String Thing

During the month of October we settled down for a while at the American Tobacco Campus:
Report from the field:
Weather – perfect (and when it’s a little chilly, well, that’s why we knit those socks and hand-warmers, right?)
River – scenic
Coffee – plentiful ; Chai – acceptable
Parking – no problemo
Breakfast potatoes – seem to be cooked in crack. We cannot stop eating them.
American Tobacco Trail – perfect for postprandial perambulations
Knitting progress in general – Gee, you’d think people would be tired after Centerfest but it’s like a whirlwind of projects in rapid progress! Pretty darn amazing.
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Gorgeous weather, so a few of us checked out the Tobacco Trail after we were done with our String. We walked 5 miles and it was lovely – we’ll definitely do this again. Of course, as we were coming back we stopped to talk to a stranger in a car, and accepted candy. ;) (If I get kidnapped by Lisa, will her husband make me some BBQ?)
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SAFF report! Ellen and Molloy went to SAFF and brought back many, many nice fibers. Ellen let us pet her stuff on Sunday and we all went all googly. There is some serious silk fetishing going on here. And as I understand it, the Fiber Loft is now offering all sorts of gorgeous new stuff from SAFF, so those of us who couldn’t go can still get our fiber-thrills!
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Community Knit-Outs and lessons:
We’ve got a plan started for our knit-outs at the cancer support center/nursing home/ Ronald McDonald house, and people delegated to get in touch with each place and talk about details and dates. (Thanks Sue, Katherine, and Lori!) The idea is to go and offer knitting lessons and/or knit-along company and support for people who need some good company and something positive, pleasant and productive to do while they pass what can otherwise be a lonely and stressful time. In addition to people who can come along to teach knitting and be sociable, we’ll also need donations of yarn and largish-sized needles.
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Needlefelting Class at the Fiber Loft, by glamorous guest artist Katherine. We made some seriously cute and creepy skulls and ghosties. Most of the blood on the skulls is fake, but it was kind of relief when the last person finally stabbed herself (the suspense was getting intense).

We’ve all been excited about O’s miniatures – lots of talk about organizing a holiday ornament swap….
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Edith is a new fan of the Loft. At 80-something she can’t always get around in the evenings to knit-nights, etc. but she wanted to meet some other folks who knit and crochet. About a dozen people were able to come over to the Fiber Loft for a little more string-time with Edith, who does amazing crochet work and also makes pretty damn good cake . Hey, you know what? I think that made yesterday the record for age range: members from 18 years to 81. How cool is that.
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October-gurumi at the Fiber Loft Crochet-Night: Come crochet cute stuffed pumpkins and candy corn! Advanced amigurumists, this would be a great time to work on that cute little cthulu.
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Plus, we had the one-year anniversaries of…. Juline, Coty, Sue, Katherine, and Kerry!

Centerfest was completely awesome.

We made… drumroll… $778 in total!

Wild Applause, especially for Juline!

And many thanks to all of you who participated, from making stuff to sitting at the booth to just stopping by to visit. (Sue had a great shill moment, standing behind an admiring crowd watching Molloy spin on the wheel… “What *is* that stuff you’re spinning?” she innocently asks. Not to mention Katherine’s amazing yet subtle mind control techniques, which caused many people to buy scarves and hats while the rest of us are dousing ourselves in sunblock.)

And we’ve taught nearly all of the youth of Durham how to make string. When the civilization comes crashing to a halt, we’ll be just fine. Plenty of string for all.

If you made stuff, Juline has your stuff, and if you made money, she has your money! Sara-no-H, I have your ceramic bowls.

Continue Reading »

September was all about preparing for Centerfest. Broad Street Cafe was (ahem) praeparatorially challenged a few Sunday mornings, and the weather was gorgeous, so we did some exploring in Downtown Durham. Also, groups forming at the Fiber Loft really started to take off in September, and build a life of their own!
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Aug. 31 we celebrated the First Anniversary of StringThing with a pot-luck brunch, birthday cake, and BYO-tshirt (or underpants, or whatever) silk-screening of the new logo. Many kudos to Sara not only for designing the logo but for standing in the insanely hot sun all morning, silk-screening like mad before the ink dried.
It turned into an all-day affair – literally 12 hours – as the late-stayers settled in for board games and nonsense. It got very silly. Plans for the StringThing Nude Calendar will not be repeated here, but if you weren’t actually there, then you might just be Miss/Mr. February.

StringThing is One Year Old! It can toddle about capably, eats cheerios, and loves to wave and say “Hi!” over and over and over.
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Quote from Ravelry:
I loved having the sqrl over. And his little panda friend. :)

ETA: Niagra Waaaaaterfaaaaalllls…. is beyooootiful…. with uuuuuuuunicorns and rainbows…
la la la la la la

In August, the MeetUp membership list finally hit the 100-person mark, and it seemed like that was a sign. So with a somewhat glitchy transition, we shifted over a bit, freeing up MeetUp space for new groups forming at the Fiber Loft, and ambitiously aiming at this, our very own internet home. Needless to say it took some doing to get this set up, since this website is not, in fact, made of string. But Sara-no-H designed a wonderful logo, Kenray walked me through several WordPress tutorials, and here we are.

Our physical meeting place started to shift a little, too: Broad Street Cafe had grown into a Real Restaurant, complete with pizza oven (spackled by me and Katherine!!!) but it was not quite as comfortable a space for a loud-n-rowdy crowd. While they were undergoing renovations, we took shelter at the Fiber Loft. Lots of transitions for the end of our first year, and plans for CenterFest made a wonderful way to celebrate how much we’d grown. August 31 was our 1-year-old Birthday Party.

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It was great to see so many of you on Sunday!

StringThing has grown by leaps and bounds in its first year, and I couldn’t be happier. Having gone from ave. attendance being 8 – 12 of us, to regularly seeing more than 20 people each Sunday, it does sometimes get a little crowded! Thanks to all of you for remembering to make room for people as they come in, and introducing yourselves (even a couple of times) as we meet new folks.
We’ve been meeting in various permutations both on Sunday mornings and Thursday evenings, and as we grow, we may branch out.
This Thursday at the “Fiber Lounge” (Fiber Loft open knit-night) we’ll gather with anyone interested in plastic-bag-recycled-crochet, with Centerfest in mind.
Sunday we have StringThing! With no special agenda, if you can believe that. Location tba.

Now Rebecca makes good on her promise
to write the whole Update in verse:
She cannot quite do it as epic
and fears that a sonnet is worse.
But later when things are much quieter
all she’s required to do will be
Note down our plans and accomplishments
neatly in tidy haiku.

So now it’s time to update all the ‘Strings,
And tell you all the Things the Strings have done:
The “hatted” dead have started baby hats;
The winners of the Hat Attack have won.
By subtlety as well as speed they…  wins!
If you now want to play the larger game
Go to the site and register your name.

Oh – and  I still have Teresa’s plastic bins. :)

The Swap-o-Rama got rained out but still
We showed off our amazing recycling skill
With t-shirts cut in slices and then knit,
Buttons made from little fabric bits,
And yarn made from a schoolgirl’s uniform,
In spite of ill-timed inconvenient storm.

Our festive week of holidays is here!
Each Santa works in Secret on their gift
The Fiber Loft gives all our hearts a lift
And Kelly wants to go and get some beer.

Soooooo….
we meet next week in th’usual Broad Street space
Then move the party to Rebecca’s place.
Bring ye a gift of silly-swapping kind
Whatever crazy thing that you can find.
We’ll play some carols and we’ll play some dreidel
And eat as many cookies as we’re able.
And since we’ve neighbors who for food are wishin’
Please bring canned goods for the Durham Rescue  Mission.

{Sorry for the lines that don’t quite rhyme.
Be glad that I don’t do this every time! }

Hey!  Now’s your chance to be in Centerfest
From now til then, there’s only weeks between
So, of your crafts bring forth the very best
And if you have some questions, ask Juline!

As our first anniversary we reach
We all would rather be down at the beach.
Stay tuned for details further Updates bring
And we’ll celebrate the Birthday of StringThing!

Whew!

Coming Up:
ANNIVERSARY Aug 25th
We need a StringThing logo, some volunteers with silk-screen equipment, BYO tshirt? maybe a button-maker? And a beach trip. Let?s think beachtrip the weekend of the 25th?

At StringThing that morning, Juline arrived at the Fiber Loft with donuts and… A KILLER HAT! locked, loaded and ready to aim. Chris, however, was not there, so though he was deathly ill, he wasn’t dead… A few minutes later, Lisa arrived with a nearly-done hat for Rebecca, needing only a hint about the last crochet-step. Katherine, however, had arrived at the same time with Lisa’s hat, and killed her first in a spectacular sidewalk ambush… carnage on the streets! Continue Reading »

Stitch-n-Pitch was just fantastic! It didn’t really rain. Well, a little. But then there was a rainbow. And the glow in the dark needles were waaaaaay too much fun. And it was neat to see so many knitters all together. And I learned how to yarn-over! Oh, and the game was good too. Many thanks to Leslie & the Girls w/ Purls for all the work that went into it!

Tattin’ and Chattin’ at the Fiber Loft Naomi will teach those who are interested something new to do with string. (Who can resist?) If you would like to… um… tat, please email Naomi and let her know, so she can figure out how many tatting shuttles we need.

It’s Christmas (and Hannukah!) in July!
String Thing hosted a week of midsummer holiday cheer, including Secret Santas, Hat Attack, holiday crafts, and (of course) cookies and caroling.

Thanks to everybody for all the holiday fun! There were many excellent presents and many excellent treats, as well as glittery trees, inflatable trees, muppet carols, and martian invasions (hooray for santy claus…). I’ll bring the extra cookies next week because I cannot eat them all!

We’ve got a decent collection of baby hats coming along, some very beautiful handbags for the Me Fine Foundation, and we also collected about 60 cans/boxes of food for the food pantry.

June was off to a whirlwind start!

Habitat Project; Fiber Loft, WWKIP… Continue Reading »

May 2008:

Mother’s Day! Bring your mom.

A Good Day to Dye (yeah, I crack myself up) May 3: The dye workshop was fantastic – many, many thanks to Lisa for her generosity. We did tie-died effects, “flip” dying, hand painting, and even self-striping yarn.

Another huge round of thanks and applause for the yard sale volunteers – the yard sale Saturday was huge success. My eternal gratitude to everyone who came early, stayed late, donated stuff, and took stuff away again. (We raised enough to do the volunteer projects we’ve been planning at the Fiber Loft!)