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. 

Studio Tour

I have been wanting to give you a tour of my in-home studio where KaratStix is created so today I am finally going to show you around. In this first photo this is what you see when you first walk in. I usually sit in the chair in the corner there behind the L-shaped layout of tables/stands with a red carpet under my feet. The walls and ceiling are covered in cedar paneling (original to the house which was built in 1941) and the wooden floor is oak. It is also a good place to store my yarn stash which is in baskets on a shelf above the windows - the cedar keeps the moths away.

When I am sitting in my chair I have everything close at hand. Here is a view of my coloring station where I have a variety of pencils and other tools handy for working on the bamboo tools. The printer which is hooked up to my computer is used for printing my shipping labels, and scanning the finished orders for posting photos in my Etsy shop.

This area in the photo to the left is where I do my digitizing for my new designs and layouts for the orders that need to be cut, as well as all the administrative tasks such as emails, updating my Etsy shop and all the other tasks that take place online like generating postage labels, purchasing supplies, paying bills, etc. I also have a supply of knitting needles here which are used for testing the knitting needle gauges.
The photo to the right is my spray booth. I just swivel my chair around (it is on wheels) so that I am facing my spray booth. It was built by my husband to fit on the outside of the window and has an electric fan on the roof of the spray box. I use an airbrush and a small compressor to apply the varnish on the finished KaratStix pieces. That is a portable Ott light to give me good lighting inside the booth when I am spraying.

The photo to the left shows the drying racks with products drying on them that have been sprayed. I use cut up cardboard boxes as drying boards and then put strips of masking tape to hold the items in place so that they don't move when I am spraying the varnish on them. The drying racks are within arms reach from the spray booth.

The photo to the right is my storage area where I keep extra items waiting to be colored or sold. I use recycled spinach containers as 'baskets' which are see through and just the right size for my works in progress! They stack easily too and are light weight. I also use the lids for trays to stack the parts on while they are being colored.
The final photo is of my shipping station where I pack things up to be shipped. I keep padded envelopes and a supply of boxes on the bottom and some items on the shelf and some on the desk area.

And that concludes the tour of my studio. Thank you for taking time to let me show you around!

Well, you may be asking "But, where is the laser machine?" Thor (my laser machine) is not located in my studio, but at a commercial facility. I will do a post on Thor in an upcoming blog.