Episode 77 – LillaBjörn Crochet
Tatsiana Kupryianchyk of LillaBjörn Crochet is our interview guest in this jam-packed Episode 77, full of goodies for you and lots of contrasting themes. Currently based in the Czech Republic, Tatsiana Kupryianchyk has pushed crochet beyond anything that I’ve seen before, from stunning intricate mandalas using lots of overlay crochet to colour work, yoke sweaters with imitation Brioche. She is creating fantastic modern designs for both home decor and to wear. You will totally love seeing her work!
In stark contrast to that interview, we go to Pennsylvania in the States to talk with Marie Minnich, who features in our ‘Meet the Shepherdess’ segment. Wool and sheep lovers will really savor this segment. The Italian designer Stella Egidi presents her elegant sweater design Barocco in New Releases and we take you on a quick escape to the German countryside near the famous spa town of Baden Baden.
Tatsiana Kupryianchyk – LillaBjörn Crochet
Top down, seamless and stranded yolk sweaters are hugely popular amongst knitting patterns now. Tatsiana has created sweater designs that use all these construction techniques but in crochet. She has overcome some of the typical challenges crochet has and has created very drapey knit like fabrics for the body of the sweaters and achieved wonderful colour work yolk designs with overlay crochet.
Tatsiana also has blanket crochet designs that include cables and mosaic colour work.
Mandalas by LillaBjörn Crochet
Patron Discount – Tatsiana Kupryianchyk
Tatsiana is offering Fruity Knitting Patrons a 25 percent discount on all of her self-published patterns. You will really love looking at her beautiful designs. There are many different types of projects from little baskets, drapey elegant shawls, cushions, handbags, toys and floor rugs as well as the gorgeous sweater designs she shows us during the interview. Full details available here.
Finding Tatsiana Kupryianchyk
- lillabjorncrochet.com
- Tatsiana Kupryianchyk on Ravelry
- lillabjorncrochet on Instagram
Stella Egidi – Barocco
Stella Egidi with her Barocco sweater
Stella Egidi is the designer behind Moody Knitter Knitwear Design. If you have been to Rome you will recognize how incredibly stylish everyone is, even when they are dressing very casually. It’s such a pleasure to sit outside a cafe and drink coffee and watch the Romans going by. To me, Stella has this very natural, understated elegance and innate dress sense typical of so many Italians and it’s reflected in her beautiful designs.
Barocco, by Stella Egidi
Patron Discount – Stella Egidi
Fruity Knitting Patrons get 25 percent off all self-published patterns, full details here.
Finding Stella Egidi
- Stella Egidi on Ravelry
- moody_knitter on Instagram
Marushka Farms – Meet the Shepherdess
Marie Minnich of Marushka Farms
In our ‘Meet the Shepherdess’ segment, Marie Minnich talks about her conservation breeding techniques of the endangered American sheep breed Romeldale CVM. She has the largest flock in America at the moment and her focus is to keep a lot of healthy genetics available to other breeders.
Therefore Marie has a lot of rams in her flock and a lot of her fleeces and yarns are made from Rams wool.
Romeldale CVM Fleece
Romeldale CVM Fleece
Romeldale CVM sheep grow wonderful fleeces in many different shades. The grey fleeces range from a dark charcoal grey to a rose grey pictured above.
Romeldale CVM yarns in shades of greys
Although the lambing season is tough, there is a lot to laugh about!
You can find the interview with Deb Robson in Episode 23.
Patron Discount – Marushka Farms
Patrons get 15 percent off all yarns, roving and fleeces from Marushka Farms
Patrons get 15 percent off all yarns, roving and fleeces from Marushka Farms. Full details available here.
Finding Marushka Farms
- marushkafarms.com
- Marushka Farms on Facebook
Woolly Wormhead – Katara
Andrea showing off her finished Katara by Woolly Wormhead.
And there is another Woolly Wormhead hat under construction – Camden Cap.
Tiger by Martin Storey
The Tiger jumper for our niece Simba is now a joint work in progress. Andrew has delegated the knitting of the Tiger’s face to me.
Waldhotel- Der Forellenhof
Der Forellenhof in the Black Forest
To celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary Andrew and I spent a couple of days at this beautiful Hotel outside of the spa town Baden Baden, on the edge of the Black Forrest. This is an old German guest house with beautiful solid wood carvings around the lights inside.
Solid wood carvings depicting local scenes
We were wearing
- Andrew was wearing a modified Traigh by Jade Starmore
- Andrea was wearing Amaryllis by Marie Wallin.
- and Nightingale by Norah Gaughan in the interview with Tatsiana.
Music Credits
- J. S. Bach, The Well Tempered Klavier, Prelude No. 3 in C-Sharp major, BWV 848, performed by Kimiko Ishizaka, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
- Sláinte, Album: Cup of Tea, Mairi’s Wedding, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
- Shake That Little Foot, Pretty Little Dog, from the album Shake That Little Foot, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International
- Antonin Dvorak, Rusalka, Op. 114 – ‘Song to the Moon’, Performer Zaira Soria, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
- Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E Flat Major Eroica, Op. 55 – IV. Finale Allegro molto, Public Domain
Oh Andrea, I sympathised with your Camden Cap trauma!I suffered similarly with my attempt to use a water bottle, and found my answer in using the side of a plastic ice-cream container. I was able to successfully re-shape it by plunging in boiling water…..but then the closing of the pocket…..hmmmm…..I’m sorry to say it made me a little bit glad to find I wasn’t the only one! Like yours though, my cap is looking good now and I’m enjoying knitting the body.
Oh how I wish I’d watched this episode before knitting my Camden Cap. I sealed in my brim and then tortured it with the iron… The Cap is finished now but I need to somehow extract the brim and replace it with a new one.. any tips?
How do I enter the Crochet-long? I’m new to Fruity Knitting….
Hi Robyne. You can find the Crochet-along thread here.
Listening to the description of how hard it was to knit the brim pocket together with the stiffening inside, I wondered whether using a crochet hook rather than a third needle to do this would have made it easier.