Episode Twelve - In Which I'm Reading a Doorstop of a Novel

Welcome to episode twelve of "Stitching Between Pages"! I hope you enjoy watching, and thank you for checking it out.

Please get in touch!

Ravelry Group: Stitching Between Pages Podcast

Ravelry: halfpass92

Twitter: @medievalisting

Instagram: medievalisting

FO:

1. Vanilla socks. Knit in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-Ply in the "Blue Tit" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm HiyaHiya Sharps DPNs.

WIPs:

1. Vanilla socks. Knit in Fibernymph Dyeworks in the "Rainbow Riot" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm HiyaHiya Sharps DPNs.

2. "Strand Hill Cardigan," by Keya Kuhn. Knit in KnitPicks Stroll, "Dogwood Heather" colorway. Knit on US8/5.00mm ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel, 32" circular.

3. "Campside" shawl, by Alicia Plummer. Knit in Loop Studio in the "Charcoal" colorway. Knit on US7/4.5mm Knitters Pride Karbonz.

Spinning:

No spinning this time... sad!

Pretty New Yarn:

1. Patons Kroy Socks in the "Ragg Shades" colorway

Books:

1. The Knowledgeable Knitter, by Margaret Radcliffe

2. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: A Novel, by Susanna Clarke

In My Notions Pouch:

1. Notions pouch is a cute little bag from Mabel + Bird (not on Etsy, but BigCartel).

2. My crane scissors were purchased at Darn It & Stitch, a lovely haberdashery shop in Oxford on Blue Boar Street right in the city centre.

3. My Herdy tape measure is super cute and handy. Check out the website, they have all kinds of nifty stuff with that cute sheep logo!

4. My John James Pebble is amazing. They have different Pebbles with other sorts of needles, too -- sewing and embroidery, etc.

5. Stitch markers, including Clover brand, an unknown brand with the marble-y pattern, and some from Dani's Etsy shop, Little Bobbins.

6. Spare DPNs, ChiaoGoo US1/2.25mm.

7. Susan Bates E4/3.50mm crochet hook.

8. Clover Gold Eye Embroidery Needles (no. 3-9).

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:
1. The embroidery project I'm working on is from I Heart Stitch Art on Etsy. I'm sewing it on some linen blend fabric using DMC floss. The name I was trying to come up with for the thing over the back fender is "rat trap."

2. Crafty Bastards is a really cool annual (September-time) craft fair in Washington, DC. It used to be held up in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, but recently moved to the Union Market in NoMa. If you're in the area, I definitely recommend going! Kismet Fiber Works was there last year, and there are always so many cool makers and people and stuff.

Episode Eleven - In Which We're In An Uproar (But First, Coffee.)

Welcome to episode eleven of "Stitching Between Pages"! I hope you enjoy watching, and thank you for checking it out.

Please get in touch!

Ravelry Group: Stitching Between Pages Podcast

Ravelry: halfpass92

Twitter: @medievalisting

Instagram: medievalisting

FOs:

1. "Red Robin Shawl," by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. Knit in The Wool Barn Luxury Sock in the "Bunting" colorway. Knit on US6/4.00mm HiyaHiya Sharps, 32" fixed circular.

2. "Reyna" shawl, by Noora Laivola. Knit in Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply in the "Coffee Break" colorway. Knit on US4/3.50mm Knitter's Pride Karbonz, 40" circular.

WIPs:

1. Vanilla socks. Knit in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-Ply in the "Blue Tit" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm HiyaHiya Sharps DPNs.

2. "Strand Hill Cardigan," by Keya Kuhn. Knit in KnitPicks Stroll, "Dogwood Heather" colorway. Knit on US8/5.00mm ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel, 32" circular.

3. "Campside" shawl, by Alicia Plummer. Knit in Loop Studio in the "Charcoal" colorway. Knit on US7/4.5mm Knitters Pride Karbonz.

4. Granny square crochet blanket.

Spinning:

1. I've begun spinning up a YarnRescue Polwarth braid in the gorgeous "Eggplant" colorway. It's a 4.2oz braid, 100% Polwarth. I'm spinning it on my Schacht Hi-Lo spindle.

2. I finished my first ever handspun skein! It's the Cephalopod Yarns Bugga! Fiber in the "Ursula" colorway. It ended up being about 2.6oz, and I am pretty sure that I have about 220 yards.

Books:
1. Snow, by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Maureen Freely

2. The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:

1. Thank you again to the Two Tangled Skeins podcast for including me on their awesome list of knitting podcasts! I'm in fabulous company on that list and it is such an honor.

2. The Rose City Rollers socks, designed by Mara Catherine Bryner, are super cute.

3. I remembered where I won the cherry zipper pull! It was from a drawing at Crafty Bastards, which is a really cool annual (September-time) craft fair in Washington, DC. It used to be held up in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, but recently moved to the Union Market in NoMa. If you're in the area, I definitely recommend going! Kismet Fiber Works was there last year, and there are always so many cool makers and people and stuff.

4. Check out the #sockblanketmadness tag on Instagram, started by WoolDiaries. I did not end up adding my 9 squares to my blanket, unfortunately; I just did not have enough hours in the day! But it was so inspiring to see others' blankets and squares and yarns in the tag.

5. If anyone was intrigued, Kars is located in northeast Turkey, on the border with Armenia. It has changed hands quite a few times throughout its history. The Turkish word for snow (the title of the novel by Orhan Pamuk) is "kar." GoodReads has a list of books by Turkish authors, though Orhan Pamuk's name is the only one that I know.

6. Some famous (and lovely!) DC independent bookstores include Kramerbooks, Politics & Prose, and Busboys & Poets.

7. The Bishop's Garden at Washington National Cathedral is a truly lovely spot. The entryway to the garden is a 12th-century Norman arch, and my favorite part of the garden is the herb garden, the "hortulus" ("little garden" in Latin). The inspiration for the hortulus was 9th-century monastic gardens, and the sources for plants and layout include the poem "Hortulus" by Abbot Walahfrid Strabo of Reichenau and the garden layouts in the St. Gall Plan. I was also not entirely wrong: there was indeed a Greek geographer (as well as philosopher and historian) named Strabo, who lived from 63 or 64 BCE to 24 CE in Turkey.

8. The Postal Museum is a fun place to spend a couple of hours. They have on display a block of four Inverted Jenny stamps, which were printed in 1918. The stamps have a face value of 24 cents, but are now valued at $977,500 apiece; there are only 100 in existence.

9. The oldest item in the Postal Museum's collection is a 1390 Silk Road letter. The Silk Road was a network of land and sea trade routes throughout Asia, the Middle East, and into Europe, connecting people and cultures across a vast amount of space and permitting the exchange of goods and ideas. UNESCO has a neat online portal for the Silk Road. (It was only when I was googling "Silk Road" to find a good link to include for anyone looking for more information that I remembered that "the Silk Road" is also the name of an online black market for the sale of illegal drugs; I am definitely not talking about that Silk Road!)

10. Medieval textiles are fascinating! Expensive silks, brocades, and other fabrics were symbols of status and luxury. There is a cool online exhibit of examples of extant medieval clothing worn by famous people - the chemise of Louis IX (St Louis), for example. Medievalists.net has a good brief description of various fabric terms used during the middle ages. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a great article on early modern silk production (c. 1600-1800) that touches on the silk industry that arose in Tours, France, in the late middle ages. This article, also from the Met, talks about the changing depictions of the Virgin Mary in the medieval period, but the paintings that they include in the article show some beautiful textiles.

Episode Ten - In Which I Feel Like We're Growing Up!

Welcome to episode ten of "Stitching Between Pages"! I hope you enjoy watching, and thank you for checking it out.

Please get in touch!
Ravelry Group: Stitching Between Pages Podcast
Ravelry: halfpass92
Twitter: @medievalisting
Instagram: medievalisting

FO:
1. "Castle Socks," using the "Vanilla Bean Socks" pattern by Emily O'Grady. Knit in KnitPicks Felici in the "Wizard" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel DPNs.

WIPs:
1. Vanilla socks. Knit in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-Ply in the "Blue Tit" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm HiyaHiya Sharps DPNs.
2. "Reyna" shawl, by Noora Laivola. Knit in Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply in the "Coffee Break" colorway. Knit on US4/3.50mm Knitter's Pride Karbonz, 40" circular.
3. "Strand Hill Cardigan," by Keya Kuhn. Knit in KnitPicks Stroll, "Dogwood Heather" colorway. Knit on US8/5.00mm ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel, 32" circular.

Spinning:
Getting ready to 2-ply my Cephalopod Yarns Bugga! Fiber in the "Ursula" colorway. Spun on my Schacht Hi-Lo spindle.

Pretty New Yarn (& Fiber!):
1. Bumblebirch Wellspring 3-ply fingering, "Cranberry" colorway
2. Regia Arne & Carlos Design Line, colorway 03654
3. Dragonfly Fibers Polwarth Silk fiber, "Walkin' on the Sun" colorway

Books:
1. Red Joan, by Jennie Rooney
2. John the Pupil: A Novel, by David Flusfeder
3. Respect the Spindle: Spin Infinite Yarns with One Amazing Tool, by Abby Franquemont
4. The Spinner's Book of Fleece: A Breed-by-Breed Guide to Choosing & Spinning the Perfect Fiber for Every Purpose, by Beth Smith
5. Little Stitches: 100+ Sweet Embroidery Designs, 12 Projects, by Aneela Hoey

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:
1. The Martina Behm shawl I knit in Dragonfly Fibers' Dragon Sock is indeed called Trillian. Here's a link to mine on Ravelry.
2. Melita Norwood, the longest-serving British KGB spy and the inspiration for Joan Stanley in the novel Red Joan, was unmasked in 1999 at the age of 87. Here's her obituary (she died in 2005, aged 93) in The Guardian.
3. Roger Bacon is a medieval philosopher and polymath, as well as a member of the Franciscan order of monks. You can read more about him and his actual Opus maius at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Opus maius includes treatment of math, optics, and astronomy -- here's some of the work on optics in one of the manuscripts of the Opus maius.
4. Aneela Hoey's blog, Comfort Stitching, is positively lovely. If you're at all interested in sewing, embroidery, or quilting, I'd encourage you to check her out! She is also a knitter.
5. The National Portrait Gallery is one of the lovely Smithsonian museums and shares a building (the Old Patent Office building) with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (at 8th and F Streets NW in Washington, DC, and the "Galleries" for which the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro stop is named). EyePop: The Celebrity Gaze is a really cool exhibit. I neglected to mention the other special exhibit, One Life: Dolores Huerta, which tells the story of Dolores Huerta, co-founder (with Cesar Chavez) of the United Farm Workers (UFW), and an important figure in the California farm workers' movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
6. Here's a tiny bit of information about the Great Hall (which I was mistaken about -- it is original to the Old Patent Office building), and here's my Instagram photo of the stained glass skylight. The Chicago Stock Exchange trading room from the 19th century, reconstructed in the Art Institute of Chicago, is here. If you're ever in Chicago and at the Art Institute, it's worth finding it!
7. Give Esperanza Spalding a listen. Or this one. Or performing at Austin City Limits a few years ago.

Episode Nine - In Which I Spin

Welcome to episode nine of "Stitching Between Pages"! I hope you enjoy watching, and thank you for checking it out.

Please get in touch!
Ravelry Group: Stitching Between Pages Podcast
Ravelry: halfpass92
Twitter: @medievalisting
Instagram: medievalisting

WIPs:

1. "Castle Socks," using the "Vanilla Bean Socks" pattern by Emily O'Grady. Knit in KnitPicks Felici in the "Wizard" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel DPNs. (Modifications: Slipping every fourth stitch rather than every other stitch.)

2. Vanilla socks. Knit in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply in the "Blue Tit" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm HiyaHiya Sharps DPNs.

3. "Red Robin Shawl," by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. Knit in The Wool Barn Luxury Sock in the "Bunting" colorway. Knit on US6/4.00mm HiyaHiya Sharps, 32" fixed circular. Knit for the Bakery Bears' Brit-A-Long KAL.

4. Granny square crochet blanket - which last appeared on episode five.

Spinning:

I'm spinning some Cephalopod Yarns Bugga! Fiber in the "Ursula" colorway. It's 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, and 10% nylon. The braid had 4 oz. but I don't have the entire braid since it was a very sweet gift from my friend who gave me a spinning lesson! I'm spinning it on my Schacht Hi-Lo Spindle.

Pretty New Yarn (& Fiber!):

1. Purl Soho Line Weight, "Toasted Charcoal" and "Pink Grapefruit" colorways
2. The Wool Barn Luxury Sock, "Butterfly" colorway
3. Fibernymph Dyeworks, "Rainbow Riot" colorway (thanks, Jeanette!)
4. Space Cadets Mini Skein Club minis (thanks, Jeanette!)
5. Malabrigo Nube fiber in the "Piedras" colorway
6. Naturally Knitty puni-style rolags in the "Crazy like a Fox" colorway (thanks, Jeanette!)

Books:
1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
2. Letters from Skye, by Jessica Brockmole

3. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamine Alire Saenz

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:

1. Here's links to Purl Soho (in Manhattan) and Argyle (in Brooklyn).
2. The Brooklyn Brainery is amazing, and if any of you are in Brooklyn, you should check it out!
3. Also while in New York, I walked past my favorite building, the Flatiron, stopped at Bryant Park and the New York Public Library for their "Over Here: WWI and the Fight for the American Mind" exhibit, and ended up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the John Singer Sargent exhibit. The Jaharis Lectionary is the Byzantine manuscript that I mentioned.
4. If anyone's curious about We Need Diverse Books / #weneeddiversebooks, here's some more information.

Episode Eight - In Which I Share My Love of Historic House Museums

Welcome to episode eight of "Stitching Between Pages"! I hope you enjoy watching, and thank you for checking it out.

Please get in touch!
Ravelry Group: Stitching Between Pages Podcast
Ravelry: halfpass92
Twitter: @medievalisting
Instagram: medievalisting

FOs:
1. "Turkish Bed Socks," by Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. Knit in Koigu KPPPM, dye code P118C290. Knit on US3/3.25mm Knitter's Pride Cubics DPNs.
2. Vanilla socks with a fish lips kiss heel. Knit in Malabrigo Sock in the "Lettuce" colorway with heels/toes in Cascade Heritage Sock in the "Snow" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel DPNs. The green & cream socks -- at last -- are finished!

WIPs:
1. "Vanilla Bean Socks," by Emily O'Grady. Knit in KnitPicks Felici in the "Wizard" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel DPNs. (Modifications: Slipping every fourth stitch rather than every other stitch.)
2. "Red Robin Shawl," by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. Knit in The Wool Barn Luxury Sock in the "Bunting" colorway. Knit on US6/4.00mm HiyaHiya Sharps, 32" fixed circular. Knit for the Bakery Bears' Brit-A-Long KAL.
3. "Reyna" shawl, by Noora Laivola. Knit in Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply in the "Coffee Break" colorway. Knit on US4/3.50mm Knitter's Pride Karbonz, 40" fixed circular.
4. "Campside" shawl, by Alicia Plummer. Knit in Loop Studio in the "Charcoal" colorway. Knit on US7/4.50mm Knitter's Pride Karbonz.
5. Welcome Pineapple cross stitch.

Pretty New Yarn:
1. KnitPicks Felici, "Wizard" and "Baker Street" colorways
2. KnitPicks Stroll, "Dogwood Heather" colorway (destined to be the Strand Hill Cardigan)
3. KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud, "Beth" colorway (destined to be a top - either Featherweight or Lobelia are possibilities)
4. West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-Ply, "Blue Tit" and "Bullfinch" colorways

Books:
1. Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery (and yep, she's Lucy Maud)

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:
1. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, which I visited in 2013 (I'm not sure if that was clear from the podcast or not -- this wasn't a recent trip!). Absolutely worth a visit if you find yourself in NYC. The tour I went on was the "Sweatshop Workers" tour; I'd highly recommend it. I hope to go on more of their tours in the future!
2. Here's a little bit of history about the pineapple as a symbol of hospitality beginning in the early modern world, as explorers first brought the pineapple to Europe and North America.
3. Monticello! It's a beautiful house; if you ever find yourself in that part of the world, it is worth a visit. Jefferson may not have chosen the greatest location from an 18th-century standpoint, but this 21st-century visitor loves the views from the hilltop. I didn't mention the tea room, which is possibly my favorite room in the house. Also, Jefferson is the one who famously wrote to John Adams, "I cannot live without books." He sold his substantial collection to the US government in order to pay off some of his debts (he still died over $100,000 in debt) -- that collection became the foundation of the present Library of Congress, after the initial collection burned during the War of 1812. He then bought more books. You can see Jefferson's revolving bookstand in this image of his cabinet. (Fascinatingly, similar bookstands were in use during the medieval period.)
4. Here's the website for Beekman 1802, a beautiful historic farm in upstate New York. I purchased their Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook at Monticello.
6. And, as promised, here's the photo of the butterfly I spotted at Monticello. Does anyone know what kind it is?

Episode Seven - In Which the Green & Cream Socks are Really Under Way

Welcome to episode seven of “Stitching Between Pages”! I hope you enjoy watching, and thank you for checking it out.

Please get in touch!
Ravelry Group: Stitching Between Pages Podcast
Ravelry: halfpass92
Twitter: @medievalisting
Instagram: medievalisting

FO:

1. "Bonny" top, by TinCanKnits in the "Handmade in the UK" collection. Knit in Juniper Moon Farm Findley in the "Atmosphere" colorway. Knit on HiyaHiya Sharps, US4/3.5mm.

WIPs:

1. "Turkish Bed Socks," by Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. Knit in Koigu KPPPM, dye code P118C290. Knit on US3/3.25mm Knitter's Pride Cubics DPNs.

2. "Campside" shawl, by Alicia Plummer. Knit in Loop Studio in the "Charcoal" colorway. Knit on US7/4.5mm Knitters Pride Karbonz.

3. Basic vanilla socks with a fish lips kiss heel. Knit in Malabrigo Sock in the "Lettuce" colorway with heels/toes in Cascade Heritage Sock in the "Snow" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel DPNs.

4. TBD Brit-a-long KAL project. Knit in TheWoolBarn Luxury Sock in the "Bunting" colorway.

Pretty New Yarn:

1. Miss Babs Yummy 2-Play, "Coffee Break" colorway.

2. Miss Babs Tarte, "Zombie Prom" colorway.

3. Miss Babs Kilimanjaro, "Uberraschung" colorway. (An Ueberraschung is a surprise!)

4. Miss Babs Kilimanjaro, "Scandelicious" colorway.

Books:

1. Cat's Eye, by Margaret Atwood. Come join the read-a-long that Jeanette of BookishStitcher and I are hosting!

2. Thoughtful Gardening, by Robin Lane Fox.

3. The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization, and Cultural Change 950-1350, by Robert Bartlett

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:

1. The KnitPicks cardigan pattern that I can't ever remember the name of is the Strand Hill Lace Cardigan.

2. The medieval manuscript with gorgeous botanical drawings that I mentioned -- and I cannot believe I forgot the name, as it really is one of my favorites -- is the Vienna Dioscorides. It's an amazing 6th-century survival of the De Materia Medica by Dioscorides, written in Greek (the title means "On Medical Material"). The violet illustration is my favorite, but there's also the amazing pimpernel.

3. Here's Blackwell's, my branch (and the original branch) of which is located in Broad Street, Oxford. The Norrington Room, with its 3 miles of shelving, is what I was talking about.

4. Information on L'Hermione 2015, and here is an awesome 4-minute video on her construction.

5. The National Air and Space Museum, part of the Smithsonian. Highlights included Amelia Earhart's little red Vega, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis, the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Northrop Lifting Body, and my favorite, the Pitcairn PA-5 Mailwing (which you might recognize from Instagram if you follow me there).

Episode Six - In Which There Are Some New Things

Welcome to episode six of “Stitching Between Pages”! I hope you enjoy watching, and thank you for checking it out.

Please get in touch!

New Ravelry Group: Stitching Between Pages Podcast

Ravelry: halfpass92

Twitter: @medievalisting

Instagram: medievalisting

FOs:

1. “Party Bunting,” by Jo Shaw. Knit in miscellaneous DK-weight yarn on US5/3.75mm needles.
2. “Whispering Pines” shawl, by A Homespun House. Knit in Swan's Island Organic Washable Sport in the “Lavender” colorway. Knit on HiyaHiya Sharps, US6/4.00mm, 32” fixed circular.

WIPs:

1. "Campside" shawl, by Alicia Plummer. Knit in Loop Studio in the "Charcoal" colorway. Knit on US7/4.5mm needles.
2. "Turkish Bed Socks," by Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. Knit in Koigu KPPPM, dye code P118C290. Knit on US3/3.25mm Knitter's Pride Cubics DPNs.
3. "Bonny" top, by TinCanKnits in the "Handmade in the UK" collection. Knit in Juniper Moon Farms Findley in the "Atmosphere" colorway. Knit on HiyaHiya Sharps, US4/3.5mm.

Books!:

1. The Fair Fight, by Anna Freeman
2. The Lost Books of the Odyssey, by Zachary Mason (and, if you want to read the Iliad or the Odyssey, Richmond Lattimore's excellent translations)
3. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:

1. The Bakery Bears' Brit-a-Long KAL, beginning on June 21, including yarn from The Wool Barn on Etsy and Kate Davies' design Fantoosh
2. The Phillips Collection (including art by Edgar Degas, Paul Klee, Winslow Homer, and a photograph of Art Students League alumni in the 1950s)