Bewilderknits

December 2011 Roadrunner Park Farmers Markets

2011-12-13T12:26:00.000-08:00

This season has been explosive and pleasantly relaxed all at once for me. As the season draws closer to New Years, we Bewilderknitters show up with our booth at every Roadrunner Farmers Market on Saturdays. It's really a joy being there. Early mornings allow me to bundle up in feather down and gloves and experience winter. We have been running the booth for so long that set-up and break-down is easy. I know just what booth to go to first thing to get my morning Toddy coffee, and then I go to Bill's booth at Kissed by Fire, where he has awesome breakfast burritos with his terrific salsa! And I'd be remiss to not also mention the Wei of Chocolate booth, which has flower essence infused chocolates, need I say more?

The farmers market is sponsored by Chipotle, which is swiggity-sweet. Also, did you know that Roadrunner Park Farmers Market has won New Times Best of Phoenix for their produce? Cora did, and she bought practically enough kale to fill my entire van last week, then promptly went home to spend six hours juicing it on Sunday!

This season is our first of having actual displays of yarn for sale. Yep, we've hinted at it in previous blog posts and mentioned it in passing on our Facebook page: in addition to our handspun yarns, we now offer the yarn we use for sale at our booth. We carry what we use in our products, which now allows us to share another side of our experience with other knitters and crocheters.

We even put together knit kits with patterns and the huge needles we like to use are in the kits too. Along with some cute felted Bewilderknitty mushroom charms! If you're a knitter, do swing by to see what colors we have in stock. The Knit Kits help projects knit up quick and also make a good gift by themselves.

The yarn moves pretty quickly, so follow us on Facebook to get an update every time we get in a new shipment.

Cora's boyfriend Dan comes to the events on Saturdays and brings his pugs, which Karen's kids are abundantly happy about. The pugs look pretty pleased, too. Pleased Pugs.

We also get to wear knitted hats ourselves at these chilly events. Lately the temps have been around a high of 65! Karen wore her striped ribbed hat.

And I tried on one of my magic hats.

Here's Cora beside her spinning felted jewelry stand.

And here's some general photos of the booth last week. I didn't have my fancypants camera, but "the perfect is the enemy of the good," so here goes nothing:

Finally, here is a photo of a very lovely customer who bought my magic hat and scarflette set called "Star Child." She looked so lovely and the whole look really suited her. I was so glad to get a photo before they left the booth!

I want to thank all the lovely shoppers at Roadrunner Park along with all of the terrific vendors who keep coming out with their delicious products. I'm so glad we have a culture like this to participate in in Phoenix!

Fantastic Fall 2011's Season Launch

2011-11-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

Welcome back winter! As the weather started to cool down, we Bewilderknitters amped up our knitting to prepare for the new season - Fall 2011. We started at Sunnyslope Art Walk, which is the event we traditionally kick off the season with. We were next to Holly's Incognito Designs and also Lisa Takata who was spinning behind us.

We take time in the off-season to improve the booth by executing one or more of our ideas. There's not enough time in the day to act on every single idea we have, but we do what we can :). Shay worked with Dan on the new awesome center slab of wood, which we really appreciate. Dan is a co-owner at Better Than New where he refinishes furniture and creates new furniture too.

See our new wood slab in the center?

Karen's felted purse and bangle matched her top that night!

The view of the Sunnyslope booth from behind the table

The following weekend, we took our annual camping trip up North and did a big knitting circle in the woods. Meanwhile the guys played a game of beanbag toss in the background. There was also some on-the-fly macho Bewildervan fixing. It involved Shay under the van with a zip tie and a screwdriver and magic hands. (I haven't introduced our van in the blog yet, but he is Spud, the amazing 1985 camper van VW Westfalia who spends the winters trolleying around the Bewilderknits booth!) There was also a bit of kayaking.

Karen working with Cora on a seam.

Adrian's focused aim.

Cora knitting in the shade of the van's awning with Dan's competitive toss in the background.

My campy-knitty-drinky setup.

My very long yarnbow scarf in progress!

Karen's bin of yarn goodies

Moon rising over us at the Rim

Glowing campfire embers

Karen's Almost-Shoplifted Scarf!

Continuing to gear up for the season to once again be in full swing, last weekend we had our first two-events-in-a-row stint for the season: November's First Friday at MADE followed by the Roadrunner Farmer's Market the next morning. Weather was amazingly wintry on Friday night, and we held out until rainfall. Luckily we managed to pack everything up before it was pouring like mad, and we got respite from the heavy rain by standing under the van's awning while packing everything up for the night.

We also had our first shoplifter! He stole Karen's baby alpaca scarf while we were setting up. I chased the culprit down and stole it back. I'm a lot more bark than I am bite, but I think I made him feel really bad as I scolded him with a guilt trip and took it back!

The spread on the left table

Fabulous hats of the moment, some are now gone!

Cora's five button cowls

My very Sesame-Streety scarflette

Vintage buttons don't have to match, they just have to coordinate.

Spalted Wood buttons on Cora's gold, sparkly scarflette

Into the Woods scarflette

Mossy knoll scarflette

I can't remember what they were excited about, a videogame on the cell maybe?

Muahahahaha - these are now mine! Thanks, Cora :)

A wall of loopy scarves

Bewildershrooms

Wall of Scarves

Pretty Cora


Cora's felted earrings

The next morning, first thing we showed up at Roadrunner Farmers Market early in the am. Weather was chilly and windy, loads of folks came with their dogs and it was a good relaxed time for all.

Dan manning the cell phone video game while Karen knits

Manning the booth with Cora

Karen's coat rack of purses

A very lovely hat by Cora

One thing we all like about Roadrunner is the laid back speed of things. You can come as you are, even sleep deprived and looking crazy, and it's all good.

Plus, we see a lot of dogs and kids. No other event we do has so many of them. It's super family-friendly. This works well for us because kids are drawn to the bright chunky colors we have in our booth. We have similar taste.

A view from behind the booth table

Pretty little visitor

The mirror has two faces

Another cute visitor

Two cool customers walking by!

All in all, despite our preparations, I don't know if it's ever possible to feel fully ready for the season. The To-Do list just continues to grow, and there are always new ideas and decisions to be made. We do have some exciting new things coming to the booth this season. Come see us and ask what we're up to. We appreciate everyone who comes to the booth and we work to always bring something new to the table. We have some Burly Spun and Malabrigo yarns for sale in our booth, and more where that comes from!

Cora's Purple Pony Handspun Yarn Featured in Two Etsy Treasuries

2011-11-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

Recently my Purple Pony Handspun Yarn was featured in two etsy treasuries! First, it was listed in the treasury Purple Haze listed by Brenda Sprout, and then again in the treasury My Daughters Favorite Color by Kimforbeads.

It will expire in a matter of time, as all Etsy treasuries do. So here are the screen shots!

I have so much more yarn that I need to list on Etsy. Right now they're all waiting to be "thwacked." I'll get around to it one of these days. There's just so much going on!

Last weekend we were at First Friday in front of MADE Art Boutique and on Saturday morning we were at Roadrunners Farmers Market. It was super cold and breezy. What a great way to start off the season!

This Saturday we'll be participating in two events, Blueberry Deluxe Holiday Extravaganza and A.R.T.S. Market Pie Social. This will be our first dual event and will be splitting up the booth and man-power between the two events. It will be an experience for sure.

Come by, say hi, and check out all our new warm duds!

Cora

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

2010-12-14T20:21:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-14T23:28:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Thanksgiving Weekend Event!

2010-10-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Bewilderknits will be showing at the 3 Tarts Holiday Trunk Show in Phoenix. It's located between Greenway and Thunderbird just East of 44th Street. We'll be there along with many other local artists, here are the details (click to expand):

Season Debut Fall 2010

2010-10-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

October's First Friday was a remarkably hot and unbelievably busy way for Bewilderknits to make our debut for the new 2010-2011 season. When we said last Spring, "We really need to start our season earlier than December next year," we really hadn't been thinking about things like 100 degree nights in early October.

In terms of foot traffic, I hadn't known what to expect, because the politics regarding First Friday street closures went on all summer - I guess, while we were knitting - and the final word was: no more street closures. The apparent upside of the street closures had been the "Wow! There's loads of people!" effect which is just generally fun. The downside had been that there'd been vendors last fall reselling imported wholesale items made in Nepal. While the knitting was not a bad product by any means, it wouldn't have been very fair to compete against that booth. Particularly when I found the products they were selling on the interwebs for wholesale prices of $3 apiece ... Not to say people shouldn't buy products from Nepal, but First Friday needed to figure out what it was trying to be, and if the big idea was "Local and Handmade," then they should stick to that. In order to raise enough money to pay for the street closures, they weren't capable of being too selective about the vendors.

By not doing the street closure, so many booth vendors like ourselves needed to partner up with the local businesses, and this was, from what I could see, a pretty cool thing. There were SO many artists set up in front of Revolver Records. MADE had so many vendors out front that Cindy had to build a map of her yard so everyone would have space for their displays. What I liked about this set up was that only local handmade booths were likely to get any real estate in this situation. This meant that all the people we met at booths, like Chadwick who was next to us with his Broke Street Jewelry, were the people who make the items they sell.

In Chadwick's case, the jewelry of the night was bangle bracelets and rings and earrings made from recycled skateboards. Very nice.

October 1st is nowhere really near Halloween on the calendar, but in First Friday Fashion, of course people acted like it was. I determined I need to take more risks with fashion down there. I'm beginning to feel old and conservative. Shay caught a picture of this really creative steampunk guy with his family. I was very fond of the neon green goo and the obvious time spent on the details of his shoulder ... thingies.

And we ran into Nathan Blackwell who was wandering around with some of his zombies, who were further Halloweenifying the place by handing out flyers promoting Zombie Team Building. Shay plays a part in the Squishy Studios production (in a rare non-zombie role), and so does fellow Bewilderknitter Cora (as a zombie). Though I won't post photos of the undead on our blog. I trust you know what they look like. They're everywhere, after all ...

We did a redesign of our booth layout since last season, since we had so many items this year and felt the need to use more of the space. The credit goes to Cora, actually, who drew - to scale and printed out in xerox copies - a new T-shaped layout and brought it to a Bewilderknits meeting!

We also decided to do a big upgrade of our tablecloths. Cora and I bought some snazzy upholstery fabric and sewed them all up on hot summer weekends, along with velvety covers for our boxes that we set our heads on.

Also, I got all inspired one big-garbage day in the neighborhood and snagged a big fallen tree branch from a neighbor's tree-trimmings. I had a vision for it, and executed it with the help of Karen's felted bags.

At first, we all thought we were going to die from the heat ... and also experience no foot traffic. Who wants to look at wool in 100 degrees? But then Karen looked at her phone and said it was actually only 99 degrees, and that must've made all the difference in the world because wow was it crowded! And we weren't the only ones with cameras.

I was super happy (like I always am) when someone with big hair came up to try on one of my ginormous knitted hats. He stuffed all of his dreads up inside it and everything fit.

We sat behind the booth celebrating every rare breeze and weaving in ends and adding on buttons to new projects.

Then we packed up the van at 10:30pm and tried to get some sleep to prepare for the next morning's farmers market. See you next time!

Bewilderknits by Cora Featured in Another Etsy Treasury!

2010-09-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

How exciting! My work was featured in two Etsy Treasuries in a matter of days! Woohoo! :)

My Pom-Pom Giant Asymmetrical Scarf was featured in the "pom pom pom pom pom pom pom..." Treasury created by ifONA. It will expire in a matter of time, as all Etsy treasuries do. So below is a screen shot! I'm on the second row from the top, far left.

I wondered what it would look like if I made a scarf entirely out of gigantic pom-poms, and here you have it! This scarf was an experiment gone oh so right. I decided to add a knitted base strip that could wrap around your neck to provide warmth and comfort. An entire scarf of pom-poms wasn't the most comfortable thing; it was somewhat awkward to wear. This little strip of knitting really fixed that problem.

I had so much fun coming up with all the different ways you can wear it. My favorite is the giant flower that rests on your chest, with each pom-pom representing the flower petals and center. I have more of these in the works. I should have a couple for our first event on October 1st at MADE Art Boutique for Phoenix First Friday.

I'm getting super excited for the season to begin!

Cora

Just Because Asymmetrical Block Scarf Is Featured in an Etsy Treasury!

2010-09-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

Well lookiloo! My Just Because Asymmetrical Block Scarf was featured in the "Shades of Mint & Red" Treasury, created by Petek Design. It will expire in a matter of time, as all Etsy treasuries do. So below is a screenshot! I'm on the 3rd row, 2nd from the right. How exciting; this is a first for me! Yay! :)

Over the past couple weeks I have been trying to upload a few items from my 2010 Fall Line each day, and I'm still at it! I've posted all of the items that I took pictures of; however I still have a pile of stuff to photograph that continually grows. It's been quite a productive summer and I'm excited to show my hard work off.

The Bewilderknits Season starts in just 15 days!!! With our first event in front of MADE at Phoenix First Friday on October 1st, 2010, it will surely be a great way to kick off the season. We're hoping for some nice, cool, fiber-wearing weather! If you're in the area, please swing by and say hello!

Cora

Bewilderknits Yarn Shop!

2010-07-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

We have been busy bees this summer, prepping for the Fall season. While everyone else is moaning and focusing on the heat (ok, I'll admit it: us too), our minds are focused on this winter.

However, with the summer comes time to focus on goals we have outside of the constant ones ("Knit More! Spin More!" for example). One of our goals was to start up our online yarn shop, and we launched it last night: Introducing the Bewilderknits Yarn Shop! We took all of the product photos yesterday and I was so pleased with how they turned out. Karen was remarking how delicious all the chunky wool yarn looked spread out in rainbow colors for the photo shoot.

Brown Sheep Burly Spun yarn has been one of our favorite yarns to work with. We always meet knitters at our art walk and farmers market booths, who inevitably ask what we use to knit our final projects. So we thought we would start with this! Burly Spun knits up fast, comes in all the colors of the rainbow plus some hand-painted colorways, and is almost as thick as pencil roving. It works well for felting projects such as bowls and purses. Plus, Brown Sheep yarn is made in the USA.

Like everything we do, our yarn shop is a work in progress, growing organically. Please take a look and let us know what you think of the layout!

Bewilderknitters in the Phoenix New Times

2010-04-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

It warms up in April, and that means we have more time to do other things aside from events ... like filing taxes, going camping, learning new knitting techniques, and sleeping in on weekends.

Cora and I were mentioned in the Phoenix New Times blogs in April!

Here's Cora's interview about eating in Phoenix in their Chow Bella blog.

And here's Gwynne's interview about her wardrobe in their Jackalope Ranch Phoenix culture blog.

I look forward to the summer - it's hot but our time is less tied up. Schedules are wide open and that alone can operate like fuel injection for creativity.

Melrose on 7th Street Fair 2010

2010-03-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

On Saturday March 6th, Bewilderknits hoisted our tent up at the Melrose on 7th Avenue Street Fair, marketed as M7. This was a new event for us, but it has been going and growing for a handful of years now. This year they got so big that Clear Channel donated a big billboard on 7th Avenue & Glenrosa, along with other free advertising spots to promote the event.

I think we all have grown to enjoy hosting booths at these all-day events. They don't feel as hectic as short events; we never have the feeling that we just set up and already we're striking the tent. The longer the event, the more we have time to just sit around, or knit, or in Cora's case, spin yarn all day.

Sometimes it feels like it's hard to get a solid uninterrupted block of time to just work on knitting or making yarn. All-day-long events are terrific for this! Plus (and this might just be me, since I just finished graduate school), I have this problem where I feel like I need to be "being productive" all the time. I'm still trying to get over that :) In the meantime, I can sit at a booth and "do nothing" while "being productive."

Part of what was really cool about the Melrose Street Fair, and any new event really, is that we compare and contrast it with other events we've done: the downtown 1st & 3rd Fridays, Tempe Indie Chic, Sunnyslope Art Walks and the Roadrunner Farmers Markets. Each event has a vibe and there's a sort of trend to the crowds who are walking around.

Our booth was directly across from an LGBT Pride booth. Much of 7th Avenue in this section is lined with rainbow flags. The gay church is right next to a big gay bar. I like how many of the businesses are gay-owned but they cater to everyone. Copper Star coffee often has rainbow flags out and there's a bunch of mixed cultures inside. Young teachers, who come from all over the valley, grade their papers there on weekends. I go there to knit, spin, meet with friends, blog and pick up fuel for our First Friday events. (Credit for the picture below goes to The Hot Sheet blog.)

This part of 7th Avenue is also lined with vintage shops. Blueberry Deluxe is a fabulous new addition to the strip with vintage and handmade items, and our booth was right next to her. Retro Redux, now renamed Retro Ranch, was next to us on the East side. An old friend from high school is behind the counter, we cross paths often at events. I've been a vintage collector since high school so I've shopped the 7th Avenue strip often.

Landis Cyclery is just South of where we were located, on Indian School and 7th Avenue. I got my first bike there when I was little. A surprise bike from Santa came from there when I was 11 (my dad chose to support local businesses instead of elves overseas), and then I routed countless people there to buy more awesome cruiser bikes when I came back from my month in Japan a few years ago. We have three Electra bikes from them (the rainbow Petro Zillia cruiser and two Townies - I used to have the Gigi but I sold her … I think it was to support my yarn addiction, but I can't remember now).

Hmmm. I love that I've lived here so long that every single area of town has a storied piece of history for me. And now I can add the Melrose Street Fair to it!

The weather was outstanding, and as usual, the yarn-spinner of our group was bombarded with questions from passers-by.

Small felted accessories were popular. We still have plenty of cold-weather items but of course, the ominous summer is on Phoenician's minds by March already.

So we had plenty of summer scarves available - made from ribbon yarn, linen or bamboo. I laid out my mini tendrils. We were catty-corner from the booth for Practical Art, so it was cool that my leafy tendrils were available on the Southeast corner and the Northwest corner of our intersection.

Also, Karen's felted purses were a real hit. They keep getting awesomer. There were always small crowds of people standing around them being like, "It's totally amazing."

I was very excited to wear a rad dress I'd been dying to wear. It has concentric circes of white fibery yarn all over the bottom of it. So I made Shay take a picture of my dress while I demonstrated the features one of Cora's pom-poms. My white legs are camouflaged with the white tent wall behind me! You can tell I was getting sunburned already in this picture. Later, I took off my sunglasses and we laughed at my giant white circles around my eyes while the rest of my face was pink. So, in this picture, it is as white behind my sunglasses as my legs look.

We got a lot accomplished at the booth that day. Cora especially did a lot of yarn spinning!

Karen did a lot of knitting while also admiring the artwork at the booth behind us.

Obviously, I was taking a lot of pictures. Behold the most fabulous photo ever of Cora's handspun yarns, twinkling in the sunlight:

I had my new Massive Tassels scarf out for the first time, too. It's not knitting. It's simply fiber. It's a scrappy scarf that's all about using scraps of different fibers to create massive tassels.

There were zillions of bicycles and pedestrians. It seemed like half of the pedestrians came with a side of dog. Dogs came in all shapes and sizes. Even dogs with mullets. It was so entertaining!

We were next to a giant painted garden and bike themed wall which was a fun view.

We snapped this photo of a woman who bought one of my Happiness Hats for her upcoming 60th birthday (she didn't look like she was approaching 60 at all - and she was super cheery. Shay said "She's an old partier!") She gave me a woo-hoo wave as she walked by later.

Of course we also met other knitters and fiber enthusiasts and had a ball chatting with them all. The weather was great. It would go from being way too sunny for me to being deliciously cloudy and overcast.

Pretty soon it will be hot now. I think I'll just go up north for some extended winter weather, and when that fails, stay inside and knit under the air conditioning, preparing for next season.

In case I haven't said it yet, HUGE Thank You's go out to all of our supportive friends. Supportive friends includes anyone who comes and says Hello at a show when you hear about it, and friends who tolerate me talking about Bewilderknits all the time, and people who read this blog or agreed to get pinged on Facebook by our status updates all the time.

A Season of Roadrunner Farmers Markets

2010-03-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't written about the Roadrunner Farmers Markets yet. We've been to SO MANY of them this season. We tend to go every other weekend, but it's such a casual thing we can usually decide a day in advance if we want to go on an off-weekend. There is always a crowd, and we've gotten our booth set-up down to a fast no-brainer, and being outside all day kind of feels like camping without leaving town.

December, January and February are surprisingly FREEZING in the mornings. We arrive at 7am to set up our tent and don't leave until the afternoon. I am still in no way a morning person, so it continues to be a drag trying to wake up on time, but there is something very calm and peaceful about being up before the sun. We always borrow Shay's mom's truck for our events, because they have a camper top and everything fits. Frequently when Shay and I are finally dressed and outside the house loading things into the truck, we look up and see the moon overhead, sometimes peeking through clouds, and if I didn't already know that the sun was going to rise soon, I'd think it was the middle of the night. Except for the fact that in the middle of the night, things tend to still be noisy. At this time of the morning, it's extremely calm and quiet and there's morning dew everywhere. It's a surprisingly romantic time of day. We don't talk much, we're quietly happy and loving our lives together. We drive in the truck towards the sunrise and the day breaks while we're on our way to the park. There's no traffic to contend with until we get to the park, and then it's a bunch of SUV beasts playing bumper cars between all the parking spaces.

The unloading is the most un-fun part. Mostly because it is freezing and in the mornings I am lazy and warm inside my house, and won't remember to wear socks or something. I continually find myself in this ironic position of selling a booth full of knitted items made of thick wool and alpaca, while I'm personally freezing. Times like these, I snag one of the Kittyknitter scarves out of the basket and wrap my neck up in it until we're done unpacking. I finally decided to just keep my own scarf - the first original one I'd made out of my handspun yarn. This pic is from the Ahwatukee Farmers Market.

If we're lucky, Karen is there ahead of us with one of her kids. If so, she is standing there bouncing up and down to stay warm, hands shoved in her pockets, breathing steam into the air with them as we pull up with the truck. We love it when she brings her kids to events. Her kids are, for the time being, super enthused about being involved. They have a surplus of energy and will run back and forth to the tent spot with things, helping us out with the number of trips to and from the truck. Shay tends to run around with her son a lot when he comes, and when her daughter comes, she is very adept at figuring out which Bewilderknits items match other items and designing ensembles.

What I really love about the Roadrunner market is that it takes place in a park. We are not sitting on black top concrete or sidewalk cement, but on the grass in between and beneath many tall trees, next to a lake and playground and open space with rolling hills and more tall trees. Even hibernating Bermuda grass is something I'm fond of. Everyone brings their dogs and kids. At the same time, we're along a busy street (Cactus) but there's a big buffer of grass and trees between us and the street. We're not close enough to it for the traffic to be obnoxiously loud, but we're close enough that friends (like Maya!) have stopped by to say hello simply because they saw our booth on the side of the road while they were driving somewhere along Cactus.

Shay takes walks over to the water to look at the birds.

Eventually we all take turns walking around the market. First things first, we need coffee and food. If we're in luck, a breakfast burrito guy is set up next to us on the left side. The coffee guy has fair trade and it's no joke, the most delicious coffee I've ever had. He also has agave as sweetener, which tastes incredible but is a way better glucose-load than sugar. (For those really interested, it has a glucose load of 32, whereas honey has a glucose load of 58). There's a really terrific Greek food booth that I'm fond of. There's also a booth with tamales, and Shay remembers them from his days volunteering in the garden at the Tempe Gentle Strength Co-op.

The Roadrunner Farmers Market is really quite impressive on the food front. There's a gal at the far East side of the park who has produce that still has dirt on it and ladybugs: the real deal. There's sometimes a guy selling tomato plants. Loads of organic foods. Bread that is 100 times better than "the best" at the grocery store. And priceless people-watching.

Meanwhile, back at the booth, on a good day we become swamped with people coming through and asking questions, trying things on, and taking knitted items home with them. In between that, we work on projects and hang out in the great weather. It's really fun talking to the people who come to farmers markets. They're great kinds of people to have conversations with. I like that what we make is for all ages.

And of course, we love to be visited by friends and family.

All in all, I highly recommend the Roadrunner Farmers Market at any time of year, but when we're there, it's the best time of year (as long as we're not rained out!). We did get rained out of Roadrunner once this year! Three dress forms knocked over, everything near the outskirts of the tent got wet, and we packed up in the rain, soaked to the core!

All in all, I have to say we did great work this year having our first season at Roadrunner. It's always an adventure. I definitely advise you swing by our booth sometime to say hi, try the coffee, and the food. If you happen to find something in our booth that you don't want to leave without, well ... sometimes that happens :) ... We hope it happens often enough to keep us coming back.

February's First Friday 2010

2010-02-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

Tell you what, February's First Friday was enormously busy compared to January.

I think First Friday is still figuring out what it wants to be. I know there is a big controversy about the Roosevelt street closure - from the sounds of it, the expense of it is strangulating to the local businesses in the area and prohibitively expensive in comparison to the previous street closure, which was only on Garfield. Between the politics happening right now over this issue and the lack of access to electricity for vendors on the street, we are extremely appreciative for our partnership and support from MADE. Without this collaboration, we would have to power the lighting for our tent with a power generator, which pumps air pollution into the already-polluted winter Phoenix air, which we were not willing to do.

Aside from this issue, vendor requirements are another factor to consider in the overall scheme of things. In short, is First Friday going to be a place where local artists can show their work and find a good audience (and affordably so), or is it going to be a place for vendors who hawk items imported from other places? One of the guidelines for vendors at the Tempe Indie Chic event and the Sunnyslope Art Walk is that someone who has a booth must be representing their own work. I understand the challenge this situation creates - the street closures are very expensive, the police came in and said that the street closure needed to happen on Roosevelt instead of Garfield, and in order to afford the street closure, it must be paid for by someone. Also, will it stay bizarre? It's been known for being a bizarre free-for-all rather than some totally organized thing where you can't do what you want unless you pay for a booth and follow the system. That's kind of the point, to have a bizarre free-for-all, isn't it? Hopefully that won't get squashed.

I saw this event in Kevin Patterson's Facebook status:
"In my Inbox from artlink... There will be a Downtown Artist Issues Task Force meeting on February 11th, at City Hall at 3:00 pm. Please come. The key topic will be the street closures on Roosevelt and their impact on First Fridays. Please RSVP to : 602.262.4637 so the city can find an appropriately sized room."

Thursday at 3pm ... how many people with day jobs will be taking time off for this? I'm lucky because I have some flexibility. Oh, the politics!

So, I make mention of this issue because it's the context for February's First Friday. It was EXTREMELY busy compared to January. People weren't out of town on vacation anymore. We weren't looking down the street towards Central, where all of the organized booths were smooshed up against each other, wondering if anyone would wander down to where we are. This month, we were in the thick of it, and it was busier than ever!

First Fridays have gotten way more fun for Shay and I now that we have a home base at a booth, instead of trying to find a seat at an overly-crowded bar. We try to show up for set-up around 4:30pm and don't leave until 11. We used to do a lot of bar-hopping but nowadays we wake up way early the next morning for Roadrunner Farmers Market, which requires set-up beginning at 7 am.

Karen shows up whenever she makes it after work. Also, Cora's schedule is packed full, now that Phoenix Chorale has rehearsals on First Fridays which are Free and Open-to-the-Public. So, she shows up whenever that ends.

This time, Logan was singing just across the street from us. Modified was very crowded.

Shay managed to capture a photo of only one rad bicyclist, but he wasn't around with the camera when the parade of bicycles rode past us (twice). The bicyclists were followed by a parade of skaters. It seemed a lot of people were into creating their own parades.

I guess this is what the band next door to us looked like. I didn't get out and see much, aside from walking into Modified.

I did see this guy walking around with a big kitten on his shoulder. If you blow up the bottom picture to full-size, you can see the reflection of the neon word "OPEN" in his eyes. It looks like he was struggling to stay awake.

I enjoyed listening to this girl's voice from where we were setting up. The idea I've heard a lot (and even wondered sometimes myself) that "people who come to First Friday have no money to spend" was debunked. Someone came up and put $1,000 in her tip jar.

This was the first time we unrolled and used our new Bewilderknits banner. Using the digital art from the ever-talented MALL, my husband Shay created an entire Bewilderknits night time scene for our banner. In this new scene, all three of us Bewilderknitters are sitting in a knitting circle under a tree in the dark (much like on our camping trips) in the moonlight. We are either very small or else insects are very large, because there is a giant ladybug in the tree above us and a very big snail is carrying away our balls of yarn. We came up with these fantastic ideas for images and MALL brought them to life with her terrific skill. We were SO excited to have our new banner featuring her artwork blown up to a 10 foot wide by 2 foot tall size.

We received a lot of questions about who did the artwork for the banner. You can click an image to blow it up and see more detail.

I'm the one in pink spinning yarn. She took a photo I sent her of my spinning wheel (a Spinolution Mach II which I blogged about and have pictures of here at my Kittyknitter blog) and she also put me in a scarf pinned together with one of my felted flower pins, pictured here.

Cora is knitting in teal and brown, wearing a hat with a giant pom-pom much like the ones she always makes, and Karen is working on one of her felted purses.

We were quite excited to put this up in our booth.

Mall even made reference to my Kittyknitter box line for me, by putting a stretching kitty next to my spinning wheel under the tree.

Something major was going on - either just the crowdedness or the great mood happening in the awesome weather, our new banner, or who-knows-what. People totally paid attention to our "Please Touch & Try On" sign and the booth became constantly filled with people.

In the picture below, everyone who was wearing something took it home with them!

My friend from ASU who I graduated with came with her friends and they all took home multiple items! They also looked fabulous in them, and I am making a special order for a capelette now. Anterre really looks fabulous in the teal cowl! I was so pleased :)

Pretty soon, a drumming circle started up just next to us in the yard. Shay took a few pictures before he jumped in.

To our surprise, February's First Friday was nearly as big as our Tempe Indie Chic event at the ASU Art Museum. We're excited for Third Friday. The weather these days is better than ever, and we meet (and re-meet) the greatest people at these events.

Gif maker

The Wheres and Hows of Bewilderknits Creative Processes

2010-02-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

Someone recently left a comment on our last blog asking "Where do you like to create your things? What kind of music do you listen to while you're making these things?"

I am only one of three, but I can answer this for myself, for sure.

I know we all love knitting while camping, for one thing. The below pictures came from our last camping trip. I wrote a big blog about it on my personal blog, The Kittyknitter Blog.

Sometimes all three of us get together at one person's house and sit around for a few hours watching Netflix movies and knitting. Cora's house is particularly good lately because she has a fireplace and since her heater has seen better days, it actually warrants lighting a fire. These circles are always good opportunities for me because we each seem to start learning or doing new things on our own and then bring new skill sets to each knitting circle. I can call Karen's name for help if I drop a stitch, for instance, and she can totally help me fix something if what I'm working on just went totally wonky on me. This is Cora's couch where we often are sitting, and when we are not sitting there, all of her balls of yarn fit on it like a color wheel:

Lately I've been knitting on my couch though, since it's too cold to camp, and listening to Bat for Lashes.

Bat for Lashes songs can be heard here.

When I start making things that require a sewing machine, I like to put on a movie and start sewing assembly-line style and I move really fast. I watched Howl's Castle twice in a row plus Princess Mononoke and made 7 felted leafy garland tendrils that way:

Howl's Castle and Princess Mononoke are just a couple of the terrific movies by Miyazaki. I am enraptured by these visually stunning movies full of wind and greenery. The phrase "visually stunning" is an understatement. They are extremely imaginative and totally manage to prevent my brain from attending to the mundane things in life (bills, work, laundry) and instead marvel about ideas. If you are unfamiliar with Miyazaki's work, below are some stills from these films:

Here is a link to Princess Mononoke's trailer:

"When the forest has been cleared, and the wolves wiped out, this place will be the richest land in the world." As you can see, while I really do love the Avatar movie, Princess Mononoke came first.

Roger Ebert explained his experience with Princess Mononoke in his review in the Sun Times in 1999:

"I go to the movies for many reasons. Here is one of them. I want to see wondrous sights not available in the real world, in stories where myth and dreams are set free to play. Animation opens that possibility, because it is freed from gravity and the chains of the possible. Realistic films show the physical world; animation shows its essence. Animated films are not copies of "real movies," are not shadows of reality, but create a new existence in their own right. True, a lot of animation is insipid, and insulting even to the children it is made for. But great animation can make the mind sing."

When I'm not at home, I'll even take a knitting bag with me to dinner and sit knitting in a booth at Rokerij. The lights are moody, the booths are filled with pillows, amazing food and drinks eventually arrive (always a good thing) and I don't have idle hands while sitting at the table. The picture below comes from VisitPhoenix's Photostream on Flickr.

I just came back from Dick's Hideaway where I sat at the bar and wove in the ends on 5 scarflettes while sitting there.

It probably seems odd when people see me at these places, but I make myself at home doing crafty things in public whenever the supplies are easily portable. The music at Rokerij and Dick's Hideaway is the same: Pandora is playing based off of whatever the servers like to listen to, and the servers always have good taste.

I hear The Cure a lot at Rokerij, someone there is obviously a fan. And I also hear Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine often at Dick's Hideaway.

Samples of The Cure here...

Sample some Iron & Wine songs here...

Hear some Sufjan Stevens songs here ...

I tend to see all down-time as possible knitting-time now. I knitted this hat while sitting at the dining room table after dinner at my parents' house when family was in town:

A lot of what comes out of me in my work is fragments from my childhood or other experiences. I recently made a scarflette that looks just like Peppermint Ice Cream from 31 Flavors. I also don't tend to often wear very girly or preppy clothes, but I tend to make a lot of things that would be generally considered as very girly and preppy. I recognize this as coming from my early days at private school in Paradise Valley.

When I make pointy and architectural hats, that is derived from the book I got when growing up called "The Santa Claus Book." I was very obsessed with this book, and it's illustrations. The book was about Santa Claus and had extensive sections on his elves and how to tell them apart, visually and personality-wise, from other woodland creatures like gnomes.

I think it's fair to say that a lot of fairy-tale, myth, and pop culture is blended together in my pieces. I was a child in the 80's and pop culture references are inside jokes that everyone shares.

First & Third Fridays at MADE on Roosevelt Row

2010-01-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

The Bewilderknits booth has become a wintertime staple this season in the front yard of MADE. Located in downtown Phoenix on 5th Street and Roosevelt, MADE carries our work inside their shop all season long. On First Fridays and Third Fridays, we extend their shop's footprint by pitching a tent in their yard and displaying our latest projects for sale.

MADE has received accolades from The New York Times and Travel & Leisure magazine. Also, the shop just received the New Times Best of Phoenix award for "Best Shopping on Roosevelt," marking five years in a row that they have landed in the "Best Of" list. We are delighted to be represented by this marvelous shop, where our products are displayed alongside first-rate examples of creative magnificence in Phoenix!

First and Third Fridays are very interactive and the yard outside is a fun, social place. We can spend our time knitting or spinning yarn or chatting up the passers-by. There is always terrific live music being played in the yard next door. We will be there in the month of February as well!

Indie Chic on 10th Street - Tempe, ASU Art Museum

2009-12-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

Gwynne: Bewilderknits was downright delighted to participate in the Indie Chic on 10th Street event last Saturday in Tempe. We had a booth smack dab in front of the entrance to the ASU Art Museum on Mill Avenue, the same day as the Tempe Art Walk, so we could catch some of the overlapping foot traffic.

It was a successful and fun day that really flew by! I see many more early mornings this season for myself. It's kind of nice for a change. But I'm going to need to learn how to knit some fingerless gloves soon.

Karen: Saturday was relatively cold in the Valley of the Sun. I somehow managed to leave my house without a jacket – after 26 years of living here I’m still somewhat oblivious to our weather’s occasional mood swings.

Cora: Brr! It was so cold! Luckily we had the wears for the weather! Karen actually forgot to bring a jacket. I had a sweater that I accidentally washed made from 100% wool. So, of course, it shrunk and no longer fit. However it fit Karen perfectly! :)

Karen: Thank goodness I was able to inherit Cora’s accidentally felted cardigan! Our warm wares tempted those who braved the chill. Hats, scarves, scarflettes, and cowls were all very popular at the event. Felted accessories were also a hit!

Gwynne: Yeah, I totally laughed when I heard the story of Karen's super-cute new sweater. Professional felters accidentally felting our own sweaters? And knitters being unprepared for chilly weather? It was really fortuitious though, I remember loving the unfelted sweater on Cora, and it looks particularly faboo on Karen. These girls (and gnomes) wear blue so well.

Cora: Some other friends were there with booths: Stacy from Puppet Pie, Danny with Larkspur Studios, and Heidi Abrahamson Jewelry.

Gwynne: Shay didn't take pictures of EVERYTHING that day (there were, after all, didgereedoos to be explored over at the Tempe Art Walk and ceramic bowls to collect), but he did take some pretty fun portraits of a few things that were at the Indie Chic event. 30 vendors were there total, and many were downstairs which was in the shade and felt like an icebox! Lisa Takata was downstairs and was so bundled up when we saw her. We felt lucky to be upstairs where it was ever-so-slightly warmer. Like 60 degrees instead of 50 degrees maybe?

Karen: Friends and fans alike came out to see us and show their support. It was also refreshing to try a new venue. Our location on the ASU campus and close vicinity to the Tempe Arts Festival exposed us to a new audience.

Cora: I also ran into an old high school friend. That was a nice surprise! We were able to catch up for a few minutes, and she even invited me to sing at her wedding!

Karen: Overall this was a very successful event for us. We got great feedback from customers and other vendors. I ended up trading one of my alpaca slouch hats to another vendor for a neat little drawer unit made from a chunk of discarded wood from a railroad construction site. Our products also received interest from a local shop and the Tempe Farmer’s Market!

Gwynne: I was super thrilled when a lovely PhD student walked over from the coffee shop across the street. People had been standing around reading the copy about the Kittyknitter Box scarves, and collecting our business cards. When I said Hi to her, she told me that she was studying at the coffee shop when some people came in raving about us and telling her that she had to come look at the Kittyknitter scarves. Then she picked out something she loved and bought it! I personally got a real kick out of this Tempe event because I was surrounded by other ASU students. And of course it's always fun when friends show up. Maya was the first one to arrive with totally awesome eye makeup (how she accomplishes that so early in the morning, I don't know) around 10am.

Cora: Lesley, Betsy and baby Jack stopped by. Jack looked so cute in the little hat I made for him. It looked like his head was stuck in the clouds!

Gwynne: It was great seeing them, and then when Robert & Pat swung by at the end of the day that was fun too. Plus the luck I always get at the last minute with kids who rush over and pick up felted flower hair clips. There were really neat vendors there this time. I wish I had taken more pictures of everything fun that was happening. It was over too soon, but not just because of the time - we were there from sunrise to sunset, I couldn't believe the day was already over!

Cora: All-in-all a great event! We met lots of neat people, made some connections for possible future endeavors, and just had a good time.

Gwynne: Now we're knitting as fast as we can to have more new stock for this upcoming Saturday event at the Roadrunner Farmers Market!

Sunnyslope Art Walk Pics

2009-11-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

Gwynne: There are so many exciting developments on the Bewilderknits front. This fall has been magical for us. Every time we get together at a meeting and chat, tons of new ideas come up about what we can do next, what directions we can go, where to put our next hours and resources, and new goals for what to learn and what to improve. That is the status of the lovely present, and I am overjoyed when I think back and reflect on the past year and all that we have accomplished.

We've made some products, done a few photo shoots, established our etsy shops, acquired custom embroidered fabric labels for our finished pieces, and Practical Art in Phoenix is representing my work. We exercised due diligence and established our partnership and took care of all the legal mumbo-jumbo (this is shorthand for a SLEW of work). We've learned how to spin, acquired a total of three spinning wheels (two are mine, which is a long story - but if you know me, this isn't shocking), and we've become more highly customized in our work and fiber sources. Karen became a felted purse specialist while Cora and I continued to feed our obsession with yarn spinning, and I continue to have new ideas for projects to make with upcycled sweaters (which take up half a closet in my home office). We've appeared already at two art walks with really great support and feedback. I'm super enthused about the neighbors we have by our booths (I'm hesitant to say "colleagues;" so many of these artists blow my mind and are far more experienced) and I'm excited about exploring the new events we're going to be appearing at shortly.

Bewilderknits has been a great vehicle for my advocacy of adopting Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) methods to control feral cat overpopulation. I created a Kittyknitter line of scarves - including designing branding for it - to raise money for my neighborhood's issue, but also to raise awareness for others in Phoenix who experience the same problem.

I learned a lot about advocacy, communication campaigns and the viral social networking power of the interwebs - plus made new buddies in the process. Stacey Gordon, the genius puppeteer and Etsy shop owner of Puppet Pie, now has a line of kitty finger puppets which raise awareness about TNR and help her spay her neighborhood feral cats (Thanks Interwebs!).

We have new Bewilderknits custom made logos that we commissioned from a Philipino illustrator named May Ann Licudine, or MALL, as she calls herself when she signs her name (Thanks Again, Interwebs!) She is so kind and touching and her work is so mystifyingly delightful and delicious, words fail me. I also mustn't fail to mention that with her work, Etsy banners, business cards, price tags and entire web site designs-in-process were done by my most-supportive-and-awesomest-ever husband (Thanks Photoshop and Shay!).

And all of this began with the simple question we kept repeating for the last several years, which was, "Gee, we should make a business out of this knitting thing we seem to all like so much. Wouldn't that be awesome?"

Yes, it is! And Fall of 2009 has been "Livin the Dream." If we have a Bewilderknits Prom, I nominate that to be our theme.

Cora: Bewilderknits Prom...ha ha ha! Yes, I agree with Gwynne: this has been quite a year! So much has happened; we've come so far - from sitting around a knitting circle, daydreaming about the 'what if's' of having a knitting business, to actually having one! And while I was in Colorado earlier this month and purchased my own spinning wheel, a Schacht Ladybug. I'm so excited about it! It just arrived a couple days ago. I can't wait to start spinning on it and discover the fantastic yarn I can create.

Karen: I’m really proud of all that we’ve accomplished this year. It’s been more work than I expected, but the work is more satisfying than I could have imagined. It’s a great feeling to have come this far and realize that we’re really only getting started. I have so many ideas!

Gwynne: We debuted our new branding with spankin new business cards and price tags at our booth display this Fall at the October Sunnyslope Art Walk.

We had been in production mode all summer long, so we had a slew of scarves. Over the course of a couple weekends of booth design run-throughs, we decided to try to display them all by creating a "Wall of scarves" that Cora and Karen began cleverly arranging according to color. So the wall was a yarny spectrum of fibery flavors (Taste the Yarnbow!). There were so many scarves that it created a color-fade across the wall, so browsers could walk in and feel everything. We had a mirror and a sign (in our new Bewilderknits font) telling people to try them on.

I was so excited to have our booth be seated right next to Lisa Takata.

Cora: Lisa was the one who started it all! She was the one who taught Gwynne how to knit way back when...who then taught Karen how to knit...who then helped refresh my knitting skills!

Karen: That’s right. Gwynne taught me how to make the knit stitch at my very first knitting circle. If I remember correctly, Lisa was at that same knitting circle teaching Gwynne how to purl! Being placed next to her somehow made the event feel like a milestone for us.

Gwynne: I finally got the idea to make some copy about the Kittyknitter project to put next to the basket of scarves.

I sat in front, spinning on my giant spinning wheel, Ferris. Cora sat on the other side, near Karen's purses. I think she knitted a whole awesome hat that night.

Cora: Yes! I made an awesome gray hat. I used some of my cloudy gray hand spun yarn made from Angora Rabbit Hair and Silky Mohair Locks for the rim of the hat and the pom-pom on top and then Heather Gray Burly Spun yarn from Brown Sheep for the body. Shay mother purchased it as soon as it was done, however it was quickly returned due to her allergy to wool. I advised her to try a hat made of alpaca because alpaca fiber is naturally hypo-allergenic.

Gwynne: Speaking of Karen's purses, Shay got a really neat picture of our new tags hanging off of Karen's felted purses. Each of our tags is customized and different - Mall made us cartoon mini-me's that we're using on our price and contents tags. Karen's has an image of her knitting a felted purse underneath a giant leaf in the rain.

Cora: Where I was sitting knitting I could hear every ones comments as they inspected Karen's purses. Everyone ooo'd and awed over them. They were definitely a hit!

Karen's tags are awesome. All of ours are. Not only did Mal's creations capture the theme and "bewildering" vibe we were going for, but Shay's expert use of Photoshop to create the finished tags made them that much better. Mal's images were created on photoshop, and all the elements are movable, which has allowed Shay to create such diversity with only 4 images. I couldn't have dreamed these tags into creation; they are perfect!

Karen: They are amazing, thanks to Mal. And to Gwynne for finding Mal, and to Shay for all of his contributions!

Gwynne: Yeah, the whole process of getting to this point took a few months. But I've loved having you over, Cora, to work on these projects. Like the old days when you were a roommate!

So, meanwhile, Shay hung out behind the table with Karen, talking to customers who browsed through. I was so tied up in conversations with passers-by that I missed a lot of what was going on behind me. It sounded like a lot of sales were being made, though.

Karen: While Gwynne was spinning, people were perusing the Wall of Scarves and items on the main table. There were knitted hats and ear-warmer headbands, felted bangles and bags, and Gwynne’s felted flower accessories laid out in clusters on the table, reminiscent of a tiny woolen garden. People seemed drawn to admire and try on her hair combs . One customer liked the pins so much that she wanted to buy them in bulk!

Also very popular were Scarflettes made by Gwynne and Cora. One in particular that Cora made from various earth-tone yarns and upcycled buttons got extra attention. It sold by the end of the night after being wanted by many. Overall we seemed to be getting great feedback from just about everyone.

At one point, another vendor came over to tell us how great our booth looked. He was also impressed with the quality of our work, and said that we should market our items to high-end department stores! The booth did look great, thanks to many improvements we made since the last art walk, including neat new mannequin heads to display our accessories. People loved these!

Gwynne: Yes, the mannequin heads have ESP.

Cora: Yes, Blanche (our blonde mannequin) said to Eve (our raven mannequin) "My neck is stiff."

Karen: Eve replied, “Mine too, but modeling Bewilderknits accessories gives meaning to our hollow plastic existence.” Blanche felt compelled to agree.

Gwynne: True. Also, people were VERY attracted to the yarn. By coincidence, Shay set up one of the booth lights in such a way that it was spotlighting Cora's handspun behind me, and I overheard many people wishing they could knit, and asking for items that were made out of that kind of yarn.

Cora: I am in the process of spinning more and more yarn. I plan to integrate my hand spun art yarn with purchased yarn to create even more unique scarves and hats. It's coming! Please be patient! :)

Gwynne: Yeah, I concur. I was pretty pleased overall with how the night went. Family came by, and it was a super social event. It was so crowded! And now the weather is getting so good, I can't wait for our next events.

Cora: Yes, with the weather changing in our favor, I expect to be an even bigger hit at our upcoming events. I'm really excited to see how they go and what feedback we get and sales we make.

Karen: Here’s to scarf weather! I’m also really excited about upcoming events, not only to showcase our handmade items, but also to check out the other vendor booths.

It’s so great to see people visiting art walks and farmer’s markets. They aren’t just shopping, they’re getting involved and seeing what the community has to offer. I’d like to thank everyone in advance for visiting us at upcoming events this season. We hope to see you at our next event, the very first Indie Chic @ 10^th Street in Tempe, AZ!

Sunnyslope Art Walk Bewilderknits Booth!

2009-09-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

Bewilderknits is delighted to be showing at the next Sunnyslope Art Walk on October 10th from 5 - 10pm!

We're excited to be participating in this art walk. It's going to be our second time there and we've been hard at work on so many details! Knitted products to sell, new yarns we've spun for knitters to play with, an improved booth layout, business cards and all new Bewilderknits branding by our lovely new illustrator friend, Mall!

So much is going to be unveiled and coming to fruition over the next few months for us. There are so many small but important elements that go into rolling out a business which will exist in both virtual space and in the real world, even a business like ours that was created for pleasure and celebrating our favorite things. I've been hard at work on our first blog layout, while Cora and Shay have worked beside me for so many hours working on the web site, and Karen has been working on making sure that all our i's are dotted and t's are crossed.

Not to mention knitting and spinning! And the weekend hours spent in the sun, which is still so hot in Phoenix, rehearsing different layouts for our booth design. And taking photos of our work for our respective Etsy shops. And coming up with new design ideas that we haven't had time to develop yet! We are really getting to the point where few details haven't been thought out or considered. There will always be room for tweaking and improvement, but it's this part of the creative process that really inspires me and feels enriching. We are building something from scratch, based on our visions, and bringing them to life.

So, if you are in Phoenix, please swing by and visit with us at our booth!

Below is a map ... a not so big one. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to make these pictures post larger ... until then, just go to the Grinders parking lot on Central and Dunlap. Expect to see Lisa Takata there with her spinning wheel too, and Stacey Rebecca with her rad puppets, and Erin's Sock Zombies.

My first ever Bewilderknits blog about my first ever corespun yarn!

2009-09-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

Hello World!

My name is Cora and I am a Bewilderknitter. I would like to thank Lisa Takata for teaching Gwynne how to core spin, so that she could teach me!

This is my first bobbin of awesome fuzzy, chunky, silky, soft, wild

and bewildering yarn!

I promptly started spinning some other fiber I purchased months ago,

but couldn’t use because I didn’t know how to do this type of spinning,until now.

It’s angora and

mohair....mmm.

So, a few days ago I ordered tons of fiber online. It came yesterday and I'm in love. Every free moment I've had has been spent spinning. Here are the first two hanks I made.

Here's my stash of yarn so far...yay!

Sir Lemongrass Scarf is Featured in an Etsy Treasury Today!

2009-09-25T15:57:00.001-07:00

I'm so excited - my Sir Lemongrass scarf was featured in an Etsy Treasury today! Not only is it in an Etsy Treasury, but it is featured right next to the Bearded Lady, whose products I've posted on Facebook because I think they're so cool ...

The Treasury was created by Seedsandbeads and here is the Treasury - but it will expire in a matter of time, as all lovely treasuries do. So below is a screenshot! The bearded lady is on the left side of my row, and I am on the right beneath an awesome green horse! Joy!!

This is the 2nd time I've been featured in a Treasury - it's exciting and fun, like seeing your items in a special shop created by someone else's eye. Thanks to Kaitlin, the person behind seedsandbeads!

- Gwynne