Pollika

(Sock) yarn

2011-05-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

There aren't may knitters we know that can hide their excitement over new yarn. We all love the excitement of touching and imagining all the things we can create with this yarn.

When the Knitglobal sock yarn first arrived at Pollika we were thinking 'socks' only. Not anymore...many different projects have been created with the yarn: skirts, shawls and leg warmers are just to name a few.
'Collection One' by designer Jeanette Sloan has 10 great ideas in aimed at knitters with basic knitting skills. These beautiful designs are all illustrated with clear photography as well as written instructions. So, cast on and explore a variety of knitting techniques including cabling, lace, fairisle, short row shaping and beading.

Have you had your greens today?

2011-03-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

Everything Green is good for you...this month is St. Patrick day and we celebrate it early by offering lots of green specials...16 different shawl pin shapes in Broccoli, Olive and Wasabi. Yummy!

Check out the variety!

Pollika Pets

2011-02-24T17:26:00.000-08:00

We love yummy yarns and everything they create and we consider ourselves lucky to be surrounded by cashmere, silk, organic merino, mohair and alpaca!
We also love our pets. They inspire our knitting, felting and designing. Accompany us while we update our website and online store and when we talk to our wonderful clients on the phone or by email.
Emily the cat is always sure to be close to her favorite yarn and Kelso the pug has lots of loud snoring naps and secures a treat here and there during the day.

We love you Emily & Kelso!

Are you inspired by your pets?

Knitting, Felting & Yoga

2011-02-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

There are a few things in my life that have awakened great passion. Knitting is one of them, felting a close follower and yoga keeps all if it prospective. Living on the west coast of Canada, many kinds of yoga are an every day activity for many people. No matter what time of the day you see people walking around with their Lululemon yoga mat. I felt it was time for a more creative yoga mat carrier, so I knitted one with 2 strands of Yarnundyed natural Aran yarn in a simple lace pattern. The new woolen cord helped to shape the base and strengthen the strap. It was so much fun to do! I the felted the bag in the washer, stuffed it with towels to shape and dry and that is how 'Namaskar' was born. Because this yarn is undyed it is possible to dye it with cool aid or other dyes or keep it as it is. Lots of my yoga friends love Namaskar, so it has now become a Pollika knitting kit. The yarn, woolen cord and pattern with felting instructions all together in a green reusable Pollika bag. You can find it in your local yarn store order it in our online shop.

om.....

Really….. last post more than a year ago?

2011-02-11T16:20:00.000-08:00

Wow! Isn’t that something, time flies when you are having fun! And that I have had in the last year. Pollika has evolved in many ways. Lesley has become my business partner. Our shawl pins are still finding homes in great Local Yarn Stores. We have added new family members: Yarnundyed, beautiful blends of undyed yarn for commercial dyers, indy dyers and for adventures fiber artists. Felt from Holland in fun and complete kits and a new launch is around the corner: Wope! Can’t tell you anymore about that right now, but it is going to have your creative juices flowing!

Yarnundyed

We have revamped our website and branded Pollika in purple and green with our lovely vintage ladies. They will be greeting you warmly every visit at our online shop and wholesale store. It has been a great experience to develop a dream into reality and the path continues! We are so thankful for the wonderful clients we have built a relationship with and hope that many more of you will follow our journey!

Inspiration for one of our vintage ladies

Just so you know English is my second language, here and there my fast thinking brain cells get confused and infected with my first language: Dutch. So, most posts are going to be written in ‘Denglish’. The will be accompanied by Lesley’s photography talent, that likes me to believe they will be clear, inspiring and bring a smile to your face!

olympic blues

2010-03-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

the city of vancouver is returning to it's old self after the 2010 winter olympics. what a party it was! even the people not so exited for the olympics admitted that the atmosphere was magical! the red knitted mittens were absolutely everywhere! can't wait for the paralympics starting on march 12!

In the mean time spring is not officially here, but the trees have blossoms and the narcissus are blooming. it truly smells like spring. that also means knitting with cotton and other spring-like materials starts. deciding what lace pattern for a new shawl is going to be the challenge. one of the red wood shawl pin is going to be responsible for the inspiration!

happy holidays!

2009-12-16T09:53:00.000-08:00

there is still a little time left to find the perfect gift!

stop at your local yarn store and pick up a beautiful shawl pin or visit our
online retail store.

at pollika we wish you merry christmas & happy new year!

we are already working on new beautiful accessories for 2010.

fully finished fall shawl

2009-10-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

the fountain pen shawl is all finished and dressed up with the pollika teardrop shawl pin.

it was such a joy to knit this through out the summer. the material so nice and smooth. every pattern knit was a surprise in how the color appeared. it truly became a piece of love when discovered after blocking.

fall is treating us with colors much like in this shawl. some golden leaves trickle of a what used to be a flowering shrub in the back yard. some plants stay green just a little longer and make gray fall day a little brighter.

2009-10-01T16:19:00.001-07:00

it is finished....the fountain pen shawl. it's blocked and drying!

so far so good...

2009-09-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

knit, knit knit....

four hundred and more stitches per row take some time and focus....

the end result so exiting and worth it!
i am knitting the fountain pen shawl from the interweave spring 2009 knit magazine with hand dyed araucanian 100% mercerized cotton in beautiful warm tones 'lonco multy'.

only 12 more rows to go! I can't wait for it to be finished and blocked. i will not only wear it proudly but also use it as the new display for the shawl pins to give the website a fresh look.

there is more time to knit and at the same time not enough time to knit at the pollika office these days. pollika knitting accessories was born about a year ago and inspired by my daughter, who's nick name in dutch has been 'pollika' as long as we can both remember. she is a great inspiration and motivation: 'do what you love and believe in it!'

she has left canada and is now studying in holland to receive a bachelor of arts in dance in preparation for being a professional dancer. so the nest is empty :-( , no more help with 'photo shopping' and 'picture taking' or web building, but i can knit when ever i like :-)

"have fun pollika and enjoy this great oppertunity!"

knitters, please check back soon for the finished version of the fountain pen shawl an don't forget to check out the great fall accessories at http://www.pollika.com/

2009-09-14T15:30:00.000-07:00

Fall has arrived...it is really true! As a sun lover I feel overcome with a sense of sadness. At the same time I am exited to start knitting with nice warm thick wool. And just for a moment here and there I think of what to make for holiday gifts!

I am sure I am not the only one feeling this way! To help you feel inspired we added new shawl pins to our collection and not to forget these beautiful buttons who will finish anything with a bang!

Take a moment to welcome fall and visit pollika.com

happy summer holidays all!

2009-07-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

here in canada we celebrated canada day yesterday on the first of july. what a wonderful day with friends, sunshine and great food of the bbq! enjoy your july 4th holiday neighbors in the south!

when all the celebrations are done it is time to get down to business again! there's so much fun stuff to do in the summer that sometimes we don't even get around to knitting, even though we love it. however that hasn't stopped us from adding new and fantastic products to our collection! we hope you have a minute during you're summer hustle and bussle to look at them. maybe even start you're holiday projects early!!

here is a preview, but visit www.pollika.com for much more! see you soon!

a breath-taking new addition to the pollika.com store

2009-06-12T13:50:00.001-07:00

we are enjoying the sunshine on the west coast very much, who says it rains here all the time?

we have received lots of new products all which will enter our stores in the coming weeks but we felt this one had to be first and deserved some special attention. our most beautiful shawl pins ever: made of kamagong wood a special smooth dark wood that grows only in the philippines, originally designed in switzerland for something truely special.
a lovely addition to neutral tone yarns or for accentuating a summer lace shawl!

new pollika online store now open!

2009-05-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

we are still building our retail store network, and focusing on trying to local yarn and craft stores all over north america! (interested in carrying our products go to http://pollika.com/retailer)but as we have had an overwhelming amount of requests from many fellow 'ravelers' and 'googlers' and 'tweeters' from across north america excited to use our bright buttons and gorgeous shawl pins we had to find away for so many passionate people to get their hands on our fabulous stuff. introducing the pollika online store, all of our products available to anyone, anywhere.

can't find a retailer in your area, check out the store at www.pollka.com

looking for some inspiration for what to make next or how to finish a project perfectly?
come visit, we're sure we can help,
we hope you come back often.

www.pollika.com

pollika online retail store launching soon

2009-04-16T12:19:00.001-07:00

yes, soon the new online retail store will be launching and this of course will be in addition to our current canadian and us store, but we are very excited to be meeting more new passionate knitters and to be sharing more pollika products with people all over north america!

hurray we can't wait.

until we talk again

new pollika display unit available.

2009-03-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

goodmorning all!

how have you been, it sure been a while since we last spoke. things over here have been great very busy and we aren't complaining. we are finding our way around ravelry slowly but surely, but wow what a knitting community that is. its incredible how many avenues there are now to find patterns and get inspired and simply just chat to other people over your favorite needles or stitches, its great.

earlier on this year we decided it was very important to have a unique pollika display unit, tina came up with her own design and we are happy to announce that last week we received the final finished product. its absolutely beautiful, you might even say a piece of sturdy art. it was handcrafted here in vancouver which is great because it supports our canadian economy.
its made of wrought iron and has a beautiful copper texture finish, pictured here on the left.

now, on a very serious note, is seems that some of our not regularly mentioned staff have had enough of working behind the scenes and would like some well deserved (i suppose) attention. infact i believe they are on strike and have gone so far as to sit on our keyboard so we cant get anything done. so without further delay i would like to introduce you to two other members of the pollika team, patty and emily.

yes indeed they work very hard, they are furry, they are sweet and they can be quite demanding when it comes to getting there space even if we are very busy trying to accomplish things. patty (left) is more a shawl pin girl while emily, (right) is a lover of yarn.
and so we apologize to you ladies for disregarding your existance within our ever growing company, your two of the best co-workers we could ask for. keep knitting, keep happy and healthy, and we hope you are blessed with some sunshine where ever you are! :)

beautiful cartigan complete with pollika accessories

2009-02-26T14:43:00.000-08:00

latest knitting creation complete!

cecily glowics fitted flyaway cardigan
pattern from vogue knitting,
winter 2008/09 magazine.

in rowan big wool & cedifra belisana orange mohair

needles 12.75 mm us 17

featuring pollika:
brown earth buttons
medium coco sphere buttons
small black bloom buttons
&
tiramisu buttons

we think the color pattern is simply gorgeous, what do you think?

lucky in love, blessed with creativity & excitement.

2009-02-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

we hope you had a lovely valentines day, even though its somewhat of a silly holiday, its still nice to spend time with your loved ones, and who doesn't love flowers and chocolate?

we have fantastic news to share today, our ravelry invitation arrived in our mail box sometime last night. we are so very excited about this and absolutely cannot wait to connect with tons of other knitters and creative enthusiasts. well keep you posted on our ravelry exploration.

more exciting news we are expanding our lines for the spring and summer 09' season. more colors, more styles and more exciting inspiring products to create with. the most buzz worthy addition is probably 4 new colors to the earth button collection -which so far has proven to be a big crowd pleaser.

last but not least we wanted to share one of our projects that is an original design and features some pollika coconut buttons. tina made this a little while ago and lone behold we open up the lastest issue of vogue knitting and they have patterns for making beautiful pillow covers. i guess we were ahead of you this time vogue :) whats nice about this pillow though, is that its got more to it than a big chunky cable and everyone that has seen it has remarked how cool it is that it has buttons on it. i mean why not they are everywhere else, on purses, headbands, bracelts, why not pilllows?!

well we must keep creating, keep designing and continue to search for more stores to share our inspiring products with. until we meet again,
stay well, stay warm and stay happy.

cheers,
pollika team

l -o -v -e is in the air!

2009-02-03T23:05:00.000-08:00

l - is for the way you look at me.

o - is for the only one i see.

v - is very very, extraordinary.

e - is even more than anyone that you adore.

and love is all that i can give to you.

love is more than just a game for two.

two in love can make it, take my heart and please don't break it,

love - was made for me and you.

ps. were finished our latest projects, new photos coming soon!

as january comes to a close we reflect on great changes.

2009-01-28T09:45:00.001-08:00

hello everyone!!

with february around the corner we have taken some time to look back on all the BIG changes that we have experienced this month as a company.

after the new year we took a strategic look at our company and found somethings that could use sprucing up or a whole new version all together.
this brought about pollika 2.0 - with a new layout and designed website, a new online store with new features and is much more user friendly*, new packaging for all our products that looks so great and is super functional, & a new email structure for those on the mailing list. all fairly small 'renovations' but they make a huge difference. we feel very lucky to have been able to accomplish all of these things and are so excited to see where it will take us. we hope you come along for the ride.

someone asked the other day what the best part of this month was for us and i think with unanimous decision it would be getting the oppurtunity to work with some fabulous knitters, crafters, quilters and sewers all across the country. thank you for sharing your business with us, and your creativity and love for what you do! best wishes to you all.

happy chinese new years and may feburary bring great things in your life!
cherrio,
pollika team
tina & rebecca

NEW pollika newsletter out today -sign up at www.pollika.com's signup page!

2009-01-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

as you are getting to know us, we like to share our excitement to get pollika out there inspiring many more creative fun people.

check your mail box's and/or sign up today http://www.pollika.com/signupform.html

each newsletter features new promotions, tips and tricks for retailers on how to share pollika with clients and special discount offers, so sign up now!!!

we hope all is good, and that your new years resolutions are holding strong.

pollika team :)

ps. our current favorite album on rotation is kings of leon's new album -only by the night check it out its fantastic :)

who says a shawl pin is just for a shawl?

2009-01-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

there's nothing like a gift made from the heart. so this christmas we were busy making gifts for our loved ones. we hope that our creations might excite, motivate or make you want to create something special too.
enjoy the photos!
pollika team.

"ring out the old, ring in the new.. ring out the false & ring in the true."

2009-01-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

happy new year to all!
we hope that you have a wonderful new year, that you accomplish all you wish to accomplish, that this year is filled with prosper and joy, and that your love for what you do and those whom you surround yourself with makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside! :)

bring on the resolutions. bring on the new year!
lots of love,
pollika team

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

a note for a winters night.

2008-12-17T16:05:00.000-08:00

its beginning to look a lot like christmas, everywhere you go!

it began last night, slowly taking over our roads, covering our trees, and laying on our cars.

what you might ask? why snow of course.

today we stay inside and feel very thankful that we have such a nice warm surroundings and wonderful company to share our christmas holidays with.

we are busy knitting away gifts for loved ones as the big day draws nearer, perhaps we should knit something for santa?

around christmas it can be a challenge to remember why it is we decide as knitters to make so many different projects for our loved ones, but in the end when you see the joy it brings them and your elbows and wrists have stopped throbbing from knitting overload you remember that you love it, or you just simply wouldnt do it. luckily all it takes for us is about a 6-9 hour break and we wake wanting to knit again. dont forget to stop and smell the pine needles from the christmas tree and enjoy the lights!

we hope that you enjoy this wonderful season and draw inspiration from all the festivities going on around you. be it cold where you are or warm, busy or quite we hope that you are happy and well.

happy holidays from us at pollika. we hope to see you again in the new year!

pollika team,

tina & rebecca.

ps. happy early birthday wishes to our own little pollika becka.

our origins.

2008-11-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

there once was a little dutch girl with curly blonde hair, a tiny little button nose, green eyes, perky little cheeks and a huge smile. she was sweet and giggley and rather enthusiastic about things. her mother nicknamed her pollika, not knowing herself where the name came from only that it was something that you called a little girl. similar to beetlejuice, or pumpkin, just a simple pet name. but now it is so much more.

the daughter grew older though her nickname never went away, no matter how old or how grown up she would ever be, she would never be less of a pollika. the people around her even began to get nicknames that rhymed with hers like mamake or noelleke.

the girls mother was an intelligent woman who could make something quite extraordinary out of whatever she dabbled in. little did she know the day she would pick up her knitting needles again would change everything. soon what started as something her grandmother had shown as a girl became a wonderful gift and creative outlet. she felt as though she was doing what she was meant to do when she would knit. create beautiful, unique pieces, each showing different sides of her multifaceted personality, each testing her in different ways and always making beautiful gifts for those whom she loved dearly.

the mother was a great teacher to all those around her especially her daughter, and honestly believed that if you do what you love, your love for your life will take care of you. that your love will conquer all. the strong mother decided that it was time for her to start living in what she loved, and invited her pollika to go into business with her, together they were going to build something truly special and off mama went to colonge, germany to a knit and fibre show to find something fantastic that she could build her business around. but before she left the company needed a name. the family thought, what should we name the business? and somehow it surfaced like it had been there all along, pollika, the name of her baby. the name she loved and the girl felt loved in.

upon her arrival home her excitement was contagious, she had found the most fabulous shawl pins and buttons unlike anything she had ever seen and knew that this was going to be something huge for many inspired knitters. with nothing but shawl pins and buttons, a name and a belief, the team embarked on creating something authentic to their loves.

http://www.pollika.com/ that's us. heart, soul and shawl pin.