Katie Rempe: Hey, Jim, welcome back for another season of Knit a Spell.
James Divine: Yay! Spring is coming and Knit a Spell is here.
Katie Rempe: That's right. We're just bringing up new episodes left and right.
This season, I'm looking forward to chatting about a new topic, which is drum roll, cord and stitch magic. Ooh.
James Divine: Wow. For the whole season.
Katie Rempe: For the whole season, we're going to have guests on to talk about it as we usually do. And of course, we're going to explore it all season long. So join us. Yes, it's going to be an amazing time.
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'.
Catching Up
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James Divine: I love grounding into this. There's so much in just talking about the actual thing that we're using to knit with and crochet with and make with that we don't really think about. Is the yarn itself, is the string, is the fiber, the thread, what is magical about that by itself?
So this is a really cool foundational topic.
Katie Rempe: Yes, we're gonna dive into why string is an important thing. Before we do that, Jim, what have you been up to all these winter months?
James Divine: It was the holidays and then, January, I was in New Orleans for some beginning of Mardi Gras celebration. A little warm up. Yep. And a little warm up. Then I was in Arizona seeing my folks and, enjoying a more warm up. And back in Seattle for a couple of, big palmistry, events. Working on stuff here and there on the biz.
That's what I've been doing. How about you? What have you been up to?
Katie Rempe: Working on this season of the show, of course, in the background. But also, I went to visit my folks in Florida over the holiday season, so I also did a warmer up from the Seattle cold and dreary times.
I also have been teaching a knit along over at A Little Knitty in Auburn, so I've been doing in person events. Imagine that. Wow, that's cool! How's that going? It's going really well. So many amazing local knitters turning out to knit my river mitts, which Is like a classic favorite. One of my patterns.
In fact, I even debuted a new pattern, which is a worsted weight version of those very same river mitts. And those have been going really well. So I appreciate everyone who's been supporting me with that so far. Other than that, like I said, we've been working on the show, we've been recording with guests already, and mainly, we wanted to, like you said at the beginning, Jim, set the stage because, We can't do any of this knitting or magic without the actual cord part, the
James Divine: string.
Yes, the yarn.
Why Cord is Magical
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Katie Rempe: We wanted to start with that because why is it magical? We get yarn when it's already spun. According to Brandy Williams, the author of Cord Magic, as we have interviewed in the past, I'm holding up her book right here. We've talked about how knot magic is not actually cord magic.
It's something you do with cord magic.
James Divine: There's a long magical tradition of using knots and looking at knotting string or cord or rope as a magical act. And we've talked about that in the past. There is a whole episode on knot magic. But yeah, the realization of that is actually a type of cord magic. There's many other types of cord magic. In fact, if you're talking about knots, then crochet would be all not magic because you're really just making one very long, knot that you pull out. If you want, which is actually a man, you can do that as a magical act and Brandy actually talked to us about that, right?
That's right. But if we look at the court itself, what is cord magic? How are cords magical? That's a really fascinating topic and it's very deep. So if we get into like the Foundations of it.
How does your yarn, show up, on the shelf?
In your hands, on your needles, on your hook, moving along.
Katie Rempe: The yarn stork delivers it to the yarn store, and that's how yarn is born.
James Divine: Oh, it comes from a magical, it comes from a magical fairyland of yarn trees? That's right, yes. The skeins just grow off the trees and then you pick them? Yeah.
Katie Rempe: Much like a fungus, they bloom, and then you pick them, and then you gotta get them before they spore, and then they get all knotty.
James Divine: Oh, so they're like mushrooms. Some of them are like mushrooms, and some of them are, grow off tree ?
Katie Rempe: Yeah and that's how you get different
kinds. Yeah.
Anyway. If you are not aware of how the yarn process is made, you got to go all the way back to wherever the fiber is being sourced, and that could be a cotton fiber, or is it from an animal? The animal's gotta be procured and raised and then sheared and then that has to get all processed.
So no matter what fiber it is, it's not just as easy as shearing it or clipping it off of the plant slash animal and then just spinning it into a yarn. I guess maybe you could do that to some degree, it's gonna lead to a rustic quality. When you
James Divine: say rustic, you mean itchy.
Katie Rempe: It could be itchy.
James Divine: Have you ever picked cotton in a field?
Katie Rempe: Yes, it is not pleasant.
James Divine: No, the cotton plant itself is dried and very pokey and yes No, no wonder people's fingers can bleed, by doing that but the cotton itself is pretty interesting fiber.
So there's many ways to procure the fiber at the beginning so that's the shearing gathering stage. And then you have the carding when you get wool off the sheep, it's full of that of the natural oils from the
Katie Rempe: land and
James Divine: land has that kind of funky smell.
Yes, and so carding the wall is a whole thing. The process of the two combs that. Make all the fibers go in the same direction Some fibers like silk you put in water and the carding is much different. So it depends on how you're processing it prior to spinning.
So I think that's really a fascinating thing.
Why am I enumerating this because if we think about all the different places where you could do something magically if you are a person that's gathering or raising fiber, there can be magic in what you're doing. If you are carding, there can be a super magical way that you're doing that.
The choices of fibers that you're mixing together, are you putting sparkles in it?
Katie Rempe: The direction you're carding it towards you or away from you.
James Divine: Are you carding it to the north or to the east? That could be an interesting thing to do. And then, of course, the spinning.
I know several people we spin the roving or the raw fibers and at some point You got to wash it. And then if you're gonna dye it or if you're gonna leave it natural or if you're gonna condition it in some way.
And then of course I think about the thing that we all mostly do Which is the purchasing, going to a store and buying the yarn, but what if that could be magical?
Katie Rempe: Oh, it is. Trust me. As a person who made yarn for the companies, I also had a unique in between situation where I was able to be the person who was developing the fibers and the twists. How many plies did it have? Like even that could have a low key magical meaning if you wanted it to.
Many areas where you can choose to intervene to be part of the magic.
James Divine: And then of course there's the making which we talk a lot about on this show. How is making magical?
And then there's the wearing or the using of it That's right how that could be magical also once you have a finished product be it, mittens or somebody's little blanket or a trivet or whatever.
Maybe you're not wearing it, but how are you using it? Absolutely. So there's a whole constellation, a whole spectrum of areas where we can intervene.
Katie Rempe: Yes, indeed.
James Divine: When we're talking about cord magic, what do you think, Katie, we're talking about overall?
Katie Rempe: The literal string, no matter where we're involved in it, it's, the string before we've manipulated it into the end product. And then anything you do on top of it. Would be like the knot magic or like the next layer of intention set upon it.
James Divine: The knit magic and not magic the crochet magic, right?
Katie Rempe: Yeah.
What have you used in terms of. Cord Magic, what have you used for magic?
James Divine: I have done a lot of things we've talked in the past about Witch Ladders, and there's a whole, episode about that. We'll link to all these episodes that we're talking about, so don't worry.
There is a few examples, so twisting, you can, ply the yarn or further twist the yarn beyond where it is and mostly this is really helpful with natural fibers. I think we kind of default, Katie and I, to natural fibers when we're talking about stuff. You can use man made Fibers or nylon or anything like that.
James Divine: You can ply it again by twisting it and then going back just like you would ply any yarn.
And that can be a really magical thing to create more tension and more layers in the yarn to make it thicker. Or you can twist a yarn. And then clip it together at the end to hold tension and that can be a magical type of act to Create magical tension create magical like tightening in some way there can be a reason to do that
Skein Twisting
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Katie Rempe: That's funny you say that because I knew I wanted to mention this as an example, So I made sure that I had this on hand. Another way you can twist yarn into having a tension just like you were saying is By putting it into a skein, this is literally a cord.
This is exactly made how Brandy from author of Cord Magic explained how she creates cords. And so I'm going to do it here for everybody who's watching us on YouTube,
which if you're watching and you haven't subscribed yet, please subscribe. That would be awesome. And so all you do here is you take two sides.
of this giant loop and you twist them the opposite way from each other on each side.
Here we go. Twisting. Yep. Of course. And then when it gets to be pretty tight, but not too tight, there is a line. This is an art in itself. You get the middle and it just all curls up onto itself, and then you put the butt of the yarn into the other side of the yarn, and then it holds.
Ta da!
James Divine: That is so cool.
Watching that loop of yarn twist on itself
Katie Rempe: it's the best.
James Divine: That's a great example. Do that magically with anything and then leave it on your altar, on your, table or whatever, on the little piece of paper that you might have written your intention on. That could be a really cool thing.
Katie Rempe: And it's a great thing to do especially if it's a.
A lot of skeins that you need for the project because it's best to wind each one as you need it, you can re twist all of these before you start the project with the intention of the project so that they hold there, and then when it comes time to roll it into a ball, you can either use the ball winder in Swift or you can do it by hand, take the extra time to do all the intention work there.
Either way, it doesn't matter. Brilliant.
James Divine: Have you ever heard of tying a string around your finger to remember something?
Katie Rempe: Yes, but of course, oh,
James Divine: that's magic. That's cord magic. And there's not just around your finger. Tying cord string anything around your body is a super magical act. And there's a long tradition of doing that.
Medieval marriages were called hand fastings or the origin of tie the knot is a form of magic to partner someone together and to tie them together with cord. And there's many different traditions to do that.
So that's where we get tie the knot from. And so that is a form of cord magic, knot magic. And of course you could put blessed cords or cords with intention around your wrist or your ankle or around your neck with or without a charm or a pendant. And that cord itself can be super magical.
People who will practice Kabbalah or people in India who will wear a red string, perhaps around their wrist that has different meanings based on the culture. So the color or what you're doing with that can be really important. And in our witch tradition, we wear cords as belts.
The sort of thick cord that you get. In the store that is silky looking, the white cord indicates someone has gotten their first degree. The red cord is a second degree. Sometimes it's a silver cord. Depends on the tradition. And then the black cord is often indicative of a third degree.
And so these are levels of advancement and knowledge and they should be levels of advancement knowledge and skill of the priest X. And it's an indicator of sometimes it's a rank, but it's not really don't think of it that way. It's more of accomplishment.
Katie Rempe: I'm thinking like, oh, of course, people who are into martial arts, they have different colored belts that they tie around just similar to that. Or putting cords around like graduates for various accomplishments .
I've even just used yarn when I'm like, Oh, no, I don't have a stitch marker. And just tied it around my finger like that. And then taking that off and just use the loop, in a pinch. So sure, whatever works.
Unply Magic
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James Divine: So we talked about plying. As magical, but you can also unplay as magical. So with my cords that indicate that I'm a third degree, witch my white, black and red cords, I have tied a knot in the end. And then that end that sticking out from the not I've combed out and unplayed that twist so that it's like a tassel.
Oh, yeah. And to do that with intention to comb out, applied yarn into a tassel or something like that. That's another way to think about an action that could be magical that is deconstructive.
Katie Rempe: Interesting. Brief side story. Back when I was a real nerd and super into the musical Cats, I made a couple of the costumes just for fun, as one does, and there was a whole like teaching method out there and it was all about brushing out yarn so that it would like fluff into these wigs. And yeah, it was exactly the same, brush out the twist. And I remember thinking like, this is taking a lot of time, but it's looking pretty good.
James Divine: People use yarn to create dreadlocks in their hair, so yarn, stitching that into your actual hair and having yarn incorporated as a wig, as more semi permanent, hair pieces. That's something that can be really cool, avant garde and
that could be really magical. Oh
Katie Rempe: my gosh, so many options.
James Divine: So that's the magical stuff. I feel like we should talk about the knitting stuff.
Katie Rempe: Let's take a quick break and when we come back, that's exactly what we'll do. Awesome.
Break
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Katie Rempe: Hey there, fellow knitters. Are you ready to enchant your stitches with the power of color? Discover how in my online workshop, Knit with Color Magic. In Knit with Color Magic, you'll learn how to use color as an intention setting tool. This self paced workshop will teach you everything you need to know to get out of your color ruts and conjure bewitching combinations while adding intention.
You'll also learn how to build a strong and simple intention, how to translate intention into colors, and to develop a personal grimoire of color correspondences. With a simple shift in your mindset and some personal reflection, you can start knitting color magic into any project. And for a limited time, listeners of the show can save 20 off this workshop by using the code color20 at checkout.
Find all the information in the description or visit lightfromlantern. com forward slash knit with color magic to learn more. Merry make!
Hey Katie. So you've taken my intro to palmistry course, and I'm wondering, do you have any realizations as a result? I realized that this entire time I have been a Muppet who uses their hands to express and emote. After taking your course, I've realized I've probably been giving away my own unconscious motivations, this whole.
But only to the people who know the divine hand palmistry method. You gotta be in the know. And if people are familiar with the divine hand method, your repeated gestures with your hands. Definitely give away your unconscious motivations. You can be a mind reader. Do you find that you can get insight into other people based on their hand gestures?
Oh, yes. I'm hyper aware of, is it the right hand where it's more of your outer personality? Is it the left hand that's featured more of your inner personality? I am now overanalyzing. Everyone, especially as you come into the election season, which seems to happen every year. These days. It's so fun to watch for repeated gestures.
I highly recommend anyone who might be interested or curious and learning more about intro to palmistry to take Jim's brand new online course. It's self paced and it's available at intro to palmistry. com. That's where you can find out more information and sign up.
Patreon Benefits
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Katie Rempe: And we are back. Jim, did you know all the way back in episode 43, we actually talked all about how to make the witch's ladder and what it is.
James Divine: That's right. Hey, didn't we have a download page that teaches you how to do it?
Katie Rempe: That's right. We worked together on making a really cool guide on how to make your own witch's ladder. Where is that thing? That's funny you ask. It's available on our Patreon, so subscribers get free access to it. And you can too for just 5 a month.
It's just over on patreon. com forward slash knit a spell. I
James Divine: was wondering where that was. That thing is so great. Why would someone want to make a witch's ladder?
Katie Rempe: Because it is a wonderful thing to do to hold intention. Plus it is a really great way to decorate your home if you want to put it out in the open.
James Divine: It's like talk about witch aesthetic. Oh, yeah.
Katie Rempe: Yeah. Yes, you can retake back your own Blair Witch feeling Where she just wanted people to leave her alone.
James Divine: Yeah, the witch's ladder is so cool looking and I've seen people make it with turkey feathers. I've seen people make them with sticks I've seen people make them with dollar bills.
There's so many ways to make a witch's ladder. So if you want to explore some of that plus everything else we're doing.
Katie Rempe: We have other workbooks over there and all sorts of behind the scenes stuff and it doesn't just stop over there Just because we're in between seasons.
It's going all year round. So join us if you will and we'd love to have you.
Magical Patterns
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James Divine: So when you're knitting are all of your patterns, I think all of your patterns are probably magical, but is there some patterns that you think are extra magical and use cord magic, stitch magic?
Katie Rempe: Yes, there were certain patterns that I have definitely made more prominent with certain stitch patterns that are working the cord into a more unique way. So for example, let's talk about a couple of them.
Traveler's Talisman
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Katie Rempe: You'll probably remember my travelers talisman, which is the long rectangular knitted piece featuring three different colors, which I use to capture good luck thanks to its middle lace piece, which I see is like a net.
So all of the bad stuff goes through and then all of the good stuff gets caught in there. So that's my little correspondence with that
James Divine: one.
I love that. Why do you call it the Traveler's Talisman?
Katie Rempe: Because some people like me, but not everyone on this podcast likes to travel and just be like left alone, invisible, but not forgotten with a hint of good Talisman.
I want to chat. That's going to be a future design is the scream in your face. Find your new best friend. You won't have any choice but not to inspired by Jim, but that will
James Divine: be coming later. That's right. That's the travelers. Up in your business
Katie Rempe: scarf. Oh, maybe it's the divine travelers.
James Divine: It's definitely sparkly. It's definitely sparkly.
Katie Rempe: Oh, it's loud. Yeah. Which, I feel it's a primary
James Divine: color
Katie Rempe: contrast. Oh yeah. All of the things. So stay tuned for that.
James Divine: Basically made a invisible, but not forgotten. I love that invisible, not forgotten. So this sort of semi permeable semi transparent invisibility cloak.
Scarf. I've always been fascinated with the Traveler's Talisman, and your logic around why the pattern is that way, what it does. So thoughtful.
Self Love Cowl
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Katie Rempe: I also have the self love cowl, which I came out with a couple of years ago. And that's the one with the big poofy stitch pattern in it, like not a bobble.
It's like fully like these humps. It looks like dunes in the sand. For that particular pattern, I use those as an opportunity because each one you have to, much like a bobble, stop and build up each bump. So you have to stop, knit back and forth on just like six stitches for a little bit, and then you move on and do another one.
So it's like a laborious task every once in a while, but you get this really cool stitch pattern. And each little bobble or a bubble, is a great, to put your intention into it. You can either do the same one time and time again, or a different one each row or a different one for each.
Puff if you'd like.
James Divine: And how comfy that must be to wear.
Katie Rempe: Very squishy much different wearing experience than the traveler's talisman, which is much more like open This is a lot more puffy.
James Divine: And can you make that cowl as big as you want? You have it set to a certain size, but.
Katie Rempe: But it's just like a six or twelve pattern repeat So technically you could make it smaller if you wanted or larger longer if you want it or even taller if you wanted to You know add more yarn and keep going so. Wrap yourself up in it.
That's right You could make it your whole body and make it like a giant Snuggie Sleeping bag.
James Divine: Self love. Where's the self love Snuggie? When are you gonna come up with that?
Katie Rempe: Maybe next February. We'll see. I might need all that time to knit it. Full body knitted onesie. Wow. Yikes. I'm sure it's probably already out there.
Moon Cowl
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James Divine: I'm seeing something about a moon cowl, ah,
Katie Rempe: yeah, Much like the self love cowl, which had those big poofs, this has lots of little bobbles. They're like little wish capturers, because bobbles take a lot less time to make than those big poofs. So the poofs were like, meditative, really like you just concentrate on that.
These little bobbles, I think of them as the plastic bubble wrap, they're just like that little fun energy. That's what I really use it for is like charging it up all usually with the same wish because they're small. But in this particular case it is in two different colors.
So you could use like all of the one colors, this wish, and then all of the other colors, this wish. Other complimentary wish and it goes together to make an even more complicated spell.
James Divine: That reminds me that how cool it is to begin a project at a particular lunar Moment a lunar phase. So when you are calling something the moon cowl this is an opportunity to say oh, it's the new moon so that's a great time to start something. And if you were to start like the moon cowl or any of these. At the dark moon or the new moon in Pisces, perhaps you would bring in some of that Piscean energy of art, artistry of going with the flow of having a different perspective on things of, channeling big compassion.
That'd be a really cool thing to incorporate.
Katie Rempe: That's usually where I do like moon water and stuff too, also a good compliment. But yeah, starting it at a certain moon cycle. It's also a nice thing to do just to give yourself a timeline of maybe when you want to finish it, like by the next new moon, maybe I'd like to be halfway done or whatever, depending on the project.
James Divine: Looking at each of those moons and saying, okay, if I'm going to start it at the new moon in Pisces, then about 28 days later, it's the new moon in Aries. And then 20 days later, there's a new moon in Taurus.
So you can start to think about how do those three signs go together and what do they add to your making. Yeah,
Cord Candle Magic
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Katie Rempe: work that cosmic timing.
Do you have any other crafts? Quote, the crafts that you use cords with?
James Divine: Cords are used in candle magic. One of the common things to do is to imagine that people are connected via energetic cords. There's differing opinions and experiences that people have of that but that we are really a network like that.
Human beings live in a network with connections between them. So sometimes those connections are made deeper and stronger because you are friends or your lovers or your relative of some kind.
Sometimes people need to have an experience of either healing the cord between people. That's what I suggest because I don't think they can actually be cut.
But other people really think about cord cutting and having that as a way to disengage from someone. To stop the patterns that could have been a patterns you might have with someone or to stop their own sort of like codependent patterns with you and so you'll see two candles, often in two different colors and a cord tied between them.
A lot of times it's hemp, but you can use any kind of cord, natural fiber, between those two candles. And as the candles burn, they inevitably will burn the cord. And the cord will be, severed between the two candles, which are representative of the people. And so that is a very direct like cord magic magical act you can do with candles.
Katie Rempe: Oh, interesting. I never thought about that, but that's a great idea.
James Divine: You can also use cord to tie things together. Perhaps you're creating a prosperity magic, pouch. The cord that you use to tie the pouch up and tie it together or to assemble the pieces together inside, that cord can be super magical, is super magical, and is part of that process of tying or of, wrapping up the magic that you're doing.
So I did a prosperity magic spell and I used a piece of hemp that was anointed with prosperity oil, and then I can, you can wrap it around a dollar bill or 20 or whatever, as your intention written on it. And as you wind it, as you wrap it around the dollar, you're thinking about the work you are going to be able to do, the opportunities are coming to you.
And then you tie it. So that it doesn't come unwrapped or unraveled. And so that's another way to use cord magically.
Katie Rempe: Oh, and this just reminded me and I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner In the knitting world, we do actually make cords with yarn.
They're I cords. I'm sure there's other ways too, like chains or whatever, but specifically in knitting, and right now in particular, there is a resurgence of the I cord. And all it is, is a knitted tube that is knit with Three or four stitches. And you usually use like double pointed needles, or I guess you could use a circular needle, but you're basically only knitting one side of it over and over again and pulling the yarn along the back to make it into a tube.
But there's now this like whole tool out there that is essentially three rug hooks, the ones that have the latch on them. And it makes I cords now, much faster usually people find making an i cord a drag because you have to just keep turning it around and around. These little i cord makers are huge. So that is one way that you could make your own cord and then you can be wrapping it around all of these things Especially if it's a natural fiber, that's okay to burn or bury or whatever else.
James Divine: What are i cords used for is that the little like things that are hanging down on either side of my stocking cap?
Katie Rempe: Yep, like that, yeah, they can be used for trim, for like ties, at one point I was thinking about putting an I cord like drawstring for my page of pouches pattern, but I was like, oh, this doesn't actually need it because of the ribbing, but that's something I've used for in the past is like using it as a trim or a tie.
Yeah.
James Divine: I have a stocking cap that sort of pointed down over my ears and then you tie it at the bottom. Yeah. That sort of knitted cord. So I see what you mean.
Katie Rempe: That's it. That's the one.
Season Ahead
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Katie Rempe: And I'm sure we've just, scratched the beginning of the topic.
Which is why we're exploring it all season long!
James Divine: Yay! I'm excited for our guest Diana Rajchel.
Katie Rempe: That will be our first guest in March, and what is she going to be talking to us about?
James Divine: Hex twisting!
Katie Rempe: That's right. Her brand new book. We're very excited.
James Divine: And so find out what hex twisting actually is and why it's called that.
And we have a great conversation with her. So I'm looking forward to that coming out on March 20th. Is that right? That's right. At the beginning of Aries season and springtime, the spring equinox. It'll be really cool.
Katie Rempe: Join us next week when we'll be talking on casting on with magic.
James Divine: And all of the topics this season are very exciting, so I can't wait for all of you to join us back again with season, what are we on? Season five! Season, what? I know! Five seasons?
Time flies.
Well. It's always fun to do this with you, Katie.
See you next week.
Katie Rempe: See you then, everyone.
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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You'll receive a free knitting pattern as a thank you gift, then follow Katie on Instagram @LightFromLantern for even more magical making tips.
See you next week. Next week.
