Episode 59 – Karida Collins of Neighborhood Fiber Company
Hey Pomcats! We've been away from the mic for a while, but it's good to be back and bringing you a blend of fibre fun, knit and crochet conundrums, and magazine-based musings. You might be able to tell that recently the balance of life, pom-ing, and podcasting has meant less of the latter, which is why we've decided to pause making the podcast for a while. This certainly isn't the end, but we will be taking a podcast sabbatical over the summer. While we have this small 'podcast pause', do get in touch if you have any ideas, comments, or feedback about the Pomcast.
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Thanks to Neighborhood Fiber Co. for sponsoring this episode! Neighborhood Fiber Co. is a small, black woman-owned yarn company in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Inspired by her urban surroundings, Karida Collins founded Neighborhood Fiber Company to bring her love of saturated colour and cityscapes to the world. Twelve years later, Neighborhood Fiber Company offers a vivid and vibrant lineup of hand-dyed yarns and fibres. Each skein of yarn and braid of fibre is lovingly hand-dyed in one of over 65 colours, and each of those colours is named after a neighbourhood of Baltimore or nearby Washington D.C.
We start our episode with important thoughts about the recent discussion around racism, diversity, and inclusivity that has been a large part of our Instagram feeds for the past few months. If you have missed this, you might find this recap of the conversation, created by Casey of Ravelry, a useful place to start.
We want Pom Pom to feel welcoming to anyone who wants to join us either for the podcast, in print or digital, and online. We know we can do better, and we value all feedback to help us do that. Pom Pom has always tried to be inclusive and diverse as a core value, but we know that this is a continuous process, and there is much more work is left for us to do. We know we can do better, and we value all feedback to help us do that. We've already heard from some of you that you want to see more body diversity and other intersectionalities too, and we are at work on this.
We want to make it clear that we are listening, learning, and starting to take the necessary steps to undo the pain in our community, even if that means challenging ourselves. Thanks for listening and working with us to make Pom Pom and the knitting community an inclusive and supportive space. The following links are to resources that we reference in this segment -
Reading list
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write by Sabrina Mahfouz
Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde
Online resources
Layla F. Saad - 'Me and White Supremacy - The Workbook'
Where Change Started - The Anti-Racism Starter Kit
The blog project The Unfinished Object
You can read our post on Instagram here.
News
Issue 28 is now on sale in your LYS, in your hands, and out in the world! We chat about some of our highlights from this issue, which include Ginkgophyte and Water Clover, the latter being just one of three crochet projects in the issue.
We've also been on the road at Unravel and Edinburgh Yarn Festival! Thank you to all you Pomcats who came and said hello! It's always a joy to meet so many people at these events and see you wearing your finished Pom knits. We had lots of you trying on the samples from Issue 28 and Interpretations: Volume 6, and we look forward to seeing which patterns are going to be your next pom project.
Tell + Tell
The past few months have seen Lydia and Sophie producing several makes. Pictured is Lydia's own version of Woodwardia, the Issue 28 cover star, which is designed by the lady herself! She's also been working up some accessories in the form of a St. James hat by Francesca Hughes, plus some Snowshoe socks from Knits About Winter, and even had time for some dressmaking with the Merchant and Mills pattern Hattie.
Meanwhile, Sophie finished her Nimue from Issue 27, a Woodwardia of her own, and is now working on a many-coloured mohair Snowdrift shawl. Remember if you're working on your own Pom Pom project you can join in the fun on our Ravelry KAL forum here.
Interview
We hand over to our US correspondent Meghan Fernandes for a chat with Karida Collins of Neighborhood Fiber Co.. Karida shares the story of her journey of starting her dye company, working to raise money for important causes, and her thoughts on the current conversation around inclusivity and diversity. You'll know their fab colours from the Sweetfern hat from Issue 28.
You can find the silk scarves dyed by and raising funds for the Baltimore Youth Arts on her site here and we encourage you to check out the work of quilt artist Steven Towns mentioned in this interview. Thanks Karida for being part of the podcast!
Review
Meghan also got to spend some quality time with some of Neighborhood Fiber Co.'s yarn. For this episode's review Meghan had a swatch with a skein of Rustic Fingering in the colourway Alice Gadzinski, part of a line of colourways inspired by Baltimore artists. We'll let you lust over these pictures of these luxurious swatches...
Te(X)t Files
Are you on tenterhooks waiting to find out what word we're finding the fibre based truth about this episode?! Wait no longer...
Top Three
Still in the spirit of the new year, Lydia and Sophie list their knit-olutions and resolutions that they're working towards in 2019. For those of you interested, Lydia's reading list can be found here.
Thanks for listening! We'll be back before you know it, and remember you can join in the Pom Pom chats and musing on our Ravelry forums and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can bring you Pomcast 2.0! We'd also like to recommend some of our favourites, 99% invisible (especially articles of interest mini series), No Such Thing as a Fish, Song Exploder, Death, Sex and Money, Griefcast, Reply All, Invisibilia, The Adam Buxton Podcast and Fair Folk.
Happy knitting!
Pom Pom xx