KnitPro Acquires Rights to Lantern Moon Brand

Lantern Moon was a company founded in 2001 that produced knitting needles and other tools with the aim of supporting artisans in Southeast Asia. I’m not totally sure of the backstory on what happened with the company, but they stopped posting on their Facebook page in March 2019.

It was recently announced that KnitPro, the company behind Knitter’s Pride and KnitPro brands, had acquired the rights to the Lantern Moon brand and was producing needles under that name again.

According to a news release, Lantern Moon’s founders, Joel and Sharon Woodcock, will have “ongoing business and creative collaboration” in the company.

Joel said that, after visiting the company’s factory in India, “we came away confident that Lantern Moon products would benefit from KnitPro’s production expertise. We were especially pleased to see that the Ebony they will be using in the production of the knitting needles will stay true to the original design.”

While products are listed on their website it doesn’t look like it is possible to order needles or other products directly from them, but you can find information about shops that sell their products on their website.

[Photo via Lantern Moon.]

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Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal.

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles.

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges.

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to.

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

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