Knitting Through the Loops, Kirsten Kapur

Knitting Through the Loops, Kirsten Kapur is a designer of some of the most popular shawls because of their beauty, was the guest today on the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird.

Kirsten is proud to say she came from a family of crafters. She went to art school and became part of the fashion industry as clothing designer for department store manufacturers, later with fabric designs. When her children came along, it was harder to continue that, but with the internet and blogs, things changed for her.

The trepidation of posting a first pattern on the internet Kirsten says, which was prior to Ravelry being what it is now, is similar to posting a pattern today. Even with tech editors, mistakes in patterns happen, although chances of it happening are greatly reduced. Kirsten’s first publish pattern was in Knitty and received a positive response that surprised her. That happened because she was wearing it at an event when Amy Singer walked up behind her and whispered that she would publish it if Kirsten submitted it. Amazing!

Marly asked a great question here about how does Kirsten design, and her answer was that it’s different for sweaters where she charts the designs for the multiple sizes before she knits it and with shawls that she designs while it’s on the needles. Shawls became her ‘THING’ for multiple reasons, that it only takes a skein or two which makes it a portable project that she takes with her everywhere and having one is a comfort when you find your self in a restaurant with good air-conditioning. The combination of stripes and lace attracts her too, because Kirsten doesn’t find herself as the ‘girlie’ type, her projects can be two-color. 

Her new Shawl Book One; Ten Best Loved Shawls from Through the Loops, is a collection of previously published patterns and she focused on the patterns being yarn store friendly, not so much the indie-dyed or gradient yarns that she loves. The photos are beautiful and were done by Gale Zucker, with her daughter and Gale’s niece among the models.

Mystery Knit-a-longs or MKAL for Kirsten’s designs started with socks and have progressed to her shawls, which explains how popular her patterns have become. She has another one starting June first, that she just started posting about yesterday. Check out her Group in Ravelry for more information about participating.

To catch a class with Kirsten Kapur (she’s teaching that beautiful shawl shown there on the cover) at Trillian Yarns in NJ this weekend, and visiting a couple places on the East Coast, you can find that at her website under Events. PS: Check out the cruise from NYC to the Caribbean!

Kirsten Kapur can be followed at her website, Ravelry and Facebook.

If you missed getting to hear this LIVE, it is still available as an archive: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yarnthing/2015/05/07/knitting-through-the-loops-kirsten-kapur and in iTunes.

The post Knitting Through the Loops, Kirsten Kapur appeared first on Marly Bird.