Tutorials • Blog Posts
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The Story of a Yarn: Tunis
Screenshot from Leatherwood Creek Farm I’m excited to share the next yarn I’ve been learning about for my “From Pasture to Needle: The Story of a Yarn” series. This time we focused on the Tunis sheep breed and some Tunis 3-ply worsted from Leatherwood Creek Farm in Pulaski, Tennessee. Sherri, my co-host on the Geminate podcast, picked this one for…
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The Story of a Yarn: Cactus Hill Farm
I’m excited to share the next yarn for the “Story of a Yarn” series. This time we focused on Worsted Merino yarn from Cactus Hill Farm about 25 miles south of Alamosa, Colorado. Cactus Hill Farm is a certified organic farm. They offer raw fleeces, yarns, and roving raised on Cactus Hill. Cactus Hill Farm is a…
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The Story of a Yarn: Cunnington Farms Fibers
I’m excited to share the next yarn for the “Story of a Yarn” series. This time we focused on Cunnington Farms Fibers near Moab, Utah. Cunnington Farms Fibers is located in Red Rock country near Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. The area is beautiful with red rocks and blue, blue skies. Sam Cunnington runs the…
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Why Slow Fashion Is Important
In a recent Geminate podcast episode, Sherri and I spent some time talking about the problems with Fast Fashion and why Slow Fashion is important. I enjoyed our conversation about this. And I’ve been thinking a lot about the issue. I’m sharing some of what I’ve learned here. Screenshot of the book cover. Fast Fashion and the waste…
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The Story of a Yarn: Gulf Coast Native
I’m excited to share the next yarn I’ve been learning about for my “Story of Yarn” series. This time we focused on the Gulf Coast Native sheep breed and some worsted weight yarn from the Sand Hill Thicket homestead in northeastern Kansas. Sherri, my co-host on the Geminate podcast, picked this one for us to discuss next…
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Adding Thumbs!
Whenever I design a new boot topper pattern, I release the pattern in several sizes from Child to Adult Large. And I usually get at least one message from a test knitter that mentions how great the smaller sizes would fit as fingerless mitts….except the boot toppers are not written with directions for a thumb…
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Rogue Knitting! Or How to Decide Which Size Knitting Needle to Use
First, let me say that the suggested knitting needle sizes in a pattern are ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS a suggestion. The size of needles that a knitter might need changes drastically for a lot of different reasons. The type of yarn, the type of needle, your mood, the weather, and the stitches you are knitting can…
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The Story of a Yarn: Peace Fleece
I’m excited to share the next yarn I’ve been learning about for my “From Pasture to Needle: The Story of a Yarn” series. This time I’m focusing on the DK/Sport weight Peace Fleece yarn. Spoiler alert – I love this yarn! Swatching this yarn for research was so much fun that I cast on a new…
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Field Trip: Watkins Mill
For season 4 of the Geminate podcast, we are diving deeper into the story of yarn from our area and beyond! And we’re including a few field trips to local fiber-related locations. We took our first field trip in May to the Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site! The Watkins Woolen Mill historic site is part of Watkins…
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Tutorial: Attached I-Cord Neckline
The applied I-cord neckline that I use on many of my patterns differs slightly from a more traditional one. I want to share a bit here about how I do it on my patterns. Most of my tutorials include both photos and a video of the process. For this one, I made a longer 3-minute…