I received the following email from Carolina Homespun this afternoon and thought I’d pass it along:
Dear Fiber Friends,
Hopefully you have heard that the United Nations has declared 2009 the International Year of Natural Fiber with the goal of increasing awareness about the value of natural fibers produced around the world. This initiative is aimed not only at expanding existing markets but increasing the global demand which will mean more work for those within the fiber industry and in turn help decrease world poverty and hunger.
In honor of this initiative, “Keep the Fleece” (a North American 501c-3-pending) has created multiple opportunities for people to be involved in this international effort. In addition to a Natural Fiber Contest open to all fiber enthusiasts, we are also raising money by creating the World’s Longest Scarf. The scarf will involve thousands of people from around the world working in “teams” who can knit, weave, crochet, or felt a scarf section for a donation of one dollar a row. All of the money raised by each team will then be donated to Heifer International so they can “gift” fiber animals to those in need around the world. At $10 per inch a five-foot scarf would represent five sheep ($120 is the donation for one sheep through Heifer.)
We need your HELP! We will be starting the World’s Longest Scarf at Stitches West at the Carolina Homespun Booth (723) at noon on Friday and of course we need natural fiber yarn to make this happen. If you would like to donate yarn for the scarf we would love it! This is truly your chance to get rid of those orphaned skeins that can help benefit the greater good.
Stitches West is getting close! This year Bobbin’s Nest will be sponsoring the booth. This leads to many great things. First, we’ll have kits available of all my patterns to make it easy to get started knitting one of my designs right away.
With all those kits, plus knitting bags it was time to get two booths to have some wiggle room. Of course that then led to needing to redo the display of the booth. I’ve been having fun shopping on eBay and IKEA for new displays.
Lastly, Bobbin’s Nest will be running the booth on Saturday which means you can shop our booth every day of the show. I won’t be there on Saturday, but I will be at the Bobbin’s Nest after-Stitches-party that evening. More details on that later.
Can’t wait to see you there at booths 622 and 624.
As always, Stitches was wonderful! I enjoyed meeting everyone, hearing the excitement over the bags and getting feedback. Sometimes it’s like having a focus group because I get to hear comments like, “you know Jordana, you should really add … to the bag.” And more often than not, I do. That’s how I make sure the designs are what you want.
Friday, Sarah (and friends) came by the booth and introduced herself. She’s the wonderful moderator for the Jordana Paige group on Ravelry. There were hugs, laughs and of course pictures. Sarah’s the one next to me in the black shirt. She had motivated me to start the group on Ravelry.
Sometimes I manage to leave Stitches without any purchases, but this year I just couldn’t do it. I bought 5 skeins of Yummy by Miss Babs. It’s destined to be January’s sweater. The blue hand-dyed skein was gifted to me by Karida Collins of Neighborhood Fiber Co. Karida has a book coming out next year called Pints and Purls. I also received a signed copy of Hannah Fettig’s book, Closely Knit. It’s full of quick gift patterns for everyone in the family. I accidentally shipped my other yarn purchase back in the display boxes, so it’s not pictured here, but I also bought 6 skeins of Peruvian Pima Cotton by Windy Valley Muskox in Misty Mauve. I love their yarn so much. It’s so luxurious. This yarn will be designed into a super feminine something for spring.
Stitches East is less than one month away and I’ll be exhibiting! This will be my first year at Stitches East. Last year I decided to alternate between the Midwest and East show. This year it’s off to Baltimore. I keep thinking of the Hairspray song, “Good Morning Baltimore.” I’ll probably wake up singing it every morning.
Anyway, the booth is #249. As always, my booth will be closed on Saturday, so if you’re wanting to purchase a bag at the show, be sure to come by Thursday, Friday or Sunday. If you just want to touch, model, or examine the bags, they’ll be viewable on Saturday.
For the first time at Stitches I will have my own patterns. Right now the patterns are only available for download, but I’ll be printing up some glossy copies just for the show. I’ll also have finished samples so you can touch, model and examine them too.
If the economy isn’t doing well, nobody told us knitters. This year’s Stitches West was the best show I’ve ever exhibited at. Attendance seemed higher than past years, although I don’t know the official count. Friday was packed. Between showing the product, ringing sales and running back to my sister’s home to fill the car with more product, my mom and I hardly had a chance to inhale some food. I ended up not going to the class I had signed up for. I was a bit disappointed by this, but couldn’t stay too disappointed when the booth was full of knitters.
Saturday evening my mom, sister and I went to Erin’s shop, Bobbin’s Nest, for a release party of Hazel Knits. Wendee, owner of Hazel Knits, had hand-dyed an exclusive Bobbins Nest colorway of white, brown and blue which we got a little hank of in a goody bag, plus pattern. Too cute! As always Erin had a wonderful spread of eats and drinks. Jess and Casey of Ravelry were there too. They’re just the nicest couple!
It seems everyone at Stitches is on Ravelry. I couldn’t believe the number of people walking around with Ravelry name pins. It was great meeting all of you and hearing your wants and needs for future designs. That’s what keeps me designing!
Speaking of designing…something is on it’s way this week…hint, hint! Be sure you’re on our mailing list to be the first to know what it is.
Back home from the market preview of Stitches West. I’ll try to post a little report each day from the show, but I might be too pooped tomorrow, so we’ll see. Without fail it was raining this morning. It rains every year for Stitches just to add to the enjoyment of packing everything up in an uncovered pickup to drive to Santa Clara. I was even prepared this year and bought a tarp, but with my tarp tying skills, I don’t know why I bothered. The tarp looked like a hot air balloon with a truck attached as I drove down the freeway.
My mom and I are such pros at setting up the booth. We finished it just a few hours, even having time to go back home, shower and eat. This was a great accomplishment for us as we usually don’t have time to get something to eat. Hungry makes me cranky, so getting to eat was a good thing.
They extended the market preview from 7-9pm to 7-10pm. I can only imagine how tired the vendors who traveled from the East Coast must have been tonight. It was a really great night, actually the best market preview we’ve ever had. The Ravelry Passports have been a lot of fun. They’re so cute and look exactly like a real passport. I’ll have to get a photo of one for you.
Stitches West is this Thursday, yay! Aside from moving all my display stuff to the front of my warehouse I’ve done nothing to prepare. I need to kick it into high gear this week.
I think this is my seventh Stitches to exhibit at so it doesn’t quite stress me out like it use to. I just need to pull out my little check list and start gathering everything together. I really can’t believe I’ve been in business long enough to have this be my seventh Stitches. While I obviously exhibit to sell bags, what’s more fun for me is meeting everyone and when knitters I met previous years stop by again to say hi.
We’ll be participating in Ravelry‘s passport game. You can pick up a passport at Ravelry’s booth which is just inside the market floor. Then stop by our booth, #615, we’ll give you the sales pitch on the awesomeness of Jordana Paige bags and stamp your passport. When you get your passport stamped with all the participating vendors return it to the Ravelry booth to be entered in a drawing for some great prizes.
Stitches West is less than two months away. The show just keeps getting bigger and bigger. If you’ve never gone before, I highly recommend making a day of it. You don’t have to take classes to enjoy it. Just shopping the market is a lot of fun. If you love yarn, you’ll love Stitches. I’ve never taken a class at Stitches before, actually I don’t think I’ve ever taken a knitting class, but decided to try one out this year. I’ve signed up for Galina Khmeleva’s class, The Perfect Edge. She’s an expert on Orenburg lace. I know absolutely nothing about it, but it sounds fun.
As always, here’s a $2 off coupon for admission to the market. I’ll be at booth #615.
Home at last. Stitches Midwest definitely exceeded my expectations. My mom, dad and I arrived on Wednesday. We set up the booth that evening so we would have Thursday to wander around Chicago. We stopped at Loopy Yarns. The owner Vicki and her entire staff are wonderful. I have never been in a shop with so much energy. It was a hot, humid day in the middle of August, yet it was bustling in there. If you’re now wishing you had bought a bag at the show, or if I was sold out of the color you wanted, Loopy Yarns will have the complete line by this time next week.
While there I met Jackie and her mom, Anita. Jackie’s friend owns Sit & Knit so we had to get a photo.
We did all the touristy stuff; Sears Tower, architecture river tour, Navy Pier, Magnificent Mile and of course, the subway, which I will in no way miss. I really enjoyed seeing the city but was pooped by the end of the trip. Unfortunately, my dad’s wallet was stolen. Since he didn’t have his id we had to get to the airport extra early on Sunday. My apologies to anyone who came by the booth the last 30 minutes of the show when we were packing up.
The show was wonderful. I truly enjoyed meeting everyone. It’s so fun to see knitters buying their third and fourth Jordana Paige. Here’s Ann and I.
Me signing a satchel. I’ve never had so many people want me to sign their bags before. It felt a bit weird, but was certainly fun. Next time I’ll have to remember a Sharpie.
I couldn’t leave the show empty handed. My mom bought me four balls of Qiviuk by Windy Valley Muskox. It’s Qiviuk, merino and silk. It is incredibly soft. If you’re not familiar with quivit, read this. What could deserve such a fine fiber as this? I’ll be designing a cardigan for my sister’s wedding. She’ll be getting married in March, outside, in the evening, in Monterey. This all means it will be cold. My dress has a very attractive neckline so the cardigan’s neckline will mimic the dress’. I’m itchin’ to start!
Stitches Midwest is this week. It just kind of snuck up on me. I leave for Chicago early Wednesday morning. I’ve never been to Chicago, so I’m very excited. I’ve heard so much about what a great city it is. Of course, on the to do list is visiting a few yarn shops. Any recommendations, or other must-see attractions while I’m there?
I also received a signed copy of 
It’s full of quick gift patterns for everyone in the family. I accidentally shipped my other yarn purchase back in the display boxes, so it’s not pictured here, but I also bought 6 skeins of 
