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episode 83 – What you love about the indiestry

Published by louise

Welcome back to the podcast! This week, as a bit of a addition to an article I wrote recently, I’m talking about what you love about the British wool indiestry!

UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher, or right click the podgen link to open the podcast episode in a new window

You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!

This episode is sponsored by our KnitBritish Woolly Mucker, Emma Goodlad
Emma is Hosut on Ravelry and Goodlasshandicrafts on Instagram and etsy.

Emma has a craft business and is enjoying exploring her Shetland roots in her own knitting!

Listen in to hear me talk to Emma later in the show.

| Show notes

Last episode I hinted that I was going to be visiting somewhere special for the podcast and I managed to keep it a secret right up til I got there.

I visited Uist and, more precisely, Uist Wool and spent a whirlwind time there getting a tour of the mill and chatting with staff about the work they do there. I recorded a lot, so there is a lot to edit – as you can imagine – so you will have to be a bit patient for this episode, but I promise you it will be worth the wait! Thank so much to Dana, Hazel and everyone at the mill who made me feel so very welcome! Read More

bags of remakery motivation!

Published by louise

I just HAD to pop over and post about The Knitting Goddess’s shop update tonight (7pm, be there!) because it features the most awesome remakery-related wonderfulness!

When I told Joy about my remake challenge she thought it would be a great idea to make some bags inspired by that and asked me for some ideas for wording.  I came up with a few silly ones (“Go ahead Punk, Remake my day” or “Take my hand, we’ll remake it, I swear”) but I thought  *Cast on, Knit, Cast off* was a pretty good slogan for remaking, but also a great motto for most of our knitting habits!

 

These are just awesome – I love the denim and then that pop of bright knit-print lining!  There is also great inspiration here to remake something out of something else! You can use the remake motivation to reuse, recycle, upcycle – to knit, to sew, to crochet, to weave…. However you fancy taking up the challenge, head on over to the KB ravelry group and tell us! 

Don’t forget about that shop update tonight –  there is a brand new sock yarn debuting tonight too! – and sign up to Joy’s newsletter to get an email reminder of every update.

 

episode 82 strength and significance / community and traditions

Published by louise

This episode I bring you a wee interview I’ve been waiting for the right time to bring you, all about connections to pattern traditions, family, landscape and place. Also we meet this month’s woolly mucker, Alison Mayne and chat a little with her about wool, patterns and community. There is also a review and a giveaway of Zen Variations from Renee Callahan!

UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher, or right click the podgen link to open the podcast episode in a new window

You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!

This episode is sponsored by our KnitBritish Woolly Mucker, Alison Mayne!
AKA Bakerstreetgirl on Ravelry, Alison is a doctoral researcher in women’s craft experiences, at Sheffield. As you will hear on today’s show, she always has a pair of socks on the needles. Listen in to hear Alison and I chat and hear a little bit about her craft pursuits and her ongoing studies.

Thanks to Alison for sponsoring our show today!

| Show notes

| Let’s Get Cracking Shawl, by Helene Zechner

Our lovely listener Helene has released a pattern and named it in honour of the show! The Let’s Get Crackin shawl is a textured triangular shawl, knit in Mohair Blend from Blacker. This yarn has recently been relaunched with new shades and you should check them out! Thank you, Helene, this shawl is crackin!

| Love your Yarn Shop at Countess Ablaze Read More

The Remakery : Which shawl first?

Published by louise

If you read my earlier post you will know that I’ve given myself the challenge to revisit one or two  beloved projects this summer.

The Remakery is essentially a bit of motivation or focus to cast on again one of those designs that we’ve always promised ourselves we’ll make again. I’d be utterly delighted if you wanted to use this as motivation to remake some of your favourites. There are no rules or requirements, you can remake absolutely anything and there isn’t a cast on date or anything (cos it isn’t a KAL in the trad sense). I’ve got a few things to do before the month is out, so I’ll be starting in May (also cos remakery!)

I want to focus on some of the awesome shawls that I’ve wanted to remake for a long time. But how to choose? Those vying for my attention for remaking are Marin and Ishbel, by Ysolda. Read More

join the remakery

Published by louise

How often have you finished making an item and thought “Ooh, I could make that again!”

Over the years there have been occasions where I’ve perhaps made two or three items from the same pattern (4 Lushes; 3 Crofthoose Hats; 2 Mochs, a couple of crias) and I know there are a lot of you out there who have knit more of the same pattern too. Sometimes though…sometimes, there is a design that we always mean to make again, but never quite get round to it.

It’s there, it’s on the queue, you often look at it and think about casting on… you probably even have the yarn for it, don’t you?!

It’s the kind of project that perhaps we initially made as a gift from someone else (Ishbel) and want one for yourself; or it could be that the design may benefit from a different yarn, or gauge, or a yarn with a different fibre content than the last time (Marin). Perhaps it is a design of a FO that you lost and would dearly like to recreate (Estuary). It could also be a WIP that you couldn’t wait to cast on, a pattern that you so longed for, but it needs ripped out and started again (Hamegaet and Nuthap). Whatever it is, it is a design that has just captured a bit of your heart and you just want to make it again again (Hansel, Snowflake , Lush (Again!) )

my full hansel
Marin
Estuary in Old Maiden Aunt Corriedale 4ply
Lush in Brigantia
Ishbel

If that is the case for you too, and various projects sprang to mind whilst reading that, then the remakery might be the motivation you need. Read More

episode 81 – “We can make anything!”

Published by louise

On today’s episode I’m further exploring themes of value and worth in knitting by looking at  learning and teaching knitting. I’ve got an interview with Kerry Kimber, of Knitting For All, and I visit a knitting class in Edinburgh taught by Maddie Harvey and have a coffee and chat with them. I also review of Croft 29 Hebridean wool!

UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher, or right click the podgen link to open the podcast episode in a new window

You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer! 

Our Sponsor

Images are from Croft 29 on Instagram

Today’s episode is sponsored by Croft 29!
Stephen and Rachel Varwell produce beautiful Hebridean yarn from their small flock in Skye. Using traditional hand-shearing methods the shearling fleeces are spun by
The Natural Fibre Company into a plump aran yarn.
To find out more visit Croft 29 on twitter, facebook and instagram and visit their etsy shop. 
You can also read an interview with them right here at KnitBritish.

| Show notes

This episode I am picking back up on the topic of value and what it means to have these knitting skills. I looked at the value of our own skills, and the meaning of knitworthy on the show before and I thought it would be good to look at teaching and also what it means to learn craft. Read More

Croft 29 – Genuine Hebridean Wool from Skye

Published by louise

The sponsors of the next episode of the podcast will be Croft 29, a small family business creating wool from their Hebridean flocks on Skye. I think the story behind their business is really special and wanted to share an interview with them here on the blog. Put the kettle on and join us….

croft 29 hebridean yarn

It was almost a year ago, I was in Fluph, in Dundee, and I saw a gloriously sheepy wool. The yarn – the colour of fresh cut peat – was an instant draw to these KnitBritish eyes (and hands) and I had to know more. The wool is described as genuine Hebridean wool from Skye. You can hear LJ introduce me to this yarn, and our first impressions of it,  in a wee snippet from episode 58 (you will have to follow the link to hear the whole episode and the answer to the question hank vs ball)

Croft 29 is a real croft on Skye, on the Trotternish peninsula, and is home to Stephen and Rachel Varwell and their family. They’ve been running the croft for 12 years and, as well as a small flock of Hebridean sheep, they keep a few Dexter cows (Bodan and Freya) and also their (extremely photogenic) sheepdog, Mac.

It’s been just over a year since the Varwell’s launched their Hebridean yarn; the wool – handshorn on the croft – is spun under the expertise of the Natural Fibre Company into a plump aran yarn. I wanted to ask Stephen and Rachel why they took the decision to create their own yarn.

“Crofts have never been full-time occupations and crofters have always had to be innovative to make money from what is a very marginal existence.  I guess that using our fleece to make a valuable by-product has in some ways been a logical and natural step, as we are making the most of the resources we have.” Read More

episode 80 – Why don’t you…? Couldn’t you just…? You should…!

Published by louise

Welcome in to this episode; where I think I may just about have gotten over EYF…maybe!

UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher, or right click the podgen link to open the podcast episode in a new window

This episode is sponsored by our first KnitBritish Woolly Mucker, Christine Perry.
AKA WinwickMum across social media, you may know her from her blog or from Ravelry.
Currently Christine is knitting some socks in the new candyfloss shade of WYS Signature Sock and she is designing in Doulton Flock Border Leciester for an upcoming tutorial.

Listen in to this episode to hear about the first big knitting project Christine ever cast on and much more.

| Show notes

Photo by Jeni Reid
Photo by Jeni Reid
Photo by Jeni Reid

| Post EYF and managing expectations

It may be three weeks later, but EYF is not a distant memory. I feel so much the connections to the community that you will hear a lot of people reporting back on, or having experience of yourself. There is an incredible feeling of being with your own folk – a superhero kinda feeling – that lasts long after. Read More