Support BIPOC Designers with a #RhineBIPOCSweater

There has been a lot of talk in the knitting community this year about diversity and the need to acknowledge, promote and support designers and knitters of color and others from traditionally marginalized communities.

All that talk is good, but it means very little without action.

Which is why I love the #RhineBIPOCSweater project. Rhinebeck is one of the biggest events of the knitting year, and the Rhinebeck sweater is an important garment for anyone attending the festival because it’s what you choose to show off to your fellow knitters.

So the dyer behind Lady Dye Yarns and Jasmin from Knitmore Girls came up with the idea to promote a Rhinebeck sweater knitalong and crochetalong that encourages people to make designs from BIPOC designers and using yarn from BIPOC makers. There’s a list of potential projects (not all sweaters) on Ravelry, curated by the Black Squirrel aided by the work Jeanette Sloan has done to highlight BIPOC makers.

Lady Dye has also posted about BIPOC indie dyers to make shopping for yarn easier. The colors in the above picture are the suggested colors for the project.

Even if you’re not going to Rhinebeck (I’ve never been; it’s a long way from here and it always falls around my husband’s birthday) this is a fantastic idea. We can say we support BIPOC makers all day long but until we are giving them our financial support it doesn’t mean anything. Check out the list; you’re sure to find something you want to make.

[Photo: Lady Dye Yarns via Instagram.]

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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