Hello. And welcome back to another episode of Knit A Spell. I'm your host, Katie Rempe and as you can see. Jim has the week off today, as we talk all about the magic of the color white. Light From Lantern presents: Knit A Spell.
I'm magical maker: Katie Rempe.
And I'm the maker of magic: James Divine.
Join us as we stitch together the symbiotic relationship between crafting and 'The Craft'.
Now I wanted to start out by talking about some of my initial feelings on the color white. Not all of which are necessarily pleasant. Things that come to mind for me are feeling cold while I'm waiting to ski on the frigid frozen mountain or the little white Puffy's that come around in the spring time that make my allergies go crazy or. The creative apprehension of seeing a blank white page or canvas.
And I also think of clinical things. Doctors lab coats, very sterile environments brightly lit places that maybe aren't necessarily totally comfortable or you're not feeling your most comfortable while you're in these types of places.
And this rolls right into things that are naturally occurring, white. Things like your teeth and your bones. teeth are just outside bones. And so there you go.
I also of course, think of the moon and Jasmine flowers or rice. And like I said before, paper blank paper, that fresh start.
Snow many types of flowers and even around the health industry, white is a big staple there, again. That sense of sterileness cleanliness, health safety.
Purity freshness. All of these are that sort of vibe that you might want to have in a doctor's office or a hospital.
can't imagine going into a hospital, that's like rainbow colored and smells like French fries. That would be completely distracting.
And so it's interesting that white has a push pull feeling not enough. White makes it lack for any sort of resting spot, whether it's a knitting project or a painting, or just painting your house.
Whereas too much white makes the environment very. Sterile. Very cold, very emotionless.
And so white definitely has a strong polarity when it comes to emotion.
And maybe that has to do with how we perceive the color white. How do we perceive it then? White is often seen as the absence of color. However, in reality, it's the combination of all colors in the visible spectrum. When all colors of light are combined at equal intensity.
Our eyes perceive it as white.
And maybe it combining all the colors is a reason why it can really act as a blank slate to any emotion that you really needed to be.
Now, when it comes to magical correspondences, as you might guess, there are a wide variety of ways that you can use the color white for magical purposes. Here are some traditional meetings around the color, white.
It has to do with the element of spirit and air. So the divine is often a correlated with white. The direction of east and of course de the day of the week of Monday or moon day.
And thus the planet correspondence with white is also the moon. Stone's like Opal moonstone quartz and Pearl our wonderful white stones to bring into your magical uses and magical making.
And when it comes to magic in general, I found white being used for protection, for healing, for divination, and working with the divine for spirituality and for transformation. Since the color white is all of the colors together. You can really utilize that to make white, be your kind of go-to color for any magical working.
But of course like anything, if you are really attracted to a certain color for certain magical workings, Always go with your personal preference before just looking on the internet for what other people say.
And white, isn't just a passive color. It's steeped in magical and symbolic correspondences. The color white holds a deep and mystical connection with the moon serving as a beacon of illumination and a cyclical nature of life and the phases of the divine feminine.
White enhances intuition and dreams, inviting us into the hidden realms of our own wisdom.
White is the protective force just as the Moonlight is believed to banish benevolent energies, and it offers that fresh start again, ushering in those new beginnings, new opportunities and growth.
And of course I mentioned earlier, working with bones. Now, this is something that you can do in the magical realm and in the knitting realm, and some of you might remember that. Several years ago at this point we interviewed aunt Cindy Toto. All about divination with throwing the bones.
I'm going to link that episode up here for anyone who's interested in listening or watching it. It was so enlightening and amazing. And Cindy also offered tips on how to include bones in your knitting as well as a fellow magical maker. I appreciate working with the moon even if it's just a way of working with a natural cosmic timing.
Give yourself a month's goal to learn a new project, to learn a new skill. And I will promise you by the time that next full moon comes around to remind you of the time that's passed, you'll be impressed by the progress you've made, even in one cycle.
And there's nothing saying you have to start at the full moon. You can start projects at the new moon or the half moons, the Crescent moons, all of these phases have different energies and depending on your project, it may be more useful to start at a certain phase, as opposed to just doing the full moon.
Even though the full moon does have tons of energy to go around.
And with that, we're going to jump into our break, but don't worry. We'll be right back.
BREAK
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White & Making
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Welcome back. When it comes to the world of knitting and making and the color white. I have some mixed feelings. My first reaction is. This is going to get stained immediately for some reason or why it is like a magnet for any dirt, it's going to attract something.
And in the world of fiber, it's a difficult color to actually come across. White is often found naturally , but not usually the white, like crystal pristine, bleached white without. Bleach being part of the process. So even though things like sheep's wool, cotton alpaca.
There are fibers out there that naturally occurs. In a whitish shade, but it's really more of an off white or a cream. If you think back to those Irish knit sweaters, they're not super white. They're that like off white cream color. And that's because that's exactly the color that the sheep wool was when it was sheared and spun into the wool.
So if you're a consumer out there looking for super white yarn, just know it has been processed with chemicals in order to get that color. Or it's made entirely of a chemical, like a acrylic polyester, in which case they can just chemically make it into any color and exclude it out. Of What basically looks like a shower head to make these little strings that then they spin into the yarn.
In ancient times, obtaining white dye or bleaching agent was hard to come by.
The bleaching agent at that point was leave it in the sun.
Or an intricate process of substances like chalk clay, or even urine.
And this is why naturally occurring white fibers were so highly sought after. And coveted.
White Fibers
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So let's go into some of those a little bit deeper now. Wool was the first thing that came to my mind. That is used symbolically to represent purity protection.
Again, remember all of those knitted jumpers We're to protect the Irish fishermen, not only from the elements, but also an identifier of who they are in the end.
So if you had white sheep versus black sheep versus whatever other color sheep. The color of your jumper is also going to be an identifier.
Wool also has a very high frequency. And so when you're wearing wool, it should help you feel more healthy. It's a naturally wicking fiber. And so unlike the. Sports performance fabrics, which are entirely made out of plastics. Wool is really the go-to from winter to summer, wool is the best it cools you off in the summer because of the wicking.
And it keeps you warm because of its lofty goodness in the winter.
Another fiber you might have thought of is cotton.
Cotton has been well-branded as a pure innocent kind of fiber, your go to summer fabric.
And cotton in particular I know is used in magical purposes to help bring on the rain. So when you burn cotton, if you are in a drought or you're looking for rain to come your way,
burning cotton is said to help with that.
Linen is another fiber that can come in a lighter color. Although I don't usually think of white initially when it comes to linen.
Silk, however, is color that white comes to mind. Silk as a fiber embraces a lot of the multifaceted aspects of the color white because of its. She seen you can almost see that iridescent rainbow in it.
Most silk that we use is created by. Caterpillars. So these caterpillars create a cocoon around themselves, out of one strand, continuous strand of silk.
And as I learned in fashion school, What happens is those cocoons are taken down and harvested before the caterpillar breaks through. And boiled. So the caterpillar unfortunately dies so that the integrity of this one strand can get on. Raveled from the cocoon and used to make future fabrics.
It is extremely labor intensive.
And as you can tell, not the most humane of fibers out there.
But because it's so labor intensive and because of this amazing sheen, it's really seen as a luxury item. So using silk in abundance spells. Or things that you want to be really strong because silk fibers are extremely strong because they're one continuous strand.
And so little in this life seems to be light and silky and strong. it comes to making certain projects out of the color white. Personally. I almost never knit with only white. For me, white usually ends up being a breakup between colors. Like black and gray.
And even though I know it's traditional to knit a white baby blankets for a newborn again, because of these health qualities and the newborn baby ness of it, all.
But I just can't imagine anyone. Hand-washing a baby blanket. That's been thrown up on 20 times in the past two days because it's a baby. And so it's either never going to get used, which as a knitter. To find something that you've made is not getting used. Because the person doesn't want to ruin it.
Oh, Like, why did I even bother? So if you're a person who's gotten knitting items and you're too afraid to wear them please wear them and enjoy them. It brings us great joy.
But if it's an entirely white sweater, I totally understand the hesitation.
In fact, the only time I find that I go to wear white exclusively is when I'm in very hot climates, go figure the idea of wearing black or any color other than white tug optimize the most reflective qualities. Is no, thank you.
Which again is where, those linens and those cottons are also going to make their way in.
I also think of holiday ornaments. So anything that's a snowflake or a snowball or anything related to snow.
And while we're at it. Let's not forget about some music that features white things like white Christmas. White Iverson. If you're a post Malone fan.
White wedding for all you Billy idol fans. And of course my favorite, white rabbit by Jefferson airplane.
Musicians. Aren't the only one using white in their melodies. White is also used heavily in branding. So companies like Coca-Cola Nike, apple, all use white as an element to. Symbolize their purity innovation trust, reliability. Think of the apple store. It's basically just like a white lab facility.
That feeling of coldness.
Basically there's no right or wrong way to use the color white. And I'm curious how you use it. How do you use white in your magic? How do you use it in your making? Are you a brave soul that actually knits with the color white? I need to know how you take care of this. And somehow don't get it all dirty in the making press. Yes.
Give me some tips. Please leave a comment in our YouTube channel, which you can also subscribe that while you're right there. It really helps us out.
And so as we wrap up today's episode, I encourage you to take a moment to go out and appreciate the color white in daily life, whether it's the pristine snowfall outside, which it's only November 8th.
So hopefully it's not happening. Although I know not everyone has gotten away with a snowless fall so far, or the crisp white sheets on your bed. Bed or that excitement of a blank white page waiting to be written or drawn upon.
White surrounds us in countless forms.
I hope you enjoyed exploring the color white with me and don't worry. Our fabulous maker of magic. We'll be back with us next week.
As a reminder, we did an episode, Jim and I on benevolent M benevolent magic, which I'll link here. It's definitely worth checking out. If you want to know more about quote black and white magic.
Thanks again for tuning in on this week's episode on white. And we look forward to seeing you next week.
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See you next week. Next week.
