“One of the wonderful features of programs like PhotoShop, Illustrator, and InDesign is that you can design in layers, but you can’t do that in traditional sketchbooks.” explains Leslie about her inspiration for her books. “Sure, you could (and I often did) fashion some tracing paper and maybe create some Macgyveresque graph paper contraption so you could have a grid to draw from, but the solution was always awkward and I found that I lost my creative flow just trying to set up a sketchbook to meet my needs. After all of these years, I still wasn’t able to find a solution that met my needs, so I decided it was time to create the perfect sketchbook to meet my own needs and the needs of other creatives.”

Over email I asked Leslie about using local paper producers to create her books, how her books are made, and the many ways layer books can be used for designs.

— First, some basic questions: I was wondering where you’re from and where your books are made? Also, how long have you been making them?

I live in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area on top of a beautiful mountain. Layer Books are made in Chattanooga. Although, we’ve been working on ideas for Make Awesomeness for a few months, we started creating the Layer Books a little over one-month ago.

– Your main mission is to support the efforts of creatives. Why does this speak to you?

I am a creative. My husband is a creative. Most of our friends are creatives. I am a professor and my students are creatives. I’m fortunate to have a life filled with people who are creative. It’s important for me to support the people I care about—the people who bring meaning into my life and who give greater meaning to our world in general.

Stephanie and I want to create products that support a positive message. When a creative reaches for their sketchbook, they are usually embarking on a new challenge. They are trying to capture a new idea. This can be a daunting part of the creative process. As we all have experienced, a blank page can be a terrifying thing. It can actually stop creativity. Consider this: you reach for a Layer Book and it speaks to you and says “MAKE AWESOMENESS. You can do it. You can make awesomeness.” You open the Layer Book, see a pop of color, and you are energized. You touch the translucent paper, and you know you can make awesomeness anyway you want to—in layers, without layers, with graph paper to guide you, or with a blank slate. You can use your favorite sketching tools without worrying about ink seeping through onto the next page. You make awesomeness, and you make it on your own terms and in your own creative way.

This is what Layer Books allow creatives to do: sketch like they design—in layers.

— Where did the idea for your books come from? It seems like they would be great for animators or any graphic designer who works in PhotoShop a lot. Do you have a background in that field?

The idea for Layer Books developed out of a love for paper and a desire to have a sketchbook that was a better fit for my creative process.

I had been thinking a lot about technology and about my creative process. I have been doing graphic design since I was fourteen. At that time, I had to sketch before I jumped onto a computer because computers were slow and it was more like crawling than jumping. So sketching was an important part of my process, which looked something like this:

Sketch on paper.

Choose the best direction.

Use a computer to execute the final.

Repeat.

– What do most people use your books for? How do people who don’t work on computers for design use them?

One of the most interesting aspects about Layer Books is that people are using them for a vast variety of sketching. One person is using the Layer Books to help her with a new stained glass business. We have parents buying them for their children because they love the positive message. We have a young boy around the age of 9 who plans on using them to create different themes for the cars he draws. He mentioned some car designs with butterflies and others with flames. We have had builders and people in the construction field use the Layer Books to help design different types of windowsills for a standard window. Layer Books are so new that it will be exciting to find out the various ways that people are using them. We’ve had conversations with web designers who plan on using the ability to layer their sketches to create various options for navigation and content like they would in PhotoShop. We’ve had people suggest that Layer Books are great for sketching and developing typefaces. Layer Books are also a great solution for creating patterns crafts like cross-stitch. It is easy to create a multi-colored pattern when you’re able to sketch in layers.

— Is there a sheet of graph paper behind each translucent sheet? And is the blank sheet secured to the interior of the back cover of the book?

The graph paper and the blank sheet of paper are secured in the back of the book. The blank sheet fold over comes over from the top of the book and the graph paper fold over comes over from the bottom of the book. We created it this way so that it allows people the ability to view their work in as many layers as they want (up to about five layers works best), and they can see their work with or without the graph paper.

— What’s your process like? Do you cut all of the paper and bind the books yourself? How long does it typically take to create one?

I work with another designer and maker of awesomeness, Stephanie Tate. We combine our efforts with a local, family-owned print shop called WonderPress. The owner (aka paper whisperer), Cy DeVilbiss, helps ensure that each Layer Book is filled with awesomeness.

Each and every book is handmade and takes about seven minutes to create.

We are still figuring out the best and most efficient process in producing the books. The current process is to digitally print “MAKE AWESOMENESS” on the slate-colored paper. This serves as the outside cover of the Layer Book. We’ve matched the color of the type to the inside color of the book. The inside cover of the book is a different piece of paper; this is how we can get such a bold pop of color. We don’t print anything on the inside cover. The next step is to adhere the slate-colored paper and the pop-of-color paper together. This step is done by hand, as well. By adhering two pieces of paper together we get the equivalent of a super-thick 200# paper. Then the super-thick paper is cut to size and punched for wire binding.

Another reason we use two different colors is to create a beautiful edge to the book. When you look at the edge of the sketchbook, you can see the two different colors. In other words, white paper does not show on the edges.

The translucent paper is cut and punched for the wire binding. Each Layer Book has 50 sheets of translucent paper. The graph paper is printed, cut, punched, and scored so it can fold over neatly. The solid blank paper is cut, punched, and scored. Then all of the pieces (the front cover, translucent pages, solid blank fold over, graph paper fold over, and back cover) are assembled and bound. We use silver wire to bind the books. Then each book is individually shrink-wrapped to make sure no moisture gets to the Layer Book during shipping.

Layer Books are a very production-heavy product. Each Layer Book is reviewed before it is shipped. We want people to feel the awesomeness as they open their package.

— Where do you get your special translucent paper from? Why is this type of paper better than standard tracing paper?

We work with WonderPress and a local xpedx paper representative, Gloria Strand, to obtain the paper. The translucent paper is more durable than tracing paper, and it doesn’t unintentionally rip like tracing paper does. However, if you wish to tear a page out of the Layer Book, you can do so easily. The translucent paper is thicker than tracing paper but is actually more transparent. Since the translucent paper is thicker than tracing paper, you can use pencil and color pencils as well as markers, sharpies, and pens without the ink bleeding trough the paper. It’s pretty amazing. We suggest that you wait a couple of seconds before touching heavy inks, though. If you want to erase pencil from the translucent paper, you can do so and it looks like a fresh piece of paper—no marks.

Interested in winning a Make Awesomeness Layer Book? Please respond to this post either by leaving a comment on this post or on the Hello Craft Facebook page explaining how you’ll use your new Make Awesomeness Layer Book if you win.

Enter both times for more chances to win! This contest will close and a winner will be chosen next Tuesday, 8/02.

You can learn more about Make Awesomeness Books here.

This giveaway is now closed.

Acute How-To: Faux Milk Glasses
ScoutieGirl
Looking for a fun crafting project that’s easy, cheap and great for gift-giving? Check out Regina Morrison’s super awesome, faux milk glass crafting project on Scoutie Girl. This why-didn’t-I-think-of this-before project shows you how to create housewares that go with any type of decor from vintage to modern, and look like they cost a pretty penny. Definitely a must-make for anyone looking for add a touch of pretty to their living quarters.

Craft Product Review: Amazing Mold Putty
Craft Test Dummies
Having been amazed and inspired by crafting all-stars such as Art School Dropout and the Naughty Secretary Club, I’ve always wanted to make my own cute jewelry pieces, but have never really dipped into that type of craft. So I was excited to read this review on the easy to get, Amazing Mold Putty, that allows you to make a massive amount of objects from one simple mold. This review is fantastic, as it shows the process and also the versatility for the putty itself. For all mold-making beginners, I highly recommend you check out this post.

Artist’s Village: Cherry Blossom Festival
Artist Village + Bazaar Bizarre
Our friends at Bazaar Bizaare have teamed up with NEW PEOPLE for a collaborative, curated shopping event that is part of the nationally renowned, Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival. Hosted at the NEW PEOPLE building in Japantown, this all-floor vertical art village will take place on April 9th, 10th, 16th & 17th.  This show will feature a great line up of indie crafters as well as a gallery opening.

Etsy Featured Seller: Playing Grown Up
Etsy
Chalkboards are making a great comeback through of the indie crafting community. What was once an object mostly synonymous with schools and all the memories of teachers past, has now become a growing medium in the crafting world. As the featured seller on Etsy, Brooke Premo of Playing Grown Up shares insights into her chalkboard crafting/event photo booth world that sounds like tons of fun. Her chalkboard creations totally rock… and knowing that Premo is also a teacher, make her craft that much sweeter.

Everything You Need to Know About Podcasting
Fortuitious
Podcasting is a great way to enhance your relationship with your audience. Whether you’re a crafter who wants to show your customers how you make your goods, a shop owner who wants to promote your sellers, or a blogger who needs the most effective way to express your thoughts, podcasting is an interesting and fascinating tool. This article highlights everything you need to know about this medium including the tools, formats and timing.

Below are some of my favorite calendars. The Writing Women Calendar from groovygirl includes quotes from famous female writers like Sylvia Plath, Anais Nin and Gertrude Stein. Also, as I’ve been a bit obsessed with llamas lately, I’m particularly attracted to the Macchu Picchu image included in bruboo’s calendar, which features images of toy models the artist captured during her travels. Some of them, like the ones from AfricanGray and PaperSubmarine, allow you to customize the calendar by coloring or embellishing with your own design. No matter what your style, there are plenty of calendars to chose from. If I left one out, please share in the comments.

‘2011 Printable Calendars’

Printable 2011 postcard… flrwnx $3.00	2011 PRINTABLE CALENDAR… bubbo $9.00	DIY Tidepool Calendar 2… AfricanGrey $9.50
2011 Printable Writing … groovygrrl $5.00	2011 Fun Cubes Printabl… Reworkshop $4.50	cut-out – 2011 printabl… bialakura $6.00
2011 Printable Calendar… bluetricycle $5.00	2011 calendar – print a… ALittleHut $5.00	Eat More Veg 2011 Calen… LaurieCoyleDes… $20.00
DIY Blank Printable 201… PaperSubmarine $3.00	2011 Printable Write In… TheArtOfJoy $7.00	NEW Large 2011 Town Cal… TheSketchedBoo… $27.00
Creative Inspiration – … empapers $10.00	2011 Calendar Printable… printableproje… $5.00	2011 dodecahedral calen… Paper2Download $5.00

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

This weeks picks:

Taking Plastic
Girls Can Tell
Any crafter who can process credit cards on-site will tell you that being able to accept plastic at craft shows definitely helps with sales. However, on the back end of things, sometimes getting to those funds can be a long wait or a headache in the making. Sara Selepouchin, of Girls Can Tell, shares a great info-graphic on her blog that she found through Twitter. The graphic shows the path of your credit card funds though all its twists and turn, in a simple, well laid-out way.

Tell Your Story
The Fiction Project
Calling all zine makers, comic-book writers, diarists, poets and storytellers: The Fiction Project need your work for it’s traveling library show. This project is a fantastic opportunity to tell and shares stories from across the country using text and visual art. The 2011 coast-to-coast tour has been set, and after traveling across the country, the Fiction Project will enter into the Brooklyn Art Library’s narrative collection, archiving all the stories to share with the public. The participation fee is $25 and includes a Moleskine book for you to write in. Each book has its own barcode, which will allow you to see where your book is during the tour, as well as how many times it’s been read…. and that’s pretty darn cool.

Free Business Mentoring
MicroMentor
Whether you’re a part-time crafter just starting to sell at craft shows or you’re an entrepreneur looking to open up your first boutique, having a concrete business plan is a must. While there are lots of friends to consult and lawyers to deal with, it’s best to be able to talk to someone who has had success in the business world, and can help get you started on the right path. That’s where MicroMentor come in. This free, online service connects business professionals (who donate their time and knowledge), with entrepreneurs, to share one-on-one advice to help build successful businesses. This is a great resource for anyone looking to grow their business as well as their revenue streams.

Handmade Snow Ice Cream
Crafting a Green World
With a blanket of snow rocking the Northeast, this timely article on Crafting a Green World share awesome tips and links on how to upcycle the abundance of white stuff to make your own yummy snow ice cream. The recipes are pretty simple and you probably own all the ingredients already (coffee creamers, vanilla extract, etc). This is a fun and inexpensive crafting activity for kids and adults alike.

Smartphones and Business
Small Business Trends
Business mobility is becoming a necessity. Between credit card-taking devices, business apps and social networking, there is no limit to how much of your business your can conduct on the road… which comes in handy during the busy if not crazy summer craft fair season. In this Small Business Trends article, TJ McCue, dishes on tips and programs you can utilize with your smartphone to help you save money on your business while on the road. For those constantly on the craft fair circuit, this is a great way to stay in touch and conduct business matters on the cheap.

Neat-O Book
N.E.E.T. The Book
N.E.E.T. Magazine has been an online fixture in the handmade community since 2005. To celebrate its 5th-year anniversary, the magazine has come out with a retrospective book by 5 writers, who highlight 5 people, 5 shops, 5 bloggers, 5 photographers and 5 homes. For anyone in the indie crafting biz, you’ll recognize at least a few names and get swept up in the cute design and layout of the book. The same book can be bought in either the hardback or the cheaper soft cover versions, as well as relish in the choice of cover art from 5 different artists.

Dudes of Craft is a weekly series from Keli Anaya exploring the mysterious world of men who craft.

I failed to mention something in the past couple of posts. Now, there is something that you might not know about me; I LOVE being environmentally friendly. I loathe throwing things away. Recycling is second nature to me and I will recycle anything that I think might be recyclable. I know the names of the plastics that fall into the numbered triangles on the bottom of plastic products.  At work, I will go so far as to pick things out of the trash to put them in the recycling bin (not usually in the kitchen, so not as gross — I did say usually).

Plastics biodegrade depending on the hardness of the plastic and we don’t know how long it will take for them to breakdown because they haven’t been around for very long.  Some estimates range from 500 to 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose.

Something has been pushing my ‘this is not environmentally friendly’ button for the past couple of weeks. This is the culprit:

Wah! Poly-Cotton Blend

The yarn I used for the past couple of videos is part cotton part synthetic. Oooops! Polyester/Cotton, Wool/Acrylic, and 100% acrylic yarns are common in craft stores. The natural elements of those blends will biodegrade, but the plastic fibers will not for at least 500 years. Whoa! I’m pretty sure that the inhabitants of Earth 2510 will not want that acrylic granny square blanket you might be making.

The good news is that several choices of natural fibers exist that will biodegrade. Two types come to mind: plant based fibers and animal based fibers.

Cotton, an old favorite, is readily available at craft stores. I’ve also seen an increase in bamboo yarn. Linen comes from flax.  You might make a outdoor rug with hemp from the cannabis plant or with jute.

Animal hair makes great yarn.  Angora wool comes from Angora rabbits, Cashmere comes from goats including the Cashmere goat, Mohair comes from the Angora goat, and good old wool comes from sheep.  From South America comes Alpaca fleece from the alpaca, Guanaco wool from the guanaco, Llama wool from the llama, and Vicuña wool from the vicuña. Don’t forget silk from the silk worm.

Or, instead of buying new yarn, you can also reuse old sweaters by harvesting the material it’s made from. Here is post 1 and 2 from Re-Nest on how to deconstruct old sweaters for their beautiful bounty.

Next time you want to chaos stitch a sweet new scarf, pick out a natural yarn. It will feel so much better on your skin and will help out the planet.

P.S.  Ooops #2: my crochet hook is plastic. They do come in metal and wood, promise. You could also pick up a used one. The same goes for knitting needles!

Although the problems that American Apparel are facing is not exactly new news, as part of the indie crafting community I was curious to read how the company, specifically Dov Charney, is currently dealing with their financial woes. This includes the news that their accounting firm, Deloitte & Touche LLP, had resigned amid word that AA’s financial statements for 2009 may not be reliable, a finding that American Apparel does not dispute.

Allison Abell Schwartz, who wrote the article and has kept tabs on AA’s moves, suggests that one of the company’s root problems may be the rapid expansion of their stores. Charney had launched AA’s first stores in New York City, Los Angeles and Montreal in 2003. Within three years the company had opened 100 more and today seven years later, it has more than doubled its store base. Opening those stores was a major tactic that helped AA promote and foster its own distinct brand and make its products more accessible. But as with any expansion of a business, if you don’t calculate every move strategically, you end up losing quality control which seems to be the case with AA, both financially and brand-wise.

The other problems that have devastated AA are the sexual harassment case(s) against Dov Charney himself. Charney, who built AA on the word of being an ethically responsible company, has been the center of sexual harassment cases and bizarre sexual incidents. Also quite damaging was the immigration bust that occurred at the LA Factory. In the Bloomberg Businessweek article, Schwartz wrote:

Before the financial problems intensified, Charney had been contending with damaging sexual harassment allegations followed by a devastating immigration bust. Fifteen-hundred workers at the Los Angeles factory had to be let go owing to lack of documentation and another 1,000 quit for fear of being swept up for immigration violations. For a company that is proud of its insistence on domestic manufacturing, it was a costly blow. The recession has also taken a toll; the company posted same-store sales declines from February to December of 2009 and has not reported comparable store sales results since then….
… Moving too quickly isn’t the only knock against Charney. He has been sued by three former employees for sexual harassment (one suit was dismissed, one was settled, and a third remains in arbitration), and in 2004, Jane magazine reported that he masturbated in front of a reporter while being interviewed. More recently, Gawker.com reported that American Apparel makes managers photograph its female store employees so Charney can ensure they fit his aesthetic tastes, which include full eyebrows and long, natural hair. Charney says there is no official doctrine, and that they look for people who understand the brand, know how to present themselves, and can communicate the brand’s style to its customers. Still, Charney’s record makes some wonder whether he has the judgment and credibility to oversee a large company. “The travails of their senior management, all well-known, will make fixing the brand very difficult until a management change occurs,” says Johnson of Customer Growth Partners.” Allison Abell Schwartz, Bloomberg Businessweek, August 9- August 15, 2010 issue

I had first seen American Apparel in 2004, at the beginning of my crafting years. I was online looking for cheap blank tees that I could screen print on, and the American Apparel brand seemed like a great fit. Their product catalogs featured well-fitting, vibrant-colored shirts on cute girls and guys in a great design layout that was simple and neat. At the time, this was in stark contrast to how the other blank clothing companies promoted their products in their catalogs usually featuring ugly tops, pants and visors on people that looked like pro-golfers or the yachting types. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I didn’t feel like those companies understood me or what I wanted from their products.

Besides the actual shirts, one of the reasons I started ordering from AA was that they were/are self-billed as an ethically and morally-sound company providing ESL classes, affordable insurance, and a livable wage to their factory workers. At the time, this type of business practice was scarce, especially in clothing manufacturing circles.

As I have changed the type of craft that I have made/sold over the years, I haven’t really had a need to order shirts for my business, but many of my crafter friends still do. Go to any craft fair, and you’ll find that American Apparel is a staple among screen printers and folks that applique. Although other blank t-shirt companies have started to compete in this market since then, the most popular being Alternative Apparel, American Apparel is still quite visible at fairs, on sites like Etsy.com, and in their 280 stores worldwide.

The design climate of AA has shifted over the years too, from creating soft, fitted tees and undies, to becoming a hipster haven, selling leggings, skirts and bodysuits that have introduced a whole new generation to the unfortunate fashion of the 1980’s. As seasons change, so do all trends, and AA has stayed on top. American Apparel is now in the preppy biz, creating updated versions of pleated pants and button-down collared shirts for this same generation. Aside from staying on top of the trend cycles, as well as creating its own trends in clothing, AA is also a leader in the hey-its-porn-but-its-not-really-porn print advertisements that grace the back page of many alternative newspapers and magazines across the country. Now, I’m all for sex not being treated as a dirty deed and I don’t care if people want to dress like cokehead hookers with see-through shirts and glam-rock leggings. People can dress however they like. But in the midst of all the sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Charney, the ads and trends put together seems to be a bit creepy.

So at this point you may be asking yourself- “What is the point of this article?”. The point is this- the indie crafting community moves as a whole to educate consumers on the benefits of buying handmade, buying local and using environmentally friendly practices. As a community, we also embrace and promote good business practices and teach the public to care about where their products come from. As an economic force, our community spends millions of dollars every year on supplies, and we have the power to choose where those dollars go. So before you spend another penny, take a hard look at where it’s going. For better or worse, American Apparel is part of our community. They have set the bar high in terms of being a morally-responsible business. So as a community, let’s help keep them accountable to that mission.

American Apparel is in the process of making some major changes, including the appointment of a Quality Control Director and has added new senior staff. Can this company that was founded on one man’s dream fix itself to become the company that it purports to be? The verdict is still out, but as with most dreams, anything is possible and I hope so.

Kunin, an eco felt supplier, lists their fabrics as being made of eco-fi (formerly ecospun). Here’s the condensed description of the recycling process, from eco-fi’s website:

Plastic PET containers are picked up at curbside and community recycling centers, and then sorted by type and color. They are stripped of their labels and caps, washed, and crushed, then chopped into flake. These tiny pieces are melted and extruded to create fiber. The fiber produced is crimped, cut, drawn and stretched into desired length for strength, then baled. The baled fiber can be processed into fabric for a variety of textile product end uses.

Eco-fi is, essentially, polyester fiber made from 100% recycled PET plastic bottles. Pretty cool, right? Their fibers go into more than just felt. Other fabrics, batting, even carpeting can all be manufactured from eco-fi. And it can be blended with other fibers to create a wider range of textures. The best part is that eco-fi fibers (so they say) are “chemically and functionally nearly identical to those made from non-recycled fiber.” They just come from bottles that might otherwise be in a landfill, instead of depleting natural resources (and using up a whole bunch of oil) to make new fibers.

Pretty nice. I have a whole new resepct for felt, in all its candy-colored wonder.

AWESOME eco-felt wall art from DashingEtc, bottle photo via wikimedia

notecards "rescued" from the edges of press sheets, from BlueAlgae

In my “other life” I’m a graphic designer, and that often means I get asked questions about printing, and especially with this crowd, printing sustainably. Whether you’re getting business cards or postcards or something else altogether, a visit to the print shop or an online printing website can be baffling. And even moreso when you’re trying to make the right decisions for both yourself and the Earth.

Here’s a quick primer on what some of the printing terms mean in terms of sustainability…

Paper: Recycled / PCW / FSC

Choosing paper (stock) can be tricky. Many printers are offering sustainable alternatives these days, but it can be tricky to decipher which is best. These terms have become much more mainstream, and may already be familir to you, but if not, here’s the difference. Just to confuse you “Recycled” paper doesn’t come from the paper in your recycling bin. It most likely comes from waste in the paper production process, which instead of being thrown away is turned into more paper. But the pulp is essentially “new” pulp from trees. If paper is labeled as PCW, it is recycled paper coming from Post-Consumer Waste, meaning it has actually been recycled from used paper. It’s possible for something to be 100% recycled, 30% PCW. The higher PCW content, the better. FSC on the other hand, is completely new paper, but the pulp comes from trees that are sustainably harvested from managed forests that meet strict requirements set by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Coated or Uncoated?

In general, uncoated stock is the best choice for the environment. Some coatings contain nasty chemicals, and some prevent paper from easily being recycled later. That said, sometimes coatings aren’t all that bad. Aside from wanting a shinier business card (if that’s your thing), a coating can increase the lifespan of your printed piece. Like anything, it depends on your needs. If it means that you aren’t throwing away a handful of unused cards at the end of a show because they were in your pocket all day and came out a creased, yucky mess, then maybe coating is good for you. A good choice is Aqueous Coating. It is water-based and does increase your prints’ durability. It also helps your prints dry faster, meaning you get them a little quicker from your printer.

Offset? Digital? Letterpress?

Again, this all depends on what you’re looking for from your printed piece. If you’ve got your heart set on letterpress, I’m not going to try to dissuade you. And actually, you may have even more sustainable paper options with letterpress than with a conventional print house. But if you are a small business looking for a small run of business cards at a small price: go digital. Digital printers work a lot like your home printer, just on a much larger scale, and unlike offset printing or letterpress, they don’t require the production of printing plates, so there is less materials waste in the process. The quality on digital prints can be less perfect than offset prints, but you won’t notice on a business card. If you’re a photographer looking for the perfect art-print postcards, though, you might want to stay old school and go digital.

Veggie Ink?

Lots of printers are advertising that they are printing with soy- or vegetable-based inks. Go for it! I haven’t seen any difference in quality. They contain fewer VOCs, and according to this wikipedia article, make it easier for paper to be recycled later.

In summary…

So this is a lot of information…whew!…but the most important thing to take away is that there are lots of choices that you can make that can make your business materials a bit more environmentally-friendly. And you can still get the end product you want!* My last printing tip: always order more than you think you’ll need. This might sound counter-intuitive, but you’ll money and energy in the long run. The more you order the less you pay per piece, and once those machines get going it doesn’t take much to krank out another 50 or 100 or 500 cards. In fact, a larger order probably uses the paper on the press more efficiently. And, if you are ordering online, you only pay and use the energy to ship things once. A little more weight in the shipment is better than a second emergency order.

I am a terrible knitter. I lack patience, so I wind up with a drawer full of half-finished projects. However, I am a bit of a closet yarn addict, which is probably one of the other reasons behind all those half-finished projects. I see a new yarn and I want to start something new. And let me tell you, the yarn from KnoxFarmFiber has me thinking that maybe I need to start something new…

This organic, cruelty-free yarn starts out as wool from the well-cared for sheep and their other woolly friends at Knox Farm State Park, and is then carded, hand-spun, and dyed yummy colors with environmentally-friendly dyes. I love that the skeins of yarn come labeled with a photo of the animal who “donated” her wool to the process.

From KnoxFarmFiber: …the sheep are well-fed, well- cared-for, have lots of pesticide-free pasture, are protected against predators, in good health with lots of friends…and then their wool is cleaned with eco-detergent, dried in the fresh air, carded the old fashioned way and dyed by hand with low-impact environmentally friendly dyes, spun by hand, and labeled with a photo of the sheep who donated it…