Tell me what you made this week ...

My week was made all the sweeter as you welcomed the 🧼🫧Lather🫧🧼 pattern and kit

If you’re somewhere that’s deep in snow or cold, you might like to know that spring is coming. It’s arrived to the Central Valley of California, where almond trees are in peak bloom.

Making things by hand has been so good for me. It slows me down when my brain is racing or my thoughts are worried. It’s helped me curb over-consumption because making things fills up that spot in my heart where buying things might have filled me up before.

Making things by hand helps me feel competent and capable. I can look at a knitted fabric my hands have created, with just needles and yarn, and nearly every time, it amazes me that I can do that. I can make a beautiful sweater with a lovely straight line of picked-up stitches at the sleeve cap. I can knit fair isle and create the gorgeous sweater of my junior high school dreams.

Lest you think I make everything by hand, all the time, I don’t.

I live in San Francisco, the second-densest city in the United States, so my life is an urban one, even though what I often share on Instagram are the snippets of life where I’m in the natural (rather than built) world. My life is as normal as can be, with grocery shopping and Zoom calls, queuing for parking, scheduling family stuff, walking the dog. Even my business is full of things that are done more with my brain than my hands: calculating neckline ratios, marketing, thinking about business models, filing taxes.

But, I do make time to work with my hands every single day. It might be writing this newsletter to you. It might be knitting on my current project. It might be tending a houseplant.

Making something by hand, every day, has been a counter-balance, for me, to all the ways the -isms of the world impact my family, or me, or my community, or, frankly, all of us.

The way toward making a good life for you, feeling rooted in community and connected to purpose, might not mean the same things as the choices I make. But then again, we might have this in common. You, like I do, might find solace in knitting, or crocheting, or making something by hand when times are good or when times are hard.

The past few weeks have been full of creative energy and behind-the-scenes making of Lather (luxe washcloth kit), with my own creations happening in tandem with the release of Hunter Hammersen’s new pattern, Lather.

Hunter is one of the best in the business: she writes really, really good patterns; she is so creative; and she’s a superlative human being who isn’t afraid to state her values publicly and to live them. This is a rarity in the knitting industry, and I am always delighted to collaborate with her.

For me, releasing a new project like Lather into the world is a tender thing because I’ve poured all of my heart and good intentions into it. With good marketing, I can help a project find its audience—the people who will be delighted by it—but, also, once you release a creative project, there’s a part of it that’s no longer yours. It’s on its own to find an audience, or not, to be loved, or not. So, thank you …

I love that so many of you have ordered Lather kits and are as excited as I am to make beautiful brioche silk/linen washcloths!

I love that so many of you have signed up to take the “Brioche for Beginners” class with my friend and colleague, Kavitha¹! (I’ll be on that Zoom call too, as Kavitha’s assistant, and it will be recorded in case you can’t make it “live.”) (There’s still room, if you want to learn brioche!)

Lather has found her audience, and over the next few weeks, I will be very happily dyeing your silk/linen yarn and packing these beautiful bundles.

This is also a really good occasion for me to remind you:

You can create the things that make you feel good. Even if it’s something as small and impractical as a silk and linen washcloth.

When we do this—when we nourish ourselves with art and craft—it matters. No one else has to understand. No one else has to do the same. It only matters that you do the things that make your heart sing.

If you’ve been pondering a Lather kit (or some silk/linen yarn) you have until Saturday to decide.

You know I don’t mess with FOMO around here. I aim to keep Lather kits in stock roughly always. (Obviously it can’t be always always, but the Lather kit, like Bookmarked and Gripping, is one of those things I’ll make and restock in-between larger projects.)

At the same time, it’s really helpful for me to be able to batch organize my work, and to offer my largest selection of options during “launch week” for a new kit.

If you want the most number of color choices, or if you’d like to knit Lather as a gift for Mother’s Day (seriously, how adorable would a fancy handmade washcloth and a bar of handmade soap be?), please pre-order by Saturday.

I love this kit so much. It’s chock full of useful things, from a likely new-to-you luxury yarn base to consumable (and handmade) items that care for your most important knitting tool: your hands. Everything’s packed in strong, well-cushioned and recyclable packaging (no foam, no plastic, no futzy crinkle paper to pick out of the yarn.)

(I’ll send you one more reminder this week. If you don’t want to receive it, just go here to your account, scroll to Notifications, and move the toggle switch next to Shop Updates from green to grey.)

What community also means

I don’t often talk about it, but I have a Community Fund that’s in its sixth year. It’s where I connect makers in my community who have something extra to give with low or limited income makers, makers who are impacted by systemic racism, or makers who are going through a rough patch and could use being nourished by a small indulgence like hand-dyed yarn.

Right now, Julie, Leigh Ann, Jennifer, Camilla, Jane, Stacy, Nancy, Catherine, Laura, T., C., J., D., and Karen have refilled the Community Fund, and if there’s one of you reading this newsletter who is thinking, gosh, I’m going through a rough patch, or damn, the microaggressions have been knocking me down lately, then these folks want to treat you.

I know it can be awkward to dip into a Community Fund, and I’m trying to think of ways to make it less awkward, but in the meantime, truly: this fund is not about me. It’s about all the people in our community who love the idea of paying it forward a little.

With love to all 4,000 of you reading this: What did you make this week? I would love to know!

1. Sign up for Kavitha’s newsletter, While I was knitting! The things she shares are seriously, so, so, good.