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I’ve got lots of Knitalong news, some Shawl Society yarn restocks from favourite indies, and of course, I also released the very last pattern of this year’s Knitvent, The Ever After Shawl, so I’m sharing a bit about my design process for that one, too.
Finally, I have some holiday treats for you, including an exclusive discount code from another favourite yarnie and another from me
Show Sponsors
Meadow Yarn; Anj is the heart, mind, and hand behind Meadow Yarn. She spends her days dying yarn and telling stories in the Suffolk countryside. The regular hand dyed shades you’ll find in their online shop are influenced by the surrounding landscape, the north sea coast, and the big skies overhead. For an extra dose of imagination with your knitting, Anj also releases her limited edition yarn fictions from time to time. These capsule yarn collections are inspired by her original short stories. You can download them and read along as you knit. As well as their own label, Hand Dyed Yarn, Meadow Yarn also stocks some of Anj’s personal favorite wools and supplies, Icelandic Lopi, Hazel Knits, KnitPro needles and notions, Eucalan wool wash, and arrange of inspirational journals and magazines. You can find them at meadowyarn.co.uk.
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I can’t believe the last pattern of Knitvent 2021 has been released! You can join in anytime thorough, Knitvent is designed with quick knits for gifts in mind. Thank you to verybody who’s join in already, I am so grateful, so grateful for all of you.
Knitvent 2021 on Ravelry
Knitvent 2021 on Gumroad
The Ever After Shawl sample used the lovely Luxe High Twist Sock from NNK Yarns, a brilliant indie dyer out of Brisbane, Australia. The colourways were (Colour A) ‘Vintage’ and (Colour B) ‘Currant’
If you’re stash-diving the sample used 165g, 660m/ 722yds total of fingering weight yarn
Colour A: 80g, 320m/ 350yds
Colour B: 85g, 340m/ 372yds
The sample also used beads from Miyuki to add some sparkle and weight, but these are totally optional!
If you’re joining me for Knitvent this year, welcome! I’ll be doing a giveaway for the whole of Knitvent in Jan. 2022; you can find the thread here on the Curious Handmade Ravelry group and on Instagram be sure to use the #knitvent2021
A huge, huge thank you to my team, for their support before and during the Knitvent collection;
Huge thanks to Amanda for writing the beautiful descriptions and stories, Emma, for my tech editing and help with support, lovely Deb @tinkhickman for helping with test knitting, and she’s my beautiful moderator on my Ravelry group and helps on Instagram as well. And Tracy, my wonderful test knitter, who helps me keep my patterns accurate and on track. And to Wendy who’s knit some of the samples as well as test knitting. And to my test knitters, Stuart, Bowen, and Julia. Special thanks to my two beautiful daughter for their modelling skills.
All Knitvent 2021 patterns available as singles!
I’m releasing the Knitvent 2021 collection as single patterns a bit early this year, and having a flash sale on ALL my patterns on Ravelry this weekend.
I wanted to thank each and every one of you for being part of the Curious Handmade world. For supporting my small business through another year, and just for being the kindest, loveliest, most creative bunch in the world.
So as of today, you can buy just one or two of the Knitvent 2021 patterns at a time. (If you want more than that, just getting the whole collection is still the better deal!)
AND you can get 40% off ALL my single patterns on Ravlery until Monday.
The sale is in honour of Small Business Saturday, so if you’re shopping on Ravelry, use the code SHOPSMALLBIZ at checkout, and happy knitting!
An extra treat from Circus Tonic Handmade
My dear friend, Hannah at Circus Tonic Handmade here in Australia has an early gift for my listeners and readers; with the code HSCURIOUS15, you can get a 15% discount on everything in Circus Tonic Handmade’s shop.
That’s 15% off everything in the whole shop, including ChiaoGoo needles, Tuft Woollens, and clubs, which is pretty amazing, for the whole of December.
Hannah was also delighted to let me know she is able to ship to the UK again.
November Winners
The Hinterlands Shawl FO thread on Ravelry: Post 8 by Bekito
Knit20for2021 Nov. Winners
Instagram Some cute socks of varying sizes by @stichesbysandra
Ravelry An adorable gnome ticks off toy in Post 29 by SiobhanDrummond
Winners can contact me via email (support@curioushandmade.com) or on Ravelry
The Shawl Society 5
All 6 shawls in The Shawl Society 5 are out now; The Curling Mist Shawl , The Silver River Shawl, The Wild Bees Wrap , The Lavender Fields Shawl,The Veranda Shade Shawl and now The Hinterlands Shawl. Thank you to everyone who participated in The Shawl Society this year, it’s been such a joy to share my designs and then to see your creations on Ravely and Instagram.
The Shawl Society 5 on Gumroad
The Shawl Society 5 on Ravelry
#tss5 and theshawlsociety5 on Instagram
TSS 5: Six/Five Completed Shawls FO Thread on Ravelry will run until January 7th, 2022
The Knit 20 for 2021 KAL
Join in with the Knit 20 for 2021 KAL by sharing your finished object photos here in the December FO Thread on Ravelry
You can also enter on Instagram with the hashtag #knit20for2021 on Instagram and don’t forget to nominate a local yarn shop or indie dyer in case you win!
For more information on how the monthly knitalong works and how to enter, visit this page on the Curious Handmade website for all the details.
Free Curious Handmade Workshops
Simply Curious Socks: Free Beginner Sock Knitting Pattern & Workshop
The Spindrift Shawl: Free Beginner Shawl Knitting Pattern & Workshop
Join the Curious Handmade Group on Ravelry for new pattern announcements, KALs, support and questions for patterns and any other fun things that come up, and join our Curious Crew Newsletter at the link below
Show transcript:
Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You’re listening to episode 357. This podcast is all about crafting a life of happiness and creativity. I’m your host Helen. You can find me on Ravelry as HellsBells and social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com.
I’d like to say at big thank you to my sponsor, A Yarn Story.
Hello, knitters. And just like that, December is here and all of the Knitvent windows have been revealed, and I have started opening my Advent calendars this week. So that’s been super fun and super exciting, and it’s a pretty hectic time of year, but it’s looking like it’s going to be pretty.
On the show today, I have some announcements about knitalongs, announcing some winners, and ongoing things that are happening for knitalongs. And also we have the last of the Knitvent patterns to announce, and at the end of the show, some lovely treats for you.
So I have some knitalong winners to announce. The first one is for The Shawl Society season five. The last shawl, which is the Hinterlands Shawl finished object, and the winner is post eight by Bekito, B-E-K-I-T-O.
And we also have the November winners for Knit 20 for 2021. And on Instagram, we have some cute socks by @stichesbysandra. And on Ravelry, we have an adorable gnome to tick off the toy prompt for post 29 by SiobhanDrummond. So thank you everyone for participating. This is the last month of the year, so we have a final month to participate in Knit 20 for 2021 this December. And we will be drawing winners for that early January.
And we also have The Shawl Society season five knit along, continuing. Even though we have drawn the prize for the last shawl, we are having a grand knitalong for people who complete five or six shawls from the series from season five.
So I thought I would let people enter if they’ve completed five shawls, rather than the whole six. There are some people who’ve completed six shawls already, but I thought sometimes maybe one of them doesn’t appeal, or it’s a big commitment to knit six shawls, so I think five is a great effort.
And we will also have the Knitvent knitalong continuing, and I will draw both of those knitalongs, The Shawl Society season five and Knitvent 2021 on or soon after the 7th of January. So that is the last date to enter both of those knitalongs. The grand prize for the shawls, five or six shawls, and any finished object from Knitvent. And there’ll be some great prizes for both those knitalongs. So it’ll be well worth entering.
I also just wanted to mention with The Shawl Society Season , the Veranda Shade Shawl sample was knit in Birch Hollow Fibres. Two stunning colours from Birch Hollow Fibres in Sylvia Sock base, and those colorways are At Stones End and Cedar. And I see that Robin has both those colorways in her shop at the moment of recording. I can’t guarantee at the moment of you listening. They are just stunning colorways. So beautiful, so I just wanted to put that out there.
And also for my Silver River Shawl, that was knit in Happy Hank Co, and Australian indie dyer in two colorways, Djamor and Moby Dick. And I just checked and Sai has Djamor in stock at the moment, which is a really, really, really dreamy, beautiful pinky speckly, just gorgeous colorway. So if you’re interested in that one, I just also wanted to highlight that Happy Hank Co has that colorway in stock at the moment for the Silver River Shawl. I couldn’t see Moby Dick, which is a complimentary colour, so I’m not sure about that one, but definitely Djamor, which is spelled D-J-A-M-O-R is in stock at the moment.
And that brings me on to Knitvent 2021. So we have had a wonderful season. The theme has been based on holiday movies and all the romances and cosiness and escapism that those movies provide. I know not everybody’s into them, but I really enjoy some of them, many of them. And I was very inspired by The Holiday and amazing knitwear when I was watching that last year in the holiday season.
And yeah, so there’s a scene in the movie towards the end where Kate Winslet and Jack Black are having sushi together. It’s sort of just before the dramatic finale, and she’s wearing a beautiful lacy cardigan or might be a pullover. I think it’s a cardigan, just a knit cardigan with just a very simple but romantic lace pattern on it.
So that is probably the piece that’s inspired this particular design, and that is the Ever After Shawl. So I’ll read you the little story for this design. Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, someone dashes through the airport with only minutes to spare, or climbs up on stage and studs out a passionate speech, or walks slowly through a crowd as the music swells, eyes locked on their one and only. No matter what obstacles they’ve faced in the final scene, we know that everything is going to be okay. Cue the tearful laughter, tight hugs, and promises. There will be declarations of love and the biggest kiss of the whole film. A party where all the characters dance their hearts out, a final close up, and credits roll. Happily ever after.
The Ever After Shawl is a romantic and memorable accessory. Knit in two colours of delicate fingering weight yarn, this asymmetrical triangle shawl has real leading lady energy. Stripes and impressive, but easy chevron lays keep things interesting with optional beads to add that extra sparkle. It is finished with a deep garter stitch border for a modern finish.
The yarn used for this shore is from Lisa at NNK Yarns. And it is her Luxe High Twist sock base, which is 80% merino, 20% nylon. I use two skeins. One colour is called Vintage, and the other is Currant. Lisa is an indie dyer based in Brisbane, and she has shop on Etsy. It’s NNK Yarns. And I’ll put a link in the show notes, of course. She has some sets in her shop at the moment in the Vintage and Currant colorways, as well as some other beautiful colorways. So have a look over there, especially if you would like the exact same colorways that I’ve used.
And as I say in the description, it has beads, and that’s optional, of course, but it does look lovely with the beads. It provides that extra bit of sparkle, and I really do enjoy the process of beading when I’m knitting. I find it quite soothing. And so I do enjoy adding some beads to a shawl, give it a bit of sparkle, especially at this time of year.
So thank you to everybody who joined in for Knitvent. It’s really my favourite collection of the year. I’ve been doing it for a long time now, and every year I feel like it’s just lovely to connect with people and just knit together at this time of year. So again, thank you to everybody who’s participated. A huge, huge thank you to my team, who I could not put this collection together without you. Huge thanks to Amanda for writing the beautiful descriptions and stories, Emma, for my tech editing and help with support, lovely Deb @tinkhickman for helping with test knitting, and she’s my beautiful moderator on my Ravelry group and helps on Instagram as well. And Tracy, my wonderful test knitter. She helps me keep my patterns accurate and on track. And Wendy who’s knit some of the samples as well as test knitting. And to my test knitters, Stuart, Bowen, and Julia, and to everybody who’s taken part. So I feel like this is a little bit of an award speech, but so grateful, so grateful for all of you.
So before I sign off today, I wanted to share some treats I have for you. The first one is from my dear friend, Hannah at Circus Tonic Handmade here in Australia. And she sent me a note to say that she has made a special code for my listeners and readers. And the code is HSCURIOUS15, and that is for a discount in Hannah’s shop at Circus Tonic Handmade. It’s a 15% of everything in the whole shop, including ChiaoGoo needles, Tuft Woollens, and clubs, which is pretty amazing, for the whole of December. So that’s a lovely little Christmas present from Hannah that I wanted to share with you. The code again is HSCURIOUS15. And happily Hannah is able to ship to the UK again. So for my UK peeps, Hannah’s able to ship over there again, which was on hold for a while.
And finally, an offer for you from Curious Handmade. I really like to celebrate Small Business Saturday. This Saturday is Small Business Saturday in the UK. I think it’s last week in the U.S., a little bit different. I like to do the UK version because that’s where I was living for many years. And so I am offering 40% off all my patterns and collections with the code shopsmallbiz. So if you use the code SHOPSMALLBIZ, B-I-Z, you can get 40% off all my patterns and collections. So you need to use the code. It’s not applied automatically. And that will be going across this weekend, Friday the 3rd of December through to the end of Monday the 6th of December. So that’s 40% off all my Curious Handmade patterns and collections.
And we are releasing all the Knitvent patterns from this year as single patterns today, as well. So that if you are wanting one of those patterns, rather than the whole collection, you can purchase one of those for 40% off, do some holiday last-minute gift knitting. If you want the whole collection as well, you can also get it at 40% off as part of this weekend’s promotion to promote small businesses.
And I am going to be doing a little bit of shopping with other small businesses this weekend for my holiday gifts and possibly some treats for myself. Who knows? I’m not sure, so I’m going to enjoy that. And I hope you can enjoy my offer if you wish. And I am participating in a Vlogmas over at YouTube. So you can find me there. It’s not going to be every day. In fact, I am in the process of trying to get my first episode or first Vlogmas blog posted at the moment. So I’m already behind, but it’s okay. It’s just going to be a fun thing I’m doing with my daughter, Sophie. And it’s been on my happiness projects for the year. So I’m just going to take my time and make it a joyful experience, and it just will be what it is.
So if you would like to join me for some holiday festivities, general relaxing, opening my advent calendars, and so forth, then please join me over on my YouTube channel.
I’d like to thank my beautiful sponsor Meadow Yarn.
Thanks for joining me for a chat today. I hope you’re having a peaceful and happy holiday season, or December as it’s otherwise known. All my best wishes, and I’ll talk to you soon.
