Be Inspired Hand spun wool and mohair yarns for knitting and crocheting sweaters and accessories.

Hi Everyone!  A few days ago a knitter, Kristen Schultze, emailed me a beautiful photo of a finished cowl she made using our very own mermaid cafe.  I had to share the stunning creation with everyone!  Take a peak below.

If you're interested in knitting this up, Kristen has shared her pattern, see below:

The cowl pattern:
I used No 17 (12mm) needles, the largest I had, and 4 skeins of the yarn.

I cast on 29 stitches.

Set-up row: knit 5, purl 1, knit 5, purl 1 knit 2, purl 1, knit 2,
purl 1, knit 5, purl 1, knit 5

Then you knit the stitches as they appear.

Every 10th or 12th row I cabled 3 stitches over 2 stitches in those
"inner" 5 knit-stitches sections (knit 5, purl 1, put 3 st on cable
needle in front of the work, knit 2 st, knit 3 st. from cable needle,
purl 1, knit 2, purl 1, knit 2, purl 1, do the cabling again, purl 1,
knit 5).

I crocheted the buttons, I found the pattern somewhere on ravelry, and
the buttonholes are just crochet chain stitches.

Voila! Finished!

Also, to see one of our trims in action, check out Purl Soho's current blog post at www.purlbee.com They made the cutest little girls skirt, see pics below. Our trim is used on the bottom border.

This past spring, Knit Collage sent a gigantic shipment of handspun yarn to Free People, the eclectic bohemian retail chain based in Philadelphia. Check them out at www.freepeople.com Last Tuesday I spent the afternoon at the home office catching up with some of my old colleagues and taking pics of what they'd done with all that yarn.  The shipment took all 9 Knit Collage employees many overtime hours to complete and was a total labor of love. I designed 40 new yarns specifically for Free People. They're using the yarn to adorn their office shelves and for now, will be displayed in all of their shops.  So if you live near a Free People shop, go check out the yarn in person!  I'm working on making some of the best designs commercial, stay tuned!  See pics of the home office below.