Just for Fun - Poem: Ode to my Socks

From customer Minda J.: Here’s a poem about knit socks I found in a book called "10 Poems to Change Your Life". It is also in the book, "Ode to Common Things".

Ode to My Socks
by Pablo Neruda (Translation by Stephen Mitchell)

Maru Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted with her own
sheepherder hands,
two socks as soft
as rabbits.
I slipped my feet
into them
as if they were
two cases knittted
with threads of
twilight and the pelt of sheep.

Outrageous socks,
my feet became two fish
made of wool,
two long sharks
of ultramarine blue
crossed by one golden hair,
two gigantic blackbirds,
two cannons:
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were
so beautiful
that for the first time
my feet seemed to me
unacceptable
like two decrepit
firemen, firemen unworthy
of that embroidered fire,
of those luminous socks.

Nevertheless,
I resisted
the sharp temptation
to save them
as schoolboys keep fireflies,
as scholars collect
sacred documents,
I resisted
the wild impulse
to put them
in a golden cage
and each day give them birdseed
and chunks of pink melon.
Like explorers
in the jungle
who hand over the rare
green deer
to the roasting spit
and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out
my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks
and then my shoes.

And the moral of my ode
is this:
beauty is twice
beauty and what is good is doubly
good when it's a matter of two
woolen socks in winter.

Fave Celebrity Crafter: Tim Holtz

From customer Kristen D.: "My favorite crafting "celebrity" is absolutely Tim Holtz of Ranger Industries and Junkitz. Love love love this guy! I have had the pleasure of meeting him and taking his classes several times and I always leave inspired and creatively refreshed. His projects are fun, unique, and truly cutting edge. The papercrafting world needs his creative energy. he is the "rock star" of the papercrafting world! And, he lives by an amazing quote that I love and totally relate to: Creativity is an endless journey where you should always take the scenic route. Love that!"

Fave Celebrity Crafter: Tracey Ullman

From customer Martha S.: "My favorite celebrity crafter might be better described as a crafting celebrity. It's the comedian Tracey Ullman, who co-authored the book
Knit 2 Together. I like her because she's unpretentious and doesn't try too hard to be hip. Although the designs in the book are kind of questionable--but then again, she didn't design them."

Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching

On October 10, Spark Craft Studios was delighted to host Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching! It was great fun to hear about Jenny’s experiences designing embroidery patterns, publishing books, and running a successful craft business. Jenny did a demo with patterns from her new book, Sublime Stitching, and answered some questions. Here’s a bit of what we learned:

- Start-up Story: Jenny was a novice stitcher just a few short years ago – once she learned to stitch, she discovered there was a huge need for updated patterns and solid how-to books, so she jumped on the business opportunity. "I learned embroidery from my mother around the time she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a stressful time. The second I started to stitch, I chilled out. It’s such a great stress reducer. There’s a reason why people do this."

- Marketing Tips: Bring cards everywhere and hand them out to everyone; Don’t be above guerilla marketing techniques (like setting the homepage on café computers to your business website!); Customer service is key.

- Book Suggestion: The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. "This book advises you to work ON your business, not IN your business – you have to be thinking about the big picture and not get buried in the details."

- Major Accomplishments: Two publications – the Stitch-It Kit and Sublime Stitching (Chronicle Books); A pattern line from Plaid Industries/Bucilla

- Embroidery Tips: "The best way to learn embroidery is to have someone teach you" and "Swipe embroidery floss with Velcro to separate the strands before you start working."

- Most popular patterns: Dia de los Muertos, I Luv Veggies, Monkey Love

- On Jenny’s Crafting to-do list: "Experimenting with embroidering different types of materials. Recently I made a leather embroidery design with human hair."

Lion Brand Knitting Tutorial

From customer Laura T.:

"As a beginning knitter I was having all sorts of problems with twisted stitches, dropped stitches, extra stitches, and really funky issues with the ends of my rows. Then I discovered this great little knitting tutorial that I could download, or reference online ('cause sometimes I knit at my desk at work. Shh...don't tell my boss.) I like that the pictures are very big and I easy to understand. It's a great reference."

Knitter's Companion

From customer Heather K.:

"The Knitter’s Companion book – this book is great. It’s compact, so you can take it with you. I use it to remember how to do certain stitches. I love that I don’t have to lug around my larger knitting reference books."

Sew Subversive

The following post is from a Spark member, April M., who attended the Sew Subversive book signing event on Wednesday, September 6th:

"I found the Sew Subversive book party at Spark very inspiring. I went because I am trying to teach myself to sew and I'm interested in altering my own clothing. I haven't really shown much prowess with my sewing machine but after listening to the authors and flipping through my copy of the book I think I can become less intimidated. All three authors, Melissa Rannels, Melissa Alvarado and Hope Meng, do not possess formal sewing or fashion instruction. They're just three friends who love recycling clothes and giving themselves a funky look. I also connected with some of the other reasons one might refurbish or alter clothing such as weight loss or gain (or just trying to achieve a better fit from mass produced clothing) and recycling clothing as opposed to buying more. It's also an inexpensive way to revamp your wardrobe. After the authors told us about themselves and the background of the book as well as their business, the Stitch Lounge in San Francisco, they showed samples of projects from the book. Laid out on a table were a variety of skirts & tops along with a scarf, tote bag, pants and a hat. One of the crowd pleasers was a sun dress made from a pillowcase. The women also talked about how their modifications could even be modified ... think you can't fit in a pillowcase? Use two with a cool vintage print. Some of the other suggestions included shopping at thrift stores and buying fabric from the remnant bins. People from the audience of over 30 people asked questions and shared some ideas and inspirations. The authors signed books and welcomed more questions after their presentation. I'm sure I could have just picked up the book at my local library and become interested in some of the projects but I feel even more inspired after this event and I am very glad I attended. I like that the authors spoke to us as if we were all beginners and understood how intimidating a sewing machine can be. I know I'll be more likely to try out some ideas because of attending this event. It doesn't hurt that in our gift bags we each got a large T-Shirt to experiment with!"