Knitting

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Knit List: Lion Brand Bonbons

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lion brand bonbonsThis is one of those things that I started a long time ago and then I started freaking out about my book and decided I couldn’t knit anything else for a while so I abandoned the project and didn’t manage to tell you that I got to try out some of Lion Brand’s new Bonbons yarn and it was a lot of fun.

These teeny, tiny balls of yarn (the fine cotton yarn I sampled has just 28 yards per ball) are great for knitting up little toys, using as trim or just playing with. I was working on a doll dress from the Arne & Carlos book Knitted Dolls, and you can see how far a single ball carried me (I was just about to run out of the lavender, too).

All of the Bonbons yarns come in packs with eight little balls of different colors. In addition to the fine cotton there are also a fine acrylic/metallic and a lightweight acrylic. Each option is available in two color collections.

These little balls are a lot of fun and have inspired me to try to figure out what to do with them. I really want to take the second pack of cotton and make a striped dishcloth, but I”m not sure about the rest.

What would you do with a bunch of tiny balls of yarn? Spill it!

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Comments

  1. any word on if its going to be sold in stores, or online only? Love to have an assortment of colors without buying whole skeins. This is just the right ticket for making knit and crochet toys.

  2. I knit to keep my family warm, and to keep my mind and hands busy. I love that there is such beufaiutl, quality yarn out there so that all my hard work looks great year after year. The photos are just stunning- Great Job!

Have you read?

What’s Next for Joann?

Now that all the Joann stores have closed, a mysterious message has appeared on the company’s website:

For generations, Joann has been honored to be part of your creativity: your quilts, costumes, school projects, and handmade moments of love. It has been our joy to serve markers and dreamers across the country.

We’re stitching up something new behind the scenes and we can’t wait to share what’s next.

Stay tuned for exciting news about the future of Joann.

To quickly recap, Joann filed for bankruptcy in January for the second time in less than a year. In February, in the hope of making the company more attractive to potential buyers, it petitioned the court for permission to close about 500 of its 800 stores. The company was put up for auction, with Gordon Brothers set to buy the company, sell its assets and close all the stores if no other buyer materialized.

In the end the winning bidder was GA Group, but the result was the same: all stores were to be closed by the end of May if not sooner.

Once store closure sales started the company quickly stopped selling on its website, and now all that remains is this jpeg image hinting at new ventures.

I’m sure there will be a tone of speculation in the coming days and weeks (or as long as it takes for them to announce the meaning of the message) as to what sorts of plans Joann could be cooking up.

My theory based on nothing but my gut is that they will transition to an online only storefront, probably with much reduced inventory, sort of like Herrschners (which had previously announced that it will be carrying Big Twist yarn, the beloved private label yarn brand sold at Joann). I also think they will use whatever retail sales they do to support CreativeBug, the digital learning platform that Joann purchased in 2017. That could mean producing kits for projects that already have classes, or developing classes based on products they want to sell, or both.

As of this writing the CreativeBug website seems to still be functional and there’s a full slate of new classes planned for June. I’ve got my eye on both the Joann website and the Joann restructuring website and will let you know as soon as I see changes.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your speculation as to what the next chapter might be for Joann.