Brooklyn Tweed creates 100% American-made wool yarn, as well as high quality, sophisticated knitwear patterns tailored perfectly for their own unique yarns. We love their focus on manufacturing here in the USA, and that they’re our neighbors here in Portland since 2015! When we saw their classy notebook designs, we knew we had to feature them on the blog. We spoke with Korina Yoo about Brooklyn Tweed and the experience of creating these custom notebooks with us.
Can you tell us a bit about Brooklyn Tweed?
At Brooklyn Tweed we develop and manufacture breed-specific wool yarns that support domestic textile production here in the USA. We design our yarns in our headquarters in Portland, OR (right down the street from Scout Books!), source our fiber from the American West, and dye and spin them back East in Pennsylvania, Maine, and New Hampshire. We also have a Design Team who creates high-quality knitting patterns and books for the modern knitter, with a focus on refined knitting techniques, attention to detail, wearable style, and timelessness.
What was the idea behind creating Brooklyn Tweed notebooks? Why did you choose Scout Books?
The tactile experience of writing with pen and paper isn’t something we feel can be replaced by a computer. We love having a trusty notebook tucked into our knitting bag at all times to aid us in planning, documenting, and jotting down inspiration during the creative process of knitting. Thus, we thought it would be a great idea to create our own ideal notebook for on-the-go — one that you can never have too many of! Scout Books was the perfect choice for these notebooks because we wanted to support a local business dedicated to sustainable print production.
We love the simple, classic design on these. Who designed the books? How do you use them?
Jared Flood, Brooklyn Tweed’s Founder and Creative Director, designed the cover illustrations. The page dots provide just the right amount of guidance without getting in the way. It’s the perfect spread for writing, drawings, or both! We added handy resources for the knitter to the back of the book (such as needle size conversions), and are especially fond of the ruler, which is always helpful to have when knitting and measuring progress on a piece.
For those of us who tend to work on more than one project at a time, having a place to safely keep our notes and mark our place is invaluable. The index page allows us to make notes about which page contains content for specific projects or topics. We’ve also been using the books as an idea bank for planning future projects and jot down notes for research on particular knitting techniques or list new yarns to try out.
It’s definitely time to break out the wool. Any favorite cold weather traditions or tips?
Knitting season is definitely upon us! We love the changing of the seasons and around this time of year we begin looking for any excuse to wear our handknits. All of us at Brooklyn Tweed knit year-round, but we are especially fond of the cold nights when we can stay indoors in the warmth and happily knit away on our current projects.
Huge thanks to Korina and everyone at Brooklyn Tweed for working with us! You can find more about them via the Brooklyn Tweed website.