First, before I forget, I’m at Stitches West today! If you’re there too, send me an email (karen at karentempler) and maybe we can meet up. Or just look for me in the market hall — I’ll wear my purple State Street Cowl. I’ll probably be Instagramming a little bit, and may have a recap for you all next week.
Second, what’s that up top? Well, when I think about what I want to do with Fringe, the central goal is always to help people find the best patterns (and yarns and tools and information) out there. There’s so, so much and most people just don’t have the time (or the stomach) to comb through it all — or even know where to look. So if you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know that’s a key part of what goes on with the blog. But in the back of my mind is always this vision of literally a directory of only the best patterns (as opposed to every pattern in the universe), searchable and sortable by all kinds of criteria. It’s self-serving — I have things saved all over the place. Evernote notes, Ravelry favorites, Pinterest pins, PDFs, print-outs. It’s chaos. It would help me in figuring out what to knit next if I could see all my favorite things at a glance, by category. And I believe it would help others as well. But building that directory on my own site is not going to happen anytime soon. So rather than wait for the ideal implementation, I’ve decided to launch a version of it using Pinterest. That’s right, there’s now an official Fringe Association page at Pinterest, and I hope you’ll want to hit the big Follow button. Note that, to paraphrase somebody or other, I have only just begun to pin. But at the same time, this isn’t meant to be massive amounts of stuff. The whole idea of the pattern collections is that it’s tightly edited. And obviously “best” is subjective — I’ll only be pinning things I personally would want to make and wear, and that I think are worthy of our knitting or crochet time.
In addition to separate boards for different types of patterns (e.g. Best Sweaters, Best Blankets), you’ll find a board for what’s New on Fringe Association, offering you another way to keep up with posts here, along with some other fun and/or useful stuff.
Which brings me to my third item, which is that you’ll also find a board called New at Fringe Supply Co. As of last night, now that I’ve got everything set up and ready to go in my new workspace, the webshop is open. I’m calling this a soft relaunch — it’s the same great stuff that was there before. There will be minor changes and new products coming soon, but as with the pinboards vs the pattern directory, I didn’t want big dreams holding up what’s already here and good and possible now. New merchandise will be pinned as it arrives, but there’s also the option to sign up for email alerts, which you’ll find at the top of the store pages. So please!, COME ON IN!
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I’ve already followed a few known Fringe readers from the new Pinterest account, but I want to know who you all are and want your fellow readers to know as well. So please take this opportunity to do what might otherwise be considered spammy — post a comment with a link to your Pinterest profile so we can all find each other. And while you’re at it, why not also include a link to your blog and your Twitter? And if you’re inclined to help get the word out about all of this, please do pin the image(s) from this post. With my huge thanks to anyone who does that.
Forgive the likely delayed response to comments today since, like I said, I’ll be wandering the floor at Stitches West, trying my best to be good.
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what a great idea-following you on pinterest now!
Me on pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/glenning64/
My blog:
http://knitish.com/
thanks and have fun at stitches!
I got the Fringe Supply Co. e-mail this morning and was very excited to see it! I missed ordering before Christmas, so I’m looking forward to treating myself!
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pansneedles/
Blog: http://pansneedles.com/
Twitter: @angelahickman
Have fun at Stitches West!
I can’t wait to see what you choose!
An exciting post! Can’t wait to hear from your Stitches West trip–talk about jealous.
http://pinterest.com/joyfulwise/
http://www.joyfulwise.com/
http://pinterest.com/sillylittlelady/
http://twitter.com/sillylittlelady
http://sillylittlelady.wordpress.com
Have fun at Stitches West! Another jealous reader here :)
So exciting! I really enjoy your blog and your style and look forward to following you on Pinterest now too. You can follow my boards at :
http://pinterest.com/griffincreek/
Have a wonderful time at Stitches West, I hear such good things about that event. I was at Madrona last weekend and am excited to attend Vogue LIVE in Seattle in April.
I really hated missing Madrona — that’s on my wishlist for next year.
Hi Karen, I just followed you on Pinterest. You can follow me there at http://pinterest.com/hilarymarsh. I’m also at http://www.ravelry.com/hilarymarsh, and my blog is http://chiknitchick.blogspot.com.
I just finished my State Street Cowl this morning in a charcoal-grey alpaca yarn that I got as a gift, and based on your comments and those on Mason-Dixon, I’m not sure whether to block it or not. Have a great time at Stitches West!
Did you decide? I think unless you’re going to dry clean it, you gotta get it wet sometime.
Hi Karen, I did block it. I’m a really loose knitter, though, so it came out as more of an infinity scarf than cowl, per se. I have some beautiful shawl pins to use to fasten it closer to my neck. I’ve posted it on my blog: http://chiknitchick.blogspot.com/2013/03/latest-finished-object-state-street-cowl.html
It looks great!!
Hi Karen, I did block it. I’m a really loose knitter, though, so it came out as more of an infinity scarf than cowl, per se. I have some beautiful shawl pins to use to fasten it closer to my neck. I’ve posted it on my blog: http://chiknitchick.blogspot.com/2013/03/latest-finished-object-state-street-cowl.html
Following you on Pinterest! I’m really trying to work on my finishing techniques, so looking forward to seeing pins on the Tips board.
Me too!
Fantastic idea!!! Here’s me http://pinterest.com/louhie, http://fromthepurlside.wordpress.com, http://www.ravelry.com/people/louhie. Off to stalk all of you now!
Have a great time at the show, Karen. Buy lots of yarn so I can live vicariously through you!
Wow! Great post!!!
http://pinterest.com/mjk/
So exciting. Great things going on, Karen!
I will enjoy looking through your boards.
I’m http://pinterest.com/justmaryse/ in pinterest, maryse in Ravelry and my blog is http://www.justmaryse.com.
Love this!
I’m http://www.tentenknits.com
Twitter: tentenknits
Pinterest.com/tentenknits
Exciting! If I haven’t already made it clear I just love your aesthetic. I find myself liking almost every knitting-related pin of yours.
Hi! I am Anne. LOVE Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/anne0731/
http://anne0731.tumblr.com/
Anne0731 on Twitter.
Hi! I am Anne. LOVE Pinterest!
http://pinterest.com/anne0731/
http://anne0731.tumblr.com/
Anne0731 on Twitter
Love the best of boards and have been really enjoying Fringe!
I’m on pretty much everything as The Quilted Tortoise or sometimes just Quilted Tortoise. Obviously I’m a quilter but the knitting bug has bitten me hard and has taken over as my favourite obsession!
http://pinterest.com/quiltedtortoise/
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/QuiltedTortoise
http://www.thequiltedtortoise.blogspot.com.au
I love looking at all the amazing quilting work around the web, but have yet to try my hand at it. Slippery slopes and all that …
I love this! I am barblt at Pinterest.
Wonderful! Following along on Pinterest.
I’m at http://pinterest.com/rachelalise, with a knitting-focused board at http://pinterest.com/rachelalise/knitables. @rmennies on twitter and Instagram, where I post a lot of knitting-in-process.
I love this idea—you have killer taste and I’ve been knitting more than ever since I stumbled across Fringe Association.
Here’s where you can find me:
http://www.ravelry.com/people/CaitlinNewman
http://pinterest.com/caitlin_newman/
http://caitlinmakes.tumblr.com
Thanks so much for all the nice remarks and repins and so on, everyone. I hope you’re checking out each other’s links.
If there’s anyone not already following it, my old Yarny Goodness board (which I’ll continue to pin to ) is here: http://pinterest.com/karentempler/yarny-goodness/ and the rest of me is http://pinterest.com/karentempler/
And Twitter, of course, is http://twitter.com/fringeassoc
Exactly the inspiration I look for all the time on pinterest, glad it’s gonna be all in one page! Bravo, Karen!
My links:
http://pinterest.com/tenaciousdee/
https://twitter.com/dennisesaxton
http://tenacious-dee.com/
Cheers! xo
What a marvellous idea…I’m following on Pinterest.
You can find me at:
http://pendlestitches.wordpress.com/
https://pinterest.com/pendlestitches/
Fantastic idea – love it. Your blog posts are amazing – I really look forward to them. I clicked the big Follow button! And – thank you for the offer – here’s my info:
Pinterest profile:
http://pinterest.com/busybeebuzz/
Ravelry profile:
http://www.ravelry.com/people/ddeangelo
No blog (yet)
No Twitter (too much!!) ( I just follow Ai Weiwei…..)
I agree with Caitlin Newman – you have killer taste!
Here’s a thought: weaving is the new knitting….
I am starting to feel that little weaving itch again …