Lion Brand Yarn Celebrates the Next Generation

Most knitters and crocheters have heard of Lion Brand Yarn, but I’ll best most don’t know much about the company’s history. It is the oldest American hand-knitting yarn brand, and the company was founded in 1878. But what’s really cool is that it’s been owned by the same family all this time, and that family is now into its sixth generation of littles involved in the company.

To celebrate the next generation the company has released 23 new knit and crochet patterns called, appropriately enough, Next Generation, all of which are modeled by the literal Lion Brand family.

My favorite may be the Next Generation Crewneck Dress, shown here. It’s a super easy striped dress that fits kids from extra small to extra large (23 to 34 inch chest measurement).

The patterns all call for Lion Brand Heartland, an acrylic yarn made in America with colors named and inspired by iconic places and things in America.

See anything that catches your eye? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Lion Brand Yarn.]

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

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