Eighth-Grade Knitter Wins Entrepreneurship Contest

Baltimore eighth-grader Lily DeBell has been knitting for about 5 years and has built her passion into a solid business called Lily’s Legwarmers.

She says her class did an entrepreneurship unit in seventh grade in which students had to do research and develop a plan for a business. She went even further, opening a shop to sell her legwarmers online. She recently won a contest with a $25,000 prize from the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and she hopes to use the money to expand her business.

Her legwarmers, which you can buy on etsy, are hand knit using wool and alpaca for more warmth and breatheability than synthetic fibers would provide. They retail for $32 a pair.

She says she wants to partner with local senior centers to hire residents to help produce the legwarmers, and she’s also looking to wholesale her products.

We wish her luck!

[Photo via Llegwarmer shop on etsy.]

Next Pattern:

I guess I’ve decided it’s time to start knitting vests, and while I typically think of vests as being for fall, this one is decidedly summery.

Vanessa Ewing’s Fruit Salad Fest is covered with all kinds of fruits. I see grapes, blueberries, strawberries, peaches and kiwi all stitched up in rows for a cute and colorful vest.

This one is worked in sock yarn and comes in nine sizes. The actual finished chest measurement of the vest ranges from 29.5 to 59 inches, or 75 to 150 cm. It’s meant to be work with 2 to 4 inches/5-10 cm of positive ease. And while it’s called a vest it doesn’t look like it has any shaping, which gives it little cap sleeves when worn.

There’s a bit of ribbing at the armholes and neckline, and the bottom has a split hem. It’s worked in the round from the bottom up and includes steeks. It’s not really a pattern for people new to colorwork thanks to all the charts and different colors used, but if you’re ready to take on a challenge this would be a fun one.

Speaking of colors, there are 13 involved in this pattern, but a few of them aren’t needed in a huge quantity, so this could be a use for some mini skeins or leftovers from other projects if you have them in the right colors. This isn’t one where you can substitute colors that easily since they are meant to be true to real fruits, but you could use a different background color, make your grapes green or red, or change the blueberries to another fruit if you have different colors on hand.

Any way you slice it, this looks like a super fun knit that is sure to bring a smile to your face whenever you wear it, and to others whenever they see it.

Check it out and grab a copy on Ravelry.

[Photo: Vanessa Ewing]

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