S3 E6 You Are My People | Irina Shaar of Fiber Chats on Knitting and Community

In this episode, I’m joined by Irina Shaar, the creator and host of Fiber Chats.

We talk about why she started interviewing people from across the fibre world, what she has learned from those conversations, and the moments that have stayed with her. From finding “your people” at Rhinebeck to knitting through COVID and the way craft connects generations, this becomes a much wider conversation about what knitting gives us.

We also talk honestly about social media, going viral, creative confidence, pattern testing, size inclusivity, pricing and the extraordinary amount of work that goes into designing a knitting pattern, including one shawl that took 250 hours to create.

It’s a warm, funny and sometimes very personal conversation about community, creativity, mistakes and the people behind the patterns.

A quick note on the introduction: it contains short extracts from the conversation, including the line, “I wouldn’t buy a pattern without 100 projects.” These clips are intended as previews of the discussion, not complete standalone statements. The full context comes later in the episode, so please don’t interpret them separately from the wider conversation.