Hello yarn friends –

Welcome back to our regularly scheduled podcast…

It was an unintended break in the podcast these last couple of weeks and I won’t lie that I was wondering if I was cursed to not get a podcast past a fifth episode! Things have been BUSY over here, and that’s more I’ll tell you about soon, but it has meant that with a few things happening all at the same time, and some more travel, that something had to give and sadly that meant pushing back the podcast for a couple of weeks.

To make it up to you though, I’m delighted to bring a banger of an episode and one that I recorded while I was in Vancouver very briefly on my summer hols. My visits to Vancouver have often meant flying catch ups with Felicia Lo, the Founder and Creative Director of SweetGeorgia, and my former boss! I was SweetGeorgia’s first sales agent, and that start when I first moved to the UK set me on this amazing journey and love affair with yarn and a career in the craft industry.

Listening to the episode again while I was editing it gave me a renewed awareness of Felicia’s gentle, quiet confidence – in colour, craft, and in how she’s run her business for the last 20 years. And yes! This is the 20th anniversary of SweetGeorgia! And how far they’ve come – from the big, bold, unapologetic colour of their hand dyed yarns, to sharing spinning, weaving, knitting and crochet knowledge via the School of SweetGeorgia, to the community of makers that they’re building – this is a company where colour changes everything.

In our conversation, I was reminded that Felicia is a kindred spirit in starting new projects, and I love that she sees SweetGeorgia as continuous Work in Progress. We have a shared passion for lifelong learning and, as it turns out, a shared obsession with falling down rabbit holes when we’re learning something new! Right now Felicia’s obsession is knitting machines, and I for one and looking forward to more content about that on the School of SweetGeorgia!

From circular sock knitting we even veered into a discussion about AI and where our crafts might be in the future, plus a shared love for the patterns of Caitlin Hunter from Boyland Knitworks. The circular sock knitting machine we mention is the Erlbacher, and that desert island yarn of Felicia’s is their new Trifecta Fine, a yummy blend of Bluefaced Leicester wool, mohair and silk. I might have picked up a skein at the studio shop to try myself and have plans to cast on soon so will report back!

Keep finding joy in your making, and enjoy the episode!

Allison

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