I was so excited to see that my pattern, the Mini Mania Scarf, was featured in Brownie Knits video podcast on YouTube in December. She’s got a great “vodcast” as they sometimes call them, and it was great seeing someone’s finished Mini Mania Scarf live and in action. Enjoy watch her show:
Often in the wee hours of the night when I’m shipping out a large group of orders for the morning mail run, I try to imagine who the people are that these goodies are going to. While I’ve gotten to know my repeat customers over the years, everyone starts out as a stranger. So I enjoy writing thank you notes and gathering context clues from nicknames and addresses – is Kathy from Menlo Park a fun grandmother knitting for a passel of family members or is Bea from Berlin a young, urban knitter adding to her stitch marker collection? Who knows!
But the truth is, while my products are winging their way around the world, I don’t always know where they are going or how they will be used. So it’s fun to occasionally find a blog, tweet or Ravelry post about my shop, and boy was I surprised to find Exchanging Fire featured in a whole video podcast last week! Check out this clip of Kristi reviewing my digital row counters and mini french macaron holders below at the 30 minute mark:
It was so much fun watching them getting just as excited about my stuff as I do. Hee. In a Sknit is a video podcast run by two women in Illinois who are really cute and manage to simultaneously run a podcast and knit at the same time. This is not the same thing as just running your mouth and knitting at the same time, which I still often fail at doing. So go back to the beginning of the video and watch the whole thing – Sarah and Kristi are super relaxing and fun to “hang” out with virtually.
Juniper Moon Farm is celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas with a spectacular series of blog posts and giveaways. Exchanging Fire was graciously asked to be the first “day of Christmas” and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. Click here or the image below to learn how you can get a chance at a free set of stitch markers from Exchanging Fire! Plus, get a special coupon code for 10% off your order through all 12 Days of Christmas!
This morning I got an awesome email from my best friend, letting me know that the infamous scarf has made it big – on Buzzfeed! That’s right, earlier this month the Mini Mania Scarf was featured in one of Buzzfeed’s pictorial “lists” – this time a tongue-in-cheek bit called 16 Scarves That Forgot How To Scarf. The hilarious sub-headline says, ” Seriously, scarves, you only have one job.”
Here is the scarf, in the illustrious number 13. position:
I really think Buzzfeed missed the mark, though, on scarves that forgot how to scarf. There are some really stellar knit and crocheted ones out there, like:
The Squid Scarf – getting stuck on you since 2007:
Or how about the crocheted scarves that can’t decide if they should be bacon and sushi?
And leave it to the Japanese to create the first-ever Boob Scarf, still being crafted over at BoobsRUs:
Thanks for the buzz, BuzzFeed!
I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I woke up to discover one of my products, the Snap ‘n Go Notions Case™, had been featured in a brand new knitting podcast today!
Dawn, the author of the Knit Naturally podcast, has just begun a brand new podcast called The Organized Knitter. In case you haven’t heard of Dawn before, she’s a fun-loving Texan who considers her podcasts to be sort of like sitting around on the front porch with your friends. The casts are full of her rapier wit and stories about her family and life, interlaced with knitting tips and tricks. This podcast is specifically designed for the knitter who wants to create an organized, peaceful (though not perfect) environment.
The Snap ‘n Go Notions Case is featured in Episode 4, and is about 1/3 of the way through the podcast. Here is a link to her show notes. She purchased the lime green case from my shop, Exchanging Fire, as well as a violet purple one that she gave away to one of her Ravelry group members.
Jumbo Snap ‘n Go Notions Cases
Wow! Author and knitter Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, otherwise known as The Yarn Harlot, just featured my stitch markers on her blog! The stitch markers talked about were my Secret of the Chromastone markers, which have color changing capabilities when you hold them – just like mood rings from the ’70s. They were listed as part of the Yarn Harlot’s Gifts for Knittters 2012 list, and I’m tickled pink by the shout out.
The Secret of the Chromastone
I love this image (it’s a perennial favorite on social media sites) and since scarf weather is starting, I thought that I would share it with all of you. I’d add to the list below, of course, and say that a knitter like me always needs something linen stitched on her body, is calculating how cheap she can get a pair of new boots to show off her new handknit boot toppers (yarn is always worth splurging on, but everything else must be bought on sale!), and is knitting a pair of socks because those are easy grab-and-go knitting projects.
Happy Friday! Enjoy this awesome original music video by the Knitknackers, a knitting group from the Knitknack yarn shop in Maplewood, New Jersey. This made my day, and I hope you like it too. This is set to the tune of singer Carly Rae Jepsen’s song Call Me Maybe.
Hey, I’ve got cashmere, and this crazy, but here’s some needles, so cast on baby!
Hey everyone, the Phat Fiber people are giving away a set of my stitch markers on their blog! Click here (or on the image below) to win a free set of Exchanging Fire’s Golden Apples stitch markers from the May Phat Fiber Sampler box!
Courtesy Alberto Seveso
Just saw this amazing Fluid Dynamics piece and I had to share it. Italian photographer Alberto Seveso has taken close-up photographs of colorful dyes in the instant that they hit the water, creating these gorgeous life-forms that look like fabric or art sculptures. He’s able to get these amazing images because he takes his pictures underwater! These high-speed macrophotographs are really gorgeous to look at, in part because they are so difficult to see in real life – there and gone again in an instant.
There’s something almost not-quite-real about the way these images look, and what’s impressive is that this is such a simple device (dropping some ink in water and watching what happens). Maybe it’s because this holds the same thrall that clouds do to humans – you want to reach out and touch these inks, even though you know that once you do it ruins the effect.
So many knitters, crocheters and indie yarnies deal with dyes all of the time, whether for their business or simply to finish a project (think the Shipwreck Shawl). So it’s amazing to see how the very act of the dye hitting the water can be an art form all of its own. This image here is part of his newest series, duo Colori. His first underwater ink series was Disastro Ecologico in 2010, and that was considered gorgeous then! Here is his current online gallery.
Exchanging Fire 