Interweave Earth Day Bargains

It's Earth Day (please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't realise until I saw the Google homepage) and Interweave is having a sale on digital items (get it? because they're paperless).

Digital back issues and ebooks are on sale, but the big draw for me is $6.99 videos. That's only £4.65, a steal compared to their usual price.

I really appreciate Interweave's spinning videos because, for the ones I have watched at least, they cover the topics at great depth and the presenters are all very knowledgeable. They go beyond the basics and I really feel like I've ended up learning something new.

The Interweave Shop's search and filtering options leave something to be desired, so here are some of my recommendations:

Three Bags Full by Judith MacKenzie-McCuin is an absolute pleasure for anyone who enjoys processing raw fleece or wants to learn. Judith is a wonderful, calming, and extremely knowledgeable instructor and I would in fact recommend any of her videos.

The Gentle Art of Plying is another great video of Judith's. You might think you know it all, that plying is an elementary step in the creation of yarn -- far from it. Judith talks in great depth about a wider variety of topics within the field of plying than you even knew existed.

Rita Buchanan is sort of a polar opposite to Judith MacKenzie-McCuin, in terms of energy and presence. Where Judith is calm, Rita is energetic. Where Rita is lively and silly, Judith is tranquil and smooth. Both display a great passion for their crafts, and I love watching them both, though they are completely different.

Rita's In Praise of Simple Cloth video is not really instructional - It features techniques, but it's more of a conversation about lots of different aspects of crafting (spinning, weaving, knitting, and various other fibery bits). How I Spin is decidedly more instructional and full of a lot of interesting information. I have enjoyed watching and re-watching both of them, very much.


And what am I getting myself? Well, here's a few of the ones I'm picking up...
Spinning Cotton by Stephenie Gaustad, because I just re-discovered my charkha and would really love to weave myself some towels, pillowcases, a blouse...

Handwoven Garment Construction, to help me with the goal above once I've spun all that yarn

Make That Yarn, Reproducing Millspun Yarns - A topic that really piqued my interest when I heard about the video.

Respect the Spindle: The Video - I already have and enjoy the book, as well as Abby's other video on drafting (which I wholeheartedly recommend). Normally I wouldn't be sure if I would learn anything new from what is marketed as a basic video on spindles... but every time I watch or read something from Abby, I learn something new, so at this price I can't resist.

The sale ends on Friday the 24th, so I suggest picking up some bargains while you can.

~Joyuna

Wool and Necklines and Icing, oh my! Craftsy Mini-Classes

We just had a long bank holiday weekend in the UK, which gave me some time to kick back and catch up on my crafting. One thing I did was browse the Craftsy course offerings and sign up for a few new mini-courses.

My first introduction to Craftsy's mini-classes was Know Your Wool by Deb Robson - I've already raved about that in a previous post - simply a fabulous class, and I would have paid full money for it!

I'd also already watched Carol Feller's free Short Rows class, in addition to the full-size Craftsy classes I've taken including Curvy Knits and the Garment Grading class.

I signed up for two new mini-classes -- Creative Cabled Necklines and something a little different - Modern Buttercream.

The cabled necklines class is really interesting - again, I would have been happy to pay and watch a full-length class on this topic (the teacher does have another Craftsy class available, about designing cabled garments). It's about designing interesting necklines that complement the rest of your garment and help draw attention upwards towards your face.

The buttercream class I haven't watched yet, but hopefully I will learn something interesting :)

~Joyuna

Review: Sizing Knitwear Patterns class on Craftsy

The most challenging aspect of knitwear design, for myself at least, is sizing. Resources for grading patterns are not easy to find, so I try to absorb all the information I can from all the sources I can find.

With this in mind, I signed up for Sizing Knitwear Patterns taught by Faina Goberstein on Craftsy. The class contains all the information you need to grade a woman's sweater in a wide range of sizes.

Course Videos

In the video lessons that take up the majority of the class, Faina takes us through the grading of a sweater step-by-step. It starts with a basic guide to taking measurements or using standard measurements, moves on to teaching the basic Excel formulas used in the spreadsheet, and then the spreadsheet gets filled in row by row. All sections of a woman's sweater, knit flat in pieces and seamed, are covered - and the principles can easily be applied to knitting in the round seamlessly as well.

Read more »

Free Sheep Breeds class at Craftsy

In celebration of Wool Week, why not take a moment to get to know some sheep? Over the past few days I've been viewing Know Your Wool - a free class on Craftsy.

The class is taught by Deb Robson, one of the authors of the incredible Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook - so you can be sure she knows her stuff.

Deb's beloved Suffolk sheep. Source.
In the class, Deb gives a brief overview of different types of sheep, how they differ, and how to use them. The first few lessons of the class are great because they're entirely craft-agnostic -- whether you're a knitter, crocheter, spinner, weaver, or anything to do with yarn at all, they will be useful for you. Later lessons dealing with swatching and garments are more knitting-orientated, but the core concepts can still be extended to any fiber art.

Even if you don't spin - especially if you don't spin - this class should be useful & interesting to you, since it focuses on breed-specific yarns, and even has a section on how to find them through fiber festivals, local yarn stores, and online.

I found the class really informative and a great introduction to the world of sheep. It's great that it's free, on one hand, but on the other hand I would've gladly paid for a more in-depth look! I suppose the next video on my list should be Handspinning Rare Wools...

~Joyuna

My new Electric Skein Winder in action!

I'm all done winding my sock yarn off of the cones, and I took a video to show you just how awesome my electric skein winder is.
I'm seriously in love with it... I can wind three skeins at a time, and the bicycle odometer works like a charm.

My skein winder is the 1 1/2 yard, 3-at-a-time model from Crazy Monkey Creations. It was made to order, shipped fast, was well-packaged and easy to assemble. And it works wonderfully! I can't recommend them enough.

Now I'm going to have to buy some more cone yarn just to play with my awesome electric skein winder some more ;)
My cones are all empty, and I'm busy dyeing yarn. Pictures soon!

~Joyuna

The Knitting Song, by Sophie Madeleine

I came across this lovely little song. A sweet voice and a ukulele, from Sophie Madeleine. It's called, appropriately enough, The Knitting Song.

I'm going to knit myself a sweater.
A sweater that will keep me warm at night.
Just how many days here must I weather?
Just biding my time...
'cause when I call you on the phone,
I'm still lost, I'm still alone.
Who's going to make it right?

Because I need a little more than just some thought that I adore to keep me warm at night.

Her album is called "Love. Life. Ukulele."
(via Another Knitting Blog)

~Joyuna