our team is safely working on orders! ship times may be slower.
our team is safely working on orders! ship times may be slower.
From our latest designs to our process, people and places behind them – explore what we’ve been up to and what’s yet to come.
March 29, 2021 3 min read
We’ve been hard at work here at the shop. We had several huge shipments of yarn arrive kind of all at once, and finding just the right place for every skein has been a challenge - it’s not that we don’t have the room, it’s that we want it to look beautiful and be inspiring. It takes a lot of time, but we’ve been chipping away at it, and it’s finally in a state I’m proud of. It’s a nice feeling.
Good things do take time, as any knitter knows. There are lots of steps along the way, and a significant amount of uncertainty that goes with any project. Uncertainty. A euphemism for that age old emotion, fear. Any time we start on a
March 24, 2021 3 min read
March 23, 2021 2 min read
March 08, 2021 3 min read
I’ve been spending a lot of time researching tools to create my membership site. I know that I want there to be helpful videos, a library of patterns I know and trust, and lots of other resources I want to share with you. A central piece of the site will be the safe, private forum.
I’ve been researching tools to create this site and it’s been interesting. People ask questions about the best plug in and its costs (which are high), the integration with existing sites and email, recurring payments, and all the nitty gritty technical stuff that goes into a thing like this.
Reading through the questions and the answers, I am seeing a simple truth: As with so many things, you cannot throw money and technology at a problem and expect to come up with a solution.
March 01, 2021 3 min read
February 22, 2021 2 min read
February 15, 2021 3 min read
I’ve been thinking about my mom a lot lately. She died three years ago this week, and that tends to dredge up all the feels. I miss her wisdom. She understood human nature better than most and was always able to see right to the core of a difficult interpersonal situation. Even so, she could be one of the world’s most challenging individuals, demonstrating her own maxim When we are the hardest to love is when we need it the most, but that’s a story for another day.
One thing she always said was When the worst possible thing happens, it always contains the seeds to salvation. Somehow it feels a little less sappy than the whole silver lining cliché, because you don’t just break open a bad thing and
February 15, 2021 2 min read
We can like two things at once. Chocolate and vanilla. Red wine and white wine, rice and pasta. We may have a preference and generally choose one over the other, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t see the merits of both, right? I fall into the chocolate, red wine, and pasta camp, but I can certainly appreciate crème brulee, a nice crisp chardonnay, and a creamy risotto. Boy, I must be hungry.
It’s the same with sweaters construction. Bottom up and seamed is my preference, but I can see the appeal of top-down seamless. Not all top down seamless, but some. Especially Cocoknits.
February 14, 2021 2 min read
During our V-neck pullover Knitalong, I was helping Mindy block her sweater pieces. She was kind enough to take these videos in return so that I could share with you some tips about blocking. I'll try to get those videos posted on YouTube this week.
Lots of folks asked about my steamer, which I purchased after my other one burned up when I left it on. Since I often turn the steamer on and leave it for a
February 08, 2021 3 min read
February 01, 2021 3 min read
Cooking and knitting have a lot in common – and I don’t just mean that they’ve both literally saved my sanity during these tough times. They are both constructive, creative outlets that help me focus and create a calm headspace from which I can better view the world. Both cooking and knitting are things we do for ourselves and also for others, enjoying both the process of creation and the joy of sharing the product of our efforts. There are many other ways cooking is like knitting, perhaps that’s why so many knitters are also really excellent cooks, and people who hate to cook often eschew the fiber arts as well
But there is one really important difference between cooking and knitting that bears mentioning. I will get to that, but first, let share with you a conversation
January 25, 2021 3 min read
Super excited about Tanis Gray's latest book that hits the stands today -- Star Wars Knitting the Galaxy. In honor of this event, here are 11 awesome Star Wars quotes you can use in your knitting conversations. Make sure you wave your needles around and make a deep and throaty woosh woosh sound
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” (Scrolling intro of film) – How we describe the time before circular needles, or when we limped along with k1 s1, psso, because there was no SSK, or even those dark pre-Ravelry days when paper patterns were a thing.
“The Force is strong with this one” (Darth Vader in A New Hope) – what you say when a knitter gets something right away. Either a new knitter just learning the basics, or a more experienced knitter jumping right into lace or stranded with what seems like special innate knowledge. What else could it be but The Force?
“You have failed me for the last time” (Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back) - what we say to our crappy interchangeables that come apart during a