Faune Yerby doesn’t knit much, but she spins a lot of yarn.

This is not the uniform, neatly wrapped balls that appear on the shelves in craft stores and local yarn shops. Yerby, who is also a photographer, makes art yarn, each skein of which is unique. She hand selects colored wool to combine, then spins it into bulky, bumpy, visually fascinating yarn that she sells at craft fairs, including the upcoming Renegade Craft Fair in Williamsburg.

Since each skein is one of a kind, it’s not really possible to use art yarn for a large project like a sweater. Hats or headbands might be a good choice, but maybe something a little more artistic and different is in order. Yerby said some of her customers buy the yarn to hang up, without making it into anything.

Yerby let Dirty Hands NY into her DUMBO, Brooklyn, apartment, where she works. She walked us through the spinning process, from mixing the colored wool together to the finished product – check out the video above.

Guest post by Vishal Persaud

For more than 20,000 years, civilizations across the world have weaved – from the ancient Egyptians in the Nile River Valley to the Navajo of the American Southwest. Chances are that someone or something weaved that shirt or pair of jeans you’re wearing. But since the times of the ancient Egyptians, advances in technology changed the art and craft of hand weaving. Yet some, like Angela Tong and Lesia Tristram enjoy learning and practicing hand weaving at a class offered by The Yarn Tree in Williamsburg, Brooklyn by Linda LaBelle

LaBelle, the class’ instructor has years of experience weaving and dyeing and opened up the The Yarn Tree in 2001. The classes initially began when the Guggenheim Museum approached LaBelle to teach a weaving workshop in conjunction with her position as costume designer for Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle. The classes were held briefly at HABU Textiles in Manhattan, and when LaBelle acquired studio space near her store in Brooklyn, she moved them there. The weaving classes are amongst the most popular at her shop, according to LaBelle.

Click to see the weaving classes at the Yarn Tree.

If you’re looking to save the day, all you have to do is head over to the “discover projects section” and click on “ending soonest.” Then you’ll see everything in the order of how long they have left. You can also separate them by category. There are a few ending this weekend that are close to their goal.

In music, for example, there’s Suzy Sellout, who is looking for money to record a demo and needs, at this time, about $300 more. Many others, like the We Can Do It! Campaign are ending soon but are farther from their goals.

Some campaigns surpass their goals before their deadlines. Remember Brooklyn Soda Works? They funded their project through Kickstarter and raised 190% of their goal.

So, my dirty-handed friends, have you ever backed a project? Why? Category? Uniqueness? Flashy graphics on their Kickstarter page? Because it was someone you know?

Monday, May 10:
Parsons Illustration Senior Show 2010
16th Annual One Show Student Exhibition Preview
Design Discussion and Drinks at Collins
TORCH presents: Premiere screening of documentary film Skyscrapers

Tuesday, May 11:
Making Ideas Happen: Key Insights on Creative Execution from Behance’s Scott Belsky
Print vs Digital Media: False Dilemmas & Hidden Opportunities
Society of Illustrators 2010 Annual Student Competition
com.passion
Doner The One Club Retrospective Opening Reception
JOBS OF THE FUTURE

Wednesday:
Client Pitch Competition
com.passion
Art & Copy – Documentary Screening
The 25TH Annual William S. Paley Television Festival: MAD MEN
One Slam : The 1st Annual Copy Writers Poetry Smackdown
2010 NYC Creative Circus Alumni Reunion

Thursday:
Art Reoriented Gallery Tour: The Middle East in Chelsea
com.passion
Art & Copy – Documentary Screening
The 25TH Annual William S. Paley Television Festival: MAD MEN
As Is

Friday:
com.passion
Art & Copy – Documentary Screening
The 25TH Annual William S. Paley Television Festival: MAD MEN
Predrag Dimitrijevic- Recent Work
“Strange Design” @ Ico Gallery
New York Photo Festival 2010 Awards After Party

Saturday:
Art Reoriented Gallery Tour: The Middle East in Chelsea
com.passion
Art & Copy – Documentary Screening
The 25TH Annual William S. Paley Television Festival: MAD MEN
SUPER SABADO

Sunday:
com.passion
Art & Copy – Documentary Screening
The 25TH Annual William S. Paley Television Festival: MAD MEN
Opening Reception for The Curse of Bigness

Barbed-wire t-shirts, kimchee hotdogs, and a hand-painted portrait of your beloved ten-speed bike.  When Deb Klein organizes a craft fair, she makes sure to mix it up. Klein, who’s been running the Food and Craft Market series at the Brooklyn Lyceum for the past two years, has quotas for popular items like jewelry and soap. This way, she makes room for more unique artisans–like Tianna Meilinger, who makes messenger bags out of recycled bike tubes and sail boat awnings, and Donna Block, whose cakes look like Converse sneakers.

Crafters fill out applications with links to their websites and photos of their goods months in advance. While most vendors are based out of New York City, last weekend’s Spring Food and Craft Fair had artisans from far away as Cleveland and Portland, Maine.

“At first, it was hard to convince vendors it was worthwhile to come out,” Brooklyn Lyceum’s programming director Eric Richmond said. “There are so many auto and glass places around here.” But Klein’s vetting process and the fact that crafters often advertise the fair on their own blogs mean word has spread and the Lyceum’s craft fairs are really taking off. The spring fair had a steady string of customers, and with 120 vendors, was the first fair to use two floors, entrances, and balconies of the space.

Brooklyn Lyceum is Park Slope’s mini-convention center that houses break-dancing competitions, chess tournaments, and Zine Fests.

Plus, it’s craft fair season! Melissa made this map of upcoming fairs and shows around the city:

View 2010 Fairs Around NYC in a larger map

Heather Teaches Reiki

Click the links below for our coverage of the event:

Read Joe’s first-hand account of a session of Reiki

Check out Krissy’s interactive feature with Alexander’s tips for DIY Reiki at home

Watch Annie’s video of Reiki in action

Listen to Heather Alexander give us some background on Reiki

If you’d rather make your own awesome stitched-up phrases than buy them already finished, check out Subversive Cross Stitch (again, swearing alert). The designer, Julie Jackson, offers up patterns to stitch phrases like “Don’t Make Me Cut You,” “WTF?” and “Shut Your Piehole” (those are some of the clean ones). jackson even published a book of her patterns in both English and Dutch.

It’s one little act of subversion, stitched daintily on fabric.

The event is being held at 55 Montgomery Pl between Eighth Ave and Prospect Park West, No. 3R, Park Slope, Brooklyn from 8 to 10 tonight.

Or, if you’d prefer your DIY-ness a little hands on, you can stay tuned for our coverage later this week!

The game is sled hockey and it’s played by athletes with disabilities all over the world.

On Long Island, the unique sport gets a little more original. (Why are we not surprised?) While other sled hockey teams consist only of players who are physically challenged, the Long Island Rough Riders team includes mentally challenged athletes as well.

RoughRiders President Bryan Blomquist started coaching sled hockey 15 years ago, when his son Brett, who has Down’s syndrome, wanted to play hockey. Since then, practice has become a family affair. Parents and athletes raise money to fund players’ trips and equipment. None of the coaches are paid, although they spend hours on the team each week, and many have been doing so for over a decade.

The team has 29 members of all different ages and ability levels. Players find ways to work together and support each other despite their differences, and compete all over the East Coast and Canada.

This weekend, they are playing in Ottawa at the Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario Invitational, which they won in 2007.

Andras Gipp came to New York from Hungary 14 years ago to build pianos for Klavierhouse. In his spare time, he also makes electric bass guitars.

Ball park figure for a custom-made bass guitar is $2,500. Gipp said it’s about a 40-hour investment in terms of labor, but doesn’t include the drying time for the lacquer. But it includes the wood working and installing the electronics – and the final product can last up to 30 years, said Gipp.

“My whole idea, the reason I did these instruments, [was] so I would have something to travel with,” said Gipp, who made his first one in 2001. Regular bass guitars are much larger, and Gipp wanted something compact he could travel with. “People saw it, liked the way it looked like, and they asked me to make one for them as well.” So far, he’s made about five.

“I’ve always really enjoyed to build things,” said the Long Island City resident. “You know, just kind of coming up with creative solutions for your needs, that’s all. This whole bass guitar probably was born from that.”

Take a look as Gipp walked me through the steps of creating one of his custom-made bass guitars in his workshop at Klavierhouse, in Midtown.