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In-person knitting events are rare and precious these days (and we never know if they’re actually going to happen until the last minute!) so I’m savouring the run-up to the retreat I’m hoping to attend! I’ve also just released the final design from this year’s Shawl Society, and I think you’re really going to love it. I have some KAL winners to announce, and I’m looking forward to the launch of Knitvent 2021. So come join me for a knit and a chat on this week’s episode!
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:
The Yarn Retreat at O’Reilly’s
Deb @tinkhickman
September Winners
Knit20for2021 Instagram winner: @iloveseitenweise who finished her ‘Scrappy” project with an adorable hat and nominated Spectrum Fibre ( Check out the winner Anita’ gorgeous handmade and repurposed books and card store on Etsy called ‘Seitenweise’ )
Knit20for2021 Ravelry winner: Post 93 by woollymammals who ticked off short rows and new-to-me designer with the socks she’s made and nominated Blackwattle Yarns
Wild Bees Wrap FO Winner Post 13 by biomarge
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. It’s not too late to join in, to purchase the whole collection see the links below.
The Shawl Society 5 on Gumroad
The Shawl Society 5 on Ravelry
#tss5 and theshawlsociety5 on Instagram
The Veranda Shade Shawl FO Thread on Ravelry will run until November 1st, 2021
Keep an eye out for The Hinterlands Shawl FO Thread on the Curious Handmade Ravelry group.
The Knit 20 for 2021 KAL
Join in with the Knit 20 for 2021 KAL by sharing your finished object photos here in the October 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 350. 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 HellsBells and our social media as Curious Handmade. You can find full show notes and transcript on my website at curiousandmade.com.
I’d like to say a big thank you to my sponsor, A Yarn Story.
Hello, knitters on the show today, I have some news about new pattern releases, as well as winners for last month’s knit alongs. As I’m recording this episode, I am deep into preparing to go to the O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat posted by Kylie Kenny of Yarn Creative. It’s starting tomorrow, which is Thursday. It’s been quite touch and go here in Queensland, as we have had two community COVID cases this week, which in the past has been enough to prompt a lockdown, so we have been keeping a close eye on the news. But today there were no new cases, so unless something dramatic happens overnight, by this time tomorrow, and by the time this episode is released, I should be in the mountains with a group of lovely knitters and crocheters enjoying the rainforest and amazing views at O’Reilly’s.
O’Reilly’s is in the Lamington National Park. I will be hosting two workshops at the retreat. One is about knitting socks and the other one is introducing a special design I have created for the retreat for attendees, and I’ll be sharing my thoughts about my creative process and sources of inspiration behind the design and some other recent designs. And yeah, just hoping to be able to chat with attendees about my design process and happy to answer any questions from attendees, whether they are interested in designing something of their own, or perhaps are just curious about how I go about designing behind the scenes.
So I’m really looking forward to that. I’m really looking forward to meeting some new knitters and hopefully some of the lovely knitters I met last year at the retreat. It’s nice to be going back and seeing some friends again. And I will be releasing the shawl, the special retreat design, next week, early next week. So that will be available and I’ll share all the details with you then.
I will keep it a secret for now, just in case something happens and the retreat can’t go, just in case something dramatic happens overnight and I can’t share the design just yet. But all going well, and I’m sure it will, I will have a new shawl pattern for you early next week, and I’m pretty excited about this one. It’s a really sweet and pretty design.
So I’m busy packing lots of samples, to share with people, to show them and some other props for my talks that I’ll be giving. Just before I tell you about my other design that was released yesterday, I will announce the winners of the September knit alongs. So we have Knit20for2021, the Instagram winner for Knit20for2021 in September is @iloveseitenweise . And she finished her scrappy project with a very cute hat and she has nominated Spectrum Fibre for her prize. And I had to Google seitenweise because I recognised it as a German word, but I didn’t know what it meant. And so it means, well, Google translate says it means ‘by the page’, which makes sense because she has a lovely Etsy shop selling handmade and repurposed books from everything vintage. And I think she is based out of Vienna in Austria, according to her Etsy shop, which is called Seitenweise .
So thank you Anita for participating, and yeah, I love your Etsy shop. There’s really, really cool things in there. And the Ravelry winner is post 93 by woollymammals . And she has ticked off several prompts, including short rows and new to me designer with her sock project. And she’s nominated Black Wattle Yarns, which is an amazing Australian alpaca farm and yarn shop.
So congratulations to our two Knit 20 for 2021 winners. And yeah, there are three more months to enter Knit 20 for 2021. So you can find all the details on my website at curioushandmade.com. There’s a list of fun prompts, and if you’ve finished a project in the month and have something to tick off for one of the prompts, which I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to find something for any project, then please do post with the hashtag knit20for2021 on Instagram or in the Ravelry thread to be in the running for a US$50 voucher for a yarn store or indie dyer of your choice. So quite a good prize.
And finally, we have the winner of the Wild Bees Wrap from The Shawl Society Knit Along. And that is post number 13, biomarge. So congratulations, biomarge, and as well as woollymammals and @iloveseitenweise , we’ll be in touch with you, or feel free to email or message me, as well.
So speaking of The Shawl Society, the last shawl of the season five collection was released yesterday. And that was the Hinterlands shawl. And yeah, so wonderful to have now shared all those designs with you. The Hinterlands shawl was actually the first shawl I designed in this collection, and so it has been waiting for a long time to be shared. I’ll just read you the description for this shawl.
The Hinterlands means the land behind, and when we leave everything else behind us, this is where we arrive. This is bush country, the wilderness, the way out there. It’s just far enough away from everything safe and familiar to remind us of our own inner wildness. Out here, we are free from expectations, free to roam as long as we come prepared. The harsh beauty of the Hinterland demands our respect and our attention. In turn it whispers to us that we are not quite tame, not quite yet. The Hinterlands shawl recalls wide open spaces, unexplored forest, and far off horizons. It is a generous triangle shawl, knit in three colours. This is an expansive and absorbing project, not at all difficult, but offering an impressive result. A body of textures and simple stitches opens out into the graphic slipped stitches and stripes with a deep ribbed border.
I also couldn’t resist adding some tassels for a bit of extra flourish. I do love a tassel on a shawl. I know many of you do, too. The yarn I use for the first sample is Miss Click Click Centre Place Single. And that is 100% super wash Merino single ply yarn. And the colours I used are Cream, Tan, None of your Beeswax, and Melbourne Black. These colours were selected for my birthday present last year by my lovely friend Deb, and I was so inspired by this colour choice and this yarn. So thank you, Deb. And thank you, Miss Click Clack. She is an Australian indie dyer based in Victoria.
And then for the second sample I used Louie & Lola BFL nylon fingering. So that’s 80% super wash Bluefaced Leicester and 20% nylon blend. And the colorways in that version are Sunrise Over South, Bronte and Woodland. I love all the names of those yarns from both indie dyers. I just find names of yarns and patterns and fabrics to be such an influence on my choice. I think there’s a definite knack to naming colorways and things, and I just love seeing what people come up with.
So these are knit on 4mm And I would say, if you’re shopping your stash or purchasing other yarns, you want to have a light, medium and dark. There’s a little bit of colour work with the slip stitch section. All three colours are used in that section, so you want some contrast between all of the colours, ideally
So I hope you enjoy this last pattern and the collection, if you are participating in the shore society this year. It’s been a blast. I’ve really enjoyed sharing this collection with you. It’s been really lovely having this country bushland theme to the collection, and I’ve enjoyed just daydreaming about a little cabin in the country while I’ve been designing and sharing these patterns with you.
So that’s pretty much all the news I have for you this week. Just before I sign off, I would like to thank my sponsor, Meadow Yarn.
Next week, we will be starting to share some details about Knitvent coming up very soon now. The patterns for Knitvent are going to be released early November, and we will be opening up the collection for pre-sales quite soon. And if you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you might have already received an email about a sneak peek of the theme for this year.
So yes, if you’re not subscribed to my newsletter, here’s just a gentle reminder that if you want to be the first to hear all my news and releases and sales and things like that, do sign up. You can find the link in the show notes. I hope you have a fantastic week. I’ll talk to you soon.
