Episode 45 – Isabell Kraemer

Isabell Kraemer is our interview guest in Episode 45 of the Fruity Knitting Podcast. We are back from our holiday in Snowdonia, refreshed and ready to bring you more knitting inspiration from around the world. Isabell Kraemer is well know for her style, in particular for her cool sweater designs, but we think this is her first video interview. We traveled to her home town near Stuttgart to do the interview, and we had a great time, so we think you will also enjoy getting to know Isabell Kraemer more closely. Hannah from Circus Tonic Handmade is also featuring, in interview from Australia with our roving reporter Madeleine. New Releases features a fun sweater design from Stephanie Lotven, and we also have some Extreme Knitting from our recent travels. Enjoy the show!

Isabell Kraemer

Isabell’s designs are very approachable for knitters with an intermediate skill level which is one of the reasons why they are so popular.

Her designs are elegant with a sophisticated minimalism but they can be deceptively simple. When you look closely you can see some really interesting design elements.

Patron discount on any of Isabell’s self published designs !

Isabell has offered a very generous discount on any of her self published patterns for our patrons. The full details for this discount can be found on the Patron specials page. Isabell has published a ton of great sweater and shawl patterns so you will definitely find something you love among her collection.

Finding Isabell Kraemer

• Isabell Kraemer on Ravelry
• Isabell Kraemer on Instagram
• Website

Circus Tonic Handmade

Hannah is a very clever and passionate yarn dyer who uses Australian birds, flowers and gem stones as her colour inspiration for her gorgeous yarns. Since Madeleine has been hanging out on the Sydney beaches and learning to surf very close to where Hannah lives, we thought we’d put her to work and this fun interview is the result.

Hannah studied science for many years and worked in genetics. A lot about science is very process driven (following protocols with steps A to Z and careful documentation). So when she needed a career change she thought she’d indulge her passion for knitting and yarn dying by starting her business. Hannah found that she actually loved the very labour intensive slow process of skilled yarn dying, as that was how she had worked as a molecular biologist for years.

Finding Circus Tonic Handmade

• Circus Tonic Handmade on Etsy
• Circus Tonic Handmade on Instagram

Image Credits

• Pink Robin (Petroica rodinogaster) by JJ Harrison (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
• Superb Fairywren (Malurus cyaneus) by JJ Harrison (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
• Tasmanian Thornbill by Brian Ralphs [CC BY 2.0], via Flickr

Stephanie Lotven – Sock Arms Sweater – New Releases

Stephanie Lotven, who releases her patterns under the name Tellybean Knits, has combined her love of self-striping yarns and sock knitting to create her Sock Arms Sweater, and it is a super fun design. The body of the sweater is a single color, and the arms are done in self-striping yarns – either matching or mixed. If you’re looking to make the leap from sock knitting to garment knitting, this may be the right project for you. There is also a kids version of the design, Little Sock Arm.

This pattern was written in collaboration with Stacie from Must Stash Yarns. Stacie’s yarns are especially dyed so you start and end the arms at the same spot without wasting yarn.

Patron Discount – Stephanie Lotven and Must Stash Yarns

Designer Stephanie Lotven and Stacy of Must Stash Yarns are both generously offering Fruity Knitting Patrons a discount on the Sock Arms pattern and the recommended yarns. Find full details of the discounts on this Sock Arms Patron Specials page. Many thanks to Stephanie and Stacy.

Finding Stephanie Lotven and the Sock Arms Sweater

• Sock Arms on Ravelry
• Little Sock Arms on Ravelry
• tellybeanknits.com
• Instagram Tellybeanknits
• Must Stash Yarns
• Instagram Muststashsheep

Tutorial – Weaving in the Ends as you Knit

When I do stranded knitting, I like to weave the new colour in and weave the old colour out as I knit along. Learning how to do this has been one of the most freeing things that I have learnt to do in my knitting. It has meant that I will happily knit a stranded project with as many colours as possible because at the end I don’t have the terrible job of weaving in all the ends with a darning needle. So I’ve made a short tutorial on how I do this in case any of you haven’t seen it done and would like to try it.

Patrons can access the tutorial via the Fruity Knitting Patron Tutorials page.

What we are wearing.

Andrew is wearing an adaption of the Firebirds Cardigan by Jade Starmore.

Andrea is wearing an adaption of the Asemors Kofte by Sidsel Hoivik.

Under Construction

Andrew is making Paris’s Scarf by Nancy Marchant, who appeared in Episode 35. Andrea gave a few tips on combining double knitting and brioche in Episode 42.

Andrea is working on Samfrey from the Shetland collection by Marie Wallin, and Tegna, by Caitlin Hunter. (In our live event with Caitlin she corrected our pronunciation – it’s said like “tenya”, and is named after the region in Switzerland.)

Music Credits

• J. S. Bach, The Well Tempered Klavier, performed by Kimiko Ishizaka, used under Creative Commons Attribution license
  • Prelude No. 2 in C minor, BWV 847
  • Prelude No. 3 in C-sharp major, BWV 848
  • Prelude No. 10 in E minor, BWV 855
  • Prelude No. 13 in F-sharp major, BWV 858
• Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E Flat Major Eroica, Op. 55 – IV. Finale Allegro molto, Public Domain
• Montana Skies, Locomotion Commotion Potion, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license