Patterns, projects and techniques
Go to the Worldwide Knit In Public Day website to find the nearest event, or if you want to host your own, you’ll find info there, as well as a database that you can add your event to.
It’s held the 2nd Saturday of June and you can find lots more info here: http://www.wwkipday.com/find_kip.htm
It seems like every year there are more rainbow colored (and other flag hued) knitting projects out there to celebrate Pride. Whether you celebrate at a local event or just want to add some more color to your wardrobe, these Pride knitting patterns are a great place to start.
See also these Pride knitting patterns, tiny Pride flags, and more rainbow projects if you need more inspiration.
These Pride socks from Birger Berge are a free pattern on Ravelry. They feature a rainbow flag on the heel and toe, plus stripes on the cuff with the word Pride and a heart worked in.
Or you can Put Some Pride in Your Step with these allover colorful socks from Oriahna WhimsyStitch. Using a self-striping fingering weight yarn, they have a spiral rib on the legs and come in three sizes. The pattern has suggestions for if you don’t have self-striping yarn to use. You can find it on Ravelry.
Amy Snell’s Pride Like the Wind is a triangular shawl that uses slipped stitches to add texture to the multicolored stripes. The pattern was made with a large skein of rainbow colored yarn and mini skeins in rainbow colors, but you can use stash or whatever you can find in theose colors for a different look. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.
Pride and Elegance is a pretty pair of rainbow striped arm warmers made by martaschmarta. They call for fingering weight yarn and have sparkly beads incorporated at each end for extra flair. This pattern is also on Ravelry.
Pride in Parallelograms by Treena Evans is a mobius knit cowl worked in a multicolored ombre yarn. It calls for DK weight yarn and is a free pattern on Ravelry.
Stephen G. Krueger has designed a lovely kippah/yarmulke pattern that can be worked in the colors of any Pride flag you like. The pattern is free on Ravelry and uses fingering weight yarn.
And if you want to make a full progress flag in knitting, you’ll need the modular progressive Pride flag pattern from Kim Smith for Alterknit Universe. The pattern comes in two sizes using different weights of yarn to suit your needs, and the modular style of the project makes it seamless. You can purchase this pattern on Ravelry.
If you want to add a touch of Pride to a sweater, wall hanging or other project, the abstract waves chart from Hits Knit Patterns is a great place to start. It uses the colors of the lesbian flag, but you could change it to whatever colors you like (there are six colors used and the chart is 49 stitches by 80 rows).
I thought the key to high sales in the retail or restaurant business was to bring new buyers into the store and keep the old ones coming back. Yet when we went to restaurants, coffee shops and grocery stores in our area to say, “There are 12 to 20 of us and we want to hang out in your place of business for two or three hours,” we were told “No” or received no response. I didn’t get it.
A columnist for our local paper published an article informing the public about our search for a site for Knit in Public Day. We received only two invitations from the entire readership. I was totally confused by the lack of response. Why weren’t they fighting for our business? We are the buyers! We decide where we will buy groceries or clothes and school supplies for our children. We decide where to take our families when we eat out. In addition to the loss of whatever money we might have spent that day, is the loss of good will and future sales.
Then, suddenly, it came to me! We are not seen as the buyers. Today the public perception of knitting and knitters is negative. Many people think that knitting is only for old ladies who have nothing else to do. Many men refuse even to try because of this image. It does take some effort to learn something new, and time to develop it into an art, but some men are self confident enough to have made the effort. People of both sexes and all age groups take knitting seriously.
That may be a fact, but businesses in our area are ignorant of that fact, and will continue that way unless knitters make some effort to change the public perception of who knitters are, and what it is all about.
We desperately need Knit in Public Day. In fact, it is important to make every day Knit in Public Day. New knitting groups are organizing all the time, but most are still somewhat behind closed doors. They are held in homes, yarn shops, community rooms of a church or library. We need to get into the restaurants and coffee shops where there is more exposure to non-knitters. Whatever posters and fliers we distribute should be going into the entire community; not just in the knitting community. We should be looking for the opportunity in everything we do to get positive press for knitters and knitting.