The spring make-along is behind us. So many new friendships were made and stunning projects completed! I'd love to keep that momentum going and inspire you to keep making all the things. With this in mind, I'm excited to tell you a little bit about our Creative Knitters membership. It ties into our yarns and our make-alongs (think early access to the kits and new products) but goes way beyond our yarns and include a video vault of techniques as well as ways to get knitting and crochet help (on any pattern or any yarn)...not to mention learning-packed classes and a cheerleading, inclusive community!

Alrighty so here is what you get ~ it's a whole lot!

• A video vault – This is geared to all levels of knitters but will be especially beneficial to beginner knitters to start. The video vault is yours forever and hosted on teachable. Right when you join, you’ll get access to the 130+ videos tutorials - simple basics like – how to read a yarn label, what is the difference between yarn weights, our favorite tools, simple cast on and knit stitch tutorials. This is all the stuff that I wish I had known when I started knitting. I spent hours on youtube looking for tutorials – it was painful. This is a one stop place for simple, clear videos. You’ll also find more advanced tutorials on short rows, colorwork, lace, blocking, brioche, intarsia and more!

• Events - Each month we have one to two virtual learning events! We’ve learned how to add beads and sequins to our knitting with Brazilian teacher Paula Pereira, how to Tunisian crochet with Toni Lipsey and just last week, we learned how to stack stitches with Xandy Peters – the list goes on! Members from Knit Collage also lead us in events – Laurel taught us how to fix ALL the mistakes a few months ago and Cheryl will teach us how to add a zipper to a knit or crochet project in September. These are fun way for us to up our skills in connect as a community. All of these are lead on zoom and recorded.

• End of Year Party - Every December we also host a fun holiday trivia party complete with a signature cocktail (or mocktail) recipe to follow, fancy dress (if you feel inspired!) and prizes. We gave out over $500 in trivia prizes last time, it was a blast!

• Community - Making in community is just better. It’s about accountability and cheerleading and it’s just so much more fun that way! We’ll host our community in a private Facebook group and will encourage you to connect and cheerlead each other. Posts here can be about any project, any yarn. We love it all! We’ll host Zoom calls every week (sometimes twice a week) in addition to the monthly events. All of them are recorded if you would like to watch them later. We connect you by location and by your cohort of folks you joined with to foster a small group feel. If you want to meet up with folks that live near you in real life, fantastic.

This is a great place to say too – that all skill sets will be welcome. Expert knitters know that ripping is part of knitting. Even after knitting for 20+ years I still constantly make mistakes and it stinks but then I learn and grow. My hope for this community is that it is a place where any skill set will feel comfortable to share their wins and failures – because we’ve all been there and that is part of getting better. 

•  Help - What happens when you realize you’ve made a seemingly fatal knitting error and there’s nothing else you can do?!!!!!! You need help or else the entire project may be tossed to the wayside never to be returned to again. When I started knitted this very problem led to many an unfinished project. We’ve come up with something really cool here for you to get the help you need, when you need it. If you’ve done our KALs before you might know Cheryl and Anne – our knitting guru/goddess/tech queens. They both help knitters out all the time in our KALs. But now they’ll be helping you with any yarn/any project – not just made with knit collage yarn and patterns. You’ll sign up for a thirty minute time slot to zoom with her and get any kind of knitting help that you might need. We’re going to have a process for doing this through sign up genius that will be simple and easy for you to use. Think of it like your virtual knit helper when you need it. My hope is that this will get you finishing more projects with anxiety!

•   Early Access - The next thing and this is a big one – you’ll get early access to our make-alongs (MALs). In the past fall and spring MALs we sold out of some colors within minutes. This will give a leg up to make sure you get the colors you love. You’ll also get early access to other Knit Collage new releases – any new yarns, patterns and products that I don’t plan to always keep in stock as well as sale yarns. You will get first dibs! I'm currently working on a giant sample sale for Creative Knitters that will include one off samples from my last trip to India.

   All of our yarn is handmade in India – not only is it time intensive to make, the virus has taken a toll on our lead time lengths mainly because of the ongoing shipping crisis. The lead times we are working with keep getting longer which means I have to decide earlier and earlier what I need to order – it’s so tricky to say the least! Despite my best efforts, it is near impossible to guess each time correctly….which means getting that early access will definitely come in handy to ensure you get exactly what you like.

•  $10 monthly credit - You’ll also get a $10 credit to use on the knit collage website every month. If you don’t use it one month, it will simply roll over to the next month. If you’re so inclined, you can save these all up to use towards our make-alongs.

• Yarn Designing Class - This year, as a group we embarked on something fun and really new. Each CK member had the opportunity to design their own yarn. They created the recipe and I put it all into work on my last trip to India. I worked with our spinning team to get the samples all done (there were 28!) and as a community we voted on the ones we liked the best. The top three winners will become the gift that goes out to members once a year.

• Ok so that is it, I think I covered everything! The cost is $38 per month- a cost will likely increase each time we open registration because we keep adding more tutorials and class recordings to what you get.

•  Registration will be open for one week only. The next time to be able to join may be in about 6 months from now – Feb 2024. If we get a lot of interest right now we may not open it again for another year or so. This time around you have the option to sign up for a yearlong membership and save around $75 if you go that route.

   

  Registration will open on August 16th at 10am ET and stay open for one week, closing on August 23rd. Then the fun begins. Right when you join, you get access to that video vault and the community.

   

  If you feel your inner artist calling to explore and go deeper or if you’ve simply joined in our make-alongs and enjoyed the experience, I invite you to join me on a new, friend-filled creative adventure. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and if there’s one aspect of the membership that interests you the most. I’d love to hear it!