The first is from a fun, peach colored yarn.

Which turned into this lovely hat.

The second creation was made by a fellow HOPE Farmer’s Market vendor.  Amanda Joyner is a pastry chef and her son Arthur (who happens to be quite the chef himself) gets the honor of highlighting the flower she crafted.

We love getting emails with pictures of what everyone has made with our yarn, so keep them coming.

Cheers,

Greg

Soooo, we are working to create a Knitting Starting Kit, which will include a full skein of 126-yards of yarn, a pair of needles, and a set of beginner’s instructions…. everything needed to start out knitting.  We’re still working on a lot of the details, but we hope to be able to offer it before Spring gets too far along.

And speaking of Spring, the Spring edition of Edible Austin has hit newsstands and there is a wonderful article about Yarn Harvest in it.  It even has a picture of the first koozie I ever made, complete with a local micro brew in it. Needless to say, quite exciting stuff.

Your looking forward to Spring Yarn Harvester,

Greg

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

The sweater the off-white yarn came from was a nice sweater to start with, and I’m glad it was able to find a new home.

And although I forgot to take a picture of the brown yarn sweater, here are the skeins of it all laid out.

Although the sweater tag didn’t say anything about it, we believe this brown yarn has some cashmere in it.  It has probably been our softest yarn so far.

We really like seeing what people do with out yarn, so if you’ve made something with Yarn Harvest yarn, send us a pic of it and we’ll gladly feature it here, just like this cool hat.

In other news, we had a great vacation.  We were at the Texas Country Music Fest up in Steamboat Springs.  A great time was had by all.  We’re back now, though, with fully charged batteries and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone on Sundays at HOPE Farmer’s Market.

Happy Knitting!

Greg

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

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

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

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

Indeed, I think that all the little holes, mis-stiches, and loose threads add a lot of character to my creation.  I couldn’t be more proud of it, regardless of the fact that it is a tad too short to cover the entire can.  Or that I had to overlap the length of it, since I cast on too many stiches.

I tried to follow the pattern supplied by my friend, but I must admit that a couple of times, I figured I’d just go out on a lark and reverse the order of the rows.  I think it lends the finished product an affect similar to pointellism, wherein you get a much better sense of its true grandeur when viewed from afar.

All in all, what I’m trying to say is that although it may have plenty of little mistakes, I couldn’t be happier with it.  It was big learning experience for sure, and I’m glad I pushed through all the hiccups along the way.

Next time, I’m going to refine it so that it fits a little snugger.  And maybe with fewer dropped stiches.  And maybe with finger holes to hold it with.  And maybe… ah, I just need to get started!

I hope the commencement of Holiday Festivities finds you well.  Cheers,

Greg

In honor of launching our online store, Sean and I will be knitting koozies. These koozies will represent our first ever attempt at a full-blown, complete knitting project. We’re mastered the art of knitting swatches, and now it is time to move on to the next level!

A friend of ours was kind enough to knit up some sample koozies to give us something to shoot for. She also provided the pattern which we will be following. Send us an email if you’d like a copy of the pattern and we’ll gladly send one to you. As you can see, these koozies are going to be some shnazzy accessories for drinking one’s favorite beverages. The only thing more fitting for the launch of our online store would be champagne-glass koozies. Wouldn’t that be cool! Perhaps for our next big milestone.

We should be able to unveil our attempts at the koozies by our next post. We’re looking forward to it and we’ll take all that beginner’s luck that is sure to flow our way.

Till next time, cheers!

The goal!