Judging by the number of knitting projects seen at the recent ACRL-WA conference, librarians are obviously interested in crafting! Once a month, a small group of librarians and other library employees, University of Washington Information School students, and assorted family and friends convene to craft. Carole Svensson, who started Night O’ Craft, wanted an opportunity for friends to come together and be creative in whatever way made sense to them. Knitting and crocheting remain standard activities; however, beading, jewelry making, basket weaving, decoupage, English smocking, scrap booking, button flowers, embroidery, cross-stitch, and rug making have also become popular. But we also consider simply looking through piles of public library craft books, while enjoying the homemade food goods that appear at each event, as crafting. The down time between projects and chatter around the ‘buffet’ has allowed for space to not only brainstorm about craft projects but to think creatively and collaboratively about projects in general, including librarianship. A natural sort of networking has developed.

The brainstorming, collaboration, and networking has taken many forms. Resumes have been reviewed, a book review for the Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship was critiqued, and a new member found a position as a reference assistant. Night O’ Craft has even had an impact on the Washington State Chapter of ACRL. For example, meal selection for the annual Fall conference was discussed and proofreading for one of last year’s newsletters was done at a Night O’ Craft evening.

Night O’ Craft also provided the perfect opportunity for a graduate school project. Crafter and I-School student Serin Anderson is working on a website that will help facilitate Night O’ Craft with a calendar of events, driving directions, participant contacts (hopefully Web security measures are being taught at the I-School), links to crafting resources and favorite Night O’ Craft recipes. The website creation itself will probably turn into a collaborative exchange of ideas, as there are a few web designers who attend Night O’ Craft.

Our group meets monthly and we informally rotate hosting duties. Seeing other people’s home improvement projects also provides members with ideas and motivation for their own home “crafting” projects. Another benefit to group members is an exchange for no-longer-wanted crafting (and other) supplies. While Night O’ Crafters would love to believe themselves avant garde, craft and other home-based hobby gatherings have been growing in popularity across the country for the last several years. If you are interested in starting your own group, but want to focus on something else besides crafts (although you can see from this article crafting is not the most important thing about our group… it’s the food!), check out “THE UN-BOOK CLUB” an article in the November 2003 Real Simple magazine (available via Proquest to all the libraries in the Washington Cooperative Library Project) on different kinds of gatherings that can be created.

And what article in a library publication would be complete without a bibliography? Here is a look at some members’ favorite craft resources, some of which will probably find their way onto our forthcoming website:

Books:
Wild with a glue gun: Getting together with crafty friends. Kitty Harmon and Christine Stickler (North Light Books, 2004). Both authors are from Seattle.

Get crafty: Home ec for hipsters. Jean Railla (Broadway Books, 2004).

General Websites:
http://www.notmartha.org/index.html (Be sure to look at the vegan fox: http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/veganfox.html)
http://www.joann.com/index.jhtml
http://www.churchofcraft.org/
http://www.diynet.com/diy/crafts
http://www.craftster.org

Knitting Websites:
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/index.html

Beading Websites:
http://www.shipwreckbeads.com/
http://www.beadandbutton.com

Listed last, but at Night o’ Craft, food comes first! Two of our favorite recipes: