The Secret of Jimmy Beans’ Success

If you’ve been in the online knitting world for a while, you’ve probably heard of Jimmy Beans Wool. An actual yarn store in Nevada, Jimmy Beans is best known as an online marketplace for a wide variety of yarn and supplies and has an annual revenue of more than $7 million.

How did a little yarn store started by a pair of former software engineers become one of the biggest things on the Internet? There are lots of reasons, no doubt, but a big part of it was posting videos on YouTube. As Laura Zander told the New York Times blog You’re the Boss, the company has focused on building its brand since 2007 and used Zappos.com as a model for building their business.

And the company’s YouTube channel has more than 1,400 subscribers and nearly 1.5 million page views, and serves as a great educational resource as well as a way to connect with customers old and new.

Check out the blog for more information on this fun yarn company.

[Photo via the New York Times.]

I decided last fall that I actually have enough knit sweaters. Maybe even a few too many if we’re being honest with how rarely I wear some of them.

Of course I don’t want to stop knitting garments, so I’ve added more vests and socks to my rotation. I’ve started crocheting more (though only one sweater so far!) and throwing in other crafts instead of being all knitting all the time.

And of course there are summer tops. I don’t wear them as much as I should but they’re a great way to get some knit garments in my life without knitting a whole sweater.

If you’re new to knitting clothes, starting with a summer top is a great entry point, especially if there are no sleeves involved.

Gudrun Johnston’s Simmer Dim Top is definitely going on my list of makes for the warmer weather to come. It’s worked in lace weight yarn, making it super light and comfortable for warm weather. It’s sleeveless and seamless, worked from the bottom up with a-line shaping, in the round to the armholes.

The textured stitch on front and back is worked flat one piece at a time, and finished with an I-cord edging that becomes the straps. The armholes are finished by picking up stitches and then binding them off.

Darts are used to shape the a-line of the body, and faux side seams are used on the body. It’s identical front to back.

The pattern comes in 10 sizes, with chest measurements ranging from 31 to 60 inches, or 79 to 152.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 0 to 2 inches/5 cm of positive ease. In the photos it looks a little shorter than my preference (since I have a long torso) but working from the bottom up makes it easy to adjust because you can just knit as long as you like to the armholes.

You can find this pattern (and a bunch of pretty versions other people have made) on Ravelry.

[Photo: Gundrun Johnston]

Have you read?