July is shaping up to be a month filled with community love! The fiber arts community is one of the friendliest, most supportive communities out there, and I'm proud to be a part of it. I think it's important to raise people up - be they up-and-coming indie artists, or women, used to competitive and sometimes denigrating social norms. I've been reading recently about the Shine Theory and how power doesn't mean fear, it usually means collaboration and leadership.

Craftsposure is part maker community, part resource and business school. It's a site that features community indie makers (not just knits) and also supplies tools and resources for the community. So you can imagine I was super excited to be featured this July for the Lemonade top! It's great to see a giant influencer (330k followers!) dipping into some of the smaller fish in the community!

My girl @mars.knits also gave my feed a shout out. As well as creating her own amazing crochet patterns and architecturally awesome tops, Mars was also the winner of the Bralette Bonanza giveaway in June! So that's just another example of collaboration and inspiration coming full circle. She often features other awesome community members in her insta stories to raise awareness and increase the love! <3

Outside of just Instagram (I know, is it even real life outside of Instagram?) I'm also collaborating with some of my favorite makers this month, Michelle from Stitch and Hustle and Lisa from The Rare Creature, but both of those are pretty large projects, so I don't want to give away too much too soon, and each of those will likely get their own posts ;).

Aside from all these individual acts of collaboration and support, I will be attending Our Maker Life this year.

I'm in the back right corner, can you see me?

I attended last year (to see my blog post from last year click here!) when, like me, the OML community was just getting off the ground. I was just a bitty influencer with not even 300 followers, and the event was a small-ish 50 people and based in a loft in NYC with no AC (...in July!). Since last year, we've both grown, and that too has been a collaborative process. Because of that event I met and networked with some of the biggest names in indie design, fiber arts, and social influencers. Makers like TwoOfWands, knitbrooks, miskunn, the.hook.nook, chelsea_knit_photography (though at that point she was still chelsea_crochet_photography haha!).

Because of the tips and tricks, and support of these and other makers - I have grown not only my products, and patterns, but my user base, created a website, and my scope of collaborative projects. Indeed OML has had it's own growth. The conference for this year is now international, taking place in Toronto, with over 100 makers going, and I'm told there will even be AC (haha). July stands to be quite the busy month so stay tuned for more posts. I can't wait to share!

7-13-17 Community Love