Hey December! Where you goin'?!

Jean rocks. I mean, just look at this stuff.

December stuff...new from overlap sewing

Got a lot going on in the shop right now...Jean and I have been here nightly getting ready for The Big Crafty, which is Sunday. Don't know what that is? For shame! Only the best craft show in the Southeast! We will be there, which means the shop will be CLOSED, but come see us at Pack Place...

WNC Parent -2-Parent!

That's right, we are blowin' up! The wonderful Barbara Blake also featured us in an article in WNC Parent! Thank you so much! So many exclamations!

That is the boy Eli up there, the one that I try to parent, with one of his thousands of animal parades...That boy is freakin' cute, right?

Thank you to Asheville Citizen Times!

We are giving a big shout out to the newspaper today, and especially to Barbara Blake who wrote an amazingly long article about us! You all should check it out here...and yes, I do have shoulders like a linebacker.

Meadows Studios Holiday Open House/ Tree Trimming Party!

Hey there all. As you obviously can tell by now, I am a sucky blogger. That is, I am a nonblogger. Anyhoo here I am now. It seems like the holidays are upon us and we have something very sweet lined up. We are in a wonderful old building here in West Asheville. It had been virtually empty for many years before we came in, along with Dustin next door. Now the building is chock full of some amazing artists. Upstairs we have The 1000 Collective, a group of film and visual artists. Also there is Dennis Smith of Flux Glassworks, who specializes in some pretty awesome mirrors that are definitely not of your Home Depot variety. Next door up there are the studios of Anna Thompson, Kreh Mellick, and Leila Amiri, all ladies making art, and making it right. Finally, there is Bandwagon Found, an online shop selling vintage goods.

So, on Saturday December 11th from 3-8pm we are gonna open up the building for a damn fine holiday shindig! All of us in the building will have our places open, along with some special cheery stuff like bake sales and booze. Here in the shop we will be having a tree trimming party. We will show you how to make some different types of ornaments that you can then take home and teach your children slaves to make.

Come help us celebrate the new beginning to a lovely old place!

PUMPKIN CARVING PARTY!

Come celebrate fall with us and with some friendly competition! Bring your pumpkin and join in the festivities...the winner will receive gifts from Overlap and Tangle...
Bring the family, 5-7pm, Saturday 10/23

Parent and Child Art Hour, every Friday

Bring your rugrats, along with your creative spirit! Every Friday from 11:00 - 12:00 we will have space and materials set aside for you and your little ones to tackle some projects. This weeks' class will be Mono Prints. We will use potatoes, apples, and other materials to experiment with printing on paper and fabric. This is not a "taught" class, but rather a facilitated time for you to work together. We provide all materials and give you some ideas and examples...
$5.00 for materials.

Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair

So yeah, alpacas are pretty much the cutest animals ever made. I mean look at them. They look surreal. Coming up later in October, the 22-24 to be exact, is a big whopper of a fair if you are into animals. And not in a kinky way, but in a symbiotic-hair-giving-kind-of-way. All kinds of animals that produce fur that we use in some way, from llamas to sheep to goats will be represented, as well as hundreds of vendors selling their rovings, yarns, pelts, and spinning paraphernalias. I went last year, stumbled around for a few hours trying to get my bearings and gazed longingly at all the stuff I couldn't afford. There really was too much to look at one day. And not only that, but they are having some amazing workshops from some of the best teachers in the area. Spinning, knitting, felting - if you can do it with an animal, you will find it at SAFF.

check their site here!

We now sell yarn! and roving!

Thank goodness there is a place in West Asheville where you can get locally spun and dyed wool, right? We have just started carrying some yarn and roving from UrbanGypz, and they are really something special. Look out for more yarn in our future!
see more here...

Yo Artsy peeps! Got an Idea for a Book?

Bookbinding for Artists
Jean Potter

Mondays 7-9pm, October 25, Nov.1, Nov. 8, Nov. 15

Sliding scale $10-$20 per meeting ($40-$80 for four weeks)

This class is for artists from any discipline who have an idea of a book (or an edition of books) they’d like to make in this four week workshop. We will begin by sharing our ideas with the group, looking at several bookbinding structures, and deciding which structure best suits each artist’s concept.

Each artist/student will be responsible for purchasing his/her own materials, which will be determined once a book structure is chosen. The instructor will provide resources for inexpensive materials, including found/free stuff. Cost of materials will vary from person to person.

A lot of class time will be spent on instruction, brainstorming, troubleshooting, and discussion. Students will have the opportunity to use open studio space during business hours at the DryGoods Shop. For most book structures, time outside of class will be required to finish a book or set of books. Each week when we meet, we will look at progress on individual projects, answer questions, and have studio time.

Contact Jean Potter at RockpileBindery@gmail.com or The DryGoods Shop at (828)505-8595 to sign up. Please pre-register for classes!

get knitty with it!

between moving and work changes, i have totally neglected getting together knitting nights for all you lovely stitchers! so...here we go...

this sunday, october 10, from 630-830 i'll be hosting the usual saturday morning "knitting q & a". hopefully, those of you who are tired at 10 o'clock saturdays from debauched friday nights, will be ready to go on a relaxing sunday evening. feel free to bring food and "drink" for yourself, your favorite "mix tape" (ipod), and your needy project. this time is also great if you're just having a little trouble understanding a new pattern or figuring out where you left off. e-mail me at tangle.design@gmail.com if you have any questions. sliding fee $5-10.

tuesday, oct. 12: 630-830: "knit, tipple, & talk"
bring spirits, bring needles, bring fibers, and friends. this is just an opportunity to get together with friends and commune over our newly awakened fervor for warm winter knitting. no charge. just bring yourself and some vittles.

there will be more classes to come near the end of october, and november. keep your eyes open for: "mist-take no more," "master that gauge swatch," "write your own hat pattern," and more!

Hello Sassy!!!! (and how for you to become sassy too)

The pictures kind of say it all about the title of this post, don't you think? The aforementioned sassiness is from Anna Toth, creator of Bow and Arrow Apparel. She sells on Etsy, hopefully she will sell in the shop, but she is definitely teaching some classes in October!

For the last several years, Anna has worked as a cutter, pattern maker, and instructor of sewing classes. Most notable was her time as an instructor for Turning Heads, a non-profit after school program in San Francisco, CA, which offers skills development and entrepreneurship training for at-risk high school aged young women. Through Turning Heads, Anna instructed former gang members, young and expecting mothers, and other generally rambunctious teens, keeping them out of trouble and empowering them through creative problem solving. Anna loves to teach, and loves to foster excitement in her students by equipping them with the tools they need to explore their medium with confidence.

So...Excited yet? Anna is heading in here with her incredible skills to teach some great classes for us. On the 21st will be Beginner's Basics, which is everything you need to get sewing. It will cover all kinds of good stuff, and I highly recommend it if you have never sewn a stitch. For the slightly more advanced, show up on the 28th for the Closures class - three types of zippers, buttons and snaps, oh my!
Read the complete descriptions on the calendar over there on the right, just click on the titles for more info.

And check out her shop here!
And don't forget to pre-register at 828.505.8595

ZooMouseKey

Laura Szumowski is the brainchild behind these very fine books that deal with women's health issues. The writing is scientific, yet humorous and easy to read and great to look at with tons of drawings. Her new book, Cycling, is slated to come out in the next few weeks, and it's chock full of information about the menstrual cycle, and some history and beliefs associated with it. You can find some of her stuff here in the shop. By supporting her you also ensure that books like Cycling and Tip of the Iceberg continue to educate people about their bodies. It also supports the growth of the entire Women's Health Chapbook Series, and makes each book possible.
Here's her website for more info!

Chomp Industries

This woman Dana Fehsenfeld came into the shop one day. She was friends with one of the artists upstairs, Kreh Mellick. She very modestly said she had some things that she made and was wondering if we might like to sell them. Everything she pulled out I proceeded to lust after, as well as did another customer in the shop. I had sold two before I even had the tags on them! Not only is she an amazing designer and screenprinter, but a great seamstress as well. Everything is truly beautifully made. She has just put up a new website that you should definitely check out, or come to the shop to see them in the flesh...

go here to see more.

Jamey Kay Photography

More photos from the Verve shoot. Jameykay rocks. see more here.

Etsy Craft PArty

So there was an awesome event here in August that I never posted about. Well, I let you know about it, but didn't show you any of the great stuff that was made....read the full post by Kathleen from Lark Books.
And a big thanks to everyone who donated their time and effort to such a worthwhile cause!

click here.

Ragamuffin Press

Ragamuffin Press, aka Beth Schaible, has to be making the best cards and prints I have seen in the area. They have so much going on - beautiful form, nice images, hell, even Vonnegut quotes. Every time we get something new of hers in the shop I am instantly smitten, as I was again when I checked out her sweet website. You should look too. Go here...

free neckwarmer pattern

for the pdf, visit my etsy!

the pattern:

materials:
cascade “eco +” yarn
US 13 needles

instructions:
1. cast on 44 stitches
2. knit for 52”
3. weave in loose ends, leaving one long one for seaming
4. put a single twist in knitted fabric before seaming, to create
a “mobius” illusion
5. seam 9” of ends together, leaving a slit to fit over the
shoulder

enjoy!

Melissa Moss

Sorry about my lack of contact in the blogosphere, I am new to all this stuff and wrangling my life has been a little hectic of late! That said, I do really love talking about all the great artists we have in the shop, like Melissa Moss. She does very sweet little paintings of trees and animals and creatures that she then has done has prints, and has been featured by the likes of Design Sponge and Apartment Therapy, two of my favorite sites. Did I mention that she is an amazingly nice person as well?
see more of her work here...

pattern share

(don't worry, they won't be like this fuzzy number...unless you want them to be...)

in the next couple of weeks, i will begin posting a series of free, simple knitting patterns, written just for you! they will be posted 2-3 times/month on the blog. if there are patterns you love and want help making, the knitting q & a class on saturday mornings will be a great place to get help. once these postings begin, there will be a more extensive version, put together sweetly, in the shop for a small fee. be looking out for this at the end of september/beginning of october!

some of these patterns will have sewn/fabric elements, so if you're not as savvy with a sewing needle, take a class with the shop owner, leigh anne!

Do it yourself, dammit...

My hands are famous now! well, not really. But they were in a great article in WNC Magazine this month about all the things you can learn to do in this great area of ours. We love being surrounded by people who know all kinds of things and can teach you to do them too...read a little more about it all here...

Verve Style

That's not dub style. Close though. We were featured in Verve Magazine this month with an awesome picture of Kim looking like the suitcase is too heavy...such a nice photo and a pretty swell dress if I don't say so myself. The dress has already sold but don't be afraid to ask about a custom number for yourself!
Click here to read the article online...

knit a stitch!

if you take a look at the calendar, you might notice that there is a knitting q & a class scheduled for this saturday. since it's labor day weekend and i'm sure a lot of people will be out of town, i'm just going to nix that class and move forward with the one scheduled for the following saturday. as for this coming tuesday knitting class (the one scheduled for the 7th), it has been moved from 6-8 pm to 10-12 am. i have had some schedule changes and hopefully the class time will end up being consistent from week to week, but if not, i will post any changes here! also, if anybody requires an alternate time or would like something slightly different than a beginning knitting class, i am open to private lessons!

the knitting q & a, which will MOST OFTEN be on saturday mornings, is a drop-in fee of $5-10 for two hours of help. this is an opportunity for you to ask questions about your project or pattern, get help fixing mistakes, or just because you're starting on something new and want somebody close by in case you run across an obstacle.

the beginning knitting class is also two hours. it is $35, which includes supplies that you will be able to take home with you. in this class, we will cast on, knit, purl, and bind off. we will also cover basic information about gauge, yarn composition, etc. if anybody has any more questions about knitting class descriptions, times, or dates, feel free to e-mail me at tangle.design@gmail.com !

see you soon, and have a great labor day weekend...

Afterschool art classes for grades k-6!

We are very excited that we live in Asheville. There are so many people out there involved in the art community and so many ways you can get your hands dirty. Like this: an amazing art teacher, Mary Ann Athens, is gonna join us in the shop for after school art. The students will develop skills through lessons in drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and mixed media.
Pretty great, huh?
And for that hour or two you can go have a coffee and relax like normal people...

Call for more info or to register, there are only a few spots left!

Sew a pillow for a good cause!

Hi friends.
Just a reminder that next Monday, August 23rd is the Etsy Pillowcase Party here at the shop from 5-8 to benefit ConKerr Cancer. We will be open special for the event, with lots of PBR! For info on what to bring, and to RSVP, please go to the Meetup page... just click here.

Hope you can make it!

Sunday good stuff...

Hey all.
We have a lot of things going on here on Sunday. Join the Asheville Craft Meet-Up here at 12 noon and make things and eat cupcakes. How could you ever do one without the other?
And, then stay around and take our Love Your Machine class...see our calendar for more details!

I Canoo, do you?

Ok enough with the cheesy titles, I know...
Here in the shop we have a little row of monsters. They look at me and I look back. They all have their own personalities, and names like Zellerbak and Taddy Porter. Made from recycled wool sweaters, what's not to love? Canoo really has it all figured out...

all Tangled up.

Very excited, we have a new studio mate!
The lovely Ryan-Ashley Anderson of Tangle will be joining Jean and I as we cut, sew, and glue our way around the block a time or two. Ryan-Ashley makes very sweet things, from jewelry to knit goods to painting. She will be joining us in teaching classes and is just an awesome go-getter in general. Welcome to our house, hopefully we will always have enough toilet paper and I will not leave the dishes in the sink...
see her blog here.

Audrey Laine

Well, folks, as you can see from my past few posts, I am trying to write a little about all the different artists we have in the shop, and today it is the jewelry of Audrey Laine. Very beautiful. I mean who doesn't like little deer? Except that it reminds me of Bambi's poor mother I am all for them...