Join the Swatch Club

There are so many fun programs for knitters, crafters, kids and just about anyone else who loves getting samples or curated collections of fun stuff these days. You can get a box of just about anything delivered to your home on a regular basis to inspire your creativity.

I recently got word that British crafty company Minerva Crafts has started a swatch club for knitters, which will get participants access to about 30 small samples of yarn every three months for a year. (Each sample is only about a foot long, so it’s not enough to knit with, just a sneak peek at all the goodies on offer.)

In all that’s about 120 different yarns to check out. This could be a lot of fun because you might be sent something you wouldn’t ordinarily choose at the store but playing with it you’ll find that it’s actually something you really like or that you want to use for a particular pattern. It’s all about broadening your knitting horizons.

You can choose a natural palette if you’re a fan of neutrals or a mixed option for bolder choices. Each set costs £18, and deliveries are made in September, December, March and June. For a limited time you can use the coupon code SWATCH50 at checkout to get 50 percent off your order.

Would you sign up for a program like this? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo via Minerva Crafts.]

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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