Craft Gossip

The largest independent craft review site since 2007

Crafting Cruises

by

alaska_cruise_09_2009If you love to craft, and it’s time for a well-deserved vacation, why not combine the two? A company called Craft Cruises™  bringing Crafters from across the country and around the world together for enriching journeys of learning, shopping, and sharing. Each cruise group is led by instructors selected for their teaching skills, fun personalities and expertise in the different regions being visited. Cruises are available to almost every part of the world, including Hawaii, Alaska, Bermuda, Europe, Japan and China, The Mediterranean, the Panama Canal, and more.

Here are some of the craft cruises available:

Knitting Cruises
Crocheting Cruises
Handspinning Cruises
Beading Cruises
Mixed Media Cruises
Christmas Craft Markets
Craft Cruises for Kids™

Cruises are being booked for September 2009 and beyond.

Read These Next

Have you read?

Knit a Cozy Sweater with Lots of Options

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]