Q&A: Get to Know Us!

Hi! We’re Tori and Eve, and we’ve been best friends since we were five. We decided to go into business together, so now we own and operate Stone Celler Dye Works. We started in Tori's Pennsylvania stone cellar basement and have now moved to Eve’s not-stone-cellar basement, but the essence of the cellar is still with us. 

Eve: What fiber crafts are you involved in, and how did you get started? 

Tori: Everything! As most crafters I think experience, you try a lot of things along the way. Right? But, currently, what it's ended up being is mostly knitting, weaving, and sewing. I think those are the top three. Knitting I learned as a child, weaving I picked up in college, and sewing–I don't know–forever. That's the short version. I came out just stitching away. There was a lot of bad sewing that happened when I was a kid. Like, trial and error, making things out of bed sheets and stuff lying around. And my grandmother was a big quilter, so she definitely taught me how to use a sewing machine. But, yeah, what about you? 

Eve: So, I knit sometimes, but I mostly crochet, and I have aspirations for other things. But, I taught myself; no one in my family taught me. My mom has done crafts, and I enjoyed watching her do crafts, but she didn't pass any of that along to me. In fact, I've tried to re-teach her to crochet. But, I taught myself from a book, ye olde books–there was no YouTube then. And I do floor some young people when they ask me how I learned. I'm like, I learned from a book! And I was 12. And I taught myself from a quarter page of a book called How to Do Just About Anything, and it was the most basic instructions that you could get. And yeah, I knit for years off and on. But then I started crocheting during the pandemic, and I just really took off and just did project after project after project. I took to that a lot more than knitting, which is the opposite of how most people go.

T: I didn't know that–that a lot of people started the other way. 

E: Yeah, that's what a lot of people have told me. 

T: So, I'm deviating a little from our list, but those are what we do now. Are there any fiber-related crafts that are on your docket to learn? From a book, I hope. 

E: Yeah. So, I'm looking at a huge thing of fleece that I got from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, like two years ago at this point, coming up on three. And, one day, I'm going to learn to spin. It looks at me all the time and tells me I need to do it, but that's the main thing I want to learn. I do have a cat that's very fluffy, and I'd also like to learn to spin, because I would like to see if I could use his fur in anything. He's a rag doll, and he's very poofy. How about you? Anything you want to learn? 

T: I feel I'm actually in the place of needing to let go of hobbies and crafts and be like, “I don't think you're going to really go further with this, Tor.” Like, commit. Become an expert. I don't know, jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none kind of thing. I definitely have other kinds of skills–like making skills–I'd like to learn. But I guess just getting to the next level on certain things. 

The one thing, though, is that I recently relearned how to crochet. So maybe I'll actually do a crochet project. I've never followed a pattern for crochet before. So, maybe with your guidance, I'll do that. Because you taught me, and it came back (like, the basics) very quickly–to the point where people were asking me the questions about crochet at some of the events we were vending at last year. I had to fess up, I'd only learned 45 minutes before. 

E: There you go. It's a testament to the craft. What's your favorite project you've ever made? 

T: I don't think I have a favorite. I like the process of making, which I guess I could answer with “what was my favorite process,” but there are just so many, I can't. That's a bad answer in a way, but I don't think I have one. 

I'm pretty chuffed about the project I'm working on right now, though, which is a sweater using some yarn that was a part of our last collection: Flower Shop. And it's a really fast knit, but I got to just needing the sleeves done on this sweater, and I knew I was going to be playing yarn chicken at the end and also feeling like maybe I had chosen the wrong size. So, I decided to rip it all out, and I've started again. I've made really good progress. I'm doing it in a different order–like the components–because you do the body, and then the collar, and the sleeves. And I've reversed it, and it's looking really good.

E: And my favorite project: I made a shawl a couple years ago–a couple of Christmases ago–to specifically wear around Christmas. And instead of crocheting based on a word-based pattern, I crocheted it based on a chart, which I'd never done before. And it was pretty complicated. It's probably the most complicated thing I've made. So, I think it's my favorite from the standpoint of the finished project. I did enjoy making it, though. I think it was cool to be like, "Ah, I can do this. I can follow a chart.” Which I think seems intimidating.

T: I agree. The first time I did lace knitting, I felt the same. Because a chart is really the best way. I don't even– A lot of them don't even have written instructions for the actual pattern. 

E: Also, every time I wear it, I think about the fact that I watched Good Burger while I was making it. So, that's a fun memory. 

T: So, you can keep that with you in the Christmas season. The gift that keeps on giving. 

E: Oh, man. What if there was A Good Burger Christmas? The thing no one's asked for. 

T: I think we're asking for it right now… What is your go-to karaoke song? 

E: So, I love karaoke. Tori clearly knows this about me. But I do not have an arsenal of karaoke songs, which I am sad to admit. I go on cruises a lot, and it's always nice to have a karaoke song prepared, because they do a lot of karaoke and a lot of karaoke competitions. It’s something that is always occupying a space of my brain to think through, pretty much at all times, and I never get any closer. I think the only one that I know that I could probably do is Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, but it's so common. It's often one that people have signed up for before I would ever have the courage to even think about signing up, because I have to work myself up to it. But I also I feel like I can do a mean Bohemian Rhapsody, but that might be the confidence of doing it only in my living room. So, who's to say? 

T: It's just funny because you're such a confident, outgoing person. Like, your personality, generally.

E: Singing turns me into having a different type of confidence–or lack thereof–sometimes. 

What is your favorite item of clothing right now? Tori has a pretty large closet collection compared to me. 

T: I definitely have a closet deficiency as well. I was telling you before that I always want my laundry to be completely done and put away, but if it is, my clothes don't fit. The hamper is an important part of the cycle. 

Let's see. I think I'd have to say that maroon sweater I wear a lot that's pretty oversized. It was my dad's. It must have shrunk, and I think that's how I ended up with it. It needs some repair. It's got a big– It's knit, and it's not handmade. But it's got a big hole under the one arm, and you know, it's well-loved. But it's just a good go-to. 

E: It's very versatile. 

T: It is. What is the best meal you've ever had on a trip? 

E: Oooh. So, my husband has this bizarre knack for remembering every single meal he's ever ingested. And when he comes back from a trip, he tells about his experiences through the meals. 

T: I love that. 

E: It's so detailed. It's so overwhelming. 

T: We did just pick apart– We went out to dinner with your parents the other night, and he wanted to go through the meal with me afterwards when I saw him. 

E: He really does love that. So, I think if you asked him versus me, you'd of course get a very different answer. But, uh, I guess– I guess I was filibustering there a little bit, but I just feel like I don't remember quite like he does. But, now that I've thought about it, we've gone to Alaska on a cruise twice now, and not this past year, but the year before that, we went to a place where we had king crab legs. They were fresh, and we got to crack them at the table, and we got fresh chowder, too. And it was just one of the most delicious things I've ever had in my life. 

T: Yeah. Sounds great. Food is so good. 

E: And, you know, the ambiance of looking out onto the water and the mountains around Alaska didn't hurt either. 

What is your favorite friendship memory of the two of us or the first one that comes to mind?

T: We've been friends for a very long time. So, I think choosing a favorite– 

E: Math might say 30 years or more. 

T: Math might. I sometimes forget, but math might. 

Picking a favorite is really difficult, but the first one that's coming to my mind is the garden tool. How old were we? 

E: I think it's hard to say. 

T: Older than we should have been. 

E: I think it also spanned an era. 

T: That's true. 

E: And it wasn't just us. Like, other friends of ours enjoyed the garden tool as well. 

T: It must have been middle school, though. 

E: Oh, yeah. It for sure started in middle school. It may have gone a little into high school.

T: But the memory really– It wasn't one single day. But we had this garden tool that we rode around the neighborhood. 

E: Sounds insane. 

T: I know, but you have to say it that way, because I don't know if– I garden. When someone says garden tool, I think like– I was going to say tuning fork. That's music. 

E: A pitchfork? 

T: I was thinking, like, a garden fork–and just trying not to say the word garden again–but a shovel, a spade, something like that. It's really just like a seat on wheels, like a little plastic–very small. It's about this big. 

E: It's probably a little bit bigger. It's also, I think, interesting to note: I know the company that makes it is Step 2. They're the ones who also make plastic mailboxes and stuff. So it's this, like, hollow plastic. 

T: So you could store some things in it, and you could save your knees, I think is the intent. And I guess it was your mom's. Maybe your dad's? And we thought riding it was the better option. 

E: Yep. Down hills, on the pavement.

T: Some good old-fashioned fun. 

E: There was a lot of falling, but it was. That's a favorite quote of ours that we sprinkle into things: good old-fashioned fun. One might say that's what we're doing with our dyeing. It's just good old-fashioned fun. 

T: Indeed. 

E: Well, that's it. That concludes it. 

T: I think that does conclude it. Well, I hope you think that you know us better. 

E: And if you don't, ask us some questions. We'd love to hear from you. 

T: Adios.