In New England This Weekend? Get Ready for a Yarn Crawl

The fourth-annual I-91 yarn crawl is happening this weekend, with 12 yarn shops from Vermont to Connecticut participating.

All participating shops will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Some of the shops will also be open later on Thursday for special events.

In addition to the great shopping and supporting local businesses, each shop will have a clue to a mystery yarn project. There will also be a passport for the event, and people who visit and get stamps from all 12 shops will be entered into the grand prize drawing, which includes yarn, books, tools and accessories as well as a $50 gift certificate from each shop participating in the crawl. In all it’s a prize package worth more than $600.

Two runners up will also receive six gift certificates and some other prizes, and daily raffles at each of the shops will provide even more prizes and fun.

Learn more about the event from the WEBS blog (they’re one of the participants) or check them out on Facebook.

If you are planning to go or have been before I’d love to hear about it!

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

Have you read?