Episode Fifteen -- In Which I Got a Haircut

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

WIPs:
1. "Hermaness Hat," by Gudrun Johnston. Knit in Brooklyn Tweed Loft, "Almanac" colorway. Knit on US2/2.75mm Knitter's Pride Karbonz, 16" circular.
2. Granny Square Blanket, crocheted with an E/4 hook from random sock-weight scraps.

Upcoming Projects:

1. "Featherweight Cardigan," by Hannah Fettig (KnitBot). Will be knit from KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud, "Beth" colorway.
2. 2015 Westknits MKAL, "The Doodler," by Stephen West. Will be knit from The Wool Barn Luxury Sock, "Butterflies" colorway; Dreams in Color Jilly, "Basalt" colorway; and Manos del Uruguay Fino, "Ivory Letter Opener" colorway.

Spinning:
1. I've made some more progress on my YarnRescue Polwarth braid in the "Eggplant" colorway. It's a 4.2oz braid, 100% Polwarth. I'm spinning it on my Schacht Hi-Lo spindle.


Pretty New Yarn & Fiber:
1. Pronking Acres Alpaca, 4oz of natural gray alpaca fiber

2. Woolverine Fiber, 2oz braid of 100% merino, "Plum" colorway

3. Woolverine Fibers, 2oz braid of 100% corriedale, "Periwinkle" colorway

4. Gift tags from Knit Baah Purl

5. Lovely mini-skein swap from Olivia of the This Handmade Life blog

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:
1. I mentioned previous years of Stephen West MKALs. Here's the link to my Color Craving, the 2013 MKAL. I used Fyberspates Vivacious, HazelKnits, and madelinetosh sock.
2. I also mentioned the Color Affection shawl; if you're not familiar with it, it's a hugely popular Veera Valimaki pattern.

3. The UK Tea & Infusions Association has a good history of tea (and also a funny little counter that shows the number of cups of tea consumed in the UK today!), and here's a fun timeline of tea (did you know that the teabag was invented in 1908 in New York? I did not!).

4. For the curious, a popular language resource is the free mobile app DuoLingo is very popular. I also keep up my French reading skills in a fun way with the Une Vie Toute Simple blog; Sylvie knits lovely things, has a lovely cat, and her blog is bilingual (French/English)! As I mentioned, I think the best way to learn and keep up a language is to speak with other people, and Meetup.com is a great way to find (or start!) groups in your area for a variety of hobbies. I'd also recommend checking out a community college for classes or to find a language tutor!
5. If you're even a little bit interested in Shakespeare's "Original Pronunciation," check out this video to start with -- David and Ben Crystal share a bit about their work, and share some Shakespeare in OP. There's an article/interview on NPR if you'd prefer to read before listening. Here's the video with the Prologue of Romeo & Juliet where the audience shares what accents OP reminds them of -- it's fascinating.

6. Shoutouts to Knitting Expat and Pen Hook & Needles podcasts, both on YouTube!

Episode Fourteen - In Which I Share My Vogue Knitting Live Adventure

Welcome to episode fourteen 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:

Bankhead Hat, by Susie Gourlay. Knit in my first-ever handspun yarn, Cephalopod Yarns Bugga! fiber in the "Ursula" colorway. Knit on KnitPicks US9 needles, 16" circular and 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. "Hermaness Hat," by Gudrun Johnston. Knit in Brooklyn Tweed Loft, "Almanac" colorway. Knit on US2/2.75mm Knitter's Pride Karbonz, 16" circular.

Spinning:
1. I've made some progress on my 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.

Pretty New Yarn:

1. Not yarn, but I got 6 beautiful 1940s glass vintage buttons from Dusty's Vintage Buttons at VKL.

2. Studio Donegal Soft Donegal, unnamed creamy neutral colorway

3. Cedar House Yarns Sapling Sock,"Fog" colorway

4. Oink Pigments Sport, "Wine Not Cabernet Sauvingyarn" colorway

5. Leading Men Fiber Arts Improv Sock Blank, "Chip on His Shoulder" colorway

Books:
1. Ale, Beer, and Brewsters: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600, by Judith M. Bennett

2. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:
1. I went to Vogue Knitting Live Chicago! So much fun. Some things I mentioned in conjunction with my visit to the VKL Marketplace include Apple Yarns in Bellingham, WA, Franklin Habit, and Long Island Livestock Company.

2. I mentioned a couple of patterns that I might knit soon, including Fantoosh! by Kate Davies and the Summertide MKAL from Curious Handmade, and the Bluebird of Happiness by Sara Elizabeth Kellner.

3. If you're interested in learning a bit about the resistance to sewing machines that Deb brought up in her question, check out this article from the Smithsonian.

Episode Thirteen - In Which There's a Cat!

Welcome to episode thirteen 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. "Strand Hill Cardigan," by Keya Kuhn. Knit in KnitPicks Stroll, "Dogwood Heather" colorway. Knit on US8/5.00mm ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel, 32" circular.
2. Vanilla socks. Knit in Fibernymph Dyeworks in the "Rainbow Riot" colorway. Knit on US1/2.25mm HiyaHiya Sharps DPNs.

Books:

1. Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women, by Caroline Walker Bynum

Other Miscellaneous Mentions:
1. Here's the Wikipedia page for Old Occitan (OOc). (It's not as closely related to French as I implied; it's in the Romance family, but that's about it.)
2. If you're interested in female humanists during the Renaissance, my two favorites are Isotta Nogarola and Laura Cereta.
3. Hildegard of Bingen is certainly among my favorite medieval women. There's a good brief biography of her over at Fordham's online medieval sourcebook. The illumination I mentioned, from her first visionary work, the Scivias (from "Scito Vias Domini," Know the Ways of the Lord), can be viewed here (I was mistaken; the tongues of flame, representing God, actually go to her eyes and ears, not eyes and mouth). She did indeed found two monasteries, one at Rupertsburg and one at Eibingen. Here's one of her songs about St. Ursula -- she wrote more songs about St. Ursula than about any other saint besides Mary. If anyone's interested in the story of St. Ursula, she was martyred with her band of 11,000 virgins. Her relics were located during Hildegard's life, and another mystic, Elisabeth of Schonau, had a vision that confirmed that these were, indeed, the relics of St. Ursula. Interestingly, Hildegard and Elisabeth exchanged letters, a handful of which survive.
4. I also mentioned the Fish Lips Kiss heel, designed by SoxTherapist and available for $1 on Ravelry.

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.