Friday, June 24, 2011
The International Year of the Scarf Lives on
It is amazing to me how the International Year of the Scarf (which was last year) continues to live on in many different guises.
The whole idea of the International Year of the Scarf started out as a knitting club. And, let's face it, as an excuse for me to design 12 scarf patterns and get away with it. Although I did begin to sell them as individual patterns on my website, I never expected that yarn shops would be interested in them. But they were--and are. You can find many of thtem now in local yarn shops all over the place.
During the IYS Year, River City Yarns in Edmonton, Alberta, hosted their own monthly IYS knit-along where members could come together and share their knitting experiences with these patterns. Several times over the year they telephoned me and I got a chance to speak with the knitters there.
Most recently I learned of another knit-along featuring the IYS scarf patterns, this one being hosted by the Tinsmith's Wife in Comfort, Texas.
This informal group meets every other week to work on the scarf pattern for the country of their choice. Not only do they get to choose from a variety of different designs, they also learn something about each country. They have Tinsmith's Wife's beautiful range of yarns to choose from.
A popular choice is Bermuda (still my current best-selling pattern). Many other yarn shops have been hosting Bermuda knit-alongs.
Others include India:
Scotland:
And Sahara:
I love the idea of how knitting can bring together people--and in this case, countries, too.
If you are anywhere near Comfort, Texas on 10 July, I'm sure they would be happy to have you join them, no matter which country you are representing--with a scarf pattern in hand or not.
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