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!

As we get into the part of the year with a lot of food-forward holidays, it might be time to start thinking about knitting some new things for your table. While a few of these are more fall/Thanksgiving focused, just changing up the colors would make others work for Christmas, or keep it neutral and use them all year long.

What got me started thinking about this was the lovely and simple Fresh Bread Dishtowel, a free pattern from Purl Soho. Worked in a lovely cotton and linen blend, the towel is mostly stockinette stitch with a bit of texture on the borders.

You could use this same kind of pattern to make anything from placemats to a table runner, but let’s look at some specific patterns for those kinds of projects as well.

The easy moss stitch table runner from Glass Bird Knits is beginner friendly can can easily be modified to fit your table (or, again, to make placemats instead of or in addition to a runner). This version is worked in macrame cord, but you could also use bulky yarn.

Emielle Design has a garter stitch runner pattern that’s made with braided cotton cord for a lot of texture without a lot of work. But be sure to take a lot of breaks when knitting with cord because it can be rough on your hands!

I also love the diamond pattern on the Hamilton Table Runner from Wyndlestraw Designs. It calls for a DK weight cotton and linen blend yarn and comes in three sizes with different widths and lengths. The pattern has both written and charted instructions.

Amy Marie’s Table Pumpkins (on Ravelry) is a fun mosaic knitting pattern that would be great to use as a table runner through the fall and for Thanksgiving. It uses a worsted weight cotton yarn in two colors, and you can make it as long as you like for your table.

The no cable knit placemats from Yarn Culture Studio have a fun faux cable look that would be great for the table through the fall and winter.

Or here’s another pattern from Wyndlestraw Designs, this time for an easy knit and purl stitch placemat pattern that looks different but still good on both sides. It calls for worsted weight cotton and comes in two sizes for placemats, but also has instructions for coasters, a hot pad and a table pad all using the same stitch.

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