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!

Adding a bit of knitting to your fall decor is a lot of fun, whether it’s knit pumpkins or a bunch of adorable knit ghosts like these.

Knit ghosts can be super simple like this free ghost knitting pattern from Trixie Zynch on Ravelry. Using about 50 yards of worsted weight yarn, they’re worked from the bottom up and are super cute as a pair.

This fuzzy little ghost from Forest Knitting Toys is holding a pumpkin and wearing a witch hat, though of course the accessories are optional, as is the fuzzy yarn. The main yarn is chunky and the ghost measures about 10 cm/4 inches tall. It’s worked in the round.

Another fuzzy ghost in more of a Pacman style is this ghost plushie form South Stitch Girls. It’s worked in the round with bulky yarn and includes a sweet little bow you can make in whatever color you like.

The ghost doll from Edith Grace Designs has little arms and a curl at the top of its head. The body is worked flat using DK weight yarn and you could also work it in glow in the dark yarn for extra fun. The body and head are worked in one piece with the arms knit separately.

The Grim Grinning Ghosts from Susan Claudino are super cute and you can knit them in any yarn and gauge you like to make ghosts of different sizes. These are worked in the round with the body done in one piece and the arms are knit separately. The ghosts shown were knit in sock yarn, DK and worsted weight yarn. You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

Make a ghost with funny striped legs with this ghost shelf sitter design from Claire Fairall Designs. It’s worked in three colors of DK weight yarn, and the letters spelling out boo are made with strips of garter stitch sewn into shape.

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