Live Near St. Louis? Are You Ready for a Yarn Crawl?

Back in April Yarn Crawl LA got a lot of attention for bringing together nearly 30 shop owners and offering people who visited the shops during the crawl freebies, discounts and prizes. now the middle of the country is getting in on the fun with the Summer’s Last Blast Yarn Crawl in the St. Louis area, running between July 26 and 29.

This yarn crawl will straddle the border, with shops in Missouri and Illinois participating (10 in all). The first 50 customers at each store will get a free zippered notions bag made for the event, and there are all sorts of prizes including yarn from Alchemy and Rowan, Japanese seed beads and more.

Participants can download a passport showing the locations that will allow them to collect stamps during the yarn crawl. People who get at least six stamps are eligible for prizes and those with 10 stamps are in the running for a bigger prize package.

Have you ever done a yarn crawl? Spill it!

[Photo by Summer’s Last Blast Yarn Crawl.]

As we get into the part of the year with a lot of food-forward holidays, it might be time to start thinking about knitting some new things for your table. While a few of these are more fall/Thanksgiving focused, just changing up the colors would make others work for Christmas, or keep it neutral and use them all year long.

What got me started thinking about this was the lovely and simple Fresh Bread Dishtowel, a free pattern from Purl Soho. Worked in a lovely cotton and linen blend, the towel is mostly stockinette stitch with a bit of texture on the borders.

You could use this same kind of pattern to make anything from placemats to a table runner, but let’s look at some specific patterns for those kinds of projects as well.

The easy moss stitch table runner from Glass Bird Knits is beginner friendly can can easily be modified to fit your table (or, again, to make placemats instead of or in addition to a runner). This version is worked in macrame cord, but you could also use bulky yarn.

Emielle Design has a garter stitch runner pattern that’s made with braided cotton cord for a lot of texture without a lot of work. But be sure to take a lot of breaks when knitting with cord because it can be rough on your hands!

I also love the diamond pattern on the Hamilton Table Runner from Wyndlestraw Designs. It calls for a DK weight cotton and linen blend yarn and comes in three sizes with different widths and lengths. The pattern has both written and charted instructions.

Amy Marie’s Table Pumpkins (on Ravelry) is a fun mosaic knitting pattern that would be great to use as a table runner through the fall and for Thanksgiving. It uses a worsted weight cotton yarn in two colors, and you can make it as long as you like for your table.

The no cable knit placemats from Yarn Culture Studio have a fun faux cable look that would be great for the table through the fall and winter.

Or here’s another pattern from Wyndlestraw Designs, this time for an easy knit and purl stitch placemat pattern that looks different but still good on both sides. It calls for worsted weight cotton and comes in two sizes for placemats, but also has instructions for coasters, a hot pad and a table pad all using the same stitch.

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