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Update from the Festival

I'm having a great time at the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival... so I wanted to share some photos! Tim and I got to Pittsburgh on Thursday to set up our booth: And on Friday, we donned our FreshStitches t-shirts! All weekend, I've had amazing students in my classes and meeting fantastic people at the booth. In the evenings, Tim and I have been trying to squeeze in as much [...]

FO Friday: a squid and a crocheted necklace

Happy Friday! I spent most of my week preparing for the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival (where I am now, yay!), but I managed to finish two projects Squid! This squid was a custom order- and I'm quite proud! He's almost 2 feet long, and not at all gross and slimy like a real squid! Crochet Necklace I completed my first crochet-with-wire-and-beads project! Do you like my necklace? [...]

Heading out to Pittsburgh!

Hey guys! I'm just about to leave for the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival! (literally... in 10 minutes, I just had to sneak in a blog post, first!) It's going to be an awesome weekend: there are awesome classes (I'm teaching three), vendors and special events. The organizer has put a huge emphasis on crochet this year, so it's going to rock! It's also my first time vending a booth [...]

WIP Wednesday: a multi-craftual week!

This week I've been SO multicraftual! In addition to my usual knitting and crocheting, I've been working on my metalsmithing (I'm in week 4 of a 6 week class) and I'm making my first attempt at crocheting with wire! Here's a peek at what I'm up to: Pagona Shawl, week 2 You saw this guy last week, but I've put in another week of knitting! The pattern seems a little tricky in the first few [...]

Tips for Making your Knitting/Crochet Patterns into Kits

Since I started selling amigurumi kits, I've gotten lots of questions from other designers about how to do it. And you know what multiple questions means, right? Blog post! Prepare your Patterns I started selling my patterns online as PDF downloads, which is fantastic because there's no page limit! However, if you're going to start printing your patterns to put into kits, you might need to make [...]

A peek into the process: designing a chicken!

A week ago, I received a commission to design a crocheted chicken. I LOVE custom orders (particularly from super-nice, non-control-freak customers!) because it's a chance for me to be creative in a direction I wouldn't ordinarily take. So... you wanna see how I design a crochet chicken? The first step was to find out what my customer had in mind ('chicken' can conjure up lots of different [...]

Does your business need Twitter?

There's a question I hear from crafty-business owners pretty consistently: Do I need to tweet/facebook/blog to be successful? So-and-so does it, so I think I should, too... Here are my tips for deciding whether a social networking site is right for you, and then how to go about it if you decide to. Is it right for you? You shouldn't feel obligated to tweet/facebook/blog/whatever just [...]

FO Friday: a hat and a couple of amigurumi!

Happy Friday! Most of my energy this week has been put into getting ready for the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival, but I've managed to squeak in a few hours of knitting and crocheting! Amigurumi This week, I crocheted another custom-order owl: And yes, it's different from the one I finished last week, I promise! I used a less-bright color of orange on the feet and beak to match the [...]

Punxsutawney Phil vs. Crochet Phil

If the groundhog sees his shadow, then it's 6 more weeks of winter. If he doesn't, then spring is on its way. Trouble is, which groundhog are you going to believe? Sure, Punxsutawney Phil is famous, but I'm following Crochet Phil! And he predicts that spring is on it's way! (check the photo for evidence... no shadow, there!) Reports from Punxsutawney Phil are mixed this morning... this [...]

WIP Wednesday: Knitting and crocheting and metalsmithing!

Happy Wednesday! I'm in the middle of a few projects, so I'll just get started telling you about them! Pagona Shawl I started a new 'yarn store' project (where I'm knitting, while working at the shop, to show off a new yarn), and it's Pagona by Stephen West. It's from his first book, and it's great because it's a beautiful shawl that uses less than 400 yards (perfect for a skein of sock [...]