An LYS Tour Stitch Adventure
Keeley Richardson
Chief Fiber Officer
It’s one of the biggest events on the Puget Sound fiber calendar. Each year in May fiber enthusiasts from across the region and further afield hit the road to sample the delights that twenty five local yarn shops have in store. Free patterns, featured yarns, tour passports and of course, fiber camaraderie in abundance are just a few of the things we can enjoy throughout the five days. 2026 is set to be a vintage yarn tour year – it’s the 20th anniversary and a reason for even more celebration.
To mark the occasion those lovely people from the LYS Tour are starting the celebrations a little earlier than usual in the form of a free knit along blanket. This is such a lovely idea and a great way to commemorate twenty years of fiber happiness and community. Here at The Woolpack I am already making plans to cast on.
Here’s how it works – each shop on the tour is generously giving away a free knit and crochet blanket square pattern. The designs will be published at the same time as the individual shop highlights are posted on the tour’s social media. You can find all of the patterns on the LYS Tour website, just click on the 2026 LYS Tour tab and you will find the blanket square section in the drop down menu.
The squares can be knitted or crocheted using a DK, a light worsted, or a fingering weight yarn held double. It’s a great opportunity to go stash busting, use up those scraps of yarn you have had lying around for some time, or to head to your LYS this weekend to choose an appealing palette.
One of the many exciting things about this project is that it will take you on an exploration of stitches. At the time of writing this post three very different designs from Acorn Street, The Knitters Studio and Bazaar Girls are already available to download and each of them is very different. It’s going to be a truly great stitch adventure!
My yarn pennies are being saved for when I go on tour, so I have delved in to my stash for this project. I have decided to knit my commemorative blanket with some yummy yarn I picked up when I was back in England a year ago. I have been waiting for the perfect project for this lovely DK yarn from Wool Decanted, a fabulous women run business in Surrey, UK. It’s a beautiful blend of Polwarth from The Falkland Islands, Romney from Kent England, and Shetland from Northwest Scotland. The yarn is milled in Yorkshire UK. Needless to say, as a Brit this yarn has fond associations for me, especially as my husband grew up in Yorkshire. It’s also soft, vibrant and I love it!
I’m excited that this new project is starting to feel like a fusion of two parts of the world that are in my heart – The UK and the PNW. I already know what my weekends plans are – I’ll be casting on of course. Watch this space over the next few weeks, I’ll be giving progress reports and I hope you will join me on this fiber journey as we head towards the Puget Sound LYS Tour 2026!
