Crafty Shakeups as Wool & the Gang, Creativebug Sold

April 25, 2017 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

There have been a couple of crafty news items in the past few days that I thought were worth noting for those of you who care about the crafty industry (which, if you buy yarn or knitting books or take online classes, you should care about).

Back on April 11, Jo-Ann Stores announced its acquisition of Creativebug, the online craft and DIY education site.

If you don’t know Creativebug, you should. It was founded in 2012 and now has more than 1,000 classes in all sorts of genres, from knitting and crochet to sewing and quilting, food and kids’ crafts. Some classes are all about techniques, while others walk you through a full project.

And Jo-Ann you probably already know as the nation’s largest craft retailer, with 850-plus stores in almost every state. Jo-Ann and Creativebug had already partnered on projects in the past, and Creativebug says the deal will open them to new audiences.

More specifically knitting related is the announcement that BlueGem, which owns the iconic British department store Liberty and had previously purchased French thread maker DMC, is now buying trendy knitting kit company Wool & the Gang. The company sells knitting and crochet kits, yarn and supplies.

It will be interesting to see what these changes mean for these businesses. We’ll no doubt see advertisements for Creativebug classes in Jo-Ann stores (and maybe kits of supplies to go with those classes), and the Wool & the Gang kits will probably be sold in Liberty. It’s always great to see wider audiences for crafting, so I think these announcements are good news. What do you think?

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Christmas Sock Knitting Patterns

Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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