interview 6 - Indie Untangled

Untangling: Lara Smoot

As a designer, Lara Smoot was an “early adopter” of Indie Untangled, and I’ve loved getting word of her latest designs — from her Game of Thrones-inspired shawls to her incredible colorwork socks — on the Marketplace.

For the 2016 Where We Knit yarn club, I paired Lara up with Dami of Magpie Fibers and they came up with a simple, beach-inspired pair of mitts in an icy blue….

Untangling: Pom Pom Quarterly

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts with the generous sponsors of the 2016 Rhinebeck Trunk Show.

Although I run a knitting website, I still do a lot of writing for print, and so I have always appreciated the joy of flipping through a paper publication. When it comes to knitting magazines, Pom Pom Quarterly is by far one of my favorites. It has the feel of a small book and features beautiful patterns (my Waterlily,…

Untangling: Stephannie Tallent of Sunset Cat Designs

I didn’t know very much about Stephannie Tallent of Sunset Cat Designs when I started working with her as part of the inaugural Indie Untangled yarn club, other than the fact that she does wonderful things with lace, cables and textured stitches and that she is a fan of craft beer.

So, I did a little reporting before sending her some questions and discovered she had quite an interesting pre-designer history….

Untangling: Toby Roxane Barna

I discovered Toby Roxane Barna when I came across her London Underground collection of shawls (I still need to knit Highgate, which was my tube stop when I did a semester there in 2001) and was very excited when she posted to Indie Untangled last year.

Soon after posting to the Marketplace, Toby expressed interest in participating in the Where We Knit yarn club….

Indie is the new black

Recently, when my almost-5-year-old nephew requested a black hat to go with his school uniform, I was at first a little disappointed. Like most knitters, I’m generally drawn towards vivid colors — black is for boots and store-bought cardigans, amiright? — and I figured I’d also have to go with a very plain pattern because any interesting detail would get lost in black yarn. Then I remembered that a bunch of dyers have black colorways,…

Untangling: Janina Kallio

I first learned of designer Janina Kallio when I spied one of her ads at the bottom of the French Market Fibers Ravelry group almost a year ago. I contacted her right away about posting to the Marketplace, and then I took advantage of her Buy Two, Get One Free New Year’s sale (it was actually hard to narrow it down to three patterns). I was thrilled when, a few months later,…

Pre-Rhinebeck Untangling: Patti Odinak of Yarn Culture

This is the last in a series of interviews with the fabulous sponsors of the 2015 Rhinebeck Trunk Show.

When I decided to approach some small businesses about sponsoring this year’s trunk show, Patti Odinak of Yarn Culture was the first person I emailed. Patti opened the store two years ago in Fairport, New York, which is just outside of Rochester and a little under 300 miles from Rhinebeck….

Pre-Rhinebeck Untangling: Susan Post of A Good Yarn Sarasota

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with the fabulous sponsors of the 2015 Rhinebeck Trunk Show.

While there’s no shortage of indie dyers you can buy from online, there’s really no replacement for a great local yarn shop — especially if they have a fantastic selection of hand-dyed yarn. Susan Post opened A Good Yarn Sarasota in Florida in 2009 and she’s done some unique collaborations….

Pre-Rhinebeck Untangling: Carl and Eileen Koop of Bijou Basin Ranch

This is the third in a series of interviews with the fabulous sponsors of the 2015 Rhinebeck Trunk Show.

As someone who has attended Rhinebeck for the last few years, I was familiar with Bijou Basin Ranch, but didn’t really know much about them until they started posting on Indie Untangled. What I have learned about owners Carl and Eileen Koop since,…

Untangling: Buttonalia

Just glancing at her beautifully glazed ceramic buttons, it’s not surprising to learn that Buttonalia’s Sharry Madden has a background as a sculptor. A New Zealand native now living in the U.K., Sharry starting off making large bowls used as washbasins, moving on to create hollow, coiled sculptures when throwing on a potter’s wheel became too painful because of tennis elbow. She ended up selling her work both at home and overseas,…

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