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Interweave Library Up for Sale

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book sale interweaveIf you’re anywhere near Loveland, Colo., you’re going to want to consider attending the craft book sale and liquidation happening at Interweave’s old building. The founder of Interweave, Linda Ligon, is selling off the collection of books, notes and samples acquired over the course of more than 30 years.

Ligon tells the story of the collection on her blog, explaining that it started with a collection of books on weaving and textiles given to her 35 years ago by a woman who was moving into an Airstream. Over the years the collection grew into the Pourrey Cross Textile Library, complete with classification system and volunteer librarians.

When she sold the company in 2005 she left the collection (though she and colleagues still owned it), which by now included Interweave’s books as well as those of many other publishers, collections donated when their owners died, notebooks form workshops, swatches and more.

In time the company sold again and the building where it was headquartered is now being sold, so it’s time to do something with the books.

The most historically significant books have gone to the Avenir Museum at Colorado State University, where they will be well cared for and available for study. Many more books, and the archives of FiberArts magazine, have gone to the textile department at CSU. The Boulder Weavers Guild has taken collections of fabric swatches – boxes of them.

The rest are being sold by Cloth Roads on May 8 and 9, with the hope that they’ll all go to good homes. Proceeds from the sale will be donated to Cloth Roads, an organization that supports indigenous textile artists around the world.

This is such an amazing opportunity to get your hands on some really great books. If anyone goes I would love to hear about it!

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Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork. 

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn. 

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look. 

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me. 

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. 

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.