What’s What Wednesdays

Bonus: have you met Shannon Okey?

We’re very glad to welcome Shannon Okey to the KnittyBlog on this special edition of What’s What Wednesdays! Shannon has recently published The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design: How to Keep Your Knits About You through her company, Cooperative Press. In addition, Shannon’s a long-time friend of Knitty, having helped us find our tagline when we launched: Little Purls of Wisdom. Jillian Moreno got to talk to Shannon — the successful author of more than a dozen books — about the business of knitting. Take it away, Eric the Orchestra Leader Jillian! [ed’s note: Sorry. ...

WWW: Contest Winner, Fundraising & Men

Our lucky July contest winner is comment #642, Sara! (srgonzalez@…) Congratulations, Sara! We’ll be writing you to get your mailing info so you can get your hands on your new Kolláge square circular needles! A cancer patient in Wales has raised nearly £1 million ($1.5 million USD) for a cancer treatment center research by knitting and selling little Easter chicks. Over 600 knitters have supported the cause with their needles, and thousands have shown their support by buying a chick.  The chicks are popular with schoolchildren, allowing people of all ages to contribute to the cause. Interesting ...

WWW: Alice Starmore, Classes and Knit Chicken

Alice Starmore will be appearing at the upcoming IKnit Weekender in London, September 10 & 11th. This coincides with the republication of her books Aran Knitting and Fisherman’s Sweaters. Many of Ms. Starmore’s classic books, originally published in the 1980s and 1990s, are slated for republication, and they are must-haves in any knitter’s library.  Fair Isle Knitting appeared last year. Copies of the old editions can be hard to find, and sell for hundreds of dollars, so these republications mean that we can all have copies. Also in the UK, in August, don’t forget our Amy’s classes ...

WWW: Time; things to do while you’re knitting

German industrial designer Siren Elise Wilhelmsen has created the ‘365’ knitting clock. The designer’s objective was to make time tangible and visible.  The clock features a 48-needle knitting machine.  Working clockwise, of course, each day it works a round, and over a year, creates a  2m-long scarf. The clock was exhibited at the DMY International Design Festival in Berlin in June. Stitch & Pitch is coming soon to a city near you. Check out the site for dates and event details for each city. The Jumpers & Jazz Festival kicks off July 15 in Queensland, Australia. The festival is a ...

New Yarns, A Few Events for Your Calendar, A Surprising New Spinner

The Knitty Spring+Summer contest winners have been chosen. The lucky winners’ names are on the Contest page. They’ve been contacted and are excitedly awaiting their prizes! Stay tuned…more contests will be announced for our upcoming First Fall issue, which goes live any day now. We were excited to learn of the launch of Quince and Company, a new independent US yarn company founded by Pam Allen (ex-editor of Interweave Knits, designer and author), designer Carrie Bostick Hoge and their friend Bob Rice, who happens to own a spinning mill.  They have beautiful yarns, some lovely and very accessible ...

Gift Knitting Season Already?; Patriotism

Some knitters are starting to consider their project lists for end-of-year gift knitting.  To help you with those lists,  look for these books on your LYS bookshelf very soon: Joelle Hoverson & Anna Williams’ More Last Minute Knitted Gifts Mags Kandis’ Gifted: Lovely Little Things to Knit and Crochet Anna Hrachovec’s Knitting Mochimochi: 20 Super-Cute Strange Designs for Knitted Amigurumi.  If you’re in the NYC area July 11th, attend the launch party at Brooklyn General Store to see some of this adorableness in person. We’re in the throws of World Cup, and the season of National ...

Inspiration and Duck Feet

An arty and inspiring Wednesday. I’m regularly awed and inspired by the work featured on the ArtYarn blog….  the work of Fibre Artist Karen Searle was recently featured. Karen works in a variety of fiber media, and she has knitted and crocheted a variety of pieces – some life size, and some miniatures.  The stunning dresses are each 6 inches high, knitted in copper wire. ArtYarn is a collaborative knitting and crochet project coordinated by visual artist Rachael Elwell, and their goal is to collaborate with local community groups, world wide knitting and crochet networks and arts organizations to ...

Fresh from TNNA

TNNA [The National NeedleArts Association] is the organization of manufacturers of almost everything we all knit with, from yarn to needles to notions to bags and more. Going to the TNNA trade show in Columbus, Ohio, every June is a tradition for those of us in the industry. Knitty first attended TNNA in 2004, and every year, what we see gets more interesting. Most importantly, we get to meet in person the folks that make the stuff we love, sometimes after having corresponded by e-mail for years. It’s pretty neat. So this week’s What’s What Wednesday is devoted to what we saw and a few peeks at what ...

What’s new?

Quite a lot! Many of us have been eagerly awaiting the publication of this book, written by Shannon Okey [the Knitgrrl herself]. Well, the book went from manuscript to finished, printed copy in significantly less than a year…which is one of the benefits of being a 1) motivated author 2) experienced self-publisher …and Shannon is both! This book has promised to be as honest a volume as has ever been written about what it’s like to design for a living [or part of a living]. “Written by an industry insider, the Guide takes a comprehensive, unflinching look behind the scenes that no knit or ...

It’s Wednesday!

Have you been wondering if an iPad is worth buying? Read what knitter/designer Amy Swenson has to say on the subject. [Neither of us have any financial stake in Apple or iPads, by the way. We’re just geeks who like toys.] O-Wool has new owners — the Tunney Wool Company. Glad to see this brand continue! What is this TNNA everyone’s talking about? It’s The National Needlework Association, and people in the industry use the abbreviation as shorthand to refer to the semi-annual tradeshow. The biggest one of the year happens next weekend in Columbus, Ohio, and yarn companies, manufacturers of bags ...
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