May 18, 2018
Clare Devine of #KnitShareLove rejoins me on the podcast this
week, as we catch up with her after quite a while since her Sock
Surgery days on the show.
Clare is now in Australia, the country where her knitting adventure
began, in a totally-unsuitable-for-knitting Broome. Now based in
Brisbane, which is pretty warm, and presents its own knitting
challenges.
Since her last appearance on the show, which was shortly after the
adult edition of her book, Sock Anatomy, was released, she's been
involved of lots of exciting projects and collaborations. She's
designed her first cardigan pattern, as well as working with UK
dyers Joy McMillan of The Knitting Goddess and Jess James of Ginger
Twist Studios.
Recently, she's turned her attention to working with and raising
the profile of home-grown talent in Australia. We briefly digress
into the development of independent designers on Ravelry and the
idea of training to be a designer.
In terms of local talent, Clare recommended Circus Tonic Handmade,
a former geneticist PhD turned hand dyer. She also shared a
wonderful story about Tarndie, a farm around two hours west of
Melbourne. She used this yarn in a project during her first stay in
Oz, having been recommended it to use for a felted bag. Around
seven years afterwards, she met Jools of Woollenflower, who waxed
lyrical about how wonderful this yarn from Tarndie was, and how
Clare must visit when she went back to Australia. After a stint
working one day a week in a yarn shop in Melbourne, the owner asked
if she would like to teach at an event at... you guessed it...
Tarndie.
Tarndie have Polwarth sheep and have been farming for many years,
The yarn is spun in New Zealand. They have also been in
collaboration with Great Ocean Road Woollen Mill, which is local to
them, to produce a Super Bulky yarn called The Henry. This is made
from a mix of Alpaca and Wool.
There aren't many boutique yarn spinners - a lot of the clip is
merino, which is sent to China for processing. Clare talked about a
Gotland sheep farmer called Cheryl, who is based in Victoria. She
has the only flock of Gotland sheep in Australia and breeds for
diversity rather than conformity. As a result, her sheep have a
wide arrange of colours in the fleece.
Clare talked passionately about the importance of educating
customers as to why local and boutique yarns can be expensive, as
well as why they can make great choices. She promotes these yarns
by using them in her design work, and also because it allows local
knitters to access the yarns, as many people like to knit the
pattern with the exact yarn. She advocated being enthusiastic about
yarns and producers, as the likes of Louise Scollay has with
KnitBritish, to help share these great products and knowledge with
others.
Clare can be found at www.knitsharelove.com or as
@knitsharelove on Instagram.
Full show notes and links are at www.shinybees.com/112