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Wool Exploration: The rest of the flock for 2018

On episode 101 I announced the next four breeds for our collective Wool Exploration. Jacobs is our next one, of course, and the deadline for your reviews for the Jacobs is 9th April.  It may seem super early, but so many of you are so dang keen!

Update: I’ve decided to add a link to each episode we discuss the findings in, to help with anyone joining in and late to the party. You are more than welcome to play catch up. I’ve also added the last two breeds to this list.

The next four breed yarns for us to relish are..

Teeswater Read More

Episode 101 – crunchy and grippy, soft and silky

February has rolled around and almost out, so it is high-time for a good old catch up!
On today’s show we have Wool Exploration with the Gotland breed. There are two reviews; The Adventures in Yarn notebook, from Popcorn & Crocodiles, and Whistlebare’s new Cheviot Blue yarn. I also chat about the KB100DECK and I may just have some Podcast Lounge and Edinburgh Yarn Fest chat!

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

| Shownotes

Welcome chums and thank you so much for all of your 100th episode wishes and congrats – it means such a lot. Later in the show we’ll have a few soundclips from the 100th ep celebrations in Edinburgh, but I wanted to just say thanks again if you had your own KB100DECK , or attended Bath, York, London or the Edinburgh DECKs – that was a really special day.

| Wool Exploration: Gotland

– The Breed

(c) JBKjeldsen shared via creative commons

This month we have been exploring Gotland wool an what a great voyage of discovery it has been! Read More

My kindly stash – a love letter

(yes, that is a cat tail in that picture)

I have been naughty. I meant to blog more once 2018 came along, but things got a little busy. I am sorry and I’ve missed it. Currently my time is being happily consumed by Podcast Lounge planning, at EYF and putting together the next podcast, due out later this month. The other day though, I was going through my stash and I have a few skeins that I really wanted to share with you.

When I am admiring friends knitwear and I ask, “what’s the wool?” Sometimes the reply is, “oh! It’s not British!”. This is usually as much as I’m told. Like I am somehow not interested. Other times those words are spoken rather Read More

Meet The Shepherd/ess at EYF 2018

My mind is very much consumed with near future planning – Edinburgh Yarn Festival (15th-17th March) is so very close now and lots of fun things are going to be going on during that week, one of those things I really need to gush about because it is going to be SO awesome.

This year there is going to be an event on Sunday, 18th March which will really appeal to your #lovelocalwool sensibilities – it is certainly making my KnitBritish heart beat fast! It’s called Meet the Shepherd/ess. Read More

Wool Exploration: Ryeland

Image: Ryelands belonging to Rosemary Champion. © Jeni Reid and used here with kind permission.

Can you believe we’ve now had two breeds of British wool under our explorer’s belts? The deadline for your Gotland review is 5th February, but latecomers may still be included if its not too much longer after that.

If you listened to episode 100 and our results from the North Ronaldsay reviews you will have heard me saying that it was quite a trek to collate all of the reviews via Ravelry and I was thinking up a better way to do this. Well, we have Elizabeth, aka Atlasphere, to thank as she set us up with a google form, which means you can cut and paste your review notes in there and it will collate them beautifully for me at the other end. The link for the google form will be the same each month, so I don’t know if you want to book mark it. It will always be linked on the ravelry chat thread and I will link it here… Read More

Episode 100!

Image copyright: r. nial bradshaw 

Episode 100! WOW! What a lovely milestone, and all thanks to the encouragement of you, lovely listeners, followers and pals.

Listen to episode 100

 

| A little of what you’ve enjoyed over the past 100 episodes

I open the show today with a wee snippet from episode 1, four years ago! Thanks to those of you on social media who told me some of your favourite parts of the podcast over the past 4 years. Read More

Cagney and Lacey Sock It To You!

For those of you who listen to my podcast and also Louise Hunt’s Caithness Craft podcast, you will know of the ‘Cagney and Lacey’ reference. I’m not sure when we started using the reference or if it was Louise who first started calling me the Cagney to her Lacey, or me vice versa (but I feel It must have been Louise. She is actually the cleverer and funnier Louise!). Anyway whether you listen to one of us or both, doubtless you will have heard the reference at some point on an episode.

It was lovely to finally get to record with my partner in crime, post EYF-2017 and we were already thinking ahead to what we might be able to do for EYF2018. Recently Louise whatsapped me (oh! if only you could be a fly on the wall of our whatsapps!) and said “Let’s do a KAL between us and make the same thing for EYF” – cos, really, what could be frickin-cuter-if-not-bordering-on-bizarre if we rocked up in the same design?! I loved that idea, but then we kind forgot about it..

Flashforward to the other week. I was auditing Twitter (as I am taking a twitter break) and Louise commented on my previous episode that had a socky feature.

What is that whirring sound? It was my brain! I replied…

Let’s do a Cagney & Lacey “sock it to you” for the PodKAL and I’ll knit you a pair and you knit me a pair!

 

What could be nicer? A pal knits you a pair of socks and you make and give them a pair!
How about we all do it? 

Louise and I have decided to have a Sock It To You Swap to kinda coincide with the Blacker PodKAL.

Its a socks swap, people! Give the gift of cosy toes and receive cosy toes in return!

  • There is a sign up thread in the Caithness Craft Ravelry Group. You need to sign up by noon (UK) on Friday 12th January.
  • In your comment state your foot size and any basic preferences (vanilla, stretchy cuff, regular or thick yarn, etc)
  • You will be paired up around the 14th January
  • Cast on is 22nd January.
  • Cast off is 11th March – to coincide with the Blacker PodKAL
  • Swap at EYF or send to your partner by the end of March 2018.

You have to be happy to send your socks anywhere in the world. If this is a *real* issue please let us know, but 100g pair of socks would be a small parcel at the most, and could even be sent as a “large letter”, if in appropriate packaging.

This is Louise and I’s joint effort for the Blacker PodKAL, though our cast on date is slightly later, to give you time to sign up and buy yarn.

You do not necessarily have to use Blacker Yarn (or British wool, in case anyone asks), but if you do wish to (And they do some great yarn!) you can also take part in the chat over in the Blacker Yarns group and you would be eligible for the finishing prize for that KAL – so its really worth double dipping!

If you are going to be at Edinburgh Yarn Festival – as we are – and your swap partner is also going, we could have a socky swap and feety foto at the Podcast Lounge. Wouldn’t that be fun?

We will keep the chat in the Caithness Craft group too. So if you are not already a member, go over and join and say hello!

What do you think – Are you in? Maybe add some sock patterns to your favourites to let folk see the kind of socks you like, or maybe you just want to be surprised?! Sign up now in the Caithness Craft Ravelry Group!

 

Remakery Magic

I cannot let 2017 slip away without shouting out about the Remakery. This is an ongoing casual-KAL where we remake items from our knitting past that we always wanted to try again. Perhaps we knit the original for a friend and wanted one for ourselves. Maybe it was a knit that got away and you want to recreate it. Maybe you wanted to remake it bigger, or with mods. Whatever the reason there is a chatter thread in the KnitBritish Ravelry group. Read More