One of the things I pride myself on is my eco-sensibility.  In our house we recycle every bit we can, we use eco friendly cleaners, buy locally, eat organic and we try to uphold the same principles in the shop. We use eco-friendly cleaners, we try to carry as many eco-friendly yarns as possible and we also compost our shredded paper.

Now you can get involved too.  I’ve caught wind that folks are also composting their yarn scraps! Makes sense right? It’s natural, it’s biodegradable, why not?!

Cut up the scraps before putting them in.  It helps to speed up the biodegrading process and doesn’t get tangled when you have to turn it. Make sure you only put in natural fibers like cottons and wools.

PS: If you have open-topped container in the backyard–the birds will take the scraps to build their nests.  You’ll see bits of yarns in the trees.

As if we devoted sock knitters didn’t already have an obsession with socks, the world of fashion has finally come over to our side.

I don’t know about you, but in my travels most encounters with “store bought”  socks have largely been around novelty socks and much harder to find beautiful socks, knee socks, fashion socks, those that look great with a skirt or a pair of boots.

Prada featured lovely knee highs in this season's collection

Socks are popping up all over the runways this season.  Great news for hand knitters.  I think we’ll find greater inspiration as we seek to knit up little gems. This season will see some amazing returning sock yarns like Zauberball and lovely new ones that will make you weak in the knees.

Continuing with our trend of interviewing designers that we love and inspire us, we set out to talk to Olga Buraya-Kefelian, the designer behind the fabulous book Ori Ami Knits. Check out our interview and a peak inside the book below!

Olga Buraya-Kefelian modeling the Japonica Cravat

Many of us in the shop have loved Habu Textile for so long, followed your designs on Ravelry, and are super excited about the publication of your new book Ori Ami Knits, which features some Habu yarns.  For those that are not familiar, can you give a little background on yourself?

Gladly, Courtney. My name is Olga Buraya-Kefelian and I am a knitwear designer born and raised in Belarus, who have been living, knitting, publishing and self-publishing my designs for almost 5 years now. As of this spring, I am also a co-author of a self-published title along with a talented photographer and graphic designer Vanessa Yap-Einbund and a contributor designer Kirsten Johnstone  - named Ori Ami Knits: Fiber geometry. A collection of innovative versatile designs of womens wear using alternative fibers of Habu Textiles.

What draws you to the Habu Textiles as a line to design with?

Habu textiles have been in American market for a decade now, in recent years with knitting making such huge comeback and many of us adopting it as a lifestyle. With a great  choice of conventional fibers at hand I became drawn to unconventional. For several years I have studied the fibers and their behavior and  it made me wonder how much more is out there available to a knitter and what amazing garments those fibers can produce. I got a feeling yarns from Habu Textiles gave me of wider range for creativity, one may feel that these fibers are expandable, array of exotic and unique in combination with natural gives you a choice for creating your own yarn that would suit the project perfectly. So depending on what you envision for the fabric in the final garment to do, can be easily achieved with Habu textiles yarns.

Can you tell readers a bit about the book and how it came to be? You also have a unique publishing model via digital subscriptions.  Can you talk a little about that?

For a while now, I have been approached by various publishing houses regarding working together. I have gave it a reasonable amount of thought and have had colleagues who shared their experience and feeling about it. Idea for self-publishing was lingering, but having noticed fellow knitwear designer friends taking a chance like Ysolda Teague, me and Vanessa have decided to do some extensive research. We chose things that were important for a customer and for production and at the same time satisfy our goals. I truly believe that publishing houses and editors are doing a lot of work trying to make your book the best, but we just went ahead ourselves and in the end I have gained even more respect for those in the trade.

What a great neckline!

I think sometimes knitters and crochets are intimidated about handling unusual fibers.  Can you talk about some ways in which to use or approach some of the more non-traditional knitting and crochet fibers?

Habu textiles provides you with a palette when you get their catalog of yarn snippets, you can imagine yourself an artist, you play with various pairing and swatch, there is a lot fiber exploration taking place, if you know what you want the knit fabric to do and it is achievable. And yet it is so accessible to anyone, yes it is a little more independence and work vs just buying yarn and pattern and making it up. But with Habu Textiles even though you maybe using same pattern, your yarn combination can be personalized and unique, that gives any knitter a designer feel to their finished garment.

Thinking outside the box is not always easy, I always suggest making a swatch, wash, pleat, play with possibilities. It is not necessarily that conventional garments would look great in experimental fibers, some work and some don’t. But please be more adventurous, in the end  you will be pleasantly surprised!

Where does your design inspiration come from?

I think this is always such a hard question to answer. To generalize it - life, things around me, architecture, natural setting. I am that person who is very observant and pays attention to details a great lot, I guess it comes from there. But also seeing people on the street, area your are in - other people’s creativity triggers your own, but the goal is to take it places further and create something that you love.

The perfect fun summery scarf

I LOVE Japanese craft books and design.  Can you recommend some of your favorite Japanese craft books or Japanese designers you admire?

I personally love Japanese stitch dictionaries that I collect, they refer to older forgotten resources and that is a great tool for a knitwear designer. I also admire Japanese sewing books, but I haven’t encountered that many I love. Pattern magic are my favorite series that provide me with a lot of inspiration. Designers who introduced world of Japanese fashion to the Westerners - Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto are still by far are my favorites. I had recently had a chance to visit their stores in Tokyo and they are utterly amazing, just breathtaking! Standing and staring just the way the dummies are dressed, the whole concept is different. And I like different. I am not brave enough to dress up entirely in avant garde attire, but I love to adapt the details of it into practical clothing. Balance is something that is very important.

What’s next?  Where do you see your designing going?

Being a designer is a non-stop creativity process, currently I am expanding my own line of patterns, so lots of knitting and writing, but I am also working on several designs with other yarn companies. Just several weeks ago I have released a design, which I am very excited about, it’s called Infinite loop and using Habu textiles yarn, it can be worn over 15 different ways and you can see it in a video that I made showing how to wear it.

Quick Facts:

On your iPod right now:

Florence and the machine - Dog days are over

If you were a yarn what yarn would you be?

I think I would be silk, smooth, drapey but sturdy.

Favorite place to knit:

My Ikea “Poang” chair with a lot of natural light.

Current project on the needles:

I have about 5, but on my lap right now I have a new design using pure linen.

Who taught you to knit?

My mother when I was 4.

I love this great two layered look.

You can purchase Ori Ami Knits here.

Please note: All photos copyright Ori Ami Knits and used with their permission.

Wait until you see some of the new yarns for this season. No doubt chunky beautiful yarns are going to be in.  I thought we could all gleam a little inspiration from this amazing designer Johan Ku.  A graphic designer turned fashion designer and fiber/sculpture artist has created some amazing pieces of wearable art.

Seriously chunky right?

There are so many fun and amazing fibers coming our way this Fall.  Yes I said this Fall even though it doesn’t feel like it now, we just crank up the AC at Seed Stitch so we can get in the mood to look at lovely cozy comfy yarns. 

I rarely sit still and when I do I always try to keep my hands busy.  Usually with knitting, but I love all sorts of hand crafts.  One in particular I’ve always admired is traditional red work.  If you’re not familiar with redwork, my love of which stems back to my quilting days, it’s the art of using red cotton thread to embroider designs on a white, typically muslin background.  The designs are often story book type illustrations but has so much to offer.

You can see more in great books like this.

Great American Redwork

Mazie has taken an intense interest in drawing early on and some of them are so fabulous. So inspiration hit!
I could turn these drawing into some redwork.

This is Mazie's drawing of mummy

I picked up some fabulous cotton flouch (aka cotton thread) across the street at B.F. Good Stitch, some simple white dish cloths at William Sonoma, traced Maze’s artwork onto the cloth and stitched away! I’m so in love with my first attempt and can’t wait to tackle the rest. This will become a set of four. She’s so excited to see her drawings like this and I am so excited with the result.

I know it’s not knitting or yarn-y but I just had to share.

Sometimes the Brits come up with the most amazing ideas.  Check out this wonderful public installation piece by Robert Frith, James Bowskill, Jon Almond, and Annack Collins, otherwise known as SuperBlue Design Collective.

A wide view of the installation in use

The team built a giant knitting board or machine (a replica of a toy called Knitting Nancy), used extra large plastic balls and a whole bunch of blue rope, engaging people to knit with them and use the new seating.

Don't you want to sit down?

I remember using my Knitting Nancy with my Grandmother and making yarns and yarns of cord for potholders, necklaces, and so many other things that a little girl can dream up.

How about you? Remember using something like this?

Check out more here.

As a yarn shop owner, I get lost in yarn almost every day.  But this project brings new meaning to the phrase.

A maze from thousands of strands

This amazing maze was made by Donna Wilson for the Coast Festival on Banff Castle.  Donna started with a bunch of stakes so to speak to create the framework and then laboriously wound yarn around them to create this amazing maze.

As Donna said "A long way to go"

I just love how she also thought out the colorways in addition to the ingenuity of the idea there was an artistic sensibility that is fabulous.  Check more from Donna on this project.

Beautiful!

Sarah Applebaum is a San Francisco based artist who I just had to share.  Her work is an amazing compilation of found crocheted and knitted objects to unique hand made fiber objects.

This is called the Phantasm

She creates interesting landscape like environments that draw you in. I feel like I might have stepped into some sort of dream.

Really neat huh?

Just a little inspiration for the day.  Bring some color into your next project and check out Sarah’s work here.

Note: All photos courtesy of Sarah Applebaum

Colors speak to us in so many different ways.  Certain blues might remind us of a perfect blue sky, or a vibrant yellow that hearkens back to a lone Spring daffodil, or soft pink that was your favorite flavor of salt water taffy as a child.

However, there are some colors that are  signals to different cultures about various symbols or have different meanings for different cultures. Fascinating.  For instance in the western world when we see the color red in certain situations, it can signal danger or a warning.

What a beautiful image to represent this concept

This lovely image is courtesy of Information is Beautiful.  Can you think of the ways this might inspire or influence your color work and fiber projects?

There is something so beautiful about the concept of combining the written word with the beautifully tactile art of knitting.  That’s just what a group of big thinking knitters did with a gigantic knitted poem to celebrate National Poetry Day at the British Library.

The group put out a virtual call to action for contributions and knitters responded, creating the first knitted poem.

The group pieced together squares contributed from far and wide.

The poem is Dylan Thomas’  ‘In my Craft or Sullen Art’ and a fitting tribute to Thomas’ words in this dramatic piece of art!

Note: All photos courtesy of the Poetry Society