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Slow Fashion October is upon us!

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Slow Fashion October is upon us!

In under 48 hours, depending what time zone you’re in, it will officially be the 3rd Slow Fashion October. I still think the best description I’ve ever given of this event is the one in the @slowfashionoctober profile: “A celebration of the small-batch, handmade, second-hand, well-loved, long-worn, known-origins wardrobe.” Slow fashion, to me, is all of those things — from the thrift-store find to the me-made to the special purchase, and everything in between. Slotober is meant to be fun, thoughtful, enlightening and challenging, and has been for the past two years, so I’m looking forward to this year’s conversation.

How and how much you participate is completely up to you. If you want to weigh in daily/weekly/just once for the month; here, on the #slowfashionoctober feed or elsewhere; in brief or at great length, I applaud that. I’ll be posting on my @karentempler account and trying to share highlights on the @slowfashionoctober account as in years past. And here’s what you can expect to see here on the blog:

1) Katrina is doing four Slow Fashion Citizen interviews for this month (essentially one per week), and she asked if I would be one of the interviewees, which is a little weird for me but also a great way to organize my current thinking on all of this. So I agreed, and that will appear here on Tuesday. But in the meantime, I do want to offer up some links to past posts for those who might be new to the conversation or the subject, and I hope you’ll share your favorites (from wherever) in the comments:

– How much can we know about where clothes come from?
– Why I make (most of) my own clothes
– Can Slow Fashion impact Fast Fashion? (Or why I don’t make all of my clothes)
– What makes a garment slow fashion?

2) Tomorrow (hopefully, or soon thereafter) I’m going to post some further thoughts and details following our chat about the idea of a clothing swap.

3) I mentioned before that I’m going to do outfit lineups one-month-at-a-time for the foreseeable future, and my October outfit plans will be up on Monday — along with a little wardrobe challenge for anyone who’s up for it.

4) And since a lot of people feel strongly about the conversation starters, I’m going to give you/us a topic each Friday for the next few weeks, starting today — a question or thought to respond to wherever/however you like. (Or simply to ponder for yourself!)

THE WEEK ONE TOPIC IS: WHO. As in not only who are you (i.e. introductions) but who has influenced or inspired you to think or do differently with regard to clothing yourself, and in what way? And if you’ve set any goals or plans for yourself this month, include them in your introduction!

ALSO: If you are hosting or aware of any tie-in events or promotions, are posting on your own blog, or have anything else to point to or share, please do include a note and relevant links below!

And with that, we’re off. See you in the comments and on the #slowfashionoctober feed — have fun and happy weekend!

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PREVIOUSLY in Slow Fashion October: Can Slow Fashion impact Fast Fashion?

Photos above from 2016 via @repair_revolution, @whistlinggirlknits, @anloubroen, @clairemadeit, @mollieelle, @stitchinschmitz, @ecoage, @romidesigns, @thecharmofit

 

WIP of the Week, week 5 (and other juicy bits!)

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WIP of the Week, week 5

This was by far the hardest round for picking the #fringeandfriendsknitalong WIP of the Week. I can’t even tell you how much time I spent going through the Ravelry images and the Instagram hashtag — scrolling back and forth and forth and back and back and forth. Again, if I had three or four prizes to give it still wouldn’t be enough! But the image I kept coming back to was @idafwl’s WIP, above. Ida’s been a contender every week. She’s one of two known people frogging a sweater and turning the reclaimed yarn into a Hawser. (She’s frogging her Beatnik; Erica Smith is frogging her Stonecutter. And my utmost respect to the both of them.) So it’s been a joy watching Ida’s Hawser grow. But I just love this photo, captioned “Getting big enough to fold”, because that’s a tipping-point moment I think we can all identify with. We start every project with a skimpy little slip of stitches, and we turn those stitches into rows, and eventually those rows start to look and feel not just like a piece of fabric, but like a thing. You have that, “Hey, this is about to be a sweater!” moment. (Or hat, or sock, or whatever.) And if you’re like me, that’s when the adrenaline really starts to kick in. So this photo got me excited for Ida and for myself and for everyone who’s got a WIP on the needles that’s soon to be an FO.

Congratulations, Ida — you’ve won a $150 gift certificate to the freshly launched Tolt Yarn and Wool webshop! And huge congratulations to Anna and company on the launch of that shiny new web presence. Y’all should go check it out!

OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS AND DEVELOPMENTS:

– If you are going to Vogue Knitting Live in Chicago this weekend, don’t forget to show me your tote on Instagram! Since I don’t get to go. Take a pic of yourself at the event with your High-fiber or Knit and Let Knit tote, tag it #fringeinthewild #vklive, and mention @fringesupplyco @karentempler. Some lucky person(s) will win a gift certificate from Fringe Supply Co. If you don’t already have one, or you do and someone asks you where they can get such a wonderful tote bag, they are for sale in The Yarnery’s booth, #221/223!

– The following Saturday, November 1, I will have a booth at Fiber in the ’Boro in Mufreesboro TN! If you’re anywhere near Nashville, hie thee to the show! You’ll get to meet my trusty sidekick, Amazing DG. And shop the movable Fringe shelves, of course.

– After that, I am headed to Seattle/Carnation WA for a little business and then a visit to Tolt Yarn and Wool. Anna and I are planning some kind of Q&A/meet-and-greet sort of thing, where you may ask me anything you want — about my background, the blog, knitting, blogging, whatever I actually know anything about — and I will do my best to be interesting and/or informative. It will most likely be Thursday evening, Nov 13, but I will confirm that date (and time) when it’s pinned down. Just wanted to give you a heads-up! I’d love to meet any of you who are in that beautiful area.

– And last but not least, there are some marvelous new gems to be had at Fringe Supply Co today: the prettiest little Italian scissors and the ever-popular Doane notebooks, now in striking colors! Go get’em.

New at Fringe Supply Co.

Have a great weekend!

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PREVIOUSLY in #fringeandfriendsknitalong: The button band conundrum