Knitters Stitch a Stunning Garden Pergola

The knitters of Norfolk in the UK are really quite amazing. They once knit a 15-foot-tall Christmas tree, and this year they’ve put together a spectacular garden pergola adorned with knit flowers, birds and bugs.

The structure, which measures more than 7 feet tall and is 35 feet in circumference, was stitched to raise awareness and funds for John Grooms Court, an assisted living home for disabled adults.

Knitters from throughout the UK — and as far away as Australia — contributed to the piece, which was unveiled earlier this week. The piece will be at the Forum in Norwich through April 22.

The base of the structure is made up of thousands of squares, and more than 10,000 knit flowers and other adornments decorate the structure.

The Christmas tree knit by the group in 2010 featured more than 4,000 knit squares and 2,000 decorations and helped the group raise almost £10,000.

[Photo via EDP24.]

Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.

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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.

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