🧶 Knitting at 32,000 feet ✈️

Writing this newsletter at the ATL airport enroute from the beach to TUL. Right now, if it can’t be knit at 32,000 feet, it’s not going on my needles. I’ve always loved “airplane knitting” – the portable, meditative projects that don’t require a lot of concentration… (read: can be worked while sipping a Delta bloody…

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🧶An extra-special hat

Last week we told you about our project manager Sunnie and her Noodlyknits Hat Drive benefiting patients at the cancer treatment hospital her uncle runs in Gwangju, South Korea. Now it’s true, the usual thing when making for charity is to use a basic pattern and stash yarn and knock them out “on repeat”… But…

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🧶Did I ever tell you you’re my hero

Make the Ena Pullover with our exclusive colors of LolaBean Cool Beans Sport. It’s a funny thing… As makers, sometimes we get so busy making things, we don’t even realize how much impact we’re having on the wider world. Our amazing readers helped make a heroic difference last week – and at first I didn’t even…

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🌟You’ve earned it

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to “deserve” something. Here’s why.  Tomorrow is the last chance to sign up for our 7th Masterclass Event called Texture + Wonder. And all week, I’ve been in the comments online, listening as knitters and crocheters all over the world angst over whether to invest…

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🧶How did I get here?

CLICK HERE to listen to an audio version of this newsletter These days we’re all moving so fast… Many of us live in such a constant state of fight or flight, we actually become accustomed to fighting against what’s possible. When challenges pop up, we tell ourselves “I can’t” over and over. And then one day,…

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🧶Before and after

This past week, we debuted the new Hot Loops Project Wall that we curated with Aimée from La Bien Aimée hand-dyed yarns. Apparently, this is what happens when you get a hot indie dyer, a bunch of awesome designers and 1,500 yarn lovers on Zoom all at once: To say I’m grateful to our amazing team and our loyal…

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🧶Steady through the storm

I’m writing this week’s newsletter by candlelight, looking out onto the south Florida sea as Hurricane Ian huffs and puffs out my window. When I moved a few months ago, I thought I was trading a lifetime of Oklahoma tornadoes for a hurricane or two here and there. Silly me! Last night Ian served up…

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🧶Hot off the runway 🔥

It’s here! Last night, we revealed our 36th Hot Loops Wall. What started as my antidote to the frustration I experienced as a younger knitter – always struggling to find a cute pattern paired with the perfect yarn – has evolved into a sort of New York Fashion Week for yarn. On a live, global Zoom…

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🧶Making of a custom color 🎨

Have you ever wondered how a custom color is born? I get this question a lot, actually. People wonder how we work with indie dyers to develop our custom yarn colors. And the truth is, every collaboration is a little bit different. So this week, I’m sharing a couple behind-the-scenes stories of two very different,…

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From Paris with love…and yarn 💛

Y’all I am soooooo excited! Ahem, I mean… Je suie ravie!!! I could not be more thrilled to announce that our featured Fall Hot Loops Wall dyer is none other than La Bien Aimée! I met Aimée for the first time back in 2017 when my daughter Mallory and I were in Europe filming Knit Stars…

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🧶 A one-sock confession 😳

Urth’s Uneek self-striping sock kit in colorway “oranGGe.” Pattern is “Magnolia Socks” by Helen Stewart. This week, I’m on the confession couch… I’ve only ever knitted one sock. Not one pair of socks, mind you. One. Single. Sock. I needed to know I could do it, and it was fun to make…but the whole time I kept thinking,…

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🧶Top 12 ideas for our #1 yarn 🏆

“Ms. Harrison, did you knit your shirt?” “Yes! Yes, I did!” Is there any better feeling in the world than having someone notice your knits? Especially if you’re a teacher and it’s one of your favorite students on the first day back to school? 🥰 Star Guide and high school teacher Amber, pictured above, wearing her…

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🧶 Diane Ivey’s First Project

Do you still have the first thing you ever knit? To this day, I don’t know what happened to that pink cable sweater made with scratchy wool that I cobbled together on a road trip at the age of 16. I hope that out there somewhere, someone in a really cold place with unusually long…

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🧶 Beth’s first sweater!

This week’s “Moving the Needle” guest writer is Beth, our Knit Stars Relationships Manager. She recently finished a new version of one of my favorite older designs, and agreed to share a story about it. Read on and enjoy! – xoxo, Shelley I am not a great flyer. I am the one in the window…

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🧶Become a colorwork star

Oh, what I would give to go back in time… Back when I was making colorwork sweaters for my babies, completely winging it. If only I’d had Knit Stars Arne + Carlos, Mary Jane Mucklestone and Andrea Rangel by my side. Those tiny sweaters – while precious heirlooms – would be so much less embarrassing!…

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🧶To speed up? First, slow down

As I write this to you, I’m looking out over the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway in southern Florida. Watching a mama osprey and her baby, high in a nest above the water. Every morning, I rise before the sun and walk 4 miles across a bridge and back, pelicans and gulls gliding by lazily overhead. Six…

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🧶New: a Smoothie Operator 😎

Watch this clip from Masterclass Season 5 and hear GG’s secret to authenticity. If you follow @ggmadeit on Instagram or YouTube, you know that Gaye Glasspie, the iconic orange-loving goddess and Knit Stars Star Advisor, has been seriously under the weather. In the hospital for 25 days with double pneumonia, followed by recovery at home…

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🧶A Sunnie takeover 🌞

This week, Sunnie – our intrepid Project Manager – takes a turn at authoring the newsletter. We hope you love and appreciate her high-energy vibes as much as we do around here! – xoxo Shelley Is your list of places you’d like to travel as long as your pattern queue? Mine certainly is. I absolutely…

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🧶Simpler, and simpler still

How complicated is your life right now? …and how about your knitting? Personally, I’ve found that when my life gets more complex, my knitting has to get simpler. It’s like a seesaw. When one end is up, the other has to go down. Over the past few months, I’ve traveled to film in 5 countries,…

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🧶Ready, Set…start!

Today I’ve got something completely new for you… And it’s been 17 years in the making. Back when I opened my first yarn shop in 2005, I had a famous visitor one day. Jeanne Tripplehorn, the Tulsa-girl-turned-Hollywood-film-actress, walked into my shop. Imagine my surprise when I found out she was a knitter! Jeanne had seen…

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