Knitted Friends began with a search for the perfect gift — and ended with something far bigger: original characters, designed from scratch, that now live on toys, clothing, keepsakes, and anything that carries a sense of wonder. This is the story of how they came to be.
"The characters came first.
Everything else is an expression of who they are."
— Nicolle, Co-founder
In early 2022, we were searching for a newborn gift for a dear friend's baby. We looked everywhere — and nothing felt right. Nothing felt like it had been truly created with love and intention. Nothing felt like something a child would keep.
That moment of frustration became the spark. We didn't just want to make something — we wanted to design characters with personality, with soul, with a world of their own. Characters that children would form real bonds with. We created every one from scratch, and we trademarked the Knitted Friends brand to protect what we'd built.
The toys were just the beginning. Our characters now live on clothing, keepsakes, and pieces designed with the same whimsical, heirloom spirit — because once a character is real, they belong everywhere.
Nicolle and Lissette didn't start a toy company. They started a creative world — one that carries a handcraft tradition forward across two generations and two continents, and puts it into the hands of families across the United States.
Nicolle designs every character — their expressions, their personality, the precise way they look when a child first picks them up. The craft and the care behind every piece honours this tradition .
Every Knitted Friends character was designed from scratch and trademarked. You won't find them anywhere else in the world — because they don't exist anywhere else. Each one has a personality, a name, a presence. And now they're growing beyond toys into everything a child's world touches.
Our characters were always too full of life to stay in one place. We're now bringing them to clothing, keepsakes, and new pieces — embroidering our designs onto garments, creating heirloom objects that carry the same whimsical spirit into every corner of a child's world.
Every new piece is an expression of the same characters you already love. The same personality. The same soul. Just a new home for them to live in.
Every character and every piece is an original design.We never license, never borrow, never follow trends. We create the character first, then find the perfect form for it to live in — whether that's a toy, a garment, or a keepsake.
CPSIA compliant.100% organic cotton.Embroidered faces — no plastic eyes, no buttons, nothing a curious mouth can ever reach. We build everything as if our own newborns will hold it, because that's exactly how Knitted Friends began.
We design heirlooms. Not products for a season. Every piece is made to end up in the "keep forever" box and eventually be held by the next generation. That's the only standard we design to.
We bring our characters to life at farmers markets and pop-up events across New Jersey and New York — because there's nothing like watching a child pick up a Knitted Friend for the very first time.
"To create small friends
that bring big comfort —
for precious little hands."
Every character we design carries something of where we come from — a tradition passed between a mother and daughter, from South America to New Jersey, from a blank page to the hands of 3,000 families and counting.
We don't make toys for a season. We design heirlooms with personalities — pieces so full of love that they end up in boxes labeled "keep forever." That's the only thing we've ever been trying to do.
Every piece is made in small batches. Once they're gone, they're gone — but there's always a new friend waiting to be loved.
