Being stuck in bed isn’t so bad if you’re learning to knit and crochet. Just ask Shelly Stilger. Her sister-in-law taught her how to do both when she was recovering from a surgery 15 years ago. A few years later, Shelly turned her hobby into a business.
Shelly owns the Twist Yarn Shop in Wichita, KS and even produces some of her own original designs. This includes Verge – a beautiful basic knit in garter stitch. I especially like her use of colorwork created by alternating rows of Berroco Lago and Berroco Versa. The dropped-stitch fringe along the outer edge is a fun finishing touch. Whether you wear it as a scarf or shawlette, it’s a great project for anyone learning to knit.
How did you come up with this design?
My Berroco sales rep was showing me Versa and Lago and I just immediately knew that I wanted them to be together and make fringe. That was how it started in my head.
Did you make it for anyone in particular?
Our shop is starting a shawl club, and we’re going to do knit-along with a different design every quarter. This is the inaugural design for the club.
Any funny knitting or crocheting stories?
A lot of non-knitting or non-crocheting customers want me to finish a project that their mom/grandma/aunt started before that mom/grandma/aunt passed and I find it really hard to say no.
I accepted a project from a gentleman who said, “It’s half done, just repeat the stripe pattern again.” Later, when I opened it up and looked at it, it was eight feet long! Of course there wasn’t enough yarn to finish it by repeating the same pattern again. I ended up taking out the center stripe so that I could reuse half the yarn to create two narrower stripes. Then we crocheted out in both directions to make the stripe pattern symmetrical. Three of us crocheted that blanket whenever we had free time for a month.
What’s your favorite thing about knitting?
The people I get to meet and hang out with every day. The knitting and crochet community is incredible in its diversity and generosity of spirit. We have an amazing group of employees and customers in my shop, and I’m so thankful to be a part of it.
Do you have a design you want to share? Or did you recently finish a project with Berroco yarn? You can email Ashley: apalumbo@berroco.com or post it to the Berroco Lovers forum in Ravelry.
I love it. Of course I love most every shawl I see!
Glad you like it, Marybeth! It is a lovely design!
A 66-yr-old friend recently found a bag of her Grandmother’s yarn and wants me to make her socks with it!! How do I test it to see if it’s worth the effort? My only thought is to pull on the yarn to see if it disintegrates. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Mary, that sounds like a question for Martha, who handles our pattern support. You can email her at patternsupport@berroco.com.