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:

The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.”

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them.

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits.

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves.

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit.

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy.

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]

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