Fix-A-Stitch in Australia
Many, many thanks go to Australian Fix-A-Stitch distributor BN Cooper Agencies for placing such a great writeup in Homespun Magazine!
Knitting in Cuba … NOT
Recently I was fortunate to make a US-approved People to People trip to Cuba. We were in two large cities, and of course I was interested in finding out whether anyone there knits.
The short answer is NO. There is some crochet, but mostly I saw beautiful hand embroidery:
I believe that yarn is inaccessible to the people there, and since it is quite warm, there is not much desire for knitted items in other than lightweight cottons.
Based on the tools that I saw in the fields — primitive by our standards — if knitting were in practice, one assumes it would be accomplished on hand-carved needles. I’m curious to find out, however, if other knitters know differently. If so, please share with us!
Meet our TNNA booth neighbor, Chic-a!
At the recent The National NeedleArts Association (TNNA) show in San Diego, we had the good fortune to be exhibitor neighbors with Jay and Joanna Reyes, the proprietors of Chic-a.
According to their website, “Chic-a was founded in 2007, when Joanna Reyes realized there had to be a better solution to storing ongoing knitting and crochet projects. Ziploc bags kept breaking, and the designs of existing bags were impractical for knitting and crochet. What she wanted was a knitting project bag that would last for many projects, would be practical, and yet be fun to carry around. Using her many years of sewing experience she designed and crafted the Quick Draw Project Bag. The immediate popularity of this bag confirmed the demand for her fusion of practical and fun. She continued to develop products to meet this demand, and out of this, Chic-a was born.”
We can attest that they’re wonderful people with wonderful products. Their bags can hold your latest yarn projects — and, of course, your Fix-A-Stitch sets!
Here they are setting up the booth.
Doesn’t it look wonderful? So nice of them to incorporate the Fix-A-Stitch pink (I guess it’s Chic-a pink, too)!
Some bags on display.
Let’s talk lace
Many Fix-A-Stitch fans are familiar with the original tool, but did you realize we have a lace weight version to help you with finer-gauge projects, too?
Bonnie created the “daintier” Fix-A-Stitch in response to her own need for something that would easily go in and out of lace weight stitches. Its flexibility lets the tool pick up that dropped stitch much more effortlessly than a standard crochet hook could.
Recently, Bon even found ANOTHER great use for the Lace Weight Fix-A-Stitch: An avid machine embroidery user, instead of “pushing” the thread through the holes on her 10-needle machine, she used the Lace Weight Fix-A-Stitch to pull the thread through. “It was MUCH easier. Because the Lace Weight Fix-A-Stitch has a slight bend to it, I could even do the bottom hole, where a traditional crochet hook wouldn’t fit.”
Here are two photos from her triumph:
Lace Weight Fix-A-Stitch tools are sold in packs of two. Share your Fix-A-Stitch story, and you could win a prize! Email us at bonnie@fixastitch.co for details.