Evil Eye

So, I have to be about the last crafter to post about the New York Times Magazine article, “Handmade 2.0,” but I finally had the time to sit down and read it today.  It’s the most interesting article I have read yet concerning the DIY movement, and they didn’t even pick on anyone’s grandmother, amazing!  It seems part of what makes it a good article is that the reporter took the time to interview people, and attend the Craft Congress, but I think part of why I like it is that I can’t help but compare it to the thousand other “not yer grammy’s crafts” stories, like this one in Cleveland’s Plain Dealer.  Please check out Shannon’s post today concerning this story.

Why do they keep writing this story?  I know it is still new, and I am glad that the movement towards buying handmade is growing and getting attention, so in a sense it’s great that people are still writing these articles, but why the surprise?  Perhaps living in a large city like Chicago, I see that the big stores have caught on to the trend, so I am not surprised that people like shirts with skulls and owls.  Walk into the shops on State Street, Urban Outfitters has knock-offs of the cute stuff I saw last year at the DIY Trunk show and Renegade, H&M will plaster a cutsy skull on anything, at Macy’s you can buy wicked expensive bags with strange creatures like you might find at Rotofugi all over them.  I would like to see more stories the like Handmade 2.0, more about why handmade versus just quirky or subversive.

As for me, I am crafting away myself, getting a few gifts made, and preparing the house for x-mas eve with the family, planning the meal, and all of that good stuff.  It’s always a slow blogging season when I can’t talk about what I am making.  Hint: it involves yarn.

Sorry for the silence over here.  I came down with a cold after I got back from Cleveland, and then I just got busy once I recovered and forgot to blog.  Shows how exciting things have been I guess.  I’ve mostly been working fulfilling orders before x-mas, and running errands.  I actually managed to get a bunch of stuff off to the Brown Elephant over the weekend, that was nice.  I have more to get rid of, but now I have somewhere to pile it, where the old pile was!

Yesterday we picked up our Christmas tree, and the house smells wonderful.  We had fun watching the cats explore the tree.  We somehow managed to get one that bends space.  It sure looked smaller in the lot!  We even had an avalanche last night, I guess we didn’t get it all the way into the base.  I think a couple of cats I know might have had something to do with that as well….hmmmm….. Thank goodness the thing is still naked, or that would have been a real mess.  It was a nice test of its freshness, it lost very few needles in the ordeal.  I lost all track of time with the getting the tree business and missed going to the Stitch ‘ Bitch yesterday, d’oh!  Next week for sure!  I don’t want to miss the holiday party!  Well, back to work for me!

We’re back from Cleveland, and it is a lovely city, although it does hide it’s coffee well. I need to go back with more time to explore the city. Downtown is pretty, with good restaurants, but is dead on weekend mornings, and with no coffee to be found by non-locals. Ha! I know my priorities. Luckily for us, there was plenty of coffee and bagels for us as we set up in the morning for Bazaar Bizarre, so thanks Shannon, for the coffee, and a great show. The turn out was AMAZING! There were people coming in to shop before the show technically started, and it was a steady flow all day long. I was so impressed. The vendors were great, I wish I could have spent more money than I did! I need to take pictures of the loot I am keeping, especially the hand dyed (by Shannon, what can’t you do?) superwash merino from Stitch Cleveland. Drool.

I can’t stop talking about Shannon Okey. She rocks. She handled anything that came her way like a real pro, and was cool the entire day. I also have to throw some praise at my partner in Yarny Goodness, Sara. Here is a woman who put on a show before ever even vending at one, not that you would ever guess, since she handled the booth like a seasoned pro. But the best part was a fun weekend hanging out with her, hunting for coffee and freezing, and all the rest. I can’t wait to see what yarny tidings the new year brings us, I know it will be a blast.