Irish Knitting Fun for St. Patrick’s Day

I’m pretty sure this is the first time in the history of me having this job that I’ve remembered St. Patrick’s Day was coming before it was even March. (And if the shamrock knitting pattern roundups from the last two years are any indication, that’s certainly true, because they were both published at just about the last minute.)

Since I’m giving you more time this year, I thought it would be fun to look at some more traditional Irish (or Aran-inspired, anyway) knitting projects that are great for St. Patrick’s Day or any time of year.

There are of course a ton of these types of projects depending on what sort of thing you want to knit, so we’re just scratching the surface here. A good search at Ravelry or on a large yarn company website will get you lots more ideas.

Sweaters: Check out the His and Her Aran Knits from Bernat Design Studio (pattern is a PDF), the Aran Texture Twinset from Paton’s, the Men’s Pullover Irish Knit (which looks to be a vintage Bernat pattern) or the Aran Cable Shrug from Crystal Palace Yarns.

Accessories: I love the Aran Gauntlets from AslanTrends (free download if registered with Vogue Knitting), Flory Loughead’s Aran Toque and the Modified Irish Cable Scarf from Knit Purl Addict. This Aran Poncho from Patons, originally published in Canadian Living, is pretty darn impressive, too.

Afghans: Maybe the perfect use of Aran patterning to my mind is a big Aran afghan. Anna Dalvi’s Burridge Lake Aran Afghan is a beauty, worked with a central panel that’s symmetrical and panels on each side that are mirror images. There’s also the St. Patrick’s Day Sampler Afghan, which was originally designed by members of the Aranknit list back in 2000-01. You can see pictures of all the squares on Ravelry.

Looking for knitting patterns for knitted Cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

Looking for pullover and sweater patterns? Check these books out.

Next Pattern:

Now that all the Joann stores have closed, a mysterious message has appeared on the company’s website:

For generations, Joann has been honored to be part of your creativity: your quilts, costumes, school projects, and handmade moments of love. It has been our joy to serve markers and dreamers across the country.
We’re stitching up something new behind the scenes and we can’t wait to share what’s next.
Stay tuned for exciting news about the future of Joann.

To quickly recap, Joann filed for bankruptcy in January for the second time in less than a year. In February, in the hope of making the company more attractive to potential buyers, it petitioned the court for permission to close about 500 of its 800 stores. The company was put up for auction, with Gordon Brothers set to buy the company, sell its assets and close all the stores if no other buyer materialized.

In the end the winning bidder was GA Group, but the result was the same: all stores were to be closed by the end of May if not sooner.

Once store closure sales started the company quickly stopped selling on its website, and now all that remains is this jpeg image hinting at new ventures.

I’m sure there will be a tone of speculation in the coming days and weeks (or as long as it takes for them to announce the meaning of the message) as to what sorts of plans Joann could be cooking up.

My theory based on nothing but my gut is that they will transition to an online only storefront, probably with much reduced inventory, sort of like Herrschners (which had previously announced that it will be carrying Big Twist yarn, the beloved private label yarn brand sold at Joann). I also think they will use whatever retail sales they do to support CreativeBug, the digital learning platform that Joann purchased in 2017. That could mean producing kits for projects that already have classes, or developing classes based on products they want to sell, or both.

As of this writing the CreativeBug website seems to still be functional and there’s a full slate of new classes planned for June. I’ve got my eye on both the Joann website and the Joann restructuring website and will let you know as soon as I see changes.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your speculation as to what the next chapter might be for Joann.

Next Pattern:

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