i love yarn!
Tomorrow, Friday 11 October, 2013 is I Love Yarn Day.
Yes, I love yarn!
How can you show your appreciation of yarn this Friday and every day? There are many ways. Below, I’ve identified two that I feel help share the greatest amount of yarn love.
Knit or crochet for charity.
Lion Brand Yarn Studio is collecting handmade hats, gloves, scarves, and socks to donate to Hats for the Homeless.
Webs is collecting hats for the Ravelry Podcaster Throwdown to donate to Halos of Hope.
Or you could tweet/post on facebook using hash tag #caribouknits, and for each one, Caribou Coffee will machine-knit an inch of scarf for charity. Still not convinced? Annie Modesitt explains more.
You can also send children’s hats to Pat Pats Hats. Looking for a pattern? There’s always my littlerest preemie hat pattern in a soft sport-weight cotton.
Looking for even more places to donate? Lion Brand has compiled an extensive (and international) database resource, Charity Connection.
Help support a small business.
Many of my friends run small businesses that are in some way related to yarn. I’d love to mention them all. That would be a very long, link heavy post. Here are three, because well, A, B, C…
Anzula is looking for contributions to their indiegogo campaign to make their yarn factory even cooler. How do I mean? Dye pots are hot. They’d really love to invest in a proper HVAC system to keep their employees safe and cool.
Disclaimer: Anzula is incredibly supportive of indie designers. They provided even me with yarn support after I met with them this summer at TNNA. I’m finalizing those designs and hope to release them soon, below is a preview of one in their beautiful Haiku. Their yarns are divine and I enjoy working with such wonderful yarns and people.
Baah Yarn also has incredible colourways. I’m working on a commissioned piece in La Jolla and it’s also splendid to work with. You can look for Baah Yarns at a yarn store near you.
Cooperative Press has a growing catalog of titles helpful for all skill levels. It is difficult to chose a few to highlight. Over the past few months, I find myself thumbing most through: Andi Smith‘s Big Foot Knits, Anna Dalvi‘s Shaping Shawls, Kate Atherley‘s Beyond Knit & Purl, and all the issues of Knit Edge Magazine. Disclaimer: Cooperative Press is a client and one of my designs is in a book they published. I’d be recommending their books even without this disclaimer.
What are your I Love Yarn! Day plans?
I plan to work on editing several designs that are close to release, if the weather cooperates I hope to photograph new handknit items for sale, and I’m still working on the sleeves of E’s Sweater — with luck maybe I’ll teach him to knit a stitch or two.