#knitchat 6/2: Your Knitting Heroes

Holding out for a hero in knits.

Whether they’ve been established for years, or they’re new on the scene, we all have our favorite knitting designers: our knitting heroes. Tell us about the designers you love and why you admire their work!

This week’s #knitchat is being hosted by the lovely and talented knitwear designer Makeone (a.k.a @make1inc on Twitter). I can’t wait for this #knitchat as heroes and knitting are two of my favorite topics. Thank you, Vashte for taking over the reins.

#knitchat Questions:

Q1) Who are your top knitting heroes? What puts them at the top of your list?

Q2) What are some of your favorite patterns by your knitting heroes? Provide a link if possible.

Q3) Have you ever met any of your knitting heroes? If you did, what would you say to them?

DETAILS… DETAILS… If you want to know more about what #knitchat is and how it works

• Where: Twitter (follow the #knitchat hashtag)
• When: Thursdays on the date listed above at 6:30 PM PST/9:30 PM EST (1 hour)
• Who: Me you and other Twitter Knitters/Crocheters & Fiber-crafters
• How: Need a primer on Twitter Chat… check this out: What does this Twitter chat thing look like?
• How: to post photos – 5 ways to share photos on Twitter
• How: to shorten your links. Simply paste your link into the field in http://bit.ly/ and shorten it. Copy and paste this link into the twitter feed.

#knitchat 5/26: Unusual Knitting, Unusual Fibers

What constitutes unusual knitting… knitting a space alien, birthday cake, or even an entire village? Maybe unusual knitting can be knitting part of a gigantic knitted bunny that can be seen from satellite views. Or unusual for you can simply mean knitting socks rather than hats.  Unusual fiber or knitting material can include yarn made of milk, soy, or corn… or knitting with wire or Ramen. Yes, someone has knitted with noodles.

#knitchat Questions:

Q1) What is the oddest thing you’ve every knit or wanted to knit?  If you’d like, share examples of strange/unusual knits you’ve found on the Internet.

Q2) What is the oddest fiber you’ve knit with or wanted to try? What has stopped you from doing so?

Q3) Next #knitchat topic suggestions

DETAILS… DETAILS… If you want to know more about what #knitchat is and how it works

• Where: Twitter (follow the #knitchat hashtag)
• When: Thursdays on the date listed above at 6:30 PM PST/9:30 PM EST (1 hour)
• Who: Me you and other Twitter Knitters/Crocheters & Fiber-crafters
• How: Need a primer on Twitter Chat… check this out: What does this Twitter chat thing look like?
• How: to post photos – 5 ways to share photos on Twitter
• How: to shorten your links. Simply paste your link into the field in http://bit.ly/ and shorten it. Copy and paste this link into the twitter feed.

#knitchat 5/19: Stash or No Stash?

I’m just going to stay up front there will be no guilt trips taken here This #knitchat conversation will be dedicated to our stashes abundant or nonexistent alike.

#knitchat Questions:

Q1) Do you stash yarn? Or are you pretty good about not having a stash?

Q2) Tell us about your favorite things in your stash. Tell us about how you prevent yourself from building a stash.

DETAILS… DETAILS… If you want to know more about what #knitchat is and how it works

• Where: Twitter (follow the #knitchat hashtag)
• When: Thursdays on the date listed above at 6:30 PM PST/9:30 PM EST (1 hour)
• Who: Me you and other Twitter Knitters/Crocheters & Fiber-crafters
• How: Need a primer on Twitter Chat… check this out: What does this Twitter chat thing look like?
• How: to post photos – 5 ways to share photos on Twitter
• How: to shorten your links. Simply paste your link into the field in http://bit.ly/ and shorten it. Copy and paste this link into the twitter feed.

#knitchat 5/12 – Your Friendly Neighborhood Yarn Store

This #knitchat we’ll celebrate our favorite local yarn stores or LYS’s. The LYS can be the heart of the knitting community in a neighborhood.  It can also be a place where you’re introduced to new techniques, yarns. It can also be the place where you meet all sorts of knitters and even crocheters from whom you learn an awful lot and not just about knitting and fiber-craft. I learned a great deal about the history of my neighborhood including one night when we learned which house was once a ‘bordello’ back in the day…. but that’s another story.  My neighborhood yarn store is The Naked Sheep Knitshop on N. Killingsworth. I guess I keep coming back here because the people are terribly nice, and the shop owners Cheri and Brad have done a wonderful job building a warm and friendly shop culture where knitters and crocheters are welcome, novice and expert alike.  Patron’s openly help each other in the shop and no one is excluded because of their rank and newbie status 😉

During this #knitchat, we’ll celebrate our favorite LYS’s. I actually added Question 3 just recently. In view of some of the sad closures lately, let’s see what we can do to help keep our LYS’s afloat.

Knitchat Questions:

Q1) Shout out for your favorite LYS and where it’s located. Don’t forget to provide a link if you can. (It’s okay if you have more than 1)

Q2) What makes this LYS your favorite? If you don’t have a favorite what would make a Local Yarn Store yours? What would you like to see more of at your LYS? What would you like to see less of?

Q3) What can we do to promote our LYS’s? Any ideas?

DETAILS… DETAILS… If you want to know more about what #knitchat is and how it works

• Where: Twitter (follow the #knitchat hashtag)
• When: Thursdays on the date listed above at 6:30 PM PST/9:30 PM EST (1 hour)
• Who: Me you and other Twitter Knitters/Crocheters & Fiber-crafters
• How: Need a primer on Twitter Chat… check this out: What does this Twitter chat thing look like?
• How: to post photos – 5 ways to share photos on Twitter
• How: to shorten your links. Simply paste your link into the field in http://bit.ly/ and shorten it. Copy and paste this link into the twitter feed.

My neighborhood LYS "The Naked Sheep Knitshop"

#knitchat 5-5 Colors in knitting

Image from the Morguefile

For years I only seemed to be knitting teal sweaters, hats and scarves. I felt bad knitting gifts from my stash because my gift recipients had two choices, teal or charcoal gray. Then at some point I drifted into this habit of only wanting to knit things in naturally colored fibers. When I thought of natural it usually meant the color the fiber came in straight from the animal or plant after cleaning and processing for spinning. To this day I still love natural colors and rejoice in spinning undyed fiber. One year I did try to get out of my comfort zone by taking a hike out in the gorge in early summer to find wildflowers to help inspire my color choices for knitting, which reminds me that Summer is around the color and it’s time for me to take another color trek!

This week’s #knitchat is about color knitting. Come join us and talk about your color inspirations and projects.

#knitchat questions:

Q1) How do you pick your colors for your knitting? Do you tend to knit things in the same color(s)? What are they?

Q2) Any other places or methods you use to get color inspiration?

Q3) Anyone here love to dye yarn and fiber? Anyone willing to learn or pass on their wisdom about dyeing? How do you/would you choose your colors?

DETAILS… DETAILS… If you want to know more about what #knitchat is and how it works

• Where: Twitter (follow the #knitchat hashtag)
• When: Thursdays on the date listed above at 6:30 PM PST/9:30 PM EST (1 hour)
• Who: Me you and other Twitter Knitters/Crocheters & Fiber-crafters
• How: Need a primer on Twitter Chat… check this out: What does this Twitter chat thing look like?
• How: to post photos – 5 ways to share photos on Twitter
• How: to shorten your links. Simply paste your link into the field in http://bit.ly/ and shorten it. Copy and paste this link into the twitter feed.