In this special episode, I hit the road to Portland, OR, to sit down with Rachel, the creative mind behind Ritual Dyes and founder of Sacred Sheep, a festival dedicated to makers, especially those passionate about the fiber arts.

From discovering her love for knitting and hand-dyeing yarn to the creation of a highly curated, community-focused fiber arts festival that celebrates all things making, you'll love getting to know Rachel!

Grab your WIP and hit play! Psssst...tickets are still available so I hope to see you there. ;)

If you prefer to watch this episode, go here!

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

The world of crafting and making should be a space where everyone feels welcome and empowered. However, there are barriers—both visible and invisible—that can exclude or marginalize makers with disabilities. In this episode I am joined by the super fabulous Beth Gorishek, The Adaptive Knitter & Kira Dulaney of Kirk K Designs and we chat about the ways in which ableism manifests in our community and, more importantly, how we can actively work to dismantle these barriers. If you prefer to watch this chat, pop over to our YouTube channel. xoxo

Beth Gorishek + The Adaptive Knitter
https://www.adaptiveknitter.com
https://www.instagram.com/adaptiveknitter

Kira Dulaney + Kira K Designs
https://kirakdesigns.com
https://www.instagram.com/kirakdesigns

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

We're back with some wonderful Fall episodes to celebrate hunkering down with your current favorite WIP and enjoying an episode of the Making Conversation podcast. ;) Just a heads up, this episode is VERY visual. If you prefer to watch, pop over to our YouTube channel. xoxo

In this episode, I am so lucky to chat with Amy Swanson of June Cashmere and learn all about the special goats and farmers they work with to create their beautiful yarn.

We then get to learn about knitting a wedding dress with Rachel Carleton! Rachel dives into the process (of sometimes lack there of) of creating her own dress for the special day!

Amy Swanson + June  Cashmere
https://www.junecashmere.com 
https://www.instagram.com/junecashmere

Rachel Carleton + Zee Zee Textiles
https://zeezeetextiles.com
https://www.instagram.com/zeezeetextiles

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

To know Jess is to love Jess and Jess' love of this special fiber arts community is very evident in everything she does. From in her yarn shop on Bainbridge Island, WA to Flock Fiber Festival, a yarn show in Seattle, WA, celebrating a love of all things wool, the fibers arts community is so very lucky to have these two spaces to come together and celebrate these things that we love and bring us the most joy!

Jen hopped on a ferry and headed out to Bainbridge to chat with Jess about La Mercerie and their new space (which... spoiler alert was the home of Churchmouse Yarns for years!) and also how Flock is growing in its second year and the things that she's doing to keep it so very special.

So grab your WIP and hit play and we hope to see you at Flock Fiber Festival!

Watch this episode.

Get your tickets to Flock!

Last year's episode w/ Jess

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

The universe definitely brought this fabulous human to Making. Ashley chats with our crochet-loving engineer all about her journey in craft, her path to leadership and computer sciences, and how we were so lucky to have Abi join the team. To know Abi is to love Abi! Grab your WIP and hit play. :)

Abi's crochet website
If you're in Seattle, catch her at these markets:
Pride Market at Lifelong Thrift on June 15th
Cutiefest Pride on June 22

Find us on the Making app:
Abi @abisanti
Ashley @ashelyyousling
Jen @knitpurl

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

Award winning embroidery artist, mother, teacher, author, and all around lovely human! If you don't know of Emily Botelho aka Salt Stitches, you're in for a treat! (If you do, you are too!)

Emily joins Jen and not only do they chat about her beautiful art, how her favorite places and values come through as inspiration but also her new book which is more than just a pattern book but a guide on how to release self-assigned boundaries of creativity that we can sometimes place upon ourselves.

Emily’s website
Buy Emily’s book: Abstract Embroidery

Prefer watching to your podcasts?

MKNG - Jen + Ashley's consulting advisory biz!

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

Ashley and Jen share some really exciting features that are coming to Making VERY SOON. We kick off a new segment where we will share business and/or makers in our community that help spread our values and Ashley dives into the topic of fear and decision-making. Grab your WIP, your favorite snack, and hit play!

If you are a designer, sell finished goods, make supplies for makers to create, or just love being a part of a beautifully diverse community in an app that wants to prove that you can build a business based on the idea of people over profit, join the community: https://themakingapp.com

Find us on the Making app:
Ashley: @Ashley
Jen: @KnitPurl
 
Watch this episode!

The sweater Jen is wearing
Coloring Book Raglan by Aimee Sher
Loop Fiber Studio in Song and Dance

The sweater Jen is working on
Tumble Tee by Lydia Morrow
Junkyarn in Side Boob

MKNG - Our consulting advisory biz!

Common Threads Press

Flock Fiber Festival - Get your tickets for this year! 

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

Hello, makers! Super excited to bring you this episode with our pal, Catherine. Just a heads up, there are parts of this episode that are a little more visual as we give a shop tour. Click to watch instead!

Brooklyn General Store has been the go-to place for crafty supplies of all kinds for NYC makers since 2002. We sat down with the Queen of Union Street, BGS owner, designer, maker, event planner extraordinaire–Catherine Clark. Get to know her maker journey, the story of how Brooklyn General moved from the waiting room of Catherine’s midwifery office to the current location, how her and Aimée of La Bien Aimée became besties and more!

Brooklyn General Store
https://brooklyngeneral.com
128 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Brooklyn General Store is tucked away on a sweet block West of the Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill neighborhoods and North of  Red Hook.  This commercial block on Union Street used to be a thriving shopping block for all types of foods and goods.   Brooklyn General’s home within the Old Frank’s Department Store is a throw back to that era, with its preserved floor to ceiling shelves, rolling ladders and classic old wooden floors.  The vintage interior is not reproduced, just uncovered, cleaned and painted.

Brooklyn General Store was created in an effort to provide the highest quality materials to a community of devoted artists and craftspeople and to promote making things by hand through inspiration and education.  Not only is it a place to feast your eyes and hands on glorious colors and patterns and textures but it is a place that respects and honors a time when a trip to the country store was a way of life.  It is a place where a quick trip for a yard of fabric or a skein of yarn turns into an hour of sharing, teaching, inspiring and encouraging all the amazing and creative makers that are also out for that quick trip to the General Store... 

Following its mission to promote all things handmade, Brooklyn General offers a wide variety of classes in knitting, sewing, quilting, felting, spinning, rug hooking and embroidery.  Classes are limited in size in order for students to have ample individual attention.  Studio time with our fantastic BERNINA classroom machines is also available. BrooklynGeneral.com was created to share our carefully picked goods with all the creative souls outside of Brooklyn, NY.

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

Author Jane Cooper joins us to talk all about her book, The Lost Flock: Rare Wool, Wild Isles and One Woman’s Journey to Save Scotland’s Original Sheep. Jane and Jen chat about why the Orkney Boreray sheep are so very special, Jane's maker journey, lambs...lots of lambs, and what it's like writing your first book.

About The Lost Flock
Purchase Paperback
Purchase Audiobook
From Viking times to pastoral Highland crofts to odious research experiments, this is the untold, real-life detective story of the remarkable little horned sheep known as the Orkney Boreray and the determined woman who moved to one of Scotland’s wildest islands to save them.

About the Sheep
https://orkneyboreray.com
https://www.instagram.com/orkneyboreray

• The sheep who eat seaweed
• Orkney Science Festival
• The Lost Flock's launch event

Yarn
https://northronaldsayyarn.co.uk
https://www.blackeryarns.co.uk
http://www.woolsack.org

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

In the final episode of this series, we get to hear from a few more makers that we chatted with during our last visit to NYC! Get to know some very special humans that we invited to join us for our Brooklyn General Store booth Meet and Greets at Vogue Knitting Live and also from our special maker meetup that we hosted with Brooklyn General Store and La Bien Aimée!

This episode’s guests:
Jennifer Wiese
Workroom Social
@WorkroomSocial 

Kassandra Sustaita
@Kassandra.Sustaita

Amanda Solomon
Melanated Boho Bae
@MelanatedBohoBae
Featuring special guest: Aimée Gille of La Bien Aimée

Lauren Ireland
ByLaurenIreland.com
@LaurenClaireIreland

If you prefer to watch, check out our YouTube channel. 

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].

We're continuing our Making Meet and Greets from NYC with crafty friends, old and new!

The lovely Catherine of Brooklyn General Store and Aimée of La Bien Aimée asked us to bring a bit of our Meet and Greets to their 2024 Vogue Knitting Live booth and we also co-hosted a maker meet-up at Brooklyn General Store.

Lots of great conversation, stories, and even a dance break. We've got it all, folks!  And course, stay tuned for the next few weeks of more awesome NYC-created content to get to know more special people from the maker community. Hope you enjoy it.

This episode’s guests:
Cris Bertoluci
@CrisBertoluci 
https://crisbertoluci.com.br

Special guest appearance by:
Nara Takeda of KnitLeaks
@knitleaks
https://www.knitleaks.com

Cris shouts out to Portfiber.

Gregory Chrysler
@GregoryChrysler

Stephanie Earp and Naomi Endicott
@espacetricot
@EspaceTricotPodcast
https://www.espacetricot.com
Knits from the LYS: https://www.espacetricot.com/us/knits...

Images of Ernesto Neto by albert sanchez & tom dubrock via MFA houston instagram account

Our episode touching on the history of Art vs Craft: https://youtu.be/s7Fpe0ZEOAs?si=clGFt... 

Music by Despatches.

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at [email protected].