Harrisville Designs looking at older toy demo with new crochet kit

Harrisville Designs' latest offerings on display at Toy Fair

One of the few remaining woolen mills left in the U.S., virgin wool yarn supplier Harrisville Designs, in Harrisville, N.H., has been maintaining the historic textile town’s traditions dating back to the late 1700s since forming in 1971.

The company makes yarns for knitting and weaving, carded fleece for felting and spinning, and floor looms in several sizes and styles. But it’s also a regular Toy Fair attendee, as it makes children’s product via its Friendly Loom Products line of educational toys that likewise involve weaving, knitting and felting, as well as metal looms and cotton loops for weaving potholders.

New product shown at last month’s Toy Fair showed a concerted effort to develop product for the teen market, specifically the Creative Crochet Kit. The kit comes with a skein of wool yarn, a crochet hook and illustrated instructions in how to crochet and create winter accessories including a hat with a pom pom and pleated bow headbands. It joins the Tablet Cover Crochet Kit geared for ages eight and up and the Discover Crochet Kit for seven and up.

Other new Harrisville Designs product on display included the Wool Felted Soap Kit for making colorful soap bars out of real wool fleece and the Spool Knitting Kit, which teaches the principles of knitting via yarn, needle and spool knitter.