Kristy Glass Knits: Tin Can Knits

[Music] hi Cristie Codd here oh my gosh I'm so excited because we're at me Hale and these beautiful people have like zero time to themselves and they said yes to me so thank you so much well really like to meet you want to meet you well I'm just like so happy here so I mean I have a cheat sheet because um when it's Logan ending life I interview a lot of people and I don't want to ask you the wrong question so first of all let me just start by saying I just did my first hankins pattern the prison had and I loved it because I bought a prison hat for like you know five dollars you know whatever it is six dollars and then I got this treasure trove of information it was like pages amazing them I was like yes I can and I loved how empowered I felt like downloading that so thank you that's fun so I want to start by hearing your individual fiber stories because you weren't always too independent nope so say earnings and then tell us your journey sure I'm Alexa and I started knitting when I was 15 in high school and my mom was always very supportive of any craft you think that I would do and so I got some really hideous yarn and we all have it plastic like long double points that I put elastics around the head so that it wouldn't fall yeah and then she kind of knew had a cast on but then I learned how to knit out of which is why I throw with my left which I don't recommend oh we can you know somehow are another thing there was it was not an accepted style it's been called a pincher so like it shouldn't give you any tension that is proper at all so you can do anything enough time you can see her do it right now yeah this is a make any sense cuz my book was really not the night anyone how to knit anything it just was a book of stitches so does it take you a little while reading it yeah I mean about 25 yards an hour and worsted way whoa how do I figure that out I just figured out how long it took me to knit a sweater and I knew how many yards we're in the sweater have you done that no I don't know don't do probably slower them everybody do that comment below and tell me what your yarns per hour yes a yard spray darts per hour I'd like to know okay come it used to be slower about once I had to knit a man-sized sweater in three days for a photo shoot let's knit the collar twice so in the world that's when I got faster it made goodness okay so your mom wasn't a knitter just know she knows now but I had to like reteach okay yeah and she does that she says the binding on any quilts that I do and I usually end up finishing her knitting for Siemens like works for 15 I know you love this partnership okay when you had a minute so I would knit these really ugly six-foot scarves but I would try a different stitch pattern so like one day it would be you know lace and then maybe cables and texture and all those things and I kind of learned how the knit stitches worked and then I sewed all these hideous scarves together into hideous blankets so like like this they were all vertical they were all are you sure they were hideous because it's perfect I bet they were hideous I'm sure they are hmm but I didn't see them I didn't know Alexa like that okay okay they were acrylic so they're probably still alive well you know when you go to the good well you can buy them for like $3 it's that good I whenever I'm air like I know for three dollars I went to midnight once and someone brought in a sweater they'd found at a niche shop and they were like it's antler your pattern really it Madeline Tosh you learn and I know exactly how much the sweater cost this person to miss they might have been well yeah you said yarn tech shop but you may like oh sorry I was at it she talked about another you know child but she found it at Value Village wings are beyond attend yes of course you should bought it and brought it to me it was like and it fits me and it's that is so awesome I'm a little bit sad though like okay so what did it do or what if we're lost that's what I think probably gave it I love it yeah sad I'm so glad the right person found it what sweater not much I didn't do much for a little while and then I met my first sweater from Debbie's Diller stitch in book but I didn't really understand that much about gauge having just meant like non gauge important things mm-hmm I'm super like this wide but short is not a way I wear a sweater and then the sleeves because I was like why I like long please they were like to here so it's a good your mind something sad and then and take it out also my first foray into sweaters to see profit gauge is like I don't know why it feels so mind-boggling it's then when you get it yeah it takes experience though like you need to knit a couple really badly fitting things and then you're like I guess I gotta figure this out just like that hard life lesson yeah and it seems kind of almost impossible to to avoid that learning curve yeah we just want to start yeah okay and then and then I was getting more into knitting and I said to my then boyfriend now husband that maybe I would like to own a yarn shop one day and he said maybe you should go work at a yarn shop I actually see what that's like yeah I mean that was sound advice I think I think it was good and then as soon as that I started working there they were like you should publish patterns that's fabulous yeah and so I worked there for a while and I published a few just like simple thing well like button scarves were all the rage for a bit there on the range and then that's where I met Emily okay so but secret sound okay so I learned to knit for my aunt when I was I don't know what kid maybe ten or twelve but I started to get into it in a big way when I was in grad school and studying architecture and so obviously there's a lot of pressure when you're putting together together your thesis and so you got to find some procrastination methods I was in Toronto and there's some really great yarn shops there and I went and found some beautiful yarn and myself scarf and then it kind of took over from there and she's kind of picked it up again it sounds licked it up again I knew the knit stitch so I made a garter stitch scarf first and then I made a few other little projects and then I was after I finished my degree I went with dr. Vancouver and I was being a ski bum me and my ex-husband were living up in Whistler and so you don't have a lot to do like you're waiting for the best powder so you have a lot of time to knit and I did a bit of hand tying and i was unraveling sweaters to make into yarn you mean like like like I would find Value Village sweaters and I didn't travel them and I make yarn from them and that's what I've knit with because I had no money any I mean I was being a ski bum so I wasn't working and I was just like snowboarding all the time yeah I did one video about the unraveling sweater it was a really fun video yeah really interesting when when you have very little to spend it's like a great way to get started if you have the time but not the money yeah so that's kind of when I got really into it and I started making out patterns from stitch dictionaries and my background in architecture meant that I don't know I was always kind of a designer so I wasn't really much of a pattern follower so then I worked for an architect for an architecture firm for a while but I decided to quit my job and work at an inch off because of what was going on in my personal life at the time and that's when I met Alexa and I started publishing patterns so you interested working at the same employer at the same job what did that shop still open yeah it's urban yarns in Vancouver so we had a great time there and I met as Alexa at class she was teaching and then I sat in on and I thought she was so cool I maybe my friend you know when you think somebody is really awesome maybe I can do this and anyways we didn't know each other that well and we got started working together which luckily was a good fit yeah because partnership can be kind of like marriage know each other their designers started yeah though when you were at the local yarn shop you just started designing as a pair it was actually kind of after that Emily was doing lace shelves was your your passion at the moment yeah and I soon sort of simpler stuff and then I think Emily said we should design a pattern together yet I said no that's not big enough we should do a book together Oh we'd gone away for the weekend - Tofino which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island it's this amazing beach town and we're just kind of throwing ideas around and that's went in Canada this was born magically on the beach I know stars on the beach it's very romantic I'll have a beach story this is on vacation at the beach and I walked into this local yarn shop and the angel started singing singing and I just would never have thought that Beach and knitting whatever be their doing and it's happened twice now in 24 hours it's usually our best ideas or our best meetings always start with so I was in the shower it was amazing idea because we always have best ideas in the shower yeah yeah separately so how did so 10 candidates was the name decided upon that weekend also I don't think so though we had lit yeah we made a few little still have this I wasn't going to say whether Friday not really not really I think I would be an awesome like in your about me yeah here's everyone would be like her well that one would be better and that one would be better but but yeah we we kind of found the image of two little girls using like tin cans and string to this for down the line to each other's Oh kind of thought that I had mine he's always a long distance ownership pretty much cuz I think I move you to Vancouver Island and was working in architecture again and that was when we started to decide we're gonna work together we went to Fino together and decided to do a book and then I got laid off from my architecture job and it was kind of the right moment I was still under 30 and I was single cuz I've just gotten divorced so big like change divorced and then laid off so it was single it didn't have work then I thought it's time to make a big move and so we combined their catalogs and talked about how to market ourselves built a website and I went on tour across Canada and tried to kind of introduce ourselves me me and Alexa to all the niche shops I came across and then I flew to London because I was having a working holiday in the UK and I just landed us about walk about Emily went walkabout but I ended up staying there because I met a man so I mean I'm not only based in Scotland in every little fancy-free it's right I'm not dating not not really fancy free anymore because I stayed got a husband house two kids yes but that's from there our business just grew because we finish our first book printed it over there we did the next book the next book so what year was that the first the first book was 2011 at my house we've only been seven years yep and you know we brought up marriage before I mean there is a 7-year itch like yeah I think I mean we did do a project with other designers this year so sorry you you were off doing that and then but I lost track of where you were during all this I was back in Vancouver having babies my first Hunter was born in 2011 so she became our first model okay so hunter is a girl she is sorry 11800 owns a Bodhi girl boy girl so pony two girls yeah she called herself oboe love it so you're having babies and you were fighting them and have babies yeah and but all the while making it looks get long distance yeah so isn't that amazing that in this day and age if you have this business I mean even even I would say well 2001 it would have been hard we could Inc without the internet we couldn't have this business that's right because Ralph for me it just allows any designers to actually have an income with very little fees and very low barrier to entry mm-hmm yeah I mean let me be internet right we're on the Internet yeah yeah the only thing so so the first book was to read words called highly must knitting and why was it called we had this idea to create sort of a baby wardrobe and we also thought it might be nice to start small as far as designing went and so we had two little sweaters and a bunch of little accessories but that was already sort of the beginning of the sizing range yes there are some hats we're already starting to be sized from baby III an adult sizes yes hilarious good but I have written down matching and I have written down sided so talk about that please yeah so I remember her quite distinctly when we were starting our second book we were like what's our size range gonna be like what's our what are the gaps gonna be like where are we gonna go and we decided that we thought it would be hilarious to have children and matching sweaters to adults cuz that's what I really found when hunter and Jones were born I I just wanted to dress them like little adults yeah I think that's hilarious yeah and I way more fun than I ever thought of it good pictures you guys yeah I totally got behind the size range but since I didn't have kids at that time I wasn't that interested in knitting for kids so I'm like well I guess it's a good idea that Alexa like we can do that but once I had my own kids I was like okay I get this I get why this is just so much fun and from a design perspective it's really practical because we can make prototypes out of really small size which is quicker but yet you still get something cute and useful yeah out of the work you're putting into the design so so when you guys met for your children do you also admit that mean you're off like anyone and so if the husband's like everyone's getting in he has one sweater that Alexa knit the campfire and what butthat's about her um there's a bit of a snag one happens to be my not one scarf area was like two years ago he's like I think you shouldn't be in hat I would like a hat with earflaps and then since he normally does not like to wear my mended things it was like too much pressure I couldn't even though it takes me maybe like an evening to two and a half oh yeah takes no time I could have done 10 hats but I just thought about it I was like look through our back catalogue to Ravelry about designing something new and then like didn't do anything and then like months passed and then I ordered some yarn and I ordered this beautiful tennis fiber arts yarn and there's all these different greens and I was like which one he's like then i shelved it again and then this fall like a year and a bit later and I was like well winter is coming you know I should do the Hat I should do it and then I knit it and this beautiful Woolfolk yarn it was blue and I held two strands together and then he was like oh it's not really like chunky like no one I want so I ordered more of the tennis fiber it's chunky and he got blue which I was like I don't know why you want a hat like you're grown up but the color looks good and then I knit the gym you know surfer hat and then I knit three more for my kids so they would all match on the beach when we were there for Christmas that's pretty much there's we're in the lovely greens so that's a good segue to Tanis fiber arts so dance is in the East because you're still in the West yep and I noticed that you guys have a book that tennis is on the cover of yeah there's other collaboration there so talk about that book dad you want to talk about nervously sure one of the things that you don't necessarily get to do as a designer is work with other net designers because if you look at it one way you're kind of in competition you're both creating patterns you're both selling to the public but you just it's so cool when you get to spend time with other designers so I thought what if we did a project that was collaborative and it was for charity rather than something that was just commercial so I pitched heart on my sleeve which all the proceeds went to be against malaria foundation and we've actually raised almost and donated almost sixty five grand USD are you and it's it's the the year isn't quite finished so the charity is gonna go that ebook is gonna be for sale until the end of February of this year 2018 and then you can't get it after that so if you're interested check out hard on my sleeve calm and and buy the book because all the proceeds go to the against malaria foundation and it's a really low cost way to make a difference in people's lives but it was so much fun working with all the designers we worked with Bristol Ivy is all the Teague Rami Tana says he said on the cover Jane Richmond is Shannon cook and there's gonna be one or two that I've missed just look it up but really excellent designers really fun people just so much it was so lovely you if I sent the pattern that tennis could you be anybody know what it is great art easy harder because the name of the pattern because I I would want i heart Erin and I wondered if that was part of it too oh no that's her other pattern yeah I that was my right back sweater this year so I don't know you Oh TAS really took the idea and it went for everyone in her family took it to the next level time for a donk that cover I would have you know but you know if you were to put like a bunch of images up that might inhibit in candidate you know yeah mindset it really kind of she she went for with such a fun design yeah such a family-friendly design that first color is her passion color oh yeah now do you think you guys could also be categorized as gender-neutral you know we dress our kids a lot of neutrally things we might get some pretty neutrally names yeah I think more than some designers absolutely like we want we like to create designs that are flexible I kind of wear usable in a lot of different ways by people who want to wear them different ways as well so yeah we don't typically go for the really really girly is what that means in real terms I kind of came from the obsession with lace side of things so that's a little bit more cables and texture and simple but I get my legs in there too oh yeah speaking of nice what are you wearing this is the lush cardigan it's from our book handmade in the UK it's also available separately but it's it's pretty simple like and it looks really good on a lot of different body types I've seen so many Oh that are really flattering yeah it seems like you can play with ease because then yoke it's yeah you pick up my kneading it down and you can kind of you can throw some a line into that body you can use reshaping which I've done and yes yeah again you can livings are an in a larger size for a boss than you did for the neckline yeah yeah but maybe other people's which works for a lot of women uh what about you what were United States so this is the Flex sweater and it's part of our free simple collection so it's again it's a lot of people that is our first sweater yeah that's a really good suggestion I love this detail with the mr. Gerson Garter yeah I am was actually knitting the sock from the collection which has a starter detail and I just met the cop when I just put it on my arm and I was like yes this is what it might be needs to be a sweater can you talk about sight for life oh yeah the sight is like sight is like my third site is like was a charity project that I contributed to it was interesting because we were just about to pitch our charity project to a bunch of designers and then another knitter and designer approached us with this this charity project idea and I'm like well should I do two in one year but it's it's um all the proceeds are to surgery in the Congo that where they do what is it called cataract surgery which is quite a simple surgery that you know reverse blindness and make a really big difference in people's lives so we we did a really cute hat pattern for that these things yes standalone pattern contributed to the collection so I think you can either buy the e-book reunified a single patterns and all the proceeds from that forever go to the Congo cataract surgery jaren anything so why do you feel to give back in that way because the Knitting industry can be well I mean a lot of people that I talk to it's it's a struggle to make a living when you're in this industry like you have to always be like changing and moving and adding new things so it's a sacrifice to give possible income or you know to these organizations so why do you feel compelled to I mean the Knitting community has been so good to us to do what we do and I mean part of it is that we really like sort of moving and changing and and doing collaborative projects like this was an opportunity for us to make a change and yeah also we've got a big list we've got a big audience like we've got 80,000 Instagram followers now so amazing if we can put the word out there about something and inspire people it doesn't actually seem like a sacrifice because it's a little bit separate from our own word like I think part of my sleeve the way the patterns are written is all tenets style but it brings together the inspirations of other designers yeah I love that so so just before we end I want to show a few of your things because you have a ok so just in case you know because the thing is the prism hat that I made doesn't look 10 canny I used like a cashmere that was very gated and it's like browns and grays like you would never be like look at the like if there were the contest and we were attached hugging your ten candidates you've never been my good just a little team can you know even though it's yours oh my gosh I can't talk about this so we have a knit along for our strange fruit pattern which is our bottom up sweater recipes so if you're in the mood to designer we highly recommend you give it a try but don't like to do things halfway No so this is tennis by birth I have a bit of an obscene tennis - I've been a collector for quite some and yeah so I decided instead of just doing a yellow guy should do the whole body and I love and I should do it all at feral and all in rainbow yeah go my goodness alexei wolf again I was wondering I probably got a present and then if your kids learn to get a dressed who cares yes because I really don't want to pull that over your head again ok cool alright how about this I love this so needed whole series of hats so the strange brew pattern has a swatch hat and swatch cowl pattern included with the sweater so you can swatch and we did a whole series of posts about different ways you can use color its color so daunting for so many knitters it is so we talked about how you can use like monochrome black and white we talked about how you can use an ombre which is another great strategy which makes picking color really easy and I like that it's broken up with the pattern yeah I'm kind of getting I'm getting a little tired of it so willing the hombre thing except I love it like this yeah well you just pick your ombre and then a single contrast which works against the rest of them so that's a good strategy and this one uses two different tones of two different tones of yellow with the blue so it's just one of the examples but all of these are documented on the blog also if you want to make them pom-pom game yeah strong no do you guys make yarn no just patterns I know I had I started a business called rainbow heirloom my name is Hannah dyed yarn but after max was born it was all a little bit too much yeah I couldn't do it yeah so I had to had to pass that on to my friend but maybe it's still out there it is yeah my friend Nina runs it okay it's going strong okay she's one of our models oh really no worries okay what up we want to talk about these ones these are just mark these are kind of more swatch samples if you have been following us at all or if you take a look at our Instagram feed you'll see that we're a little bit colorwork obsessed so I mean I'm dyers and it's all along yeah this is from the strange brew oh my gosh this is so yoga might developed using using the recipe and I just I just chucked a color work pattern in the middle yeah and so yeah we do a lot of hard design development on baby sweaters yeah it's like a giant swatch and that's similar that'll be this is also like well it's two tunnels yeah to two tones rad two tones or maybe three tones of blue I'm just such beautiful work I follow Chelsea into a legacy fibre there but she just their mother-daughter to the grandma not grandma she made is it the antler huh yeah I think she made the antler hat is her sweater 2/3 of it yeah she means the weather yeah she makes sweaters for both the mom and the baby at home let me match and it was just such a lovely Christmas gift that she was knitting fun routes gorgeous and she pulled them up and was just like so emotional about it and is so beautiful all this nightmare the amber sweater is one that I made Alexa bought me some really lovely lucky knitter for my birthday year for Christmas one year and I made an antler cardigan out of it and that's one of the few photo shoots where I have of me and my son like he was a little baby in an antler and me and an antler it's pretty good we got to do more of that more bait now okay so I could obviously talk to you all day is there anything else that you want to mention before we end are you meeting with fines that bull mating life yeah I got some Green Mountain spinner II which I'm really excited about so we didn't know there's gonna be you know oh absolutely oh good I gotta check it out so yeah I'm gonna do a yoke sweater here so I'm gonna talk to me okay I'm having a little speckle love affair I'm knitting the world's simplest shawl it's called the green shawl and when it's a freebie and this is a woolen moon which I got before but I have seen here yeah that bug okay so just my last question is why do you knit I so many reasons no I meant to keep my hands busy a little bit like that and I watch too much TV so I meant for that reason as well um but I also just like making things with my hands I'm keeping busy and yeah just I don't know the students week makes me happy I think I'm a bit more of a designer than I am a knitter like I'm really excited by having an idea thinking oh that could work in this way in it so I love to knit and sometimes I love the brainless knitwear I don't need to think about it don't need to design I just get to stitch by stitch by stitch enjoy it but some of the excitement for me is taking it from idea through to finished object yeah I think we share that I think most people share that part yeah I like I was just talking about I did a mystery knit along and what I didn't like about it was the fact that thinking about it was taken away mmm I didn't see it and go ooh let me get this this come about this and that part was taken away from me the planning yeah and so I mean I got to choose my yarn obviously but that was what I found him I wouldn't the whole like I didn't have time to sort of think about it for a while before Oh anticipation and the beat yeah and so that's what I learned about myself doing that and it sort of kind of sounds familiar with what you're talking about the subject thank you so much for taking time to be on my channel I really appreciate it well real nice to meet you if you're gonna have it hear your story too [Music]

Channel: kristyglassknits

Views: 32,872

Keywords: fiber arts, knitting with kristy glass, kristyglassknits, beginning knitting, knitting lessons, knitting, purling, yarn, knitting 101, how to knit, how to purl, learn to knit, tin can knits, prism hat, matching knits, family knits, hannah anderssen

Id: Xhi-tHTTGAs

Length: 31min 30sec (1890 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 07 2018