Happy June 1st, also known as Summer of Basics day! I’ve been really impatient for it to get here and know from the #summerofbasics hashtag that many of you have too! It’s been fun seeing all of the assorted knitting and sewing plans that have cropped up so far.
RECAP AND CLARIFICATIONS
• The idea is to simply spend the next 3 months making 3 basic items for your wardrobe — putting those extra daylight hours to good use!
• Your 3 can be all knitted/crocheted, all sewn, or any combination thereof. Totally up to you! It’s an excellent chance to tackle the projects you’ve been wanting to but maybe haven’t had the nerve. We’re all in it together!
• It’s also up to you whether you do literally one garment per month, or 3 over the course of 3 months. (For instance, my sweater will likely span the whole season.) All that matters is that you finish 3 by August 31.
• They don’t need to be summer clothes — whatever you consider to be basic items that your closet would benefit from, whatever season(s) they might be for.
• Apologies to our friends in the Southern Hemisphere: I realize June/July/August are not summer for you, but I hope you won’t let the name stop you from joining in!
• If you’re blogging, feel free to leave links to your post(s) in the comments here. On Instagram, use the hashtag #summerofbasics for everyone to see.
PARTNERS AND RESOURCES
I’ve teamed up with my friends at Kelbourne Woolens, Grainline Studio and Fancy Tiger Crafts, who’ve offered up some great prizes (see below) as well as being excellent resources. If you’re looking for ideas and/or patterns, see my Make Your Own Basics series (or the Pinterest board for the at-a-glance view). Also Kelbourne Woolens has put together a list of sweater patterns to consider, and of course Grainline Studio and Fancy Tiger are both awesome pattern sources. And I would also suggest Improv and Sloper as excellent, highly adaptable sweater patterns. See also: Pullovers for first-timers and Cardigans for first-timers.
Check out the kickoff posts on everyone’s blogs today/tomorrow to see what they’re planning: Kelbourne, Fancy, Grainline.
And see what the whole community is up to by following (and posting to) the #summerofbasics feed at Instagram for the next three months.
PRIZES
To be eligible for any prize, you need to have completed 3 garments within the June 1-August 31 time frame. (Please do not enter garments you’ve previously finished.) To enter any of the categories below, use the appropriate pair of hashtags when posting your finished garments. Please only use the prize tags that your garments qualify for:
Best Modification/Alteration
PRIZE: 4 skeins of Fibre Co’s new yarn for Fall from Kelbourne Woolens
The winning garment might be either knitted or sewn, but the prize is yarn so only enter if you’re into that! Be sure to tell us what changes you made from the pattern(s) you started with.
HASHTAGS: #summerofbasics + #sob17bestmod
Best First-Timer
PRIZE: 4 sewing patterns + $50 gift certificate from Fancy Tiger Crafts
It’s cool if you’re a knitter entering your first sewn garment or sewer entering your first knitted garment, or it can be the first garment of any kind you’ve ever made!
HASHTAGS: #summerofbasics + #sob17bestfirst
Best Combination of Garments
PRIZE: $100 gift card from Grainline Studio
We’ll be looking for 2-3 pieces that work exceptionally well together. They might be sewn, knitted or a combination, but the prize is sewing patterns, so only enter if you’re into that!
HASHTAGS: #summerofbasics + #sob17bestcombo
Random drawing
PRIZE: $100 gift certificate from Fringe Supply Co.
I’ll draw a name at random from all qualifying posts!
HASHTAGS: #summerofbasics + #sob17finisher
All prizes will be announced at the beginning of September, so make sure to post by August 31. We’re all very excited to see what you make!
.
MY THREE: My plans have evolved since I initially proposed this. (Or even since my Queue Check on Monday!) But since this post is already quite long, I’ll post all about that tomorrow!
Patterns pictured, clockwise from top left: Archer Button-up from Grainline Studio, Adventure Tank from Fancy Tiger Crafts, Sloper from Fringe Association, Echo Lake from Kelbourne Woolens
.
PREVIOUSLY in -alongs: Sloper knitalong