Potato chip knitting... you've heard this expression, right? Like potato chips, can't eat just one - with some knitting projects you can't knit just one row, one motif, or you must knit through to the next gradient, the dishes can wait.. 

Here are some favorite projects that fall well within Potato Chip Knitting.. Enjoy (or be warned)!

Soldotna Crop - design by Caitlin Hunter/Boyland Knitworks
I've knit two so far.. I have hankerings for two other color combos. Knit in our Sport yarn, it's a remarkably quick project, watching first the fairisle pattern develop, following that with the gradient, this is a tough one to put down.. 

Fox Paws - design by Xandy Peters
This project had the dubious honor of keeping more than one of my employees and myself up until almost dawn more than a few times knitting away at this. I chose to make mine with Shawl Balls and made it twice as long and twice as wide as called for in the pattern. Perhaps crazy but so worth it!

Electric Boogaloo Cowl - designed by Tina Whitmore
This project is quick, knit up in 2 balls of the Freia Worsted and watching the gradients play off each other makes this impossible to put down. Once you've done one you'll be itching to try out other combos. 

Lilnientreu Shawl by Ute Nawratil
I just started on this and I'm sensing the danger already. This is a project I've had in my "must try this" list forever. When I looked at the pattern and calculated that the yarn requirements perfectly suited using a Palette Pack and semi solid that was it. I've opted for a Neutral Zone Palette Pack and Ebony Semi-solid. I'm going on a trip later this week and it seemed like perhaps something I could travel with. TBH, I'm having a hard time putting it down and I've not even left yet.. 

These are just some of the ones I've made (or I'm making). In another post I'll share with you all the ones I think would be (or are) amazing in our gradients that I've yet to make.

What are some of your favorite Potato Chip Knit Designs? Share in the comments and pass the potato chips!

"A lot to love in a little package"

The beauty of having a yarn company is if I want a specific thing, I make it. I know I'm spoiled. This also means that I can play with yarns and, ultimately, share my fun ideas with you. I figure, if I needed it, other people would find they did too. It was time to re-knit  a favorite design as the original yarn suggested had been discontinued, but it would need a shorter gradient than currently available, I didn't want to ask that customers buy a full ball of yarn only to have to break it into segments and discard 1/2 of it. Enter the Minikin. 

We took our best-selling yarn - the mulesing-free US merino Shawl Ball - and make it small. Our minikins are 107 yards/.9 oz balls that perfectly match our Shawl Balls and Yarn Bombs, but in a miniature version. It's 1/4 size of a Shawl Ball, or 1/8 of a Yarn Bomb, but the base is identical. While dyeing these guys up new design ideas kept popping in my head. I'll share a few ways to play with minikins below. 

Another favorite is the Alaska hat.The first one is done in Espresso (2 balls) and Coho for the lovely sunrise and the second in Vertigo (2 balls) and Dahlia for the sky. I'm itching to make another, I think the next will be in Aurora for the sky with Canyon for the trees.. 

I like the idea of grouping the Minikins in curated palettes, making a pack that is ready to go all within a single color theme. This idea birthed the Palette Packs. There are currently 7 Palette options at the time of this writing, but as we release new colors each season we'll expand even further the offerings. I took the Back to Basics pack and designed the Countdown Shawl (below), this takes the mini-gradients and breaks them into a striped pattern, so each gradient looks randomized into a stripe (I have a thing for stripes...!)