Portable Knitting

Opportunities for Crafters/Artists in the Pacific NW

I received notice in email today about this new craft market starting up in Portland, Oregon. Since I'm part of the PNW Fiber Arts Ring I though I would post to help let others know.

http://www.craftywonderland.com/

These types of markets seem to be the next big thing. Here in Seattle there is the I Heart Rummage ongoing affair, recently under new leadership. I'm embarrassed to say that I've never been but I'm a huge supporter (does that count? Not really)

http://www.iheartrummage.com

I Heart Rummage is actually doing a craft market at this year's Bumbershoot and they are soliciting vendor applications right now in case you are interested.

IHR/Urban Craft Uprising partnering with Bumbershoot We are very excited to announce that Urban Craft Uprising, producer of IHR, has been asked to partner with Bumbershoot. This is HUGE for indie crafts! Check out their partnership announcement: "This year Urban Craft Uprising (producers of I Heart Rummage) will showcase avant-garde crafters and designers in a re-imagined Art Market. With UCU's help, the Bumbershoot Art Market will feature an innovative gathering of progressive designers and independent retailers from across the nation. The new "Indie Market" will feature a colorful and varied display of urban crafts, cutting edge designs and inventive retail style, promising to be one of the most dynamic aspects of the 2006 festival." (For more info go to: www.bumbershoot.com/newDates.html) To download the application (due March 31st) go to: www.bumbershoot.org/apply.html Bumbershoot is pulling out all the stops to bring in as many indie crafters as possible. Here's what's changed and why YOU should do Bumbershoot! Attendance and sales Bumbershoot averages 50,000 people per day! Not just any people but people who get the indie aesthetic. Most craft vendors make between $3,000 and $6,000 during the event and some make over $9,000. This is an amazing opportunity! Reduced booth fees All booth fees have been reduced in an effort to make them more appealing and affordable to the indie crafter. Some booths that were originally $1400 are now $500. Even the prime location booths have come down 15%. Ability to share booths In the past vendors couldn't share booths. Bumbershoot realizes that this may be the first major festival for an indie crafter so they are allowing vendors to share booths. They're going all out trying to make it work for us! Exposure on website Inspired by Urban Craft Uprising's website, all accepted vendors will now have their link on Bumbershoot's website. Not only that but each vendor will be linked to the location of her/his booth at the festival. This means that people can check out your website, get excited about what you sell and then find out where your booth is. Bumbershoot's website gets an insane number of hits before and during the show as people figure out what events they want to attend - this is major exposure for vendors! No more Friday Bumbershoot will now be three days over Labor Day weekend (Saturday through Monday). In previous years the festival started on Friday which meant a slow day for vendors. This was especially tough on vendors who had to travel. Now you can just vend when the action is. The programming money that was previously spent on Friday is now being used to bring in the best talent possible for the other days, which means vendors will see the same number of people in three days that they saw in four days last year. Electricity In the past not all booths had electricity and it was an additional cost. Now the cost of electricity is included in the already reduced booth fee AND every single space will have electricity. This means that all vendors can stay open late to catch the evening concert traffic. More changes at Bumbershoot Bumbershoot is working on making the festival affordable for attendees which will mean more people will come which means more business for us! Bumbershoot is working on integrating their programming like never before - indie arts, literature, music - they're also working on booking our favorite indie, urban, DIY gurus for special events - stay tuned! Urban Craft Uprising and I Heart Rummage will both have booths at Bumbershoot anchoring the Indie Market and promoting our events which is great exposure for all of us. We see this as an amazing opportunity to build the indie, urban craft movement in the Northwest! Don't miss the deadline! Applications are due March 31st. You can download the PDF at: http://www.bumbershoot.org/apply.html

If you aren't so lucky to have such a cool craft market in your area you can always check out Etsy.com for some very inventive crafts for sale from artists all over the place. Etsy.com makes me smile.

Blog Meme Amongst Knitters

Instructions: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place, then add your blog to the bottom slot:

fidget
invisible handy wipe knits
K-nits
ARTwin Knits
Portable Knitting

Then add 3 people to tag (you're it... in a very non-pressure kind of way, of course)

Two Purls
Clackets
Keeping Up With the Kaiser-Michalskis

What were you doing 9 years ago?

I was recovering from bronchitis with a touch of pneumonia.

What were you doing 6 years ago?

Struggling to keep up with my growing business.

What were you doing 1 hour ago:

Art directing one of my designers for an ad we're going to run in a trade publication.

Name 3 movies/tv shows you can’t turn off if you stumble across them on TV:

The Look for Less
How Do I Look
Project Runway

Name 3 things you want to improve upon this year:

My artwork
My French language skills
My kitchen -- remodel plans for this year

Name 3 things you can’t live without (aside from knitting):

Blue skies and sunshine
Spending time with my partner and pets
Home cooking

Name 3 things you could live without:

Most of my clothes, I could get by with very little and still be happy
Phone calls, I'm not really a phone person
Being sick

Name 3 things you really like about yourself:

Hmmmm...
I'm a good multi-tasker
I'm a good cook/baker
I'm pretty good at making stuff

Free Yarn - White Taken, Colored Remains

Updated: Someone off of PurlyGirls emailed me about the white yarn so that's taken now. Thanks for your interest. Let me know if you are interested in the colored yarn, or else I'm just going to donate it to a neighborhood school.

My co-worker got this boucle yarn a while back, it was from a trade or something, part of a batch of yarn. She uses a knitting machine and the boucle gets caught so its not any use to her. I'm not sure of the fiber content (but I can do a burn test if needed) and it's very fine stuff.

It's free to anyone in the Seattle area who would like it.

Here are a couple close ups:

Anyone have any good examples?

I'm doing some research for work and wanted to know if you knew of any interesting promotions that had been done through blogs.

I've seen the product giveaways on the Celebrity Baby Blog

Natalie of Keeping Me In Stitches was requested to do a book review.

Have you seen anything else along the lines of product promotion in a simple and well-done way?

Happy knitting

I got caught late at the office last night and wasn't sure if my neighborhood knit group would still be hanging out knitting. The Capitol Hill Knitters group has an informal Tuesday evening event that meets at Victrola. I caught the #43 up to 15th and was pleased to see a group of four people knitting, three of whom I've already knitted with before -- Michael who was working on the Gansey sweater from Handknit Holidays; Carol who was working on some chenille washcloths from a pattern in the Winter 2003 Interweave Knitting (also featured in the Weekend Knitting book); and Louise who was working on a hat knit from the top down in Lopi. Quinn and I introduced ourselves and she finished up her very first glove last night which looked great.

I was working on my sampler scarf in the Classic Elite Lush, just playing around block by block with a different stitch pattern for each. I'm trying to stick with patterns that are reversable for the most part and so far so good.

Hanging out with other knitters really helped brighten my day as it is so dark and rainy in Seattle right now -- a stark contrast to the weather in Fiji!

Squidoo about knitting

My mother sent me a link to this new web content aggregator site called Squidoo. I haven't heard about it elsewhere and there were some interesting "Lenses" about knitting so I thought I would share

Squidoo: Knitting

Holiday Cheer

I'm glad you like the Matinee. It was a pretty quick knit and the baby sure looks cute in it.

I've been knitting most days, I've started on my third block of my wool-angora scarf but the pattern seems to be misbehaving, I think I might have to check my book again to make sure I'd doing it right. I did some more on the red mittens that have been languishing since July as well.

Last night I finished decorating my Christmas tree. I love unwrapping all of my ornaments as each one has a story, even the plain glass balls. There's the Raggedy Ann and bell ones, the oldest ones from when I was a baby. There's a felt Little Orphan Annie one from junior high. Ones my mother made when she had a craft business and ones I made along the way. A special shell one made by a local metalsmither who has since passed away of leukemia and the ones my mother and I bought together such as the glass walnut bought in NYC or the wooden ferry boat bought out here in Seattle. Every year I try to add a little to the collection and so the memories just continue to grow. Eventually I'll need to get a much taller tree but for now I'm good with a 5-6' one.

I also made some sugar cookie dough that is rolled out between wax paper and waiting to be cut in the fridge.

Tonight I'll hang my stocking as well; handknit by mother back when I was a baby.

Kntting for Fit

I'm so fascinated with garment construction, learning more and more from each pattern that I complete -- both sewing and knitting. I've got two Readers Digest book, the Guide to Sewing and the Complete Guide to Needlework (my mother had an earlier edition of the book and I picked one up 10 years ago in an antique store on Chuckanut Drive), both of which feature useful tips and techniques for sizing and construction and have helped me to learn on my own.

Terri did such a fantastic job explaining how to knit for fit that I just had to post a link to her blog. Congratulations Terri on getting the cover of Big Girl Knits as well!

Cute Christmas Tree Hat Pattern

I came across this pattern yesterday and thought that you might enjoy it.

Tannenbaum

(chappysmom, I hope you don't mind me showing your photo here -- just wanted to help get your pattern some attention)

Catching up

Work's been super busy and then I've been fighting the remains of a virus that I caught weeks ago. I haven't been knitting as much, though picking up a little progress here and there.

Entrelac Baby Carrier Blanket -- I'm 2-1/2 squares away from the longest part of the little blanket. I'm not totally thrilled with how my joins are looking in one direction but I've tried it a few ways and none of them seem to look great. Grumble. I'm sure it would still be well used and appreciated though by any recipient.

Frances cardigan -- I've knitted another 1-3/4" into the sleeves and just need to measure, measure, measure and see if they are the right length now. I'm itching to join the shoulders now which will free up some #3 needles and stitch holders.

Baby Fairisle -- I had started on the sleeves but thought they were too narrow so I double checked against my niece and decided to start over. I'm over 50% done with one sleeve and then I'll move onto the second sleeve. I'm a little worried about not having enough yardage for the trim but I'll figure it out.

I should have time to get lots of knitting in as my partner is going away for almost two weeks to Europe. Hopefully that quiet time will help my body heal from the icky virusy symptoms as well.