A Year in Review

This was a big year for Tin Can Knits. Really our biggest year ever. New Years seemed like the perfect time to reflect upon our wild year!

We moved from part time designers to full time Tin Can Knitters, putting out 2 new collections of gorgeous knits, and adding another member to the Tin Can family.

We started 2012 with a bang, beginning the journey towards Pacific Knits, a work that has helped us define our style and has brought us a whole community of knitting fans! We have met thousands of knitters in person, through their projects and via email.

At the same time we were plotting Pacific Knits I was busy baking Jones in my little oven. Our book went to print and 3 days later Jones came into this world. It made for one crazy summer of designing, testing, knitting, and photographing (not to mention morning sickness, exhaustion, and swollen ankles)! Meanwhile Emily was in Scotland working her little buns off on our website, our books, our designs, and creating our online Tin Can Knits world. We really wouldn’t exist without Emily and her tireless efforts to make us everything we are!

The launch of Pacific Knits was a whirlwind. With great success we went from yarn store to yarn store greeting knitters, signing books, and making new friends. Gary ferried us around and watched both little munchkins while Emily and I got to talk about our very favorite thing: knitting! Emily had to return to Scotland but not before we hatched our next plan, Great White North! Inspired by a few weeks back home we decided a Christmas collection was just the festive thing Tin Can Knits needed.

Great White North was envisioned as a collection of accessories, perfect for Christmas gift knitting, but we had to throw in one gorgeous sweater, sized for everyone of course!

The creation of Great White North included a few mishaps (like 6 right handed mittens and a rather uncooperative almost 2 year old, I’ll tell you that story some other time…) but it’s a collection I love. The Snowflake sweater was an instant hit with Tin Can Knits fans as well as 1 red headed model…. As a helpful bi-product Hunter and Jones were well decked in knitwear when the snow hit Port Moody this winter!

While listing memorable moments of 2012 I can’t skip Knit City. It was a truly fabulous moment when the doors opened and knitters of all ages poured into the Croation Cultural Centre. I spent an entire weekend chatting with fellow knitters and getting to know our fans. I got to see Kim Werker speak about Crochet and Sylvia Olsen speak about Cowichan Sweaters. I got to peruse people’s FO’s and discuss their projects to come. It was a wonderful weekend and I’m so looking forward to next year!

With such a wonderful year behind us Emily and I are looking forward to the future, both as individuals and as the dynamic duo of Tin Can Knits. We can’t wait to share the projects we have been working on as well as the projects I’m sure we haven’t even dreamed up yet. A big thank-you to all of our fans, we hope 2013 is your best year yet!

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