Podcast Episode 189: Interview with Nora Bellows

This week, Jenny chats with designer Nora Bellows, author of the new book Noni Flowers! Hear all about how Nora’s family, gardening, and flowers have influenced her process and designs, in addition to how Nora made the transition from teaching college classes to designing knitting patterns. Nora also reveals a behind-the-scenes look into the process of writing her book, how she began designing the collection of knitted flowers, and what sparked the idea for creating the unique photography of the knitted flowers. In addition to sharing tips and tricks for knitting up the flowers, Nora also shares her favorite techniques for how to use and attach the knitted flowers as embellishments on other projects. After hearing Nora’s enthusiasm and passion for her knitted flowers, you’ll want to cast on your very own garden of Noni Flowers right away!

You can find Noni Flowers here:
Noni …

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Cutch

A partial Earthues Botanical Dye Kit
kit found its way to my desk last weekend and I jumped on the chance to
dye a little bit of an enormous fleece I bought at last year’s Black Sheep Gathering.
There was enough cutch left in the packet to dye about 3/4 of a pound
of fiber. So, in the pot it went with some Alum as a premordant and then
once more into the pot with the powdered cutch for a few hours on a hot
stove.

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Good things come in threes

That old addage has been used to describe so many things, but it’s certainly true for the Ternion Knee Socks kit!

The Ternion (fancy word for a group of three) Knee Socks kit
features three patterns for three different pair of knee-high socks
that use three totally different techniques. There are the stately
Cabled pair, which feature intricate front cable panels and twist-stitch
ribbing…

 

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Figure Eight Cast On for Toe-Up Socks

Knitting socks from the toe up has been quickly becoming a favorite technique among knitters. At first, the idea of working socks from the toe up instead of the cuff down boggled my mind- how would you cast on, how would you work the heel, would there even be a heel flap? All of these questions came to mind, but eventually my curiosity grew to the point where I simply had to see how a toe-up sock came together. And I have to say, I’m so glad I gave it a shot! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and I even found a few advantages to toe-up socks that I really liked.

So, if you’ve been on the fence to trying toe-up socks, this week’s technique of the week is here to help you get started! In the Figure Eight Cast On for Toe-Up Socks video tutorial, Kerin shows you a simple and effective way to cast on for your toe-up socks.

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Congratulations to our Noni Flowers winners!

Thank you for all of your entries in our Noni Flowers book contest! 
I randomly chose our two winners:
Winner #1
Becca!
Becca’s comment: “OOOOh those are lovely! I’d love to learn how to make them!”
Winner #2
Elke!
Elke’s comment: “I would have to say roses, I have seen some almost black ones, and an amazing two tone red one. But also some weed flowers look really freat especially if they have impressive colors or the morning dew on them. Nature is just amazing.”
Congratulations! I hope we’ll be seeing some beautiful knitted Noni Flowers coming into bloom!
 

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Noni Flowers – and a contest!

update 6/04 – Contest is over! We’ll announce winners later today!

 

I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting knitting projects, so it was no surprise that when Noni Flowers came across my desk, I couldn’t stop flipping through the pages! Filled with page after page of stunning photography of life-like knitted flowers, I was instantly mesmerized by the attention to detail that every flower was given. Designer Norah Bellows brings an amazing collection of knitted flowers to life, all while giving you guidance through techniques specific to creating these little beauties. Norah starts off by breaking down the anatomy of a knitted flower and then guides you through special techniques – such as how to create the stamen and how to add wire to your flowers.

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WIP

I’ve had some serious stash busting to do since I ordered 11 balls of Brava Sport this week for a rather large, pretty blanket that I’ve been dreaming about for some time. However, 11 balls of Brava will take up some serious real estate on my already cramped yarn shelves, so while I wait for my package to arrive I’m busy trying to make room for it all!

I’ve had a few skeins of Stroll Tonal in Blue Yonder and Stroll Hand Painted in Lullaby nestled together in a basket in my living room for a few weeks now, just waiting for a project to come along and inspire me to pick up those size 4 needles again. Well, now I need the basket and I found the perfect project: the Tempest cardigan by Ann Weaver.

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Color Affection

I realize that many many people have been writing about the Color Affection Shawl (almost 3000 projects on Ravelry!). I actually completely missed all the buzz around it & only found out about the pattern when Jenny showed it to me one day when we were discussing patterns with interesting construction. And as I have approximetly ten thousand skeins of sock yarn (that I had to buy because I thought it was so pretty, of course), this seemed to be a good project to take on.

shawl

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Felting Success!

I love my Galaxy Tab that I bought last autumn. It’s the size of a Kindle but since I bought one as soon as they were available, there were no nice covers available. Just a utilitarian, black ugly thing. Ugly enough for me to take it off the Tab after just a week.

The problem was that I wasn’t comfortable toting the Tab around without a cover. As I looked at the leftover yarn from my Merryall Cardigan, I realized a felted cover in that lovely, Wool of the Andes Amethyst purple would be appealing. Bob just returned from a two-week business/golfing with friends trip. That meant I had evenings all to myself to watch through all six series of Jordan’s Crossing.

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