Getting Purly With It: Recent Episodes
Nancy Ricci
Knitwear Designer Nancy Ricci based in New York City talks about how knitting came into her life when she left a life in the Netherlands to immigrate to the United States of America. Knitting and yarn found her when she was waiting for her Green Card and Work Permit in 2006 and changed her life. Swept away by wonderment and passion, she discovers a creative life with the medium yarn. Nancy is passionate about yarn, knitting, crochet, weaving and spinning and simply can't shut up about it. Her love for her medium shines through in everything she does.
Last week I gave a presentation at Knitty City to a group of children and of course the topic was YARN!
I was so incredibly excited to talk about yarn and all the beautiful items you can create with it.
My main message was that you can create ANYTHING you want with yarn if you set your mind to it.
Creating anything you want starts with dreaming and envisioning what you want, then taking action by doing the work and finally arriving at a gorgeous finished piece. To be able to do this...that's a superpower!
In this episode you can hear utter excitement in my voice and yes, it's so true... I get very excited whenever I have the chance to talk about yarn and whenever I have the chance to infuse the next generation with inspiration.
This one is a really vulnerable and personal episode where I take you back to a time in my life 21 one years ago where I found myself on my kitchen floor in fetal position crying my eyes out.
Back then I was diagnosed with Burn Out and Depression and I didn't know who I was or what was to become of me. I felt like a failure and a total disgrace to my family.
Listen to this episode as I tell the story of how a message was given to me that I was running away from myself and that I needed to make a U-turn and walk towards myself. At the time, I didn't know what it meant but looking back it was the best advice I had been given in my young adult years.
This morning at 6:30 in the morning I completely panicked because I couldn’t access my podcast account from my MAC. I had a complete meltdown but then stopped myself and called myself back to ground. We often times have that in our knitting too, that we completely panick when something goes wrong. I often times say to knitters, don’t panick, take a deep breath, there is always a solution.
I've been teaching people how to knit for 17/18 years now and often times I notice that students are afraid to make mistakes.
In this episode I talk about how making mistakes is mandatory because it is an opportunity to you to learn and to make it to the next level.
I always say to my students that their hands and fingers are given a new task, give them room to make mistakes, allow yourself to make mistakes.
Don't beat yourself up when you make a mistake. Instead, give yourself grace.
In this episode I talk about my frist sweater and why it was a success and not a disaster.
I listened to the experts and did exactly what they told me to do. But most importantly, when I hit several bumps in the road, I kept on going.
Believe you me, there were moment I wanted to give up and abandon my piece, but there was one particular thing that would keep me going.
Listen to my story and may it infuse you with propelling energy to pick up your first sweater project!
When knitters embark on a sweater project I always advise them to make a gauge swatch.
I also advise them to wash their gauge swatch and then measure their gauge.
In this episode I tell the story of 3 knitters that didn't want to take my advice. One story has a happy ending, two have a sad ending.
Look, you don't have to take my advice at all. I relay the message to you and it is up to you what you do with it.
But let me ask you this...Do you want your sweater story to have a happy ending or a sad ending?
In this episode I talk about how and when my fear of double pointed needles came into existence when I was a new knitter.
I also talk about how this fear pushed me to only work with patterns that did not involve double pointed needles and eventually I tell you how I overcame my fear.
Fear can be debilitating if you let it. Fear can also push you to find other solutions to a problem but in the end you most definitely look fear in the eyes and say: "No more!"
In this episode I am telling the story of how I as a new knitter came in contact with a very friendly knitter called Ubaldo. I met Ubaldo in yarn shop Sophie's Yarn in Philadelphia way back in 2006.
Ubaldo was so incredibly nice to me and I never forget how he made me feel at ease and welcome in a time where I was quite lonely finding my way in the United States of America.
After weeks spending time in Sophie's Yarn, I returned one more time to say goodbye to Ubaldo because we were leaving to another city. But he had left the store and I wasn't able to thank him. In the years to come I would always think about him wondering how he was doing. Years later we reunited and you won't believe where I bumped into him!
Knitting came into my life when I was waiting for my Green Card and Work Permit. During that time I was feeling very lonely and I was missing my family and friends terribly. My days were long and lonely but that changed when I learned how to knit.
I arrived in the USA in 2005 and after I learned how to knit during travels throughout North America, I ended up in Portland, Oregon. My intuition told me to stay in Portland and was warmly received by the knitting community.
It is in Portland, Oregon in a yarn shop called Close Knit in NE Alberta where I started to design and to write patterns.
Listen how I talk about intuition, deep meditation messages and how I followed the yarn.
Welcome to the first episode of my podcast in which my brother Tristan interviews me about my childhood in the Bijlmermeer.
Have your knitting/crochet/spinning ready as I tell my story about my happy childhood in an immigrant neighborhood in the outskirts of Amsterdam.
How I loved living there but was faced with feelings of inferiority because of my background as I transition from elementary school to high school.