New Releases

At last the prototypes I have been wanting to finalize are now finished and available from my Etsy store.  I will have a few other new things in the works as well.  KaratStix is growing little by little and now I am having to be much more frugal with my new designs in order to keep up with the demand.  You won't see much color, if any, on the newest items.  As much as I love to color and see the finished colored items, it is not an efficient use of my time. You will still get quality bamboo tools with class and some whimsy that are useful and fun to use.  Many of the new tools or redesigned tools have multiple purposes -- you get two tools in one if not more.  Like the new version of the little Alpaca WPI tool -- he is now a needle gauge as well as a WPI tool.

Alpaca Gauge WPI Tool

I am happy at last to release "Tippy", the interchangeable needle tip display stand.  Almost just like the prototype, but with a little more class with the posts embellished with knit stitch column detailing, my signature palm tree on top and attention to accurate gauge holes.  If your needles don't fit smoothly in the hole, then they are most likely not to exact gauge.  I found that one 10 and a half size tip did not fit in either hole as easily as the other tip and saw that there was a bit of glue at the metal to wood join and sanded that away and now it fits fine. 

"Tippy" Front View

"Tippy" Back - Cables Organized

One problem that sat at the back of my mind when I first started designing Tippy was "What is someone going to do with their cables???"  Oh well, I'll just keep thinking about how I can add a pocket or something in the future.  Well, little did I realize at the time that the solution was already there, I just didn't see it until today!   I took a cable and just wrapped it around behind the posts and that wasn't too bad at all but then it got better.  I put all the cables in, and then I had the end caps, hey I'll just screw them on to the cables to store them, and oh, how about I just put those cute little locking pins in the extra size 3 holes that there are no needles for (yet).  Well that worked but the cables did look a little hard to figure out which was which and so I pulled them out, wrote the length of each cable on one end cap, screwed it on (before I threaded the cable back in), then threaded the cable back in, the end cap making a nice stopper to hold the cable in place and then easily and neatly tucking in the open end of the cable either behind a post or under a cable.  It not only looks very neat, now my cables are easy to identify and easy to remove by pulling on the end cap until it unwinds from the stand and the locking pins are easy to find too. 

Counter's Rule

I have used my Counter's Rule for a few projects now and I am addicted to it.  So much that I carry it with me wherever I take my knitting.  Although it was designed to be sitting on a table, I use it on my lap when traveling in the car.  I have a great item from my fellow Etsy seller, Slipped Stitch Studios, which is a wallet for your knitting pattern.  I use this all the time too, I just love it!  What I found though was that I can tuck my Counter's Rule inside the wallet, between the paper pattern and the plastic sleeve and when the wallet is snapped closed, my pegs will not fall out of the holes so no chance of losing my place.  What a great kit -- the chart is right there, I can track all of my rows, stitch increases and pattern repeats on my Counter's Rule.  But be warned though that since there is a thickness to the Counter's Rule that this will stretch out the plastic sleeve a bit -- it won't be so nice and flat as when new.  So if this bother's you, please don't store the Counter's Rule in your pattern wallet.  My little poem: "Count your stitches and rows so your knitting successfully grows." seemed the perfect embellishment!  Multi-colored rings that are on each peg, add some sparkle of color and make them easy to store on the lobster clasps.  My friend, Sue (hi gypsygirl!) who gave a Counter's Rule a good critique (she is now a convert to using one) complained that it was a little awkward getting the pegs onto the lobster clasps and that if I were to add another ring so the lobster clasp wasn't so tight up against the bamboo, it would be easier to operate and she was so right! Thank you gypsygirl for your help and last but not least, thank you Kat in Alaska for all your encouragement, support and getting me to get these done!   Counter's Rules are now available from my Etsy store.

What is it?



So I have some other ideas in the works which I think I'll just show you an image of and see if you can guess what it is (hint: it doesn't have anything to do with knitting). If they look like really lame dragons, well they are actually supposed to be sea serpents :).  They definitely have a purpose.  I'll save that for a future post. 

How KaratStix Came To Be, Part 3

So finally a prototype was finished after returning to the drawing board a few times and this was the result - almost 8 inches long and 4 inches wide, with a 2 inch stitch gauge at one end and a 6 inch ruler along one side and the metric ruler along the other. A lot of metric and US holes, and I had to put some sort of design on there, but this one isn't my own art -- that came later. I did sell a few of these to a store in Half Moon Bay, along with lots of my buttons. Fengari is wonderful little knitting shop in downtown Half Moon Bay. I haven't had time to stop in there in a long time so don't know if they have any buttons left.

This design evolved into today's Crafter's Rule. You can see more of my designs in my Etsy shop and at my Flickr page.

I had some other ideas too, some may still evolve into something. So now I had some wares to sell and I went around to knitting shops in my local driving distance and had success at the first three stores. I always called first to set up an appointment. Some stores weren't interested. I'm relieved now that they weren't as it pushed me to look for other ways to sell my wares and so I considered the internet. I had heard of Etsy from a forum I had visited on the internet which had also inspired me, http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/farmgirl-connection/ and so I studied Etsy, opened an account and finally in the middle of December 2007, exactly a year to the day after I had left my day job, I posted my first listings and within 24 hours had my first Etsy sale!

How KaratStix Came To Be, Part 2

So buttons were born and I thought I was onto something here -- I was even able to obtain more coconut shells from a local restaurant that would have ended up in landfill. The process of making them was fun, but labor intensive -- and each one was unique, although I was able to make coordinating sets, no two would be identical, but I loved that about the coconuts. I made the holes big enough for yarn needles as I envisioned these being attached to felted handbags (I have a couple of those in my own collection of bags), and as focal buttons on sweaters, and I even made a few rings with copper sticks as shawl pins. Oh, I had lots of ideas in the early days. I have read that when people convert to eating living raw vegan foods, that their creativity reaches new heights, and I can testify that this definitely happened to me!

So I was sitting on the patio making buttons and had ideas for other tools too, and I also had a very supportive brother who is very skilled and crafty in his own way with wood. I wanted to use bamboo though and had an idea to try and make a needle gauge of some kind. So I made a pencil drawing and gave it to my brother and he worked on making a prototype for me. I was so anxious to see the end result but it took a few months before I saw it, or so it seemed. In the meantime I kept making buttons and thought about what to call my business.

Well, things were seeming a bit tropical, coconuts and bamboo would be the main materials -- natural, healthy for the planet, and strong. I love palmtrees, so coconut palm trees would be part of the logo. I wanted my business name to reflect the idea that I was turning trash (coconut shells) into treasure (buttons) and bamboo (stix) into gold (karat). My first name is Karen and my maiden name is Stixrud and the name then slipped into place -- KaratStix -- which felt like my own name even though different. And sounds like 'carrot sticks' which seemed so healthy too :). So now you know how the KaratStix name came to be and how it relates to coconuts and my raw food vegan lifestyle.