admin, Author at Marly Bird

Creation Crochet

September 2, 2014 By admin 11 Comments

Creation Crochet is the featured subject, Lorene Eppolite was kind enough to join Marly to let us know what’s going on with her!

Lorene is relatively new to crocheting, only 5 years ago, taught herself. She sold finished products and was approached for patterns. Two years ago, she started her website Cre8tion Crochet https://www.cre8tioncrochet.com/ and publishing patterns. At this point her finished products have completely gone away!

She works from home now (raising her kids) and finds most of her designing happens at night. Her best designs and most popular are those that she just picked up a crochet hook and yarn and went to work as the idea strikes her.

Writing the patterns is still a challenge for her, but one that she meets well as is obvious by the quantity of her patterns listed in Ravelry and even as her skills improve finds a need to go back and tweak the older ones.

The Owl Stuffy has become the most favorited in Ravelry. Toys aren’t generally her favorite but these fun little guys are cheerful and bright. Perhaps that’s why they are so popular, with their friendly expressions! Well, the fact that it’s a free pattern can’t hurt either…

Lorene has become the Crochet Designer of choice for A Darn Good Yarn. Her patterns so far include hats and scarves made of their wonderful recycled fibers. Follow that website, too, to see the new patterns as Lorene creates and they are published there.

One thing that was cool to hear on the program is that Lorene considers’ Laurinda Redding a mentor. Coincidentally, Laurinda will be a guest on the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird later this month!

Crochet Expert and Author Kim Guzman

August 26, 2014 By admin 16 Comments

KimGuzmanprofile — Kim Guzman, aka Crochet Kim

Crochet Expert and Author Kim Guzman was one of the earliest guests on the Yarn Thing with Marly Bird Podcast so it’s a special time to reconnect and get caught up with Kim again!

KimGFeltedhat — Kim Guzman’s Stockinette Felted Hat

Grandma taught her to crochet granny squares (no pun intended) which was not what Kim wanted to learn to make at age 8. She was inspired to take up crocheting the beautiful doilies around Grandma’s house. In 1998, she joined a group online and started submitting patterns. At that point she started her website also. She followed Carol Alexander (now editor of Crochet World magazine) and Brenda Stratton’s encouragement and personally followed them around a trade show and watched them submit work to Annie’s Attic and Coats & Clark. One of her submissions went to Annie’s Attic which was Christmas Tree skirts of thread, which turned into (surprisingly to her) a book, which has become twelve books with them.

She is really inspired by Tunisian crochet. She finds it can look like knitting or crochet or weaving…. and everything a person could do with any of those, could do it with tunisian crochet. She loves felting with her Tunisian crochet fabric. Her Stockinette Felted Hat (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stockinette-hat-felted-version) demonstrates how well it works up as a fabric. Her newest with Annies Attic is Learn Double Ended Tunisian Crochet which uses the needles that have a crochet hook at both ends.

She has classes with Crochetville and a video channel on YouTube as well as Annies Attic. Her philosphy is that she just wants to make pretty things and she wants to teach others to make pretty things, too.

Kim Guzman’s website is: https://kimguzman.com/, but you can find her on Twitter and Facebook, too, where she posts not just about her crochet adventures, but also about her garden and cooking.

What is Marly Bird Doing These Days

August 21, 2014 By admin 26 Comments

What is Marly Bird Doing These Days became the theme when today’s guest was unavailable. Marly let me (Tammy) call in and just dip my toes in ‘Marly World’.

Marly and Tammy recently at Stitches Midwest (Marly's picture) — Marly and Tammy recently at Stitches Midwest (Marly’s picture)

I got to ask her, because people do wonder and sometimes they will ask me: What is Marly working on these days?

Marly has been super inspired by Outlander and the simple designs seen in the program. Working with the colorways from Bijou Basin Ranch and the natural textures of Green Mountains Spinnery have given her lots of creative ideas. I mentioned that her recently published Nottingham Sweater was created in Green Mountain Spinnery yarns and was a well received design. She also used their yarn for her men’s saddle-shoulder design Cobalt Cables

We got a little distracted in stories of ‘how to quit smoking’….

There was a big secret Marly has coming up, I won’t post here, but listeners have something to look forward to it…..

In the meantime, Marly has recently spent a lot of time filming segments for her YouTube video channel. We think that you will want to subscribe to the channel, even though there hasn’t been any videos posted yet. We find that subscribers are the first to know when videos are posted and that you will want to be the first to know when her videos are posted too. This is the link in YouTube for Marly’s Channel.

MarlyBird.ErinLanebag — This is Tammy’s Marly Bird Bag (which promises to be the premier edition of more to come!) from Erin Lane bags. The project currently inside it is Marly’s pattern Wildberry Wrap, single crochet entrelac. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wildberry-wrap

We spoke about upcoming guests we are looking forward to: Marly mentioned Joji Knits who has a wonderful website. She will be calling in from Argentina on September 9th. Marly and I are tickled that Pepperberry Knits be on the show September 4th, because they are local to me, but Marly attempted to get to know them at TNNA and their booth was packed! Marly would like to have The Plucky Knitter, Fresh from the Cauldron, I admired how busy the Verdant Gryphon booth was at Stitches Midwest, and we both loved Miss Babs and their booth was always popular also!

We LOVE Erin Lane Bags! This is my bag I purchased (limited edition) at Stitches Midwest and we are also excited about Kristin Omdahl fabrics in the Erin Lane Bags.

Marly has had several patterns published and pieces in upcoming issues of Love of Crochet and Love of Knitting magazines, under the F + W house now. Prime Publishing is another group that Marly is looking forward to learning from.
We also shared Marly’s recent family addition, Penny. Gotta love the Rescue Dogs!

Slipped Stitch Studios Project Bags

August 19, 2014 By admin 38 Comments

Slipped Stitch Studios Project Bags, owner Laura Lundy met Marly on a plane trip (to Ohio for a TNNA event) have a chance to visit and allow us to eavesdrop on their ‘catching up’.

Laura learned to knit when she and a co-worker dropped in at a learn to knit class at a yarn store. The instructor’s critique of her knitting style really spurred her to be a success at the new skill. That was about 10 years ago. In the following years she has become a mommy to two kids and begun her business, Slipped Stitch Studios (website: https://www.slippedstitchstudios.com/). Last fall, she learn to sew. As she studied her project bags and realizing what she liked and didn’t like so much, she began creating new bags that she could market.

She has worked hard to have a new bag each year for Madrona and Stitches West. Slipped Stitch Studios creates new bags and buttons each month. Pattern Wallets has become a favorite product for herself and crafters alike. Marly’s favorite and Laura’s most popular product are the two skein bags. Bag of the Month (or BOM as referred to in the Ravelry group (link to the group: https://www.ravelry.com/groups/slipped-stitch-studios) has also been a popular way to collect per a favorite genre. It began with Dr. Who, and has progressed to Alice in Wonderland (the current one) through Jane Austen and a zombie version of Jane Eyre. Each collection includes all kinds of fun things like stitch markers and tool tins, perhaps a skein of yarn in a matching colorway. Some items can be purchased as add-ons, but there are items that are tossed in as a ‘Surprise’. All given a great deal of thought and possibly put together by hand in very unconventional ways….

Felicia Lo of Sweet Georgia Yarns

August 14, 2014 By admin 36 Comments

Felicia Lo of Sweet Georgia Yarns was our Guest on Yarn Thing with Marly Bird, and got everyone in the live chat room got all drooly over her yarn colors!

Felicia called in from her home in Vancouver, British Columbia. She reminisced with us that she began to knit in grade school and actually sent away for a pamphlet to learn how. When her family went shopping, she would head to a discount department store that had yarn in and admire the needles. She knit her first sweater the year before high school of acrylic (still has it!). Made transition into sewing while in high school and didn’t pick up knitting again until a friend announced she was going to have a baby. Visiting Urban Yarns (Local Yarn Store in that area) and finding all the special yarns, and then Knit-a-Longs….

Felicia starting writing her blog almost ten years ago, in 2004. The next year she discovered spinning, started with a drop spindle and then bought a spinning wheel. At the time, the fiber for spinning available to her was natural white, so she made the next step to dying her yarns, all the while blogging about her experiences. The bright colors of Kool-aid dying to acid dying as made Sweet Georgia Yarns an attractive product!

The Sweet Georgia Website is: https://www.sweetgeorgiayarns.com/ DON’T FORGET THE YARN IN THERE! The yarn bases that are chosen with a lot of thought put into how it will wear after you’ve spent all the time to create your garment. However, even in the same pot, yarns will absorb the dye differently. They skeins can be broken up by alternating (Felicia is currently alternating four skeins in a project) but the variations create a unique piece that defines hand-crafting.

The palette of colors below is a sample of the variety available as fiber to spin into sock yarn! CLICK HERE to check out the Sweet Georgia Yarns Panda line. (Chosen to only to demonstrate, you MUST go to the website to see all the lines which are so beautiful!)

Patterns are offered through the website for us to see what Sweet Georgia Yarns can do, but are not automatically chosen or included when you purchase the yarn, because Felicia wants to see what you’ll create! There have been designers working with them and they have a new e-book coming out in the fall. There are also Yarn Clubs, currently Sweet Georgia Yarns is accepting Memberships in the Sock Yarn Club (that’s the link) and there will be a Lace Club which closes December 31st.

Craftsy has a class offering for you with Felicia Lo called Spinning Dyed Fibers and have given a code to Marly for her listeners. As a sponsor of the Yarn Thing podcast, using this code shows Craftsy they picked the RIGHT podcast to support! https://www.craftsy.com/ext/MarlyBird_97_CP

Lace Knitting Expert Anna Dalvi (Mystery Knit Alongs)

August 12, 2014 By admin 23 Comments

ADShapingShawls — Anna Dalvi’s first published book SHAPING SHAWLS was published by Cooperative Press in 2011

Anna Dalvi, Author and Designer — Anna Dalvi

Lace Knitting Expert Anna Dalvi (Mystery Knit Alongs) today’s guest on the Yarn Thing Podcast with Marly Bird takes Mystery and Lace knitting and mixes it just so.

Just home from Sweden (Marly just wrapped up Stitches Midwest, so they are both a bit jet-lagged) called in from Ottawa. She began knitting when very young and enjoyed it as a teenager. In her 30’s, her daughter asked her to teach her when she realized her bus driver was a knitter. Daughter made a scarf, Mom made an afghan and found it fueled her to create more.

Mystic Waters was Anna Dalvi's first design for her popular Mystery Knit-a-Long. — Mystic Waters: Anna Dalvi’s first design for her popular Mystery Knit-a-Longs

She was invited to a Mystery Knit-a-Long (or MKAL) back in 2007 in a Yahoo Group (before she became a member of Ravelry) and enjoyed it. She decided to create one, too, and 1,400 people joined up with her first one! She enjoys it and the camaraderie that working as a group on something naturally creates. Marly asked if she produces a design as the MKAL progresses (a good question for someone that’s not done one) but Anna says she has finished the design and the pattern is written before it’s the MKAL has begun. Most of her designs are well-known lace shawls. MKALs lend themselves naturally to shawls because there is no worry about fit, (and a little flexibility with gauge) and lace patterns can be broken up and blend themselves when broken into chapters.

Anna submitted her designs for publication and began to consider trying to publish her patterns herself when she began conversing with Shannon Okey at Cooperative Press. Since then, she has had three books published. The newest book MYSTIC SHAWLS (Ravelry link to view the patterns) is a charted pattern collection of all the knitted lace shawls she’s created for her MKALs, with a few updates but of various shapes and sizes but all absolutely beautiful.

She has another Knit-a-Long, The MYSTIC OCEAN SHAWL KAL starts this Thursday. Information about that can be found in her Ravelry Group and at her website. There are about 300 signed up already! Anna sees no end in her future for MKALs as she loves seeing what others create and how we all get through a challenge together.

Anna’s website is https://www.knitandknag.com/ where you can connect with whatever is new and cool with her, in her blog, Knit-a-Longs and patterns.

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