Which Cities are the Best for Crafters?

Have you ever wondered which cities are the best for crafters? I hadn’t, either, but Liberty London recently crunched some data to find out.

In all they looked at 76 different data points for the 100 largest cities in America, such as the number of knitting and fabric shops, search engine data and posts on Instagram and TikTok. Based on this data they determined the cities where crafters are likely to have the most resources available to them, as well as other people to craft with.

Overall, San Francisco came out on top as the best city for crafters in the United States, and it topped the list as having the most knitting shops as well.

The full top 10 for overall crafting is

San Francisco
New York City
Chicago
Los Angeles
Portland, Oregon
Santa Ana, California
Minneapolis
Newark, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
San Diego, California

They also declared California the craftiest state, followed by New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Texas. (Though the first Texas city to make the list, Dallas, falls at number 24.)

Looking at Google search popularity, the most search for craft was pottery, at nearly 40 percent of all searches (unknown if that’s all people who want to learn how to make pottery or also includes people wanting to buy pottery, or even searches for the store Pottery Barn). Crochet comes in second at 25 percent, with knitting in third at a little more than 16 percent of crafty searches.

The city where knitting is most popular? According to the survey, it’s Portland, Oregon. (Having been there I tend to agree.) The survey says crochet is most popular in Minneapolis, and sewing in Atlanta.

Residents of Phoenix are most likely to post about crafts on social media, as determined by searching crafty hashtags on Instagram and TikTok. Phoenix tops the list for crafters on TikTok, while Pittsburgh crafters dominate Instagram.

If you don’t live in one of these cities and want to plan a crafty trip, head to San Francisco. It has the most craft stores and the most thrift and charity shops of any city in America.

Check out all the data including a list of the top 100 cities ranked by craftiness at the Liberty London website.

[Photo: Liberty London]

Next Pattern:

Not too long ago I was seeing a crochet pattern for a glasses holder shaped like a bear all over the Internet. It was super cute, and also useful as a place to put your glasses on your bedside table instead of just throwing them somewhere random.

This project stewed in my brain for a little while and I decided I needed to make a knit version, but I didn’t want to make a bear. If you know anything about me you might know that I’m a cat person, so of course my version had to be a cat.

The base is just a basic little basic worked from the center out to the desired size, then up the sides as long as you want them. Knit some ears and add embellishments to make it whatever kind of animal you want.

The way I figured out to work the base from the center out was to use a crochet cast on, which gives you an easier way to pick up stitches from the back of the cast on than if you worked a more traditional cast on for a knitting project. It’s kind of fun to do things in a different way from time to time.

This little project is adorable if I do say so myself, and even as a plain little basket not made into an animal it’s a cute way to keep your glasses or other little things in one place. I’m tempted to make one for my desk to hold pens or even little little scissors and sewing needles that are always on my desk but somehow always seem to get lost on my desk.

If you need a little holder for your glasses on your table, check out the pattern at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]

Next Pattern:

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