March Mayhem is Here! Vote for Your Favorites

Basketball lovers have March Madness; knitters have March Mayhem.

This annual event put on my Mason-Dixon Knitting pits the best knitting patterns of the previous year against each other in an elimination tournament to determine the favorite pattern of the year.

The bracket is divided into four general categories: Pullovers, Cardigans, Neck & Shoulders, and Head & Hands. Voting happens in five rounds beginning on Thursday, March 21 (the early announcement gives you time to consider all 64 wonderful choices and add some great projects to your Ravelry queue).

All the projects were published in 2018, are not free (since the idea is all about supporting designers), readily available on Ravelry or from the designer, and have some element of cool and attraction that makes you want to knit it.

More designers of color are featured than in years past, thanks to recent discussions about racism in the knitting community. You’ll see some old favorites, some new favorites, and lots of great things to knit.

Have any predictions? I’m expecting the Shift by Andrea Mowry to go far (and I think it’s the only one of these presently in my queue, so clearly I have some work to do!).

[Photo: Mason-Dixon Knitting.]

Looking for more knitting patterns for knitted Cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

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.

Looking for Yarn online? Check out Lionbrand our preferred source for purchasing yarn online.

Next Pattern:

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.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?