First, we want to shout out about Knitter’s Corner in King, NC. Lisa Dillon is the owner of this lovely shop. We have really enjoyed supplying her with our hand dyed yarn for the last several years! That’s why we’re excited we’ll be there in person on July 11, 2026 for the first Saturday of the Central Carolina Yarn Crawl. Sheri and I will have a delicious spread of our yarns on a variety of bases for crafting crawlers to buy!

KNITTING CLASS ALERT: Also, I’ll be teaching Intro to Two Color Brioche Knitting that day in the shop. Their Facebook page is here. If you’ve ever felt afraid of brioche knitting, and you’re within a reasonable distance of Knitter’s Corner at 111 E Dalton Road, King, NC, this is a great opportunity for you to get comfortable with the basic techniques required to create basic two-color brioche rib.

Brioche is actually an entire category of knitting stitch patterns, and while they aren’t all forms of ribbing, they all utilize the quintessential brioche stitch you hear about (a stitch wearing a shawl). The ribbing form is used in patterns by quite a few designers, and it gives projects really amazing texture, and plenty of opportunity for color play. I have used brioche in several of my designs, available on wooltribe.co and Ravelry, including the Absalon Brioche Hat, modeled by my lovely partner, Sheri Osborne.

Shetland and Sanquhar

I just got a book called Shetland Fine Lace Knitting by Carol Christiansen. You can buy it in hardcover at bookshop.org through my affiliate link (thank you for your support!) or ebook via amazon. I was looking at knitting traditions from the areas Ancestry.com says my predecessors kicked around in. Although our people didn’t come from Shetland, the knitting traditions of that area eventually influenced the Scottish Lowlands knitters, who adapted patterns to make their own lace traditions.

In reading about Shetland I was led further to Sanquhar knitting. Both styles, not surprisingly, evolved from the need to make money through cottage industry knitting. I didn’t focus on Shetland Lace during my work for the TKGA Master Hand Knitter program, so I was previously unaware that using K2tog, and garter, throughout the lacework, was a way to speed up the work and make it accurate. It also served to make the lace completely reversible.

Finding volumes about Sanquhar knitting has proven a bit more challenging. There are plenty of Sanquhar knitting patterns, and commentary of armchair researchers, but books are tougher to find. I did come across an amazing site I’ve fallen in love with called Sanquhar Pattern Designs. Check out the team page - and the page about the world’s oldest post office! If ever there was a place I’d love to visit on a knitting tour - Scotland, and the town of Sanquhar are top of the list. There’s so much more on their website - check it out. So inspiring.

Sanquhar is among the high contrast, super geometric knitting styles you’ve seen but might not recognize by name. As to pronunciation, I’ll thank Google once again for entertaining me. When I asked the proper pronunciation, it told me it rhymes with - and I quote - “wanker.” Alrighty then.

Anyhow, Sanquhar style uses 11x11 grid designs incorporating two highly contrasting colors. is put together by Beth Brown-Reinsel. My mom actually took a class with her years ago at a conference! Beth and fellow traditional knitting expert Dr. Angharad Thomas put together this site some years ago, with an interesting look into Sanquhar knitting.

I asked Google about the similarities and differences between Sanquhar and Estonian style knitting and was given this table. Again, very interesting!

Worth mentioning is that in the course of all of this I also came across the site for A’ the Airts, the Upper Nithsdale’s Community Arts and Crafts Center. They are tied in with the Sanquhar Pattern Design group, and also worth checking out!

Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em

I received the coolest thing this week. Some time ago I donated $20 to the Livestock Conservancy Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em Program. I was thrilled to find it’s headquartered in North Carolina!

The Livestock Conservancy protects endangered breeds of livestock and poultry. In their brochure they state that “1 in 5 breeds of the world’s farm animals is on the verge of extinction.” By extension, that means that many of the breeds of wool sheep are also facing challenging times.

That’s why the organization created the Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em (SE2SE) Program. For Fiber Artists there is a $20 donation enrollment fee. The idea is that you buy at least 4 ounces of PUREBRED wool from the shepherds and providers listed on the SE2SE site. When you sign up you receive a passport. It’s good information in itself - there are a number of breeds in the passport I would not have realized were around had I not signed up! It would be well worth it for anyone who is interested in preservation, and also all of you avid fiber fest goers to sign up, and then hit up the providers in person at the festivals to get the fiber in the passport.

Here’s the fun envelope of info I received… I strongly encourage you to sign up too!

Last - On My Needles

I’m knitting the Zig-Zag lace sample from the Shetland Lace book I bought. Using WoolTribe Homegrown Fingering yarn, in two colors. One dyed with onion skins, and the other with logwood liquid dye. It’s an experiment - and a chance to give my brain some much-needed knitting gymnastics play. The lace doesn’t look particularly lacy right now, because blocking will be needed. What? You didn’t know BLOCKING IS SEXY? Well, it is…give it a try!

Ok - Have a lovely week! Catch you next Tuesday!

xoxo

Ladianne

Last fall, when Sheri and I visited her parents’ house, her dad asked if I had any use for the tons of walnuts that had fallen from the white walnut trees in their yard. I’d wanted to use walnuts for dyeing - but until we got the studio cabin, with its perfect outdoor areas for dyeing and other creative work, I really didn’t have a great space to cook up walnut dye. The biggest reason is that Sheri is allergic to walnuts, so creating walnut vapor in any enclosed space was not on my to-do list.

However, this weekend I was able to take one of our induction burners outside at the cabin, and start the process of doing some creative work with the walnuts I’d dried at home for months. I have to share that I was under the impression the walnuts I’d been drying were from black walnut trees, until Sheri corrected me this weekend. After that I did what one (naturally) does, and asked the Google AI what the difference was between the two walnut tree varieties. I take zero responsibility for the wording of the answer and tell you simply that were I still doing standup comedy some, or all of this would DEFINITELY have made it into the routine somehow.

“White walnut (Butternut, Juglans cinerea) and black walnut (Juglans nigra) are closely related, sun-loving native trees with distinct differences: white walnut has light grey/smooth bark and oblong, sweet nuts, while black walnut has dark brown/furrowed bark and round, intense nuts. White walnuts are smaller (40–60 ft) and often diseased, while black walnuts are larger.” — The Goog’s AI

I collected the walnuts in December of last year, and let them dry in our basement at home on a rack. Sheri is FANTASTIC about running the dehumidifier. The subtext here is that at one point I was absolutely sure there was something wrong with me because I seemed to have an extraordinary amount of static in my hair for someone living in the humid climes of the greater Charlotte, NC region. Ultimately it was revealed that the dehumidifier was messing with me!

In order to get the walnut dye headed in the right direction, I put them into about 3 quarts of water (just enough to cover the tops of the walnuts) and simmered them at around 180 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple of hours. I kept the dye pot lidded while they simmered.

Then, I had some fun! I put one skein of handspun yarn I’d plied in 2024 into the pot for a bit. I pulled that out and let it rest and then stained a balsa wood box gifted to me by our daughter Peyton. It originally contained chopsticks - which are now living in the utensil drawer at home. Now it houses a small selection of my paintbrushes I bring with me to the studio. After that I read up on making walnut ink. I do LOVE to use ink in my artwork, so I let the leftover dye simmer until it began to thicken. I also added Ferrous Sulfate to it to blacken it a bit. It’s still in the stock pot now as I’m awaiting gum Arabic, the binder used to make watercolors, which will help the ink adhere to the cotton rag paper I use, and also clove oil to help stave off mold in the ink.

Here are the little paintbrush box and the yarn. I have to say I love them both! I’m going to add the walnut yarn to the current version of the Lost River Shawl I’m working on. I know - it looks a bit like a Neapolitan ice cream sandwich. It could be far worse - don’t you think? I’ve since stained the whole box with walnut stain - but below you can see the lid (stained) and the bottom half of the box unstained. The tag on my yarn shows all the info but the gram weight - I’ll fill that in after the skein dries. Dye changes skein weights. So, if you want finished skein weight - it needs to be after any dyeing is done. The shawl on the right below is going to be special - natural Shaniko wool, same wool dyed with beech nut hulls from our home backyard from a fallen tree, and the walnut yarn. All of it handspun.

I have some clips of the dye-making process I intend to put up on YouTube. Interestingly, I learned a bit about the chemical compounds in walnuts that make all of this lovely color possible. Juglone is responsible for the brown color - and it’s colorless until the air hits it. Kinda cool!

Wool

Just a quick note to say we got a kilo of non-superwash wool from our mill. I’m really excited to use it, but want to plan well. Think I’ll probably work it up into a cardigan, but we’ll see. Thoughts? I’d really also like to try out some native plants from around the cabin for dyestuffs. There are lots of lichen, mushrooms, and plants that can create great color. Definitely have some planning to do here!

Wishes

I’ll leave you with the fact that I found 21 - YES, TWENTY-ONE four-leaf clovers over the last few days in a little patch just outside our studio door. I put all of them into this book to press… There’s a used copy of a previous edition (cover is slightly different from this) on ThriftBooks.com for around $13 right now! Don’t know how long it will be there, but here’s the link: The Principles of Knitting.

By the way, I finished reading Fewer, Better Things by Glenn Adamson. What a fantastic book! I highlighted and took notes all over the place in my copy. I know I will refer to it in the future! So great! I actually sent his agent a note to tell him how much I appreciated this book! Don’t know that he’ll catch wind of it, but I felt it worth a send anyway.

Plus - Watch This

Also, here are some things I’ve watched and enjoyed.

The Persians: A History of Iran, Episode 1 - A wonderful show. Really interesting, and a great thing to watch given the world’s current state of affairs.

Why Five of the World’s Priciest Fabrics are So Expensive - Another BBC piece. If you’re a textile person, this is a great show to watch.

Ok - that’s probably enough until next week!

So great to spend time with you!

xoxo

Ladianne