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Spill Guts Here. It's gotta go somewhere, know what I mean? Can you stand it?
purls before swine
Geek Knitting
West Indian Parade
West Indian Parade
Dog/Cat Wrestling
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7.31.2002
More exciting news! Jaggerspun, my favorite fine gauge wool yarn manufacturer, has just signed on to be another sponsor for the 2002 Knit Hat Show! That means yarn prizes for the machine knitters. Now I can add more prize catagories. Waiting for high-res images of Karabella and Jaggerspun logos to post on the site. Things are shaping up beautifully!
Also, have decided to invite 2 other people to be judges with me. It will be nice to have a more well rounded point of view, more on this as I get confirmation and bios, etc. This is fun. 7.30.2002
Listen to the excellent Elvis vs JXL remix of"A Little Less Conversation" (real audio stream). What an absolute god he was. I'm afraid this kicks off "Elvis Week" at the shop, AGAIN.
7.29.2002
Everything you need to know about Tartan Dance Hose. Then, see exquisite original Origami designs.
Spent the morning cleaning up, then put my bulky gauge machine together, finally. It's 97 degrees here today, but I want to knit wool. Heavy, fat wool. Will make 1 knitted coat today, for Fall. Still have traces of feeling like a zombie. 7.27.2002
Spent all day yesterday laying around in pajamas, working on a pattern for sideways knitted gloves and glittens. The thought of knitting these "bottom to top", with all the picking up and casting off for each finger just makes my eyes glaze over. Got the rudimentary shape down, knit a pair just for the hell of it, and now am working on stitch patterning within the basic shape. Also have been making 7g tanks, with crocheted straps. Also very fine gauge linen tuck stitch (around 8" wide) scarves, which are selling well. Will try to shoot some at the shop this afternoon, and post pics tommorrow.
Warning! Raving Personal Twaddle Follows: Majorly stressing out about my crappy bank, Astoria Federal on 7th Avenue. I got my wallet stolen 3 weeks ago, and the thieves wiped out both my business AND personal accounts before I realized it was missing out of my bag. So the bank is supposed to reimburse you in 5 to 10 days after you get a notarized statement at the police station. They also have to "investigate" (actually, make 3 phone calls to the stores where fraud was committed) before restoring the balances to my accounts. I'll get the balance back in my personal account by the end of the month, but as a "special service" to their business customers, restoring the balance on my business account is going to take 3 FUCKING MONTHS. So I've been gamely trying to run my business (and eat!) with absolutely no money for 3 weeks now, then I got the news about the 3 month thing yesterday. I generally buy new items for the store once a week, so this means I haven't had new stock in 3 weeks, except for what I make, and knitwear in the summer's not a very brisk seller. This is really adversely affecting the weekly gross, and bills are due next week. I've pretty much had it with this stressful crap. I called 7 on your side, the ABC news thing they do to try and help people who have problems like this. Let the bank explain to a news crew why it takes 3 months to make some phone calls. As soon as possible, I'm transferring my accounts to another bank. It's very complicated, though, with the credit card machine, and other automated stuff. Shit. So my circuits overloaded, and I stayed in pajamas for a day. It helped a little. But I feel like blanketing the neighborhood with flyers about this bank. They are absolutely incompetent. Don't give a shit about small businesses. I can't believe you read this far! 7.24.2002
Had a visit at the shop today from an amazing and very inspiring knit designer, Annie Modesitt. Be sure to check out her knitted furniture (!) which she also sells as kits. Her lace hats are really beautiful in person. You'll find a great tutorial section, and a brand new knitting blog on her site.
Excellent News! Karabella Yarns has signed on to be the first sponsor for the 2002 Knit Hat Show! I *adore* their Aurora 8 merino handknitting yarn, so that's what we're going to have as prizes. The winners of the catagories with this prize will be able to choose their own color, as long as it's in stock. The catagories will be named after the show, suggested by the entries. I'm very happy about this! I'm working on getting more yarn as prizes, it's pretty fun giving it away, especially after my visit the other day to a retail yarn shop. Damn! Yarn is expensive. Knitting Hands down on Atlantic and Bond now has a fantastic book section. Better than any other place I've seen in the city. Danger! Danger! There is no justification for not buying books, my greatest weakness. 7.21.2002
2002 Knit Hat Show subsite now has a FAQ.
7.18.2002
Extreme Hat Inspiration...
If you'd like to put the animated 2002 Knit Hat Show Call for Entries button on your site, go here, copy the code, and paste it into your HTML page where you want it to show up. The image is hosted on my server, so I can update and refresh it. Thank you very much! Any problems, let me know. 7.17.2002
 Will have a FAQ page added by tommorrow. If I missed anything. let me know. After much deliberation, have decided that I HAVE to charge an entry fee. This is going to close my shop for normal business for a week or 2, and I have to get materials for proper display, build a corresponding website, print a directory for the show entries, write and send press releases, get prizes, etc. The fee is $15. Sorry, but it's just going to make a small dent. Working on getting other sponsors to donate yarn, etc. for more prizes. Any suggestions, or if you'd like to be a sponsor, email me: stacey@redlipstick.net. Fun! Can't wait to see what comes in! 7.16.2002
Re: The 2002 Knit Hat Show rules, still thinking about them. The display will open later though, in October. That should be plenty of time to develop ideas.
7.13.2002
Reading Ellen's blog today, and a light bulb appeared. She's posted great links to a "beanie" competition and a toilet roll cover exhibit. I want to host a competition here! Anyone interested? Hats, shall we? I will display the results in my shop here in Brooklyn, umm, say about.... mid to end of September? Is that enough time to knit up your wildest head-warming dreams? It would be a really cool way to start the "knitting" season off, and I can probably get some press for it. You will have the option to sell your creation if you want to, people do come here for knits already.
Let me think about entry parameters, and how many I can display well (my shop's pretty tiny). This would be so much fun. Do let me know if anyone wants to participate, leave a comment with your ideas, yea or nay.. and I'll try to get "contest rules" posted by Monday. Thanks Ellen! This could be a blast! 7.11.2002
Knit 3 7g, A-line skirts on Tuesday, with knitted pointelle trim as well as a crocheted bottom edge. Cotton, linen, raw silk and some extremely thin strands of finished silks. Finishing these things takes way longer than knitting them. Got one picture yesterday, waiting for the other 2 to dry, then will shoot them tommorrow. Starting thinking fall, already. That's the downside of retail, gotta think woolies when it's boiling out, although today's weather is spectacular.
Looking/choosing through my sample book of geelong colors, yarn is "grown" in Australia, then spun in Scotland. I have to order it here, then it's shipped from Scotland. Colors are AMAZING> Last year used alot of merino, will be mostly geelong this season. My fav new yarn. Extraordinarily soft and has a fluffy hand. Has to be finished like cashmere, with a soapy wash and machine dry. Really can't wait. The non-elasticity of cottons, silks and linens is very boring in terms of texture. 7.09.2002
 Patterned, shaped tube top series. Working on raw silk asymmetrical shoulder thingies again. Finished one just now, wash and block this afternoon, picture tommorrow. 7.05.2002
Gluttony as Entertainment. Coney Island was the scene yesterday of the Nathan's Hotdog Eating Contest, and I was determined to go this year. Things like this make me feel the connection our culture has to ancient Rome. Jumped on the W train, and got there 20 minutes before it began.
Coney Island Scrapbook - July 4th, 2002 7.03.2002
Came into the shop with the monkey at 10am today, it's great having a top floor apt till it's over 100 degrees outside. Shop has an air conditioner. Felt especially bad for Murph, poor thing was panting and trying to find the elusive cool spot in the apt all night. Heat wave is expected to last another day, but I'm going to Coney Island to watch the hotdog eating contest tommorrow, so what the hell. At least I can jump into the ocean if it gets too bad. Will try to have pics/tape of it to post.
I've seen the future of industrial knitwear, and it's definitely seamless. My visit to Shima Seiki headquarters on Monday was a fascinating adventure. The technology is both logical and brilliant, a perfect combination. Some of the garment samples I examined, especially in the larger gauges, were indistinguishable from handknits made on circular needles, except they had FEWER ends to darn in afterwards. Possibly starting the wholesale side of RedLipstick with geelong glittens for fall, knitted on the seamless glove machine Shima has. Why should I take 4 to 5 hours to knit a pair? How does that make them more desirable than ones knitted using a brilliant, beautifully designed tool if the result is exactly the same? Want to expand the business in a slow and steady way. Have been thinking about a current prejudice among many knitters and lay(wo)men regarding "hand" work versus "machine" work. The machine is a TOOL, not your enemy. Your knitting pins are TOOLS also, otherwise purists would knit with their fingers (Actually, that's how I learned! And I'm not going back there.). The product that's produced is not less valuable because it was made with a different tool. Crappy knitting is crappy knitting, irregardless of the method of manufacture. I will be promoting the technology that enables me to design and produce garments on a machine, as well as the handknitted work that comes out of my studio. Attitudes need to change and update, and I want to try to expedite that. There is as much thought, technique, time and soul that goes into producing a full fashioned, machine made garment as a garter stitch scarf your friend made for you, not less. In many cases, much more. This is the 21st century, and we don't have to apologize for using machines to make our work go faster. I refuse to. Too hot to think, work or eat. |
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