months ago, and I've been awaiting their release eagerly ever since. I had to place an order right away yesterday for the Make Believe color (along with a… Continue

Added by Melissa on July 16, 2009 at 7:55am — 15 Comments

Sneak Peek: Palette Colors

You may have seen the video of the new Palette colors coming into the office and Kerin hording all the new pinks...

I thought I would show you a photo I took of my desk, which has ALL the Palette colors (new and current) arranged in color order. I was swatching some book project recolors for the November catalog, and it was a lot easier to see… Continue

Added by Melissa on July 10, 2009 at 11:34am — 19 Comments

Line by line

I'm inching along on my Classic Lines Cardigan, and I'm amazed to see how much progress I've made just by knitting in meetings at work and the occasional car trip. (Alice has discovered that her hands can GRAB things, so anything in my hands or on my person at home is not safe!)

On the right is… Continue

Added by Melissa on June 23, 2009 at 12:32pm — 5 Comments

Knitting in the park

Happy Worldwide Knit in Public Day! This morning Angela, Christy, Marci, Amy, Nancee, and I all joined the Vancouver Monday Night Knitting Group and the Ft. Vancouver Knitters Guild knitting at Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver, WA. Angela took this video of some of us:

Angela and I both cast on for premie hats, since that's what our speed knitting contest knitters are knitting… Continue

Added by Melissa on June 13, 2009 at 2:00pm — 4 Comments

A drool-worthy baby kit

Nina already blogged about our Little Bubbles Baby Set, but I thought I would share my experience photographing it on my 3 month old yesterday because it is so entertaining. We needed a modeled picture of the pinks set for banner ads, and the sample was knit in the 0-6 month size, so it was Alice's big break into… Continue

Added by Melissa on May 19, 2009 at 1:14pm — 14 Comments

Baby socks for Alice

When I was home on maternity leave I got the idea for some socks for Alice that she could wear with her Easter dress. I had some delicate cotton lace in my sewing notions box, and I decided to make up a sock pattern to use it. When I was done, I wrote up the very simple pattern to be able to offer… Continue

Added by Melissa on May 14, 2009 at 1:29pm — 6 Comments

Back from maternity leave

I'm back at work from maternity leave and feeling good. I actually missed work--I guess that's a good sign that I love my job, eh? For those of you who didn't read the news elsewhere and are wondering, my baby girl was born on February 11 (two weeks late!), and we named her Alice Irene. I have more to blog about in the coming weeks, including a free baby sock pattern, but for now I'm going to leave you with a photo of Alice at 9 weeks old wearing the chocolate cupcake hat that… Continue

Added by Melissa on May 7, 2009 at 10:42am — 14 Comments

New Wallpaper images & new Imagination colors

I've just added some new desktop wallpapers of the latest Felici &… Continue

Added by Melissa on January 26, 2009 at 11:29am — 13 Comments

When life gives you snow, make mittens!

Okay, so I only made one mitten when I was snowed in at home last week, but it's all a part of the plan. You see, I've long admired all the cute colorwork mitten patterns out there, but I don't wear mittens (or know anybody gift-worthy who does). I'm a devoted glove gal because of what I… Continue

Added by Melissa on December 30, 2008 at 1:31pm — 9 Comments

Something wicked this way comes

I finished a new pair of socks just in time for our cold, fall weather. I call them my "Wicked Socks."

I used Imagination in "Wicked Witch" for the main color and "Frog Prince" for the contrasting heels,… Continue

Added by Melissa on November 10, 2008 at 2:00pm — 15 Comments