Craft Retailer Joann Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

In an expected move, craft store chain Joann has filed for bankruptcy to help the company deal with debt problems.

According a news release issued by the company, Joann has “received commitments for approximately $132 million in new financing and related financial accommodations and expects to reduce funded debt on its balance sheet by approximately $505 million.”

“This agreement is a significant step forward in addressing JOANN’s capital structure needs, and it will provide us with the financial resources and flexibility necessary to continue to deliver best-in-class product assortments and enhance the customer experience wherever they are shopping with us,” chief financial officer Scott Sekella said in the release.

According to a story in The Washington Post (link is free to read), Joann will become a private company after the bankruptcy proceedings, which could be complete as early as next month. The company says it currently has no plans to close stores or make any changes to its website. The release says the company, which was founded in 1943, has 829 stores in 49 states and “95 percent of which are cash flow positive.” And I literally got an email from them while I was writing this post.

(As an aside, the headline on that Post story suggests Joann’s problem is they have lost sales as people “pull back on essentials,” but if they’d ever met a crafter they would know craft supplies are always essential, we just might be buying them from different places, or buying less that we used to.)

Joann has set up a website, Joann Forward, with more details on their restructuring, including FAQs for customers, suppliers, landlords and team members. According to those pages, “this agreement is a significant step forward in addressing JOANN’s capital structure needs. It will provide us with the financial resources and flexibility necessary to deliver best-in-class product assortments and enhance the customer experience wherever they are shopping with us.”

You can also find case filings and information for claimants here.

As someone who does most of her in-person craft shopping at Joann, I’m certainly wishing them well and will update as needed with more information on the Joann bankruptcy filing.

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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