I’m taking classes at Fancy Tiger. This is my very favorite craft store, in part because while the employees and owners are completely hip and talented, they are equally kind and generous with their time. Cody used to live nearby in the Wash Park neighborhood. When I’d visit, I’d be sure to swing through the Tiger to pick up supplies I couldn’t find in Phoenix. Japanese zaka prints, leather purse handles, handspun knits that were just different than anything else I’d seen.
I have had such fun exploring this town for the last six months — spending time both examining its offerings and what I truly wanted. I’m certainly not the first person to find a move the ideal time to re-examine one’s priorities and interests. Signing up for classes at Fancy Tiger was what I needed to push my knitting and sewing abilities — to rise above the stagnant, learn-from-books-and-You-Tube-tutorials- state.
While this first class is making me angry and impatient, both are a good thing. New skills are just on the other side of the horizon. I’ve never perfected anything without first considering throwing an impatience fueled tantrum. With any luck, I’ll be wearing a sweater I knit (that fits!) on Christmas.
Also, the supplies? Gorgeous. I could spend hours just looking over the magazines, books and shelves of lovely prints — daydreaming of projects. But truly, this store has my business because of folk like Emily. She’s teaching my sweater class and could not be nicer. Mother Teresa could have learned something from the patience she showed to a handful of newbie knitters whose enthusiasm quickly melted into pools of frustration at her feet.
Fancy Tiger is a Denver gem for those who love craft.
Bianca recently purchased her first sewing machine and asked if I’d help her learn how to use it. Me, teaching sewing. I know. I know.
While I grew up with my mama’s sewing machine on the kitchen table, I never took home ec or had any desire to be artistic. Have you met my mother? Better yet, have you met her sewing? It’s like a composer’s kid being tone deaf. Or Kim Kardashian’s kids being nuns. I was adamant. Stubborn. Obstinante, one might say. I had zero use or interest in anything that had any scent whatsoever of eu de Housewife.
Fast forward until I became a citizen of Dormistan. The land of honey and irony, all-you-can-eat-and-weight-you-can-gain-buffets and $18 checking account balances. Skipping the beat of the dance clubs for the hum of a new sewing machine was an easy decision. The latter never required: Spanx, boys, cash, or my self-conscious awkwardness in public. I was a confident know-it-all in class. I was a shy, nervous wreck at an underage club.
Today I’m a fair combination of both, but do have a bit more balance between the social and the sewing. Sadly, 9 out of 10 projects still look like something off of Regretsy. But I can’t stop. I’ve got a closet full of fabric, a binder full of patterns and am slowly but surely becoming more comfortable with my modernized Laura Ingalls Wilder spirit.
{My version of the Oregon Trail would be by Prius. With stops along the way for hiking, sleeping under the stars and hitting the half annual sales at any Nordstrom en route. Wineries, pedicures, fly fishing for dinner. I’m pretty sure Laura would have been all about getting her eyebrows waxed, hitting a hot yoga class and gossiping about that wicked Nellie Oleson over happy hour. Something tells me the oxen and cholera wouldn’t be missed.}
The first video sewing 101 tutorial, for sweet Bianca and girls everywhere who celebrate their inner modern pioneering spirit:*
Happy trails, friends!
~k
* there is a clever joke to be made about how a current Laura Ingalls Wilder would kick some Kardash ass, and what a large task that would be, and her video skills being used for good, nor horror. But I’ll leave that to you…
When I saw these prints on Etsy, I knew this was the perfect project for Colleen’s pending visit. I needed a birthday gift, and I wanted a craft we could work on together. Of course she’d know how to take some basic frames, add a dash of fabric and turn the prints into art:
Falling back to my classic baby gifts: minky backed blankets and personalized onesies. Easy to create, fun to sew and a pleasure to send to new parents.
