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Celebrate Diversknitty by Supporting Yarn Makers of Color

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yarn makers of colorDo you know about the Yarn Mission? I’ve followed them on Facebook for a while, and I love their purpose of using fiber arts to support social justice and economic empowerment for black people, and love the idea that we all can do better to support creators of color.

We can all make an effort to support designers of color by buying, knitting and sharing their designs, and we can support yarn dyers of color by buying their yarn.

Yarn Mission started the year with a post all about purposeful support of black yarn dyers, which includes a list of yarn makers that is a great start if you want to diversify your knitting purchases.

Buy their yarn if you can, share their stories online, follow them on social media and seek out other diverse knitters and fiber artists by following hashtags like #diversknitty, #blackgirlsknit #blackknittersofinstagram (and others like #asianknittersofinstagram, #queerknitters, etc.)

Do you have favorite designers or yarn makers of color? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Ewe-Knitted States of Fiber.]

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Comments

  1. I say, buy the yarn you LOVE and want to work with. I don’t intend to buy from anyone because of the shop owners race, religion, sexual orientation or otherwise.

    Why would any shopper care about those things? It just doesnt make sense.

Have you read?

Knit and Felt Some Tabi Style Slippers

The felted slipper craze that began last year doesn’t seem like it’s fading away. The Sailor Slippers, often striped knit and felted slippers made with super bulky yarn, because the project of the moment late last year (check out more knit slipper options in this post all about sailor slippers) and they’re still consistently popular with knitters.

Which makes sense because they are fun and fast to knit, and seeing them go from this giant thing to something that actually fits a foot feels a little magical. 

I have always loved felting (in fact my first book was about felting knitting) and it’s always fun for me to see people rediscover this technique. 

If you’ve knit enough plain slippers to fit all the feet you know, maybe it’s time to stitch up some tabi style slippers instead. 

Maymade Knits has designed these cute tabi ballerina slippers, made with bulky yarn and felted. They’re worked flat at first and then in rounds, and are available in 10 EU sizes (the Internet tells me add 31 to your American shoe size to get your EU size). The designer says the slippers are meant to have a close fit and you should choose a size a little smaller than your foot for the ideal fit. 

The pattern includes a video tutorial along with the written pattern. 

You can grab this pattern on Ravelry. The same designer has her own version of the striped felted slipper as well, called Sarah’s Striped Slippers. These are worked in super bulky yarn and have a contrasting foot and a striped body. These are knit flat and seamed and there are 7 size options available. Check that pattern out here if you’re looking for a more traditional slipper shape. They also look roomier so you can wear them with socks if you like. 

[Photo: Maymade Knits]