Help Fund Local Yarn on Indiegogo

I’m kind of obsessed with crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. It’s so fun to see what people are creating and to be able to support projects that sound interesting. It’s great for creators, too, because they can get funding for projects that might not otherwise be able to happen if they had to find the money themselves.

Speaking of which, I just found a knitting book project on Kickstarter I hadn’t seen before. Shoshona Silberstein is trying to fund publication of her book, Knitting the Indie Dyers, and has 50 days to go on her goal. Pledgers can get a digital or printed copy of the book, and if you donate enough you can get free knitting, too.

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, though, that wasn’t actually what I wanted to talk to you about today. I have an online buddy, Riin Gill, who dyes and spins beautiful yarns in Michigan and sells them under the name Happy Fuzzy Yarn. She lives in the county in Michigan that is home to the most sheep, but she can’t afford local wool to spin. She would like to produce a local wool and alpaca blend (she tells me the alpaca are also in Michigan, but not from the same county) and she’s asking for help with the overhead.

Anyone who pledges more than $20 is basically buying a share of the fiber, either as combed top, hand-dyed or hand-dyed and handspun yarn. I can’t speak to this particular yarn, of course, because it doesn’t exist yet, but I did get the chance to play with some of Riin’s handspun recently (I made a scarf and can’t wait for it to be cool enough to wear it!) and really enjoyed working with it. The texture is nice, the colors are beautiful and it was just really good all around.

It’s so cool to me that we can learn about these amazing projects and support artists who want to bring more good stuff into the world. I hope you think so, too!

It feels like it’s too early to be thinking about back to school, but as I write this my daughter has just a couple of weeks of summer left! So let’s get in that school and fall knitting spirit by looking at some apple knitting projects.

If you have a 22 needle circular knitting machine, knitting an apple is one of the easiest things you can do. I have an apple pattern over at Our Daily Craft that will take you just a few minutes to knit and they’re a great addition to your fall decor.

Apple hats are a classic, and whether you want to knit a hat that looks like an apple or one with apples on it, we’ve got you covered. For hats that look like apples check out the rolled brim version from Emma Crochet Design 4 U, which uses worsted weight yarn and comes in sizes for kids of all ages; and the ribbed brim version from Hand Knit Hugs. This one also calls for worsted weight yarn and comes in four kids sizes. Both include a stem and leaf.

If you’d rather have apples on your hat, try the Red Apple Hat from Little Red Window. This one is sized from newborn to 2T and calls for four colors of worsted weight yarn.

How about apple socks? You’ll find Ariel Chang’s Apple Picnic Socks as a free download on Ravelry. These use three colors of sock yarn and come in three sizes. Stone Knits also a pair of stripey apple socks that show the inside of the apple. These also have three sizes but they use six colors total, with the main color being a self-striping yarn.

If you want a little apple accessory for the house, the apple potholder from Nifty Knitter Designs is cute and a great way to practice double knitting. It uses two colors and you’ll find the colors in the reverse on the other side. The pattern only uses about 50 yards of each color of worsted weight yarn, so it’s a great use for odd balls, too.

Once you’ve got your double knitting skills sorted you can also try the double knit apple scarf from Crow and Chai Shop. The Winter Apples scarf is shown in red and gold, but you can use whatever colors you like. There are apples, stars and random stitches in the design, which calls for DK weight yarn. There’s also a matching fingerless glove pattern.

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