Episode 28: Start As You Mean To Go On

Yarn in the City

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2016!

News and Events:

9th January - We'll be renewing our memberships of The London Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers at their January meeting. This is great organisation and with excellent content and speakers at their monthly meetings. Membership is only £25 for the year.

10th January – Joanne Scrace (notsogranny) is teaching her Crochet Shawls class at Knit With Attitude.

13th January (mistakenly listed as the 10th of February in the podcast) – It’s the first Late Night Knitty Lock-in of 2016 over at Wild & Woolly. Check out the details on their website.

17th January – the Waltham Abbey Wool Show, at the Waltham Abbey Marriott, Old Shire Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex EN9 3LS (Update: Porpoise Fur will be at WAWS, so come say hello if you're at the show!).

30th January – Woolly Wormhead, hat designer extraordinaire, is teaching two classes at Knit With Attitude. In the morning she's teaching a Knitting in the Round Masterclass that will include all sorts of tips and tricks, and in the afternoon it’s all about Turning Sideways.

6th-7th February - Rachel is teaching two classes at A Yarn Story: Learn to Spin: Drop Spindle on Saturday afternoon, and a two part workshop on How to Knit a Sexy Sweater on Sunday; the morning session will cover swatching, and the afternoon is all about pattern modifications.

13th-14th February – Cécile Balladino is teaching her Eclectic Gipsyland crochet at Loop. These same class is offered on both Saturday and Sunday. This is not a beginner’s crochet class so you will be expected to already know how to crochet.

19th-21st February – Unravel is happening at Farnham Maltings. We will be there with two stands – one for Porpoise Fur and also a Yarn in the City stand where we will be debuting the London Craft Guide!

26th-28th February – Joeli’s Kitchen Retreat in Manchester. Featuring classes (some spaces still available for classes with Kate Atherley!) and a mini marketplace on the Sunday that will include Countess Ablaze.

What we’re working on:

Rachel's last FO of 2015 was a lace shawl design that's been submitted to Knittyspin (so there aren't any pictures of it to show). She's also been working on her Dark & Stormy cardigan by Thea Colman, and is on Sleeve #2. She has also picked up her long-standing bead and colourwork project, the Marie Curie Mittens by Emily Bujold, and did a few more rows on the #14 Bus. As you do... Spinning-wise she's been working on some colourful mini-skeins for a design project that will debut at Unravel, and on her Dark Lady BFL from the December instalment of the Porpoise Fur Lab Goddess Fibre Club.

Allison finished the Basic Rib Socks for her Dad while in Miami. She's now working on the Gradient Pullover by Amy Miller in handspun merino/silk, and is hooking up a sample for Unravel of the Candy Bag by Cécile Balladino, one the projects upcoming from the London Craft Guide.

Book News and a Giveaway:

The London Craft Guide is coming! After much more back and forth on the design and layout than we ever would have imagined, we are now in the final stretch for the book to be sent to the printer’s by the end of the month. We will be officially launching at Unravel, but those of you who preordered the book will have your copies sent out as soon as we have them in hand. Thank you so much for your patience!

Keep watching our blog and Instagram feeds as we start to show off some of the amazing projects and shops from the book over the coming weeks leading up to Unravel. Speaking of which: anyone making plans to go to Unravel at Farnham Maltings? Thanks to the lovely organisers of this fantastic local festival we have a pair of day tickets to giveaway.

To enter, leave a comment in the show notes and let us know what you’re looking forward to seeing at the show. Entries will be open until February 1st, and we'll announce the winner on the following podcast. (Contest note: this pair of tickets is for a single day’s entry to the show and does not include any travel to Farnham.) Good luck!

Start as you mean to go on:

The idea for the theme of this podcast came to us after seeing the usual New Year’s resolutions, year-end wrap ups and general commentary on social media in the last week or so. We’ve been struck by the emerging themes, and by the prevalence of all of us to try and shape the direction of our creative endeavours and activities. We’ve seen a few different things that look like fun, or inspired us and we wanted to share them with you:

Instagram #2015bestnine for @allidecks, @yarninthecity and @porpoisefur

1. #2015bestnine – what were your most liked Instagram photos?

2. Finding your word for the year – Karie Westermann had a lovely blog post about this and Allison talked about finding your word in relation to some work she's done with Tara Swiger's Lift Off workshop. We've also found this great Find Your Word resource.

3. The Maker’s Year – A Playful Day

4. The year of #yarnstashlove – Louise Zass-Bangham/Inspiration Knits (and #fibrestashlove, which we are shamelessly stealing from Louise for our own devices)

We’re interested to know what plans you’re making for yourselves this year – or if you are? Are you one of those planners or not at all? Send us a note or let us know in the comments on the show notes.

A small bit of housekeeping: in an effort to be more predictable for you all, we’re going to try out a more formal podcasting schedule this year. We've decided that it will be easier if the podcast episodes go live on a specific day, so you know when they'll be posted. So, apart from this episode (which is obviously not going up on the right day), we will launch an episode of the podcast on the first and third Sundays of the month.

As always, please let us know what you think by tweeting, liking, or loving our posts when you see them go up on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – or even better, leave a comment in the shownotes or send us an email at hello AT yarninthecity DOT com. You can also find us on iTunes or Stitcher Radio (and please consider leaving a review for us!), or download us directly from the Yarn in the City website.

Knit night is back for 2016, with a later end time too! You can find us on Wednesday nights upstairs at The Goat on the Rise pub on Battersea Rise, a stone’s throw from Clapham Junction station in SW London. We meet from 7pm to around 10pm. The food is great and the knitters are friendly. Join us!

Music credits (all available on NoiseTrade)

Howlin' At Nothing (Live in Denver), S. O. B. - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night SweatsBright Lights and Amplifiers - American OperaFlee - Paper Airplanes