Upcoming Classes at Craftstitute in Ithaca, NY & Social Media

I'll be teaching a few upcoming classes at Craftstitute if you're in the Ithaca area.

The first is Upcycling T-shirts into T-shirt Yarn on 5/1

The second is Making a T-shirt Yarn Rug: Knit or Crochet on 5/2

I'm really looking forward to teaching both classes.  This will be the second time I've taught the t-shirt yarn making class.  The energy the first time around was amazing.  They were really into learning how to make the yarn and anxious to start using it.  I hope these classes are the same way.

Shop update will go up later this evening, I promise.  I know this for sure because I already have the update in as a draft.  Nice that I finally figured out how to make that work.

One last bit of news, SavedbyKate has a Facebook page.

I'm also savedbykate on Instagram and Ravelry.  Stop by and say hello.

Check That Off Too

I've been steadily checking things off my to do list and it is pretty thrilling.

The special order rug is done and will be delivered to its new home tomorrow.  That rug was an unexpected delight to make.  I do not think of myself as someone who crochets, I think of myself as a knitter, yet this rug is completely done in crochet and I loved making it.

I chose crochet because this rug is made of small pieces of t-shirt yarn attached using slit and slip method.  That seemed to lend itself better to a round rug, hence my choice to crochet it.  Don't get me wrong, joining sixty four bazillion little pieces of t-shirt yarn is tedious with a capital T but somehow, seeing it evolve made it worthwhile.

I just love everything about the finished product.  The color changes just make my heart sing.  Maybe its just the infusion of vibrant colors after a long gray winter.

I also finished my Armande sweater.  The pattern is by Andi Satterlund and is retro and wonderful!  Mine is made from yarn I frogged from a much too large Irish sweater.  The yarn was so beautiful and traditional, it almost begged to be made into this pattern.  Speaking of the pattern, I really liked it.  Andi's patterns have a lot of writing and although its intimidating at first to see so much pattern, its really more like she's holding your hand throughout the knitting process.

There were a few typos in the pattern which I made note of and if I can get my sh*t together, I will share them on ravelry.  Honestly, they were minor though.

I've got a shop update coming later in the week that I'm excited about, as well as some project planning in the works for some down the road shop additions.

Now I'm off to watch a track meet, with knitting in hand, of course!

Give the People What They Want

I spend a lot of time writing to do lists.  They help me so much as I try to maintain some level of organization between home, work and crafty endeavors.  Sometimes, looking at the list is overwhelming.

I suspect a large part of this is just figuring out what needs attention devoted to it and what doesn't.  Questions like, do I make more t-shirt yarn or do I focus on putting the patterns I use to make rugs onto paper with an eye towards selling them?  Should I make some zipper bags?  What about that needle pocket idea?  When am I going to have time to finish the memory quilt I've been working on for a friend?  These questions could bring a girl to her knees.

So this week I'm focusing on finishing things already in progress.

Special orders first:

I need just about 4 more inches around for this to be done.  That's my main goal for the week.

Then on to new ideas for the shop.  Now where did I put that list??

A New Way to Add Color

Who knew that you could take a plain black t-shirt and use just a little bleach to make something like this?

This discovery has added a whole new dimension to my t-shirt yarn.  I am hooked on the process.  I'm especially pleased because this also lends itself to something I'll be adding to my shop shortly, precut t-shirt squares for quilting.  How awesome would it be to have these colors in a cozy quilt?

More on this endevour shortly.  I've fallen behind on my shop and blog updates but I've been busy as can be getting things ready to go in the shop.  

In the interim, the push to expand my audience continues with two big steps outside my comfort zone in the past week.  First, I'll be teaching a class on how to make t-shirt yarn! That will be happening next week in downtown Ithaca.  

Getting that set up, gave me the courage to seek out another venue to teach t-shirt yarn making in.  The initial meeting went well, so more classes will be happening!  Crazy!  More on that soon.

In other news, the computer and photography gods despise me.  I'm working out a system to make this go more smoothly.

I'll leave you with this sage advice, never make several batches of the same color t-shirt yarn without labeling them all immediately.