Classic Elite Yarns Closing its Doors

We hear a lot these days about local yarn shops closing their doors, but less often do big players — or what we think of as big players, anyway — in the yarn industry shut down.

But that’s what’s happening soon with Classic Elite Yarns, which announced on its blog that it will be “closing its doors in the very near future.”

Their post doesn’t provide a lot of detail on the why, but one of the company’s first creative directors, Kristin Nicholas, explained on her blog that the yarn industry is a tough business to be in and no one really knows what is going on behind the scenes (which she learned when she saw what was behind all those glossy back-cover ads on the major knitting magazines).

I agree with her about many of the factors that make things hard for yarn companies these days, from the aforementioned closure of local yarn shops to the proliferation of small-scale yarn producers able to reach customers online and at shows. And there will always be people who only buy the bargain yarns from the big-box stores. And running a company with employees, production and distribution will always be hard and expensive.

I’m sad to see Classic Elite go. They have made some great yarns through the years. I’m actually working on a project with one of their yarns now. I love the sentiment from company president Betsy Perry, who said:

I am proud of what we did for all these years. Classic Elite Yarns will live on – on your needles or in your stash, as finished pieces, on Ravelry, and yes, for a while anyway, in shops. But as it fades away, be sure you do your best to enjoy the craft and do your best to support those who bring you the fibers and designs we all love.

Did you use Classic Elite Yarns? I’d love to know about your favorites.

One of the fun things about knitters is that we will use a holiday theme on any kind of project. From Easter bunny socks to Christmas sweaters, there’s no combination of holiday motif and knitwear genre we won’t combine.

Case in point: Halloween cowls.

This fun cowl from Sweet Vireo Designs features large carved pumpkins and little cats and skulls. It uses two colors of DK weight yarn and I love the multicolored yarn for the background color on this one. And the braids! So cute.

Spooky Season by Jocelyn Tunney (also on Ravelry) uses fingering weight yarn in two colors to make a design with crescent moons and eyes. There are two circumferences and two heights available so you can make it a neck hugger or a slightly bigger project if you like.

Make more moons with the Broom Riding Cowl from Vanessa Ewing Knits. This two color pattern looks extra fun with a multicolored yarn for the colorwork, but you can use a solid as well. It calls for DK weight yarn but there is also a fingering weight version if you have some yarn in your stash you want to use.

Jinx Made has another fun Halloween cowl, this time covered in skulls. South Philly Skulls uses DK weight yarn and comes in two lengths, and there’s also a matching hat pattern, both of which can be found on Ravelry.

The Ghost Stories cowl from Melissa Knit Wear is a two-color cowl with ghosts of different sizes on the body. It uses DK weight yarn, and average sized skeins will allow you to get two cowls out of two skeins. It also calls for stitch markers to help you keep your place in the chart.

Or stitch up a cowl with a giant bat on it. The Nightling Cowl from Jen Immer uses DK weight yarn in two colors and has moons and a large bat on it. This pattern can be found on Ravelry.

How about spooky trees? The Weirwood Cowl from Andrea Krüß-Anders is inspired by the weirwood trees in the Game of Thrones books, and is worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn. You can find this free pattern on Ravelry.

If a bandana cowl is more your thing, try Cowloween from Tellybean Knits (on Ravelry). This colorful design is worked from the top down and features pumpkins, ghosts and candy colored stripes, and is worked in a light fingering weight yarn. There are kid and adult sizes available.

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