Month: January 2018

Bubble Bath Day!

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Y’all know how I like to keep it sassy, so this year we started the Sassy Holidays Club!! Once a month we’ll send a new color, to the yarn shops listed below, that is inspired by a holiday in that month.

These super special skeins of Victory Fingering will be available at the following local yarn stores:

  • Cozy
  • Elgin Knit Works
  • Ewe-nique Knits
  • For Yarn’s Sake
  • Knot Another Hat Shop
  • Loop
  • Needles Rochelle
  • Tangled Purls
  • The Knitters Nest
  • The Tinsmith’s Wife
  • Threads & Ewe
  • Yarn Shop Santa Cruz
  • Yarnz4Ewe

January has Bubble Bath Day at the beginning of the month and I really couldn’t think of a more fitting color for the month! Baths are the best in the winter, trying to get warm and relaxed after a busy day. The colors hint at the iridescent colors of bubbles, and it’s just the happiest!

 

A dear friend of mine introduced me to Korean skin care, and it’s fair to say I’m a bit obsessed. Not crazy about taking a bath, take a moment to do something nice for yourself and your skin! A little bit of love goes a long way.

Mmmmmm and lavender might just be my favorite scent ever. My big summer goal is to make it to a lavender festival. And maybe roll around in the field 😉 There’s a chance I’m counting down the days to summer tonight!

What do you do for self care? What’s feels like a quick easy thing to do and what’s a more luxurious take? Some times for me, cleaning the bathroom feels luxurious to get to that bath! And at the end I still have a clean bathroom!!

HerStory January 2018: Marie Curie

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We are sharing our love letters for the HerStory Sock Club here, just in case you misplaced yours, didn’t get one, or want to check out what we send prior to signing up. Remember that there are many LYS’s that carry HerStory (listed on our front page), but if your local shop doesn’t, or if you love getting unicorn-encrusted mail from us, you can purchase a 3-month or year-long subscription from us here. 

We are feeling downright electrified by our 2018 HerStory line-up. We’ve been scouring the web and our feminist books for the best and the brightest international women of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), and we’re starting out with one of the true greats, Marie Curie. We do want to share that, although we have great respect for the women of STEM, we are not necessarily STEM folk ourselves, so we’ll be discussing things we only nebulously understand in these monthly love letters. Do bear with us if we get some of the facts confused…

Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867 to a family with a strong belief in the importance and power of education and a defiantly pro-Polish-independence-from-Russia-bent, Marie Curie moved to Paris as a young woman to further her educational career. Her pre-Paris life involved family, schooling, and a bit of resistance; at that time, Poland was a country divided. Her native Warsaw was under control of the Russians, and after making some noise there, she felt the need to leave Warsaw for Austrian-controlled (and friendlier-to-the-Polish-independence-cause) Cracow.

After moving to Paris, where she ended up spending much of the rest of her adult life, she enrolled in the University of Paris and met Pierre Curie (her future husband and co-conspirator in all things radioactivity). This is where the power couple began the research that led to the winning of her first Nobel Peace Prize, in Physics, which she shared with her husband and Henri Becquerel, who discovered radiation. In the work that led to the couple’s joint 1903 Nobel prize, Marie and Pierre isolated polonium (named after Marie’s beloved Poland) and radium, furthering the scientific community’s understanding of radiation. Her second Nobel Prize was bestowed for Chemistry in 1911, for more work in radioactivity. Marie was one smart and driven cookie.

A scientific pioneer for her entire adult life and career, Marie Curie was the first woman to ever win a Nobel prize, and the first person of any gender to win two. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris, and the first woman to be entombed at the Pantheon on her own merits. And this was all during the late 1800s and early 1900s, when women all over the world were fighting for the rights to make their marks (not that that’s much different than what’s happening now, but this was the time of the worldwide Women’s Suffrage Movement, so it’s not like Marie entered these situations on equal footing with her male colleagues).

During WW2, Marie focused her energies on ensuring that battlefield doctors had access to safe places to operate on injured soldiers as quickly as possible. She researched the intersection between radiology, anatomy, and auto mechanics (of all things!) to develop mobile radiology units that could easily be deployed to the front lines. These were quickly known as Petites Curies, after her. The saving of the lives of countless French soldiers can be traced back to Marie’s tireless work on this front.

Although the study and practical applications of radiation were the driving force in her life, unfortunately the dangers were neither understood nor really known. She died at the age of 66 from a blood disorder that was later believed to be a direct result of her long-term exposure to radioactive elements.

We chose the most radioactive colors we could think of for our Radioactive Rainbow colorway. It’s eye-searingly bright, in the most delightful way, and if you look closely, you can see glimmers of polonium, and radium, and that spark of whatever it is that Marie had that made her push forward and keep working and strive for the best when the deck seemed to be stacked against her.

WIP Wednesday!

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Hey y’all!! I’ve been needle deep in Little Weekender by Adventure Du Jour Designs! I’m using Knitted Wit Bulky in Unicorn Giggles. This is our super wash merino Bulky, not our Big Sky Bulky– a Targhee non super wash. This is also a very muddy Unicorn Giggles, but I’m obsessed. I’m doing size 6 for Frances, but secretly I’m hoping it doesn’t fit her and I can keep it as a sample. I’ve knit the front in one skein and had a teeny bit left over. The back is taller so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to knit the whole way in one skein. I am not alternating skeins, call me a dare devil!

Fun fact about me, I’m a terrible reader. I mean, I read a ton. Of romance novels. But I don’t do well with reading instructions. Over drinks with a teacher friend we tipsily diagnosed me as an auditory learner. I used to be anyways. I think part of it is I haven’t been in a learning situation in a while, so I’m out of the habit. Anyways, trying new patterns is a tough chore for me. You might have noticed I tend to knit the same thing over and over again. Once I have it figured out I don’t have to study the instructions as closely. I can intuit what needs to happen. The same with sewing. I can’t tell you how many mistakes I’ve made because I don’t read the instructions, or don’t slow down to read them thoroughly. For 2018 I really want to work on this skill. Teacher people: if you have an adult idea on reading comprehension let me know! Okay, but back to Little Weekender. It’s knit in Bulky so a quick project. The pattern isn’t super long so it wasn’t super intimidating to read through. And it’s knit in 4 pieces, front/back/sleeves. There’s also an adult version of this sweater, My Weekender, and I figure this is a good practice for the real deal when I make mine!Oh look! I did the side column wrong and had to drop stitches! No worries, I picked them all up and knit it right. Almost. I had to work it out two more times and finally got it right! Are there any projects that you haven’t tackled because it was intimidating? Or are you a fearless crafter? I’m excited about these successes to build confidence to tackle more projects! Okay, I have three more inches to go on the back! I’m going back in!

We’re Hiring!

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Hello fantastic people!! We have an opening for a full time position. The job is a little this, a little that, a lot of work and fun! You’ll be winding off yarn, rewinding yarn, labeling, and shipping orders. It’s a lot of work on your feet, lifting, and moving product around. This job requires flexibility (mostly emotionally when working with rewinding yarn) and a sense of humor.

We work 9-5, M-F, but can be flexible with the schedule. We’ll train you, we recognize this is a pretty specific skill set. That being said, this is a manufacturing job. You’ll be doing the same thing over and over and over. And over again. Recognizing economy of motion, and how to speed up your process once you have the skill down is very important.

Please send your resume to info@knittedwit.com, sending it anywhere else will get it deleted. Resumes need to be received by 1/18/18. We look forward to hearing from you!

#TIMESup

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Did y’all catch the Golden Globe awards? It was epic. Go watch Oprah’s speech. It felt like the salve my soul needed after processing #metoo. Catch Natalie Portman calling out the all male nominations in the directors category. So many inspired speeches; this award show was revitalizing to me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about sexism, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. I go on walk/attempted runs at night in my neighborhood and I feel like I leave the house prepared. I give myself a good pep talk about shouting no and fighting back if I was attacked. Which got me down the thought rabbit hole of saying no. I feel like saying no wasn’t something instilled in me. Is that my upbringing? A generational thing? A female thing? I took a self defense class in my early 20’s and I couldn’t finish the course. The act of saying no was startling and overwhelming. One time, Eric’s Oma was in a wee car accident and in the hospital over night for monitoring. She told the doctors no to asprin because she didn’t want a blood thinner. I had NO idea you could say no to a doctor. As a mother I’ve been told by countless memes to embrace the chaos and say yes to more. Y’all. I don’t want to say yes. I want to say no. Or at least only say yes when I’m emotionally/spiritually/physically prepared for the adventure. Anyways, this was the rabbit hole my brain took tonight to process #metoo and #TIMESup. I don’t have any answers or plans, but I’m going to keep practicing finding my voice and calling bull shit on sexist behavior around me.

Another way we process current events around Knitted Wit is with Colors for a Cause. Our newest one is #TIMESup and we’ll be donating 10% to National Women’s Law Center. They will be the organization administrating the funds raised by the #TIMESup go fund me.

#2018MakeNine

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Have y’all seen that hashtag floating around? #2018MakeNine is dreamed up by Home Row Fiber Co, she calls it a gentle challenge for makers. For me, it’s the ticket to set some intentions for 2018 and make a plan. I find with out a plan, nothing gets done! And boy howdy, do I have a lot planned for 2018.

I like to pick a phrase or word that helps me focus on what I want to accomplish for the year. For 2018 I’m focusing on Makers Gonna Make. And I have a lot I want to make. I want to make quilts, yarn, accessories and garments, time for my family and my home, and time to be outside. I snagged four quilt photos, but I have a few more that are in the to make pile. I honestly don’t know what’s a reasonable amount to accomplish, but I’m setting myself up for success with Sewing Sundays once a month with some sewing friends. We’re doing it on the first Sunday of the month so I have the week to figure out a game plan and make the most of our time together. I think I’m going to see if I can get some cutting in so I’m actually sewing on Sunday.

I want to get back in to spinning yarn. I think. Spinning is something I enjoy but tends to fall to the bottom of the crafting list. I’m trying out a friend’s electric spinner to see if that’s a better fit for my current life. What I’m realizing is I need to read less and watch more TV so I can get through more spins and knits! For knitting I want to learn how to do brioche knitting. I’m on the hunt for a class, I do much better learning a new technique in person. The other mega knitting goal is to learn to do toe up heels from the sock master Shannon Squire. I am not exaggerating when I say I have about a dozen socks knit up to the heel. I can cast on with the best of them and knit and knit and knit. Time to turn the heel!

With all the kiddos getting older and a little more in control of their bodily functions, its getting easier to travel again. I’m planning for a summer full of lake time, hiking, and camping. Sundays will be fundays around here!

A big goal more related to Knitted Wit is blogging and being here. I’m calling it slow social media 😉 I want to tell you the stories behind our colors, because there almost always is one. I want to see what you’re making and share it with all our friends, too! Here is to a successful, colorful, joyful 2018!