The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Last month I announced a hand knit hat drive for Gilda’s Club in honor of our friend Stefanie who lost her battle with cancer a few months ago. In that month knitters from all over the country knit up hats and sent them in!

32 Hats!

We raised 32 hats! Which is so fantastic. We dropped them off to Gilda’s Club Chicago yesterday and they were so sweet and appreciative. We got a tour of their beautiful space, and could not have felt more welcomed.

So Many Different Hats!

So a huge thank you to everyone that donated their time to knitting up a hat for Gilda’s Club. If you want to be involved be sure to get in contact with Chelsea here.

A few months ago I told you about my friend Stefanie who lost her battle with cancer. It still totally sucks, and I’m not alone in feeling this way of course. Almost every knit night we’ve had since she died someone brings up Stefanie, and we all smile and raise a glass and try not to cry.

Without having any other outlet for this sadness, we turn to knitting! Just like we turned to her knitting when she died.

For the next month I’ll be collection knit hats to make a donation to Gilda’s Club Chicago in Stefanie’s name. Our knitting group will be working on them, and whether or not you are in Chicago or around the country, any donation of your time and knitting skills will help us bring some hand knit warmth to women battling cancer, just like Stefanie was.

We will be setting up a donation drop off at Gilda’s Club after March 14th, so please have your hat to me before then. Feel free to email me at allyson@thesweatshopoflove.com, and I can send you my address or coordinate a drop off time with you.

You can share and comment on the facebook group event for this drive, and share the word that way as well!

Thank you so much for your interest in helping this small but heartfelt hat drive! I’ll be sure to share hat pictures as I get them. I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

Things are kinda rough for me right now. PT and I broke up, and I’m in the process of moving back to Chicago. I packed up one carload last week and am staying with a friend.

I struggle with how much to share here, on twitter, on facebook. I even struggle with calling good friends to tell them the news, because I hate to be a downer. But here on a KNITTING BLOG it’s like – where is the line?

But at the end of the day, The Sweatshop of Love is me. And I’m sad. I’m sad because I thought I had it figured out, and I don’t. I’m sad because I love Minneapolis and my home there, and now I have to start over again. I’m sad because I went all in, and it just wasn’t meant to be.

So. I’m living on Planet Life Kinda Sucks right now. But I know I’m just visiting. I won’t be here forever. And I’ve visited before! We all visit Planet Life Kinda Sucks. I’m accepting it, and doing the things that you do while visiting Planet Life Kinda Sucks – watching every Julia Roberts movie ever made, eating cookies for breakfast, going to bed at 7:30, laying on the couch watching entire seasons of How I Met Your Mother in a day. See? It’s not that bad. The super suck part is when I have to look for an apartment alone, when I have to pack up everything and drive it back to Chicago alone. Ug.

But I’m going to be fine. I’m going to be fine really soon. 2013! … right?

And just think of all the work I can get done now that I don’t have a pesky boyfriend to take me out! It’s so much easier to work really hard when you are single than it is when you are, say, planning a STUPID wedding, or like, having a STUPID baby. Who needs it?!

…

Being a maker has made me more appreciative of other makers, and I’m working towards making more of the things I buy come directly from their makers. Thinking about purchases as investments, and buying fewer quality pieces rather than a ton of shit is something that I’m working toward. It’s hard, especially since my yearly income is well below poverty level, but every little bit helps. I know how much it means to me when I make a sale, and sharing that feeling helps me feel good, too.

All that to say I BOUGHT A NEW PURSE AND IT’S GLORIOUS!

BEAR BAG!

PT and I hit up the No Coast Craft Fair on Saturday, and it continues to be the best curated show I’ve ever been to. I wasn’t looking for a bag, I wasn’t really looking for anything, but when I walked by Jenna Lou Designs’ booth, her beautiful bags jumped out at me. This is my perfect bag! Cross body bag with adjustable handle, it’s the perfect size, it’s handmade and seriously amazingly constructed, and IT’S GOT FREAKING BEARS ON IT.

PERFECT

Jenna Lou Designs had a TON of really fun bags like this at her booth, and I’m not seeing any that are this shape and size on her site. Maybe she is still working on updating it after the show.

Even the Back is Cute!

Things have not been going awesome for me recently, and big changes are imminent. But this bag made me happy, so I bought it. It’s 2 weeks before Christmas and I bought myself a $90 handbag. Fuck it. You know? I’d do it again. You should do it!

My friend Stefanie died on Tuesday. So many of the projects I’ve made since meeting her I made because of her, or were inspired by her, or inspired her, that I can’t help but think about how there is such an amazing and unique connection between knitters, and crafters, that other people don’t have.

Ann Weaver’s Button Cowl

When I found out she died I went straight to the drawer I keep all of my winter accessories in and pulled out this cowl she made for me for Christmas last year. I put it on over my pajamas and held it, crying and reading facebook posts left by her friends and family. I didn’t take it off for the rest of the day. It made me feel warm, like a hug I desperately needled, and close to Stefanie because she made it with her hands. This cowl would not exist if she didn’t exist.

Crazy Gloves

You may remember CRAZY GLOVES from two years ago. That was all Stefanie. Keeping in mind this girl JUST learned to cable, she comes in to class with this pattern. And it was crazy fun working up these gloves with her.

My Donkey

Stefanie’s Donkey

Chemo Hats

When she started her chemo treatments I started compulsively knitting her hats. ALL of which I saw her wear, because being a knitter she knew that even though she had cancer I’d still be pissed at her if she didn’t wear the hats I knit for her. From left to right – Gilda’s Club Chemo Hat, From Norway With Love, and Robin’s Egg Blue hat.

Tiny Knit Nativity

Last Christmas we got together to have a tiny knitting party, Stefanie with like 3 Mochimochi books and all of us with piles of size 2 needles and very tiny yarn.

So it’s Thanksgiving. And blah blah we should all be thankful for our health, because when you don’t have your health it’s over, and it could go at any moment.

But more than that MAKE THINGS. KNIT. SEW. Use your hands and create ridiculous oversized donkeys and very tiny hotdogs and give them to the people you love. Make them hats and cowls and toys and pillows, so they have lots of silly handmade stuff to hug and cry and laugh at when you die. Hang out with the people you love while you make things. Learn to make more things, and give all of those things away.

And nobody else get cancer. That is a new rule I’m enforcing from here on out.