Katie Rempe: Hey Magical Makers, as you may know, this season's theme is Stitch and Knot Magic. And what do those sometimes produce? Gnomes! Today on Knit a Spell, we have a guest expert on the topic. It's knitwear designer and gnome enthusiast Sarah Shira of Imagined Landscapes. Sarah designs patterns for everyday adventures and odds are you've seen one of her many knitted gnomes because she's never not gnoming and Jim and I are excited to chat with her all about it today.
Welcome!
Sarah Schira: Thank you. I'm always excited to talk about gnomes. You will have a difficult time keeping me to an hour.
Katie Rempe: That's wonderful. I love it.
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'.
Knitting or Gnomes First?
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Katie Rempe: We're all curious what came first, the relationship between knitting or gnomes.
Sarah Schira: Like many people, I dabbled in knitting, taught by everyone in my family, but it didn't stick till I was in my mid twenties, so I would say the knitting came second. Really? I can't remember a time when Scandinavian style gnomes didn't fascinate me. I'm not sure where I saw my first one.
So like, I'm not a huge fan of garden gnomes. But I love the Scandinavian style. Basically, it's the absence of eyes. I think I find more compelling than like a garden gnome. I can remember at any like craft fair I went to where they had that style of gnomes.
I was always like, is this in my budget? Could we get this? I can remember for sure finding one, at a craft sale when I was in university and I was about 18, but I'm sure I saw them before then. I actually remember getting my first Ikea catalog and I can probably trace it back to that. So when I was 12, we moved to Ontario and Ontario had one of the only Ikea locations in Canada.
And, because we moved and because my parents at that point, my dad was going back to university. for his PhD. We were going to be like a poor university family. We went to Ikea and I got my own catalog. My parents were free to choose their own, but I picked one up myself. I had that eye catalog, I think till 10 years ago when I finally said it doesn't need to make every move with me.
I had memorized it. And I have always had an attraction to the architecture and the landscapes and, the folklore and the stories and , we're Northern as well, it's obviously not the same, Canada is, you know, settled by many people, my background is, not Norse, but, there's so many parallels in how the landscape looks and, and all of these things, I've always had this affinity, and so I can't remember when I started.
it's found out about them. I can't remember when I started liking them, but it was sort of like the instant I saw them, I liked them. And there is no disentangling that. When I had started knitting, then sort of mid twenties, um, eventually I saw a pattern where there was a gnome and I just about lost it at that point.
So I bought the pattern and I started knitting gnomes and knitting gnomes and knitting and knitting and knitting and I couldn't stop and I was instantly like I did a couple of them and I was like, oh, I kind of really wish the bottom was flat because they keep tipping. And I don't want to only just prop them in a corner of a shelf. And then I was like, oh But I really wish This was a little different.
I wish I didn't have to sew the beards on, or sew the, the hats on. Or I wish, what if it was really tall and skinny? Or what if it was fat? Or whatever. So I started just tweaking and tweaking and tweaking and tweaking. And at that point, that's where the never not gnoming came in. It was, my son was about 12, and it was, let's say, 2014 ish.
I can't be exactly sure when this really truly started. But that was the time when if you were a preteen ish kind of person, and you weren't sarcastically hashtagging your parents everyday lives, you just weren't alive.
He would walk into the room, I'd be knitting another gnome, and he'd be like, hashtag mama's never not gnoming. And so that's where the title came from. Oh, that's genius. Wow.
Katie Rempe: Thanks, kid. Good one. TM. TM.
Sarah Schira: Turned it back on him. Yeah. And now if you actually go onto Instagram, it's a really big hashtag.
Gnome Book
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James Divine: Very nice.
Never not gnoming. I love this because this was my introduction to gnomes. When I was a little kid, this book was a coffee table book at a couple that would take care of us from church sometimes. They were an older couple and they were like grandparents. She had this coffee table book and I would pour over this book and it was so fascinating to me.
That started me just like fantasizing about if I was a gnome, where would I live? And I lived in Tucson, Arizona, like in the Sonoran desert. Like the
Sarah Schira: least gnome like place you'd ever heard of.
James Divine: But of course, there's a page with all the different types of gnomes from different regions in that book.
And so I imagined, I imagined a desert gnome that just hasn't been discovered yet was just fodder for my imagination. It was specifically gnomes because of that book. You probably have that book, I'm sure.
Sarah Schira: I don't, people keep talking about it, but it's not one I've come across.
It
James Divine: is the best.
like an ethnographic study of gnomes. Yeah. I see bits and
Sarah Schira: pieces of it all the time. And people often, when they enter my knit alongs, they'll open it to a certain page and then pose their gnome in front of that for the picture to sort of like prove they finished the gnome.
James Divine: But
Katie Rempe: nobody has sent you a copy yet? No.
Sarah Schira: No one has. Oh my gosh. All right. Well, we'll be on the lookout for one.
Why Gnomes?
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James Divine: It's fantastic. I highly recommend. But I recommend your Ravelry site because I was so fascinated with all of the little gnomes you have. It's so much fun. And my question is, were you allowed to fantasize about like the fairy folk and the gnomes? Were you raised in a folkloric or a spiritual practice or anything like that?
Sarah Schira: I was raised fairly strictly Christian, but in a very very hippie kind of way.
Yeah. So it's really conflicted how to describe, imagination and play were very, highly, praised, allowed, I don't know how to
James Divine: describe it. Encouraged. Words not working at the moment. They were encouraged.
Sarah Schira: Encouraged. Yes. And I grew up reading all sorts of, books like that, but my, parents are sort of very pragmatic people.
My father's a scientist. So it's not the kind of thing where I was ever encouraged to see in reality, but we always were encouraged to see and play.
I grew up reading and rereading Anne of Green Gables and like the idea of sort of seeing little. things into landscapes was baked into me like right from the beginning.
James Divine: That's
Katie Rempe: fantastic. Anne is a great role model for someone with a wonderful imagination.
Sarah Schira: Yeah, so I actually re read all eight Anne books. So I got my first set of the first three when I was eight and I read those and reread those a bunch of times and I found out there were more. And so probably from the time I was 10 till I was about 28 I reread all eight books every year.
I adore Anne, and I've had to take a little break, so I'm only rereading them like every five to 10 years now. But I mean, I've read them a
James Divine: lot.
Katie Rempe: Well, they're relatable for your whole life because she lives a whole life. So when you're older, you're like, Oh, now I relate to these parts.
Sarah Schira: Reading it as a child and then as a teenager and then as a mother, I found like such an interesting layering of like, um, what TV show was I watching the other day where someone said, how can you be reading the same book over and over? Isn't that boring? And he said, the book stays the same, but you change.
I think it was Lessons in Chemistry, the Apple TV show
James Divine: that just, you know. Oh, I love that show. Ugh. Yeah.
Sarah Schira: So good. He read Great Expectations over and over and she said, how can you do this? And he's like, the book stays the same, but you change. And one thing I loved about Anne and I really connected with was how connected she was to her landscape in a way that I could relate to as a non farmer.
Like in my life in the prairies, everyone who's connected to the landscape is very much someone who's like, they are a farmer, but I never lived on a farm, but I still felt connected to the landscape. And I think Anne's. Poetic and imaginative and very tactile, the way she noticed flowers and sought beauty and sought whimsy and, and like allowed herself to get a little spooked out by the fog or whatever.
I felt like Anne was a good model for me that, that, you know, didn't relate to the land quite the same way a lot of the people around me were. And it was also the land as it was, not as we made it. Which I really appreciated.
Katie Rempe: Did you ever go into crochet, or did any other crafts end up becoming gnomes?
Gnomes in Other Crafts
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Sarah Schira: I'll deal with the crochet thing really quickly. I've tried a little bit, but crochet is a no go for me for two reasons. One, it really hurts my wrists. I think there's just so much more active movement that my wrists, like, you could just knit, please. And then the other The other thing is, because you're always looking for where you have to place your hook, it doesn't let me slip into the same kind of brainwave place that knitting, because the loop is always next.
And I can knit in the dark. My favorite things to knit are the So like, as we're talking, when my hands aren't up here, I'm actually knitting a sock. And I'm just like, my, my needle finds the next stitch and I just slip into this place and crochet. It's possible I can get there, but that's not something I hear from crochet.
I'm certainly not there now. But in terms of other crafts, yeah, I've done a lot. I'm a very project based or seasonal I homeschooled my kids from kindergarten through grade 12, and we did a lot of project based learning. I hate showing up to do the same thing every day.
And so we would do like, we would throw ourselves at something, drain it dry, and then like walk away basically. But all through that there was creativity was a big part of it. So we went through a big watercolor phase. I've watercolored gnomes. Lots of sketching. I like to sketch gnomes even now.
And that's another part of my design process. Now that I've figured out how Procreate works on my iPad, it's totally changed designing for me. I love it. So let's see, watercolor. I'm wanting to try embroidering gnomes. Now that I'm sketching more of my gnomes, like what is a black and white line drawing, but an embroidery waiting to happen.
So that's something I want to do. Basically anything if someone's doing a craft and it's kind of an open play situation I will probably end up with a gnome. Oh,
Katie Rempe: I like it. Can it be gnomed? Can you gnome it? Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
James Divine: Will it gnome?
Yes.
Sarah Schira: Yes it will.
James Divine: I have several felted, needle felted gnomes from friends, they usually come out at Christmas time.
They should be out all the time, I guess, now that I'm talking with you. Don't, don't, don't should
Sarah Schira: yourself. That's
James Divine: just no fun in life. I could. They could live out all the time, but now they're in a box. They're Christmasy ornaments. So it's cute.
Sarah Schira: Well, and I actually originally thought my gnomes were going to be a Christmas kind of decoration because most of the time they're being pitched at you.
It's like a Christmas market or it's, it's Christmas. This is Christmas. When I really started making them, it was probably October or November. And then after Christmas was over, I was kind of like, I guess it's time to put them away, but it felt terrible. What I decided the next Okay. Well, these are actually snow gnomes.
They're not Christmas gnomes. They're snow gnomes. And what that means is the first big snow storm of the year. We're going to pull them out. We're going to have a little snow party, and then we're not going to put them away until the snow melts in the yard. And so in Manitoba, this means roughly late October to November, um, till April.
Because there's always a shady spot in the yard. Uh, so that was a couple of years. The snow gnomes. And it was actually really good. Because it gave us a real sense of celebration. When the first, like the skies get so heavy before a big snow storm. And, and there's a point where like fall is glorious and gorgeous.
And then it gets like nasty. And then you're kind of waiting for snow. So this gave us like an extra layer of joy. Whenever the snow stopped. The clouds would get that like incredibly low, gray, steely, aggressive, we'd be like, Ooh, maybe we can bring the gnomes out. And then as we were waiting in spring, like we'd always be like, where's this, where's the last patch of snow?
And there's always the last patch of snow when it's always just lurking and lurking and lurking. And we go have a little checkup. And it just gave all of us kind of like a, a little purpose, kind of like waiting for the first two blip or something like that. But honestly, it was about. And I was like, actually, they're just going to be out all the time.
And I think by that point, I had published a pattern and it was becoming part of like my livelihood. And so it just didn't feel right to tuck them in a box and just put them away. Like they, by that point had become such a, uh, Pervasive and, um, community, like, like they're just kind of vibing with me all the time.
It just felt really weird to put them away. I have a, a gnome eating cat now, and, uh, rude. So I had to buy glass cabinets to house my gnomes. So these ones are here now, but when we're done, I will put them back, and I had now, I now have so many, I have two glass cabinets that are entirely gnomes.
The last time I counted, I was over a hundred gnomes, but that was the last time I counted. And that is not an active, um,
Katie Rempe: Oh my.
James Divine: I love it. I love
Katie Rempe: it. It's amazing. Have you ever knit, a cat knit gnome for your cat?
Sarah Schira: No, because in no way do I want to encourage him with this behavior.
Katie Rempe: Ah, okay. Smart. Good call.
Sarah Schira: He's actually, it's, it's kind of interesting. I like to travel and have a travel gnome so that like my Instagram pictures or my vacation pictures are just cuter like there's always like, like we're just I got a small gnome big enough that I can like hold it up in a selfie or put it in a like, oh, there's a cute waterfall and I'll just hold it up and it'll be the waterfall picture but with a gnome because I'm just like that, but if I leave.
In my purse now, if he gets to where the purses are, he's like, I have found gnomes here before, and I will find him, like, just his tail sticking out. He's so diving in to try to get them. But, so if he finds a bigger one, he'll, like, carry it out, but then it just kind of stays there. He doesn't actively kill it.
And I can understand him, because if you think about his genetics and his evolution, if this is not a mouse. That is very mouse like.
James Divine: Now, he must be an orange cat. He is. He's a wife of an orange cat. I didn't know that. I know them. They're the worst. I know how they are.
Katie Rempe: I had one too, but I've only had that one, so I didn't know.
James Divine: It's orange cat behavior, hashtag, orange cat behavior.
Sarah Schira: Yeah, it's another
James Divine: hashtag. It is. It's a real, it's a real hashtag that's already on Insta everywhere. Yeah.
Sarah Schira: Wowee. Yikes. Orange hat. Well, okay. It'll, uh, it'll change your life. I knew it. Wow.
Real Gnomes?
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Katie Rempe: Well, so, other than your gnomes that you're bringing out on your travels, would you say you've come across any, quote, real gnomes?
Have you ever had a gnomey experience?
I definitely feel like when we were in Norway, I felt like I can a hundred percent understand why gnomes, are so connected with that landscape. I've never been in a place that felt more like a troll had just settled in and allowed moss to grow on his back than, than Norway.
Sarah Schira: It was extraordinary. so we were hiking. There for just one week and it made me sad, but you can't be everywhere all the time, unfortunately. You have to, you have to just do little bits. So we were there and we were hiking and hiking. It was June, the height of summer, but it was still very much like, what I would consider late spring.
Spring, like the glacier, like everything was still melting up at the tops. So the waterfalls were pouring, thundering levels of water coming past us. So like there was just this, the power of the water. And then there would be these, there was moss that looked like it was half a meter deep in places like it was so moist.
And everything was just kind of like hummocky, but you'd get to somewhere where it was like maybe the water had cut through or something and it was clear that the hummocky was just moss on top of rocks. And then there'd be all these twisted trees that were stunted and probably like 800 years old, but the size of, you know, a three year old because The wind and the conditions keep them really small.
There's a great German word for it, it's Krumpelholz, which means like, gnarly wood, or like crumpled wood. And so it was all of this. And then again, with the thick, thick moss, and then the way that the, the rocks gave structure to the landscape, I felt like, I 100 percent if I sat still long enough was gonna finally find my friend.
James Divine: Wow. Sounds like it's gonna move right out of a fairy tale.
Sarah Schira: It really was. If you can go to Norway, I would say go. It was like everything I love about Canada with better roads and no mosquitoes.
Katie Rempe: Oh, sold.
James Divine: Done. I often think about how, in magical practice and our spiritual practice, we would put gnomes in the category of the fae folk or the fair folk where the good folk, along with fairies and pixies and trolls and things like that. These liminal creatures that are.
personifications of nature psychologically, but magically we use our imagination to see them.
Sarah Schira: And so I feel like they're like a peripheral vision sighting
James Divine: a hundred percent. That's exactly right. They're never going to let you see them directly. They're too clever and smart, but once in a while you'll catch a little something out of on the side and you'll glance,
or cats will stare at something. There's nothing there and you're like, okay, I used to say they caught a fairy in their eyes . So
Respect The Gnomes
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Sarah Schira: I think I really enjoy about what they, when you look into like the Tomta or the Nyssa, those are the two, like the Norwegian and the Swedish names for them.
Yeah. Is that very much tied to farming. And the idea is that if you respect the The gnome that is part of your farm that he will take care of the animals and the crops and he will help if you tend the farm and also tend him, he will help you tend as well and that there is like at its core. It's about respect.
So if you respect the Tanta, then he will help you. And I think that is a really interesting. I guess I feel like it's rare that the word respect is at the core of the core of any fairy tale or, or any like legendary creature, you know, that's like the Minotaur will kill you in a maze, right? And the gnome will respect you if you respect it.
James Divine: There is this long history in like Ireland, when you go to Iceland, the Hultafolk are there and there's this like long tradition of how do you work with the liminal fey creatures like gnomes, and how do you offend them? Do you think it's a way to say respect nature, respect the land?
Sarah Schira: Yeah, I really do. I think, the stories we tell are real indicators of what's going on in our world. personal lives, our family lives, and our cultural lives. And, and if as a culture, one of the stories you're telling is there are beings here who can help and who can also, if they walk away, it's not good for us.
I think it helps reinforce the idea that we're not separate from the world. And we like in North America to tell stories about separation and individuality and about extraction and the gnome is not something that plays well with ideas of extraction and ideas of separation. And I think that's one of the things that I find really interesting.
If you think about in the, Scandinavian sort of cultures, and I can never remember whether I'm supposed to say Nordic or Scandinavian because like one of those words includes more countries and I can never remember
James Divine: which one it is. I can't, I can't either. Yeah. Anyways. I think it's Scandinavian.
I'm pretty sure.
Sarah Schira: Okay, so let's say the Scandinavian tradition, one of the ways you respect it is that you pay them through Christmas porridge. Once a year, you leave out a very buttered dish of porridge for them. Respect and oatmeal is really all they're looking for in life.
And I feel like very deeply that that speaks to me. I think, I think I'd
James Divine: be happy with that.
Katie Rempe: I think everyone, likes that. And it does seem to be a running theme in a lot of spirituality and things of that nature, where if you respect the unseen thing, it can help you. And if you don't it won't, whatever that means.
James Divine: I think about the word hubris. It was the, most horrible sin for the ancient Greeks was hubris, especially in the face of the gods. So I think about that with, human beings today especially in the context of colonialism, do you think gnomes help us sort of check our, Are hubris in some ways.
Why Knit Gnomes?
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Sarah Schira: I think they do for me. I find them humbling a lot, but I also that might just because I work with them.
A lot of people who aren't in the gnome thing really do want to know like, no seriously, what's up with the gnoming? Because I, I started designing gnomes and for whatever reason it hit really hard with knitters.
It was not my expectation that I would be a toy designer. Like, I wanted to start with some accessories, figure out the whole design process because there are so many hats you have to wear if you're a small business owner. Like, Put on all my hats, figure out my hats. And then I was going to grow up and be a designer who, did cabled sweaters.
That was basically my, my trajectory and what are the known pattern? And they hit hard. Like, people were so enthusiastic and so generous and so excited if I put out another one. And I was just like, what is going on? My main theory is that in our stupid late capitalist world with our protestant work ethic, we mostly even turn our hobbies into jobs.
How many times have you heard somebody say, I can't buy more yarn to like knit up all the stuff over here. And I'm not allowed to start a new project till I finish my gift for my niece. Or, I'm making 37, 000 blankets for charity, I can't do, I can't learn how to weave yet. Or, whatever. And I think, we're using the words should and shouldn't all over the place in our crafting.
And then when you knit a gnome, you say, I'm just playing. I'm just doing something for no purpose. There is a purpose. The purpose is play. But I think we have gotten so purposeful. I mean, if you think about most knitters, like me, like I'm knitting right now, it's like, how can I make my rest more productive?
Is really what a lot of us have said or done to ourselves. And I think when you choose to make something for no good reason, you, you, you, you, you. You really flip the script inside yourself. And when we, as adults don't do a lot of play, and I think for a lot of knitters, they, they might start to knit a known because, you know, they know their sister in law really loves it, or their brother in law wants one in sports colors or whatever, and they, they start it as a gift or they're just like, well, everyone else is doing one.
I'll join one of these stupid little longs. And, but it hits with a bunch of us. And I think it's because all of a sudden you're doing something in a way that just Suspends the shoulds like gnomes don't should there's just nothing about them that doesn't work. If they are a little Glitchy I say over and over again to people wonkiness is gnominess They are the perfect project to try a new technique if you fail in a cable in a gnome It just looks more Gnomey, like it's, they have so little pressure.
They don't have to fit anybody. Mistakes are just more personality. There's just so many ways in which they're just like, Hey, I want to play with color. I can make a Gnome in an evening. If it's a small one, I can use up leftovers. I can just, I want to try these two things together.
I want to learn a new technique. I'll do so there is something about gnomes and our craft. I think that work well, like I said, because so many of us take our crafting so seriously. Yes.
James Divine: And that is so amazing. Wonkiness is gnominess,
Katie Rempe: it just adds to the character.
Sarah Schira: And I mean, I put all sorts of video tutorials into my gnomes so that you won't mess up.
But I just want to reassure you that if you do, nobody cares. Like nobody,
James Divine: Nobody cares.
Sarah, this is so freeing. I think we should take a little break though. When we come back, I want to talk more about, wonkiness is gnominess. That could apply to us as people. So let's, take a little break and let's come back with more from Sarah Shira.
Knit A Spell Patreon
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Katie Rempe: Hey Knit Aspel fans, we are back on Patreon with a new dedicated page. For just 5 a month, you'll gain access to behind the scenes posts, exclusive downloads and resources, and you'll be able to participate in influential polls with fellow fans. You'll also receive a free exclusive Knit A Spell sticker sent right to your door after being a subscriber for three consecutive months.
It's a great way to support the podcast and Jim and I are so appreciative to everyone who's joined so far. To learn more and patreon. If you'd like to sign up, visit patreon. com forward slash knit a spell. See you there.
Jim's Coaching
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James Divine: Your hands are the map to achieving anything you want in life, but it's hard to read that map in just one reading. My coaching packages allow me to work with you over time to build towards your goals. We bring in life coaching. Executive coaching, leadership coaching, tarot, palmistry, astrology all together.
And these amazing coaching pathways that my clients are on really help propel people towards their goals. Learn more about Jim's new coaching packages by sending him an email at jimathedivinehand. com to schedule a free discovery call or visit thedivinehand. com to learn more.
Katie's Patterns
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Katie Rempe: Hey knitters! You know, Jim and I talk an awful lot about all of the patterns that I design on the show. But we don't always mention where you can get them. All of my patterns are available on Ravelry. Odds are if you're a knitter, you're already familiar with this website. However, if you're not on Ravelry, That is not a problem.
You can still just send me an email to hello at lightfromlantern. com with which patterns you're interested in and I'll help you make it happen. Thank you so much for your continued support and remember that you can always stay up to date on the latest news and coupons by signing up for my newsletter at lightfromlantern.
com. Merry make!
Gnome Inspiration
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Katie Rempe: We are back. And Sarah, I'm curious about where your wealth of inspiration comes from for your many, many, many gnomes.
Sarah Schira: I don't know that I can say that it, like, there's a nice easy answer because every time I look at almost anything, I, I see a gnome. Well, that's a good answer. Yeah. , I just see gnomes, I don't know how to describe it, but I will look at something in a, like, I'll be at the greenhouse and I will look at a, plant and I'm like.
That plant could be a gnome and I'll be thinking about like the way the nose would be or the shape I sometimes. See pictures of, of like, so knitting is very restrictive in a bunch of ways about what you can do with a gnome. So I will see things that are maybe made of felt or ceramic or something like that.
I'll see gnomes or, other Playful, like, not necessarily toys, but decorations or whatever, and I'll take a picture, and realize I can't do that in knitting, and then I start problem solving, and I might not ever sketch the original idea, but I'll have from that, in my problem solving, I'll get three new ideas, and so I've got a sketchbook.
In my, my iPad, where it's just like gnome bits, and, they're terrible sketches, they're the most, like, frantic, don't lose this idea possible. Hangman level of art skills, and I'll just explain to myself in notes what I mean. because in a sketch, it's very difficult to come to the idea, like, of directionality, like, which direction am I knitting, or am I using a particular stitch, so I'll just, like, jot out the notes to myself, so, you know, I've got a, like, a selection of beards I haven't tried yet, or noses I haven't tried yet.
And so sometimes the inspiration is just, it's just happening as I'm out and about. Sometimes people are sending me pictures and a lot of times it just comes from sitting down, knowing that it's time to produce another design because this is a business. And um, I got to show up and I'll sit down and I'll flip through sketchbook and go, okay, which of these could I put together?
And because I do a lot of mystery knit alongs, I really have to pay attention to how much weird and wacky can I put in per pattern. Because it's different if you've signed up for extreme weird and wacky knowing what you're doing, but If you are volunteering your time, which is precious in this day and age, and your money, which is precious in this day and age, to spend time with my pattern, I don't want you to get frustrated.
I want you to maybe be challenged at best. So I'll sit down with all of that and sort of like the idea at the core and then I might mix and match. Should this be, more nose forward or, you know, like what's, what's going to be the design center point. And then sometimes I don't know going in, where it's going to end up.
And then some of the gnomes are very story based. And so they basically drive me into a particular direction.
James Divine: This is fabulous. And I can see All the different types of gnomes, the gnomes with the fair isle pattern, the one behind you with the tall cabled hat, sort of that yellowish hat the one in the middle.
Yep. That's a very hat forward gnome, it's so cool to see all the different varieties. It's like there's a gnome for every, person or every thing.
Sarah Schira: I'm trying to get there. Um, also what's brilliant is because the Mystery Gnome format and because people have built up a, a sense of trust with me, which I am eternally cognizant of and trying never to break. But I do know that a lot of the people that will knit my gnomes will follow me to places that they would not choose themselves to go.
And
James Divine: because of that, That's the beauty of a knit along, right? Yeah.
Sarah Schira: Also the mystery shoes, new techniques, knowing that we haven't done this yet. And I bet I could get people to do color and I bet I could do this or, or whatever. So for instance, um, Noma's where you hang your hat here. He was a, we haven't done color work yet.
I think it's time that some of these people who think they can't need to be taught that they're just getting in their own way. And so we did, a fairly straightforward set of color work. Like nothing was too difficult. It was all short repeats. You never needed to worry about floats. It's skinny. So you're also like changing and getting lots of repetition.
Like you're not having to like grind. So this one was me thinking, I bet I could get a bunch of people to do their first color work. And I was like really upfront when we were talking about this middle of it, if this is your first color work, gnomes are Perfect for practicing because if they're wobbly and your floats are all wacky, it's just going to look great.
And then as secret part, because I tell, people what skills are involved. I don't do ratings on how hard my patterns are. I just list skills used. Smart, smart. What I'm hoping people will do is say, like, I recognize 10 of those I'm in, kind of a deal.
Katie Rempe: Because as soon as you say it's hard, that will freak people out.
Right. That is so relative,
Sarah Schira: yes. Or, you get a beginner who's like, oh yeah, and then it actually is too hard.
Katie Rempe: Yeah, the beginner luck doesn't always happen.
Sarah Schira: Yeah. But all the things I I didn't say that we were going to do a sweater. So the very last clue. was a sweater with a tiny bit of color work here and I was so worried about reassuring people about their first color work and all this stuff that it wasn't till like three weeks after this gnome was done that someone wrote me and said, Sarah I just did my first sweater with you and I had no idea I was gonna do it and I always thought sweaters were really intimidating but the fact that this is just a top down raglan in teeny tiny weirdly no neck format I think I could probably do a top down raglan And I love that.
So sometimes my gnome design really does come from like, what haven't we done yet? Have we done mosaic knitting? Well, we haven't till last year. So we did mosaic knitting and, and I didn't even tell people about that one. I just wrote slipping stitches as a skill. And then, release the clue where it's like, guess what?
And I actually put a little video up with that where I was just like, Hey guys, I just really want to reassure you that you can do this. It's so easy. You're going to kick yourself for being intimidated, but if you don't want to do it, For the knit along only, I'm going to give a no mosaic stitch version of this hat.
So I did that. And then after the, the knit along was over, um, that, that way of doing the hat doesn't exist anymore because, of course, if you're buying the pattern, you see what you're getting. You know what you're getting into. it kind of really depends on where I'm at in terms of, like, oh, I think we haven't done this in a while or something like that.
James Divine: That's cool.
Sarah Schira: No specific place, but lots of places.
Intentional Gnoming
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James Divine: When you're in the knit along or when you're knitting, do you ever have or think of an intention with a gnome?
Sarah Schira: I'm a big believer in intentionality in everything I do. So it's hard to disentangle just my natural personality from that question.
Sure. There's a difference between knitting and designing. And I think with design, I always have intention. Whereas with knitting, sometimes my intention is I need to chill The F out. Right. And I'm going to get, I'm going to knit a gnome because it doesn't need to fit anybody.
And, putting a nose on it and seeing something pop into creation is going to be very good for me.
But as a designer, I definitely have a lot of intentionality into it because I am thinking about like, where are we all at?
Does it feel like we need a distraction or do we need a challenge? And do people need to believe they can do more than they think they can? Or do we all need a vacation right now? And so I'm the kind of person who likes to give. Intentions when I go for a walk like today's the day where I'm going to find something that's adorable and blue and I'm going to keep walking till I find it or, you know, like, I'm not necessarily consciously doing it all the time, but I am somebody who believes that a lot of what you're doing.
You should mean.
James Divine: As I'm looking at the gnomes, I'm thinking, gee, stuff it with herbs or with crystals or to give someone like, here's your good luck gnome for your job interview or things, there's just a million ways.
Sarah Schira: Definitely if it's a gift gnome, there's so much you can do and you can like people stuff them with like they include lavender and depending on what weighted stuffing you want to put into it? So there's both fluffy stuffing and weighted stuffing to it most gnomes and that is partly because uh gnomes are tall and skinny and their center of gravity is a little too high to be standing around Yeah, just
James Divine: casually a little weeble wobble action
Sarah Schira: So like at the bottom, um, this one's not a good example.
This one is one that the kit came with like a little wooden thing to help stabilize it. So let me find one that is not so stable. So this one, you can kind of see how it kind of pooches out at the bottom a little bit. And that's because right over here, the weighted stuffing starts. So depending on what you're doing, the fluffy stuffing is usually like polyfill or roving, depending on how much plastic you like in your life, you pick one or the other.
But weighted stuffing is like wildly varied depending on the person. So there are like plastic poly pellets, which are meant to be child safe above the age of three. But, a lot of us, again, don't love the plastic. and so they're using, like, river stones, or glass pebbles from florists, or aquarium gravel, or, um, some people go for walks and find nice big rocks, and I like, , dried beans and lentils, because I live somewhere where pests aren't a problem.
Big, big asterisk caveat there. there's lots of things that you can do and a lot of people will use herbs or, or like little sachets. They'll just tuck them in and add them. It's a little secret inside here of what you're putting in. really fun.
And a couple of the gnomes have pockets in their hats. Or on their bodies and some people like to put like special little secret pockets and like tuck things in especially for gifts.
Katie Rempe: Oh, so cute. What an original gift idea. What a way to deliver a gift card.
James Divine: I know, right? I love the idea of.
Roving and the natural stuffings you can put into a gnome along with the herbs. Because if you listen to one of our older episodes, Katie, around the magic of fibers and that each type of natural fiber has, an energy signature with it, I mean, that's a really great thing to think about. Along with the yarn that you're selecting, the colors you're selecting, I mean, this is such a great canvas for a really intentional design and, knitting.
Sarah Schira: It's perfect for, like, I wanna try hot dyeing for the first time, I wanna try spinning. There's such, like, A hand spun gnome looks different than every other gnome. I love the look of hand spun gnomes. I don't have time for another painstaking hobby in my life.
I've already got a couple that are absolute time eaters. and until I have all the sweaters I need in my life, and gnomes, I just can't add another fiber hobby. But when I see one, I'm like, Oh. That would be really good.
Gnome Mischief
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Would you say any of your gnomes that are, like, mischievous?
Katie Rempe: Are there any of them that play tricks on you? Falling off shelves? That kind of thing? Jumping out at your cat?
Sarah Schira: Well, it does feel like, um, There's one gnome in particular that my, my cat is eating a lot, which must mean that it's getting out of the glass case the most, and it is Noah, which I unfortunately don't have a, a version of right now, but , there is the no fun like gnome fun pattern.
But Noah is the one that I teach when I teach how to knit a gnome. He's so small and Power packed that we can get a whole gnome knit in three hours. Which is perfect for class knitting. He's just such a good gnome and the pattern itself has both worsted weight and fingering weight versions. And so again, it's perfect for your beginner gnome sort of setting.
So this is Naomi. This is the slightly like, there's three gnomes in that pattern and they are the three smallest gnomes. So this is sort of the Second smallest and Naomi is a good stand in for Noah. So I knit a lot of worsted weight Noah's and they tend to be about this big and they are so mouse shaped.
And I have a lot of them, and yet I also don't have a lot of them because they are constantly somehow getting out into, my cat. but those are also the gnomes, because I knit a lot of, I really like to set around the world, and just leave them out. I will find like little knots in trees that are usually down like a kid height, or like little cross braces on fences or something like that.
And I will just Set them down and wish them well in their life and then let other people find them. So Noah definitely is, an enterprising and intrepid little gnome. Oh my gosh. So
Katie Rempe: fun. It's like a flat Stanley except for they're all over the place and they're in the world living and reporting back for you.
Sarah Schira: Like if I could while talking can get a gnome done in three hours. Like that is me painstakingly like redoing steps and like showing this step three times to people and stuff like that. So if we can do this in three hours, like Naomi, especially once I get into the groove, I can do her in less than two hours, like no problem.
So you can go on these like jags gnoming, like the hashtag never not is not as As mocking as you guys might think it is, like, honestly, it really is kind of a thing. So yeah, you can just go and go and go. And you can be like, what if it was blue? What if it was green? What if the hat was, was like white in every one?
I'm going to do a rainbow. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And you can just kind of sit down and, um, and just go and go. And so they, they really are this, thing where you do just kind of get into this little rhythm where they're really predictable and and you kind of know what's coming up.
And there is something about that. And I think I kind of mentioned that moment of creation with gnomes. If you a crafter, you're a crafter. Like if you're a knitter, you know knitting. But once you start making a toy, there is this moment where you switch from being a knitter to assembling something.
And that often feels uncomfortable because we are confident and we are good at knitting, but we are not yet good at assembly. Knitters freak out about sewing things on. They just straight up. That's for
Katie Rempe: sure.
Sarah Schira: So again, I've got videos, I've got all sorts of stuff to help, but There is then a moment where you stop being an assembler and it's usually when you sew the nose on and you in that moment become a creator and there is a way that the personality pops in to a toy when you put for gnomes it's the nose that changes who you are and that project is in that moment and it is the nose.
delightful. You can knit the same gnome over and over and every one of them seems a little different. The beard swings a little left. The nose is a little wrinklier or whatever. And the way that moment happens, I think is like the second reason why gnomes are as popular as they are. The first one being that they're playful and they're not work.
But there is this moment with creation in them. That I think is easy to dismiss until you've tried it. And if someone had told me that I would be saying this a lot to people, I would have been like, that seems a little weird for you to be talking about. But it's come true for so many of us. This feeling that when we put the beard on and then we put the nose on, there is this This moment where you look at it, like, it's almost that moment between the baby in your womb that you know, but then the baby you see for the first time.
It's a very small ripple echo of that kind of like, I know you, but oh, now I see you.
James Divine: Yeah, I love that. The transformation. You know, the. level of imagination you're able to access. When I teach about the Fae folk, I talk about the Fae being doorways to imagination because it really is your opportunity to like, if gnomes really existed in the world.
What would that mean? That would mean you would have a sense of play a sense of imagination. You would have to make up a story. You'd have to, like, get yourself out of your everyday as you so well said, everyday practice of shoulding on yourself to a place of curiosity and exploration. When we talk about magic, Anything that you want to achieve spiritually, it starts with that imagination, that creativity.
And the more that we can access our imagination, the more powerful our intention work can be. I really think this is a huge lesson. It's so powerful to me because of what imagination can do for somebody.
Power of Play
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Sarah Schira: If you can find something you're already good at, And then ask yourself, where is the play to be found there?
As adults, we don't like to fail. Kids fail all the time and they just got to suck it up and deal with it. Teachers, parents, we're all just like, you're going to suck at life. At all of this for a while, and we're even going to mark you on how much you fail. hope you're good with this.
But once we get adulthood, we're like, I'd like to stay away from this failure thing as much as I can.
James Divine: It was painful. If you can
Sarah Schira: find something that you already are kind of good at, then say, where's the play? I think that's a real gift to yourself as an adult to let yourself be a beginner because you're never going to be good at stuff till you're a beginner.
But then once you're not so much a beginner, to stop asking, like, what's the rule? What's the pattern? But then to say what's beneath the pattern, beneath the rules, there are principles at play. Yes. What are the principles? And okay, maybe I can't mess with the principles, but I can mess with everything above that.
So like with a gnome hat, the decrease ratio, you're going to get a tall triangle or you're going to get a short fat triangle, but there's play within that. And that decreased ratio, you can really play around with. You don't have to change my pattern a lot, but what if you just said, I'm putting three extra plain rounds between every decrease round.
Just by what if ing within the confines of something, maybe you're already, you know, you're already doing the pattern, you're already good at or whatever, and then just start to ask what if. That's where we start to play, when we start to be like, this might not work and that's going to be okay.
It's from that what if, that if we let ourselves play and be willing to fail. Although failure in the sense of play is a difficult, I don't really mean failure to play. Like that's not what I mean, but like we allow what we hope to come out of it might not be what comes out of it. There's like this thing that happens where if you can just stop taking yourself so seriously as an adult, I mean, there's so many adults.
Like, do you like to be around them? I don't. It's terrible to be around.
James Divine: There's a few I like. They're right here.
Sarah Schira: There's an
James Divine: interesting neurobiological connection between failure, play, and success. and creativity. The neurobiology of learning or of change or of failure, it stimulates the pain centers in our brain.
And what kids do as an analgesic or as a pain reliever, is play. So most of the kid's failure, children's failure is done in their play and in their exploration.
And I think that's why it's so unnatural for us to have like grades and punish people for poor marks because it ruins this learning that you could have from quote unquote failure and that playful learning that's available there.
So you're really picking up on something that I study quite a bit and do in my life here. And I love this connection.
Katie Rempe: We talk all the time about how in magic you just have to have the idea but not hold on to it with such the iron grip that other things that aren't better could even come across that you haven't even thought of yet.
So to just sort of let it go and like you said to see what shifts out. This is really the best way to go
James Divine: if you can. I love that point too. Our lust for results can totally ruin, like, I must make this gnome look exactly like the picture on Ravelry.
Katie Rempe: I have to make two look just alike. Like, good luck.
James Divine: And my favorite phrase.
I'm going to bring it back. Wonkiness is gnominess. Mm. That's such a great, ah, so, such wisdom. I love it. There's so,
Sarah Schira: it's so freeing and I, I realized I was saying it a lot. I was typing it a lot. I was saying it a lot in, in workshops and it really was resonating with people that this is a really judgment free craft zone.
the gnome zone is judgment free and I love that. And the first knit along I did, that was a mystery. Actually was this one. and. People were modifying the pattern, like clue three. And I was freaking out. I am naturally a rules based person. bit of a keener. and it was like, how can you be modifying what you don't even know where I'm going with this?
Like, I've put so much thought into every step of this. And you're just like, Changing it. And at first I was freaking out and I, I just had to be like, well, if you fail, that's your problem. Like I wrote a good pattern. And so that first, first thing was, I was less feeling great about this. I learned a lot from my response to that.
And the fact that those people ended up with no, they were happy with. So they were obviously like, okay. happier with change and risk than I was at that point. Also, because when you're running a knit along, and it's your first mystery knit along, the feeling of responsibility you have is like so enormous.
I don't think knitters realize how much goes on in designers lives when we are like carrying your hopes and dreams in our pattern. feels kind of intense. I think it was maybe the second knit along or something we were doing, and people were having so much fun And they were like, oh, now that I've done this, I want to do it again, but I want to do X.
I, very quickly, we had what I called the mod along, where I allowed, it was all about knitting my pattern, but you had to change it to participate. Oh! And, You had to modify and then right away that was the most fun we've had like in a long time and I've ever since then put into the frequently asked questions in my knit along people, I will say, can I modify?
whatever the gnome's name is. And I modify nifty. And I will say, yes, as long as I can tell you started with my pattern, you can modify it and enter it for the, knit along. Obviously you can do whatever you want with anyone's pattern, as long as it's legal. But like, If you start something and you end it differently, like, none of us as designers can stop you.
I'm not saying you can't, but in terms of, like, for prize winning, right? Like, this is really what the rules are all about, is can you enter for prizes. But I started putting in that you can modify things really early once I learned to calm down about it. Because, people get such good ideas. And even if Mm hmm.
Even if they have to backtrack, because it turns out I did something, they knew that risk going in. They knew that if I hadn't told them this was the hat, or not yet, that if they were assuming something, that they were making a jump. So sometimes people have had to backtrack, but the modifications that have come from people seeing things, And then what happens is I get ideas for future patterns.
I don't like rip them off. But as I see their approach or Interestingly, as I eavesdrop on their guesses, I get ideas for future mysteries. I'm like, oh, by doing this, I led them to think that. So how can I use that signaling to like, have fun with them in the future?
Because there are people that have knit all my knowns. so many times and they know the way I think and the way I tend to write patterns that I was starting to get disappointed when I'd be like, ha ha ha, we're going to do this. And then like two, minutes after that clue in the pattern dropped, they'd be like, we're doing this.
And I'm like, how'd you know? So I now in my mystery gnomes, I'm trying to like confuse the, expert gnomers while totally being clear and totally signpost for the beginning nominators. And I think I'm doing it okay so far, but it's a weird balance to trying to be like, throw them off and yet completely have everybody else on board.
James Divine: Genius. think people are listening, are just ready to sign up for a knit along, because this sounds like fun. It's so much freaking fun. Get Gnome y with it.
Katie Rempe: Get Gnome y with it.
Sarah Schira: It's just amazing to me because people have ideas and they don't think they're designers, but they're creatives and they put things out there that just get so inspiring to me.
And there are a couple knitters that every time they knit one of my patterns, I'm like, I should have done that.
Katie Rempe: Well, but that's part of the creative aspect of this.
We've talked about this in the past. We've interviewed, Astrea Taylor, who wrote a book about, magic and creativity.
And how we have talked about, like, Oh, I made this pattern, but then somebody else made a version of it that, like, Oh, well, Okay. And I didn't even think about that. But had they not had that original inspiration from you slash whoever the original person was, they wouldn't probably have gone there themselves.
James Divine: And then we find ourselves shoulding on ourselves and we're like, Oh, I keep telling people you shouldn't should.
Magic of Knitting
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Katie Rempe: What is it about knitting that you find so magical?
Sarah Schira: Oh, so this is not something to wrap up our conversation with. It's a short,
Katie Rempe: small answer.
Sarah Schira: You get three words. Knitting's just great.
It's nifty. It's so
Katie Rempe: cool. It's so nifty.
Sarah Schira: I said that like my Oma, my grandma, my mother, brownies, like everybody taught me how to knit at some point in childhood and it never stuck. I think partly it never stuck because nobody told me I could do anything other than knit a square that could be a barbie scarf or some other like really lame version of what this, this swatch was going to be.
If my grandmother had said, okay, we're going to knit this stupid square, but stage two, I'm going to teach you how to make a sweater. I think I would have been in. Yeah. But I wasn't. Missed opportunity. in my mid twenties, so we had our children unplanned and very early in our relationship. We chose to homeschool because there are a lot of reasons, but the most important one of which is we just don't believe in conveyor belting people.
If I was going to be a parent, I wanted to be the parent. I wanted to have the biggest influence and I went to a lot of schools. We moved a lot when I was a girl. I went to private, public, big city, small town, and the experiences were uniformly. uninspiring as a mother. So we homeschooled. And we were a big read aloud family.
So I read hours every day. And at one point we were reading something like little house on the prairies and Mary is knitting a doll as a Christmas present or something like this. There's knitting going on. And Sandra, my daughter says, mama, I'd like to learn how to knit. So as a homeschooler, when your child expresses an interest in something, you have two options.
One is to find a And the other is to learn the skill and be at least two days ahead of your child. Yeah. Perfect. This was just early enough that the internet was a baby, as well as my baby, and there was no YouTube at this point. So I went and I got two books and I started teaching myself to knit.
And this was roughly the time of the Lenny Kravitz scarf.
Katie Rempe: Oh my, that big
Sarah Schira: honkin one. Woof. And I have been a scarf person like since day one so I started and I was like, Oh, this is actually kind of compelling. What can I do next? I'm going to knit myself a Lenny Kravitz scarf.
So I started and knitting hit me so hard and so deeply. And I think there's, there's a couple of things that it was doing. So there's like so much research and I'm sure you guys have gone into this about how knitting is one of the few activities other than meditation that can produce theta brainwaves.
James Divine: I don't think we've ever said that on this show. Why Katie? No. Yeah. Okay. Tell
Sarah Schira: us about this. Well, that's basically what I know for sure. so theta brain waves are a different brain wave and meditation is one of the few things on this earth that does it. And then someone looked at a knitter's brain when they were knitting either stockinette or garter.
Like it had to be brutally simple. Those knitters were entering theta brain wave states. I remember hearing about this on the Knitting Podcast by Brenda Dane, if that helps you find the research. Anyway. I will find it. I will find all of it. So there is something that happens, a lot of knitters make the joke, like, if mama's not knitting, mama's mad.
Like, like, we all gotta be scary. But it's not really a joke, because there is something about it that grounds a lot of our experiences of, like, our body and ourselves in that moment. So there is that, like, simple brainwave thing that's going on, but for me, it was even more compelling.
So, layer one is that as a homeschooling mom, A lot of what you do is getting out of your own child's way. So you have to be around, because if you're not around, they will leave the table, or the chair, or wherever they are, right? Like if they're sitting on the kitchen counter reading, and you walk away to do laundry, they will not be in the kitchen table reading when you come back.
So you have to be there, but you can't be in their business. They have to be the one doing the work. It's their learning. So you have to be beside them and not dying on the inside as your six year old fails to answer the question a thousand seconds. Well, it feels like a thousand seconds. Like, you have to just be patiently present and available for questions like some kind of like magical AI.
And so the knitting and possibilities were really great because if I start reading, I'm sorry, if you're not bleeding, do not interrupt me. I am a bad mama. If I am reading, I gave up fiction till they were 10. I had to just read nonfiction because I could at least put nonfiction down. I couldn't read.
But what do you do? Hours a day beside your children where you're mentally available for them, but happy And not bored
James Divine: to tears. Yeah,
Sarah Schira: great point. Turns out knitting was fantastic for that So the knitting and possibilities that once you're beyond learning the basics of knitting It is like I was talking about I can knit in the dark.
I can feel the next stitch you can have conversations You know, you can be at a lecture or whatever. It's like knitting fidget toys You Yes, so there's that, but even above that for me, as a young mother who hadn't really firmly settled into her own identity before she had kids, and there was this whole change, I had wanted to be an academic, I wanted to get my PhD and be a professor, I had very clear, very ambitious goals for myself.
And. I turned my back on all of that and became much more embodied, which was good for me until I made that choice. I was basically treating my body like the transport for my brain, which wasn't very healthy for me, but so I'm there. I have two children, and we're doing this intense mothering thing and I'm like losing myself and everything's crazy and everything I'm doing is intangible or cyclical.
You feed a child, it needs to eat. the floor, it's dirty. Everything is like undoing itself all the time. Or it's intangible. I give you love. I teach you to read. I do something, even the tangible things in our homeschooling were my children's work, like, I could not be proud of the diorama, it's not my diorama, I'm not eight, and as a former, very ambitious person, I actually was really struggling and knitting. Okay. So it wasn't cyclical. It stayed done. If I knit a row, as long as the dog didn't get to my knitting, it was still there the next day. I could hold it up and say, I did this. This is me. And so it stayed done and it was tangible. And that like did something for me that I didn't have in my life right then.
It replaced that feeling of, of accomplishment that I had been missing. Even though I was working all the time, I didn't feel like that. showing up for me in that sense. And so there were all those kind of like normal knitting things. And then this intense thing that I, as a mother needed to experience as a woman, separate from motherhood or during motherhood or mixed in with all the craziness.
And so, yeah, knitting did things for me.
James Divine: This level of Self analysis, self reflection, self awareness is so amazing and so appreciated. I think some people may not even realize why motherhood can be in some ways unfulfilling. People would be loath to say that parenthood is unfulfilling because we're all supposed to be everything for our kids.
But as you're saying that, I'm realizing, yeah. All of the things that I do are so much work for the kid and for the grandkid, where am I doing something that's for me? Ah, it's so fascinating. And I think because of the role of women in our modern society, it's especially impacting women. So this is fascinating.
Phenomenal.
Sarah Schira: It's really compatible like that idea like knitting and, it's something that we joke about a lot in like our podcast and in my life, like, what's your knitting and? It might be knitting and the vet, it might be knitting and the traffic jam, it might be knitting and that zoom meeting, it might be whatever, but knitting is very and compatible.
And If society isn't going to give us vast stretches of support and time, then where can we find things that make a difference for us? I mean, obviously, burning down the system is a long term project and in the midst of all that, we also need to come to ourselves repeatedly and wherever your creativity brings you.
I feel like you need to find that. and come to that in the day to day where possible. I've talked to people who are like, once they see what I do with knitting, are like, I need a hobby that's better than my hobby. They're like, look at their hobby. One guy I knew, he paints miniatures. And he's like, I love painting minis, but it's really not socially acceptable for me to rock up at a cafe.
Katie Rempe: Lay it all out, get your easel up, it is a very travel friendly hobby, activity, saving grace, whatever you want to say. That is always part of the magic I find, is that it can be with you anytime, but I never thought of it as knitting and, so I will now.
Follow Sarah!
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Katie Rempe: So tell us a little bit more about how people can find you. What are your offerings and what is this podcast we're talking about?
Sarah Schira: All right, so my sister and I do a podcast together. We've named it the Imagine Landscapes podcast, which is my online name. And we went with that just because it was already online.
It feels a little hard on my sister because people sometimes Forget about, like, tagging her in things. Whoops. Aww. But it's a very informal, like, every other week, we just get together and we talk about knitting. We talk about our imaginary knitting, which is the knitting you do when you haven't really, like, how many sweaters have you imaginarily knit this year?
Let's be honest.
James Divine: Katie has a lot.
Sarah Schira: We talk about those if there's something particularly on our mind. We're also really into sci fi and fantasy and board games. We don't always go into a lot of depth, but if there's something that's like clearly hitting in the last couple of weeks, we'll talk about that as well.
Sounds like a podcast
James Divine: written for you, Katie. I know, right? She's like looking it up right now on her phone.
Sarah Schira: We're almost 200 episodes in, which is kind of amazing to us. Congratulations. Yeah, we, we only do every other week and we take some breaks. That's the Imagine Landscapes podcast. We also do a YouTube once a month now where we just kind of do a show and tell, and we keep it just to knitting.
We're not talking about books and about, Board games and stuff like that. We do them live so that people can ask questions, and also we, we feel like we don't always do a good job of explaining things on the podcast, painting those, word pictures, whereas if you can just hold it up and go like, see, see this stripe I was talking about?
This is the stripe. Yeah, that's also something I'm also on YouTube as like a designer and I did a few like vloggy diary. I tried to be like more like a content creator a little bit. And I realized really quickly that the secrecy around gnomes is not compatible with trying to produce regular content.
Like it's just so much of my life. I can't tell you what I'm knitting or whatever that it got weird. I got it. So it became work and weird. So mostly on YouTube, I'm just like, here's a technique. Here's what you need to know to make the gnome exactly as I depict it. And then I always tell people look like this is just how I did it.
And as a designer, I have a, like a social contract obligation to give you instructions that can get you to what is pictured in the picture. But please don't think that that's the only right way. I'm just going to do this because you do need to be able to get there and then you can start modifying or whatever.
So that's YouTube is lots of techniques and stuff.
And then, um, there's imaginelandscapes. com, which is kind of like the hub of everything. I have both a Ravelry and a PayHips store. the PayHips store doesn't have everything that Ravelry has.
Just because, um, I started it after. And, uh, so some of the older stuff are the things that aren't as popular. I just, it's all work. It's all work people. And it's only one of me.
Katie Rempe: You mean, you don't have another one of you doing the business side while you're doing the content creating and then someone else doing the knitting.
That's weird.
Sarah Schira: No, it's, it's. So, so I also have Patreon. I keep my Patreon dirt cheap because, then I don't have to feel pressure to provide a huge amount of content. And this, it may sound very weird, but, that's just like the only way I can, see going into Patreon was to not think of it as more work.
I need to think of it as like an easy, playful place where people who want to support me get to support me and who get, like, A fun version of me. So it's mostly just like zooms and hanging out with about every three months We'll do more of like a workshop y kind of thing.
So There's Patreon, there's Ravelry, Imagine Landscapes, if you're googling that, you're probably finding me.
James Divine: Awesome. So cool. Wow. Oh my gosh. This has been so much fun. Yes.
Sarah Schira: Thank you. It's been really interesting. I love being asked these questions, even if it's the same question, as I've had, like, like, why gnomes? Comes up a lot. People really are like, no, seriously, like, why gnomes?
There is something about stopping and processing, um, that I find, well, we talk about intention, right?
You talk about meaning. You can't find intention and meaning without reflection. And I love these moments where, like, you ask me a question and I'm like, oh, that's a great question. I love being confronted. That way. So thank you.
James Divine: I'm so glad. Me too. I think Katie and I are both that way. This has been fabulous. Sarah, your work is inspiring. I am completely re inspired to try to knit again.
Katie Rempe: He's going to get back in and do just a gnome because it's so easy. You can do it. I can do a gnome.
Yes. Because no matter how it turns out, it's perfect.
James Divine: Right? It's gnome y. Yeah. Wonkiness is gnome iness. I'm getting the t shirt.
Sarah Schira: And pearl in the round. That's basically, if you can do that, you can do the easy gnomes. There you go.
Katie Rempe: All right, Jim. We got this. You can do it.
James Divine: I believe in me and I believe in gnomes.
Katie Rempe: That's all you need. Thank you again, Sarah, for spending some time with us today and thanks everyone for listening and we will see you next week. Bye everybody.
Sarah Schira: Thank you. Bye.
Outtro 2022: Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review on iTunes and Spotify or following Knit A Spell on Instagram.
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See you next week. Next week.
