Check out the Power Purls Podcast to Learn about the Business of Knitting

I have to admit I’m not much of a podcast listener. I want to do better because I know there’s a lot of great content out there, but it’s hard for me to listen to words while I’m writing words, and I just haven’t made myself sit and knit while listening, which would probably work better.

But I want to try. I’d love to hear about podcasts that you love, but right now I want to share a new podcast with you that I really want to listen to regularly.

It’s called Power Purls, and its produced by Kara Gott Warner, who is the executive editor of Creative Knitting magazine, previously a freelance designer, editor and technical illustrator who has a great depth of knowledge about knitting and the business of knitting.

The podcast launched today, will include a new interview each day for the first week, and will then become a biweekly podcast focusing on stories from the business, including chats with designers, yarn company people and knitters of all stripes.

She says in the welcome message for the podcast that she wants to provide empowering and encouraging stories from the business and help listeners to “be a scrappy designer so you can stay in business doing what you love.”

This is such a great idea for a podcast because we knitters are spread out all over and trying to make a living in a lot of different ways. It isn’t always easy to connect with other knitters and talk about the business and learn best practices, so I think this will be super useful for knitters who are looking to become designers and designers who want to have better, more sustainable businesses. And just for knitters who are interested in knowing what goes into knitting magazines and other publications and who want to be more mindful knitters.

I mention all this because I’m going to be on the podcast, probably in December, but I don’t want you to wait until then to check it out.

If you do go give it a listen (as I write there is an interview with Tricia Malcom of Vogue Knitting and an “Ask Kara and Tabitha Anything” with Tabitha Hedrick of Sweet Georgia Yarns, talking about design proposals) I’d love to know what you think!

Next Pattern:

It’s been well documented that I love a knitting pattern with a bit of whimsy, so when I saw the Mine! Pullover from Sarah L. Kelly recently I knew I had to share it with you.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to knit a sweater with a yoke full of seagulls? And another seagull at the waist? Chasing little crabs?

The story behind the sweater (and you knew there had to be one, right?) is that while Sarah was traveling around Europe there were a lot of cheeky seagulls about. They reminded her of the scene in Finding Nemo where the seagulls say “mine, mine, mine” and thus the Mine! series of patterns was born.

Oh yes, there’s a whole set. It was the sweater I saw first but there’s also a pair of socks (and the pattern says there’s a cowl, too, but I couldn’t find it as of this writing. If you see it let me know and I’ll add the link here!) so you can totally deck yourself out in pesky seabirds if you want.

But back to the sweater for now. This is worked in DK weight yarn from the top down in the round. The yoke and a section at the bottom are worked in stranded colorwork, with stripes on the body, though you could make the body a single color if you wanted. Details like the beaks and eyes are added with duplicate stitch to make the knitting a little easier.

The colorwork sections are charted. The pattern comes in 10 sizes, with a finished chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 80 to 170 cm.

The socks are worked in sock yarn and come in three sizes. There worked from the cuff down and change needle sizes to accommodate the less stretchy nature of stranded colorwork. You can choose from a side profile or a seagull that’s looking out from the sock. Make a matching pair or mix it up.

Both patterns are available on Ravelry: sweater and socks. If you make them I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Sarah L. Kelly]

Next Pattern:

Comments

Have you read?