stitch+thrash: a knitting-metal mashup
Stitch + thrash has been in my brain even longer than the Invisible Food Pantry. About five years ago, my friend Amy T. told me about an event she went to in Athens. A knit-a-thon! It sounded so fun. She just went by herself while visiting her daughter at UGA. Knitters sitting around knitting. A food truck. All proceeds to an organization serving unhoused people. As a person who hates galas, this was my kind of event. I immediately started thinking about how we could adapt the concept in Atlanta. Amy and I kicked around a few ideas, but our conversations always spin off wildly in many directions, so we never settled on an action plan.
Fast forward to last year, and I knew the Invisible Food Pantry needed a fun event that didn’t take place under my carport. I was going to ask my friends at My Parents’ Basement, our neighborhood bar, to host a knit-a-thon. I even floated it by one of the owners, and she shrugged and said sure. But I couldn’t quite figure out how it would work with the bar’s configuration. I envisioned a ticketed event, but regular customers would also be in attendance …
My husband, Jason, took me to a brewery called Little Cottage that opened just steps away from My Parents’ Basement, and I immediately thought this was the place for what I now envisioned as a stitch-a-thon, as I had ventured into embroidery. Jason introduced me to the manager, Will, and he was immediately excited. “We have to incorporate metal!” he said.
LOL, Little Cottage has a heavy metal theme, but I am not familiar with the genre. I didn’t take time to think about it before saying, “OKAY!” I thought the mash-up of knitting and metal was hilarious and would lend a fun, chaos vibe to the event. Of course I had to call it stitch + thrash!
I thought I might be getting a little too crazy, so I consulted Amy H., my friend and founder of the nonprofit Second Serve Resale. She said, “It’s spectacular.” So that was that.
Little Cottage has these amazing murals, and I thought I would ask the artist who did the murals to do a logo for stitch + thrash. It turns out she is a college student and the owner’s daughter. Her name is Victoria Shari, and her work is stunning. I contacted her and she said she would love to help. I took photos of her murals, one of a skull stuffed with flowers and another of a horned beast. I envisioned the skull stuffed with yarn instead of flowers, and the beast with yarn wrapped around his horns. Tori loved those and came up with her own, skeleton hands winding yarn. So I got three awesome designs.
Add a fantastic Mexican popup, wonderful sponsors (including My Parents’ Basement), and a custom embroidery kit just for the occasion, and everything came together. Well, not quite everything. I had envisioned goats, but the goat company already had a gig on that date. Oh well, there is always next year! I am currently soliciting items for gift baskets to raffle off. And I have two vendor spots to fill.
I have worked on my metal cred. My husband started playing metal every time we were in the car, and he and I watched a few documentaries. I have listened to a range of bands but I keep gravitating toward Metallica, Megadeath, and Overkill. For support in this area, I turned to my friend Jesse, who is such a Megadeath fan that he and his wife got married on a band member’s property with him officiating! He encouraged me to stay authentic. Metal cannot be faked!
When the big day arrives, I hope to look around and see people knitting, embroidering, laughing, talking, eating, drinking, and just having a fun, chill Saturday, all for a great cause! This event is unticketed. Just show up!
