Ep. 166 contains a wonderfully international and varied program including some exciting news from Madeleine! Our feature interview is with Dr. Angharad Thomas. Angharad has spent decades researching glove knitting traditions and history which she shares in her book, A Knitter’s Guide to Gloves. From historic knitting in the cold Northern Hemisphere, we head to sunny Brisbane, Australia, where we feature Clare Sheng as our Knitter of the World. And in New Releases, Swiss designer Asita Krebs (Sidispinnt) presents her Moonshell Tee for the first time! On top of this, Madeleine and I share our own projects in Bring & Brag and Under Construction.
A Knitter's Guide to Gloves - Dr Angharad Thomas
During our UK trip last year, I interviewed Dr. Angharad Thomas, who has just published her book A Knitter’s Guide to Gloves. Angharad has spent decades researching glove knitting traditions, including the Yorkshire Dales gloves, the Scottish Sanquhar (sanker) gloves, and the beautifully intricate Estonian gloves.
With her background in teaching, Angharad also gives clear, step-by-step guidance in the book to help knitters recreate these traditional patterns, while still adding their own twist. She also takes us through the various constructions you can put into a glove from adding gussets in unexpected places to thumb placement!
Angharad also brought along a beautiful collection of traditional gloves, which were fascinating to see in person. There are some truly innovative techniques hidden in this historic knitting, and seeing them up close really makes you appreciate the skill of the knitters.
Finding Dr Angharad Thomas
- Book: A Knitter’s Guide To Gloves
- Ravelry: A Knitters Guide to Gloves
Moonshell Tee by Asita Krebs - New Releases
In New Releases, knitwear designer and Swiss Yarn Festival organizer Asita Krebs showcases her latest design, the Moonshell Tee: A gorgeous summer top featuring a twisted stitch lace hem. It’s designed specifically for our Fruity Knitting Sport (artisanfibres.com) and she chose the colourway Black Opal.
The top is worked bottom up and in the round starting with a pretty twisted stitch lace pattern around the hem. Once you reach the armholes, you divide for the front and back and eventually shape the shoulders using short rows. The top is meant to flow loosely around the sides of the body with a positive ease of 10-15 cm around the bust and no waist shaping.
We’re really grateful to Asita for choosing our yarn for her gorgeous summer top design! Madeleine is thinking of making this in our Wild Mint which would look really fresh and summery.
Finding Asita Krebs (Sidispinnt)
- Website: sidispinnt.ch
- Ravelry: Asita Krebs
- Instagram: @sidispinnt
- YouTube: @Sidispinnt
Support the Show
The Fruity Knitting Podcast is more than just a show where we sit on the couch and have a spontaneous knit & chat. It’s a full program featuring high-quality content: from tutorials and interviews to fun segments with passionate handcrafters and animal fibre farmers from around the world. We love what we do, and, at the same time, creating each episode takes a great deal of time, effort, and financial resources. So, if you enjoy this podcast, please help us continue this work by visiting patreon.com/fruityknitting and making a small monthly donation, starting at just 5 USD per month. Thank you for your support!
Patron Discount - Moonshell Tee by Asita Krebs
Asita Krebs is kindly offering Fruity Knitting patrons a 30% discount on the Moonshell Tee, which we’re really excited about. It’s knitted in a sport-weight yarn, and if you’d like to make it in our Fruity Knitting Sport, we have kits available on artisanfibres.com, with a link to Asita’s pattern included.
Bring & Brag (Madeleine's pregnant!)
Madeleine and Ryan are excited to announce that they are expecting a little baby boy! Madeleine is now half-way through her pregnancy and has already started knitting baby clothes. For her first baby project, she chose the adorable Baby Bear Bonnet by Knitting For Olive using our Fruity Knitting Sport in Kingfisher blue. You only need one ball of yarn for this project.
The construction was unexpected and a little confusing at first as the bonnet is knitted flat rather than in the round. But she got the hang of it once she started knitting. Overall, it’s a fast knit but uses a variety of fun techniques from kitchener stitch to German short rows. The end-result looks incredibly cute, so Madeleine is convinced she’ll make more of these in the future!
Knitters of the World - Clare Sheng from Brisbane, Australia
Clare has been knitting on-and-off since she was in primary school. Growing up in a Chinese-Australian household her family ran a tailoring business. Her mum tought Claire to knit just to keep her out of the way during school holidays! Claire eventually came back to knitting during Covid and discovered various great knitwear designers and the Fruity Knitting Podcast (yayy!). From there, she became obsessed with challenging herself to create beautiful tailored garments including the intricate Monoi Top by Marzena Kolaczek and Alice Starmore’s stunning Jane Seymour cardigan (see above for both).
Claire’s Mum, Ping, has a deep appreciation of knitting and gathered much experience in both knitting and tailoring, partly from studying this in Japan. Ping strongly believes in the importance of a great fit and this rubbed off on Claire. Ping’s advice is that if you’re going to invest hours into making something, always give it your best effort and use the highest quality materials you can afford.
Claire has also created her own designs! Her bomber jacket on the left was inspired by her wish to use some chunky sequin yarn and images on Pinterest. she complemented the pastel purple beautifully with a bright pink contrast colour. Special features include top-down construction with European shoulders, short rows for the shoulder shaping and a hand sewn zipper. Her next design “Knitting Queen” was inspired by a Christian Dior top she came across. She designed the lettering in Excel and added puffed sleeves. I love it!
Finding Clare Sheng
- Instagram: @clare_likes_to_knit
- Ravelry: CSheng
- YouTube: @Clare_likes_to_knit
Hayat Top by Zanete Knits - Under Construction
This June, we’re hosting our Austrian Alps Knitting Retreat with Zanete Knits teaching the workshops. Zanete has created a gorgeous new design in our Fruity Knitting Sport yarn range specifically for this retreat. It’s called Hayat Top and our participants will be receiving the pattern and our yarn to knit it as part of their gift bags!
I really adore this design, it’s so striking. The name, Hayat, comes from the Arabic word for life. Zanete describes it as a top that feels alive in its details. The pattern comes in both a short- and long-sleeve version, and she has used our White Opal as the main colour with Billabong as the contrast. During this episode, I talk in detail about the construction!
What we are wearing
Andrea is wearing her Lola Pullover by Claudia Quintanilla during the interview. Unfortunately, we can’t remember the name of the pattern Madeleine is wearing. So sorry!
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
- Through the Woodlands, performed by Métis Fiddler Quartet, from the album North West Voyage, released on 25.04.2012, ℗ 2012 Métis Fiddler Quartet Productions
- Seachange (Theme from the TV Series), from the album Seachange (Theme from the TV Series), released 9.8.2019, ℗ 2019 LilliPilli IP, Provided to YouTube by LilliPIlli IP
