…anybody still there?

Wow, you take a couple days off and before you know it four months have gone by! So, for the dozen people still here…sorry about that.

For some reason, can’t explain why, when the weather gets warmer, the creativity level plummets. The last thing I wanted to do this summer is wrap myself in wool, make something for someone else in wool or touch wool in any way, shape or form. But ever since our first cool rain storm, the Creative Bug has crawled out of his hibernation hole and he’s HUNGRY! The bigger problem that this creates is there is a huge gift list and now I’m left with only three months to get them done!

I will say though, the summer was great. Did a lot of travel, worked on the tan (completely gone now) and enjoyed living. I did get a little older (so this is what forty feels like), got a little wiser, realized Wiser isn’t as much fun as Crazy so locked them in a room together for a while so they could battle it out.

Two things that I feel great about though, even though I went silent for several months, people are still sending wonderful feedback on the Diamonds in the Rough scarf, consistently saying that it’s one of the best masculine crochet scarves they have ever seen. So to ease my guilt, you can now download the pattern for FREE. But you better share pictures of your completed scarves.

The other thing I’m happy about is people are still purchasing the Crochet Propaganda items (no, those are not going to be free now). Thanks everyone.

So, here we go. Getting back on the fiber wagon.

Crochet tattoos seems to be as popular as crochet itself, but I did manage to find five very cool ones out of the ten. I was pleasantly surprised to see a drop-spindle tattoo. How cool is that?

What no doily tattoos? (And yes…I checked. Nothing.) And why is it when you search for “doily tattoo” on Flickr you get “Tattooed Baby Pig?”

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Have you ever wondered how to have an avatar show up when you comment on people’s blogs? Or, more directly, “How can I have a cool little picture show up that identifies me when I comment on Double Treble?” The answer is pretty simple.

Create a globally-recognized avatar with Gravatar (that’s what I did). When you create a free account with Gravatar, you are also creating an identity that goes with you to all the sites you comment on. Once you create your identity, it will be associated with your email address. When you add that email address to your comments, your personal avatar will show up. And not just on my site, but any Gravatar enabled site (I know I’m not the only site you visit. I’m okay with that. My therapy is covered by insurance.).

So, bring some color and life to your comments by adding your own unique visual identity.

One of the absolute highlights of my trip to Portland, OR for the Knit & Crochet Show was swinging by a little tucked-away shop called Yarnia. I had first learned of Yarnia when a certain crochet dude (aka The Crochet Dude) told me that it was a must-see while I was there.

The basic concept…ok, the ONLY concept of Yarnia is that you are able to pick fibers of your choice and then have them brought together to create your own custom yarn.

When you walk in you feel like you are in a fiber wonderland. Even though it’s a small space, you are overwhelmed by the choices. Cotton, hemp, wool, silk, acrylic…it just keeps going. I felt like a kid in a candy shop.

I knew the only way I was going to get through this was to enlist the help of the store owner. Having guided many an over-excited hand, she was more than happy to explain the layout of the fibers, hints and suggestions for getting exactly what I wanted. No I just needed to figure out exactly what I wanted.

After, what seemed like days, of matching, re-matching, miss-matching, over-matching and de-matching, the choice was finally made, which should result in a one-of-a-kind, double knit weight yarn that was destined to be something as yet unknown.

Then the fun begins. Your choices are threaded into this little beast of a machine (we were so trying to come up with a nickname for it based on Narnia, but failed miserably when we realized we couldn’t remember any of the characters from the movie).

With a flip of a switch, the little beast goes into action and you stand mesmerized as your choices become your creation.

If you ever find yourself in Portland (and who wouldn’t want to find themselves in Portland), hop across the river and spend a cappuccino or two over at Yarna (bring your own cappuccino…but you’ll thank me, the store begs to have you sit in the rocking chair, sipping a cappuccino while your yarn is made). If you can’t make it to Portland, at least grab a cup of coffee and go to their online store.

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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.

I always love it when someone shines a nice light on crochet. And Natalie over at Black Book isn’t letting me down with her brief article regarding sexy crochet. Would I wear it? No. I’m a hairy forty-year-old man. I would have to wax first. But a certain sister-in-law could pull it off flawlessly.

Favorite lines from the article:

“It’s not just a grandmother’s hobby anymore.”

“Keep it subtle…or else you’ll end up looking like a runaway doily.”

Biggest surprise of the article:

A simple large-net filet beaded top (Sass & Bide In Other Words top) runs for $418!

Read the entire article: What’s Next: Risqué Crochet