Interview: Sarah from Parallax Knitting

Sarah has featured me recently on her blog and I thought I would do the same! She has amazing knitting skills and does absolutely beautiful work. You can find her blog here, her shop, patterns for sale as well as free patterns.

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Why did you begin spinning? Knitting?

I began spinning because my first job out of high school was in the
Selkirk Weavers and Spinners Guild gift shop and part of my job was to
demonstrate weaving and spinning to tourists, so Sandra (Sandy) Donohue
who is a weaver and spinner and wonderful painter taught me how to weave
and spin. I spun enough for a scarf over the summer and never tried it
again until a few weeks ago.

I began knitting because when I was about seven I told my mother I wanted
to, and she asked one of my friends’ mothers to teach me. I recall I knit
many very small garter stitch rectangles I called Barbie scarves, but
which I never put on my Barbie dolls and about three quarters of a mitten,
which, while never finished, was I believe otherwise a perfect rendition
of the pattern. After that I lost interest, but after the gift shop job I
needed something to do with the handspun yarn as I didn’t have access to a
loom anymore, so I asked Sandy to teach me to knit again too.

Handspun and Hand Knit by Sarah

How were you taught to spin? How old were you when you learned?

Sandy taught me to spin on the demonstration wheel in the shop. I think
she showed me, and I tried it a few times until I got it: it was something
that came quite easily to me. I was 18.

Does anything inspire you when you spin?

It’s difficult to say as it has been so long since I did it much, but I
would guess that it is like knitting for me: I relax and my mind empties –
I find it very meditative. I tend to feel more inspired and get more
ideas when I am not doing it.

A Glove By Any Other Name pattern can be found here

If you could be any fiber, which fiber would you be and why?

I think I would be a nice grey natural wool. I love that stuff. It would
definitely be my desert island fibre – though a good solid twine would
probably be more useful. I confess that though I knit with really bright
colours lots of the time, I wear the things in charcoal wool the most. It
just always seems right somehow – I would like to always seem right too.

What are some tips you would give to new knitters?

Everything is just casting on and knit and purl and yarn-overs and
decreasing and casting off: it’s not as hard as it seems. Just always
remember that gauge really matters, and calm down and start counting.
You’ll do fine.

Josephine pattern can be found here

Why did you choose your name? (Parallax Knitting)

I took a class in university on astronomy, and parallax is the geometric
principle that something looked at from different angles looks different.
They use it to measure the distance to stars. The idea appealed to me,
and I held on to it as my business name for a long time before I did
anything with it.

Where do you purchase your fibers and yarns?

I buy them all over the place. There are two stores in Saskatoon I
frequent: The Wool Emporium and Prairie Lily. I recently started buying yarn off e-Bay, which I am quite enamoured with. Finally, I try, with quite some success, to make sure I visit yarn shops
whenever I travel: in the last four weeks I have been gallivanting quite a
bit, and I have been to Urban Yarns, Birkeland Bros., and Stitch DC : it’s been a good month.

What are your pet peeves of spinning?

I don’t think I have any pet peeves about spinning or knitting. I do
these things in a very relaxed state – the fibre soothes me.

Morse Code Vest pattern found here

How do you feel about spinning becoming more popular?

I think it is great that spinning (and knitting for that matter) are
becoming more popular because the community enriches itself. Part of the
reason I stopped spinning was that there wasn’t as much going on that was
interesting to me in spinning. The spinners I knew were all primarily
weavers, and they were making yarn to use in their weaving. At the time
weaving seemed more exciting to me than knitting or spinning. Now I look
around at the web and see so much going on that I want to participate.
There are also more sources for supplies when more people are doing it.
The flip side to that is that the popularity of spinning doesn’t really
touch me personally as I don’t really know anyone who spins in Saskatoon,
so how can I believe I am doing something popular, if I am the only one I
know who does it?

For any new knitters, any favorite supplies or yarns you would
recommend?

I am all over bamboo needles and will not knit with anything else, the
other ones hurt my hands and don’t feel right to me. Also, I recommend
buying the good stuff. Get what the pattern calls for when you start. I
knit my first sweater with Rowan yarn, so it ended up being one of
the most expensive sweaters I had ever owned at the time. I think the
fact that it was such nice wool motivated me to finish it, and I had a
better idea of how it would turn out. After you have knit more you can
substitute more and have a better idea of what it will end up like. I
think you will never finish anything you don’t really want.

Minimalist Funnel Neck pattern can found here

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