Yarn Harvest

Kitty Capes for Sale

We’ve been working very hard over the past month on a product that we are now happy to announce, Kitty Capes!

Does your cat ever feel ostracized from society?  Does it ever need more attention than it gets?  Well, now you can give it all that it ever wanted by ordering a hand-knit, Yarn Harvest “Kitty Cape.”  Included in our offer is one, full length Kitty fashion cape, which makes a statement no matter which social function your kitty attends.  Whether it be a friend’s house, the vet, or just lounging around the house, your kitty will look and feel its best.  Works great in sunbeams too!

Kitty Capes come in an array of colors and one size fits all.  Order on our Products page and please specify color when ordering.  Kitty Capes retail for $19.95.

Many people often ask if we have help in unwinding our sweaters.  It is a lot of work to prepare and unwind the sweaters into yarn, so much so that we affectionately call our workspace the “sweatshop.”  We do, however, have an assistant whom on occasion will grace us with his presence.  Mainly, to just check up on us, but every once in a while, to contribute to our workday.  And by contribute, I mean get in our way and tangle our yarn.

I present to you our shop cat, Uncle Cecil.

"Supervising" the work process

~

Needless to say, we don’t mind the company, even if his “help” is sometimes wanting.  Indeed, he has proven to be somewhat of an inspiration of sorts.  People also ask if Yarn Harvest has any knitting or crocheting patterns available.  We’ve been working on a couple patterns, which will be included in our upcoming Knitting Starter Kits.  All I can say is that Uncle Cecil has proven invaluable regarding one of our patterns.

As for an update on the Knitting Starter Kits, we’re working on the instructions at the moment.  We’re hoping to have the instructions finished over the next couple of weeks, so that we can get our printer working on them soon.

Your hoping the Spring is treating you well writer,

Greg

We pulled apart our 100th sweater today!  It kind of crept up on us, but while we were stamping on sweater lot numbers, there is was: one, zero, zero.

The sweater of honor was a very dark blue, tweed sweater, which pulled apart nicely into a plump pile of 5 skeins.  Here is the sweater:

And presto, here is its light worsted weight yarn:

I doesn’t feel like we’ve pulled apart that many sweaters.  In fact it feels like we got started just yesterday.  I guess time flies,  at least when we’re working in the “sweatshop,” aka my garage.  I must say that I’m looking forward to sweater #200, then #500… and then #1,000 and onwards.  We are definitely growing bigger.

Which brings us to the second milestone we’ve reached.  Yarn Harvest yarn is now available in a brick-and-mortar retail establishment!  More specifically, an artisan gallery here in East Austin.  This is a big step for us and we are naturally excited about it.  The gallery is called Goods East and it is located at 1601 E Cesar Chavez.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at HOPE Farmer’s Market this Sunday.  HOPE was recently named the best thing to do in Austin on Sundays by the Austin Chronicle, and I couldn’t agree more.  Come see us and enjoy the last weekend in January.

Cheers,

Greg

IMPORTANT NOTE: We will NOT be at the HOPE Farmer’s Market either January 3rd or 10th.  We are taking a much needed vacation to recharge our batteries after the busy holiday season.  We will be back at HOPE for regular business starting Sunday, January 17th.

The year 2009 was a very good year for Yarn Harvest.  And we want to thank everyone for the absolutely amazing support and feedback we’ve received.  This is our first try at being entrepreneurial and it definitely has a learning curve to it.  Happily though, we say goodbye to the decade knowing that we have everything set up for us to keep growing in 2010.  We are sustainable ourselves… which is always a good feeling.

So what are our plans for 2010?  Well, for starters we are going to begin offering more products salvaged from sweaters.  In addition to yarn skeins, we will also be selling felt pieces and buttons for your crafting needs.  We will also be exploring the possibilities of us starting to sell our yarn in area yarn shops.  If all goes well, Yarn Harvest will soon be coming to a store near you!

But mostly, we want to focus on getting to know more knitters and crocheters in the first months of 2010.  It has been the most pleasant surprise to find that the thing we enjoy most about setting up shop at HOPE is meeting our customers. It keeps us motivated and constantly exited to be doing what we do.

So on that note,  I want to wish all of our friends, old and new, the very, very best and a Happy New Year.

Cheers,

Greg

Badda bing…  Badda boom.  Out rolls my newest and shiniest koozie to-date.  I cast on fewer stitches this time, so it fits like a glove.  And narry a dropped stitch in the entire project, if I may say so myself.  I think one more koozie like this and I’ll be able to declare mastery over all koozies that are orange, light-worsted weight, and made-up as I go along.

The thing I learned this koozie, was how using different combinations of stitches really makes a difference in how tight-knit the koozie turns out.  The bottom half of the koozie is seed stitch, while the top half is garter stitch.  I could feel the yarn tighter on the needles when I was doing garter stitch, while seed stitch was much more loose.  In layman’s terms, the top half is packed in like sardines in rows, while the bottom half is more like the net to catch the sardines with.

In other equally important news, we set up shop for the first time at the HOPE Farmer’s Market in East Austin this past Sunday.  It was fantastic.  HOPE is relatively new, this only being its 6th or so Sunday, and I think it has a bright future ahead of it.  It is situated at 4th and Waller, at an old warehouse that has been refitted into an artist studio.  Half of the market is fresh produce and food items, while the second half is dedicated to art and other hand-made creations.

The minute we got to the market, it felt like the right place for us.  The vibe just felt good.  So much so, that we are going to make it our regular gig here in Austin.  Every Sunday, you will be able to find us at HOPE Farmer’s Market, from here on out ’til the foreseeable future.

The best part, in my opinion, of HOPE is that it opens at 11:00am. Not at the break of dawn, as most farmer’s markets do.  The extra couple of hours after a Saturday night is very much appreciated in my book.  And plus, once you do leisurely roll into HOPE, it’s the perfect time for brunch!  Come see us this Sunday and see what I mean… good times at HOPE.

Your glad to have found a home blogger,

Greg

I opened up my Austin American-Statesman this Thursday morning to find an article titled, “Artist turns old sweaters into new fun.” Needless to say, I was excited to read more.  This is right up the alley with what Yarn Harvest is doing.  It is too cool to find out other nifty things artists are doing with second-hand products.

The artist, Sarah Bird, takes her second-hand sweaters and tumbles them in a washer, turning them into pieces of felt.  She then takes those felt scraps and crafts hats, scarves, slippers, and other wearable pieces of art.  And this year, she’s been invited to participate in the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar… congrats to her for that!

The coolest part about what she does is that she finds her sweaters way down in Laredo, at huge warehouses full of discarded clothing.  This clothing is packed up and exported to developing countries, where they are sold in markets.  Now that you think about it, I imagine that this is one reason why you find Nike shirts in every country of the world.

We’re always on the lookout for new sources of sweaters, and hopefully we’ll be able to make a trip down to Laredo ourselves, to dig through this mountain of second-hand clothing before they get shipped away from our shores.

And speaking of digging, it is definitely time to dig in for the winter.  Snow is forecast for the weekend here in Central Texas!  Yarn Harvest will be up in Canton, TX for their Trade Days, and we are going to make sure we bundle up.  Packing for our trip, I feel like we are heading out on an arctic expedition or something.  We’ll be back in Austin on Sunday though, for the HOPE Farmer’s Market.  Hopefully, it will still be crisp, wintery, and full of holiday cheer down here.

Your excited to be in Austin this Holiday Season blogger,

Greg

We’ve planned out our holiday schedule for the year, so now we know where we will be setting up shop in the upcoming weeks.  With retailers calling the Friday after Thanksgiving “Black Friday,” and online stores calling the following Monday “Cyber Monday,” we figured we’d just out and claim the entire month of December.  How about that for retail ambition!

So, our “Yarn Harvest December” is as follows:

December 4th and 5th we will be up in Canton, TX for their monthly First Monday Trade Days.
December 6th we will be at the HOPE Farmer’s Market in East Austin.
December 13th we will be at the HOPE Farmer’s Market in East Austin.
December 17th we will be at the Parkside Community School Holiday Bazaar in Austin.
December 18th and 19th we will be at the Fredericksburg Trade Days outside of Stonewall, TX.
December 20th we will be at the HOPE Farmer’s Market in East Austin.
December 27th we will be at the HOPE Farmer’s Market in East Austin.

All the details of the events, including directions and websites, can be found on our products page towards the bottom.

Oh, I received plenty of compliments about my koozie over Thanksgiving.  I used it extensively to put it through its paces and it performed wonderfully.  Handled like a dream… taking corners well and never loosing a drop.  I’m starting on a new and improved koozie soon and it was suggested that I knit in the UT Longhorn logo on my next go around.  My attempt should be interesting, in the least.  Stay tuned.

Looking forward to more cold weather.  Cheers,

Greg