Do you have a piece of clothing that makes you feel special? Something that perfectly reflects your personality and earns you compliments every time you wear it?
ORIGI-KNITS owner Denise Abbott believes everyone should have a piece like that.
Humble Beginnings
An Air Force brat, Abbott was born in Paris, then lived in Turkey, Greece and across the United States before her family settled in Colorado Springs in the 1970s.
When she was 8, she began knitting slippers alongside her mom. Then scarves. One day, she decided to knit a sweater. She had no pattern, but decided, “Ok. There’s a front and a back and some sleeves,” she said, laughing. Her first attempt turned out “kind of cute,” but not exactly to scale.
Later, she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked in the garment district and lived next to a yarn store.
She dived into knitting books and frequented the nearby yarn shop, getting to know the employees and looking for bargains – often the last ball or skein in a dye lot. That meant when a particular color ran out, it was gone. It also ensured that when she knitted something, it would be the only piece of its kind.
An original.
Eventually, she set aside her knitting books, drawing inspiration instead from glossy magazines and hip television shows. She hasn’t used a pattern in more than two decades, preferring to lean on her own creativity.
When she lived in LA, she once hauled some of her pieces into the shop of the woman who knitted many of the iconic sweaters from Bill Cosby’s 1980s TV show. Abbott asked whether she needed an assistant. The shop owner turned her down, saying Abbott’s knitting was expert enough to be her competition – not her assistant.
Ultimately, Abbott moved back to Colorado Springs and now serves as marketing director for the Pikes Peak Center and Broadmoor World Arena. In her free time, however, she always has knitted.
And that long-ago compliment from Cosby’s sweater artist? It planted a seed that in 2020 sprouted into ORIGI-KNITS. Abbott now sells her one-of-a-kind wares through a website, as well as at Eclectic Co., a cooperative retail shop in downtown Colorado Springs.
Conversation Pieces
Abbott describes her garments as “classic sweaters with a twist.” Think gigantic turtlenecks. Interesting textures. Bright colors. Off-beat styles. Soft, beautiful yarns from around the world.
“I don’t want to be every car on the road,” she said.
For one sweater, she knitted an extra-long scarf, sewed each layer together to create the body, then replicated the process with two smaller scarves for the arms. A typical sweater takes her about 50 hours to knit. An intricate pattern like the scarf sweater? L-o-n-g-e-r.
Abbott usually starts her day about 3 am by knitting. She works all day at her marketing job (part-time during the pandemic), then winds down before bed by (you guessed it!) knitting. That translates into nearly 40 hours of knitting per week. Almost a full-time second job.
But for her, each sweater is a labor of love.
“I want the sweater to make you feel special when you wear it,” she said. “I want people to say, ‘Where did you get that?’”
In other words, she wants each creation to be a conversation piece – something timeless that you’ll cherish for years to come.
ORIGI-KNITS are a bargain at the moment, ranging from $95 to $185. Grab one now because as the company grows, the prices likely will rise to better reflect the time and energy she pours into each piece.
Her big dream? To open a brick-and-mortar ORIGI-KNITS boutique.
She’d keep her day job, but Abbott imagines someday owning a shop where people could browse an evolving, expanding collection of hand-crafted garments and blankets.
Giving Back
Since the idea for ORIGI-KNITS first crept into her mind, Abbott envisioned a charity element. Initially, she thought about donating a percentage of sales to a cause.
Then, something happened. She and her neighbor were planning to distribute meals to the homeless in their immediate neighborhood the day before Thanksgiving.
“I had a dozen or so scarves that I had made and I added them to the packages,” Abbott said. “Right now, it's just something I do to give back, but I want to incorporate it into ORIGI-KNITS.”
After all, everyone should have a piece of clothing that makes them feel special.
On the Web:
ORIGI-KNITS: https://origi-knits.com/
Eclectic Co: https://shopeclecticco.com/