Knitting

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Darn Good Yarn!

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darngoodImagine a company that takes leftover strands from a viable industry and creates YARN!!!

The company is Darn Good Yarn and I recently acquired a sample of this luscious “left over” stuff. What is the original product? Hand spun fibers made into Saris in Nepal. The “waste” is then spun into yarn and in return, helps to support women and their families who may not have another source of income. Also, since it’s a Fair Trade product, it doesn’t exploit child labor.

I knitted up a little purse/yarn bag with this yarn, and the colors were just gorgeous. There was a little bit of bias as I was knitting and while I was concerned at first, it all blocked out and turned out beautifully.

Go here: www.darngoodyarn.com Nicole of Darn Good Yarn has a blog, and an email newsletter, as well as free patterns to use this yarn. It’s a no-brainer!

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Comments

  1. I have been knitting with this type of yarn for over three years; It lends itself to making garments, bags flowers etc. The beautiful colours of the recycled saris is luscious

Have you read?

Practice Colorwork on a Cute Knit Bunny

Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]