Chicago recap, part one

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!

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

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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August 25, 2010 | View Comments

More skeins headed to Stitches Midwest

Silver Spoon, Luxe Merino Fine, Merino Bamboo Fine. I can’t wait to get to Chicago (ok, I’d like to skip the 10 hour drive, but still super-excited)!

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August 16, 2010 | View Comments

Badass Women

Meet the Ladies of the

Badass Women’s Yarn Club!


Ms. September is Meg McGlamery of  Birmingham, AL.

Meg is the Assistant Director of Crisis Center, and the Rape Response Program Coordinator at Birmingham Rape Response*, providing services to people that have been affected by sexual violence, raising awareness about this issue, and conducting prevention education throughout the state.

Rape Response is a Rape Crisis Center committed to providing free services immediately following a sexual assault, and additional counseling and legal services as those victims attempt to recover from their trauma.  While it’s not a comfortable subject, sexual assault is an all-too-common event that needs to be addressed, and Rape Response provides a safe, nurturing environment, caring staff, and non-judgmental support for victims of sexual assault, as well as raising community awareness.


Ms. October is Julie Brock of Alpharetta, GA.

I walk 60 miles in 3 days in the Susan G Komen 3-Day for the Cure.  When it comes to breast cancer, there’s just something in me that says, “There needs to be a cure, and I’m gonna help find one.”  As a single parent with a full-time job, finding time to fundraise (at least $2,300!) and properly train (walk over 500 miles!?!) is no simple task.  But I’m mother to a beautiful little girl, so finding the time becomes a priority because I walk for her.  I hope that the work I do and the money I raise will fund a cure for breast cancer in her lifetime.  Net proceeds from the 3-Day for the Cure fund global breast cancer research and local community programs supporting education, screening and treatment.  So until a cure is found, I’ll keep walking, keep fundraising and keep going because I really do feel that I have no other option.

The Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure™ events take place in 15 cities starting in Boston in July, and ending in San Diego in November.  This year I’m walking with my Team Two Chicks Fo(u)r Boobs team in Tampa Bay, FL, but I have also walked in Atlanta (’08) and Washington, DC (’09).  You can learn more about my walk at www.the3day.org/goto/walkingbagel.


Ms. November is Elisa Munoz of Birmingham, AL.

Elisa Munoz is an avid cyclist, frustrated knitter and beer drinker.  She is the Program Coordinator for the Greater Birmingham Community Food Partners, a food policy non-profit, during the day. At night she dons her shorts and Vans and runs a non-profit bicycle shop, The Bici Bicycle Cooperative, which she and 2 friends founded.  In her spare time she enjoys taking on extreme knitting projects, eating blueberries and working at the local farmers market.

There are still spots available in the club, but spaces are limited (not saying that to be gimmicky, I just don’t want you to lose out on a space, because I’m keeping this first quarter’s club to a smaller, manageable size while I get the hang of running a super-cool yarn club).  Even if you can’t join right now, The Badass Women and I would be super-appreciative if you would help spread the word about the club to let other knitters know about the project!

**************************************************

3 month subscription,
$40 charged each month,
$120 total (1st payment will be charged immediately).

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3 month prepaid subscription,
$113 total
(charged immediately).

**************************************************

This quarter’s line-up of Badass Women are all people I have seen in action in real life, doing their thing and making a difference.  Future clubs will have women nominated by YOU!  More details in coming months.

*Crisis Center’s Rape Response program is where I volunteer in real life as a Rape Response advocate, acting as a literal and figurative hand-to-hold while a sexual assault survivor is receiving care at the Crisis Center or at area hospitals.

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August 11, 2010 | Tags: , , | View Comments

the yarn club that kicks butt


When you think of a woman who is badass, what comes to mind?


Maybe Xena or Wonder Woman?


How about Eleanor Roosevelt or Jane Goodall?


Or the woman who runs a local community food drive or the local safe house for battered women?

There are a lot of ways to be badass, but I think the ones that hit closest to home, that help those we care about (and should be caring for), may be the ones that really make the greatest impact. Ninja skills are still pretty cool, but these lesser-known badass ladies tend to make our world better, brighter, kinder, and safer, without having to thrash a single villain or dish out a roundhouse kick.

To celebrate these women, and help them make a difference in the lives of others, KSD will be highlighting their efforts in conjunction with our very first monthly yarn club.

So with no further delay, I present:

the Badass Women’s Yarn Club!

Each month, your membership will include: one skein of yarn in an exclusive KSD colorway named for a woman who kicks ass for a cause, an exclusive coordinating Piebird Design pattern, free mini-skeins of other KSD yarns, and a special surprise gift. USPS first class postage to the US and Canada is included*.

10% of the month’s club cost will be donated to the affiliate charity/project of the Badass Woman of the month, to help them further the causes and rock the community action! Every month, I’ll be highlighting these women and their work on the KSD blog, so you can get to know more about these everyday crusaders in action.

Subscriptions are available for $40 per month, to be charged to your PayPal account each month in advance of shipment**, or save some cash & sign up to pay the whole she-bang in advance for $113 total for a 3-month subscription (you save $7.00).

**********************************************

3 month subscription,
$40 charged each month,
$120 total (1st payment will be charged immediately).

3 month prepaid subscription,
$113 total
(charged immediately).


Current estimated ship date will be the 15th of each month, September-November.  If there are any changes to the shipping date, you will be notified ASAP, of course.

The yarns will be a different weight and fiber content each month, some sock, some worsted, etc, but all yummy!

I’m limiting the number of enrollments for the first offering of the club, so snag yours now if you want in on this fun project!

Have some fun, get some awesome yarn, and help others be badass, join the Badass Yarn Club!

*International customers: If you’d like to join, we’d love to have you, contact me at  mail-at-kitchensinkdyeworks-dot-com and let me know your shipping address. I will process the shipping costs to your country and invoice you for the 3-month total for club costs plus international shipping. Monthly subscription payment is not available with this option.

**Your PayPal account will be charged $40 at sign-up, and $40 each month before the subscription goes out, dated each month to correspond with the day of sign-up ( i.e.- sign up on 8/5/10, the next two payments will go through on 9/5/10 and 10/5/10 for October and November club shipments). No need to worry about remembering to pay each month, this will be automatic.

Photo credit, Spider-girl, copyright 2009 Brendan Riley, Digital Sextant, used with Attribution Licence.

JUST IN CASE:

PayPal direct links-

pay per month:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=J85MLRBBTTK72

prepaid-

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6V4DL4SFH8UXU

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August 6, 2010 | View Comments

From yesterday’s dye session

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July 31, 2010 | View Comments

KSD went on vacation and all I got was…Awesome Yarn!

Photo credit: Valeriano Della Longo, used with Creative Commons Attribution license.

So much better than a souvenir t-shirt….

I’m hopping on a plane bound for sunny Aruba for a real live vacation!* And I would love to bring back seashells and carved coconuts for everyone, but my suitcase is only so big, right?

So to share some fun while I’m away,  I’m stocking up the KSD shop full of cheap, lovely yarn for you!

What’s on SALE?
I am overstocked on some beautiful yarns that are lonely one-skeiners, Odd Ducks (one-of-a-kind microbatches), discontinued colors and fibers, and a few random things just for the heck of it.  I’m cleaning out these little gems by marking them down to make room for new items coming this fall, and to build up the KSD travel fund for upcoming shows. (note- I just found a hidden, unmarked box of amazing odd duck merino fine skeins, so y’all totally scored on that!)

Stock up while they last!

All orders will ship when I return to the studio, Friday and Saturday next week.

Cheers and I’ll see you when I get back (probably slightly sunburnt)!

Mercedes

*I will be incommunicado (no internet! no email! no phone! yikes!) for about a week. If there are any snags on your order, I will clean it up and make it all better once I’m back in Alabama.

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July 16, 2010 | Tags: , | View Comments

One door closes, or: Be Yourself!

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**! 

 

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!

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July 15, 2010 | View Comments

Free Online Sock Class is on the move…

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!

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June 30, 2010 | View Comments

Tweety-tweet-tweet


Hey kids! I just changed my Twitter username from @kitchensinkdye to @mercedesKSD.  If you’re on Twitter and not following me yet, run on over and join in!  If you’re not on Twitter (come on, it’s fun!), you can still get updates through the newsletter list or right here on the KSD site, but without as many jokes and links and other little things that get posted everyday.

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June 17, 2010 | View Comments

On the Road Again

KSD in Tennessee this weekend!

Visit KSD on Memorial Day weekend, May 28-30, at the Dickson County Fairgrounds off Hwy 47 East, in Dickson, TN.

Friday 1-6, Saturday 9-5, Sunday 10-4

Mercedes will be there with heaps of yarn in your favorite KSD colorways, with lots of bright, fun summery colors!  The fairgrounds will have lots of southeastern fiber vendors, activities, classes, and exhibits.

For more information, visit http://www.tnfiberfestival.com/

Have a fun, safe holiday weekend!

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May 27, 2010 | View Comments
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