Dark Matter Knits with Elizabeth Green Musselman opened our PODCASTER NOVEMBER on the Yarn Thing with Marly Bird.

Elizabeth started knitting at about age 12. Her mother always knit and never attempted to teach her daughter until her daughter asked. She  started with a sweater that never was finished, of mohair/acrylic blend with aluminum needles…  It wasn’t until graduate school, that she took it up again, to be productive and not read or researching… Elizabeth’s studies lead her to be a history professor, mostly she liked to study the history of science. Once she made her way to the being chair of her department, found she was dissatisfied with any future progress she could make. With becoming a mom, priorities weren’t the same anymore. She says she’s ‘cobbled together’ designing and freelance work since leaving academia behind.

Elizabeth acquired skills as a graphic designer a long the way, which came in handy. At one point the LYS has a visit with Shannon Okey and the owner asked Elizabeth if she would take care of Shannon. Spending time with her and talking to her about what she wanted to do turned out to be an incredibly lucky meeting, as the day that Elizabeth left college life, Shannon asked if she would be her assistant. At first it was just taking care of things that made Shannon’s projects overwhelming but it progressed to lay out of publications, book designs.

Podcasting began when she was inspired by the Cast-On podcast (which recently ended) and Craftlit (guest on our next week show) but the thought of post-production was overwhelming. In fact she had experience with creating a video podcast. She does try to make a theme throughout the episode, sharing what she works on and helpful techniques, including recently adding yarn reviews.  She shared that she uses the camera and microphone on her computer as she wants the simplicity of just sitting down to record. The post-production is the challenge as it’s a lot of work but invariably something goes wrong and then people can’t download the episode.

Her own designs were formed as filling a need for the guys in Elizabeth’s life. Most men and boys designs are a bit conservative and her men and boys were fairly adventurous. She began creating for magazine’s and books who asked her specifically for a contributions for male audience. Her recent publication Kung Fu Knits was formed of a desire to incorporate what a boy would want to wear. In fact, her son’s teacher at his dojo is a comic book artist. So, it seems a great collaboration was meant to me. The collection includes the complete Gi, the jacket, the pants, the belt, nunchuks, throwing stars and a bag to keep it all neat and together for lessons. Or adventures, which ever happens first. The bag, Elizabeth says, will be featured in a segment for Knitting Daily TV, sort of a zippered one-strap over the shoulder, not really for large loads likes books, but gear and lunch, of Berroco Vintage.

You may wish to follow Dark Matter Knits adventures by following the Group in Ravelry and to listen to this awesome podcast with Elizabeth’s smooth voice and great knitting tidbits you’ll want to bookmark or subscribe (available in iTunes too!) this is the blog link and the episode links will be there, too:  https://darkmatterknits.wordpress.com/

Soleful Socks with Betty Salpekar (a Visionary Author),  was the guest on Yarn Thing with Marly Bird.

Betty says she can’t remember never not knitting. She thinks she learned when very young as a way for her mother to keep her entertained while suffering all those childhood deceases we now have immunizations against. Beginning with doll clothes and toys. In Junior High, the Home Economics teacher was impressed with her mittens when all that was expected was a scarf.

While expecting her first child, on PBS, she caught Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Busy Knitter program. She swatched all the patterns that interested her in EZ books that she could get ahold of. Those swatches became tree ornaments at Christmas time that are still used, but what she remembers was the fascinating ways knitting can happen.

She feels that her mother and Elizabeth Zimmerman were her teachers originally, but finds inspiration from Barbara Walker and a lot of more recent designers. Socks, however, were not a motivation as socks are easy to purchase. UNTIL she won some sock yarn in a contest, so she knit a pair and realized once she wore them WHY people knit socks. After a while she wanted to reinforce her socks and to replace the sole of the sock when they wear out, and began to experiment with various cast-ons, grafting, increases and decreases, working away from what she found ‘fiddly’ toward a more intuitive construction.

A huge boost to her designing career happened when Betty took home the big prize from XRX in a contest for sock designs. She submitted a few designs but the won that was picked as the Grand Prize winner were her Leopard Socks feature a hidden message inside the cuff that reads, G-R-R-R NICE KITTY? and an innovative sole that can be replaced when they are worn out. The spots on the socks are created with 2-color stranding and spot dying. We can see why they were chosen and the pattern as published in the book that spotlights many of the socks in that contest, Think Outside the Socks, published by XRX in 2010. 

At the time that she won, she met Cat Bordhi who invited her to her Visionary retreat.  This is an invitation only event, a think-tank atmosphere, where talented people collaborate to create publications to further the creative design process. Cat’s program gave her focus, she says, to buckled down, learning computer programs that she at first found overwhelming. Others in the visionary group have been a big help that keep her moving forward with confidence.  https://www.unicornbooks.com/visionaryauthors.asp 

Her new book Soleful Socks, Knitting from the Ground Up features many creative socks that continue her unique sole design. The Trellis technique makes Betty especially excited to share, Marly loved the colored numbers in the instructions. The work of the printer of the book will be appreciated by the readers and project makers who pick it up. Check out the patterns listed in Ravelry that are featured in the book.