Katie Rempe: What if your knitting could be a magical tool infused with intention and purpose? In this episode of Knit a Spell, I welcome back, Laura Tempest Zakroff, author of Sigil Witchery and Visual Alchemy, among others, to explore the power of sigils and how you can integrate them into your knitting projects.
We'll also discuss Tempest's Upcoming sigil witchery Oracle deck and we'll be designing a simple sigil for knitters to enchant their stitches with magic . Whether you are new to sigils or you're looking to further deepen your practice in magic This episode is sure to inspire you to weave even more magical intention into every stitch!
Light from Lantern presents Knit a Spell. I'm your host, Katie Rempe, designer, knit witch, and your companion in this magical making podcast. Together, let's explore the enchanted world where knitting meets the magic of the craft. Welcome back tempest.
Yay
Laura Tempest Zakroff: excited to be here.
Katie Rempe: It's been a while since you were here. We are minus a gym, but we are still plus all of the magic.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Jim's here in spirit.
Katie Rempe: Always. I mean, honestly, if it wasn't for Jim, there would be no podcast. Hey, Jim.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Hi.
Katie Rempe: Yes. And when you were here last time, we were talking about your previously new deck, the Anatomy of a Witch Oracle.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Oh my gosh. It's been a minute.
What's a Sigil?
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Katie Rempe: Today we're going to talk all about knitters.
So could you start by explaining what a sigil is?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Sure. So essentially a sigil is a mark, a shape or symbol that is Created by human beings, part two, and part three is believed to have magical properties. So it's essentially a symbol made by humans that is believed to have magical properties, which covers a wide, wide range of things.
Katie Rempe: I saw in your book, you break down the difference between the sigil, the motif, the symbol, the sign. And since this season is all about all of those things, I was Extra geeked out to learn the little details of how you define each one. If this book is not yet part of your, Witch and Magical Making library,
just search Tempest and then add all.
Benefits of Making Your Own Sigil
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Katie Rempe: And so in the first book here, it introduces the idea of a fresh and accessible approach to sigil making and sigil magic. How do you feel that modern witches and magical makers can benefit from creating their own?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: The central witchery method in particular, of course, there are so many, many different ways, but What this best works for is you understand exactly what's going into it and that you have carefully brainstormed those concepts so you're like, hey, these are the ingredients, these are the things I need to help visualize the outcome that you're looking for. And it's very much like sympathetic magic where you might choose, you know, this candle and this herb and this oil and crystal, whatever it is, all this stuff. As we like to say, and putting it together to get your end result, which I feel like folks who are, are knitting and creating, you know, with fabrics, you're doing the same thing, right?
You're taking these, these basic elements, this color, this thread, putting them together, certain stitches, and then getting a result that is very, very physical, very interactive.
Katie Rempe: And you have the ability to change it or take your own interpretation of it anytime! Which is also part of the fun, like, if you don't like it, Change it.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Yeah, you know exactly what you did. You know what you did.
Visual Alchemy
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Katie Rempe: That's right. And so then in your follow up book, Visual Alchemy, you talk about crafting a personal symbolic language, which I love.
Personal correspondences are my jam. Could you share a little bit more about how someone might begin this journey into developing a catalog of their own symbols?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: A lot of folks tend to think, look, I don't know any symbols. I don't know any shapes. I don't know any marks. I show in Sigil Witchery and in the Oracle, like here are these basic things that we've been using for thousands of years that you probably encounter every single day and that you have applied meaning and intent to. And so, what does a square mean to you? What does a circle mean to you? A closed dot versus, a half circle, like all of those things. You might not think you have an opinion on them, but I guarantee you have an opinion. It's very much like people are like, I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but if you get people talking about ghosts long enough, you're going to have 10 ghost stories among like five people, right?
You know, it's like, you have an opinion. You just haven't really thought about it. So. When it comes to making a personal symbolic language or a system, an alphabet, if you will, uh, it's like, okay, what am I, what am I using this for? In Visual Alchemy, I give the example of the tarot, like to be able to create a shorthand for the tarot, which you could use for pretty much any system of divination, though technically I think runes are already, they're already there.
But things that are, that are more complex, right? What, so you're taking complex ideas and you're trying to make them as simple as possible with just a few marks and shapes so that they're easy to use, right? You don't want to do something that's complicated. Uh, so it's just a matter of like, what is it that you want to create?
Is it some sort of nomenclature for, you know, how you're putting together a garment, you know, or certain colors have certain meanings, like what, what is it that you want to do? And then start thinking about like, what are the applications I have and putting those together will get you that catalog of symbols.
Katie Rempe: You had said, you have an opinion, you just never thought about it. Can you expand a little bit more on that?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Sure. Uh, so one of the examples I like to use is the, is the hashtag.
Basically it's a cross hatch, right? That's what it's called. It's called a cross hatch Right. Very proper about it. And it's the same shape that we find in, in cave drawings, you know, all over the world. But it's also, we know as a hashtag, but it's also a tic-tac toe board, but it's also a number sign and it's also the pound sign. It has all these different applications. depending on where you are in the world, how old you are, what you're applying it to the same is true. When you think about a circle, right? The circle could be a full moon, but it could also be the sun. It could be community or it could be, could be a pie or pizza.
All of those things are important. Like some people are, Oh, that's a coin. And what you see in that shape and its context, it's going to be very personal and very much dependent on your own experience, what you've done and what you've lived and how you've seen it through up until this point.
Katie Rempe: Whether you think you're a creative person or not, just stop for a minute and start thinking about it and your opinions will find you.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: And then trust the process. Like some people are like, well, how do I know if I'm wrong? Like, well, if you feel this way about it, you're not wrong.
I mean, for the most part,
Katie Rempe: It's like choosing a color for a project that you don't see the sample in, so it's always easy to make it out of the green that it's made in, but if you don't like green and you're like, I want it red, but I don't know. Well, you like the red, so, you know, probably it's going to be okay.
Those are often the cases where people are wearing that color that day, too, where I've been like, it does look good on you. See? You're wearing it right now. It looks great.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Open your eyes and see.
Sigil Witchery Oracle
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Katie Rempe: And so your upcoming Sigil Witchery Oracle deck is an exciting new tool to connect to sigils. Why did you want to create this deck and what makes it unique?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: I always like to be problem solving. All of my work is about making people's lives easier, for them to be able to access their personal power to create something that's really authentic for themselves. Giving your permission, you don't need my permission, but sometimes people just need, you know, to have it presented in that sort of way. And now I've taught Sigil Witchery hundreds of times to thousands of people. One of the things that I do see again and is where people tend to hit that initial roadblock is. I don't know any symbols. I don't know any shapes. What do they mean?
And even though they're listed in the book, having something tactile to play with. So I've put a lot of the different symbols and marks and shapes into a deck. As well as design cards and elemental aspects so that you can pull those cards to craft a sigil. Uh, you can also use them to design a pattern. You can use them to create a meditation, a movement meditation, a ritual. I feel like once folks start to engage with these shapes and marks and symbols, then it's going to just be an amazing tool for them to like, All the things you can do, like, I really can't contain my excitement. I'm just like,
Katie Rempe: Do you have a deck that you can show us?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Mm hmm.
Katie Rempe: Oh, it's holographic! Oh my god! Cause why wouldn't it be if it's all about sigils, right?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Right, I, I am beyond, like, when I first presented it to the publisher, I was like, so could we, could we make this extra pretty? Like, it would be nice and black and white, but what holographic?
Katie Rempe: Oh my god, the book is giving me liiiiiiive! Oooooo!
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Like even the cards
have the holographic
And, and then you have the cards themselves, which have spot gloss and the holographic, look at
that. Ooh.
Katie Rempe: This is always how I imagine light codes looking, is like kind of this holographic, you kind of like can't look directly at it, shifting sort of a thing.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: They're a nice size. So I know my previous oracles, they're big, they're big, they're big children.
This is about, I don't want to say it's not even quite half the the size of that it's you know it's a little little
different shapes or a little bit longer but they really fit in the hand nicely it's like because you don't need a card that big you know like
Katie Rempe: Right.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: big to to see what the shape is and to see what the name is so there's also because there's 60 cards all together
Katie Rempe: Oh, that's a lot.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: yes so there's 54 marked cards and then there are six Yes. Wait, hold on. Let me map. There are six cards that are blank, three of which are glossy so that you can use a dry erase marker on them. I know, right? And then three are matte. So if you're like, no, I know that this is important symbol that I want to use again and again, I'm going to do this one in Sharpie.
Katie Rempe: way to break through the barrier of I can't use my stickers. I can't mark up my book by just making it like you can do it as many times as you want. No worries. Yes Practice until you want it permanently.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Exactly. Folks will have to see, you'll have to feel them, but you'll be able to tell that there's a bit of a difference. They're glossy versus the not glossy. But again, you have enough of them, you just want to be able to pull those aside though.
Katie Rempe: right. My fortune is blank.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: What does it mean?
This is a sample deck. So this is probably like one of the early, proofs that the amazing art team approved. So I think the cards might've come, pre shuffled . I'm excited to see when I get like the final thing that'll be arriving in a couple of weeks, the cards show up to you.
Katie Rempe: How they're stacked in there?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Yeah.
like, uh, so I know with, uh, anatomy of a witch, that Oracle is in alphabetical order. These cards are not done in alphabetical order. There is an index, don't worry, don't panic. but we put them in simplicity. So you're going to start off with the dot and the line, and that
builds up in complexity and gets you to the, the elements and the design cards on top of that.
It works that way. It's better to do it as you're flipping through the book and you get the understanding of how the marks are created and related to each other versus alphabetical. So that's why we did both index and the most important thing to see the progression.
Katie Rempe: Best of both worlds.
I love this building on the design so that they're more and more intricate. It reminds me of, a sampler afghan that a knitter might make.
So like, The first are quite easy, and then as you go they get harder, and then in the end you have a blanket,
Tempest Critiques My Protection Sigil
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Katie Rempe: So now that we're talking sigils and all your symbols, I would be interested in having you reflect on a recent project that I finished.
I did two designs, a hat and a cowl, for skacel's for their Wanderknits collection, where they choose a country to get inspired by and then work with a designer to create designs inspired by the area. So I was selected for Iceland, which I was like, Oh, they mean the land of the knitters.
Yes. And of course, like the one place in the world that has a witchcraft and sorcery museum, so I designed a little sigil for protection.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Oh, look at that.
Nice. I know, the one is a motif. It's small and it repeats in pattern, versus the sigil, which is the one right in front on the hat. So basically I wanted to break down what my methodology was. And then perhaps you can, give me a critique?
Okay.
Katie Rempe: So these are the same design, but one is just smaller than the other, which was interesting because when you design for knitwear, you really have to think of it as being pixelated. It's really hard to do round things if it's not big and all that kind of fun stuff.
And so what I did was got my little handy, graph paper here. And got this little shape as my original sign here. So it is essentially a square with an X that goes outwards from it. And then, um, the algae sign on top of that. So it's a square with an X with Y's off of it.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Right.
Katie Rempe: Or for visual, anyone who's kind of listening.
And then this little guy.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Oh, look at that.
Katie Rempe: So it was really interesting to design it in two sizes. So I chose the square because it's obviously very foundational and protective there.
And then, the cross to represent directionality, so like all of the directions, we're bringing in protection from all directions, trapping it within the box inside. And then Algiz being my celebratory protection, like yeah, protecting, yeah, .
How did I do?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: think it's lovely. So you have, the four with the square, right? The square is essentially a number of solidarity foundation, like the emperor energy, right? So that really taps well with protection, Because you want something that's secure and, you know, just holds its own and can be stacked,
at the same time, you can add more of them. And then, yes, as you said, the cross there is the Y axis and the x axis, so you have above and below, north, south, east, and west for that directional energy. And you also have that focus towards the center, so you have that kind of cross hair, bringing it back to the center, as well as a symbol for health. We think about the green cross, red cross, et cetera. So symbol for good health. So we have that health supported in the center. And then your little wise, you know, the little chevrons, you know, they are kind of absorbing that good energy, around them as well. So it's just very like, ah, um, and there's also within the Y shape, like a recognition of.
Sovereignty and reconnection to the divine, can be seen in that as well. And it's, it's funny. Um, so like I have here on my wrist, which might be hard to see. So this is a symbol for Baba Yaga, which, um, shows up in embroidery, right? The,
Slavic Baltic, Et cetera, the embroidery and it's essentially it's a diamond shape with the little little doodads going off of it.
And it also has a little little wheel shapes, which is like the base of your symbol again, right? It just doesn't
have
the little Y's there. So it's again a symbol of that, that protection and that magic. All put in there, but it's also mobile, right? So that's the other thing, too, is like with your little dots.
It's like it's got it has this little, like electrons and protons, They're like sharing. And you know, when you add more of them, right? they're all interacting with each other. So you're you truly are building something.
Katie Rempe: I this symbol and I literally said, Did I just draw an electron? Like, did I just copy this? Is this just a science that I'm kind of, like, making up as a thing? That is so funny you say that. So, all good. I'm glad that it comes across as very magnetic and opening and all that good stuff.
And plus I love Baba Yaga. I've always felt like that is my goal in life is to become like the witch woman in the woods that has all the cats that everyone's kind of like, yeah, we need her. Scared of her. Yeah, like I like that kind of respect.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: I think I've achieved that. Like I heard somebody like walking past the house and like, I really like that house. I wonder what the story is. I'm a little scared. I'm like, yeah, right.
Katie Rempe: working.
Symbols in Knitting
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Katie Rempe: All right. So like I had hinted at earlier, many knitters are actually familiar with symbolism and that comes in our knitting patterns. So for example, We have knitting charts, which have many symbols. Those symbols direct you to do certain things to the stitches, whether they're knit versus a purl or making a yarn over or knit a stitch in a certain color versus another color to make a picture of some sort.
So I've attached yet another example here for you to glean a little information.
This is a diamond lace stitch pattern. And so on the left is what the knitter would see, and they would work from right to left to mimic the stitches. In order to get what you see on the right, which is the finished object.
So it's almost like a visual symbol of what your knitted project kind of look like.
And like you said, there are open dots. There are slants going this way and that way. According to your oracle deck, I'm guessing some of these symbols might show up there. What are some equations that you put to these symbols that we as knitters could absorb?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: so I find it fascinating to look at the one on the left and then the right because the, the magical effect, right? So the stitches themselves are also creating a shape how do I explain this? There's the shape that the stitches are making for the overall pattern, but the individual ones you get, you know, you get these little chevrons, right?
So there's, you know, this pairing that's happening and grouping them all together. And then the visual effect of the braid that happens with the diamonds. Like almost like DNA, right?
Katie Rempe: Oh, yeah. Helix esque.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Yeah,
the helix of weaving in and out. And then it's also like floating over a negative space. Um, so you have like this, solid wall that is again, interrupted. And then it's also mimicking that. There's so many layers just on that, um, to consider, right. As the finished result, which to me is just like, Wow. Like how does that even happen? This is like, it like
Katie Rempe: this is the true magic. Yeah, exactly. This on the left is a spell and this is what you get after you cast on the spell.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: yeah. It's like, how, how do you even get there? It's amazing. Uh, so with the, the chart on the left, right, so you have these dashes, you have these short lines, and most of them are diagonal. So diagonal lines show movement. Right, so when we have a minus sign or a vertical line, right, they have a sense of motion to them, like the horizontal line is very relaxed, it's just, it's a line at rest, the vertical line is standing up, it's very much, you know, north south type of thing.
But a diagonal is suddenly increase or decrease. So there's a motion to it that isn't present with just the, more static shapes. And then those little tiny open circles are the multiple choice. Like what is it that I want to manifest here? I tell folks, you know, the open circle is if you're closed dot is your point of origin, your open circle is your possible destination.
Where do you want to go? what do you want the universe to fill in? I'd like this or better. And then overall with the diamond shape, that's what I use for prosperity. You know, a lot of folks like, I don't want to use a dollar sign. I'm like, I want nothing to do with dollar signs in, in my magical symbols.
That's just a personal preference for me. Anybody else can do whatever the hell they want. But when I want prosperity and abundance in the physical, like wealth, health and wealth. area. I use diamonds and it's not a connection to the idea of diamonds, the rock. It's the tarot, it's the playing card deck, right?
With diamonds in there as representing the earth element. It's really neat to see those layers of them all together. Like, here you go. Boop. Okay. You got a diamond,
Katie Rempe: diamonds are so strong. So other than being. You know, really valuable for their beauty and well, probably their strength, they are naturally just so freaking strong and you would never maybe assume that for something that looks so delicate, but it's much like knitting, you know, the yarn itself is.
strong enough when it's spun, but once you've knitted into something, it's even stronger. So just like layering on intention, you can see this pattern as, okay, well, this is just how I get from, you know, the yarn to this knitted piece. Or you can say, oh, like, okay, diamonds, that's a symbol. You can go deeper and think, Oh, the holes that it's creating.
Like I didn't even think of that. And I'm the knitter, which is why I love having non knitters here to reflect on things, to help me see things that I don't see anymore. Even like the stockinette stitches, the V's I'm like, Oh, I don't even see that anymore because that's just the tapestry of the fabric.
Like that's the blank canvas for me,
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Right.
Katie Rempe: but it is part of the canvas and that can be part of the magic too. So good to remember that can be part of the negative space. Just like the actual physical negative space in the holes.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Yes.
So many layers!
Sigil Design Demo!
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Katie Rempe: You shared that your
upcoming Sigil Witchery deck includes both of the pre designed and the custom cards that you can create, including the ones that you can wipe off and redo a million times.
Would you be up for doing a quick little design of a sigil together to invite in some luck to our Stitches for us knitters if we wanted to use it on one of the blank cards?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Let's test the deck. Let's,
let's pull, a few things. What do we want in this?
Katie Rempe: I think having something for luck when you're knitting, the pattern is clear, your stitches are smooth,
Laura Tempest Zakroff: so good flow.
Katie Rempe: Open roads, a mercurial aspect.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Maybe focus. Okay.
Katie Rempe: Yeah, focus. That's helpful.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: So luck. Good flow, open roads, focus, content or maybe joy.
Katie Rempe: Oh, yeah, joy. And like completion. This will complete.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Ah, good. All right. So that gives us six. So we're going to pull some cards. So the way I designed this deck is, normally within the process is you would look at this list and you'd be like, okay, well, luck is going to be this shape, this shape, that shape, whatever. Um, but with the deck, you can pull cards for those specific words and you can go with what the deck gives you, or you might have a violent reaction to be like, No, that shape's not right.
And I, I want folks to realize, like, that's part of the process. That if you realize, no, I know this shape's not right, then that's good. that's the thing where you're becoming more familiar with what shapes you do know and what you relate them to.
Katie Rempe: Yes, it's an informed decision at that point. It's like flipping a coin and it's not the thing you want suddenly. Well, this, guess what? Now you know what you do want.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Yes, right. It's creating the decision for you.
So let's see. We pulled the earth card. We pulled a before card. That's a design card. We pull heart. I should show, show y'all. So earth and heart and before is a design card. So we're thinking about how we're placing them. We might put before as an important concept.
So I pulled that one aside. We have the pentagram
Katie Rempe: Mm.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: And we have a petal. Let's see. So, one, two, three, four, five, six. Uh, pentagon.
Katie Rempe: Nice.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Alright. And We have a crescent.
Katie Rempe: I love how the pattern is like also in the background to make up like the whole, content of the cards. Very pretty.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Yeah, it's like, what if it, you know, was not, was just, not just a shape, but something that's a little bit more exciting to that. Um, I'm just going to pull one more card. It's just a
concept.
Alright, so with that, I'm looking at these things here and again showing folks so they can see here we have these shapes, we have our star.
Katie Rempe: You just need a couple more fingers.
There you go. There you go.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: then I'm using earth as possibly a design element or thought, um, or maybe an application for it. And then we have before. So with all of this now, unfortunately, I'm on a new laptop, which is missing my screen. Um, my stylist, I've ordered a new one. I was like, I forgot there's not a stylist. I realized this yesterday.
I've had it for a couple of weeks.
Katie Rempe: Oh, whoops. Well, Oops,
Laura Tempest Zakroff: I'm going to assign here, um, what we have. And so easily right away, the, for joy, I'm going to put the heart
caps, assigning that. And so for luck, I'm going to put the pentagram.
Katie Rempe: So, you're assigning cards to the words that we picked out earlier. Perfect.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: And, let's see, for, um, cross, let's do for open roads,
Katie Rempe: Mm.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: let's put that next to focus. I
think that, focus, that makes more sense. Um, but for open roads, I might put the, hmm, what are we going to do? I'm going to do crescent,
Because it's, I actually know exactly where it's going. Our crescent is going to work with our before card.
Katie Rempe: Ooh. I love it when it just starts coming together.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Yep, uh, we'll use the pentagon for completion
Because it's a nice whole shape and then the petal will be our good flow.
It's also, it's a drop,
all right?
Katie Rempe: is.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: So to put these together, hold this piece of paper so we have something I can show you. So we know that the crescent is going to go before the shape so it's going to sit in the position of entering into this which is what you want right open roads we're coming into this location. And I'm going to attach. Here the focus show folks where I'm
at. Okay, because we want that focus to be in there. And I'm also good. I'm thinking about, I'm just going to check this here open roads and focus joy. So I'm going to make that into a heart.
Katie Rempe: nice.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Okay. So we have that going on in there. And so we've got that. We're going to do our luck. Maybe the luck will be a little pentagram in the center of the heart.
Katie Rempe: Ooh.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: And I feel like for flow, I'm going to take that little petal.
Katie Rempe: Ah, I love it.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: But I think I'm going to make a couple of petals.
Katie Rempe: Ooh,
Laura Tempest Zakroff: All right. Because we want.
Katie Rempe: flow.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: We want that flow keep flowing in all of those areas. So we've got that we've got our luck. And so the last is completion, which I can use, I'm going to use my pentagram.
Katie Rempe: Oh, perfect.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Right, so it's, it's put into there. And then the earth aspect of it so here's our little earth car we want for for growth.
Katie Rempe: Hmm.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: I think to acknowledge that I'm going to go back to those little chevrons. Right, and maybe little dots,
because we have seeds. So, and I'm going to, aha, so open that into our crescent, pulling our focus to the center with our star and then the Pentagon kind of surrounding that. And also we're thinking about this, right? So your completion, you want us to love this thing when you're completed. So it's also inside the heart and we have that flow. So it's helping us to work like through, through time, emotion, body, all of those different things.
Katie Rempe: so freaking beautiful. And it was just that easy. Thanks to your deck for making the perfect framework for any sigil you could possibly imagine.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Boom!
Katie Rempe: Oh my God.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Boom, Stitchers! Boom,
Katie Rempe: Yes, this is how you knit it. Oh my gosh. Um, wow. Okay. Well, that was so fun. So easy. So exciting. Um, I'll make sure to take like screenshots and everything so that folks can see that.
Um, and if you're not on our Patreon, I'll make sure to post them over there and on our Instagram and all that stuff. So that you can make sure to see this beautiful illustration and, maybe I'll figure out how to make it into a knitting chart. So stay tuned.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Exciting.
Tempest's Sigil Designing History
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Katie Rempe: How long have you been designing sigils?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Hmm. So, I was talking about this the other night.
I've been making art since, you know, once I started going to art school at age three. So it's
It has now been a multitude of decades.
Katie Rempe: It's just part of art for you then.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: It is, you know, like I've always been when I'm drawing, I'm telling myself a story, so every mark, every line, every shape tends to have some sort of meaning or vibe or energy to it, and especially when I got to like high school and college, it really became another level of like, What's intrinsically happening here when these different shapes and lines are interacting, and really seeing the power of the line. Uh, so I would say now that, you know, if we're going to go for that 30 years
Katie Rempe: All right. 30 years to master the power of the line. And that's just a line, people. All right?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Still work on that too. We're still, we're still having a relationship.
Katie Rempe: That's right. It's ongoing. You know why? A line goes on forever.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: Exactly.
Knittering with Sigil Magic
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Katie Rempe: I love it. All right. So as you've explored in your books, sigils are all about bringing personal meaning into a symbol. What advice do you have for knitters who might want to start incorporating sigil magic into their projects, but aren't really sure where to begin?
Laura Tempest Zakroff: If I was going to make something that. It's going to have a purpose, right? Like that's the amazing thing about knitting is that you're either making a blanket or a sweater or a sock or a scarf, or, you know, it's being applied to the body in some way for most things. so if you're thinking about how it's being worn or how it's being used and what you want the wearer to get out of that, then that's an easy way to kind of go back and be like, okay, what. what. do I want to make? What kind of shape? Is this a blanket of protection? Is it a wedding shawl? So it's about a union of energies coming together? Is it a gift for, a dear friend and what do you want them to think about when, when they see that so you can wrap those layers of magic into it.
Katie Rempe: Even if it's just something for yourself, you can have a state of mind while you knit it so that anytime you go back, you'll always have that in there.
Follow Laura Tempest Zakroff
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Katie Rempe: Thank you so much, Tempest, for returning to the show to share all your knowledge on sigils and so much more. Please tell everyone where they can follow you, find out more, get all your amazing books, etc.
Laura Tempest Zakroff: So I have a newly redesigned website that's at LauraTempestZakroff. com, which is sort of the, the nexus of all the things. And it's also easy to find me on Instagram, technically I say that because My username is owlkeyme. arts, and that's not spelled how you think it is, because I'm a jerk like that. I like puns!
And so,
it's spelled alchemy like an al, O W L K E Y M E. Um, so, alchemy. arts. Um, so, and that will get you to my link tree, which has my Patreon, and all that good stuff on there.
Katie Rempe: Awesome. Well, we'd be sure to make everything available and clickable and linkable all in the description So it's easy for everyone to follow along. Thank you again. This is so much fun!
Patreon After Show!
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Katie Rempe: And remember it doesn't have to end here join us shortly on the after show Whoo, or we'll be talking about five or more Who knows unique ways to use sigils with knitting that aren't just like stitches?
Slapping it on there with color work. So tune in more to find out on patreon. com forward slash knit a spell. Woo. All right, everyone. Thanks again, Laura, and we'll see you all next week. Bye.
Speaker 3: Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review on iTunes or Spotify, and supporting us on Patreon to enjoy exclusive content. You can also subscribe to the Light From Lantern YouTube channel to receive a notification whenever a new episode of Ninispel is released.
And as always, I'd love to hear your feedback on this episode, so be sure to leave a comment on YouTube or on Patreon. See you next week!
