It’s that time again and this month we are excited to bring you a giveaway that truly embodies the knit and crochet community spirit. JennieGee’s designer hand dyed and screen printed ‘Keep Calm and Carry Yarn’ project bags are a must have for any fiber artist. Being product and graphic designers by trade, we were drawn to JennieGee’s story of how these clever craft bags came to be.
” I arrived in Brooklyn in September 2009 for the MFA Design program at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Packed among the few possessions I brought with me were screens I’d made with a design idea: “Keep Calm and Carry Yarn.”
I came up with the idea while working at Home Ec Workshop, a yarn and fabric shop in Iowa City, Iowa. Based on one of my favorite posters, from WWII Britain, it expresses just how much knitting gets me through stressful situations. But with my preparations for graduate school, I didn’t have time to do anything with it.
My academic program discourages working while in school. Sounds financially irresponsible, right? That’s what I thought. But our course load was so heavy, I couldn’t find a job in New York City (especially in the terrible economy) that paid a living wage and was flexible around my class schedule. I hardly had time even to look. After the first semester, it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to find a living wage job that was flexible around my schedule. So I listed a few of the posters I’d printed on Etsy. My friends spread the word, and the message caught on.
I progressed on to the project bags, which I had the idea for some time, but it proved difficult to find a source for colored cotton bags. In the end, I had to choose between sewing them myself or buying white bags and dyeing them. I chose dyeing them, and they’ve become my most popular item.
My master’s program had a strong entrepreneurial component, and my Etsy shop proved to be an object lesson in a lot of the topics we were learning about, like reaching your audience, marketing, and pricing. I ended up doing my thesis about knitting, and my professors were all amazed at how the knitting and crochet community connects online, supports good design, and cares about how things are made. Whether you knit, crochet, spin or do something else with fiber, I hope “Keep Calm and Carry Yarn” touches you, too.”
When chatting with JennieGee she spoke to how after each move since, it’s been the knitting groups she finds that have helped her re-establish her community.
“It’s been very heartening to be able to make a living making things for a community I feel so strongly about and identify with. My grandmother originally tried to teach me to knit when I was 12. It didn’t take at that point. And though she wasn’t around anymore when I was 22 and decided to try to teach myself, I think those original lessons made it easier to learn from a magazine article. “
1 Random Winners receive:
1 large “Keep Calm and Carry Yarn” Project Bag – color of their choosing
To Enter:
Buzz over to JennieGee’s Etsy store, and then comment on this post “where this bag would come in handy”. This will enter you into the random drawing. Entries must be received by March 31st. Simple as that!
SPECIAL DISCOUNT:
JennieGee has been kind enough to give all Rewind readers a limited time discount. Simply type ‘REWIND’ in the coupon code at check out to receive 15% off anything in her Etsy store.
Spread the Word:
Pay it forward. Feel free to share this giveaway on other blogs, sites or social media!
Please also check out JennieGee’s talent on her graphic design website!
I would LOVE this bag for carrying my yarn projects! The wonderful bright colors would remind me NOT to forget it when leaving the house!
This bag would come in handy carrying my current knitting projects when I’m traveling over spring break.
It would be great in our truck as we travel from one camping experience to the next and then to pull it out while I sit by the campfire…
With 2 kids in College my life is topsy turvy all the time, this brightt bag would remind to stop and take the time to remember that knitting is my passion 🙂 rose
I love this bag and would love to have one. I would use it when I go to visit my mother in the hospital. The bag would remind me to stay calm, and not worry. And of course it would keep my knitting project safe and clean.
LIKE IT, LOVE IT, GOTTA HAVE IT…..:)
this bag would come in handy carrying yarn & needles between the knitting pro’s house and mine!
I would love to win the purple project bag! It would definitely come in handy to help keep my purse organized. I have needles, yarn, scissors and tape measures just rolling around in there. A bag would definitely come in handy
My email address is nicole at knitnicoleknit dot com
-Nicole
Knit, Nicole, Knit!
On a train!
This would actually work well for me in the car! I always carry a project with me so in the event I’m stuck somewhere or waiting for someone, I can get a few stitches in. I’m in a grad program too with no FT job, so I feel Jennie’s pain! And now faced with an out of state move for new job, I’m definitely scouting out the local guilds.
Rock on Jennie!
Thanks for the post!
thank you ginny! i would LOVE a bag. i would take it everywhere. xx
this bag would come in handy ANYWHERE! I would love a large Jennie G project bag for plane/train/car rides, when I’m working on a sweater or something large and the small bag just won’t do.
I would love to have this bag! I would use it to take all my yarn projects with me to all my sons therapies and to my daughters gymnastics and color guard practices.
Oh, this is absolutely my motto. I take knitting wherever I go and this would be the perfect “take along” bag. I knit in front of the telly, in meetings, on trains, planes, and automobiles (not while driving, I promise). Thanks for the chance to win this!
i would use this bag to carry my needle felting supplies in when I teach my classes. I could also carry my knitting projects in the car with me in this bag! Very neat!!
I have a thing for bags and I have a thing for yarn = perfect marriage…this bag would carry my latest yarny purchase that will become my latest WIP…
Would be perfect to take a project along on vacation! This year Key West! Can’t wait!
This would be perfect to take with for my Mom’s Doctor visits and when she is in the hospital. I have yet to find anything that really works for me so far, this looks PERFECT! Thank you for the opportunity.
Being an Anglophile, and a new knitter, I would love this bag. I took sock knitting lessons a couple of months ago, and I’m hooked. I always have a project with me, and this bag would look much nicer than the bag I have now…
Every Thursday night I take my daughter to dance and wait there for her- from 4:45 until 8:15. Needless to say, I always take a knitting project with me! I use a TOMS bag now, but I would LOVE to have one of these!!!!!
What a GREAT give away!!! I would take my bag everywhere! It is a great bag to take my yarn projects wherever I go 🙂
This bag would come in handy anywhere!! I love sporting stuff that lets people know I’m a knitter….and it attracts other knitters as well!
Would love one of these bags to carry my current project in with my big old purse!
Vacation, at the office, in the car, on a plane, on the couch. I can’t think of a place or situation where this bag wouldn’t be used. Really like the look of this bag…..and it’s reminder.
Love the bag, would love to win it!
I love this bag and would love to have one. I can carry my knitting project everywhere!!!
What a great design and wonderful thought to always keep in the front of your mind. I have been taking my knitting to places that I go because I never know when I’ll have a free few moments to knit. Your bag would let everyone know that wherever you are, there is time to knit. Thank you for your wonderful article.
the bags are very cute…i would love one to carry my latest knitting project in.
tlove it!…this bag would be perfect for knitting in the grass i think..i love knitting in parks and my tiny backyard and everything would be safe inside! 🙂
Ohhh the bag is soo lovely. its useful and the wording is so true..love it
this bag would go anywhere, at anytime !!
This bag would come in handy in carrying my wool projects when I travel to and from my sister’s….love them
This bag would come in handy when I head to DC to visit my mom, it could even carry her a new pair of socks and keep me calm on the flight.
This bag would be perfect for using everyday to carry my charity knitting projects.
Would love this!… purple is my color… always looking for a great knitting bag!
I would use this bag for one of my 3-4 ongoing knitting and crocheting projects (I can’t just do one thing at a time), and possibly at the grocery store! It looks like a good conversation starter. That way I could share with other people where I got the bag.
Peg
I would use this bag to “wrap” a hand knit cowl I’m making for my best friend who now lives in Scotland on a sheep farm with her husband who trains Border Collies. She’s been my best friend for 55 years – since we were 5 – yikes! She has a birthday coming up at the end of April.She’d love one of JennieGee’s bag. Her traditional birthday cake we’d always make was and is composed of white cake with pink frosting. A pink bag with white letters would be so perfect! Then she could store some of the fleece from her special flock of Jacob sheep for spinning, to carry around and about.
Everybody, thanks so much for sharing how you’d find my bags useful! I can’t wait to get somebody’s prize packed up!