UPDATE: Thanks to your generosity we donated $750 (and covered the transaction fees) to help this local organization! We recently discovered that our friend, Trish Fontanilla, is on the board of Food for Free. You all may know Trish as the founder of the BOSFilipinos, she interviewed gather here founder, Virginia back in 2018 for their "Filipinos in Boston" series. Cambridge's Vice Mayor Alanna Mallon founded the Cambridge Weekend Backpack Program and joined Food for Free in January of 2016. We are big fans of Vice Mayor Mallon. Food for Free was the first organization we donated to when we...

One of the many reasons we organize arts and crafts markets in Inman Square is to activate our neighborhood. Studies show that "placemaking" or "activation" benefits the entire community. In 2019 we began conversations with the company renovating 1385 Cambridge Street about the micro-storefront they had created as part of the renovation. Behind the storefront is Commonwealth Alternative Care, a yet to open retail cannabis location. “With so much conversation happening around ‘placemaking’, we tend to use the term ‘activation’ now. Activation, or doing things that bring people to a given space, is the thing that really resonates with communities...

Perhaps you read the Washington Post article, "This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. They still regret it 400 years later." published on November 11, 2021. If you haven't, we encourage you to. You'll learn that the Mashpee Wampanoag Museum draws about 800 visitors a year. Compared to the 1.5 million tourists that visit Plymouth's museums and gift shops and learn a white-washed version of history. A version of history that mythologizes the violent events that followed European arrival into a story of friendship and mutual sharing. But the reality is that the Wampanoag People’s generosity was met with...

In the summer of 2019 (sooooo long ago, right?) I (Virginia) participated in the ICA Deep Dive conversation on maximalism. At this event she met, Mel Taing, a Cambodian-American photographer who had graduated from MassArt. Mel's photos from that event are some of my favorite photos of myself in my element, talking about creating with color and texture and specifically fiber as well as making something. I've stayed in touch with Mel since then, mostly on Instagram. I noted that in Mel's email signature there was a link to the MassArt JET (Justice, Equity, and Transformation) BIPOC Fund and was...

We shared a photo of the Kelby and Kelly Anorak together on Instagram and folx wanted to know more! So here are the deets on the Kelby, knit by a longtime customer and professional knitting pattern tech editor, Minh. The Kelby sweater is by Kate Gognon Osborn of Kelbourne Woolens and made with 5 skeins of Kelbourne Woolens Lucky Tweed. Minh knit the 46.75" size. In Minh's construction notes she writes: "I followed the pattern except for the sleeves (instead of knitting flat and seaming, I pickup up around the armhole and knitted down to the cuff) and the turtleneck...