Happy 3rd Birthday Koigu Mini Skein Club!
A birthday rolls around in April - the Chiagu Mini Skein club is 3 years old!
In addition to the six mini skeins for April:
All April club members received two colors of Koigu KPM mini skeins , a semi-solid fingering weight yarn:
I was leaning toward a different birthday gift but as I was testing it out it stopped working! I'm planning on adding the KPM colors to the Chiagu website and I thought "Why not send out more yarn in April?". I fell in love with two colors that I never buy for myself - the curry yellow and the tomato red. Koigu tends to do that you know, make you look at colors with a fresh eye.
Enjoy club members, and let me know what you are doing with your mini skeins!
Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
I recently worked on a secret knitting project (also known as deadline knitting). Once I was done my arm was bothering me so I gave myself two weeks off from knitting. This meant that I had time to do other things! I got reacquainted with my sewing machine and worked on some new designs for project bags. And I had the pleasure of going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a behind the scenes tour sponsored by the NYU Women's Initiative.
We spent some time looking at the textiles at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center and we learned about the restoration process at the Costume Institute. I want to thank fellow tour participant, Rachael Jones, for providing me with her pictures for this blog post - I had checked my belongings and didn't have my camera with me.
Giovanna Fiorino-Iannace, the director of the Ratti Center provided an insightful tour. We learned about the use of different materials (i.e. metal thread) and what it takes to put together an exhibit. The staff had chosen beautiful items that we could examine up close:
These shoes that were worn by women who had bound feet. The shoes were tiny, maybe 5 inches long which is smaller than a dollar bill. Foot binding became popular and was adopted as a symbol of beauty in Chinese culture. Since these women were not expected to work or do much walking it was assumed they came from well-to-do families. The practice started to die out in the early 20th century.
My favorite item is this robe, the embroidery work on this item is amazing. Very fine thread was used and it was extremely detailed, right down to the facial features of the characters.
Using Google's image search I found a similar image that has more detail (Photo from the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco). Similar but different.
Alice in Wonderland quilt by Story Book Quilts (Marion Whiteside Newton)
The Alice in Wonderland quilt intrigued me, so much so that I found several articles about the quilter who made and designed it, Marion Whiteside Newton. There is an entry to Quilt Index which talks about Newtown but the photos do not display. This article discusses Newton's life and how Story Book Quilts was her business - she designed the quilts and sold them as kits by placing ads in women magazines.
The second part of our tour took us to The Costume Institute where Miriam Murphy and Sarah Scaturro spoke to us about the restoration process for upcoming exhibit items. We had a discussion about mannequins and how the costumes are never displayed flat. We even asked for cleaning tips for our modern clothes! Some of the items are for upcoming exhibits and we were asked not to take photos of them. But I have to say that clothing provides a wonderful look into history.
February Mini Skeins and Secret Knitting
Hi all - A quick post to let club members know that February Koigu mini skeins are going to the post office today.
Also I'm finishing up some secret knitting - it's a pattern I created and I used Koigu KPM (semi solids and solids). Hopefully I can talk about the project in a few months. I'll be back to all things Chiagu in a day or so.
Vogue Knitting Live 2015 Recap
(Yes, this post would have been up a couple of days ago if not for the fact that I lost it while I was in final proofread mode. I gave myself a timeout before writing it again).
Vogue Knitting Live and I have a bit of history with one another. I was a volunteer for the first VKLive, working the Marketplace entrance. I worked for a vendor in 2012. The third year I injured my leg and missed all the classes I paid for. And last year I barely spent time in the Marketplace because I took machine knitting classes.
So when VKLive 2015 was announced I considered volunteering again. Then I thought about taking classes. But as New York Sheep and Wool (aka Rhinebeck) and the holidays rolled around I dragged my feet about doing something at VKLive. Well as fate would have it it was good that I hesitated: at the last minute my friend Marsha and I got a Marketplace booth.
Marsha sells stitch markers and jewelry at her Etsy store, One Geek to Craft Them All. I had just acquired Chiagu and I had the inventory from my Etsy store, Sooze In The City. We both had inventory and we had one month to make this work. Up until this point we had shared a table at various holiday fairs but this was our first time working a booth. We had to up our game and I'm glad we took the risk.
Here is the Chiagu side of the booth:
It was an exciting experience. I loved meeting and talking to all the current Chiagu customers (thank you for visiting!) And we enjoyed meeting all the new knitters and crocheters who found us. The Tramonto Shawl was a big hit and the Runners Watchcap and Eldridge Hat patterns sold well. I almost out of everything from my Etsy shop. And quite a bit of Koigu yarn found new homes.
I want to mention our lovely neighbors, MollyGirl yarns and Bar-Maids skincare. They helped us stay fed and sane. The Bar-Maids owner provided insight on doing these shows and MollyGirl provided a view of gorgeous yarn:
And even with short notice we managed to have guests visit us on Saturday. Many thanks to podcasters Maria (SubwayKnits) and Kristin (YarnGasm) for coming by the booth. Maria gave out buttons and Kristin gave out mini skeins of her yarn, Voolenvine.
We were busy most of the weekend. On Sunday Marsha and I took turns walking around the Marketplace and got some shopping done.
I picked up a pattern writing book by Kate Atherley (you can always pick up tips from one of the technical editors of knitty.com), an Orla Kiely print pouch from Splityarn and a couple of Hiya Hiya 11" circular needles for knitting sleeves, socks, and baby items:
But my absolutely favorite purchase is this wood yarn bowl from the Wools of Whimsy:
I love that the bowl is signed, numbered and that there are two holes to rest your needles. Wools of Whimsy provided the bowls for the Yarn Tasting area and they were able to sell the bowls when VKLive was closing on Sunday.
Well that's it. I've been following up on some of the contacts I made and I've updated the shop's Koigu inventory. In the next few days I will post new colors for the Loreley Kits and the Freemans Alley Kits. And I'm working on getting the February Koigu Mini Skein Club packages out. See you next week.
Vogue Knitting Live 2015 - Meet the Podcasters
As Marsha and I are setting up our booth (#118, 5th floor, Marriott Marquis Times Square) at Vogue Knitting Live we are happy to announce that two podcasters are visiting us on Saturday, January 17, Noon to 1pm.
Podcasters Maria MN from Subway Knits and Kristen Lehrer from YarnGasm are visiting us for a Meet n Greet. Stop by and get to know these talented ladies! Kristen hand dyes beautiful Voolenvine yarn and is bringing some mini skeins to give out. Maria's latest fiber endeavor is creating a "How to Read Japanese Knitting Patterns" class.
I'm stocking the booth with kits (Loreley Scarf, Freemans Alley Mitts, and the Runners Watchcap), samples, patterns, notebooks, and drawstring project bags from my Etsy shop, Sooze in the City. And I'm bringing skeins of Koigu! I hope to meet a few of you.
And whenever I can leave the booth I'll posted entries and photos onto the Chiagu Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as a recap blog post on Monday.
