piebird's posterous

Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark

Chicago Update part 2, Stitches Midwest

Wow! this post is overdue, but I promised a full report, so here we go!!

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So the second part of my Chicago trip was all Stitches Market, all the time! 4 days of yarn, knitters, crafty shenanigans, knitting celebrities, and a ton of fun.

Thursday was booth set up, which means lots of hauling and unpacking, arranging yarn, and getting the models displayed "just so". Then I got a short break as the convention center crew tidied up the show floor from all of us whirlwind, mess-making booth-setter-uppers, so I headed over to the hotel bar to join the lovely Mark and Susie from Kollage Yarns (http://kollageyarns.com) , and Benjamin from XRX Press (http://knittinguniverse.com), our lovely host for the event, for beer and a nice chat. Then it was time for the enthusiastic Stitches students to get first dibs on all of the goodies for sale during the market preview. 

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The next few days were a bit of a fun, crazy blur, full of new and familiar faces, lots of happy knitters and crocheters leaving with KSD yarns and patterns, and evenings with friends. The most popular KSD yarns were, hands-down, Luxe Merino Fine and Silver Spoon, and the Petal Edge Scarf project went home with many knitters, both beginner and experienced! 


After hearing so much about him and reading his writing, I finally got to meet Franklin Habit (http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/)! Do i have a picture of this? No! Because it was the end of a LONG day and my brain was pretty toasty. But he's lovely!

And Sarah Wilson (http://thesexyknitter.blogspot.com/) stopped by to let me get a sneak peek at the Knitty Surprise pattern, the Crosswaves Sock (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEff10/PATTcrosswaves.php), that she designed using KSD Luxe Merino Fine in Edgar, which she had bought from me at Renegade Craft Chicago last year. So cute, and great for semi-solid handpainted yarns.

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I had a great time in Chicago, and hated to leave so soon. But I'm thrilled that I get to return next month for YarnCon (http://yarncon.com/), where downtown knitters can come visit me and get their yarn fix.

Ciao, Chi-town!

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Chicago recap, part one

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I hit the road last Tuesday to travel to Chicago for Stitches Midwest, armed with a truckload of yarn and a sense of adventure! My first stop, while unplanned ( I got off the highway for food and found YARN!), was a well-stocked yarn shop in Bowling Green, KY, called Crafty Hands.  I picked up a few skeins of Noro cotton/silk yarn for a scarf project, and enjoyed looking at the gorgeous selection of yarns before I hopped back on the highway.

I had all day Wednesday to play in Chicago, so my friend Kristen and I headed over to visit the girls at Lorna's Laces. We went out for tasty Mexican food and caught up on yarn gossip!

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Amanda at Lorna's Laces Studio

We took the afternoon to do some crafty shopping, and our first stop was the delightful fabric shop, The Needle Shop. I picked up a couple of half yard cuts of fun cotton prints for some unknown future quilt project, and got inspired by fun color combos.

Kristen, shopping for upholstery fabric

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Our next stop was Soutache, a wonderland of ribbons, buttons, and fancy trims. I exercised all the willpower I had not to buy a truckload, and narrowed down my selection to a rich paprika colored velvet ribbon, which I plan to use as detailing on a pullover sweater design. If you are ever in/around Chicago, you HAVE to visit this shop. The colors and textures will blow your mind, and the owner is funny, charming, and helpful.

Once we shopped our little brains out (and wallets), Kristen lead me to Piece for pizza and craft beer. We feasted on New Haven-style thin crust pizza, and delicious, award-winning brew.

After my day of fun, I felt recharged and ready to go for Stitches Midwest! Stay tuned for part 2!

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One door closes, or: Be Yourself!

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Photo, Two Doors, Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark

And another one (or more) opens!

Yesterday, I turned down my first knitwear design job.

It was the first time, in a long time, that I was asked to make enough significant changes to my original idea that it would have sent the design on a very un-Mercedes path. But hooray for clear, calm communication, I was able to express my concerns and the client and I parted ways amicably, with possibilities for future projects together (SO much better than the scenarios in my head!).  I trusted my gut, and I think that was the best advice I could have given my self.  I have many, many more thoughts on the subject of staying true to your thing, and will be writing more in coming weeks.  I take being yourself very, very seriously.  Except when I sing kindergarten-esque silly songs about it. 

One of the nice things about being a craft floozie, is that I tend to have eleventy-three irons in the fire at any given moment*.  So as soon as I hung up the phone and took a deep sigh of relief, my inbox provided my creative self with another fun opportunity, this time for KSD!

I'm happy to announce that I will be dyeing a custom Kitchen Sink Dyeworks colorway for Shannon Okey's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo readalong + knitalong on Ravelry!  I'll be dyeing the colorway for Steig Larsson's second book in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire. I'm super-excited, especially as these books were on my beach reading list for my vacation next week**! 

 

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Join in on the knitalong on Ravelry. 

Books, yarn, socks, knitting?

This is going to be awesome!

 

*Because, really, why have one career, when you can have a circus act by juggling four or five?

**Other best piece of advice? Take a freakin' vacation!

Free Online Sock Class is on the move...

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A while back, I started a free online sock class to teach the magic loop technique (my absolute, deeply-loved, favorite technique for knitting in the round).  The class project was a teensy pair of toddler socks, which could then be donated to Children in Common, a charity benefiting kids in orphanages in the former Soviet Union, establishments which are underfunded and underheated.  The class was a brainstorm resulting from a flurry of craft writing that was making the rounds on the blogs of some of my favorite folks, all about the "Power of Free". ,

I had originally been hosting the class on a Ning social networking sitewhich was free at the time.  Ning is changing their business model to pay per month for hosting, and when I thought about whether or not this was the best medium I could pay for to get the class out there, well...it wasn't.

So, now I've decided to make it easier for more knitters to access the videos for the class by moving the video materials to YouTube, and the supplemental materials (pattern PDF,...etc.) to my design blog, piebirddesign.com.

The full class materials list with file and video links can now be found here:
http://piebirddesign.com/classes/free-online-sock-class/

My piebirddesign YouTube channel can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/piebirddesign

If you haven't signed up previously, come on over and check out the videos!

If you've enjoyed the class, please help spread the word by directing people to the new class page.

And if you've finished a pair of socks, drop me a line, I'd love to see your projects!