Get Some Virtual Learning in with Melissa & Friends

Melissa Leapman is a well-known knitting and crochet designer and all around good human, and when the mess with Stitches went down, causing a lot of fibers arts teachers and vendors to lose money for event registration, travel and sales, she wanted to do something to help.

Melissa & Friends is a four day, virtual knitting event that includes a Friday evening welcome party and cookalong; a la carte classes in reading your knitting, adjusting patterns to your gauge, advanced beginner double knitting, shawl knitting, sock knitting, fixing mistakes and more; and a vendor’s marketplace in which select vendors will offer presentations about their products (often including a coupon code for an event-only discount).

I love this idea so much and there are a lot of great class options that I would say mostly trend toward intermediate knitters, but there’s something for everyone. The event is in Eastern time, but if you register for a class you’ll have access to the video for two weeks, so you can participate from anywhere in the world.

And since Melissa has been so great to organize this event, let’s show her some love by buying some of her patterns at her website or on Ravelry. She also has a bunch of books (her most recent is Insta-Knits) if you’re into that.

And if you missed the whole Stitches story, read about how parent company XRX announced the company would be closing down and ceasing events the day after one of their events finished, an update on people getting chargebacks and some ways to help teachers and vendors, and instructions from their attorney on filing claims. I just checked and the company did file its annual report with the state of South Dakota in July, which doesn’t sound like something a company declaring bankruptcy would do, but we’ll keep an eye on it and report any further developments.

In the meantime, if you’re a teacher or vendor who was affected by the Stitches shutdown, I’d love to help promote your work. Just click on Suggest a DIY at the top of the page and send me a note!

[Photo via Melissa Leapman]

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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