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.]

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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