Support a Wool Mill in California

I try to keep an eye out for interesting fiber-related projects on the crowdfunding sites, and I just recently saw this one from Mendocino Wool & Fiber on Indiegogo. It’s a great one if you have the means to support it.

They’re trying to open a wool mill that will enable the production of 100 percent locally sourced and processed yarn in California. There are no local mills in Northern California, and shipping fiber across the country or overseas is cost prohibitive for small producers, time intensive and harmful to the planet.

The idea is to use contacts they — being sheep shearer Matt Gilbert and knitter wife Sarah — already have in the fiber animal community to get their raw material and to use this funding to get the equipment that will be needed to produce the yarn. They hope to be able to offer certified organic as well as non-organic yarn that is still produced to high standards of sustainability (for farmers who have high standards themselves but are not certified).

They’re looking to raise $20,000 and are already well on their way. You can pledge as little as one dollar and as much as $900, which gets you a tour of the mill and dinner with the family. This sounds like an amazing project and just what the country needs more of — local production that uses available fiber in a sustainable way that’s good for those who raise animals, for knitters and for the planet. I hope you’ll check it out!

[Photo via Indiegogo.]

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

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