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
If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.
It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.
The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).
It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.
The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.
The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.
This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).
Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.
[Photo: Shay Johnson]
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.