The Craft Begins

1.  Six and a Half Stitches pairs thoughtful words with simple, inspiring photographs.  A great place to visit to feel a little bit more centered.

2.  If you enjoy mid-century illustration and related visual goodies, look no further than Stickers and Stuff.

3.  My Paper Crane is campy, colorful and fun.  A great place to look for easy and gorgeous project ideas.

4.  For a massive collection of widely varied but equally magnificent illustrations, photographs, ads and more, look no further than the aptly-named Inspiration Resource.

Here’s a roundup of some knitting-related resources I’ve found lately.  I’m sure you know of one or two (or all) of them, but just in case, here they are:

1.  Just in time for fall, a lovely scarf pattern from Sushi Pie.

2.  Purl Soho is one of the best yarn shops around (so I’ve heard), however, if you don’t live in NY, they’ve got a great website too.

3.  If you’re a DIY kind of person and like to dye your own fiber, PRO Chemical and Dye is a great place to find great quality dyes.  If you’re not a knitter, they also have marbling and batik supplies, as well as lots of other goodies.

4.  If you’d like to learn how to spin your own yarn, MAKE: has a great starter’s kit in their shop.

5.  If you’d like to forget all of the hard stuff and just knit, Spinning Wheel Studio has some great hand-spun yarns.

6.  One of my favorite knitting blogs, Pickles, has a great new yarn shop.  And $5 international shipping this month only!

I’ve always had a real affinity for oilcloth.  It’s like fabric, only better, as the ends don’t fray and it’s entirely possible to easily cut strange shapes out of the material.  Plus, it comes in such happy, punchy, kitschy patterns and colors.  I think the possibilities are endless.  Tote bags, picnic cloths, book covers, place mats, and party bunting are all ideas.  I’m lucky enough to have a few shops in town that carry lots of fun oilcloth patterns by the yard, since we’re so close to Mexico, but you can find lots of choices at this online shop.

What would you make with oilcloth?

I’ve always been attracted to other people’s handwriting.  Neat, messy, decorative, or just outright terrible, there’s something really appealing about it.  It’s said that you can tell a lot about someone’s personality by their penmanship, and I really think that’s true.  Fun fact: your handwriting is wired into your brain.  If you learned how to effectively write with your toes, your handwriting would be the same as it is now.  Mine looks sort of like my dad’s – I think it comes from all of those years of forging permission slips (not that they wouldn’t let me go on class trips, but I just was forgetful).  I think that beautifully calligraphy and script is just taking that notion to another level.

1.  Keith Morris manages to make his penmanship look like that of a machine.  It’s so precise and well thought out.  You can tell that he’s put years into perfecting his craft.

2.  I’ve always admired Jenna’s work.  You see it in all sorts of high-end magazines, catalogs and other publications, and for good reason.  I like it because I think it’s a bit more of an organic style; it looks like handwriting, but really, really amazing handwriting.

3.  John Stevens does very traditional work, but so beautiful.  The ornamentation is outstanding.  He does do invites and weddings, if you’re looking for something special for your big day.

4.  Ale Paul seems to have this lettering thing DOWN.  All sorts of lovely examples can be found at his flickr.

5.  A special shout-out for Stephanie DeArmond.  She did her masters at the University of Colorado at Boulder when I was there – I remember seeing her work at the MFA exhibition.  This is particularly important because a) it proves to me that it’s possible that artists can make it, I’ve seen it personally and b) something good can come out of their crap art program.  That aside, I like the way she’s taken the notion of calligraphy and turned it into something totally different.