Cheeto Maryland, Cheeto Bingo

There's been a lot of fluff around here, working on this wedding dress and other dainty bits. It's hard to jump between sewing and knitting...it's so different. But, here is some new excitement! In preparation for a new fall set in the shop and a trip to Paris in September, I am collaborating with illustrator, designer, artist, maker, Eric Timothy Carlson. Eric has shown work in galleries and museums all over Minneapolis and in various locations throughout the country, and has been making work collaboratively with the prolific group Hardland/Heartland for the past five years. He is affiliated with Baby Skateboards, and can be seen in many of their videos, which I recommend, highly. We agree and disagree often, and he frequently outsmarts me. It's good.

ETC + ALL is coming soon!
Original hand-graphed patterns by Eric, below.

News on My Neck

I saw Stephanie again last weekend for the SECOND time this summer, and she brought me this necklace that I was finally able to order from her shop. (It's sold out every time I go to try and buy it)! Her version comes with a simple, classy triangle pendant on a gold chain. When I ordered it, I knew I wanted it to be the home for a few other bits I've been hanging on to for awhile. The porcelain hand with custom gold decals of my initials was made by Erin Smith and can be found in a handful of variations in her shop. Some styles even come with magnets in the palms for two hands holding! The miniature scissors came in a miniature tooth box with a miniature leaf stud for my birthday last year from a clever friend, Crystal Quinn who has recently making her own shoes, pom poms, felted booties, felted hair balls, and a million other things.

I love my new necklace, it's full of favorites...

ReadyMade

I received my complimentary copy of ReadyMade in the mail a week ago. The issue features the Stripe Stripe Super Stasher in their back-to-school section. Not totally sure what to think about "Knit Wit" as a title, but am pleased with the spread overall. My good friend Ann Marie was over on Saturday night for a birthday party and told me that her mother started this magazine in Des Moines, Iowa. What a strange and delightful coincidence...

Try a Little Tenderness

I've gone soft, and I'm loving it, again.
Erin and James are getting married in three weeks.
<3

ALL Business

The one really great thing about returning from vacation is that I ordered a few new promotional bobbers before I left, knowing they would be shipped while I was away or shortly upon my return home. You can customize anything, so it was pretty difficult to choose the product types. And even after I did, I spent hours "designing" them through the website tools provided. At one point I even placed the final order for the stickers, WENT BACK and canceled it twenty minutes later to completely change the text placement. Sometimes I fool myself into thinking that fewer options or less complex tools will make the design process easier, but it just doesn't work that way.

On cancellation...if any of you received a Facebook invitation to be friends with ALL Knitwear a few days ago and accepted that invitation to find that the profile doesn't exist anymore, do not be alarmed. I got this idea in my head that I needed a Facebook page for the shop, which is silly. But then I actually went through the process of creating my profile and adjusting security settings before fully realizing that I just couldn't go through with it. That's why I deactivated it after I sent an invitation to everyone I knew to be my friend. What I did realize in all of this is that I don't care about Facebook, at all, not even a little bit...for now.

Stick around and stay sharp!

ALL + LITILL

Litill makes gorgeous terrariums with the most exotic and fresh colors you have ever seen through a layer of custom blown glass. And yes, those are real plants in there. By the end of the summer there will be an ALL colorful knit rolled tool pouch to house an assortment of small tools and viles to care for your terrarium.

This collaboration really excites me because the product is so interesting. I admit I was perplexed when Lauren first contacted me about working together. I couldn't see the connection she had probably already made. But after meeting with her and discussing our practices, it became apparent that it was likely our design processes bringing us together...two under thirty females, making obsessive, meticulous, and technically challenging work, alone, to sell over the Internet. Take a look!

50% All the Time

Vacation was a huge success, big fun all around!
The weather was crazy hot, welcome home east coast tan...
I stepped on a rat for the first time, recorded an album, went swimming in the ocean, saw some art and design, ate lots of tacos, and so on...and MORE! Vacation is the best, but I'm glad to be home.

The shop will return to the normal schedule of 1-2 weeks turnaround time for purchases. There will be only a few updates for the rest of the summer as I will be busy making a non-sweater wedding dress for a dear friend and preparing new material to bring to Paris in September. See you soon, J Train...

Meat You There!

Vacation is calling my name! The call will be answered tomorrow morning at 6:30 a.m., as I board the plane to New York. I will be there for eight long days with only a few plans...the rest of the time I will be flying by the seat of my pants, in good company may I add. I am really excited to go see the empire Forever 21 has recently installed into Times Square...it's hard to decide if a business is at the tippy-top or rock bottom when they open a four story mega store with 150+ dressing rooms, filled to the brim with sequined tops and short shorts. We will hunt the city for the most delicious iced coffee, could there be anything better than Philz in San Francisco? It's a sure thing that I will arrive home with an expensive pair of shoes that I would never be able to find in Minneapolis. I've already been fine-tuning my list of excuses for buying goodies outside of my price range.

But anyways, about this hot dog...maybe it's a little too real. I'm going to think on this idea while I'm on vacation. And then I'll eat it up!



Ok but for real now, I have something important to say.

OFFICIAL NOTICE!
Any orders placed between today, July 6th and Thursday, July 15th will require one extra week for delivery (2-3 weeks from order date instead of 1-2). If you place an order tomorrow, it will ship by July 28th at the latest, likely earlier depending on how many orders come in while I'm on vacation. I will return to the normal schedule starting on Friday, July 16th.

SO LONG!

Summer & Spice

I started thinking about fall a couple days ago. Suddenly I wanted to knit everything in Hunter
Green, Navy, and Burgundy. The "bold" package of Crayola markers popped into my mind, a sure symbol of autumn from my childhood. Cerulean, Fuschia, Marigold, and Jungle Green, these colors have always been perfect.

After knitting the E Bitty 30 Box Top, I couldn't stop myself from imagining this sweater in a million different combinations. So I tried one out that is mostly summer with a little bit of spice creeping in at the edges. The result? My favorite sweater to date, no questions asked. This one is for me.