Vogue Knitting LIVE ~~sigh~~

Good evening!  Well, I'm sitting in my hotel room, wishing I knew sooner that the Rangers home opener was tonight but still thankful I could watch Downton Abbey on a television, and I'm decompressing.  The good news is that the Blackhawks are on the radio (in case you thought all I did was knit).  My status on facebook earlier said, "I'm knitted out."  Wow...what a fun weekend.  Lots of great experiences, new friendships and contacts, some free stuff AND paid-for stuff...and a ton, a TON of inspiration.

In case any of you are curious, here is a recap of the stories I've written this weekend, and there is still one more to come.  Maybe two, but most likely one:

http://www.examiner.com/article/deals-aplenty-at-the-vogue-knitting-live-marketplace?cid=PROD-redesign-right-next
http://www.examiner.com/article/gallery-of-artists-at-vogue-knitting-live-does-not-disappiont?cid=PROD-redesign-right-next
http://www.examiner.com/article/knitters-get-more-than-just-tricks-of-the-trade-at-vogue-knitting-live?cid=PROD-redesign-right-next
http://www.examiner.com/article/manhattan-ballroom-where-the-action-is-on-day-one-of-vogue-knitting-live?cid=PROD-redesign-right-next
http://www.examiner.com/article/knitters-worldwide-descend-upon-times-square-for-vogue-knitting-live?cid=PROD-redesign-right-next

This morning, I audited Franklin Habit's "Knitting Tessellations" class, and of course geeked out because I love math and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  Then I went to the Marketplace...I waited all weekend to choose if I was going to buy anything, because lord knows I don't need anymore yarn, but at the same time, I have been pretty good about knitting stuff and giving it away. I bought two skeins of sock yarn from an independent dyer named Dragonfly Fibers.  Their colors are amazing...I saw her stuff in Chicago and was just 360 degrees of impressed.  And indie dyers are a dime a dozen.  I chose boy-sock colors this time, since my stash is full of girl-sock- and silly-sock colors.

Then...I bought a copy of Nicky Epstein's The Essential Edgings Collection.  Wow.  I don't know how her brain works, but I would love to watch the MRI with contrast as some psychiatrist asked her important knitting questions to see which sections went from blue to red and at what lightning-quick speed.  The book on the left...a thirty dollar value...was absolutely FREE!  So I think I did well, considering how much more I could have spent.

After saying goodbye to Kelly and popping my head in on a few other speakers, I met Peter for a drink and then went back to the hotel to fall over.  I actually finished the infinity scarf I was making out of my friend Renee's yarn...Renee owns an Etsy shop called the Carolina Fiber Company.  If you shop from her, you too can get yourself a gorgeous hank of her hand-spun stuff and look as fly as I do in the picture!

By the way, I cast on 321 stitches, and then just K8, P8 until I was almost out of yarn.  Then I bound off in pattern and was left with...seriously...less than five feet of yarn.  It was about 350 yards if you wanted to do it in a heavy DK to worsted weight yarn.  The yarn is slightly thick-and-thin, so I'm at about 4.75 stitches per inch, if not a bit more.

If you look at my facebook page (The Fiber Friend), you'll see a photo of me and artist Kelly Fleek.  The woman who took it actually invented a knitting tool...more on that later...and when I saw her this morning she said, "Did you see your photo?  You're so damn photogenic!"  I hope that's true...since my brains don't seem to be advancing my career as fast as I need it to, maybe I can get by on my looks.

Just kidding.

My two-year plan is actually going well...I haven't exactly ticked a bunch of items off the list, but I see the vision, and I know where I'm going.  That's actually a pretty big deal...it means the pieces will fall into place more quickly.  Trust me.

If any of you can get this blog post to Nicky Epstein...NICKY!  I LOVE YOUR BOOK!  I THINK YOU'RE A GENIUS!  (can i have a job?)

Just kidding.  Again.  But Nicky Epstein's book is amazing...this is the third time I've said that.  I mean it.  I actually met her for about two seconds in Chicago, and I either said, "Nice to meet you," or "Uhh...err...UMM...ahem..."  I honestly don't remember which sentence I uttered.

Oh well.  I'm all coherent now so maybe I'll see her on the street before I leave New York tomorrow.

New York and Famous People

Good morning, everyone...I'm sitting in the lobby of the Marriott New York Marquis, planning my day and realizing that even if there were six of me, I could not do all I wanted to do while I was here.  The flip side, of course, is that I am covering this for an internet newspaper and not here as a bona fide attendee, so I can do a little bit of everything versus doing one or two things from start to finish.

The guy in front of me on the shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel whipped his head around when we were driving down 5th Avenue, and practically knocked me out by saying, "Ooh!  There's Naomi Campbell right there!"  Aside from fearing for my life at the hands of an errant telephone, I am not exactly phased by Naomi Cambpell.  Walking around Vogue LIVE, however, I am pretty damn starstruck.

Many people in the industry of fiber arts can walk past any number of groups and not even cause the bat of an eyelash, mostly because their talent is recognized way before their faces. People like Martha Stewart and Vanna White are knitters and crocheters, but they were famous before their name was slapped on a product they licensed, so assuredly they get stopped on the street anyway.

But when you get 3,000 knitters in a hotel, and Debbie Bliss walks by, the people staying at the hotel who are there for another reason don't see a thing.  The people who are there for Vogue LIVE are squealing, poking each other in the ribs, and asking this classy English lady for her autograph on the back of their expo badges.

Currently, I can see Vickie Howell from where I am sitting; she is having breakfast and tweeted to her over 12,000 followers that she arrived last night. From my vantage point, I can see people walking past her, looking at her, trying to be respectful of the fact that she is eating with friends, but still being starstruck.  I get it.

This is different than the Oscars.  Many of the people here are not in awe of being near someone whose face is on television. Rather, they are taking master classes, taught, in some cases, by a person who actually invented a technique or style.  And this is for a craft that is well over 1,000 years old.  People are starstruck because they can feel the brain power and creativity permeating throughout each lecture hall and classroom.

Not only that, but famous people in the knitting world have one stark contrast from famous people in Hollywood.  They are all...every single one of them...nice, friendly, and humble.  In one of Debbie's lectures yesterday, someone asked her the name of her magazine, and she said, "It's just 'Debbie Bliss magazine.' Oh dear, did THAT sound funny! 'Debbie Bliss magazine...'" she said, tossing her hair about as if it were longer than chin-length.

On Thursday, I met the CEO of a little mom-and-pop company...his name is David Blumenthal.  He runs a family-owned business here in New York, and he and his predecessors (read:  relatives) have made a bit of an impact on knitting.  By the way, he is the CEO of Lion Brand Yarn.  I was standing in his office, and he was showing me all of the souvenirs he has collected over the past several years, including a photo of his grandson, the latest Blumenthal in the empire, modeling a Lion Brand Yarn pattern.  This guy is arguably one of the most powerful people in the industry, and he is essentially showing me how cute his grandson is.

I am starstruck.  Yes, these people are knitters...they are not curing cancer.  But what they are doing is using their immense talent to teach people how to make better chemo caps to donate to cancer victims, make prettier shawls for family members' weddings, and encourage budding designers how to find their way in an industry where even the most powerful of celebrity means that on some level, you are still a peer.

Good, good stuff.

What's In My Bag?

Good morning!  Today's blog post is full of links, photos, and maybe even a bit of humor!

Or not.  I'm only one green tea into my morning and I have to work the next three nights.

Anyway, I'm going to talk about all knitting, all the time.  If you are not a knitter, or you miss my old blog where I talked about disastrous dates (and there were several...if you go to the yahoo group Fraudvixen's Volumes you can read about it and I promise to give you access if you request it), then you may not enjoy this one.  I don't care...I'm not in this silly game to recruit old fans of previous topics.  I'm in it to better my life, make a little bit of money, make a difference in a couple of lives, and...well...knit.  A lot.

First, though, here is the article I wrote yesterday about a Lorna's Laces from behind the scenes...I can't thank Beth and Amanda and the crew enough for letting me into their world like this.  SOOOO fun...only thing that would have made it better would have been a ninja-like fight with the dyer so I could have MY diva turn at the dyeing table!

http://www.examiner.com/article/a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-lorna-s-laces?cid=db_articles

I also have a new design on both Ravelry and Etsy, inspired by Victorian lace but NOT Victorian lace...check it out:

And next, my non-profit idea is one step closer to reality, although in this case, the LAST step will be filing for 501(c)3 status because it can be done without grant money for a while.  But I had a dear friend draw up some monsters for me, and I am getting ready to sit down and write some patterns with those as inspiration.

Then, the kimono sweater...swear to god...is FINALLY off the needles!  And I don't mean I transferred live stitches to a holder...it's actually almost finished.  Really!  Swear!  I just have to seam up the two sleeves and do the i-cord neckline, so I should be done right around 2015 or so.  Yesterday, I went to sleep thinking I would do that during Grey's Anatomy on the internet this morning, but that didn't happen.

I have been thinking of a design for Knitty.com and Franklin Habit's Templeton Square design contest...I am not sure the first idea shall come to fruition, but the second one may.  So yeah...I have to look into that.

In my bag currently, I have a pair of toe-up socks from a Crazy Zauerball, and I managed to find the inside of the ball so I could do them two at a time.  Only I didn't want to try and fiddle with two socks, two needles, and one Crazy Zauerball with string being pulled from two ends, so I'm making them two at a time separately on two separate needles.  I have the toes completed, see?

THEN...I have the cat bed.  During the Yarn Crawl, I bought three skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky, and I thought I would make Axl a felted cat bed since he winces at me every time I take out the recycling (his current cat bed).  It's on Size 13 needles so it's whipping up in a jiffy.  I also have a cowl in the car on Size 8's that I do at the Bensenville train, or at red lights if I'm driving in rush hour, and the acrylic blanket is still there but I just need to bind it off.

So let's recap:  Templeton Square, monsters, kimono sweater, charity, socks, cat bed, cowl, acrylic blanket square.

My goal was NOT to knit one project at a time this year.  It was to knit through some of my stash.  And look at me go!  Oh, and this is how Bluto watches me knit.  When he's not holding the yarn.

Challenge - Accepted

Good afternoon, everyone!  Well, for me it's good morning, and for everyone else it's good afternoon.  I was just watching the dogs play outside in the first big snowfall of the year, and thinking about next year as most people do in the week before Christmas and New Year's.

So last we spoke, Knot Just Knits was collecting items for the community of Newtown, Connecticut after the Sandy Hook school shooting.  Here is the article I wrote in case you didn't read it:

http://www.examiner.com/article/free-knitting-patterns-for-items-to-donate-to-victims-families-newtown?cid=db_articles

Well, the article got over 5,000 hits on its own before it was posted again last night by Vogue Knitting magazine...I may not have even noticed, were it not for the fact that my inbox started blowing up all over again.  I scrolled down and saw 71 new "likes" on it and another 26 shares on facebook.  BAM.

The flipside is that Newtown is so overwhelmed with donations, that they are not accepting new ones at the moment.  This is okay with me...here's why.  My wheels started spinning.

If the Red Cross is on the ready at all times, then why can't smaller groups be?  We actually shouldn't have a call to action, per se...there should be a group to just BE there at times like this.  There are, obviously, but I want a piece of that sucker.  Here I have this great platform in the media, catering to the most charitable of all crafters (in my humble opinion), and a day job where I literally have six months off every year.  Yes my schedule has a bit to be desired, but I should be doing something positive with my spare time.

In comes my idea for a non-profit organization...Monsters Anonymous.  I'll design a few pocket- or backpack-sized monster patterns, and both sell the patterns to defray the cost of distributing them and accept donations of already-made pocket monsters.  They would go to kids who recently lost a parent, sibling, or classmate.  Either I will see stories in the news of people to whom I can send some love, or people will be able to request a monster through a website.  Something like, "My next-door neighbor died, and the surviving spouse has three kids aged 8, 7, and 5.  Can you send a few monsters their way?"  Sure I can!  I know I can't offer counseling services or anything that requires a license, but I sure can bring a little community of knitters together to make monsters for kids who are afraid of death or violence.

I can start early next year...I'm still waiting on a real estate deal to close so it will be a couple of months, but I think I can totally do this.  I figure I'll need a few things:
1.  Support
2.  Test-knitters
3.  Media help
4.  A website
5.  An outlet network to help distribute in cities other than Chicago (that can come later)
6.  Business or organization registration of some sort

I know I will need MUCH more than that, but most importantly, I need feedback!  If Newtown can't take the donations we're collecting, there are still plenty of people out there who can and Newtown may need something like this in a few weeks or months as well...their hurt will not stop just because the story is not at the forefront of the news.

Please share your thoughts, shoot this blog post to others and ask their thoughts as well (or...you know...just verbally ask if you want to interact with humans in 3-D).  Thanks!  Here is the first donation Knot Just Knits received, on Christmas Eve...from a lovely woman in El Paso:

This is exactly...EXACTLY...what I had in mind.

The Call To Action

Good morning, everyone.  I'm so, so proud.  So proud.

Knitters are the best ever at giving.  They just are.  So when the Connecticut school shooting happened, I got an email from examiner.com expressing their sympathies, and stating that if we write a story about the tragic shooting, tag it with "Connecticut School Shooting" so it gets promoted.  My second thought (after the pool of first thoughts that EVERYONE had, including "Who?", "Why?", "How could this happen?" and the like) was "Is there anything that I can do to help?

So here I am, this little petty reporter who writes about knitting, and this major tragedy happens, and I joke all the time about how my dozens of readers would be pleased about this or that.  What kind of difference can I make, really?  So below is the story I came up with...I called my friend Elizabeth and asked if she would be willing to help.  It was a no-brainer...she promotes charity knitting more than most of the stores in the area:

http://www.examiner.com/article/free-knitting-patterns-for-items-to-donate-to-victims-families-newtown?cid=db_articles

Next thing I know, Amy Singer from knitty.com retweeted it.  Then Knitting Fever, which is the company that distributes great brands like Louisa Harding and Noro, did the same thing.  Then I looked on the examiner.com home page, and there my story was.  Since 9pm on Friday night, over 3,000 people have read about the three yarn stores collecting items for donation, including Knot Just Knits in Oak Park.

Here's the REALLY fun part:  I put Knot Just Knits' phone number in the article, and then I didn't think of the consequences.  My email address is in there as well, and thankfully most charitable knitters seem to be emailers.  I received an email from a woman in Richmond, Virginia who runs a knitting group, and she wants to get the local media and all of the yarn stores in her area involved in donating.  I asked if I could write a story about what she's doing, so hopefully she will call me next week.  I also heard from a woman in California who asked what items are most needed, and if crocheted items were okay as well.  I told her the whole point was to donate items to make kids feel safer and to comfort the families and friends of the victims, so really, anything was good to donate.  We were concentrating on little pocket- and backpack-worthy toys, however.

So there you have it.  I am so proud of the knitting community, stepping it up as they (well, WE) always do in a time of need.  My voice isn't very big, but I am very proud to be one of several voices in this industry that tries to make a difference because even though we can't bring the victims back, we can bring comfort to the living by shipping our handmade wares to a town whose grieving doesn't end when the news picks up a new story.

In other news, I'm going to spend today thinking up a name for my new LLC.  It's just going to be a real estate investment company, so it's not like people will need to search for it on the internet and track me down, but I think that "Amy Kaspar LLC" is just plain stupid if I have the chance to name it anything I want. Here are some thoughts...feel free to chime in with suggestions:

Chicago Condos and Bungalows
Fiberhouse Investments
Kasparhouse Investments
Keith's Bitch LLC (although I already told Keith that he's really MY bitch if I call him at one in the morning to tell him Laporte's heat is out, and HE is the one who gets out of bed to go there)
Northwest Dwellings

Thank you all so much for your support in ALL of my endeavors, but mostly the knitting one.  The pocked-sized bunny takes about ten minutes to knit, and another ten to attach the ears, eyes, and tail.  Totally worth making a bunch of them!  Be well and keep everyone grieving in your thoughts as you go about your beautiful day.

Tag! You're It.

Today, I have awakened to a husbandless house, accident-prone dog, and the need to sign paperwork.  I think I need to knit a bit.

Tried the sleeping thing, tried the writing thing, and was only marginally successful at either.  The first one involved me on the couch with Bluto.  The second one involved a book review...take a gander:

http://www.examiner.com/review/heart-felt-knits-book-review?cid=db_articles

I of course picked up on the fact that actress Tamara Mello was a knitter when I saw this book arrive at my doorstep, but I had no idea about Christina Hendricks.  I love hearing about celebrities who knit...makes me think that the crazy-cat-lady myth does, in fact, have a chance at dying.

So while I flit between awake-ness and asleep-ness, I watch the first two seasons of Downton Abbey, loaned to me by my friend Elizabeth.  I can't say I'll ever be a fanatic about it, but I SOOOO get why people jump on this series.  Backstabbing!  Bribes!  Misallocated money!  Cheating!  Suicide!  Yeah...I get it.  The dogs are not interested, however.

Since it's close to the end of the year, I've done a fair amount of reflecting and planning, finding hope in the future and seeing what I can do to make my plans come to fruition over the next twelve months.  Turns out I don't have enough spare time to get everything finished that I would want to finish...hmmph.  I either have to make time or cut the list a bit...I'm going to strive for making time.  I also have vowed for the 37th straight year to be more organized (that vow was SUPER-awkward those first couple of years, when I was still colicky and pooping into a diaper).

There are patterns to design, templates to create, people to interview...and like I said, paperwork.  I'm closing on a property over the next couple of weeks, and the list of documents that underwriters request nowadays is a bit ridiculous.  Like a lease agreement on a property I don't own yet.  But whatever.  Time to bust out the needles.

Giddy-ness!

Hello, everyone!  So, I am getting more and more excited about my growing audience.  It means two things to me:  1) I'm relatively knowledgeable and getting noticed for it, and 2) I'm gaining a voice of respectability and getting noticed for it.  Not bad.

Here is today's story...if you are looking for some great hand-dyed yarn, here you go.  I think it's SO cool that she runs this operation out of her three-bedroom apartment:

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-wool-dispensary-is-small-square-footage-big-on-potential?cid=db_articles

And then, remember a few days ago, when I thought maybe I'd send my Malabrigo cowl pattern to the company?  Well, I did.  Six hours later, I got a message from them which read, "Your pattern is now available from our website.  Thank you."  So I ran like I was in a timewarp to a device with internet access that's larger than my new iPhone, and found this:

http://malabrigoyarn.com/patterns.php?pattern=pattern_free

How cool is THAT?

THEN...I got two more subscribers in the past two days.  Might not sound like much, but I have upgraded from dozens of readers to scores of readers...ha ha ha.  Maybe one day I'll be able to do this for a living...it seems so silly to say out loud, but writers on knitting DO exist, and they DO make a living.  Why can't it be me?  Maybe five years down the line I'll be doing this 100% of the time.  If it's sooner, then that just means I'll be as pleasantly surprised as I have ever been.

On a separate note, I was eating a Honeycrisp apple today and of course thinking of CJ, who once rolled his eyes at me and said, "Jonagold?!?!  I wouldn't eat anything but Honeycrisp."  As if my apple weren't worth the twenty cents less per pound that I was paying.  Anyway, I was knitting up December's pattern, which I STILL haven't finished but have made a ton of progress on in the past three days.  I realized something...next Thursday is the anniversary of his death, and for the past two years, this is right around the time he starts speaking to me on a regular basis.

For those of you who are freaked out or think I'm nuts, I'm fine with that.  Believe what you believe, and I will do the same.  Respect, please.

So no sooner had I thought that when I received a text message from someone that said, "You just needed to get beyond my bullshit."  I just found that horrendously funny (for those of you who know the situation with CJ and my gift with the angels and guides, you will also find that horrendously funny).  I went back to knitting the December pattern...here it is so far (and I have apologized about a hundred times to my subscribers for being so late, but I think they get it):

All in all, these past few days have been pretty darn productive.  I'm getting there, albeit slowly.  But dammit as long as my life is in at LEAST first gear, instead of Park, Neutral, or Reverse, I'm good.