I just want to start this blog out with a great big thank you everybody who helped make The 1st Annual Steel City Fiber Festival an overwhelming success. I’d like to start by thanking my fellow coordinator, Joe Cole, for his tireless effort. Without his help this would have been twice as much work to bring off. I’d like to thank the wonderful folks over at The Knitter’s Edge, they helped make the show possible through their sponsorship. I’d especially like to thank all of […]Continue reading
Author Archives: Kelly Straub
Everyone, I have something to tell you, Southern Hospitality is not just a cliché or a thing of the past. Southern Hospitality is real, and if you don’t believe me then you obviously did not go to Nashville TN for Stitches South two weeks ago. Everyone there: the other vendors; the event staff at The Gaylord Opryland Convention Center (thank you Chris, Jared, and Logan); all of the wonderful attendees; the Stitches Event Coordinators like Kristi Miller, Kellie Nuss, and Jocelyn Grayson; and the folks […]Continue reading
I’d like to start out this post with some very special thanks. This past weekend I was in Pittsburg for Indie Knit and Spin. I had a little trouble getting out there, so first I’d like to thank Cosi for all of her help getting Shirsty Cat in and set up so quickly and for hosting a great show as always. Next I’d like to thank everyone who made it out to the show. Without all of you fantastic fiberholics supporting our craft, dyers like […]Continue reading
Hello Everyone! First off I’d like to thank you all for making 2015 a fantastic year for Shirsty Cat and 2016 is already off to an awesome start. We began January getting ready because Shirsty Cat had our debut at Vogue Knitting NYC! I have to tell you it was quite an experience. I met, literally, thousands of fellow fiber artists and got to talk to them all about their amazing passions. One young man actually stopped by all three days because he kept thinking […]Continue reading
We all love the colors of our yarns. We love the vibrant reds and the deep blues. We love the greens we otherwise only see in growing things in the early summer when the sun is up but not to hot. We love the pretty shade of brown that happens where just the right shade of purple blends with that perfect tone of amber. At the shows I vend at, I stand there and watch as people see my yarns and I hear “Oohh, look […]Continue reading
When you get a yarn that is so luxuriously delicious that you just have to make something you’ll wear all the time… and then it takes you 8 months to knit it. That is this project, but oh, am I so glad that I stuck with it. Last fall I purchased some Lotus Mimi yarn in a fabulous purple from a yarn store that was closing in North Jersey for 50% off retail price. Yes, mink at 50% off, which is the best kind. The […]Continue reading
You’ve just come back from the fiber show with the most glorious new fiber pet, it is bright shiny and new! You love it, pet it, and make something glorious out of it, but then you give it a bath and it starts bleeding all those lovely colors all over the place! What do you do? Frequently I’ve found in a number of different groups, issues involving bleeding in yarns and fibers, both indie and commercially dyed. The first reaction of many is to blame […]Continue reading
I am awful at blogging. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just hard to find the time and make it routine, but I really need to make more of an effort since all sorts of fun fibery things happen in my world that you might like to know about. So just a quick recap of the last month to get us started. The past couple weeks have been super busy with Maine Fiber Frolic the first weekend of the month and CNY Fiber […]Continue reading
This month has gone very fast and I have been so crazy busy. 3 additional shows have happened since my first (Limerick Community Days, NJ Sheep and Wool [more about this below], and Phoenixville Farmers Market Fiber Fest) and I have been dyeing every week to keep up. I started 2 new jobs and a 3rd new one today, well, training starts today and ends hopefully middle of next month. I already do this same job for another University, so hopefully training will be quick […]Continue reading