So there is a new iPhone app available for the crocheter or knitter called Ewe Stash (Treeness, LLC). First reaction, “Wee! A new app for crocheters and knitters. Have to have it!” Second reaction after seeing the $2.99 price, “Why do I need this?”

The goal of Ewe Stash is to give you the ability to easily manage your stash of yarn, needles and hooks from the comfort of your iPhone. In theory, this is a great idea. You’re cruising for patterns at a store and want to see what yarn you have that might work. In practice, I’m not so sure. Knowing how we crafters work, if we are in a yarn store looking at patterns, most likely we are going to buy the yarn that’s right in front of us. You can never, NEVER have too much yarn.

The other downer is populating the database with your stash, needles and hooks. If are hip enough to have an iPhone, my guess is that you are hip enough to be on Ravelry and have already populated your personal stash/needle/hook database there. The idea of doing it a second time…no thank you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a store and popped on the Ravelry site from my iPhone to look up patterns and stash information. Works for me.

Ewe Stash does allow you to have pictures for each of your stashed items, even your needles and hooks (Ravelry does not let you have pictures of your awesome wooden hooks), BUT you can’t enlarge them to see a closer view. You are stuck with the 3/8”x3/8” thumbnail picture. No thank you.

The final feature of Ewe Stash is “By linking Contacts, you can make sure that your stash never runs low.” Again, in theory this is a great idea. But what it means is that you have to add all of your favorite yarn stores to you iPhone Contacts. If you are proned to calling your yarn dealer in desperation (“Dude, I need some DK weight virgin wool in eggplant real bad.”) then this is a feature for you. Personally, I would rather yarn store contact information was stored in the app itself and not in my personal contacts.

Would I buy it if I didn’t need to use the app for writing a review? No.

What would make it worth the $2.99 price?

Enable zooming of stash pictures.

Yarn store contact information housed in app, not in Contacts.

Have a Wish List option. I would like to go to a yarn store, take a picture and store information on yarn I would like to have in the future.

Option to sort by color, not just weight, fiber and name.

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When did knitting become to fiber craft as a Frisbee is to flying disks, or Kleenex is to tissues? No one says, “Hey, let’s go throw our flying disk around the park!” But knitting, and knitting terms, seems to have become the generic standard for any article made with yarn.

The most common conversation I have when someone sees one of my projects (mind you, this is after they get shocked look off their face like they just saw Susan Boyle sing for the first time):

Them: That is so cool. I didn’t know you could knit.

Me: I can’t knit. I crochet.

Them: I never could get the hang on those needles.

Me: Neither could I. That’s why I don’t use needles. I use hooks. I crochet.

Them: I would love you to knit me something.

Me: No.

This hibernating thought process of mine was awakened this morning when I read an article about a very loving and patient mother that is crocheting a giant structure for her son’s exhibit in an art gallery (someone else can borrow my soapbox for sons taking advantage of mothers) and the first sentence of the article reads, “What do you do with a broken crochet needle and a manic mother?” Well, first you need to FIND a crochet needle. It’s a hook. A crochet HOOK! By the by, you never do find out a) why it was broken and 2) what to do with one. You can find the two-sentence article here.

My beanie goes off to people like Sharon Devol who took the time to write The Signal of Santa Clarita Valley and correct them when their investigative reporter forgot to investigate. She writes:

            “I enjoyed reading the article in The Signal’s Senor Living section…’Knit together with love.’ While the title emphasis of the article focused on ladies who knit…both photos and the story were of ladies who were crocheting.” (full article)

I think we crocheters developed our militant nature by situations like these, and is one of the main reasons why Crochet Propaganda was born.

In the half-caffeinated state I normally am in upon sitting at the computer, it’s always nice to find an article that I can say, “Here, read this. You’ll thank me.” And then continue on my java way.

Today’s article comes to us from our can’t-have-enough-wool-items neighbor to the north, Alaska. In the article Undoing mistakes and the Zen of tinking, Tanna Peters explains the deeper meaning behind f-ing up your project. “This process of raveling…is where the Zen of the craft is found.” I personally feel it’s where the gin is found. You can read the entire article here.

Another jewel that is tucked in the article is CraftFail.com. It’s a site dedicated to those crafters that are finding a whole lotta Zen.

Rebranding is typically done to a product when a company’s spreadsheets show that a product is failing in sales or market share. The company will try to jazz it up, jazz it down and try to give the old the look of something new and improved to spark interest in the masses. I can normally spot a rebranded product a mile off and feel that if I didn’t buy it before, there’s no reason to buy it now.

So imagine my surprise at my own reaction while browsing a local Michael’s at lunch yesterday. Aimlessly, I was going up and down the aisles of jelly bean colored yarn when my eyes were immediately drawn to a particular vertical row of yarn. The natural hues of the yarn were so warm and inviting. The label, with its hand-crafted paper feel and subtle tones gentle screamed old-world integrity and hand-made care. The label actually said “for knitting & crocheting.” A yarn company thought of the crocheters! And to seal the deal, there was French writing on the label. Well, that was it. French writing can only mean one thing…good quality.

I had to have this yarn. I needed to find a project fast so I could justify buying every color of this $8.99 wonder. It could be $9.99, I didn’t care. As soon as I could I browsed the patterns on Ravelry looking for just the right garment or accessory. I did a search for Fisherman’s Wool to see what other crocheters had made with this luscious yarn, and then it hit me. Before me were pictures and pictures of Fisherman’s Wool wrapped in a semi-gloss black and gold wrapper with a full-color picture of some model smiling to hide the pain of being a yarn model instead of America’s next top model. I had been caught in the rebranding net.

Typical when I discover that I have fallen for a marketing tactic I come to my senses and the need to purchase diminishes. But even while writing this post and looking at the pictures, I know I’m going to end up with that yarn. I like looking at that label. It makes me feel like I’m part of a craft and not a mass production. Félicitations, Lion Brand, vous avez gagné.

If, like me, you enjoy seeing how companies rebrand products (even places), I suggest visiting one of my daily stops Brand New. You’ll get to see everything from the rebranding of Jack-in-the-Box to the identity change of Blackwater., and typically all before the general public sees it.

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What I love about fiber art is that, for the most part, we don’t take our craft too seriously. Oh, sure there are a few out there that get their hanks in a twist over their projects (you know who you are), but in general, we are a pretty easy going bunch.

And then there is Howie Woo (WooWork.com). He’s the ultimate at having fun with his art. I’ve never smiled so much browsing blog. A recent Amigurimi artist from British Columbia (that’s in Canada), Howie not only crochets fun object reminiscent of his childhood, but does a wonderful job of capturing them in whimsical photographs and videos.

Some must see things from Howie:

Green ‘round Grenades video

Bubble Gun video

A lovely tribute to his grandma, a truly remarkable crafter herself.

Ever since I was introduced to the Crochet Liberation Front I was drawn to their style. There’s something about militant hookers that just makes me…happy.

So, for this Memorial Day weekend, I came up with a few graphic designs for the militant hooker in all of us. All four designs are based on vintage propaganda posters from the Second World War.

As a little extra bonus for iPhone users, I also created backgrounds for the iPhone based on all four designs that are free for you to download.

And, if that wasn’t enough, all four designs are available for purchase as coffee mugs, tote bags or posters through the newly created Double Treble Zazzle store.

AND it keeps getting better! Zazzle is having a Memorial Day weekend sale on posters. All posters are 70% off through Monday. Just enter MEMORIALSALE as the promo code at checkout and a $9.95 poster will only be $2.74!

Enjoy expressing your militant-hooker spirit!

make custom gifts at Zazzle

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This year I was able to go to the Knit & Crochet show in Portland, Oregon. To be perfectly honest, I would go to a paper clip show if it meant a trip to Portland (love that city).

The trip itself was fantastic, but I’ll get more into that in the next posting. I had two crochet goals on this trip…shop and shop. I met those goals. I didn’t go to any of the classes while I was there, but I did make it to the Market Place, or should I say Fiber Wonderland. If I wasn’t careful I was going to need a government bail out before the day was done.

As I walked into the exhibit hall I was presented with my free goodie bag.  I’ve had co-workers shorter than this goodie bag. It was tall! This could only mean one thing…there was some serious shopping ahead and they knew it.

I managed to make it past two booths before my first purchase (a great crochet scarf kit from Foxyknits) and then made it two more booths and ended up with a beautiful mahogany crochet hook (resisting serious urges to buy an entire set…in every wood type they had). I had four more rows of booths to go and at the rate I was going, I was going to need four more goodie bags.

The hardest part was resisting the try-something-new urges. Drop spindles, spinning wheels, roving…argh! Heck, forget the bag, I needed a goodie bus!

In the end, I made it out with my wallet still in the green. But that was going to be short lived since the next stop was Yarnia!

Here are a few of my favorite booths at the Market:

Foxyknits  www.foxyknits.com

(check out the scarf kit here)

The Nantucket Bagg  www.nantucketbagg.com

(see photos of this great craft bag below)

RedFish Dye Works  www.RedFishDyeWorks.com

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