Celebrate I Love Yarn Day by Teaching Someone to Knit

Did you know there’s a holiday completely devoted to yarn?

It’s I Love Yarn Day, which is celebrated this year (2023) on October 14. It’s a day to celebrate all the things we love about yarn and the fiber arts, to teach someone to knit or crochet, maybe to knit or crochet in public (though there’s a day set aside for knitting in public as well!), and definitely a great excuse to visit your local yarn shop if you have one.

I Love Yarn Day was started by the Craft Yarn Council and this year they’re using the day to launch an audacious goal: for one million knitters and crocheters to teach one million people to knit or crochet.

“The guiding principle of the campaign is encapsulated in the mantra, ‘Make One, Teach One’” said Jenny Bessonette, executive director of the Craft Yarn Council. “Participants are encouraged to create one item for themselves while also taking on the challenge of teaching one new student how to make that very same item. The campaign’s ultimate objective is to spread the warm and gratifying feelings associated with working with yarn and yarn-related crafts.”

As part of the initiative, the CYC has released a collection of simple patterns you can use to teach someone to knit or crochet, or to learn yourself. For knitting that includes a garter stitch square that can be donated to Warm Up America, a bracelet made just by casting on and binding off, a striped dishcloth and a basic hat and scarf.

You can access the patterns by going to the I Love Yarn Day website and scrolling to the Make One, Teach One section.

As for me, this will probably be the year I finally teach my daughter to crochet. We actually tried it the other day but she didn’t get past working chains. (And I did help someone remember how to crochet, which led her to knitting, so that sort of counts, right?)

[Photo: Craft Yarn Council]

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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