Two Ewes Fiber Adventures

Wool fiber carding and preparation is our topic in this episode as our Summer Spin In continues. Current spinning and knitting projects along with a couple of rants are also on the program!

Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

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Marsha's Projects

I frogged the foot of my Drops Fabel sock, turned the heel and I am knitting the gusset.

Picked up a long dormant shawl called Simple Shawl by Jane Hunter that I started in March 2018. Using Michael CWD in the colorway San Francisco Fog.

Cast on the pullover Atlas by Jared Flood for my brother. The yarn I'm using is Navia Tradition. My gauge is 20st/4" instead of 24st/4" so I am making the smallest size. I have knit about 7" of the body, excluding the ribbing. Because I cast on with a provisional cast on and the body is all stockinette it is very curly. It looks like a holiday wreath!

In the last episode, I mentioned that the color work chart distinguishes "dominant" color and I was guessing what this meant. Thank goodness for YouTube and Jared Flood who has a great video explaining why we want to pick a dominant color and the technique for doing this.

I'm still spinning on my green/brown merino.

Hidden Brain: This is the link to the website. Then search for the episode, "Why We Hold Onto Things" from May 31, 2021. I was unable to put a direct link to the episode.

Kelly's Projects

I finished carding about 400 grams of Oxford batts and sampled them. Yes, actually sampled! I made two small skeins of about 20 g each. One is 2 ply and the other is 3-ply. Since the fleece was slightly sticky I used boiled water to put in the wash bowl and they both washed up nicely. I like the 2 ply best. It is softer and fluffier. I now have a full bobbin of singles all spun up. Here is the project page for this handspun.

I started a handspun sweater! I am using a new pattern called Dark Green Forest (Ravelry link) by Christina Körber-Reith. She also has the patterns at her website, Strickhauzeit. Her website also has both measuring/fitting and bust dart tutorials.

Summer Spin In Topics

Don't forget your tetanus shot!

From Nathalie (SuperKip)

Two additions that might be helpful:

• Don't prep fleece when you're pregnant (toxoplasmosis is a danger)
• For 'rescue'-fleeces, a flick-carder is also very helpful, this also gets rid of many waste types of yarn.

Carding

Fiber preparation tools: Hand cards, flick carder, mini combs, combs, drum carder, blending board

Hand Carding with Beth Smith

Spin Off Free Guide to Wool Carding and Combing

Skirting

How to Skirt a Fleece by the Spinning Loft

How to Skirt a Fleece Video by Rayne Fiber Arts

Mill processing

Fiber Shed Mill Inventory

Producer Directory

Fiber Prep Ravelry Group: Fleece Processor List

Mendocino Wool and Fiber

Valley Oak Wool Mill

Morro Fleece Works

Full Transcript

Marsha 0:03 Hi, this is Marsha

Kelly 0:04 and this is Kelly.

Marsha 0:05 We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly 0:10 You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha 0:17 We blog and post show notes at toTwo Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Kelly 0:22 And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects,

Marsha 0:29 and I am betterinmotion.

Kelly 0:31 We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.

Both 0:35 Enjoy the episode.

Marsha 0:43 Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly 0:44 Good morning, Marsha.

Marsha 0:45 Well, how are you today?

Kelly 0:47 I'm doing fine. I'm out in the trailer. I've been complaining about how cold it is here. It's in the 60s again, again every day. Well, not right now it's less than that here now. But I'm wearing an undershirt, a long sleeve shirt, a flannel shirt. And on top of the flannel shirt I have a shirt jacket that will probably come off as we go. But it's cold here.

Marsha 1:19 Well, it's cool today. I don't know what the temperature is. But it's it's overcast. And the wind is blowing. It's very cool. And I but I have to say I'm not complaining. It feels very nice. After that hot hot weather we had

Kelly 1:29 Yeah.

Marsha 1:30 It was like 110. Like, I still, even now two weeks later, people are still like how'd you do with that heat, right. But everybody's asking, but so it's nice. And it's overcast and breezy and cool. But that's how it was yesterday morning. And then it turned out to be a beautiful day it was actually quite warm. So yeah, sort of typical for us is cool, and overcast and sort of misty in the morning. And then

Kelly 1:55 Yeah, it's been wet almost every morning here for the last week. So it's been cold in the house. And of course I'm not going to-- I am not running the heater in July. That's ridiculous.

Marsha 2:10 I don't know if they have this in other parts of the country. But there's a group in in Seattle, all the neighborhoods have a group in this way. It's called Buy Nothing. And it's basically where you can't sell anything. You just post everything out for free. So I've been posting up things like yesterday, well, the one that I thought was so interesting is--I think I got it as a Christmas gift years ago.It's a, it's for grilling, it's a fork, but also has a thermometer in it. Like 10 people wanted it. So I just had to pick somebody. And then other stuff nobody wants, you know, but it's kind of fun. I mean, you know, Kelly, remember you were talking about in front of your house, because you do live on a high traffic street. You just were putting stuff out in front and then and then it was fun to see how fast it went. And then you started going around looking for things to give away. It's kind of like, it's like now I'm very motivated. And I'll tell you why I'm motivated in a second. But anyway, someone's coming today to pick up--I have an old ice cream maker, you know that we had probably in the 60s, right? That we used to make ice cream. It's the hand crank kind that you put ice in and the rock salt and stuff. And so and she's all-- this woman is super excited about it, because she's gonna use it for their Campfire or Girl Scout troop to make ice cream, which is really fun that's going to get used, right?

Kelly 3:33 Yeah.

Marsha 3:33 it's it's kind of fun. It's a little addictive. And you know how I am. For years, I've had such a hard time getting rid of stuff. But people are so excited about it. You know, and this other woman, you know, she's excited because I just posted up-- I have a, you know, a large, really large stainless steel mixing bowl. And I posted that up and she's like, Oh, I'm a baker. And I said I'm a baker too, you know. So I thought maybe I'll meet my neighbors this way. Because it's just, you have to be in a certain block radius. So, um, so probably I think it's, I think it's nationwide.

Kelly 4:11 I don't know.

Marsha 4:13 So I will... let me just say why I'm doing this as is. You know I've...as you know, the listeners now I have my house that I've had in Ballard for many years. I'm getting that ready to rent. I moved into the house I was growing up in. I've had to combine two households. And I've done really well getting rid of stuff. But there was that last stuff that you know, that you hang on to. You think maybe I'll use it, right? Maybe I will make ice cream in the hand crank ice cream maker. And I've been thinking that for how many years? My mother had it in her basement and I thought it's never going to happen. So and if I do get a wild hair that I am, I will go buy one again but I'm probably never going to miss that thing. So I'm...and I had a...Yeah, there's all kinds of things I'm getting rid of and little things but they'll just make space and so I'm now motivated. In the basement because... and Kelly you know this and people if you're following my Instagram feed, you probably know what I'm doing. But I took everything in the basement.. The basement is divided into half. One half is...there's a rec room with a fireplace and a bedroom. And the other half we always called it the dirty part of the basement. But that's where the washer and dryer is and the workbench and stuff, the furnace, hot water heater. So I took everything out of that dirty part of the basement and put it into the rec room. Then I had the wiring redone the plumbing redone for a new hot water heater, new washer dryer, new sink. And then we painted the walls because it was just bare concrete walls. Well actually, they've been painted with calcimite which is like, almost like a chalk like substance, and it doesn't... you can't paint over it. The paint just peels off, so I had to wash down all the walls. Scrub the floor, degrease the floor. So I painted the walls, the trim on the windows, I painted the floor... two coats of concrete paint on the floors. So now I... last night I started moving things back. But Kelly, did you look at my Instagram post this morning?

Kelly 6:20 No.

Marsha 6:21 I think I posted it last night of the shelving unit, Ben shaking it. He said they're not safe. So I ordered last night, I just saw that you can go and order and pay for stuff at Home Depot and just go pick it up. So I ordered it and I get a text in about 15 minutes that it's ready. So Ben went over and picked up the shelving units and we built three shelving units. So today after we finish recording, I'm going to now start putting things that I'm keeping back on the shelf. And my plan is, if it doesn't fit on those three shelving units I'm not keeping it.

Kelly 6:55 Oh, that's a good idea. it will keep you honest

Marsha 6:57 And my other plan . Yes, and this is my other rule. Nothing sits on the floor. If it sits on it, I can't keep it if it sits on the floor. It has to go up on a shelf. Is that a good plan?

Kelly 7:11 Yeah.

Marsha 7:12 Do you think it's attainable?

Kelly 7:14 I don't know. We'll see. How many people want your free stuff?

Marsha 7:22 Yeah.

Kelly 7:26 Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

Marsha 7:28 So anyway, and I will put a... Well I think I got kind of motivated too because pulling everything out... when I saw all of the stuff in the rec room my thought was, I'm one item away from being a hoarder. One more item and it might be at the tipping point. And then as Ben said to me, you know, a lot of stuff is not my stuff. A lot of it is stuff that is other people's stuff that I inherited. So like, I've talked about this before, but you know, 10 sets of dishes that were all inherited from various relatives that I didn't buy, I don't want them, but I now have them. And I don't know what to do with them. And so and then along those lines, having that conversation with Ben sort of motivated me. It did, it sort of did motivate me and then also, he recommended the podcast Hidden Brain. I think the show airs on NPR, but it also is in the form of a podcast and he had an episode and I will try and find a link to it. I forgotten the name of it. But it's something basically about why we keep things and a lot of times it has no monetary value but it has sentimental value. And how do you and how... Which is true. Like I have these...I talk about all these dishes I have. That old treadle sewing machine... things I don't necessarily want. But the people who gave them to me really wanted me to have them. My aunt really wanted me to have that treadle sewing machine but I don't use it. So it's silly to keep it but I feel sort of duty bound to keep it, you know, and all the family history and photographs. I don't want them. And so I've decided I'm going to contact other members of the family and see if they want them. So they can store them and not me.

Kelly 9:18 You should just do like my aunt's have done and...

Marsha 9:24 just put it on their porch...

Kelly 9:27 Grab a batch of pictures, stick them in a bag and just either put them in the mail and send them or, well, like my my aunt will send something home with Aunt Betty or my mom drops something off when she comes here. It's like you start divesting yourself by giving the stuff to to other people. So yeah, like zucchini. You can just drop it on their porch. [laughing]

Marsha 9:54 And you speed away. [laughing] Maybe I should put my family photos on Buy Nothing. if you want instant family.

Kelly 10:02 Funny!

Marsha 10:02 No, I just think... and like the other thing too is I have been saddled with things. I adored my aunt. I loved her, my dad's sister, but she did all the family history. And I have three banker boxes full of all of her research, two trunks full of photographs. And I don't know how many plastic bins full of photographs. And I got, well, chosen or saddled with the family history stuff. And I, the truth is, I don't really care that much. And I know that's terrible to say, because everybody's doing all this family research, but somebody else in the family who is more motivated and cares more than I care should probably do it because I... My aunt, I think thought I cared a lot more than I really cared about all the family history. So anyway, way too much information about what's going on here. But I'm in purge mode.

Kelly 11:05 All right.

Marsha 11:07 So, Kelly, yes. Should we talk about, like, fibery things now?

Kelly 11:11 I think so.

Marsha 11:12 Okay.

Kelly 11:13 You're not purging any of that. Right?

Marsha 11:19 Well, I know I'm not yet right. Not now. But I do need to figure out a different way of storing.

Kelly 11:23 Well, that's a perpetual question. What do you do? Yeah. How do you store those? Yeah, yeah.

Marsha 11:28 So let's get to projects. Do you want to go first?

Kelly 11:31 Sure. I'll go first, because mine is short. Oh, first of all,

Marsha 11:35 is that good?

Kelly 11:36 I don't know. Well, it's fine. It's, it's kind of normal. It's kind of the way it's been recently. But I finished carding about well... I'm gonna say finished because the Oxford fleece was in two bags. And I finished one bag of the Oxford a fleece and it's about it's about 400 grams. And so then I sampled. So I, I made a two ply, about 20 gram skein, I think, of two ply and a small skein also of three ply to see which I liked better. And I was, I was thinking I was gonna like the three ply better, but I liked... I actually liked the two ply better. It's fluffier, part of it might just be the amount of twist that I put in the three ply. Even though I like a nice round three ply. This particular yarn that I made, it feels sort of buttoned up. It's kind of like, you know, it's round. And, and, and, you know, bouncy, like a three ply is, but it feels kind of just too much twist. There's just too much, too much twist in it. And it just really wants to be a little looser. At least that's what I'm thinking. If I had done the three ply, with less twist. I mean, normally, you put a little more in, because you're going to be untwisting a little bit more when you ply the three ply. And so I think that might be what happened. I wasn't intentionally doing that, but maybe that's what happened. Anyway, it just feels a little too tight. And the other one feels nice and fluffy and loose. And so think I'm gonna do a two ply. And so I started a bobbin. Last-- yesterday, and I managed to spin an entire bobbin, most of a bobbin, of this Oxford fleece. So I'm still keeping my options open that I may opt to do a three ply. You know, I'm not gonna ply it right away. Think about it, and I'll do a second bobbin first before I decide, but I'm pretty sure I want to do a two ply with this. So it's nice, it's it's springy. It's softer than I expected it to be based on when I was carding it.

Marsha 14:06 Mm hmm.

Kelly 14:08 But it's like a medium You know, kind of a medium workhorse kind of fleece but softer than the Perendale. That Perendale that I talked about a couple of episodes ago, that blue and green one. Blue, green and yellow from the prepared fiber that I bought from Sheep Spot. The Oxford is a little softer than that. Actually is quite a bit-- it feels quite a bit softer than that now that I'm spinning it. Now I think I mentioned that I didn't do the best washing job when I first washed it, so it's a little sticky. So I just when I washed it, I just used boiling water in the bowl, along with some soap and washed the skeins and they came out really nice. So I wasn't too worried about it. I had done that before. So I wasn't too worried about the, the fact that it was a little sticky spinning. And it's perfect for spinning now. Because even though you know, even though the weather is cool here, you know, it has been in the high 60s. So if I sit in a little sunny spot and spin, it slips really nicely. You know, it's more lanoliny than sticky once it gets a little warmed up. So I mean, I'm not, this is not spinning in the grease by any means. It's...

Marsha 15:32 Right.

Kelly 15:33 It's, it's clean, but it's still got more lanolin in it then I really liked to have. So that's one thing that I'm working on. My spinning project. But I also started another project for our spin-in which is, you know, making something out of your handspun. So I started a handspun sweater.

Marsha 15:59 Oh,

Kelly 16:00 So I spun the yarn years ago, well, over several years. Maybe people who've been listening for a while might remember. It's the CVM fleece and I had it processed at Yolo fiber mill which is now Valley Oak Wool Mill, a different owner. But it's up in Woodland, California. And I had it when we first moved here to this house, so that would have been '05. I'd had the fleece for at least at least a year, maybe came from the fair in 2004. Sat around here for a while before I sent it away to be processed. And then once it came back, I started spinning it and I used that same fleece for the... There was like six pounds of it. And I used that same fleece that sort of taupey beige fleece for the Orca sweater, the Orcas Run sweater, my big, bulky sweater. But this is a fingering weight, three ply, and then I dyed it red over the kind of beige color. So that made it kind of a terracotta, rust, I don't know what you would call it exactly. But it's real pretty. The dye color was called dark red. And I found a pattern. So, again, I had talked many times about what pattern I was going to use, right? I had a couple of choices in my queue that I was pretty sure I was going to use one of them. And then finally I just decided you know what I'm going to go looking again. And so I found a pattern called Dark Green Forest. And it's by Christina Korber-Reith. Korber-Reith is her last name, k o, r, b e r, dash r, e, i, t, h, she's German. And I actually looked up how you how you pronounce it.

Marsha 18:17 Mm hmm.

Kelly 18:17 In German. And...but I can't say it that way. I did the best I could. But she has, she has some really interesting patterns. Nice, kind of the long sweaters that I like, cozy and casual. The one I'm using has a cable like a honeycomb cable down the sleeve. It's got a saddle shoulder, which... I don't know if I've ever done an actual saddle shoulder before. But I think this is a saddle shoulder because the cable comes down from the collar and then goes down, down the top of the shoulder and then down the arm. The collar is a square collar. I don't know that it would be called a shawl collar. But it's nice. It's...you start at the... you start at the collarr and go down and it's it's one of those collars that folds over and is just square. You know, it's just

Marsha 19:22 like a sailor's collar. Is that what they call it?

Kelly 19:24 Yes. Yeah, I think that is what you would call it. That is what it's like, exactly like that. And it has ribbing on it. So I've gotten... I've gotten down... I'm in the the arm hole increases.

Marsha 19:43 Mm hmm.

Kelly 19:45 But I got messed up somehow. And I need to... I'm trying to decide whether I want to go forward and see if I'm in the right place for the cable. You know that cable crossing, or do I want to rip it back again, because I already ripped it back once to to get back to where I thought I knew where I was. And now it's not looking right. So. So I have to decide what I want to do. Do I want to forge ahead? Assuming that I'm right?Or, or did I somehow make a mistake again, not paying attention and get an extra, you know, an extra row in there. So. So anyway, that's where I am with that. But I'm really liking the pattern. It's fun. It's well written. I've made good progress, but with a collar that big. I still haven't gotten that far down, you know? Yeah, I'm in the, in the yoke. A little bit below what she calls the yoke in her pattern, so. But I'm excited about it. I have a sweater on the needles again, something more than a dish cloth.

Marsha 20:55 Mm hmm. Well, I was just looking at the pattern. I think it's a very nice pattern. And I love the color. That terracotta color, I think is really nice.

Kelly 21:03 Thank you. Yeah, I'm really pleased with it. I was laughing because somebody, I was talking to somebody about making things. And I suddenly realized, I like everything I make. I mean, it's good, right? I'm making it so it should be made the way I like it. But, but it was kind of funny. This person that I was talking to was much more critical of her stuff than I am. I'm like, you know, Oh, I like that. You say Oh, I like the color. I'm like, yeah, isn't it great? Oh, I like how your sweater turned out! Yeah, yeah, isn't it great? [laughing]

Marsha 21:48 That's interesting. I'm trying to think... do I like everything I make? I like most things. I've had some. I say I like everything I've made. I like the yarn and the color and stuff. Sometimes. They don't fit right.

Kelly 22:05 Yeah, I have some. Yeah, I have some fit complaints about some of the things I've made. Mostly related to raglan sleeve shaping that has the raglan part starting at like two stitches. And yeah, my top of my shoulder is much broader than two stitches. So unless we're talking about, you know, a totally high neck collar, that's not enough. But even those, I mean, I yeah. I guess it has to do with when, right? Especially when I'm making it or when I first finish it. It's like, Oh, I love this! Once it's in my drawer or closet for a while I sometimes realize oh, I don't love this as much as I thought I did. You know?

Marsha 22:56 Yeah,

Kelly 22:56 I--you know, I noticed because I don't grab it out as much.

Marsha 22:59 Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 23:01 But yeah, no, I'm not very critical of my own work. There's, I've made-- I did make one hat that I thought okay, this is really ugly.

Marsha 23:12 Was that the charity hat you made? That you were talking about in the last episode or two episodes?

Kelly 23:17 Oh, no, I, well...I guess I could count that one. I think that one's kind of ugly. And oh, well, not ugly, just not the best thing I've ever made. So maybe two things. No, this is one I made a long, long time ago. And I was going to a meeting and I just had to grab stuff to make a hat. You know, I knew I was going to be sitting in a meeting for a long time. So I just grabbed yarn. And the colors didn't really go together. And then I decided to make stripes. Because I thought oh, if I if I make the stripes of this way, it'll look better the colors will actually go together. One was like a teal and the other one was like a rust color. And they just didn't, you know that can be... that could be a really pretty combination. But this particular teal and the particular rust just wasn't wasn't a good mix. So I know that that hat sat in my stash for a long time with me thinking, well, maybe it's not so bad if I look at it in a different light. Oh, I think it's all right. Or then I thought, oh, maybe I'll just overdye it and I thought you know, I just just put it in the bag of goodwill stuff.

Marsha 24:26 Mm hmm.

Kelly 24:28 So I finally did get rid of it. And one of my, you know, times of going through the closet and getting rid of stuff that hat went in. So yeah. Anyway, but those are my only two. Really my only two projects at this moment are the spinning project and the new sweater on the needles. So...

Marsha 24:48 Well, very nice. You're busy.

Kelly 24:50 Yeah, I had hoped to wash fleece. And I won't go into a lot of gory detail but my top load washing machine from 30 years finally died. So...

Marsha 25:06 Yes, so did you get another top load?

Kelly 25:08 Yeah, yeah, it's another just basic washing machine. So it's coming on Friday.

Marsha 25:14 30 years. That's actually a really long time for... I mean today for appliances,

Kelly 25:21 The one we just bought will not last 30 years, I'm sure.

Marsha 25:24 Well, good.

Kelly 25:25 So we'll hope it works. Nobody at the place knew anything about, you know, things like can you just...

Marsha 25:32 can you wash a fleece in it? Right?They really couldn't answer that question. [laughing]

Kelly 25:34 Will it just spin and drain? Oh, you know, can you open it up in the middle of the cycle? You know, all that stuff. They didn't know anything about it. So we'll see. I have my fingers crossed. I think I'll be able to use it. I'll be able to figure something out. It has a pause button. So you know it locks but it does have a pause button. So I should be able to... Yeah, I should be able to do something with it. I don't know. But it doesn't have... it has an automatic water level. That might be a problem.

Marsha 26:08 Oh, yeah, cuz you want to

Kelly 26:10 Yeah, cuz I wanted to fill and then put stuff in. So I need-- I might need to figure out how to make it fill with nothing in it. Stupid. I don't know why they can't just make a--Well, I won't go into a ramt. It just, it's just ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with a regular washer. And I you know, I was reading through all of the things and oh, you know, you need this washer because it's gonna make your clothes last longer. I'm sorry. People don't want their clothes to last longer. People want to go shopping and buy a new outfit next month. It doesn't make any sense.

Marsha 26:51 Actually, that's a really good point. I never thought about that. Because that was the the selling point of those front load front load washing machines is they're more gentle on your clothing because there isn't the agitation. But to your point, we don't want our clothes to last because we buy clothes are so inexpensive that we just buy new clothes.

Kelly 27:11 And honestly, my clothes have gone in a... Now I just sound like an old lady on a rant but my clothing has gone into a top load agitator washer for 60 years. I have never felt like my clothing wore out too fast from going in the washing machine. Never! Not once have I had something that I thought, oh my god, it just wore out so fast from going in the washing machine.

Marsha 27:40 Okay, so since we're on rants, I'm going to add my little rant to this. It's not about washing machines and appliances, which that could be a whole--that's a whole nother podcast of ranting! Light bulbs. So

Marsha 27:54 Oh no Marsha! [laughing]

Marsha 27:57 I'm gonna say... [laughing] But here's the thing. I remember when they came out with the LED light bulbs. And the big selling point of those light bulbs is that they were going to last 25 or 30 years. So I had all these random light bulbs, and I discovered most of my lamps are three way. So I bought all new light bulbs. Because I as I say had all these different light bulbs. And so I bought all new three way light bulbs. Put them in probably two months ago, and two of them have burned out. Now, I think... And I clearly sound like a conspiracy theorist when I say this, but I don't think I am. I think it's the truth. I think they're designed to break because it's not-- it doesn't make any sense. It's not a smart business model to make light bulbs that last 30 years right? Because nobody's gonna go buy your light bulbs. They won't buy them again for 30 years.

Kelly 28:50 right

Marsha 28:50 So the business model is they use less energy, which is good. But they cost more. Like I don't know, they cost more to make? I have no idea. They cost more to buy which is good for the manufacturer. And you have to buy them just as frequently or more frequently than an incandescent bulb so it's a great business... it's a business model that makes sense. You don't want them to last. Planned obsolescence. You don't want things to last, you want things to slow down. You know, you want things to break and wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Old lady, old lady Failor here!

Kelly 29:30 And old lady Locke here having our rants

Marsha 29:34 Okay, does that make me sound like a conspiracy?

Kelly 29:38 No, why would you make something-- Why would you make something like a light bulb that would last for 25 years? Because yeah, once people...

Marsha 29:47 It's a bad business.

Kelly 29:48 It's not an appliance. I mean appliances don't even last 25 years!

Marsha 29:53 Your furnace! The furnace doesn't last. I mean it's funny, the the oil furnace that was in the house. This house was put in 1929 and my parents took it out in the 70s so that still forty... but there was nothing wrong with it they just wanted... they were sold a bill of goods that electric was better which is ridiculous.

Kelly 30:14 Okay, now, last one last rant! That big green furnace in the basement that I loved the look of? We had replaced and it had, I mean it had had trouble and it was inefficient and eventually we did end up getting a new one last year because our furnace had gone out a couple of times. Remember it was out for a while last November a year ago? So it had died. This is again a 1920s furnace they had to cut it up to get it out of the basement because it was so big. So we get a new one and it has a thermostat on it with a programmer, right? Prrogrammed thermostat and Roberts like okay, we have to do this because programming your thermostat is really really more efficient because you know you you have a timer, blah, blah... I said it's not more efficient because if you have it on a timer it's going to come on whether or not I'm cold. If I'm cold I turn it on and when I'm not cold anymore I turn it off and that's more efficient. He's like, no no it's much better... Guess what! Even though our furnace is much more efficient then the old one was, because we had it on the timer for the winter our heating bill was more!

Marsha 31:37 Oh yeah?

Kelly 31:38 I'm turning that off so now I'm only going to turn it on when I'm cold and turn it down and not turn it on in the morning you know before you get up. It just...

Marsha 31:53 Yeah. well I say that's an interesting point because I know that they...The reason they say that you should have a program is that then you're not like, oh I'm cold turn it up and then it's putting all this energy into heating it up. You know it's just like it keeps it at this constant temperature but to keep it the constant temperature you're using energy, right. So I can see there are these things we accept as the truth that are not necessarily the truth.

Kelly 32:18 Yes.

Marsha 32:19 Well... furnaces. I go back to furnaces. My friend Susanna she has a house built in like 1900, I think. Here in Seattle, and she has the original furnace. Yeah, and it works. Yeah. So think how old that furnaces like over 120 years old.

Kelly 32:35 Yeah, very cool.

Marsha 32:36 And it works fine. So and I've spent evenings in her house and it's a lovely temperature. So there you go. Okay, and enough ranting Where are we I think because we got sent we went down this rabbit hole of ranting I believe I'm talking about my projects.

Kelly 32:50 Oh my gosh, yes, you are. Quickly. [laughing] Sorry.

Marsha 32:55 I have to get through these fast. Okay, so my socks. I frogged my socks because, remember the socks I'm making. I forgot to turn the heel. So I rip that out and I turn the heel and I'm now working on the gusset.

Kelly 33:07 Oh, good.

Marsha 33:08 I'm working intermittently on my Simple Shawl that I started years ago but I work on that periodically. I'm still spinning the green brown Merino. Nothing new to report on that. So I will.. don't need to talk about that. Since we talked too much on our rants, I won't go into all of that. But I did cast on the pullover Atlas by Jared Flood for... And I'm making this for my brother. And the last episode I had swatched. I talked all about swatches. And so I'm not getting gauge. I'm getting 20 stitches in four inches as opposed to 24 stitches in four inches. Okay, so based on his size and my gauge, I'm making the smallest size. And that's... and so he brought back the the other Jared flood sweater I made for him and which we talked about. Is it Cobblestone? Yeah, he brought that back and I measured that and it's the same, it's gonna be a little bit bigger, maybe about an inch bigger, which I think is good because he doesn't want... he wants it more slim. As I talked about in the last episode, he wants it a bit more slim fitting, I don't think it should be super slim fitting based on the weight of this wool. So I think it's gonna be the perfect size.

Kelly 34:22 Well, that's good.

Marsha 34:24 So that's good. I do have... But now I want to talk about the color work. I do have some concerns about the color work, but I have to let it go. Because... well I shouldn't even say this, it's perfect. I know I'm just kind of concerned. So the body of the sweater is this very bright grass, Kelly green kind of. And then the color work is in a navy blue and kind of a light like a sky blue robin's egg blue. My concern is, you know, when you...when you talk about, like you take a picture of your color work and put it in black and white, and you see how the colors work then and what stands out? My concern is that the, the...when you look at them together, the light blue and the green, sort of blend together a little bit. There's not as much distinction between the Navy and the green or the Navy in the light blue. I'm, I'm committed to using these colors. So I don't I mean, I'd have to buy a different color. And looking at the colors. I... there's like there's not, there's not a huge range of colors in this yarn. So my options are like red, brown, white, gray. And that's... I'm kind of wondering if maybe, like the white would be, I don't know. I think I'm just gonna start knitting it and see how... because just looking... because I didn't complete the whole color work pattern. And maybe it will all be fine. In the end. I don't know.

Kelly 36:04 Well, and Mark chose those colors, right?

Marsha 36:08 Yeah, well, Yes, he did.

Kelly 36:13 Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what he wanted.

Marsha 36:17 Yes. But I think there's one thing picking the colors. And then picking colors for color work.

Kelly 36:21 Yeah.

Marsha 36:22 Right. Because I don't know that much about it. And he knows nothing. Well, he knows a lot about color. Don't get me wrong. He knows a lot about putting colors together because of his background in design. But a knitted fabric? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I don't know.

Kelly 36:38 He was looking at the pattern. I remember him looking at the pattern and right, and looking at the colors that he selected. So I don't know, anyway. Yeah.

Marsha 36:49 So yeah. I'm not gonna worry about it. It's just something that's just is flickering through my brain. I wonder, huh? Wondering. And but again, when you complete the pattern, it might be fine. Just doing... I think I did 10 rows of the pattern. And the whole colorwork thing is well over that. So anyway, but the other thing I want to say is, do you remember in the last episode, we were talking about that in the pattern, it's a very well written pattern. But when you get to the color chart, it actually tells you on each row, which is your dominant color, and I had no idea what they were talking about. And so I said, I'm assuming the dominant color is going to be you knit..., you hold it in your dominant hand, in my case, that's my right hand. That's completely wrong. [laughing] So anybody who listened and knows anything about color work will know that that's wrong. This is what happens when you have no information, but you act like you're an authority. So I anyway, I... Kelly, you had pointed out that Jared Flood actually has a good video on explaining dominance. And so I put a link in the show notes about that, you actually are supposed to hold the the dominant color in your left hand. And I would I recommend the video, there's other videos out there too, but explains why you want to pick a color as a dominant color. And then also how you use it. Typically, people hold the dominant color in their left hand, he is not as fast that way. He actually holds both colors in his right hand. But he has this very interesting technique, which he demonstrates in the video of twisting your hand, so that you have the two different different yarns available. And he also talks about, there's another video he does about stranding and how you capture the floats in the back, which is very good. And this is all common knowledge for people who do a lot of color work. Not having done any color work, this is really informative. So I'll put, I put a link in the show notes on the video about dominant color. And then also in their patterns, they tell you which is the dominant color. But he said most color work patterns, they don't tell you. So also techniques for deciding which would be the dominant color.

Kelly 39:04 Oh, that's good. Because Yeah, I have noticed that that's not something that's usually in the in the description. Yeah, at least in the description. Like, when you read the pattern, the pattern page, you know the description in the pattern page, you don't see it. Maybe in the written pattern, it will tell you but but yeah, that's good.

Marsha 39:24 And then he and then even to the point to where the dominant color may change throughout the pattern. So you know, like in so like...

Kelly 39:35 interesting.

Marsha 39:36 Yeah, so yeah, so that was just very interesting, something I knew nothing about and I made that offhand remark and I realized like I was wrong! So I just want people to know and I, I did there were some comments in the show notes and people had posted. One listener posted a video, a link to a video in there. So all that was really helpful. So I just wanted to share that That's so... That is it for me with projects.

Kelly 40:03 All right.

Marsha 40:04 Oh, and I should say too about this sweater, and I talked about this before--that you're supposed to do a tubular cast on. And then knit two and a half inches of ribbing, and then start the body. And as I talked about in the past, and in the last episode, I'm doing a provisional cast on and just starting with the stockinette. And then I'm going to go back and do the ribbing. So I have done about seven inches of the stockinette. If I had included the ribbing, I'm supposed to knit it from the cast on with the ribbing, I'm supposed to about 10 and a half inches of the body where I then start doing shaping though,

Kelly 40:41 So you're close to shaping.

Marsha 40:43 Yeah. This, if I subtract the two and a half inches, I need to knit eight inches, and I'm about at seven inches now. So another inch and I'm going to start the shaping. When you do this technique, it's very curly. It's like I'm going around and around and around and it never seems like I'm getting anywhere. Yes, it looks like it looks like a holiday wreath because it's bright green. And it's just basically a big log, I mean and a big umm... Yeah, it's like, it's like a wreath, kind of. Around and around. It never seems to grow. So and I think I may have done this with his other sweater too, is that when I finished the whole sweater, I will probably wash and block it before I go back and do the ribbing. Because it is so curly. I think it's gonna be very difficult to measure how it should be.

Kelly 41:34 Yeah.

Marsha 41:37 So, but I'll report in on this. So as I say that's it for... that's it for projects for me.

Kelly 41:44 Good. Sounds like you're making good progress.

Marsha 41:49 on some projects, yeah, not so much on others.

Kelly 41:53 Well, the summer spin is moving along. And it's also Tour de Fleece. I forget what day we're on now, I was doing pretty well at the beginning of it. Accounting for what I was doing each day that had to do with spinning. I had a couple of days that I didn't card or spin or anything so I got kind of off. But anyway Tour de Fleece is going on. The summer spin in is going on. And in this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about fiber preparation.

Marsha 42:27 So and Kelly, you mentioned this last time, but we'll mention again. Don't forget your tetanus shot.

Kelly 42:32 Oh, yeah. And then we had some feedback, too.

Marsha 42:34 Yeah. So Natalie, Superkip. She added don't prep fleece when you're pregnant. And because toxoplasmosis is a danger and I'm not sure what that is. I honestly did not Google it. All I know is, it's a danger. So okay. And I did watch a video to where she said she always wears gloves. Just latex gloves on. So that's probably smart to do too. And then

Kelly 43:00 I have to say I wouldn't do that. Yeah. I like the feel of it. I know. But if you're squeamish about about touching, yeah, I guess.

Marsha 43:13 Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so I wanted to mention that.

Kelly 43:19 And then she also mentioned about when we talked a little bit about the rescue fleeces that might have more stuff in that, you know, bargain fleeces that might have stuff in them, more so than something that you'd buy at a fiber festival. And she mentioned a flick carder being really helpful. And I had forgotten to mention that but yeah, that is a good example. Its a good use for flick carder, if you can somewhat keep the locks of your fleece intact. When you wash it, if it's the type of fleece where that happens. Then you can kind of just brush them out with a flick carder, brush out the ends and you can get out a lot of the waste that way.

Marsha 44:02 The first thing I was just going to mention is if you if you get a raw fleece and you know we've talked about washing it, but what we did not talk about was skirting. And so I was just gonna mention, we won't go into great detail but the concept of skirting as you lay the fleece out with the cut side down, and the so called dirty part up and then you just go around and you pull out areas that are matted, or areas where the fibers look like they're broken. If there are manure tags on it, or bad stuff that you just don't want in there. Probably as we talked about in the last episode if you've bought a fleece at you know like from a show it probably will be pretty well skirted, but it's a good idea just to go through it again. The other comment too on the video Well, I'll just say I put a link in to a video by Rain Fiber Arts. That was very good. And she is talking about how to skirt a fleece. And she also talks too, if you see if there's any signs of eggs, or moths or something, and just don't even let that into your house. Kelly, you can add something to this too, about, what are your thoughts about things to look for, when you're skirting that you'd want to pull out?

Kelly 45:30 Usually the parts that you don't want are around the edges, you know, so like the, if the fleece has been rolled up, and you can unroll it and see kind of, you know, depending on how it's been rolled, and how well you're able to unroll it, you might not exactly be able to see the shape of the sheep. But you know, like the manure tags would be in the back edge, the britch wool, which is the wool on the backs and kind of toward the backs of their legs, is more coarse, usually and that's towards the edge of the fleece. If they have, you know, the fleece around their legs might have been, well, like the fleece that I was carding the Oxford, there were some sections of that fleece, some pieces of that fleece that had dark hairs in it from the leg. Dark leg hairs in it, which really, if I had been doing a better job, I would have, I would have skirted a little bit better and taken taken that out. And that would have been around the edge, as well. Yeah, sometimes, sometimes around their neck, you'll find a lot of hay from, you know, from eating. And so you can take some of that out, if you want to, you know, be real harsh with your skirting and get out the most of the veg manner. So a lot of it is around the edges. The other thing that I wish I had done more of with this fleece that I have, is... and I did a little bit of it when I was picking and carding. But a lot of times you can shake the fleece, if you can shake the fleece. Especially if you have... I would love to have a table that was like mesh. Because the second cuts, any second cuts, well, you know, a lot of that will fall away, a lot of the veg matter will fall away, some of the things that you don't want will fall away and, and you can see it a little bit better if you shake it, you can see, you know, where are those areas where you have second cuts and those little short bits. So I need to do a better job of that. My habit is, you know, to look at the fleece when I first get it home, and then roll it back up and put it away and then I get on a tear about washing and I just grab some of it, you know. What I really should do is lay it back out, sort it. Look for places where the fleece is really nice and put all that together. And wash just that section and be really intentional about what parts of it you wash, as opposed to just, you know, grab a piece of it that's going to fit in the washer and wash it. So you can be intentional about your fleece, if especially if you get a nice one, right? Where you want to keep the nicest bits together. If it's a fleece like a lot of the... And maybe this is why I do it. A lot of the bargain fleeces that I've gotten, you know, they're just jumbled in a bag. And there's no knowing what what part of the fleece is what. So that's how I got my start and maybe that's why I have some bad habits when it comes to grabbing out bits to wash.

Marsha 48:56 Yeah. The first fleece I bought was actually a Shetland fleece. And I just took it out of the bag and I put it i... like tore it in half or smaller batches and just washed the whole thing. Yeah. And that was a mistake because what... and now this is specific to Shetland, but I took a class by Judith McKenzie about taking a Shetland fleece and because the fiber so different depending on where it is on the sheep, you really don't want to take the... You can do anything you want to do, but it's better to separate out the different fiber, different textures and fibers because-- and I didn't know that about a Shetland. So I just, you know... but I think in any fleece there are going to be different textures depending on where it is on the sheep. So I did that. I just washed all of it and carded it and started spinning it. Is it bad? No, not necessarily but it could have been better.

Kelly 50:00 Yeah, it's just different. You know, if you if you want a really super... if you want to get like, every type of yarn you can get from a fleece, then you have to be more intentional about it, right? You'll find the finest part and you'll make a nice yarn that's fine and soft. With the more coarse part, you'll make something that's a more workhorse yarn. But, but if you want to just make a sweater, you just mix it all together and make a sweater. I mean, there's nothing wrong with doing that. Yeah, right.

Marsha 50:36 Well, and I was... the other thing I was gonna say about skirting is sort of, for me, you know how I am. It's like, I want to use every bit of it. Because this precious thing I bought, I want to use every bit of it. Yeah. And it's okay to be aggressive, you know? Yeah. Well, you don't need to save all of it. It's okay.

Kelly 50:53 I think I've told this story before about the, I think it was like 40 pounds of fleece that I got from... I was at a spinning day and somebody said, Oh, you know, my brother in law has fleece in his barn. Would you be interested? I'm like, of course! So I went and got this 40 pounds of fleece. And I'm pretty sure that's what it came out to be. And anyway, I opened it all up on my lawn and made piles. And I found myself at the end, even though I had so much of it, I found myself going back to the trash pile and taking taking bits that I had skirted out and putting them back. So yeah, you know, it's hard. It's greed. Fleece Greed is a real thing. Right? So, but but some people are better at that than than others. And then there are some people who keep their carding waste. You know, when I'm carding, and I clean off the carder, the waste that's on the small drum of the carder, I toss it. But there are people who save that and use it for something else, you know, and you can do that. But I, that's not something I do. I think about it. [laughing] And then I tell myself how much fleece I have in the garage. And I toss it in the bin.

Marsha 52:23 So about carding, let's talk a little bit about carding, then, oh, as I say, it's a huge subject. So and we can't go into the minutiae of it. But let's just talk sort of, in general about carding. The different tools and whatnot.

Kelly 52:33 Well, I put a couple of links in the show notes about it, I have a drum carder, and I, one of the things that I can say for sure, whether using hand cards or a drum carder, is that you really want to not overload, you know. Less is more. You really can go faster if you don't try to put too much in. And I have also learned that it's faster for me, even though it doesn't seem like it, if I do some picking first, which is like separating all the fibers. And so I'll just, you know, stand at the table and pick a whole bunch of, you know, like a whole box of fiber, one of those, you know, reams of paper boxes. I'll take a bunch of fiber, and I'll do the picking until I've got a good amount in one of those boxes, and then I'll start carding. And that really helps because it's already-- the fibers already separated and doesn't get clumped and stuck in the drum carder, and then I usually do two passes. With this fleece that I have, I did the first pass and got a bunch of batts. And then I pulled off strips from each one of those bats and blended them you know, blended them together and did a second pass. I've done with some fleeces depending on how, how much what kind of fleece it is and how it looks, I might do a third, a third pass. Or if I'm blending two colors together. I'll do, you know, I'll do each color that I'm blending, each part that I'm blending separately. And then I'll pull strips off and weigh them and run them through the carder together and then probably have to do a third pass to get them better blended. The first pass usually isn't very well blended and then the second one is much better. So I do a first one to just kind of get everything organized separately. And then a second one to blend and then a third one to finish the blending if I want the blending to be more even. So you can do the same thing with the hand cards, the blending. I've done that before. It's not so... I don't do so much weighing when I use the hand cards, I just kind of eyeball how much I'm putting on. I might weigh it ahead of time to say like, I want 70% of this and 30% of that. And so I have my two piles. But then when I put it onto the cards, I'm not weighing each time I use the hand cards, I'm not weighing these. So yeah, that Carding is... I enjoy it, it seems like it will be a slow process. But actually, that 400 grams that I carded, you know, went through the carder, I picked it, and then it went through the carder twice. And it was a, you know, a couple of hours, maybe two or three times during the week. So I mean, that's not that much time. It didn't seem like it was that much time.

Marsha 55:53 No, it's not bad. You just listen to podcasts or watch TV or something. Yeah,

Kelly 55:58 yeah. Or listen to a zoom meeting. [laughing]

Kelly 56:09 So that's um, that's how I card. Now, the flick carder, we talked a little bit about that already. That kind of requires that you have the lock structure still intact in your fleece. And then I just put it on my lap on top of like a magazine on top of my lap and just brush out the end of the of the, the tip end of the fleece and then turn it around and brush out the the back end of that lock and then set it aside and start another one. And that works really well. I don't have mini combs. And I kind of would like to have mini combs. I have the big combs that you clamp onto a table and I took a class on using those, which was really good. But I haven't really used my combs much since then. They're I mean, they're really a nice piece of equipment. But for some reason I'm not... I'm just not in the habit of getting them out and using them. And I think mini combs might be something that I might like to have. Because, just because they're something you can just sit and do.

Marsha 57:17 Right, right.

Kelly 57:19 So I'd be interested to hear what people think about mini combs. And then the other thing I have not used is a blending board. And I know most of the time people are using a blending board with fiber that's already processed to to you know, mix colors together and make interesting rolags or punis. So, but that's not something that I've ever done. So I'd be interested to know how many of our listeners have used either a blending board or mini combs and whether they think either one of those things is kind of an essential, an essential tool.

Marsha 58:04 How big are mini combs?

Kelly 58:04 About, probably about, I would say the ones I've seen, maybe about two and a half to three inches across. They're smaller than hand cards.

Marsha 58:16 Okay.

Kelly 58:17 But they they have the same kind of, you know, like, the same kind of tines as like the bigger combs. I think two rows of tines. And you use them the same way where you put them perpendicular to one another. Like you put the fiber on the one comb and then you...

Marsha 58:35 Oh here I'm looking online at them right now as we speak.

Kelly 58:39 So I've been thinking about maybe getting a set of mini combs, because that is one type of preparation that I haven't ever done. And I know there are a lot of people who really like it and you can get a lot of the garbage out of your fleece that way. Moreso than with carding. More waste, you know, there's more waste, but you get more of the best part of the fiber.

Marsha 59:12 Right. Yeah. Okay.

Kelly 59:15 So, anyway, so that's my, my experience of of carding and combing fiber preparation. So and I have a couple--Like I said, I have a couple of links in the show notes for that.

Marsha 59:28 Okay, good. The other thing that we I just I thought that we decided we should talk just touch on, too, is also mill processing. You don't necessarily have to process this yourself. And so we have some links in the show notes. Fibershed did a mill inventory of mills across the... Well Fiber shed is a California based group. So they show one mill in California, they show mills across the country, but they don't have them listed by name, so. But the link is in there, it's interesting to look at. There's also a link to the producer directory. And that Kelly too, we were talking about that before we recorded. That has not just mills, but people who are producing fiber. And also on Ravelry there's a Fiber Prep Ravelry group. And they don't have mills listed in like a central location to go to see all the mills that are listed. But in the discussion thread, people are talking about the different mills. Yeah, I think my sense is, what you have to do is you just have to Google mills for processing, wool, alpaca, whatever and search for the mills. I know some of the mills popped up. But I know the three that I know, fairly locally to me. They're processing their fiber for their own yarn. They're not processing fiber anymore for people who just want to have a fleece processed. So yeah, there are mills out there. I think though, you have to just Google and start searching. As we said, there, it's difficult to find one location that just has a list of all of the mills doing small batches of in the United States, right?

Kelly 1:01:21 Yeah, Valley Oak Wool Mill is the one that that I've used in California. And then there's also Mendocino Wool and Fiber Company. Again, this is just California. I think the eastern part of the United States has a couple of really well used mills and there are a lot. There are more of them in that area. But yeah, Mendocino Wool and Fiber is the other one. I haven't used them but their website, I can put their link in the show notes as well. mendowool.com is their website

Marsha 1:02:01 When we... what we talked about in the last episode is you know if they can't... most not all, but mills can either just wash it and and prep it for spinning or you can just have it processed into roving or you can have it processed into yarn if you want to do that. But that's another resource.

Kelly 1:02:23 And it is true there are a lot more of them that process your wooll into fiber preparations. Morro Fleeceworks is another one in California that I was forgetting. A lot more of them process into roving than process all the way to yarn. There's a real lack of mills, small mills, that process your wool all the way to yarn, and a lot more of them just the process or fiber.

Marsha 1:02:58 Yeah. So I just wanted to mention that. All right. Um, so let's just briefly talk about carding. I, you know, I have a drum Carter, I have the carding the combs that I use. I don't have a blending board, which would be kind of nice because I do remember I bought... I think it was up on Whidbey Island at the Whidbey Island spinners... little packets of mohair locks that were dyed. And those are great to blend in. So I was thinking I should probably get it. It'd be nice to get a blending board but all in good time. Right.

Kelly 1:03:45 Mm hmm. Well, you can do that blending with your with your drum carder too.

Marsha 1:03:51 Yeah, that's how I've done it in the past, because I did some at your house with your drum carder. So I should, I should try it here. Anyway, so anything else we need to add to this topic?

Kelly 1:04:06 Um, I think if you are going to go look at the fleece processor list in the Ravelry group that we've posted, if you are going to go look at that list, I would suggest starting at the most recent posts. Because the thread has been going for like six years or something. So you know, something you get out on page one is maybe not even...Maybe not even there anymore.

Marsha 1:04:34 Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 1:04:36 Yeah. So Well, I'd be interested in hearing what other people do and also you know, if you have a mill that you've used to process fleece that we haven't mentioned. Maybe we could start a list.

Marsha 1:04:53 Yeah, there you go. Maybe. Yeah, we should! I know like some people have used Shepherds Wool that does Crazy that we like so much. People have had yarn prop don't

Kelly 1:05:07 Stone Hedge

Marsha 1:05:08 Stone Hedge. That's the one! That's the name of it I want to say because they make shepherds wool their worsted weight. Yeah. So I know that they've had them. So maybe we should start a list Kelly. if nobody's done it, maybe we need to.

Kelly 1:05:24 Yes. Well, we can start by-- we can start by asking our listeners to provide us feedback. With mills that they've used or that they know of in their area. We've got three California ones listed on our show notes for today. But yeah, we need to put in some other states. Yeah. All right. Project. Project. Yes. Just what I need. [laughing]

Marsha 1:05:53 So anyway, but the summer spin-in goes through Labor Day, which is September 6.

Kelly 1:06:00 So and we have two finished object threads. One is for finished spinning. And the other one is for finished projects. So if you're making something out of hand spun, you can join us. You don't have to be spinning this summer to join in.

Marsha 1:06:15 Yeah.

Kelly breaking in while editing 1:06:18 Oh, coming in from the future, to say that we forgot to tell you that we will have prizes from Three Green Sisters again this year! We'll talk more about that next episode.

Marsha 1:06:31 Okay, Kelly. So and then do we have any more housekeeping?

Kelly 1:06:34 I don't think so.

Marsha 1:06:36 All right. Well, then, I guess we'll say goodbye.

Kelly 1:06:38 All right, Marsha.

Marsha 1:06:40 We'll talk we'll talk to weeks.

Kelly 1:06:41 Okay. Bye bye.

Marsha 1:06:42 Alrighty. Bye bye.

Kelly 1:06:43 Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit to Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com

Marsha 1:06:50 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects.

Kelly 1:06:58 Until next time, we're the Two Ewes doing our part for world fleece!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

How to select a wool fleece and where to purchase a wool fleece are today's topics. This might cause money to fly out of your wallet so beware! Also, some interesting pooling shows up in an FO.

Show notes with photos and links, as well as a full transcript can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

I have a finished project! I finished my Walk Along Tee by Ankestrick. I love it and it fits so well. I highly recommend this pattern.

I had knitted halfway down the foot of my second Drops Fabel socks when I realized I had not turned the heel. So now I need to frog to the heel flap. Not happy with myself.

Picked up a long dormant shawl called Simple Shawl by Jane Hunter that I started in March 2018. Using Michael CWD in the colorway San Francisco Fog.

Started swatching for the pullover Atlas by Jared Flood for my brother. The yarn I'm using is Navia Tradition. It is a very wooly wool. Mark likes his sweaters to be slim fitting but I think this sweater should have some ease. Also, I'm not great at colorwork so this sweater is going to be a challenge.

I'm still spinning on my green/brown merino.

Kelly's Projects

I finished a Perendale braid from Sheep Spot. I spun 3-ply and used a fractal technique. I split the fiber into 3 pieces lengthwise. Spun the first one, split the second one into two and split the third one into three.

Found two more bobbins with Santa Cruz Island singles. I have some carded fiber left so I guess I should spin the rest of it onto a third bobbin and ply it off.

No knitting or crochet this week, but lots of dog training! Beary is doing great, his thyroid is stable and he's lost twenty pounds in the 8 weeks that we've had him.

Summer Spin In Topics

Don't forget your tetanus shot!

Selecting a fleece

what to look for

http://livestockconservancy.blogspot.com/2019/07/selecting-raw-fleece.html

Spinner's Book of Fleece, Beth Smith

The Great Fleece Makeover, Emonieiesha Hopkins, SpinOff Magazine

A great article on how a fleece that is not a coated, prize-winning, spinner's fleece can still be a good experience and make good yarn.

Where to buy a raw fleece

Wool/Sheep Festivals:

Black Sheep Gathering: Show cancelled for 2021 but there is a list of producers selling their fleeces.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival: Festival also cancelled this year and there is also a list of vendors selling raw fleeces

Oregon Flock and Fiber 2021 in Albany, Oregon, October 23-24

Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival 2021, October 2-3

Natural Fiber Extravaganza, July 9-11, Lebanon, Tennessee

Knitters Review Fiber Festival directory

Check out your county fair website

Shave 'Em to Save 'Em directory

Direct from farms: I did a quick internet search and found these

Nistock Farms: Still have 2021 fleeces available. Informative website. Located in the Finger Lakes region of western New York state.

Sanctuary Wool/Homestead Wool: Located in Wisconsin. Their fleeces are from rescued sheep.

Also, Fibershed Directory for California

For example, Red Creek Farm, Peggy Agnew emailed her for information about purchasing.

On Etsy: Lots for sale by the pound or the entire fleece

Check out your local spinning guild!

Sources for braids and roving--including my most recent purchases:

Huckleberry Knits

Sheepspot has dyed fiber braids using less common sheep breeds.

Sincere Sheep Fiber is locally sourced (California)

Valley Oak Wool Mill has roving.

Show Transcript

Marsha 0:03 Hi, this is Marsha and this is Kelly. We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly 0:10 You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha 0:17 We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com

Kelly 0:22 and we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects

Marsha 0:29 and I am betterinmotion.

Kelly 0:31 We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.

Both 0:36 Enjoy the episode.

Marsha 0:42 Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly 0:43 Good morning, Marsha.

Marsha 0:45 Well, how are you today?

Kelly 0:46 I'm doing fine. As we were talking about earlier before we started the podcast. I thought I'd have a nice quiet morning to record and apparently the city has to come inspect our roof work that we had several weeks ago now, maybe months ago. Anyway, so there may be someone on the roof outside my window looking in as we're recording.

Marsha 1:10 Okay.

Kelly 1:11 If I suddenly scream in surprise, that's what happened.

Marsha 1:17 Well, I have lots going on too. We were a little late recording because I was on the phone with the plumbers. I'm having the plumbing redone in the basement. Well not completely redone but I had a leaky waste pipe. So I have that replaced and I'm having a new washer dryer delivered in July. And so they had to redo the plumbing for that. I'm relocating them and that's been quite an endeavor. But the big waste pipe was leaking. So I was all excited to go down there the first they came. They were here two days. And the next morning I go down there look at the floor to see, Oh, it's gonna be all nice and dry and everything. I won't have to have my five gallon bucket there anymore. And there's a cascade of water down the

Kelly 2:03 No!

Marsha 2:04 So I called. I thought well maybe just one of their seals didn't seal or something. Come to find out that it's actually the the four inch waste pipe that goes up. The vertical one that goes up between the two bathrooms. So I now have a hole in the wall in the main floor bathroom, and I cannot use the second floor bathroom. Which is the one I use. So they're coming Friday. This is what? Wednesday? They're coming Friday to fix the pipe in... the big four inch pipe in the bathroom wall on the main floor.

Kelly 2:42 That's not too long.

Marsha 2:44 No it's not too long but it is a challenge living with it. I didn't realize... okay this is gonna... This is gonna make me sound very elitist when I say this and very privileged what I'm going to say. I haven't lived in a house with one bathroom and multiple people for a long time. And so you know I I'm living with Ben. He's living with me right now. And so I have to run down in the morning. You know, I have to run down to the bathroom, but he's in there. And so what do you do? Well,

Kelly 3:17 coffee can in the basement!

Marsha 3:20 Worse than that!

Kelly 3:22 Backyard!

Marsha 3:23 Backyard! I went out in the bushes in the backyard and tried to find a place where the neighbors wouldn't see me but I thought afterwards maybe I should not have worn my bright red bathrobe!

Kelly 3:35 Right exactly. Like when we used to go to hunt tests. I learned when we used to go to hunt tests that that was when I did not wear my white underwear. That's when you have your darker colored underwear so that you're not flashing white in the bushes! [laughing]

Marsha 3:51 Do you remember your Civil War socks for Robert?

Kelly 3:54 Yes.

Marsha 3:55 Wasn't that part of the things-- they had to be a dark

Kelly 3:57 yes

Marsha 3:57 you didn't want to take your boots off and then be seen and shot... so anyway...

Kelly 4:03 You need a camo bathrobe. [laughing]

Marsha 4:05 That's probably way too much information. But anyway, I was delayed because I my point of bringing all this up as I was delayed this morning because I was on the phone with the plumber. So yeah. Anyway,

Kelly 4:15 well, yes. This is the old house version of the Two Ewes Fiber Adventures.

Marsha 4:21 Yes, I know. Anyway... Well, that probably was probably the whole world did not need to know that but desperate times call for desperate measures. [laughing]

Kelly 4:36 Exactly.

Marsha 4:37 Well, after all of that, let's get to the projects, shall we?

Kelly 4:42 Yes. And you have some big news, huh?

Marsha 4:45 Yes, I have big news. I finally finished the Walk Along tee!

Kelly 4:48 Yay.

Marsha 4:50 Yay, very excited. It fits great. And I really recommend the pattern. Now. It's true. I didn't do it exactly. Actually, I really didn't modify it that much. I just really what I did is I made the sleeves a little bit longer, not the, because the pattern is either like cap sleeves or full length sleeves. I just made the sleeves a little bit longer, but not full length. And then I just didn't add the sort of the look of having the sweater under a sweater.

Marsha 5:19 Oh, yeah,

Marsha 5:19 I didn't do that. But it's very nice. And I I really like it.

Marsha 5:24 All right, I saw the pictures. It looks really nice, I think. Yeah, I love the color. You have to wear it. You have to now wear it to Seabrook.

Marsha 5:34 Yes, I will. I'll wear it

Kelly 5:35 Down to Mocrocs. Is that the the name of the town or the beach?

Marsha 5:41 Well, the official town, I think Seabrook is actually in Pacific Beach is the name of the town, but the actual beach that I believe Native American name is Mocrocs.

Kelly 5:53 Okay. And that's the name. I mean colorway. Yeah, that's to let everyone know why I suddenly made this divergence.

Marsha 6:02 So Kelly, I just wanted to.... are you on Ravelry? Can you see my...

Marsha 6:07 Oh, no, I am not. But I can get there soon. Keep talking.

Marsha 6:11 Well just... I want you to take a look at my picture. And I look at it and I really love the T shirt. But it does.... We've talked about this before. I believe I have a little pooling on the left breast on this one. [laughing] Remember, I was talking about that in something else?

Kelly 6:11 Yes.

Marsha 6:11 So just take a look at this. Let me... nobody's commented, but I look at it. Now when I wear it, I will not see it because I will be wearing it. But when I look at the photograph,[laughing]

Kelly 6:44 oh, yes, you do. [laughing]

Kelly 6:54 Okay, so pooling on the left breast and peeing garden. In the same episode. [laughing]

Marsha 7:01 Oh my gosh, [laughing]

Kelly 7:03 we might have to have a an explicit rating. [laughing]

Marsha 7:11 But wasn't there something I've ...

Kelly 7:14 You have a little matching pooling going on the right hand side, too. [laughing]

Marsha 7:22 I started laughing because I thought, do you remember the endless discussion about how I was blending the yarn?

Kelly 7:30 All the yarn management!

Marsha 7:35 So much yarn management. And I have

Kelly 7:38 but it's really pretty. And I don't t hink it's a big deal. I mean, when you look at the picture of it hanging kind of flat on the on the dress form, it's different than when you actually are in it.

Marsha 7:50 Yes. And I think I'll have to actually try it on and post another picture because that mannequin is not my dimensions necessarily. Oh, well, that's life.

Kelly 8:05 It just goes, it just goes to show you that that sometimes all that yarn management turns out to be no different than if you had just worked from one skein? I mean, who knows? It might not be but

Marsha 8:21 yeah, cuz it's, you know, it's hand dyed.

Kelly 8:23 Mmm hmmm.

Marsha 8:24 And you can actually, if you look at it sort of below the pooling, there's a little sort of diagonal striping going. Do you see that?

Kelly 8:32 Yeah.

Marsha 8:32 It's just so again, it doesn't really bother me. I just think it's... I find it kind of amusing. And I, I really don't understand how it happened because I was so careful. And I had labeled everything. And that part where it happened is I'm not doing any shaping. at that point, right, I'm just going around. And I also use that great technique that helical knitting where you... Now the helical knitting, I will say, You're... the point where you change yarns keeps moving around the sweater. So because you're in that point where you change. Yeah,

Kelly 9:14 So that makes it a little different than if you had always changed in the same spot.

Marsha 9:19 Yeah, and I don't know if that has something to it.

Kelly 9:21 Yeah, I don't know. The people who do planned pooling might be able to tell you more about that. But I've never done it.

Marsha 9:27 Planned pooling?

Kelly 9:27 Yeah, there's I mean, there's patterns for that where you... remember we saw at Stitches

Marsha 9:31 Your, your sock? Well, yes. And then your socks. You did the

Kelly 9:35 Oh, right. For Dennis, the Bengal socks?

Marsha 9:39 Yeah.

Kelly 9:40 Yes. Now those were a little different because it was planned pooling but then you also did short rows to turn around and go back the other way to make this to make the point at the end of the stripe, like so where the where you you know, because the tiger stripes have don't go all the way around the tiger. You know what I mean? So anyway, yeah, very interesting. And I think your sweater, your your tee, looks really nice. Your sweater turned out really good. All laughing aside.

Marsha 10:15 Oh gosh. Okay, and then um, so I'm still spinning on the green and brown Merino. I've just been working on the brown. Then what else? Oh, I started knitting Well, I've been continuing to knit on the...my Drops Fabel socks. But the other night I finished the Tee shirt and so I thought Okay, I'll go pick up my socks and start knitting on them. I thought... I went to measure them against the... I'm halfway down the foot of the second sock. And I went to measure it against the first sock to see how much further I had to go. And I thought that's weird. Like the heel looks different. And then I realized I didn't I did not turn the heel.

Kelly 10:57 Oh, no! I've done that before.

Marsha 11:02 And it's like, What is wrong with me? Like I like how did I not do that? I that's so weird. And I what's also really weird about it is I remember my when I did the gusset. My numbers were way off. Anyway, I should have known. So now I have to rip back.

Kelly 11:21 Oh, well.

Marsha 11:22 Yeah, that's something to keep me busy. You know, start again. It'll keep me off the streets, you know, out of bars. And then I... Oh, I forgot to put this in the show notes, Kelly. But what I'm knitting on right now is... I had to look it up. I cast this on probably two years ago. It's a shawl. It's just called Simple Shawl. Oh, yeah. It's from hedgerow yarns. This was yarn that I bought down in San Francisco.

Kelly 11:50 And I'm looking at it right now. That's pretty

Marsha 11:52 Yeah, it's a...

Kelly 11:53 Kind of denim looking.

Marsha 11:55 Yeah. And it's... I bought this at Atelier Yarns in San Francisco. Actually, I bought it in 2017. And I think that was the time when I met you for Stitches West. And then I went into San Francisco, right. And just went to some of the yarn shops and I think that's when I bought that. Anyway, the colorway is called San Francisco Fog. That's why I love the colorway. And it was hand dyed. And it just says on the label Michael's CWD so I don't know anything about them. He's not you know, in that there's really no information about that company but anyway, it's very nice. It's kind of like denim, it has... okay, it reminds me of dirty jeans. You know, muddy jeans because it has that denim blue, but it also has some brown. Yeah, kind of a cocoa brown in there. Like you have mud on your jeans.

Kelly 12:49 Yeah. And it's pretty I like it. It's a pretty color.

Marsha 12:52 it's really nice. And it's kind of... what I think is kind of nice about it is it's it's quite a kind of a neutral yarn, where a lot of the shawls I make have lots of color in them. Yeah, this one's kind of neutral, which I think will be a nice.

Kelly 13:07 Yes.

Marsha 13:08 Let's see, when did I cast this on? Oh, I cast on in 2018.

Kelly 13:14 Yeah, well, it'll be nice. Your your point about it being a neutral is, is a good one because I have a shawl that I made... Oh, man, way back when I started-- first started to spin. And I didn't even really know how to make a shawl. I mean, I didn't have a pattern. I started at the bottom and then I just made increases on the sides. Like I was doing... I had a dish cloth pattern that did that. And I thought oh, I could do this for a shawl. So I did. So it's with my handspun but it's like three different colors of blue. That kind of blue gray, Blue, a blue gray, and then a more tealy kind of a blue. Anyway, it turned out really good. And I use that all the time. That shawl. I mean it just it's just a good color with almost anything I'm wearing. I can grab it. Yeah, I think you'll be really happy with it once it's done.

Marsha 14:04 Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly 14:06 It's probably happy to be out of the knitting bag!

Marsha 14:09 I know. Well, it's been... you know, it's funny, because it's been to Scotland. And it's been... I took it to Iceland.

Kelly 14:15 Oh, it's kind of like the Pismo Beach socks. Yes, you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to bring it with you now everywhere you go.

Marsha 14:22 Yeah. And then I started swatching for another project. And it's the Atlas pullover by Jared flood. And this is for my brother. Do you remember when you were up here? I think for the dye workshop that we did. And we went over with our friend Janis over to Tolt and Mark was our driver. And he bought this yarn for me to make a sweater. And so it's Navia Traditions.

Kelly 14:51 Yeah, that's gonna be a really pretty sweater. Color work yoke.

Marsha 14:55 Yes. And so he he likes color. So I think a lot of people would have reversed these colors, but he's using a really bright kind of grass Kelly green for the body. And then the color work there's the color work is in that grass green. And then two other colors. In his case he picked navy and a kind of a bright blue light, like robin's egg blue. And so I did the swatch I not really proficient color work. So I'm going to need a little help on this. I think I'll be asking questions probably. You are great though. Because I called you other night when I was doing the swatch because they said obviously you want to do the swatch in the stockinette, which is the main body of the sweater. And then it's a color work yoke. And then you want to do a swatch in the color work, which I did. But I was swatching, you know, color work knit side and then purling back color work. And I said... my comment to you was isn't my my gauge going to be off? Because the whole... when I do the sweater, the color work is all done in the round. In stockinette. So all on the knit side. And so you said what a lot of people do is you knit on the right side, then slide your swatch to the other side and leave a huge long loop in the back and pick up the yarn and knit again. Yeah, so that's what I did. And it worked out a lot better. I do think-- I think doing color work in a swatch is going to be very different than doing the actual sweater. It was very slippery. Because I you know, it's I mean, I made a pretty sizable swatch, but it's still not like having all of that weight of the sweater and all those stitches, you know, to get any kind of rhythm. Yeah, so but it looks pretty good. And I think this is a very well written pattern. And I-- and also when you get to the part where you're doing the color work, it tells you of the three colors that you're using, which one is supposed to be the dominant color. I'm assuming, and listeners can give me some feedback, that I'm assuming that the dominant color is the one that you're going if you are throwing the dominant colors in your right hand. I'm assuming

Kelly 17:21 Yeah, I don't know.

Marsha 17:23 I have to read up on that. Or as I say if anybody wants to weigh in on it. The other thing about this sweater, too, is Kelly you and I talked about this. That Mark likes his sweaters to be very slim fitting. He's slim and he likes slim fitting sweaters. I think because this wool is it's worsted weight and it's it's a very woolly wool. The kind I think you probably want to wear over a flannel shirt. Yeah, I think he's gonna want more ease in it then he thinks he wants because it does... what does say the pattern say? Three to five inches of positive ease and I think he's gonna want that. So we're having some...we're in discussion right now.

Marsha 18:09 And then and I'll talk more about this too when I start doing it but I think Jared Flood is also the designer of the other sweater that I made for Mark which I am now drawing a blank on it. What was that that blue one I made for him? Oh, here it is Cobblestone. The sweater is designed that you you you do a tubular cast on at the bottom of the sweater, do the ribbing and knit up to the armholes. Put the body aside, do the same thing with the sleeves and attach them and then do the yoke. But I found I did not do that with cobblestone. What I did is I provisional cast on for the body, knit up to the armholes, provisional cast on for the sleeves, did stockinette up to the armhole, attach the sleeves, did the yoke and then I went back and I actually had to knit some stockinette down before I did the ribbing to get the correct length. And because what I find interesting about this method that the pattern says is how do you know where the armhole is going to fit? Is it gonna be you know, an inch from the armpit or two inches from the armpit? So and that makes a difference on how long the sleeve is going to be? Right, depending on where the armhole hits on your body. So I don't... I can't really wrap my head around doing that method. I think. So. I'm going to do this method.

Kelly 19:34 Yeah, I think worked with the other. I think it's a good idea that you had when you did that last sweater. Mm hmm.

Marsha 19:41 So anyway, that's what I'm going to do on that one. And then that's it for me for projects.

Kelly 19:46 All right. Well, you have more than I do. I did spin a four ounce braid, which was good. I had done a little bit of spinning for the last episode with that Santa Cruz Island which I need to talk about a little bit more, but I had a Perendale braid and Perendale is kind of a medium, I would say a medium to long wool. A little more woolly than Corriedale, which I consider to be usually like a medium. Or a little less against the skin than a Corriedale. I probably wouldn't make a hat out of this. But it's... but it's not. It's not as coarse as I thought it was going to be just based on what I had read about Perendale. And when I got this braid from Sheep Spot, and she has a lot of interesting breeds to select from. And I bought this last year, I think I bought it when I was buying prizes for the for the spin in and I bought it for myself. But anyways, blue and yellow. And then of course green where the blending happened in the braid, and I decided to do it as a fractal. It's a three ply fractal spin. So just to describe what that is, the way I got ready to spin this... For those of you who don't know, I divided the braid into three parts, because I was going to make a three ply. So vertically stripped it into three parts, vertically. And then one part I just spun it straight from the from the start to the finish, you know, I didn't do anything different, I just spun that. And so that gave me relatively long color repeats. My sections of color were were pretty long. And then the second bobbin, I took one of those strips that I had stripped out and I had weighed them and they were all roughly the same weight, I had to make a little bit of an adjustment as I was pulling it apart to make sure that I got this, you know, equal, kind of equal sizes. The second one I then split into, I split that one into two pieces vertically. So I had thinner strips, and I spun. And so I spun those. And I spun, you know, the first one end to end and then got the second one end to end. And I kept track of what order, you know, what was the start of it, and what was the end of it?

Marsha 22:15 Right.

Kelly 22:15 And so my color repeats are less, right? They're smaller. Because the fiber was... the piece of fiber that I was spinning from was was more slender. And then the third bobbin, I did exactly the same thing. But this time I did it in three, three parts. Yeah, three parts. And so it was 1/3 of the braid, split lengthwise, and then I took that 1/3 and I divided it again into three parts.

Marsha 22:47 Okay,

Kelly 22:48 And spun that. So now my color repeats are even smaller. So I've got one bobbin with longer color repeats, one bobbin with a little bit shorter color repeats, and then one bobbin with even shorter color repeats and I a plied those together. And that's what they call fractal spinning. I'm really pleased with the skein. I'm not sure it looks any different than if I just like, spun randomly, and then plied it together. But when it's stripes up, when you when you knit it up, it does have a different... I've seen in a couple of books or articles about fractal spinning compared to other ways of managing the color in your braid. It does look a little bit different when you knit it up. So it will be a little bit stripy, when I knit it up, but pretty blended. I mean, there's a couple of sections that are all blue and a couple of sections that are all yellow, and mostly it comes out... it reads green even though the the braid by itself just looking at it was more blue. This this yarn actually reads more green when you look at it, but it came out really nicely. And I plied it kind of loosely. I didn't i didn't ply too tight. Like I usually try... I usually like to ply tightly. But since Perendale is kind of a longer staple, I thought, Well I'm gonna ply it more like a longwool without so much twist in it. So that's what I did. I'm really happy with it. So that was kind of a fun experiment. And then I took what was left I'm not sure I'm gonna have enough to really be able to tell... but I took what was left over after the first bobbin ran out. And then I just plied a two ply because I want to do a little swatch of each and compare the two ply fractal to the three ply fractal spin. But I am going to do a little swatch of both of these so that people can see the difference and I can see the difference between a two ply fractal and a three ply fractal. The one thing that you will definitely be able to tell is there's not as much color variation in the two ply. Partly because it was only two bobbins worth of color playing together.

Marsha 25:04 Right.

Kelly 25:04 And partly because there was only a very little left on the bobbin. So you know, it didn't really have enough yarn to get all the way through all the different colors. But anyway, it'll be an interesting little experiment to make a swatch with both of those and compare them side by side. Yeah, so that was my spinning. Going back to the Santa Cruz Island, fleece. I was so excited because I had emptied bobbins of the Santa Cruz Island. And it's like, okay, I can call that finished, you know, even though I still have some fleece left, but it's like, okay, I can call that spinning project finished, right?

Marsha 25:42 Yeah,

Kelly 25:43 I was looking around in my stash for what else I had that I could just do a quick little spin with. And I found two about third full bobbins of Santa Cruz Island singles. Two, not three, two. And it's... I want to make, you know, to match the yarn I already had, I wanted to make it... I would make a three ply. Not that I really need any more of that. I was gonna make socks with it. And I have plenty for a pair of socks, but just kind of like Oh, no. So now, I do have some more fiber that's already carded. I did find that too, when I was digging around. So I will spin the yarn that I have, or the the fiber that I have that's already carded, and spin the third bobbin. And I just want to be done with this project. But you know, the little bits that I didn't want to throw away on those other two bobbins are insignificant compared to the mountain that's on these two bobbins

Marsha 26:49 right, right

Kelly 26:50 In comparison. I could have easily thrown that away. But anyway, I I now have another Santa Cruz Island job to do. So. I will do that. I like that fleece. It's really fine. It'sjust, it's tricky to spin. I mean, I have to do... I talked last time how I really am doing kind of an inch worming technique. And then I had to stop and pull out little neps of tangled fiber every so often. So it's not it's not exactly rhythmic Zen spinning.

Marsha 27:26 Yeah.

Kelly 27:27 So I did no knitting and crocheting. In my... since the last time we talked, I mean, I didn't even do any. I finished the last dish cloth. And I didn't even... I didn't even get any more on those. So that's kind of strange, but I've been doing a lot of dog training. Nothing formal, and not any real formal stuff, but you know, walks and, and trying to keep them from fence fighting. And so Beary's here sort of crunched into the corner where I'm recording right now. So you know where I am Marsha in the dressing room. Right? Well, he could be lengthwise and have plenty of room. But he's crosswise. So his head is jammed up against the cabinet. And his rear end is jammed up against the closet. The size of him is you know, the whole width of this little dressing room area. So, but he's, he's snoring. So he's happy. He doesn't mind being crunched in the corner here.

Marsha 28:40 Well, and he can probably curl up into a tighter ball now because he's lost so much weight.

Kelly 28:44 Yes, yes. He had a vet appointment last week. And so we got to, you know, get him weighed and get his result of his thyroid test and all that. He had a new thyroid test. But yes, he lost. He's now 113 pounds.

Marsha 29:00 Wow. So that's amazing.

Kelly 29:03 Yeah. Yeah. So just just to kind of recap for people. When he got to the ASPCA in January, he was 163 pounds. When we brought him home, he was 133 pounds. And now he's 113 pounds. In like ...it was about seven weeks, seven and a half weeks that he lost the 20 pounds.

Marsha 29:27 Wait a minute, I say 50 pounds. Yeah, he's lost 50 pounds.

Kelly 29:31 Yeah, he's lost 50 pounds. So he's got another probably 10 to go maybe. Maybe? I don't know. At first I thought he would... He was you know, he was shepherd and just heavy and needed... He could be probably 90 pounds would be his his final weight. But he may be crossed. Well, we talked about that.

Marsha 29:54 Yeah, he's big, big boned. You know

Kelly 29:58 He's got something in him that makes him bigger so it may be that he only has another 10 or so pounds to go so we'll see. But But yeah, the vet was really happy and his thyroid is stable. It's good, it's all in in the good ranges and the vet said keep doing what you're doing which is a lot of exercise and training and organized, you know, chewing activity like the frozen Kongs filled with dog food mush, doggy milkshake.

Marsha 30:36 Did you like my comment? You posted that on Instagram. And it was like everyone thought Oh, it looks like milkshake. Yeah, but knowing what's in it, I think it looks disgusting. But the dogs love it.

Kelly 30:48 Yeah, it is. It is pretty disgusting. I have some turkey fat from Aunt Betty made a turkey. Like a turkey breast roast last night for dinner. So I have some turkey pan drippings that are gonna go in the next version, the next round of the of the frozen Kongs, and it's funny because you know, I had to I wanted that magic bullet so that I could, you know, make smoothies and stuff. And I got it one year for Christmas. And I did use it for the first year. But, you know, before we got Bailey, it hadn't been out of the cupboard for months and months and months. And now that's what I use it for. Making dog milkshakes to pour into the Kongs to put in the freezer. So anyway, yeah, the dogs are getting healthy. I don't know about me, I'm not having my kale smoothies anymore. [laughing]

Marsha 31:44 That's really good news.

Kelly 31:45 Yeah, yeah,

Marsha 31:46 It really is good news. Because he's just... I'm sure he feels so much better and you know he can move so much better.

Kelly 31:55 He had the the senior dog blood panel because we know they told us he was eight at the ASPCA. But I have never had an eight year old dog acting this lively. And I'm pretty sure he's not eight. I mean, just watching him with Bailey and the, the constant playing that they do and all his I mean, just the things that he's doing now it's like, Okay, this dog is not eight, I just can't believe it. And his teeth. I mean, you can't always tell by their teeth. You know, we had one dog whose teeth were good for her whole life. And then the other dogs, you know, their teeth got bad right away. So you can't really tell. But his teeth are good. And his his energy level is high. So I just think he's not eight. But there's no way to know except,

Marsha 32:48 yeah,

Kelly 32:48 how long he lives, you know? Yeah, if he lives another 10 years, then he's definitely not eight.

Marsha 32:54 Yes. Yeah.

Kelly 32:55 But we won't know that. Yeah, so huh. So anyway, yeah, Beary's doing great. He starts obedience class at the SPCA on Saturday. And I got an email with homework that was like 10 videos. I was like, Oh, my God, I have to watch 10 videos, because I am not a video learning person. But I did. I watched them. They were all really short. But they were good. So I have homework before we go to our class. So he's supposed to be doing his name. And, you know, responding to his name and a couple of other things that I need to do. I have been working on down with him, but he doesn't like to lay down. I mean, he lays down fine when he wants it.

Marsha 33:42 Yeah Really! Yeah.

Kelly 33:43 But he's not he doesn't follow a treat to go down, which I've never had a dog that wouldn't do that.

Marsha 33:51 So that's interesting. Yeah.

Kelly 33:53 He, he pops up. And I've tried all kinds of different ways to keep his rear end from popping up. And it doesn't seem to work. So I need some tips and tricks from the from the trainer on that when we go to class, maybe. I've been just waiting. Mostly just waiting until he's tired. And then I tell him to sit and then I just stand there. And then when he does finally lay down, I tell him down. He's getting there, but that's going to be a tough one.

Marsha 34:22 Yeah. So anyway, he doesn't really like to be told what to do.

Kelly 34:28 Right. That is true. Yeah, he's getting better. But yeah,

Marsha 34:33 He didn't come that way. We know he's learning. But

Kelly 34:36 yeah, yeah, he's already... he's doing some crate training now, too. He's doing great now that he can, you know, he's thin enough that he can actually turn around in the crate. He's using the Wolfhound crate, and he fits great. And he goes in there just fine and he's quiet. And he doesn't break the crate.

Marsha 34:54 Yeah.

Kelly 34:56 So that's a nice fresh breath of fresh air compared to Bailey.

Marsha 35:00 Well, good. That's really good to hear. I mean, I think that that's just really good news that he's lost so much weight and his panels are all good.

Kelly 35:06 Yeah, his health is great. Yeah, his health is doing really well. So, yeah. Well, now that we've talked about all our projects, including our plumbing and dogs and all of that kind of stuff. We have a summer spinning topic for everybody.

Marsha 35:21 Yes. So we thought we would talk about the whole process of selecting a fleece and where to buy a raw fleece. And so let's just dive right in. Okay.

Kelly 35:33 And before we do that though, I just want to remind people that if you are going to be working with raw fleece, you should just make sure that your tetanus shot is up to date.

Marsha 35:46 Oh, that's a good idea. I wouldn't even have thought about that.

Kelly 35:49 It seems like every time you have an injury of any kind that could be tetanus related they give you a tetanus shot anyway, even if you're ...even if you just had one almost But you should have had a tetanus shot, I would say, because it's easy to... it's easy to have a puncture wound, using carding equipment or wool combs or being stuck with a sticker in your fleece. It's easy for that to happen. So anyway,

Marsha 36:21 that's a good idea. Yes, that's good, because I would not have thought about that. So and you probably just get that at the pharmacy. Don't you think? You can get so many vaccines now just at the pharmacy? I mean, if you can get a tetanus

Kelly 36:33 maybe, Yeah, probably.

Marsha 36:35 I don't know. I have to look into that. Okay, so I have about selecting a fleece. How do you start just buying a fleece? What do you look for?

Kelly 36:42 Well,

Marsha 36:43 Kelly, any thoughts?

Kelly 36:45 I tried to buy a fleece this morning from Instagram. And I don't think I'm going to get it because there was somebody else who was interested in it before me. But so what did I look for? Well, it was Wensleydale, a Wensleydale cross, which means it was a long wool, which always attracts me seeing those long curly locks. Just gets me. So that's what I look for. It was six pounds, which is a decent size. Again, that's what I look for. I am not... I'm not wanting to buy fleece, you know, oh, I'll just take a pound of that. Or, Oh, is it three pounds fleece? Now six pounds is a good size for a fleece. It's kind of like cones of yarn, you know, big and juicy. So, so that was an attraction. And then, and then it was gray, which is also an attraction for me. So long wool, gray, six pounds. And the price was right, it was priced at $50, which is about $8 a pound. And I think that's pretty... I think that's that's excellent. And then plus shipping. So for for a long wool that's a good price.You're not going to find... you're not going to find Merino at that price. But

Marsha 38:14 Right, right,

Kelly 38:15 But for a long wool. So that's what I look for. I wasn't thinking of a project, I wasn't imagining what I was going to do with it. Nothing like that. It was just like, oh, pretty long, curly, good pric-- buying!

Marsha 38:33 Well, I will confess, before we really get into this, I will confess that online, doing some research, I was looking at producers and Etsy and there was many that I wanted to click buy. But I had to restrain myself. And what really gets me in this is excellent marketing. And if there's any producers who listen to this, this is excellent. This is how you get people to click buy. If you have a photograph of the sheep that the fleece came from, or just the name of... just the name of the sheep makes me want to buy because there's like this... I don't know it's just sort of... it's very... it's like a story and anytime there's a story about a product I get more and more tempted to buy it.

Kelly 39:26 Yeah, well it's the same as a yarn having a name like Mocrocs Beach as opposed to you know the colorway

Kelly 39:36 or San Francisco Fog. I bought San Francisco Fog because I liked the name.

Kelly 39:39 as opposed to color number 5973.

Marsha 39:44 Or I remember at... now we're getting a little off of the topic of buying a fleece but I remember one time at stitches. I do not need another skein of hand dyed sock yarn, but I bought one because the name of it was It Was Comic Con and I Was Drunk. I had to buy it, right? So, yeah, so if there's a backstory or something it's really very appealing for me anyway, personally. But so anyway, but what I was gonna say the first thing is... I was gonna say is online, there's... The Livestock Conservancy has an article about selecting a raw fleece. And I would really recommend that, because it talks all about staple length, coated versus not coated. What else Kelly?

Kelly 40:38 it talks about the health of the lock and looking at health, the strength of the lock or the health of the sheep. It talks about the different breeds.

Marsha 40:49 And so I-- that's just a great source, I think just start there. You get much better information than well, we could, and concise information to what we could give in just the podcast. But I think that's excellent. And the other thing we were sort of talking too before we started recording about-- let me just back up. When I, the first time I bought a fleece, I was like, Oh, I want it. This is what I want to make out of that fleece, I'm going to buy that. I think I bought a Shetland fleece at Black Sheep gathering. And I didn't know anything. No, I take that back. It wasn't, it was I split it with a woman down there. And it was now I don't remember now I think was like a Merino Corriedale mix, I think or something. And I didn't know anything. And I just thought, Okay, I'm gonna buy this. And then this is what I'm going to make out of it. Well, I don't think that really is. ..Maybe if you're really knowledgeable, you can get to the point where you can say-- you can look at a fleece and know how it's going to spin up and know how you're going to-- what you're going to make. Yeah, but I kind of think I think as a beginner, you probably just have to buy the fleece that you will like, and after you wash and card it and spin it. It will then tell you what you should make out of it.

Kelly 42:00 Yeah, that's true.

Marsha 42:02 Because you may have an idea that you want to have yarn, a yarn that really blooms, but that particular fiber is not going to do that. So it doesn't mean that it's going to end up being a bad yarn. It's just a yarn that's not-- it's gonna be a beautiful yarn that's for another purpose.

Kelly 42:23 Yeah, yeah, that's true. I mean, so my love is when I see fleeces that are silver, silver gray longwool.

Marsha 42:37 Yeah,

Kelly 42:37 So I that would not be a good choice if what I wanted to make was a you know, a light fluffy cardigan. You know, like my Funky Grandpa sweater. If that was what I wanted to make, that would be the wrong choice. If I'm going to buy a romney for example long wool, I might be able to make like a coat kind of sweater, cardigan. Or blanket, or you do some weaving with it, weave a blanket, but I'm not going to be able to make a light fluffy cardigan out of a romney wool. So a lot of it depends on on what it is you want to do with it. I mean, you know, my, my advice is you just spin to spin, right? And see what happens. And so my advice would be for first spinners it would be to try all the ones that you just you look at it and you love it. Yeah, if it sings to you, and you go, Oh, my God this is so gorgeous. Get it! You know, if the price is right, and you're up for the adventure, I would say just go ahead and get it. And then you'll see what what the yarn is that it makes. And you don't have to spin the whole thing. You can, you know, and you don't have to buy the whole thing. Sometimes you can split fleeces with somebody. Or you can, I know on Etsy you can buy... sometimes people are selling them by the pound and so you can buy just a pound of a particular kind of fleece. So

Marsha 44:08 If you do buy a whole fleece though, I think there's a couple things to sort of keep in mind. Find out if it's been skirted. And that's when they remove all of the wool that's not really usable and the tags which is manure. And you can buy a fleece that has all of that, but just know that you're paying. You're gonna be throwing away a lot that you're paying for.

Kelly 44:29 Right right. Yeah, so if you're searching on Etsy, I would say one of the things to put in your search is spinning or hand spinning. Just to make sure that you know you're going to... you're going to get something that people are at least calling a hand spinners fleece. Although we will talk later, I found a great article on those bargain fleeces or free fleeces and how do you, you know, make sure that you can use a fleece like that. So, yeah.

Marsha 45:03 And then the other thing and I, I've never had this experience, but they talked about it when we went to the Black Sheep Gathering. Well what they had said and people who were there, the general consensus is if, if you're buying a fleece that's been part of a show, you're going to get a good fleece. Just because people have carefully prepped them for showing

Kelly 45:27 And spent money to put them in the show.

Marsha 45:30 Right? Yes, there's an investment to show them. And so you really couldn't go wrong buying any of those. We did have though, do you remember the one judging where the fleece had an odor to it, like a sour odor or something? And they said that it was, I don't know, I don't remember now what was wrong with it. But I guess what the general... what I would take away from that is smell the fleece. If it just doesn't smell like that delicious, wonderful... which we like. Some people hate but we like that lanolin woolly smell. Then avoid that one. If it has any kind of weird sour or off putting odor that doesn't smell right.

Kelly 46:15 A dirty dish cloth.

Marsha 46:16 And so anyway, I was gonna say that the... I think that the Livestock Conservancy website is really good. And we'll have the link in the show notes. Yeah. And also the spinners book of fleece by Beth Smith is really good.

Kelly 46:27 And that can help with you know, like, what kinds of fleeces will do what kinds of thing. What breeds will do what kinds of things, you know. Is it a medium, fleece? Would it make that fluffy cardigan? Is it better for outerwear? Will it be just good for rugs and blankets? It will give you a good idea of of that. Yeah, the other thing to think about too, is what kind of preparation you're going to work on. What kind of ability do you have to wash it. So like, if you're gonna buy... If you don't have a good capacity to wash a fleece and you're gonna have to wash it, you know, little by little, and you're not sure how it's going to work, you might not want to buy a Merino--a really greasy fleece like a Merino. You might, or you might want to, if you do buy a fleece like that, you might want to have someone else do it, have it processed.

Marsha 46:45 Yeah,

Kelly 47:21 Or even just washed by a processor. I mean, that's a possibility. That you can have a processor just wash your fleece and send it back to you clean. Just because that that does take a lot of water, a lot of soap, a lot of time to get all that grease out of the fleece. And so depending on what your washing situation is, you might be better off having a fleece that's not quite as greasy. So the article that I did find about the kind of fleece that I've always liked, the bargain fleece, is called The Great Fleece Makeover. And it's by Emmioneisha Hopkins in Spin Off magazine. And she talks about three different fleeces that she had and, and they were, you know, dirty in different ways. They were flawed in different ways. And yet she was still able to make beautiful yarn out of them. Time, you know, there's a time investment to that. If you have, you know, flaws. So for a lot of people any kind of veg matter in their fleece: stickers, hay, anything like that is just a no go. And I've never been like that. That has never been something that I totally just you know been put off by and I think partly because when I started spinning, coated fleeces were very rare. And so you know, you always had some of that in your fleeces, but now with coated fleeces, you can get, you know really pristine fleeces without any of these problems. But you pay the price, right? So if you get a free fleece or you have the opportunity to get some fleece for a very good price, I would really recommend this article The Great Fleece Makeover. So you can see, you know, what kind of things does she look at? And what kind of things does she do? Wool combs are what she uses, because they take out a lot of the garbage you know, the short cuts of wool, the really short pieces, you know. If the shearing is inconsistent, they take out a lot of the vegetable matter if there's a lot of that, and they make a really nice preparation. So wool combs are a really good thing to have if you're interested in working with the bargain fleeces. A carder also gets out a lot of the stuff that's in it. A drum carder, or hand cards, but not as much as combs do. So anyway, that's a good article that I would recommend to people looking for a fleece. But there is just something about walking around a fleece fiber festival looking at all the fleeces and just falling in love with one. And and if, if that doesn't happen to you, then maybe you're just not a spinner for fleeces, for raw fleeces, right? If you can walk through a fiber festival and you don't feel pulled... drawn to fork over money for at least you know, three or four of them and have to rein yourself in, then, you know, maybe braids are your are your jam. And that's okay. You know, yeah, processed fiber might just be what you are in love with.

Marsha 50:41 Well, and the thing about the processed fiber you said about time and like, you can just start right away. I like that. And that's nice. Like I've used... it's all been, you know, the commercially processed roving that I've used for the combo spins.

Kelly 50:51 Yeah, Yeah, I'm in a really bad place right now because this Perendale was my last... was my last dyed braid. I have a couple of braids of Coopworth that are natural color. And that's it. So you know, I don't have anything that I could just grab. Which is kind of on purpose because I have a lot of stuff that I need to process. [laughing] So how do you buy one? If you are going to fall in love? If you think you might fall in love, where would you find those fleeces?

Marsha 51:34 Well, so the first place I know where I bought all of mine was going to some sort of festival. So now, the pandemic has, has changed all of this because a lot of these festivals are not happening. So Black Sheep Gathering is always in June. That's also been cancelled. But a lot of them have online sales.

Kelly 52:01 yes.

Marsha 52:01 Or a list of the producers and you can contact the different producers. So we have links to the Black Sheep Gathering in the show notes. There's the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Kelly, you added the Ore`gon Flock and Fiber in October is that on?

Kelly 52:16 Yeah, in October, it's on. And they moved it to Albany so it's in the same location where Black Sheep Gathering was the last time we were there.

Marsha 52:26 Oh, Kelly!

Kelly 52:27 I know.

Marsha 52:29 Maybe!

Kelly 52:29 It's a possibility.

Marsha 52:33 Oh, but school's in session ... Oh, no, but you're

Kelly 52:35 Yeah, but I'm online.

Marsha 52:37 Ah. Oh Kelly!

Kelly 52:38 So I yeah, there's, there's a possibility. Yeah.

Marsha 52:45 Okay.

Kelly 52:48 Vermont Sheep and Sool festival is also happening in October, according to their website. They have dates in early October. So and then I found another one that's actually happening coming up fairly soon. That's the Natural Fiber Extravaganza in Lebanon, Tennessee. And it's July 9 through 11th. It's a mostly alpaca. It's put on by an alpaca association. But that looked, that looked interesting if you're in that part of the country. And then I also found Knitters Review has a fiber festival directory. Now I put the link to that in the show notes as well. A lot of them when you go to the website you see the 2020 information and you see "cancelled" but if you're willing to like search out your area. If you're looking for a particular area you can in a particular month you can narrow it down pretty well to just look at the ones that are, you know, pertinent to you and see if they have them. And then our county fair last year I kind of spaced and didn't even think about it but the Monterey County Fair last year they had their wool show, their wool auction, they just had it online.

Marsha 54:04 Oh yeah?

Kelly 54:06 So and then you had either pickup or shipping of the fleece that you had bought. I didn't even know about it until after it was already done. It was already done is when I realized.

Marsha 54:20 Yeah, and I know the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival that one actually I think that was in May. It didn't actually happen but it was all online. But there you could check it out and see if there's still things available. And as I say, they all have vendors listed that are still selling their fleeces.

Kelly 54:37 Yeah, the listing of vendors is the nice thing. Yeah, in these websites, so. So yeah, check out your county fair website. And then the other thing I just put in there, I know we've talked about the Shave 'Em to Save 'Em, and that's through the livestock Conservancy. The same website that Marsha mentioned about selecting a fleece. But they have a directory. And you can find different, you know, the rare breed fleeces there. And then also, there's the Fibershed directory. California has the Fibershed, I think Canada, Canada has a Fibershed organization. I don't know if other areas have a Fibershed organization. But if you have a Fibershed in your area, you can look at their website. And they usually will have a directory of producers of all kinds of things, not just wool. I think there's a, there's a hemp farm, and a flax farm on the Fibershed directory. And so there are some other websites, so lots of resources in this set of show notes.

Marsha 55:45 So I just, I also just googled where to buy a raw fleece, you know, and the first one that came up was a farm in, it's in the Finger Lakes region of Western New York State. It's called Nistock farms. And they--you have to reserve the fleece. But they still have some available. But it was interesting. They have an interesting website just to read it too, because they they have a lot of information about processing your...washing fleeces. They also are part of the Livestock Conservancy. And they're members of the livestock Conservancy. And they talk a lot about how their... how important is to keep their their flock healthy. So they no longer take their sheep to to be judged at shows because they don't want to expose them to all the different diseases that sheep can get, apparently, and they don't bring in rams from outside the farm for breeding. They just have their own rams. And then, and now I'm getting into something I really don't know anything about. But the breeding of sheep. You can't breed them too many times because you have to bring in new

Kelly 57:08 Right, genetics.

Marsha 57:09 So when they do bring in a new ram, they have to be quarantined, they're tested and then they have to be quarantined for a certain merit amount of time before they enter the breeding program. Very, very interesting. I mean, if you if you want to go really deep into it, it's a very interesting website. And then the other one I found and I just think this is just sweet. And Kelly, you said we had talked about this before but the Sanctuary Wool website. They're located in Wisconsin, and their fleeces are from rescued sheep. This is the one where they have their pictures. And you know...

Kelly 57:45 Which, I'm looking at them right now. Oh my gosh.

Marsha 57:49 I know.

Kelly 57:52 Good looking fleeces, too. I know when we first mentioned them, one of the caveats was, you know, we had not bought fleeces from them. And I don't know if they even had a website at that time or I don't think it had any pictures. So it was kind of, you know, I don't know what this will be like, but here's some information about it. But these look beautiful! East Friesian Polypay. And that's another thing! That.. so that's another thing that gets me-- a breed I haven't spun before. Yes, when I see a breed-- that's how I ended up with the Santa Cruz Island fleece.

Marsha 58:31 Right.

Kelly 58:31 It's rare, and I had never spun it. And it was just intriguing. And this one is also intriguing East Friesian Polypay.

Marsha 58:41 Huh? What is that? I know there's Friesian horses. I think they're from Holland.

Kelly 58:47 You're asking me a question I don't know the answer to. I really don't know what East Friesian sheep is. And I don't... I know Polypay is is a relatively newer breed. Anyway, one pound six ounces for $18. Wow. Add To Cart! Tthe lambs fleece, the locks average four inches long and there's very minor debris remaining to remove. So I anyway, I would say take a look at this. If you don't worry about the danger to your wallet, take a look at this website. [laughing]

Marsha 59:06 Well, and there was another. I don't know if was this website or there's another website I was looking at. And what I wanted to put in the cart the name of the sheep was something like Big Gal, something like that. Anyway, but she was an older sheep and so they said as she's gotten older, more and more gray hair is in the fleece. Oh and that one I just like oh, I want it! Yeah, because of her story, she's just this old lady, you know, and I kind of wanted the old lady fleece. But anyway...

Kelly 1:00:08 Sally's Fox on her Vriesis website would sometimes have her older sheep fleece. And she would describe it in such a way that just made you want to buy it.

Marsha 1:00:22 Yeah, yeah. Oh my god very good marketing.

Kelly 1:00:25 Yes.

Marsha 1:00:26 For those of us with no self control,

Kelly 1:00:29 I'm clicking closed now. I'm having self control, because I already tried to buy one this morning. I do not need any more fleece. How many do you think I have in my garage?

Marsha 1:00:43 I don't know. Because I know how many I have.

Kelly 1:00:45 I think I might have I think ten.

Marsha 1:00:48 Oh Kelly, I think I have eight.

Kelly 1:00:55 You know that True Confessions will be next next episode. [laughing]

Marsha 1:00:59 Actually, I take that back. I think I have nine because I think I'm not counting the... my friend of mine in the knitting group gave me the alpaca fleece. So I don't think I'm counting that one. And that thing's a monster. It's huge. I didn't know alpaca had such big fleece but this thing seems huge. I don't know what I'm going to... I don't know but I was hoping during this our summer spinning that I would.. I obviously I can't wash and card all of it. But just some of it. Just because I've never spun alpaca. So anyway, the other place to buy, too Kelly, is... I didn't even think about this. You recommended it, Etsy. So that was another thing that I started sort of doing a deep dive into Etsy and there's tons and tons and tons of fleeces on Etsy

Kelly 1:01:46 And if you know the name of the farm, that's a good way to look online. I follow some farms on Instagram. And so you know i've been, I follow them for you know, they might have lamb for sale, or they might just post nice pictures, or but some of them if you go to their website will have, you know, might have some fleeces for sale or might have processed fleece for sale. So that's another resource, too. If you're still not able to find a fleece, there's another way.

Marsha 1:02:22 Anything else you want to add about where to buy a fleece?

Kelly 1:02:26 Another thing to look at is fiber ills. So Valley Oak, she's the one that that posted this morning about the fleece that I almost bought. Marcaile at Valley Oak Wool Mill, but she also has roving that she sells, you know. She doesn't usually sell fleeces. She's helping someone else sell a fleece. But she does have roving. And so if you have a wool mill, that you know about, near you, or you know, that that you follow on Instagram or whatever, check out their website and see if they have their own roving for sale, and you can buy already processed fleece from them, you don't just have to buy a fleece and send it to be processed, you can just buy wool that's been been processed. So you know, your local, if you have some local mills, you can take a look and see if they have anything on their website. But then there's also those people who you know, there's a real nice thing about grabbing a braid and starting to spin. And I just my recent purchases, I mentioned Sheep Spot already. And I purchased a couple of braids of fiber the other day, which I think are going to be prizes, from Sincere Sheep. Her fiber is locally sourced. And then I also love the colors of that Huckleberry Knits has. That's up by you. Up in up in Washington, and there I mean, there are lots and lots of other people who have braids, but these are some examples of places that I've recently purchased.

Marsha 1:04:10 The other thing I forgot to mention this is spinning guilds. Sometimes somebody will have something that they want to sell, or they know a producer that has too many and they're just looking for like, maybe they'll give it to you but if you pay for the shipping, right? So but that's also a resource. So I belong to the Northwest Spinners Association here in the Pacific Northwest and they have a Facebook group. And lot of times they're posting things.They post things, you know, funny articles, funny spinning cartoons and stuff, and interesting articles. Sometimes the equipment for sale, and then sometimes there's been fleeces too, that's another good source just to find, you know, they're all good sources.

Kelly 1:04:58 So yeah. Yeah, we have lots of ways to make your money fly out of your wallet. .

Marsha 1:05:05 Yeah, really. [laughing] Anything else on this topic,

Kelly 1:05:10 I think just the main thing is that, you know, if you're interested in, in that process that you know, fleece to fiber, that whole, you know, the whole spectrum of the process, I would say it's, it's definitely worth doing once. And after you do it, you'll know what parts of the process you like, and what parts of the process you don't like. And then you can you know, you can decide. No, I'm just going to buy already processed braids of fiber, or I like washing fleece, but I have to wash it in small batches. So I'm only going to buy fleece by the pound I'm not going to buy entire fleeces. Or you could be like me, and if it's 10 pounds, that's even better. And so you really want, the bigger the fleece, the more attractive it is.

Marsha 1:06:04 That is true. Like that was when we went to, I don't remember, I think it was the Monterey County Fair. And they had the auction. We got a really good deal on those. Like remember, we got a 10 pound fleece or something or a 12 pounds. I mean, it was a huge fleece that we got. And it was really quite inexpensive. And part of the reason is because it is so much for a hand spinner, right for hand spinner to go through 10 pounds

Kelly 1:06:31 Really, Yeah,

Marsha 1:06:32 Now granted... Oh, I one thing we didn't say is when you do buy a fleece, too, that when you wash it, you do lose. The weight will go down, right, because that weight is debris in the fleece

Kelly 1:06:44 And when you card it, when you card if you do your own processing, or if you send it out to be processed, when you card it, there will also be waste. So you could lose, you know, you could lose as much as half by the time you have, or more, by the time you skirt it, wash it and process it and have it ready to ready to spin.

Marsha 1:07:10 Because every time you do something to it, you lose. Right?

Kelly 1:07:13 Right. So like I carded yesterday, I have an Oxford fleece that I started carding yesterday. I didn't put that in my projects. And I carded. I picked which means you pull the fiber apart. I picked and put through the drum carder what was 100 grams. So I decided I was just going to do it in 100 gram batches. So I did 100 grams. And then I put it through the carder. And when it got through the carder, it was only...When it got, you know, done being carded the first time, now it's only 95 grams. And I'm going to put that through the carder probably two more times, just to get it really nice. And by the time I do that, I'll probably be down to, you know, 75 or 80 grams. But yeah, the big fleeces are attractive to me. But they're not attractive to everyone. You know, it's helpful if you have a friend who will split it with you right, Marsha?

Marsha 1:08:09 Yeah. So I'm always, I'm always willing to split.

Kelly 1:08:15 So. All right, well, I think that's a, I think that's a good amount of information for someone who was interested in how to go about purchasing a fleece for the first time. And what are we going to talk about next time. Do you remember?

Marsha 1:08:33 So the next episode, we're going to talk about carding of fleece, blending, prepping and process. Okay. So that's the plan.

Kelly 1:08:41 All right.

Marsha 1:08:43 So good. We have to do some research. Yes.

Kelly 1:08:46 Well, I have one on the carder too right now. So I'll start now. I'll do my research. Partly do my research that way.

Marsha 1:08:54 Okay, cool. All righty. Okay, well, with that we'll say goodbye.

Kelly 1:08:58 All right.

Marsha 1:08:59 We'll talk.

Kelly 1:09:00 Okay. Bye. Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Marsha 1:09:08 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects.

Kelly 1:09:16 Until next time, we're the Two Ewes doing our part for a world fleece.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Our Summer Spin In is underway and in this episode we answer listener questions on washing a fleece and drafting techniques.

Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

Walk Along Tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link) It has been slow going but the sleeves are done and I've started the bottom ribbing!

Halfway on the foot on the second sock of a pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.

My Barber Pole spinning project has hit a road bump. All the green and brown has been plied into a three-ply. I decided to spin a bobbin of just dark brown in Navajo (or chain) ply. This was not successful because I'm an uneven spinner and this technique emphasizes the variation. Back to the drawing board.

Kelly's Projects

Faye's Flower Blanket, a crochet project, is mostly sewn together. The triangles and corners need to be put on. I am using single crochet to attach them all. The pattern is Persian Tile Blanket (Ravelry link) by Jane Crowfoot. I am using Knit Picks Brava worsted.

Finished one charity hat. It's a beanie style with a small 1" ribbing and the rest is just stockinette with two fingering yarns held together.

Dishcloths! I've made about 7 dishcloths out of some cotton spirit yarn that Marsha and I dyed about 4 years ago and never did anything with.

Spinning Questions We Answered:

Drafting Techniques:

What are the different drafting techniques and what are some tips?

How are you drafting? What hand is where? Short, medium, long… Forward, backward…

Drafting techniques: what have you used and what is your favourite?

What is the preparation?

Commercial preparation: top vs roving vs sliver vs batts

Abby Franquemont's take on it

How to get started with long draw?

Here is a good article: Seven Drafting Techniques

How do you wash a fleece?

Here is a good article: Washing Grease Fleece and for further information you can listen to our episode on washing a fleece and read the show notes for lots of links!

Washing: Episode 27B Fiber Myth Busting Bonus Episode.

Resources:

The Intentional Spinner: A holistic approach to making yarn. Judith MacKenzie McCuin. 2009.

The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning: Being a compendium of information, advice, and opinions on the noble art and craft. Alden Amos. 2001.

More cool info!

A Spinner's Study Ravelry group. This month's breeds (June 2021) are Finn and Teeswater. The spinning challenge for the month is "Spinning and Plying the Other Way."

From SalPal, Sarah:

The Three Waters Farm Ravelry group maintains a bundle and thread of patterns that are good for handspun. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#pattern-topic=257…

Momdiggity--Jo Ann suggests that any pattern calling for Spin Cycle yarn would be a good pattern for handspun.

Spring Summer 2021 Knitty-Spin column by Jilian Moreno: Planning for a Project-The Beginning

Drafting from Worsted to Woolen, Craftsy class be Jacey Boggs Faulkner.

Summer Spin In

Memorial Day - Labor Day

May 31st - September 6th

Transcript of Show

Marsha 0:03 Hi, this is Marsha and this is Kelly. We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly 0:10 You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha 0:17 We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventure dot com.

Kelly 0:22 And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects,

Marsha 0:29 and I am betterinmotion.

Kelly 0:31 We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.

Both 0:36 Enjoy the episode.

Marsha 0:43 Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly 0:44 Hi, Marsha. People will notice that we are not together. We're coming at you from separate microphones in separate states.

Marsha 0:58 And yes, I think we have thought it would happen. But well, we should explain why we thought it was going to happen. Maybe people don't know that we were together over the Memorial Day weekend. That you and Robert drove up from California

Kelly 1:12 It was a very exciting trip, for lots of reasons.

Marsha 1:17 And well, so we should say that you brought the two dogs. You brought Bailey, who travels pretty well. She's gone camping with you hasn't she?

Kelly 1:26 she's gone... Well, not too much because of the pandemic.

Marsha 1:32 Okay,

Kelly 1:32 So she's gone on two camping trips. The first one was right before the pandemic started. And she was... she was just learning. You know, we had not had her all that long. And so she got a lot of walks. And she was-- we were really worried about, you know, leaving her in the crate when we had to leave the trailer and stuff like that, because she went crazy and broke crate doors and stuff. And then the last time we went camping was in November of 2020. So she's only been twice but she's pretty good. Yeah. I mean, at least she's, she's more experienced at living with us. Yeah. then then then Beary.

Kelly 1:40 And then I'm sure this is Beary's first camping trip.

Kelly 2:23 I would guess, yeah.

Marsha 2:25 And he did great. They will both dogs did great

Kelly 2:29 Well Beary came to us not even really knowing how to get into the car, and not liking getting into the car and he has a ramp that we use to get him in. And at the SPCA they were really, you know, really careful to tell us you, you can't push him up the ramp, and you have to lure him with food and toys and you know, get that cheese in the can and you can spray it on the ramp, get him up there. And anyway, we didn't do that. But we did use a lot of liver and we taught him to get up into the truck, which is much higher than a regular car, with the ramp. So we were practicing. We were practicing on the ramp for a couple of weeks before we left.

Marsha 3:14 It's steep! That ramp is pretty steep The truck is really tall and the ramp is not that long, either. It's what, six feet maybe

Kelly 3:23 Maybe Yeah,

Marsha 3:24 unfolded. So it ends up being kind of a steep ramp. And I was watching and he does sort of have to get a running start.

Kelly 3:31 Yes. {laughing]

Marsha 3:32 And then don't stop. You don't want him to stop on that ramp.

Kelly 3:36 He'll just start sliding back down. But, and when we're first practicing, he would get tired. Like he would go up it a couple times. You know, I could only do it, I can only practice with him a few times because maybe like by the fourth time it was too much work. Now he's in much better shape now.

Marsha 3:56 Well, so we have to talk a little bit about well, there's so many things. I know that, but you guys, you basically arrived on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, which I don't know what the date is that like the 29th I think or something like that.

Kelly 4:10 Something like that.

Marsha 4:10 I don't remember, anyway. And you left Tuesday morning. So Memorial Day was Monday and you left Tuesday morning. And while you were here I think Saturday we just sat on the deck the whole day, didn't we?

Kelly 4:25 Yeah.

Marsha 4:26 And we took the... we took our dogs for walks through the neighborhood and then just sat on the deck and everything. And then both Sunday and Monday we took them to the dog park at Magnuson Park which is on... people who are not in Seattle that's on Lake Washington. It's a former, I believe, Navy base that's been converted to quite a nice park with all sorts of different activities there. Anyway, one part of it is a dog park where you can take your dogs off leash and you were, I think, a little worried about Beary at first, but you let him off and he did fine.

Kelly 5:05 Yeah, I wasn't sure. You know, we only had him a month. He doesn't really have much in the way of training. And you know, he recognizes his name, I think. And then he doesn't have a reliable, you know, come when called. But it was such a long walk from the parking lot to the dog park that he wasn't he wasn't fast enough to get away from me. If he wasn't coming. If he wasn't coming, I could have run over and gotten him and brought him back to where he needed to be so that...

Marsha 5:43 Well, yeah, because I be parked at the southern end which then you have a long walk to the dog par. There's a parking lot that you just walk a few feet to the dog park but of course, I made them go on the long one, but it was better. It was funny though watching him because, and we've talked about this Kelly... I should also say too, that the three dogs Bailey and Beary and Enzo all got along pretty well. They--when you guys first arrived, we just took them for a walk. And Enzo was. really curious as to what who these dogs were and what was going on, but we didn't have any problems at all with them

Marsha 6:19 No, they were fine. A little grumbling and raised lip

Marsha 6:22 yeah,

Kelly 6:23 And hey, this is my space. But it wasn't bad. It was it was relatively easy. Also just so everyone knows, they were also very highly managed.

Marsha 6:35 Yes, Yes, they were. Well, they were.

Kelly 6:39 It felt easy, because we were doing a lot of work to make it that way.

Marsha 6:42 Yes. Well, they were on leash a lot all three dogs were on leash. And I think Enza was on a leash the night you arrived. Yeah, Friday night and then a good part of Saturday. Yeah. And then I finally let him off leash it because he was pretty good. I mean, he was pretty good about leaving them alone once they all kind of lost interest in each other.

Kelly 6:48 Yeah,

Marsha 7:04 But your your dogs were on a leash a lot and then oh, at dinnertime you would put them, you know, put them in the truck. So...Yes, there was a lot of managing going on.

Kelly 7:15 Yes, in their giant four wheel drive silver crate. [laughing]

Marsha 7:20 Yeah. Just a side note about that truck. I've never seen such a big truck! I mean that it's...I hope Robert doesn't listen to this.

Kelly 7:32 It's Ridiculous!

Marsha 7:33 I'm sure it's lovely. But it's it's so big. And the... And I know Kelly, you're, you're shorter than I am. Right. And I'm not a giant but I'm also not really short either. I'm just average height. But I swear the hood of the truck is over my head or level with my head it'ss so tall.

Kelly 7:35 That's ridiculous. And the key fob weighs about 17 pounds.

Marsha 8:05 Because if you drive a big truck, you have to have a key fob with some heft to it.

Kelly 8:10 Yeah, it's a it's a manly truck in the most ridiculous way. But I have to say it. It got us up there and got us back.

Marsha 8:23 And filled with furniture

Kelly 8:25 filled with furniture, filled with dogs. Yeah, it's gonna pull a bigger trailer because that's another part of the reason we went up there was to take a look at a trailer that we bought that we're having worked on. That will replace the little trailer. It'll be a little bit bigger. And so this truck will pull that bigger trailer. So you know, I can't laugh about it too much. But

Marsha 8:49 yes, stop your complaining! It's funny, because I did think that your old truck was big. It seems small compared to this one.

Kelly 9:01 Yeah, yeah. If they were sitting next to each other, it would look puny. Mm hmm. Yeah.

Marsha 9:08 Anyway, but uh, yeah. So that so part of the trip was to go look at the trailer, which is in Bend Oregon, right. So you looked at that, and then you came up. And then the other part of the trip, besides seeing me and Ben and my brother in the dog thing was to pick up furniture.

Kelly 9:28 That you and Mark had been very graciously storing for us throughout the pandemic. Yeah.

Marsha 9:37 And I think the mirror was actually

Kelly 9:39 a year before the pandemic.

Marsha 9:42 I think it's more than that.

Kelly 9:42 No, I mean, it was a year before the pandemic started.

Marsha 9:45 Oh, yeah, I think we've had it two plus years. Yeah.

Kelly 9:48 Cuz we were supposed to come pick it up. We were planning to come pick it up last year, but the pandemic happened so it had already been in your house, a year when we were, when the pandemic. At least a year when the pandemic started. So yeah,

Marsha 10:04 you posted on Instagram about getting... like... something like getting your crap out of our house. And I didn't say this, but what I wanted to say is it didn't really make a dent. [laughing] Anyway, but it's very nice you have the mirror and then a secretary that my brother had found and Robert's using that, and he's very excited about it. He's been posting pictures of it on Instagram

Kelly 10:33 Yeah, he's very excited. So yeah, he likes it.

Marsha 10:38 And it's old.

Kelly 10:39 And it's fancy, because Robert is fancy. [laughing]

Marsha 10:44 So my brother says it's from 1790 to 1810. Something around that.

Kelly 10:49 Kind of cool. I wish it could talk.

Marsha 10:51 I know. But you know what I was thinking. It's a perfect place for you to write with your fountain pens. You need to use your antique fountain pens.

Kelly 10:59 Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know that he's gonna let me near it. [laughing]

Marsha 11:08 Well, it's very nice. Anyway, but the so the dogs were great. I was laughing though. When we were walking through the dog park, that Enzo and Bailey, were darting all around sniffing and you know how they run ahead and then they run behind you and they run ahead. And Beary reminds me of a container ship, you know that it takes three miles to stop. He doesn't... he just walks in a line. He doesn't veer off to the right or left like he, if he sniffs anything, he sniffs it because he is crossed his path, or his path has crossed it. Not that he's... you know, where the other dogs, ooh they smell something and they start off in another direction? He doesn't do that.

Kelly 11:50 He conserves his energy.

Marsha 11:52 He conserves his energy. And didn't we notice we think that he... we were laughing we thought he had a little bit of a waist. Yes.

Kelly 12:05 Because I can almost feel a rib.

Marsha 12:12 He is a very sweet dog.

Kelly 12:14 He's very good. Yeah, I was very, very pleased with how well he did and when we... we camped in a tent. And it turned out to be a six person tent, which was perfect because there's me and there's Robert and there's Bailey and then there's Bearry who's like three people, so we fit perfectly. But when we blew up the air mattress inside of the tent and, you know, made the bed and he comes in and he immediately lays down on the air mattress like "Well, good god. Finally you got me the right size of dog pillow." He was just so funny. He cracks me up. He's a very, very goofy dog. And he just, he's a lot of fun. So he had a great time. Bailey worries a lot. But I think she had a good time too. And I had a great time. And we didn't have time to record.

Marsha 13:14 We didn't have time to record. We didn't even really knit very much.

Kelly 13:18 Not very. You were able to do some on your on your sweater. But yeah, I did a couple dishcloths.

Marsha 13:23 A little bit and we were mostly just managing dogs, getting furniture, you know, walking dogs. Cooking, talking. Whatever. And the weather was gorgeous.

Kelly 13:41 I was surprised for that time of year. I was kind of surprised. And I felt really lucky that the weather was so good.

Marsha 13:47 So we spent pretty much three full days on the deck.

Kelly 13:49 Yeah, it was nice. It's very nice. Well, let's talk about what you were working on on the deck. Marsha?

Marsha 13:56 Oh, yes. What was I working on? Oh, my projects. Oh, so my... Well, my sweater. And we had a some conversations about my sweater too. So the Walk Along tee by Anka Stricke. I have to tell you where I am now. I think actually, I can't remember, Kelly. I was working on the sleeves when you were here, wasn't I? Yes, it was my second sleeve. Anyway, I finished both sleeves.

Kelly 14:21 Yeah.

Marsha 14:22 And I was listening to our last episode. And I was talking about making them not three quarter length, but just to hit just above the elbow. We had that whole conversation about what's the right length. Anyway, and I ended up making them so they hit sort of, you know, halfway between the arm pit and the elbow. So they're not...they're not capped, So they're not capped sleeves, but they're not...They're definitely not three quarter and they're definitely not down to the elbow.

Kelly 14:53 Yeah, they're like a regular sleeve, I think they're like a regular short sleeve. Yeah, that's like a regular --like a women's t shirt short sleeve?

Marsha 15:02 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, and I'm gonna have plenty of yarn. I was worried about yarn. And we've had a lot of conversations about that. I'm fine. And I...

Kelly 15:12 The dreaded yarn chicken is not on the table!

Marsha 15:13 Yeah, yes. And I did. So the last episode, I think I was talking about how I had put the body on waste yarn and was gonna do the sleeves, and then go back to the body. So now I have gone back to the body. And when you were here, we I tried it on. You said I should make it an inch longer before I start the ribbing, which I've done. And now I've done... I've done two rows of the ribbing, and I have to do a total of five. And then I'll bind off. Now what I had talked about doing is putting... On the sleeves, you do the five rows of ribbing, and then you do reverse stockinette to make sort of this in the contrast in color. And we had a conversation about that we decided that it's probably best not to do that. So I'm not going to put that contrasting border on I'm just going to do the ribbing and bind off and call it good. So I'm getting close to being done.

Kelly 16:09 Yay.

Marsha 16:10 Finally, yeah.

Kelly 16:13 I need to weave in the ends on that tee that I made. Because I think there is some time I could actually still wear it with the weather we've been having. I could actually. I don't have anywhere to wear it to but but I probably could with the weather I probably could still wear it. And same with you. Right? When you finish it. You'll still you'll still have plenty of weather you could still wear a wool tea. Yeah.

Marsha 16:41 On Instagram, Kelly, I posted a picture of you sitting on the deck and you have your bare feet but you have a flannel on. Somebody, I remember somebody made a comment about your bare feet and the flannel. And it's like, yes, it's Seattle, you wear flannel in the summer. Maybe you don't have it on all day. But you probably have it on in the morning. And in the evening. Yeah. So I can wear too. I can definitely wear this, I can wear this during part of the summer, because it is not exactly hot here all the time. So anyway, but yeah. And then I'm still, you know, endlessly working on the pair of socks that I've been working on for months and months. There's really nothing to report. I'm still on the foot. I do, you know, three or four rows every so often when I pick it up. Yeah. And then I would continue to work on my spinning project. But I think, Kelly, why don't you talk about your projects, and then we'll talk about my spinning because we're gonna talk a little bit about spinning.

Kelly 17:41 Okay, yeah.

Marsha 17:43 Does that make sense?

Kelly 17:44 That does make sense. So I have some exciting news and then some really boring. Okay. So the most exciting thing is that since the last episode, I've actually put together the entire... all of the octagons and squares of the blanket that I'm making for my grandniece. I'm calling it Faye's flower blanket. It's a crochet project. I've been talking about it for a while. It's made of Knitpicks Brava sport. No, Knitpicks Brava worsted weight, is the yarn. So it's the Persian Tile Blanket by Jane Crowfoot. And I really love it, it looks great. It's all put together with you know, single crochet, I didn't sew it together, I single crocheted it together. And I was able to with the yarn, because you know, I talked about how much yarn was leftover. I was able with the yarn I had leftover to always be crocheting it together with a color that was on the edge of either the octagon or the square that I was putting together so that that was nice. I didn't have to... I didn't end up having to mix colors at all with the with yarn that I was, you know, that I was putting it together with and I just now have the triangles that go on the sides. It's the triangles have to go on it and then four corners. And then I'll be done.

Marsha 19:23 All right!.

Kelly 19:24 Yeah, but I think she's gonna really like it. Because it's so colorful and it's turned, it's turned out really nice. And I might, I keep thinking maybe I'll make another one of these. I still do... once everything is put together. I still do need to do the edging as Marsha and I talked about Yeah. So it's not you know, it's not like it's gonna be done tomorrow

Marsha 19:29 And have you thought more about how you'll do th edging?

Kelly 19:50 I am probably just going to do the edging as the pattern calls for just four rows of it and that's not... nothing, nothing special. The real action is in all the flowers. So I think the border will just be kind of plain.

Marsha 20:08 Yeah, it would distract.

Kelly 20:10 I may, depending on how much yarn I have left, I may have to do like, not the same color all the way around the whole blanket. You know, for each round, I may not be able to use the same color. But I don't think that will be a problem. I think it will, it will go just fine. There won't even be noticeable with as much riot of color is going on in that. So that's really exciting. It went together a lot faster than I expected it to. And then I finished a charity hat, this little beanie with this... Usually I make you know enough ribbing that if you wanted to, you could fold it up when I make a hat. But this time I thought No, I'm just going to make it one inch or one and a half inch. I don't remember something like that. A ribbing and then the rest of it is just a little beanie. Not slouchy or anything like that. And it's made of, it's actually not... I don't think it's very pretty. I just made it with all the scraps I had left of sock yarn. And the colors. only marginally go together. So I'm not sure it's the best looking thing. But I said that to Robert and he said, Oh, I think it looks nice. So I guess you know, to my eye the colors don't go together but, but they do kind of. I started with the yellow and purple that I had used in one hat and then from that I went to just a purple and then I did purple and blue and I added in a pink stripe. And anyway, by the time you get from the bottom to the top, it's changed from this purple and gold. You know, purple and gold purple and yellow, to like a bright blue and greeny blue color. So, kind of a gradient but not really. It's a hat. It'll be warm. It's okay.

Marsha 22:19 It will fit someone's head.

Kelly 22:20 Yeah, it's not ugly. It's just not.... it's just not the prettiest thing I've ever made. So yeah, and then dish cloths. I've been making dish cloths. That was my travel project. I did work on the hat while we traveled but mostly I worked on dish cloths. I worked on dish cloths a little bit on your deck. So I've made about seven dish cloths out of I think it's well,... It turned out to be four skeins of yarn... so I guess, no three skeins it's three skeins of yarn that we had dyed. Some cotton yarn, 100 gram skeins that we had dyed. I think it was originally on cones.

Marsha 23:12 Were they cones or ball? Well you know those balls that are wrapped around cardboard centers you know

Kelly 23:18 Yes, it's nice cotton. Yeah, I don't know. It's thicker than crochet cotton.

Marsha 23:23 Mm hmm.

Kelly 23:25 So yeah, I don't remember what it came on but it came from the... it came from a weaving stash so

Marsha 23:35 Isn't it the stuff I brought down that I got at the goodwill?

Kelly 23:38 Oh, yes. Yes, it was you who'd gotten it. That's right. Yeah.

Marsha 23:43 I went there...that was the days when... in those days when I used to go to the Goodwill. I don't go there anymore except to drop stuff off.

Kelly 23:54 She's leaving the yarn for the rest of you who are in the Seattle area! [laughing]

Marsha 23:57 Yeah, really go to the Goodwill and find treasures.

Kelly 24:01 So yeah, we got dyes for cotton yarns, and we had dyed all of these. This was maybe four years ago, maybe five years ago. It was very early in the podcast that we dyed this and then we just never did anything. We were going to do something with it. And we were going to have it as a show topic, dyeing cotton, and we never did that. But anyway, it's making nice dish cloths. I guess. I haven't used one yet.

Marsha 24:32 But well, and I haven't either because I would go out in the kitchen and there would be a dishcloth sitting by the sink. And then I go out to the kitchen a couple days later. Well, I was back and forth in between two days by go a couple days later I go out there and there was another dish plot that you had made. I've not used them. I promise I'm going to use them because I am under strict orders to use them But yeah,

Kelly 24:58 I just threw one away. The last one that was in my drawer, I just threw away with a hole in it. So actually, I've put it in the compost with a hole in it. So I need to, I need to get the ends woven in and get a couple of these in my, in my drawer. So yeah, it's my standard dish cloth pattern it's, I think it's called the triple L tweed stitch. And it's, I just, I borrowed it from a pattern that was on Purl Soho. And I really like it. So I use it to make dish cloths all the time. And that's it. That's the sum total of my knitting and crocheting. So crocheting the blanket together, knit one hat, knit seven dish cloths. In what, three weeks? Because we were late, this episode is late. That's a lot of time for very little amount of production.

Marsha 25:55 Yeah, yeah. Well, we got the rest of the summer.

Kelly 26:01 Yep. Yeah, true.

Marsha 26:03 So I have not gotten very much done either. But because I've been very busy with projects around here. But anyway, um, so let's just talk a little bit about--we had some topics. Well, let's talk about our spinning projects now together. And then we can talk because we had some questions from listeners. So spinning projects, let's talk about that. I, as everyone knows, I've been working on a green and dark brown, three ply. And the last time we talked, I think, I don't remember now where I was, but I have finished plying all of the green. And so all I have left is the brown. And this is a Merino. And what I decided to do is just to spin one bobbin of the dark brown, and I want a three ply. So I decided to do a Navajo ply. And the the upside of a Navajo ply is you just need one, bobbin, and you don't need to spin three bobbins of yarn. And which I learned too is that the whatever was on the bobbin, that singles on the bobbin ends up on... all of that yarn ends up on another bobbin Do you know what I'm saying? It's if you have three bobbins you can't fill a bobbin with three bobbins.

Kelly 27:25 Right, right, right.

Marsha 27:27 But the Navajo ply, you just know that it's all going to fit on that bobbin. And the downside of a Navajo ply, is, if you are spinning like me a bit unevenly, is you don't have two other plies that might fill in if it's if you're in a thin section, it won't be paired with a thick section necessarily. So because you're you're doing... the Navajo ply is basically like a crochet chain stitch.

Kelly 27:59 In fact, it's also called the chain ply. Yeah.

Marsha 28:02 Okay. So, which is great if you're doing like... if you want to, you want to keep the color order in your roving, keep that color order in your final yarn is great. But you then have it spinning in order. So if you have a thick section, it's all going to be thick. And if you have a thin section, it's gonna be thin. Because you don't have your two other bobbins of yarn that are randomly being placed together. And so three singles are...at some point, it's all going to be... the chance of having three thick pieces and three thin pieces ply together are greatly reduced, right. So I spun an entire bobbin and plied it. And it's it's nice yarn, but it's not going to... it doesn't match with the three ply that I did with the two colors. So that's going to become something else. And I have more roving, which I'm going to just spin three bobbins and ply it the way I did the other.

Kelly 29:14 Do the traditional three ply.

Marsha 29:15 Yeah, yeah,

Kelly 29:16 yeah, in the same way that it keeps... in the same way that using that chain ply technique keeps all the colors together, right? It preserves your color order. It also preserves your thickness. So the thin parts stay really thin and the thick parts get really thick. And yeah.

Marsha 29:37 And what I would say is I don't, I'm not such a.... I'm not such a perfectionist that I think that that yarn is now bad yarn, right, though. It's not bad yarn, because I think it looks good. It's just that it doesn't match the yarn that I have, which is a problem if you're going to use use it together in a project.

Kelly 29:58 Yeah, I mean, it's not even really that thick and thin. It's just that it's, it's different when you put it next to the other yarn that you've made. it is very different.

Marsha 30:09 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that is that is true that is not, you know, when you're seeing the yarn thick and thin, it's not like night and day. It's not really dramatically different. But it's different enough that I don't want to use them together with, you know, in a project.

Kelly 30:28 Yeah, and I have a feeling that even if your yarn was totally consistent, that just the texture or the feel of the, of that chain ply technique is different than a traditional, a traditional three ply. I mean, if you're making socks, and you know, you've done a traditional three ply, and then you have one bobbi left and you just chain ply it and use that. You know, in case you have yarn chicken issues, you're not going to notice,

Marsha 30:59 okay, maybe I'm not thinking of this the right way. But if you have three bobbins, you're pulling the single off the same direction, right? So the way you spun it is all coming off the same direction. But with a chain ply, because you're making a loop is one half of the loop going back the other direction. It's the opposite direction. So it's like, like... I always when I spin a single the, the bobbin is turning... I say it's turning to the right. Yes, it's turning to the right. So is that an S?

Kelly 31:41 You spin z and ply s.

Marsha 31:44 Okay, so but with the chain stitch ply or Navajo ply isn't one of the singles is going to be z or S or what? I'm now... I'm getting confused, but they're not going to be all... you said. What did you say that you spin singles Z and ply S? So if you are ... if you have three bobbins, you would be plying all of this three z singles. s ply, right. But with the Navajo ply, the at least one of them is going to be s and the two zs. Is that?

Kelly 32:32 I think if you turn it upside down, you know, if you turn it back the other way, it's still it's still spun the same direction.

Marsha 32:40 Oh, it is.

Kelly 32:40 Yeah, but but you're right, there's something about making that loop. There's something about making that loop that makes it a slightly different texture, I think it feels different. Or maybe it's the twist, the amount of twist you put in. That might be part of it too. Because it's easier to get too much twist or to get more twist when you're trying to manipulate that, you know, making the crochet chain loop.

Marsha 33:08 And it could be me just being tense. Well, yeah, I mean, when was the last time I did this type of plying it was years ago. And so I thought, Oh, it's gonna be exactly the same. Well, it's not going to be, it's never gonna be exactly the same, because it's a completely different vibe. It's a different technique.

Kelly 33:31 Yeah, it's a different technique.

Marsha 33:32 So it was it was an idea I had, but it was not... Yeah, it didn't work. And

Kelly 33:38 and yeah, and it's like you said it's not bad yarn. It's just not the same as it's not the same as the other ones. And when you do it more... When you use the same technique, you'll get something that's closer.

Marsha 33:39 Yeah, yeah. So that's where I am, back to that. But anyway,

Kelly 33:58 All right. Well, I am I just finished spinning. I had about I had about 20 grams of Santa Cruz Island fleece left, had 20 grams unspun. And then I had tiny little, maybe like one gram amounts on two different bobbins. And so I thought, Oh, I know I need to get this off my bobbins and I don't want to throw it away because that was a really nice fleece. So since I had some ready to spin, I just spun all that up onto those two bobbins plus another bobbin. Split it up to make it even as I could. And then I three plyed it. So I have a traditional three ply of the Santa Cruz Island, which is the same fleece that I used when I made I made the sock yarn that I put in the fair years ago. And I had this... I think it was 2018 when I did it, and so I had this leftover from then so it's been sitting on my bobbins since then. So I wanted to clear them off for the summer spin in. But while I was spinning, I was thinking about how different this spinning that I was doing was from what you were doing. And then also thinking about the questions, some of the questions that we gotten in the thread about drafting techniques and fiber preparation. And so let's just talk a little bit about drafting. So how do you draft Marsha, when you're spinning this yarn that you're spinning right now, how are you drafting? How do you hold your hands? And what do you do?

Marsha 35:40 Well, it's sort of depends upon the hour and the day of the week, because I have to admit, I'm not consistent, I keep changing a little bit I normally do. Yeah, I keep changing a little bit. And I don't know, it's not even about whether that's right or wrong. That's just how I am because we're human, and we need to move our bodies and sometimes my hands get tired, so I have to change a little bit. And, and sometimes, depending, like when I first start a bobbin, I am a little, it's a little it's different than when I'm just getting into the rhythm. So I typically I hold the fiber in my left hand. And I always think of what you said, you know, you have to put, like you're holding a baby bird, or a butterfly or something in your hands and not like, grasp it really, really tight. I always sort of pre draft my fiber, let me just say that what I'm spending is, most of what I've been spinning recently is just roving that I've purchased. Which is different than something that you've carded yourself, it's a little bit, you know...

Kelly 36:43 You have a lot more choices. I'm that's what I think about a commercial roving, I think you have a lot more choices in how you can draft and what kind of techniques you can use.

Marsha 36:53 Also, I'd say to just about I keep sort of changing throughout the spin, especially when I've done the combo spins, because if you're using different fibers, like sometimes I have, you know, Merino in there and targhee and corriedale, and then silk thrown in there. So that, and sometimes the mohair too. So that changes, you're going to have to change how you draft depending on what fiber you're actually spinning.

Kelly 37:19 Right, right.

Marsha 37:20 But typically, like just now what I was just doing, you know, 100% Merino, I hold the fiber in my left hand. I've pre drafted it. So it's fluffy and kind of light and open. And then I try not to do that, that...what do you call it? Pinch an inch or whatever?

Kelly 37:37 Inchworm.

Marsha 37:40 And that's where you know, you hold the where the twist is going in. Just before that twist, you hold it with your thumb and forefinger and pull out the yarn, I find that I get more cramps in my hand. That's how I started spinning, because I felt like I had more control. But now that I've gotten more comfortable, I find that I get more cramps in my thumb, if I hold it that way. So what I do is I, a lot of times, I don't even use my right hand, I don't, like I'm just holding it in my left hand. And then every so often, if it starts getting a little thick, then maybe this is why I have thick and thin bits too. And if it starts getting a little thick, then I just take my right hand and pinch. So it doesn't... it stops putting that twist into the thing and maybe unroll it a little bit and pull it out. You know, but I did sort of, and sometimes I get a long, I get a long piece with a twist in it that's maybe 12 inches long. And then I just sort of pinch both ends and sort of pull it apart a little bit to get it to the thickness I want. Does that make sense?

Kelly 38:38 Yeah, Yeah.

Marsha 38:40 You know, I don't know what you call that.

Kelly 38:41 Well, there's a lot of different names for the different techniques and it sounds like what you're doing is...

Marsha 38:47 I'm doing chaos. Chaos, the technique!

Kelly 38:51 No, I mean, I think you're doing a lot of the things that happen in a long draw. Right, because you're using only one hand and then your other hand is helping when you need to, to kind of pull it out a little bit more and make it a little bit thinner. Are you pulling back with your left hand very much or mostly just holding it straight?

Marsha 39:09 Yes, I'm pulling back.

Kelly 39:11 Spinning is such a, I mean, it's such an old form of creation, that I think every person who who's ever spun has spun slightly differently. And you know, there's categories of techniques, but within that there really is a lot of variation. So, but like that inchworm technique is called a short forward draw, because you're taking out a little bit and you're pulling it a short ways. You're drafting it a very short ways and then you're letting the twist into a very short little segment. So short forward draw because you're pulling forward. I typically don't pull forward with my right hand most of my spinning is happening with my left hand, that's where I hold the fiber, too. And so I usually do backward draw, maybe not short, backward draw, but maybe a longer backward draw using my right hand... I probably use my right hand more than you do. If I were spinning like a commercial roving, not trying to spin long draw, I probably use my right hand, it sounds like I use my right hand a little bit more than, than you do. But mostly I, I, you know, pull backwards with my left hand. And my right hand is helping things along, as opposed to actually doing the work of the spinning. But it's interesting. So the commercial preparation that you have, you know, the commercial roving or commercial top allows you to do a lot of different things with it. Right, you can do all those. What I was spinning the Santa Cruz Island, I was spinning punis, which are like a roll of fiber off the drum carder... or the not the drum carder, the hand cards. And really, because the fiber is so short, they're really tiny, thin, you know. The reason I'm calling them punis and not rolags, it's just the size of them. You normally when you roll it off of the hand cards, you have this like sausage shaped thing of fiber, it's called a rolag, the ones that they make with cotton, are much smaller, you know, and thinner diameter, and they call them punis.

Marsha 41:32 Okay,

Kelly 41:33 And because cotton doesn't stick to itself, they kind of roll them, we kind of you know, smash them a little bit to make them stick to each other better and not come apart. But with wool, you don't need to do that. And especially with this Santa Cruz Island, you don't need to do this because it is so crimpy that it's it really sticks to itself. So with these tight little...and the tightness of the of the roll that comes off of the handcard wasn't because I made it to be super tight. It's because of the crimp of the fiber. And what that fiber just wanted to do, it's not going to make a loose kind of loose sausage shape. It just had to come off in this little tiny, narrow diameter roll. Anyway, it's so clingy to itself, that really the only way that I could spin it was with either short forward or short backward draw, which is not my favorite. But it's a nice fiber. And I really enjoyed spinning it because it's an unusual breed. And it's one of the endangered breeds. So I'm happy to spin it the way it wants to be spun. But this is a good example of a fleece is going to tell you how it wants to be spun. Because I couldn't do... I could not do a long draw with it, that fiber just clings to itself way too much. Yeah, I couldn't do my normal kind of relaxed, backward draw spinning because the fiber just clings to itself so much. Sometimes you can use whatever you want. And sometimes you have to go with the with what the fiber is telling you to do right. Yeah.

Marsha 41:51 I don't know that you have to start and go oh, and think to yourself, oh, this is the technique. This is the typical, or this is the technique that I need to use, or the draw that I need to use. You just organically do it because you have no choice. But to just to do it because of the fiber will tell you.

Kelly 43:37 Yeah, that's right, I didn't sit down and say this is what I'm going to do to spin this fiber, it just, that's what I had to do to make to make it, you know, to make it work. And because the fiber is so short and so crimpy, in my carding I've created, I've created neps, you know, little tangled balls of fiber. And so I'm also I was also constantly picking off as I was going along, constantly picking off those little neps where I could, to make the yarn a little bit smoother. And I was only doing that because that's what I did for the skein that I entered into the fair because I wanted, I was hoping I would get a ribbon for it. And I did. So I was being really careful when I spun that. So I was trying to at least marginally make it match that yarn that I spun, because I want to make a pair of socks. And so this will give me a little bit more flexibility, you know, when I'm knitting it, into how long to make the top part of the socks because I'll have a little extra about 20 more, it turned out to be about 20 more grams. You know, by the time I had a little bit of waste at the end and everything. I got about 20 more grams of yarn out of it. So that was kind of nice, but I thought it was a good contrast between a carded preparation on my part and a commercially combed, or you know, mill carded preparation on your end. And then the two different techniques that we're using. Interesting, though, we both-- and maybe because you talked to me when you got your spinning wheel, but it's interesting that we both hold the fiber in our same hand. All the fiber with our left and a lot of people who are right handed do it the other way.

Marsha 45:27 Hmm. It's interesting. Maybe it's because I, the first time I spun I spun on your wheel. And you showed me how to spin and you probably said, put it, put it in your left hand and I follow orders, you know,

Kelly 45:38 yeah, I probably, I probably did! I switch sometimes and spin the other hand again, if I'm spinning for a long time, and I think oh, my hands getting a little tired. But that's...my typical is to put the fiber in my left hand.

Marsha 45:51 I did some research. And I did find an article and this was on spinning daily.com. There's an article by Janine. I don't know how to pronounce this. It looks like back ridges, ba k r i g e s. And it's seven drafting techniques. And she has the names of the seven and descriptions and photographs. So I'll put a link to that because that was actually pretty interesting.

Kelly 46:18 There's another really good resource for people, Oh, I thought I linked it and I didn't, I'll have to grab the link for you to put in the show notes. There's a craftsy class that I took from JC Boggs Faulkner, called Drafting: From Worsted to Woolen. And it was really good. I enjoyed that class. And she had swatches made out of all the different drafting styles. And some of them, I thought, Wow, you can really tell the difference between those. And some of them, I thought, okay, there's barely a difference. And so it's not going to matter in to my, for my purposes. It wouldn't matter whether I used one drafting, you know, one of the two drafting techniques or the other. And so, you know, it's like, Okay, well, I could just choose whichever one I liked, the better, whichever one I like better, because it looks like you get the same thing when you knit it up. So that was an interesting course, too, that I'll make sure is linked in the in the show notes in case someone wants to take that Craftsy class. It's still available. I checked it this morning.

Marsha 47:21 Any more to add to about drafting.

Kelly 47:24 I have a link in the show notes about the different names of the different preparations and you know, what is top versus what is roving versus what is sliver versus a batt of fiber. And so I have a link from Abby Franquemont's website that that I thought was a good kind of a primer on, you know, what are the... what do the different terms? What do the different terms mean?

Marsha 47:49 We do have a question about how to get started with long draw from howmanystitches Liz, who's in Scotland. Did you want to touch on that?

Kelly 47:57 Sure. I just want to thank prairie poet and supercut. For the other questions about what kind of drafting techniques we use and what our favorite drafting techniques are. We kind of got into earlier long draw is, you kind of just have to have a, well have a carded preparation, first of all, would be my suggestion, have a carded preparation of fiber, and then just be willing to make a lot of mistakes and have the yarn break, and then you just start again. Because you, you have to try not to touch it with your right hand and let the fiber come out of your left hand.

Marsha 48:41 I think what we said is, you know, not only do you pretend you have a baby bird in your left hand, but you have a glass of wine in your hand. So you can't touch your left hand.

Kelly 48:51 Yeah, yeah. And, and it works. I mean, and it's gonna be lumpy when you first start and you have to be, you have to be prepared to have lumpy yarn when you first start because you're--you have to just get the feel of it. And you have to be prepared to have it sometimes stretched out too fine and break. You know, slip apart, drift apart. It doesn't really break, but like you know, drift apart. And then you have to start again and pull out your end and start again. But you eventually do get the feel of it. And, and it is pretty amazing that it works. And you can also there's like a something called a double draw where you where you draw it back. And you let some twist get into it. And then once the twist is in it, you can you can pull it even pinch it off, you know, don't let any more fiber come out of your hand and pull it back even more and get it to be finer and like the lumps come out. Any lumps, you can get those lumps to come out by pulling a little bit more. It takes, it just takes experience and willingness to be wrong.

Marsha 49:57 Yeah,

Kelly 49:59 Again, that's my opinion and my experience. If you get frustrated by having it drift apart, or frustrated that you can't make consistent yarn, then it's just going to be an unpleasant learning experience. But if you just know that you're going to make lumpy yarn and get better the more you do it, then it will be... it will be a great experience. It's a fun way to spin I think. And it's pretty fast.

Marsha 50:26 Yeah,

Kelly 50:27 If you've ever used a supported spindle, that's another way that you could kind of get started. Not a drop spindle where you're using both your hands, but a supported spindle where one of your hands is having to spin the spindle and the other hand is drafting. That gives you a good... I think gives you a good feel of what that is like. So yeah, let us know, if you want more information, we can do a little bit more research.

Marsha 50:53 I have a question. Just as we're talking about this, what is the best drafting technique to use when you have those long wools, you know, like a Lincoln?

Kelly 51:02 Typically, people say, you know, with a long wool, you can comb it and keep all the fibers in order, you know, all parallel and spin worsted. So a worsted spinning would be where you don't let the twist get into your fiber hand, you keep all the twists in front of your, for us, it will be our right hand, keep all the twist in front of our right hand. And then be able to draft the fiber in your left hand. So you could do a short forward or, or short backward or you know, kind of go back farther because it's a long fiber, so you keep your hands further apart. Right here, your inchworm would not be an inchworm it might be like a, I don't know, a five inch worm. Because you want it you know, you need to keep your hands further apart. So you're not pulling on the same piece of hair.

Marsha 52:02 Right. Okay,

Kelly 52:03 I don't typically do a worsted technique, even with long wool. I'm... my tendency, when I'm just spinning for like, relaxing pleasure, I let the twist back into my into my left hand. I'm not, I'm not real good about keeping that twist out of my fiber hand, you get a little hairier yarn that way, you know more halo, less smooth. But that doesn't bother me. But if I wanted a really smooth long wool I would make sure I didn't let the twist get back into my back into my fiber hand. Okay, I wanted to just give a couple of other resources that I think are really good for people who are just beginning. Or if you have some resources, but you haven't really built a spinning library or ,you know, done more than just looking up a few things in Ravelry groups. There's one book that I have, called The Intentional Spinner: A Holistic Approach to Making Yarn. And that's Judith Mackenzie McCuin. And it's a 2009 book, I would really highly recommend it. And then the other one I have is the Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning. And I love this title: "Being a Compendium of Information, Advice and Opinions on the Noble Art and Craft." And this is by Alden Amos and it was in 2001. And he has since passed away but he was a very opinionated guy. Lots of spinning knowledge from you know, hand spinning to machine spinning. And so there's a lot of historical knowledge in that book and a lot of other things. So those two books I think are really a lot of information in them. And then I also wanted to mention the Spinner's Study Ravelry group. This month they're spinning, they pick a couple of different types of fleece each month and this month they're spinning Finn and Teeswater. And the spinning challenge for the month is called spinning and plying the other way. So we were talking about spinning z and plying s. So I think what they're doing is doing the opposite of that and looking at what that what that does to the yarn. I also wanted to mention that we've been talking about knitting with your handspun and Salpal had mentioned to me, sent me a message, to say that the Three Waters Farm Ravelry group has a bundle and a thread of patterns that are good for handspun.

Marsha 54:38 Okay,

Kelly 54:39 And so we'll link to that in the show notes. And then Joanne, momdiggity, she suggested any pattern calling for Spincycle yarn would be a good pattern for handspun.

Marsha 54:50 That's true.

Kelly 54:51 And then the other thing that I found is this month just by coincidence, the Spring/Summer 2021 Knitty Spin column in Knitty magazine. It's written, it's a column by jillian Moreno, is "Planning for Your Project, the Beginning." So she's talking about how do you, you know, if you're going to knit something, and you're going to spin for that particular project, what kind of things do you have to think about? And so all of those resources will be in the show notes. And then we had Marsha one more question, and that was about how to wash a fleece.

Marsha 55:27 Mm hmm.

Kelly 55:28 I'm haven't washed a fleece in a while.

Marsha 55:30 I know I haven't either,

Kelly 55:31 But superkip that's Natalie. She asks, How do you wash a fleece? This is what she says. "For the washing bit. I usually do a cold soak or two and then wash my fleece with really hot water. And in the second hot water wash, I add dishwashing soap. It works to get it clean. But I do have a lot of lanolin left in my fleeces" and then she says, "I was recently advised to use colder water or wash with soda. However, the soda felted my fleece, I might have used too much soda. And the colder water seems counterintuitive. Although I have not tried it." This was a couple of weeks ago. But I hope that we can give some advice to Natalie on this.

Marsha 56:16 Well, first I think we have to discern, differentiate what the soda is. Explain that when it says soda it's not baking soda she's talking about it's soda ash right or, or washing soda, which is different. And I I had to look this up. So it's... baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. And soda ash or washing soda is sodium carbonate. And it sounds like from what I'm reading, it's a bit more caustic. And can be an irritant to your eyes, nose, throat. And looking at Wikipedia it's used as a sweetener in soft drinks. Think about that.

Kelly 57:03 That sounds odd.

Marsha 57:04 I know. And I also didn't realize what it is and that it is used a lot because it changes the pH. So it's used also for dyeing non protein fibers. like cotton or

Kelly 57:25 Yeah, we used it when we dyed this yarn that I'm knitting right now the dish cloths,

Marsha 57:31 right. So it changes the pH, I guess and so then the the dye can attach to the fibers is my understanding. So I don't and I was trying to get what does it actually do? How does it separate the lanolin from the wool?

Kelly 57:51 But I know it's a washing aid. I mean, just in general, you can buy washing soda and you put it in for especially if you have hard water it it makes your laundry detergent work better. So from that standpoint, I guess. I guess that might be why she was advised to use it. I don't ever use that on wool. Yeah. I it it's wool likes an acid Ph. And it's too basic. And so I I know people do use it, but you are limited to how long you should keep the wool in contact with it.

Marsha 58:32 Yeah, the article I was reading it says not to use more or leave it to soak any longer than 20 minutes and I wonder she doesn't say how long she left it. But she she says here she thinks she may have used too much. But I wonder if maybe it was in there too long.

Kelly 58:48 Yeah. Either one of those things could have done damage--could damage your wool. Make it really harsh. And kind of I want to say crispy or crinkly.

Marsha 59:01 So it was the the washing soda or soda ash. Was that something that was probably developed before we had detergents.

Kelly 59:09 I would say yes to that, Yeah.

Marsha 59:11 Because when I see people use different things like a lot of times they're using that wool wash you can get anywhere with Eucalyptus in it.

Kelly 59:21 Eucalan. There's also another one. There's a scour there's a Unicorn Scour. That's actually not for washing garments but for washing fleeces.

Marsha 59:33 But I just I use what you taught me to use, which is I use Dawn and I don't know.... I know SuperKip is in Europe. So I don't know if Dawn is available. I think she's in Holland I believe. I don't

Kelly 59:47 Dish detergent. I think a dish detergent is-- for me that that works really well. And if you use that I would use dishwashing soap in both of those washes. Mm hmm and And make sure the water is really hot and that it doesn't cool off, you know before you drain the water, because the lanolin can reattach to the fleece. It's basically you know, it's like it's like grease. And so if you think about your dishes, even if you put detergent in dishwater if you then go to bed and leave them in the dishwater overnight and it cools, that grease will be redeposited on your dishes. I prefer to use dishwashing detergent and really hot water. And we do have an episode where we talk about washing fleece it's Episode 27B, Fiber Mythbusting Bonus Episode, where we talk about washing, washing fleeces and there's some links in that show, 27B. In that show's show notes there are also some links to some resources about detergents and how detergents work. And

Marsha 1:01:02 Well, I was going to say we didn't even talk, we're just talking about washing it with detergents and hot water. We didn't even talk about the washing with the fermentation process. That's another whole episode about that. But that's where you basically, you let it just kind of for lack of a better word ferment in it. The suint, which is the sweat from the sheep.

Kelly 1:01:24 Right.

Marsha 1:01:25 And I've never I've never tried that you've tried it

Kelly 1:01:28 Oh, I didn't do it the true way. But I did let it sit in water and get very smelly for about a month before I washed it. I ended up going ahead and using soap to wash it too. But I did have to use less. And it washed up faster. Yeah, but but I don't know that I actually got fermentation happening. Hmm. It just was very smelly.

Marsha 1:01:54 Yeah. So, but I have a question about that--when, after you took the wool out the fiber out and washed it It didn't smell, right? It's just while sitting the it's the water that it's sitting in that's so bad.

Kelly 1:02:08 Right. Yes. Okay, one thing that that that I think sometimes people don't do when they wash wooll is one, use enough water and the other, use enough soap or detergent. And it depends on the fleece too, you know. Is it a super super greasy fleece or is it a not so greasy fleece? Different breeds have different amounts of lanolin. But anyway, yeah, good. Great question. Lots of opinions about that question. If you go out and look. Look around for you know, advice about how to wash a fleece. The Alden Amos book talks a lot about using soda to wash fleeces and soap instead of detergent, which I think if you're using soap, maybe the the washing soda helps not create the scum that soap and hard water would create. Lots of methods have been used over the years. And maybe the washing soda is an older method too like you said. Before detergents were widely available when people did use soap more.

Marsha 1:03:22 Yeah. So anything else we need to say about it?

Kelly 1:03:27 I don't think so. I think that's it.

Marsha 1:03:30 We'll talk more about spinning over the summer during the summer spin in. And if people have questions they want us to answer or try to answer. Just put them in the in the forum, the discussion thread.

Kelly 1:03:45 Yeah, or email us.Two Ewes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Marsha 1:03:51 And since we are talking about the summer spin in we should just remind people that it started Memorial Day, which was May 31. And it ends September 6. We will talk more about washing fleece because I I have--someone gave me a alpaca fleece. And we've been talking about sheep's wool. But now it'd be interesting to talk about how you wash alpaca, but that'll be another time. I have questions about that. I have questions for you about that. So

Kelly 1:04:20 I don't think I've ever washed alpaca. Oh, well, maybe you'll have questions for someone else.

Marsha 1:04:27 Or maybe I'll just have to answer the questions and answer my own questions. Right. Well, the last thing I was going to just say is that we had such a great time on our visit and it didn't really hit me until after. Well, when you walked up on the front porch. It kind of hit me as like this is the first time we've seen each other since February 2020. It was last time you saw us when we went to Stitches.

Kelly 1:04:53 Mm hmm.

Marsha 1:04:54 And it was kind of like and then when you left I felt like wow, we just saw each other It's been so long since

Kelly 1:05:02 Yeah, face to face.

Marsha 1:05:05 It was really kind of remarkable. And I we have to thank science right?

Kelly 1:05:09 Oh, yeah.

Marsha 1:05:10 Yeah that we were able to...you were able to drive up here and visit. So thank you to scientists.

Kelly 1:05:18 Yes. Thank you for that vaccine!

Marsha 1:05:20 Alright with that, I guess we should say goodbye. All right. We'll see you in two weeks.

Kelly 1:05:25 All right. Bye.

Kelly 1:05:26 Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Marsha 1:05:33 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is

Kelly 1:05:39 1hundredprojects. Until next time, were the Two Ewes, doing our part for world fleece.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

In this episode we discuss knitting with handspun yarn, including estimating yardage, picking needle size, and selecting potential patterns.

Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

Walk Along tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link) I've put the body on waste yarn to check length. I've decided to move on to the sleeve which will stop just above the elbow instead of ¾ length.

I started the gusset on the second sock of a pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.

Still spinning the green and brown three ply.

Kelly's Projects

Ripped out the Bear Brand Yarn socks and will be starting them again with no pattern.

Faye's Flower Blanket. All Octagons and squares are done. One more triangle to do. Then 4 corners (small triangles).

Topic: Knitting with Handspun

• Selecting a needle size to swatch
• Selecting potential patterns
• "My yarn isn't good enough"
  • The allure of spinning thin
  • The allure of spinning smooth, worsted style yarns
• Measuring yardage in a skein
• Good first projects
  • Good projects for textured yarn
• More intermediate to advanced considerations
  • Do these yarns/fibers go together?

Summer Spin In

Memorial Day - Labor Day

May 31st - September 6th

Transcript

Kelly 0:03 Hi, this is Marsha and this is Kelly.

Marsha 0:05 We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly 0:10 You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha 0:17 We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Kelly 0:22 And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects,

Marsha 0:29 and I am betterinmotion. We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.

Both 0:35 Enjoy the episode!

Marsha 0:43 Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly 0:44 Good morning, Marsha. How are you?

Marsha 0:45 I'm doing good.

Kelly 0:47 Good.

Marsha 0:47 How's the newest member of your family doing?

Kelly 0:50 Oh, he's doing great. Beary is fitting in pretty well. He's walking up to about a mile now. He lags toward the end of a mile. But he's been able to go a mile. The first week... So a week ago he was at the vet. And he got his thyroid medication lowered. That's good. So now he's only on a point eight-- I think it's milligrams-- pill once a day instead of twice a day. So that's good. And he lost. He had lost last week he had lost three pounds.

Marsha 1:28 All right. So and that's really not with any diet change. That's just the walking right?

Kelly 1:32 Yeah. Well, more activity. I was trying to feed him the same amount that he had at the at the SPCA--hat they had told me they were feeding him. I was trying to feed him that same amount. It actually was a little bit less food than normal, because he wasn't really eating. And, you know, my dogs eat!

Marsha 1:56 Yes.

Kelly 1:57 Even Bailey. You know, she's, well, she had Nash to contend with, she had a lab to contend with. So she knows you put your nose in the bowll, and up until it's gone. And I don't know if she was like that before we got her. But she learned to be like that, at least having Nash around. And he wouldn't, he would eat a little bit. And then he'd walk out a little bit into the yard and then he'd pee. And then he walked back and he ate a little bit more. And then he like, walked over kind of towards Bailey to see if maybe she had something better. And I was like, okay, you're not gonna-- if you're not going to finish this, I'm going to pick it up because it's gonna cause a problem. So he wasn't finishing the whole amount. So then I started feeding him lunch, I thought, you know, I'd feed him lunch to help keep his metabolism high. And so I was doing that. But he wasn't really eating lunch. You know, he wasn't seeming hungry. And so he was getting a little bit less food. But anyway, yeah, he lost three pounds. And I don't know how much he's lost since then. Bu t I do think he's lost a little bit. His feet. [laughing] He looks like he's lost weight in his feet.

Marsha 3:12 Oh, really?

Kelly 3:13 That seems really strange. But that's the only place I can kind of tell. They look less puffy. Like his feet were really round, not like a shepherd. And the vet said she thinks he's mixed with Tibetan Mastiff.

Marsha 3:28 Okay. That's very specific.

Kelly 3:31 Yes. But I went and looked at their pictures. And he does kind of, he does kind of look like that. They have a tail that kind of arches over their back. And he doesn't have that. But they have the like, they call them cat feet in the standard. where, you know, their feet are round and tight. And the shepherds feet are more elongated.

Marsha 3:56 Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 3:57 So anyway. And his feet were like round and tight. And they still are, but they're less round. Like they look less round on top, you know?

Marsha 4:07 Well, I mean, maybe he was retaining water or something. his ankles were swelling, you know, like my grandmother, [laughing] and, you know, with all this activity, things were moving, maybe.

Kelly 4:17 Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard to tell. And you know, of course we can't weigh him because you can't pick him up and step on the scale with them the way you could with a smaller dog so so he'll have to wait till he goes to the vet again, for us to know for sure. I'm hoping I can get the vet to let us bring him just for our weight check. Because I don't want him to lose weight too fast. And that's part of-- that's part of regulating his thyroid if he is losing weight too fast. That could be an indicator that his thyroid medication is too high. So so I'm hoping the vet will, you know, say we can bring him in like every two weeks or something for just that. for free, just let them take him in and weigh him and bring him back out.

Marsha 5:01 Enzo's vet you could just bring your dog in any time because they just have the scale there in the lobby. So you can just go weigh your dog. In fact, that's where I went. Remember that the big giant afghan?

Kelly 5:16 Oh right! [laughing]

Marsha 5:17 I went and weighed it on that scale.[laughing]

Kelly 5:19 Marsha went to the vet to weigh her blanket!

Marsha 5:26 Yeah, but now with the pandemic, you can't, I can't go into the lobby,

Kelly 5:30 it's a little more of a thing of a production for them to come to them and get in weighed. So. But things are supposed to open here in California on June 15. And I don't know if that means everything. Like from then on. I actually think that the vets are probably secretly glad that no owners are in the office when they do their vet checks. Because dogs are always worse when their owners are around in situations like that. I think, I mean, they're probably-- I wonder if they'll... Well, I don't know what they'll do. But yeah, there's probably been some some added convenience to just picking the dog up in the parking lot and taking it in.

Marsha 6:16 Well, and then you don't have all the animals in the lobby, too, because that's another thing, too, is altercations in the lobby. So yeah, well, that's exciting news that he's he's making some progress. Now. The thyroid medication, though, that's not because he's overweight, but he is... he will even if he loses weight, he'll be on thyroid medication.

Kelly 6:40 Yeah. A weight gain is probably due to his thyroid issues. Okay. I mean, some of the weight gain might be other reasons. But some of it, I mean, definitely for a dog to be as overweight as he was, there was a thyroid problem there. That's what the vet said anyway.

Marsha 7:01 And then, I'm assuming, given what you know about his history, which is very little, I'm assuming that the thyroid medication started after he went to the SPCA.

Kelly 7:11 Yeah, they, they noticed that. They, they stitched him up from his wounds. And then they noticed that he wasn't kind of bouncing back. And he was very lethargic. And then, you know, the vet first thought it was just because of the what had happened to him and then being in the shelter. And then she decided, no, it's, he needs to have a blood test. So they did a blood test and his thyroid was was extremely low. So he's progressing nicely. He now lays on a pillow, it takes me about 10 times of putting him back before he is convinced that I mean it and just stays there. Or maybe he's just too exhausted. That's how I feel at the end of it! [laughing] Too exhausted

Marsha 8:00 that you need to go lie down.

Kelly 8:02 But the other day, I even I even came in and took a nap. And brought them back in with me during the day and you know, closed up the bedroom and, and took a nap for about an hour and a half and he was quiet in the bedroom. So he's got the routine, you know, the the normal routine plus, He knows, in this location, this is what I do. So that's good. In the backyard he's been fence fighting with the neighbor dogs, him and Bailey. So that's not good. But we're working on that.

Marsha 8:31 And he and Bailey are doing well together.

Kelly 8:33 go Yeah, they're having a great time. You know, they've had a couple of little tips, little fights, but nothing major. He's learning how to get into the truck. And in fact, that's one of the fights they had. He has decided that the truck belongs to him. And if she tried to get too close. If the door opens up on the truck in the backyard and she tries to get too close to it. That that's the two times they've had fights--it has been around the truck. So now I have to really watch when the truck gets opened that, you know, he...that the two of them are not real close to the door. Because he he now thinks that the truck belongs to him and she's not allowed to get near it. He loves his truck, which is good. That's what we wanted, but not quite.

Marsha 9:22 He loves it a bit too much. So possessive of it. Okay, well. Sounds like making lots of good progress

Kelly 9:26 Yeah, yeah, we have

Marsha 9:31 So that proves that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Kelly 9:33 Yeah. Yeah. [laughing]

Marsha 9:35 Fitting right in and learning that learning the routine. Hmm.

Kelly 9:38 Well, I think the routine is the biggest part of it, you know, just having that. Like, this is what we do every day. And not necessarily always at the same time. But, you know, these are the, these are the things that we do. And then you gradually we've been gradually increasing what those things are. So, luckily the weather's been good and we've been able to use a lot of the outdoor space. School's almost over.

Marsha 10:04 Oh, how many days?

Kelly 10:06 I mean, well, I'm not... I wasn't counting it in days. But I guess I could now because we're in the middle of the second of the second to the last week. Next week is finals week. I'm so glad. This week though, I'm, packed with student appointments for them to go over things and do review and such.Mostly out of guilt. Because it's the end of the semester, and I haven't been able to do as good a job as I wanted with this online stuff. And so now I'm feeling like, Okay, well, I need to make up for that by by allowing for all this extra makeup work and all that. So yeah, a teacher's life! It's never good enough.

Marsha 10:56 I thought of you because the other day this was oh, maybe two weeks ago. Ben had his-- one of his his instructors had office hours. There were three hours long office hours. And Ben was in the office for three hours.

Kelly 11:12 Wow.

Marsha 11:14 So like, yeah, I guess, all these students were coming in and going, coming in and going out.

Kelly 11:19 Right.

Marsha 11:19 But I thought of you and it's like, that was a long time to be in a meeting, you know. I thought of you when he was talking about this,

Kelly 11:34 I think we all do it.

Marsha 11:35 I'd have to go take a nap after that.

Kelly 11:36 Yeah, I think we all do it at the end of the semester, you know, we want to give students all the opportunities that we can to get the material and yeah, and I, you know, I had such high hopes at the beginning of this semester that, you know, this time I was going to get the online thing. The second time around doing an online, I was gonna get it right. And of course, it doesn't feel like I got it right at all. But it was better than last time, I'm trying to have a growth mindset. [laughing] It was better than the last semester. So I have one class that's a repeat of the class I had last semester. And that class is better. And then this class, the calculus class I had last spring when we were half face to face and half online. And I have to say that the online portion of it, this spring is better than the online portion that I did last spring. So I have improved, and I have high hopes that it will be even better. In the fall semester where I'm online. I'm teaching both of these classes again. So totally growth mindset. I'm gonna be better. I haven't mastered it yet. But I will! You know, that kind of that kind of thing. But then there's a little bit of aspect of guilt, because you haven't done as good a job as you want to do so. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, that happens to me every semester, whether we're online or not, it's just a little bit exacerbated in the online environment. I always felt like I could have done better. Well, I tell new teachers, teaching is a black hole that you could pour all of your time in and never be good enough. So you can't be a perfectionist and do this job. Or you'll burnout. You know, you have to be--you have to be willing to say, Well, that was good enough. And I'll do better next time. Or I'll try. I might not, but I'm gonna try. So anyway, I'm just glad the semester is almost over.

Marsha 13:40 Yes. And you have the whole summer to look forward to.

Kelly 13:43 Mm hmm. And our summer spin-in.

Marsha 13:48 So summer spinning! Should we get to get to the knitting and the fibery portion, the playing was string portion of the podcast?

Kelly 13:57 Yeah.

Marsha 13:58 So do you want to talk about your projects or...

Kelly 14:00 Sure I am making really good progress. In fact, I'm crocheting on it right now. I'm making really good progress on the Persian tiles blanket. And I'm making it for my grand niece and calling it Faye's flower blanket. I don't have the name in the shownotes of the designer, but it's called Persian tile blanket. If you want to, if anybody wants to go look at it. And then I have it in my projects as Faye's flower blanket and that will be linked to in the show notes. But I've got all of the octagons done--20 of them! Which that was exciting when I got that last one done. In fact I almost made a 21st not remembering that I was--that I had been on 19 and 20 was done and then I reminded myself. So I moved to finishing the squares and all the squares are done. And then what I'm crocheting on right now is the last row of the last triangle. So now all I have to do are the four corners, which are also triangles. But this is lik-- it's called a triangle granny square, or granny triangle or something. So I'm on the last row of the last one of these. All I'll have are the four corners. And then

Marsha 15:24 I'm looking at the projects on Ravelry. Then do you have you have to sew them all together? Right?

Kelly 15:28 Yeah. And then I'll be all done. I'll be all done except for this big huge project and sewing them all together. [laughing]

Marsha 15:35 Sorry to bring that up. But then it looks like it has a border around it to then do.

Kelly 15:43 Let me look, I have the pattern right here. You know that I haven't...

Marsha 15:46 By the way, Kelly, there's a border. [laughing]

Kelly 15:51 [reading pattern] Once these are together you will have uneven blanket edges. To make an even edge you need to work around of stitches. So I do four, five, six rounds of edging!

Kelly 16:07 Oh, no wonder I have so much yarn left! [laughing]

Marsha 16:10 Yes.

Kelly 16:17 I'm thinking, Oh, my God I have so much yarn left over. But it's gonna take a lot of yarn to go all the way around that blanket. I might have to buy more. [laughing]

Marsha 16:27 And you made it a little bit bigger, you put some more squares on it.

Kelly 16:30 Right. Yeah.

Marsha 16:32 Um, also I'm sorry to be...

Kelly 16:37 No, this is funny. This is an example of why you should read all the way through your pattern.

Marsha 16:44 So but then also, what I was going to say is, I'm looking at the... I don't know if you're on Ravelry. But I'm looking at the other projects. Some of them have just the way you described. It looks like it's a very sort of simple border. But I'm looking at one and it's it looks like KayVicknits. And she has like a, like a lace border around it. I mean, an interesting...

Kelly 17:07 Oh, wow.

Marsha 17:08 And let's see if she has anything in the notes

Kelly 17:10 I don't think I'll be...

Marsha 17:12 But yeah, all the way around it. It's got like a triangles all the way around it. It looks like

Kelly 17:18 Oh, interesting. Oh, I see. Yeah. So Oh, that is pretty. Yeah.

Marsha 17:23 So if you really want to use up your all that yarn,

Kelly 17:29 I actually...now that I'm looking at the border, I might have to buy, I might have to buy more yarn. But we'll see. I have an I have an awful lot of it left. I think I will just do the plain border though. On the edge. We'll see. I don't know. Getting it all sewn together is going to take a while. And the version that I'm doing will look more like the Eastern Jewels version. There was a kit, apparently, for this. There was the regular Persian tile blanket where it's all the same. Every octagon is the same. And then there was the eastern jewels version that had all the octagons different it looks like it's all different sizes of flowers. And that's the look I'm going for. And I think I've accomplished that.

Marsha 18:22 Okay, Kelly, now go. I'm sorry, go look at the projects. Go look at bytheseashore, her project. And she has a very interesting border on hers. And in the show notes it actually said that she did the zigzag edging from LillaBjorn crochet.

Kelly 18:42 Oh, so that is cute. She did.... So there's a little--there's a stitch in the octagon and the triangles, where you make a criss cross of treble crochets

Marsha 18:53 Mm hmm.

Kelly 18:54 And it looks like that's a criss cross. She's used that criss cross of treble crochets all around the edge. That is nice. Yeah. Huh. Okay, I'm gonna favorite her project. Because people who are listening, if you have not discovered this, if you save a project in your favorites, then on your project page, it will show those favorites in the lower... well for on the computer, it's in the lower right hand corner. So anything that I like the the comments on or that I'm interested in--I favorite that project and then that makes it pop up in my project page. Take a look at it. It's a nice, it's a nice feature because I've been... I've in the past had to kind of like you know, make a list of links of the ones that I wanted. And then I realized, oh, if I just favorite them. They show up at the bottom of my project page and I can get to them easily. So yeah, I'm really happy with it, I think it's turned out really nice. I am not looking forward to sewing it together. But I am looking forward to seeing it kind of come together. I've laid it out on the table. And I really like the way it looks. Yeah, it's really nice. It's like a riot of color.

Marsha 20:23 Yeah. Well, it's

Kelly 20:24 And I know there are people who say a riot is ugly, no matter what kind of riot it is.

Marsha 20:34 Well, I think it's such an interesting project. Because as you say, it is a riot of color. But everyone's done such different things where it's like you're doing it, it's like, well, a riot of color. And then there's other ones that I think are equally beautiful, but they're very different, where they make every square, or whatever the main one is, exactly the same. And those are so it's very geometric. And it's and those are beautiful too.

Kelly 21:01 Sort of Islamic or Moroccan looking. Yeah, like or well, Persian. It's called Persian tiles.

Marsha 21:12 Right. And so the one I'm going on right now is KoKoRoRoknits And that's--she's done everyone exactly the same. And it's, it's very pretty, it's very geometric. Just a completely different look, you know?

Kelly 21:26 Mm hmm. And actually kind of reminds me of Mexican tiles. Yeah. The the Mexican tiles that some people have on their houses or, you know, on on their steps,

Marsha 21:37 Something to think about...your edging.

Kelly 21:43 Yeah. I'm gonna have to reorganize the yarn and see what I have left and see what I can still do. Yeah. So anyway, that's, that's one project. And then I did make a couple of charity hats, a couple of nights where I didn't feel like crocheting. So I used som-- I have fingering weight yarns that I've kind of put together in a little kit, to use doubled for charity hats. So I just worked on those mostly--purples and pinks. And then the other thing is just the, I'm getting ready to start the socks out of the Bear Brand. Caprice yarn. And I wanted to mention, speaking of that yarn, we talked about that Bear Brand Caprice vintage yarn a few episodes ago. And just to remind you, that's the one that it says it's 100% virgin wool. But it really feels elastic. Like it's got some kind of elastic in it. And it looks like there might be an elastic ply. If you look really closely, there's a really thin ply. That looks like it might be elastic. So I think when they say...I don't know, it doesn't say 100%, it might say all, all virgin wool. I think they're referring to all the wool that's in it is not recycled. But it doesn't say on the label that the yarn is all wool. But anyway, we talked about this in a previous episode, how interesting this yarn is, and I am going to make a pair of socks out of it. I've ripped it out, ripped out the last pair and I'm going to restart them. Maybe today. I have a meeting this afternoon. It might be good meeting knitting, because I'll be done with my crocheting, most of it.

Kelly 23:33 I got a message from Jane Haskell about our conversation of the bear Brand Yarn. She says "I heard you mentioned Bear Brand. Attached are copies of covers of two books. One has many socks, including Argyle circa 1950" and then she has in parentheses, "or MCML" because that's the way it was listed in Roman numerals and

Marsha 23:56 Oh. [laughing]

Kelly 23:59 If you can read Roman numerals. [laughing]"The other is circa 1939. Both were my grandmother's and have her notes in them. I have many more vintage books of my two grandmother's and two grand Aunts and possibly one great grandmother's that I am yard saling this summer." I would like to go to her yard sale

Marsha 24:23 Yeah really!

Kelly 24:23 [continues reading] "I do not have any bear Brand Yarn from stash that I inherited or if I do I've already sold or goodwilled it. I copied the inside of the cover of the 1939 books so you can see what it says." And she sent me that copy. "There are other pages about blocking, measuring, showing illustrations of measurements, and darling little swim costumes and so on." So she says she she loves our show and listens while she's driving. She lives on an island on an island in Maine's Penobscot Bay, where there is a knitting retreat this summer sponsored by Portland's, Maine yarn.

Marsha 24:52 Okay,

Kelly 24:53 So thank you, Jane for sending that information. The copies that sh sent me, were really interesting to look at about this yarn and I'm gonna, I'm gonna print it out and stick the page inside of the bag that I have the yarn in, so I won't forget,y ou know, what kind of yarn it is and where it came from. So that was interesting to get some information about my vintage yarn.

Marsha 25:24 Yeah. Interesting. Well, yeah, maybe we have to get on a plane and go to her yard sale. [laughing]

Kelly 25:33 Go and buy more knitting knitting books. I just got rid some a few years ago

Marsha 25:39 I know, I just got rid of a whole bunch. But that doesn't stop me from dreaming.

Kelly 25:44 I know. I know. There's so interesting to look through those, through those old fashioned, old fashioned books. That's the end of my projects.

Marsha 25:53 Well, I don't have a lot to report. I'm knitting on my sock, right now as we're talking. The Drops Fabel Print that I've been working on a really long time. And I'm working on the gusset. I have one more decrease round. And then I'm just going to be doing the foot. So I don't know, maybe in two weeks, I'll have finished it. I don't know, it's sort of my you know, the mindless knitting that I do.

Kelly 26:23 Yeah.

Marsha 26:24 Then my Walk Along Tee. Um, you know, in the, in all the past episodes I've been talking about how I'm a little anxious about the quantity of yarn, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, last night, I knit to about 11, I think was about 11 and a half inches of the body, which they say to knit. And then what you are supposed to do is then you bind off, but then pick up stitches in the contrast color to make it so it looks like you know there's a T shirt under a T shirt, which I'm not going to do. But if you do that, it's more of a tunic length. And I don't want it tunic length. So I decided last night to put it on waste yarn and try it on. And I think I'm at the length I want. I'm so this is my... Well, I still have to do about a half inch of ribbing. And then what you're supposed to do then is, as I said, you bind that off and then pick up stitches to knit in stockinette in the contrasting color. What you do on the neck edge, and the sleeves, the cuff of the sleeve is you knit in ribbing, and then you change to the contrast in color and you just do, I believe it'd be reverse stockinette. So then that contrasting color sort of curls back and makes like a tube kind of you know, and so I I have to make some decisions. Do I put that same detail around the bottom of the sweater? Now I know a lot of people are saying, well, you don't really want to have a line around the widest part of your hip. I'm not too concerned about that. That never really bothers me having stripes. But I'm.... So I've decided how I'm going to do that. I'm also trying to decide should I just finish the sweater now? The bottom? Or should I just leave it on the waste yarn and go and do the sleeves and finish the sleeves? And then think about the bottom? That'll give me more weeks to think about it? Or do you know what I'm saying?

Kelly 28:30 That's what I would do?

Marsha 28:31 Okay,

Kelly 28:31 Yeah, that's what I would do.

Marsha 28:33 And then what I had planned on doing with the sweater is to make three quarter length sleeves. I may have enough yarn for that. Because I have... I just-- I had to put-- I have just two balls left I mean, so it's basically roughly a little less than one skein left because as I've talked about endlessly that those skeins I split into half into two cakes. So one of the cakes I've used maybe a quarter of it. The other cake, I just maybe did two rows of the body with the second one. So I think between the two of them, I would have enough to do three quarter length sleeves. But now I'm trying to think. I'm beginning to think I don't want three quarter length sleeves. I think I just want short sleeves, not cap sleeves, but just come down like mid because three quarter length would come down.

Kelly 29:24 Like past your elbow.

Marsha 29:30 Past my elbow. So I don't know. That's what I think.

Kelly 29:31 that's what I think too.

Marsha 29:32 And so I'm thinking maybe I just want it to come down. maybe longer like this. The the pattern shows that you just knit a few rows and then you start all of the ribbing and the contrasting reverse stockinette. So it's more of... it's like a short short sleeve. I'm wondering if I want to have it come down just just right before the break in my arm kind of, or above that.

Kelly 29:55 Yeah. Yeah,

Marsha 29:57 I have to do some thinking.

Kelly 29:58 It's best not to have your... like they say you don't want to stop something at the widest part. And so it's best like not to have your sleeve stop at the biggest part of your bicep.

Kelly 30:13 Okay.

Kelly 30:15 So to either be up a little higher or down a little lower.

Marsha 30:18 Okay, why is that?

Kelly 30:19 I don't know, I guess it has to do with, like, to look flattering, you know? And I have no idea if it makes it makes it look smaller or if it just makes it look more balanced. You know, I don't know if it has to do with... When you say flattering a lot of times flattering is a euphemism for skinnier. Oh, yeah. That makes you look thin, right? And that's not what I mean.

Marsha 30:51 Right.

Kelly 30:53 So I don't know if that rule applies because it does make you look thinner, and that's what they mean by more flattering, or if it actually has to do with the aesthetics of it. And kind of the balance of the garment.

Marsha 31:07 Do you remember that the T shirt you made? I think it was the Havasu Falls. And don't the sleeves hit...

Kelly 31:13 I didn't make that.

Marsha 31:15 Oh, what's the one?

Kelly 31:17 Oh, Havana? I made one called Havana. Is it brown?

Marsha 31:22 No, the one that was like, oh, and maybe it is brown. The pattern the

Kelly 31:28 Summer Fjord? That's the one you made. That's my gold one.

Marsha 31:35 No, no. Okay, I'm wrong on that. This is where we have the bad podcasting where we go down these rabbit holes that were not prepared. Let me look at...let me look at your projects.

Kelly 31:52 I'm guessing it's probably Havana.

Marsha 31:54 I think it is Havana.

Kelly 31:58 It's a kind of a pale Brown.

Marsha 32:00 But you made that quite a while and I'm having to scroll down through all of these. All of your projects. Oh, yeah, Havana? Yes, that one. Okay, so let me look at that one. Let me look. Oh, yeah. So those sleeves hit you right above the elbow kind of. You know, they're a little bit..they're not cap sleeves, but they're not three quarter length.

Kelly 32:23 Right. Yeah, they're .... I put them... I made those end at the elbow, like right above my elbow.

Marsha 32:31 Do you think that's a flatteringlook? I'm looking at the pin. Yeah,

Kelly 32:33 I like it. Yeah. I like those sleeves a lot.

Marsha 32:37 Okay.

Kelly 32:39 I like that sweater a lot. I think it's a really flattering sweater.

Marsha 32:41 Okay, so then my question is ...,

Kelly 32:44 And by flattering. I don't mean it makes me look skinny.

Marsha 32:50 Okay, so now I'm looking at Honey of a Tee and you have three quarter length sleeves. Do you like... are you happy with that?

Kelly 32:58 Yes.

Marsha 32:59 Well, you're no help because you like both of them. I

Kelly 33:03 Well, it depends. I like those because... I like those because I think of that as a warmer sweater. Even though it's made out of cotton. I don't-- I don't think of wearing that sweater when it's warm out. The way I do the Havana, that one I wear when it's warmer. I actually think just looking at the pictures. I think that Havana sleeves look better.

Marsha 33:31 So then this is my other... the question I have to then in my mind about this is a merino wool t shirt. So am I gonna wear it in the summer? So do I...? That's why I think I want a little bit longer sleeve than what they're showing in the picture. But I don't know. Yeah, I don't I don't want full length I've decided. But I am thinking... maybe that's why I was thinking originally three quarter length sleeves because it is a wool sweater. I don't know that I'd be wearing it in the summer.

Kelly 34:07 But I think probably if I had made the sleeves on this-- the Lavender Honey is the pattern. I think if I had made the sleeves on that a little bit shorter, it would look a little bit less like my sheet sleeves are just too short. Oh. I like this sweater a lot. And I wear it a lot. But it does...Looking at the picture, it does look like maybe my sleeves are just a little too short. More than that I purposely made them that way.

Marsha 34:41 Okay.

Kelly 34:42 I mean, I don't think it's ugly. I like it. But it does. It does look like an odd length

Marsha 34:48 I think... okay, well that helps

Kelly 34:49 If you made them--if you made these sleeves, the longer sleeves I would say have them stop right after your elbow. Whereas mine go like halfway between my elbow and my wrist.

Marsha 35:03 Yeah. And that's the thing with three quarter length sleeves, too, is you have to find that length that where it looks finished and not like I ran out of yarn.

Kelly 35:16 Yeah, that... I mean, that is kind of the danger. You want it to look like it was on purpose. Yeah.

Marsha 35:24 Anyway, so I'm making progress on that. And then the other thing I've been working on is spinning. And so yesterday, we had a beautiful day and I had been painting at the other house and I came home and I sat on the on my deck, yay! And I've got my--I've got my pots planted. And I've got the umbrellas out there. And so it's a very different, very different experience than a year ago at this time where it was a dust pit back there, no deck. But anyway, I was working on spinning. So I'm almost done. I think the... Okay, the last time we recorded I had ordered more fiber of the bitter chocolate, the dark brown. And I have that. I have not opened the package yet, I have probably another just 12 inches of the brown roving to spin, and a little bit of the green. So my plan is to ply that last of that green with the three ply with the three ply with the brown. Then all the brown that's leftover, I'm just gonna do a three ply of the solid brown. But I haven't finished plying the green and brown together yet. So I'm going to... I still have that to do. But I'm making progress, you know?

Kelly 36:41 Yeah, that's a that's a big... I mean, it's a big spinning project to make a sweater.

Marsha 36:46 Yeah, it is.

Marsha 36:48 And I have not had... and honestly, I've just not had a lot of time to spin, or the time that I've had to spin, I've been so tired that I just get into bed and you can't spin in bed.[laughing]

Kelly 37:01 Right.

Marsha 37:02 Right. Anyway. So that's it for me for projects. I think it's a nice lead in to--talking about spinning a nice lead in to a question that we have from a listener.

Kelly 37:13 So yeah, one of the questions that I've had was about knitting with handspun. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about you know, what, what has been our experience knitting with handspun and some things that especially new spinners can think about or use as tips or, or tricks or strategies or whatever. So one of the things that I kind of don't like to see is when people talk about how much handspun they have, and that they've never knit with it. Like, oh my gosh! You have to have to knit with your handspun. But now, if you were to ask me that when I first started spinning, I had no desire to knit with my handspun I just wanted to make yarn. And then of course, you know, the knitting and the weaving were partly self defense against all the yarn I was making. My main goal was to make yarn but but it is really satisfying to make something out of your own yarn. I think I always really enjoy it. So one of the things I just wanted to mention is how I select a needle size to swatch and I learned this a long time ago. And I usually, I mean I usually do this as a way to kind of identify what needle I'm going to start with. I get out my needle gauge and I double up the yarn and I poke it through the holes in the needle gauge and I look for one where it it goes through pretty easily. It isn't like scraping the edge the whole time. It's not so big that, you know, it doesn't touch at all. Where does the yarn doubled fit through the needle gauge the best? And that's where I start and then I usually swatch one down, one needle size down from that and one needle size up from that and then I look at my fabric. And then if if I think, oh, maybe I want to try a little bit looser or a little bit tighter I'll, you know, I'll go even further up or even further down but usually one up and one down gives me three choices. And one of those three choices is a fabric that I like and a gauge that I like and then I'll go look in Ravelry and use the gauge as one of the filters in the advanced pattern search. I think I've talked about that before--how I use that in the advanced pattern search.

Marsha 39:42 and I'm just.. This is not about... This, my comment, too This is just about doing swatches. And this is not about handspun this was all swatches. And people probably know this but I had not known this and I think my friend Kim told me this, is that when you do your swatch, like if you're going to do three different... I just, I don't make three individual swatches, I just do--I make it all one. I just chang the needles. But to keep track of which swatch is which size needle, you put holes in there for the size needle. So if you're knitting on size three needles, you put three, you know, three yarn overs, knit two, and then knit two together, yarn over, knit two together, yarn over, knit two together, so you get three holes. So then when you look at your...right at the beginning of the swatch, so then when you wash it, you know which, which one is which. Yeah, so five yarn overs for if you're using five, size five needles, etc. Do you do that?

Kelly 40:41 Yes. The only time that I haven't done that is been has been when my needle size is so big that I don't have enough. I don't have enough stitches on my swatch. And instead of making a bigger swatch, you know, wider swatch, I have just used a different technique, like, you know, make a little note or, or tie a little string on it with the right number of knots, or something like that. So, but yeah, I do use that technique a lot. You have to make sure that you swatch long enough if you do that. Because if you make little, you know, four row swatches, and one of your rows is holes. That's not going to give you a very good idea.

Marsha 41:27 Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 41:29 But, I like to, I like to make a good size swatch. And then I always wash the swatch too, just to see what that does to see what the fabric looks like. So yeah, and then I just select the pattern based on based on those patterns that match my gauge. Because I don't, I don't like the game of trying to get trying to get gauge, I'd rather get a fabric I like and then find a sweater that uses that gauge, then try to get a gauge that my yarn is not going to want to do.

Marsha 42:03 Well and then also select a pattern that, beyond gauge, a pattern that will work with the type of fabric that you've created or what type of... because you know even with with handspun, but even commercially made yarns, some work in lace, some don't some work with cable, some don't. Some you know, some work with texture, some don't. So that's why another reason to make kind of a large swatch too is that you get a better sense of what it's going to look like. If you were to do cables, or

Kelly 42:39 Yeah, like a really textured yarn. Don't bother with a really patterned a really detailed pattern like cables or, or... Well, that's sort of what happened with those socks, right? I was trying to, it wasn't handspun. But I was trying to use the Matcha pattern that had, you know, some texture to it, with a yarn that already had texture. And it was pointless.

Marsha 43:05 Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 43:06 So you do have to be be aware of that. So, but we've had a lot of people make things out of their very first handspun in the summer spin ins that we've had in previous years. So yeah, so I think I think we do have a good, a good track record of helping people and supporting people. And the group of people who are who are chatting in the thread, also giving a good, good amount of support to people who want to make something out of their handspun. Yeah, it's always fun to see that happen.

Marsha 43:40 Yeah.

Kelly 43:41 Now you've knit with your handspun. I mean, you're not a new new spinner, but you knit with your handspun. And right away.

Marsha 43:48 Well, my very first one that I made, I think it's still in a ball. And then I'm like, Oh, I'm going to spin some yarn and I'm going to make a hat for Ben. That thing is like it weighs... It feels like it weighs a pound. I should weigh it. It feels like a weighs a pound. Super dense. super heavy. But you know, I will never throw it away. And then I... so this kind of leads into another thing we were just going to mention. But anyway, I said I was gonna make him a pair of socks. And out of my handspun. And I was going to try, I was trying to spin fingering weight or sock weight you know, but it's worsted weight. And so these are very heavy, heavy socks and they're... and I got the... You wouldn't think that I would get the stitch count off given that they were so big. There wouldn't be that many stitches for a worsted weight pair of socks. But one of them I got this. I don't know how I did it, but I have too many stitches. So one is significantly larger than the other. So but I still have those But just a side note about the comments about the yarn isn't good enough and the allure of spinning thin. One of the things like I talked about that a lot, I don't seem to be able to spin... To date, I have not been able to spin yarn that's finer than DK, perhaps. It's always ends up being worsted weight

Kelly 45:28 Well, and you always make a three ply. Right? I mean that you could make it... you could, you could have a fingering weight yarn if you use the singles. At this point,

Marsha 45:41 yes, yeah, yeah. ,

Kelly 45:45 or maybe only two ply,

Marsha 45:48 yeah. The but then I've made I guess I've made two sweaters with my yarn, right? Did I make two sweaters? Because I did the, I can't even remember!

Kelly 46:01 You made two combo spins.

Marsha 46:02 I did the combo spins. And I made two. And I really I have to say I just really like knitting with the handspun. It's a different experience knitting with handspun. Because there is, because I I'm a newer spinner than you are. And that first combo spin I think was the first time I had spun a sweater quantity of yarn. And so because it is handspun, there is variation. And that's actually kind of fun to knit with to see. I found it enjoyable. It just yeah, it felt really good to knit with my handspun and I don't know, it just... it's it's because of the irregularities it's just much more textural and but when you actually knit..

Kelly 46:52 There's so much more life. So yeah, there's some element of life to it, that...

Marsha 46:58 it has a bit more soul to it.

Kelly 47:01 And also, I mean, it has a little bit more spring to it, too. I mean, really, I mean literally has more spring in it, I think, than a commercial yarn. Its more elastic. I mean, it depends on what you're spinning, but for the most part, I think my handspun is much more elastic than than any commercial yarn. Yeah.

Marsha 47:27 Yeah, I just like it. It was very enjoyable to knit with.

Kelly 47:29 Your first project wasn't a sweater, but I know of people whose first project has been a sweater. And I, you know, I'm not gonna say... I'm not gonna stop anyone from jumping in feet first like that. But I think some good first projects are like what you mentioned. A hat is a good first project. I made potholders out of the the really ropey heavy, dense yarn that I made originally. I made potholders, I made a little bag for my spinning wheel oil, and the potholders I felted. So they were really nice and thick. So those are good, some good first projects. But a hat is a good project, a cowl is a good project. Socks, I think probably better if... One of my first projects was socks, too. And they were super dense. In fact, I, I couldn't I could barely knit two together. Because the yarn was so thick, and my needles were so small. And they you know, I just, I had an impression of how thin the yarn was, when it really wasn't, you know.

Marsha 48:43 And, and that was my experience with the socks that I made for Ben. It was so dense that it's very difficult too. My hands hurt and knitting together for the decreases was really, really challenging.

Kelly 48:59 Yeah, so probably, I mean, probably you were using needles more along the lines of sock needles, using a yarn that was closer to worsted weight.

Marsha 49:08 Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 49:09 And so slipper socks would be a better, a better choice, you know, a worsted weight pair of slipper socks would be a better a better choice probably then. Just for ease of, ease of knitting. But yeah, there are a lot of I mean, there are a lot of good projects for handspun. And this idea that your yarn isn't good enough. I mean, a lot of people will say that, you know, I want to get better before I use my yarn. I would say... I would say your yarn is good enough. It's a matter of the right, you know, finding the right project for it. And it's only the super early yarn that is so dense and ropey. I mean, people quickly, I think, move from that sort of ropey plying, really dense plying. And that happens pretty quickly.

Marsha 50:02 Well and that ropey hat that I made. You can see, you know, when you when you're plying and you get those little corkscrews, that you can't undo and lots of that! And so and you can... so many of you can actually see it in the finished project. But you have to start somewhere.

Kelly 50:23 That's right. That's right.

Marsha 50:25 But I have to say, with the two sweaters that I made, as I say, the yarn is, has character, you know, they have thin bits and thick bits...

Kelly 50:38 Beautiful!

Marsha 50:39 Oh, yeah. They're, I think they're really nice. The, but what I was going to say is that, and we've talked this about this before, but you have thick and thin bits in the single, but then when you ply it, that changes. But you still may, even if you still have thick and thin bits after you ply it, that all changes again, when you knit it up.

Kelly 51:02 Yeah.

Marsha 51:03 And so those thick and thin parts really begin to sort of just disappear, I think. And worst case scenario, if you have one, that's just one spot that's super, super thin or super, super thick, you cut it out and just

Kelly 51:17 Right,

Marsha 51:18 spit, splice the yarn together and keep knitting, you know,

Kelly 51:21 if you have a bad spot, or if you have one of those pigtails from plying that you don't want to be in your...

Marsha 51:27 Oh, that's what it's called?

Kelly 51:28 The pig tail is what I call it. I don't know if it's...I don't know if that's what it's called or not, but that's kind of what I call it.

Marsha 51:39 So, um, but then Kelly, uh, how about measuring the skein?

Kelly 51:44 Oh, yeah, that's the other thing that happens when you're new, is you have a misperception about how much yarn you made. And, and there does seem to be not so much anymore. There used to be a lot of, a lot of I don't know, like, you know, the social media kind of pressure about spinning that I didn't have, because there wasn't social media. Right? I didn't know what other people's spinning looked like, you know, other than when I went to guild meetings and saw it on, you know, saw what they were working on. But I didn't do that very, I didn't do that that often. And Spin Off had episodes, they had issues where they started to after-- I'd been spinning quite a while-- they started having issues where you would send your yarn to them, and they would photograph it and they would put the skeins in the magazine, the photographs. And that was the first time that I really had a ton of exposure to other people's yarn. And that wasn't even, you know, real life exposure, but picture exposure. So I didn't have you know, the pictures that people will post. And I'm not, I'm not criticizing people for doing this. But I think somebody, the way people perceive it is different, like people will post pictures, and they'll put a coin along with yarn, right. And the idea is to give you some some element of scale, you can tell how, how thick or thin the yarn is. But sometimes I think when I see, you know, some of these pictures are especially... it used to be more common. I would see I would see these pictures or I would hear people talking about how thin their yarn was. And it was like that was the only thing that was valuable was the thin yarn. Like if it wasn't thin it was not worth spinning or doing anything with and you had to try to get as thin as possible. Well, there's a use for thin yarn. But I don't knit with lace weight all the time.

Marsha 53:47 Right?

Kelly 53:48 So like, what are you going to do with, you know, dozens of skeins of lace weight and thinner. So you know, make the yarn that's going to fit what you're going to... what you're going to make. And so if you like knitting with DK weight yarn, then that's the weight that you should try to spin for. If you like fingering weight yarn, then you can try to spin for fingering weight and that'll you know, that'll mean your plies are a little thinner. But experiment, you know, with thick yarn and thin yarn. And there's nothing inherently better about spinning thin, I guess is my my point. And then the other thing that's also true is the worsted yarn. A lot of times I'll see at a spinning event that, you know, people are spinning like this. They call it inchworm style. And again, there's nothing wrong with spinning in that in that way. It makes it very smooth, compressed yarn, because you're only letting a little bit of fiber out and then you're smoothing it down before you advance it. So it makes it very smooth, and also very compressed yarn. Which is fine if you're wanting worsted style yarn, right? That's what worsted style is. Very smooth and compressed. But if you want something fluffy or light, then you know use a different spinning style. And you'll have fluffier yarn or it'll have a halo to it. And there's something nice about about the fact when you wash it, it gets a little bit fuzzy, you know, more fuzzy. So I guess... I guess the point I'm trying to make is that, I would suggest if you're a new spinner, just spin and see what happens. I mean, it's... Yeah, it's good to have goals. And it's good to try things like to give yourself a lesson or a challenge. You know, for learning. But when you're first spinning, I think, just spin and see what happens. And some fibers are going to want to be more smooth and other fibers are going to turn into a yarn that's really fluffy. And sometimes you're going to get a yarn that's thick, and sometimes you're going to get a yarn that's thinner, depending on the, the, you know, the fiber that you're using. And that's how and then you can kind of learn what they say, like what the fiber wants to be. And then don't try to make fiber be a way doesn't want to be.

Marsha 56:25 Right.

Kelly 56:27 So anyway, that's... Yeah, I think that's kind of an important thing to think about.

Marsha 56:33 But we started this about measuring the yardage. And so Kelly, you want to talk about how you how you measure or how you taught me to measure the skein?

Kelly 56:42 Yeah, How did I get from... because you said that already...measuring the yardage. How did I get off...

Marsha 56:47 I know, I'm trying to guide you back on topic graciously, but I don't think I did it very graciously. [laughing]

Kelly 56:55 No, that was nice, Marsha. Thank you. [laughing]

Kelly 56:59 Measuring the yardage. Be careful when you measure on the niddy noddy because it's going to be stretched. So like I have what's called a one yard niddy noddy. And it's not actually one yard. Like if I, if I measure a piece of yarn that goes around, even if I use like cotton string that doesn't stretch at all, and I go around my... or if I take the tape measure and go around my niddy noddy, it's not quite a yard. It's a little short of a yard even though it was advertised as a one yard niddy noddy. And then if I wind the yarn on to it, of course, it's tight. So just counting how many times... Actually it's a two yard... Sorry, it's a two yard niddy noddy. So just counting the number of times I went around doesn't really give me the yardage that I have. That... I did that, I made that mistake. I made that mistake before. Thinking I had way more yarn than I actually had. Yeah. So now what I do is, after I've washed it, skeined it up and washed it, I just lay it out kind of flat on the ironing board or on the table. And then I just measure, I just measure how long that skein is kind of, on average, like I put the tape measure, kind of in the middle of each end and and measure. And then I just you know, and I count how many, how many threads there are.

Marsha 58:21 Now you do that though, after you've washed the yarn.

Kelly 58:25 Yeah, I do it after I've washed it. And, and I don't count it while I wind it on because I can't do that. You know, I could count and say, Oh, I went around, you know, 300 times as I'm winding it on. I don't usually do that. I usually count them after it's been washed. Just because I know I'm not going to keep track while I'm winding.

Marsha 58:50 Okay, well, do you want to know what I do?

Kelly 58:52 What do you do

Marsha 58:53 So because you gave me the niddy noddy, your extra niddy noddy and so I think we have the same one it's the two yard one. So in theory, what I do is I do count as I wrap around the niddy noddy I count up to 20 and then make a mark on it on a piece of paper.

Kelly 59:11 You're much more disciplined!

Marsha 59:12 And then because I could not count 300 I would lose track right? But if I just count to... and if I'm really distracted I just count to 10 but I count around 20 times mark on a piece of paper or 20 times mark it so then it ends up being... say I have it's I've wrapped around 80 times it usually ends up being an odd number you know 87 times. Then what I do is I multiply that by two and then I measured the length, I take it off the knot and I don't stretch it really tight but I just hold it straight out and I measure it usually it ends up being 30 inches

Kelly 59:48 yeah mine's somewhere around there.

Marsha 59:51 So what I end up doing... but I haven't washed it yet though. So what I do is I then my math is you know the number of wraps-- times I've wrapped around, say it's 87 times, times the length, which is 30 inches, then doubled times two, then I divide it by 36.

Kelly 1:00:11 Right.

Marsha 1:00:11 And that tells me how many yards I have. Approximately. Now, I have not. So this the yarns that I'm working on now, I then I put a tag on it. You know what the fiber is, how many yards, approximately, I think I have based on that, then I weigh it to figure out how many ounces I have. You could also do grams too, but how many ounces that skein is. And then in the lower right hand corner of the tag, I put a one and then a slash, you know, like if you're gonna do percent, one slash, and then when I'm all done... So you'll have one, you know, a skein one, skein two, skein three. And then when I'm all done, I fill in how many skeins I have. So it's one of ten, two of ten, three of 10. Don't ask me why I do that. Just because I'm I, it might be kind of weird. But then I know what was my first skein. And what was my last skein. And I was thinking the reason I... Well, actually I do, actually, you can ask me why I do that. Because I do have a reason why I do that.

Marsha 1:01:17 Why do you do that Marsha?

Marsha 1:01:19 So that my theory is, when I start, say I'm going to knit a sweater, then I can knit with my first and my last skein. Maybe alternate my first and last skeins. And so that is because there is going to be variation, I would think because you are like, for example, this green and brown that I'm spinning, it's it's over a period of months that I'm spinning it. And sometimes I take a week or two weeks break that I'm not doing anything. So there is going to be variation between the first skein and the last skein just because, yeah, weeks, months or years have gone past, right. So that's sort of my idea is well if I then can blend them, keep track of those skeins, I can blend them as I'm knitting, alternate those skeins.

Kelly 1:02:05 That makes sense. I think you would especially if you were a newer spinner, it might get finer as you go, even if you're trying to keep it consistent. And even if you have a control card, you know, or a piece of yarn that you're using to spin to, it's very likely that you are going to get better, your spinning is going to improve. And and a lot of people when their spinning improves, they do end up you know, they have more facility with drafting and they do end up with a thinner yarn. Yeah.

Marsha 1:02:36 And then the other thing I do is I... So with that first skein, so I know I have say 150 yards and it weighs two ounces. I know that my... so then I then I can figure out well, how many yards am I getting per ounce?

Kelly 1:02:53 Yeah.

Marsha 1:02:54 And so, and I have... I'm starting with this many ounces of fiber, it gives me a little bit so it's not accurate, because it's only my first skein. But it gives me kind of a sense of like, well, how much yarn do I think I'm going to get, how much yardage am I going to produce out of so many ounces of yarn. And then as I say, then I add in skein two, skein three, and it's to see... And it's pretty accurate from that first skein, even as I started adding and doing the math to see how many ounces or-- excuse me-- rephrase that. How many yards per ounce I'm going to get. It stays pretty consistent as I started adding in the skeins. Does that make sense what I do.

Kelly 1:03:37 Yeah. And then that gives you an idea whether you have enough fiber or do you like in this particular sweater quantity that you're spinning right now. You decided you needed to buy more fiber, because you knew you weren't going to get the yardage that that you were hoping for. Yeah, no, I think that's I think that's really good. I think those are kind of our main thoughts about knitting with your handspun. Or crocheting, doing any kind of working with your handspun. like, how do you find...

Marsha 1:04:05 Or weaving?

Kelly 1:04:06 Yeah, yeah, we didn't even talk about weaving, weaving is a great thing to do with your handspun. because textured yarn makes really nice weaving projects. And you don't need to worry about gauge.

Marsha 1:04:24 So what are what are what are good projects for textured yarn, in knitting or crochet, do you think?

Kelly 1:04:34 Um, I Well, I think the the slipper socks is a good one because it will be... they will be nice and squishy and I think a nice cowl would be good in a textured yarn. You know, for for knitting or crocheting.

Marsha 1:04:50 What about people who are more advanced and you start doing sort of like those, what's the word... Art art yarns, you know. Like they actually spin...that's what I was thinking of like when you spin in, you intentionally spin like thick and thin, exaggerated...

Kelly 1:05:11 Yeah, I've seen some really pretty sweaters with the slubby yarn, you use kind of a loose gauge and that way the the real slubby parts can, can show up. Well, like my Sonny Bono jacke is at a really loose gauge, and that yarn is definitely art yarn, you have all those locks sticking off the yarn. So I do think a looser gauge is best for those kinds of yarns. And you could use them as... I've seen people use them as like the, the, you know, brim of a hat and then the rest of the hat is ... like the the part you fold, or like a cuff, you know, on a sleeve or a yoke like a stripe in the yoke. So you could use your handspun along with something else. And that's a really nice way to to use up just a one skein, you know, one small skein of yarn? Yeah, in a project that's not a handspun, not fully a handspun project.

Marsha 1:06:17 Do you have anything more you want to add on this topic?

Kelly 1:06:18 I don't think so today. I think that's, that's good. And then we'll add other topics. And we're interested in knowing... I put a question in the summer spin in chat thread, to let us know if you know if there's anything that you would want to hear about during the spin in. The topics that you'd like us to talk about in spinning on the podcast, you can do that. You can send us an email, you can contact us through our website. Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. We have a Contact Us page, you can contact us there. You can contact either me or Marsha on Instagram, through direct message and we can add your your question to our to our topic list.

Marsha 1:07:01 And we'll talk more. Hopefully, we'll get a lot of good questions. And we'll add some. We'll talk about spinning over the next few months. Because just a reminder, the summer spin in starts. It's Memorial Day through Labor Day, which is May 31 through September 6. And so we'll be talking more about spinning over the summer months.

Kelly 1:07:23 Yeah it's a good three months, a little more than three months of spinning.

Marsha 1:07:28 By September, people will be saying, please stop talking about spinning! You've spun us dry. [laughing]

Kelly 1:07:40 Anyway. All right.

Marsha 1:07:41 So I'm excited about projects plans. So anyway,so Kelly, do we have any anything else we wanted to say?

Kelly 1:07:51 I don't think so.

Marsha 1:07:52 Should we say goodbye?

Kelly 1:07:53 Yeah. Yeah. Let's say goodbye. We'll see everyone in two weeks. We'll talk to everyone in two weeks. All righty. Bye. Bye.

Marsha 1:08:04 Bye.

Kelly 1:08:04 Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit to Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com

Marsha 1:08:12 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects. Until next time, where the Two Ewes doing our part for a world fleece!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Kelly shares happy news about adopting Bear, a big, sweet, eight year old shepherd. And Marsha has a surprise finish!

Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

Walk Along tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link)

I finished my Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde (Ravelry link) just in time for the end of our Extremities Knit/Crochet Along.

I started the gusset on the second sock of a pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.

I ordered another 8 oz of the dark brown roving for the green and brown three ply. I plan to spin the brown separately and make a striped sweater.

Kelly's Projects

I finished the Huck weaving sampler from the Jane Stafford Guild. I'm now ready for May and episode 4.

Faye's Flower Blanket. I now have 16 octagons

Extremities Knit/Crochet Along

This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns:

Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio

Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah

The KAL ended on April 25, 2021 and the winners are:

jacquiemari--Jacqueline. She made legwarmers. Wins the Abington Mitts pattern by Jennifer Lassonde

JillMabelina--Jill. She made a pair of Bernie mitts. Wins the Coffee Socks Collection by Dots Dabbles Designs.

Summer Spin In

May 31st - September 6th

Get ready to spin! Our Summer Spin In takes place again from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Transcript

Marsha 0:03 Hi, this is Marsha

Kelly 0:04 and this is Kelly.

Marsha 0:05 We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly 0:10 You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha 0:17 We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Kelly 0:22 And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects, and I am Betterinmotion. We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.

Marsha 0:36 Enjoy the episode.

Marsha 0:43 Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly 0:44 Good morning, Marsha. I just had to look to see if it was actually still morning and it is. It's technically, it's technically morning. I am very tired.

Marsha 0:58 Well, you have big news.

Kelly 0:59 I do. Yeah. Anybody who follows me on Instagram... And if you don't follow me on Instagram, you should! 1hundredprojects, the number one, hundred projects, you will have seen that we have a new addition to the family. And I, you know, I know that raising a baby--that type of new addition to the family is much more difficult than what I'm doing. And I... it's only actually been two days and things are already getting better. But I am totally exhausted. We adopted a new dog. So his name is his name is Bear. I call him Beary. He is,... well... I don't know if I told you Marsha. I'll tell everybody how this actually happened. We were not looking for another dog. I mean, we do...

Marsha 1:52 Yes, I actually, I don't and my brother asked me. So why did they do this? Why did why did you this?

Kelly 1:57 Yeah. So I mean, we miss Nash, you know, we lost him in the fall. And he was kind of nice to have around. And then Betty liked having a dog when we would go off. To have a dog to stay home with her. But we weren't really looking for another dog at this point. And I actually think a one dog household is too few dogs. But again, we weren't really thinking about another dog at this point. Bailey still young. And I still got a lot of work to do with her. So. But anyway, my friend Paul is interested in getting a dog and he's been talking about it for I don't know, maybe two years. And first he wanted to get a lab and he was asking me about lab breeders that I knew. And then he was thinking maybe he get this breed and maybe that breed. And just for listeners, he's a friend that I've had since I started at Hartnell. And I helped him find his first dog, which was a boxer that I co owned with him and trained and did obedience got her got her CD title. And then he got--I helped him find his last dog, which was a wirehaired pointing griffon. So anyway, now he's looking for another dog. And so and I just you know, I said you know, you're you're working so hard at this trying to find a dog online and feeling concerned. Why don't you look at maybe a rescue? Oh, I don't know, I think I want to raise a puppy. I want to know what it's gonna be like, but you know me, he was kind of not really open to it. But

Marsha 3:32 but but he didn't say no. Right?

Kelly 3:35 So periodically, over the last couple of months, because every time I talked to him, he's like, I need to get a dog. What do you think about this breed? What do you think about that breed? So I just thought, you know what? I'm going to go on, look at the shelters. So I did and I did this about three months, three or two months ago, I guess. I went to look at the shelters, and there really isn't much. In fact, that's an interesting thing that the shelters all have shortages. But anyway, I saw this German Shepherd male who it was very overweight. And I saw about two months ago and I thought oh, he's the old guy, you know, a senior and I thought well, he'll be, you know, he'll be adopted because everybody's being adopted now. This is how it's working. And then I went back and he was still there. And then the third time I went back, he was still there. I texted Robert and I said what do you think? It'd be like... His situation just reminded me of Nash coming to us later in life after a kind of somewhat unknown background, you know, to just kind of be the lay-around-the-house dog. And so Robert said, Yeah, okay. I think that might be okay. And so I contacted the SPCA. Well, it was so much faster than Bailey!

Marsha 4:54 Because Bailey was a really long time. You had to pass a lot of hurdles.

Kelly 4:58 Yeah. mmmhmmm.

Marsha 5:00 It took a couple months, right?

Kelly 5:00 They had to inspect my house and, and she had an injury that had to heal too. So that was part of it. But, you know, I was at... we were out at the boarding facility, I don't know, for 10 days going every day to see her, you know, before she was able to come home. So I contacted them on Saturday. I emailed or filled out the form on Saturday, I got a phone call. I thought I wouldn't hear back until Monday. But I got a phone call on Sunday, saying, Do you want to come meet him? Can you come on Monday? So then Robert's, like, they're just trying to get rid of him? What's wrong with this dog? And I said, well, what's wrong with him is he's you know, low thyroid, and he has a lot of weight to lose. And, you know, he's eight. And they just want to send--he's been there a long time. They just want to get him a home, you know. If we're interested, they're gonna take us up on it, but, but he was really suspicious about how fast it went. And then we went and met him. And they had, you know, they asked us to bring Bailey so Bailey met him too. And, you know, they kind of didn't really interact, they just kind of did their own thing. in the, in the area where, where they meet. We, you know, we walked them together kind of on leash. And then, and then she was-- they were able to both go off leash together, but they pretty much just kind of ignored each other mostly. Sniffed a little bit, but that was it. So then, you know, is like, are you? Well, what do you think? Are you interested? And I said, Yes. And so like, 20 minutes later, we were leaving with a ramp because he didn't like getting into the car. And you can't lift him up because he, he doesn't like being poked or prodded or pushed or lifted, or anything like that. And he turns around and grabs you, not biting you. But he does, like let you know that he doesn't want you doing that, which we're working on. So anyway, we've had him for two days. This is the third, this is the third day.

Marsha 7:10 I just, I mean, it's such a shock, because, well, I just think it's amazing that you can just go and get a dog that fast.

Kelly 7:18 That's what Robert said. He said, how do they know that we're a good home? Like they talked-- They talked to us for half an hour. You know, we brought Bailey and they saw how Bailey was with him. And then they sent him home with us. Like, how do they know we're gonna be good?

Marsha 7:34 You know, it's like when I gave birth to Ben, I couldn't believe the hospital was gonna let me take him home. Don't they know I don't know what I'm doing? I mean, it's kind of amazing that anybody can have a baby and you can just

Kelly 7:48 Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

Marsha 7:50 But it's the same thing. And I, I've told you this too. About my friend that had moved to Spokane, came to visit Seattle and got a dog and And literally, he just filled out the application paid his fee and left with the dog. And then the poor dog came to my house and met Enzo and we had lunch and then got in the car and drove across the state.

Kelly 8:14 Yeah.

Marsha 8:16 And it worked out fine. That dog adores Darryl, you know. And Darryl adores the dog. It worked out fine, but it's like, they just let the dogs go with anybody. It's just so... strange.

Kelly 8:27 When I volunteered there I never wanted to let any dog go with anybody.

Marsha 8:31 Yeah. No owner was good enough.

Kelly 8:34 Anyway, but he's, he's great. He, he's hard. It's really hard. I mean, basically, I'm used to having dogs that, you know, they they, they communicate. I know how to communicate with them. You know, we had to work on it with with Bailey. And you forget how much you had to work. I had to kind of remind myself of how hard it was when she first came. Because now she seems so easy. But yeah, like he didn't know how to be in the house. And the first day, it was great because the weather's been really good. So we've just been able to spend all day out in the backyard. And I've gotten, I have to admit, very little work done. But you know, I can set my computer up on the table in the backyard and I can work and I can be in the... I've been able to be in the trailer and talk to him through the window of the trailer. He can come and look in the door of the trailer. But he can't he can't get in because he's too big. He can't lift himself, you know, into the .

Marsha 9:35 So I know like Well, let's just let's talk about some of his issues.

Kelly 9:40 Okay.

Marsha 9:41 You said he has, is it? He has hypo thyroid? Because I don't-- I can't say it..

Kelly 9:46 Yeah, hypothyroid he's low thyroid, and he's on thyroid medication. And he was at the SPCA for three months. He came in with a wound from being attacked by a dog. And he was surrendered. And then they stitched him up that was kind of on his shoulder and they stitched him up. And then they discovered that he had this low thyroid problem.

Marsha 10:14 Well, and also doesn't he have...He's had, like you said, a chronic ear infection, which has damaged one of his ears. Didn't you say that, too?

Kelly 10:20 Yeah, he had... They didn't realize at first but but after, you know, they fixed him up, and they realize his ear had a problem. So then they had to go in and clean out his ears. And they cleaned them and then they came back, you know, got really bad again, and they so they put him on antibiotics for his ears and ear medication. And...but the one ear bothers him, he shakes his head a lot. Even though it's clean. The vet said it's clean. It's just the ear canal has kind of a lot of scar tissue. And it just... she said it just feels funny. And I

Marsha 10:22 Yeah,

Kelly 10:51 well, when he got to the... he's he lost 30 pounds. I think she said. Yeah, he lost like 30 pounds. And I think, I mean, he should probably be more like 90 pounds. Unless, unless he's just a bigger dog than I think in terms of his body structure. I'm thinking probably he should be around 90 pounds. So he has another like 40 pounds to lose.

Marsha 11:25 So he should be about 90 pounds. He is did you say he's like 137 pounds? Now?

Kelly 11:31 He's 133. Yeah, when he came home.

Marsha 11:33 133 when it came home? And he'd lost...

Kelly 11:38 almost 30 pounds. Yeah.

Marsha 11:40 30 pounds. So he would have been like 160 pounds.

Kelly 11:44 Yes.

Marsha 11:46 And he should be around 90.

Kelly 11:48 Yeah, like a large German Shepherd would be... a male German Shepherd would be like around 90.

Marsha 11:54 He was like double what he should be. More than double what he should be.

Kelly 11:56 Yeah. And you know, I don't know, do ear canals get fat? [laughing] I have no idea. But he's, he's very, he's very. He's very sweet. But he just he does whatever he wants. He's like a 130 pound toddler. And he doesn't really understand the word no. Right? I mean, he's not probably had a lot of interaction. He probably was a backyard dog, you know? And so he doesn't really... Like I'm just so much blah, blah, blah, blah, when I talk, and so he doesn't really understand the word no or anything. Yeah, you know, and he goes where he wants and he weighs a lot more than most dogs.

Marsha 12:09 He can just go where he wants, because he is so big.

Kelly 12:47 So I'm gonna say something that is probably controversial to a lot of people. But he came to us on a buckle collar. And, like, I can't control him. Right. I'm not that--I mean, I'm not as strong as I used to be when I had the wolf hounds. But also the wolf hounds, they thought I was stronger than them. You know, I mean, I knew them since puppyhood. So

Marsha 13:14 but at 137 pounds, 133 pounds.

Kelly 13:21 He weighs more than I do. Yeah,

Marsha 13:22 He outweighs, you.

Kelly 13:23 Yeah. And he's also he's used to doing what he wants, you know. So I couldn't I mean, I could barely walk him. So after one day, we got out the the chain collar that Nash had used and, you know, I wasn't jerking him around or anything, but it just gives me a lot of, a lot better control. And we were able to go for three walks yesterday, three short walks yesterday. And you know, he's not dragging me around now. Literally, he was dragging me through the house to get to toys. The first night it was like, every time he saw one of Bailey's toys, which, you know, we didn't know he was coming, so I had not dog proofed the house. And so he'd see one of her squirrels that she has--the squirrels in a tree--and he'd like take off. I was like flying behind him. Cuz he was on leash. Oh my gosh, it was so hard that first night.

Marsha 13:33 Wow.

Kelly 14:02 He just, you know, he went where he wanted and, and, and he's surprisingly fast for a big guy. If you if he's got something on his mind that he wants, he's surprisingly fast [laughing] Oh my goodness, but so so that that has made it a little bit easier to to have some control when he has the leash on. But he's still I mean, he still... he wants what he wants when he wants it. And but he's very...

Marsha 14:48 Just like a toddler.

Kelly 14:49 Yeah, exactly. Exactly. 130 pound toddler. But he learned he does learn how to sleep on the pillow the first day-- the first night. He can't be crated, because we don't have a crate big enough. And I tried the ex-pen, but he just walked pushing the ex-pen. So the ex-pen is just moving around the room as... Like, Okay, this is not gonna work! [laughing]

Marsha 15:22 Well, cuz you were saying because he's a backyard dog he's not housebroken either, right. So how is that? So I have a couple questions. That was the other issue he had. There's really no training. Not housebroken. He really is not comfortable in the house. Right? You said he was... He's used to being outside. So he sort of anxious being inside and having to spend the night inside. So what other issues did he have? [laughing] So I guess I'll just ask my question. So he seems to be doing better being inside, right. The first night you said was sort of challenging, but so you picked him up Monday?

Kelly 16:01 Yeah.

Marsha 16:01 So it's only two nights.

Kelly 16:02 Yeah. And since Robert works, swing shift, I was by myself in the evening. During the day, we were out in the yard, and it was fine. You know, he he had, he was able to go around the yard, we took him off the leash. And he was able to go around the yard and, you know, do things and-- but then when it's time to come in and got cold, and I needed to come in for the night, I brought him in, and we we sat up in the spare room. And I put the two dog pillows in there. And Bailey, he and Bailey were both there. And I told Bailey to lay on her pillow. So she did. And then I just sat and crocheted while he paced and paced and whined and whined and paced and whined and paced and whined. Until, luckily, he's so big! Because he can't stand up for that long, right. At a certain point, he had to sit down. And then once he sat down, he can only sit for so long before he has to lay his body on the ground. So, so finally he lay down. But you know, I would try to be as still as I could, so he wouldn't pop up. But you know, it was only going for like 20 minutes at a time. And then he'd be back up pacing and whining. And that was from about dinner, like 6:30 after dinner, until I finally thought you know what, okay, he's getting a little more comfortable in this room, but we have to sleep in the other room. Maybe this wasn't such a smart idea. I should have probably started already there. So then I got the bedroom ready and put the pillows down and closed the door. And so then I just let him pace around in the bedroom while I sat in the bed and did more crocheting. And again, same thing, you know, pacing and whining and pacing and whining until he finally laid on the pillow and, and fell asleep. And then Robert got home. I stayed up until Robert got home. And then once Robert got home, Robert took him out one more time. And then we--but we were up a couple of times during the night that first night to take him out and stuff. But last night he slept all the way through the night. I mean, Robert gets home around midnight. Robert took him out then. But he slept the whole rest of the night. So he was tired. We were both tired.

Marsha 18:14 Yeah. And and then what about the diet? Are you... how are you going to approach that because he obviously needs to get off additional weight?

Kelly 18:23 Yeah. The vet actually said she doesn't think he'll lose any more. I think maybe because of his thyroid issue? I'm not really sure. That surprised me when she said that. But she told me you know how much he was eating. And we're going to keep him at that amount for a while with just the extra activity and see what happens. So and then, and then we'll kind of gauge how he's going. I don't want to give him too little. You know, you don't want him to lose weight too fast. Right, like people so, yeah. So anyway, right now, it's just kind of the same amount, trying to feed him the same amount as what they were giving him but you know, watching... using a lot of that food as treats. You know, to teach him things.

Marsha 18:44 So and then the housebreaking do you think?

Kelly 18:51 They said he was clean in the kennel. Like he didn't go in his kennel. At the SPCA they would, you know, they take.. they try to take the dogs out and, and let them go to the bathroom outside of their of their pens. And they said, you know, he would hold it so that he could go when they let him out. So that was good. So that, you know, that's good. That makes it a lot easier to housebreak. So just making sure that he goes out often. You know and we've been spending... I mean, it's only been there's only the third day and it's been gorgeous. So we've been able to be outside, which is nice. But when we do go out, you know when he is in the house he's on he's on the leash or inside of a closed room.

Marsha 19:56 And then you just have to keep track of a time too like... You know, I got Enzo as a puppy. You know, like, I was like, every 30 minutes or 40 minutes. Yeah, I was taking him and giving him the opportunity.

Kelly 20:08 Yeah,yeah. And it doesn't have to be that often with Beary because he's, he's older and he does have control. It's not like he doesn't have any control. It's just he doesn't know that, you know, that room over there that we're not in is not the right place. So. But he doesn't have access to... he doesn't have access to any place except right where I am. Which is why it's so tiring, you know,

Marsha 20:33 Yeah.

Kelly 20:34 I'll just tell one more story. And then we'll get to get to the the podcast topics. But the first day, every time... So I have to take him in with me when I went to the bathroom, right? Because nobody was home. It's just me. So I'd take him with in with me on the leash into the bathroom. And he would spot the wastepaper basket, and like dive in headfirst and eat something out of the wastebasket. So every different bathroom, we went in, of course, has a wastebasket, and it's still on the floor. And here he goes diving into the wastebasket to eat something. And so yeah, so now all the waste baskets are up off the ground. In all of the bathrooms. [laughing]

Marsha 21:19 It'll be interesting to see as the months go by, if you're able to get some of this excess weight. If he starts feeling better, you know?

Kelly 21:27 Yeah, yeah. I think like some of the issues of not wanting to be lifted into the cars just like okay, that hurts. You know, and, and, and then... Yeah, so we'll see how that goes. Yeah, but it's a it's a fun. It's a it's an exciting thing. It happened super fast. It was totally unexpected. And it's been really exhausting. [laughing] But it's good. It's really good. Yeah, yeah.

Marsha 21:57 All right. Well, So I'm excited to hear about it going forward. But should we talk project?

Kelly 22:04 Yes, we should.

Marsha 22:06 I have no, I have no dog updates. Enzo is just sleeping here on the floor next to me. Okay, seriously now, projects? Yes. Would you like to go first?

Kelly 22:16 No, go ahead.

Marsha 22:18 Okay. So, um, well, I don't really have a lot to report. Walk Along, still working on it. By Ankestrick the T shirt. Still working on that. I'm alternating working on that and spinning. I ordered another eight ounces of the dark brown Merino roving. And we talked about this in the last time that I'm running out. I'm not going to have enough of the fiber that I had to make a sweater quantity. And so I decided to order more of the the dark brown to finish plying with the green, but also to have extra so I can just do three ply of this... of just the brown Yeah, so then when I... So I should have enough for a sweater I'm Fingers crossed! So then I can do stripes or something to have enough for a sweater. That's what I'm hoping. I'm just going to throw in there... I'll finish about my projects, but before I talk about my other things that are going on. About roving, remember the last time we talked about when you're plying the singles and a single breaks and how you find the end. We did have...we talked about you know ideas. We did hear from Jolene Jojocraftsalot in her comment was a tip on when you apply breaks and you can't find it try a piece of tape and tap it around on the bobbin of yarn to see if it will find the elusive end. That's an interesting idea.

Kelly 23:44 okay. Yeah sort of like a lint... like getting lint off your sweater but with tape and you hope instead of lint the end of the yarn will stick to it.

Marsha 23:54 Yeah, so that's a good tip. And I'm working on my socks. I think last time we were talking I was working on the heel flap I've now have finished the gusset and I'm moving on to the foot. Not a lot there to report but I finished something!

Kelly 24:11 Yay!

Marsha 24:12 Guess what I finished! I finished my mitts my Abington Mitts! And you remember the last time we talked I said I was not going to promise that I was going to finish them that evening because I never do? Guess what I did that night! So I posted them in our thread which, we will talk about this later, but our extremities knit and crochet along. I posted that and that has ended and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But I did finish those and that's all I have to report. All right. Nothing. I'm not a lot of progress on anything. Just just steady.

Kelly 24:51 Well, you've had a lot of stuff going on at your house. A lot of cleaning and painting and the house projects.

Marsha 25:00 yeah, I think I mentioned this contractor finished at the the rental house, finished the basement. Well his part of that. Now it's my job to go in there and paint it. So I've started I was over there Monday and Tuesday washing down the woodwork on the main floor, which the contractor wasn't there, but it was just dusty and I'll just be honest, dirty. I guess I'm not that great a housekeeper or I guess I didn't routinely wash that. [laughing] Well, I don't think I've ever washed down the woodwork in the living room and the dining room. I've washed down the kitchen and the bathroom before but I didn't routinely wash down woodwork. And so guess what? It was a little dirty! It needed to be washed. So it looks great and the good thing is it was a good paint job I did years ago and it's held up. And just a good cleaning and it's ready to go nice. So yeah, anyway, but... But what about your projects?

Kelly 25:56 Well, um, I had that... I had the Huck weaving sampler from the Jane Stafford guild and I think it was on the loom last time. I don't exactly remember. I think I had tied it on to the loom. But I hadn't started weaving or maybe I had started weaving and I... Oh no! I had woven the first part of the sampler and cut it off the loom and washed it. And then I wove the last part of the sampler and I only got... I was thinking I would have another like yard length and with the loom waste and just the shrinkage and stuff I only ended up with about maybe about 18 inches, but I wove it off. So the first one I wove, the same silk that was in the warp I used as weft, and I made a small shawl that I actually have hung up in the studio. It'll probably be a sample, I probably won't wear it as a shawl. I'll just keep it in there to kind of look at what I did. And then the second part of it, I wove with this linen, I have some cones of linen. And they're stained. This was like a porcelain blue color, pale porcelain blue. And it's a really rough spun linen. And I had used a cone of dark gray with that purple silk to knit a sweater, that Cherry Vanilla sweater that I made years ago. And this one was a porcelain blue color. And I thought oh, I'm gonna weave with it and see how it weaves up. And also, since this is just a sample, if the stains don't wash out, you know, that are on the cone, then I'll know. First of all, it's not stained... like the outer edge was stained, right. So just the first few yards, but the top and the bottom also have stains on it. So you know, as you go into the cone, you're going to pick up those stains at the top, that dirt right at the top of the cone and at the bottom of the cone. And so I was, you know, wondering if that was going to be worth using or not. You don't want to make a really nice project and then it doesn't wash out. So I thought, well I'll weave with it and see if it washes out. And it mostly did, there was a little bit of the kind of rusty looking stains that stayed. But small enough that you really can't, you really can't tell if you really... You know, if I didn't know it was there and go looking to see if didn't wash out, I don't think I wouldn't have noticed. So that gives me an idea that I can use those cones which, most of them are dirty in that same way. I can use those linen cones for other things which is which is kind of nice because I think it's really it's yarn I picked up when the weaving program at Hartnell stopped and there was a lot of yarn in the in the weaving classroom. And I managed to score. It felt like a score to me! I managed to score all these you know, rustic linen cones. But if they were you know, too dirty to use then I needed to know that. So anyway, I wove that and I have it sitting on my vanity in the bedroom just for you know, just to use it for a little while. But I think it's probably just going to be a sample that I'll keep downstairs near the, you know, near the loom and do something with it in the studio. So that was fun and got all the huck weaving done now. I'm waiting for the Jane Stafford guild. They have switched over on their classes. And I think they might have had been having to switch over on their website too. I was having a little bit of trouble accessing their website Anyway, once that switchover happens and they're in the new their new site, she's supposed to release her next her next episode for the month of May. So I'm all done. I'm keeping up again. I have my April project done and my May project we don't know what it is yet so I can't get started.

Kelly 29:50 And then I have been working on... I mentioned sitting and crocheting and saying, Good, good. Good boy! Like the calmest voice I could have is what I kept doing as I crocheted.So I did get some crocheting done. And I am now up to... let me just look. So I need 20 octagons. For this blanket, I'm going to make it 4 octagons by 5 octagons, a rectangle instead of a square. I've got 15 of them. No, I've got 16 of them done because I finished one last night. So I've got 16 out of the 20 octagons done.

Marsha 30:37 Oh, getting there.

Kelly 30:38 Yeah, I'm close on the octagons. I'm close the squares. I need 12 and I have eight done. And then the half squares, which would be triangles, I need 14 and I don't have any of those done. And then I need four corners, which are also triangles, but they're smaller triangles. And I don't have any of those four corner triangles done so. So I've still got some... I've still got some work to do.

Kelly 31:07 I'm going to end up with a lot of extra yarn, the the number of balls of yarn that they call for for this kit for the kit that you know or the for the pattern I think was so you had enough colors, but you end up with a lot of leftovers. So I'm going to have a lot even though I'm doing... Well I bought extra because I ended up buying the kit of mini skeins, the package of mini skeins. So I bought more yarn than I thought I needed. And I even needed less than that. So even with the extra octagons I'm gonna, I think I would have a significant amount of this yarn leftover but you know, Mother Bears work good in acrylic. And, and charity, charity hats in acrylic. Yeah, there's lots of things I can do with it once I'm done. So yeah, I'm making good progress on that, again, it's really been the only thing I've been working on. I don't have a knitting project. Well, I have those socks that I started that were going to be the Matcha socks. And then I started calling them Not Matcha socks because I couldn't even see the pattern. But I haven't picked those up. And I do think I'm going to... At first I thought I can just start where I left off. And no one will ever know that it was a pattern and it was supposed to be a pattern and and now I'm just doing them plain. But right now I think I'm just gonna rip them back and start over. So, but I haven't done that. So yeah, I have just the one crochet project going and that's really it. That's the only active project I have.

Marsha 32:42 So we've got a lot going. To me, it seems like a lot, you know,

Kelly 32:45 And well, the last couple days for sure. [laughing] But school, you know, school has been busy and, and, and starting a project there's always a little bit of friction, right? You have to figure out what you're going to make and you have to get the yarn balled up and you have to find the right needles and you have to do the thing-- the, you know, the kind of fiddly parts of getting going and I just haven't really had a chance to do that and the crochet has has been inspiring me to keep going because I'm so close now.

Marsha 33:17 Yeah,

Kelly 33:19 I've been pretty monogamous there. So yeah, that's that's it on my yarn projects. I now have a big, big furry project. But it's not, it's not yarn. [laughing]

Marsha 33:33 So we did have the extremities knit and crochet and macrame along. I was waiting for some macrame socks to show up but we never got any!

Kelly 33:46 But we did have some nice entries. What about 50 of them I think. 50 entries into the extremities knitalong and there were some crochet things I do believe if I'm remembering correctly. Anyway, we're gonna draw prizes for that and then we'll talk a little bit about some of the some of the projects that people that people submitted to that. So we have two prizes. One is the pattern for Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lasonnde. And then the other project, the other prize is a pattern, actually a pattern collection. The Coffee Socks Collection by Dots Dabbles Designs.

Marsha 34:30 Earlier we did the random number generator and pulled our two winners. So do you want announce who they are?

Kelly 34:37 Sure. Yeah, so the winner of the Abington Mitts pattern is Jackimarie, Jacqueline, and she made leg warmers. She actually made two pairs of leg warmers or boot cuffs, really cute! And we drew her name for one of those pairs. And so she's gonna win that Abington Mitts pattern. So congratulations, Jackie Marie

Marsha 35:03 Congratulations.Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 35:05 And then our second winner. Our second winner is Jillmabelina, Jill. And she made a pair of Bernie mitts.

Marsha 35:16 Yes, she actually made two pair.

Kelly 35:17 Oh, did she? That's right. I remember that now because it reminded me when I read it, that I had downloaded the pattern to make the crocheted Bernie you know, Bernie at the... it's a little amigurumi of Bernie at the inauguration with his mitts. And I, someone had posted a picture of it in one of my texts, you know, in one of my text groups of work friends had posted a picture of it. And I said, Oh, yeah, I saw the pattern. And somebody said, Oh, I'd love to have one. And I said, Oh, I'm downloading the pattern now. And then I never made it for her. So it reminded me that I had kind of promised to make a crocheted Bernie. I think probably that ship has sailed, but...

Marsha 35:26 I know. I think that meme is is done, but then it may come back.

Kelly 36:14 But the mittens are really really cool. And she made a really nice couple of pairs of those. So Jill, you win the Coffee Socks Collection, by Dots Dabbles Designs.

Marsha 36:27 And then I was just gonna it's always fun to see what people make. I mean, I'm always intrigued by the patterns. And, and so just a couple things. I just, well, I just... I tallied up, we had 25 pairs of socks, 17 mitts or mittens, or I'm putting it all in the same category, the fingerless mitts mitts or like wrist warmers. And the two leg warmers, and one set of puppets that go on your hands. So that's so anyway, Superkip, Natalie, she made panda puppets, and they're crocheted and they're adorable. They look like little mittens and they're puppets.

Kelly 37:09 I think she said the intention is for that to be... to actually be used as like oven mitts or like barbecue grilling.

Marsha 37:19 Oh, okay. Yeah. And the other one is, UlricaC. She did socks. And the pattern is called Vanilla Is The New Black. And I comment on this because it was such an interesting heel. Did you look at this one. Very interesting heel.

Kelly 37:38 It has kind of a diagonal?

Marsha 37:41 Yeah, they're like, their like a Chevron on the back of the heel kind of and then I guess, a couple stitches of stockinette that go up. Anyway, they're an interesting heel, so I just wanted to comment on that. And then FerretSue, Sue, did the Hilja, that's probably not how it's pronounced, but the Hilja wrist warmers by Alex Bird. And I went to look at the pattern and it's it's called an Estonian inlay technique called Roosimine. And did you see this one? It's very interesting. It looks sort of like... I don't think this is what it is. But it sort of looks like the the backside of stranded knitting. Forming a pattern. It's very, very interesting. And so I wanted to comment on that

Kelly 38:35 I always love to see the different techniques that people use. Mm hmm. Yeah.

Marsha 38:40 And then the other one I commented was both knitnaround by Patty and bikesbrewewes by Kelsey. They both did mitts that are colourwork mitts with birds on them. And Patty did Springboard mitts. And Kelsey did Providence mitts. And they're really, really pretty, but it just was interesting that they both did mitts with birds. Yeah, very nice. So that was just some comments. Well, a lots of socks and lots of nice sock patterns.

Kelly 39:16 Yeah, there's one sock pattern, the U-turn socks by, that were made by Joylaine. Those are so interesting. I have to get that pattern. Because the socks... like the front of the sock is is done, you know side to side, like if you were knitting in the round. And the back part of the sock is knit lengthwise. So like you're knitting like from the... from the top of the sock down to the heel. I don't know...by looking at them... Because they're striped, you can kind of tell the construction, but I don't know how it was done. Like I kept looking at their pictures and like, oh, how did that... how does that work? So I think I might have to try that. That looks Very interesting. And, and maybe a self striping yarn. I don't typically knit with self striping yarn because I don't make plain stockinette socks. But these look like a lot of fun. So maybe I can get a fun sell striping in and try the U turn socks. And then thinking of socks. Michelle, MichEmbrey on Ravelry.

Marsha 40:24 The monkey socks?

Kelly 40:26 Yeah, she made several pairs of socks, actually, because she's doing-- Have you heard of sock madness, Marsha.

Marsha 40:33 I've heard the term, but you'll have to explain it. Because she's got about three pairs of socks

Kelly 40:38 It's a contest on Ravelry where teams of people knit socks, and I think it goes along-- I'm gonna, I'm gonna go out on a limb because I don't know all that much about it. But I have a feeling it has something to do with March Madness. But it's sock madness. And so there's some competition aspect to it. Where people get eliminated, teams get eliminated like they do in the basketball tournament. And so you have like two weeks to knit the socks. And your team has to knit the socks faster than the other team or something. Anyway. I remember hearing about it when I was going to a knit group over in Pacific Grove at Monarch. And a woman there was doing it is like, oh my gosh. And basically she would put her vacation around this sock madness, like, you know, kind of plan vacation days and things for her her work so that she could participate in sock madness and kind of maximize her knitting time. Because she was so into this sock competition. And it just sounded it sounded so crazy that it was fun, right? [laughing] Like, oh my gosh, maybe I'm interested in this. Oh, I probably shouldn't be.

Marsha 41:55 You have another project a big project!

Kelly 41:57 Yeah, well, yeah. And I'm not that fast of.... I'm not that fast of a knitter, either. So. But anyway, very interesting to see all her socks and you know, the different patterns and they're not. They're not plain patterns. I mean, these socks that people are racing to finish are complicated, complicated patterns. So and then the one last project that I've mentioned thinking of, of socks and interesting methods, is Lisa Casson. She made yoga socks, and she used a knitting loom. And I thought that was really interesting. I mean, I know about knitting looms, but I really never think of them as a way to actually make a project like a pair of yoga socks. I mean, it is actually a tube. But I wouldn't have ever really thought about that. So she used her knitting loom and made a nice pair of yoga socks with the you know, cut out for the heel and the toe.

Marsha 43:02 Well, and I just now I'm looking at all the projects, and I realized I made a mistake on something. I thought they were mittens, but they're... because they were felted. Oven mitts by FinnElliknits. Did you see those? Oh, and that's Ellen. Yeah, they're oven mitts. It's a...

Kelly 43:19 That's a really good idea. I need some potholders!

Marsha 43:21 Yeah.

Kelly 43:22 Oh, I'm looking at them right now. Yeah,

Marsha 43:23 yeah. And then there's a pot holder in the back. And I just, I was just glancing at it and thought, Oh, they were mitts. But now that I realized I made a mistake. It's actually their oven mitts. What a great idea!

Kelly 43:33 That is a good idea. Yeah.

Marsha 43:37 When you said about you're gonna go out on a limb about what the sock madness is? I was gonna say you're gonna go out on an extremity. [laughing]

Kelly 43:50 Oh, that's good. I like it! [laughing]

Marsha 43:55 Anyway, congratulations to... Well, first of all, thank you to everybody for participating. This is really fun to see what people did. And then congratulations to our two winners!

Kelly 44:07 So go ahead and get in contact with me and I will pass along your name to to our donors, Jennifer Lassonde and Debbie from Dots, Dabbles Designs.

Marsha 44:19 Just last two things. We have the summer spin in starting. And that's gonna run Memorial Day through Labor Day. And for those people who are not in the United States where we celebrate Memorial Day and Labor Day, that'll be May 31 through September 6. And traditionally, Memorial Day is sort of the official start of summer and Labor Day is sort of the official end of summer. So that's why we pick those dates and we'll talk more about that. We've done this in the past. And we'll talk more about the the summer spin in in the next episode. Anything you want to add about this ?

Kelly 45:01 I'll put up a thread, a chat thread, where we can start talking about our spinning aspirations. For the summer. Fiber prep, washing fleeces, buying braids of fiber to spin, all that kind of stuff.

Marsha 45:17 We can start buying fleeces.

Kelly 45:19 Yeah. So we can start talking about all the all the stuff we're planning to do in the summer with our spinning.

Marsha 45:28 And then I just had one last thing. One of our listeners Jolene, I'm sorry, wrong person. I'll read my list here, Sarah, Salpal. There she had asked in the thread what overshot weaving is. And I had tried to answer the question, just looking at, you know, doing a Google search of a definition of overshot. And then her response was okay, maybe this is a question for Kelly. But how the heck do you do it? Do you alternate the background color and the contrast color so the plain weave is happening behind the overshot? Does that? I did not answer your question, because I don't know how to answer her question. Can you answer that?

Kelly 46:08 Yeah. Well, and actually, she got... she got some good answers. Cindy Q answered her in the thread also. But that is what happens. You have the kind of a background that's tabby. And then, so every other pick, that's when you throw the yarn across the weaving or you know, weave it in and out, every other pick is plain weave. So you do a plain weave, and then you do a pattern, which means you'll have like a float, the yarn will be floating over the top.

Marsha 46:39 Okay, so when you say pattern, that's the what? The overshot? That's got the floats.

Kelly 46:44 Yeah. And so those all those floats stacked together to make designs. And this is... snowflake type designs is the way I would describe them. That might not be exactly right. Or, or like I'm looking at a quilt that's hanging on the door behind me to absorb sound. And it's like a star shaped design, you know, that they have in quilting. So that kind of sort of star shaped design. There's different... there's all different designs, but they're made from these layers of threads that are going across, they're going across many threads, just like a float in stranded colorwork and the floats in stranded colorwork are usually on the back. And these floats are on the front creating the pattern, but it wouldn't be stable. You wouldn't have a stable fabric without those tabby or plain weave threads in between each of them. So and normally, too, the threads that you--that are the pattern are a thicker yarn, and then the threads that make up the the ground, the plain weave that goes in between are thinner thread so you don't really see the plain weave that much you mostly see the pattern threads, but the plain weave is there to stabilize. Okay, so all right. Yeah. It's really an interesting pattern. And I think Sarah is interested in maybe trying it on her rigid heddle loom, which that would be an interesting, an interesting thing to try on rigid heddle.

Marsha 48:15 Well, I think that is everything. Do you have any last bits of housekeeping?

Kelly 48:20 No, no, I think I better go rescue Robert from watching the dog that I wanted.

Marsha 48:29 Yes. Well go take him for a walk. He's on. He's on a training program now.

Kelly 48:36 Right.

Marsha 48:39 We should all be on a training program.

Kelly 48:40 That's what Robert said. They're going to get in shape together. So

Marsha 48:44 Okay. Keep us posted and keep posting pictures because I love seeing the pictures.

Kelly 48:50 Will do! Yeah, he's super photogenic. Bailey's hard to photograph, but he's really photogenic. And and yeah, I have some really good pictures of him already.

Marsha 49:00 And he doesn't move as fast either. [laughing]

Kelly 49:02 That is true. That's a good point. [laughing]

Kelly 49:09 All right.

Marsha 49:11 Okay, we'll talk in two weeks,

Kelly 49:12 bye bye.

Marsha 49:13 Bye bye.

Kelly 49:14 Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Marsha 49:21 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects.

Kelly 49:29 Until next time, we're the two ewes doing our part for world fleece!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Lots of ends to weave and finished objects to discuss this week. Plus we announce the winners of our Winter Weave Along. Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

Walk Along tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link)

Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde (Ravelry link) Almost done.

I started the heel flap on the pair of socks (Ravelry link) for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.

Spun three more skeins of merino green and brown three ply. Have a total of five skeins and 716 yards

Kelly's Projects

Finished! Iced Matcha socks (Ravelry link) from the Coffee Socks Collection by Dots Dabbles Designs. I used Invictus Yarns Seraphic.

Finished! Frog and Toad (Ravelry link) from frogandcast.com.

Finished! Reading in Bed blanket (Ravelry link)

Started the Huck weaving sampler from the Jane Stafford Guild

Winter Weave Along

The Weave Along is over and we drew winners! Listen to see if you won!

Extremities Knit/Crochet Along

This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns:

Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio

Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah

It ends on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet).

Full Transcript

Marsha

Hi, this is Marsha

Kelly

and this is Kelly.

Marsha

We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly

You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha

We blog and post show notes at to Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com

Kelly

and we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects

Marsha

And I am betterinmotion.

Kelly

We both look forward to meeting you there.

Both

Enjoy the episode.

Marsha

Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly

Good Morning, Marsha.

Marsha

How are you today?

Kelly

I'm doing all right. The sun is finally coming out. I would say if you want to travel to my neck of the woods don't come in April. April's not-- I don't think April is that good of a weather month for the Monterey Bay Area. It's cold. It's very coastal feeling this morning that cold ocean breeze and overcast and the sun is now finally coming out. So maybe I'll get my hat and my fleece vest off att some point today.

Marsha

Well, we are having beautiful weather in Seattle.

Kelly

That's good.

Marsha

I haven't checked the temperature but warm, you know, Sunny blue sky. Yeah, no rain in the forecast. I think it's gonna be up to 70

Kelly

Oh, nice.

Marsha

I'm sorry. I don't know what that is in Celsius for those who are on Celsius.

Kelly

30? Somebody in the Ravelry group posted and they said they have like milestones, like body temperature is 37.

Marsha

Okay,

Kelly

I think they said 30 degrees was like a 70 degree day. Now, I may be totally wrong on that. But but that's-- I'm just doing that from memory and then you know, zero is freezing. And below zero is nobody wants to, nobody wants to feel that!

Marsha

Anyway, Well, anyway, it's beautiful. So I have Mark came up and helped me move the patio furniture app onto the deck. So we've been sitting in the furniture and we got the umbrellas out yesterday

Kelly

Wow!

Marsha

and, we've had so and I'm... you probably saw my Instagram post that I painted the south side of the garage. Well, primer and first coat yesterday. I have to do the second coat today

Kelly

You and Robert so I just have to ask. Did you vacuum it before you primed it?

Marsha

Well, Ben power washed it for me. [laughing}

Kelly

Okay. Because I looked out at one point when Robert was... and he's got the vacuum up on the roof of the garage and a paintbrush, like to brush off cobwebs and stuff like that. Oh my gosh, he is meticulous.

Marsha

He is meticulous but he's doing it the right way.

Kelly

Yes, yeah. No, I have no complaints. I just laugh when I see. I mean like, Who in the world looks out the window and sees someone vacuuming the garage wall? [laughing]

Marsha

Well, I have to say I did not vacuum it but I, as I say Ben went out and power washed the south side. And then what started this whole thing, I probably talked about this but what started the whole thing is he was super excited about power washing and he powerwashed the driveway and I said well why don't you power wash my pots, my the planter pots, which he did. And then on the south side of the driveway where I have the tomatoes, the neighbors have a fence so it creates shade like from the pots down. And so it's super mossy, there was like an inch of moss over there. And he was--can hardly wait to get over there and attack the moss. He powerwashed that whole walkway, power washed the pots. I said Well then, if I'm pulling the pots away... Because they're so heavy, I take all the soil out, which is now piled up in front of the garage so I can't get my car in the garage. If we're going to do all this I should paint the garage because the garage has not been painted in, I don't know, 15 or 20 years? I don't know. A long time. I don't remember when it was painted.

Kelly

Well that's what led Robert to paint was that the he wanted to get the garage painted before the grape came back. You know, he pruned it. So it was all pruned back and you can actually see the garage wall. And, and he knew you know, within a couple of weeks that was all going to start leafing out again and so he's like Okay, I gotta get this garage wall painted. Yeah. So so good to do it while the pots are out of the way.

Marsha

Yeah, but then I have a tendency, well I was like, just put the paint on there. It's okay. And it's like no, my father was a painter. And I can't, I can't do that. So I, as I say Ben power washed it, I primed it. I put my first coat on. So and I'm gonna go put the second coat on. So that's the right way to do it. Now, all of this, that was just one side of the garage. I have, you know, it's a rectangle. So I have three more slots. [laughing]

Kelly

Yeah, that's the west side. So that's one of the sides that gets the most

Marsha

No, it's actually south side.

Kelly

Yes. The South Side. Yeah.

Marsha

But I, you know, my parents built that garage. And my father taught me how to put the shingles on it. So it has cedar shingles from probably 1968. And he showed me how to nail shingles onto the side of the garage. So when I was-- okay, let's see. I was probably 10. And I sided, at the age 10, I sided the south side of the garage.

Kelly

That's cool.

Marsha

Yeah. Anyway, and he told me how, like you put a double row at the--the first row at the bottom is a double row, double thickness. And then and how to use the now I don't even know what they're called. Is it a snap line? Chalk line?

Kelly

Oh, yeah.

Marsha

You know, to to get a, to, so that they're all even. And so I was out there painting them. I thought I did a pretty good job at the age of 10.

Kelly

That's nice. Yeah.

Marsha

Child labor.

Kelly

Exactly. Exactly.

Marsha

But I remember as a kid thinking, it was really fun. It was, yeah, it was super fun. So he left, he showed me how to, he showed me how to do it and then he left me on my own out there one day, and I just did the whole thing. But I will say, I'm not 10 anymore. [laughing] And painting, so you know, primer, and then the first coat, my right hand holding the brush. I can't hold-- I in fact, I intentionally did not buy as big a brush as my dad would have used. He had like an eight inch brush, they would use like my hand can't hold that you know. So I have a smaller brush. But by the end of the day, my right hand was really sore and my left elbow. I pinched a nerve or something in their, I--or done something. And I think what it is now with my left hand is or my left elbow is from holding the paint pot. You know, just imagine holding something in your hand. All day,

Kelly

Right

Marsha

So it's-- I think it's affected my elbow. Yeah, I'm a wreck.

Kelly

Well, even with all of that you still are able to knit right?

Marsha

Yes, I'm working on socks right now as we're recording. So I'm still able to knit. Yeah.

Kelly

All right.

Marsha

Anyway, enough home improvement. Should we talk knitting?

Kelly

Yeah. What are you working on?

Marsha

Well, I'm working on my socks. Just the you know, vanilla socks. In fact, I don't even have it in the show notes. It's the What yarn is this? It's the Fabel yarn that I remember we bought it down-- I reaching over to my bag to grab a label--when we went to San Luis Obispo years ago for the yarn crawl.

Kelly

Oh, right.

Marsha

And this is Drops Fabel Print. I've talked about this before, but not for a while. This is the second sock and I'm just starting the heel flap. It's you know, it's an easy project.

Kelly

Yeah.

Marsha

So since I'm talking about these should I just talk about my projects?

Kelly

Sure! Yeah, that's a good idea.

Marsha

Because I don't have much to report.

Marsha

I've been periodically picking up the Walk Along Tee by Ankestrick. And I have-- I really have not progressed much since we last talked. In fact, I have to tell you, I listened to the last two episodes while I was painting the garage. And knowing that we were going to record today, thinking Well, there's not much more to report. I think I've knit four more rows since we last talked. So but as I say, there's been so many projects here. Oh, and I should say too. Not much knitting got done last week because Ben had his wisdom teeth taken out. And so,last Wednesday, a week ago, so there was a lot of up and down the stairs changing ice packs making milkshakes and getting him to take pain meds. He alternated between ibuprofen and Tylenol. So yeah, I have not made a huge amount of progress on that and then the Abington Mitts also haven't...

Kelly

Oh no! You jinxed them when you said you hope they're not like your skull. [laughing]

Marsha

They are like my skull but as I said, again as I'm out there listening to the podcast the last episode while I was painting, we reiterated the deadline for the extremities, extremities knit crochet, macrame along. And I need to get going.

Kelly

Yes. April 25th, right?

Marsha

Yeah. So I need to get going. So I'm so close. I just have to do the thumb.

Kelly

Right! So yes, Don't jinx yourself.

Marsha

Yeah. You know what I also, when I listened back to myself, I always, this is what I always say. "I'm going to do that tonight." [laughing] I'm not saying that. That seems to jinx me too.

Kelly

Okay. Oh my gosh.

Marsha

But the one thing I have been working on though, is the spinning. So I plied... have made three more skeins, I plied three skeins of yarn. So I now have a total of five, which is a little over 700 yards. And I think I'm going to get at least two more skeins, and maybe a bit more. But I had the idea that I was going to make a sweater out of this the green and brown three ply. But I'm not going to have enough. So I do think I will have more of the brown left. And even if I don't have enough of it. I can order more. Which I should probably do that sooner than later. So I was thinking well maybe I would just add stripes to the sweater.

Kelly

Yeah.

Marsha

To to extend it. So I think that will look okay. If I have like that barber pole yarn mixed with a solid but it's that same, the same color. I think it will be okay.

Kelly

Yeah, I think that would be really pretty.

Marsha

We did have a conversation though. Just thinking about spinning. We did have a conversation. I called you. Do you remember I called you last week, I think or this week that?

Kelly

Oh, right. I want to know how that how that went.

Marsha

Yeah, well, so I'll tell people what happened. So and this probably happens to a lot of people, is that you're single is-- you're plying and one of your singles will break. And then you can't find the end on the bobbin. And that's what happened. And so I called you and I said because you know, you have been spinning a lot longer than I have, you've probably had this experience too. And you said a couple of things to do. One of them is put the bobbin back on the spinning wheel and spin the opposite direction that you plied it. But, and but loose. I mean, you don't have the yarn coming--well, because you're trying to find the end, right. So you just let it spin on there. And it will sometimes just fly out.

Kelly

Right

Marsha

That didn't happen.

Kelly

I don't have too much luck with that. I haven't had too much luck with that technique either about

Marsha

that didn't happen. But I think what it did is it must have loosened it some way because I finally took it off. And I just took it out in the sunlight. And I actually found the end

Kelly

Oh, nice. Oh, that's good.

Marsha

So because I had done that before I took it outside in the light and I could not find it. So I do think that that spinning, did must have jarred it some way that I could find it. But just the other advice you gave me too. And this is not-- this doesn't help find the end. But just when you're spinning, don't let the singles pile up too high as you're spinning across the bobbin and keep moving at across the hook sooner. Because I sometimes you know, as I'm watching TV, or I'm talking, I lose track of what I'm doing. And sometimes they get a little too high and then they can fall down onto the next row is that the right way, how would you describe it?

Marsha

Kind of like the next layer the way I would...

Marsha

Layer, right.So I'm going to keep that in mind for next time. Because that has it's happened to me more than once that

Kelly

And a lot of people use something called a Woolly Winder. And Robert from the very beginning, when I first got my spinning wheel, he was like this needs to have something where it's you know, laying the laying the thread down or the yarn down, going evenly all the way across and then coming back. Like you know, like a fishing reel. And I said, No, you just move the yarn on the hooks. And then I discovered, you know, this was back in 98. And then I discovered that there was this thing called a Wooly Winder that I think that's what it's called, that does do that it it winds your yarn onto a bobbin more like a fishing reel would do so you're not moving the hooks yourself.

Marsha

Make sense.

Kelly

Yeah. I like to move the hooks because it helps me remember not to sit in one position. Not to put my hands in one position. Not to, you know, not do things that could give you a repetitive stress injury, the more adjustments that you make to your body, the better. But a lot of people like to have that and just be able to get into that rhythm. And, and it, you know, people think it helps, and it probably does helps them make a more consistent yarn to, because every time you stop and start again, you have the possibility of your yarn not being, not being consistent. But I'm old school enough to think that that moving the yarn from one hook to another is, is good for you. But I also am guilty as you are forgetting and then, Oh, no! And the finer you spin, the worse it is, the more careful you have to be about that happening.

Marsha

Yeah, and I also think, too, is if you, if you have the the single on the bobbin. And you just went and decided that you were going to wind it into onto another bobbin or something. Not that you would do that. Like so you're just going to take it from the one bobbin and put it onto another bobbin...

Kelly

People do that. They put it onto like a storage bobbin.

Marsha

Right, I think then you might not have as much of a problem. But when you put it on the the lazy Kate, it has to have some tension on it. The bobbins that you're plying off of have to have some tension. Otherwise, if they move too fast, then it all starts twisting back onto itself.

Kelly

Right, right.

Marsha

And so I think that tension also then forces the single down into the layers.

Kelly

Yes.

Marsha

And I don't know how to get around that other than, as you said, spin... change more frequently.

Kelly

Yeah. And the other thing that I have done with my lazy Kate, when I wanted to make a super, you know, try to be super consistent in my plying, I was taking a class and I was trying to follow you know, the instructions of the class. And so, on our wheel, the lazy Kate on the little Herbie, is connected to the wheel. And I mostly ply from the Kate on the wheel. But if I have a yarn that I think is going to be really temperamental, what I learned in the class I took a while back, is that if you have the Kate away from you, it gives you the chance, it gives the yarn a chance for the twist to even out in the singles. And so if I have something that I think is not going to behave nicely, I'll take my Kate off. And, you know, put it behind me, like four or five feet. Kind of prop it up behind me four or five feet. And that does, that does help. Because it doesn't get so tight. You know, you know that that that tightness when you're when you're trying to pull it up, up from the bobbin instead of out from the bobbin.

Marsha

Yes and I--and so we have the same wheel and I find that I tried plying with the lazy Kate attach to the wheel the way it's designed. It was a nightmare, because I, it kept...Yeah, I was not able to do it. So you had shown me that trick. And so now I always like I sit in my chair in the study, you know watching TV,which is probably part of my problem [laughing] with my applying and then I put the lazy Kate behind me and I block it with the table leg to try and hold it up. So, because you want it to stay upright and not have the bobbins hit anything. So that stops them. The other thing is Kelly, you remember when I got the Ashford wheel?

Kelly

Yeah,

Marsha

It came with a lazy Kate.

Kelly

Oh okay. I don't remember that.

Marsha

And so I tried that too. And it's, it's basically it's like two posts that stick up. Wood posts that stick up and then the bobbins go in there. Ours are put in perpendicular to the ground, right? These bobbins are parallel. But there is nothing to slow them down. So they just--and I tried I thought, well maybe it'll be easier. No. It did not work at all. It's-- I think that's just going to be for storing bobbins because they look pretty.

Kelly

So my my Wyatt wheel has a Kate like that built into the wheel and it does not have a tension--any tensioner on those bobbins. And so what I've done is I've taken the springs, the springs that do the tensioning for the Herbie and I just put them on there so you might try it. It might not fit the same springs or those springs might not be long enough. It depends on how long the, what are they called, the sticks that go through the bobbin are. But if you can find springs to go on the end of them to provide a little bit of tension.

Marsha

Yeah, I could just go to the hardware store probably and get something.

Kelly

That might be a better Kate because you're not pulling up from the bobbin you are actually pulling out from the bobbin. And it's a little bit, it's a little bit easier to keep your attention even in that case. But you have to, you really need to have some tension on the bobbins in the Kate.

Marsha

Right. I think I'm going to, I'm going to bring that lazy Kate from the Ashford to the hardware store, because what I've discovered? Men love anything to do with spinning wheels. They'll be like, oh! Yeah, they're gonna love it. It's engineering, right?

Kelly

Yeah. Get some assistance with those springs for sure.

Marsha

So that's it for me with projects.

Kelly

Okay. Well, I'm glad you didn't have to waste yarn, you know that you didn't have to cut through your yarn. Because just to finish that conversation, the last resort to try to find your end is really just to cut the yarn and start spinning, or start unraveling. I've just cut the yarn and then started plying, from that, you know from that section just to wait to see what happens. And sometimes it makes a tangle. And then you have to cut even more off. And sometimes you found the end and sometimes. And sometimes you end up, you know, your cut end you ply back to the one that was hidden. And then you can find where you need to start up again. So but that's not much fun, because you often will end up having to unwind a lot of yarn.

Marsha

Yeah. Before and put it in a compost pile. And that's and I was really hoping and I'm glad it didn't happen because I want to use every bit of yarn...

Kelly

your already short

Marsha

... that I can

Kelly

Yeah, yeah.

Marsha

In fact, I even like I've had some sections that have, you know, when you're plying, and you get the twist in one of the singles, but you can't get it out, it ends up just plying into the three. And that's not nice. I cut some of those out but I saved them. Just in case I need it for some something and then also when you skein the yarn on the niddy noddy, and then you have to tie it in four places. Well you don't have to, but I do tie it in four places. I have some waste yarn of some other commercial waste yarn that I tying the little... because each one say it's four inches, right? How many stitches how many knit stitches is four inches? You know, like maybe I could get the maybe that four inches what I'm gonna need, you know,

Kelly

Your yarn chicken stitches.

Marsha

Yeah, so I have my little stash set away.

Kelly

Yeah.

Marsha

And also, you know, on the niddy noddy, too, it doesn't always-- as you're winding, it doesn't always make-- two ends don't always meet so sometimes you have to unravel a bit and so that'll be 18 inches, 20 inches or something. And so I've been saving all of those.

Kelly

Sometimes what I do there is I'll take waste yarn and tie it. It depends on how precious the yarn is. Most of the time, I don't do this, but if I'm trying to keep as much yarn as possible, I'll tie waste yarn to the end of my handspun and then use that waste yarn to finish the, to finish the loop around and then tie it to the starting end.

Marsha

Oh, that's a really good idea too.

Kelly

That saves you. It saves you, you know, a yard or less than a yard. Saves you

Marsha

yeah

Kelly

Saves you from having to throw that little piece away. So so you maybe haven't had a lot happening with your knitting, Marcsha, but I had a Finish-a-Palooza! I'm sure you can see it in the in the show notes finished, finished finished!

Marsha

Mm hmm.

Kelly

So the biggest finish of all was Frog and Toad. Frog and Toad are finished and delivered.

Marsha

Well, and I want to ask you about that too. Yeah. So

Kelly

they turned out so cool. I was so happy with how they turned out. And I I definitely have somewhat of a desire to knit them again. We'll see if that actually comes to comes to pass but

Marsha

so and will... and were they a big hit?

Kelly

They were a big hit. Yeah, so I had my I've had my second vaccination. And that was right before Easter. And then so I was gonna deliver them on Easter but I didn't feel well. So I just stayed home that day and laid low. And you know, the reaction wasn't fun, but it only lasted a day and I think if I had been--if I had been a little more, a little less stubborn, the nurse at the vaccination site, she said, you know, if you're not feeling well after the vaccine, you know, go ahead and take a Tylenol or, you know, go ahead and take Tylenol or Advil, you know, that's fine. And, and I know when they did the trials, they didn't tell people, you know, don't take anything after you have the vaccine. And so I'm sure people did who didn't feel well. And, you know, the vaccines are 95% or 90%, something like that, effective. You know, in the trials with people possibly taking something afterwards, but I had gotten it into my head that you, you know, you want your immune response to kick in, and I don't I, in talking with one of my colleagues, she said, You know, that's not really logic. That's not really that logical, even though it seems logical. It's not, it's not really the way the body works. But I had kind of thought, Well, you know, when you're sick, you kind of want that response to happen.

Marsha

Mm hmm.

Kelly

And, and so you know, as much of your immune, letting your immune system deal with the problem as you can is good. And so, you know, maybe not take something right away. So I didn't, and I think I would have felt much better if, as soon as I started feeling a little sick, I had taken something and for some reason, I thought, No, I should probably let my body just do this. Anyway, I don't think that's, that's not really good biological logic, according to my biology teacher friend at school, and the nurse at the at the vaccine clinic. So if anybody has their next vaccine coming, listen to what they say.

Marsha

Yeah.

Kelly

And they tell you if you don't feel well, to take something, I would say take something. But anyway, enough of that. I didn't get to deliver them on Easter. But on Tuesday after Easter, we were, my mom who has been vaccinated fully and met her 14 days. She had like her freedom... what my aunt Pat calls her freedom day when her vaccine was, you know, fully the 14 days afterwards after her second vaccine. And Aunt Betty had passed her Freedom Day and Dennis had passed his freedom day. And Kye, who who runs the Post No Bills brewery, my nephew, he'd had his freedom day. Anyway, so we all met at Post No Bills. Even though I really hadn't had my freedom day. We all met at Post No Bills, and Sarah brought the kids. Of course Post No Bills is a is a, you know, brew house. So we sat outside, they couldn't even come up on the patio. So they were down. They were down, out, you know, out from us a little ways. But I went out there with them and gave them their presents. And, and Faye was really happy with her Frog and Toad. She had never read the books before. So she was excited about that. And and then, of course, there was a little bit of throwing of Frog and Toad between her and her brother. Which I knew was gonna happen, I mean, their stuffed things. So it doesn't really matter. But it was kind of funny. That's the first thing they do is start throwing them back and forth. And then, you know, taking off the clothes, putting on the clothes, she was having a good time with them. So So yeah, very big hit. This Frog and Toad project was a very big hit. So she's now taking them to the grocery store to teach them how to grocery shop, according to Sarah. Because they've never been to the grocery store before.

Marsha

Mm hmm.

Kelly

So anyway, she's having fun with them

Marsha

very cute

Kelly

Yeah, yeah. And I had a great time making them so. Lovely pattern Really well, really well done. Yeah. So.

Marsha

So I'm looking at your picture on Ravelry. They're very cute. And their mouths, their mouths and their eyes it's very... well and their little toes and it just..

Kelly

Yeah, there's every little detail about them is fun. And every time I do a little detail, it was just, it made them even better. So it's a really-- I think they're really fun. It's a really fun knit. And there are just so many things. I just kept telling Aunt Betty, Oh my gosh, I'm so delighted by this. She's like, I don't think I've ever seen you so delighted by your knitting before. But the little knees and fat little calves and anyway... Very cute project and well received. So I finished that. I finished the Iced Matcha socks last night. So they're done and I did have to redo the toe on one of them. Thinking of sock toes and Robert, it kind of made me laugh. I decided I was going to just follow the pattern and not just do the toe I always do. And it's slightly different. I mean, it wasn't wildly different. So I don't think it was the pattern. I think it was more that I jumped the gun on how... Well I think there's two things. I think I jumped the gun on how soon to do that first toe, which often happens to me. It's like, Oh, yeah, they're far enough. I'm ready to do the toe. And really, they couldn't use another quarter inch of length. And then I want to say, I can't remember exactly in the pattern, but the number of stitches that people typically decrease to before they Kitchener I've actually found that I like to have more than that. So like I'll use at a minimum 16 stitches on my needles when I Kitchener. So and I think like when I was first making socks, I want to say they were having me go down to like 10 or something.

Marsha

Yeah, Iusually leave 10. So what is, why, what was your thinking? Why?

Kelly

[laughing] It just, it cramps my toes.

Marsha

Oh, okay,

Kelly

They just seem a little smaller. I just like the I just, I just like to have a more blunt end to the toe. Here we back...

Marsha

You don't like looking at the pointy toes in your drawer. The dresser drawer.

Kelly

Yeah. Except it's, you know, my eye. For some reason, it just feels more comfortable on my foot to have a little bit wider. Like they're not, I don't think of myself as having particularly wide feet. Especially when I was younger, but I do have now on one foot a pretty good size bunion. And so maybe that's why, you know, maybe that my foot is just wider at that. At that.

Kelly

Yeah,

Kelly

Now and so. So anyway, I took that one sock out and added to the toe. And now I'm and now I'm done. So the pattern's very cool. We talked last time about how I was gonna-- thinking about making a pair of them inside out.

Marsha

Right.

Kelly

But the thing I didn't think about is when you stretch them over your feet. That ribbing doesn't look the same... that wobbly ribbing isn't wobbly anymore. Okay, so if you stretch them over your over your leg, it would just look like a one stitch stockinette ribbing. So I don't know I would use... I would use that reverse pattern on something that didn't have to stretch. Because then you could actually see how that ribbing wobbles in and out. But the right side of my socks, I really liked that. I really liked the pattern. I think it would be a good one for a highly variegated yarn. Mine is a little bit variegated. It's a little more variegated than tonal. But it's not--it's not a really wild variegation. But I think in a you know, pretty wildly variegated yarn, this would make a good pattern for that too, because it would break up that, you know, it might break up the... not that pooling is bad, but it just kind of gives another texture to the way the yarn is is changing. So those are done in time for the Extremities Knit Along.

Kelly

And then I finished the reading in bed blanket.

Marsha

Oh, nice.

Marsha

Correct. Yes.

Kelly

Yeah. And Robert will say it's not entirely finished. Because, I'll tell you why. Because I washed it. And this is a little bit of a cautionary tale for people who want to weave with different yarns. Like when I do the blanket with the Gotland yarn that you bought, I really won't have to worry about this so much. Even if I'm doing wide stripes. It's all the same yarn.

Kelly

It's dyed different colors, but it's all the same yarn. But as you know, different yarn felts in different ways, right. And I always like to full a blanket so it doesn't feel like and look like burlap. I like the all the yarns to kind of snuggle together and I maybe like it a little more felty then fulled. I don't know. I just I like that look of you know, nice well fulled blanket. And what that means is that some of them had the tendency to shrink in more than others. So the one of the yarns in there was the Tasmanian Comeback and that shrunk up more than the other yarns did. And so I have a stripe--well, I have different stripes, but like I have a five inch stripe and a two inch stripe of the Tasmanian Comeback. A couple different stripes. And those stripes shrunk in so on the edges you could see it pull in. So I laid it out on a table and I stretched, pulled those out. So they were even, you know, I did a pretty significant like block, you know, stretching that part out. I tried to get all the edges as even as I could. And I did a pretty-- I thought I did a pretty good job. But I didn't want to leave it on the table to dry. It was a nice breezy day. And I thought I'm going to hang it up. So I took it out and I hung it up in the tree and then it blew. And so anyway, it ended up with like hanger marks. So

Marsha

Oh

Kelly

Even though I had made the edges straight, once I hung it up, now my edges... One edge is kind of wobbly. So it's not permanent, I have to just wet it and do that blocking process again, let it dry flat, so it'll be straight, and it won't have little bumps where the clothespins were.

Marsha

Right?

Kelly

But so that's what Robert was saying is, well, it's not done because did you rewet it and straighten it out? No.[laughing] But I'm really happy with it, it's got a nice drape to it, I used a twill threading, a point twill threading, so that it's like denim. Right, twill is like denim. So the the diagonal goes up and then turns around and comes back down for a point twill. So it's got some diagonal interest in it. And then I have the, you know, the horizontal stripes of the different colors. And if I wanted to avoid that, that differential shrinkage, what I think would have been a good strategy would be to, first of all have more shuttles than I have. So that I could stripe the yarns in a small, smaller section. So like to, you know, throw two weft picks of one color, throw two weft pics of another color, throw one or two weft pics of a third color. You know, just alternating like I did in the warp. The warp doesn't have any one thread more than a few times in a row.

Marsha

Yeah.

Kelly

And if I had done that with the weft, I wouldn't have had any worry. But because I had a limited number of shuttles. I thought I'll just use this one, I'll just use this one shuttle. And you know, fill it with one color, use it up, fill it with another color use it up. And so that's what I did. So in stripes, but super happy with it. I twisted the fringe. That took a while. But I you know I did like, you know, a certain number of strands twisted one way, another group of threads twisted the same way, and then ply them back on each other and knot it. So I have, I don't usually do things with fringe. But I have a fringe on this blanket. So yeah, I'm super happy with it. I have not yet used it to read in bed. But maybe tonight.

Marsha

And you don't have a finished picture of it.

Kelly

I know. I don't! I have to take a picture of it.

Marsha

That's funny. I guess he's using that as you know, all the last little bits that you have to do before the project is actually finished. That's funny.

Marsha

And then I also, I thought when you were talking about Robert about like saying that it's not really completed. I thought he said something the other day and I thought what was it about weaving in ends and I looked and it's on Instagram. He said the front the garage is complete and complete is in quotes. And then in parentheses, he says "I do have a few ends to weave in."

Marsha

Yeah, yeah. Anyway,

Kelly

That's a good, it's a good expression.

Marsha

Yeah, no, it is.

Kelly

At least we all know what he means when he says that. His family's probably What!

Marsha

Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, he's picked up he's picked up our jargon.

Kelly

Yeah, just a few ends to weave in

Marsha

And, and then anything else? Have you started anything?

Kelly

I haven't started any... Well, I haven't started any new knitting projects. I still have the crochet blanket and I've been off and on working on that. You know, nothing really new to say there for a while. I'll just be working on squares and octagons. But I did start, once I got the blanket done, I thought okay, I'm gonna put the next Jane Stafford project on my table loom. So I had already wound the warp for it. And so I put it on, and I did a little weaving. I did a little weaving of the sampler. In fact, I'm knotting, I'm knotting ends right now. It's a seven yard warp. So I cut off I think about it's a little more than a yard that I've woven so far. It's a purple silk. It's the same purple the coned purple yarn that I used for that sweater that Cherry Vanilla.

Marsha

Yeah

Kelly

that I made, I held a strand of this, along with a strand of gray linen. I think those were the two yarns I used for that sweater. And I love that sweater. And I've had this yarn, my God, for a long time. I think I bought it in the early 2000s. And I thought, Oh, I'll just, I think I'll use this. The the sample that that Jane is weaving is a purple bamboo. And it just reminded me that I had this yarn, so I went got it. And that was the yarn I wound for the warp. And I also used it for the weft. And it's the the weave structure that I am practicing is called Huck. And it's a lace weave structure. And I don't have a picture of it either. I'll take a picture for you to see while we're talking here.

Marsha

Oh, yes,

Kelly

Huck lace is related to Canvas, we, which is the last week the last episode. So it was kind of similar. It has kind of a similar look, there are some differences. But this was you know, just a little experimental piece that I've done. And so now I'm knitting the fringe on this. I'm not actually sure I'm going to leave it with fringe or if I'm going to hem it. It's just a sampler. It's long enough that it could be a scarf, but I don't typically wear-- I don't typically wear scarves. I mean, I may give it away to somebody at some point, but I think I just might keep this as a sampler and hang it on the wall in the studio.

Marsha

Yeah, yeah. It's nice.

Kelly

So I have a lot of... maybe, six more yards, I think. Yeah, I think was a seven yard warp so I, I have five to six more yards to play around with. I don't have enough of this yarn to continue using it for very much longer as weft. So I'm going to have to get creative with what I use as my weft yarn, which could be kind of fun. So but yeah, I'm keeping up with the Jain Stafford Guild, which is, this is a first. I've never... This is the first year I've ever woven along and not just watched the videos for you know, while I was knitting or you know, before bed or whatever. So yeah, I'm actually doing what the what the video is talking about. So that's been fun. But that's it. So I have a kind of alarming status have nothing on my knitting needles. I do have ends to weave in and pictures to take for a couple of projects. my sweater, for example, that striped sweater, the striped pullover. I still have ends to weave in there. But yeah, nothing is actively on the needles. That's a little odd.

Marsha

Yeah.

Kelly

So well, stay tuned. There'll be something next time.

Marsha

Yeah. Well, since we've covered projects, we should talk about the Winter Weave Along since we've been talking about weaving.

Kelly

Yeah,

Marsha

It actually ended. And should we say anything about it? Before we talk about our prize winners.

Kelly

Well, just that it was really fun. And we had, I think over 600 posts in the chat. Of course it was going on since, you know, November. But lots of really good discussion in the chat. And some people that... I always like it when like an episode will strike a chord with somebody and somebody who's never posted before will post in the episode thread and say, Oh, I was just listeni ng. And you said such-and-so. It's always fun to hear from people. I mean, of course, it's fun to hear from people that I feel like I know online already. But it's it's fun to see new faces show up. And this year, in the Winter Weave Along, there were a lot of new faces who showed up. And that was fun. It was nice to get to know some people that you know, have not participated in the Ravelry group until now. So that's been fun.

Marsha

So should we just start with our prize winners then?

Kelly

Yeah, let's do that.

Marsha

Okay, so I'm going to go first. Before we go on, we should just say, too, that we pick names with the random number generator.

Kelly

And mostly from the finished object thread, although I did, I did also select one from the chat thread.

Marsha

Yeah. So this is gonna--The first three are from the finished objects. And our first winner is number two, which was JoanneCarol. Joanne from Santa Cruz. And I want to make a comment about this too, that she made woven potholders with a potholder loom. And I had one of those as a child and I had a huge bag of the... they kind of remind me like, hairbands kind of there, that you stick on that loom and then I think you crochet around the edge to finish them. And I remember I had one of those and I made so many of them that I started walking around the neighborhood knocking on doors, trying to sell them. You would never let your child do that now. But anyway, that's what I did.

Kelly

Did you actually sell any?

Marsha

Yeah, I did but I can't believe that, you know, in this day and age, you would never let your child just go and walk around the neighborhood and knock on random, I mean, neighbors we didn't know.

Kelly

You know, we did that all the time selling Girl Scout... you know. Well I wasn't in Girl Scouts, I was in Bluebirds, Campfire. Selling campfire Mints. Oh my gosh. And then the number of candy bars that we sold for school things. Yeah, we did that all the time.

Marsha

Yeah. So I was in Campfire, and we sold Campfire Mints, and we actually literally just went knocked on people's doors. And now nobody does that at all. They're all you know...Anyway, but that's another rabbit hole conversation that we won't go down. But anyway, so congratulations, Joanne. Yeah. And Kelly, do you want to announce the second winner?

Kelly

Yeah. So the second one is a weaving book. And I haven't, I haven't purchased it. I'll go ahead and and purchase it and have it sent directly. And since we had quite a few Weaver's using rigid heddle looms, it's a choice one of two books, either the Marguerite Porter Davison red paperback book, which is the paperback version, newer version, of the one that I always use to find interesting weave structures. So that's for a four harness loom. And then or there's a Liz Gipson rigid heddle book that has 17 projects in it. And so depending on which kind of Weaver you are, and which book you would like, I will send you one of those two books. So the winner of that number 40. Teaandknittingtoo is Colleen in Ohio. And she made napkins as her first double heddle project. And I think she has rigid heddle loom and bought a second heddle is what she did. Because I did see she was weaving on a Cricket in one of her project pages. And then she also made a scarf later on in the weave along and has posted that as well. So congratulations, Colleen and just let me know what which book you would like and your address and I'll get that sent along.

Marsha

And I have to just interject I made a mistake on the first prize winner. Joanne I didn't say what she won.

Kelly

Oh, how do they do that on the on the game shows? Well tell Joanne what she won!

Marsha

Yes, Joanne, I do apologize. I'm sorry. I actually am reading notes believe it or not. [laughing]. So a pair of Christmas dish towels that Kelly that you wove. Joanne, also I know you'll contact us and send us an email or through Ravelry and we will get your address and get those to you. So okay. And then I will... the third one is a class that was generously donated by Erica at Weavolution. And she has a great website for weaver's with projects and discussions and classes and lots of resources. And the winner of that is number 51 Heddicraft and she is also in Santa Cruz. We have a little bit of a Santa Cruz...

Kelly

We had a large Santa Cruz contingent in the weave along this year, I have to say.

Marsha

But Heddi made, she made, she entered a lot. She had quite a few projects but the number 51 was some spring tea towels that she made.

Kelly

So she was a weaving machine! And I think she's new to having a floor loom if I'm remembering correctly, she's a relatively new weaver and and maybe it was weaving with a rigid heddle at first or or maybe last summer and then started and then got... I'm, I'm mistaken. I think she has a table loom that she bought a stand and treadles for because I was asking her about her stand and how she liked it. Because I have also a table loom and I was trying to decide do I want to buy a stand or do I want to put it on just a card table or do I like having it on the six foot table that I just cart in from the garage when I need it. But yeah, I think I do think she's a relatively new weaver as well. So all right. And then the next prize is a gift certificate, a $70 gift certificate for the Jane Stafford guild or for the Jane Stafford website. You can use it toward whatever you like. You can use it toward a guild subscription. You could use it for yarn or kits. She has equipment on her site has quite a few different things on her website. And so I'll give certificate for her site is going to CindyQ, our friend in Washington, yes. Now CindyQ, she made a queen size blanket. She had had a large collection of handspun. Sounds familiar. And over the years, you know, had just been spinning and you know, certain handspun she didn't have a purpose for and so she just been collecting it. And she put them all together and made a beautiful blanket. Sort of, I want to say purples, blues, grays all from her stash. And yeah, that was a fun project to see. And she finished it fairly early in the Weave Along. If I'm remembering correctly, she talked about it, you know, from the, from the stage of getting out all the yarn and identifying what she had, and then planning the project and everything. But but once she got going, she really got that done quickly. And yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, it's really nice, huge.

Marsha

It's huge. Yes.

Kelly

Queen size bed blanket. So, very inspirational there. So Cindy, let me know, I, I actually I think I have your your email address, but just confirm for me your email address so I can get that gift certificate. It's like an E, you know, an E card, gift certificate that will be emailed to you. So all right, congratulations.

Marsha

We also have a drawing for the chat thread, we're going to pick out-- we've picked one person from the chat thread. And they're going to also win a pair of Kelly's Christmas dish towels. And the number we drew is number 538. And that's Cian also known as Suzanne in Florida. And she posted a canvas weave sampler. So congratulations to everybody who participated. A couple things I just wanted to note about I went through, you know, I've been following everybody and noting what they were saying about their projects. And it seems like a lot of people were new, that was like the first time waiting on their new loom. In fact, it sounds like Suzanne, that she just got a floor loom and that's what she was weaving on, her new loom. And there was also making things I hadn't thought about making out of handspun-- or I'm not-- sorry, out of hand--excuse me. Hand woven material. Sorry. Um, the one thing is a lot of people made dish towels, right. And I was struck by Kelly11 that she made potholders where she doubled up the fabric and then put an edging around it. And really cute potholders and they are... Kelly, you told me this, it's called overshot is the technique.

Kelly

Oh, yeah,

Marsha

Really beautiful! And the other thing she did too, was she made tote bags, a tote bag out of the dish towels. Which I thought was a really clever idea.

Kelly

Really clever. I have a dish towel addiction. And that means that my dish towels take up two drawers in the kitchen, plus a part of a shelf in the upstairs linen closet. And so yeah, that's a really good idea for a dish towel warp, if I feel like making dish towels, but I don't I don't find another drawer to put them in. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Marsha

And then the other person that was was interesting, too, was MissIssabel. And she made shawls using an elongated hexagon pin loom.

Kelly

Mm hmm.

Marsha

And those were really interesting too. And a pin loom is something that is not a huge investment. You can just make one. I actually watched a YouTube video about how you can make your own pin loom, so that was interesting. And then oh, and then Seine1. She talked about was the first time seaming a weaving project. I never really thought about that as I am assuming, Kelly, you know more about this. It's where you're taking two pieces, I guess. And you're seaming them together to make a larger...

Kelly

right.

Marsha

Then to make like a blanket or an afghan

Kelly

Something wider. Yeah, like Stella last year made a baby blanket seaming the two strips. Well Heddi made panels that-- she didn't seam them, but she hung them as a as a closet door.

Marsha

Yes,

Kelly

That was interesting. But yeah, even when you have a narrow width loom, you can still get a wider width piece of fabric by seaming them, by seaming them together.

Marsha

It was, it was very interesting what everybody was doing. I enjoyed seeing all the finished projects.

Kelly

Yeah, I did too. I have to say this year... I've never I've never really been a big fan of overshot. I always think... Well, I have some scraps, some overshot quilt scraps or you know, coverlet scraps that I bought at the quilt show. Gosh, a number of years ago, the Pacific international quilt show. They had a booth that was selling all kinds of things, but one of the things that they were selling, they had this big bin of, of cut up pieces of old coverlets, hand woven coverlets and that those are traditionally done with overshot and I like, I like it for that look, right. For the sort of bedspread, old fashioned colonial style coverlet look. But I had never really thought Oh, I would love to weave something in overshot. But the projects! There were several overshot projects this year. I think there was a class going on that people were taking And out of those several projects it's like okay, this is kind of inspirational. This is not, this is not your grandmother's overshot.[laughing] So I I'm like, Okay, I'm looking forward. I don't know when we'll do overshot in the Guild, but I may just put something on the lumen and work on overshot. The only overshot that I've ever woven was some potholders, some Christmas potholders. So real small project that, you know, just took me a couple of weeks at the weaving class. I wasn't really studying it or anything, I think the loom was actually maybe already even warped. You know, I was just weaving off an old warp from someone else. So it wasn't like I really learned anything. I mostly just followed the directions. But I was really impressed with the kind of versatility of overshot that I didn't really think of. So, yeah, it was fun.

Marsha

Another year. We'll start

Kelly

And now we're ready to start our, uh... not quite yet. But pretty soon we'll be starting our summer spinning.

Marsha

Yes. We'll talk more about that later on. But we're planning on doing that again this year.

Kelly

Thank you to everyone who participated, it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot. I think a lot of people learned a lot. It was really informational and educational, and fun to get on the thread every morning and read what people were doing and making. So thanks to everyone!

Marsha

And so just a reminder, we talked... we touched on this briefly earlier, but our Extremities Knit Crochet Along or any other type of crafts you want to do for your extremities. And that is underway and that ends April 25. And the prizes are the pattern for the Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde and the Coffee Socks Collection by Dotsdabbles Designs.

Marsha

So get your finished objects in I and I'm saying that to myself. [laughing]

Kelly

Let's see what's today? Today's the 14th so you have 11 days Marsha.

Marsha

Yeah,

Kelly

And how many rows?

Marsha

Five

Kelly

And how many stitches?

Marsha

12.

Kelly

So 60 stitches in 11 days. You all you have to do is six stitches a day.

Marsha

Well, maybe tonight.[laughing]

Kelly

All right. You officially jinxed yourself. [laughing]

Marsha

I know! It's not it's not happening tonight. No, you know what I need to say is I am not doing that tonight. Right?

Kelly

That's right! I have too much going on. I'm not doing that tonight.

Marsha

I am not doing that tonight. So we'll see what happens now that I've put that out there. We'll see what happens tonight.

Kelly

Oh my gosh!

Marsha

Anyway, Do we have anything else? I don't think we do.

Kelly

No, I don't think so either.

Marsha

Well, I will get off the phone and I will go put that final coat of paint on my garage right?

Kelly

Yeah, I have papers to grade Whoo hoo.

Marsha

Put on your...put on some latex gloves.

Kelly

Well, actually, yeah, no, they're not really papers. But yes, I have

Marsha

Oh, they're not real actual paper.

Kelly

I have virtual papers. I have grading. okay. That's what I should say. Yeah, integration practice to grade. So. All right.

Marsha

All right.

Kelly

It's been fun.

Marsha

We'll talk in two weeks!

Kelly

All right.

Kelly

Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com/

Marsha

Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects.

Kelly

Until next time, we're the Two Ewes

Both

doing our part for World Fleece!

Tree removal competes with Spring Break weaving and the stuffing of Frog and Toad for the content this week. You never know what you'll hear about on the Two Ewes show!

Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

Walk Along tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link)

Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde (Ravelry link) Almost done. Just the thumb to finish.

In the evenings I've been spinning the green and brown merino.

Kelly's Projects

Iced Matcha socks (Ravelry link) from the Coffee Socks Collection by Dots Dabbles Designs. I'm using Invictus Yarns Seraphic. It is a merino/cashmere/silk yarn in a gray blue purple tonal color. I want to knit more with this yarn base!

I started stuffing Frog from Frog and Toad (Ravelry link) from frogandcast.com. I'm using the crushed walnut and it is staying inside and not coming through the fabric. Frog is currently sitting in a tumbler with a funnel in his head! I realized I should put the needles into the provisional cast on before I start filling them so I will be ready to kitchener the top. I anticipate it will be somewhat messy.

Canvas weave sampler (Ravelry link) from JST Online Guild. Throughout spring break I spent time weaving and watching the Canvas Weave videos of Season 5. I used the warp that I wound at Christmas and adapted the sampler threading to fit the number of threads I had. I wove a dresser scarf for the linen cupboard, 5 dishtowels, and a small hand towel.

I had Cesar Chavez day off and I got the Reading in Bed blanket (Ravelry link) threaded onto the loom and ready to start weaving. This is all using my handspun yarn. With 6 epi compared to 22 epi and a 3 yard warp instead of a 7 yard warp it went really fast! Like the difference between a fingering weight sweater and an Aran weight sweater.

News/Other Extremities Knit/Crochet Along

This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns:

Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio

Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah

It ends on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet).

Transcript

Marsha 00:03

Hi, this is Marsha

Kelly 00:04

and this is Kelly.

Marsha 00:05

We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly 00:09

You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha 00:17

We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Kelly 00:22

And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hudredprojects

Marsha 00:29

and I am betterinmotion. We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.

Both 00:35

Enjoy the episode.

Marsha 00:43

Hi, Kelly.

Kelly 00:44

Hey, Marsha. How's it going?

Marsha 00:45

Pretty good.

Kelly 00:47

Good.

Marsha 00:48

lots going on here.

Kelly 00:49

Yeah, nothing noisy, though. We waited till late enough that all the noise is gone.

Marsha 00:54

Yes. We were actually.. were scheduled to record yesterday but moved it to today because yesterday, I had the Alaskan yellow cedar

Kelly 01:06

bonsai!

Marsha 01:07

Yeah, the former so I just the former bonsai. So I think I talked about this. But in case I didn't a really quick story about this is when my parents bought this house in 1962, there was a Japanese garden between the two houses that actually belonged to the neighbors. And in that Japanese garden was a bonsaied Alaskan yellow cedar. That was maybe four feet tall. And years have passed.

Kelly 01:38

Yes, I can say because I was born in 1962. So yeah, 59 years have passed

Marsha 01:44

yes have passed. Anyway, it was about 40 feet tall, and had grown. There were originally five trunks. And two are removed. I was able to remove two of them a few years ago, because the reason I wanted to get rid of this tree is it had damaged the sewer line. And we had to put in a new sewer line, irrigation line, the new deck, and a new roof. So it does so much damage that it was-- it had to go. And here's the real reason. Last summer sitting on the new deck, I got hit twice by bird poop! Because the crows would hang out in the tree. That's the real reason. [laughing]

Kelly 02:28

Well, the palm tree next door, the date palm or? Yeah, I think it was like a date palm next door, was taken down yesterday, also. So we would have had tree work at one of our houses regardless. And Robert saw the owner of the house this morning. And he's like, what happened to the tree? And he said, Oh, it was old it had to go. Which there was nothing wrong with that palm tree. I'm not a particularly big fan of palm trees. But it was it was a nice--I mean, it was a pretty nice specimen. If you like palm trees. In your case, you really actually did have a good reason to get rid of the tree. Not just yeah,

Marsha 03:11

It had done so much damage. Yeah. And it is just, I mean, I'll put on it... I have not posted any pictures yet on Instagram. I'll post pictures and when people see... Yeah, you know what it was like, but it was kind of a an emotional day, just because I don't like cutting down trees. I mean, this was a, it was a spectacular tree. It had been beautiful at one time, but it's just so big and in completely the wrong place and cutting off light. So my bedroom is much lighter, the kitchen is much, much lighter. But mostly it was just the damage. And then, you know,

Kelly 03:49

Well and the fact that it was right next to the neighbor's garage, and pulling up things that it shouldn't

Marsha 03:55

Yeah, it's about a half inch from the neighbor's garage, you know. So anyway, it's been a long process, I won't go into the whole thing. But have you have to get a permit in the city of Seattle to have a tree taken down, especially a tree this size. And it was it was a long, a long journey. But they finally got the permit. And they came yesterday and cut the tree down. I got the estimate and signed the contract in August, last August. And I can-- got the -- I think was on Thursday or Friday of last week. I got the email from the company that was going to cut the tree down that they had received the permit and they had scheduled me gave me the date that the tree was scheduled to come down. I said that's great. And so then I call them on Monday to confirm because it's in the contract and I confirm, I confirm once again that they are bringing protection for my new deck. Because this tree is sandwiched between my deck, it's, it's about four inches from my deck, the base of the tree. And so I had confirmed that they were going to bring protection and put something down on the deck. And they arrived at nine o'clock in the morning with nothing, no plywood to put on the deck. And the guy who was-- I found out later was the manager of the crew was a little snippy with me, a little rude. And I was like... and I kind of have that feeling of like, What do I do? And I decided, you know, WWRD, what would Robert do? And Robert would go out there and tell him to stop until they got the plywood. So I went out there and I told them to stop. And they said, okay, and they stopped for a few minutes. And then I went back in the house, and I saw they were dropping branches again. So I went back out and I said they have to, I said, I told you to stop, you need to stop. I've called the company. And they are sending plywood and you need to-- I'm telling you--you need to wait until the plywood arrives. So they stood there on my deck. And I went and made a cup of coffee and I sat in my breakfast nook, which is right overlooking and I just sat in the window so they could see me and then they just stopped. They dropped--put all their tools down at that point and went and sat in their trucks.

Kelly 06:40

Cursing out Old Lady Failor

Marsha 06:42

Yes. But I, you know, like in the end, I want to say something sort of sexist. I... it... there's moments like this when I wish I had a man. But you know that because I sometimes feel being female. And now, you know, when...when I was... Well, I think it's always been this way, just being female, that I think that I'm discounted in some way and especially when I was younger. And then when you get older, you're discounted in another way. Right? And I...and it's...and so I just thought, you know, Robert would go out there and tell them no, you're stopping! Because they all said to me, Well, we have insurance to cover any damage to the deck. But my point is, I don't want to have any damage done. I don't want to go down that path of having to deal with it. I don't even want to deal with having a damaged deck.

Kelly 07:36

Why? Why would you want.. Yes. Why would you not take precautions rather than just say, Oh, I have insurance in case something happened?

Marsha 07:42

Yes!

Kelly 07:43

That does not make sense.

Marsha 07:45

Yeah. So yeah. So I'm glad I did it. And then I did go out afterwards... So I'm not gonna say the name of the company because they ended up being great. And the we had a rough start. But they once the plywood came, the guys got to work, there was a crew of five. And I was watching them. And it really is remarkable what they were doing because they have to climb up into the tree. And it's 40 feet. They're up there. 40 feet with rope. You've had tree work done. So you know

Kelly 08:14

my tree work, yes,endless tree work.

Marsha 08:17

And then they, you know, they tie every branch. Before they cut it it's tied onto a rope and then it's lowered down. So there's..it's not like they're just up there dropping wood, you know, they're very careful. And such a tight area that they had to work in with two houses and a garage and the infamous deck. So I went out at the same time they're doing all of this. First Mark and then later on Ben and I were working on the garage roof because we've had to do some patching because it was leaking. And so we were...that's another whole story for another episode of the podcast, but we're up there working on this roof. And I came down at one point. And while I was up there working, I got to thinking, I wonder if there was just like... Oh, I know what it was! It was when the the young woman from the company arrived in the pickup truck with the plywood. She then said to me, okay, now we're grinding out the stump, right? And I said, No, we're not because first of all, it was too expensive. But also, they couldn't.. if now that the deck is built, they can't get the machinery in there. And just to grind out the stump was going to be the same price as removing the tree. And it doesn't matter. It's an area once the my fence is up it's like a no man's land. Nobody goes over there. So I wasn't going to do that. And so then I started thinking about that. I thought, how come she didn't remember that I'm not having the the stump removed?

Marsha 09:43

So the young man who was the foreman of this group, this team that removed the tree I said to him, you know, when he had a quiet moment, he was smoking a cigarette, and I said, Hey, can we just talk for a minute? And I could just tell he's like, Oh my god, what's this woman want now? But I went, I said to him, I said, I just want to talk about this morning. And I said, I think we were both a little irritated with one another. And I said, I got to thinking, is it perhaps you were not getting any inf...? Were you given any information about the job before you arrived? And he said, No, I was given your address and told to cut down the Alaskan yellow cedar. He said, I had no idea that there was a deck. I had no idea that it was sandwiched between these two houses. I had no idea that it's like an inch from the the garage and three inches or four inches from your deck. He's had nothing. Yeah. So and he said, I came in you know, it's a dangerous job. And so his adrenaline gets a little up, which I understand after having watched them.

Kelly 10:43

and especially if you arrive and find all these obstacles that you have to be worried about.

Marsha 10:48

Exactly. And then he said, you know, and he said me, I apologize to you, too. He said, I was kind of rude to you. And he...and he was he was very rude to me! And I said, you know, I accept it. I said, that's fine. I said, I think we were both a little frustrated with one another. And he said, Yeah, yeah, he was not given any information about what his job was going to be. As I say, we figuratively, not literally, kissed and made up. [laughing]

Kelly 11:14

There was no kissing. [laughing]

Marsha 11:16

Yeah, there was no kissing

Kelly 11:17

No actual kissing that occurred!

Marsha 11:19

And he was a very... and, he started talking. He's a very interesting man. He's actually a certified arborist. And so we started talking about the other trees in the back garden and things that he said he would like to come back and, you know, work on them, because he said they they need some help, which they do. Yeah, they definitely do. They've, I mean, the whole garden needs some work. So anyway, it turned out fine.

Kelly 11:43

Well, and I, I can vouch for having an arborist do the work as opposed to just a tree service with the trees in our yard. But But I have to , you know, you said the tree was in the wrong place. So there was one arborist that we had that-- he's actually too busy now and working mostly on the Monterey Peninsula side of the county--and so we haven't been able to use him, but he was really good. And, and so one day, he was talking and he's like, you know, this... Robert had planted... We have Monterey Cypress, really large ones in the yard. And there were some babies. And so, you know, thinking sentimentally as you do, like, oh, we'd like to grow one of these babies to replace them. Because our cypresses are at the end of their life. And you know, the death of a tree could take 100 years, but they're definitely in the, the death side of their-- not necessarily tree hospice. But you know, they're on the downward slope of life, most. And some of them are gone, and have had to be removed. So anyway, Robert had planted one of these babies, and he's like, you don't want this tree here. You really don't want this tree here! Because by the time it gets to the point where it needs work, I'm going to be too old and you're going to be too old. So I started talking to him about like, well, what tree should we plant? And we have a lot of space. You know, there's quite a bit of space. Like, well, what tree would work?. And he reminded, he reminded me of me in the summer that I volunteered at the SPCA where people would come in to adopt a dog. And I would be like, read their application. Like, in my head. I knew they were going to adopt a dog. But in my head, I was like, No, no, this is not a good enough family. No, this is not good enough! And basically, there was no tree that was right for the space. He cared so much about the trees having the right habitat, that he he practically couldn't tell me a tree that I could plant to replace the cypresses because it would, it would like physically hurt him to be in the wrong place, right? To not have the habitat that it deserved, like the Monterey Cypresses deserve the habitat of highway one, where the wind is pruning them, and they can break all they want and they can have all these broken hangers. And you know, it doesn't matter, but the wind keeps them pruned. Anyway, it's just like, I couldn't get him to tell me like he was so so so... I don't know, just so reluctant to tell me a tree that would be right. I really can vouch for having an arborist. They do a great job making sure that the trees in your yard are not just cut right but that you know information about them.

Marsha 14:59

Yeah. So I even gave him cuttings. So he was excited about something that's in the garden. Yeah. So I gave him cuttings. So

Kelly 15:12

You know the other thing about about that job that I think about whenever we have...Here again, 15 minutes in, and we're still talking about trees! [laughing]

Marsha 15:21

More than that!

Kelly 15:24

But when I, when when we have three work done, I'll always think about, you know, like, as a job. Anybody who likes to climb, like Ben likes to climb. I don't know if he would like to climb trees, but you know, people who like climb, who like to work outside who like... I mean, there's there's some science involved to the arborist job. But there's also the working outside and the climbing and it just seems like an interesting... It seems like it would be an interesting career choice that people wouldn't necessarily think of.

Marsha 16:00

Well, and there's a there's a real skill set, because you have to know how things are going to fall.

Marsha 16:07

Right.

Kelly 16:07

How to cut so they grow the right direction.

Marsha 16:10

Oh, yeah.

Kelly 16:12

What to cut to make the tree not grow in a funky way?

Marsha 16:17

I was thinking, Well, I was just thinking, Yes, that's true. Yes, you have to... In fact, Ben has said that he is interested interested in that, too. You know, the, the being an arborist. But just watching these guys with the ropes, you know, going up there that you've got a chainsaw, so you have to be strong. But a lot of it is, is I think, sort of like what Ben, how Ben talks about rock climbing. It's not so much about strength, but it's about skill, you know, using using your body the right way and, and, and using your tools to um... what's the right word... is like leverage. Yeah, that's not the right word. I don't know. But you know, to, like, block and tackle.

Kelly 16:59

Right, right.

Marsha 16:59

If you just had a rope you couldn't move it, but if you have the block and tackle you can move something. Yeah, I was so thinking that way.

Kelly 17:05

It was a real problem solving.

Marsha 17:07

But the other thing is funny is like you were talking about, you know, it always hurts you a little bit to take a tree down.

Kelly 17:12

Yeah. Yeah, even the palm tree that I didn't like, I was sad to see it go.

Marsha 17:16

Yeah, and so it was, it was just, it was a difficult day, in a lot of ways. Because I had to go I had to channel Robert and and... you know. Or, as I say, pull up my big girl panties. And go out there and tell him to stop. It was kind of emotional, too, just because I don't like that--cutting down a tree. And honestly, if this tree had been in a different spot in the garden, it would still be there. Right? It just it was in the wrong spot. And I have another, that deodar cedar out in the front yard, which I will never get rid of. It's beautiful and I've spent a lot of money you know, having work done to it to make it..to keep it. And so it does hurt to get rid of it and so I was kind of emotional and when Ben finally arrived to help me with a roof and I said to him you know I'm just kind of emotional about the tree and I was all... And he says to me, Oh My God, grow a pair! [laughing]

Kelly 18:27

Someday he'll be sentimental about something.

Marsha 18:29

Yeah, he's not sentimenal now, he's too young. Right now he's too young to be sentimental about anything

Kelly 18:35

That's right.

Marsha 18:36

Mostly it's just the idea that I don't like cutting down a tree. Well, anyway,

Kelly 18:40

Well, you could plant another one.

Marsha 18:42

No, I'm not going to plant another one. [laughing]

Kelly 18:43

No, I don't mean in that spot. I mean you can plant another tree somewhere.

Marsha 18:48

Oh, I can plant another tree. Yes. Well actually what I really like to have is an apple tree

Kelly 18:54

so there you go.

Marsha 18:56

Okay, so Kelly!

Kelly 18:58

Knitting!

Marsha 18:58

I'm now looking at this is 20 minutes and 40 seconds of tree talk. So let's get on to

Kelly 19:08

There's fiber in wood!

Marsha 19:10

That's true. [laughing] So let's go on about projects. So I don't have very much so I think I'm just gonna go first.

Kelly 19:19

Okay. Do it.

Marsha 19:20

I don't have very much. So I have really nothing to report on the walk along tee. I've knit on it a little bit but I've not made very much progress because other things have been going on. And mostly I've been spinning. So every night I've been spinning on the the Merino in the green and then the bitter chocolate. And so I almost have enough now that I can start plying it.

Kelly 19:48

Oh cool!

Marsha 19:49

And then I am almost done with the second Abington Mitt by Jennifer Lassonde. I bound off the second mott. And I just now have to go and pick up the stitches for the thumb.

Kelly 20:07

Oh, you just have one thumb left to do that's it?

Marsha 20:10

One thumb. And it's only... I only have to pick up 12 stitches.

Kelly 20:13

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Marsha 20:14

And and knit five rows. So yeah, I'm so close. Very hoping this will not be the like the skull. [laughing]

Kelly 20:24

Don't jinx yourself by saying that! [laughing]

Marsha 20:26

Yeah, so maybe tonight, I should just finish it so...

Kelly 20:30

Nice.

Marsha 20:31

Anyway, I like them a lot. So anyway, that's all I really have. Oh, that's it. I don't have much to report.

Kelly 20:39

All right. Well, I have a lot because last week was spring break. This week we have Cesar Chavez day. So I'm not sure why... I'm not going to get into a whole calendar and union discussion on top of the tree discussion, but I am not really sure why the union decided not to give us Easter week off as our spring break, because then

Marsha 21:05

Yeah, that's odd.

Kelly 21:06

Cesar Chavez day would have been in the middle of spring break, and not an additional holiday. But instead, they split the 16 week calendar into halves, and gave us spring break after week eight, which was the week before Easter week. So I had spring break, came back, now I have Cesar Chavez day off, and then go back to work. So weird. But anyway, the end result of it is great, because I got a lot of stuff done. So I have been working. In fact, I'm working right now on the Iced Matcha socks from the Coffee Socks Collection by Dotsdabbles Designs, and I finished the first sock. And I've got the... I'm at the top of the second sock, I've got the cuff finished. And then I'm starting on the pattern. And I think I mentioned this before, it's not really cable either way I thought it looked. It's more purl stitches. But it's really fun, really easy to memorize. And I also, I should take a picture of it showing the inside. Because even though it's... even though it's just done with purl stitches, that the design on the inside makes these ribs that are curvy. So you have this like, I don't know, they're like wobbly ribs. I really like the inside, I think I might make a sock that was wobbly ribbing. The outside is a three by one rib. It's...that's the base. And the pattern is a three by one rib. So the top of the sock is a three by one rib. So if you look on the inside, you have a one, one stockinette stitch going up, right. When you get out of the ribbing that one stockinette stitch curves in and then curves out and then curves back in and curves back out. And so you've got this really interesting, ribbed pattern on the inside that I would not have expected based on what's on the outside.

Marsha 23:12

Oh, that is so pretty.

Kelly 23:14

You would not expect even though it's just purls and knits on the backside makes that sort of wobbly rib.

Marsha 23:22

Mm hmm.

Kelly 23:23

So I think I might use this again and make socks inside out. Well, you know, inside out from this pattern. Yeah, and have that wobbly rib pattern. It's really pretty. So and I love the yarn. It's a it's got some heft to it because of the silk and maybe because of the cashmere. Nice and soft. And I love the color. It's a bluey-purple color. So anyway, Iced Matcha socks, Invictus yarn, Seraphic. And it's a Merino, cashmere silk yarn. And it's really nice. The other thing that I've been working on, I've basically finished all the knitting for Frog and Toad. And I got excited and started stuffing Frog with the crush walnuts-- walnut shells, and I figured out Okay, I'm gonna use a funnel because I don't want these things all over the place. And I put them into one of my really tall glasses. So he's sitting inside of a glass with a funnel in his head, like

Marsha 24:25

Like a specimen, right?

Kelly 24:26

Yeah! And he has a funnel, the open crevice of his head. Then, you know, his provisional cast on and I start stuffing him and I'm poking this stuffing down into those legs and poking into the arms and suddenly I realized, Oh My God! When I get the stuffing all the way up to the head, I have to be ready to knit him closed. You know, do my, my kitchener stitch. I haven't even picked up the provisional stitches. So I thought okay, Kelly, just stop. put this aside. Come back to it. Pick up all those stitches. And then you know, do the job, right? Don't just get excited that you can stuff...start stuffing him. So he, right now he's sitting in a glass on my kitchen table with a funnel in his head.

Marsha 25:15

I say like Doc Ricketts. [laughing]

Kelly 25:18

Like Doc Ricketts lab. [laughing] Yeah. So anyway, but all the clothes are done, I just have to fill them up, fill up Toad and kitchener the the head together. And that's, I think I might do that outside. Because that seems like it could be a very messy job with all those crushed walnut shells. So yeah, but they have to be done by Sunday. So I don't have a lot of time. But I have a little bit of time to get that finished. Because I'm gonna take them over to, I'm gonna take them over to Faye and take Kye his books on Easter. So drop those off. Do a drive-by, drive-by drop-off because I still-- I will have my second vaccine because I have it on Saturday. But you know, I mean, the full immunity doesn't happen for 14 days. So I'm still going to be careful when I see them. But I will drop it off on Easter. So that's Frog and Toad. And I'm already starting to forget how fiddly they were and thinking, Oh, I could make another set. I have a colleague whose daughter is the same age as Faye. And I thought, Oh, you know what? I should get another set of those books and make another Frog and Toad. I don't know if I'll do it, but but I am kind of forgetting the pain of the fiddly-ness. Oh, and then I have weaving!

Marsha 26:43

Mm hmm. I saw your post on Instagram. You've been busy. Mm hmm.

Kelly 26:48

Spring Break I declared myself a weaving retreat. I cleaned house Saturday and Sunday of spring break. I edited the podcast on Monday of spring break and did a little bit more housework. And laundry, I think. And then I declared the rest of spring break to be a weaving retreat. And so basically all I did was weave. The last day I didn't stop for lunch. I just wove. Like all day long, I wove. Dinner was on our own. You know, there was just me and Robert here and we just ate while we wanted. And I just wove all day the last day of my of my designated weaving retreat. So I did the canvas weave sampler from the Jane Stafford guild online. And what I turned it into was instead of doing just one long sampler I made the first part of it... was a... I called it a dresser scarf, like a little table runner, but for a dresser. And so I made a little and I don't know, is there another name for it?

Marsha 27:57

Well, runner, I guess but I don't know.

Kelly 28:00

Yeah.

Marsha 28:01

I don't know,

Kelly 28:02

Like a like a, a woven doily, you know. So anyway, I made a cover, a top table topper, dresser scarf for the cabinet that Robert has for the linens in the dining room.

Marsha 28:17

Mm hmm.

Kelly 28:18

And so it's a little wider than I would like it. And he expected it to, like, flow over the edges. And I didn't do that. I made it like stop at the top not hang over. So I did that first that was just plain canvas weave. And then it was bright white because I used the warp that I had put on--the warp that I had a wound at Christmas time that was white with red trim. And I wove it with white and then I tea-dyed it. So now it's beige and looks a lot better. So that was the first thing and then after that I made towels, and I made I think six towels altogether. Five dish towels and a hand towel and did a whole bunch of different experimenting and used a whole bunch of colors. I had just a fabulous time! I got them washed, washed them up, hemmed them up. The only thing that's not quite finished is I'm going to hand hem the thing I made for Robert and that's not--that is not done but the first hem is done like the the sewn... you know to get the raw edge out of the way and then I'm going to turn it and hem it by hand the last hem so.

Marsha 29:35

Wow, impressive.

Kelly 29:36

Yeah, it was.. that was a lot of weaving. I was tired.

Marsha 29:41

And it--was it sort of cathartic to just to do that after all of the the first half of the quarter?

Kelly 29:49

Oh yeah, I totally. I totally felt like making things is my mental health. Like just the ability to just stand there at the loom and just make stuff was... Yeah, it was it was so... rejuvenating, I guess would be the word. Yeah, it was! It was great. And I watched the Jane Stafford videos and I watched my, the knitting men video podcasts that I that I started watching a little while ago, I caught up on those and... Sweet Tea, No Shade and Needles at the Ready. And then I watched all the, you know, some other knitting podcasts, and I watched Netflix. And you know, just standing there at the loom with a computer going, and thinking, and just making, I just felt really, really good. So that was fun. And then I thought, Okay, well, weaving's gonna be on a hold for a little while. But I had a little extra time. So first, I wound the warp for the next Jane Stafford guild thing. She put out the information about what it was going to be and it was small, it's a scarf. And, and I thought, well, maybe I'll make it into a dish towels. And then I thought, No, just make a scarf, because it's not wide. It'll be fast. And you have yarn, so I wound the warp for that. So that's all ready to go as soon as she publishes the next episode, which is huck weaving. And then the Reading in Bed Blanket, I had the time to actually thread the loom with it. I yeah. But the reason is, after you know, weaving something with 300 and some odd ends, you know that you have to thread twice once through the dent and once through the hetal. And then you have to tie them all. There's a lot, there's a lot of threads, right?

Marsha 32:03

Mm hmm.

Kelly 32:04

The the blanket is, you know, like worsted weight yarn. And it's only six ends per inch as compared to 22 ends per inch. So that's a lot fewer threads. And then the warp is only not even three yards long. Because the blanket is going to be three feet wide, and five feet long. So it's not even two, the blanket is not even two yards long. And then you need a little bit for waste. So I think its like a two and a half or three yard warp. So really short. So I was able to thread it, Robert was able to help me wind it on it went really smoothly. It didn't take hardly any time at all. It felt like making you know, an Aran weight sweater after making a fingering weight sweater,

Marsha 32:58

a lace weight sweater?

33:00

Yeah, yeah. Going from size zero needles to size nine needles or something. It was really, it was really easy and fast to just do an evening. So a couple of evenings. So I got that I got that accomplished. And so I've got something to... I've got something ready to go to start weaving tomorrow, which I won't because tomorrow is a work day. But you know, I have something ready to weave on the loom and then I have something warped and ready to thread on my table loom once I get the instructions from the the Jane Stafford guild on how to weave it, so

Marsha 33:42

Okay,

Kelly 33:42

yeah,

Marsha 33:43

That's very nice

Kelly 33:44

My projects!

Marsha 33:47

Well, I was looking at Ravelry at your reading in bed blanket.

Kelly 33:51

I'm so happy with it.

Marsha 33:53

The colors are nice.

33:54

I did make a rookie mistake. I will, I will admit to a rookie mistake, even though I've been weaving for a while. When I was counting, I was organizing my-- I was doing it in three parts. And I thought, okay, I've got I've got 24 ends in each section. I knew how many ends I needed. But I was counting in a place where when I count once it was actually two warp threads. So I got about two thirds of the way through it. I got two sections done before I realized that every thread I counted was actually two warp threads.

Marsha 34:38

Mm hmm.

34:39

And I didn't need to go any further. In fact, I had already gone further than I needed to be because I went further than half. You know what I mean? If I was going to count everything, if I was going to count every two as one, I only needed to have half of it. So anyway, I won't explain how that happened it's kind of embarrassing that I even made that mistake but but so I you know so I stopped. And I have a little section of the warp that that I didn't use at all that I'm going to use for my weft I'm going to save it and if I have to use it for weft threads I will. But yeah it's really pretty on the loom I I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Marsha 35:27

yeah. Well the colors are pretty, really nice

35:30

and it's all handspun

Marsha 35:32

mm hmm

35:33

and not all dyed by me. I think two of them are dyed by me and three of the-- three of the colors came that way. You know came dyed and two of them I dyed but it's... I'm going to be really happy with it when it's done. So I'll keep you posted once I start weaving

Marsha 35:50

Yeah. Really nice. And what else

Kelly 35:56

the Weave Along is ending!

Marsha 35:59

Oh no... well, is that it?

Kelly 36:00

Yeah, that's that's my projects

36:04

yes the weave along is about to end so quickly go in there and put your projects in there.

36:10

Yeah, actually by the time this gets posted it will be over

Marsha 36:15

Yeah, yeah,

36:16

By the time this episode is up and published it will be over. In the next episode we'll announce prizes and talk about... talk about sort of the highlights of the Winter Weave Along.

36:29

So um, we should also then talk about our Extremities Knit and Crochet Along. I'm making the Abington mitts for that and that ends April 25. So and that's it. Anything for your extremities which we've talked about in every single episode but we'll just briefly say it's hands, arms, legs, feet. So you can... and it does say even though it does say knit crochet along, you can weave you can macrame, you can...

Kelly 36:59

I haven't seen any macrame socks or hats or anything in there! [laughing]

Kelly 37:05

Or those friendship bracelets or I mean...Jewelry.

Kelly 37:08

Yeah, jewelry. Would work

Marsha 37:10

Yes, anything. So

Kelly 37:13

an ankle bracelet? Oh yeah, I need an ankle bracelet. I have beads. I should make myself an ankle bracelet--crochet an ankle bracelet with the beads I have.

37:25

So anyway, we will draw the winner after the 25th of April and I will have two winners. One will receive a copy of the Abington Mitts pattern and the other person will win the Coffee Socks Collection patterns.

37:41

So yeah, so thank you! Shout out to Jen, Boston Jen for the Abington mitts pattern and Dots Dabbles Designs, who is Deborah, for offering us the Coffee Socks Collection prize.

Marsha 37:58

Yeah. So Kelly, is there anything else we have to talk about?

Kelly 38:04

I don't think so. This was an amazingly short episode.

Marsha 38:10

Most of it was talking about trees. [laughing]

Kelly 38:17

Well, you know, sometimes you just don't have a lot. You don't have a lot of knitting going on. It has been I mean, I had a lot because it's spring break, but you've had a lot of construction stuff going on. So

38:30

yes, cuz I yeah, cuz I've got the Ballard house under construction right now or you know, the remodels. So I have a lot going on. So

Kelly 38:39

I do have one question.

Marsha 38:41

Yes.

38:41

I just thought of this. Have you been able to find a or been able to sign up for an appointment for a vaccine? Do you know?

38:52

No, I have not. I've actually I signed up for the... in Washington State, they have the Washington, what is it now?

39:02

Find your phase.

39:03

Oh, find your phase, find your phase dot wa dot org. I think it is anyway, the point is, I signed up for that. And I have received three emails. And so they send you an email and so for the... and it says, you get it. I got it like at nine o'clock in the morning, and there's there's a there's ... over the next three days, there's appointments available at these locations. And then you get in and you just start clicking on it and but nothing's available. There was nothing available at all. So then the three days pass I get another email for over the next three days. There's spots available at at all these locations. Go in there, nothing available. Got my third one. Their spots, they'll but all these locations and nothing's available. So I don't know. So you know, you were talking about your experience. It's sort of like getting concert. tickets. And so I've heard today that even though my medical insurance is not Kaiser Permanente, you can go to Kaiser Permanente and get a...go to their website and schedule an appointment. Okay, so I was going to... I was... Tonight, that was something that I was going to do is see if I can get an appointment. So what I'm finding is I fit the criteria now I'm eligible, but I can't find an appointment. And I think it's one of those things, you have to just, I think, really, what I need to do is just sit down and just start in the morning and just early in the morning and just start looking.

40:38

Yeah, where to get them? Yeah, ours, I mean, I always just looked at the county, the county website, that's where I started looking at the COVID data, because I was interested in, you know, how bad it was in Monterey County. And I started looking at that, and that's where I was looking for the vaccination information, but there's getting to be more and more supply. So

41:00

I think so. And I think that it's one of those things when you get the email, you can't wait three hours. Like I saw the email and well, I mean, when I looked at my email, when I first looked at my email, I saw Oh, I have an email and I realized it had been sent like, three or five hours before. That's just too late. Yeah, I have to just like every morning, like, just start checking my email.

41:19

Yeah or check the site that they tell you to go to, like, just bookmark the site and just go to it.

Marsha 41:26

Even when I... After I get the vaccine, I don't really think that I'm going to be going to restaurants and

Kelly 41:30

Rght. No.

41:31

I don't honestly, like sitting here right now, I have no idea when I'm gonna be going back. I mean, I feel like once I get the vaccine, I'm probably not going to go back. When am I going back?

Kelly 41:41

I don't know. Yeah.

41:42

Not really. I don't really have. I mean, I would like to go somewhere on a plane. I mean, because I want to go someplace. But I'd like to go back to the life the way it was when we got to travel and stuff, but I can't see myself getting on a plane.

Kelly 41:55

Right.Well, that'll take a while. Yeah,

41:58

So yeah. Anyway. Well, so yes, it's something that I need to work on. I think I need to be at be a bit more proactive or more on the ball with it, too. And I'm going to, you know, as soon as I get the email as soon as I, I mean, I need to start searching for the email, instead of just like, Oh, look, I got an email.

42:16

Yeah, well, and I had, you know, emails from colleagues. It'd be like, Oh, I was on the website. So I saw there's this many appointments available. You know, I had I had that sort of network.

Marsha 42:27

Yeah, yeah.Okay, well, um, since we have nothing else to talk about. I'm sure we could go on forever.

Kelly 42:34

But let's not. Yeah. [laughing]

Marsha 42:39

Okay, my dear. We will talk.

42:41

Yes. Bye, everyone. Bye, Marsha.

Marsha 42:43

Bye.

42:44

Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast, visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Marsha 42:51

Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundred projects.

Kelly 42:59

Until next time, we're the Two Ewes

Both 43:02

doing our part for World Fleece!

What's blooming, tomatoes, Frog and Toad, and lambs join in with the knitting content this week. It must be the start of Spring, or even Spring Break! For full show notes with photos and links visit our website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com If you'd like to become a patron and support the show financially, visit our Patreon page.

Transcripts at bottom of post.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Kelly's Projects

The Iced Matcha Socks by Dots Dabbles have been restarted with a more appropriate yarn. The handspun I had originally planned was abandoned because I thought I would run out of yarn. So then I cast on with Bear Brand Caprice--a vintage sock weight wool yarn that is very stretchy. But it also had textured bits. So I found the pattern wasn't showing up. So those will become my Not Matcha Socks! I'll just continue them without any patterning. Even in plain stockinette these socks will be ultra-stretchy.

So what about the Matcha socks? I restarted them with Invictus Yarns Seraphic--a lovely merino, silk, and cashmere blend. Yummy!

Most of my knitting has been on Frog and Toad from frogandcast.com. I just have Frog's jacket to finish and then I will stuff them with crushed walnut shells from PlumEasy.

Mending socks: I found a bag of socks that needed work. So I fixed one pair of (pre-Ravelry) cotton/wool socks that had gotten a hole. I've started to fix a pair of (pre-Ravelry) purple wool/silk socks that I really loved. And I rediscovered the CoBaSi Socks that I made in 2017. After one wearing I discovered one toe was too short. I'll be ripping it out and making it about ¼ inch longer.

Marsha's Projects

I have knit about 9" of body of the Walk Along tee by Ankestrick. I am still worried if I will have enough yarn but I'm assured by other knitters I'll be okay. Stay tuned...

I finished the first of the Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde and knit to the thumb gusset of the second. Love the mitts and the yarn is perfect for them...and free!

News

Livestock Conservancy released a press release about their Shave 'Em to Save 'Em campaign. You can see more about the project and a video at rarewool.org.

The Finnish artist Liisa Hietanen is a crochet sculptor extraordinaire. Check out her lifesize replicas of people in her town.

Lambs! Twinsetjan has an Instagram feed full of lamby cuteness!

Extremities Knit/Crochet Along

This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns:

Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio

Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah

Extremities K/CAL ends on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet).

Winter Weave Along

Ends on March 31.

Transcript:

1:02:00

Marsha 00:03

Hi, this is Marsha

Kelly 00:04

and this is Kelly. We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures.

Marsha 00:08

Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly 00:10

You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha 00:17

We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Kelly 00:22

And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects

Marsha 00:29

and I am betterinmotion.

Kelly 00:31

We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.

Marsha 00:36

Enjoy the episode.

Marsha 00:43

Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly 00:44

Good morning, Marsha. I'm celebrating. I should be having champagne.

Marsha 00:51

No, you don't like champagne. You need to have something you like.

Kelly 00:54

Well, I'm having coffee. which is which is fine. This is perfect. It's exactly what I want. And I'm having it in my mug that I got at the thrift store. The downtown-- the same downtown shop where I got the Niebling tablecloth. That same day, I bought two mugs and they're sort of Mexican pottery style with a lot of flowers, a blue flower with a pink center and then a pink bud and green leaves. Well, they're restaurant china. And I think they would have been like Mexican restaurant china. But I thought since it's not only just the first day of my spring break, but it's also the actual first day of spring. That would be appropriate.

Marsha 01:39

Yes and things daffodils are up here in Seattle and trees are you know like cherry trees are beginning to bloom.

Kelly 01:48

Yeah, we're on kind of the same the same flower schedule this year. Because all of our the plums have already-- the the earliest plums are already done. The Santa Rosa plum is, the new one, is fully bloomed. The apricot has started. And then just the other day, the cherries that are later, the cherry trees in our the little orchard area of our backyard. The cherry trees have now just have a few blossoms opening. So yeah, and I have one last batch of daffodils that are kind of in a more shady area in the yard. And I think they're also a later a later variety because they haven't come up yet. Yeah. But all the rest of them are done.

Marsha 02:37

I was as you know, all last week, we were down at the beach. But the week prior to that I did a cleanup in the backyard you know and all the ferns like I cut off the fronds from last year. So then there's space for the new ones to come up and, and I cut down a bush and I did a bunch of cleanup in the back garden everything. But what I'm really excited about is, you know, I always have the pots on the deck with all the just the annuals in there. And that's the real color in the backyard is the pots. And last year, I was not able to do that because I didn't have a deck!

Kelly 03:17

Right.

Marsha 03:18

So I'm very excited this year to plant those pots one of my favorite things to do so. Anyway,

Kelly 03:28

Yeah, you usually do that, what like in April?

Marsha 03:32

Yeah, April, May, sort of depending on... well. And then the other thing-- I'm in a different house than I used to be in, the vegetable garden at the other house was a great spot. It was on the south side of the house. I don't have as much space. And so this last summer, I put tomatoes-- there's a three or four foot wide concrete path on the south side of the garage. And so I put tomatoes out there last year, I guess I've had them for the last two years. And they do really well because they're up against the house. But I always remember I would go to the nursery near the house and they always would have the tomatoes in the in the greenhouses and they were really particular that they didn't really want you to buy the tomatoes until all danger of frost had passed and so that the nights didn't drop below 50. Well in Seattle, that's a little hard. I mean, you're really putting them in July, late June early July for the nights not to drop below 50 and so when you're... I got impatient and I just went and I bought some tomatoes at Fred Meyer and they'd had them sitting out there since March, you know sitting out in their Garden Shop. And then I also bought some from the nursery that and I put them in late June, early July. Guess which ones did better?

Kelly 04:55

The Fred Meyer.

Marsha 04:59

And I think that they So the theory the nursery said is you take they've been grown in a hothouse. And then you shock them by putting them outside, right? And so then it--they don't produce, grow as fast and produce as much. My feeling is that they must have been shocked so early...

Kelly 05:13

They'd gotten over it! [laughing]

Marsha 05:15

Th ey got going, then, you know, I don't know. It was just funny that

Kelly 05:18

They recovered!

Marsha 05:19

Those cheap tomatoes from Fred Meyer that have been sitting out in the cold and march did fantastic. So...

Kelly 05:25

That's funny! Yeah, by the time you bought them, they had gotten over their shock or all the weak ones had died. And you got the strong...

Marsha 05:33

Yeah. Yeah,

Kelly 05:35

The Darwin tomatoes.

Marsha 05:37

Yeah, my Darwin tomatoes

Kelly 05:38

My mom says, she always said, you know, she has a really warm backyard. She lives just north of San Jose. And it gets pretty, gets pretty warm there. And she lives in Fremont, which is where I lived growing up, you know, where I grew up. But she lives in the different part of Fremont with a little different climate and is much warmer. And she even still says you don't plant tomatoes until May 1, because the soil has to warm up. Yeah, you know, even if that even if the exterior temperature the air temperature is, is fine. It's the soil temperature that needs to be right for tomatoes. And if you plant them early, you don't get any benefit from that.

Marsha 06:09

Yeah, that's exactly what they were saying.

Kelly 06:25

But you did clearly benefit from your Fred Meyer tomatoes! Well, one more plant thing here. This is a knitting podcast. But one more plant thing related is we have a company called Annie's Annuals in the, the San Francisco Bay Area. Now I would dearly love to actually go up there, they have a nursery, and mail order business and they have a beautiful catalog. And I always get tempted, I bought a lot of things from them. And I do like, I do like their, their plants. And they, they pack them really nicely. And you know, they ship really well. And but I do find like I have some of the same varieties that I've bought at native plant sales. And then I'll buy you know, another one. Like, Oh, I want another one of these! And Annie's annuals has it. And so I order it and it comes in They're kind of wimp!, They are used to being in this really lush, well-cared-for environment. If you look at the the nursery, and you look at the, you know, their catalog, the pictures of their nursery on the website, and, and everything in their catalog, everything is just really lush and beautiful, and thickly planted, and you just get the feeling that these plants are really well cared for. And then they come to my yard where, you know, a native plant has got to hold its own, you know, I don't do supplemental watering and in much of the backyard at all, you know. They get what they get in spring, and then they have to make it all the way. They have to make it all the way till the rains. And there have been a lot of times where the things that I bought from Annie's annuals, you know, they haven't they haven't made it. So yeah, I would... now when I buy from them, I treat the plants a little nicer, and I kind of slowly wean them off of care.

Marsha 08:17

Yeah. Yeah, you can't just throw them into the desert.

Kelly 08:30

No, I have to. I have to give them a little bit of pampering. But it is true. They do seem to. They do seem to be more used to fertilizer and water. And so their little princess plants.

Marsha 08:47

Yeah. Well, before we move on to knitting, I just have one other thing I just want to mention is some feedback from Kelly, from you, and also from our listeners. So you know, I was talking about Enzo and how he seems sort of bored and everything. And so I've been doing a lot of playing with him. And we've been trying to work on tricks. And of course, we had I just had a week at the beach where he had, you know, three and a half hours a day on the beach and was just exhausted, you know, when he come back to the house, which is great. You know, that was I think there's nothing better for a dog than just being off leash running on the beach. That's so much fun. And then he got, you probably saw the pictures too where he, we met up with Jean from String Theory Yarns in Seabrook and her dog Cooper, who is an English setter and you met him as a puppy.

Kelly 09:38

Right! When we had the meetup there, must have been a couple of years ago.Yeah, he was --she had just brought him.

Marsha 09:48

He's just like the sweetest dog. He's very super chill. very chill dog and, but very happy to be on the beach. But we were laughing because he's he's black on white spots and he has all these, you know, feathers or pantaloons, you know. But we didn't realize how dirty our dogs are because he's, you know, Orkney's brown and Enzo is black.

Kelly 10:13

Oh, yeah.

Marsha 10:14

Cooper is black and white has a lot of white on him and his legs because of the, like the, you know, the foam on the beach, it's kind of green? His legs were green when he's, when he's done on the beach, it was very funny. Anyway, no but here's the thing. So it was very good and sort of therapeutic I think for Enzo to be on the beach. For this to get him out of his his doldrums and h is funk that he's in. But, here's something that I've discovered about Enzo, in the last couple of months. The other thing he does is like I for example, I this morning, I went to type, the show notes on my laptop, and he was asleep on the bed. As soon as I get the computer out and I start typing on the laptop, he gets up and he runs down to the basement and gets in his crate. Every time! And every time I get out the computer to type an email or type anything on the laptop, he gets up and goes and hides--I say hides--he goes down and gets in his crate in the basement. What is that about?

Kelly 11:12

I don't know.

Marsha 11:14

Like, and I thought, am I like, typing in an angry way? You know, because he is so sensitive and soft, you know?

Kelly 11:21

Yeah.He knows that the computer makes you tense, like, Oh, she's on that computer again. She's gonna be mad.

Marsha 11:27

Have anyof your dogs done anything like that? Or does Bailey? Are they sensitive in that way? Are they just,

Kelly 11:33

I'm not sure I would notice this because I'm not sensitive in that way. I think one thing I have noticed with Bailey, and I find it really irritating, but it is kind of funny. She'll be in the trailer with me and she has learned what the end of a zoom call sounds like! So when I'm in a meeting, and you know, doing my Zoom thing, she'll be fine. She'll, she knows to lay on her pillow. And now I rarely have to, you know, wrangle a dog while I'm in a meeting. But whatever it is that I say when, you know, when people are leaving, when the meeting is over and when I'm leaving, she knows what that is. Because she'll immediately get up and come over and start pestering me. As soon as I start the Okay, bye, you know, whatever I say at the end of it at the end of a zoom call--suddenly, she is up and she's poking at me and prodding at me and trying to get me off the off the bench. And and sometimes it's not the end, right? Sometimes somebody has to leave the meeting. Or like if I have, if I have a student, like I'll have office hours, drop in hours, for students. And I'll have a couple of students and then one of them will be done. And so I'll say goodbye to the one student. And then here's Bailey like being a real brat. And I still have a student on the call that I'm helping. So anyway, that was just I just noticed she has discovered what the end of Zoom call sounds like.

Marsha 13:12

Yeah, yeah, well, and I also Enzo is similar to that. I have these cameras at the front door back door. And then I have one out at the garage. And I get an alert on my phone that makes a little sound if there's any-- if the cameras detect motion, an animal, a person or vehicle. And so Enzo has also now connected that sound that it might possibly somebody at the back door that he wants to see. Ben coming in or my brother coming in. And so a lot of times, not always, but a lot of times he'll hear the phone make that little sound because there's a there's an animal, a squirrel will set off the cameras or the wind blowing a branch or something. And he jumps up and runs to the back door all excited. And then his tails up and then there's nobody there and his tail just slowly drops down. So sadly, so sad.

Kelly 14:06

Well and that tail of his is like a flag. If you could see it, you can see it like does kind of sink sadly. It's so funny,

Marsha 14:17

We will get to knitting, but just thinking about those cameras. I can see what's going on when people come to my house or they leave the house and you know Ben always says like, oh Enzo, like he's always teasing me about Enzo like, you know, he's, he's not that smart. And it's always to get my goat, you know. And I saw him on Saturday night Ben had come to dinner and he'd been playing with the dog and everything and then he leaves. And I can and then I can see the video after he left that he actually calls Enzo to the back door and Enzo's still standing there. And then he goes and he gets down on his knees and he hugs him and he kisses him on the top of the head. So when I'm not around, total love is shown to this dog.

Kelly 15:01

Yeah.So you're spying on private moments between a boy and his dog?

Marsha 15:04

Yeah, but it made me feel good!

Kelly 15:07

Yeah.

Marsha 15:08

I mean, I know he loves him, that Ben loves Enzo, but he sometimes -- I think for me, he tries to-- I just like the dog so much, just to sort of put me in my place about him.

Kelly 15:18

And tease you about him.

Marsha 15:21

Anyway, anyway, on to knitting. I think you should go first because you have a lot to report.

Kelly 15:26

Okay.

Marsha 15:26

Well, you have a darling thing to report.

Kelly 15:28

I have some fun things to talk about. So first of all, I am currently, right now this minute, knitting on the Matcha socks. And I have a long, it's kind of a, it's kind of a story. But before I get into the story of the Matcha socks, I just need to say that this yarn is so luscious. And compared with the yarn and I you know, it's a different yarn from what I'm using to knit my other projects. And so it's really a treat. So this is Invictus yarns, Seraphic. And the colorway is Endless Night. So it's a purple. It's a it's a kind of a blue gray leaning purple. Tonal. Yeah, mostly tonal, not really variegated, more tonal.

Marsha 16:18

Mm hmm.

Kelly 16:19

But the yarn is 70%, superwash, Merino, 20% silk, and 10% cashmere, so it's nice, really nice! And I'm using it for the Matcha socks. So this is the story because this isn't what I was originally planning for those Matcha socks. Remember, I was gonna use my handspun

Marsha 16:43

Mm hmm.

Kelly 16:43

So I was gonna use my handspun. And I got it out. And I looked at it and it's a little short in yardage. And it's a little thicker than fingering, a little short in weight, and a little thicker than fingering. And sometimes handspun is more dense or has you know, has more weight per yardage, even if it's the same thickness. And it's a little sticky too, I mean it was that old fleece that I had. So the yarns a little sticky, so there's probably some lanolin that could wash out of it. That would make it less, you know, a little less weight. But I just started thinking I'm going to--this is going to be short of yarn . It's already short of weight of a sock, you know of a sock yarn skein. Some of that weight is the probably the lanolin that's making it sticky. It's a little thicker, I'm not gonna have...I'm gonna run out. So I changed plans. And so I grabbed something called Capri. Let me just, I have to look

Marsha 17:51

Is this in your in is this in your project page?

Kelly 17:54

Uh, yes, I have a project and that is called now Not Matcha Socks because because they were I

Marsha 18:00

was looking for your Matcha Socks. And now I see there's Not Matcha Socks.

Kelly 18:03

Yeah, so these are, these are not well...So let me just say this. It's Bear Brand Caprice It was one of the vintage spirit yarns that I have, sock yarns that I have. And I thought oh, this would be so cool. So I grabbed this blue kind of a navy color and I thought these will make really nice navy blue socks. So I started looking...you know and the -- Let me just talk a little bit about the yarn before I go on. It's the label says "Magic-Skein. Ready to Knit. No balling or winding. Draw yarn from center." So, you know, this is that type of commercial skein but I guess at some point in time, in history, that was a big deal. There was a new a new innovation not to buy your yarn in a hank. And so

Marsha 18:55

okay, well, it's funny I'm just gonna say, interject-- I always thought this was the old way of doing it. What they were the way these were wound this Caprice is wound and that the idea of buying the hank was a new thing. But maybe it's the other way around.

Kelly 19:08

I have a feeling it's a Back to the Future thing. Okay, that originally it was in hanks, and then somebody came up with this preskeined idea. I don't know. I'm just saying I'm just thinking, why would they make such a big deal on the on the band, calling it a magic skein and ready to knit, draw yarn from center, blah, blah blah. Also made in the USA. So I don't know what the vintage of this is. I could probably find it online. I've done that with some of my older yarns, figured out when, you know, when they were for sale. But it's Bear Brand Caprice. And I got this--I'm pretty sure I got this from the destash room at the NocCKRs retreat one year. And then it also says all virgin wool. Now I don't think it's 100% wool yarn because it's super stretchy. And there it looks like there's a thread, a ply of something that's not wool in it. So I think all virgin wool means all the wool is virgin wool. Not everything in it is wool, but there's no other thing on the label telling the content. And I think that's also an old, an old-fashioned thing. I think now they have to, I mean, I think it's a requirement that you have to label. You have to label with what's with what's in it. So anyway, this yarn is really stretchy. And I thought this would be cool. I really want to knit the socks. What I didn't realize is that it has a little like a little nub or nep every, I don't know, like every inch or so on the skein is a little slubby part. texture. So I'm knitting along and I'm like, Oh, this texture is really cool. This is this is going to make really nice socks. And then I get to the patterning. And it's like realization hits me. I'm not even going to be able to see the pattern because of the texture. And I can't read my, I can't read my knitting very well, because it's dark blue in and the texture of the yarn. So it's like, wait, was that a purl stitch? I'm taking my glasses off, and I'm looking to see okay, was that a purl stitch or a knit stitch? Because there's a lump there, but I don't think that's the purl lump. Anyway, finally after about two inches of ribbing, and then a little bit of the pattern. I thought this is ridiculous, Kelly, you cannot continue these socks with this pattern. This a very bad marriage of pattern and yarn.

Marsha 21:53

Yeah.

Kelly 21:54

So but I am going to continue them. I'm just going to rip back a little. Actually, I could just, I could just keep going you you'll never be able to tell that one sock had some purl texturing in it from the Matcha Socks pattern and one sock didn't. You'll never be able to tell that I should just keep going. So I have about three inches. And so I just left them there and then I dug through the spirit needles collection that you brought.

Marsha 22:23

Oh, right.

Kelly 22:24

Last year right around this time when you came for our... No. Yeah, when you came for Stitches. You brought it because we were gonna bring it to the NoCKRs retreat. So I've actually had a pretty good time with that bag of, of, honestly, there must be over 100 sets of needles in that bag.

Marsha 22:43

Yes. In fact, I because I needed the--My shirt, my t shirt I'm working on is on threes. And I don't really have a long enough pair of threes. And I thought oh, I should have called Kelly and have here send it,

Kelly 22:55

Yeah. So I dug into that. And I grabbed out another. I used to have multiple... Well, I had a birch set. I really liked the birch needles. I can't remember the name of the company that makes them but I had two sets of the birch needles. And over this--and I had them for years. But over this last year, or maybe maybe the last two years. So the year of broken foot and the year of pandemic did a real number on my wooden needle sock needle collection. I think I had a little bit of stress going on.

Marsha 23:37

Yeah,

Kelly 23:38

Because I broke, I broke a lot of them. So now I'm just down to one set. And so the the Not Matcha Socks are on the remaining birch needles. And then I dug out a pair of size zero bamboo needles from that, that bag and that's what I'm using for the actual real Matcha Socks with this beautiful, luscious Merino, silk , cashmere yarn.

Marsha 24:05

So that you don't have in your project page though.

Kelly 24:07

No, I haven't actually, I haven't put that. I'll put that in before before we go to publish.

Marsha 24:12

While you've been talking. I have been listening! But I've also been looking at Bear Brand on... Oh, well I just googled it and then it just referred me to Ravelry and so I'm looking at Ravelry there's all kinds of yarn on there but I do not find Caprice. And what... and it's a bit...there's all kinds. There's Angel Crepe and there's Petite Knitting Worsted. I don't know what that is. It says it's sport weight.

Marsha 24:43

But there'ssomething called Deluxe Crepe Vilain.

Marsha 24:49

Wow,

Marsha 24:49

Casa Laine. There's all kinds there's three pages of yarn. There's something called Ever Match. Ever Match Baby Zephyr? There's something called Gigantic. Feather Glow, Lady something whether I can't read it. Heather Laine. Anyway, there's all there's a ton. There's three pages of yarn on there. Okay, but there's no information about, you know, when it was made it might be okay. I have to find a...It's just interesting Ravelry has everything on there all kinds of.

Kelly 25:26

Yeah, well, in one of the yarns I have I have some silk yarn that I bought from somebody who was destashing when I was in the weaving class. And it's, I was able to find a newspaper ad. I just googled and was poking around trying to figure out, you know, how old this yarn really was. And I found a newspaper ad and I don't remember now what the year was. But, you know, I was able to find out how old how old the yarn might have been. I mean, that doesn't give me... that doesn't tell me that it wasn't sold after that date. But, but it was kind of fun to see the newspaper ad for, for that particular yarn and know, you know, at least when it was being advertised in a newspaper. So it gives you a you know, it gives you an idea anyway, so But yeah, I'm so I, It's weird to knit with because it's so stretchy. But it's going to be a nice pair of socks that that Caprice, lumpy, lumpy sock yarn. It's fairly thin. It's a light fingering, I would say it's a light fingering but with the texturing it works with the size with the size zero, the size zero needles, so it reminds me a lot--nd this brings me to my mending part of the episode--do you remember the CoBaSi sock?

Marsha 27:00

Yeah,

Kelly 27:00

it reminds me a lot of the CoBaSi sock. And I was-- I don't remember why I was poking around. Maybe I was digging around for things to use for the frog and toad, which I'll talk about in just a bit. But I uncovered... You know, I think I'm so virtuous with no unfinished objects. And, you know, I don't have like, piles and piles of things that need to be mended or projects that I haven't woven in the ends and they're just sitting there waiting. Not true anymore. Or maybe it was never true. [laughing] I just had this idea. Anyway, I dug out, I found this bag of socks that needed to be mended. And, and in the socks in this bag are my CoBaSi socks. So, they are like a turquoise and a red orange. And I striped them opposite. So like I started one of them with the red orange cuff and I started the other one with the blue cuff, turquoise cuff. And then I striped them. And I did toes and heels also in the same colors. Really fun. I enjoyed doing them. I really liked knitting with the yarn because it was so stretchy. But once I wore them, I thought one of the toes was too short. And then when I when I looked at it, I realized Yeah. I had , I don't know, probably a quarter of an inch less in one toe than another toe. I'm not sure how I did that. But maybe when I lined them up to measure them against each other. I lined the stripes up evenly. Yeah, and they were alternating stripes of about a quarter inch. So that's probably what happened. So anyway, when I wore them and found that one of them was uncomfortable, I put them away to rip out the toe of the one sock... three plus years ago! I don't even, I don't even know. It was a long time ago. Anyway, I found this and I have to repair them. I haven't started. I did start to take apart the toe of the one sock but I haven't done any of the knitting. But the CoBaSi is not quite as stretchy as this Bear Brand Caprice. It's it's more stretchy. It's got to have elastic in it. I can't imagine how it's 100% wool. So yeah, it just doesn't say that on the pattern. And then the other thing I found in this bag, were a pair of cotton socks that needed to be mended. So I mended those. And those I made Oh my God, my niece's were... They're all in their 30s now, I think even the youngest one. And they were

Marsha 27:08

OK, that's shocking

Kelly 28:07

I know. They were in high school. I think they were in high school.

Marsha 29:48

I remember when the oldest was born.

Kelly 29:51

I know. I know. It happens.

Marsha 29:52

Okay, let's not let's not go down that path.

Kelly 29:54

Children grow up. Your own included!

Marsha 29:56

Gosh darn it.

Kelly 29:58

Yeah, so anyway, The cotton socks I found needing repair I made for myself a long time ago. So I repaired those. And then I have a pair of wool and silk socks pre Ravelry think this is Hazel Knits. And so I have to repair the heel on on one of them but the other one is going strong. So I haven't... I started with a duplicate stitch and I think I'm going to actually, I think I'm actually going to cut out the heel and like just pick up stitches and just re knit the whole heel because the the threads are real it's really threadbare. I can't remember now if it actually had a hole or if it had just become so threadbare that I put them in the mending pile. But I... these are one of my favorite pairs of socks all ribbing all the way down on the top of the foot. And super felted I mean, I you know I that's it's washable wool but they've been around a long time. So, so they're kind of they're kind of filthy but they're really comfortable. And I remember I remember really liking them and that's why I didn't just toss them I put them in the mending bag. So I have one pair mended one pair started and then the CoBaSi socks, the CoBaSi socks are not they don't need mending they just actually need finishing. That's, so that's all the socks that's happening a lot of sock stuff is happening. And then the other thing is

Marsha 31:28

I'm going to I'm going to interrupt for just one minute. I'm going to go back to your your the other sock, the Caprice

Kelly 31:37

Oh yeah.

Marsha 31:37

So while you're talking I, You know I said I had just googled and so one thing is kind of interesting this answers sort of two questions. Because you remember I had when I made the the Christmas tea cozy and I was using some yarn from Sears that actually said it was like a C grade or something? Having saying it was like worsted weight it said it was C? I just what popped up in here is for 10 cents you could buy an interchangeable yarn chart from Sears and it says what are interchangeable yarns it says interchangeable yarns are yarns that when knitted by the same person on the same size needles will have the same gauge. Anyway, they are all have groups ABCD and E

Kelly 32:24

Oh sort of like that yarn-- craft yarn council like one two, like what they have now.

Marsha 32:29

Yeah. And then it has about how to use this chart. Blah blah blah it goes on. But then on the second page it has the interchangeable yarn chart group A lightweight and it says recommended needle size two three or four and on there is Bear Brand. Oh, and there's... Let me see if I scroll down. What you have is you think is its fingering weight?

Kelly 32:53

Yeah.

Marsha 32:54

Well anyway, this just says okay, here's also Bear Brand and or, and, or Fleischers. And there's baby Germantown, Casa, Laine, Crepe Velain, all these ones we were talking about. So I think this is a Sears...Well, maybe it's not a Sears brand, but it was something that was sold by Sears I should say.And I'm just looking down here to see if I find Caprice. I don't see it

Kelly 33:22

Well, and it may be that, it may be that someone listening was the donor to the destash room.

Marsha 33:33

Anyways, at the top on the very first page where it has, you know, the whole description of what are interchangeable yarns? This has got to be from the 60s because there's a woman and she's knitting and she has a knit suit on and she has the, you know the bouffant hair? You have like a braid that went around the front and then you had your hair all puffed up and hanging long. That's so this is clearly the 60s.

Kelly 33:55

interesting.

Marsha 33:56

So there you go. That's my little bit of research while we were talking.

Kelly 33:59

All right, well, the yarn that is in the same bag with this, actually, I don't think it came in the same bag though. I think I put it there. But I have another batch of these tiny little magic skeins, called Spinnerin and it's actually finer than sock weight. And it's it says it's 6% nylon, but again, it feels very much like... it feels very nyloney. It kind of reminds me of... Do you remember like the the knit shells? Yeah, older ladies would wear really fine, fine gauge knit. And storebought is what I'm thinking now. I'm not thinking of a hand knit one but that that kind of crepey feeling. nylon knit shell. So anyway, that's what that feels like. And I'm not sure what I'll use that for. I don't think I'll make socks out of it because it doesn't feel wool enough. And it's very thin. I think. I think even with the size zero needle, it will have a lot of holes in it. So it may be relegated to a weaving project. Yeah. Or it might be relegated to the trash. I don't know. That's hard for me to do so probably not, but I don't see much use of that. It just it feels really?

Marsha 35:18

Yeah.

Kelly 35:19

Synthetic. In a way that I don't think I would find... in a way that I don't think I would find a use for. We'll see.

Marsha 35:27

Enough. Enough of that searching on the

Kelly 35:30

Antique Socks. Yes.

Marsha 35:31

Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly 35:33

So with with that yarn experience of the Not Matcha Socks compared to the yarn experience of this cashmere silk Merino. Oh my gosh! I might have to buy more of that. That's just really lovely. So, but my other thing that I've been working on and I am in love with is Frog and Toad.

Marsha 35:58

Yeah.

Kelly 35:58

And I talked about them before. And at that time, I think I was still working on Frog. My goal is to get them finished by this Sunday, which is Easter. And, I have the set, the four book set, of the Frog and Toad books for Faye and then I'm gonna, I'm gonna have these, and then I have a set of books for Kye as well. Not frog and toad. He likes

Marsha 36:20

Okay, you just threw me into a panic. I'm sorry to interrupt again. Tomorrow is Easter?

Kelly 36:24

No, no. Next Sunday, the following Sunday.

Marsha 36:27

Okay. Oh my god! Okay, deep breath. Okay. Yes, continue!

Kelly 36:35

Marsha, if it even if it was Easter tomorrow, nobody in your family seems to know. You could just like

Marsha 36:42

that's true.

Kelly 36:43

Just like keep going right past it.

Marsha 36:46

I don't have to panic. Just, maybe I'll do that next week.I'll just do it next week and pretend that it is.

Kelly 36:53

So it's, I think it's the fourth of April. Okay. I don't remember exactly the day but it's at the end of our spring break. So it's next week, okay. But I'm almost finished. So Frog is finished and Toad. Well, they're not stuffed, so their heads are still open at the top. But you can see on my project page that they have their clothes on. Toad has his bathing costume which I made out of kind of a pale turquoise and cream color. And then Frog is a really kind of yellowy green color. And he has these gray brown like taupy natural color wool, light gray pants, and they're ribbed. So they look like little corduroy pants. They're so cute. Oh my god, they're cute! Last weekend, I had my vaccine. And I could, I worked on, I was a little nervous. I don't know why I was nervous. But I was just a little bit nervous. So I just I like focused totally on getting the eyes done and putting the eyes into frog and toad. And then and then I had a headache after I got my vaccine but it felt like a headache from like doing all this really close, close work. So I don't think my original headache wasn't that you know, the headache that I had as I drove home from getting my vaccine was I'm sure not from the vaccine. I did feel a little bit sick the next day but but all this little tiny close work to make the eyes-- I did that last weekend. I made the pants and now I have the jacket. I just have one more sleeve to go on the jacket. But then you have the details. So like I thought I was done with the the bathing costume but then you need to do, like, edging, you know around the sleeves?And I skipped the edging around the neck because I thought the neck looks pretty good the way it was. But this little jacket is gonna need all its edging so it doesn't roll. You know, so the stockinette doesn't roll. There's just all these little tiny details that are exactly what makes them perfect in terms of matching the books. And I just keep getting the books out and comparing my little Frog and Toad with the Frog and Toad in the books and yeah. So I'm having a lot of fun with this. The jacket's almost done I actually bought the crushed walnut shells that she recommends for the stuffing. I mean it's one of the things that she has on the on the pattern for the stuffing is crushed walnut shell so I bought those and I bought the ones that have lavender. So it will smell nice and, but it's very fine. So I'm really glad I decided to go down to the size zero needles with the yarn I was using. Because if you if you didn't have really really bulletproof fabric, that little walnut is like sand. That little walnut sand is going to come out. And I might, I might just test a little bit of it with mine. I think Toad is a little bit felted because I washed him kind of vigorously to make sure that he was nice and tight. Frog might have a little bit of gap, but I think he's pretty good. But if he-- if the stuffing, if the sand, you know, the walnut shells look like they're going to come out. I think I will just wash him just a little bit more.

Marsha 40:34

Mm hmm.

Kelly 40:35

And get him more fulled.

Marsha 40:37

Yeah,

Kelly 40:38

so that he's a little stiffer.

Marsha 40:40

They're, darling. They're... their expressions... Their eyes are so cute.

Kelly 40:45

I can't wait to put their mouth on.

Kelly 40:48

You know, you do that last. I don't know why. Maybe because it's easier to follow the line with them stuffed. I'm not exactly sure. But yeah, very, very cute. So those are, those are my projects.

Marsha 40:48

Yeah,

Marsha 41:06

Very cute. So Kelly, my projects, I'll give you an update on what I'm doing down the beach. I worked a little bit on my sweater that the T shirt that I've been working on.

Kelly 41:16

Oh, I have a question about that. Okay, did you need to buy more yarn?

Marsha 41:20

Well, I was gonna talk about that. Oh, not buy more yarn. It's the Walk Along Tee by Ankestrick, and I've made about nine inches of the body. And I have probably two two inch balls of the second skein.

Kelly 41:36

Oh, well, yeah.

Marsha 41:37

And remember, I divided them so. No, I have even less than that. They're probably about an inch. So I have about two one inch, say I have like a two inch cake left. And then I have one more skein and I did not buy more, she has lots down there. Worst case scenario, I can call Jean and just ask her to send me a skein. But Kim said she, she's making the same sweater and of course was there with me at the beach. And she said she's still doing the increases of the Raglan. So she's not gotten to the body yet. But she did say that the pattern, a friend of hers made the pattern also and the sleeves are quite slim. They're not loose baggy sleeves. So she said you're not going to be using that much yarn on the sleeves. And I have to remind myself too, that I've knit because of the Raglan shaping, you know, it goes down the shoulder down off the shoulder down to about armpit level,

Kelly 42:32

right. So a good portion of the sleeve is done.

Marsha 42:35

Right. And then I'm planning on making three quarter length sleeves. So and then the cuff, I'm going to make like the collar which is the contrasting blue. So that's my plan, to just wait and see how I do. And then also the bottom of the sweater, I'm going to put the contrasting edging on. And I don't want to make it very long. I want it to be sort of mid hip, or a little above mid hip kind of. And so I can wear maybe wear a sweater over it or short jacket or something

Kelly 43:10

Right

Marsha 43:11

So I'm going to take a wait and see approach.

Kelly 43:13

That's Yeah, I sometimes panic, or worry too much about running out of yarn. And then I end up with extra.

Marsha 43:23

Right? Yeah. So, and I did check my row gauge. Because remember my last sweater that was one of the issues I had. I was using so much yarn because of the the row gauge was off-- was not the same as the pattern. And this is correct. So I should be okay. Yeah, I'm also not putting in all of the increases, they're supposed to be for increased rows, where you increase four stitches per row? I'm only going to put in two because I don't want it-- it would be--otherwise it'd be I think too much fabric around the hips. And so I've knit I think, I don't know if I said this, but I've had about nine inches of the body. Okay, so you know, another I don't know how long I will have to figure it out.

Kelly 44:07

Yeah, but not that much. But not not that much longer. Now because of the bottom edge.

Marsha 44:14

Yeah. And I think you know, I was saying earlier that I don't have very long needles. So I think what I might do is put it on waste yarn or get another set of needles that I can put it on. So I can try it on and see how it's fitting. That'll give me a better sense. But at the beach mostly what I worked on was the Abington mitts. That is the pattern that -- one of our prizes for the extremities knit

Kelly 44:47

Yeah.

Marsha 44:48

Knit along and or crochet along or weave along or macrame along or fill in the blank along. Anyway so I finished one and I've knit to the thumb gusset of the second one.

Kelly 45:05

Oh, wow.

Marsha 45:07

So, but they were pretty quick because I'm using DK weight on size six needles. So the only thing is on these, so when you do the thumb gusset, put the gusset on waste yarn, then knit, continue knitting the rest of the hand as long as you want it, and then you do ribbing, then you go back and pick up the thumb gusset, pick up two stitches. And then just knit in the round, you pick up two extra stitches, and then the first row after that you decrease two stitches. And it does say in the pattern, if you have fat thumbs.. Apparently I have fat thumbs! [laughing] No, she doesn't say if you have fat thumbs. But if depending on it, you may want to not put in those two decreases. And I think I'm going to go back on the second one, I'm not going to put the decreases in. And on the first mitt I made I'm going to-- I think I'm going to rip it out and redo it without the two decreases. I think it'd be a bit more comfortable.

Kelly 46:07

Yeah.

Marsha 46:09

So, but they're really nice. And it's a fun pattern. It's really easy. Even though you have to use a cable needle needle for all the cabling on them. It's pretty easy to memorize the pattern. And it goes very quickly. And there's so little you know that I knitted a whole mitt down there at the beach practically so

Kelly 46:29

nice.

Marsha 46:30

A mitt and a half and six days. So did you see my picture on Instagram that I did sit a lot at the beach? Yes.

Kelly 46:38

The butt shaped divot in the couch? [laughing]

Marsha 46:42

Yes, I had a butt divot in the couch. So that's it for me on projects. I don't have a lot going on.

Kelly 46:50

All right.

Marsha 46:51

That's it.

Kelly 46:52

Okay.

Marsha 46:52

Oh, and I actually, I did not bring my spinning wheel. But when I got home before I left for the beach and then when I got home yesterday, we got home you know mid day. I worked on spinning on the yarn that I've been spinning-- the olive green or pine green and the bitter chocolate the dark brown. I spun on that a little bit. So I've got, now I have two bobbins of green and one bobbin of brown. Yeah. And so I've made two skeins, but then I had to you know reload the bobbins. So I'm almost ready to-- I have one more bobbin to spin up more yarn and then I'll I'll finish plying.

Kelly 47:30

All right,

Marsha 47:31

Yeah, but that's, that's it for me.

Kelly 47:33

Okay, well, we had a couple of other, just let's just do business, get the administrative business out of the way. And then there's a couple of fun things that I just wanted to share. So we have our Extremities Knit Along/ Crochet Along/Everything Along that Marsha just mentioned, just want to remind people that that ends on April 25. And so you can get anything for your hands, arms, legs, feet, lots of good stuff going on there. And we have two prizes. One is a pattern for the Abington mitts that Marsha mentioned. And the other one is the pattern Coffee Socks Collection by Dotsdabbles Designs, and that's where this Matcha Socks pattern that I was talking about. That's where the Matcha Socks pattern comes from. The winter weave along is quickly coming to an end. It ends on March 31. And so that's just a little more than a week away. So not much time there. But I'm hoping to at least get some something on the loom. I won't-- I probably won't even get it all the way threaded. But I do have a project that I want to, that I want to get on the loom during spring break. During this week, what I really should do is housework but no. So

Marsha 48:48

It can wait

Kelly 48:49

That's ending on March 31. And so if you're weaving, I hope this inspires you to get your weaving finished and get your your last woven projects into the, into the thread. So but then I had something I wanted to talk about, that came across our email, Marsha and I thought, oh, let's just talk about this for a little bit. The livestock Conservancy sent me a press release. And it was about their campaign, Shave 'Em to Save 'Em. And the idea is that people have this passport, and they make projects out of all these different wools that are from critically endangered sheep breeds. So I just wanted to let people know about that. And we'll put a link to it in the show notes. So how it works is you buy wool from one of these rare breed fiber providers. And you get a stamp in their passport. And then you earn things. You can earn prizes. They have a Ravelry group and you can sign up for to the Ravelry group. They have prizes that they're giving away. You share your pictures either on Facebook or Ravelry. And you can earn things for completing projects. And the more breeds you use, the more stamps you collect, the more things you can earn. And I think some of our listeners maybe are participating in this. And then they have a list of fiber providers and a little online directory. 180 breeds. And I don't know of all the breeds are sheep breeds, because the livestock Conservancy has poultry and other kinds of livestock in it as well. So the online directory might be all the breeds, you know, not just for the shave them to save them. It's for people who want to buy, you know, who want to buy a sheep for their flock, or who want to buy a particular breed of chicken for their flock of chickens, and so on. But anyway, I thought it was kind of an interesting little thing, and they have a video, and we'll link to their site. rarewool.org is one quick way to get to their project. And then they have a video and stuff. So I'll put that in the show notes.

Marsha 51:08

I thought interesting. Very cool. Yeah. It's really fun.

Kelly 51:11

I know, I heard about it. I think it's been going for over a year. I want to say I originally heard about it. And I did go on their, their Ravelry group, and then I kind of forgot about it and then got this email. And I thought, oh, I'll just remind people about this. Yeah. Here's an interesting little fact. It says fiber providers are seeing an uptick in their sales for the past two years, so must be going on for two years. A recent survey of those fiber providers indicated that 37% of shepherds had sold 50% to 200% more wool than before joining the initiative.

Marsha 51:48

Oh, very cool!

Kelly 51:48

That's Yeah. That's pretty...that's pretty impressive.

Marsha 51:52

Yeah, no, this is great. I mean, I, I've been looking at the page, and I'm gonna look a little bit more at it.

Kelly 51:59

it's almost it's a fiber buying time. Right? It's almost the time where I start thinking about, I want to buy some spinning fiber and maybe the summer spin-in will, you know, come along at some point. So

Marsha 52:15

I'm thinking this is, this is a little off topic, but it's lambing season, and we follow several shepherds. But have you been following TwinsetJan?. And so yeah, so if you are on Instagram twinsetjan is the account name and it's Jan and she is has Fair Winds Farm in, I believe it's in Pennsylvania, I think. Anyway, she had a ewe that delivered four lambs, which is I think, very unusual. And four or excuse me, three males and a little female, and the female. I don't know what her initial weight was, but she's only like, maybe three pounds now. Or maybe she's up to four pounds. She's a tiny, tiny, tiny lamb so she's brought her into the house. And she's doing these darling Instagram posts, you know, all in first person in the lambs perspective and all the things that she's doing. And very cute and she's named Pikachu. And she's so cute because she just has black around her eyes. Her eyes are black but then she has all this black fur. No, it's not fur, what do you call it?

Kelly 53:31

Wool! [laughing]

Marsha 53:31

Wool wool around her eyes. She's darling. She's so delicate and tiny. Yeah.

Kelly 53:38

Yeah, they're Finnsheep and apparently they have large--twins and and triplets and quadruplets or multiple

Marsha 53:50

Oh, really? That's not unusual?

Kelly 53:52

multiples are common

Marsha 53:52

Okay. So it's not unusual. I thought in general sheep. It was too you know, they would have

Kelly 53:57

Yeah, finnsheep are known for having-- I want to say large litters. But for having multiples.

Marsha 54:06

Okay, yeah,

Kelly 54:09

Yeah, she's really cute. You should definitely.. I'll put her Instagram in the shownotes as well. Because it's really worth following.

Marsha 54:17

Yeah, she's very, very cute. And, yeah, anyway, but it's lambing season. So we follow two other shepherds that it's just been really fun to see all the lambs and, and in the business of it, yeah, there's the business you know, and just what's involved with trying to keep them alive and healthy. Because this is their business. So

Kelly 54:41

yeah, well, one of our one of our friends Kathy straightfork, she has lambs. She has sheep for the first time this year and she has lambs and she's been sharing. She shared pictures of the the lambs that she had one ewe that gave birth to twins. And was not really happy to take care of the little girl twin. And so she's been, you know, dealing with that situation trying to get the mom to at least feed her. And then she has another you who is due pretty quickly. I want to say she has blue faced Leicester and they have the biggest like satellite ears! Kind of like Bailey's ears, you know, real big and so it's been fun to, it's been fun to see her pictures, too. And hear you know what's going on. So it's a busy time for for those people with sheep.

Marsha 55:37

But these lambs are so cute.

Kelly 55:39

They really are. And baby goats too. I want to say it was probably early April when we when we found out that my niece in Seattle had COVID. So I started sending her Instagram pictures of baby goats. Just to you know, say okay, here's your here's your bright spot for today. And I sent her all such funny little videos of these goats like flying around the pasture or like just like walking along and then all of a sudden just leap in the air and skitter away, like for no reason. So funny. So yeah, it's a good time of year to be following sheep and goats on Instagram. Yeah,

Marsha 56:19

yeah. Yeah. So I think that's about it. Do we have anything? There's

Kelly 56:23

one more thing and that is the Finnish artist. I just wanted to -- it was shared in the 2 Knit Lit Chicks Ravelry group and I saw it and then I started digging around and looking, looking for more information. So her name is Liisa, Hietanon, I should have looked it up--the pronunciation for that--and in Finnish. But she's an artist, a Finnish artist, and she crochets all sorts of things. But the thing that brought her to my attention was an article about how she had crocheted life-sized replicas of the people in her town. And they're amazing. You can barely tell who's the real person and who's the crocheted version. And you know, thinking of doing these frogs and all the little details that you have to select, to make them actually replicate Frog and Toad in the books. I can only imagine all of the different things that she's thought about to make sure that these crocheted replicas actually, you know, mirror the features of these people in her town. It's amazing. So I've linked to her in the show notes as well, her artist's website, in the show notes as well, and you can take a look. Pretty amazing.

Marsha 57:38

Yeah, they are. I'm looking at them now. They're very amazing. They're really yeah, they're very cool.

Kelly 57:42

Pretty fun.

Marsha 57:43

So with that, I think we're almost at the end, and I just have to let you know that Enzo, when we started to record, he came up and got on the bed, and he's been sleeping on the bed. So the typing sent him away. But the recording brought him back.

Kelly 57:59

So you must not be tense when you record, Marsha! It 's all that uploading of your tax documents that has traumatized poor Enzo.

Marsha 58:16

Yes. I don't know if we talked about did we talk about that. But

Kelly 58:19

you and I talked about it.

Marsha 58:20

You can imagine that I've always just, would fill out like a little paper workbook that the accountant sent me and this year, you know, as as you know, Kelly, how much I love being dragged into the 21st century and having to use technology. But I did it. I finally figured it out. It took me two solid days probably. Yes. All that scanning. And and as I say we had a conversation about this. And I realized what they're doing is they probably have to scan all those documents themselves. So normally, I would just send them copies of everything, what they're doing now is they're putting the work on the client, right? They're just foisting it off on-- that sounds too negative, but they they're just making us do the work at this end. So they don't have to I think is what they're really doing.

Kelly 59:08

I don't know how much of it is is safety but it I have to say when I when I grade going forward, when the pandemic is over and I'm back face to face or when the pandemic has ramped down, I think I will still have a lot of my students assignments just be uploaded. I don't really prefer grading online. There are some nice features to it. There are some things that are are easier to grade online. But I would always when I got stacks of papers, I would know that you know there was a potential cold coming on, because I just collected a whole bunch of tests that I had to grade. And you know, I would always joke about how I was going to spray my papers with Lysol. I wonder too if that's part of it. You're not having all of that stuff arrive from everybody

Marsha 1:00:00

Yeah,I didn't even think about that. And I that makes sense. I didn't. Yeah. And honestly, I didn't think about that.

Kelly 1:00:06

I know that the pandemic, I mean, they've said, I've heard different places that actual transmission by, you know, touching objects of COVID is not the real transmission mechanism. It's still important to wash your hands and stuff, but, but that's not the real transmission mechanism the way they originally thought, but it is definitely a disease transmission. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I have experienced that, you know, the the colds come when the tests come and I have to grade papers. So,

Marsha 1:00:39

yeah, so maybe it is really not just like they're trying to make us do the bulk.They're trying to protect it. So it's probably...

Kelly 1:00:46

it's probably many fold the reasons for doing it. But that, but that's one, you know, you sharing things, sharing objects is something that people are trying to prevent in the pandemics. Yeah, I wouldn't want to be opening a whole bunch of other people's mail.

Marsha 1:01:01

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Kelly 1:01:02

I wouldn't want to be collecting a whole bunch of student papers. If I were you know, actually in class, I'd be like, No, you can leave that right there.

Marsha 1:01:12

Yeah,

Kelly 1:01:13

All right. Well, I'm glad Enzo is no longer traumatized by your typing.

Marsha 1:01:20

I will I will try and type lightly and test it and see if. After we hang up, I will try typing on the computer so he gets up and runs to the basement.

Kelly 1:01:31

Oh my gosh.

Marsha 1:01:32

All right. We'll talk

Marsha 1:01:33

Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects.

Kelly 1:01:33

Okay, Marsha, bye. Bye. Bye, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Kelly 1:01:50

Until next time, we're the Two Ewes doing our part for a world fleece!

More discussion about shots (not from a glass) and needles (not for knitting). Sorry! We finally get down to knitting, bored dogs, and new projects. We end by laughing at own ridiculousness when read in a transcript. Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

If you'd like to become a patron and support the show financially, visit our Patreon page.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

I'm still working on the pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.

I've knit about 6" of my Walk Along tee by AnkeStrick and I'm using Little Fish Stitches fingering. Beginning to worry if I will have enough yarn.

Spinning on and off with olive green merino roving. We had one beautiful sunny day this week that I could sit on the deck and spin. Heaven! I'm combining it with another merino I ordered from Paradise Fibers in Spokane, Washington in a dark brown called Bitter Chocolate. Making a 3 ply with two green and one brown single. I've spun two skeins.

Swatching to make the Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde as part of our Extremities Knit/Crochet Along. Using Dale Garn Helio that I got from Kim's bag of yarn headed to the thrift store. Enough yarn for a brown and a burgundy pair.

Kelly's Projects

I finished the pair of socks for Robert!

And another Ice Time Hat! The Ice Time Hat is a pattern given to me by BostonJen of Down Cellar Studio podcast. I used two different yellow and purple variegated skeins. Check out my project page.

Started the Iced Matcha Socks by Dots Dabbles. I'm using handspun wool mohair yarn that I spun from batts I carded. The wool is Charlotte (a gray sheep whose fleece I bought twice in the early 2000s). The mohair is a similar vintage mohair fleece that I bought and dyed.

Both of these patterns are from the designers who have donated prizes for the Extremities K/CAL.

I also started Frog and Toad from frogandcast.com. I've finished Toad and now need to start Frog. Then there are clothes to make.

Extremities Knit/Crochet Along

This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns:

Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio

Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah

It ends on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet).

Winter Weave Along

Ends on March 31. We will have prizes, including a class generously donated by Erica at Weavolution.

Ep 157 final

Mon, 3/8 5:41PM • 59:38

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

yarn, knit, socks, laughing, transcript, marsha, appointments, pattern, talking, extremities, vaccine, people, thought, podcast, weaving, hat, crochet, pair, fun, vaccinated

SPEAKERS

Kelly, Marsha

00:03

Hi, this is Marsha and this is Kelly.

Marsha 00:05

We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly 00:10

You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha 00:17

We blog and post show notes at TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Kelly 00:22

And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects,

Marsha 00:29

and I am betterinmotion.

Kelly 00:31

We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.

00:36

Enjoy the episode.

Marsha 00:43

Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly 00:44

Good morning, Marsha. It's Friday. Yeah. I'm not sure Friday means much to to a lot of people during a pandemic, but it means a lot to me.

Marsha 01:01

Yeah, it doesn't really mean... it doesn't mean... Friday, in fact, well, yeah. Friday doesn't mean that much to me anymore. But yeah, if you're retired, yeah. And you know, Ben does his own school thing. Idon't... I'm not involved in that. And and

Kelly 01:14

I hope I should hope not.

Marsha 01:16

I know at the age of 23. I should not be involved in it. I'm not. Such a relief.

Kelly 01:23

I have students whose children are involved in their college education, helping them but

Marsha 01:31

Oh, yeah, yeah,your children appearing in zoom meetings and stuff. Zoom.

Kelly 01:35

That too. Yeah. I have a couple of students that come to my office drop in hours, and their children are usually in the background, or you can hear you can hear the schooling going on in the background, while the children are on their own zoom, their own zoom meeting. So. So yeah, I have a class for kind of a beginning level math class, you know, basically no prerequisites. You know, anybody can take it. And some of those students have their kids helping them. "I got confused, and I watched your video, and then I got my kid to help me."

Marsha 02:14

So yeah, it's a family, a family affair. Sweet.

Kelly 02:20

When parents talk about, you know, having school and kids and all of that, I always, I always tell them how, how much I think it's great. Because it's such a role model for their children, you know, that you continue to learn, but it's rough. I can't imagine the students I have, who are, who are parents who are going back to school, who are working, who are helping their children do their school, I always admire, you know, the parents who are coming back to school and the amount of work that they have to do. But in this pandemic, it's just been, like magnified. Yeah, very impressive. Yeah. their commitment to education.

03:01

Oh, yeah.

Marsha 03:02

It's a struggle, but it'll be worth it in the end, you know?

Kelly 03:07

Yes. And some of us in the struggle, I'm not including myself in that us really, some people in the struggle will be able to talk about it in the same way that, you know, of the sacrifices that people made during war time. Or, and some people are not, are not stepping up in that way. I sort of wonder what it would be like if they were having to live through war time, or, you know, like, the Greatest Generation they talk about, that, you know, lived through World War Two and made all those sacrifices. And our society is not quite measuring up, I don't think, to that standard.

Marsha 03:47

Well, I don't know. I mean, well, you mean, in terms of wearing masks?

03:52

Willing make a..? Being willing to make a sacrifice?

Marsha 03:55

Oh,

Kelly 03:56

for the good ofeveryone.

Marsha 03:59

It may sort of depend on where you live.

Kelly 04:01

Yeah. Yeah.

Marsha 04:02

You know, because if you're talking like masking specifically, everybody masks up. In fact. I mean,here...

Kelly 04:10

what I'm specifically talking about here, I guess I should I should be clear. What was specifically talking about here in California, is all of the complaining about teachers not going back and the teachers unions not wanting to go back and parents can't get their kids back in school. And, like, I understand that, I understand that it's hard. But you don't get to have your same old life. Right? I mean, this is what I want to say to people, right? You don't. None of us gets to have the same life we had last February, none of us does.

Marsha 04:16

My mind was going... Well. And I say even with the vaccine, it sounds like we're not going to have our same lives, right?

Kelly 04:55

For a while at least.

Marsha 04:56

it's going to be a different version of our of our of our same You know, yeah, so,

Kelly 05:02

I think I talked about the whole, you know, push to get teachers vaccinated which is happening, and that's really good. But what was being said about what was happening and what was really happening were two different things. And so it makes it seem like, you know, well, all of you teachers are all vaccinated. So why aren't you wanting to come back? Well, we're not all vaccinated. I have my appointment, though.

Marsha 05:26

That's good.

Kelly 05:27

Yeah. Quick shift of the subject to be more positive. Okay. Just to be clear, I was finding myself going to an ranty place and I don't want to do that. So

Marsha 05:45

well, just before you shift, let me just say here, like, I think that where I live in Seattle, everybody's wearing a mask. And so like, it seems to everybody's very compliant. I'm not going to restaurants. Stores that I've gone to, I always go in and say like, you check, how do you want me to do this? Everybody seems very on board with this in my world. In fact, so much so like, when I take Enzo for a walk, I always bring a mask with me. Because even though I don't come in contact with anybody, everybody's masked up even walking through the neighborhood. Yeah. Which I don't even know how necessary that is. But I think it's sort of it's becoming kind of a sign of solidarity, you know, but anyway, yeah. Yeah. But yes, on to more positive things. You're getting your vaccine. Yay.

Kelly 06:27

Yeah, yeah. So my first dose is the 13th. And honestly, it felt like I was trying to get concert tickets. We had multiple alerts coming out on the faculty email at work, saying, Oh, I just checked the site, and they've got vaccine appointments, and then I go and no appointments. And when I got up in the morning, I get on the computer, I always check and I go through the whole thing. And the dumb thing is that you had to go through the whole process of putting in all this information. Not all of your information, but you had to click a whole bunch of places, just to be told that there were no appointments available. Like, okay, I'd rather on the very front page, right when I, you know, right, when I click on to the front page, you tell me there's no appointments available. But anyway, I do that every morning, and nothing would be available. And then the other morning, the other morning, I got on and I checked, and there was nothing. And all the dates were old. And I mentioned to Robert Oh, they haven't even updated this website yet. You know, they've still got all the old, all the old dates, they don't have the newest dates. And so then I went on to do my you know, play on the computer, read Ravelry, read my email, that kind of stuff. And I'm reading my email and one of my colleagues had emailed that there were now-- there was-- our county office of education was hosting a vaccine site. And so I went to that. So get this. She, she so it came on, it came on the screen, sometime in like a 10 minute timeframe of when I had looked and when I got the email that it was there. So I went there. It was I mean, at most 10 minutes after it had been live on this website. They had multiple appointments, like six to eight appointments every four minutes, from 10 until 4pm.

Marsha 08:32

Mm hmm.

Kelly 08:32

So that's a lot of appointments.

Marsha 08:34

Yeah.

Kelly 08:36

And I made mine. So I got it. I was like, Okay, I'm going to pick a time that has, you know, five appointments available as opposed to two because I don't want to be cart-jacked. You know, I don't want to get to the end and find out my appointment was already taken. So I do that. And then I texted some other people to let them know. And then I went back to look and they were all taken.

Marsha 09:01

And you were cart-jacke? I mean they took that one.

Kelly 09:05

Oh, no,no, no, I got mine. Okay. But I I texted and then I went back to check on it to see to see like, how many more appointments there still were, and nothing! Okay, so like within 15 minutes. All those appointments, you know, eight, five to eight appointments every four minutes, from 10am to 4pm. All of those appointments were taken within probably 15 minutes. Wow. It felt like I was... or like I was trying to get yarn from a super super popular dyer! Wake up in the middle of the night when the update happens and like in the early days, the Wollmeise I think was one of them. Yeah. You know, people used to get up in the middle of the night to try to get Wollmeise yarn. And anyway, I felt like that as I was trying to get my point. I've never been this excited for a shot in all my life, not even a shot of bourbon!

Marsha 10:07

So then, so you'll have, I'm assuming this is the two part vaccine.

Kelly 10:14

Yeah, yeah.

Marsha 10:15

So then how do you know when you get your second one?

Kelly 10:18

I don't know. Yeah.

Marsha 10:20

Okay, how that's gonna work?

Kelly 10:22

I'm not sure how that's gonna work. Yeah, I'm assuming that the same site will have the second round. And then all of us who got appointments for that first site will go to the second site, go to the second round at that same site, but I don't know for sure. I don't think we know for sure.

Marsha 10:41

I was gonna say the thing about the websites, too. So let me just say, you know, in the state of Washington, I don't know what this is, all states have this. But we have Find Your Phase where you can go and find out. And you know, I'm not...I'm not eligible yet. But I went back. They say, well, they will, they will email me when I'm eligible. And I've not received any notification. So I thought, well, I'll go back and to see where I am. Maybe there's more. Because it said, when I when I registered for it, they said they don't know when my category would be eligible. No information, check back. So I thought I'll go check back. You have to register again, there's no way to go in and just log back in and find your own status, even though I've registered. And so this is a long way of saying I think they've... they've thrown these websites together as quickly as they can. And they didn't have I think... Normally with websites don't they go through for companies, they go through testing, right? Everybody uses them to check them all out. I don't think they've had any time to do that. And so there's problems in the system. Yeah Because I have no idea. You can't... Right now, I'm sure if anybody lives in the state of Washington, any of our listeners, they can tell me what's really going on but I couldn't find my status in there. I just had to reregistered again. So and then just add to all of this hearsay, rumor, confusion. Um, my brother registered in Find Your Phase and never got notified. But he's he has medical insurance with Kaiser Permanente. And so he went to the website, and he just started poking around and, and he was able to make an appointment through their website to get the vaccine. And he's never been notified that he was eligible by the state of Washington. Yeah. So I don't know. And he said, also their website, too, again, I think that they are doing the best they can sort of getting something in place, right? But he said that there isn't, like, on the website, if you want a vaccine, click here and make your appointment. He said, You have to dig down through the site, you actually have to say that you want to make an appointment to get like a flu shot or any kind of shot. And then you have to go through the and then it gets you to the part where say what I want is the COVID-19 vaccine.

Kelly 12:33

Yeah, like they should have just a big button right on the front, a big button that you push to...Yeah, right. So I bet you're right. I mean, I'm complaining.

Marsha 13:08

No, I mean, I mean,

Kelly 13:10

it's something that had to be put together quickly.

Marsha 13:13

Well, and I should say cuz I'm not... I have no idea. Now. The President came out two or three days ago saying that pretty much everybody who wants a vaccine will have it by May. So I think I will get it soon. I mean, I just it's just a matter of being patient. But I will say again, rumor hearsay, guessing, all this. It is interesting like people posting on Facebook or Instagram that are getting the vaccine. There's somebody who posts on Facebook, I know who posted that she was getting the vaccine. And as far as I know, she doesn't meet any of the criteria-- multi generational household, age, underlying health, as far as I know. And so like, how did she get it? I don't know. It's like, you know, let it go. Just let that go.

Kelly 14:08

It's possible there's something you don't knowabout?

Marsha 14:10

It's possible there's something I don't know. Because like, it could be an underlying health condition that I don't know about. So. So it's not about-- you can't sit there going like, well, how come they got it? You know, but yeah, that's-- Yeah, we're human. And that's where our mind goes, right? But it really, you know, vaccinate as many people as possible it doesn't really matter even.. you know?

Kelly 14:33

I'd be and in my thinking,...Gosh, we've been on this topic for a long time. Sorry, everyone.

Marsha 14:39

Yes, I know.

Kelly 14:40

But my thinking you know, at first was well, I'm not in contact with anyone. I'm not teaching face to face yet. I don't really need to get the vaccine. You know, I wasn't too worried about jumping.... I wasn't sitting on the computer like it was a rock concert that I wanted tickets to or you know, Hamilton or something big. Cuz I thought well I'm home, you know, I'm not teaching face to face, I'm not going to be teaching face to face in the fall. I don't have to rush. But what you want is everyone, everyone who can, to get it.

Marsha 15:13

Yeah,

Kelly 15:14

Everyone who can get who can't who can, by whatever means really should get it because that's how you get immunity in, you know, community wide, right. So in the mathematics, there's an interesting-- there was an interesting article about mathematical modeling. And the mathematical model was, what if we do it in phases versus what if we do it as whoever wants it, come and get it? And it actually was more effective in the mathematical modeling, to make it available, you know, to make whatever was available available to whoever wanted it.

Marsha 15:52

I know, that's what I was kind of wondering if that would actually make more sense.

Kelly 15:55

It was, mathematically, it was more effective. Yeah. But politically, you know, like, I'm getting the vaccine, even though I'm not going to be back in the classroom. Robert goes to work every day. He doesn't work directly with the public, but he goes to work every day, and he's not eligible yet. Yeah. But politically, I mean, they're not distinguishing between educators who are going back to the classroom and educators who are not, it's just easier not to do that. And they, you know, and the the political reality is they needed to make sure that educators got vaccinated because there's such a pressure for our schools to reopen the K 12 schools to reopen. So anyway, yeah, this is a long topic. We're probably, we're probably, we're probably treading on the boundaries of what our listeners are wiling to listen to

Marsha 16:46

people are gonna be listening to this walking the dog driving the car going. "Oh, for goodness sakes, stop talking!"

Kelly 16:53

Where's the knitting?

Marsha 16:54

Where's the knitting? Well, yes, while we wait... So anyway, patience is a virtue. I will get mine soon. I I'm looking forward to it. My vaccination. I'm excited. So anyway, and grateful that we have one. Yeah, pretty speedy the process.

Kelly 17:12

Yes,so...and apparently CVS, this part of the email I got this morning. The CVS website is already doing appointments for the Johnson and Johnson one shotvaccine. So all right. That was cool to see. Yeah. That's a lot of very fast science.

Marsha 17:30

Yes. Yeah. Okay. Ah, so we talk knitting?

Kelly 17:37

Yeah. That's what they're here for. Right?

Marsha 17:43

Yeah.Let's give...

Kelly 17:43

Sorry, you guys!

Marsha 17:44

Let's give them what they want!

Kelly 17:46

Yes.

Marsha 17:48

Okay, so how about you? Do you want to talk about your projects?

Kelly 17:51

Sure, yeah. Okay. So I finished Robert's socks. They turned out really nicely. I'm actually Oh, I'm calling them finished. And I'm actually weaving in ends right now. But, but they're finished. And I've marked them as finished in the project page. He hasn't worn them yet, because I haven't woven in ends. But he tried them on. I did end up making the toe of the first sock bigger than I had done before. The look so funny! I, I have a picture of them. And because of the toe is made from my hand spun it's thicker. It's a little-- it's not quite fingering weight. It's a little bit heavier than that. Plus, it's a, it's a denser yarn. They have the most bulbous toes, but they're not pointy. So he loves them. And I'm like, they look so big. And he said, No, no, they look perfect. So

Marsha 18:51

yeah. Are they comfortable? The

Kelly 18:52

Yeah, he likes them.

Marsha 18:53

The big poofy toes. Yes, he has room for his for his toes. So they're not

19:00

pointy, and they and they are big enough, but they do kind of bulge out while the sock is ribbed. So that's part of it, too. So the ribbing sucks in the foot of the sock. And then I added stitches when I made the toe because it was too dense and stiff and tight. So anyway, yeah, it's they're interesting looking.

Marsha 19:25

Well, you'll have to share a picture of them.

Kelly 19:27

So I will Yeah, the leading men fiber arts yarn is really nice. I'm gonna get myself some more of this. Maybe not this color. I don't know. I like this color! But it's just a really nice sock yarn. This is-- I think this one might be bfl sock, I can't remember now. But it just it feels nice. It was nice to knit with and the put up is very large. You get a lot of yarn in a skein of this.

Marsha 19:59

[Laughing] Okay. Sorry, I'm interrupting. I'm just looking at the

Kelly 20:04

you see what I'm talking about?

Marsha 20:05

Yes. Yeah.

Kelly 20:10

The toes are quite bulbous.

Marsha 20:11

Yeah, but they look comfortable.

Kelly 20:14

Yes. And they aren't--I mean, they aren't baggy when he wears them. They actually do fit it. Yeah, it's really more of a function of the, the ribbing on the foot, making the ribbing skinny

Marsha 20:25

It's when they're lying in repose. [Laughing]

Kelly 20:31

But they don't have pointy toes when you fold them top to bottom. [laughing]

Marsha 20:36

Yeah,

Kelly 20:37

Speaking of starting socks, I did start the Iced Matcha socks by Dots Dabbles. And the yarn I'm using is a handspun. It's a gray. It was... the sheep was Charlotte and I bought her fleece a couple of times. It's the same fleece that I used for the funky grandpa sweater.

Marsha 20:56

Okay.

Kelly 20:57

And I finally had used both. I bought two of her fleeces two different years back in the early 2000s, late 90s. And I finally spun up the end of it a couple of years ago with some mohair. So these are mohair wool. It's only a two ply. So I don't know how hard wearing they will be. But the mohair should help. It's probably a little bit thicker than a fingering weight. But not not, not so much bigger that I won't be able to use like a size one needle. And I usually use size zero, I'll probably use a size one. And anyway, I decided to make the iced matcha sock pattern. It's like ribbing, you know, has kind of a ribbing effect, which I like. And then it has a little bit of detail, but not so much detail that I won't be able to knit on them during school meetings and that kind of stuff. So and then I'm going to start another pair of of socks. I don't know which ones. I think maybe one of the cabled pairs from either from this collection, or maybe one of the Louise Tilbrook. I have quite a few of her patterns. And I have one pair of socks that I really like that was one of her patterns. So I might make one of hers. They're very involved. So, so the the Iced Matcha of socks will be sort of a medium-involved. Not not super involved, which will be good. So I'm enjoying, I just barely started those. So that's there's not much going on there. Except basically a cast on. I did also finish another Ice Time hat. The first one that I made I don't remember if when I talked about it last. But the first Ice Time hat that I made her pattern. This is from the pattern is by Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar studio, BostonJen. And she gave me as a gift, a copy of this pattern. And so I thought, oh, I'll try it. And I mean, I used two variegated yarns. And I looked on the pattern because it came out a little small, my gauge, you know, I usually knit pretty tightly. And so I thought, Oh, this is a little small. But then I looked on the pattern, and she has as the head circumference 18 inches, I think, which is smaller than what I normally do for a hat. Plus the cross stitches, I think have a tendency to make it tighter. Yeah. And plus, it's like a beanie.

Marsha 23:41

Yeah.

Kelly 23:42

And so, so I thought, Okay, well, this is good, because it's the size for a kid and that was my plan. But I want to make a bigger version. So first, I was gonna, I was gonna just add, you know, like, one pattern repeat or two pattern repeats. And, and then I thought, well, it's when -- when you do the decreases, you divide it into fou. Into four groups to do your decreases. And so like the decreases make an X on the top of the hat. And I thought, okay, that's going to make those four groups different sizes.

Marsha 24:18

Yeah.

Kelly 24:19

And I just thought, you know what, I'm just going to add four repeats, because 18 inches is small to me for hat circumference.

Marsha 24:26

Mm hmm.

Kelly 24:27

So that's what I did made it a lot easier to do the decreases and then made the slouchy version, which is more like the kind of hat--again, this is nota hat that I'm going to keep-- but more like the kind of hat that I wear. Doesn't smash your hair as much, you know, hat head. So anyway, I really like it. It came out really great. And so now I have a pair like a mother and daughter a pair of hats.

Marsha 24:57

Sweet

Kelly 24:58

Yeah, in purple. purple and yellow.

Marsha 25:02

So I don't they're not in your project page yet, though, right?

Kelly 25:06

Oh, you know, the first one I finished a long time ago. And I just put the second one in the same. So it's farther down on the project page. Oh, I'm, I'm suddenly distracted, because there's someone on the roof right outside.

Marsha 25:19

Oh, really?

Kelly 25:22

We had the roof put on. And then they had to replace some flashing and replaced--we have these like scupper boxes that the water goes down. They replaced those. And so apparently they're here to do something else with with the flashing. So I suddenly looked up, and there's a stranger on my roof. Right outside the window. Because the

Marsha 25:49

and he's wondering why you're talking to yourself?

Kelly 25:51

Yes. [laughing] Because the kitchen window or the kitchen roof is right outside the vanity area where I record so anyway. Life at the Locke household!

Marsha 26:03

Yes.

Kelly 26:05

So both of the designers, dots dabbles of the Iced Matcha socks and Jennifer Lassonde from this Ice Time hat have donated prizes for our extremities KAL that we'll talk about. So it's fun to be using. It's fun to be using their patterns. Although a hat does not count for the extremities KAL.

Marsha 26:25

Yes.

Kelly 26:27

I looked it up. It's not an extremity. several I looked actually I looked at several dictionaries. When you you know, I looked at I put in extremities and then I looked under several online dictionaries. And none of them included heads. So

Marsha 26:46

it's a headless knit along.

Kelly 26:50

Exactly! I started something really fun.

Marsha 26:54

Oh, yes.

Kelly 26:55

Yes. Frog and Toad. Oh my gosh. So cute. And you know, I was talking about socks. The socks being only medium-level involved. Then I started with toad. that's involved! Okay, that kind of knitting is involved, right? I mean, it's kind of sorta like your rabbit.

Marsha 27:20

Yeah, lots of increases, decreases. And it's just like a blob until you... it starts. And then they begin to take shape. But originally, initially, you don't really know what you're making,

Kelly 27:31

Right!

Marsha 27:31

you know, it's the legs but what?

Kelly 27:34

It's pretty much one piece, you do have to go and add the arms at the end. It's pretty much one piece. So that was good. You don't have a lot of sewing to do for the extremities. But you do have to do sewing for the eyes. Okay, and you do, you do like afterthought heels where you cut your knitting to make the holes for the eyeballs.

Marsha 27:58

Oh, Dear!

Kelly 28:00

Yeah, so it reminds me of... I looked at the pattern and it reminds me of when I did the afterthought buttonholes. Because it's a real small thing that you open up, you know, you cut open a piece of your knitting. And

Marsha 28:14

so this type of knitting I have to say I'm, I always think the same thing. The mind that can think this way. , To create these very--just adorable and just so creative. I mean, to think like, they can figure out you have to put your decreases here, your increase there and your short rows here and like how they can do all that? How many frogs did the designer make to get the final pattern? You know?

Kelly 28:45

Right.A lot of experimentation.

Marsha 28:47

Yeah.

Kelly 28:48

In the creation process. In fact, her website is frogandcast.com. So as of today, March, what is it March 5 2021. The front page of her website is this little bear and the whole article is about about how she, how her design process for this bear worked. So I highly recommend it as a very interesting read. And it's also a cute pattern. But I'm not going to make this bear I'm going to stick to my Frog and Toad. So I've made toad. And I'm going to.. I want to start on frog soon. I'm gonna wash him, the toad, because I'm using the Ruama. Now I can't remember how that is pronaunced. Finnulgarn

Marsha 29:42

Oh, right, right, right

Kelly 29:43

that we bought. So this is yarn that Marsha and I bought at stitches one year because we, I was taking the Argyle sock class and so at lunch during my class, during a break, and Marsha and I went down to the floor of the marketplace. And we just started putting color combinations together. And it's Ruama Finnulgarn is what I'm using. The frog is going to be our Toad is in a brown color. And then I have another one of these Ruama Finnulgarn that is alpaca and I have a green, like a limey, goldie... Lime is not the right word, kind of a goldy, green color, kind of an avocado. You know, like 1960s, avocado, refrigerator look or something. Anyway, it's kind of a goldy green that I'm going to use for Frog. And I have the books. And I've been getting the books out and comparing the pictures on the book to the My yarns and stuff to to try to get the right combination. So but this yarn is the the one I use for Toad that doesn't have the alpaca in it is a little bit. It's toothy. You know, it's a woolly wool. And so I know those soften up when you wash them, so I'm going to block him before I stuffed him. And also the yarn will kind of bloom and help keep the anything is stuffed, you know, help keep the stuffing from showing. So yeah, but I'm using size zero or size one needles. I think I'm using size zero and the let me just double check. Yes, it calls for size one. And I'm at I'm using a size zero needle because my yarn is a little thinner. The pattern calls for a DK yarn. And I'm using a thinner yarn its more like a sport.

Marsha 31:43

I'm sorry, it calls for DK and size zero needles?

Kelly 31:47

It calls for size one needles.

Marsha 31:50

Oh one, ok.

Kelly 31:50

and it has a I mean,

Marsha 31:52

that's still that's really small. Because it's you want to have a really dense, right?

Kelly 31:56

Right, , so the stuffing doesn't show. Yeah, so anyway, I went down to size zero. And actually it was worked out well, because the size zero needles that I have are short. And the size one needles were longer. And it's so tiny, that it's really nice having the I don't know, they're just like maybe four inch needles, double points. They're they're small. They're small double points. And, and I don't use them. I can use them on socks. Like I bought them for socks. And I use them for socks for me. They're not my favorite sock needles, because I like using the wooden ones. But I can use them for socks for me. But for socks for Robert. With 72 stitches. They're just too, they're too short. Yeah, but they're perfect for this. I think magic loop would work. You know, you just have to keep track of where where she says to place the markers. Yeah. So that you can make all the all the little adjustments. Yeah, but super fun. His little fingers! You do little you do on his on his on his hands. You do little PicoT bind off. So you get little fingers. It's so my gosh, so cute.

Marsha 33:20

Again, Igo back to what I said. It takes a certain kind of mind. Yes, like amazing mind. This kind of stuff

Kelly 33:27

His little knees. He has nice has a little frog legs have little knees. So very fun. Very fun. I can't wait to start Frog this weekend. I'm hoping I'm hoping maybe I can have I can have them done by Easter would be kind of a fun thing to do for to give to Faye for Easter. So yeah, that's kind of my that's kind of my plan. We'll see if I am able to do it. But but that's what I'm hoping. fiddley definitely worth it. So that's my, that's the extent of my projects Marsha.

Marsha 34:08

Well, and I just have to ask the the, the Afghan the Oh,

Kelly 34:14

I have been working on it. The last the last time we recorded I hadn't done any significant work on it at all. But I have been working on it. Now I've made probably maybe five of the squares. Not the big octagons. But the smaller, the smaller ones that can connect and kind of... I made about five of those. And then I made another I have I have done one of the octagons but then.. I was... One night I was just focusing on something simpler. And so it's basically just a granny square. And then it has an edge that has a little bit of detail something a little more complicated. So I was just doing the basic granny square part and I did about I did about five of them and then I started...Another day, I picked them back up and started doing the outer edge of each of the squares. So yeah, I made made some progress on that. So maybe sometime in the late spring, I'll be done. I'll be done with that one. But I'm not going to make any promises.

Marsha 35:15

Yeah. Yeah. Never make promises.

Kelly 35:20

So what about you?

Marsha 35:21

So my Walk Along Tee, I've knit about six inches of the body. And I love the technique that we have discussed the Helical, right, we discussed? It's, it's great. There's some times when I get to the... there's fake side seam on the sweater and where you do you hold the yarn in front, and then slip the stitch through the back loop. And sometimes if you have any details, something like that, that's just not straight stockinette then you have to do a little fiddling around. Yeah. So like, as I said, in previous episodes, you know, this would not work for cables, or Yeah, this technique, it just has to be stockinette. But so I'm, that's just sort of my knitting when I watch Netflix. I just go around and around and around and around on them. I think you do about... you start doing increases on the way down. And I think I talked about this before, I'm not sure if I'm gonna put all of them in it. It ends up being a total of 20 stitches, which is fair amount, so I may not put all those in. I'm also beginning to worry about if I'm going to have enough yarn.

Kelly 36:37

Oh. Another one of those

Marsha 36:41

I know. It could be just illusion.

Kelly 36:44

Yeah, yeah.

Marsha 36:46

Because I have now... I had three skeins which I divided into half, right. So I had six cakes. I've used up two cakes. And I am probably halfway through the second set of two cakes. And I'm six inches of the body. And then I also have to do sleeves. So I-- but I'm going down to-- we're going down to Seabrook. I think we leave the 13th. So and that's where I bought the yarn at the string theory yarns in Seabrook, Washington. So I'm, when I'm down there, I'm going to have a better idea and I can maybe pick up another skein. I'm hoping I don't have to, but we'll see. Anyway, so I'm making progress on that. And I've been spinning on and off on the olive green Merino roving that I have that I'm combining with the dark brown, that's called bitter chocolate. And I've I had made two skeins and now I'm just filling up the bobbins again, so I filled the two green and now I'm filling up the brown bobbin. So I had-- it was-- we had a couple of nice days this week. And so I think it was Wednesday. It was nice. And I just sat on the deck. My new deck.

Kelly 38:13

Yeah.

Marsha 38:15

And spun. By the way, thinking that I was sitting out there spinning, Did you see my Instagram post of Enzo, staring at the dog.

Kelly 38:26

Yes. Yes.

Marsha 38:27

Isn't that the funniest thing that was so cute. Anyway, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go to my Instagram. And you'll see the picture of Enzo looking at the neighbor's dog. But the neighbor's dog is in the window peering out and they stare at each other for a good 15 minutes. It was pretty funny.

Kelly 38:45

I feel bad for Bailey because I think she's, I mean, she spent a good a good part of her life before she came to live with us living at a dog boarding kennel right? Doggy daycare and boarding kennels. So, so she was around other dogs all the time. And now it's you know, it's just her. And we have neighbors and they have... one of our neighbors has dogs that they fence fight, which I don't like so I keep her away from that. But the other neighbor has a lab that sometimes I can't find her in the backyard and I go looking for her and she's down at the fence and they are just like nose to nose at the fence talking to each other. Like, you know, not barking. Just like somehow communing. They're like keeping company with each other next to the fence. I feel like ohhh.

Marsha 39:36

I was gonna ask that, put this question out to people and to our listeners later on in the podcast, but since we're on this topic, I'm just going to mention it. Because Enzo has been acting really weird recently. I've been doing long walks, I take him out and he just drags towards the end of his walk. I have to pull him along to get him home. And he's very lethargic. So I thought and I was like.. I wonder if I had to take him to the vet, you know, he's not it. Maybe there's something wrong with him. I finally thought, I think he's bored.

Kelly 40:08

Mm hmm.

Marsha 40:09

His life is basically sleeping around the house while I do things. One long walk during the day, and then back to sleeping around that house.

Kelly 40:16

Yeah, he doesn't want the walk to end.

Marsha 40:19

Yeah, that's what I'm kind of wondering. And so I, I'm varying the route. I also am playing with him every day because I realized I wasn't playing with him. And Ben doesn't live with me now who would have time playing with him. So I, every day I take, I either chase him around the house, chase him around in the backyard, which he loves. Or I, the other thing I do, which he loves is that down in the basement, I take the ball and he stands at the top of the stairs, I throw the ball up to him, and then he kicks it, he knocks he pushes it down the stairs. And then I throw it back until we do that for about 40 minutes, 45 minutes, depending on how long we want to do it. And then I also decided to get him back into agility. But I'm having a difficult time getting him into class because I think so many people have dogs now. I went like all of the... We've done all the obedience classes, but they're all full till April or May. And so I signed him up for agility, but I can't get in until I think the end of April. Yeah. So I'm going to put it out to listeners if you have any ideas what to do to keep him... because he does seem depressed, kind of or bored.

Kelly 41:30

I'm going to give a suggestion. I am interested to hear what people have to say, but I'm going to give a suggestion. tricks. Teach him tricks.

Marsha 41:40

Oh, yeah.

Kelly 41:41

Well, you took a class, right? You did a trick class.

Marsha 41:44

Yeah. But I can't get into it now. So. Oh, but I can just do it on my own.I don't need to go.

Kelly 41:51

Yeah. So I mean, yeah, you know how to, I mean, you have some ideas for how to teach some of this stuff. But it's kind of fun. Is it a little more entertaining? I'd do that, at least for me, it'd be a little more entertaining than throwing the ball up the stairs for 40 minutes. Yes, for the human part of the partnership, it's more interesting

Marsha 42:13

well and use his mind more you know, I because that also, you know, he just needs to use his mind. But like, my brother came by yesterday said what's wrong with the dog? And so like he saw I was like, okay, you're here. He's usually excited. He's super excited to see Mark. But he was excited and then like, laying on the sofa. And then Mark came back in the house and he didn't even get up off the sofa. I have a towel down on the basement sofa and doesn't even get up to the greet him. He's like, That's weird. I mean, cuz he usually... Like they say poodles are smart. I sometimes wonder because he's super excited to see you. You go out to the garage, you come back into the house, and he's like, Oh, you've been gone. He's so happy to see you. Like literally two minutes, but, okay. Yeah, so anyway, people, listeners, if you have suggestions for how to get my dog, I don't think he's really depressed. But I think he feels like he's depressed and bored. And like the rest of us in the pandemic, you know. But anyway, yeah, so I'll go back to projects. so I've been spinning and I'm enjoying that I just find the spinning so meditative. And just that one day where I was able to sit out there on the deck was so nice in the sun. It just sort of gives me hope that spring is on its way. And then I, as we're talking I am swatching to make the Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde and as we talked in... that's our segue into our, the knit along. But I just tell you, the yarn I'm using is Dale Garn Helio.

Kelly 43:53

Is that like a Dale of Norway yarn?

Marsha 43:54

Oh, I'm sorry. It's it's a Heilo. It's H E I L O, and it's a, I believe it's DK weight, which is what is required for the mitts.

Kelly 44:04

Something from your stash. Okay. Your Spirit yarn.

Marsha 44:07

No, no, it's not from my stash. It's from Kim's stash. I went and had dinner with her one night and she had a bag of yarn that was going. She had gone through her stash and she had yarn that was going to the Goodwill. And I said do you happen to have anything that's this weight because I don't need a lot for the mitts and I don't really want to go out to a store so... and I didn't have... I have DK weight but I didn't have anything that was not painted. I want a solid or semi solid. I thought it would look better with this pattern. And so she had this yarn, a whole bag of this yarn in two colors. The one I'm going to use is kind of milk chocolate color, brown, like a natural color. And then also she has another color in here a kind of a burgundy. So I think there's another yarn I can make two pairs, one in each.

Kelly 44:59

Oh, that's fun!

Marsha 45:01

So anyway, I'm swatching for that. And so for our knitalong, so we should talk about the knitalong

Kelly 45:08

So we are having an extremities knit along, and it was inspired by two offers of prizes. One is the Coffee Socks Collection that I already talked about, by Dots Dabbles Designs, Deborah. And the other gift that we got-- offer of a prize--was the Abington Mitts that Marsha is making. And so with these prizes when they came at the same time, and one was for feet, and one was for hands, and so we just decided, oh, let's have an extremities knit along/crochet along so you can knit or crochet anything for your hands, arms, legs, feet.

Marsha 45:45

We've had lots of discussion about this, but it's not your head. Because Kelly did lots of research and your head apparently is not

Kelly 45:55

according to the authorities on the internet [laughing]

Marsha 45:58

Yes. According to the internet, your head is not an extremity!

Kelly 46:02

That's no no hats in this time. Yeah, but legs, feet, arms, hands, you know, there's lots of lots of possibilities there. Mitts, socks are the most...

Marsha 46:15

And even though we're saying it's called a knit/crochet along you can weave, you can macrame.

Kelly 46:24

Okay, I don't know macrame sock? That

Marsha 46:28

Yeah. Interested in any you know, like any? We were also talking in the last episode, what is it called the

Kelly 46:35

Nalbinding. Now, that's how you say it? That's a that's a close facsimile of how it's pronounced at least. Oh,

Marsha 46:45

you know what I think would be really cool. Do you know those lace the little lace gloves that Ruth Bader Ginsburg would wear?

Kelly 46:53

Yeah,

Marsha 46:55

That'd be really fun to make.

46:56

Oh, you know, as we're sitting here, I'm sitting in the vanity area of our spare bedroom. And at the vanity table normally... not right now because I move everything when I want to record. But at the vanity table, I have a little, one of those little vanity mirrors with perfume bottles. And then I have a pair of crochet gloves. Do you remember Marsha when I bought those at the antique store?

Marsha 47:24

Yeah,

Kelly 47:25

I have no idea how old they are. But they're teeny tiny still little crochet stitches. And they have the little buttons. They're long gloves though. They go up your arm and they have the little ...they have the little buttons and the buttons are crocheted. And the little button loops are all crocheted. The button holes don't go all the way up the gloves. Like the whole gauntlet part of the glove doesn't open up. There's just a section of buttonholes. Yeah, that would be fun. A knit or crocheted set of fancy, old fashioned.

Marsha 48:01

They were kind of like fishnet kinda.

Kelly 48:04

Yeah. Like afternoon tea gloves.

Marsha 48:06

Mm hmm. I'm as we're speaking, this is bad podcasting, but I'm just looking at online and there's like a, there's a crocheted pair. From J and P coats. It looks like it's very old because it's a black and white photo with an old car. Okay. I don't know if they're Yeah,

Kelly 48:25

that's a that's a company that makes like the crochet cotton. Yeah. Oh, that would be fun. Well, and you know, the other thing that I thought of is our we had bought the silk to make silk socks. Last year at Stitches. I haven't started those yet either. But I'm gonna-- I'm gonna stick to the socks that I have for right now. But yeah, the mesh gloves. There's there's a lot.

Marsha 48:50

We'll search, Yeah. And apparently you can buy this on on Amazon. It's not that old a book. It was published in 2009. I guess that is old. Well, no. That's right.

Kelly 49:03

I'm thinking of like, gloves from the 1950s or something.

Marsha 49:08

Yeah, that's what it kind of looks like but it's a it's like those lace gloves like she wore in that really fine cotton. And so and there's other patterns here too. So

Kelly 49:15

cool.

Marsha 49:16

Yeah, I don't know. Okay, well, we went we went down a rabbit hole on that. Okay.

Kelly 49:23

But you know, you can have a, you could have a nice pair of gloves for Easter. So lots of possibilities. Join us. There's a chat thread and there's a finished object thread. Quite a bit of chat going on about the projects that people are doing not very many finished objects yet but there are a few I noticed.

Marsha 49:42

So,

49:43

and then our Winter Weave Along, not much time left. I have hopes of getting at least something else started if not finished. But we'll see. The only reason I still have hope is because I have spring break. Coming the third week of March, so two weeks, two weeks from now I have spring break. Yay. So maybe I could do something during spring break in terms of the weaving, but otherwise, I'm almost, I'm almost sure that I don't I, I'm almost sure I won't get something finished. But I might get something else on the loom. Because it ends March 31. So another year of weaving coming to an end for us. But if you're in the Jane Stafford Guild, her year of weaving is just starting. So that's kind of fun.

Marsha 50:37

Okay, one ends and one begins so you get you get to truly a full year. Well, I guess it's been a full year.

Kelly 50:44

I haven't ever kept up with hers. And like woven the thing, the projects in the guild, at the time that everybody else, you know, at the time that the the videos come out? I wanted to do that this year, but I'm not sure. I don't know. This might not be the year teaching online. It's getting better. I have to I have to admit it is getting better. But well, you know. It's it's not my favorite thing.

Marsha 51:11

Well, we should not end the podcast on the same vein as it started. Listening to Kelly rant about stuff she doesn't like! Yes. So anyway, the winter weave along is, is ending March 31. So get your projects in, put them in the finished objects thread. Then we'll be doing a drawing and one of the things that we have as a prize is a class that was donated by Erika from Weavolution. So. And then the other thing that I just wanted to say, before we end is I wanted to thank our new patrons! We have three new patrons. Jane, Heddi, and Jan since the last time I mentioned new patrons. So if you'd like to be a patron, how you do that is you go to patreon.com/twoewes. And you'll see our... I guess it's a channel or a page. I don't know, our account. And then and you can you can become a patron and support the show. So really, thank you so much Jane and Heddi, and Jan for for contributing to the show. It allows us to provide, you know, the podcast hosting and prize mailing and all those kinds of things and something new, Marsha! Something really exciting that we're able to do because of the patrons. Transcripts. Oooh! Oh, yes.

Kelly 52:41

So we now have a transcript of our podcast. Having used the transcription service for my classes, I learned a little bit more about the company that's powering the transcriptions for our for work on our classes. It's otter.ai. And so I went to their website, and they have regular accounts for regular people. And not you know, not just education and and such. And so I found out a little bit more about it. And so we just when the when the podcast is done, you submit it, it creates a transcript. You have to edit it because it's not entirely... It's not entirely accurate. It doesn't always understand when Marsha and I talk over each other. So there is a little editing to do for that. But But now we have a transcript that is attached. It's in the show notes at the end. So we have our regular show notes posted on the blog. And then at the end of that show notes post is the transcript. Okay, I have to say it is almost as an nerving to read as my math. My teaching transcript. I don't know if you read if you had a chance to read?

Marsha 54:06

I didn't read it. And now actually as you were talking about all this I was sort of thinking to myself, I don't know that I want to read it because...Oh, here it is. Okay. Here. I'm sorry. I think this is what we say every every episode. Kelly: hi Marsha. Marsha: Hi, Kelly. Kelly: How's it going? Marsha: Pretty good. Kelly: Good.

Kelly 54:28

Yes. It doesn't... I have to say, yeah, it made me laugh to read how it sounds, but it makes it available to people that wouldn't be available to otherwise.

Marsha 54:41

So Kelly, we need to edit this. Because you say you know "good," and then I say "had pretty exciting weather here in Seattle. A little unusual for us that we had a huge snores" Oh! This is what I said "Excuse me, snore a huge snowstorm came through. [laughing} I did actually say that! Okay, [laughing]

Kelly 55:06

yeah.

Marsha 55:07

Okay, This is terrible. This is embarrassing. I'm gonna have to do a much better.

Kelly 55:14

So now remember when we talked about how I was like, Oh my god, how could I have been teaching this long and not make any sense?

Marsha 55:23

Yes. Well, what I'm just laughing about is is that it was not the episode where I'm trying to explain helical knitting. Yeah, and I'm waving my hands around in the air trying. Yeah, but so

Kelly 55:39

it's been an interesting process, we'll probably get better. The transcripts will probably get better as we go along. But, you know, I become more aware, it would never have occurred to me a year ago, two years ago, it would never have occurred to me that you would need a transcript for a podcast. My thinking would have been well, why would someone who can't hear even think to listen to a podcast? Right? And, and my, my eyes have been opened, you know, having to make my class accessible to my students. And then other things, you know, the conversations about racism and structural, structural racism. And all of those conversations have just kind of opened my eyes and made me think about things that, that I didn't think about before, I would not have thought about a reason for making a podcast, an audio experience, available to someone who couldn't hear.

Marsha 56:40

So I'm not.[laughing] I'm sorry, I am not laughing about what you're saying. Just so you know, I'm sort of chuckling because I'm listening to what you're saying. But I'm also kind of scanning the transcript. So I'm sorry, I am not laughing at all at what you're saying.

Kelly 56:52

What are you laughing about now?

Marsha 56:54

Okay, so um, so it was very pleasant to sit out there on a snowy day because you have heat but anyway, period. Then that night, it just started coming down and it snowed all day period. I mean, all Friday night, Friday morning, or excuse me, Saturday morning, all Saturday into Sunday. Just It never stops. And we have I mean, eight someplace about eight inches probably at my house. Snow, that's a lot of snow for us. We don't usually get that much. But of course then Sunday, late Sunday afternoon or evening. It just turned around. [laughing]

Kelly 57:36

Marsha, this is what we talk about.

Marsha 57:38

Oh my gosh. [laughing] And then it just became soup out there. You know? Kelly? We have to do a better job. This is terrible! So eye opening what sounds okay in normal conversation is not okay. The transcript it's unreadable. Pretty much. Oh, my gosh, it's too funny. [laughing] Well, anyway, I have work to do. On clarity,

Kelly 58:15

We both, we both do, I think, having having read through it last last time to do the editing. Yeah, we both do. So anyway, now we have transcripts. And I'm very happy that we're able to do that. And it's thanks to the contributions of our patrons. So thank you very much for contributing to the podcast.

Marsha 58:41

I'm still laughing I'm sorry. I will stop laughing.

Kelly 58:48

Okay, Marsha. [laughing] Are we done?

Marsha 58:54

This reminds me of those times over the course of our friendship where we'd have those laughing attacks.

Kelly 58:59

Yes.

Marsha 59:00

And have accidents. So I better get off the podcast. We better get off the phone before I have an accident.

Kelly 59:07

All right. Bye! [laughing]

Marsha 59:13

Okay, bye bye. [laughing]

Kelly 59:16

To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Marsha 59:21

Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects

59:29

until next time, we are the Two Ewes doing our part for a world fleece!

We talk about captions, speaking clearly, vaccinations and our pitifully small batch of knitting projects. Full show notes with transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

I'm still working on the pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.

I'm making progress on the Walk Along tee by AnkeStrick and I'm using Little Fish Stitches fingering. I've put the sleeves on waste yarn and knit about an inch on the body. I lost the tags on the half cakes of yarn that I had set up so I could alternate skeins and avoid pooling. I think it will be ok, but I spent so much time documenting my strategy.

I started a spinning project with olive green merino roving I bought at the Whidbey Island Weavers meet up in April 2019. I'm combining it with another merino I ordered from Paradise Fibers in Spokane, Washington in a dark brown called Bitter Chocolate. Making a 3 ply with two green and one brown single. I've spun two skeins.

Kelly's Projects

I'm almost finished with a pair of socks for Robert. I'm using leftovers of Leading Men Fiber Arts Show Stopper, Independent Will colorway. I had 90 grams left after using it for argyle socks for my brother-in-law. I'm using gray handspun leftovers from his Civil War Socks for the toes and heels.

I also started an Ice Time Hat. The yarn is Lady Dye craftivism kit singles (19th Amendment colorway) in cream, purple and yellow, held double with Duren Dyeworks fingering in a brownish purple and gold. The pattern is really fun and it's looking great! Check out my project page.

Extremities Knit/Crochet Along

This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns:

Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio

Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah

It starts now (February 2021) and will end on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet). Some examples include socks, leg warmers, mitts, mittens, gloves, and wristlets. There will be a giveaway thread in the Ravelry Group for you to post your FOs.

Winter Weave Along

You can join in with your weaving projects anytime until March 31. We will have prizes, including a class generously donated by Erica at Weavolution. Check out this great website for weavers with projects, discussion, classes, and lots of resources. The website has a handy Weaving Calculator that you can use for project planning.

Lots of tangents and a new KAL/CAL inspired by some new patterns for your hands and feet generously donated by the designers as prizes. Full show notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

I'm still working on the pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.

I'm back to working on the Walk Along by AnkeStrick and I'm using Little Fish Stitches fingering. I was having problems where I was alternating skeins at the beginning of row which was at the back of the sweater. A huge thank you to MyBlueGirl and Sarahjhill for suggesting Helical knitting. This solves the problem of the messy looking change.

I started a spinning project with olive green merino roving I bought at the Whidbey Island Weavers meet up in April 2019. Combining it with another merino I ordered from Paradise Fibers in Spokane, Washington in a dark brown called Bitter Chocolate. Making a 3 ply with two green and one brown single.

Kelly's Projects

Finished! I hemmed the Christmas Candy dishtowels and put them away!

I also finished With Friends Pullover using the pattern Rachel by Josée Paquin. It still needs ends woven in and blocking. I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm looking forward to wearing it.

The Persian Tile Blanket is coming along, but I didn't work on it as much in the last two weeks. Instead I started a pair of socks for Robert. I'm using leftovers of Leading Men Fiber Arts Show Stopper, Independent Will colorway. I had 90 grams left after using it for argyle socks for my brother-in-law. Not sure I'll have enough but I'm planning to use toes and heels of a different yarn.

Extremities Knit/Crochet Along

This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns:

Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio

Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah

It starts now (February 2021) and will end on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet). Some examples include socks, leg warmers, mitts, mittens, gloves, and wristlets. There will be a giveaway thread in the Ravelry Group for you to post your FOs.

Winter Weave Along

You can join in with your weaving projects anytime until March 31. We will have prizes, including a class generously donated by Erica at Weavolution. Check out this great website for weavers with projects, discussion, classes, and lots of resources. The website has a handy Weaving Calculator that you can use for project planning.

Preventing pooling, planning with paper, and a dilemma about how to hide where you are alternating skeins. These are the topics of the day! Full show notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

I finished Holey Comfort cardigan by Hinterm Stein and it fits beautifully. This is a great pattern.

I am continuing to work on a pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.

Along with my friend Kim I cast on a Tee called Walk Along by AnkeStrick. I'm using Little Fish Stitches fingering that I got at the yarn shop in Seabrook. I have a bit of a dilemma about alternating skeins. The yarn is variegated and I want to prevent pooling. So of course, I'm alternating skeins. The problem is how to hide the place where it is happening, especially while working on the yoke.

Kelly's Projects

The Persian Tile Blanket for my grand niece is coming along well. I have about a dozen octagons finished and I'm planning to get some of the squares and triangles done before I finish up the octagons. I want the yarn colors to be well distributed.

I'm still working on my With Friends Pullover using the pattern Rachel by Josée Paquin. However, I am planning to modify the ribbing on the bottom of the split hem by using the larger needle size and also by using garter stitch instead in the reverse stockinette sections of the ribbing. That will keep the ribbing from pulling in at the bottom, I hope.

Paper, Planning, and Plotting

We had our drawing for the giveaway and Marsha identified several themes in people's responses. Here's what she has to say:

I went down a rabbit hole watching videos about Bullet Journals, Hobonichi Techno, and Elfinbooks. :-)

Paper still seems to be the most popular...wall calendars, journals, dayrunners, notebooks for lists. Graph paper seems to be a favorite. Notebooks for keeping ideas for craft projects.

Most people seem to keep track of patterns, projects, stashes, etc on Ravelry.

The solace of creating order, a nice button band technique, and plans for 2021. Full show notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Marsha's Projects

Finished the body and ¾ of the sleeves of Holey Comfort cardigan by Hinterm Stein. Bind off is a really nice I-cord bind off. Sleeve width seems okay but need to decrease faster on the way to cuffs. It will be touch and go with yarn amount

Working on foot of first pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.

Swatched with Little Fish Stitches fingering for a Tee called Walk Along by AnkeStrick.

Techniques for neat button bands:

1. pick up stitches with #1 needle and then knit with pattern size - Cocoknits
2. Pick up exact number of stitches in body and then decrease to number of stitches called for pattern.

Marsha purchased the Lady Dye Yarns kit: Schitt's Creek 2.0.

Kelly's Projects

I've been working a lot on the Persian Tile Blanket for my grand niece. I'm following the color choices (sort of) of a project by JenasaurusWake that I saw while watching FO radar. I'm using Knit Picks Brava Worsted in lots of fun bright colors and making color choices to make all the octagons look like they have different sized flowers in them.

With Friends Pullover. I'm using two patterns: Rachel by Josée Paquin, and Fresh by Josée Paquin. I've put on the front hem

The weaving is finished on the Ribbon Candy Christmas dishtowels and they have all been washed, but not yet hemmed. I had a rocky start, but was able to correct a warping mistake that made one of my white stripes bigger than the others. I also was inspired by the Jane Stafford Guild videos to go off my pattern and play with some twill treadlings.

Plans for 2021

We talked about our 2021 plans and discovered that we are oh, so predictable. You don't even really have to listen to this episode! We said exactly the same things in Episode 106 in January 2019 and Episode 127 in January 2020.

Recommendations

Kelly recommends two YouTube knitting shows

Sweet Tea, No Shade with John and Scott

Needles at the Ready show with Kevin and Ray.

Marsha shares videos (created by the tour company) from last year's Iceland trip.

Video of our Icelandic cooking class

Video of our visit to Icelandic geothermal plant and lava tube

Ongoing Giveaway--Paper, Planning, and Plotting

We are giving away two items to one lucky winner! Two Sheeps Calendar: A Celebration of Independent Yarn Dyers. Each month features an exclusive skein from an indie dyer and the link to order the yarn. It's not just a calendar!

Pack of three Field Notes notebooks in the Snowy Evening design.

To enter, answer this prompt: How do you keep your plots and plans straight? Paper, digital, other? Do you use a calendar? What kind? A notebook? What kind? Do you use a notebook for your projects or just Ravelry? When do you use paper and when do you use digital? Enter in the thread in the Ravelry group, or you can send a comment from our website, you can send us an audio file by emailing us twoewes@twoewesfiber.com, or send us a dm on Instagram From all the responses we'll draw a winner on January 20 and you'll hear the winner during the second January episode.

Holiday fun has exhausted Marsha while Kelly has been busy making a butt-shaped divot on her couch. Plus we have a patron giveaway and a surprise Winter Weave Along prize today! Full show notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

Marsha's Projects

I haven't knit a stitch on the Holey Comfort cardigan by Hinterm Stein, but I did wind the fourth skein. I plan to bring it on a New Year's trip and make some good progress. But I am the boss of my knitting, so I might choose to work on something else instead!

I turned the heel and started the gusset of a pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought at the San Luis Obispo yarn crawl back in 2014.

I also finished a holiday tea cosy in red and green using the pattern Nanny Meiers Tea Cozy by Amelia Carlson published by Fiber Trends. I used spirit yarn from Sears!

Finally, I'm swatching with Little Fish Stitches fingering for a Tee called Walk Along by AnkeStrick.

Kelly's Projects

I've been working a lot on the Persian Tile Blanket for my grand niece. I'm following the color choices (sort of) of a project by JenasaurusWake that I saw while watching FO radar. I'm using Knit Picks Brava Worsted in lots of fun bright colors and making color choices to make all the octagons look like they have different sized flowers in them.

With Friends Pullover. I'm using two patterns: Rachel by Josée Paquin, and Fresh by Josée Paquin. I've put the hem on waste yarn and picked up for the first sleeve. I'm going to start with the dark green at the top of the sleeve and then move into the stripe colors. I'll do the sleeves similarly to the Fresh pattern where the sleeves are mostly one color and then there is a little bit of striping.

I finished 14 dishcloths in the Triple L Tweed stitch from the Purl Soho Slip Stitch Dishtowels pattern. I cast on a multiple of 3 stitches +1. It's usually 34 or 37 stitches because I like a compact dishcloth. I totally used up four different 108-yard skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic

Ongoing Giveaway--Paper, Planning, and Plotting

Enter on Ravelry, through the website comments page, or through email (twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com) by Jan 20th. Or email us a voice memo and we'll play your response on the show!

The winner will get:

Two Sheeps Calendar: A Celebration of Independent Yarn Dyers. Each month features an exclusive skein from an indie dyer and the link to order the yarn. It's not just a calendar!

From twosheeps:

Working with each dyer, we have obtained a limited supply of each exclusive colorway. The yarn in each month's photograph is available for purchase on the first day of that month.

We are grateful to each dyer for creating, dyeing, twisting, and labeling these amazing skeins and are thrilled to showcase their talent in our company's first calendar!

Pack of three Field Notes notebooks in the Snowy Evening design.

From Field Notes: We've limited this 49th Quarterly Edition to 33,333 3-Packs. Each Memo Book cover features a unique snowflake illustration rendered by our friend and co-conspirator, Brendan Dawes. Each snowflake is different, so every book is different, and so for the first time in a Quarterly Edition – we've individually numbered each book.

To enter, answer this prompt:

How do you keep your plots and plans straight? Paper, digital, other? Do you use a calendar? What kind? A notebook? What kind? Do you use a notebook for your projects or just Ravelry? When do you use paper and when do you use digital? Marsha and Kelly will put up a thread in the Ravelry group, or you can send a comment from the website, you can send us an audio file (for example using voice memo phone app and emailing it, send us a dm on Instagram or email us twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com. We'll draw a winner on January 20 and you'll hear about it during the second January episode on about January 25.

Patron Appreciation Time!

Stuck at home we are reliving memories of travels. For the next few months we will be having a once a month patron giveaways to remind everyone of faraway places.

The prize is a hat kit from Marsha's trip to Iceland. It is from the Uppspuni Mini Mill. The yarn is black with purple contrast color.

If you'd like to go back and listen to the Iceland dispatches they are in Episode 129 and Episode 130.

The winner of the Icelandic yarn is Barbara G., a patron since January of 2019.

Winter Weave Along

We're brightening up the winter by having a giveaway from the Winter Weave Along chat thread.

Nan4now is the winner of a cone of Sally Fox cotton. Contact me ASAP as her 2020 stock is dwindling!

Vreseis is the website and she has been documenting her history on her Vreseis Instagram

You can join in with your weaving projects anytime until March 31. We will have prizes, including a class generously donated by Erica at Weavolution. Check out this great website for weavers with projects, discussion, classes, and lots of resources. The website has a handy Weaving Calculator that you can use for project planning.

Remembering our Amy with a Caps for Kids KAL

To honor her memory, we are having a Caps for Kids KAL from now until February 15th, to knit or crochet caps in any washable yarn, any pattern, any size, and donate them to a kids charity. Please post a photo of your cap(s) here before donating them.