New Kreinik website

Kreinik is launching a redesigned web site this week, featuring major improvements and a fresh look. You will find better organization, simple design, faster search engine, easier ordering, and content updated daily. 

Five awesome features of the new Kreinik website:

1. A fresh, updated look with a simple design. We're stylin' with a crisp, clean format that is readable and usable on your tablet, cell phone, laptop, or desktop.
2. Drastically improved search engine. We could go on about how the new site has one database rather than multiples, but the bottom line is that the keyword search just got way better.
3. Metallic Color Finder. The "Find a color" button on the top right side of the page lets you search the entire line of Kreinik Metallic Threads by color number, color name, thread size, and even color family. Try this cool tool here (put in 202HL for example, and see what comes up): http://www.kreinik.com/color_selector/
4. We still have the things you love. The free projects, educational information, how-to videos, stitch illustrations, store locator, and downloadable thread color charts are still available on the new site.
5. Uncomplicated ordering. We want you to support local independent retailers if possible, but when you need to order online, the new shopping cart is streamlined. A group of mom-and-pop, dedicated independent retailers fulfill orders made through the Kreinik site, so you will be getting the Kreinik you need from people who know about the products. The new site also features the latest in payment security technology, so the transactions are secure.

Check out the new Kreinik website here: www.kreinik.com. You may need to reload your page if you have the old site bookmarked, or clear your web browser history if you have any problems viewing it on your phone, tablet or laptop. Just hit "refresh" and get ready to be re-inspired and rejuvenated by a creative new thread world. 

Just like any project, the new Kreinik website is a work in progress. We are still adding items and content. There are so many numbers, lines of code, images, words, spaces, and punctuation in our website that we've missed a few edits, no doubt. So if you notice any broken links, typos, missing images, etc — or have any questions — send us an email: info@kreinik.com. We appreciate your feedback on the new site or on any Kreinik products.

Visit www.kreinik.com and enjoy!

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New for needleworkers: a Kreinik spool needle magnet

 A needle magnet is the easiest way to keep from losing your needle. If you have ever "rested" your needle in the arm of your couch, or in a corner of your project-in-progress (making holes and/or distorting the fabric), or on a coffee table (cats: beware!) then you need to know there is a better, SAFER, and certainly prettier way to rest your needle: a magnet!

Needle magnets attach to your project and hold your needle when not in use. Don't use just any set of magnets, as some of inferior quality can leave dark marks on your fabric. Try it once and you realize how handy they are. There is no shame in having  multiple magnets on one project, holding the needle for your metallic thread, the needle for your cotton thread, etc. These tools are designed to make your stitching life easier.

Accoutrement Designs has taken needle magnets to the glamourous level. They are sparkly and pretty and come in every theme to match every passion.  Of course you need a carrot magnet for spring, a crab magnet if you live in Maryland, a sand castle magnet if you stitch on vacation, a breast cancer ribbon magnet if you are a survivor or want to remember friends, etc etc. Creator Lisa Crespo even has a a list of A Year In Magnets to really keep your needlework in-progress projects fresh and fun. We all love bling and these are fun, inexpensive ways to bring our personalities and a smile to our stitching time. Whether you are a quilter, embroiderer, cross stitcher, or needlepointer, you can use one or more of these handy tools.

A few months ago, designer Sharon Garmize recommended to Lisa that she make a Kreinik spool needle magnet. There are so many Kreinik fans and Kreinik thread collectors out there, so Lisa was  just as excited as we were about the concept. She got to work and now has a Kreinik Spool Needle Magnet! You can also wear it as pin — the new fashion must-have for…guild meetings, stitching groups, oh well, anywhere! It will be a conversation starter.

The new design is debuting at Lisa's spring 2013 trade shows. Ask your local needlework store to get the Kreinik Spool Needle Magnet for you, or contact Accoutrement Designs for more details: http://www.fobfriends.blogspot.com/. The blog also has a list of stores on the right side of the page; contact those retailers to order online or via mail order. Stores can contact Lisa through http://www.accoutrementdesigns.com/.

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Calling all budding cross stitch and counted thread designers

The New Designer Program, sponsored by the CTE group of TNNA, is offering new designers a chance to win exhibit space at a TNNA trade show

As a needlework designer, would you like to bring your original counted thread or embroidery designs to a trade show? You know how important it is to be visible and make new contacts, but may not know how to get started, or you may be concerned about the finances involved in going to a trade show. The Counted Thread & Embroidery Group (CTE) of The National Needlearts Association (TNNA) is giving you the chance of a lifetime: to WIN a trip to the 2013 Summer NeedleArts Trade Show.

TNNA is a membership-based trade organization for the needleart industry. This community of professional needleart businesses, which includes publishers, retailers, designers, distributors and manufacturers, works toward ensuring a successful industry now and for the future. The TNNA trade shows attract retailers who want to see trends, take classes, discover new products, and buy new designs that will excite their customers.

TNNA's CTE group will be awarding scholarships to up to five new counted thread/embroidery designers to exhibit at the 2013 Summer Needlearts Trade Show. This New Designer Program is a way to help new counted thread and embroidery designers with creative ideas and irresistible excitement reach national and international retailers. The Columbus trade show is an order-writing show, closed to the public, scheduled for June 22-24, 2013, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Scholarship includes exhibit space plus tables and chairs. Designers winning the scholarships will share this exhibit space. This scholarship does not include transportation or lodging. However, a stipend to help defray expenses will be provided to each recipient. Winners will be determined by a juried process: a committee of TNNA/CTE members will be looking for quality design, presentation, and originality.

You have the ideas and talent, now it’s time to attend a major industry trade show. Don't delay; your portfolio is due by May 1, 2013., with judges’ decisions by May 15; winners will be notified May 17, 2013. For details on the rules and application process, download the PDF below, or email newdesignerprogram@gmail.com.

INFO FOR APPLYING: Download this PDF

DEADLINE: May 1, 2013

SHOW DATES: June 22-24, 2013

 

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New Stitch-A-Pen designs

Spring and summer inspired the three new designs in Kreinik's Stitch-A-Pen kit series. Easter Basket, Strawberries, and Fireflies feature bright, cheerful colors of Kreinik silk and metallic threads. The Fireflies design uses glow-in-the-dark threads—of course!—and Easter Basket uses the new Kreinik color 9032 Easter Braid. Each design can be stitched in as little as two hours, making them perfect for gifts. You get stitching satisfaction with a quick project that's useful and self-finishing. Stitch-A-Pens are full kits including the pattern, thread, needle, perforated paper and the pen. Visit kreinik.com for more information.

Easter Basket Stitch-A-Pen

Strawberries Stitch-A-Pen

Fireflies Stitch-A-Pen

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To the UK and back with Kreinik thread

"No, we are not from Scotland." This was our response to the Pakistani cabbie during our recent trip to Birmingham, England. (I did not realize that my accent was so strange.) We shared a laugh about it, but the conversation epitomized how culturally diverse any trip abroad can be in our times. We were quite surprised that most people recognized West Virginia when we were asked, "Where are you from?"  While they couldn't place it on a map, they could sing a song about it (John Denver's reach is still far and wide…).

Traveling overseas can be an adventure, and traveling overseas for a trade show can offer incredible challenges.  Finding your way, eating the food, walking down the correct escalator, making sure that your product arrives on time and learning new words can add to the experience.  A favorite word was travelator, which means a moving sidewalk. Polite is how we found the Brits. I asked about a "flapjack" and the clerk pointed and said the fruit ones and the chocolate ones. Actually they were rolled oats with sweets. If we looked lost, everyone made sure that we knew the proper direction, and then we had to figure out what was said. 

Often we would head for the escalator and realize that everything is on the opposite side, down was up and up was down, right was left and left was right from that which we were accustomed.  We learned to watch for oncoming cars from a different direction and listened to the charming British lady (a recorded voice) reminding us that the lift doors would be opening or closing. Riding in autos was a little unnerving, especially sitting in the "driver's seat" without a steering wheel.

The food was quite good and diverse. We had Balti (Indian food originally from Punjab), piri piri in a Mozambique/Portuguese restaurant, fish and chips with mushy peas at a cute little English pub, plus sandwiches and crisps, and one night Italian food.  At the Italian restaurant, the food was great, but since we were very tired and not the most willing customers in ordering the full course (no wine, no salad, no after dinner drink, no coffee), the owners took a particularly lengthy time to bring the bill.  Basically we were told, when you come back to town, do not bother shopping here.  As a time traveler though, you sometimes feel like falling asleep during and after dinner, so we were watching what was consumed.

We were treated well at the border, almost did not get my product through Customs for the show, and the attendees were again polite. We met people from all over the UK and from other countries. The stand next to us was a Ukranian company selling ribbon embroidery. Other vendors exhibited decoupage; maybe Mod Podge® will cycle back to the States.

Overall the trip to Birmingham was fun, interesting and added to our knowledge of British hospitality. This week we head to Nashville, Tennessee, for another trade show and another adventure no doubt. Have thread, will travel!

Cheers,

Doug

To see more photos from the Birmingham trip and show, visit the album on www.Facebook.com/Kreinik.Manufacturing.Company

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New Easter Braid™

There is a new thread in town, offering stitchers, crafters and fiber artists a new way to achieve prismatic color and optical effects in their projects. It's pearl on steroids, pearl hi lustre, Easter grass gone wild…it's color 9032 Easter Braid.

Last year, we introduced translucent Kreinik Easter Grass™ by specific request from one of the most talented and prolific needlepoint designers, Meredith Willet of M's Canvashouse (store) and Elizabeth Turner Designs (needlepoint canvases and finishing). We turned that Easter Grass into this year's new Easter Braid™.

Kreinik Easter Braid™ is a bolder version of our classic 032 Pearl color. It brings to mind the whimsical lightness of soap bubbles and the crystalline color of snow. At once purple, then green, then pink, then white...it dazzles in the light to create a color of depth and dimension, which gives you more visual interest in your handwork or machine embroidery. It’s a pretty pearl—and more.

One of the most versatile colors we've ever created, Easter Braid has the chameleon-quality to pick up color around or beneath it. Use it to intensify color on a painted needlepoint canvas, to blend subtly into colored cross-stitch fabric, or magnify print on quilt cottons. We have already heard that fly tyers are raving about the shimmery color for making irresistible lures. So don't let the name determine the use; it's not just for "Easter" designs. When we handed out samples at the recent TNNA needlearts trade show, needlepoint designers started using it in projects as diverse as winter, Halloween, Christmas, wedding, baby, Easter, and confection-themed designs.

Choose from a variety of thread sizes (thread weights) to match your particular creative technique: needlepoint, cross stitch, knitting, crochet, weaving, papercrafts, and more. It is available in Kreinik Blending Filament, Very Fine #4 Braid, Fine #8 Braid, Tapestry #12 Braid, Medium #16 Braid, plus 1/8" Ribbon and 1/16" Ribbon.

For more information on Easter Braid and other Kreinik threads, visit your local needlework shop or www.kreinik.com. We posted pictures of the new Easter Braid on our Flickr site, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kreinikgirl/

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Kreinik Color Cards

Kreinik Metallic Color Card

Actual threads wrapped on cards…swatches of every Kreinik color...have the whole thread selection at your fingertips…what a good idea! These fabulous tools are called color cards, and they are available from Kreinik for the silk, metallic, machine sewing, and iron-on thread lines. 

Whether you are a professional pattern designer, a store owner, a kit maker, a fiber artist, or a do-it-yourselfer designing custom projects, a color card puts a manufacturer's thread inventory in your hands. It is a design tool, an organizing tool, a reference tool.

There has been some online talk recently about color cards from thread manufacturers, and whether they consist of just photographs of colors or actual threads. We want to spread the word that the Kreinik color cards have actual threads on them. So if you are doing color matching or planning projects, you can see exactly what a color looks like — in your home, shop or studio, in various light sources, next to certain fabrics, etc. 

Kreinik Silk Color Card

For convenience, we offer digital photos of all Kreinik colors on our web site at www.kreinik.com. You can also download a PDF of a 'pocket' color chart for each thread line (silk, metallic, machine sewing, iron-on), featuring photos of all Kreinik colors here: Kreinik Color Charts. Until we can all afford 3-D printers, we can't have actual threads coming out of your computer screens, so in a pinch the photos give you a pretty good idea of a color.

It is ultimately the most helpful to flip and search, match and coordinate based on real colors rather than photo swatches, however. So the Kreinik Metallic Color Card has thread samples of 350+ Kreinik thread colors wrapped around panels. The Kreinik Silk Color Card has swatches of 200+ colors. When new colors are added, updated panels are created. For any creative person, these cards are an easy and economical way to have a thread palette on hand at all times. 

For more information or to purchase the Kreinik silk and metallic color cards:

• Ask your local needlework store to special order a color card for you
• If you have a wholesale account with Kreinik, add updated color cards to your next order
• Check online stores for color cards (such as Nordicneedle.com, everythingcrossstitch.com etc)
• Click here for Kreinik metallic color card
• Click here for Kreinik silk color card

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