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Today on the Curious Handmade podcast, as the Western Hemisphere heads towards the summer solstice, I’m savoring every scrap of winter we’ll get in Queensland. The chilly weather has finally arrived here, which is very good news for my knitting mojo. I’m working on my Píosa Cardigan and my project for the Knit 20 for 2021 Toy KAL. I also have some sock yarn notes for ongoing Sock KALs. So pull up a cosy chair and let’s chat about what’s on the needles this week.
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.
Find all your favourite luxury yarns and discover plenty more at A Yarn Story, Bath’s premier yarn store based in Walcot Street, Bath, UK. From gorgeous skeins by The Fibre Co and Walcot Yarns to a fine selection from Shibui Knits, La Bien Aimée, House of a la Mode, and Julie Asselin, there is plenty for the discerning knitter to enjoy. With friendly and knowledgeable staff to help you browse, there is plenty for the discerning knitter to enjoy. Visit the store at Walcot Street, Bath or shop online at www.ayarnstory.co.uk.
Show Links:
Píosa Cardigan by Renée Callahan @eastlondonknit on Instagram
Sweet Fibre Yarns @sweetfiber on Instagram
Skein Sisters @skeinsisters on Instagram
The Handmade Sock Society 4
The yarn for the final secret sock pattern of the season is from Louie & Lola, a fantastic yarn dyer from Australia. She’ll be having a special update for the colourway “Joy” on June 12th at 9am AEST, so keep an eye on the website! Karina is also running an Instagram giveaway so be sure to check @louielolayarns or this post for details- be quick as this competition ends on the 5pm AEST on 12th of June
The Handmade Sock Society 4 is over halfway; the first 5 patterns, The Curling Mist Socks, The Picnic Blanket Socks , The Wild Bees Socks , The Spinifex Socks and The Lavender Fields Socks are available now with just 1 more mystery sock patterns to follow in July! Don’t worry if you’ve not signed up yet, you can join in anytime!
The Handmade Sock Society 4 on Ravelry
The Handmade Sock Society 4 on Gumroad
#thehandmadesocksociety on Instagram
#thss4 on Instagram
#thehandmadesocksociety4 on Instagram
The Handmade Sock Society 4 KALs
The Spinifex Socks FO Thread this KAL will run until July 1st,2021
The Lavender Fields Socks FO Thread this KAL will run until August 1st,2021
The little snips are from @jojiandco and the lovely project bag was a gift from @9crafty11. The plant is part of my growing houseplant family!
The Fibre Co KAL
One Sock Pattern and Amble Yarn by The Fibre Company
The Fibre Co Sock KAL on Ravelry
#thefibrecoonesockkal on Instagram
The Fibre Co on Facebook
The Knit 20 for 2021 KAL
Join in with the Knit 20 for 2021 KAL by sharing your finished object photos here in the June FO Thread on Ravelry
You can also enter on Instagram with the hashtag #knit20for2021 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 for all the details.
Knit 20 for 2021 Toy KAL
I need your support and encouragement to help me tick the ‘toy’ prompt off my knit202for2021 list, so I’ve decided to add this pop-up event to the regular #knit20for2021 KAL. There are prizes to be won and so much cuteness to come.
The rules are simple:
- You can enter with any knitted or crocheted toy pattern
- It’s okay if you finish a WIP or cast on a new toy
- Post a photo of your finished toy on Instagram with the hashtag #knit20for2021TOY or in the thread in the Curious Handmade Ravelry Group.by July 31st.
I am trying to complete 2 toys for this challenge:
The Panda Kit by Susan B. Anderson and the Sadie Souris Kit by Cinthia Vallet
My talented friend @tinkhickman is also going to try the Panda Kit so join us both and get that ‘toy’ prompt ticked off this year’s list.
Thank you so much to waifmtl for your encouraging words and tips on the Sadie Souris patten on the Ravely thread, who has also recently knitted a TsutsuBear and is eyeing Cinthia’s JodieTurtle for a next project. Your lovely message makes me feel more confident
Birthday Month Giveaway
Get one of my ‘scrappy’ patterns for free using the code HOMEBODY
(these patterns are perfect for using your scrap yarn, mini skein bundles, or advent kits)
Dust of Snow Wrap on Ravelry Dust of Snow Wrap on Gumroad
Land of Sweets Cowl on Ravelry Land of Sweets Cowl on Gumroad
Hearten Cowl on Ravelry Hearten Cowl on Gumroad
Habitation Throw on Ravelry Habitation Throw on Gumroad
If you choose to purchase any of these patterns instead during the month of June, I will be donating the full amount (less transaction fees) to the UN HCR supporting refugees around the world.
#habitationthrow #dustofsnowwrap #landofsweetscowl #heartencowl
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 338. This podcast is all about crafting a life of happiness and creativity. I’m your host, Helen, and you can find me on Ravelry as Hells Bells and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com.
Hello, and welcome to the show this week. Thank you for joining me. I have a bit of a chat with you today, mostly about knitting this week. I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear. We have been having a lovely week on the sunshine coast. It’s been beautiful, crisp winter weather, and yeah, it’s just been gorgeous. A little bit chilly, cold enough to wear sweaters. So that’s exciting. And yeah, I’ve been really enjoying it.
This week I mostly have an update about various projects I’m working on at the moment. Firstly, I have some information on a very exciting yarn update for my last Handmade Sock Society design for the season. I have used some very beautiful yarn from Louie & Lola and the colorway is Joy. And I saw this particular colorway on Instagram, on the Louie & Lola Instagram feed, I don’t know, maybe last year. And just thought it was so beautiful and ended up designing one of the socks in the series, which ended up being the last pair.
And so Karina is doing a shop update for this special colorway tomorrow, which is Saturday the 12th of June at 9:00 AM, Australian Eastern Standard Time, which is Hobart time, as well as Brisbane time. But at the moment, yeah, if you look up Hobart time or AEST. And she is going to have some quantities of the Joy colorway for you. It’s a beautiful, delicate, gentle colorway featuring shades of lavender, taupe, brown and purple. And has a little bit of a speckle through it. It’s really pretty. The socks for the sixth Handmade Sock Society pattern will be released on July the 8th. So a little bit of time for you to get your yarn, especially if you’re in Australia. But I’m not sure, I think Karina is shipping internationally at the moment, but you better check her website for exact details about that.
She’s also doing a giveaway on Instagram to celebrate this colorway. And if you’re really quick, you probably can enter. That’s finishing on Saturday afternoon, Australian time. So we are a little bit ahead. So depending on how quickly you download and listen to the podcast, you might still have time to enter that giveaway. It’s Louie & Lola on Instagram.
I’ve been working on several of my personal knitting projects this week and the main one has been my Píosa cardigan, which is a beautiful cardigan designed by Renée Callahan. It’s kind of a grandpa style cardie. It’s a bit loose and has cute pockets. I have made some mods that mean it isn’t exactly true to the general vibe that I think Renée intended, in that I picked a size that is probably slightly on the small size for me. So I don’t think it’s going to be super oversized, but I am thinking it’s going to fit me okay because I wasn’t sure if I would have enough yarn to knit the next size up. I wanted to be on the safe side because I’m using really special yarn for this; it’s Sweet Fibre rose gold yarn.
So I’m not sure if I will have shot myself in the foot a little bit in the sense that if it’s too small for me, I’m not going to want to wear it anyway, but I figure that Sophie will be able to wear it if I can’t and she’ll look beautiful in it. So I think I’ll be happy with whichever way that goes. She may well steal it from my wardrobe anyway. So I have done the sleeves and am on the, what do you call it? The button band. And yeah, making great progress. I have decided not to do pockets for the same reason. I probably could do pockets, but I just wanted to get it finished to be honest. So, we’ll see. I might add them on, later on. Anyway, I am excited that I’ve almost finished a garment and I’m looking forward to sharing photos of that soon. Not quite finished yet so it’s not a finished object, but yes, as you can tell, I’m super excited about being so close to finishing that one.
The other project I’ve cast on this week is my socks for #TheFibreCoOneSockKAL, which is the hashtag. The Fibre Co, which is spelled F-I-B-R-E in the English style. One sock KAL is the hashtag and I’m using Amble yarn by The Fibre Co. And I chose the Buttermere colorway, which is a really vibrant goldy, yellowy goldy color. I purchased this from Skein Sisters, which is a lovely yarn shop in Sydney, and that arrived very quickly. I think it arrived the next day. So that was fun. And I’m using the simply curious sock pattern, which is my vanilla sock pattern and is available for free, if you would like that. If you go to my website at curioushandmade.com, you can find the simply curious sock workshop. And if you sign up for that, you can receive my sock pattern.
I just wanted something really quick and easy to knit with this beautiful yarn and let the yarn be the star of the show. And I think I’m going to use 3.5 millimeter needles because this particular yarn seems quite lofty. And I think it’s going to bloom when I block them. So I’m using a slightly bigger needle than I normally do. I normally use a 2.25 millimeter needle for socks.
I’m hosting a knit along for the months of June and July, which is the toy knit along. The hashtag for Instagram is Knit 20 for 2021 toy. And I’ve instigated this knit along to help me and anybody else who would like to be able to tick off the toy prompt for Knit 20 for 2021 challenge to give a little nudge for that project. So to enter this knit along, all you need to do is post a photo of your finished toy on Ravelry in the appropriate thread by the 31st of July. Or alternatively, you can post a picture with the hashtag on Instagram as well. And we are going to have a $50 voucher for a yarn store, or indeed of your choice, for both the Instagram and Ravelry threads. And I don’t mind if you enter both. And if you already have a toy underway, a work in progress, you can enter that as well if you finish it by the end of July.
I am planning to knit two toys, hopefully at least one, maybe two. I’ve chosen two that I have kits for. The first is Panda by Susan B. Anderson. And the second one is Sadie Souris from Cinthia. And I was initially intending to start with my Sadie Souris, but then I thought, I bought the Panda kit first sometime before the Sadie Souris kit so I thought I would maybe start with that one instead. Also I think my friend Deb, Tinkhickman is knitting along using her Panda kit as well. So I thought it would be fun to knit along with her.
So I’ve printed out the pattern and wound the yarn. And I was quite encouraged to read the introduction. Susan says, “I know I say this often after creating something new, but Panda truly is one of my favorite designs.” And she goes on to say, “I feel like the new Panda has a sense of humor for some reason, maybe it’s the sweet expression or the size. The finished Panda is a larger size than most of my recent designs, and of course the hooded cardigan makes everything cozy and charming.” And then I was very excited to read, “Panda is a joy to knit as it is relatively simple compared to some of my other toys. I think you’re going to fall in love with this project.”
So I was very excited to hear that and I printed out the pattern. I got a code with the kit and I downloaded that and then printed it out and it does look fairly straightforward. So I’m pretty excited about that. And I don’t have DPNs, so I’m going to start trying with magic loop. I’m not sure how that’s going to go. So I might have to pause to purchase some DPNs, but I’ll see how far I can get just knitting magic loop with the suitable size needles.
And then for my Sadie Souris, I was looking at the thread on Ravelry today for the toy knit along and there was a lovely message from Nadia who is waifmtl on Ravelry. And I don’t think she’ll mind me sharing this, but she said, “This is a message for Helen who mentioned she was intimidated by the instructions for Sadie Souris.” That’s true. “Fear not Helen. The instructions are long, I agree. But when you get started, you will literally feel like Cinthia is taking you through every single stitch. I have never met such a clear and well explained toy pattern. Also keep in mind that half of her pattern is a guide that is useful for all her patterns. And I recommend you read it before you start, as it contains a lot of key info for completing the pattern without a glitch.
I love her patterns. I recently knit Tsutsu Bear and am eyeing Jodie the turtle now. Jodie the turtle is Cinthia’s latest pattern that she’s just released. You’ll see her patterns are a ton of fun to knit. PS, the nice thing is her toys are knit seamlessly. And if you weave your [inaudible] while you knit, you’ll have just a couple left at the end. Another final tip, make sure you have two or even three sets of needles in the size being used. I use two circulars and one set of dpm’s. Good luck.” That’s such good tips. Thank you so much, Nadia. And I do have a pair of dpm’s and I was thinking when I started reading that comment that I would have to order a couple more sets, but I also have, I think, enough circulars in the size, which is two millimeter needles for that one, I think so.
So I’m fairly well set up to start knitting my toys now. I think I’ve got all the yarn wound and patterns printed and needles gathered. And now all that is left is to cast on. And perhaps by the time this is released, I will have even plucked up the courage to cast on my Panda. I’m sure I will have actually, because I’m really excited about it now. So I hope some of you join me in the knit along. I do have a few people who’ve commented on the thread, but be sure to join in and chat away in the thread as well. We might set up a separate thread for actual finished objects if people use that thread to chat as we go through the knit along. Just before I sign off, I would like to thank my sponsor Meadow Yarn.
One final announcement before I say goodbye. Just to remind you that during the month of June, I am offering my scrappy slash advent patterns. I have four designs, Land of Sweets, Dust of Snow, Habitation Throw, and the Hearten Cowl that are available for free as a gift to you to celebrate my birthday month with the code homebody. And if anyone decides to purchase the pattern, I am going to be donating all the proceeds to the UNHCR for helping refugees out. So thank you to everybody who has purchased one of those patterns so far this month, and I hope that people who have downloaded the patterns are really enjoying them. That’s all I have for you this week. Happy knitting and I’ll talk to you soon.
