A couple of years ago, Blue Sky Alpacas, a popular yarn company, asked me to design some chubby chickens for them. I guess my name had come up at their staff meeting as the go-to chubby-chicken designer. I was honored to be approached by one of the most admired companies in the fiber industry. Of course I took the assignment and ran with it—which was kismet, since it grew into something more, something wonderful.
In the summer of 2009, Blue Sky Alpacas introduced a new product line called Spud & Chloë. I loved the samples they sent me, and I was pleased to do designing for this fresh line, with its innovative mod colors and product design. At the same time, Spud & Chloë conveyed a sweet innocence and a bit of a vintage feeling—it made me remember what it was like to be a child. “Sweet yarns for real life” is Spud & Chloë’s philosophy, and it rings true to the core.
Then Blue Sky Alpacas asked me to be the curator of Spud says!, an adorable blog for the Spud & Chloe Web site. Through this work I’ve gotten to know the public faces of the line: Spud, an introverted but lovable sheep, and Chloë, his owner, who’s more of an upbeat cheerleader type. These two lead characters became a part of the fabric of my daily life, and I realized a book would be the next natural progression of our adventures together. That’s how the book version of Spud & Chloë was born. And what better setting could there be to start the adventures of Spud & Chloë than a farm? This environment gives me yet another chance to create and knit some adorable animals, cute characters for Spud and Chloë to meet. The adventures of Spud and Chloë have begun.
Spud & Chloë at the Farm departs from my earlier books, in that it doesn’t include basic knitting techniques. All that information can be found in my online tutorials, on other online instructional knitting Web sites, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, I’m happy to incorporate a new element into this book.
Interestingly, this came about from something that happened when my last book, Itty-Bitty Toys, was published. I constantly heard from knitters that their children interacted just as much with the book as the knitters themselves. In fact, many knitters told me that their kids used Itty-Bitty Toys like a catalog, dog-earing the pages and placing their toy orders. It was great to know that my knitting projects were helping adults and children bond as they discussed the progress on a particular toy and so on, and incorporating a simple narrative that a knitter and child could share seemed like a natural next step. So Spud & Chloë at the Farm includes a little children’s story about the title characters’ visit woven throughout its pages. My hope is that while you enjoy the book as the knitter of the projects, the children around you can also enjoy the illustrated story, which is repeated in full at the back of the book. You might even want to read it aloud together!
Finally, I should mention that the yarn from this marvelous line is made from all-natural fibers. Two of the lines contain certified organic cotton. All of the yarns are also machine-washable, which is an enormous plus in my estimation!
So it’s time to join the adorable Spud and Chloë on their visit to the farm. I hope you enjoy this knitting adventure!
