Homespun E10 | Kira Dulaney

hi everyone welcome to Homespun where creativity Finds Its voice I am your host Misty Don and today I'm joined by Kira Delany who is a wonderful teacher and she is going to share her journey from the costume shop to teaching Fiber Arts of all kinds and also encouraging more people to create so be sure to join us hey everyone welcome to homes fun I am your host Misty Don and I am joined by Kira Delaney K thank you so much for being here I really appreciate it yeah happy to be here so tell everyone a little bit about yourself if you don't mind sure so I um I've always been crafty yeah so I started crocheting when I was 3 years old oh my gosh picked up knitting and embroidery and sewing and weaving and spinning I think in that order I might have gotten a little bit off that's amazing yeah and now I am a pattern designer I design both knitting and crochet patterns and I also teach mostly knitting and crochet but beginning levels pretty much all the crafts and this is the work that I do which is really kind of wonderful my full-time job now is being crafty and helping other people do it with um less stress than there sometimes can be that's amazing and you work with kids a lot right I do yeah so one of my um teaching gigs for 15 years now is teaching after school programs in a middle school oh awesome yes I've got like 10 to 13 year olds and we do sewing and knitting and crochet and needle felting and embroidery then I to do private lessons with kids pretty frequently that's so great and how wonderful that that's available to kids cuz so often you know we lose a lot of the Arts and you know I can remember as a young girl loving family and consumer Sciences where I got to sew and I got to be creative and you know play in the kitchen and do those things and so to have that after school program available to these kids has to be a a kind of a Lifeline for them I would think yeah I think for some kids it's really wonderful and sometimes it is kids who are like academically gifted and doing well and some of the kids I've had maybe don't do as do academic classes as easily but they can come and just needle F and have fun yeah I mean I was probably one of the last Generations that had homech in school and I had sewing class as an elective in high school which I just took over and over and over and I don't think that's available very often yeah seems to be very rare now yeah it' be great if I could be there during the day for everybody because not everyone's in after school but um it also means I get the kids who want to be in my classes which is easier for me for one thing that's that's for sure they're choosing to be there which is kind of magical yeah and some of them it's 3 years that they are in the class the whole time and they really know how to sew or how to knit or whatever they've been focusing on by the time they graduate that's so great what's something you've learned in working with kids that um surprised you you know what one of the things I love about working with kids is that it's very different than working with adults which I do a lot yeah um because when you're 10 most things are still new to you and you will learning new things all the time and often you don't get a choice about learning new things and you're used to not being perfect right away yeah but then if I have a classroom full of adults it's a little harder like there's more emotions about like being good at it right away and doing it right um and being perfectly neat and even which usually means they do everything way too tight uh I am guilty of that I will be the first to attest y me too and then as a teacher I make sure that I'm a student sometimes too so that I'm learning new things myself and remember that discomfort that happens when you're new and you aren't quite sure what's going on and you know it's not very neat and you have to just work through that yeah so when I teach adults that is part of my introduction to class is like let yourself be a beginner it's going to be a little uneven that's where you start that's where I started you just got to practice to get through it and I do not have to have that conversation with 10-year-olds they just Dive Right In that's so interesting because I think as adults we we fall out of the habit of being constant Learners right and when you're constantly learning you understand that there's going to be failure involved it's part of the process and so of course kids are more Adept at that because they're still in it they're still learning all the time and are are eager to learn those new things and I I actually think we all could do better about being eager to learn new things and gentle with ourselves as we're you know working through that process so a great reminder to all of us to be more like kids in that regard yeah I mean even if you're not a teacher I feel like that's a good practice to be new at things absolutely there's some humility in it and I've just gotten to the point where I can be new at something and not be good at it yet and appreciate that as part of a step in the journey absolutely because that is part of the process and most things um whether it's you know quilting which I do a lot of or crochet and knitting or needle felting it's a learned skill right and so the longer you spend doing it the the quicker you're going to develop that skill and to be feel confident in it but it is a process and it takes time for sure so tell me more about the classes that you do for adults so you teach online and in person I do I'm teaching a little less online these days because especially with Hands-On crafts it's really helpful to see people's hands yeah and you know when I teach online I've got a camera that's right over my hands sometimes I've recorded videos in advance so they can be more specific where I'm not thinking about the chat or anything else at the moment um but I do teach some online I teach a lot in classrooms and I've got the middle school I teach at a lot of the local yarn shops where I live in California and about once a month I will travel to a big Fiber Festival and just teach for a few days um a bit more intensely and I have private lessons and a really big range of people that I meet with privately that's so wonderful can you share a little bit about that Journey from being a creative your whole life loving working in these things and and making a career of it how did you get to that point yeah so I was always crafty and when I was in my teens I kind of forced some of my friends to learn how to make things cuz I thought it was so important to make things yeah and I remember giving certain people um a choice like I could teach you how to knit or I could teach you how to sew and neither was not an option that I gave and I you tell me which yeah like you could choose but from these options and you're going to learn to make something somehow um and then I went to college for theater and I did costume design and costume construction oh amazing yeah because I'd already sewn a lot and I thought that would be interesting and I don't work in theater anymore but through that I you know was designing and teaching people and working in the costume shop and um eventually I ended up working in a yarn shop for a few years okay and there you know I started teaching the official classes but also people walk into a yarn shop all day long especially with problems or stuck on a pattern or needing you know to know how to do a cable because they've never done that before and they just need to see it in person because this was before YouTube was very popular um and then from there I started teaching at that shop and shift into teaching at other shops I also started publishing designs because I would make up patterns for myself or customize patterns that existed and folks would come in and they'd say I'd love that sweater I would like to make it yeah what's the pattern I didn't have one yeah you have to fill that Gap yeah so after a few years I let them talk me into starting to write patterns um yeah and then it just gradually became more and more of the work that I do that's amazing yeah yeah it it's always interesting how that uh Our Lives just kind of take this Meandering path to this this beautiful place if we're willing to uh explore those ideas and I like that you didn't necessarily put yourself in a box for me when I went to school I was certain that I was going to do that like one specific thing and people always ask me they're like did you ever think you'd be a quilt teacher when you got older and I'm like no like there was never a part of my mind that thought that this would become my career did I grow up sewing and loving it absolutely but it was not a straight line to get here at all and I think that's more common these days too absolutely it it definitely is and I think it's it's a good reminder to all of us um I have you know some nieces and nephews that are always worried about what their future holds and I'm like just do what is exciting and interesting to you in this moment and be okay with change that's the best advice I can give because um I think life can surprise you in a in a really good way yeah and everything you do along the way affects what you end up doing right like I don't work in theater anymore but it was really helpful for me to shop for and so for and alter for a wide variety of body shapes so when I started publishing knitting patterns I had a really wide siiz for the time I love that yeah those skills cuz I hadn't even connected how those skills would really correlate but you're right when you're fitting all of these different people and then going to write patterns for different different bodies and different fits it gives you that that you know knowledge that you need to really serve those customers in a way that is Meaningful and helpful so yeah and I had things that I had made up for myself that people were asking for a pattern and I didn't do some because I didn't make sense to grade up and I wasn't going to put out a one siiz pattern right it needs to be adaptable that makes sense all right so tell me more about your design process and how you come up with patterns that you want to create and design yeah it depends a little bit like there's some variation but I kind of have a lot of ideas in my head of you know different shapes that I want to do maybe garments that I would like to have in my wardrobe um or that I feel like aren't out there in the the pattern world for knitting or crochet but also techniques are really interesting to me so I would think about you know I haven't done anything with anaria in knitting so I should probably come up with a pattern that is that technique but feels like my aesthetic tell me what that means I don't even know that word so inara um think of it as like color blocking or knitting so that if you have a background you've got a separate source of yarn for each you know spot that's in there but also each section of the background okay so I resisted doing it for a while cuz I grew up in the'80s and ataria then was like floral sweaters with a million yarn ends to even and just busy for me yeah but I was teaching class on anara to a knitting Guild and at the end somebody very helpfully raised their hand and asked if which of your patterns have inara Kira I was like actually zero none you're right I fix that I should fix that and then I had to sit with that and think about like what would look like my aesthetic and to feel good and be something I would want to wear that uses that technique and I came up something with just a little bit of antaria it's like Stripes that almost go to the end but not quite and they're only every once once in a while so if somebody's nervous about the technique it's just you know four rows every once in a while it's not hard to do a good jumping off point exactly yeah yeah that's really great I I can relate to that in what I do too that as a teacher and a designer I want to constantly be challenged and I I'm sure you experience that same thing you don't want to get too stale in what you're doing yeah and the teaching actually helps with the designing too because I look for what my students would want next like this is a good intro you took a class on the technique here are a few patterns that would be your next step where you can use it but it's not diving into the deep end so Kira tell me how you got involved uh with Missouri Star so I was at a Fiber Festival last spring and Sarah Delaney came up and of course we almost share last name uh and she told me about this project that you're bringing in guest designers to do the tutorials which sounded fun to me yeah and turns out that she's been lurking on my uh rivalry and other social media for a long time I just I got reminded of this yesterday as like a you just meet me there and like invite me to do this whole big thing that's kind of a lot for somebody you don't know and she's like oh I know I know who you were I love that yeah but it was fun and she's been just really lovely like making this an easy an easy project to say yes to good enjoy it I'm so glad yes s is wonderful so she she's a good one to to count as a friend yeah and it's so lovely too I mean a lot of Quilters do crochet or knitting because it's so much more portable than most styles of quilting exactly and so especially if you're traveling it's nice to have something small that you can just tuck in your bed and have something to do with your hands yeah definitely I think in general as a creative we like to keep busy we don't want to be sitting still so being able to go into a yarn shop and touch all those beautiful Yarns and and figure out what you want to make is always exciting yeah and some ways too like knitting a crochet can almost be like a fidget toy that then helps calm your brain to do other things I knit through a lot of my college lectures I had one particular teacher would not let us take notes and the first day was so hard for me I wasn't doing anything with my body and my mind wandered more so the next day I brought in my knitting needles and just sat there he was okay with that he was not okay with that he didn't stop me but he kept glancing over and you know this was a while ago and I had metal needles so there's probably a little click clack happening um before wooden needles were very common and so he just would like kept darting glances at me and was like visibly uncomfortable and then he decided to stop me by firing questions at me but I knew all the answers that's good and so then he couldn't stop me I mean he could have but he decided not to yeah and so I knit through the whole semester and at the end some of the Tas came up to me and they're like we talk about you like you are just so brave to do that like he does not like it but you are getting an a wow that's so wonderful I I'm much the same though if I can't take notes it's hard for me to retain the information to the same level that I would otherwise or or have something to keep busy because it my brain needs almost a little bit of distraction in order to focus on on what I'm doing so uh knitting I I often if I have like a lot of computer work I I will make washcloths because that's about where my comfort level without having to count and think like I can just work through and and knit a bunch of little washcloths and um that will keep me busy yeah great for that like I always like to keep an interesting project an easy project and a portable project and sometimes that's 10 projects cuz they all got interesting or large that's right but like the wash gloss are great too like you don't have to think about it if you mix something up and you end up losing a stitch it's not a big deal it's not the end of the world yeah exactly so I I do usually have one of those going at all times and I also have another knitting project that is in the bottom of a bag that I know I should go and finish but now I just don't like it I don't like the yarn anymore oh give yourself permission to not finish Let It Go yeah you could just like disappear the whole thing or Unravel it and then you got the pretty yarn again cuz probably like the yarn at the beginning and actually I've got a trick for that oh what's that if you are feeling bad about unraveling it whether it's something you don't love anymore or you made a mistake and you just feel in your heart that you don't want to take it out and waste that time hand it to somebody else and have them unravel it and then you'll go to back as yarn and it is just a totally different feeling that's a good idea yeah and like especially if you've got some kids around you mentioned nieces and nephews like an eight or 10-year-old loves to destroy things that's true and so they'll destroy the knitting but like teach them how to wind into ball nice give them a ball Winder so can play with a Machinery as well um and then you'll find that you don't have the same emotional attachment to having it disappear if you don't watch it yourself that is some really good ADV advice I bet my 13-year-old Ezra would just love that because he he is like an engineer brain and loves to take things apart and put it back together so that is a very good tip maybe I'll do that this the never-ending cowl I like to call it will maybe get a new home or New Life you should get him into knitting or crochet or as well cuz it's absolutely engineering yeah I really should he loves to sew and so he'll often sit with me in my sewing room and just cut shapes and he likes to just do raw Edge applique where he's just sewing it on top he doesn't necessarily want to piece them together but he's creating artwork out of his fabric which I really love yeah I just reconnected with one of my students from the after school program who is now I think 24 and when they were 12 so 12 years ago when they were 12 they were in my classes and I remember them like designing their own quilt yeah not all the kids want to Quil a lot of them want to do smaller things or clothing but this particular kid wanted to quill and also did a lot of knitting and now works as an engineer which was not shocking to me having known them when they were little and um had a conversation with all of their co-workers and they were discussing like what their childhood hobby was that led them to engineering and there's a lots of like model trains and miniature airplanes and a remote control this and that and then um my student was like yeah knitting sewing I did all the Fiber Arts when I was a kid and it's related it is related absolutely so now they're like crocheting the parabolic Spheres and all kinds of cool stuff that is amazing well and and I guess I hadn't really considered this when you first mentioned that you work with these kids after school but do you kind of let them dictate what they want to do so they're maybe not all doing the same project absolutely because I think that's so important for everybody to only make some things you want to do so when I teach sewing there is like a really simple tote bag that they do because they learn seaming we do a little gusset so sometimes they're sewing based on the machine guide sometimes they're sewing on a line we do Edge stitching MH we get to that moment where you're lining a bag and it's all inside out and you have no idea how it's going to work but then you trust the teacher and it works um and that way I just know they have the basic skills and then after that wide open I've got patterns I can help them design something oh how fun and knitting crochet I have you know four or five things if I have 25 sixth graders on the first day we do not knit or crochet okay we do weaving or we make pom poms because that's a lot easier and then as they're ready for knitting a crochet I can teach them a handful at a time okay um but yeah that it's really wide open and I've got kids now who are designing their own projects because they've been with me for years and they um some of them ask for help and some them just work on it on their own and I might kind of wander by and ask a question that's going to like lead them oh so what's your seam allowance and then they realize they didn't actually add any seam allowance yet and good thing it's still on paper yes oh I love that I I love that that gives them kind of guidelines to get started but then gives them creative freedom as well to play and be creative and just enjoy the process because that's really what it's all about I remind my students in classes a lot that if we're frustrated we're missing the point of the creativity right like we have to be able to find joy in it and give ourselves enough Grace to just enjoy the process and and back it up and start over if we have to and and so when we get we take it too seriously what should be the beautiful fun relaxing and fulfilling Hobby and so keeping the joy in it is so important and I love that you're sharing that with future Generations how how cool so is there a project that you would recommend for beginners to get going and really love what they're working on um so I just released a pattern collection for Missouri Star on hybrid crochet which is a technique that's also called Tunisian crochet okay which I think is actually easier than traditional crochet stitches and easier than knitting so if you're feeling nervous it might be a really good introduction into crocheting oh wonderful I'm going to have to check that out yeah it's um it's a technique where you use a long crochet hook and every row you kind of go across and back before the row is done and that lets you split up the work so you do what we call the forward pass where you're picking up loops on your long hook so you do the same thing to every single stitch across the way so you get repetition there uh and then you work those Loops off okay so you have the ease of knitting where you have a moment where you can stop and count you've got loops on your tool you can see if it's the right number okay and then wonderful benefit of crochet that if something is wrong you don't have to know what's wrong you can just take out your hook pull it back go back to one Loop and start fresh from there start over that's wonderful I I am better at knitting I must say I am adequate at knitting but I I think I'll have to check that out that sounds like it could be right at my alley the perfect segue to um jump from knitting into crochet absolutely because it feels like a mix of both so a lot of knitts even do that organically in a beginning crochet class where normally crochet we sort of resolve each Stitch before you do the next one and sometimes I'll turn around a Knitter will be sitting there with 10 loops on their hook and they weren't supposed to have 10 loops on their hook but they but they made it happen they wanted it that's awesome I love that so tell people where they can find you if they want to learn more about your patterns and what you're working on sure so um I'm lucky that my name is kind of unusual so uh if you just Google Kira knitting or Kira crochet you'll usually find me pretty fast but my handle is Kira k designs so that's my website it's Instagram it's rivalry it's Facebook um YouTube you'll find me through that but my handle there ended up being kir- dulany okay um but yeah again if you go to YouTube and put in Kira knitting you'll probably find me pretty quickly wonderful that's so great if is there any like final thought you want to leave for the crafty makers of the universe just to encourage them to keep it up yeah and actually even to the people who aren't yet crafty but I've stumbled across this yeah I feel like it really is so important for us as humans to make something and these days some much of us our work is digital so you don't have a tangible thing at the end of the day and so it's really lovely to make something yeah and even if it's not perfect and I this is what I always say at the end of my beginning classes like if somebody compliments you say thank you I made it yeah and just stop there don't point out your mistakes they're not going to notice them just say thank you I made it and then that might Inspire them to make something as well I love that thank you so much Kira for being here sharing some of your story with us and for encouraging others to make and create uh there is something truly powerful about spending your time making something that's tangible and you can hold on to and and use for a good long time so I really appreciate it and hopefully I'll see you again soon all right that sounds great have fun thanks see you later [Music]