We’re so excited about our Second Birthday in the Knitcircus Studio, we’ve decided to do a special colorway to celebrate. Last year, your votes picked a wonderful, deep, saturated colorway for the party and I hope this year we’ll have something just as exciting and fresh.
Please help us choose by leaving a comment here or on the Pinterest Board by this Friday, May 12th.
Here are a few of my favorite contenders (sources noted):
In Color Balance
Russian Color Palette site
Design Seeds
EmptyFantasies on Pinterest
From Design Seeds
Please let me know which you like best or point me to a favorite color combo of yours! We’ll be working up both a Gradient and a Speckled Handpaint for double the fun! One person who votes for the winning color will be randomly chosen to receive a free Speckle Handpaint of the color.
BIRTHDAY PARTY
Celebrate with us at the Studio, 634 Grand Canyon Drive! June 16th join the fun for a party with live music by the Arbor Ensemble, cake and a pop-up shop with bags by Daddy Sews.
It’s our birthday and you’re invited! June 16th 5-7:30 join us for a party at the Studio, 634 Grand Canyon Drive in Madison, Wisconsin. We’ll have live music, prizes, a pop-up shop from a local maker, and cake!
Saturday June 17th we’ll have classes with Susan B. Anderson, a sidewalk sale and and more pop-up-shop action. Both days you can win prizes when you visit us. More class details coming soon!
We’re so happy to be in the Studio and hope you can join us to celebrate.
Jaala asked me to say something about myself this week, which is strange for me. My name is Katie, and I love being behind the scenes helping to make things tick.
Every day is something different for me at Knitcircus; today I’m in the office with my puppy curled at my feet but yesterday I was busily dyeing up batches of gorgeous yarn to send to online customers and for us to take to Stitches Midwest.
Roscoe Likes to Help in the Office
What am I doing tomorrow? Who knows?!? When I’m not dyeing yarn or working on the website listings, I am prettifying displays and ordering needles and notions for the Studio Store and at most of our shows working the booth.
At home I am busy raising my son Cole and step-son Jacob with my husband James. We also have two cats, Captain Fitzwilliam von FancyPaws, Fourth Earl of Bigglesworth (Fitz) and Cleo, in addition to our puppy, Roscoe.
I can often be found knitting or crocheting on the couch watching Midsomer Murders or any BBC Masterpiece Classic in the evenings.
Fall Collection Color
For my Fall Collection literary character I decided on Elinor Dashwood from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.
It’s not that I directly identify with Elinor but I do feel an affinity for her. Elinor is steady, mature, soft-spoken but well-respected, and the rock of her family during a sad and turbulent time.
Elinor always makes me think of a lighthouse during a storm; strong and steady and still standing after the storm passes.
Aside from my love of English literature, I have a deep and abiding appreciation for anything funny and awesome. So I will leave you with this thought: Go see Ghostbusters.
As a lifelong reader, I’m almost dizzy with excitement about our new fall yarn collection. Each Knitcircus Crew member gets to pick their favorite book character and we’ll develop a colorway based on each one.
My favorite book of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird, but I can’t pick just one character from that, since the setting, characters, plot and message are all so masterfully fused into one.
The problem, of course, is narrowing down our choices to just one favorite character! My top pick will probably be Pippi Longstocking, because she was a huge hero to me growing up. She lived alone, defeated robbers, flipped pancakes, made friends with pirates, bested bullies, thoughtfully entertained her friends, bought candy for every kid in town, and did it all with a huge grin. We had the book pictured above. Note the price!
Thanks to Pippi, our family always referred to math as “pluttification” and sang songs like, “Now we will fry a pankye,” every Sunday morning.
As a kid, I just loved Pippi’s free-spirited adventures; as a grown woman, I love her independence, resilience, loyalty and positive attitude. She always used her powers for good, even if she didn’t understand drinking tea in polite society. She’s still my hero.
Here’s author Astrid Lindgren with the actress playing Pippi. I also loved The Children of Noisy Village, based on her own childhood on a Swedish farm.
Another top pick: Anne of Green Gables. Of course! Who could not be won over by Anne’s pluck, imagination and heartfelt desire to be part of a family? But you’ll hear more about Anne from another member of the Knitcircus Crew…
kinopoisk.ru
Tied for third place for me are Ron Weasley and Samwise Gamgee.
I’ve always had a thing for sidekicks, starting with someone probably nobody knows, Shoie Shoemaker, best friend to The Magnificent Brain, Alvin Fernald. I read all of Clifford B. Hicks’ books and grew quite fond of the lanky, athletic kid who was always ready for an adventure.
My dad read to my brother and I every night growing up, all the way through my freshman year of high school. We listened raptly to all of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, probably some of my dad’s favorite books. Samwise Gamgee’s loyalty, love and determination totally captured my heart.
Ron Weasley. Guess I have a thing for loyal guys. And funny guys. And guys who are a little insecure because they grew up poor.
And big families. A lot of other books I read as a kid featured lots of brothers and sisters instead of just one. The Weasley Twins are also some of my all-time favorite book characters.
(sorry, I don’t know who to attribute this awesome graphic to)
Also, I just found out in the course of this “research” (looking at internet pics of your favorite characters counts as research now, #lovemyjob) that Rupert Grint, the actor who plays Ron, bought an ice cream truck and went around giving away ice cream for free. Since I have a lifelong fascination with ice cream trucks, I also like Rupert Grint now, too. Ice cream trucks, parties, the circus, all of these have always seemed magical to me.
So, these are a few of my favorite things….watch for more from the other Knitcircus Crew members as the September release date gets closer!
Thanks to everyone who entered to win the Knitting All Around Stitch Dictionary, by Wendy Bernard! The winner is Savannahgal!!!!! Please get in touch with us and let us know your mailing address, and we’ll send the info straight to the publisher. (Please send to jaala@knitcircus.com)
Thanks also to everyone who voted on the Happy Birthday Knitcircus colorway! The winner: Forever Floral. You are a sophisticated crowd. We renamed it Big Top Birthday. 🙂
I love this color and can’t wait to get dyeing! In the meantime, we’ve put up a listing in the store so you can pre-order yours to have in hand on the big party day. Choose Big Top Birthday Panoramic Gradient in many sizes, or Matching Sock sets in small, medium or large.
Which brings us to this other fun news: it’s our birthday, and we want you to come to the party! We’ll have exclusive yarn, bags, treats, door prizes and free cake. We hope to see you at the Studio June 24th!
We’re so excited to share our new Alice in Wonderland yarns that we had a Mad Tea Party on You Tube!
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The setup was the most fun, creating all kinds of crazy yarn/pastry scenarios…
Amy was especially known for her famous Orange Mad Tea (it’s suspiciously fizzy…)
Watch for a special Mad Tea Party display in the store starting at the Spring Fling party this Friday! Of course, if you’re not near Madison, you can enjoy all the Alice colors on the website….
Hope your spring day does not include the spatter of snow we got this morning!
In Color Balance
Russian Color Palette site
Design Seeds
EmptyFantasies on Pinterest
From Design Seeds
knitcircus 