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Making Podcast Woolful Podcast

Episode 18: Nan Bray – Active shepherding, drought, superfine Merino and reflections.

April 14, 2015

I’m very excited to share the eighteenth episode of the Woolful podcast. Today we get to meet an incredibly inspiring sheep farmer and shepherdess from Tasmania, Nan Bray of White Gum Wool.

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Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Yarn, a charming online and local yarn shop based in Eureka, California. Yarn was created by Sunni Schrivner who has a dedication for natural fibers and supporting local yarns. Make sure to visit Yarn in person when on the coast in hum bolt county and online at yarn-fun.com.

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Fiber folk: Nan Bray first came on my fiber radar when a listener sent me an email sharing a bit about what Nan was up to and encouraging me to reach out and learn more. I’m so glad I did. Nan’s journey as a scientist to fiber farmer and shepherdess touches on a lot of interesting challenges and her approach to farming wool has evolved into something quite special, both personally and as a business. You can find Nan at Whitegumwool.com.au

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Man on the street: For this week’s “Man on the Street” I asked a handful of fiber enthusiasts to answer the following question, shared by Susan in the Woolful Ravelry group. “Desert island scenario: What knitting book or project or yarn would you bring along and why?” We had a great reply from Nikki (@woolenviolets).

Giveaway: The winner of last week’s giveaway is…Samantha Symon! Congratulations, you’ve won a set of 5 bento bags from Ambatalia.

This giveaway this week is sponsored by White Gum Wool, and we’re giving away two skeins of Nan’s 8-ply Superfine Merino Wool in Flax Lily. To enter, leave a comment on this blog post.

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Music by Jónsi.

 

Transcription coming soon!

Knitting Making Podcast Woolful Podcast

Episode 3: Jacqui Fink & Julia Billings – Local fiber, Natural Dyeing, Dreams and Revelations

December 9, 2014

I’m very excited to share the third episode of the Woolful podcast. Today we get to meet two incredibly talented women, both diverse and coincidently Austrailian, Jacqui Fink of Little Dandelion and Julia Billings of Woollenflower.

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Sponsor: This week’s episode is sponsored by StashBot. Buy yarn smarter with Hannah Fettig’s new iOS app StashBot. If you find a yarn you can’t live without, StashBot will help you determine how much you should buy. It will pay for itself again and again as it saves you from purchasing more skeins of yarn than you need. Just as importantly it will keep your stash useful as you will be sure to have enough yarn to knit the projects you would like.  StashBot will soon be available for Android and is also available in print.  For more information head to www.knitbot.com/stashbot.

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Fiber folk 1: Julia is a horticulturalist, experimenter and explorer of natural dyes, and purveyor of all things wool. Her knowledge of plants and natural dyeing was inspiring not only to continue natural dyeing, but around the foraging and identification of plants. You can find her at woollenflower.com and on Instagram @woollenflower.

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Man on the street: For this week’s “Man on the Street” I asked a couple of fiber enthusiasts to answer the following question, “What is one way knitting or another fiber art has changed your life?” We had some amazing replies from Tiffany (@knittingfarmer) and Sam (@samanthamaylamb)

Fiber folk 2: Over the past few months I’ve heard some amazing stories, but none quite as moving as our next guest Jacqui Fink’s story. A few years ago, Jacqui had a transformational experience that opened doors to her future she never even imagined possible, and all leading to this spectacular thing called unspun wool. You can find her at littledandelion.com where she just launched her online shop full of extreme knitting yarn and needles and on Instagram @jacquifink

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Giveaway: The winner of last week’s giveaway, sponsored by Monarch Knitting is Allison from Fieldwonderful.blogspot.com. You’ve won two skeins of Woolfolk’s Far yarn and the Knop hat pattern! Congratulations!

Our giveaway this week is a little different, but just as special. I spent last week in Idaho at our ranch where we converted an old milking parlor into a dye studio. It was our first time using the studio, and it was a surreal experience to dye with black walnut from our property and watch the beautiful caramel color emerge. Sooooo, this week we’re giving away those 3 skeins of naturally dyed Snoqualmie Valley Yarn created by Tolt Yarn and Wool, and naturally dyed by myself. To enter this giveaway, visit the giveaway post on Instagram @woolful and tag a friend in the comments. You can also enter by leaving a comment on this blog post.

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Music by Jónsi.

Transcription of episode:

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