Made with love on the West Coast
As a knitter of nearly 30 years, Caroline often found herself wanting to learn (or relearn) a stitch for a pattern, combing through lists of search results of lengthy YouTube videos with tons of commentary. What she really wanted was a quick and easy video, just a few seconds, and one reliable website that would have a collection of them all. And that is how the idea for KnitGIFs was born.
So one hot summer evening over a bottle of Rosé with two families celebrating birthdays, Caroline shared everything, asking “What if we could create a website of stitch GIFs for knitters?” Enter Niki, having no knitting experience at all but lots of web experience, she believed in Caroline’s idea and wanted to help build it. Together, the two moms grew KnitGIFs from a simple “What if?” into a public website of stitch GIFs for knitters of all levels to “learn a stitch quick.”
Why GIFs?
We decided on the format of animated GIFs because we were finding a surplus of knitting content available online, especially for beginning knitters, but what we noticed was a real dearth of short, concise videos that teach individual stitches for knitters of all levels. By design, animated GIFs are short and they loop, which makes them an ideal file format for learning a stitch.
Caroline Bollman is a special education teaching assistant in rural Oregon. Her degree in technical theatre has enabled her to wear many hats throughout the years, but most of all in raising her family of 6. While not an expert or authority on knitting, Caroline has enjoyed knitting since she was twelve years old. The skill has been a fundamental part of her life. She is always learning new techniques but still hasn’t mustered the courage to steek.
Niki Castello is a UX Designer with a background in engineering, management, graphic design and public relations. She derives great satisfaction from seeing ideas come to fruition and great joy in raising her young son with her husband in Berkeley, California.
We hope you find KnitGIFs.com to be helpful and fun! Always remember to drop us a line if you think you have a stitch that would make a great GIF.
Salute!
