Who we are
Who We Are
Knitter's Review is a weekly online magazine for fiber enthusiasts, established in September 2000, and based in Blue Hill, Maine.
Our mission is to provide quality product information to help knitters make informed purchasing decisions and, ultimately, have a more fulfilling lifelong knitting experience.
Geared toward the serious fiber enthusiast, regardless of skill or experience level, Knitter's Review features intelligent and in-depth yarn reviews, tips and how-tos, book reviews, tool profiles, event information, forums, and interactive polls.
Folio Magazine described us as "for the knitting community what Cook's Illustrated is for chefs and foodies."
Our Forums bring together tens of thousands of knitters from around the world to discuss topics of interest, from yarn to technique to travel.
We tend to focus on products, people, places, and events that inspire us and that we believe enrich our knitting community. We find that we tend to avoid reviewing products we believe are deeply sub-par unless by not doing so we would be doing our readers a disservice. The reason is simple: We realize that a review in Knitter's Review generates significant public attention, and we do not wish to give undue publicity to a sub-par product. We would rather focus this attention on products we believe are noble and worthy. However, in all reviews we always strive to highlight, in an honest and clear way, the potential shortcomings and weaknesses in the products we review.
Our staff
Knitter's Review was founded and is written by Clara
Parkes, a print and online publishing veteran who escaped the hubbub
of Silicon Valley and now lives in coastal Maine.
Prior to founding Knitter's Review, Clara was Editor-at-Large of Intelligent Enterprise magazine, produced a major comparison-shopping Web site, and received a Society of American Travel Writers award for her profiles of San Francisco restaurants—all the while her true passion was knitting for the love of yarn. Her first book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn, was named one of the Best Books of 2007 by the Library Journal. Her forthcoming sequel, The Knitter's Book of Wool, is due out this fall.
Our operations guru is long-time Web professional Clare Potter, who was in on those heady early days of the Web as Director of Content at Worldview Systems Corporation, a co-creator of Travelocity.com. She's an able and talented editor, ad program manager, and she also provides much-needed reality checks. Clare is currently an associate of the multimedia design and development firm Image Works in Portland, Maine.
Invaluable technical support is provided by Charlie Darling, the co-founder of Quilter's Review and chief content architect at OpenMoves.com. Charlie's experience includes 10 years as President and Chief Systems Architect of Better Business Solutions, a software development firm.
And special thanks to friends and family far and wide who've given us loving support and guidance. That's Janice, Beth, Carolyn, Dave, Aunt Judy, Ann, and many more. And I must give special thanks to Emily, our local postmistress, without whom the Knitter's Review Boutique just couldn't operate.
About our yarn reviews
Each month we select a sampling of yarns in a particular
fiber category. We try to balance our coverage between large-scale and
smaller-scale manufacturers. We produce several handknit swatches of each
yarn and subject them to a standard battery of tests designed to show
how they perform under duress.
How we're unique
Knitter's Review is the oldest weekly knitting magazine
published on a large scale in the United States via any medium. It is
also the only independent weekly publication to focus on fiber, yarns,
and the online yarn-shopping experience.
Knitter's Review does not routinely publish patterns or knitting techniques, because the knitting pattern and technique market is adequately served by major knitting magazines, book publishers, and independent designers. Nor does Knitter's Review sell yarns we review directly to the public, which we believe would compromise our editorial independence.
Some fan mail
Congratulations on all you've accomplished, and all the service you've provided to the knitting community. You realize, I'm sure, how many e-newsletters you've left in the dust. To grab a fresh, new medium and make it work so well--I really admire that!
Best regards,
Linda Ligon
Interweave Press
I just wanted to personally thank you for your wonderful site. I've been using it regularly for years now but it wasn't until today that it served me the best. I went through several of your yarn reviews while trying to find a special yarn for a project and found your writing to be just delightful, informative and very useful. Thanks for all you do for the knitting community—hope to meet you some day...
Bonne Marie
www.chicknits.com
The service that you are providing, Clara, in educating knitters about what to look for in good yarn, is absolutely invaluable. Congratulations on filling such an important gap so ably.
Best regards,
Nyle Seabright
ARTFIBERS
I continue to be amazed about the "power of the pen" or should I say "power of the keyboard"!!!! The profile you did of my shop in June continues to bring in customers from a distance.......1-2 hours away. They say they love the shop, and are so glad they visited. More importantly, they promise to return soon!
Susan Olson
The Woolly Lamb
Pennington, NJ
From readers
I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy and appreciate your
newsletter. I look forward to it and savor it like the dark chocolate I
allow myself as a treat! Your information and reviews are so helpful and
have given me much to think about. I work at a wonderful yarn shop (mostly
to supply my yarn habit) one day a week and have been able to use the
information that you have given to help the customers that come to the
shop. Thank you for a fine addition to the wonderful tradition of
knitting.
Your newsletter is so well written, continuously newsworthy and always full of great information. No matter how busy I am when going through my e-mail, I am always delighted to find yours and take the time to enjoy it and learn from it. I've been knitting on and off for over twenty years and always walk away with more knowledge after reading it. The polls are great, the content up to date and relevant. With so many mediocre websites around, you stand out by putting together a really wonderful one. Thanks so much!
I just wanted to comment on your site, which I think is wonderful. The yarn reviews are extrememly helpful, and many a time I have returned impulse purchases based on your comments. On the otherhand, I have tried (and fallen in love with) yarn, namely Beaverslide, you have reviewed. While I am sure they are time consuming to produce, the yarn and tool reviews definately make this site a favorite for me! Please keep up the good work.
I love having honest reveiws about a product! So many reviews of books and products just parrot what the manufacturer has said. You are a refreshing change!
I love reading Knitter's Review, and I agree with the comparison to a wine magazine. However, my favorite part is the meticulous testing of the swatches. I was trained as a laboratory scientist, and I really appreciate the thorough, consistent testing you perform on each kind of yarn. You are sort of like the Consumer Reports of knitting—only more exciting!