What a week! I just arrived home to Boston after 10 days in India with the team there. It has been three long years since my last trip in Feb of 2020. Somehow in those years away, I forgot just how amazing what we do is. I became disconnected from the team, their stories. Over the course of the last 13 years, we've created our own little cottage industry within the Indian economy where 16 Indian women create our yarns! There’s just so much that goes into each and every skein and none of it would be possible without this team, right here, making it all happen. One of my favorite things about being there is that anything feels possible. On the final day, we had a samosa and sweets party and celebrated the team. I'd love to introduce you to them below!

Knit Collage India Team!

Meet Bindu, the master carder! She has been with us since the beginning.

Meera, with us since 2010 and the first woman I taught to spin in my technique. She now oversees the spinning and crochets and hand knits.

Beena oversees production. She makes sure we have the right fiber colors and trims when we need them. She helps make sure shipments aren't late. She has been with us since the beginning.

Ranjeet, weighs fiber before carding and does carding! She has been with us since the beginning.

Arakhi, she is new! Arakhi makes mini skeins and preps the trims for the spinners.

Henna, she is new! She preps fiber for carding and also helps pack finished yarn. 

Madhu, she is new! She makes mini skeins for our mini skein sampler kits and makes the Wildflower yarn.

Asha, makes mini skeins and trim packs for spinners. She is new!

Bhagmani is a knitter along with helping with spinning. She knits all the Free People sweaters we do (quantities are very small, so it's not a big challenge!). She is a master at knitting. In the spinning studio, she preps trims for spinning, fiber for carding and helps with packing. She has been with us almost since the beginning!

Meera is new! She cards fiber.

Meet Sita, she is new. Sita helps with fiber prep, trim packs and packing. Meera, Rekha and Sita are all family.

Here are the 5 spinners from left to right: Sungita, Balgeet, Reeta, Rekha and (another!) Rekha. 

Rekha, here since almost the beginning! She is a master at plying strands of yarn together.

Another Rekha! This Rekha is Meera's daughter. She's been working with us for about 5-6 years. Talented spinner!

Reeta, with us since almost the beginning! Reeta is a spinner of Daisy Chain and Dreamland.

Balgeet has also been with the team since almost the very beginning. She has the warmest smile. She's fantastic at spinning yarns like Cast Away.

Sungita, also here since almost the very beginning! She was fantastic this week at spinning a new yarn we have in development for fall. Excited. 

Lastly, this is Monika and I. Monika can often be found on the phone making things happen! She oversees it all and like all the women is immensely proud of what we've created. Monika is a ray of sunshine!

If you're interested in seeing some behind the scenes of the process, check out my instagram reel here. If you’ve ever bought a skein of yarn or joined in a knitalong, or if you’re just a follower here who enjoys what we do, THANK YOU! When you support this business, you don’t just support our US based team, you also support every one of these women too.

Thank you,

Amy 

As we're evolving here at Knit Collage, we've identified a new part-time position that we're excited to open up - Marketing and Customer Care Assistant! We are accepting applications for this role through Wednesday, March 8th.

At Knit Collage, we foster a kind and joyful community that is a welcoming space for creative self-expression where all belong regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, age, gender identity, and size. We believe every fiber of our company is made stronger by appreciating what makes us each unique and diverse as a community of makers. To read more about our company values, please click here.

To apply for the Marketing and Customer Care Assistant position, please read the job description, found at the link here. Applications, which include your resume and cover letter, will be received via Airtable at the link here.

We invite all candidates who feel they are a fit for the position and who align with our values to apply. 

The fall make-along is behind us.  So many new friendships were made and stunning projects completed! I'd love to keep that momentum going in the amazing community we've built with more making. 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 help (on any pattern or any yarn)...not to mention learning-packed events and an inspiring, inclusive community! 

My hope is to inspire more knitters to take their knitting into uncharted territories and lean into their creativity in a bigger way! If you've followed along here for a while you know that I am a big believer that knitting makes us better in countless ways. As a serial knitter, I love sharing and connecting over more than just Knit Collage yarns. This is how! We open up registration next week for one week only. Then the fun begins! More in depth details after the video below.

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

 * 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 resident knitting and crochet teachers. They both help knitters out all the time in our MALs. 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 or crochet helper when you need it. My hope is that this will get you finishing more projects with anxiety!

* 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! This year, teacher and KC team member is leading us in a stitch a month class, where we learn and end the year with a patchwork blanket!

 * Classes – in the past 6 months we started events! In our first event we learned how to add beads and sequins to our knitting with Brazilian teacher Paula Pereira. We’ve learned how to tie dye professionally with the Neon Tea Party, just to name a few .Team members from Knit Collage also lead us in events – Laurel taught us how to fix ALL the mistakes a few months ago and Cheryl recently led a class on how to add curly locks to a collar for the ultimate show stopping accessory.

 * 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 FB 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 also host Zoom calls every other week in addition to the monthly events The times alternate between a Saturday morning at 11am EST and a week night at 7:30pm. All of them are recorded if you would like to watch them later.

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 CONTSTANTLY 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.

As a community, this year we are designing our own Creative Knitters yarn that will be decided on by the community by popular vote! Hear more about this in the video above :)

* Early Access - The next thing and this is a big one – you’ll get early access to our knitalongs. 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.

All of our yarn is handmade in India – not only is it time intensive to make, the virus has taken a toll on our leadtime 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.

* Surprises - The team and I surprise you with a fun gift of yarn around the end of the year. You also get loads of free patterns and small perks like free shipping from time to time!

* $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 knitalongs.

Ok so that is it, I think I covered everything! The cost is $38 per month- a cost that increases each time we open registration because we keep adding more 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 – July 2023. 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 $50 if you go that route.

Registration will open Feb 22nd at 10am ET and stay open for one week, closing on March 1st. Then the fun begins. Right when you join, you get access to that video vault and the community. Our first zoom call is slated for the following week. If you have any questions at all, please let me know in the comments! I'd love to be a bigger part of your making journey!