If you follow Kelbourne Woolens on Instagram, you may already know that both Kate and Courtney are expecting new additions to their families and will be taking some time off. In the interim, we’ve lined up some of our talented friends to start a new series of guest posts so that our readers can still enjoy great tips, tricks & inspiration here on our blog.
Hi there! I’m Mari Chiba, and I’ll be popping in to guest blog over the next couple of months while Kate and Courtney are off enjoying time with their new tiny humans. I’m been fortunate to work with Kelbourne Woolens as part of my day job with Stitchcraft Marketing over the years (and also as a designer).
Though I learned to knit as a child, I didn’t pick it up again until I was living in Armenia as a Peace Corps volunteer; not soon after, I stumbled into the industry when I met a yarn company while teaching English in China. I’ve been designing knitting patterns, teaching knitting classes, and working for Stitchcraft Marketing since 2011.
One of my favorite designs, and one that I wear daily in winter, are my Connectivity Gloves from the First Fall 2016 issue of Knitty. They are knit with a skein of Canopy Worsted and a skein of The Feel Good Yarn Company SilverSpun, a conductive yarn that means you can use your smart phone while wearing the gloves! Using Canopy Worsted to knit the body of the glove means these won’t take as long to make as a glove knit completely in a lighter weight yarn.
I also designed a pattern for the Knightsbridge Collection: Barnaby is a menswear-inspired pullover with saddle shoulders. Knit in one piece from the bottom up, I’m still dreaming about making one of these for myself to wear one day.
I’ll be back with more of my perspective on the knitting industry, a color story, and interviews with designers that I admire. You can follow me on Instagram and on Ravelry.
