She sells skeins well via self serve
October 23, 2020 10:33 PM   Subscribe

"A new vending machine was dropped into a North Philly barbershop on Thursday night, and it officially opened for biz on Friday morning. But don’t show up looking for snacks. Painted bright pink, this machine is stocked with nearly 500 balls of yarn." (Billy Penn)
posted by biogeo (11 comments total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
I just think this is a really cool idea!
posted by biogeo at 10:34 PM on October 23, 2020


Trending: vending tending now extending to mending
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:46 PM on October 23, 2020 [16 favorites]


Big ups on the post title. Nicely done.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:17 AM on October 24, 2020 [5 favorites]


First thought: Cool!

It’s a new venture from the woman behind Emani Milan, whose custom crochet is worn by Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion.

Oh wow, so like actually cool cool and not just “fiber arts cool”
posted by like_neon at 6:05 AM on October 24, 2020 [6 favorites]


I, a middle-aged white woman,* am clearly not at all her target market, but here are a few of her designs that I really like :
Ruffled dress
Diamonds are Forever
Mother / Daughter looks
Eyelash sweater
Matrix Dress

There's such a big divide between the whitewashed hobbyist ravelry/pinterest/knitting magazine world of fibre arts and the work of many black designers and entrepreneurs that I couldn't even find her patterns in the Ravelry pattern database. Nor could I find mention of her name or her company name in the Ravelry full site search. It strikes me as particularly emblematic of the divide that the crochet course she offers on her website is a professional development course for other people who want to start small fashion businesses, rather than how-to instruction for hobbyists. Even though she sells yarn and patterns for people who want to DIY, it's a different focus than the usual starting point for a white designer / instructor.

(*) I was going to say a fat middle-aged white woman, but actually she is 100% clear on her Insta that she is happy to design for and see her work worn by women of any size.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:40 AM on October 24, 2020 [18 favorites]


Love her stuff and the vending machine concept is awesome. That said, Not once in my life have I had the kind of body that could rock those clothing designs. You don’t wear crochet, crochet wears you.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:59 AM on October 24, 2020 [4 favorites]


Every time you see a crocheted thing, remember: it's made by hand. Machines cannot yet make a crocheted thing and never have been able to. So we have humans to thank for every piece you see.

Also, that "Diamonds Are Forever" is incredible both because it is lovely and because it's basically impossible to make a granny square cool but she did it! How?!
posted by blnkfrnk at 10:31 AM on October 24, 2020 [10 favorites]


It is entertaining how the opening sentences make it sound like when people hear there's a new vending machine in town they've got to be there.
posted by JHarris at 10:39 AM on October 24, 2020 [3 favorites]


Interesting! So much of buying yarn, for me, is how it feels -- but if I was already familiar with the brand I would love to have something like this, for the "I must knit NOW" feeling I get on a Monday when all the yarn stores are closed.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:27 PM on October 24, 2020 [3 favorites]


Mercifully, crochet is one process that I don’t feel compelled to adopt and accumulate but I want to say, this woman is 24! and she’s creating her own yarns! (like, aren’t those factories in China?) and custom vending machines are around $2000! which doesn’t seem onerous. This is so impressive.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:44 PM on October 25, 2020 [2 favorites]


How awesome!
posted by mixedmetaphors at 5:56 PM on October 25, 2020


« Older The Westing Game May Be A Murder Mystery—But It's...   |   Efficient text editing on a PDP-10 Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments