It's Raining, It's Pouring, Malabrigo Yarn-Storing!

Published by Gwynne under , , , , , on 8:21 PM
As mentioned in our last blog, we are building Bewilderknit Kits with yarn, custom needles, darning needles & stitch patterns. Our yarn is always chunky and we use it for our knitting, too! We recently placed a big, exciting order, and these pictures sum up the Bewilderknitters' deluge of consummate joy at the arrival of our Herculean Malabrigo shipment!





Shay emptied the box's contents onto a big sheet on our couch (to protect the yarn from cat fur or dust) and we sat around the pile in a circle with big bags. 




Every one of us wanted every skein we saw. Too much is never enough when you knit in all your spare time, and when you're confronted with some of the Best Yarn in the World.

We split up the yarn between us by going round-robin, starting with Karen. We each picked out a color we wanted and put it in our bag until our next turn. It was a smorgasbord, a lavish harvest, a cornucopia of yarny deliciousness!



Even Sebastian was happy to stake his claim on the big box of wool.

Knitters, don't bother trying to rob my house. I managed to knit eleven finished items in four days. There's nary a full, untapped skein to be had.

However, don't be dismayed! We did manage to set ten skeins aside for Bewilderknits Kits!!

Check our Events Calendar on Bewilderknits.com to find out where we'll be next and share a piece of the Malabrigo Pie with us!

Cora's Craft Day - Making Needles for the Bewilderknits Kit

Published by coracoracora under , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 4:46 PM
In the outdoor market community we came across many other knitters and fiber artists who kept asking us what yarn we use to create our one of a kind items. So, in response to their inquiries, we decided to start offering it up for sale at events, as well as launch an online shop. Not only are we now offering our favorite fluffy yarns for individual sale, but we're also developing knit kits!

Made for knitters and do-it yourselfers, the Bewilderknits Kit contains everything needed to make your own magnificent knitted project. We've included fluffy yarn, big wood needles, a darning needle and stitch patterns that we use in our own Bewilderknits designs. Suitable even for beginners, this kit makes a marvelous gift for knitters, either keep it yourself or give it away!

We had a wonderful idea for personalizing the needles and carrying over our Bewilderknits branding: molding little mushrooms and snails and such on the ends of the needles. It was just an idea for many many months. Then along came my dear friend Dan from Better Than New Fine Furniture Repair. It was he who made our idea into a reality. After snagging a pair of my needles just a day earlier, he presented me with beautiful mushroom adorned needles.

Now that we had a fantastic prototype, it was time for mass production. So Dan took me down to his shop to teach me how to make our Bewilderknits needles.

Below are photos of my adventure...

After prepping the needles with sandpaper and a razor blade, you have 7 minutes to mold a mushroom onto the needle before it starts to harden up...
Once they've dried, you paint them red!

Then, I got to wear a snazzy mask to spray some sort of sealant on them....
Then it was time for the white dots...
And don't forget the undersides!
One final spray of sealant and it was time to let them dry overnight.
Tada!!! The Bewilderknits Kit Knitting Needles all ready to go!

Keep an eye out for our knitting kits and skeins of yarn for sale online and at events. :)

- Cora

Our First ArtBridge Thursday at Scottsdale Fashion Square

Published by Gwynne under , , , , on 11:58 PM

Well I'm so pleased to announce that we Bewilderknitters just finished our first-ever, three-day marathon of events! 

It all started with our first Scottsdale event, the Artisan Market on ArtBridge Thursdays. The event is called ArtBridge because it begins on the bridge that passes over the canal just behind the Nordstroms parking lot at Scottsdale Fashion Square.  And it was Scottsdaley, Shiny and New: our first night there coincided with Scottsdale Fashion Week's kickoff night, along with the Wearable Art Walk. There were impressive stylin pedestrians everywhere (Where else can one be struck by the awesome cheetah-print high heels of a woman who was just out casually walking her dog?) and a gaggle of young runway models. Many of them ended up wearing Bewilderknits that night. Here's a shiny preview:


Our tent location was at the front of the bridge, at the entryway just over the water. When I got there, Shay and Cora had already set up the whole tent and laid out all our items! It was like magic to me.


Cora was already set up behind the booth and happy that someone she had invited called and was coming to join us.


Shay did a fabulous job upgrading our lighting set up for night events. He built a light box to eliminate any mess of cords and to expedite and simplify the set-up and strike-down process. The layout keeps looking better with his time and help.


Here's the classy pedestrian who came by with her lovely shoes and adorable dog, who took an equal interest in our knitting.


This lovely mannequin head is wearing my big slouch hat and Cora's loop scarf.

The night was super busy for us, right up there with our most successful events from last season. Some family and friends swung by to show their support and have a bite to eat at the Spanish tapas place at the end of the bridge, or Olive & Ivy. We also were able to split some pizzas from Sauce. The venue is so easily walkable and there are so many places to stop and sit outside and enjoy refreshments.
Before long, some models showed up to be outfitted for a runway walk and promotional run. They worked all night from 6:30pm to 10pm marketing the event. Thirty-five or so vendors had booths on or around the bridge, and there was an opening night gala for Scottsdale Fashion Week happening around Barneys. They didn't look like they'd been walking in high heels all night though, they had such high energy and appeared to be having Cyndi Lauper (or maybe Katy Perry) levels of fun.




The whole event was really fun and everyone was inspired to try on everything in the booth, even Bewilderknitters.



By the end of the night, we were on our way to the biggest event weekend we've ever had! I'm so thankful for all of the events and opportunities we've been able to participate in this season, and all of the new people I get to meet and talk to at these events, from all walks of life. After a whole long endless summer of knitting, working, planning and preparing, it was so rewarding to see our visions come to fruition and also know that it's not even cold yet. There is so much more to come, and I'm really excited about who I might meet next and where we will go. Oh, the places we'll see!

This event surely warranted a "Scottsdale Dance" from Cora, Karen, Shay, and our new buddy Dan. Even I was inspired to pull my pink velour track suit out from my hip-hop class days to join in!   :)
Join us next time, Bewilderknits events are always a hoot! We will be appearing there again this Thursday!










1st October Roadrunner Farmers Market

Published by Gwynne under on 11:28 PM
So it was a little bit warm for wool in our early October Roadrunner event. The trade-off was a feature I'd forgotten about: wildly green grass! It was a vibrant, lovely day under the trees. Our location was moved since last year to a more central location in the middle of the market. I knew we were in for a treat when I called Shay to find out where our booth was this season and he said, "I'm over by the baby goats!"
Well, it goes without saying that "Darling" was an understatement. They were TWO days old! 
And of course a huge crowd gathered next to us all morning because of the little baby cutie-pants pile of cuteness. It really was unexplainable, the black one kept just hopping and jumping for joy in the air, just because. Looking at them all day was refreshing, they just kept on saying "It's so COOL to be alive! Hello! Woo-hoo! Neat!" I suggest clicking on the image below to blow it up and see the joy on people's faces. Everyone is just tickled and charmed all morning long, so refreshing!
 The weather managed to stay crisp and cool throughout our whole set-up. The temps were great in the shade, chasing the shade with our camping chairs became our M.O. for the rest of the morning.

Karen took the opportunity to knit up her next felted purse. Here is one of her projects in its "Before" stage:
And here are some of her projects in their "After" stages:
 Cora was able to put out her cowl that she finished up the night before at First Friday. Mostly alpaca, and most of it handspun yarns, and mostly awesome. She put her latest new project out on the dress form in the front of the booth.

In the mirror below, you can see several of her pom-pom scarves hanging on the dress forms on the other side.
As the morning wore on, it got warmer and the babies got sleepy and assembled themselves in a miniature monster pile of more cuteness. Killing me softly with cuteness, killing me softly, with cuteness ....
We dressed up the mannequins inside the booth in our unintentionally-matching finished items. This is Cora's cute hat with Gwynne's scarflette.
And this is Gwynne's alpaca hat (the giant curly ringlets are from my first-ever corespun yarn made from kid locks). It matched quite nicely with Cora's big chunky mossy cowl.
We also had a basketful of handspun yarns.
We sat in the back as long as the shade hung around. Here's a pic of me under my shaded chair (I'm a huge fan of the shaded Kelsyus chairs!) with Shay behind me.
Our next Roadrunner event is this weekend, and for the rest of winter we'll be up and at em at dawn every Saturday after the 1st and 3rd Fridays! The Greek food is really incredible and so is the iced tea. If you come, I promise you won't be disappointed :)