Laura Ricketts Designs

"She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands..."

Rochester, Indiana

Laura Ricketts Designs is a personal and business website for Laura Ricketts, hand-knitwear designer, author, teacher, crafter, mother and wife.

Midwestern Knits Blog Tour

August 25, 2015  /  Laura Ricketts

It is my pleasure to host the Midwestern Knits Blog Tour today, and welcome to my blog! 

Midwestern Knits was released just a week ago, and has received some rave reviews. Thirteen patterns inspired by our beautiful part of the States, curated and edited by Carina Spencer and Allyson Dykhuizen.

I contributed the Michigander Mittens -- so honored to represent my home state! It is a stranded set of mittens using Stonehenge Fiber Mill's Shepherd's Wool, a lovely fingering weight yarn milled in East Jordan, Michigan, not too far from the ski slopes.

Here are some images of the mittens.

The back of the hand features a map of Michigan with geographically correct rivers, and the palms have Michigan's state motto: one side in Latin and the other in English. I put a robin (the state bird) and a Eastern White Pine tree (the state tree) in open areas, as well. And, "X" marks the spot and answers the question: "I'm from here!"

For those of you feeling overwhelmed by a stranded project, never fear! Editor Allyson Dykhuizen is leading a Knit-along (KAL for short) over at the Midwestern Knits Ravelry page, beginning mid-October. For those of you who are Ravelry members, just click the link and join the group. For those readers who are unfamiliar with Ravelry, you may wish to join. Ravelry is a dynamic knit and crochet online community that is a wonderful place to research and plan projects, meet people and learn new fiber knowledge. Consider joining: it's free!

On the Midwestern Knits Ravelry page, there will be KALs for each of the 13 projects. I will be leading a Cave Point Hat KAL on the same group page mid-September. Sara Gresbach of FrontPorchKnitting.com designed the hat based on a beautiful place near her in Wisconsin. She also hand-dyed the yarn and has kits made up for it. I am over-the-top excited about knitting with her beautiful yarn I have for the hat. (I will finally have something to match my fancy gloves!) That is going to be the hardest part -- waiting to cast on!

Click the link to go to the website and purchase your own digital or paperback version.

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