After a long break, the podcast returns with a big chatty update about where I've been, what I've been up to, and what's coming next. Things will be looking a little different for Curious Handmade in 2022, but that's a good thing! I also have a big batch of giveaway and knitalong knitters to announce! So grab your knitting and let's catch up. 

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 Christmas treats for you, including an exclusive discount code from another favourite yarnie and another from me

I’ve been keeping a pretty massive project under wraps all year, but I can finally share! This week on the podcast I’m chatting about an ambitious quilt-design project I’ve been working on in the background for months. And there’s a new Knitvent pattern to discuss, of course: the very fun and quick Montage Hat. Finally, I’m still pondering what to make with one of my Advent yarn sets and am looking for suggestions! So if you’re in the mood for some crafty chat, settle in with your current project and let’s catch up over a few stitches.

We’re all about homemade gifts right now at Curious Handmade HQ! We’ve got lots of chat on this week’s podcast about just why it’s so special to give and receive things made by hand. I’ve just finished a few myself, which I’ll share with you, and we also have not one but two brand new Knitvent 2021 patterns to discuss. So grab your project bag and let’s have a little visit.

This week, I’m talking a bit about my design inspiration for this latest, very cosy Knitvent pattern (hint, it has to do with a favourite film) as well as mini review of my 2021 Happiness Project and what’s left to be done (I promise I’ll update you properly in the new year). 

I also have some thoughts on two ways I try to protect my creativity: decluttering and saying ‘no’, both when you want to and when you just need to.

So if you’re casting on the Rose Cottage Cowl today, or just want a little crafty company, let me join you!

After all the teasing and guessing, the first design of Knitvent 2021 has been revealed! The Skyline Wrap is a holiday rom-com inspired pattern designed to use up scraps or a yarn advent calendar. Today on the podcast I’m talking a bit about the pattern as well as my plans for the last bit of the year, heading into the holidays: where I’ve gotten to with my Happiness Project and how I’d like to finish out 2021. I also have many giveaway winners to announce! So settle in and get cosy, and let’s have a crafty chat.

We’re gearing up for Halloween this week at Curious Handmade HQ, with costume prep in high gear (including something for our pup Sindy to wear!) This week on the podcast I’m reflecting on how close we’re getting to the end of the year, and how to make the most of it. With the first Knitvent 2021 pattern release coming up fast, I’m sharing more about the inspiration for the collection (holiday films) and planning out what I’d like to watch myself and with the girls. It’s time to grab your gift knitting and join me for a cheery, cosy chat!

 I’m just back from a lovely knitting retreat in the rainforest and am full of stories to share. On this episode, I’m also introducing the brand new shawl pattern I designed for the retreat, Blossom Time. And we have some fun holiday chat, with Halloween costume plans and the big Knitvent theme reveal to discuss! So pull up your cosiest chair, pick up your knitting, and let’s visit. 

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!

Join me for a quick catch up over coffee this week as I talk about what’s going on in the world of Curious Handmade. We have a big BOGO sale this weekend to kick off the start of the Knitvent 2021 launch, I've just come back from a big photo shoot, and I’m trying to end the year strong with some habits that I know make life better. So fill your mug and knit a few rows along with me!

 

How do you find the time and mental space for creativity when life feels chaotic? Today on the podcast I’m talking a little about how I’ve been managing the messiness of everyday life and the concept of “life admin.” I also have some exciting things on the horizon: a big photoshoot, yarn hints for the final design of the Shawl Society season, and of course, Knitvent, which is inching nearer every day.

Our newest secret design from The Shawl Society 5 has been revealed, and this week on the podcast I’m talking about the new pattern and the gorgeous yarn we chose for the sample. I’ve also got some quilt content: what I’m working on and whether I want to bring quilt patterns into the Curious Handmade world or whether it’s better to keep quilting as a beloved hobby instead of making it another job. I also have some giveaway winners to announce!

Things are feeling quite summery on this side of the world! On this week’s podcast I’m enjoying that sunshiny feeling and talking about some knitting patterns that work for warmer weather and transitional seasons. My little staycation has already paid me back in a renewed sense of creativity and enthusiasm, so join me for a cheerful chat about knitting, sewing, and the crafts we love best. 

I’m back from a lovely local holiday, all recharged and full of inspiration. I have some really exciting projects to share with you, and lots of winners to announce from recent knitalongs. And last but not least, I have all the details about our brand new shawl pattern from The Shawl Society 5: our Lavender Fields Shawl. It’s going to be lovely to catch up with you after being away, so fill your mug and settle in for some crafty chat.

This week’s episode is a chilled out chat about crafty stuff and family life! After last week’s review of my 2021 Happiness Project, I’ve gotten a fresh burst of energy and excitement about the many creative projects I have on my plate. Today I’m talking about how I’m finding balance in a busy season, the fun things the girls are up to, and some sewing I’m hoping to work on in the next couple of weeks. 

With more year behind us than there is ahead of us, I’m doing an in-depth review of my Happiness Project goals. How my personal creative projects are coming along, what I’ve been working on, and what I might let go this year. Pour yourself something lovely to sip and sit down with your favourite project: this week’s podcast episode is long and chatty!

This week I’m introducing my newest shawl design, The Wild Bees Wrap, from The Shawl Society 5. I have the house to myself for once, so join me for a relaxed, chatty catch-up about what I’ve been working on recently. I’ve also got an update on my Word of The Year and a review of the year in general so far: it’s been a big one for getting things done!

The podcast returns with a brand new sock pattern...the last secret of The Handmade Sock Society has now been revealed! Today I’m chatting about the yarn that inspired this sock design, and my new(ish) adventures over on YouTube. We also have some KAL winners, the results of our little June charity pattern drive, and some updates on my own WIPs. If you’d like some crafty company as your work on your latest creative project, come join me!

I’m so excited to have a finished project to share on the podcast today. Every time I complete a piece of personal knitting amid all the design and sample work, it feels like a milestone. So today I’m chatting about my brand new Píosa  Cardigan, and already thinking about casting on another. We also have a healthy helping of quilting updates, as I find my voice and my feet in another craft. So pick up some knitting or stitching and settle in for a fun, crafty catch up with me

From a humble skein of yarn to the far reaches of the galaxy...Today on the Curious Handmade Podcast, I have a brand new shawl design from The Handmade Shawl Society, which was inspired by the Milky Way. It might be a lofty aspiration for a little knitting pattern, but why not dream big? We’ve also got a friendly chat about what I’ve been up to: is my houseplant stash about to overtake my yarn stash?

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.

This week on the podcast we have lots of wonderful news. Our latest design from The Handmade Sock Society 4 came out this week, so I have a few stories from the design process to share. I’m also doing a very special giveaway for my birthday month (a free pattern for everyone!) Finally, I’ve got updates on my Hexie A Day in May challenge and my other personal projects. So settle in for a fun crafty chat, and let’s catch up. 

I’m back from my sick days with a friendly catch up chat. I’m making some progress on my personal projects, and I have lots and lots of KAL news, including winners from recent giveaways, a knit along by one of my favourite yarn companies and a brand new Curious Handmade knitalong that’s a little different from anything we’ve done before. I’ve also got a more in-depth introduction to our very first shawl of The Shawl Society 5.

We think of creativity as this wild, unbridled thing that thrives on spontaneity and novelty. That can be true, but sometimes, staying creative (and productive!) means we need to build structures and systems. Today on the podcast, I’m chatting a little bit about what that looks like for me right now. I’ve also got updates on some projects I’ve got going on, and the next big thing on the way for the Curious Crew.

Have you ever been daunted by the scale of a creative project? You’re not alone! I just saw the big numbers sitting between me and a completed quilt of hexie flowers...so today on the podcast I’m talking about that project: how it’s going and how far there is to go. I’m also chatting about the newest adventures of the Curious Crew, including the brand new Spinifex Socks from The Handmade Sock Society 4, and the launch of The Shawl Society 5.

Today on the podcast I’ve got a mini review of the year so far, in terms of creativity, productivity, and my word for the year. I’m also sharing some personal project plans and the new season of The Shawl Society, which is coming up next month. (And it just occurred to me that next month starts...tomorrow!) So join me this week for a big cheerful chat about music, quilting, embroidery, knitting, and yarn: so many of the things we creative crafty folk like best.

On today’s podcast episode, I’m chatting about what I’ve been up to in the break: probably the most intense design and knitting sprint I’ve ever done! And stories from an all-hands-on-deck photoshoot that was a lot of fun. 

Just a little content warning for this episode, in case you’re feeling tender: in this week’s podcast I’m also remembering my very dear friend and mentor Paula Emons-Fuessle, who passed away at the end of March. It is a huge loss to the knitting community, but I have a lot of happy and beautiful memories of time we spent together, and so much gratitude for her kindness and generosity over the years. I wanted to share some of that today, but if loss is a heavy topic for you right now I just wanted to let you know before you hit play.

Have you ever daydreamed about making a career out of your creative projects? Today on the podcast I have a bit of an unexpected book review; as I’ve been planning for the future of Curious Handmade, I read something very inspiring, and I wanted to share that with you. I’ve also got a brand new finished object to share and some crafty and gardeny news. So grab your current WIP and settle in to join me for an uplifting, cheerful episode.

It might be almost Autumn here in Australia, but it’s so warm that we’re starting seeds and propagating like the gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere, so I’ve let myself be swept away by the spring mood. On today’s podcast I have an outrageously cute selection of spring and Easter themed dream projects to share with you. I might not be able to resist a few new cast-ons myself.

We’ve been pretty focused on knitting socks around here, and there’s plenty more to come, but on today’s podcast episode, I’m returning to my first love, shawls. I have two recently finished projects to share, plus a new cast on. In the background, plans are afoot for a whole new season of The Shawl Society. So, if you love hand-knit shawls, or just cosy chats about our favourite pastime, pull up a comfy chair and join me.

It’s a very picnicky episode of the Curious Handmade Podcast today! We have a brand new sock design to celebrate, as the second pattern of The Handmade Sock Society was released yesterday. The Picnic Blanket socks are inspired by childhood memories, but they also inspired me to go for a little handmade picnic adventure myself. So I have those stories to share, along with my current creative projects. So pour yourself some fresh lemonade (or fresh coffee!) and join me for a crafty catch up.

Today on the Curious Handmade podcast, I’m talking about growth of all kinds. Join me as I introduce my beloved little plant family, get back to a long-neglected but wonderful embroidery project, and take my first tentative into an exciting new branch of design work that’s always scared me just a little. But isn’t that what growth usually feels like? It’s a short, sweet, and lighthearted episode this time, so grab your favourite project and let’s knit a few rows together (or maybe do a small bit of stitching!)

Today’s podcast episode is a little out of the ordinary.  We will be talking about crafting and creativity and Happiness Projects, but also about  grief and loss. I’ll be sharing some thoughts and feelings I’ve had lately about loss in the knitting community and in my own life. I just wanted to give you a little content warning that I'll be talking about some tougher things, in case you're just not feeling up for that topic today.  If you’re not, make sure to be gentle and take care of yourself. It’s okay to sit this one out, and don’t worry: I’ll be back again next week with a lighter episode and more knitting and sewing content.

Today’s podcast episode is short but sweet, so grab your favourite work in progress and join me for a few rows of knitting and a friendly catch up. I’ve just finished a project I’m really excited about: sewing a brand new dress! And as we start to settle into the rhythm of the year, I’m focusing on being gentle with myself as I continue my happiness projects and explore new ways to connect with my community.

As we find our feet in this new month of February, I’m settling into my new word for the year, connection. On today’s episode, I’m chatting about some of the ways it’s starting to appear more in my life, including my craft projects. I’m also introducing the very first pattern of The Handmade Sock Society 4: the Curling Mist Socks, and we have lots to discuss. It’s been a great start to the season with so many amazing knitters (and brave beginners) joining in.

As we settle into the swing of the New Year, I’m still taking stock and making plans. On this week’s episode, I have a fun review of how I did on my list of Happiness Projects last year. It wasn’t a normal year for anyone, but I think the results still add up to some significant happiness! I’m also chatting about what I’ve put on the list for 2021, and how that’s shifted. And of course, as the first pattern of The Handmade Sock Society comes closer, we're chatting a bit about that too.

It’s a very exciting week for the Curious Crew! Our newest mystery collection, The Handmade Sock Society 4, is available for presale from today. On this special and rather personal episode I’m going a little deep. Of course, we have some chatting about the theme for the collection and how the KALs will work. But I’m also looking back at my happiness project and word of the year went last year, and the surprising ways it has changed my life. And I’ll reveal my new word for 2021.

Welcome Back to the Curious Handmade Podcast! Our first episode of the year is a big chatty catch-up after our holiday break. How did I do on my own Knit 20 for 2020 project? What WIPs did I finish and what new things did I try? I’ve also got KAL winners to announce and we’re kicking off a new Knit 20 for 2021 project, too! So grab your knitting and a snack and come join me for some happy, crafty company.

One more episode before I disappear into the holidays for a few festive weeks and Australia's summer school break! Today I'm chatting about the projects I have on the go and the ones I'd really like to finish by the end of the year, as well as my recent deep dive into the merry world of Vlogmas and YouTube videos!

As the end of such a strange year rushes towards us, I'm slowing down a little bit to think about what's left to do and what's still to come. There are knitting, quilting and creative projects to finish, new collections design, and fresh journals, planners, and calendars to consider. So come join me for a chat and let's dream about finishing this year strong and starting the next one full of inspiration.

Today's podcast episode is a cosy chat about the very last Knitvent pattern of 2020, the Hearten Mitts. And as this crazy year winds down, I'm pondering the beginnings of plans for 2021. We also have a little holiday surprise: I'm releasing the Knitvent 2020 collection as single patterns a bit early this year, and having a flash sale on ALL my single patterns on Ravelry.

Today I'm talking about our latest Knitvent 2020 pattern, the Cheering Socks, and the lovely yarn I chose for the sample. I've been doing some of early Christmas shopping too, including some gifts for myself. A little bit of indulgence seems called for these days, and I've been finding comfort and joy in little treats from some special handmade suppliers.

After an intense week, I'm back to talk about the second pattern of Knitvent 2020: the Tidings Shawl, including some tips and ideas for yarn substitutions, if you'd like to knit this pattern in a different wool weight. I have a lot of giveaway winners to announce, as well as some personal thoughts about some of the big happenings in the world right now.

The very first pattern of Knitvent 2020 has been revealed and I’m excited to tell you all about it! On today’s podcast we have an introduction to the Hearten Cowl, an explanation of what’s been going on with the podcast feed (it should be fixed!) and a lot of cosy chat about my own ongoing projects and some free patterns and workshops I’ve created for the Curious Crew.

Show Sponsors

Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us.

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.

 

Sometimes scheduling relaxation is the best way to make sure you actually find the time: that’s what I’m doing this week. In this episode I have more Knitvent chat for you, exploring our theme of “Comfort and Joy” and our delightful community giveaway. And I’m looking forward to our first hot Aussie Christmas since the girls were born! You also might have noticed that Curious Handmade has a brand new website, so I’ve got stories about that as well as an update on some issues I’ve been working out with the podcast.

Show links:

Presales for the Knitvent 2020 Collection have begun!

You can get all six mystery patters for the Early bird price of £9.95 (over 30% off the regular ebook price of £15) when  you join us before the first pattern is released on Thursday, October 29th, 2020!

Knitvent 2020 on Ravelry

Knitvent 2020 on Gumroad

 The beautiful and inspiring Knitvent 2020 Giveaway Thread

Get 20% off the Rainforest Shawl pattern with the code RAINFOREST when you check out until the 23rd of October, 2020

Rainforest Canopy Shawl on Ravelry

Rainforest Canopy Shawl on Gumroad

October Knit 20 for 2020 Finished Objects Thread

Show transcript:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You’re listening to episode 314. 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 on social media as CuriousHandmade. You can also find the full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com.

Hello there, come and join me for a little natter about knitting, yarn and crafty things. Things are really intense in the world right now, and I’m certainly feeling it every day. I think after I record this, I’m going to sit down and schedule in some blocks of relaxation into my diary for some personal knitting, maybe working on my liberty hexie quilt project, and perhaps I’ll schedule in some walks as well. I think I need to just make sure that I have some time carved out for a little bit of downtime at the moment. And I’m also going to put a ban on myself from scrolling on my phone during those times, just for an extra element of relaxation. So I hope that listening to the show today can be a little relaxing moment for you too.

Here in Curious Handmade land, we are now into Knitvent season. Knitvent, if you haven’t heard of that before is a holiday themed collection of six patterns that I’ve designed that are surprises, like windows of an advent calendar. This is the eighth year we have celebrated Knitvent here at Curious Handmade. I can’t believe it’s been eight years, but there you go. Time flies when you’re having fun. And the theme for this year’s Knitvent is comfort and joy. And the theme just came very naturally from a conversation I was having with my sister talking about the year and the rest of the year. And I was just saying how I felt that I needed to keep things very simple and uncomplicated. This year more than ever. I always feel a little bit that way about the holidays, but even more so this year.

So that’s the theme for the collection and I hope it’s reflected in the designs. I think it will be. And it’s given me a lot of comfort and joy designing the collection for you. That’s for sure. So the presales for Knitvent 2020 opened this week, and thank you so much for the lovely responses and all the excitement you have been sharing for it. That gives me a huge amount of joy and a very warm, warm, fuzzy feeling. So thank you for everybody who has already joined in. We have the pattern on sale at the moment. And during the presale period, before the first pattern comes out, it’s at a big discount. So it’s £9.95 at the moment, and that’s priced in British pounds. And then once the first pattern comes out, the price goes up to the normal price of 15 pounds for that collection.

So I think it’s a pretty good deal, especially at the moment. Even when it’s full price I think it’s quite a good deal compared to buying individual patterns, but I recognize that you are taking a risk in purchasing a surprise collection. So I have a special presale price for you, for people who are willing to take that risk. You can purchase the pattern on either Ravelry, and I’ve also set up a Gumroad page, not an alternative platform. And as an aside, a little shout out thanks to Stephen West, who inadvertently mentored me in that. I was wondering how to deliver the collection in the format that I deliver it because Etsy can’t really handle delivering the pattern in other collection in six weekly installments. And so when I signed up for Stephens mystery knit along, I saw that he was using Gumroad to deliver his clues. So thank you Stephen for that tip and for an amazing mystery knit along as well. I haven’t had time to knit any of the clues, but I have been following along the spoilers with great delight and lots of people look like they’re enjoying that mystery knit along.

Anyway, just sorry for that little diversion there, but just to explain why the pattern is on Gumroad and not Etsy, I guess. Just to spread a little more of the joy and excitement of Knitvent, we have a launch competition happening. For this competition I’ve made it my choice of gift vouchers rather than the winners choice and the dyes I’ve chosen are Ocean by the Sea, who is an amazing dyer based in London. And she just creates the most dreamy botanically dyed yarns. She writes beautiful poetry. I just love her work. We also have Birch Hollow Fibers in the US. She’s based in Hudson Valley in New York. And she is a dyer that I’ve been following for a while. She creates beautiful, beautiful colourways, and I just love Robin’s aesthetic as well. And then in Australia, we have Wren & Ollie who is based in South Australia. And I discovered Wren & Ollie a couple of years ago when I was visiting a yarn store here. And she just has such fun, beautiful colourways, again.

So, we have a gift vouchers from each of those dyers, and also I’ll be offering 10 copies of my latest pattern, which is the Rainforest Canopy Shawl to 10 lucky winners. And if you already have purchased that pattern, a single pattern of your choice. So to enter the competition, grab your copy of Knitvent and then create a project page for the first window. I have a placeholder pattern page for the first pattern that will come out. It’s called Knitvent window one. And if you create a pattern page for that and then post in the thread a photo or a story of something that brings you comfort and joy, especially around the holidays. It doesn’t have to be anything grand, just a little moment, or it could be something extravagant, whatever it brings you, comfort and joy.

There’s already an amazing thread happening in the Curious Handmade group on Ravelry. And it is full of heartwarming stories. I just love these threads so much. People are sharing about their family, pets, comforting food, snuggling up warm in snowy weather. Cooking, of course knitting and crafts, family heirlooms. And this year, a lot of gratitude for technology and Zoom, which is maybe a new thing. I do hope reading the posts that people’s wishes to be able to spend more time with loved ones can come true this year. But if not, that you can find other ways to connect. We might have to be a little bit more inventive this year. And for people who have lost loved ones this year, that they can find some comfort. I know that the holidays can be a very hard time for people.

And as always, I’m incredibly grateful and overwhelmed by the stories you share from all over the world. And I can recognize names of people that have been knitting my patterns for many years, joining in Knitvent for many, many years. And it’s just lovely to have this little way of connecting, and yeah, I just love it. So thank you so, so much for people who have posted, and if you’d like a little heartwarming cheerful thread to read, I would recommend it. This will be our first Christmas here in Australia. Last year, we were back in the UK for family reasons. We had moved to Australia, but went back for Christmas. And so this year, yeah, it’s going to be interesting. I think it’s going to be good, but it’s going to be a bit of a blast from the past to having a hot weather Christmas. We’ve only spent one Christmas back here in Australia since the girls were born. And so, it’s not usual at all.

Usually came back in the Northern hemisphere summer, rather than at Christmas time if we were doing any trips. We do have some family traditions that will translate, okay. Like giving certain gifts. And of course, Santa visiting. We have assured the girls that Santa can still deliver presents to houses without chimneys. And yeah, we might be making some new traditions as well. So I’ll be reading through the amazing inspiration thread on Ravelry for some lovely heartwarming ideas. Maybe you can find some ideas there too, of things you might like to do. So the first window will open. The first pattern will come out next Thursday, which is the 29th of October. And if you want to jump into the festivities, then jump in before the 29th of October and take advantage of the 30% off pre-sale offer.

In other news this week, some of you might have noticed that my website has finally been updated. I have been working on a project to revamp my website for about three years now. And in the midst of that, I re-branded and had to start again. So it’s taken a really long time. And then I moved and there was just always something happening. So my poor web developer had to keep being very patient for a long time. So we have finally got it live and I’m really pleased with how it’s worked out. So I’ll let you have a little look. We have had a little bit of trouble getting the podcast to feed correctly through to podcast feeders. Apparently when it was originally set up, it was a little bit complicated. So we’re still working that out and I’m having to remember passwords from, I don’t know, 10 years ago and things like that. So that’s required a little bit of troubleshooting.

Hopefully we will get there soon, but if you’re listening to this, you’re obviously able to access it, but I’ll have to let people know that it is available to listen to you on the website. But as of today, not through podcast apps. Anyway, hopefully by the time you’re hearing this, that will be sorted. But yes, very exciting with the new website, and I think the podcast is the only thing that’s gone amiss. But if you do see anything, anything that’s gone astray, please do let me know. Also, it’s nearly the end of October. So this is the last week for entering into the knit 20 for 2020 challenge. And that happens both in Ravelry and on Instagram with the hashtag, #Knit20for2020 and the prize is a $50 voucher to a indie dyer or yarn shop of your choice. So it’s well worth entering. You can find all the details about knit 20 for 2020 challenge on my new website, there is a link on the menu bar. And that’s about all I have for you today.

Thanks for joining me this week. I hope you have a good week and I’ll talk to you again soon. Happy knitting.

Show Sponsors

Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us.

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.

 

It’s one of the most exciting times on the Curious Handmade calendar! The presales for Knitvent have just launched, and I am beyond excited to welcome you all for another season of surprises and gift knitting. So I’ve got that to chat about, of course, and also lots of stories from the magical rainforest retreat I attended last weekend. So get cosy and join me for a nice big catch-up episode!

Show links:

Presales for the Knitvent 2020 Collection have begun!

You can get all six mystery patters for the Early bird price of £9.95 (over 30% off the regular ebook price of £15) when  you join us before the first pattern is released on Thursday, October 29th, 2020!

Knitvent 2020 on Ravelry

Knitvent 2020 on Gumroad

Kitch Kreative on Etsy

O’Rielly’s Rainforest Retreat

Reconciliation Australia

NNK Yarns

The Yarn Bowl

52 Weeks of Socks

Snippet Socks

Natural Fibre Arts

Rose Hip Island

Louie and Lola

Get 20% off the Rainforest Shawl pattern with the code RAINFOREST when you check out until the 23rd of October, 2020

Rainforest Canopy Shawl on Ravelry

Rainforest Canopy Shawl on Gumroad

Stillness Shawl

Get 40% off the Rewilding Shawl pattern with the code REWILDING when you check out until the end of October 2020!

Rewilding Shawl

Show transcript:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You’re listening to Episode 313. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com.

Hello and welcome. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you’re having a good week and are finding some spaces in your days to do some knitting and stitching, crochet, patchwork, whatever takes your fancy and yeah, grab a tea or coffee or other beverage, and join me for a chat. I’ve had a very exciting week this week because I got to attend a knitting retreat and I have to say, after the year we’ve had and still having, it was an amazing experience to be able to join a group of knitters for the weekend.

So the event was organized by Kylie Kenny, who is Kitsch Kreative. She has an Etsy shop selling beautiful project bags, and she organized this retreat at O’Reilly’s. I think we first discussed it last year, I can’t remember when. I think fairly early last year actually, maybe about halfway through the year. So a lot in the world has changed since then. But thankfully and amazingly, we were able to go ahead with it here. Unfortunately, participants who were going to be coming from interstate weren’t able to come because of restrictions on travel. But people from Queensland, which is the state that I live in and where the retreat was held, were able to attend.

So the retreat was held in a very, very special location at a place called O’Reilly’s, which is a resort, I guess you’d say. It doesn’t quite feel like a typical resort. It’s more of a retreat in the mountains and there are really nice cabins, various sizes that you can stay in or a beautiful campground, which was sort of the original part of the retreat. But I think it’s developed into something bigger over the years. It’s up in the mountains in the Lamington National Park, which is the Gold Coast hinterland. So if you’re familiar with the Gold Coast, which is about an hour’s drive south of Brisbane, and then west from there.

And Kylie’s family still own the place today and her parents and grandparents were part of O’Reilly’s as she was growing up, and she lived there growing up as well. So it was a very special location for her and it was quite a special location for me as well, because that’s where my parents had their honeymoon. And we went up there a little bit when I was little. And yeah, I’ve been back since for camping trip and just yeah, it’s just beautiful. Just so special to experience true rainforest and bush walking, and the views are spectacular. It’s just a lovely, lovely, relaxed place. The air is really clean and fresh.

So we started the event with dinner on the first evening on Thursday, and Kylie greeted us and acknowledged the traditional custodians of the land. She said a acknowledgement of country and paid respect to the elders past, present and emerging. And we heard a little bit about the venue and about Kylie’s stories growing up there, which was just made it that extra bit special. And then over the course of a couple of days we had a room where we could sit up with our knitting and we had some vendors. So we had some yarn and project bags and other lovely things to buy. The vendors where Lisa from NNK Yarns. And she brought some beautiful hand-dyed yarns. She’s based in Brisbane.

We discovered we had a connection because when she first started her business, she was knitting items for kids and babies. And my sister had purchased a little vest for, I think, Sophie, from Lisa and sent it to me in London, which was quite some years ago now. And then she purchased another one and sent that over. And so I think that it got handed down to Lexi, and Lexi still has the little vest that Lisa made in her wardrobe and she won’t let it go. She loves it so much. It’s a beautiful color. And so that was so funny to discover that connection from many years ago.

We also had Fiona from The Yarn Bowl, which is a fairly new yarn shop in Brisbane at a suburb called Banyo. And Fiona said that they’ve just had their one year anniversary for The Yarn Bowl. And that was obviously a very popular yarn shopping destination and knit night for, most of the knitters were from Brisbane and were very familiar with The Yarn Bowl, and she had absolutely lovely things. Needles from ChiaoGoo. She had some copies of 52 Weeks of Socks from Laine, which was quite nice because I had my snippet sample there from the book. And she also had a amazing stand of yarn from Natural Fiber Arts, who is Cheryl, another local indie dyer, and Cheryl just lives a little bit north of me on the coast. So that was lovely to meet Cheryl. Cheryl was also there, the dyer behind Natural Fiber Arts.

And then Kylie had a stand as well for Kitch Kreative. And she was selling her bags, her beautiful handmade project bags, as well as yarn from Rose Hip Island, who is a hand dyer in Tasmania, and that is Hannah. And Hannah does very, very beautiful romantic colorways and also some self-striping sock yarn in really fun colorways. And because of the restrictions I think Hannah would have had to quarantine for two weeks up here and then quarantine for another two weeks going back down to Tasmania. So she wasn’t able to attend, but she sent her yarn that she dyed for the up to Kylie and Kylie had it on her stand. So we were able to see her beautiful yarn, even though we were all very sad that we weren’t able to meet Hannah in person. But next year, I’m pretty sure. I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to meet the people that couldn’t come this year at the event next year. Kylie’s already announced that we’ll be doing it again next October. And I’ll be teaching some workshops again.

So over the weekend we had two workshops, they were fairly informal. The first one was a sock cast on. So I brought a whole bunch of my samples from my sub collections and some one-off patterns. And we talked about making socks. A lot of people cast on some socks, and there are a few people there that were knitting some of my sock patterns already, which was really lovely to see and to see those projects happening, all righty. So thank you to all the participants that were knitting my patterns and brought some projects that they had knit.

And then on the second day, on the Saturday, we had a shawl workshop, and I designed a special shawl for the event and as a gift for the attendees, which was the Rainforest Canopy Shawl. It was obviously inspired by the location in the Rainforest and Karina from Louie & Lola, also in Tasmania, had created a special colorway called O’Reilly’s. And she’s having an update for that this week, or it’s already happened. So check out Louie & Lola if you would like some of the amazing deep forest green colorway that she created for the cover shawl. And I also have samples in Rose Hip Island yarn in a beautiful pink rock orchid colorway, an amazing mustard colorway from NNK Yarns, as well as another sample in Louie & Lola in the S-colorway. So if you go to the pattern page for that, you’ll be able to see all those different colorways that I’m mentioning.

And I’ve released the pattern for the Rainforest Canopy Shawl just this week after the retreat. And so that is now available and it is for sale at our launch price of 20% off with the code, RAINFOREST. And it’s an asymmetrical triangle with lovely lace panels that to me represent Rainforest Canopy and either stockinette or garter stitch sections in between the layers. And there’s also a rectangular scarf version available in the pattern as well. So two sizes of asymmetrical triangles and a rectangular scarf version, which can easily be adapted to be wider if you want to make a more of a wrap style rectangular version.

So it was absolutely lovely spending some time with knitters. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a knitting retreat. I don’t think I went to one all year last year. I think that’s right. I think with the move and everything going on, I couldn’t do anything last year. And then this year has obviously been a little bit of a shambles in that regard with COVID happening. I don’t think I would have probably been going to anything before now anyway. But I was kind of hoping to get down to the Bendigo Wool Show at some point, obviously that was canceled. So it was, yeah, it was an amazing treat to be able to meet lots of local knitters, lots of knitters based in Brisbane and a little bit further south and a little bit further north. There was 16 participants altogether in the end. So that was amazing that that many people could attend.

I met some ladies from Murwillumbah, it’s a bit of a tongue twister, and they had knit my Stillness Shawl. So that was absolutely beautiful to see. Vicki and Sue’s projects and we had some photos. And I got to meet Maureen who has been knitting my patterns for many years. And yeah, it was absolutely lovely to meet her and just everyone. Everyone was so friendly and it was just such a fun few days. The food was very good. We ate a lot. The meals were very generous and delicious. The coffee was excellent and a lot of the staff were quite young and just really friendly and energetic. And yeah, it was really nice.

So I’m already looking forward to working with all the new Australian indie dyers’ yarn that I’ve discovered through this event, which has just been so fun and meeting up with the knitters that I met. And hopefully being able to see them at future events. So thank you to Kylie for organizing the event and reorganizing it several times as the rules and restrictions around COVID changed. I do not envy you trying to manage all of that, but she did it and it was wonderful. And if you listened to last week’s podcast, I was very nervous about the windy road and the road was in fact windier and longer than I remembered. But actually it was fine in the end. So yeah, I think being in the driver’s seat and just being able to take it at my own pace was good. And I had the lovely Lisa with me for the journey. I picked her up in Brisbane and then we drive down from there together and she was super, a super winged person and very calm copilot. So that was also really lovely.

I did manage to do a couple of bush walks, which for me was unusual. I usually just manage to knit and not much else when I go to a knitting retreat, but I managed to sneak away and do a couple of walks. I did a lovely walk with Cheryl and we had a lovely chat about yarn and got to know her a little bit. So that was wonderful. We did the wishing tree walk. So we walked down to this amazing old tree that had split at the bottom and you could walk into it. So I’ll definitely be trying to get up there for a family trip at some stage. I think everyone would really enjoy doing some bush walks. There’s shorter ones and much longer ones. You can walk over to the next resort, Boonaburra.

There’s a long walk, a 20 kilometer walk that you can do. There’s a tree tops walk with suspension bridges through the canopy of the rainforest, which was amazing. That’s just a really small, short one, just lots of different walks. And yeah, definitely love to go back. I’m not sure if we’d camp or stay in one of the lovely cabins. So the Rainforest Canopy Shawl is now available on Ravelry and I’ll also put it up on Etsy and it will be 20% off on Ravelry with the code rainforest until next Friday, the 23rd of October. And I’ll try and work out what I can do on Etsy as well. I might just post it at the discounted price on Etsy. I’m not quite sure what the situation with discount codes is there, but I’ll look into it.

And amazingly, we are well into October now, which means that we are getting into Knitvent season. Every year for the past seven or eight years, we have celebrated Knitvent and it is a combination of a knitwear collection and an advent calendar. So each week for five weeks, I will be publishing six secret knitting patterns. One week we will have two patterns published on the same day, and the other four weeks there’ll be one pattern published.

The presales for Knitvent are starting today, which is Friday the 16th of October. And so when you sign up for that, you’ll be signing up for six secret knitting patterns that will be revealed like an advent calendar as a surprise. It has become a very lovely tradition over the past years. And when I was thinking about the theme for this year, I just kept coming back to the idea of simplicity and simple pleasures.

I was thinking a lot about the simple pleasure that bring us comfort and moments of joy. And so that is the theme for this year’s Knitvent is comfort and joy. I feel like we could all use a little bit of that at the moment. And I feel like it’s a really nice theme for this time of year, which I like to be a bit reflective and have moments of gratitude and relaxing, try and have some moments of relaxing. So that’s my ideas behind Knitvent is that we can share in the joy and comfort of knitting and have a knit along for the month of November and through to the holidays.

The patterns are roughly designed to be suitable for gift knitting, but also designed to be suitable for yourself if you’d like to knit the projects for yourself. That’s also a very appropriate thing to do. So as I mentioned, you can purchase the collection as a presale on Ravelry, and I’m currently setting up an alternative to Ravelry, which I will post about. I’m recording this a little bit earlier in the week, so I haven’t quite finished setting it up yet. And I’m trying to find a platform that will work to deliver patterns. You know, one pattern per week, which is what I need. And some of the platforms I don’t think will do that such as Etsy. So I’m currently looking at an alternative and I think I’ve found one. But I will put a link to that in the show notes and on the blog and so forth. Otherwise it will be available on Ravelry as per normal. And I always do an early bird price for the presale period, which is roughly a third off the price that it will go up to after the first pattern comes out.

So you get a discount as a reward for taking the plunge and trusting me. I think it’s nice to have little surprises. Not everybody likes surprises, so I understand if you want to wait till the patterns come out. But yeah, there will be a significant discount for purchasing them early. And the full price is also a significant discount on purchasing them individually. So the first pattern will come out on the 29th of October and the sixth pattern will be published on the 26th of November. And patterns two to five will be published each week in between. If you’re signed up to my newsletter, you’ll get some more information about it. And some reminders when the early bird time period is finishing. And maybe a few sneak peaks about some of the yarn that I’m using in some of the patterns possibly. I do tend to post some sneak peeks on Instagram as well.

And I’ll also set up a spoiler thread in my Ravelry group for people who don’t like surprises and want to get prepared in advance with information about what yarn will be needed. I’ll do that a little bit in advance of the patterns coming out. So that’s Knitvent, and I’m really excited about this year’s collection. I’ve been working hard on it for a few months now, and it’s always so fun when I finally get to share it with you. That’s all the news I have for you today I think.

Just one more announcement before I say goodbye. I do still have the promotion for the Rewilding Shawl running for the whole month up until the end of October. And that is 40% of the Rewilding Shawl with the coupon code, REWILDING. And we also have the launch code for 20% off the Rainforest Canopy Shawl available just for this week, which is RAINFOREST. I hope you have a wonderful week. I hope you’re staying safe and well, and having lots of vitamin C and vitamin D, keeping your immunity up. Happy knitting, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

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I’m off to the rainforest this weekend to take part in a very special knitting retreat. It’s been such a long time since I was able to gather with other knitters in person, so this will be a very special trip. Today on the podcast, I’m chatting about the incredible location for this retreat, the knitting projects I’m going to take along, and in the spirit of relaxation, I’m looking for more book recommendations! Have you got a great read to suggest?

Show Links:

Kitch Kreative on Etsy

O’Rielly’s Rainforest Retreat

Louie and Lola

Rose Hip Island

NNK Yarns

Reconciliation Australia

Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish

Cyril Socks by Dani of Little Bobbins

Chanterelle Socks by Dani of Little Bobbins

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Inspector Gamache Series by Louise Penny

The Ruth Galloway Series by Elly Griffiths

Sign up to the Curious Handmade Newsletter and Get the Make Your Own Yarn Calendar ebook

(If you’re already on the Curious Handmade Newsletter list, you don’t need to sign up again: I’ll make sure to include it with the next few newsletters!)

Rewilding Shawl

Show Transcript:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast, you’re listening to episode 312.

Hello, and welcome to the show. Thanks for joining me for a chat today. I’m recording a little bit earlier in the week than I normally do. It’s Tuesday, we had a public holiday here yesterday for the Queen’s birthday, and so we had the day off. I didn’t, but a lot of people had it as a holiday, and it was a day off school for the kids. And I am preparing to go on a retreat this weekend, which is very exciting. And the retreat is The Yarn Retreat at O’Reilley’s, organized by Kylie Kenny of Kitch Kreitive. Kylie has an Etsy shop in the name, Kitch Kreitive, which is spelled K-I-T-C-H K-R-E-A-T-I-V-E, so both ways words are spelled with a Km it’s both ways, on Etsy selling project bags that she makes herself.

So, O’Reilley’s is an amazing location. It’s in Queensland and it’s about three-hours drive from where I live, and it’s on the Gold Coast hinterland. So, it’s up in the mountains and based in Lamington National Park, and it survived the bushfires beginning of this year. Its neighboring venue, the Binna Burra Lodge and Campground, wasn’t so lucky, they had some of their buildings burnt. So, it would be interesting to see how they rainforest and bushland has recovered, and I think Binna Burra has since re-opened and rebuilt as well. O’Reilley’s is an amazing venue. I know it as a campground from my childhood, my parents went to stay there for their honeymoon, and we often went camping there and bush walking when we were young, and I took my husband, Steve, there when we were still dating, we had a couple of nights camping in the campground there. Now, there is still the campground, but there is much more upmarket accommodation with lovely villas, they’re called, and they’re just gorgeous on the website, it looks very nice.

So, I’m very excited to be going there this weekend and I’m really looking forward to hopefully doing some walks in the forest. There are various walks you can do, I’ll have to do some research before I go on various lengths of walks. There is a three-kilometer walk to Python Rock, which has lovely views, that’s one of the shorter ones. So yeah, so I’ll have to see if I can fit in some of these, slightly shorter walks, because I don’t want to be dipping into the knitting time too much, but definitely want to take advantage of some of the lovely rainforest.

And I’m also teaching a workshop about knitting shawls based on a new design I’ve created, especially for the retreat, which is the rain forest canopy shawl. So, I’m looking forward to sharing more details with you about that next week. It’s a surprise at the moment for the retreat attendees, and I’ll be gifting the pattern to the attendees, and I’m excited to share that with them. I have several samples, I have used some yarn from some of the vendors that are going to be at the small marketplace at the retreat.

And unfortunately, due to some of their COVID restrictions, two of the yarn dyers, who were going to be attending, aren’t able to come up from Tasmania, unfortunately. I think their restrictions at the moment would still require two weeks quarantine going into state, if it’s even allowed, I don’t know. I’m not quite up with all their restrictions, but basically it’s had to be contained to attendees from Queensland, so it’s fairly amazing that it’s still able to go ahead, for months now we haven’t been sure whether restrictions would have increased to the point of it not being able to go ahead at all, but luckily it can.

And hopefully next year, we’ll be able to welcome people from all parts of the country, if not the world, who knows. Kylie has already booked the retreat for this time next year, and has very generously invited me to teach again, so I’m thrilled about that and looking forward to that already, and hopefully we’ll get to meet a few more people, but I’m super happy to be meeting some local ish knitters, Queensland is a very big state, I’m not sure how far our field people are traveling from.

I am relatively close by and it’s still a three-hour drive away. So, I’m not sure, it’s a bit closer to Brisbane, which is the main city. And so I imagine quite a few people are coming from Brisbane. I think it’s about an hour and a half drive from Brisbane down to the national park, and I think it’s quite a lovely drive from very distant memories, you kind of wind up the mountain through a series of switchbacks, and I’m a bit nervous about that, but I think it will be fun. Hopefully there’s some substantial guardrails so that I don’t feel too nervous. I’ll be that person driving really, really slowly with a line of cars behind me getting really impatient. So I might, I might go early in the day so I don’t hold up a bunch of retreat attendees.

Anyway, the yarn that I used for my design is by Louie and Lola, who is Karina, and Hannah from Rose Hip Island, and they are both based in Tasmania. And then Lisa from NNK Yarns is, I feel like Queensland art, and is based in Brisbane, so happily I’ll be able to meet her at least. And I’m looking forward to seeing their gorgeous yarn in person. I think Karena and Hannah from Louie and Lola and Rose Hip Island, are both sending up yarn for the marketplace, so we will be able to purchase some and see it in person, even though I can’t meet them in person.

One thing that’s been nice about this retreat is Kylie has included an acknowledgement of country in her communications for the retreat. And she says, “I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I work and live. I pay respect to elders past, present, and emerging.” An acknowledgement of country is something that I have seen since I have been back, I wasn’t really aware of this being done very much if at all, when I was living in Australia, which was actually about 25 years since I’ve been living here full time, there was a brief period where I came back in between travels, but really I’ve been living away for about 25 years. But anyway, so now I see this quite a lot, which is fantastic. An acknowledgement of country as I’m paying respect for the traditional owners and the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to country.

And a welcome to country is protocols for welcoming visitors to country, which is part of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural tradition for thousands of years, and crossing into another groups’ country required a request for permission to enter. And then when permission was granted, the hosting group would welcome the visitors, offering them safe passage and protection of their spiritual beings during the journey. And while visitors were provided with a safe passage that also had to respect the protocols and rules of the land or in a group while on the country.

So I’m just reading from an information sheet from the Reconciliation Australia website, which is reconciliation.org.au. And they say, “Today, obviously much has changed, and these protocols have been adopted to contemporary circumstances. However, the essential elements of welcoming visitors and offering safe passage remain in place. A welcome to country occurs at the beginning of a formal event and can take many forms, including seeing dancing, smoking ceremonies, or a speech in traditional language or English. The welcome to country is delivered by traditional owners or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who’ve been given permission from traditional owners to welcome visitors to their country.”

And then with an acknowledgement, an acknowledgement is for anyone to show respect for the traditional owners. And I noticed that at the girls’ school, on the reception desk, there is an Acknowledgement of Country statement, and some of the teachers have in their email signature an Acknowledgement of Country. So, this is a way to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first Australians and traditional custodians of the land, and I’m always encouraged whenever I see an acknowledgement. I guess part of the reason I bring this up is because, the location, that the retreat is at, is such a special place. It’s a world heritage nature reserve and has just such a rich, natural heritage. It’s been protected for a long time, and it’s really, really beautiful, location, so it makes me think about ancient things and the people that live there.

So next week, I’ll share some more about the retreat and some photos, hopefully I’ll remember to take some good photos of everything and I’ll share all about it with you. Of course, I’m thinking about packing and what projects I’m going to knit during the retreat, that’s obviously something I’m looking forward to a lot as well. And I think at this stage, the main projects that I’m going to work on are the Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish, which I didn’t know how close I am to the end, I’m kind of just knitting beyond the pattern at this point, just to make it a bit bigger and use up some more yarn because I’m just really enjoying the simple goddess stitch pattern and it is absolutely perfect retreat knitting, so I’ll work on that a little bit and also my Droplet Capelet by Denise Bayron, and I think that will also be quite simple, relaxing, retreat knitting as well, so it would be nice to make some progress on two personal non-work knitting projects.

And I think the retreat is a good time to do that, so I’m looking forward to that. I might take a sock project, vanilla socks or something else, I’m not sure, I’ve got a few sock WIPs that I should probably have a look at. One of my sock WIPs has been around for a long time, it’s the Cyril Socks by Dani of Little Bobbins, and I was meant to be test knitting them, and I think the reason I put them down so much is because it’s in quite a dark yarn and with my eyesight, and if I’m knitting at night, I drop stitches and struggle to see the stitches very clearly, but if I’m knitting during the day and the light is good, I should probably take them and maybe try to finish those.

Speaking of Dani from Little Bobbins, she has just released a new sock pattern, which is absolutely gorgeous. I’m very taken with this design. It’s the Chantarelle Socks. So these socks are just delightful. They have a ribbed leg across the foot, which is fairly simple and straightforward, except they have a fluffy ruffle around the top of the leg. It’s knit in mohair, silk mohair, and just so whimsical and adorable. I could see you wearing these with short boots, with the little ruffle poking out the top. And they’re just so cute. So, maybe I will cast these on actually. I saw them on Instagram and she just released them this week. So that is the Chantarelle Socks, C-H-A-N-T-A-R-E-L-L-E, because I’m sure I have some mohair leftovers from projects floating around somewhere. So I might just dig that out and see if I could take this on the retreat as well.

I’ve also been doing a little bit of reading in the evenings. I’ve been trying to get into a slightly better bedtime routine, that sounds like I’m about three years old, doesn’t it? But yes, I’ve been trying to give myself a better routine in the evenings, and so I’ve been reading paper books. I’ve quite a huge collection of books I haven’t read, but inevitably I end up buying something new and I have some friends that are now scattered around the world now, and we were all in London as our mum’s group when Sophie was a baby, which is nearly 12 years ago, she’s almost 12, and one of the girls suggested we have a book club as a nice way to keep in touch. And so we are reading The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, which is set in the South, in the US.

And it covers kind of a long timeframe of the main character’s life. And I have probably read about a third of it so far, so I can’t really talk about it too much, but I’m enjoying it. It was a little bit slow at the beginning, but I think that’s mostly because I’ve been reading some racy action and detective thriller type novels quite a lot lightly. And so sort of maybe a literary fiction, I’m not sure, I’m not very strong on my genres and what the names are. I’m really getting into it and really growing to be interested in the characters and the story, so would recommend so far, even though I haven’t finished it yet, and that’s The Vanishing Half, and yeah, if people have any other recommendations, when I posted, I think last summer or the summer before, for recommendations for some summer reading, I really got some good recommendations.

I was put on to Louise Penny, who’s written the Inspector Gamache Series, loved that series, just kind of raced through those books. And also the series by Elly Griffiths, the Ruth Galloway Series was also another fantastic series. If you like sort of police thriller, mystery kind of genre, again, I don’t really know what genre it is, but it involves mysteries, and detectives, and people like that, people getting killed, and solving the puzzle. Yeah, so if anyone has any recommendations of series like those, I very, very much enjoyed them, and they were recommendations from my podcast listeners, so hit me up with anything similar. And if anyone has any tips on how to be a good book club participant, I’ve never done that before, never been part of a book club before, and it’s going to be virtual, so we can’t really meet up and drink lots of wine together, which I think is probably the purpose of a lot of book clubs, I’m not sure, maybe coffee, tea. So if anyone is running virtual book clubs at the moment and has any tips, that will be great too.

And just a couple of announcements before I sign off, that Knitvent is coming up very soon and the pre-sales will be opening up. And in the meantime, I have a how to make your own advent ebook, I guess you would call it, it’s a booklet really, available to download from my website. I’ll put the link in the show notes, and for this year’s scrappy project for Knitvent, I used yarn from my lovely sponsor, Meadow Yarn, and dyed up a special advent set, a special set of 24 minis for the design to match the theme or color scheme that I gave her a few little clues about, I didn’t really have to firm an idea, but she took my little mutterings and ran with it and came up with something gorgeous. And so Anj is going to have an update for these sets on her website on the 12th of October, which is coming up super soon.

And I just want to make it very, very clear that she has very few sets. She just has a few sets because she wasn’t able to get the minis from her supplier. Well, she wasn’t able to get very many minis from her supplier due to COVID restrictions. So, I want to give her a big shout out to let you know that she will have some sets, but I also want to just caution you that there won’t be that many available, and that’s just down to things beyond her or my control at the moment, so I hope you can also be understanding about that. But there are a lot of other super talented, lovely, indies who are providing sets of minis and whether they’re advent kits or just sort of small mini sets that you might like to put together your own collection of 24 minis, or make your own, or swap with a friend, there’s lots and lots of alternatives to put together an advent yarn set.

And I hope you enjoy whatever you choose to do. I think it’s really fun to actually make it from scraps of yarn you’ve used in projects because it just brings back all those happy memories of the projects you’ve made. The other little announcement I wanted to make was that I have my Rewilding Shawl on offer this month as a featured pattern to celebrate nature, and getting into nature with the retreat, and getting out into some walks recently with the girls. And you can get 40% off the Rewilding Shawl pattern on Ravelry with the code Rewilding. And so that brings it down to three pounds reduced from its usual price of five pounds. So if you’d like to take advantage of that, you can for the month of October, that’s running throughout the whole month. So on that note, I don’t think I have any other news for you this week. I hope you have a great week and I’ll talk to you again very soon.

Show Sponsors

Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us.

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.

In today’s show I have the winners from September’s Knit20for20 KAL, and some other light-hearted knitting chat. I’m looking forward to Knitvent, which will be launching very soon! There’s also a little life update of what we’ve been up to over the school holidays here in Australia, and a surprise flash sale on one of my favourite patterns.

Show Links:

September Knit20for2020 Winners!

Ravelry winner: maryann7211

Four Purls Yarn Shop in Florida

Instagram winner:

@toni_sweeney

Yarn Over New York

Skyppy Stripes by Annette Schleicher

isenfriesen’s beautiful Stillness Shawl

frauWolle Yak-Seide

Sign up to the Curious Handmade Newsletter and Get the Make Your Own Yarn Calendar ebook

(If you’re already on the Curious Handmade Newsletter list, you don’t need to sign up again: I’ll make sure to include it with the next few newsletters!)

Rewilding Shawl

For the month of October, you can get the Rewilding Shawl pattern on Ravelry for 40% off by using the code Rewilding when you check out!

The Fibre Co. Meadow

Show Transcript:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You’re listening to episode 311. 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 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. How are you going this week?

I hope you’re okay. I know from my small amount of news watching and Instagram scrolling, that things are pretty stressful in a lot of places. The UK has seen increased restrictions and the US is going through a turbulent political time. Here in Australia we seem to be coming out of a lockdown in Melbourne.

So things seem to be easing here slightly, hopefully. And yes, it’s just watching and listening to people around the world. There’s a lot of people going through some heavy times, so hopefully I can bring a little bit of lighthearted, crafty, cheerful, knitting chat to you today. That’s my goal. And so I hope you’re well, and able to spend a few minutes with me relaxing, maybe going for a walk, maybe doing a little bit of knitting, or maybe just doing a few chores, getting organized, I don’t know.

Anyway, welcome and I’m happy to have you with me, whatever you might be doing. So unbelievably, we are into October. So welcome to autumn, if you’re in the Northern hemisphere, it feels a little bit strange to be around the wrong way, upside down, in the coming into spring here in Australia and in the Southern hemisphere. It’s such a different mood from autumn.

I know most of my listeners are in the northern hemisphere. I do have some listeners in Australia and New Zealand and maybe a few in other countries in the Southern hemisphere, but mostly northern hemisphere.

And so end of a month or beginning of a new month means that we have Knit 20 for 2020 September winners to announce. And the winner for the Ravelry thread for September Knit 20 for 2020 challenge is Maryann7211, and Maryann knit a Hilltop jacket by Joanna Johnson and has a photo of her proudly wearing her cardigan. And she said, in the comments, “It checks off bucket list and cardigan.”

And Marianne has nominated Four Purls in Florida. So congratulations, Marianne we’ll be in touch to organize your gift voucher from Four Purls. And on Instagram we have the winner, Toni_Sweeney, who knit bright sunny socks in yarn from YarnOver New York. They’re the Skyppy stripes pattern. So congratulations, Toni. And again, we’ll get in touch with you or feel free to get in touch on support@curioushandmade.com or on Ravelry, HellsBells.

So, congratulations for everybody who entered in the challenge and has knit some wonderful finished objects. I had a lovely time scrolling through, in particular the Ravelry thread. The Ravelry thread seems to have quite a few more entries than Instagram.

So that’s just a little tip if you’re on Instagram and participating in the challenge, do be sure to tag your finished projects with the Knit24for2020 hashtag because I draw a prize of a $50 gift voucher from a yarn store, or indie dyer of your choice each month. And so it’s a nice little knit along to participate in, and it’s also quite open if you’ve finished an item that ticks off one of the prompts on the challenge checklist, then you can be in the draw.

So, yeah, but there was a particularly gorgeous Stillness Shawl posted in the Ravelry thread. And that was knit by isenfriesen who is Iris based in Austria. And she’s knit her Stillness Shawl in Fru Valborg Yak Sida which is yak silk, I think. Really gorgeous colors and she’s posted pictures in her project page on Ravelry of the still life painting she’s been inspired by.

She says, “I’ve loved still life as a genre for a long time from Dutch artists impressionist and post-impressionist particularly Cezanne and Cubists like Braque and van Gogh. But if I did think about stillness, I think of one particular painting by Chardin and of Giorgio Morandi, who tirelessly painted the same boxes, bottles and vases all over again. I have seen two exhibitions Museo Morandi in Bologna and another one in Austria and visited his studio in Grizzani Morandi where you can see all those objects that appear in his paintings.”

She’s posted the pictures of the paintings and her beautiful shawl, which you can instantly see the color inspiration from the paintings in her shawl. Thank you so much Iris for sharing your beautiful shawl and inspiration. So, we’ll link to her project page as well in the show notes. And thank you to everyone who posted and joined in the challenge and shared the beautiful projects with us this month.

We’ll set up a thread for October, so in other knit along news. We have Knitvent 2020 coming up very soon, and we are just putting the final touches to the patterns behind the scenes. And that will be opening up for pre-sales in a couple of weeks. And in the meantime, we have a little giveaway, which is an ebook on how to make your own yarn advent calendar.

So, some of you may have exciting advent calendars either already or already arrived, or on order from your favorite indie dyer. And if you’re like me who struggles to get organized, or maybe haven’t ordered one this year than we have created this little ebook on how to make your own from scraps that you may have in your stash from previous projects.

And I just think it’s such a nice thing to do with a friend to make one for each other and then do a swap. And that way you can be surprised by the yarn and it’s a lovely gift you can put in little extras, like tea or some special stitch markers or other little trinkets that you think your friend would like. And yeah, it’s just a really nice festive thing to do. So you can find a link to get that ebook on my website, in the show notes for this episode. Or on Instagram, in my links, there’s a link to sign up for that as well.

So that’s something we’re doing in the run up to Knitvent. I’ve been quite busy preparing the patterns for the upcoming season and I’m really pleased how it’s going. And for once I think I might have been able to organize it so that all the patterns will be released before December. And so maybe a little bit earlier than previous years, maybe by a week, not by a huge amount, but just by that little bit, that hopefully will give you just that tiny little bit more time for your gift knitting, if you like to gift knit for friends and family, otherwise just a little bit earlier that you can use your Yarn Advent calendar, if you choose to use it on my design.

I’m sure there’s lots of other lovely options as well. And I also have, I think three previous years, I have designed a pattern now for the advent calendars and four scrappy projects. So there’s a few to choose from, but yes, that will be the first design for the season that will come out. And that will be late October.

This week, we have had school holidays here in Queensland, and it’s been a really nice relaxing time. I had some friends for lunch yesterday, who I haven’t managed to catch up with since we’ve been back in Australia and that’s been over a year now. So that felt really good to finally see some dear friends, really good friends, but we just have had such a busy year and with the lockdowns and things hadn’t managed to catch up in person.

So, that was really nice. And we’ve gone for a lovely walk in nature. That was one of my goals for little nice moments to have with the girls on the holidays. I wasn’t planning anything too ambitious, but yeah, just a little lovely moment of a walkout in nature. And that made me think of my Rewilding Shawl pattern. So I just thought I would read the description of that, that my lovely writer, Amanda wrote for me and share that with you today.

Sometimes all it takes to heal a place is to gently step away. Ecologists call this process rewilding, and it is transforming landscapes around the world. Rewilding means stopping the bustle of human activity and giving the land back to itself, allowing the earth and the creatures that live there to get on with the work of growth and balance and restoration.

It is a beautiful concept. And one that is doing so much for biodiversity and the health of our wildlife. It’s also a lovely concept for people stepping away from the busy-ness of our lives and just letting ourselves be for a little while. That’s one of the greatest gifts we can get from a creative retreat, the chance to rewild ourselves, just a little bit. The Rewilding Shawl was created for the autumn 2018 Curious Handmade Country House Retreat.

So, many of the Shawls I create for retreat knitting are simple and relaxing. And there are some fun tassels that you can add to your shawl if you want to. It’s a one skein shawl. And I knit the sample in the beautiful Meadow Base from the Fibre Company, which is 40% merino, 25% baby llama, 20% silk and 15% linen. And it has a really generous 498 meters per 100 gram skein, which is 545 yards.

And it is really one of my very favorite yarns to knit with. It’s so lovely to knit with. And it’s nice and light and quite nice for the climate here, with the lovely linen and silk as well as the merino. So I just thought I’d share that design with you today as a little bit of a featured pattern, and maybe while I’m chatting about it, I will do I spontaneous discount on that.

So. I’m going to set up a 40% off discount with the code rewilding for the month of October for this little shawl, because it’s one of my favorites and I want to share it with you. So, that will be 40% off with the code rewilding for the month of October.

You can find them at meadowyarn.co.uk or you can click on the ad on my blog. So thanks for joining me today for a little chat. I do hope you have a good week and I’ll talk to you again soon. Happy knitting.

Show Sponsors

Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us.

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.

In this week’s short and sweet episode, I have puppy stories: we’re learning to train our little rascal and keep her entertained (and out of my stash!) I also have some WIP reports and a gift for anyone who might be suffering with Yarn Advent Calendar FOMO right now. Finally, as we enter the last quarter of the year, I’m taking stock of the Knit 20 for 2020 projects and seeing what’s left to check off my list.

Show Links:

Kong dog toys

Sign up to the Curious Handmade Newsletter and Get the Make Your Own Yarn Calendar ebook

(If you’re already on the mailing list, I’ll be sending out a copy in the next newsletter, so you don’t need to sign up again!)

Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish

@clevereststitch

Píosa by Renée Callahan

The Knit 20 for 2020 KAL instructions

Knit 20 for 2020 Ravelry FO Thread

Barrett Wool Co.

Show Transcript:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You’re listening to episode 310. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curious handmade.com.

Hello, and welcome. How are you this week? I’m having a great week. My tactics that I talked about on the show to reduce anxiety are definitely helping. It’s still there, but I seem to be keeping it at reasonably manageable levels this week, and I hope you are too. If you can hear a little bit of background noise, that’s puppy playing with her new toy, which I’ll tell you about in a minute. This week is the first of two weeks school holidays here, and we’re not doing too many activities, but I’m aiming for some fun gentle moments with the kids throughout the two weeks. It was the spring equinox here for us in the Southern hemisphere this week on Tuesday, and here in Queensland, it felt like we were going straight into summer some days. It was 28 degrees Celsius. I don’t have a conversion for that off the top of my head, but it was quite warm. And also quite humid.

The kids had first swim in the pool for the season this week, Lexi had her cast taken off on Friday before the holidays, much to her delight. And my delight as well. What else have we been up to? Oh yes, yesterday we had a puppy training session for Sindy, which was really fun and I learned a lot, and then as soon as the puppy trainer left, I couldn’t really remember exactly what he did and how he managed to do things. So I think I need to spend some time just focusing on that with her. It’s a little bit difficult to do that sometimes. But I just thought I’d mention a really interesting tip that he gave us. He introduced us to a toy called a Kong, which is K-O-N-G as in King Kong. I’m not sure what the name means, if anything. It’s the name of the company. It’s a cone-shaped thing that you can… It’s hollow, so you can put food into it or just the puppy can just chew on it.

I’ve seen them around, but what he said was quite interesting, was that… He said we could put all her meals in it, and then she eats the meals from that all the time. And he said he has a client who has six of them, and they hide them around the garden for their German shepherd throughout the day. It gives them an activity as well as their food. So he said you could get good value out of meals by making them into drawn out activities for the puppy, and that keeps them quite occupied and happy throughout the day. So I thought that was pretty interesting, and I’d never really heard of that as an idea before. I always thought you just put food in the bowl for them. So, yeah. I just thought I’d share that for you, and I’ll put a link to the company in the show notes. I’m sure there’s other companies that do this kind of thing as well, but this is what I’ve seen around here and what he recommended.

On the Curious Handmade work front, I have been doing a little bit of work this week. Not as much as the last couple of weeks where I was quite productive, but still managed to get a little bit of work on Knitvent done, and I’m so working away on the collection and putting final touches to it. Inevitably I decide to do an extra sample of something just to have a bit more variety in the photographs and things like that. So even after eight years, it still takes me a lot longer than I anticipate to get everything together. I’m doing some photographs on the weekend, so I’m looking forward to that. As I mentioned last week, the past few years, I have included a pattern designed especially for the Advent Yarn Kits and this year I’m continuing that tradition.

I remember that last year we created a little make your own yarn advent calendar ebook, with some tips and ideas for creating your own yarn advent calendar, because I’ve had a lot of comments from knitters asking where they can get hold of yarn advent calendars. Some people are always sad because they do get sold out quite quickly, and a lot of the dyers put them on sale very early in the year because they’re so time-intensive to make, so they sell them and get them ready quite early for four people. So if you’ve missed out or it’s outside your budget, then it’s a great way to use up scraps if you’ve been knitting for a little while. Most of us have a lot of leftovers in the stash already and if we tend to stick to a particular color palette, they probably coordinate quite well. I have quite a few friends now who established an annual tradition to swap with their knitting BFF or in their knitting group where everybody makes up a yarn advent calendar from their stash and then they swap.

If you don’t have lots of leftovers, but still want to make your own, you can use full skeins of yarn and then either divide it up so that some of the colors are repeated or dip into some skeins to top up a set of minis or something like that. So you can be quite creative with it, and I think now is a really good time to think about this. So I have a revived the ebooklet, and I’ll put a link in the show notes where you can get hold of that if you would like to get a copy and make your own yarn advent calendar. I think I’m going to make one or two this year for some friends. I really enjoyed putting together the minis for the prize.

I put together basically a yarn advent calendar for the prize for the habitation throw knit along, and I used a nostepinne, which is a little wooden stick for want of a better word. It’s a bit nicer than a stick, but it’s just a shaped wooden turned knitting tool to hand wind yarn around. So I did that with 24 minis, and it was a very relaxing activity while I watched some YouTube videos and knitting podcasts and things like that. It was very enjoyable. So I think I’ll make another couple of those with some of my many leftovers.

Apart from working away on Knitvent samples this week, I have been knitting on my Hermione Jean Granger by The Cleverest Stitch, who’s Tyne Swedish, and I’m just kind of making that a little bit bigger than the pattern calls for, because I have some of the gorgeous La Bien Aimée yarn to use, and the pattern doesn’t use all of the… It’s a three skein, three color pattern, but it’s not using up much of some colors, so I’m going to extend it and add in a few more stripes. So that’s been a super relaxing knit. It’s garter stitch and just fun stripes, perfect TV relaxing knitting, so I’ve been working on that and highly recommend Cleverest Stitch’s patterns. She has some gorgeous patterns available in her collections and they all look very fun, so I’m going to probably do another one after this.

I’ve been having a little look at my Knit 20 for 2020 list, and this will cover a new to me designer. I haven’t knit any of her designs before. And also a shawl. And it’s just reminded me to let you know that this is the last week for September if you’d like to enter into the Knit 20 for 20 knit along. The prizes are a 50 US dollar gift voucher from your yarn shop or indie dyer of choice. And there is a prize drawn from the Ravelry thread in my curious handmade group on Ravelry. And I also draw a prize from Instagram with projects tagged Knit 20 for 2020. So please do go ahead and post your projects in either place, and I draw two winners, one from each. And if you’d like to know more about it, you can find out more on my website, curioushandmade.com, or in the rivalry thread in the group.

I’m not sure that I’m going to manage to tick off all 20 prompts myself before the end of the year, but I think I’m going to do reasonably well. I have my kit from Barrett Wool Company for the really cute panda and I don’t know if I’ll finish that before the end of the year. I’d like to try. I definitely want to finish my Piosa cardigan to tick off the cardigan category, and I haven’t yet attempted brioche. So I definitely really want to try to do some brioche knitting for the end of the year. Otherwise I probably can make the other categories work with the projects that I am knitting or have finished. But yes, definitely brioche and knitting a toy are ones that I would definitely have to start new projects for to be able to fulfill those.

Anyway, it’s been a fun challenge so far, and while we still have a quarter left, October, November, December. Yeah, just quarter. Yeah, went very, very slowly at the beginning and has now speeded up quite disconcertingly. I’m not sure if you’re with me on that, but for everybody playing along, just know that there’s one week left for September and then three months left for the year. I think it’s going to be a really short and sweet episode this week. There probably a bit of background noise. Hopefully my podcast editor isn’t too frustrated, but my children are kind of rampaging. The dog’s passed out out of tiredness from today, but they seem to be ramping up activities so I better go and sort that out.

So I do hope you’re well and going okay, wherever you are in the world. Have a good week. I’ll talk to you again soon. Bye.

Show Sponsors

Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us.

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.

After an unexpected break to wrestle life into a reasonably manageable shape, the podcast is back! Today I have a giant group of giveaway winners from Today on the Curious Handmade Podcast I have some hints about the upcoming Knitvent collection (did someone say scrappy?) I also have a chat about how I’m coping with anxiety these days, with some resources to share. One of the things that helps ground me a lot is having a few tiny habits to anchor my days, and I’d love to hear about yours.

Show Links:

Resources I’ve found to help with Anxiety:

Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg

Healthline Anxiety

Black Dog Institute Anxiety

Very Well Mind Anxiety

Other show links:

The Strawberry Thief

Droplet Capelet by Denise Bayron

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You’re listening to episode 309. 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 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. How are you this week? I’m having a pretty good week feeling okay and being reasonably productive. The kids are well and puppy’s well, and all the mice seem well also, yes. As I talked about last week, the thousand-item purge major decluttering session in the last month or so has really done wonders for reducing anxiety and I’m already planning another session tackling some remaining problem areas and, yeah, just keeping going on the quest to lead a simplified life. It’s already helping me be more motivated and get things done more quickly so that’s fantastic.

Although I have been reading a little bit of the news this morning and I don’t do that too often, I find that it stresses me out too much and this morning was really no exception. I’m sort of reading the news and then I start thinking about all my friends and family all around the world and all of you and wonder how you’re all feeling and doing. My thoughts are with people on the West Coast in the U.S. battling terrible fires and smoke, and my thoughts are also with the refugees on Lesbos in the Moria Camp where a fire broke out and destroyed the refugee camp there. So that’s also another terrible situation.

It’s a lot altogether with COVID and racial injustice and divisive political situations all around the world at the moment. It can be very anxiety-producing and give you a bit of a feeling of helplessness really. And I don’t know, I guess I didn’t want to start this episode with a big downer, but I just wanted to acknowledge all of this today because I know that there are just so many people who are so worried and stressed, especially in the U.S., but all around the world with kids going back to school and just so many things, all the things. I just wanted to let you know that I’m thinking of you and I hear you.

I’m going to pop a few links in the show notes today that I’ve found helpful for some tips to manage anxiety for what it’s worth. I’m following the Tiny Habits which is a great book I read recently by BJ Fogg, and that method of just trying to incorporate one or two tiny habits into my routine to actively try to manage my anxiety. And it does help. So some things I’m doing is I’ll just generally try to focus on my circle of control and influence and not on my circle of concern and the worries.

At the beginning of the year one of my happiness projects was creating a gratitude journal that I do each evening with the goals and we each write down three things we’re grateful for. And we are definitely a little bit ad hoc

about doing it but we’ve kept it up over the year, not every day, but at least in a way consistently. And that is a really nice moment in the day and I think it definitely helps us all.

Yesterday I made sure that I’m on the electoral roll here in Australia, and I found out that the next election in Queensland is the 31st of October this year so I was glad that I finally did that to-do item on my list. Having been out of the country for many, many years I wasn’t sure what my status was, and today I’m going to set up one or two regular donations to charities and maybe some one-off donations as well for really topicals issues at the moment.

I’ve been getting a lot of joy from my small gardening efforts and yeah, one of the most successful efforts for my gardening which is really I feel like a tiny habit is growing sprouts. That’s been my most consistent gardening effort and it’s also been my most productive, growing a batch of sprouts each week. And I’ve mostly been doing alfalfa but also sometimes broccoli sprouts, which I hadn’t even heard or thought of before but it’s apparently incredibly good for you. And I quite, I really like the taste. It’s a bit of a weird paste but I really, really like it. It’s gives a bit of a punch to your sandwich if you put your sprouts on your sandwiches or in a salad. So that’s a little tip of, I think a gardening thing that probably anyone could do is grow sprouts in your kitchen.

I’ve actually been using my standing desk to stand up and I am standing out right now as I record this and wondering why I haven’t been doing this more because I already feel more energetic, and you can probably hear it in my voice that are more energetic talking while I’m standing up. And one thing I have been wanting to start doing all year and have done a tiny bit of but not very much is some kind of breathing, meditation, stretching habit. That one is a to-do, is still on my wishlist, I wish I could start doing this more regularly.

But I think from everything I read about managing anxiety and stress this is always comes up as the best thing you can do for yourself, so I think I’m quite silly not to be doing it, but I don’t know. Like a lot of things that are good for us we don’t do, but I’m going to just try again to tackle this as a tiny habit and see if I can manage to get myself to meditate or do breathing exercises for one minute a day or something like that. I have to design the tiny habit to work in my routine.

Anyway, that’s some things I’m thinking about and doing and might give you some inspiration of small things you might like to try as well. I’ll put the links to a few articles in the show notes. And of course I am not a health professional, I have no background in this kind of thing but I thought I’d share some encouragement because I’m finding these things helpful to keep me going, keep me positive and yeah, I just thought I’d share today. If you want to share with me one tiny thing you can be proactive and take a bit of control or you’re welcome to email me or drop a note on Instagram and let me know your little tiny habit and give yourself a big yes and a big pat on the back for when you do it.

In knitting news, I did promise you some knitting news this week after my decluttering chat last week. I’ve been doing a lot of work and designing and knitting samples for Knitvent 2020, which is coming up quite soon now. I can’t believe we’re halfway through September, it’s all the crazy. I felt like time slowed down massively through March, April, May, June, and now it seems to be speeding back up again going into the end of the year, but that’s the way it goes, isn’t it?

Yes, I’ve been doing a lot of work. And the last few years I’ve designed a pattern especially for Advent Yarn Kits, which typically have 24 mini-skeins, and this year I’m continuing this tradition for Knitvent. And I think I can tell you that it’s going to be suitable for a 10 gram mini-skein set. So people who have a 10 gram set can do the pattern and also a lot of the Advent kits are 20 gram sets so they can either do two of the item or perhaps do a different scrappy project with the other half of their kit. So that’s what I’m thinking about.

And I did manage to have Sunday off work, so very happy about that. I’m trying to carve out a little bit of time for personal crafty projects. And I was working quite a bit on my Liberty Hexie project, which is an English paper-piecing quilt or quilts, I should say, because I’m doing two. I have subscribed to kits from a company here in Australia called The Strawberry Thief, they’re based over in Perth and they’re specialize in Liberty fabric. And so I’m working on both a two-inch and one-inch hexie project.

Hopefully I’ll quilt, hopefully I’ll make enough hexies and flowers to do a quilt, that’s the goal for two quilts. And yes, I really enjoy the process, I enjoy the process of making each hexie where I’m using the method of gluing the fabric to a piece of heavy paper-like cardboard, and then they get sewn into hexie flowers. So one hexie in the middle and then six petals, and then eventually those flowers will be made into the quilts but for the moment it’s just a matter of making the flowers. So I enjoy all parts of that process and yeah, giving me a lot of joy.

And on the knitting side I started a new project which I have no business starting because I have too many wips, but I couldn’t resist starting the Droplet Capelet by Denise Bayron. And I’ve been wanting to knit one of her patterns for a while. I’ve been wanting to support her because she’s a brilliant designer, I love her aesthetic and she’s so sophisticated. I’ve purchased several of her patterns but I hadn’t got as far as downloading them. And when I downloaded the Droplet Capelet pattern I was so delighted with the pattern. She has a beautiful story about the design and she has super clear instructions, schematics, how to choose your size, video support for casting on and casting off. It’s quite incredible and inspiring, so thank you, Denise, for the incredible work you’ve put into this pattern.

I am knitting this in a skein from the stash. One of my precious skeins, which is by Skein Australia, and so the colorway is a gorgeous light blue, a very dreamy light blue with aquamarine speckles and some lime-green speckles as well. It’s going to be so fun to knit and I’m going to knit this for my daughter Sophie, who really likes that kind of garment. I like her little, I want to say poncho capelet. Ponchos aren’t really considered to be very cool but this is a very cool item so I don’t really want to call it a poncho, let’s stick with capelet like the name says.

Yeah, this is a super fun knit and I think it should be fairly fast. It’s a one-skein project and the size I’m getting for Sophie, which is the smallest size and I will keep you posted on progress. I have started quite a lot of projects this year and I’m not finishing them, but yeah, I’m just going to plug away and hopefully finish this by the end of the year. But to be honest, because I’m knitting it for Sophie it doesn’t really need to be done until next winter which is next June here, that we’re just coming into spring here. So there’s no real rush on this one, it’s just something to knit for fun. That’s all the crafty knitting news I have for you this week. As I said in the introduction, I really hope you’re doing okay. I’m sending you all my love wherever you are in the wild and have a great week. Happy knitting, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Show Sponsors

Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us.

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.

After an unexpected break to wrestle life into a reasonably manageable shape, the podcast is back! Today I have a giant group of giveaway winners from all of our KALs to celebrate. I also have a report from the island of decluttering, where I’ve been living for the last few weeks…

Show Links:

– THSS #5 Vapour Socks KAL: Post 21 – fifilou

– THSS #6 Altitude Socks KAL: Post 9 – atrinka

– THSS3 Grand KAL: Post 29 – TheFibersmith

– Stillness MKAL: Post 460 Jastauff

– August knit20for2020

Ravelry winner:

Post 73 Pattyknits36

KNIT Long Island

Instagram winner:

@shellyknitsallthethings

White Gum Wool

The 30 Day Minimalism Game

#minsgame

Clutterbug: 5 Decluttering Methods

Simple Happy Zen: Emotional Decluttering

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You’re listening to episode 308. 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 on social media as curioushomemade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com.

Hello and welcome to the show. How are you this week? Last time I spoke to you three weeks ago, I was having a little bit of a challenging time with things going on at home, and that continued to be the case for longer than I hoped and anticipated. So I had an unplanned week off last week after a planned week off the week before.

And I don’t feel good about missing weeks on the podcast, especially when they’re unplanned, but I really needed to give myself the time last week. When I record the podcast, it’s not just the physical time it takes to write the notes and record, but if I’m not in a positive head space and I’m a bit stressed out, then I don’t like to record a show where I’m sounding really frazzled and not positive and cheerful. And sometimes I can push through and record it anyway, but last week was not one of those weeks. Everything’s fine. It was just too much going on.

So this week I am able to focus on things again. It’s Wednesday, when I’m recording, and so far I haven’t had either child at home from school yet, although it is an inter-school sports day for the kids tomorrow, so Lexi will be sitting that out because she still has her cast on. But the first half of the week has been the most productive I’ve had probably all year, so I’m feeling pretty good. And thanks to missing a couple of weeks publishing a podcast, I have a bumper number of knit along prize draws to announce this week. And later in the show, I’ll give you an update on my personal decluttering challenge I set myself a while ago.

So first to the knit along announcements. Yes, there are quite a few. So firstly for The Handmade Sock Society, which is now at an end, the knit along for the fifth socks in the series, the vapor socks, winner is fifilou. And the winner for the sixth socks in the series, the altitude socks, is atrinka. We also have the grand prize for the person who has knit all six socks in the season, the third season of The Handmade Sock Society, and drum roll. The winner of the grand prize is TheFibersmith.

So, of course I appreciate each and every one of you who have made any of the socks in The Handmade Sock Society this season, and whether you’ve entered them in the knit alongs or not, I know that not everybody does that. I often don’t do that, even when I have made something, I don’t post it on Ravelry or Instagram. But yes, I appreciate all of you, and I am especially grateful and huge kudos to the 50 or so people who knit all six socks. It’s a lovely thread to browse through and it makes me so happy to see people who’ve knit the whole collection. It’s really fun to see. So thank you very much everybody who participated.

And the prize will be a 50 US dollar voucher for the individual socks, and it is 100 US dollar voucher prize for TheFibersmith, who won the grand prize. So congratulations to you all. And if the winners could please email me at support@curioushandmade.com to let me know, one, your email address, and secondly what local yarn shop or indie dyer or online yarn shop you would like a voucher from for your prize.

We also had the Stillness Mystery Knit Along finish at the end of August. I didn’t really think about which month we’re in just then. That finished at the end of August. And again, I was absolutely blown away by the beautiful shawls you had knit. I could see that there was a little bit of a flurry of people finishing their shawls towards the end of the month, and I’m still seeing people posting their shawls on Instagram and Ravelry. They’re so beautiful. I’m so thrilled. And the winner of the Stillness Mystery Knit Along is post 460, who is Jastauff, J-A-S-T-A-U double F. Jane from Peacham in the US. She has knit a very sunny grellow Stillness shawl and she says it makes her very happy. And yes, it is a very beautiful, beautiful color combination and shawl. So thank you very much, Jane. And, again, I will be sending you a voucher via email for your prize.

And last but not least, because we had August come and go since I last recorded, we also have the August Knit 20 for 2020 winners. So on Ravelry we have post 73, Pattieknits36, who also posted a Stillness shawl as her finished object. And she has nominated Knit Long Island for her LYS. And on Instagram we have shellyknitsallthethings, who also posted a Stillness shawl for her finished object and used the hashtag knit20for2020 in the shawl category. A beautiful, summery, fresh color scheme. And in her comment she says, “It gives me sunset over beaches vibes, which makes me happy.” And I agree, it’s a very happy color combination, and the yarn is by White Gum Wool, which is an Australian company.

So thank you very much to all the people who participated in all those knit alongs recently, and congratulations to the winners. Just once more, please do get in touch via email, Helen@curioushandmade.com, to let me know your email address and which company or online shop you would like a gift voucher from, and I will get that arranged soon-ish. Oh dear, apologies for my tardiness on the prizes, but I do get there eventually. So thank you for bearing with me.

So I thought I’d give you a little update on my decluttering project because it has taken up a lot of my time in the last month or so, and some weeks I didn’t really have much else to talk about because I spent all my time working on it. About a month ago, I set myself a challenge of decluttering 1000 items. And it was kind of based on inspiration from the Minimalist 30 day Challenge, whereby you get rid of one item on the first day, two items on the second day and so on, and that adds up to 465 items. And I watched a YouTube video where a couple did it and then increased the items to 1000. And I thought, “That sounds like a good round number, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

And I didn’t do it day-by-day. It was very ad hoc. It wasn’t following the minimalist game. So in the end, I managed to do it, and it wasn’t too difficult, although I did cheat a little bit with one item or category of items, which arguably maybe should be counted as one item rather than 200 items. But anyway, I’ll read you out what I decluttered. So 155 items of clothes, 65 items from the kitchen, 130 items of rubbish, 175 skeins of yarn, 50 miscellaneous things, 20 empty picture frames that had been bought for a craft project that never happened, 35 project bags. I know, it’s shocking. 130 books, which was mostly kids books. 30 knitting needles, 10 items of fabric, which is a bit conservative, but I tended towards being conservative except for the 200 pens that I counted, which I don’t know if it’s cheating or not. But anyway, 200 pens is quite bulky.

So when I looked at the minimalist game, things that people counted as one item, I don’t know. Some people might not. Some people might. So anyway, I did. And I was pretty conservative on other things like rubbish. I threw out a lot of papers and things that I didn’t actually count, and a lot of just trash that I found in kids’ bedrooms and things that I didn’t count. So I think it kind of evens out a little bit. But that all adds up to 1000 items.

And yeah, I tried to pull some thoughts together about this whole process. So as I was decluttering, I was also watching a lot of decluttering videos on YouTube for inspiration. One of the ones that I watched I thought I would share, which is the ClutterBug 5 Decluttering Methods. So I just thought I’d share this because I was trying to remember how I actually did my decluttering. It was a little bit random. But I’ll just read out her five methods in case it’s helpful.

So number one is the Easter egg method, where you get a basket or a box or something like that and basically go around looking for things that you’re not using, loving or wouldn’t buy again. So it’s called the Easter egg method because you’re basically hunting for things around the house. Number two is the Marie Kondo method. If you’ve listened to my podcast in the past, you will have heard about this method where you sort things by category and only keep what sparks joy.

Number three is the no mess method, where you tackle an area and as you go through it you either put things in a garbage bag or put them back where they belong. Or I think put them in a bag to be taken to charity. But basically the idea is that you don’t have a big staging area. You just deal with everything as you pick it up and tidy it up. The trash bag method is where you go around the house just collecting rubbish, so good for kids’ rooms or messy areas of the house where rubbish accumulates, like the car.

The four sort method, which is kind of a more in-depth method where you have boxes or containers for keep, donate, toss or does not belong, and that’s the ClutterBug’s usual method of sorting things out. There are a couple of other methods she didn’t mention that I’ve come across. So one is the Swedish death cleaning method, where you have to ask yourself, “Would I want my kids or family to have to look at this or deal with it if I suddenly died?” Which is a clarifying question, I guess.

And then the other method that I quite like is the peel the onion method, which The Minimal Mom talks about, where it’s a gradual process over time where you go deeper and deeper into your clutter. So I came up with my own fairly random method based on a combination of some of these, and I call it the thousand item purge, where I basically went around the house manically pulling things out of cupboards and piling them up on the dining room table and then dealing with them.

So it was, I’d say, kind of a combination of the Easter egg hunt plus peeling the onion, because I went through the house several times, and then using the four sort method to dispose of the items. I was quite surprised how easy it was for me to find 1000 items, even given the 200 pens. I had the pens in mind the whole time, knowing that I could have them as a back up if I needed to make up the numbers.

Yeah, I would really recommend this method of choosing a high number, because it really made me let go of things that I’ve just been holding onto for not really any good reason, for way too long. For me, when I’m decluttering, it’s not so much knowing that I don’t need the thing. It’s more feeling bad about disposing of things not responsibly. I want to feel like they’re going to good homes or not being wasted or just contributing to landfill. But I kind of had to just draw a line on thinking that way, because otherwise I’m just holding onto stuff as a big storage unit. My house is a big storage unit with things I don’t want or need.

So some things I did throw out. I mean, they were basically things that were broken or rubbish or clothes that were too worn out. And I know that there are places that will recycle them, but in the current circumstances with COVID, I just didn’t … I don’t know. I didn’t want to burden a charity shop with tatty clothes, for example. So this is what I mean by, I just find it so hard to figure out the best way to dispose of things. I just go round in my head, overthinking it.

Anyway, I tried not to do that this time so much, but it definitely, definitely has a huge impact on reducing the amount of things I buy. Every time I go through the decluttering process, it reminds me not to buy things without being really thoughtful about it. So that’s a really positive outcome of it, even though I still do consume more than I need at times, but I’m an awful lot better than I used to be, so it’s good.

I came across another helpful YouTube video for emotional Cancerians like myself. It’s by Simple Happy Zen and How to Get Rid of the Things You Don’t Need. She talks about the more emotional aspects of things. So she talks about how things are part of your identity, often part of our fantasy selves. Like people who … we want to think of ourselves as people who will exercise or do our crafts or whatever, cook healthy meals, cook exotic, gourmet meals. I don’t know. So yeah, your stuff once you’ve bought it forms part of your identity, and so that can be why it’s difficult to let go of things.

And she talks about giving yourself permission and forgiveness for the mistakes you’ve made in your purchases, breaking the project down. And the switcheroo, which is not focusing on what you’re losing by donating or throwing things out or however you’re disposing of them, but to look at it in terms of what you’re gaining in terms of space, time and energy.

So yeah, I have wrapped up the project now. I had a big mess on my dining room table for about a month, and I finally dealt with it all. It feels fantastic. I’m definitely not a natural minimalist. I do like to have a bit of surplus things to hand and some knickknacks around the house. I like decorations and kitschy things, cute things. But I’m definitely leaning into having less stuff, and having less visual clutter. I think I can really see the benefits of that. It is definitely reducing the mental load of looking around at lots of distractions. I’ve really tried to simplify my office space, which has been semi-successful so far. My desk is still a bit too cluttered.

But making huge, huge progress, and it’s really, really helping. So I still have a list of problem areas that I still need to deal with. So I haven’t dealt with the pantry, the food, which kind of got a bit out of control with some lockdown stockpiling that I did. There’s boxes of old tax records that I should probably scan but might just hang onto for five years and avoid that nasty job. There’s kids craft stuff, and then there’s the digital clutter of photos and emails that I really would love to deal with.

So I came across a quote, which is, “Clutter is postponed decisions,” and that is a quote by Barbara Hemphill, who has actually trademark registered that quote, so I want to give her credit. But that is so true, isn’t it? Clutter is postponed decisions. Everything I’ve gone through and decluttered was all things that I put off deciding on when we moved mostly. There’s some new stuff there as well, but mostly stuff that I brought from the UK because I just couldn’t decide on it at the time. Including, I found a bag of extension cords and power boards with multiple plugs for UK plugs. What was I thinking? I think it was just one of those miscellaneous bags of stuff that the packers just put in before I had managed to deal with.

But I had been keeping it sort of thinking, “Oh, maybe next trip back to the UK, I can take it with me and give it to my friends.” But yes. I don’t know. How crazy is that? It’s sort of crazy but it sort of makes sense to me. But I think with COVID and the fact that we probably won’t make it back for about two years, sadly, I decided to let those go. Anyway, but example of postponed decisions. And so I’m going to think about things along those lines and try not to postpone decisions going forward to keep the overwhelm under control, to keep life under control. And maybe, I don’t know, try and use that as a bit of a new philosophy.

So thanks for bearing with me through my decluttering chat. It’s not a decluttering channel or podcast usually, although it does come up from time to time. But yeah, if you’re interested in the topic, there are hundreds and hundreds of really great videos about the topic on YouTube, and no doubt podcasts as well. But YouTube is particularly satisfying, seeing people show their before and afters and things like that, if you’re into that kind of thing. And yeah. So thanks for bearing with me. I hope that it’s kind of useful. I think sometimes it’s good to know that other people have issues with things.

Anyway, I promise to have some good solid knitting chat for you next week, how about that? So I hope you have a wonderful week. Thank for joining me, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us.

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.

The lovely yarn La Bien Aimee for my Hermione Jean Granger Shawl

As I get closer and closer to finishing the Knitvent 2020 collection designs, I’ve hit a procrastination snag. I know by now that it’s just part of the creative process, and a sign that I probably need to let things simmer a little longer. But these days I’m trying to choose more productive ways of procrastinating, and my favourite procrastination method is decluttering. So a warning: there’s not a whole lot of crafty content in today’s show, but there is a fun decluttering game that I’m going to do to hopefully clear a little brain space for more design work. Care to join me?

After a week of small disasters and a lot of decluttering, some comfort knitting is called for. Today on the podcast I’m revisiting my queue of personal knitting. There are a few particular WIPs I am enjoying very much, and a few more very long term projects that are finding their way to the front of my queue. And of course there are always a few very special designs tempting me to just cast on one more thing…

Show Links:

The 30 Day Minimalism Game

#minsgame

Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish

@clevereststitch

Píosa by Renée Callahan

Sweet Fiber Yarns

Georgie Baby Blanket

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino

Sky Map by Emily Foden

Viola Yarns

Elton Cardigan by Joji Locatelli

La Bien Aimée

Dahlia Cardigan by Heather Zoppetti

Blue Sky Alpaca Silk

Droplet Capelet by Denise Bayron

Everyday Lined Hat by Denise Bayron

The Wave of Change Jacket by Denise Bayron

Moving Forward Wrap by Denise Bayron

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You’re listening to episode 307. 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 Hell’s Bells and on social media, as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curious handmade.com.

Hello, welcome to the show. I hope you’re having a good week. I am having a pretty good week. I have been very, very busy. I feel a little bit like it’s been one step forward, two steps backwards. I announced last week that I was undertaking a challenge, a personal challenge, of decluttering a thousand items from my home. This is based on a minimalist 30-day challenge that I’d seen on YouTube. It’s a challenge where by you declutter items each day over 30 days and end up parting ways with 465 items.

And I watched a video that described how a couple did it, both did it, and then made it for 31 days and then added a few items and it added up to a thousand items. So, I just decided that that a thousand number sounded pretty good and that I would go for it. And I won’t go into it this week, the process that I’ve been going through the last week or so, but I am up to 860 items after a week. So, that’s pretty good and it’s been very interesting. I’ll tell you the story, maybe in the next episode, and share some, I don’t know, lessons learned or tips about what’s happened. I’m sure by then I will be up to my a thousand item goal, maybe even more. So, it’s been an interesting week, having gone through that process. And a few things happened, came up along the way, which weren’t related to the challenge, but were more sort of every day life.

I was doing a little task that had been on the list since about April. I wanted to get a shelf removed from Sophie’s built in wardrobe because she didn’t have a long hanging space in her cupboard. Anyway, the built in wardrobe isn’t very flexible, so it needed a handyman to come and take out the shelf. And so I walked into her bedroom, and walked around a bit, and then came downstairs again after showing the guy what I needed done. And he came down about 10 minutes later going, “Uh.” And he had knelt in a little deposit that Cindy had left on a rug and I hadn’t seen, so I had walked through it and walked all through the house by this point. Yeah, so that was fun and quite embarrassing. He was really great about it, thank goodness. It was very embarrassing, actually. Anyway, he just said, “Oh, I’m going to have to go and change my clothes now.” And that led to a carpet cleaning episode, which was good, in the sense that it helped with decluttering, because, I don’t know, I tend to get everything up off the floor, as much as possible.

And so that led to just everything getting up off the floor and out into a sorting staging area. So, I guess it maybe speeded up some decluttering, made it more thorough. Anyway, now we have lovely clean carpets and Cindy is no longer allowed in carpeted areas in the house. We’ve been trying to keep her out of them, but had gotten a little bit slack about it because she’s so cute and we like having her with us at all times. That is no longer happening.

And then Saturday afternoon, we were having a lovely barbecue, and the kids were jumping on the trampoline and Lexi twisted her ankle. And we hoped, or thought, it was a sprain, but then a couple of days later I decided that we’d better get it x-rayed just in case. It turned out that she had broken her ankle, bottom of her leg, in two places. So, she spent a day basically getting x-rays and cast on, and was in hospital most of the day yesterday. Yeah, it’s such a shame for her. She is not a kid that will enjoy being immobilized, but I guess it could be worse. So, we’re going to have to deal with the crutches and things for a little while. But as Steve pointed out, at least it’s not swimming season just yet because she loves being in the pool and is in the pool as much as possible when the weather is warm. So, thankfully, small mercies, it’s not quite warm enough for that yet. Although, it won’t be very long before it is. It’s already quite warm weather up here in Queensland.

So, yeah. That’s been my week. Luckily I was already on strike from work, procrastinating with my decluttering and various things. So, I don’t know maybe it didn’t impact my week as much as it would have if I’d actually had some tough deadlines. But I was hoping to get myself motivated to get back into some design work this week, but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe later the week. I’m recording this on Wednesday. So, a couple of days ahead of publishing. Anyway, so after that personal introduction about what’s happening around here, I thought I’d talk a little bit about knitting this week, considering that it is a knitting podcast. And I thought as I’ve gone through almost all my yarn, not all my yarn, but almost all my yarn and works in progress and things. I thought I’d just go through some inspiration I’ve had about projects that I’d like to work on, going forward, inspired by yarn and patterns in my stash.

So, of course I would like to finish some WIPs and most of them are fairly… Well, no, that’s not true. I was going to say most of them are fairly recent. Two of them are fairly recent, sort of cast ons. So, I’m working on the Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish, who is the cleverest stitch and really enjoying this knit. Actually, I’m working on it in the evenings when I’m watching TV a little bit, at the moment, and so that’s kind of happening, slowly, bit by bit. It’s super relaxing. It’s garter stitch and stripes and a crescent shaped shawl with gorgeous tassels. I’ve mentioned it before on the show, but yeah, just really enjoying that as a relaxing evening knit. There’s not too much to think about. All you have to do is check which side you’re knitting on to make sure that you’re getting the right number of increases, and that’s about all the thinking that is involved with this one.

And I also have another relatively recent cast on, which is the Piosa Cardigan by Renee Callahan. I’ve knit the body and really just need to knit the sleeves now. I don’t know why I’ve stalled out on that. I think I just went on to design work and put it aside for a little while, and the fact that I need to pick up stitches and do a little bit of a slightly harder, more thinking, task to get onto the next step has made me just put it down for a little while.

But I’m super keen to finish that, it’s going to be a lovely cardi, and I’m slightly nervous that I picked the size too small. I kind of did that knowing that it might be the was too small, which is a bit stupid really, but I was a bit concerned about the amount of yarn I have. I think if it is too small for me, I’ll just give it to Sophie and she’ll probably love it, and it will really suit her because I’m knitting it in Rose Gold by Sweet Fiber. And it’s a beautiful, beautiful color. We’ll see if it stretches out a little bit when it gets blocked, otherwise it will probably be for Sophie. But she’s very knit-worthy, so that’s fine.

I have two older works in progress. One of them is a deep WIP, and it is a Georgie blanket, that was a design of mine from quite a few years ago now. And I think my mom knit the main part of it for me, and it might’ve been for Lexi. So, I’m not sure if it was when she was born even, which would make it a very old WIP. But anyway, it just needs the border knitted onto it. It’s not a huge task, and I would really like to get that finished. So, that’s kind of coming further up to the top of my list of works in progress. I’ve finished a few things this year and that’s one that I really would like to finish. Because it is a really sweet little blanket and I think she would still use it. And it’s knit in Debbie Bliss, Cashmerino, which is a lovely yarn. So, that would be nice to finish up.

And I also have the Star Map Wrap, which is pattern and yarn by Emily Foden in Viola Yarns, based in Canada. I think that one is a more of a longterm project. I’m not really planning on trying to finish that too soon. It’s just a lot of stockinette knitting in the round in mohair and it will be absolutely gorgeous when it’s finished. I did contemplate whether I would just cast it off and make a cowl at some point, but I think I will keep going with it and try and finish it at some point. But I don’t feel a huge sense of urgency to do that. I think it’s going to take me quite a lot of knitting time to do, and so that might just become a project that sits beside the sofa and I pick up when I’m watching TV.

I think the main reason that I’m not enjoying that as much as I could, is that I am alternating skeins. And so with it being mohair and alternating skeins, I don’t know, it’s just slowing me down that bit more than it would otherwise. So, I’ll have to think about that. I did the workshop with Emily in London, was that last year or the year before? I don’t know, maybe last year. I can’t remember. In the last couple of years anyway. And she very, very strongly suggested to alternate skeins. So, I did what I was told and tried to be good. But I’m just not sure. It’s just taking the joy out of knitting it for me. So, we’ll see. Anyway, that can just wait for a little while to make these kind of heavy decisions.

And then I have three other projects that I haven’t really started yet. One is the Elton cardigan by Joji Locatelli. I was very generously gifted the yarn for this by Amy, from La Bien Aimee. And so I have the gorgeous, gorgeous yellow yarn, and I think it’s going to suit my gray hair really well. It could be a nice grellow outfit. Yeah. So, I’m keen to do that and that’s another mohair cardigan, so it might be a bit slower. I don’t know if that’s what’s putting me off tackling that one, but I don’t think so. I think it’s just the fact that I haven’t had a lot of time to work on it. But definitely want to prioritize that one. And then as I was sorting through yarn, it reminded me of another very, very deep stash, deep, deep, yarn pattern cardigan that I’ve been wanting to knit for so many years, which is the Dahlia cardigan by Heather Zoppetti. And this was published in Interweave in fall 2011.

I don’t know if I’ve been wanting to make it since then, but I know that I’ve had the yarn, which is Blue Sky Alpaca Silk in the gorgeous amethyst colorway for a really long time. And I actually had in my head that that was the called for yarn for this pattern, but it’s not at all now I look at it. So, I don’t know why I thought that. And I couldn’t even see it in Yarn Ideas on Ravelry. So, I don’t know why I thought that was the yarn, but maybe I just thought it would be a really good yarn for it, which I still do. So, yeah. There’s that one. I went to see if the pattern was still available, before I talked about it on the podcast, and it is still available on the Interweave website. And I went to look at Heather’s blog and it doesn’t seem like she’s designing anymore. So, she’s said that in a blog post, sort of early last year, that she was going back to her a full time corporate job.

Anyway, it doesn’t mean that I want to knit the pattern any less. It’s a beautiful, gorgeous waterfall front cardigan with a beautiful lace panel on the back. It’s just always appeal to my romantic side. So, I still wanted it that one. I’ve mentioned this on the podcast in the past, but I still do want to knit that one. And then a much more recent, slight obsession is the Droplet Capelet by Denise Bayron, Bayron Handmade. I am a little bit obsessed with Denise’s designs and I’ve been talking about knitting various different designs of hers. She has a bulky cardigan that I was initially thinking I would knit, but will never wear, definitely never wear here in Queensland. And that’s the Wave Of Change jacket, which has been a really, really popular design. But just probably not for me.

And then the Everyday Lined Hat really appealed. I thought it’s super cute. I love the simplicity. But again, I’ve just gone through winter here and haven’t worn a hat, and I didn’t even wear hats that much in London, in winter. So, yes. Then I thought, “Oh, okay.” I had to look at her other designs because I just love her aesthetic, and so now I think the Droplet Capelet will be the design that I’d like to knit of hers. She’s got a gorgeous wrap as well, which is the Moving Forward Wrap. But again, I think that the capelet will be more wearable, and I think it would look really cute on Sophie or Lexi. It sort of like can either be a cowl or go down over your shoulders. Really, really cute design. So, yeah. I’m looking forward to seeing Denise’s book that’s going to be published with Laine, I imagine next year. But they’ve announced that they’re publishing a book of her patterns. So, I’ll be very excited to see that.

In the meantime, I’m putting the Droplet Capelet onto my queue. The extra small size takes one skein of fingering weight yarn, but probably I’d want a larger size than that. So, I’ll probably have to find some fingering weight yarn in my stash that I have two skeins of, which shouldn’t be a problem because I have a lot of yarn. So, that’s been my ponderings about knitting this week. It is a little bit of a fantasy queue at this point, but I’ve been getting better and better about being able to do some personal knitting, and separate that from my design and work knitting. It’s been so good for my creativity and calmness and enjoyment of knitting. So, I definitely want to keep that up and try to keep up my plan of keeping at least one of the weekend days work free and just for pursuing hobbies, which I don’t tend to do very often. But when I do, I really enjoy it.

So, I hope you’ve enjoyed a little bit more knitting content this week. I will probably be talking about the decluttering process on the next episode. And next week I am going to take the week off because of various things happening. I would have had to record two episodes this week to make it happen next week, and I’ve just decided after a day with Lexi, sorting out her leg and all the time I’m spending decluttering, I just can’t manage to record two episodes this week. So, I am going to have a week off and give myself a little bit of ease and I will be back with you in two weeks time.

Have a fantastic week, everyone. I hope you’re well and staying healthy and able to enjoy a little bit of knitting or crafting time. I’ll talk to you again soon. Bye for now.

Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us.

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.

As I get closer and closer to finishing the Knitvent 2020 collection designs, I’ve hit a procrastination snag. I know by now that it’s just part of the creative process, and a sign that I probably need to let things simmer a little longer. But these days I’m trying to choose more productive ways of procrastinating, and my favourite procrastination method is decluttering. So a warning: there’s not a whole lot of crafty content in today’s show, but there is a fun decluttering game that I’m going to do to hopefully clear a little brain space for more design work. Care to join me?

Show Links:

The 30 Day Minimalism Game

#minsgame

The Minimal Mom

The Strawberry Thief

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You’re listening to episode 306. 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 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. Welcome to another week in this strange new world that we find ourselves in. I’ve been having a pretty good week. Kids are back at school this week, so that’s been good, after a whole week off last week, and we’re still recovering energy levels a little bit but feeling pretty good and much better. I’ve been attempting a sprint on my Knitvent designs for this year, and that is going a bit up and down. It was going really well I think maybe up until about halfway through last week when I finished one design and then started another one, and then by about this Monday I hit a bit of a wall and it wasn’t really going as well as I wanted and it slowed right down.

Then I got really frustrated and I started feeling that feeling of really intense procrastination that I used to feel when I had big university exams coming up where you would clean the whole house, binge watch TV, read. Just find absolutely anything to do except study, and that’s a little bit what I’ve been like this week. I just haven’t been able to make myself get back into it, so that’s resulted in me watching a lot of decluttering videos. I think it’s a weird thing that I tend to do when I’m stressed is watch like KonMari videos, people decluttering 90% of their wardrobe, or clean the whole house and this kind of thing, and then that makes me want to do it myself even more.

So I thought, okay, I am going to run with this feeling of doing an epic declutter, because one of my happiness projects for the year, I had written down KonMari sort of like, and I don’t really know exactly what I meant, but I think I meant like, get to the point where it really clicks and I feel like I have completed the KonMari of everything in my house bringing joy.

So I have been talking about decluttering and KonMari-ing for years on the podcast now. Never managed to attain that mystical state of being fully KonMari-ed, and I think I sort of made pretty good progress before we moved. I had quite a good filter of, do I want to carry this item around the world? We got rid of, donated, sold a lot, a lot of stuff. Big items of furniture and everything down to pens and you know, all the whole range across the whole house.

But I did hold on to quite a bit of just-in-case stuff because I was sort of thinking, well, it’s going to be a different environment and a different lifestyle, and I’m just not quite sure what things I’ll want to hang on to and what things I won’t need, so I brought a little bit of extra stuff and also things that sentimentally I couldn’t quite let go of, but probably should have or could have if I’d been a little bit less sentimental about it.

But so now, I feel like we’ve been here nearly a year, which is quite unbelievable. I think we arrived late August and moved into the house in about October. So I feel like, well, I think that’s a good amount of time to kind of know what I need now here in this new place. We’ve gone through all the seasons, which is really just various levels of hot, so I feel like I know what activities we mostly do, what sports the kids are mostly doing, and while we’re still settling into that I have a pretty good idea of some of the things that I thought we might need that we don’t. So some of the YouTube videos I’ve been watching have been people doing the minimalist’s 30-day challenge, which is decluttering or throwing out the number of items that is the number, the day of the challenge, if that makes any sense. So day one, you throw out one item, day two, two items and so on. Or donate, or sell, or whatever.

Then at the end of the 30 days you end up with 465 items, and I watched one video where a husband and wife were doing it and they both did it and then she said, “I calculated that if we added on 31 days, day 31, and then added on a few more, it would take them up to 1,000 items,” and that number just stuck in my head. I was like, “Ooh, that sounds like a good number of items to declutter,” and I really have no idea what that would look like. I can’t really imagine. I mean, I can imagine to a point because I’ve been watching so many of these videos where they show you what 465 items looks like, and in some ways it’s a lot and in other ways, it’s not that much.

So I think I am going to go for it and I am going to set myself the challenge of decluttering 1,000 items, and I will be in this by myself pretty much because my husband is more of a consumer and purchaser than a declutterer, and Lexi cannot bear to throw away anything, even like rubbish, and Sophie is my shining light and example of a natural minimalist and she is already so minimalist that I don’t think I can ask her to declutter anything else. Although she did bring out a box of stuff, old clothes that she’s grown out of and things she doesn’t want anymore, and I’m going to count those things. I’m going to include those things in that box as part of my thousand items.

So she’s actually to be fair got me off to quite a good start, but yeah, she’s amazing. She’s so inspirational. She’s always been like that since she was born. She’s never wanted stuff. Whenever I’ve asked her what she’d like for her birthday, she’s just been like, “Nothing. I don’t want anything particularly,” and she wrote a letter to Santa saying, “I don’t really want anything, but thanks very much for visiting.” She just liked the idea of the surprise, but she couldn’t think of anything she actually wanted. And yeah, every now and then she’ll just go through her room and come up with just old things that she doesn’t want anymore.

It’s quite incredible, and yeah, I wish I was like that, but I’m not. I’m very much a sentimental and I really, really don’t like throwing things out for the waste, but I’ve been watching a lot of videos about decluttering and my favorite is The Minimal Mom, and she’s a busy mom and she just has the best sort of tips and tricks to do this kind of decluttering work, simplification work, really quickly and quite easily and she just has lots of different tricks of helping yourself mentally deal with it.

For example, when she was looking at a kitchen, she said, “Okay, pretend your kitchen is a holiday house, and just have enough stuff for a holiday house kind of situation.” And I just thought, I love that. Because it then makes you simplify what you cook, and simplify what you buy, and so it has this trickle down effect to your lifestyle that if you don’t have a lot of sporting equipment, then you just do simple things like walking or jogging. And I know that doesn’t work across all areas or for everybody because some people might have a passion for golf or cycling, or things like that. I’m looking at my husband there, whereas I have a passion for craft and so I have a lot, a lot of craft stuff, and that is really going to be my challenging area to work on I think.

So, I think I am going to come up with some rules for me to deal with my craft stuff because while I have collected, have a beautiful yarn collection and fabric collection, it’s not necessarily bringing me joy because it’s too overwhelming, so I’m going to get that all out and do a proper KonMari process of having a cold, hard look at that, and I don’t know how I’m quite going to handle it in terms of tricks or rules because I’ve been through my stash many, many times, and I still have just an overwhelming amount too much. For me with my yarn, and also with things generally, I just want it to not be wasted, and yeah, and just not throw things out. Like I want it to be able to be used, but what I’m coming to realize very, very slowly is that it’s a sunk cost. It’s already wasted as such if I’m not using it, or yeah, especially if it’s stressing me out. It’s a negative. It’s becoming a negative, so I have to try to get myself to look at things differently than what I have done in the past.

One thing that’s been really good is that it has really, really, really slowed down my consumption since I started seriously trying to KonMari or declutter and become a minimalist, and I guess it’s been, I don’t know, maybe, I really don’t know. Four or five years I’d say. It was after Lexi was born, which was nine years ago, and a few years of not really being able to deal with things, and I think I got to a point at some stage maybe when she was going to school around age four that I started thinking I needed to get my life back and under control again.

So yeah, so I’ve been doing it for a long time and since I started taking things to charity shops and selling them, it has made me really slow down on buying things because then I’ve realized how difficult it is for me to get rid of it again if I don’t need it. So I think for the past year, I haven’t really, is this true or not? I haven’t really bought any yarn just for the sake of it. I’ve bought some yarn for very specific design projects, and sometimes I end up with a bit extra in that situation where I don’t quite know what color it’s going to be or if I’m definitely going to use it. I’ve bought maybe a few extras to have options, but that’s only been for work purposes I think that I’ve bought yarn.

And if I’m in a situation like a yarn festival or a beautiful yarn shop, I will definitely be triggered to just buy things because they’re beautiful. But that situation hasn’t really arisen much in the last year or so. I’ve been too busy, either moving or being locked down. I think there’s one yarn shop in Brisbane and there’s one a bit north of me here, but I haven’t visited either of them yet. Yeah, so I haven’t really been in a situation where I’ve been super tempted.

I have however been tempted by the hexie-along from The Strawberry Thief online shop, so that’s my craft indulgence, but it’s kind of under control because I’ve been not keeping up with it, but just dipping into that project, and so that’s being used as it comes in, which is really nice. Other than that I don’t think I’ve been too bad, but it’s taken me to getting to a point of overwhelm with the amount of stuff I have to get to that point, which is not really a good thing.

I think I will feel fantastic if I really get to that clicking point of the full KonMari, and I am going to maybe give myself til the end of August. I’m not going to do it as a 30-day challenge. I’m too impatient. I’m just going to do it as a real procrastination activity burst mostly this week. Maybe it might take me a bit longer to tackle some things or if I’m selling some things. I’ll try and document it. I don’t know how I’m going to go with documenting it. I don’t really want anything to slow me down. I mean, while it would be sort of fun to document it and be able to look back on where I was at a particular point in time and share it, because I find other people’s stories and efforts so inspiring, I’m not sure. I’ll have to see how I go with that.

But yes, so my plan is to basically pile everything up on the dining table and places around the house and then count it and get rid of it all at once, but I might have to do phases of doing that depending on how bulky things are and so on. So I already got some things collected on the table. I’ve made a bit of a start, and I counted them and it’s about a hundred things and so I have no idea if I’ll be able to get to a thousand. Because a hundred things is actually quite a lot of stuff. Anyway, it’s going to be interesting and I will give you an update in about two weeks’ time on that project.

So, thanks for bearing with me as I chat about that, if you have. If this is topic doesn’t interest you, I probably should have put a warning at the beginning that I was just going to be rambling about that, but I don’t know. If you’re interested, I’m going to link how to do the 30-day minimalist’s challenge and I’ll put a link to The Minimal Mom podcast because I just think she’s so excellent, and if anyone wants to join in with me, that would be fab. There’s a hashtag for the minimalist challenge, which is Mins, M-I-N-S, Game. MinsGame is the hashtag for the minimalist challenge, and I will try and have more knitting and crafting chat for you next week.

So, I hope you have a fantastic week. I hope you’re all well. Happy knitting, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us.

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.

Big Little Meg!

Today we have some more lucky giveaway winners to announce, and I’m chatting a little bit about my current approach to goals and habits and how they are working out for me these days. I’ve also got a special pattern update to share: after many requests and much ado, I’ve just released a second, larger size of the Little Meg Shawl: some very cosy, comforting knitting for these difficult days.

Show Links:

Tiny Habits book

Habitation Throw KAL Winner

AnnaRobyn

Hedgerow Yarns

Knit20for2020 July Ravelry Winner

Qtar – Nuuk Pullover

Nurja Yarn

Instagram Winner

The_Knitting_Gurg

Snowmelt Shawl

Kitch Kreative

O’Rielly’s

The Little Meg Shawl

Curious Handmade on Etsy

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You’re listening to episode 305. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find the full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com.

Hello, and welcome to the show. I hope you’re having a good week. It’s a stressful time, I think in the world at the moment. There’s a lot of things going on and I guess we’re all just trying to do our best to stay calm and healthy as possible. And I feel like that’s all being done in the face of a lot of uncertainty, a lot of conflicting advice, or a moving feast of advice that’s changing constantly. And I think everybody is trying to do their best to stay well with themselves, their loved ones and society as a whole. But I have to say it’s pretty difficult to know what we’re meant to be doing at any point in time. We have had a spike in cases here in Australia, in the state of Victoria. And also to a lesser extent in New South Wales, we have had some new cases here in Queensland, which is not that high by worldwide standards, but by relative standards to what we’ve had, it’s high. So there’s a certain amount of freaking out happening.

I went to the supermarket yesterday and the toilet paper shelves were completely bare again. So I think that’s a bit of a indicator of the state of mind of people. I feel like there should be some kind of toilet paper availability index as to how we’re all feeling about things. I have had the kids home from school this week because they have colds and can’t go to school. I don’t think they’d be well enough to go to school anyway, but if they’ve got any sniffles or coughs they can’t go in. Which is completely fair enough. And I just feel a bit frustrated because they seem to be getting a cold every two weeks. And I think it’s maybe because we’ve moved back to Australia and they don’t have immunity to the local bugs. Maybe it’s like when kids start going to school or daycare and they’re just sick all the time for the first year, I feel like that’s what’s happening here.

Anyway, we’re taking lots of vitamin C lots of vitamin D trying to get lots of sleep. I’ve been working on sleep as a particular habit to improve. I mentioned a few episodes ago that I recently listened to the audio book of Tiny Habits, which is by a guy called BJ Fogg, and really, really love this book. I’ve been implementing some of the strategies and would highly recommend it if you’ve tried to change habits and not succeeded. I really like his method, and it makes a lot of sense to me. At first, I thought it was a bit strange, the whole concept of flossing one tooth, I kind of thought was a little bit pointless. But once he explained that it’s all about making habits doable, that you have the ability to action them and that you make them small enough to be able to do and have success and have that feeling of feeling good about yourself and your ability to do the habit and then really gradually build it up.

And so I’ve been doing that with a couple of things and it’s working pretty well. And so I’m now trying to have one night a week where I have eight hours sleep. And I’m not really succeeding yet, but getting closer. So it’s a long, drawn out, painful process to get these habits in place. But I guess hopefully it will be more sustainable. Anyway, that’s just what’s happening here. You’ve had a bit of a random personal update there. But I hope that you’re all finding ways to cope with the uncertainty and disruption that’s happening everywhere at the moment. I’m certainly not complaining because we have it pretty good here in Australia, especially where I’m living. But it’s still causing a lot of disruption to our life. And things like travel and the ability to get together for knitting retreats and everything like that. It just is making me appreciate a lot of things.

So just a little update on knit alongs and things happening in Curious Handmade world at the moment. We have the handmade sock society. The last sock pattern was released and the knit along is continuing until the 8th of September. And that day is for both the altitude socks and the grand prize for people who’ve knit all six socks. We’ve opened up a thread in Ravelry, and the Curious Handmade group for that now. And we had some knit alongs finished. So I have drawn the winners for the habitation throw knit along. We have the winner, AnnaRobyn, who is from California and she knit her habitation throw in a gorgeous, advent, mini set from Hedgerow Yarns, who’s one of my favorite indie dyers in the UK. I just love her beautiful, pretty colors. So congratulations Anna Robin. I have a physical price to send to you.

So if you can get in touch either via Ravelry, HellsBells or email me Helen@curioushandmade.com and I’ll need your address to send that to you. And for the knit 20 for 2020 challenge, the Revelry winner is Qutar Q-U-T-A-R, who knit a gorgeous nuk N-U-U-K pullover designed by Jonna Hietala. And she’s nominated. Nurja, I think you say it N-U-R-J-A which is a Finnish yarn shop. So congratulations and I’ll get in touch with you, or you can get in touch with me to let me know your email address so that I can organize a gift voucher. I might need some help with this one because the website is in Finnish and I can’t see an English version, so I might not be able to purchase a gift voucher. But I’m sure if I email them they will be able to help me.

Our Instagram when it is the knitting gurg And she knit a snow melt shawl as a gift for her daughter in law for her 30th birthday. In lovely, beautiful green Fru Valborg yarn. So again, if you’d like to get in touch or I’ll try and get in touch with you to organize a prize for you for the July knit 20 for 2020 challenge. We have the thread up on Ravelry for the August challenge, and you can also post on Instagram using the hashtag knit20for2020. I’ve been getting quite behind in my knit 20 for 2020 challenge because I’ve been doing a lot of design knitting lately for the past month or so. I don’t know, it’s gone very quickly. I’ve been working on a design for a retreat I am very hopefully attending in October, which is local. So it’s in my state. So hopefully that will still be okay to go ahead.

And I’ve designed a shawl for that. That retreat is organized by the lovely Kylie from Kitsch Creative, and it’s at a place called O’Reilly’s, which is a beautiful camp and resort in the rainforest in a national park here. So I’m really looking forward to that. I think it’s going to be a beautiful location, and retreat. And just fingers crossed that we can go ahead with it, but I’m sure we will be able to. Thinking very positive and optimistically. And the other design work I’ve been working on is knit vent patterns for this year. I’m really excited about this year’s knit vent. And I feel really pleased that I’m working on the designs relatively early in the year for me, probably not for other designers. But for me, this is quite early and quite on top of things and yeah, they’re coming along really well.

I think it’s definitely helping that it’s not last minute pressure and that I can have a little bit more time and ease to get a bit more creative and just think it out and plan it out a bit more. And have a bit more time to let the muse visit. So that’s going really well, but it’s meant that I’ve been really focusing on that pretty much exclusively. And I haven’t had time for any of my personal projects. So my sewing projects and quilting projects and other knitting projects, are all just waiting for me at the moment. And I think what I might try and do, hopefully is to work really during the week this week, and then do some fun projects on the weekend and take at least one day of the weekend off to do a little bit of personal crafting. But we’ll see, I don’t know. I’m just wanting to really focus on the designing at the moment.

I have released a pattern this week, which is an update to the Little Meg shawl that was originally published in 2018 and was quite a popular little shawl. I designed it for a retreat, the country house retreat in Cumbria. And so I designed it as a shawlette so that people could potentially knit it during the retreat, or knit quite a bit of it during the retreat. And I had a lot of requests for a larger size because it is just a really lovely, simple triangular shawl. And so I’ve had the sample and photographs for ages, maybe a year. And so I finally got it together and updated the pattern. I’ll just read you the description so that you can hear the inspiration behind the design.

“The ancient fields of Cumbria are scattered with fragments of time worn buildings and monuments. Many layers of history have been laid down here. And these remnants hint at the stories of the people who lived here long ago. Some of the most mysterious ruins of all are Cumbria’s prehistoric stone circles. Whether they were once used as ritual sites, way markers or for some other purpose, we can never know. Today, they are places of wonder. Little Meg is named after one of Cumbria’s smallest circles, which has endured since the bronze age and her magic is intact. One of her stones is carved with graceful symbols, spirals and circles within circles. This triangular shawl was created for the Curious Handmade country house retreat in March, 2018, using the magical canopy fingering from the Fibre Company designed to be an ideal retreat knitting. The design is simple. Eyelets dotted across a field of stockinette stitch, just like the standing stones of Cumbria moors. Wrap the shawl around your shoulders and the circle is complete. A crisp, garter border provides an elegant finishing touch.”

The small version can be knit in 100 grams of the Fibre Company, canopy fingering. And that’s two 50 gram hanks. It comes in 50 grams and canopy fingering is a gorgeous blend of 30% Merino, 20% Rayon from bamboo and 50% baby alpaca. And then for the large, it uses five times 50 gram hanks. So for the small, it’s about 400 yards and for the large, it’s about a thousand yards. I have the pattern at 20% off for the month of August. So it’s £4 rather than £5. And I’ve just put it at that price of £4 without any coupon code or anything. It’s just a reduced price. So you don’t have to worry about it. But it will go back to its normal price of £5 at the end of August or beginning of September.

So if you would like that pattern at a discount, it’s available now, it’s available on both Ravelry and Etsy. I have a pattern shop on Etsy now, which is curioushandmadeshop, curious handmade was taken. So I now have curious handmade shop and I have some of my patterns available there, not all of them, but some of them. And I’ll post the newer ones there until I figure out a more permanent solution.

So that’s about all the news I have for you this week. I’ll just keep it to a fairly short episode. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you have a good week. Happy knitting, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. The big reveal of the Stillness Shawl after our MKAL! After five secret clues and weeks of knitting and good company, today's the day we reveal the full design of the Stillness Shawl Mystery Knitalong. On this week's podcast episode, I'm chatting about the MKAL reveal, updating you on our other KALs and how I'm handling prizes. Along with the Stillness reveal, there's also a bit of a reveal of my long-term personal project of growing out the grey. It's the first time my almost-fully silver hair has featured in pattern photos! So today I'm talking about that process, what it was like, and how I feel about it now. Show Links: The Handmade Sock Society 3 Altitude Socks Vapour Socks FO ThreadAltitude Socks FO Thread July Knit20for2020 FO Thread Use the #knit20for2020 hashtag to enter the KAL on InstagramHabitation Throw KAL FO thread Stillness MKAL Call Your Girlfriend podcast Ann Friedman Newsletter GrombreErica Henry Johnston Nikol Johnson@SilverHairandBretonStripes on Instagram @wellness_with_walda on Instagram Curious Handmade on Etsy SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to Episode 304. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome. I hope you having a good week. We are having lovely weather here in Queensland the past couple of days. We had a rainy week and now we're having a lovely week. So that's definitely lifting the spirits. I have been hunkering down on doing lots of design work the last week or two, and that's going really well. I'm really excited about what's coming up, but that means I can't really talk too much about my knitting because I haven't had any time to do any personal knitting projects, but I thought I would update you on some Knitaong news and just have a bit of a chat with you today. So we have the Handmade Sock society happening at the moment for all your lovely sock knitters. And the last pattern was published last week, the altitude socks. And it was a little bit bittersweet to see that last pattern come out and the society finished for the year, but we still have some Knitalong time to go. So the vapor sock Knitalong is finishing on Tuesday, the 11th of August. So a little bit more time for that one. And then we have the altitude socks, which have just come out and the grand prize for the Knitalong for people who have knit all six socks that will be drawn on the 8th of September. So quite a few weeks left to finish up all six socks if you're working on that and also be in the draw for the altitu...

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. The tote bag for the Habitation KAL prize We all know that feeling: we've got plenty of projects underway but new adventures and cast-ons are singing their siren song. On today's podcast I'm stalking some new patterns in my fantasy queue, chatting about some ongoing and near-future projects, and sharing some favourite creative things that are inspiring me right now. Show Links: Dreaming of Paris Socks by Joji Locatelli Adventure Tank by Fatimah Hynes Meadow by The Fibre Co Adventure Tank KAL hashtag: #adventureknitalong SpaceCadet Yarn Thebe Disturbing the Fleece Ravelry Group @disturbingthefleece on Instagram The Winner of the Cirrus Socks KAL is: Post #42 - TheFibersmith Mosaic Moon Yarn SethanyKnits Yarn Shop Habitation Throw KAL FO thread Habitation Throw KAL FO thread Voolenvine YouTube Podcast The Patchwork Angel Scrappy Liberty Hexi Quilt Tutorial The Friday Pattern Company The Avenier Jumpsuit The Cambria Duster Sage Brush Top Wilder Gown I'm a Master Class fan and an affiliate: if you join up by clicking on the photo above I'll get a small commission. Thanks for supporting the podcast! Robin Roberts Teaches Effective and Authentic Communication SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to The Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to episode 303. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome. How are you this week? I hope you're well. I feel like this is continuing to be a tough year. I am thinking of all of you a lot and thinking about my friends and family all around the world, and I just feel like it's getting a bit ridiculous now, but actually it feels like it's been surreal and ridiculous since about February or March. In some ways, it's almost kind of something we're getting a bit used to. I don't know. I saw a story by Joji on Instagram and she posted that it was 119 days of strict lock down in Argentina. I just thought, "Oh, that's really long and really, really tough." Really tough. Speaking of Joji, she's not letting it keep her back too much in true Joji fashion. She has just released a gorgeous pair of socks called Dreaming in Paris and I really love them. They're so cute. They're stripey with a little band of lace around the top of the leg and just really, really cute single round stripes, which is so effective because they have little v's in them from each of the stitches that really show off each stitch. Super cute, love the colors so gorgeous design, Joji. Thank you.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. 24 mini balls for the Habitation Throw KAL prize! A flying visit! Today's podcast is short and sweet: a little catch up episode where I update you on some KAL news and chat about my personal creative projects and design work. For anyone that's been missing The Shawl Society this year, the beginnings of a new shawl design are underway... Show Links: The Handmade Sock Society Season 3 KALs The Handmade Society 3 KALs continue! The Cirrus Socks FO Thread will close on Tuesday the 14th of July, and the Vapour Socks FO Thread will be ongoing for another month! I've decided to extend the deadline for the Habitation Throw KAL again, until the end of July. So many people are still knitting it, and it's such a big project. It's meant to be relaxing and I didn't want to rush you! If you finish your throw by the end of the month, make sure to post it in the Habitation Throw KAL FO thread for your chance to win a 24 mini set of 20oz yarn balls from my own stash and projects. The 3rd Stillness MKAL clue was just released! So many incredible knitters have been posting their progress, with more starting every day. There is plenty of time to "catch up" if you want to, and knitting at your own pace is highly encouraged...we have two months before the KAL deadline if you want to be in with a chance for a prize so no pressure! If you want to be a part of this mystery, make sure to grab your copy of the pattern, and then come say hi in the Stillness MKAL chat thread, the Clue 1 Spoiler Thread or the Clue 2 Spoiler thread to see where we're up to now. If you haven't joined yet and want to learn more, make sure you check out the blog post with answers to the most frequently asked questions we get about the Stillness MKAL. Kitch Kreative Project Bags O'Rielly's Lamington National ParkLouie and Lola Yarn Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish@clevereststitch House Quilt Block Tutorial SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to The Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 302. 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 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 this week's show. I hope you're having a good week. I'm having a good week. It's been pretty quiet. Puppy and school holidays are keeping me really busy and I haven't been able to concentrate on much. It's been one of those weeks where you can't even think what's happened. So I have managed to do a little bit of work, but it has been very interrupted and distracted. So not the most productive, but not terrible. The kids are going back to school next week,

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. My long lost Barrett Bear kit has arrived! We've passed the halfway point in this crazy year, and it seemed like a good time to catch up with how things are going and how many things I've managed to cross off my 20 in 2020 Happiness Project list. There are a few things that recent events have made impossible, but plenty of other things to be happy about, and even some opportunities in the midst of upheaval. I also have a lovely bunch of winners to announce from our #knit20for2020 and Stillness MKAL giveaways! Show Links: Knit20for2020 June Giveaway Winners: Ravelry Winner: Cuppacha with post #35 Edin Cardigan by Bonne Marie BurnsHazel Knits Instagram Winner: Aviatrix1979Amulet Shawl John Arbon TextilesYou can find all the details on how to enter the July Knit20for2020 giveaway on Ravelry or Instagram, you can visit this link! Stitch Mischief Laine Skein Australia Winners of the Stillness MKAL Giveaway: Grand prize winner:Post 314: https://www.ravelry.com/people/deesuhr 10 Pattern of their choice winners: Post 270 https://www.ravelry.com/people/Llindhardt Post 490 https://www.ravelry.com/people/Fynbos31 Post 5 https://www.ravelry.com/people/Knit4Keeps Post 440 https://www.ravelry.com/people/quiltnyarn Post 494 https://www.ravelry.com/people/gypsycraft Post 266 https://www.ravelry.com/people/Andystitch Post 589 https://www.ravelry.com/people/Konkyliedesign Post 380 https://www.ravelry.com/people/emmoswmr Post 536https://www.ravelry.com/people/ceglaw Post 548https://www.ravelry.com/people/NellyJake Stillness Shawl MKAL Stillness MKAL chat thread Clue 1 Spoiler Thread Clue 2 Spoiler threadJuly Knit20for2020 FO Thread Barrett Wool Company Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish@clevereststitch Píosa by Renée Callahan House Quilt Block Tutorial SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to episode 301. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello, welcome to the show. I hope you're well. I hope you're having a good week. I've been having a pretty good week. It's been a little bit up and down and I feel like a few weeks ago, or maybe it's a couple of months ago, now, I said on the show that I was a little bit fed up with my family. And this week, I feel like I've just been fed up with myself, maybe for a couple of weeks. I've just felt fed up with not maybe doing the habits I wanted to do and not being able to get my act together,

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Meet Cindy! I have a cosy trip down memory lane for us this week. It's my 300th episode, and also my 10 year anniversary of publishing my first indie design on Ravelry. My heart is very full! Also in heart-bursting territory, our new puppy has joined the family, and she's keeping us very busy. This week also saw the first clue release of The Stillness MKAL, and the excitement is off the charts. Show Links: Jewel Cowl Radiance Shawl The Stillness Shawl MKAL Curious Handmade Ravelry Group Stillness MKAL chat thread Clue 1 Spoiler Thread You can save this image to use as the first picture in your Ravelry project page or on social media to keep from spoiling knitters who haven't knit the first clue yet: If you have any questions or need help that you can't find in the Ravelry group #Knit20for2020 June FO Thread Use the #knit20for2020 hashtag to enter the KAL on Instagram Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish@clevereststitch La Bien Aimée Yarn The Strawberry Thief The Strawberry Thief Instagram Subpod CompostSHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 300. 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 on social media as curioushandmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome. Thank you for joining me for a chat today. This is a bit of a special episode milestone for 300 shows and I'm extra grateful to you because when I started this little podcast back in October 2013, I genuinely did not imagine I would still be going seven years later. I think at the time my big hope was to manage to record about 10 episodes and see how things went. So, those 300 episodes are all down to you, keeping me company and your lovely messages, conversations, Curious Handmade knits and photos you've shared and really created a community around the podcast and my designs. So from the bottom of my heart, a huge, huge, thank you. And this month is also another really big milestone because it is 10 years ago in June 2010, that I published my first indie design on Ravelry, the Jewel Cowl. Of course, in some ways it seems no time at all ago, but mostly it feels like a lifetime ago. At that time, when I published that first pattern, I was still working in the city in London, in a law firm. Lexi hadn't been born yet, and I was seriously into knitting after picking it up again around 2005, I think. I was meeting up with my dear friends at Wednesday night knitting and we still meet up now when we can, which means a lot to me. I had recently moved to London and I was stalking a blog called ACE chick.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. A Stillness MKAL kit from La Bien Aimée This week, I have some lucky winners to congratulate from some of our recent knitalongs. I've also got updates on my most recent WIP (spoiler alert, I am enjoying it so much!) and more yarn reassurance for any knitters who are stressing themselves out a bit trying to pick the perfect yarn for the Stillness Shawl Mystery Knitalong Show Links: Winners of the May #knit20for2020 KAL Ravelry : craftytextilelady (hillary On)Cypress Cardigan by Amy HerzogThe Knitting Loft in TorontoInstagram: mctrem7 Little Love Cardigan by AnkestrikColorista Canada Winner of The Handmade Sock Society Season 3 Rainy Window Socks seraines The Handmade Sock Society Season 3 Rainy Window Socks Vapour Socks The Wool Barn Tinkhickman on InstagramTracyrr on Instagram The Stillness Shaw MKAL starts on the 25th of June Enter Stillness Shawl MKAL Giveaway before the 25th of June An absolutely adorable Stitch Mischief Medium Finch Bucket bag A hard-cover knitting journal from Laine. The “My Knitting Notes” Journal is an elegant way to document your knitting journey with space for 31 knitting projects, 6 pages for keeping track of your yarn purchases, 18 gridded pages, e.g. for charts or colourwork sketches, a knitting needle sizes and conversions table, and the most common abbreviations. A stunning skein of Skein Australia Silk Road, in the rich Atomic colourway. I’ll also be giving away 10 pattern prizes: each winner can choose the pattern of their choice from my designs on Ravelry! Here’s what you need to do to be in with a chance to win: Create your project page for The Stillness Shawl MKAL. You can use the placeholder graphic below or upload a photo of your yarn! Post in the giveaway thread to tell us about your favourite still life artist, painting, or photograph. It would be amazing if you shared an image, but you don’t have to. And if there isn’t a piece that comes to mind, maybe you can share a moment of stillness in your life that you wish you could capture and keep forever, like a painting. Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish@clevereststitch La Bien Aimée Yarn   SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 299. 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 on social media as curioushandmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello, and welcome to the show. How are you this week? I hope you're having a good week. We're having a pretty good week here. I've got kids still home sick, which is a bit of a worry, but it's okay, I guess.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. On today's show I'm talking about the ongoing need for anti-racist work and my gratitude for the knitters who are making a difference. I'm also celebrating some new personal knitting cast-ons. The Stillness MKAL is approaching swiftly, and I'm hosting a special giveaway. I also have some extra clues and tips for choosing your MKAL yarn colours. Show Links: @creativececi @ggmadeit @heybrownberry @jeanettesloane Hermione Jean Granger Shawl by Tyne Swedish@clevereststitch La Bien Aimée Yarn Everyday Lined Hat by Denise Bayron The Wave of Change Jacket by Denise Bayron Píosa KAL Píosa by Renée Callahan Snowmelt Shawl The Stillness Shawl MKAL Presale is open on Ravelry! Join here! To celebrate the launch of our new mystery knitalong, I’m hosting a special giveaway! I’ve put together a beautiful prize for one grand winner, which includes: An absolutely adorable Stitch Mischief Medium Finch Bucket bag A hard-cover knitting journal from Laine. The “My Knitting Notes” Journal is an elegant way to document your knitting journey with space for 31 knitting projects, 6 pages for keeping track of your yarn purchases, 18 gridded pages, e.g. for charts or colourwork sketches, a knitting needle sizes and conversions table, and the most common abbreviations. A stunning skein of Skein Australia Silk Road, in the rich Atomic colourway. I’ll also be giving away 10 pattern prizes: each winner can choose the pattern of their choice from my designs on Ravelry! Here’s what you need to do to be in with a chance to win: Create your project page for The Stillness Shawl MKAL. You can use the placeholder graphic below or upload a photo of your yarn! Post in the giveaway thread to tell us about your favourite still life artist, painting, or photograph. It would be amazing if you shared an image, but you don’t have to. And if there isn’t a piece that comes to mind, maybe you can share a moment of stillness in your life that you wish you could capture and keep forever, like a painting. These threads are always so fun and enjoyable, and a great way to get to know each other better. In the past they’ve also offered some amazing colour and yarn inspiration thanks to all the beautiful stories and photos! I can’t wait to see what you contribute. I’ll be announcing winners on our official start day, Thursday June 25th. Good luck! SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 298. 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 on social media as curioushandmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Gorgeous colours and photo from Skein Yarn Our first Curious Handmade MKAL in quite a while is coming up quickly! I've finally got some details to share with you, including our theme (which I hope you're going to love) and the yarn requirements. I've also got a little chat about life with the kids heading back to school, my own personal crafting projects, and the garden. Show Links: Píosa by Renée Callahan Píosa KAL Sweet Fiber Yarns Liberty Fabric House Quilt Block Tutorial Skein Yarn SHOW TRANSCRIPT Coming soon!

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. The Curious Handmade family is growing, with a very fuzzy new friend on the way. And so is my garden, and so is my Piosa Cardigan! There's a lot of exciting stuff to celebrate this week, and I have a fun virtual event to share which includes some of my very favourite yarn shops and some brilliant opportunities to win giveaway prizes. Show Links: The Strawberry Thief The Strawberry Thief Instagram Liberty FabricThe Handmade Sock Society 1The Shawl Society 3 Píosa by Renée Callahan Píosa KAL Sweet Fiber Yarns Subpod Compost iKnit7 A Yarn Story Emily Foulds This is KnitGinger Twist StudioKnit with AttitudeTribe Yarns Wild and Woolly A Yarn Story on Instagram   SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 296. 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 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. I do hope you're having a good week. I hope you've been able to get in lots of knitting and probably some other creative crafty pursuits judging by lots of people I've been following on Instagram. It seems like a lot of my friends and people I follow are taking the opportunity to delve into some more hobbies. It's quite funny to see. I am certainly doing that here. We've been having a pretty exciting week here. Today, we had an extremely exciting day because I got an email yesterday in answer to an inquiry I had made about a potential puppy for the family. It was a little bit out of the blue. We had been promising the girls a puppy for a couple of years before we moved. It had always been, when we move to Australia, we'll be able to get a dog, but we can't get one now because we have no yard and we're moving to Australia. Since we've moved, I've been putting it off a little bit. I guess just being at home and having a little bit more head space to think about things, it clicked that I could manage a puppy now. I just put an inquiry out on Monday and got an email back on Wednesday, which I was really surprised about because puppies are in huge demand at the moment, apparently. We went and saw a little puppy today and agreed that when she's ready to come home, we would take her. That's going to be about a month time. Happily we have another month to mentally prepare and physically prepare for a new puppy. Other exciting things that have happened this week, not quite that exciting, but the Liberty Hexies kit I mentioned a couple of weeks ago finally arrived. I bought it here in Australia from a Perth company called the Strawberry Thief,

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. In my constant quest to nurture my creativity, I've added gardening to my list of personal projects! I'm finding lots of help and inspiration through the Master Class website and on YouTube. I'm also working on my daily habits and enjoying a new project, and I have news about our KALs and the final donation to the UN Refugee Council from Habitation! Show Links: The Grocery Girls Mrs Browns BagsYarn Ink Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg I'm a Master Class fan and an affiliate: if you join up by clicking on the photo above I'll get a small commission. Thanks for supporting the podcast! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byoEBdVoVpM Píosa by Renée Callahan Píosa KAL Sweet Fiber Yarns Knit City, Vancouver Ambient SocksThe Handmade Sock Society 3The Ambient Sock KAL just finished and our winner was Toveme with Post 32! Rainy Window SocksRainy Window Socks FO Thread We raised $3000 AUS for the Australian UNHCR with the Habitation Throw last month! Habitation Throw KAL FO Thread The Yarniacs SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to The Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to episode 295. 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 on social media as curioushandmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. I would like to say a big thank you to my sponsor, Meadow Yarn. Hello, and welcome to the show. Thanks for joining me for a chat today. We have had a big week here at Curious HQ with lots of celebrations. Last weekend we had Mother's Day here in Australia. We also had my parents' 50th wedding anniversary as well as dad's birthday, and this week Lexie's birthday as well. So there has been a lot going on, a lot of celebrating, a lot of cake, and a lot of fun. So that's been very nice. I also wanted to give a shout out to the Grocery Girls, Tracie and Jodi for their 100th episode. I very clearly remember watching their very first episode, because I had only just discovered them via Mrs. Brown's Bags, Jodi's bag shop. I think it's fitting that I have finally finished a pair of socks with the yarn that Jodi sent me with my first bag purchase before they even started recording their podcast, which I gifted to my dad for his birthday. So thank you, Jodi, and thank you for all the amazing entertainment you have given us over the years. I did finally remember the name of the indie dyer of that yarn from Canada as well, which is Yarn Ink, of course. I've also been getting out most days this month, my walking streak is going really well. I've been doing combination of hill walks and a little bit of flat walking...

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Three weeks of homeschooling down, maybe two more to go? Somehow, I'm still managing to get some exciting knitting done in between it all. Today on the podcast I've got a short and sweet life catch-up, some KAL winners to announce, and more news on the upcoming Curious Handmade Mystery Knit Along, which I'm really excited about. Show Links: Download the 20 for 2020 Challenge printable Follow #knit20for2020 on Instagram May #knit20for2020 FO Thread April Ravelry winner: porthardy1 with Post 46 April Instagram winner: BlankSlateYarns Snippet Socks 52 Weeks of Socks Book Farm to Cable Yarns LYS Unnathi Shawl by Lana Jois The Ambient Socks is ending on Tuesday the 13th of May, so get your photos into the Ambient Socks FO Thread on Ravelry! The Handmade Sock Society 3 Impressionists Shawl Píosa by Renée Callahan Píosa KAL Sweet Fiber Yarns House Quilt Block Tutorial SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to The Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to episode 294. This podcast is all about crafting your life with happiness and creativity. I'm your host Helen and you can find me on Ravelry as HellsBells and on social media as curioushandmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. Welcome and thank you for joining me for a chat today. I'm just snatching a moment in a busy day to record so it might be quite a short episode, but I just wanted to pop in and have a quick chat with you and not let a week go past without recording. It's been a really busy week. We are now just finished week three of homeschooling. The girls' school is providing a really great service with online classes and a lot of support for them, but especially with Lexi, she needs a lot of support here at home as well to encourage her to do some work. So I have her set up in my office on a little folding camping table beside me, and I've decided it's been quite interesting to see how she works. Sophie is a couple of years older and is doing really great. She has a little desk set up upstairs and she doesn't need as much support but still needs help with some things. I just kind of decided when we were homeschooling that I was going to enjoy the process and I was going to be patient with it and not expect to get any work done or expect too much of them in terms of what they would do. So that's been working pretty well. They've been doing more than I expected that they would to be honest. Their school's been really sensible and has just basically put on a schedule that goes until about one o'clock rather than the normal three o'clock, and in Lexi's case it really only goes till about midday. So that's really good and we can manage a morning quite happily.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Aside from getting lost in an absorbing new knitting project, one of the best things I know is escaping into a good book. Today on the podcast I'm talking about some of my recent favourite reads and what's on my list next. And of course there's some knitting news, with a new pattern from The Handmade Sock Society 3 to introduce and yet more WIPs on their way off my needles. Show Links: Pebbles and Pathway Socks by Marceline Smith HeyBrownBerry on Instagram Yarn Ink: the Canadian dyer of the skein I'm using for my vanilla socks WIP Rainy Window Socks @tinkhickman on Instagram Tracyrr aka The Comfy Red Couch on Instagram Ambient Socks FO Thread Sky Map Wrap by Emily Foden Viola Yarn Squam Art Workshops Stories for my Sister by Elizabeth Duvivier Ruth Galloway Series by Elly Griffiths @HillyFilly on Instagram Inspector Gamache Series by Louise Penny @susanhartmann on Instagram@DigsKnitting on Instagram The Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French @pawsandknit on InstagramBob Skinner Series by Quintin Jardin Download the 20 for 2020 Challenge printable Follow #knit20for2020 on Instagram April #knit20for2020 FO Thread SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 292. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and a transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. I'd like to say a big thank you to my sponsor, Meadowyarn. Hello and welcome to the show. I hope you're okay, having a good week. I know things are really difficult at the moment for everyone, and I hear you, and I sympathize and empathize. I have been very up and down, and I'm not even sure why. It's all just a bit overwhelming and crazy at the moment. I'm a little bit fed up with my family and also feeling guilty for feeling fed up with my family because I know how lucky I am. And I'm just super, super grateful for crafting and my online community, to take my mind off being cooped up at home, and just feeling super grateful for all the people that are working, essential workers at the moment. Everyone from healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, amazing healthcare professionals who are overwhelmed at work, to everybody supporting society at the moment, grocery store workers, and just everybody who's supporting us to stay at home, and stay safe, and try and keep other people safe as well. We are in our first of five weeks of homeschooling. The government announced that that would be the case for our state last week. And so we're doing that this week. And yeah, my kids are doing pretty well. It's fairly intense, I have to say. And I've just decided to have really low expectations.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Productivity has been up and down over the last two weeks as we all try to adjust to a new normal. Today on the podcast I'm talking about some of the self-care strategies that are helping to keep me sane, some resources that I'm finding useful, and the gentle, soothing craft projects that are bringing joy and calm into the day-to-day just now. I'm also working through some old WIPs and savouring the feeling of accomplishment that comes from finally casting off. Show Links: Yoga With Kassandra The tree-growing focus app Forest Hello from my daily walk! Luminary Socks The Handmade Sock Society 3 Our winner for the Luminary Socks KAL is Post 131 by DorothyMayNZ Hedgerow Yarns Mina Makes, aka The Knitting Expat Ambient SocksThe Ambient Socks FO Thread in Ravelry Pebbles and Pathway Socks by Marceline Smith HeyBrownBerry on Instagram Seren Yarns on Instagram Seren Yarns on Etsy Pure Joy by Joji Locatelli Download the 20 for 2020 Challenge printable Follow #knit20for2020 on Instagram JeniB320 on Instagram In Color Order Blog House Quilt Block Tutorial Get the Habitation Throw for free with the code SHELTER #habitationthrow on Instagram April FO Thread for #Knit20for2020 KAL   SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 291. 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 on 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 a big thank you to my sponsor, A Yarn Story. A Yarn Story is the city of Bath's premier knitting boutique, with a beautifully curated selection of luxury yarns in a wide range of fibers, shades and weights. From gorgeous skeins by The Fibre Company and Walcot Yarns, to a fine selection from Shibui Knits, La Bien Aimée and Julie Asselin, there is plenty for the discerning knitter to enjoy. Visit the store at Walcot Street, Bath, or shop online at ayarnstory.co.uk. A Yarn Story is actually doing online orders at the moment, and Carmel is also offering consultations either by video or phone to help you choose colors and yarn for projects. So be sure to sign up to the Yarn Story email list for all the latest news about what's happening. Carmel's doing some really fun projects and knit and craft alongs. So I'd recommend signing up for her cheerful email that comes out about once a week. Welcome to the show, and I hope you're well and coping okay with the current pandemic crisis. I am going pretty well here and thinking of all of you, all the time. I have to say, it's been very up and down on a daily basis. My mental state is all over the place.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. After a week of homeschooling, I'm grabbing an opportunity to chat with you in the hopes of keeping spirits as high as possible. I have some cheerful news, with a free pattern, some giveaway winners, and some fun projects on the horizon. Show Links: JeniB320 on Instagram In Color Order Blog House Quilt Block Tutorial Photo credit: In Color Order melissaH3 Farmer's Daughter Fibers Yarn asteride on Instagram @retrosariarosapomar on Instagram April FO Thread for #Knit20for2020 KAL Download the 20 for 2020 Challenge printable Follow #knit20for2020 on Instagram Get the Habitation Throw for free with the code SHELTER Pebbles and Pathway Socks by Marceline Smith HeyBrownBerry on Instagram Seren Yarns on Instagram Seren Yarns on Etsy Pure Joy by Joji Locatelli P.E. With Joe SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast, you're listening to episode 290. 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 Hell's Bells, and on social media at Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and a transcript on my website, at CuriousHandmade.com. I'd like to say a big thank you to my sponsor, Meadow Yarn. Hello, and welcome to the show, I hope you're well. I am thinking of you at this time, and we're all facing a lot more challenges in our daily life than we're used to. So, I am going to try to keep the show light and cheerful, and I'm looking forward to having a nice chat with you today. We have had a week, with the kids at home from school. I'm conscious that a lot of people listening to the show have had a lot longer than that, so I'm early into the journey. We have had a couple of days of trialing out a distance learning system that the school has put together, before we head into the Easter holidays, so I'm very grateful for that. It's been reasonably intense trialing, and hopefully it will get easier if we're using the system for a little while. I appreciate teachers even more than ever. I have never been a person to even think about homeschooling, I'm not that patient with the kids, and have found it fairly frustrating a couple of days, to be honest. I'm just so appreciative of everything the teachers are doing to keep things going for the kids, and the kids have been pretty good in trying to do what they've been asked, so I can't ask for more than that, really. I have to say, I'm looking forward to the holidays when we can just do our own projects, and that will involve some sewing, and cooking. Both the girls want to do those things, they're much more interested in doing things like that, crafty things and cooking, than they are in schoolwork. Although, they're both quite good readers. I currently have my office floor covered in bits of fabric, because Lexi has decided to make some Easter bun...

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. As the schools close here in Australia and we all strive to cope with our anxiety, I've been turning to projects that feel like comforting old friends. I also have the Ambient Socks to introduce for you, and details about some KALs I will be hosting to help keep our spirits up. Show Links: Meadow Yarn on Instagram Meadow Yarn Curious Handmade Ravelry Group Community Thread Ambient Socks The Walk Collection Yarn Hedgerow Yarns Apple Blossom Socks The Knitting Expat Tilda Fabric Elton Cardigan La Bien Aimée Download the 20 for 2020 Challenge printable Follow #knit20for2020 on Instagram SHOW TRANSCRIPT:Helen:Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 289. This podcast is all about crafting your life with happiness and creativity. I'm your host Helen, and you can find me on Ravelry as HellsBells and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and the transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. I'd like to say a very big thank you to my sponsor Meadow Yarn. Alongside an interesting and eclectic young range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic lopi and CoopKnits. We stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We've also recently launched hand dyed by Meadow Yarn, our very own in-house hand dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio nestled in the Suffolk countryside we are able to indulge our love of color producing complex tonal kettle dyed shades across a range of whites and bases. With regular updates our collections of all of them grow inspired by the landscape and people around us. You can find them at meadoywarn.co.uk. Or you can click on the ad on my blog. If you follow Meadow Yarn on Instagram, you will have seen that Anj has been dying up some absolutely stunning colorways, especially recently. I've just been very drawn to them. And she is still able to post yarn at the moment. So yeah, I'm sure she would appreciate any support and the colorways are just stunning. So very tempting. Hello and welcome. Well, what another week it's been. Obviously it's been a very intense time for everyone and despite me thinking I would sort of reset a little bit this month, March is not the new January after all, that's for sure. Schools have finally been closed here in Australia and I think most of the schools have been trying to put together online learning, distance learning facilities for the kids when they go back from holidays after Easter. We have one week before the holidays officially start and so our school is just spending the week having pupil free days preparing and testing some distance learning facilities that they've been putting in place. Then we'll have two weeks Easter holidays and see what happens after that.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. As the news gets more concerning, I am doubling down on calming and self-care practices, and have a few ideas to share about what's working for me. I also have some long-awaited news: I can tick the "Finish a long-term WIP" line off my #knit20for2020 list finally!! Show Links: Curious Handmade Ravelry Group Community ThreadCalm App Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty John Arbon Texiles Download the 20 for 2020 Challenge printable Follow #knit20for2020 on Instagram Pebbles and Pathway Socks by Marceline Smith HeyBrownBerry on Instagram SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Helen:Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 288. This podcast is all about crafting a life of happiness and creativity. I'm your host Ellen and you can find me on Ravelry as Health 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. Welcome to this weird and wonderful world we are currently and I just wanted to say, I hope you're okay. I know that this is a hugely difficult time for a lot of us and I just wanted to have a chat with you today. Hopefully just keep you company for a little while and yes, just a knit with you for a little while possibly. Down here in Australia, things have progressed a bit since I last spoke to you and we have had, I think last time I spoke to you, the main measures that had been implemented were, I think on Monday they're now just outside gatherings of more than 500 people were banned. And as of today they have announced that indoor gatherings of more than a hundred people are band and they're advising Australians not to travel overseas or abroad at all and anyone arriving has to self isolate for 14 days, but schools are still open and shops are still open. I don't think there's been any advice to sort of close shops or restaurants or anything. I don't know if restaurants having a capacity of more than 100 people counts as a gathering, but it's a bit hazy at this stage, but we're not really going out much anyways. So I'm not sure how other people are interpreting it. My kids have been home sick all week anyway. We've had a horrible cold in the family and its main symptom is a really sore throat. So the girls have been off school and I decided I would record this podcast on Wednesday, so it's March the 18th just in case I get the really sore throat and can't record later in the week. So by the time this is published on Friday, things might have changed again. I'm not sure, but I thought I'd get this recorded while I had a nice window of quiet and my throat, I keep imagining that I'm getting a tickly throat. So you know how it is when you're worried you're going to get sick, you keep imagining that you are.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. It's a scary time to watch the news right now. When things are really tough, small comforts mean a lot. Knitting is obviously a big coping strategy for many of us. Today I'm talking about that, about the importance of friendship, and a KAL that I think I'd like to do...once I finish my beloved Clio Pullover! Show Links: Bayron Handmade on Instagram Wave of Change Jacket by Denise Bayron Wave of Change KAL Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty #knit20for2020 The Shawl Society Season 4 I am running a special Buy One Get One Free sale on all my patterns and collections to celebrate the release of the single patterns from TSS4: just use the code FRESH when you check out on Ravelry! SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Helen Stewart:Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 287. 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 on social media as curioushandmade. You can also find full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome. I hope things are good with you wherever you maybe in the world. And just when you think the world can't get any crazier, it does. This week has been something else in terms of worldwide news, and I just hope that wherever you are you're staying safe and well. It's been very distracting watching the news this week and hearing all about the coronavirus. And I don't normally watch the news, hardly at all, because I need to keep my spirits up. But I have been very distracted this week, and hearing about friends and whole countries being affected is just quite unbelievable. Of course, here in Australia we have had toilet paper gate, and yeah it is quite unnerving going into the supermarket and just the whole aisle of toilet paper is completely bare. And it was this afternoon when I went in. We've had several emails from supermarkets saying to keep calm and carry on. I've just received an email from Coles, which is one of the big supermarket chains here, saying that they were going to put rations on pasta, toilet paper, paper towel and a couple of other things. Rationing people to certain amounts of things. They also suggested, which I thought was good, was that if you had too much toilet paper on hand, maybe you could consider donating some to your local food bank. So, I did appreciate them saying that. They had some change to their, change your mind policy, and they said that they weren't allowing people to change their mind. So, if you've stockpiled large amounts of toilet paper, you're not going to be able to return it. In Australia, so far they've suggested canceling large events, but I don't think they've actually mandated it yet. And then,

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. I don't know about you but I'm ready for a little do-over of the start of the year! Today I'm talking about getting all my healthy streaks back on track, and tackling a few beautiful WIPs that deserve to be finished before I go casting on any of the shiny new patterns that are calling my name! Show Links Terracotta Socks by Woolfield Studio Birch Hollow Fibers Bembe Socks by Dawn Henderson IndieLynx on Instagram IndieLynx's gorgeous Bembe socks in progress Pebbles and Pathway Socks by Marceline Smith HeyBrownBerry on Instagram Seren Yarns on Instagram Seren Yarns on Etsy Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Helen:Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to episode 286. 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 Hell's Bells and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find the full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello, I hope you're having a good week. Welcome to the show. I am a bit in shock that it's March already and I've decided to declare March as the new January, as far as goals and resolutions go. I'm not quite sure what's happened this year, but it's all gone a bit pear shaped and I haven't managed really any of my plans that are right to achieve with so much enthusiasm at the beginning of the year. I had a grand plans for regular exercise and healthy food and all sorts of things and I just haven't been very good with my, my streaks so far, so I'm rather than sort of give up and not worry about it, which is kind of tempting, I am resetting and starting again. So I've managed to get to Pilates at least twice this week, which is pretty good and I'm booked in for tomorrow, so that will be my goal of three times this week. I haven't managed, I've managed very little walking and I think I'm really feeling it, in, I don't know, just not being relaxed and feeling as good as I wish I did at the moment. But yeah. So yeah, I need to, I need to just work out why I'm not getting to it. Currently the weather, it's been raining an awful lot the last month or so. I don't know if that's really a very good excuse. I'm not sure what happened really. I need to sort of sit down and think back across month to actually think what's happened. Anyway, I've been doing a little bit of knitting. I was switching on a design today and maybe that's why I'm feeling a bit frustrated because I planned out a design, I drew a chart and the end result didn't look how I wanted it to. It didn't have the feeling that I wanted. I had a concept for the design and it just didn't evoke the feeling. Sorry. So I watched all day on that and worked on the stitch pattern and the chart an...

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today I have a brand new sock pattern to introduce and some personal sock-knitting and studio set-up updates! The Handmade Sock Society Season 3 is off to an amazing start, with a crowd of brilliant knitters who have already cast on the new Luminary Socks in a gorgeous array of yarn. Show Links Terracotta Socks by Woolfield Studio Birch Hollow Fibers Bembe Socks by Dawn Henderson Luminary Socks from The Handmade Sock Society Season 3 IndieLynx on Instagram Tinkhickman on Instagram The Comfy Red Couch on Instagram SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Helen:Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to Episode 285. 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 on social media as curioushandmade. You can also find full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome. I hope things are good with you this week. We are having a good week here at Curious HQ and we have an addition of five members to the family. My daughter, Lexi was very, very keen to have pet mice. And finally the pet shop had some in but they were available on Monday. So we went down first thing and chose two little mice. And I had them sitting next to me all day by my desk, keeping an eye on them, seeing how they were settling in. And by the end of the day I did fall in love with them and decided they were cute, that we should go back to the pet shop and I wanted one for myself. So I ended up with three more. And so now we have five little mice pets in our house. And yeah, I'm still slightly shocked at that situation, but they're so cute and I'm really enjoying them. I haven't had to clean out the cage yet, so still having to have that ahead of me to figure out how to do and mainly how to teach, like see how to do. But no doubt I'll have to be involved. And yeah, so that was quite funny and a little bit silly, but also really fun. And it's making Sophie and I very clucky for a puppy now. But I'm definitely going to hold off on that for a while and hopefully won't have like a reason to report next week that I've caved and we now have a puppy as well. But I don't think so. I think that's going to be put off for a while longer to see how we cope with the mice. Anyway, it's very nice to have a pet. We haven't had one for a long time. We used to have cats when the girls were babies, but we haven't had pets for about... I guess about eight years now. So it is nice I to have a little creature in the house or five. Anyway, so I've been quite distracted by that and it's distracted me from work and knitting. But I did manage to finish my Terracotta socks by Woolfield Studio and I knit them in virtual hollow fibers, yarn, gorgeous yarn.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today we have a little break from sock-mania (mostly!) and a little more exploration of our community challenge #knit20for2020 so far. People are being very creative and it's so much fun to see how different knitters are filling their categories. I also have a bit of a chat about deep stash: how it's defined, what it means to me, and why even (or especially) the deepest stash deserves to come out and play. Show Links Terracotta Socks by Woolfield Studio Birch Hollow Fibers 20 for 2020 Challenge printableDownload Follow #knit20for2020 on Instagram Follow #quilted on Instagram Follow #20for2020 The Happier Podcast The #knit20for2020 Chat Thread on Ravelry IndieLynx on Instagram Rose Cardigan by Andrea Mowry La Bien Aimée Dahlia Cardigan Blue Sky Fibers Moeke Yarns Moeke Yarns on Instagram Circus Tonic Yarns Circus Tonic Yarns Instagram SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Hello, and welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to Episode 284. This podcast is all about crafting a life of happiness in creativity. I'm your host, Helen, and you can find me on Ravelry as HellsBells, and on social media as curioushandmade. You can also find the full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com. I'd like to say a big thank you to my sponsor, Meadow Yarn. Alongside an interesting and eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi, and Coop Knits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We've also recently launched Hand-dyed by Meadow Yarn, our very own in-house hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of color, producing complex tonal kettle dyed shades across a range of whites and bases. With regular updates, our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. You can find them at meadowyarn.co.uk, or you can click on the ad on my blog. Hello and welcome. Has it been a good knitting week for you? I've been doing lots of knitting on a secret design project, so I can't talk much about that. But I've also been knitting happily away on my terracotta socks by Wolf Fields Studio in Birch Hollow Fibers yarn. These were my Christmas Eve cast-on socks. I'm embarrassed to say that I have yet to have any photographic evidence of them, but I'll just post them as, ta-da, a finished object very soon. They're almost finished, the foot, and so I basically just have the toe go, which won't take me too long, of the second sock. That's pretty exciting, to have a nearly finished object. That will be able to tick off a box in my 20 for 2020 knitting challenge. The hashtag for that is #knit20for2020. If you haven't seen that yet, I've created a list of prompts. It's meant to be a fun challenge for the year,

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Photo Credit: Laine Magazine Today's podcast is pretty much exclusively about socks! It's an exciting time to be a sock knitter just now. The Handmade Sock Society Season 3 is now open, with pre-sales over at Ravelry and a very big Early Bird discount on the collection. We also have the release of an incredible new book of patterns produced by Laine Magazine. On today's podcast I talk a little about the pattern I created for the book, the Snippet Socks, as well as an overall review of the book itself and some of the other incredible designs you'll find there. I know which one I'm casting on first, but it was not easy to choose! Show Links Join The Handmade Sock Society 3 here!   The Handmade Sock Society Season 3 is a pattern subscription club inspired by the many meanings of atmosphere and the creative quest. The six secret sock knitting patterns in the collection are ideal for any knitter who is obsessed with (or wants to fall in love with) hand-knitted socks, appreciates a bit of suspense, and enjoys creating along with other enthusiastic makers. The first pattern of the series will be released in February 2020, and then there will be another pattern release every month until July. There’s never any pressure to “keep up” with the crowd, and our relaxed knit-along schedule is designed to give knitters of all skill levels and knitting speeds a relaxed experience. Whether you’re a newish sock knitter or a seasoned pro, these patterns will have something to offer. The difficulty hovers between “intrepid beginner” and intermediate. There will be interesting stitch patterns, a touch of lace, and maybe a little cable or two, but nothing confounding. And of course, if you’re ever at a loss, our warm and welcoming knitalong community is always available to help, encourage, and cheer you along the way. So take a deep breath and a good look around. Stare up at the stars. Soak up the atmosphere. There’s so much to discover. Sock Pattern Release Schedule: Tuesday, February 25th Tuesday, March 24th Tuesday, April 21st Tuesday, May 19th Tuesday, June 16th Tuesday, July 21st Here’s what you need to know: Membership in The Handmade Sock Society 3 grants you access to six stunning knitted sock patterns which will be released one every month until July. The patterns will remain completely exclusive to Society members until the session ends. The Handmade Sock Society 3 collection is available at a special early bird price for just a short time.  The early bird price for the collection is £9.95 (+ applicable VAT for EU countries - Ravelry automatically adds this in). This includes all SIX sock designs and works out to less than half price of the patterns individually. The early bird ends when the first pattern is released and the regular price will be £15 (+VAT for EU countrie...

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today I have news about the results of our Australian Bushfire Instagram Auction, our winners from all of last year's KALs, and an introduction to the theme of the next season of The Handmade Sock Society....I can't wait to hear what you think about the plans and patterns for this year! Show Links We raised almost $3000 AUD for Bushfire Relief. I'll be splitting the funds between three amazing charities: Go Fund Me for First Nations Communities of Australia Affected by Bushfires The Australian Red Cross The Nature Foundation in South Australia Thank you so much for all your love and support! Ravelry names of our KAL winners: Knitvent2019 KAL winner: tweedy2shoes The Shawl Society 4 Grand KAL winner: wikinger The Handmade Sock Society Grand KAL winner: madamepurl Winners for the individual shawls: Sea Gleam Shawl: muddancerFloating Shawl: nanavoloRockpooling Shawl: nextdoorknitter In The Dunes Wrap: NadeknitsSunset Skies: bdelargyGathering Driftwood: KrabbaKravle Winners for the individual socks: Shell Cottage Socks: malu89Samphire Socks: Unfading SpringCliff Walk Socks: YarnsieBarnsie Cornish Cream Tea Socks: CertainstyleSailing School Socks: skistrickenDorsal Socks: Joline Show Transcript:  Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to Episode 282. 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 Hell's Bells and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find the full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome to the show. I hope you've had a good week. It's been another busy week here of course, and I'm slowly getting back into the rhythm of work again. Kids are finally back at school. They had two months off and I always forget that the first week or two of the school year is very much spending a lot of time getting routines sorted out and figuring out what uniform to wear on which day and so on. So I always think I can leap back into it on that first day they're back, but then it takes about another week or two before I can actually get back into it. But I think we're nearly there now and so I'm pretty happy about that, I have to say. And we had an amazing week with the Destash I did for Bushfire Relief on Instagram. I think I had about 17 lots in the end. I think I put 13 up initially and then added another four for the last 24 hours just because I hadn't had time to do the full lots at the beginning. But that worked out just fine and people were super, super generous. I'm so grateful to you guys. And I added up the figures and it came to almost 3000 Australian dollars by the time I did the conversion. So I decided I would top it up to 3000 myself, because I'm donating to three charities, so that seemed quite a nice round number.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. The kids have made it back to school, our charity auction for those affected by the Australian bush fires is underway, and I'm starting to pick out my dream projects for our #knit20for2020 challenge. It's pretty exciting to consider all the possibilities, and I'm feeling very inspired. I can't wait to see all the amazing things we'll knit together this year! Show Links KAL News All the 2019 Curious Handmade KALs are ending this Friday the 31st, so add your FO photos to the Ravelry thread for a chance to win a lovely yarny prize. A couple of housekeeping notes to keep things tidy: Make sure you create a Ravelry project page for any design you'll be entering! For the individual shawl and sock threads, you can post one photo per completed project. So for example, if you knit two Sea Gleam Shawls or two pairs of Sailing School Socks, you can post each one separately for a chance to win. For the Grand KAL Threads, please make one post per collection. You can use a collage type photo or photos of each finished object, but put them all into one post. For the Knitvent 2019 FO Thread, you can make one post per finished item, however many you knitted from the collection. So one post for the Homebody Socks, another for the Habitation Throw, etc.  Remember that these are no-chat threads (to make drawing winners easier) so you should also post the same photo over in the chat threads so we can admire it out loud! The Shawl Society Season 4: Sea Gleam Shawl FO Thread Floating Shawl FO Thread Rockpooling Shawl FO Thread Sunset Skies Shawl FO Thread In The Dunes Wrap FO Thread Gathering Driftwood Wrap FO Thread Grand KAL FO Thread for 5 or 6 completed shawls The Handmade Sock Society Season 2: Shell Cottage Socks FO Thread Samphire Socks FO Thread Cliff Walk Socks FO Thread Cornish Cream Tea Socks FO Thread Sailing School Socks FO Thread Dorsal Socks FO Thread Grand KAL FO Thread for 6 completed pairs of socks Knitvent 2019: Knitvent 2019 FO Thread I will use a random number generator to draw a winner from each of the following threads on January 31st, 2020.  Destash Auction to Benefit Bushfire Relief I am currently holding my destash auction on Instagram. There is a separate post for each lot, and people can enter their bids in the comments. We're working across a lot of time zones, so I've done my best to choose a time that will work for most people. LA: 2pm Saturday 1st FebNew York: 5pm Saturday 1st FebLondon: 10pm Saturday 1st FebBrisbane: 8am Sunday 2nd FebSydney: 9am Sunday 2nd FebNZ: 11am Sunday 2nd Feb I will cover shipping internationally as part of my contribution and will divide all sums raised between these three charity efforts: Go Fund Me for First Nations Communities of Australia Affected by BushfiresThe Australian Red CrossThe Nature Foundation in South Au...

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. It's another slightly tardy podcast as we prepare for the start of a new school year here in Australia! But I have news about the prizes for our Curious Handmade KALs from last year (The Handmade Sock Society 2, The Shawl Society 4, and Knitvent 2019) as well as some specifics about how my destash charity auctions for Australian Bushfire relief will work. And last but not least, my new word for the year. Show Links KAL News All the 2019 Curious Handmade KALs are ending this Friday the 31st, so add your FO photos to the Ravelry thread for a chance to win a lovely yarny prize. A couple of housekeeping notes to keep things tidy: Make sure you create a Ravelry project page for any design you'll be entering! For the individual shawl and sock threads, you can post one photo per completed project. So for example, if you knit two Sea Gleam Shawls or two pairs of Sailing School Socks, you can post each one separately for a chance to win. For the Grand KAL Threads, please make one post per collection. You can use a collage type photo or photos of each finished object, but put them all into one post. For the Knitvent 2019 FO Thread, you can make one post per finished item, however many you knitted from the collection. So one post for the Homebody Socks, another for the Habitation Throw, etc.  Remember that these are no-chat threads (to make drawing winners easier) so you should also post the same photo over in the chat threads so we can admire it out loud! The Shawl Society Season 4: Sea Gleam Shawl FO Thread Floating Shawl FO Thread Rockpooling Shawl FO Thread Sunset Skies Shawl FO Thread In The Dunes Wrap FO Thread Gathering Driftwood Wrap FO Thread Grand KAL FO Thread for 5 or 6 completed shawls The Handmade Sock Society Season 2: Shell Cottage Socks FO Thread Samphire Socks FO Thread Cliff Walk Socks FO Thread Cornish Cream Tea Socks FO Thread Sailing School Socks FO Thread Dorsal Socks FO Thread Grand KAL FO Thread for 6 completed pairs of socks Knitvent 2019: Knitvent 2019 FO Thread I will use a random number generator to draw a winner from each of the following threads on January 31st, 2020.  Destash Auction to Benefit Bushfire Relief I am going to be holding my destash auction on Instagram. There will be a post for each lot, and people can enter their bids in the comments. We're working across a lot of time zones, so I've done my best to choose a time that will work for most people. In UK time: the listings will go up on Thursday and bidding will be open until Saturday February 1st at 10pm I will cover shipping internationally as part of my contribution. Other things I talked about: Woolfield Studio on Instagram Join the Sockvent KAL in the Woolfield Studio Ravelry Group Terracotta Socks Birch Hollow Fibers on Instagram Show transcript:

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. It's the first podcast of 2020! Today I'm talking about embarking on a big destash to aid Australian bushfire fundraising. I also have news about my design plans for the upcoming year, and a fun little challenge we can all do together to nourish our creativity and stretch our knitting skills in 2020. Show Links Go Fund Me for First Nations Communities of Australia Affected by Bushfires The Happier Podcast The Literary Life Podcast #20for2020reads Use the hashtag #Knit20for2020 to join the challenge Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty SHOW TRANSCRIPT:Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to Episode 279. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and happy new year. This is the first Curious Handmade show for 2020 and I'm happy to be back chatting with you. It's pretty busy here still because school doesn't go back from our long summer holiday here in Australia until the end of January, so we're having our summer holiday and it's pretty busy with the kids trying to keep them entertained, bit of a challenge to get any work done. I'm happy to have a short window to record. They've gone out to jump on trampolines at the Big Boing, so I'm snatching a few minutes to record an episode. It was meant to be published on Friday a few days ago, but I'm just doing my best at the moment. I have a new office and studio so I've been spending a bit of time trying to set that up and get organized. I'm unpacking yarn and trying to organize that into some kind of order and yeah, that's a bit of a challenge. I have way too much. I've talked about this quite a bit in the past about how I want to do a destash of my yarn. Last year was crazy busy. It was really hectic with moving countries and still keeping up a design and podcasting schedule as well as quite a few trips. So I didn't manage to destash at all. Last year I did kind of declutter most of the house before we moved so I was pretty happy about that but the yarn was the one thing that I either couldn't or didn't do before we left. But now I'm thinking maybe there's a nice opportunity here. If you've been listening to the news or seen any social media, you will be aware of the terrible bushfires we've been experiencing here in Australia. There's been a huge amount of fundraising happening and I thought what I could do is to destash some yarn and donate the proceeds to some charities to support bushfire charity work that's happening at the moment. I was thinking about donating pattern sales and things like that, but I thought it might be nice to send this yarn to peo...

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today on the last podcast of the year, I introduce the last secret pattern of 2019, the Dorsal Socks, #6 in The Handmade Sock Society 2. I have news about the closing date for all of our current Curious Handmade KALs, and some plans for the brand new year ahead. Show Links The Dorsal Socks The Handmade Sock Society Season 2 The Shawl Society Season 4 Fragment Socks The Four Pillar Plan by Dr Rangan Chatterjee   SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast, you're listening to episode 278. 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 Hell's Bells and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find the full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome to the show. I hope you're having a good week. It really is that pointy end of the year where things can start getting a little bit stressful. Everybody wants to meet deadlines before the holidays and before the new year. Things just seem to start getting a bit packed in at this time of year. So, I hope you are able to find a little bit of space, a little bit of peace, a little bit of time with your knitting. Hope things aren't too crazy. Have a look at your to do list and see what you can take off your plate and put on to next year if it's not urgent. Just try and reduce the stress levels a little bit. That's what I just did yesterday. Put about 10 things that I was trying to do before Christmas into January and I'm going to deal with them then. That's okay. It's important to keep your sanity and your sense of peace at this time of year. In today's episode we have a new pattern that was released yesterday to have a chat about. And a few upcoming things, just some knitalongs and things that we have happening at the moment. Perhaps a couple of upcoming patterns. Just do a little bit of a wrap up for the year and it's going to be just a fairly short episode. I just wanted to say hello for the last time this year and this decade. This will be the last episode for 2019. And I usually try to wrap up the podcast around the time that the kids finish school, which is a little bit earlier here in Australia than it was in the UK or then it is in the UK. Because this is our big summer holiday for the year starting over Christmas holidays rather than over August, July, August, September, as it is in Europe. So yeah, we're about to be off for six to eight weeks, depending on your school, and looking forward to it. Although it hasn't been very long since we had a really long break. But that was because we had a crazy year moving, so I feel like I'm ready for another holiday. It has been a big year, we've had three collections with Curious Handmade,

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. On this week's episode we have TWO new patterns to celebrate! It's the end of the Knitvent mysteries for this year but it's not the end of the Knitvent fun and community! I also have news about a couple more upcoming patterns before the end of this year. Show Links The Sunshine Coast Collective Markets Brynn & Co Knitvent 2019 The Homebody Hat The Homebody Mitts Wren and Ollie Happy Hank Seren Yarns Fragment Socks   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to episode 277. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com. I'd like to say a big thank you to my sponsor, A Yarn Story. A Yarn Story is the city of Bath's premier knitting boutique with a beautifully curated selection of luxury yarns in a wide range of fibers, shades, and weights from gorgeous skeins by The Fibre Co and yarns and Walcot Yarns to a fine selection from Shibui Knits, La Bien Aimee, and Julie Asselin. There is plenty for the discerning knitter to enjoy. Visit the store at Walcot Street, Bath or shop online at ayarnstory.co.uk. Can I just say what a gorgeous revamp of her website and rebrand has happened at A Yarn Story in the past week? If you haven't been following along on Instagram or visited the website recently, Carmen has done a gorgeous job. It's a gorgeous new logo. It's so professional and yet so warm and friendly and knitterly at the same time. I just love it. So congratulations, Carmen. I know what a big job that is. This week on the show we have lots of pattern release news and knit along news for you. I'll maybe have a little bit of a chat at the end about some future plans, but yeah, mostly it's about lots of new patterns at the moment. It's a super busy time of year. Happy Thanksgiving to all US listeners and knitters. I hope you're having a lovely weekend wherever you are. We're having a a busy festive weekend here. We're having a family Christmas party this weekend, a little bit early, so we'll be joining in the festivities. And yeah, it's just been one of those days. I've been set up my computer all day and I don't really know what I've been doing. Just lots of little bits of admin and you know when you have those days where you get to the end and you're like, "I don't really know what I did." So I thought I'd finish off with having a lovely chat with you and then I will have had something nice in the day that I can remember what I actually did. Last week again, I actually went to a craft market here on the Sunshine Coast, the Sunshine Coast Collective Markets,

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today we have a new Knitvent pattern to celebrate, and I've been planning out my collections for next year and a new creative space, which I'm very excited about. I've also got lots of other little life bits to share in a chatty podcast episode. Show Links The Dwelling Cushion Cover Knitvent 2019 Habitation Throw Homebody Socks Bide Shawl Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty The Knitting Pipeline Mind over Medicine by Lissa Rankin   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to episode 276. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes and a transcript on my website, at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome. I hope you've had a good week. It's been pretty busy on here with Knitvent happening. Lots of things happening to make that all run smoothly. And yeah, doing a bit of planning, doing lots of still settling in myself and the kids into life in Australia. It seems to be ongoing still. And yeah, it's been good. I feel a little bit scattered because there's just been so many things going on, on so many different fronts. But if we start with Knitvent, perhaps. Thank you so much for everybody who's joining in. It's been really, really lovely seeing people's projects starting on Instagram and Ravelry. I always get a huge thrill. I try and follow hashtags. So if you're posting under Knitvent 2019 or hashtag curioushandmade on Instagram, then I'm seeing most of your projects hopefully. And yeah, just loving it. I'm so pleased that you like the Habitation Throw, which was the scrappy advent calendar project for this year. That seems to be quite popular. I am knitting away on one as well, so I'm just using scraps and not being too specific about what yarn I'm using. I'm just grabbing yarn and knitting it in, and so it's a lovely, relaxing, mindless project to have to hand on the sofa when I get a few minutes to sit down. And also the Homebody socks seem to be quite popular. DK weight socks, they always knit up really quickly and it's such a simple pattern. I wanted something that was unisex and super simple but yet looked cute. So I see that lots of people are knitting them for all ages and genders, and yeah, really, really pleased about that too. So this week, yesterday the Dwelling cushion cover came out. And I felt like I was going out on a little bit of a limb doing a cushion cover, but I wanted to do a couple of at least, home decor kind of things for this homebody hibernation theme. And I've been thinking about doing a cushion cover for a while. One of the technical things about this was whet...

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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 Today on the podcast I'm talking about rituals and routines, how I'm experiencing a summery Christmas again and the memories it's sparking, and I also have not just one but two new Knitvent 2019 patterns to introduce this week. Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt Knitvent 2019 The Habitation Throw tracyrr's Habitation project page The Homebody Socks Lay Family Yarn   SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 275. This podcast is all about crafting your life with happiness and creativity. I'm your host Helen and you can find me on Ravelry, as HellsBells, and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome to the show. How has your week been? I hope it's been good. It's that time of year where things start getting pretty busy for most people. It's been a bit of a funny week here as in California. The area I live in has been suffering from bush fires. There've been some around the Sunshine Coast where I live and also in New South Wales, which is the next state down the coast and although we are not that close to them that we're affected by actual evacuation warnings or anything, the air has been very smoky and people we know have been affected. My cousin was evacuated from her house and so yeah, so it's just been quite unsettling and so my thoughts and heart go out to people that have been affected by it because it's really quite scary. So I hope you're all safe and well and coping okay with it if you've been affected.   Other than that, it's been warm and sunny here. It's just such a head spin being on the other side of the world this time of year and so it seems pretty surreal to be in hot weather. I guess the funny thing for me is it's bringing back all my childhood and memories from younger days. I haven't really lived in Australia since I was about 25 so for over 20 years. So yeah, so it's bringing back a lot of memories, but it's from quite a while ago. So yeah, it's a little bit strange. I am enjoying it, but I'm also enjoying photos of snow and cold weather and people wearing wooly clothes as well.   Also at this time of year, it's time to start planning. If you're a planner, which I now am, I think. I haven't been much of a planner in the past, but I'm getting better and better. I am starting to enjoy the process. So I listened to an audio book. I don't know how I came across it. I think maybe I heard Michael Hyatt being interviewed on a business podcast I listened to. I think that was what happened and he was talking about his most recent book Free to Focus. So I don't really know what his main thing is, but he's kind of in the productivity area.

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. I'm so thrilled to be chatting with you again after such a long break. Thank you for bearing with me while I found my bearings in my new home. I have a bit of a life update for you. Knitvent 2019 just started yesterday with the reveal of the Bide Shawl, our first pattern. Welcome home! Show Links The Knitvent 2019 collection was inspired by the theme of "Home for the Holidays". As the year draws to its end, we’ll celebrate all the quiet joys of hibernation and gather close in gratitude for our own cosy nests. The word “home” can have a hundred different meanings. It might be where you grew up: a place rich with treasured memories, priceless heirlooms, and familiar customs handed down through generations. It can be somewhere brand new, a space you carve out for yourself and fill with chosen family and your own fresh traditions. It may simply be a feeling of safety, hard-won and precious, which you carry with you wherever you go. Whatever home means to you, and wherever your home might be, the six mystery patterns we’ll share this season will spark your love for the life of a homebody. Let the outside world bustle and rush. We’ll be right here in our favourite corner, peacefully knitting to our hearts’ content. For the past six years, Knitvent has held a special place in the Curious Handmade community. It’s now a favourite holiday that brings us all together by mixing the old-fashioned anticipation of an Advent calendar with all the excitement and fun of a mystery knit along. Over a span of four festive weeks, six secret knitting patterns will make their way to your Ravelry library. It’s an irresistible mix of presents for the most knitworthy people you know, special touches for your home, and treats for yourself to help make this holiday season warm and wonderful.  The Curious Handmade Ravelry group is a welcoming home for like-minded knitters at this time of year, glowing with Knitvent spirit. The friendship, support, encouragement and enthusiasm you’ll find there are truly heartwarming. Over on Instagram, you’ll also find so many inspiring images and posts from the talented members of the Curious Crew: just use #Knitvent2019 to join in! Throughout the Knitvent season there will be contests, KALs and prizes, holiday stories and surprises, and a delicious sense of togetherness. Every year seems more magical than the last, and I hope you’ll come be a part of it all.  Become a part of the Knitvent family and treat yourself to a season of joyful holiday surprises! Purchase the the Knitvent ebook on Ravelry! Our first pattern, the Bide Shawl, was revealed yesterday!   Bide is such a quiet word. It speaks of stillness, steadiness, and learning to stay. Sometimes it means being able to endure: to bide a winter storm is...

Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. We're just starting to settle in Australia, and as I get my bearings I have a little bit of an update for you, and the newest shawl/wrap from The Shawl Society Season 4 to talk about. I've also started a new and lovely novel by a good friend and member of the maker community. It's just launched and has become part of my summer reading, and I think it might appeal to some of you as well. Show Links: Emu Runner movie In the Dunes Wrap The Shawl Society Season 4 Meadow from The Fibre Co. Pure Joy Shawl by Joji Locatelli Stories for my Sister by Elizabeth Duvivier Join Elizabeth for a launch party hosted by BROOKLYN TWEEDThe Hoxton (Portland, OR)Thursday, September 5thdoors open at 6pm space is limitedRSVP at Brooklyn Tweed Events Page

Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. After a couple of weeks of packing, moving into and out of a temporary flat, and generally uprooting life, it's finally time to fly away to to Australia! I also have some really sweet new socks to share with you from The Handmade Sock Society. Show Links: The Cornish Cream Tea Socks Circus Tonic Handmade Clio by Elizabeth Doherty

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today's episode is just a bit of a snapshot of what life is like here at the Curious Handmade headquarters. We're in the middle of the first stage of the move now and it's all very real. As I pack up our lives (and my stash!) I have some thoughts about the emotions stuff holds, how clutter and minimalism and waste interact, and which skeins I should pack for a few month's transition. Show Links: Jarr Market Gather (Peckham No-Packaging Shop) The Low Tox Life Low Tox Life Episode 149 Clio by Elizabeth Doherty Elton Cardigan by Joji Locatelli La Bien Aimée Pure Joy by Joji Locatelli Episode Transcript ----------------------------------Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to episode 271. 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 Hell's Bells and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find the full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com Hello and welcome to the show, I hope you're having a great week. We are having a heat wave in London at the moment and it is pretty hot, I have to say. Sometimes when people say, "We're having a heat wave here," I'm like no, high twenties is not a heat wave. But yesterday it was well over 30 and tomorrow is predicted to be 38 degrees, which considering that no one in London has any air conditioning, it's pretty disgusting. So not looking forward to that very much. It's early in the morning at the moment, so it's still reasonably cool. So I thought I would pop in and podcast while it's nice and cool and I have a bit of energy to do it. I'm not sure how much knitting I will have to talk about today, my mind is a little bit scattered. I'm surrounded by packing boxes at the moment. We are moving out of our house this weekend and we're not leaving the UK for a couple of weeks, but we're moving to a temporary place and the people coming to pack what we're taking to Australia are coming early next week. So, yeah, so my mind is a little bit scattered and it's partly because I've got a lot on, but also partly because this process of packing and going through everything you own is quite emotional. Some of it is a bit disturbing when you discover things that you bought twelve years ago and I've just had in the back of a cupboard. Yeah. I'm looking through boxes of cards that people have sent to me. I actually found a bundle of cards that my best friend had written to me, who's passed away eight years ago and yeah, just lots and lots of little emotional moments as I go through everything. And as you know, if you've been listening to the podcast, I have been decluttering for about five years. I've been trying to move to a less stuff life.

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today on the podcast I'm answering a question I've gotten a lot recently...how am I getting so much done this summer, with such a big move on the horizon? I'm always curious about how other busy people manage their time and to-do lists, so maybe this will be helpful. I'm also thrilled to introduce the latest addition to The Shawl Society 4! Show Links: The 3rd pattern of The Shawl Society Season 4 was released yesterday! The Rockpooling Shawl When the tide is out, there are wonders to be found in the shallow rock pools along the shore. To see what there is to see you have to crouch down, get very still, and peer very keenly into each puddle. You have to take your time, and you may have to visit a few pools before you strike gold. The reflection of sunlight on the water glitters, you squint, and then it’s there, and you’re rewarded with a moment of pure delight. A flicker of movement turns out to be a shy little hermit crab, a bouncing company of prawns, or a troupe of busy little fish. Look deeper, and you may even spy a waving anemone among the seaweed or one perfect starfish hidden in the sand. Moving from pool to pool, exploring and discovering and wondering: it is a wonderful way to spend a few hours at the seaside. Compared to the wildness of the open ocean, rockpooling seems a very small sort of adventure. Sometimes that’s the very best kind. The Rockpooling Shawl is our third pattern of the season. A traditional triangle shape with contemporary detailing, it features an easy but evocative slip-stitch pattern. This three colour shawl offers plenty of scope: go for a sharp contrast or a more gentle dappled effect. A smart garter border finishes it all off beautifully. The Wool Kitchen BFL Silk DK My amazing test knitter traceyrr has a gorgeous pink version up on Ravelry Tracey's Instagram The Comfy Red Couch Podcast The One Thing by Gary Keller Essentialism by Greg Mckeown Episode Transcript: Welcome to the Curious Hand Made Podcast, you're listening to episode 270. This podcast is all about crafting a life with happiness and creativity. I'm your host Helen and you can find me on Ravelry as HellsBells and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find the full show notes and transcript on my website at Curioushandmade.com Welcome to the show and I hope you've had a good couple of weeks. I didn't publish an episode last week. I took a little bit of a break and I thought I would talk a little bit about that later in the show today. I've been asked a lot recently by friends and listeners how I'm getting so much done at the moment, and so I thought I'd share a few thoughts and perhaps some tips about that this week. And firstly I wanted to share with you some Shawl Society ...

Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. This week I have some thoughts to share about recent events in our knitting community, why I am committed to anti-racism and to how we can make our spaces safer and more inclusive. I'm also thinking about some sewing projects I would really like to get started on this summer, although my plans might need to wait until after the big move. Show Links: Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad Creative Ceci on Instagram Adaku Ezeudo Creating a Culture of Inclusion by Adaku Ezeudo Clio by Elizabeth Doherty Elton Cardigan by Joji Locatelli La Bien Aimée Gathered Dress by The Avid Seamstress Ray Stitch Merchant & Mills Chardon Skirt by Deer&Doe Simplicity 1108 Little Koto's Closet on Instagram Pom Pom Quarterly New Look 6145 The Fold Line Podcast Brooklyn Knitfolk Podcast Voolenvine Podcast Joji's Journal Podcast Circus Tonic Handmade The Wool Kitchen Show Transcript:Welcome to the Curious Handmaid podcast, you're listening to episode 269. 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 on social media as Curious Handmaid. You can also find full show notes and the transcript on my website at curioushandmaid.comHello and welcome to the show. I hope you've had a good week. I've had a busy week just for something different. I'm sure you have too. Thank you to everybody for your wonderful reading suggestions on Instagram and emails. I have a list of fabulous recommendations, mostly detective series which is what I asked for and, yeah, one thing leads to another one. You start looking at things on Amazon. You get lots of suggestions for similar things, so that's really fun as well. Yeah, so I'll have lots of summer reading and thank you again for suggestions.We are winding up towards the end of the school year here in the UK. I know that in the US things probably wrapped up a few weeks ago and I think Canada is about now as well. So we're just in the midst of end-of-year concerts, end-of-year sports days, assessments, all that winding up stuff that happens, so it gets really busy. I've decided to take next week off the podcast. Yeah, just give myself a little bit of space, because it's been a bit hectic lately and I'm just coping with things, so I won't have a show coming out next week, but I thought I'd decide now rather than just not have something come out, let you know.I am going to be aiming to publish an episode every week or almost every week over the summer and do a summer series like I have in the past, I don't know, three years now that I think I've prerecorded episodes, so when we go on holidays to Australia this year it's going to be a little bit different because we are moving to Australia, but I'm aiming to prerecord some shows just to get through that period where we're moving and things are a bit ...

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. This episode, as part of my effort to design my summer and come up with holiday projects, I am putting together a reading list. I have some really amazing reads coming up but as they are on the more serious side I'm also looking for some fun fiction recommendations, if you have any! I am also building a fantasy sweater knitting queue...if I start now I might have one finished by the end of the year! Show Links: Court Number One: The Old Bailey Court Cases That Defined Modern Britain by Thomas Grant Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture by Bruce Pascoe Craeft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands Hay by Clare Mountain Like a Cloud by Jojo Locatelli  Confetti by Veera Välimäki Clio by Elizabeth Doherty Zweig Pullover by Caitlin Hunter Magnolia Pullover by Camilla Vad Laine Magazine Cushendale Woollen Mill La Bien Aimée Elton Cardigan by Joji Locatelli Winterfell Cardigan by Katrin Schneider Episode transcript: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 268. 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 Hell's 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. I hope you've had a fantastic week. Thank you for everybody who commented and sent me messages about your holiday projects. I loved hearing about those. I'm still working on mine actually. I haven't had much time this week to think about it in too much detail. But today I thought I would share with you a couple of books that I'm hoping to read over the summer holidays that I have in my pile beside my bed at the moment. Also do an update on my thinking about my knitting capsule wardrobe pattern ideas. Just before I get into all of that, I wanted to remind you that we just have a couple of days left for my birthday sale. It's my birthday today in fact, so I have been running a sale for the last week or so to celebrate, and it is a buy one, get one free sale. So all you have to do to make the most of that is to put two or more of my patterns from my Ravelry store into a basket and use the code, happybirthday, oh, one word. So I just wanted to give you a little reminder about that, that runs through to Sunday 30th of June before that offer ends. It's also to celebrate the release of the individual patterns from last year's show society collection. So I have just had that available as a collection up until now. And now each of the patterns from the Shawl Society Season 3 from last year are now available as single patterns. So lots of people have been waiting for that, sorry it's taken me so long. I meant to do it earlier in the year,

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today on the podcast I'm thinking about what it might mean to design our summer (even with an international move in the middle!) and announcing a little birthday sale on my patterns! The TSS 3 shawls are now available as single patterns. And there's a brand new TSS 4 shawl to celebrate! Show Links: The Shawl Society Season 3 Maytham Shawl Ivy Over The Door Shawl Wick Shawl Planting Seeds Shawl Learning to Cry Shawl The Whole World is a Garden Shawl The Shawl Society Season 4 Sea Gleam Shawl  Floating Shawl Sky Map Wrap The Happier Podcast Design Your Summer Happier Podcast Episode from 2016 Design Your Summer Happier Podcast Episode from 2017 Design Your Summer Happier Podcast Episode from 2018 Design Your Summer Happier Podcast Episode 2019 Podcast Transcript Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 267. 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. Welcome to the show. I hope you have lots of weekend things planned and a little bit of knitting hopefully. We are planning to go to the school fair this weekend, and we have some birthday parties for kids to attend and, hopefully, a bit of knitting for me too, so I'm looking forward to the weekend. And in this episode, we are chatting about the release of the second Shawl Society shawl, a little bit of a happiness project update, and some ideas for some activities. Before I get into all of that, I wanted to announce a birthday sale. It's my birthday next week, and so I thought I would have a pattern sale in my Ravelry store. We are also celebrating the release of the Shawl Society season three patterns as single patterns. We are going to have a buy one, get one free offer starting today and running through until Sunday, the 30th of June, and so it will be just over a week, this week and next weekend. All you have to do is put two or more patterns from my Ravelry store into your basket and use the code happybirthday, all one word, and you will get the second least expensive pattern for free. If you've been waiting for one of the Shawl Society patterns, a particular pattern from last year's season, then now is the time to snap that up. Speaking of the Shawl Society, season four is happening at the moment, and the second shawl has just been released yesterday. I am super excited to introduce you to Floating shawl. We've had a really magical start to season four, including the giveaway where people posted about their happy places, and it was so inspiring. I think that people who are knitting away on the Sea Gleam shawl at the moment or have knitted that one are enjoying the season so fa...

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. I'm back from a truly magical week at Squam, and this week on the podcast I have tales of the workshops I experienced, the projects I worked on, and details of some of the treasures I brought home. This week also brings us a new pattern from The Handmade Sock Society, so I have the Cliff Walk Socks to introduce, as well as a bit of help for Society Members who may be confused about how to get onto the secret mailing list. Show Links: Abigail Haplin on Instagram Purplebean Bindery   Hollie Chastain on Instagram If You Can Cut You Can Collage book by Hollie Chastain Linen and Spoon Amy T Won Wing and a Prayer Farm Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty Our third pattern of The Handmade Sock Society Season 2 was released this week! The Cliff Walk Socks The Yarn Tart at Suffolk Socks House of A La Mode House of A La Mode at A Yarn Story Join the Handmade Sock Society Season 2 Episode Transcript:Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to Episode 266. 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 Hell's Bells, and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com Hello, and I hope you're well. Welcome to the show. I hope you've been having a good week, and I will catch you up on my week and also last week when I was at Squam. I got back to London Monday morning this week, and have basically been catching up for most of the week, I think. It's been a little bit of a blur, slightly jet lagged, and just sort of catching up on lots of admin and doing a little bit of planning because now the countdown is on before we move countries and head off down under to Australia. So yes, I'm looking at a matter of weeks now and thinking I need to use my time wisely. So spreadsheets have been created and lots of lists are being made. I'm trying to not spend too much time obsessing about all the details, and just also try and crack on with some of the actual work. But I have to admit that it's been a little bit slow this week. I have been enjoying the inspiration that I drew on at Squam, and it was a really lovely week. I flew over last Tuesday just in time for the start. Sometimes I go a little bit earlier and spend some time in New York with my friends, but time was at a bit of a premium this time. So I just went over just before it started, and it started off not very auspiciously because the plane that I boarded, we sat there for nearly three hours and they decided that they couldn't fix the fault in the plane, so we all had to hop off, and shortly after getting off the plane,

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today I have a chatty little catch-up episode, which I recorded just before heading off to the Squam Art Workshops. As ever, there's the question of travel knitting. It's also the time of year where I like to take stock of my goals and plans so far, as we head into the second half of 2019. With the big move to Australia just around the corner, there's a lot to plan for! Show Links: Squam Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty Pebbles and Pathways Socks Hay Pullover by Clare Mountain Like a Cloud by Joji Locatelli Seren Yarns The Yarn Tart at Suffolk Socks House of A La Mode House of A La Mode at A Yarn Story Join the Handmade Sock Society Season 2 The Minimal Mom The Mount Juliet Shawl ------------------------------------------------------------ Show Transcript: Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 265. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find the full show notes and transcript on my website at curioushandemade.com. Hello and welcome to the show and welcome to June. How on earth did that happen? Oh my goodness. Nearly halfway through the year and I guess it's a really good time for thinking about planning for the second half of the year. I've been thinking about planning all year because I have such a big deadline hanging over me, which is moving to Australia in August. So I've been very, very conscious of deadlines all year. But I always think that around June, just before halfway through the year, is a really good time to reassess goals and look at what you've achieved for the year so far and what you might like to achieve for the second half of the year. I am even more conscious of time frames because as I sat down to record this, I've just been doing a little bit of catching up on my planning, reorganizing myself a little bit. And realized that it's 10 weeks until we move, until we leave. 10 weeks today in fact. So yeah, there's a handful of weeks that the kids still have at school or just over a handful, but under two handfuls, and then we'll have a few weeks in which we will be going to a wedding and having movers come in and pack everything up. So even though it's 10 weeks, it's not really, because I'm off to Squam this week as well. So I am really looking forward to visiting Squam Lake in New Hampshire for the Squam Arts Workshops. And as you will probably gather, if you follow me on Instagram, I am away as this is being released. So I'm prerecording it just a few days in advance this time. But by the time the episode comes out I'll be over in the US. So just now I am in the process of packing for that trip and I am not working this trip. Sometimes I have a stall at the art fair that they ...

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. On today's podcast I have brought back stories from Ireland and the lovely Knitting Pipeline retreat, including a visit to an incredible woollen mill and rare-breed sheep farm. There's a brand new shawl pattern to introduce, and I am really beginning to look forward to my trip to Squam, which is only around the corner. Show Links: The New Forest National Park Cushendale Woollen Mills Zwartbles Ireland Zwartbles Ireland Instagram Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty Piper’s Journey Shawl This week I released the shawl pattern I designed for the Knitting Pipeline Ireland retreat, the Mount Juliet Shawl:   Hidden amid peaceful woodlands and velvety green fields in Kilkenny Ireland sits a glorious old manor house called Mount Juliet. It was completed in 1760 and named for the bride of the Viscount of Ikerrin. Juliet Boyle, daughter of the Earl of Shannon, brought with her a generous fortune and an exquisite eye for beauty. The estate was built with her money and named in her honour. It was a tribute to young love and remains a masterclass in elegance and harmony. At this time of year, the woodland walks are carpeted with bluebells, the hedgerows are dappled with hawthorn blossom, and the walled garden is bursting into colour. It is a stunning setting for the Knitting Pipeline Ireland Retreat, and I was honoured to be asked to design a pattern for the attendees. The Mount Juliet Shawl is inspired by the compelling history and lovely Georgian architecture of its namesake, and dedicated to the vision and courage of women who make things happen, particularly our dear Paula Emons-Fuessle, who planned this wonderful gathering for all of us. This asymmetrical triangle shawl features bands of simple but lovely lace in two colours, to recall the graceful lines and beautiful windows of the great house. Fittingly, the sample was knit with yarn from Olann, a brilliant Irish indie yarn company. This is a relaxing but engaging knit with enough gentle repetition that it is easy to memorise for long chatty evening with friends, but the final result is striking. The shawl pattern is now available to buy on Ravelry. There is a 20% off Launch sale on this pattern until the end of the weekend! Get your copy of the Mount Juliet Shawl pattern now! Episode transcript:Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast, you're listening to episode 264. 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 the full show notes and transcript on my website at CuriousHandmade.com Hello and welcome to the show. As always, I hope you're having a wonderful week. I'm having, as always, a busy week. It's half term here in the UK,

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Today on the podcast I'm getting ready to head to Ireland for the Knitting Pipeline retreat, so of course I need to consider which projects will come along for the trip. And I also have all the winners from our wonderful Shawl Society 4 giveaway, where members shared their happiest places with us...resulting in lots of warm fuzzies. Show Links: Ocean by the Sea Laine Magazine Gilly Makes (Closed) Giveaway Competition Thread Winners! Free pattern or collection: 1. Post 136: by SueCQ 2. Post 13: by LizSolomonWright 3. Post 8: by oakbayknits 4. Post 290: by wishfulthkn 5. Post 78: by mebakes 6. Post 16 by teabird 7. Post 276 by Valeknit 8. Post 180 by cathleen55 9. Post 303 by knitterlyobsessed 10. Post 9 by HelenMc Grand prize winner: KnittingCounts with post #24 TSS4 General Chat Thread Sea Gleam Shawl Sea Gleam Shawl Chat Thread Sea Gleam Shawl FO Thread Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty Pebbles and Pathways Socks Piper's Journey Shawl Quince and Co. Tern Rev Transcripts Episode 263 Transcript _______________________________ Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 263. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com.   Hello, and welcome to the show. Thanks for joining me today. I am recording this episode about a week in advance, because next week, i.e., this week, I will be at the Knitting Pipeline retreat in Ireland, joining some long lost friends and new friends, and I'm so excited. At this point, I'm obviously before the trip. I'm just doing as much as I can to get ready for a week away, and ... yeah. But I'm so excited to be meeting people and of course, by the time you're listening to this, the week of the retreat will almost be over. It's always a bit confusing when I'm recording a show in advance and trying to chat to you as if time has already passed that hasn't happened yet. But anyway, I'm sure you'll forgive me. And I just wanted to not miss a week.   So something I promised on last week's show was that I would announce the winners of the Shawl Society season four launch giveaway. The prizes are 10 patterns. So the winners can choose the pattern or collection of their choice from my designs on Ravelry. There are a couple of patterns that are not actually published on Ravelry that are published in magazines, so I can't give you those ones, but most of them are available for prizes. So the winners of the 10 patterns or collections are:  

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. On today's episode I have stories to share from our wonderful weekend in Bath, and I am excited to introduce the very first pattern of The Shawl Society Season 4. I'm also getting ready to head to Ireland for the Knitting Pipeline retreat, which is exciting. As part of my ongoing quest to make Curious Handmade as accessible and welcoming as possible, I'm also trying out something new with podcast transcripts. Show Links: Meadow Yarn Hand Dyed Yarn Eucalan Meadow Yarn Stitch Reminders Cocoknits Moel View Yarn The Wool Kitchen So Just Shop Big Blue Moma la Bien Aimée Land of Sweets Cowl Learning to Cry Shawl Snowmelt Shawl Impressionist Shawl Walcot Yarns The Fibre Co. The Wool KitchenThe Talisman Shawl KnitAid The Sea Gleam Shawl   Join The Shawl Society Season 4 now! Ocean By The Sea Laine MagazineGilly Makes The Comfy Red Couch Podcast     Episode 262 Transcript: -------------------------------Welcome to the Curious Handmade podcast. You're listening to episode 262. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show-notes on my web site at CuriousHandmade.com. Hello hello and welcome to this week's episode. I hope you're all well and having a really good week. I have been having a great week. The sun has been shining here in London and it's getting warmer, and everybody in London is so happy about that. It makes so much of a difference. Everything's very green and lovely, and, well, blossom season is pretty much over. The roses have started blooming now, so that is another gorgeous sight that you see a lot around London at this time of year. I've been working really hard the last few weeks. I mentioned last week that I was working hard and just really focusing on my to do list, and I feel like this week finally I'm back in control I think, and I feel like maybe I reached a tipping point in my to do list where things are getting ticked off slightly faster than they're getting added. So, that's a good feeling. I feel slightly more on top of things and it's just making the stress levels go right down. And sometimes I think you don't realize how stressed you are until it starts reducing and then you realize that you just feel so much better. So that's all good! We had a fantastic event in Bath on the weekend. It was so lovely. The event was Sip, Stitch Shop, and that was hosted by A Yarn Story and myself. It was held at a lovely hotel in Bath and we had such wonderful vendors, and lovely knitters coming along.

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. In today's episode I have some personal knitting to share, including a new sweater pattern I have been stalking as my Clio gets closer to completion. I'm delighted that the 4th season of The Shawl Society has launched and we're just a week away from the first pattern! I'm also gearing up for the Sip. Stitch. Shop. event in Bath this weekend, and we're having a sample sale to raise funds for KnitAid (have you seen the KnitAid Tedx talk?) Show Links: Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty Ysolda Blend no.1 Hay Pullover by Clare Mountain Squam Midding Cardigan by Renée Callahan Baskerville DK by Kettle Yarn Triskelion Yarn This week The Shawl Society Season 4 opened for membership! It will be available at an early bird price until the first pattern of the season is released on Thursday the 16th of May, 2019. Join The Shawl Society Season 4 now! Suburban Stitcher Website Suburban Stitcher Instagram KnitAid KnitAid Ted Talk Ch. 261 Transcript_________________________________ Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to Episode 261. 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 on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find the full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and welcome to the show. I hope you had a fantastic week. Pull up a chair, grab your knitting, grab a beverage, and let's us have a chat. Thank you to everyone who commented on social media, and via emails, and messages that you were interested in my conversation about my hair last week. I was talking about how I am embracing my natural color, which I think is going to be quite gray. It's still in the growing out process, and even sort of four and a half, five months into it, it's surprising to me, at least, how long it takes to grow. In some ways, when I was dying it to hide the gray, it seemed like it was every five minutes that I was having to dye it, and now that I'm desperately trying to grow it all out, it's taking forever. So thank you for all your messages of support and interest. It's kind of a funny thing to talk about, but I feel like, for me, it's about embracing happiness and creativity, which is the motto of the show, so I thought it was fair enough to talk about with you. I have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks. I think after having basically three weeks holiday, I didn't do much work while the kids were off school, which has always been my goal since having my business. A big part of my goal is to have a more flexible schedule around the kids, and that's kind of worked and kind of hasn't worked in some ways.

  Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. This week I revealed the theme for our 4th season of The Shawl Society and I'm getting so, so, excited to begin another adventure with so many brilliant knitters. I also have a bit of a story about how I got inspired for this collection. Finally, I have recently decided to try something a bit different with my hair and I've got some resources to share! Show Links: Suburban Stitcher Olann Yarn Ann Friedman Aminatou Sow Call Your Girlfriend Podcast Shine Theory #grombre Erica Henry Johnston Nikol Johnson Annika Von Holdt Don't forget, there are still tickets available for the upcoming Sip, Stitch, Shop event in Bath on May 11th, and I'd love to see lots of the Curious Crew there!

      Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Here you’ll find a gorgeous selection to choose from including sumptuous skeins from House of a la Mode, La Bien Aimée and Julie Asselin. With friendly and knowledgeable staff to help you browse, treat your projects to the luxury they deserve! You can also shop online at www.ayarnstory.co.uk. Over the Easter Long weekend we took the train to Paris as a family to do a little exploring, museum-visiting and flea market-shopping! I also managed to sneak in a visit to a favourite yarn shop and do just a little knitting. Back at home now, I'm looking forward to some upcoming events, including the 4th season of The Shawl Society, which is coming up quickly! Show Links:   La Bien Aimée Visiting a Paris Flea Market Clio Pullover Pebbles and Pathways Socks Olann Yarn The Wool Barn The Fibre Co.  Meadow Yarn Moel View Yarn The Wool Kitchen la Bien Aimée Julie Asselin Walcot Yarns  The Wool Barn So Just Shop Our friends at A Yarn Story are hosting a special event at the Apex Hotel in Bath from 10am to 4pm, 11th May 2019. It is partly a goodbye party: a chance to spend a bit of time together before I move to Australia. Come join us for a day of tea, cake and knitting. We will have a lovely sociable day and there will be the chance to meet and knit with other yarn lovers. There will be a marketplace with some of my very favourite indie dyers and crafty businesses full of delights. An advance ticket of £10 will give you access to the marketplace and knit group, plus beverages and cake. Tickets will also be available on the door for £12. All are welcome! Tickets are now available to purchase here. There will also be a more intimate dinner event later that same evening: dinner tickets will be offered for sale later, to those who have already bought a ticket to the daytime event. I hope to have a chance to see and chat with many of you in person!

Show Sponsors: Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. 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. Here you’ll find a gorgeous selection to choose from including sumptuous skeins from House of a la Mode, La Bien Aimée and Julie Asselin. With friendly and knowledgeable staff to help you browse, treat your projects to the luxury they deserve! You can also shop online at www.ayarnstory.co.uk. On today's podcast I have lots of stories from our family trip to India...we saw a grand and stunningly beautiful palace, some incredible wildlife (mongoose and tigers and crocodiles!) and ate some unforgettable food. I also have the latest pattern from The Handmade Sock society to introduce! Show Links: Pebbles and Pathways Socks Clio Pullover Olann Yarn Last week I released the 2nd pattern from The Handmade Sock Society Season 2. I hope you love the Samphire Socks as much as I do!