Month: March 2020

Designers’ Dogs: Anne Hanson and Cardigan

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We are so excited to be sharing our Designers’ Dogs collaboration with you today! Please check out all of the posts here: https://knittedwit.com/category/designers-dogs/.

The collaboration can be found on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/designers-dogs. You can purchase the entire collection for $33 through 4/4/20, or you can purchase individual patterns from each designer. 

10% of each skein sold will be donated to the Oregon Humane Society, which is one of the best humane societies in the nation.

And now, without further ado, let’s meet Anne Hanson…

Knitspot owner and designer Anne Hanson, a life-long knitter with a background in the fashion and graphic design fields, teaches and writes about knitting, spinning, and designing at her blog, knitspot.com. Anne lives and works in Ohio with David, who loves wool, too; together they are the owners and creators of the renowned Knitspot yarn clubs and the Bare Naked Wools yarn label.

Anne’s design work has been featured in Interweave Knits, Brooklyn Tweed Wool People, Knitty, Sock Knitting Master Class, The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters, The Knitter, Twist Collective, Sock Club, Brave New Knits, and My Grandmother’s Knitting. She has produced popular instructional videos with both Craftsy and Interweave Knits. Anne’s complete catalog of patterns is available for purchase in the Knitspot Pattern Shop and on Ravelry.com.

CARDIGAN’S GOTCHA STORY (click here for complete blog post):

I first saw Cardigan two days after Christmas in 2016 during a snowstorm; as I was returning home, she ran out from behind our garage, where she had taken up residence atop our compost pile, probably dumped there by a previous owner or breeder. While curious to check out all activity in our busy back alley, she did NOT like to be approached, and refused all invitations to come in from the the wet and cold. Over the next three months, we befriended her from a distance; I put a blanket on the leaf pile and left food each day, luring her closer and closer to the house; she watched me carefully as well. We set up a video cam to record her frequent visits to our yard, all the while trying to entice her inside. Each day she roamed the neighborhood and each night she curled up in her compost burrow, safe with us. By spring, we were very close; she was eating food tossed from a short distance and considering the open back door.Then the dog warden got her on St Patrick’s Day and a series of unfortunate events landed her in a rural town 20 miles away, once again running scared—this time in completely unfamiliar surroundings. I volunteered to help search for her and enlisted a local rescue expert to help. It took 10 days to locate and rescue her, though a humane trap was necessary. FINALLY this dog was coming home—and the real work began. Rehabilitating a feral, completely unsocialized dog has been an incredible experience—the mutual trust and respect required is both intense and heart-swelling. It has been the honor of my life to work alongside this beautiful dog, opening our worlds one step at a time. March 27th will be the anniversary of the day she came home.

Designers’ Dogs: Adrienne Torrey and Emma

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We are so excited to be sharing our Designers’ Dogs collaboration with you today! Please check out all of the posts here: https://knittedwit.com/category/designers-dogs/.

The collaboration can be found on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/designers-dogs. You can purchase the entire collection for $33 through 4/4/20, or you can purchase individual patterns from each designer. 

10% of each skein sold will be donated to the Oregon Humane Society, which is one of the best humane societies in the nation.

And now, without further ado, let’s meet Adrienne Torrey…

Adrienne is a knitting instructor who lives in Portland Oregon with her husband, kids, 4 dogs and 2 cats. She is dedicated to learning and teaching knitting skills and techniques. Whether it’s in the classroom, at a workshop or knitting event, on YouTube, or on Instagram, she always has a lot of knitting to do. 🙂

EMMA’S GOTCHA STORY:

Emma came to us as a rescue over 6 years ago. She was 4, overweight, and could not chase a ball. But oooh she was a sweetie and even though we were only fostering her she won our hearts. She has trimmed up, sped up, and is a perfect part of our family.

HerStory March 2020: Libby Riddles

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Every year in early March, teams of people and dogs race across the Alaskan landscape for upwards of 1,000 miles, each trying to best the other in the annual Iditarod Dog Sled Race. It began in 1967 as a short race, and was a commemoration of the emergency dog sledding treks to Nome to help battle a diptheria outbreak in 1925. In 1973, the race that has evolved into the current-day Iditarod was first run. Teams consist of a musher (driver) and 12-16 dogs, and, depending on weather and other factors, the Iditarod can take 10-20 days to complete.  

In 1985, Libby Riddles, a 28-year old Alaskan originally from Wisconsin, became the first woman to win the Iditarod, pushing herself and her dogs to drive through absolutely awful conditions to triumph. While many of her fellow mushers hunkered down at a checkpoint to wait out the worst of a massive storm, Libby set out on her trail to victory, and kept up her lead throughout the rest of the race. Her win was so inspiring, not only because she was the first woman to do so, but because she came out on top by being the most courageous musher on the field. Her win catapulted dog sled racing into the mainstream, and inspired countless young women to pursue dreams in the once-typically-male domain. 

Not only a consummate musher, Libby is also an animal-rights activist in the dog-sledding circuit. She won Humanitarian Awards for Best Treatment of Dogs in the Iditarod, the Kusko 300, and the John Beargrease Races (three big dog sled races). She continues to raise and train dogs (her kennel is called Blazing Kennels, and hosts 20-40 dogs at any one time), and she’s written three books about her career: one memoir and two children’s books. She is a public/motivational speaker, and continues to inspire young women with her story of strength and perseverance. 

Our Mush colorway is inspired by the varied colors of the coats on the dogs that pulled Libby to victory all those years ago. Working as a seamless team, musher and dogs traverse unforgiving landscapes over the course of a long and lonely 2-3 weeks. This skein is an homage to those dogs and the woman who pushed them to victory, paving the way for more equity in the sport. We hope you give the sweet doggos in your life behind-the-ear scritches as you knit your Mush socks, and think about the perseverance it took for this brave team of pups and their fearless leader, Libby Riddles, to ride through the storm and win that race.