WEBS Acquired by LoveCrafts

Kathy and Steve Elkins announced that WEBS – America’s Yarn Store has been acquired by LoveCrafts, but nothing should change for customers.

The WEBS website will stay up, and purchases can be made through them as always. All yarn lines currently produced are expected to continue “outside the range of normal range refreshes,” Steve wrote in an FAQ on the WEBS website.

Our companies’ values align perfectly. LoveCrafts has built a community of smart, kind, and passionate makers who champion craft and the joy of making. Together, we believe we become the destination for yarn enthusiasts in America.
It’s a privilege to work with a community as loving, creative, and kind as you, and we’re excited to continue in the next chapter of our story.

WEBS was founded in 1974 by Barbara Elkins and Donna Muller as a weaving business and its first storefront opened in 1984. Kathy and Steve took over daily operations in 2002, and started their website at yarn.com in 2003.

LoveCrafts bills itself as a global community of knitters and crocheters and was originally launched as LoveKnitting in 2012. LoveCrochet launched in 2015 and the sites merged into LoveCrafts in 2019. The site sells yarn as well as knitting, crochet, sewing and embroidery patterns.

Last year I shared a roundup of shorts knitting patterns over at Our Daily Craft, and it’s consistently one of my most popular posts this time of year.

What that post lacked, though, was any projects of mine, because I have never written a shorts knitting pattern before.

And I guess technically I still haven’t, but I have written a detailed tutorial of how to knit shorts that fit you. Use whatever yarn you have, at whatever gauge you like, and knit using whatever stitch pattern you want to make the size you need.

The “pattern” walks you through knitting a swatch and the measurements and math you’ll need to do to make sure your shorts fit. Yes there is math. It’s not terrible, I promise. And because gauge is sometimes a liar, I talk you through all the points along the way where I tried the shorts on as I went to adjust the fit as needed.

This was actually a really fun project. I used yarn I’d salvaged from ripping up one of my husband’s old sweaters (with permission, of course!) and made a really simple pair of lounge shorts that’s all stockinette stitch with knit hems.

But it’s really easy to change it to make ribbed edges, or throw in an allover stitch pattern, or stripes, or whatever else you want to do. I love writing tutorials like this instead of patterns because I don’t know what your body is like or what kind of fit you want, or how long you’d like the legs on your shorts to be. And it’s really satisfying to be able to figure it out for yourself.

And once you know how to knit shorts that fit you, there’s nothing stopping you from keeping on with the legs and knitting a pair of pants in just the same way.

I’m actually really tempted to do just that. Good thing I’ve got another sweater to unravel.

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