This Saturday is Worldwide Knit In Public Day. It's a fantastic opportunity to share your love of knitting with the world. Crafting is a great way to break boundaries and build connections: from inspiring a new knitter to starting a life-long friendship, we've heard wonderful examples of the way knitting has lead on to brilliant things in people's lives.

Of course, the best way to start a conversation over your knitting needles is to have something eye-catching and inspiring on them. So we've put together some recommendations for our favourite colourful and patterned knits with interesting stories behind them to make sure your public knitting goes with a swing this weekend.

We're starting with the Minster Blanket, above, which is part of The Landmark Collection. It's inspired by the colours of the stained glass windows at York Minster, and was designed by our Alison Moreton. It's perfect for beginners, or for an easy project. While the original uses Titus in Coal, Rhubarb, Chevin, Lotherton and Parkin, you could mix it up - and you could include one of our latest shades, Rose Window, in there. It also has links to York Minster, being inspired by the rich raspberry pink of the famous Rose Window in the historic building - to learn more, click here. Click here for the pattern and click here for the Titus to make it - you'll need between one and three skeins of each colour, depending on the size of blanket you want to make.
Also from The Landmark Collection is the Park Hill cushion, another great project for beginners but still gives really striking results. Combining four shades of Titus, it is inspired by the transformation of the Park Hill flats in Sheffield -click here to read about their history. You'll need just one skein of each of your chosen shades of Titus to complete the cushion cover.

When it comes to eye-catching designs, one of our favourite collections is Ann Kingstone's A Time to Knit. It has 12 gorgeous designs inspired by the English seasons, from warm slippers with a pretty rose trim to mitts with a beautiful heart motif. If you want to get to know Ann Kingstone's work, you could start out with a single pattern, and one of our favourites is Wetwang (left). Named after a Yorkshire village (yes, really!) it has a charming swan motif that is sure to catch the eye of anyone who passes by while you're knitting. It would work beautifully in Dovestone dk - try Coal or Endeavour for the main colour and the swans, with Yorkstone for the yoke.

When it comes to colourwork and gorgeous cables, there's nobody better than Rachel Coopey, aka Coop Knits. Take any of her projects out with you and you're sure to get chatting about the designs. She's the genius behind the beautiful Toasty collections which are all named after towns and villages in Yorkshire. Try the Northallerton hat with its slouchy shape and neat design, or the repeating pattern of the striking Aiskew mitts. They all use Titus yarn and, although shades are suggested, you could use any combination of colours to achieve a unique result.

Finally, if all this sounds a bit complicated and you think you'll get your yarn in a tangle if you try to talk and knit at the same time, you can keep it simple with the Mabel tea cosy. It's striking and stylish, yet it's simple enough for a beginner to master even when knitting in public. Click here for the pattern, and click here to browse chunky yarns to make it.
If you're planning to knit in public this Saturday, please let us know how you get on. We'd love to see some photos of you all out in your local parks, on street benches or even on the bus with your needles on show!
If you're close to our Leeds shop, come and join us on our Worldwide Knit In Public Day bench, which we're decorating with a beautiful blanket made from our customers' handiwork. Join in by sending us a knitted square of at least 4x4 inches which we can sew into the blanket - or come and knit one on the day. We'll be here to help you with any knitting mishaps, and guide you to your next project too!

If you follow us on social media, you might have noticed that our recent staff social was to see our Rebecca's dance group, the Gracefool Collective. We had a brilliant night and would highly recommend seeing them if you can! They're performing in Leeds again on Thursday 22nd June - click here for details and tickets. They've been selected to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer, but they need to raise enough money to make the trip possible. If you'd like to support them, click here for their Kickstarter page - which also explains what they do and why they do it. We're sending our best wishes to them for a great month in Edinburgh!		Our Verity is heading across the Atlantic to Ohio this week for one of the biggest shows on the yarn calendar. TNNA's Summer Trade Show takes place from 10th-12th June and is always a lovely few days spent meeting our stockists and making new friends. Verity always uses the opportunity to visit some brilliant yarn shops in the USA too and is looking forward to talking about Titus, Dovestone dk, Dovestone Natural Aran, our upcoming plans for the new Autumn Winter 2017 range - and more! If you're going to TNNA, keep an eye out for Verity and say hello if you spot her. We always love meeting baa ram ewers from across the globe.