Episode 78 – Sanquhar Gloves, Lambing & Japanese Knitting

You might be wondering from the title of this Episode 78 how Sanquhar Gloves, lambing and Japanese knitting all fit together.

Well they don’t, except to show you how incredibly varied the world of knitting is because that is the common thread. Sanquhar Gloves are very beautiful hand knitted Scottish gloves that date back to the late 1800’s. They were used for riding and driving horses and for playing the sport of Curling on ice. Our feature interview guest, Beth Brown Reinsel, is fascinated with the knitting techniques used in historical hand knitted garments and mittens that developed in Europe in the 19^th century. During  our interview she shows us a great collection of traditional garments and mittens, including the Scottish Sanquhar Gloves.

We are now at the end of May and every year, during spring time, lots of little lambs are born all around the world. This is an exhausting and intense time for shepherds as they work day and night to keep their flock healthy and happy and as the circle goes on, new fleeces are grown and we all knit with beautiful woolly yarn. We hear from two shepherdesses about what happens during their lambing season. It’s a fantastic segment. You will see a healthy little lamb being born and taking its first drink from mum.  And then we are going to Singapore to meet Bernice, our guest on Knitters of the World, who has been fascinated with Japanese knitting and yarns since the age of 6. We think it’s a great program and we really hope you enjoy it and of course on top of that we have two projects finished and two new projects started to show you.

Knitting Traditions with Beth Brown-Reinsel

Beth Brown-Reinsel from Vermont, is the author of the book Knitting Ganseys. Beth really loves to teach and her focus has been to teach knitters the techniques used in historical hand knitted garments and mittens that developed in Europe in the 19th century. Over the years she has created many workshops that are based on different traditional garments. Her students learn the special construction features and patterns by knitting a miniature sweater sample. During the interview Beth introduces us to a variety of these traditional garments and shows us how they are constructed.

Beth also talks about some Cast Ons that have been used for centuries and gives us a demonstration of the Braided Cast on.

Patron Discount – Knitting Traditions

Beth is offering Fruity Knitting Patrons a 25% discount off her self published patterns in her Ravelry store and a 15% discount off her knitting kits at her online shop which includes some of the lovely mittens and gloves you see above.

This offer is valid until 18 June 2019, Patrons can find full details here.

Finding Knitting Traditions and Beth Brown-Reinsel

• knittingtraditions.com
• Instagram
• Ravelry

Fleece & Harmony – Lambing

Kim and Jennifer are two sisters who run a sheep farm and spinning mill on Prince Edward Island, Canada.  We asked them to join us in this episode to talk about their life during the lambing season. We think it is a real privilege to see birth and many city folk don’t get this opportunity. That’s why we are so excited to share this segment with you all. It’s also interesting to know about some of the issues and struggles that shepherdesses have to deal with during this time because after all, that all happens before we get to knit with our lovely wool yarn. You will see a healthy little lamb being born and then nursing with mum and you’ll get to meet Rodger the bottle lamb below.

Unfortunately Rodgers mum didn’t want him which means he’s adopted Jennifer. Judging by all the love and attention he now gets, we think he’s a very lucky chap.

Kim and Jennifer have their own podcast, Fleece and Harmony Podcast, which I’m sure you will really enjoy checking out. They talk about their farm life as well as their knitting.

Patron Discount – Fleece & Harmony

Kim and Jennifer are offering Fruity Knitting Patrons a 15% discount off everything in their online store. They have recently brought out a great new sock yarn which is a combination of 80% wool and 20% mohair for extra strength. They have lace weight yarns, worsted, aran and bulky, all in a ton of different colours.

This offer is valid until 18 June 2019, Patrons can find full details here.

Finding Fleece & Harmony

• fleeceandharmony.com
• Instagram
• Facebook

Yamagara – Bernice Lim

Bernice,  who is living in Singapore, has been fascinated with Japanese knitting and yarns since the age of 6 when she was first given some yarn and needles. After working as an architect and art teacher she has returned to her fibre passion and has started designing. Many of our viewers ask us to recommend patterns for warm climates and we think you should keep your eye on Bernice’s work. Although she is fairly new to designing she has already created some stunning garments.

Patron Discount – Yamagara – Bernice Lim

Bernice is offering Fruity Knitting Patrons a 25% discount off her self published patterns. Her new pattern Luberon is now available, and Lariat will be released on 1 June and will also have a 25% discount for our patrons when they are released into her Ravelry store. This offer is valid until 18 June 2019, Patrons can find full details here.

Finding Yamagara

• yamagara on Ravelry
• yamagara on Instagram

Tiger Pullover by Martin Storey

This was a relaxing project for me, just practicing my stocking stitch and back stitch seaming. As a good project manager, I delegated the tricky bits to Andrea and I’m very glad I did after I saw what she did with it. Andrea combined normal stranded knitting with the ladderback jacquard technique to knit the Tiger’s face. The ladder back jacquard technique taken from machine knitting, allows you to create invisible stranding behind long sections of a single colour by using extra hidden stitches. Sometimes when you use the normal technique of trapping the floats, you can get the colour of the floats showing through. The ladderback technique helps prevent this.

• Tiger Pullover by Martin Storey

Camden Cap by Woolly Wormhead

It’s finished and looking good!

• Camden Cap by Woolly Wormhead
• Interview with Woolly Wormhead in Episode 75

New Projects

Miura Cowl by Olga Buraya-Kefelian

Andrew has started the Miura Cowl by Olga Buraya-Kefelian. Olga has over 180 designs available on Ravelry, and her fascination for geometry and architecture shows through in many of them, including the Miura Cowl. The cowl is named after the Japanese astrophysicist, Koryo Miura, who developed a pattern of folding based on a tessellation of parallelograms which allows rigid material to be folded into a compact form and then unfolded easily for use. His technique has found application in solar panels for satellites, surgical devices and flat-pack furniture.

Andrea has start Jennifer Beale’s Saint Lunaire-Griquet

We were wearing

• Andrew was wearing the Guido design by Carlo Volpi, knitted in the now discontinued Rowan Revive yarn. This yarn was made from recycled garments, in a mix of cotton, silk and viscose. We talked about this project in From the Archives way back in Episode 7.
• Andrea was wearing Hearten by Kim Hargreaves during the episode and Sculpted Frost by Linda Marveng during the interview.

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
• Henry Eccles, Violin Sonata in G minor, II. Courante, performed by Thrax, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
• Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70, 1 – Allegro Moderato, performed by the US Army Strings, Public Domain