admin, Author at Marly Bird

Forbes: Craftsy #19 Most Promising Company

January 22, 2014 By admin

We all know that I love Craftsy with all my heart. Not only do some of the best people in the yarn industry work there but they have been a breath of fresh air in just about ALL Crafting Communities.

It looks like they are getting noticed even more as Forbes just announced they rate Craftsy #19 Most Promising Company of 2014. How cool is that?

I would like to congratulate Craftsy on the wonderful success AND I want to let you all in on some of my favorite Craftsy classes.

Well, the best class on Craftsy is of course my class *wink*.

Mittens and Glove Galore takes a knitter from beginner to advanced with a variety of 5 patterns that teach everything from working with double pointed needles, picking up stitches, working in lace, reading charts, thrumming and stranded colorwork. Get this class for 50% off now and don’t miss out on what over 7000 other knitters have learned 🙂

A new class recently added to the wonderful Craftsy knitting classes is Choose Your Own Sweater Adventure with the amazing Eunny Jang.

Something that all knitters need to know are Seaming Handknits by Chris Blysma and

Blocking Handknits by Kate Atherley

If you are interested in trying out some of the other craft classes available I can tell you that I am enrolled in many…here are a few 🙂

Machine Quilting: Free Motion and More
Design and Sew A-line Skirts
Clean and Simple Cake Design

Go take a look at these classes and more. Trust me…you might find me as a fellow student in your class.

xoxo

Marly Bird

Edie Eckman Knit and Crochet

January 21, 2014 By admin 30 Comments

Today on the Yarnthing Podcast with Marly Bird: Edie Eckman, knit and crochet designer extraordinaire!

Edie learned to knit and crochet about the same time from her Grandmother when she was young. She started out making Barbie clothes and stuffed animals and graduated to sweaters after she got married. In the early 90’s she co-owed a yarn shop which fed her yarn habit to such a degree that when they closed Edie decided she needed a way to feed it. While the shop was open, she had been designing for customers and that translated nicely into her new business. After a few years, she was able to completely quit her day job and focus on designing.

Edie has many books out and does several on-line classes with Craftsy. She started out publishing a few knitting books and her first big crochet book was the Crochet Answer Book. Two of Marly’s favorite crochet books are also from Edie: Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs and Around the Corner Crochet Borders. These books are really great and should be in every crocheter’s (and knitters!) library. In Around the Corner Crochet Borders, Edie shows not just the straight borders, but also how to turn the corners nicely! Once of her most recent books was Connect the Shapes Crochet Motifs and is all about crochet motifs and the many ways you can join them together. To check out all of Edie’s books, go to the book section of her website here.

Edie also teaches two classes on Craftsy: Joining Crochet Motifs and How to Say it-Pattern Writing for Knitters. Joining Crochet Motifs builds off of the book Connect the Shapes and shows you the techniques she talks about. How to Say It walks you through the pattern writing process and can also help any knitter read and understand their patterns.

To hear about all the other awesome things Marly and Edie talked about, listen in below!

Current Knitting Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with MarlyBird on BlogTalkRadio

You can find Edie on: her website EdieEckman.com, Craftsy, Ravelry, Facebook, and Twitter.

And we won’t forget the GIVEAWAY! One lucky commenter will win a copy of Edie Eckman’s book, Around the Corner Crochet Borders. Leave a comment with Edie’s multi-part keyword for your chance to win!

Let’s give some love to our sponsors!
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos
Craftsy.com/yarnthing
Indian Lake Artisans
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Bijou Basin Ranch
Buffalo Wool Co.
Green Mountain Spinnery
KnitCrate

Miss Babs Hand Dyed Yarns and Fiber

January 16, 2014 By admin 33 Comments

Tuesday on the YarnThing Podcast with Marly Bird: Miss Babs Ausherman of Miss Babs Hand Dyed Yarns and Fiber

In addition to all the awesome announcements for the great things coming from Marly (listen in below for all the details), Miss Babs joins Marly to talk about the company she started.

Babs comes from a very creative family; her siblings range from glassblowers to sculptors to potters (as well as an engineer for good measure). She herself is both a knitter and a crocheter. She learned to knit from her mother, who also knit, and learned to crochet in her teens. While she didn’t knit and crochet for many years, she always did some kind of handwork like needlework with her mother. She and her family moved to Tennessee and Babs was no longer working 60 hours a week so she took knitting back up. After a while she started to spin which lead to dying the yarn. She took a class learning about natural dying and started dying everything. At this point, she had too much yarn for herself and started selling it at local shops. In 2005, she stopped working as an adjunct at a local college and made the yarn dying her full time business.

The business really started going in part due to necessity. Babs’ husband became disabled in 2006 and Babs became the breadwinner for the family. After a rough first few years and a lot of hard work, Miss Babs Hand Dyed Yarns and Fiber is the thriving business it is today. Miss Babs started as a kitchen dying operation. She took over the workshop area from her husband in around 2005 and they have recently expanded to double their space.

Now to talk about the yarns! Miss Babs dyes and sells five yarn weights; lace, fingering, sport, DK, and worsted, and fiber. Each yarn weight and fiber comes in several fiber contents including merino wool, alpaca, silk and bluefaced leicester wool. And the best part is the colors! Miss Babs does several repeatable monochromatic colors. These are the same every time she dyes them. Miss Babs also does what she calls Babettes. Babettes are one-of-a-kind, unrepeatable color combinations that are different every time. A few are somewhat repeatable in that she will use the same colors in a similar way to get a relatively repeatable result. You can see just a taste below, go to the Miss Babs website to see every color available now!

Repeatable Plum Uberraschung Babette

Naughty Fairy Babette

You can find Miss Babs on: their website MissBabs.com, Facebook, Ravelry, Twitter, and Pintrest.

Check Out Knitting Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with MarlyBird on BlogTalkRadio

And we can’t forget the Giveaway! Leave a comment below that includes Miss Babs’ keyword for your chance to win!

Let’s give some love to our sponsors!
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos
Craftsy.com/yarnthing
Indian Lake Artisans
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Love of Knitting and Love of Crochet
Bijou Basin Ranch

Editor of Crochet! Ellen Gormley

January 7, 2014 By admin 22 Comments

The New Editor of Crochet! Ellen Gormley joined Marly on the podcast today to talk about becoming the Editor of Crochet! Magazine.

Ellen began designing crochet when she became a stay-at-home mom after the birth of her first child. She had been crocheting most of her life and needed a way to turn her passion into a business. Since then she has become a contributor on the Knit and Crochet Now! TV show and is now the new editor of Crochet! Magazine. Keeping much of the same feel and tone for the patterns in the magaizine, one of the new things Ellen is going to start introducing is stitch diagrams to go with the patterns! Keep a look out for them starting with the August issue. Listen in below for more of her ideas for Crochet! and her encouragement for new designers (she knows where you are coming from, she was there too!).

Press Release from Annies:

Ellen Gormley, crochet designer, popular blogger and teacher will now oversee the planning and editing of Crochet! She will work closely with Carol Alexander, executive editor of Crochet! and Crochet World. With Carol’s creative vision and leadership, Crochet! continues its legacy as one of the most popular crochet magazines in the industry. “It has been my joy and privilege to work as editor of Crochet! magazine for the past decade. It has evolved into a highly regarded publication, and I’m proud of the respect and recognition it has gained in the needlecraft industry. I know that in Ellen’s hands it will continue to soar and be the best it can be,” says Carol.

Ellen brings a wealth of crochet knowledge and expertise to the magazine. She has been designing and teaching for eight years and is currently one of the crochet experts on the Annie’s television show, Knit and Crochet Now!, which is broadcast on PBS. “I have along history working with Annie’s, and it is a real honor and personal achievement to be coming on board as the editor of Crochet!,” says Ellen. Her debut issue of Crochet! will be the autumn 2014 edition.

Ellen’s designs have been published in Crochet!, Crochet World, Interweave Crochet, Crochet Today and Inside Crochet. Her creative passion for crocheting afghans inspired two best-selling design books: Go Crochet! Afghan Design Workshop and Learn Bruges Lace. Her next book, Crocheting Clothes Kids Love, co-authored with Shelby Allaho, will be released in February 2014. She is also a teacher of two Annie’s online classes: Learn to Crochet and Crocheting With Beads. Ellen Gormley earned a B.A. in art and socio-psychology from the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, before earning her masters in community counseling from the University of Cincinnati. Ellen began her crochet career as a stay-at-home mom. She has built an active blog and online presence, while teaching at her local yarn store and traveling to speak at the Crochet Guild of America’s Professional Development Day. She served as the mentor coordinator for the CGOA for a few years before continuing to guide and mentor other aspiring crochet designers in the program. Ellen and her husband, Tom, live near Cincinnati with their two children. In her spare time, Ellen volunteers in the school library and enjoys staying fit by running each day.

You can find Ellen: on her blog GoCrochet, Ravelry, and her on-line classes with Annie’s Crafts (the direct links are on her blog). And if you haven’t listened to it already, you can also hear Ellen when she joined the cast and crew of Knit and Crochet Now! with Marly on the podcast in November 2013.

And we can’t forget the Giveaway! Leave a comment below with Ellen’s keyword for your chance to win your own 1-year subscription to Crochet! Magazine!

Discover Knitting Internet Radio with MarlyBird on BlogTalkRadio

Let’s give some love to our sponsors!
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos
Craftsy.com/yarnthing
KnitCrate
Indian Lake Artisans
Buffalo Wool Co
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Love of Knitting and Love of Crochet
Bijou Basin Ranch

Imperial Stock Ranch: From Oregon to Sochi 2014

December 17, 2013 By admin 41 Comments

This Tuesday on the last Yarnthing Podcast of 2013: Jeanne Carver of Imperial Stock Ranch: from Oregon to Sochi 2014!

The Imperial Stock Ranch is a family owned and operated ranch located in the high desert area of Oregon. Dan and Jeanne Carver are the fourth owners of Imperial Stock Ranch. It was started in 1870’s by Richard Hinton. He started raising sheep in the 1880’s and helped develop the Columbia breed of sheep which is ideally suited to the high desert terrain and produces high grade wool. James Hinton took over from his father in 1915 and kept expanding the empire. Through various family dramas and such, he ended up selling the ranch in half-stakes to George Ward who took over the ranch fully in 1967. George Ward then sold the ranch to the Carvers in 1988 and they have been running it since. You can read all about their sustainability practices, their designation as a National Historical District, and their educational program on the Imperial Stock Ranch website.

The Ranch didn’t always produce yarn. Originally the ranch sold their wool, but in 1999, the buyer that had been buying their wool for 100 years told them they were moving overseas and wouldn’t be buying their wool anymore. At the same time, the US domestic production of lamb (the other big product of the ranch at the time) was being decimated by imported frozen lamb from Australia and New Zealand. They started making yarn on-site and Jeanne became involved in the local knitting guild. Their business grew and in 2009, they started collaborating with designers including Oregon knitwear designer Leigh Radford and internationally known fashion designer Anna Cohen. You can find all the yarns and patterns from Imperial Ranch Yarns on their website ImperialYarn.com. It isn’t out right now, but Anna Cohen’s Imperial Collection will be available in Fall 2014.

Now this isn’t the end for Imperial Yarn. Last year, out of the blue, Anna got a call from product development for Polo Ralph Lauren. They were starting to source American yarn for the 2014 Sochi Olympics but weren’t letting that info out yet. Anna sent off a few samples of their yarn and had a few more conversations with her guy in New York. A few months later, the design team from Ralph Lauren came out to see the ranch. Still not knowing what the yarn was for, they made an order in December of 2012. Now, over 40 US producers and manufacturers are part of the Made in the USA effort for the apparel for Team USA at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Ralph Lauren has produced a video all about the journey of the opening ceremony sweater which you can see below; listen and watch for Jeanne! Listen in below to the podcast to hear the whole story!

You don’t just have to watch their Olympic yarn, you can get it yourself! Erin, a worsted weight 3-ply wool is available in a variety of colors on their website. You also might be able to find the official Olympic colors at your local yarn shop. Imperial Ranch Yarns produces 10 yarns and rovings that include not just wool, but also alpaca and cotton in amazing colors. Check out all their yarn and kits here.

As always the GIVEAWAY! Leave a comment below for your chance to win the Rhombus Feather Shawl Kit in the color Rain. Marly will announce the winner on the first podcast of 2014 on January 7th.

More Knitting Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with MarlyBird on BlogTalkRadio

Let’s give some love to our sponsors!
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos

Craftsy.com/yarnthing

Indian Lake Artisans
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Love of Knitting and Love of Crochet
Bijou Basin Ranch

Halos of Hope Round 2

December 16, 2013 By admin 2 Comments

Thursday on the YarnThing Podcast with Marly Bird: Halos of Hope president Pam Haschke!

Pam is the Executive Director and Founder of Halos of Hope. She was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer in June of 2004. Her treatment included chemotherapy, the most apparent side effect of which is hair-loss. Throughout her treatment, her favorite scarves and hats that provided her comfort from pain on her scalp were handmade. She decided that this was a great way to help other people dealing with the same feelings she had while undergoing chemotherapy. And that is how Halos of Hope started.

So if you haven’t heard of Halos of Hope before, they are a non profit corporation that gathers handmade hats that they distribute to cancer treatment centers across the United States. Halos of Hope uses 100% of individual monetary donations for the shipping and handling expenses for distributing the hats. The hats they distribute are made by handcrafters across the US and can be made anyway you know how: knit, crochet, or sewn. The only caveat is that they must be soft, so they don’t irritate already sensitive scalps.

This year has been pretty big for Halos of Hope. They ran a voting donation campaign called the Great BuZZ this year that culminated in shaving Drew Emborsky, the Crochet Dude; Mark Moraca, owner of Kollage Yarns! This campaign raised a total of $20,000!!! You can watch the video of the shaving on their website here. They also partnered with Purlescence Yarns and who hosted a 24-hour craft-a-thon which produced over 215 hats that were donated to Camp Happy Times. Listen in below to hear all about the other things Halos of Hope has been up to in the last year, including the Podcast Throwdown and Drew Emborski’s 2013 Chemo Cap Challenge!

Be sure to check out their Stories of Hope, to read about all the great stories connected to hats and Halos of Hope. You will be inspired by these amazing stories. And also participate in Stripe it Up January, use up those little bits of leftover yarn in your stash to make a hat and send it in.

You can find Halos of Hope on: their website, Facebook, and Twitter and the Podcast Throwdown on Ravelry.

Check Out Knitting Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with MarlyBird on BlogTalkRadio

Let’s give some love to our sponsors!
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos

Craftsy.com/yarnthing

Indian Lake Artisans
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Love of Knitting and Love of Crochet
Bijou Basin Ranch

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