Grafting your knitting, and a German Yarn Festival – Episode 6
In Episode 6 we see Andrea grafting her Norbu sleeves, we’re travelling to Bavaria to speak to some dyers and yarn producers at the Aschaffenburg Wool Festival. Andrew shows off his completed project number two, and we meet our next guest in Knitters of the World.
Bring and Brag
Norbu
After some major surgery, Andrea has completed her Norbu, designed by Marie Wallin.
We also mentioned Tom of Holland, who has made an artform out of repairing garments.
Andrew’s Socks
Andrew has completed his second project, a pair of socks for Andrea.
Under Construction
Andrew’s next socks
Andrew’s next project is another pair of socks, also for Andrea, following the free simple sock pattern by Susan B Anderson.
The yarn is the Rowan Fine Art, in the Waxwing shade, and if you’re interested there is another article available on this yarn. We have heard that the yarn is being discontinued…
Lovage, by Marie Wallin
Andrea’s current project is Lovage, a fairisle sweater designed by Marie Wallin. The pattern is available in the book Windswept, a collection of Marie Wallin’s patterns in fairisle, cables and a little crochet.
Knitters of the World – Marlies, Hülsenbusch near Cologne, Germany
Our guest on Knitters of the World is Marlies, from Hülsenbusch, near Cologne in Germany. You can find Marlies and her stunning Fair Isle designs on Ravelry as Mostrich63.
Interviews – Aschaffenburg Wool Festival
Margit Hofmann – Alte Künste
Margit Hofmann runs Alte Künste or “Ancient Arts” and through her work as a researcher has revived the skills of dying yarns using plant and other natural colorings.
You can find Margit at altekuenste.eu or you can find her naturally dyed yarns on Ravelry as Alte Kuenste – Ancient Arts.
Maike Schnichels – Das Regenbogenschaf
Maike Schnichels dyes yarns from England and Germany using her own color recipes, and focuses on quality and sustainability in selecting her bases. Her yarns include Alpaka, Kashmir and Yak. Maike is also the selected hand-dyer for the Cologne producer Pascuali.
You can find Maike online at das-regenbogenschaf.com.
If you’re in the Frankfurt area you can also find Maike at her Hairdressing salon at Heidestr 129,
60385 Frankfurt.
“Das Regenbogenschaf” means “The Rainbow Sheep”!
Sabine Worch
Sabine Worch produces yarn from her own sheep her home in Fränkisch-Crumbach in Hessen, Germany. Sabine is not selling her yarn at the moment.
Sabine’s daughter was supporting the organisation “Heart Kids”, which looks after orphan children in southern India. You can find out more at heartkids.de (also in English).
Great podcast, loved your sleeveless v neck top you were wearing did you knit it if so would you be kind enough to share the pattern let me know we’re I can get a copy. It was the detail below the bust line loved it. It amazes me how all your knits fit you so accurate. I’ve not knitted myself anything for many years but since seeing your podcast and some others it has inspired me and cannot wait to get going. Hoping to find a nice pattern and purchase wool at the Fibre East show which I hope to go to this year. Thank you for sharing your time and talent with us.
Jackie
Loved this podcast let’s know how Andrew is going with the longer cables is it easier for him really enjoying your knitters of the world mostrich color sense and design were fantastic and the natural dyes from alte kunst were great puts my poor dying to shame still trying but not getting much in the way of colors at the moment need to study up before next summ
Hi Elizabeth. I have moved onto longer circulars for the second pair of socks and it is going much better. That may be partly just practice, but I think the needles help. Andrea keeps saying that after the sock knitting, knitting the parts of the cardigan / jacket will be easy. Thanks for watching, and it’s great to hear that you’re enjoying our guests. Cheers, Andrew.
Andrea:
Loved your vest you wore to interview those amazing yarn dyers.
Did you knit it? If so, would you share the name of that pattern!!
Just absolutely love the podcast – by far my favorite:)
Hi Janice. Andrea wears that vest again in Episode 14. I think it’s from a German Filati magazine – I can see I haven’t got the details in the show notes, but she might mention it in the episode. Cheers, Andrew.
Hi, I am re-watching earlier Fruity episodes and Sabine Worch really stayed with me. Sorry she is not selling her yarn as I would love to buy yarn from someone whose sheep died of old age! The ladies interviewed in this episode are quite special.
Can you give me information about the dates of the Aschaffenburg Yarn Festival? We are planning our trip to Germany for next May, 2019 and would love to include this festival.
Hi Laverne. That sounds exciting! Here’s the website for the Aschaffenburger WollTräume. You can see there that they have the date for next year listed as 11 May 2019 (even without German language skills)! Not sure what your plans are, but the event is just 10 minutes walk from the train station, so that might be an easy option. Stay in touch!
Hi Andrea
I am going to graft a contrast color folded
Hem (like on Andrews hiking jacket) to a top down jumper. When you do a very large graft like this so you try to do it with one strand of yarn? I read some where that you should plan 4times the length of yarn than the piece you are grafting. Unfortunately I’m not small so the waist is about 50inches. Or should I plan to do the front Half and back with separate yarns?
I continue to love your episodes. I watch a few from the beginning then one or two new ones! Thank you thank you, your loyal patron, Jill
Hi Have only just started watching your wonderful podcasts. So soothing and informative. In Episode 6 you show a speeded up grafting of the sleeve of Andrea’s Norbu cardigan and I am sure she said she was going to do a longer slower grafting tutorial with a voice over. I’ve searched the Youtube videos but can’t see it anywhere. Can you point me at it or recommend another tutorial I can watch.
I need to graft the ribbing onto the bottom of a top down sweater. I’m playing yarn chicken and have to make sure I have enough yarn for the ribbing before using what is left to finish the body of the sweater making it as long as I can as the pattern is very cropped and not to my taste. Is it just Kitchener stitch as for the toes of socks or is there more magic involved?
Hi Julie. I think you’ll find the Tutorial in our Tutorial Index – I think the one you’re after is “Cutting and Grafting to Fix Mistakes”. We release all the tutorials as separate videos for our Patrons, so if you’re not a Patron yet, you might want to join up! To try to answer your question – I think it is essentially just Kitchener stitch, on a larger scale!
Hi Andrew. Thanks for the reply. Actually the moment has passed as I finished the sweater. Careful weighing of the remaining yarn helped me work out I had just enough to knit the rest of the body to a decent length and do the ribbing so grafting wasn’t necessary. I had 24″ of yarn left – luckily no seams to sew up!! I’ll certainly consider signing up to Patreon. Best wishes and thank you both for a wonderful podcast.