Interview with the Knitspot Team

We're trying something a bit new here. My first ever guest post interview. I've loved being a member of Knitspot's Fall in Full Color Club the past few years that I asked the Knitspot team if I could do an interview about the club (since you all aren't at my knit nite where I go on and on about how amazing it is!). So grab a cup of tea, sit back and read a bit...I hope you enjoy it! Oh, and some other fun things at the end of the post too!

Hi Knitspot Team! Thank you so much for stopping by the blog to tell us more about your upcoming Fall in Full Color Club. Let's start with an easy question for those readers who haven't yet heard about the Fall in Full Color Club.  Can you tell us a little about what this club is all about?

thank you carrie for asking your readers what they wanted to know about FIFC. my name is erica and i am anne hanson's majordomo. for those of you not familiar with the term, it's a person that speaks, makes arrangements and handles a lot of daily tasks on behalf of another person. majordomos were common in europe and responsible for the management of a large household. so, in short, i perform a lot of tasks for anne and work very closely with her on many projects. one of which is Fall in Full Color! i get to plan every bit of it with anne and it is one of my favorite parts of my job.

2013 will be our 3rd Fall in Full Color club! we have some really amazing fibers and colors in store for this year. i think this is my favorite club. haha i think i say that for EVERY club. but really, this one is fantastic! the club runs from August until January and is 6 months of exclusive hand dyed yarn from amazing dyers paired with club-only accessory patterns from knitspot. the patterns come in the form of an ebook chapter that is delivered on the 17th of each month. the chapter includes beautiful photos of color inspiration, design notes and lots of pattern photos. the yarns vary in weight and intriguing fibers. more details on the club (http://www.knitspot.com/clubs/fifc2013/index.php), along with signup info (http://www.knitspot.com/clubs/fifc2013/fifc2013-yarn-club-join.php)

though all the projects are a monthly surprise, you can get an idea of the club's accessory projects by watching a slideshow of 2012 projects on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/knitspot/sets/72157633258065178/

we also have a fabulous swingin' clubhouse in ravelry where clubbies chat up the yarn/projects monthly and encourage everyone along in their projects (http://www.ravelry.com/groups/knitspot-fall-in-full-color-clubhouse)

**the above collaboration is all the yarns and projects from 2012**

 

 

 

 

 

All photos courtesy of Knitspot and used with permission

One of our readers, LesleyBadger, wanted to know  where Anne gets her inspiration for her designs. What is the inspiration for this club's designs?

anne is constantly inspired, a lot from her observances in nature while walking or running. she also is inspired by art and architecture. anne first decides on a palette of six colors for the club. she spends a lot of time deliberating on what colors speak to her for the season and what she thinks will inspire the club members. then she approaches dyers with her ideas of colors, sometimes sending them a color board of digital pictures or even tactile objects. often in just a conversation with a dyer about color, he/she nails the color on the head without even getting a physical image from anne. it's amazing to see a dyer birth a color from just an idea to sample skeins to the final order of hundreds of skeins for clubbies.

and it's even more fun to keep each color a surprise until every member gets their coveted skein in the mailbox each month. we love when everyone starts chatting about them in the spoiler and non-spolier threads in the ravelry group. we love all the mailman stories too! 

anne has a pretty good idea of what color and fiber will become a certain accessory. anne has an amazing eye for style from her previous life in the fashion industry and loves to create beautiful, classic, timeless designs that people will treasure and wear for many seasons. this year she has a couple surprises under her hat that i am truly excited about. wish i could share! but you'll just have to see...

 

I know this club features yarn by some of our favorite indie dyers. I know you can't tell us who the dyers are for this upcoming club, but can you tell us about some of the dyers that were featured in previous years? Is there a chance some might be appearing again??

 

well aren't you inquisitive carrie! it's a great question. i'll list previous years below, but i have been sworn to secrecy on 2013 dyers. 

2011 - Spirit Trail Fiberworks, Shalimar Yarns, Briar Rose Fibers, String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn, MinkYarn.com, New Hue Handspuns

2012 - Knitting Notions, Hazel Knits, Studio June Yarn, Fleur de Fiber, Spirit Trail Fiberworks, Miss Babs

 

Knitters have many options to choose from when it comes to clubs. What do you think makes this club different from others that are out there?  How does it stand apart?

 

I think the ebook really makes this club stand apart. I've been in MANY yarn clubs and anne's in-depth chapters she produces each month just blow me away. by the time you get to the end of the chapter, your fingers are itching to cast on. i also like that there are a variety of accessory projects to keep a knitter's interest. i also like the timing of the club, because many people use FIFC to schedule their Christmas gift knitting. plus, there is a "double dip" option in the club where members can initially sign up for a second serving of yarn. this way, many knitters knit a project as a gift and use the second skein to knit another for themselves. or, anne often includes multiple project ideas or additional sizes in the ebook chapters so the double dippers (or as clubbies have nicknamed themselves "DD") have options. unlike other clubs that have six designs to go with the six yarns, knitspot clubs often end up with 11-14 designs in six months. 

 

I've knit a few of Anne's sock patterns and I'm working on my Hazeline shawlette from the first FiFC club and love how straightforward Anne's patterns are. One of my readers noted that she has a few Knitspot shawl patterns but hasn't knit them yet because they were "gorgeous but oh-so-scary" in regards to how intricate they look. First, how do you help knitters get past that "it looks too hard for me to knit" stage?  Second, what range of difficulty are the patterns in the FiFC club?

anne prides herself on very straightforward both written and charted patterns. she loves intricate looking designs that are easily memorized and flow off the needles in a fast, fluid and delightful manner. anne always says to me, "i like to design patterns that i would knit myself. i like to knit designs that have stitch patterns that i can memorize in just a couple repeats. but i also love the look of intricate designs, so i strive to the best of both worlds in my designs. i want people to finish one of my designs and feel proud of what they've knit." and over and over and over again, people write to us to say they were at first intimidated by knitspot designs and we're waiting until they were more skilled of a knitter to try them. but alas, they should not have waited because as a beginner they could have easily finished the designs with ease. we also get lots of emails from people that they tried lace or socks for the first time because of knitspot clubs. if it weren't for being in the clubs, they would have never tackled that type of project. due to anne's great pattern writing they feel brave to tackle new types of projects and stitch work.

FIFC 2013 is a series of intermediate fall and winter accessory projects. but as many clubbies can attest in the ravelry group, they could easily work up the pattern even as a beginner. the fellow clubbies in the ravelry clubhouse are an amazing support group giving out tips, too.

 

What has been your favorite design from the prior Fall in Full Color clubs?

my favorite is Kiltie. i LOVED the name of the pieces because the flirty kick pleats do remind me of a kilt. but the BEST part of that december shipment was the surprise goodie - coordinating handmade glass buttons from Moving Mud that complimented the delicious blue yarn. like the club yarns and patterns aren't special enough, anne occasionally throws in a special treat! how cool is that!?

 

 

i asked anne what her favorite design was. she said Hazeline

 

 

because she loved that month's yarn and she loved all the textures in the design.

If my readers are thinking about signing up, where can they get more information?

 

see links above.

 

Anything else you'd like to tell us about the club?

 

memberships are limited and we will be closing signups very soon. we would love to see some IGK fans join the club. we know carrie is a HUGE fan of anne's ebooks and clubs and she would probably get a kick out of some of her fans joining her in the knitspot club fun.

 

 

Thank you for stopping by the blog and letting my readers hear a bit more about this exciting club you have to offer.  Before you go, when can we expect the pattern for baby Knitspot's christening sweater?? You know we are all fans of baby Knitspot around here and he was just too cute in that sweater!

 

right now there isn't a release date in the near future for padraig's sweater. it is a super cute design! it's a design i truly treasure as an heirloom piece. i am honored to own it and that it was worn for such a special event in my child's life. anne is a gem and a dear, dear friend.

 

 

Okay, I can't believe the cute baby above has grown so much! Look at him last month!

 

 

That is Erica, baby Padraig, Anne, and Sarah!  Thank you so much Knitspot team for making the blog more interesting today :)

Tomorrow afternoon I'm off for a few days to enjoy this. I can't wait! I'll be bringing my Hazeline for selfish knitting in between two secret projects.



A few quick things before I go....

• The Knitted Home book review and contest will run til I'm back, so you still have time to enter to win a copy.

• Want to win your very own Hexipuff Blanket (I mean the Beekeeper's Quilt)? For just $5 you can enter to win, all while supporting a good cause and cheering on my BFF Discoknits! Check out her progress....that is going to be one gorgeous STR blanket!!!

• Come join our IGK KAL! Well, at least find out about the coupon code (20% off all IGK patterns with it through the end of the month). More details here.

• Congrats to LesleyBadger and Jocelyn (Jhocy) for winning a Knitspot pattern of your choice (up to $8.00 value)! Please message me on ravelry or email me at irishgirlieknits AT gmail DOT com with your pattern choice and I'll send it to you when I'm back from vacation next week :)  Thank you for your helpful questions!

• There have been some gorgeous gradient versions of Fiar floating around the internet! Here's a pink version, a green version,  a gray to lavendar version, and a lovely golden brown version. So so pretty I just had to share.  I think they'll be doing Fiar kits soon, but here is just the yarn if you wanted it from Black Trillium Fibers.

There isn't much wifi access at the cabin, but I'll do my best to get some pretty photos up while I'm gone! I hope you guys have a great week.

Thank you again to the awesome Knitspot team!!

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Process

My design process that is.  I've been thinking a lot about how I want to continue expanding Irish Girlie Knits Designs in the next year.  One of those ways is to continue learning.  As many of you know, my first for-sale pattern was Cotty, a sock design that was born at sock camp. I think by that point I had knit 50 pairs of socks, none of them plain vanilla socks, either.  Once the design bug hit me, the sock designs just kept coming.  The sock provides a very comfortable canvas for me to design on.  For example, I knew as I was designing the Sleepy Hollow hat that this pattern would work well for a sock.





One sock finished in the lovely new Bare Naked Wools Breakfast Blend sock yarn from Knitspot. I just need to get this baby written up, get it to test knitters, and finish knitting the second sock.  I cast on that second sock immediately!



But just as comfortable as I am designing socks, it has been a steep learning curve for some other designs.  Infinity scarves, baby things, hats, those aren't so hard.  Before the sock obsession I knit a lot of those.  But shawls.  My first shawl that I ever knit was my Bellingrath Shawlette.  Silly me, lace with patterning on both sides!  But I did love that design.  And I think I enjoy designing shawls lately because there is the challenge of learning and trying something new. So one of my goals this year has been to knit other shawl patterns to.  Especially since last year I didn't really knit any project other than something I was designing or had designed.  Well, I did knit a pair of Toast (um....a tube!) and a wee pumpkin.  But that's it.  I blame those graduate school classes.

First up, Hazeline from the Fall in Full Color Club, by Anne Hanson (duh! if I want to learn more from other designers, why not go to the best, right?!).  I cast on this weekend in a vintage Plucky Knitter MCN sock yarn.



Ah!  Such a freeing feeling to knit someone else's pattern! To not have to worry about making notes all the time, or decisions about next steps.  So nice to just follow along and knit.  I'm not putting any deadlines on these projects and I'm using stash yarn that I love but probably won't design with.  And I'm hoping at the end of the year, I just may have a gift pile going for the holidays.

Which leads me to another process, and that is my process as a knitter.  I've gone from knit like crazy for everyone at the holidays to the last two holidays knitting very few things if any for anyone.  The only Christmas gift I knit last year was a pair of Toast for Lil' Snowboarder's teacher.  I rarely knit teacher gifts, but she is AMAZING!  She deserved cashmere.  And I really truly enjoyed knitting those for her and gifting them to her.  It made me remember why I loved knitting things for people who truly appreciate them.  Designing hasn't made it easy for me to frantically knit those gifts late into the night, but I am going to make a more conscious effort to knit for those I love this year.  I'm hoping that having someone else's pattern on the needles may help with that.  We'll see.

My knitting time last year was so limited that I was always working on something design related.  I didn't feel like I could afford the time to work on something else.  But I realized while knitting those Toasts at Christmas that I have some extra knitting time if it isn't something complicated.  I whipped those babies up in no time between car rides, waiting in line, and at the movies.  No, I can't knit on a new design on a car ride or at the movies unless I'm at a certain point, but I can knit on an easy sock.  The plain vanilla socks I've been avoiding (so boring to me!) may serve a good purpose now.  I'm giving it a try.  A very very very mindless knit will be on the needles at all times.  Again, something with no deadline, no rush to finish. First up is a sock for dad.  I grabbed the first STR heavyweight skein that was already wound.



I'm surprised how far along I am given how little I've knit on these.  Just this week I've knit on this sock, the shawl above, and knit one of my sleepy hollow socks. 

But here's the downside I discovered.  I'm really enjoying just knitting.  The easy sock. The shawl pattern that isn't mine.  It has been so refreshing. So much so that when Anne released the first pattern in her Bare Naked Knits Club (I joined the pattern only version which is still open) this weekend, I had to resist casting on the hat.  Seriously.  I quickly thought up three different yarns in my stash that I could use.  I contemplated if maybe I should see if there was still a spot open in the yarn version of the club because then I could definitely work on my goal of learning new things if the yarn just showed up too.And then I remembered my to-design list and those pretty new yarns from TNNA and resisted. For now. 

I think this is why I love our craft so much. There is still so much to learn from knitting and that continues to bring me so much joy.  It is why I know eventually I will start spinning too.

Does any of this resonate with you guys?  What is your process as a knitter or as a designer?  I'd love to hear. 

Oh, and before I go, can I ask you guys a favor?  It is my baby sister's birthday tomorrow and she isn't feeling well.  Can you help me wish her a very happy birthday in the comments?



Lots of organizing and cleaning happened this weekend and I finally put this picture in a frame.  It is one of my favorites from that day!   Happy birthday little sis!!!  I love you!!

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits