Heart Attacks of the Cute Persuasion

Blam! You've been attacked with love!

This is what Valentine's Day should be all about. Recognizing the people you love, and finding ways to show it to them. Doesn't matter if you're single, dating, married - whatever...I'll bet my bottom dollar you can find at least one person you love! It's just a regular day where we show some extra-ordinary love, and that's okay in my books. Maybe you write a letter. Cook breakfast. Sing a song. Pick out a necklace. Give a compliment. Or maybe it's just an extra long hug. See what I'm getting at here? Anything goes!

Last night we snuck out with scissors, string, and tape and attacked our two favorite shops with homemade Valentine's love. White Elephant and Needlework are both owned by members of the Beehive, and they are both places deserving of so many x's and o's. We wanted to let them know, especially in the midst of all this casino hullabaloo, that their contribution to our local economy is so incredibly appreciated.

White Elephant is a place that makes me feel so proud of Hamilton. Whenever I have friends visiting the city for Art Crawl, Hollie and Jane’s shop is at the top of the list. They’ve crafted a space that is aesthetically beautiful, with a perfect selection of handmade and vintage goodness. Watching their journey has honed in me an understanding of design that is well-made, long-lasting and timeless. A store like White Elephant shows us how to put meaning into the everyday objects we surround ourselves, and search out things that we really love, that could essentially last forever. It’s the perfect place to find a gift, as they literally carry something for everyone. White Elephant is also one of the best examples I’ve seen of a small local business practicing civic engagement. They’re all cute and kittens and crafts, but when shit gets real, they put that aside to promote their real inspiration, the good of our city. Thanks Hollie and Jane, for all you do. It really makes a difference in this city. We love White Elephant! Oh, and you guys are babes!

How fitting that when Needlework opened, they had a giant Valentine in their window! As cheesy as this is going to sound, a lot of people have fallen in love here - with sewing! For real though…I’ve heard so many people proclaim their thankfulness for this shop, as it has provided them the know-how, supplies, environment and encouragement to learn new skills. Needlework has a comforting and welcoming vibe and THE most amazing selection of fabrics. Kate and Liz are full of knowledge, and so quick to help with whatever you might be working on. Every customer is the friendliest person ever, they have a shop dog, they bake cookies…should I go on? It’s the kind of place you just want to hunker down in and spend the day. Thank you, Liz and Kate, for inspiring us. As you continue to come up with amazing new ideas, you are greatly contributing to a culture of creativity in this city, which is something that will take us a long way. We love Needlework!

Do you have Valentines cuteness to share? Post a link in the comments below!

Happy Valentines Day!

xoxo

Super Everything!

It's almost here - Supercrawl! The 'Hive has been busy stitching hexagons, and collecting them from the drop-off points across Hamilton and Toronto. Last night was installation time, and the completed hexagon panels went up on the stretch of the street between 148 and 154 James North to form Modular Beauty.

So much teamwork! With the help of delicious cranberry-lemon-coconut squares and pear juice from the Mulberry, the Bees got the work installed in five hours. And speaking of teamwork, thanks so much to everyone who helped out with this huge project. Now you can come down to Supercrawl, and spot your own pieced hexagons in the mix.

There are so many great installations and artworks to be found at Supercrawl, as usual. Above is an in-progress shot of Matt Walker's Sound Cannon. As you can see, artists work at all hours to finish their work for shows, and also, this piece is gigantic! Matt's Sound Cannon will play atmospheric recordings from the Beverly Swamp, reminding us of what was audible before the city was so build up.

John Haney and Carey Jernigan are installing a piece called Ghost Barn, a frosted glass sculpture that runs on solar power.

And now for more of what is near and dear to the heart of the Beehive, textile art! Above you can see Alison Thompson's installation Witch House in the window of Needlework.

Toronto's own Hyperbolic Crochet Coral reef is residing in the window at White Elephant. I love this : yarn + colour + math = happiness over here!

Svava Thordis Juliusson is installing her work on the side of 118 James North, where the Hamilton CBC office is located. I can't wait to see this other large scale fibre installation!
and there is so, so much more to discuss I haven't even gotten to the music, or to the food! so much good food, including Sweet Ice and Reardon's Meats. I sure miss Reardon's downtown shop, but it is great to still have access to their delicious products once in a while.

P.S. Art Crawl always has a collection point for local food banks, and for Supercrawl it is located at the CBC building, 118 James North. Lets make this a SuperCollection!

H is for...Hamilton Magazine and Hexagons!

Hey look, we're in the Summer 2012 issue of Hamilton Magazine! We're super flattered that they chose to do a piece on us. Hollie, Jen, and Roisin were each featured with great little write ups. And we had a fun time taking photos for the article. Thanks H Mag!

Speaking of things that start with H, this is the last week that we're collecting hexagons for our Supercrawl installation. You can drop your completed hexagons off at any of our listed drop of locations (see below) by this Friday August 31st. And if you need a smidge more time to finish yours, you can drop it off at Needlework (174 James St North) by 6pm on Wednesday September 5th. Holy moly, we can't believe that Supercrawl is in just over two weeks! We've received a ton of great contributions (some coming from as far as Vancouver!) and we're really excited to start assembling!

Hexagon Craze!

By now you've likely caught wind of our big plans for a Beehive installation at this year's Supercrawl! Our piece is called Modular Beauty and will be made up of hand-sewn, English paper pieced hexagons that will creep and grow out of unexpected places along James Street, mimicking hives in the wild.



You'll remember that last year the Beehive installed a large-scale art project onto the facade of The Brain, which was the collaborative effort of many, many helping hands. This year we’re back at it with another idea, and community contributions to this installation are not only in the spirit of the project - which celebrates the culmination of multiple efforts to make something beautiful - they are also totally essential to making this whole thing a success!




After we explained the project a few weeks ago, and let you know that we were looking for lots and lots of hands to contribute, the project picked up steam and we have a lot of interest - which is so great! We hope you’ll consider joining in on our Hive Drive campaign to generate a serious crop of hexagon clusters, allowing us to expand this fibre intervention as much as possible over the buildings of James Street North.


How can you do this, you ask? Well:

In partnership with Etsy Canada we are hosting a Hive Drive hexagon-making party on Wednesday July 4 from 6:00-9:00 (that's next week!). We are so excited to invite you to join us at Low Key Studio (an amazing loft space/artist-run photography studio & art showcase gallery located at 48 Ferguson Ave. S. in Hamilton) for a night of relaxed hexagon making. Zero experience necessary – it is a very simple craft and we’d love to show you the ropes. And trust us, once you start making these little cuties, you won’t be able to stop! We’ll provide the fabric, templates and supplies (though of course feel free to bring your own) as well as refreshments and treats. It’s gonna be a super fun night so bring friends or come on your own and meet other crafty locals! RSVP here!



Can’t make the July 4th Hive Drive or planning on making hexagons at home? We have several super-duper hive drive donation locations throughout Hamilton supporting the cause. At these locations, starting this weekend (June 30th), you can pick up hexagon templates and fabric scraps, and drop off sewn hive sections when completed. If you have some fabric you’d be willing to donate towards hexagon making, we’ll gladly accept it through these locations. Anything you can contribute is MUCH appreciated!

Here are our confirmed donation stations:

Hamilton

White Elephant – 133 James St. North
Needlework – 174 James St. North
The Ship – 23 Augusta St.
The Hamilton Public Library:
Central Branch – 55 York Blvd.
Terryberry Branch – 100 Mohawk Rd. W.
Sherwood Branch - 467 Upper Ottawa St.
Citizen Kid – 188 Locke St. S.
Cake and Loaf – 321 Dundurn St. S.
The Baltimore House – 43 King William St.
Detour Coffee – 41B King St. W, Dundas
Downtown Bike Hounds - 19 John Street North
The Cannon - 179 Ottawa St N


Toronto

Kid Icarus – 75 Nassau St.
Russet & Empire – 390 Keele St.
The Arthur - 550 College St.
The Workroom - 1340 Queen St. W



If you're not in our city and would still like to contribute, please do! You can pop those hexagons in the mail and address them to Needlework at 174 James Street North Hamilton, ON L8R 2L1. We must receive them by August 17th 2012 to make sure that we have enough time to work them into the larger piece.

Lastly, if you plan to make a bunch of hexagons at home, and you're looking for some tips, we've put together a short and simple set of instructions for you. Here we go!

Modular Beauty

Calling all stitchers, lovers of quilts, the curiously crafty, and sewing enthusiasts! We bees need your help...


Remember this photo of Jenna? Back in February we hinted that we were working on our Supercrawl proposal. Well, the time has come to share our plan with y'all! But first, let's take a brief trip down memory lane.

As you may remember, last year we participated in Supercrawl by creating a large, knitted installation entitled 'Knit Night on the Brain.' With your help, we knit 80 brick scarves and stitched them together to make up the facade of one of our favourite haunts, the Brain. Lion Brand Yarn generously donated the materials, and YOU, the amazingly crafty folk of Hamilton, generously donated your time and talent to help us create this gigantic knitted piece. The end result was quite impressive! Once all was said and done, we disassembled the scarves and donated every single one of them to Mission Services, just in time for the cool weather.




This year for Supercrawl, we're planning yet another large scale textile installation: Modular Beauty.


Modular Beauty will be made up from hand sewn, english paper pieced hexagons (hexagons = honeycombs = beehives) that will creep and grow out of unexpected places along James Street, mimicking hives in the wild.



Beehives are incredibly symbolic of our fair city - just look up at our original coat of arms the next time you're passing by the armouries on James Street. Hamilton has always been an ambitious and industrious city, with residents are who are familiar with working with their hands. We feel a connection to this aspect in particular of its manufacturing past, and wish to pay reverence by draping the street in our softer, but just as driven, methods. We're so proud of this city we call home, and Modular Beauty will resonate a sense of our past, workers heritage, industry and community. We're determined to revitalize in the best way we know how - a fibre intervention.



So, we're asking for your support once again. Many hands make light work, right? Just like Knit Night on the Brain, involving Hamilton's craft community is a very important aspect of Modular Beauty.

On Wednesday May 30th, the Beehive will be hosting an informal English Paper Piecing workshop at Needlework from 6-9pm, during their monthly craft night. No prior sewing experience is necessary and it's very simple - all we ask is for is your willingness to learn, share, and maybe sew up a hexagon or two! Donations to Modular Beauty in the form of scrap cotton fabric is greatly appreciated, however we do have scraps fabrics between us Bees that we're more than willing to share if needed. We'll also provide the templates, so all you have to bring is a needle and thread!

If you can't make next Wednesday but you're still interested in contributing, never fear! We plan on hosting a monthly quilting bee/hive-drive (har har, bee puns) to teach the necessary skills, collect hexagons, and to simply enjoy each others company. Stay tuned for more dates!

So, there it is! Hope you're as excited as we are about Supercrawl. It's gonna be a good one.

A New Dress

I'm not totally sure how, but as a mother of three small children I can find time to sew - usually things for the kids. Projects range from clothes, bibs and quilts to dolly diapers and dress-up costumes.

I was recently given a gift from a friend who specifically said that I am always making things for everyone else, so now I can make something for myself. I was so excited to recieve a Colette Pattern, not only to make something for myself, but also because these patterns are simply beautiful to look at and hold. Well printed on good paper in a compact little booklet. The pattern was simple enough for a hobbyist sewer to follow.

The Macaron Dress has what they call a "sweetheart top with a contrasting top yoke." I just call it cute.

I like the pattern so much, I decided to trace it onto freezer paper before cutting it out. This took more time, but I think it was well worth it. Within two days, I had assembled the dress, with a few little distractions.

My favourite part in any dress is finding out it has pockets, so when I noticed the pockets in my pattern I was over the moon. When I finally tried it on, I found it a little tight in the bodice, but letting out the seam allowance fixed it up great.

I am very pleased with this pattern, and I am definitely going to sew it again and again, now I am just searching for the perfect material.



I would highly recommend Colette Patterns, and if you head on over to their website they have a lot of really informative tutorials.

And if you live in the Hamilton area, You can check out Needlework, rumour has it they will be carrying Colette Patterns! Their grand opening is February 10th at the James St. North Art Crawl.

Knit Nights at the Brain: Make Do & Mend

Earlier this month, a number of us Bees had the pleasure of attending a special edition of Knit Nights @ the Brain: Make Do & Mend. The evening was lead by the multi-talented and master mender, Becky Johnson, who to our delight agreed to stop in on Knit Night to share her mad mending skills, just in time for the chilly season ahead of us.



Armed with tins full of darning yarn and materials, Becky shared two mending techniques used to tackle the most daunting holes: classical darning, and swiss darning.







Classical darning is a mending technique that's used to repair existing holes in knits. This method is done by using an embroidery needle and yarn (of a weight that's similar to the knit being repaired) to create a warp between the two strongest rows on either side of the hole. The next step is to weave yarn through the warp, creating strong woven material that patches the hole, as well as reinforces the stitches around the damaged area so that the knit ceases to unravel. While the concept is easy to grasp, the real trick lies in creating a patch that matches the same weight and tension as the knit material below; too tight and the knit may bunch; too loose and the knit may sag. A darning egg helps in this process by providing a nice flat surface to work on, but a lightbulb (or even beer bottle, as was the case that evening!) would also do the trick, DIY style.

Most of us Knit Nighters focused on classical darning for the evening, but those who finished their repairs graduated to swiss darning -- a method of mending that's used to reinforce weak spots in woollens, not holes. In basic terms, swiss darning (also called the duplicate stitch) is done by threading new yarn through the knit, following the path of the existing knit stitches. Doing this strengthens the knit, thus preventing impending holes.

Unfortunately I didn't nab any swiss darning action photos, but I highly recommend checking out Becky's blog for some fantastic examples of her swiss darning, and other mending projects. (Sidenote: this is why I refer to Becky as master mender -- look at those socks!) Also worth checking out is this duplicate stitch video - a straightforward visual tutorial on swiss darning.

It was a pretty cozy Wednesday night at The Brain, and it was so nice to spend the evening learning a new craft, with both familiar and new faces. A super special thank-you goes out to Ms. Becky Johnson, for teaching us how to fix all the little (or large!) holes in our woolly lives.

Knit Night On The Brain!

This past weekend in Hamilton was amazing. Supercrawl was so so good. The best ever. I was so impressed and thrilled to share such a great Hamilton event with some friends and family who were visiting. And we completed our giant knit façade of The Brain, which we've been working on since June/July.



We were literally knitting and piecing the installation together as it was going up. And many of us were knitting non-stop in the week leading up to the deadline. Towards the end we pulled out the big guns to speed things up - mega huge knitting needles! Thank goodness for chunky yarn and big needles.



We couldn't have done this without our friends and family. In addition to all the knitters that helped with the actual creation of the piece, we could never have installed it without the tireless help of Gary. THANK YOU GARY! Sky Jack operator extraordinaire. And Kieran and Mike. HEROES. And thank you Heather who patiently let us take over The Brain, inside and out.



Oh, and that amazing knit recreation of The Brain logo? Yeah, that was Courtney. She's the mastermind behind this entire thing. Not only is she speediest knitter I've ever met, she's also a genius when it comes to making up patterns. Three cheers for Courtney!!!




And now it's done. Our first giant Beehive project! If you swing by in the next little while, you can still check out the yellow section with The Brain sign, which is still up.

On The Brain

We are busy busy busy busy bees (how many times can we make this joke?). Our knit installation for Supercrawl has been taking up all of our time for the past couple of weeks. Knit knit knit knit knit knit knit. We'll finally be installing the whole thing tomorrow, and it will be available to view tomorrow evening at the art crawl and all day Saturday at Supercrawl on the facade of The Brain at 199 James Street North.

Over 70 knit scarves, 2 knit window boxes, a knit sign for The Brain, half a dozen crocheted flowers, 18 constructed wood frames later and we're ready. It's going to be incredible. We do hope that you'll be able to check it out. It couldn't have been possible without the local crafting community stepping up and pitching in. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Okay. Back to knitting for us. See you this weekend.