Here’s Vita:

My name is Vita. I lived in Italy for 3 years (I was born and grew up in Riga, Latvia), I am married to a French man and have an amazing 2 year old son.

2. When and why did you start designing?
Since I learned to crochet and knit – I was a child at that time. I enjoyed learning all these things.  Of course at the beginning I was using someone else’s patterns. But quickly, I found I was always trying to make it my own way.  But serious designing I started not to long ago – when I became a housewife! While I was single I always kept myself very busy.  I was working, studying, traveling and meeting friends; at the end I had very little time for crocheting and knitting. But when my life changed, I moved to another country where I didn’t have to work (thanks to my husband ) and I finished my studies (although I had to learn a new language) I finally had more time for my hobbies.

3. What do you use for inspiration?
My biggest inspiration is my little son. Of course now he is already too big for tiny baby booties, but when I think about him, how to dress him, what would be comfortable for him, I always find some good ideas for designing. 
But also inspiration can be anything I see around me. I like to walk on streets and watch shops, watch how people are dressed, what kind of accessories they have and so on… it can be just a small detail which attracts my attention and voilà – something new is born.

4. What is your favorite item you have designed and why?
The very last one. Always while I am working on new pattern and finally it is done, and I am ready to list it in my shop – it becomes my favourite… till I make new one… Probably some special feelings I still have about my very first pattern I ever wrote – Crocheted Baby Booties. Before I was designing just for myself but this was the first pattern I was ready to share with other people.

5. What are your favorite colors?
Difficult to say, it depends very much on season… in summer I love bright colours – green, lilac, orange. In winter I prefer grey, beige, brown.

6. Tell us one secret
I buy too many shoes and too much yarn…

-Vita, Mon Petit Violin Designs

http://www.etsy.com/shop/monpetitvoilindesigns

Thanks Vita!

<3 The Yarn Lark

In honor of our grand opening we  will be running 3 contests starting on opening day:

1. The first 100 customers will be placed into a drawing for a $10 gift certificate towards a future purchase from Pulling at Strings
2. Anyone who signs up for the Pulling at Strings newsletter between October 31st and November 7th will be entered into a drawing to win a free pattern of their choice up to a $7 value
3. Comment here on my blog between October 31st and November 7th with your favorite item in my store to be entered into a drawing for free shipping on any future order from Pulling with Strings

Now, its time to meet one of our artisans, Katie of Wool Food Market.  I have long admired Katie’s work and have quite the collection of her wool food for my little ones.  When she wrote her wool fruit felting tutorial earlier this year, I knew that I definitely wanted to carry it in my store.  Luckily for me, she agreed.

Here’s Katie!

When and why did you start felting?

I’d been introduced to felting by an on-line friend and fellow crafter.  However, she was a needle felter and I preferred the wet-felting process.  I had a rather large bag of wool roving that I started rolling into balls.  As I stood at the sink rolling wool in soapy water, I lingered on what I could make from the balls.  Most of the colors were fruity in nature and wool food was born.

What do you use for inspiration?

A farmer’s market or the produce section is where I get most of my inspiration for food.  I try to replicate the hues and variations of the fruits and vegetables.  Pineapples still escape me.

When I make playscapes, I love to create what one might imagine is hiding on the forest floor.  A gnome, troll, critters…a secret home in the base of an old tree stump.

What is your favorite item you have felted and why?

I really enjoy felting up wool tree stumps.  What exactly emerges from the water bath is always a surprise.

What are your favorite colors?

Orange and avocado green

Tell us one secret:

Tell us one secret: A washing machine is more forgiving than your own hands when wet-felting.  It’s not discriminating and felts evenly on all sides.  Our heads, via our hands, try to manipulate the wool.  A washing machine allows the wool to do what wool does…felt.  My greatest works would have never happened if I’d hand felted them.  Unwrapping them after a run through a washing machine allows the wool a certain amount of freedom that usually works.

I also understand that I’m working with a natural element so it’s not always going to work out as I envisioned.  I go into it every time understanding that some days the wool just isn’t going to work with me and I have a willingness to scrap disasters.

Here’s Lindsay!

My name is Lindsay Baker and I live in the Puget Sound area of Washington State.  We moved here one year ago from Oregon when my husband got a job at the Naval Shipyard working as a Healthy Physicist.  Together we have 4 wonderful children: a 10 year-old son, a 5 year old daughter and 3 year old twin daughters.

When and why did you start dyeing?

I began dyeing yarn for my custom knitting business 4.5 years ago.  I started selling my dyed yarn along with custom knitted items about 2 years ago.  Initially I dyed my own yarn when all of the real yarn dyers were unable to keep up with the demand for their Artisan dyed yarns.  I found that I really enjoyed the creativity that dyeing yarn gave me, so I kept it up!

What do you use for inspiration?

I use anything and everything around me as inspiration.  I am often inspired by all of the children’s books that I read to my 3 little girls.  When I spend a lot of time reading their favorites over and over a new colorway is bound to emerge!  I’m also a movie/tv series/fiction novel addict.  I get many of my colorway ideas from fictional characters who inspire me and the made up worlds they live in.

What is your favorite colorway you have dyed and why?

This is a very tough question to answer!  If I had to choose, I would pick “Chocolate Rose”.  I think I love it so much because it is rich and has great contrast while still being very feminine.  I love working with girly colors, but I still prefer bold, bright and rich tones.

What are your favorite colors?

Brown, pink and turquoise.  “Marilyn” is my second favorite colorway.

Tell us one secret:

I’m an open book.  That’s my secret

So here’s Sharon:

Married to the World’s Greatest Husband, mom to three of the World’s Most Beautiful Children, high school teacher, yarnista.

When and why did you start dyeing?

I had a custom knitting business, and a customer asked me to make something for her that we couldn’t find anywhere. You can read the whole (long story) here: http://threeirishgirls.com/blog/?p=285

What do you use for inspiration?

I keep huge files of things for inspiration. I will often see the colors in an image before seeing the image itself, and I draw from different types of print publications, art books, and textiles. I also love working with concepts — if someone asks me to create something called “Mulled Wine,” I find it challenging to come up with something that evokes the feeling of the concept, not just the colors.

What is your favorite colorway you have dyed and why?

I can’t do that to my babies! But I will say that most things with brown and turquoise have a special place in my heart.

What are your favorite colors?

Easy. Saturated turquoises, purples, browns, pinks, and greens. I could spend the rest of my life working with that color palette.

Tell us one secret:

I love to eat with chopsticks, and actually prefer using them in many cases.

]]> http://www.pullingatstrings.com/blog/2009/09/18/being-an-irish-girl-myself/feed/ 1 http://www.pullingatstrings.com/blog/2009/07/24/its-time-to-meet-another-artisan/ http://www.pullingatstrings.com/blog/2009/07/24/its-time-to-meet-another-artisan/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:55:09 +0000 Jenn http://pullingatstrings.wordpress.com/?p=68 Hi everyone!  Things are really starting to roll along nicely.  I have a web designer working some magic and was busy rearranging the yarn storage and work area – although I am now on a short break while I recover from my tonsillectomy after having strep throat 4 times this summer.  Yes, I apparently have the tonsils of an elementary school girl – who knew?

But for now, I would like to reveal another artisan – Julie of Selah!

“I am the knitting and spinning WAHM behind Selah. During my third pregnancy I accomplished a long-term dream and learned to knit. This quickly blossomed into an obsession with beautiful yarn and all the colors that could be created on such a useful canvas! Soon I was dyeing my own and fell in love. This has just progressed from there into my business “Selah”.

Color has always inspired me and sometimes actually moves me deeply… it can be healing, inspiring, peaceful or joyful. It is my hope that that also comes to you with your yarn and fiber.

My family and joy consists of three beloved little boys, a treasured daughter and my wonderful husband.  Family is very important to us and we value our unique little ones dearly. Among other things, I am a doula, local ICAN board member, doula network leader and birth activist on many levels. One day it’s my dream to become a homebirth midwife. In the meantime I am Momma, and work hard to bring joy and peace to those in my life.“

When and why did you start dyeing?

“I started dyeing yarn in the winter of 2007.  I was pregnant and had just learned to knit so that I would be able to make diaper covers for the new baby we were expecting.  I wanted to use premium yarn (yes, I am so a yarn snob, in the best meaning of the word!), but I didn’t always find what I was looking for so I started creating some of my own.  I quickly took to this new artistic expression for myself and fell in love!”

What do you use for inspiration?

“Inspiration comes from SO many areas!  People, experiences, pictures, the world in general – there is color all around!”

What is your favorite colorway you have dyed and why?

“I think *one* of my favorites is “Iron Giant” though I think they all take a seat in the “Favorite” spot for at least a season!  I love “Iron Giant” currently because the story is touching, powerful and a testament to the grace of human kind.  The colors jump out to me and I love it.  It looks to me as the exact way I would imagine the Giant.”

What are your favorite colors?

“Oh wow, that’s hard!  In particular I love red, blue, green and every shade of those.”

Tell us one secret:

“I just bought my first electric skein winder – for two years I have spun every single skein by hand!”

Thank you Julie!  :)

Before I ran the contest, I was bouncing name ideas off the members of each of my congos (an online conglomorate of artisans.)  Yarn This, Yarn That, Yarn Thingamabob, Yarn Whatsit. . . as the names got more and more random, I jokingly attempted to type “I am pulling on strings here.”  However  dealing with a lack of sleep and two toddlers adamantly demanding to go outside, I wrote, “and pulling at strings here.”  My friend, Amy Sue, just loved Pulling at Strings, as did most of the other artisans in each congo.

But I slept on it and the skein of yarn in my dream told me to like it so onto the name poll it went. (Yes yarn speaks to me in my dreams!  Don’t even pretend like that’s never happened to you).

Anyways, got a little sidetracked there, you came here to find out the winner yes? Being the eco-conscious little yarn lark that I am, instead of writing down numbers on little scraps of paper for my kids to eat, tear, or maybe. possibly. HAND to me so I could pick a winner, I went to my favorite little random number generator and entered in the numbers.  Lovely little device isn’t it?  I like it too.

#59. Goddass101  (I will email you shortly)

Now I bet you all are wondering what exactly she won, right?

Why hello there

Meet Firefly, deliciously dyed on 4oz of light weight SW merino.

And now that you’ve met Firefly, meet her mama, the wonderful and talented Lisa of Becoming-Art (formerly of Selah.) Lisa is a dear friend and one of the many talented and wonderful artisans whose yarn I am proud to carry in my store.  And here’s Lisa!

“Hi, I’m Lisa.
Aside from a wonderful life with a great guy and young boys, I am a yarn/fiber artist and a person with mulitiple interests. Currently I am on a new expedition with a solo business on etsy. Hoping for limitless inspiration to take hold and see what I create.”

When and why did you start dyeing?

“I started dyeing fabrics and clothing when I was 14. It began at a local art studio in the small town I went to school. We’d go to dance class and then make our way to the batik/tye dye classes after school. It was a fun hobby and way to express ourselves in a positive way. After many years, I turned the fabric dyeing into yarn dyeing in order to make some special items for my kids and for other ppl’s kids.”

What do you use for inspiration?

“The best inspiration to me is when it’s totally spontaneous. Something unexpected, something I would have never considered any regular day. If I am under pressure to be creative, I like to use nature or things that evoke emotion or have meaning in my life.”

What is your favorite colorway you have dyed and why?

“Hmm, I think my favorite is Rich. That was a spontaneous day, new colors and new ideas. Rich was a no rules colorway.”

What are your favorite colors?

“Olive Green, Dark Red, Deep Plum … but paired with any other color there are many beautiful possibilities!”

Tell us one secret:

“Growing up I had a huge crush on Rodney Mullen…. okay maybe I still do.”

Thank you Lisa!  Now off to pet my yarn stash