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Remember the skull-and-knitting-needles T-shirt Lorelai was wearing in the recent episode “Knit, People, Knit!”? This was the episode with “The Old Muddy River Bridge Knitathon.” It was a long-sleeved, black T-shirt with the words “Knit or Go home” on it. There was also some stink over the T-shirt. Because anyone can get her very own copy of it, completely legitimately, from the original designers of the original skull-and-knitting-needles shirt. And the CW didn’t tell us about it.

Here’s how it happened. Fans of Gilmore Girls wanted to know where to get one of these shirts. So USA Today columnist Whitney Matheson asked the CW. And the CW replied that the shirt was “a one-of-a-kind creation by the show’s fabulous costume designer, Brenda Maben.” The thing is, this isn’t completely true. Yes, it’s a one-off, custom T-shirt. And you can’t go to a store and buy one. But anyone can get one, too, legitimately.

You see, the original skull-and-knitting-needles design came from the innovative people at Craftster.org, the forum of people who love to make things but also love to break the rules. Leah Kramer started the site in 2003. Leah has been crafting ever since she could hold a pair of safety scissors. But somewhere along the line, she thinks she inhaled too much glue, because now she is attracted to crafts that are irreverent, ironic, kitschy, and clever. Ha! No wonder Lorelai is wearing one of their shirts!

Here’s the thing, the original Craftster design has just the skull-and-knitting-needles. It doesn’t have the words “Knit or Go home.” But Craftster has an online store in which you can design your own “Knit or Go home” T-shirt. And I’ll tell you step-by-step, in a minute, how that works. But first, let me finish the story about the CW.

I’m speculating here. But what must have happened is that Brenda must have ordered one of these shirts from Craftster. And her staff must have customized it by silk-screening the words “Knit or Go home.” So when the people at CW asked her where she got the shirt, she probably told them. And they probably got their wires crossed, because you can’t just go out a store and buy one. And so they said it was a one-of-a-kind creation, which is only partially true.

Unfortunately, the result was that a bunch of knock-offs appeared on CafePress. And Leah had to go through a bunch of trouble to get them taken down.

But Leah did one thing more. She opened up a new on-line store at Spreadshirt, where you can get a skull-and-knitting-needles shirt with any words you want. Here’s what she says about Spreadshirt:

This means people can add the words “Knit or Go Home” or whatever other creative phrase they want underneath. Spreadshirt is similar to CafePress in that it’s print-on-demand, but the print quality at Spreadshirt looks unbelievable bold and crisp. They actually cut the design and letters out of this special material that gets heat set onto the shirt.

How To Get Your Own

Here’s how to get your own “Knit or Go home” shirt:

1. First, follow this link to Craftster’s Spreadshirt store. (It will open in a new window.)
2. Scroll down to “Junior’s Long Sleeve Tee,” in the fourth row. (Or if you want, you can choose one of the other styles.)
3. Find the “Skull Knitting Needles” design at the left side of the page. (The design actually has three variations: skull-and-knitting-needles, skull-and-scissors, and skull-and-crochet-hooks. And you can choose any that you like.)
4. Click the icon below the picture of the shirt.
5. The web browser will load a Flash application that lets you put the words on.
6. On the right side, find the lines that say “Your Words Go Here!” Highlight, “Your Words” and type the word “Knit.” Then highlight “Go Here!” and type the word “or.” Then click on the third line down and type “Go home.” Then with the third line of text still active, click above the text where it says “Ariel,” and select “Story book” from the list of fonts. And go immediately to the right of the font, and click the down arrow next to the font size again and again, until the font size says “86.”
7. In the lower-right corner, select the size and quantity you want. Then click “Purchase Now.” (Or click “Put in cart,” if that’s what you want to do.)

That’s it! You can obviously put any words you want on the shirt, using whatever font you want. For example, you could make a short-sleeved skull-and-scissors shirt that says “I run with scissors!” That’s one of Leah’s suggestions. Another of hers is “Knit Fast. Die Warm.”

Post comments here about about your experiences.

Enjoy!
-TimK