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Tinking Turtle

Four Pillars

Tinking Turtle Raverly

Follow-ups and a few other details, including a new LYS I’ll be teaching at!

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Wow, I’ve gotten a lot of responses to my previous post  – I appreciate the support, emails, and congrats!

I wanted to talk a little bit more about the process of filming with Interweave, since I’ve gotten a fair amount of questions about it.

One of the biggest questions I got was: how did you manage to film four classes in two days?

First, Interweave’s got a great team that make the filming process smooth and intuitive.  They were a huge help in making sure everything went smoothly.  Having worked backstage more than once, I have a little bit of an idea of what goes on to prepare for a shoot.  The second biggest thing that makes a difference when filming the classes is the preparation I did before we even began filming.

When I began packing for CO, all of my clothes went into my checked luggage.  The luggage I carried with me, and refused to surrender?  Was filled with something called “step-outs.”

What are step-outs, you might ask?  Think of nearly any cooking show you’ve ever seen.  That moment, when the host puts an uncooked cake in the oven, and the next moment pulls out the finished product?  I bet you wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the entire filming crew isn’t waiting around for the cake to bake.  The host, team, or someone has baked a cake beforehand, to enable the host to go onto the next step.

When preparing for the filming, I did something similar.

The last two weeks have been a flurry of working the same project over and over, each time working one “step” further.  When we’re filming, I simply grab the project that’s on the next step, allowing me to skip ahead.  Each of these unfinished projects is called a step-out, and they’re an important part of making a film class run smoothly.

Different people manage their step outs different ways.  Each of mine went into a separate plastic bag, labeled with it’s order, and with a few different “hints” to remind me why I created the step out, and what it was supposed to be used for.  They then all went on a tray, where I could grab them in between takes.

These were the ones for the barber pole cowl, along with my notes.
Using step-outs for class isn’t anything new: I often create similar things for my workshops.  Still, having to have all the step outs for for classes has consumed most of my time for the last two weeks.  And I have to admit it wasn’t even very absorbing work: basically, I did the same project over and over, each time going onto the next step.
Even if I love a design, the process became boring.
Still, it meant on filming day, I could grab and go, use the step-out, and move onto the next step.  It also means that now that I’m back, I’m having to sort through everything that I tossed into my luggage at the end of the day.
Which kind of is a metaphor for how I’ve been conducting my life for the last two months.
I’m taking some time now to step back.  In a month I leave for TNNA, and there’s some larger-picture goals I have for the show this year.  Meanwhile, I have two guest bedrooms, and office, and other spaces around the house that have become a disaster.  I’ve went two steps beyond “I can’t find anything,” and have launched myself into “I must leap over the piles to get to anything.”
As Mr. Turtle has reminded me, the floor should not be used for a shelf.
So the next two weeks are going to be devoted unpacking, organizing and getting back into the normal Tinking Turtle grove.  If you haven’t heard from me, chances are your email is lurking in the bottom of my inbox – please be patient.

In other news, I’m adding a LYS to my teaching roster: Untangled Purls, in Fredericksburg, VA.  I’ve added the class offerings to my calendar – take a look.

Finally, I’ve been working the last few months with the Cultivar Design team to create a new Tinking Turtle website.  It was time, and I’ve been saving up for this endeavor for a while.  In the next couple of weeks you’ll be hearing and seeing some changes – and hopefully the result being a website where you can find out what you need a little bit faster.

One of the things I’m looking forward to is an updated calendar, which I’m absolutely excited and thrilled to have… since the google calendar I use now does the job, but not elegantly, and it’s really hard to add pictures.  You should, with the new calendar, be able to be able to see where classes are located a little bit better.

Adventures in Colorado: Filming with Interweave

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Today I’m in Fort Collins, CO, and the looming sight of the Rockies dominates the skyline every-time I go outside.  The air is dryer than I’m used to, and I’m sucking back more water than I expected, and I actually used moisturizer on my face and hands – something I nearly never do.

Some of you may be wondering why I’m hanging at the base of the Rockies instead of tucked away in my home in Ashland, and you’d be right in wondering why I’m here – it has been a while since I wrote.  These two days, today and tomorrow, are the culmination of a crazy two three four months of work – 15 patterns designed and a full roster of teaching in the Spring Fiber Festival circuit.  That’s all capped off this week, where I’m filming four different classes for Interweave’s Online store.

Some of the classes I’m teaching are based around patterns you may be familiar with –  Stained Glass Rug, or Barberpole Cowl.  Some of the classes are based around projects that are due to come out this Fall.  They’re all about crochet.  All of them are on techniques I’m super passionate about: padded crochet, stranded crochet, crochet through the back loop, crochet short rows, and broomstick crochet.  Interweave’s crew has been awesome, and working with them has been such fun.  I’ve always loved the people who are drawn to “backstage” work, and the group at Interweave are great at putting people at ease and making the whole process fun.

Which isn’t to say I got back to my room and promptly zoned out for an hour.  Teaching in front of a camera is hard.  When you teach to a classroom at a fiber festival or shop, there’s an energy and flow that feeds back upon you.  When you get a great class, it’s energizing to teach them.

There’s none of that in film, but you still have to put out the same amount of energy.

Tomorrow we have two more classes to film, and I can’t be more excited!  I promise I’ll update you with more, but drop me a note – it’s been awhile since I’ve heard from people, and I’d love to hear your questions or have you tell me what’s going on!

Housekeeping: Teaching and Patterns!

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In a note that will surprise nobody, I’ve been rather busy lately.  Some great things are in the works, but I’ve had to be very careful budgeting my time, and (as normal) the blog is one of the first things to go.  But I wanted to share a few updates:

Teaching this Spring
I’m teaching at a variety of venues this spring, and wanted to highlight a few.  Click on the links for more details.
3/28 Fixing Knitting Mistakes at Woolwinders in Rockville, MD
3/29 Finishing Essentials at Fibre Space in Alexandria, VA
3/29 Padded Crochet Baskets at Fibre Space in Alexandria, VA
3/29 Duplicate Stitch Cup Cozy at Fibre Space in Alexandria, VA
4/10 Duct Tape Dress Forms at Carolina FiberFest in Sanford, NC
4/10 Crochet with Beads at Carolina FiberFest in Sanford, NC
4/11 Heels, Heels and more Heels at Carolina FiberFest in Sanford, NC
4/25 Oops! at Powhatan’s Festival of Fiber Powhatan, VA

If you’re thinking of attending these classes, signup as soon as you can!  As you know, teaching is one of the big ways that I’m able to do this fulltime, so if you love my classes and want to see more of them, having you signup and take my classes is a great way for both of us to benefit!  I also love to see repeat students – it always makes my day!

New Patterns
I’ve got two new patterns that came out with the April issue of Crochet!.  I know it’s not April: Annie’s magazines are released well before their “official” date, so they can get to stores in time.  The two designs are:

A fun and flirty cloche style hat, this is a project you could work up in a weekend.  And accessible to beginners, the main stitches are chains and single crochets.  If you can count, you can make this hat.
Points of Interest
Worked in the same style as the hat, this bag is also accessible to beginners!  A cute and fun clutch, suitable for spring, it gets its shaping for the short row wedges worked in contrasting colors.  This pattern was also featured as an insert in the cover!
Both Points of Interest and City Girl can be bought at almost any of the big box craft stores: Michael’s, JoAnne’s, etc, as well as bookstores and online.  I’d love to hear about what you think of these patterns!

Guess what I saw while watching Muppet Treasure Island?

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I have a habit of watching movies with an eye for knitting or crochet.  Each time the ladies in Orange is the New Black talk about crochet, I’m all over it.  And when we were watching Muppet Treasure Island the other night, I couldn’t help but notice this:

Scene from Muppet treasure island has one of the muppets knitting a pirate flag: the skull and crossbones

Do you see that, to the left?

Yes, one of the muppets on the ship is knitting their pirate flag, and to all appearances, it looks like Intarsia!  Not only that, but it looks like those needles have to be at least 18″ long: that’s a huge flag.  Imagine having to knit that prop for the scene.  I wonder who made it.

I happen to love all the visual gags that are in the muppet movies, but I’ve never seen a knitting one before.

Crocheted Tea Cozy: a quick personal project.

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Nance last week in her interview made an interesting point about drinking tea.  She said, “Tea is also essential for knitting/my design process.”  I’ve been thinking about the connection between hot beverages and yarn-work: Kate also mentioned that she drinks a lot of coffee.  The Yarn Harlot’s blog is rife with pictures of tea and coffee.

Which shouldn’t surprise me.  Three out of five mornings from early fall to late spring, I have a pot of tea on my desk next to me.  Doesn’t matter if it’s a computer morning, or a stitching morning, chances are it’s there.  My husband knows on mornings when I’m particularly slow to get going that a hot cup of strong Assam will get me going; in the evenings it’s a smooth Rooibos to finish off a meal.

Which is why last week I buckled down and I made myself a new tea cozy.  A few years ago, I had the perfect teapot: one my husband had gotten from his grandmother.  It had a lovely infuser, and held a lot of tea.  It was a very pleasing shape, and best of all, it had a copper insulated tea cozy that went over it, and it’d keep the tea hot for hours.  Practically the entire morning.

And then then cats broke it.  Knocked the pot off the table, and it smashed to pieces.  The copper insulated tea cozy didn’t break, but it was useless – unable to fit over any other pot.  Only now, three years later, was I able to say goodbye to it, at heavy pressure from Michael.

So it was time for a new tea cozy, something to pick up the slack.  I have a perfectly lovely tea cozy for the pot at the farm, and I love how long my tea lasts inside it (now if I could only find an infuser that fits a non-standard pot).  It was time to make a tea cozy for my favorite pot at home.

So two weeks ago, when we were at the farm, I set out to crochet myself one.  I had a few criteria: that it be quick, that it work well with the style of pot I had, and that I could spend no more than 2 hours on it.  The time limit was because I had a lot of other knitting/crocheting to get done that weekend, and I couldn’t afford to be indulgent in time.

I’m pleased with the results.

The cover opens so I can put my infuser in and take the top off without removing the cover.
I can keep the top open while the tea is steeping.
And because I’m terrible at pouring tea, I can take the whole thing off easily to wash it. (I used machine washable wool.)  I’m not exactly pleased with how the top comes to a trident shape – I’d intended for it to be smoother, but since it was quick and a prototype, I didn’t allow myself much ripping back.  The only thing I might change is to do a trim along the bottom – right now the bottom doesn’t fit quite a closely to the pot as I’d like.
Still, it does it’s job keeping the tea warm – which was the intention!

5 Questions for Rachel Coopey

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Welcome to the last day of or week of 5: 5 designers, 5 interviews, 5 designs, all to celebrate the newest issue of Sockupied, now out in an easy-to-download PDF.  If you’ve missed the previous days, let me catch you up: Monday was Amy Palmer, Tuesday Kate Atherley, Wednesday M.K. Nance, and Thursday Mone Drager.  A point of housekeeping: the contest will run through the weekend, with winners announced next week.

© Sockupied/Harper Point

Today we have Rachel Coopey, author of three books: Toasty, Socks, Socks Vol. 2, and A Knitted Sock Society.  If you think Kate Atherley designed a lot of socks, think again: of Rachel’s 195 published designs, 148 of them are sock patterns – a whopping 75%.  Rachel’s socks are serious business: she favors the Heel Flap over any other heel style.  This isn’t the first time Rachel and I have been in Sockupied together – we were in last year’s Spring Sockupied too!  I interviewed her then – almost exactly a year ago!  This year in Sockupied, Rachel’s Laith Socks feature a stitch pattern that moves from one foot to the other – creating a fun set of fraternal twin socks.

If you were to describe your socks as an animal, what would it be? Why?
Rachel: Something warm, maybe a bear? Something that symbolises how much we need hand-knitted socks in the current freezing weather!

You’ve created a lot of sock patterns.  Do you ever come up with an idea, or sketch out a theme just to realize that you’ve already created something similar?  How do you keep your designs fresh?
Rachel: No, I don’t think so. I mean socks are similar in that they are mostly the same shape but there’s an endless combination of stitches and fabric techniques. When I do think I can’t design anything new I suppose I’ll stop but I don’t think that will be soon!

All of the designers were working on socks during the Summer of 2014.  What else were you working on or thinking of as you created your pattern?
Rachel: I was pretty busy working on my new book, Coop Knits Socks Volume 2, I was knitting samples and writing patterns, we had lovely weather this summer so I mostly worked in the garden, it was pretty nice! I also attend a lot of Fibre events and shows and last summer was particularly hectic, I was at Woolfest, Unwind Brighton and Fibre East in the space of 4 weeks so that was fun but exhausting!

Did you run into any problems or challenges when you were working on designing the socks or writing the pattern?  What was your favorite part of creating Laith?
Rachel: They flew off the needles with no problems, I love working with Opal yarn, it’s one of my absolute all-time favourite sock yarns and the colour was great. I love designing non-identcal socks, ones that don’t exactly match across the pair but are strongly related – sometimes called fraternal socks. I think it really helps with second-sock-syndrome and keeps things interesting.

What are 3-5 things you are loving lately?
Rachel: The Robert Galbrath books – I love a good mystery and these didn’t disappoint me.

The new Bjork album and TV series Fortitude – are intensifying my already intense desire to visit Iceland. (Fortitude is set in Svalbard but filmed in Iceland). I have a husband who is all but allergic to the cold weather so I suspect my adventure there may be alone.

The new Arne & Carlos Regia sock yarns – these are great self patterning yarns in interesting colours, they are selling out everywhere though so if you see them you should snap them up before they disappear!

© Sockupied/Harper Point

This week’s just a week of interviews for Rachel – in addition to Laith Socks, Rachel has an interview in Sockupied by Rachel Atkinson!  Learn Rachel’s favorite shoes, her favorite knitting drinks,
knitting tips and more!

Rachel’s socks are done in Zwerger Garn’s Opal Uni Solid.  As part of the contest, Opal’s distributor in the US, Unicorn Books & Crafts has generously offered up a skein of Opal Uni to go with our issue of Sockupied!

To enter the contest, use the Rafflecopter widget below!  You can enter the contest multiple times by doing different things – so have fun with it.  We will have three winners to the drawing, be sure to scroll through and see all the great prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 Questions for Mone Dräger & Contest

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Welcome to the 4th day in our week of 5: 5 designers, 5 socks, 5 interviews, all to highlight Sockupied Spring 2015, published last week in a new PDF format.  On Monday I interviewed Amy Palmer, editor of Sockupied.  On Tuesday we featured Kate Atherly, and on Wednesday MK Nance.

Today we have Mone Dräger, who (like many of us) was also taught to knit by her grandma.  Mone is located in Germany, and many of her patterns are both in English and German!  I’m simply in love with Mone’s socks, which were featured in Sockupied’s “One Sock, Two Ways”.

© Sockupied/Harper Point
If you were to describe your socks as an animal, what would it be?
Mone: An animal? Well, that one got me thinking, but I’d say that a chameleon fits best. My Chains Socks were designed for the ‘one sock, two ways’ category and they indeed work with all kinds of colourways, though the style changes depending on what yarn you choose. They can look classy and elegant in a solid, neutral colour, they add just a pop of colour to your wardrobe in a semi-solid in a bright and saturated colour, but they can also look crazy and fun in a wildly variegated yarn. So a chameleon fits.
You speak English as well as German.  Do you find that influences the way you approach designing or writing patterns?
Mone: German is my native language, so I learned to knit from German patterns and if I like a certain

German pattern I still knit from it nowadays. I admit that I prefer English knitting patterns, simply because I like that there is an English ‘knitting language’. There are lots of abbreviations like ‘ssk’ or ‘k tbl’ – very short and commonly used and they mean the same for all knitters. In German many things have to be described with lots of words – don’t even ask me for a short form of ssk – and in addition there are no common abbreviations. Different publications use different ways to express the same thing.

When I work on a new pattern my notes are usually in ‘denglish’, a mix of German and English where I use German to explain certain design features but use English terms for all the instructions. I write all my patterns in English first, and then translate them back to German. Even though it should be easy for a native speaker I often run into trouble because I’m much more familiar with English terms.

All the designers were working on our socks during the Summer of 2014.  What else were you working on or thinking of as you created your pattern?
Mone: Well, I worked on my socks during our summer holidays, so the Chains pattern will always remind me of the terrific time we had. DH [dear husband] and I travelled along the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego to Seattle and from there we took a trip to Canada. Not only did we enjoy the scenery, but along the way we met with some of my ‘virtual’ friends I met through the Ravelry forum. It was so fun to finally meet in person and put faces to people who have felt like friends forever. Best holiday trip ever and I hope to go on another ‘turn virtual friends into real friends’ trip soon. 
Did you run into any problems or challenges when you were working on designing the socks or writing the pattern?  What did you do to overcome it or problem solve it?
Mone: In previous Sockupied issues I’ve always loved the ‘one sock, two ways’ category, so when I was pondering on a design to submit I always wondered about a pattern that would work in both, semi-solid and variegated yarns. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of knitting with variegated yarns because often the stitch pattern kind of ‘gets lost’ in the colours of the yarn, so that was a real challenge. And I admit that I had my share of ripping back to do before I came up with Chains; in the end it was all the bridges and the intriguing constructions that inspired me.
What are 3-5 things you are loving lately?
Mone: Things that make me happy? Ah, there are so many and I could have come up with so many different things that it’s hard to make a choice. Here are some in no particular order:

Snowdrops. Funnily enough, even though I knit a lot of warm and winterish things, I’m a summer loving person and I’m always a happy camper when the often grey and wet German winter is over, so to see the snowdrops coming out for sure puts a smile on my face. Tells me that spring is not too far away and warmer weather should be here soon.

Ponderosa Wolle: I went to a crafts fair two weeks ago and had the chance to see all her beautiful yarns in person. And ahem, I might have bought some. A lot. And most of them variegated yarns. Nothing better than colours as a cure for grey and dull days.

Hannover 96: My local soccer team and we’ve got season’s tickets and go to the stadium to watch them play every second weekend. It’s always a blast with all those people in the stadium, singing, clapping and cheering them on and well, if they even win it’s perfect entertainment.

Ravelry and my friends there: I often say that my knitting friends know me better than my family and although that’s an exaggeration, it’s wonderful getting to know and chat with people who share the same hobby. Isn’t it terrific how small the world became thanks to the internet?

Holidays abroad. We are just planning our summer holidays and it’s very likely we’ll go to England and Ireland again. We’ve done that before and usually we go by car and just stay wherever we like it. This time we plan to go end of June, so maybe I’ll even go to Woolfest?  Not to forget that I’ve got Ravelry friends in the UK too, who I hope to meet.  


Mone Dräger’s Socks are titled Chains Socks, so titled because of the distinctive slip-stitch pattern.  Mone was inspired by the bridges of the West Coast on her summer holiday in the US – can you see the lines of the bridges in the socks?

© Sockupied/Harper Point

The green version of Mone’s socks are worked in Huckleberry Knits Willow in the colorway titled
North Fork, the variegated socks are in Mercado.  I love how the two yarns create such distinctive effects – both completely different but just as stunning.  Huckleberry Knits has generously offered up a skein of Willow to the winners of one of the prizes!

To enter the contest, use the Rafflecopter widget below!  You can enter the contest multiple times by doing different things – so have fun with it.  We will have three winners to the drawing, be sure to scroll through and see all the great prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 Questions for M.K. Nance & Continuing Contest!

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Welcome to day three of my weeklong series of interviews with the designers of Sockupied!  This is the week of 5’s: 5 interviews, 5 socks, 5 yarns… all to celebrate the new format of Sockupied.  On Monday we spoke to Sockupied’s editor Amy Palmer, on Tuesday, Kate Atherly.  Today we have M.K. Nance.

© Sockupied/Harper Point

M.K. Nance is the creator of Mill Ends Socks, named for the smallest park in Portland, Oregon.  This isn’t the first time Nance and I have been together in a Sockupied Issue.  The last issue was Sockupied Fall 2013, when my socks were on the cover.  She had created Tryon Creek Socks, which were also named after a park in Portland.  Nance has been knitting for 21 years, and is a proud 5th generation knitter!

So let’s get down to the questions:

If you were to describe your socks as an animal, what would it be? Why?
Nance: I would have to say that the socks remind me of my current dog.  He is a lab/border collie/something else mix and he has a curly tail with white knee socks.

Your other two pairs of socks are also named after parks.  How do you decide which parks? 
Nance: My connection is simple, I mostly grew up in Portland and I currently live there.  Most of the time I design the socks first and then pick the name which somehow mirrors the pattern.  As there are almost 300 city parks and even more if one includes the suburbs, I doubt I’ll run out of names anytime soon.

All the designers were working on our socks during the Summer of 2014.  What else were you working on or thinking of as you created your pattern?
Nance: I was knitting a
different pair of socks for a swap which was similar to Mill Ends out of yarn I
dyed with icing dyes (sadly, they are light sensitive).

Did you run into any problems or challenges when you were working on designing the socks or writing the pattern?  What did you do to overcome it or problem solve it?
Nance: The pair for the
swap, I encountered several issues which I knew would happen with these
socks.  The biasing around the leg made them much less elastic and so I
included a note about changing the needle size on the leg.  Also getting
the cuffs to match in all the sizes caused a slight headache.

What are 3-5 things you are loving lately?
Nance: I’ve been listening
to a lot of music by Zoe Keating and Kaki King while
knitting lately.  

One Geek to Craft Them All makes my favorite stitch
markers. 

Tea is also essential for knitting/my design process and I’ve been drinking a
lot of Amaretto Spice.

© Sockupied/Harper Point

Nance’s Mill Ends Socks are knit in Fibernymph Dye Work’s Bounce in North Sea.  The socks feature a distinctive bias on the leg to imitate the swirl of traffic that surrounds the sock’s namesake.

You can get the Mill Ends socks in Sockupied – check it out!

To enter the contest, use the Rafflecopter widget below!  You can enter the contest multiple times by doing different things – so have fun with it.  We will have three winners to the drawing, be sure to scroll through and see all the great prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 Questions for Kate Atherley, and Continuing Contest

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As I mentioned yesterday, this is the week of 5’s: 5 Interviews with 5 Designers, each asked 5 questions!  This is in honor of Sockupied Spring 2015 – to highlight the Designers, Patterns and Yarns involved in getting this issue together.

Today we’re talking with Kate Atherley, author of Pattern Writing for Knit Designers, tech-editor for Knitty, and sock-sizing expert.  She’s so good at socks, she’s got a new book coming out this year, Custom Socks Knit to Fit Your Feet.  I worked with Kate when I had my Octopodes socks in Knitty, and I can tell you she’s detail-oriented, meticulous, and knows her stuff.  Kate was taught to knit as a child by her grandmother, Hilda Lowe.  Family legend says that Hilda used to earn a penny turning the heel of socks for knitters in her neighborhood.  I can only imagine that Kate has come by her love of socks naturally!

Kate’s socks in Sockupied Spring 2015 are the lovely Washington State Knee Socks, knit in Lorna’s Laces Sportmate, which I’ll talk about in a bit.  But let me just give you peek:

Washington State Knee Socks by Kate Atherley lime green Sportmate
© Sockupied/Harper Point

But enough background, let’s get to the questions:

If you were to describe your socks as an animal, what would it be? Why?
Kate: Socks are like a beloved Labrador Retriever: they go anywhere with you, they keep you warm, and they’re all about love. Giving someone a pair of handknit socks shows a lot of love!

You’ve published over 209 designs, including 69 pairs of socks (33% of your designs have to do with feet!). What draws you back to socks? 
Kate: I love the portability of socks, and I love the mathematical nature of sock design. It’s all about proportions and formulas and thinking about it makes me very happy. I also have very cold feet – I suffer from a neurological issue called Raynaud’s Phenomenon, wherein my extremities get very very cold. Hand knit socks help with that a lot, on a practical level. I do tend to prefer working top-down: it’s easier to design that way. I figure the patterning first on the leg, and then sort out how to divide it for the foot. And I like the Dutch/band heel, as the math is easiest for that.

All the designers were working on our socks during the Summer of 2014.  What else were you working on or thinking of as you created your pattern?
Kate: I’d actually just finished submitted the final samples and patterns for my upcoming Custom-Fit Socks book – being published by Interweave this summer. I’d said that I needed a break from sock knitting – and yet the first design submission I sent into a publication was for a pair of socks. And knee socks, at that. Sometimes I wonder about my sanity!

Did you run into any problems or challenges when you were working on designing the socks or writing the pattern?  What did you do to overcome it or problem solve it?
Kate: Because I’d just finished up the book, sock knitting and sock designing and sock pattern writing were at top of mind. I think the problem might have been in trying to do anything else…

What are 3-5 things you are loving lately?
Kate: I was given an Aeropress coffee maker as a gift this past Christmas, and it’s changed my life. It makes absolutely fantastic coffee. I love coffee dearly, and it makes a damn fine cup of coffee.

Music is an important part of my life and my workday, and I adore the new Decemberists’ album.

Speaking of sock knitting, I recently got my hands on some Little Gidding Farm Suri Alpaca sock yarn, and it is absolutely wonderful stuff. So warm, and the colors are amazing. Love it.

As I mentioned before, Kate Atherley’s socks in Sockupied are titled Washington State Knee Socks, Sportmate.  Knee socks are great transeasonal socks – perfect to wear under pants or boots on cold days, or to wear out for everyone to see with a cute skirt!

Washington State Knee Socks by Kate Atherley
© Sockupied/Harper Point

knit in Lorna’s Laces

Because the socks are knit with Sportmate, they are not the marathon that knee socks can sometimes be!  Kate has an article in Sockupied explaining how to customize the fit of knee socks legs.

Today’s blog post is sponsored by Lorna’s Laces, who contributed 2 skeins of Sportmate for the drawing.  Kate Atherley has also donated a copy of her book, Knit Accessories.

To enter the contest, use the Rafflecopter widget below!  You can enter the contest multiple times by doing different things – so have fun with it.  We will have three winners to the drawing, be sure to scroll through and see all the great prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 Questions for Sockupied Editor Amy Palmer, and Contest!

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Welcome to Tinking Turtle’s week of 5: 5 Interviews, 5 Patterns, 5 Designers, a 5 day extravaganza to celebrate the newest issue of Sockupied: Spring 2015.  This issue is very special: it’s the first issue that new Sockupied Editor Amy Palmer curated from start to finish.  It also marks Interweave’s Sockupied being released in a new format – an easy to download PDF that’s viewable on a variety of devices!

© Sockupied/Harper Point

Today’s interview is brought to you by my own pattern, Karner Butterfly, and Anzula’s beautiful Squishy.  Instead of interviewing myself, I thought it’d be more interesting to talk to Amy Palmer, and boy are you in for a treat! Amy Palmer is the lovely editor of Knitscene and Sockupied. When she’s not thinking about knitting, she enjoys learning the violin and reading comics.    I love how Amy gives us a glimpse into what happens behind the scenes at Interweave!

This is the first issue of Sockupied you curated start to finish!  Tell me a little about why you picked these five designs for this issue.  What were the considerations you take into account when creating a collection of socks?
Amy:I wish I could say there was some magic formula to choosing sock patterns for this issue, but mostly it was “ooh that’s pretty!”

I reached out to Rachel Coopey and asked her to be the featured designer, then let her run with her design—she showed me some sketches of her Laith Socks but Rachel’s such a great designer of fun-to-knit socks I never felt the need to peek over her shoulder, so to speak.

One of the things I’d loved about previous issues of Sockupied was the One Sock Two Ways pattern, and Mone Dräger’s submission for Chains Socks was absolutely perfect for that feature.

Kate Atherley’s Washington State Knee Socks grew out of a batch of ideas she’d sent me for Knitscene, I think. The accompanying article was something I knew I wanted to read—I love the look of knee socks but, as a lady with substantial calves myself, I’ve always been a little leery of putting in the time and effort to customize them.

I thought the Karner Butterfly socks you’d submitted were a really cool take on knitting a cuff, though I then had a lot of trouble figuring out if they fell into the “top down” category or if they just needed their own identifier!

Finally I loved M K Nance’s swirling ribbing on her Mill Ends Socks. Now that I think about it there’s a bit of swirling in that pattern, Chains, and Laith. I like swirls, I guess!

Inheriting this project from Anne [Merrow] meant I had some guidelines to help me, which was really helpful. I didn’t have specific themes for the patterns themselves, but I tried to tie everything together with yarn color and photography—the blues and greens of the yarns felt really cohesive, and shooting everything in one location in a lifestyle-photography way really appealed to me, coming from Knitscene where I try to photograph the stories very thematically. But I knew I needed a mix of toe up and top down socks. Sockupied is aimed at experienced sock knitters AND a digital product, so I knew that I could include projects that seemed more challenging to my Knitscene-trained eye without worrying about difficulty level or page space.

How do you make decisions as far as yarns or colors?  How much do you take into account designer’s vision vs. wanting the collection to work together?
Amy: Generally I have a working palette, but since the samples are also returned to designers and I want them to enjoy them, I do try to work with designers on color. If I pitch a color and a designer just isn’t feeling it, there’s always some other color that fits into my palette that we can agree on!

All the designers were working on our socks during the Summer of 2014, and sent them to you shortly after, where you saw them for the first time.  What happens after you get the designs? 
Amy: In a typical magazine production schedule, projects and patterns go to tech editing within a few weeks after the samples arriving in the office. For Sockupied,  I needed to get things photographed sooner rather than later due to Knitscene schedule conflicts. The socks for both Spring and Fall were photographed in early September, then the Spring socks were sent to tech editing.

This photo shoot was a fun experience—we shot both issues in one day. The morning/Spring shoot was done at the house of our managing editor, Allison, and she’s also our model (along with her incredibly photogenic golden retriever, Henry). Then we moved locations for the Fall shoot and I’m not telling you anything more about that because it’s a secret. 😉

Did you run into any problems or challenges when you were working on this issue of Sockupied?  What did you, or your team, do to overcome it or problem solve it?
Amy: Because I was new to the Sockupied process and not familiar with the schedule, I accidentally backed myself (and by association, my designers—sorry!) into a bit of a corner with getting samples made.

I can’t stress enough how appreciative I am that everyone involved, especially with this Spring issue, was understanding and able to work with me and I promise I don’t usually cut things quite so short! Because our graphic designer for Sockupied is also the graphic designer for Interweave Crochet and Knitscene, we ran into a bit of a crunch as she was working to get Interweave Crochet Spring 2015 out the door, but we’ve kind of become pros at turning files around quickly.

What are 3-5 things you are loving lately?
Amy: I’ve become incredibly enamored with embroidery of late—my mom had given me a bunch of her old embroidery samplers and I’ve been working on one of them, which has led me down a dangerous rabbit hole where things like cross-stitch patterns from Satsuma Street make me really excited (I blame Allyson Dykhuizen for that link). I’m also trying to work on the ones I have so I haven’t purchased any patterns yet.

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a nerd, so I’ve been working on my embroidery and knitting projects while re-watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Thanks Netflix!) I’m loving this because it reminds me of when I was a little girl—this was the first show I remember watching with my dad and it was our “thing” for a while. Plus it’s great crafting entertainment!

And this may seem like a cop-out but I’m really really excited about Knitscene Summer. We have some incredible projects in this issue and the photography was just so fun and fresh I can’t
wait to share it with everyone. This issue also marks my debut as a garment designer so that makes me kind of nervous in an excited kind of way. So I guess I should get back to work on that, huh?

© Sockupied/Harper Point

Today’s interview is sponsored by Karner Butterfly, my own socks!  Karner Butterfly was inspired by the small blue butterflies native to my hometown, in an area called the Pine Bush.  The Karner Butterflies are more commonly known as Karner Blue – the butterfly being a bright blue with small gold spots.  The butterfly’s habitat depends on the growth of the plant blue lupine, and as such, is endangered.

The blue and gold of the butterfly a almost perfectly captured by Anzula’s Squishy in Teal and Maple.  Many thanks to Anzula for providing yarn support!  Anzula also provided one of the prizes in the giveaway: a skein of Squishy!

To enter the contest, use the Rafflecopter widget below!  You can enter the contest multiple times by doing different things – so have fun with it.  We will have three winners to the drawing, be sure to scroll through and see all the great prizes!

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