A Garden of Shawls by Karen Whooley

A Garden of Shawls by Karen Whooley is the book we shared on Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird today, and crochet loveliness abounds!

Karen says: I learned to crochet at the age of 7. My Nonna (Italian for “grandmother”) taught me to crochet one summer when my younger sister and I were visiting with her.   Nonna didn’t teach me from patterns. Since she only could speak Italian, any pattern I brought her we used a magnifying glass and figured out the pattern from the photos.  I didn’t learn how to read a pattern until I taught myself in my teenage years from Leisure Arts booklets! Because I learned to crochet from photos and word-of-mouth, I have always been a designer.  Even when I could read a pattern, I always changed up the item, from construction to how it was edged, and even the stitch pattern. Just about everything I made was inspired by the patterns, not from the pattern directly. [Read more…]

Vogue Knitting’s Editor Trisha Malcolm

Vogue Knitting’s Editor Trisha Malcolm visited the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird. As one of the most well-known knitting periodicals, spending this kind of time with her can be precious.

Here are some trivia facts:

• Vogue Knitting is not affiliated with Vogue magazine. The articles in Vogue Knitting are better anyway!
• The magazine was started in 1932 and was relaunched in 1982, according to Wikipedia, currently celebrating 85 years since beginning and 35 since relaunching.
• Published by SoHo Publishing and distributed by Sterling Publishing Co. We’ve featured several of those companies books like the 60 Quick series and Nicky Epstein’s.
• Celebrating the milestones of Vogue Knitting, Kaffe Fassett was honored at this past January at VKLive New York with a Lifetime Achievement recognition.
• Cascade Yarns’ Knitterati afghan is also honoring the milestones of Vogue Knitting and their own 30th anniversary. Other yarn companies celebrating anniversaries include Maggieknits (40 years), Lopi and Koigu (both 25 years)
• Vogue Knitting Live was launched in 2011, and has visited various cities such as New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Pasadena, and Seattle. Also, just for fun Vogue Knitting Live DESTINATIONS are smaller more intimate, the next is Camden, Maine with Mary Jane Mucklestone (April 27-30). Just a week later is another at Imperial Stock Ranch, in Maupin, Oregon with Lorilee Beltman (May 5-8).

Many of these things have been mentioned in past episodes of the Yarn Thing podcast, it’s so nice to bring them full circle. Trisha shared with Marly the first VKLive in 2010, then came back to share more with us in 2011 and in 2012 to share the 30th anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting.

If you missed getting to watch this live, the video is still available on Marly’s Facebook page.