Missouri Star Quilt Company to Acquire LoveCrafts

In news I first saw reported by the Craft Industry Alliance, Hamilton, Missouri, based Missouri Star Quilt Company is in the process of acquiring British yarn craft company LoveCrafts.

Update: On 10/8 WEBS sent out an email with news of the deal, saying that nothing will change in users’ experience of WEBS online or in person. “We want to assure you that our commitment to providing you with the best experience remains the same, whether shopping online or in our retail store in Northampton, MA,” the statement said. “You’ll still be able to get the WEBS Discount, we’ll still have closeouts, and we’ll be working on bringing your favorite yarns back in stock!”

That bit about getting yarns back in stock may be a reference to complaints from some visitors that quality and stock have gone down since the company was purchased by LoveCrafts.

SkyNews reported that the deal could be done early this week, and is valued at millions of pounds. LoveCrafts is backed by several UK technology funds and saw its sales skyrocket during the pandemic, but it has been looking for a buyer this year because of declining sales.

Missouri Star Quilt Company might not be a name a lot of knitters and crocheters know, but it’s a destination shop for quilters. Founded in 2008 as a small, local fabric store, it has grown into the home of the biggest quilting channel on YouTube, with free tutorials published weekly. Hamilton is now known as Quilt Town USA, and is home to nearly 20 themed craft shops under the Missouri Star Quilt Company banner, including shops dedicated to florals, batiks, men’s fabrics and accessories, to name just a few.

One of the shops is a knitting and crochet shop, so this acquisition is sure to enhance their selection and their e-commerce footprint in yarn (right now it doesn’t look to me like it’s possible to buy yarn on their website).

LoveCrafts, on the other hand, is probably a company you’ve heard of. It was founded in 2012 as LoveKnitting, which branched out into LoveCrochet in 2015, but the two were brought under the same roof in 2019 with the launch of LoveCrafts. In 2021 they bought WEBS, one of the largest brick and mortar yarn stores in the United States, which also has a substantial online presence. WEBS has its own yarn line, Valley Yarns, and had also previously acquired Tahki Stacy Charles.

The Craft Industry Alliance reported that Edward Griffith, one of the founders of LoveCrafts, said the companies share a common mission and vision around the importance of crafting and community. They further reported that Jeff Martin, CEO of Missouri Star’s parent company, said the acquisition not only helps them to expand their product offerings but also to bring together passionate communities of makers.

[Photo via Missouri Star Quilt Company]

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I don’t even know what to say about this amazing knitting pattern. The Bestiary Scarf from Monstra & Mirabilia is so full of details it’s a little intimidating to talk about.

It features, as the designer describes it, an “artistic encyclopaedia of Western mythical creatures.”

The pattern includes a dragon, harpy, Medusa, chimaera, centauress, phoneix, kraken, mermaid, sew serpent, cyclops, wyvern, Pegasus, amphiptere and amphibaena. (It’s a good thing there’s a photo of the proejct with everything labelled because I definitely didn’t know the names for everything.) It’s also designed like a landscape, with water and land creatures toward the bottom ends and sky creatures toward the top.

The dragon is at the center and is worked sideways so it will show as upright when you wear it.

The scarf is worked in double knitting, so the colorwork appears in the opposite colors on the other side.

It’s worked in light fingering weight yarn (on size 0 US or 2mm knitting needles) and the colorwork is shown in charts. The pattern also includes some video tutorials and written instructions to help you along. The designer says the pattern is for intermediate knitters, and “advanced beginners may succeed with patience and the help of the video tutorials.”

When I was an advanced beginner this kind of a pattern would have brought me to tears, but if you love a challenge, and a project that you’ll wear and get tons of astonished reactions every time, this is the project for you. And of course if you have a few double knitting projects under your belt and are comfortable reading charts, this project shouldn’t be hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s fast. But lots of great things take time, and that’s never stopped us before, right?

You can get a copy of this pattern from Monstra & Mirabilia on Ravelry.

[Photo: Monstra & Mirabilia ]

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