We meet so many cool folks at the shop. Kaycee is one of them! She took our Knit Cactus class a while back, and spent time hanging our with us at the last Open House we held. We were dazzled by this hilarious cross-stitch she was working on (which she designed herself!) so we sent her a few questions. Thanks so much Kaycee!

How long have you been cross-stitching? How did you learn?
Actually, believe it or not this is my first cross-stitch project! I watched my sister do it for years—it seemed very zen, very relaxing so I thought I might have a go at it too! It’s just x’s for most of it, but for the rest I got some old craft books and samplers to look at all the different little patterns I could piece together when I designed my piece. I just used brighter, more modern colors.

What other crafts do you enjoy?
I’m a crafter from way back! I started out as a kid making hair bows with my mom and sister. We used to do it so much we had a giant laundry basket in our bathroom full of all the hairbows we made! I also used to make friendship bracelets and origami stars and animals that I would sell in elementary school (principal didn’t like that so much). I even went through a phase where I was taking a lot of things apart to understand how they were put together, so I took apart a real phone and put all the parts into a kid’s Care Bear play phone and it worked! Let’s see, pom-pom making, tiny clay animal sculptures, jewelry making, sewing, painting, reworking furniture. Recently I learned to knit (at your wonderful workshop) and I’m afraid I opened a can of worms with that one.

Tell us a bit about your Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group.
Well I actually heard of the Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group in Texas, and when I first moved here I was in need of things to do, since I didn’t know anyone here. I found several chapters (through Yahoo groups) near my neighborhood, tried a few, but felt like I really found my home in the Silver Lake chapter. Its a great group of people (yes I said people, boys included) mostly knitters but they tolerate my cross stitching! We just sit around working on our crafts, chatting it up on Thursday nights at the Coffee Table on Rowena. Everyone is invited!

Now that you’ve finished this project, what’s next on your plate?
Oh boy, well, currently I have two dresses that I’m making. I also have an accessories line called Hooray 4 Polyester! that has been slightly ignored since the move from Texas. I had two stores there that were selling the line and I’m thinking about selling again at the Silver Lake Art Craft and Vintage they have on Saturdays. I heard the rental space is cheap.