Episode 7: Get Your Goat On!

Welcome to episode 7 everybody! In this podcast we review our 1st LYS (local yarn shop,) sit down and chat with a few of our knitting group friends and talk about all of our WIP's, Fo's and CO's. Grab your knitting, your beverage of choice and join us!

Episode 7 Audio

Marcy and Kim having way TOO much fun recording

What's in our Lesson Plan?

• Show and Tell (including goals)
• An interview with a few of our knitting group friends
• We introduce our LYS spreadsheet and review process
• An interview with our LYS, Got Your Goat
• What's on our Blackboard?

Show and Tell

We start off with a review of Kim's goals that she set last week:

1. Finish her Autumn's End pullover: Frogged! Sadly due to a huge issue with incorrect stitch counts in ALL parts of the sweater. sigh...
2. Cast on a new summer sweater, possibly the Symmetry in Motion by Vera Sanon using her SW 2016 Forbidden Woolery Proverbs yarn. Done!!!
3. Finish her Invictus B & B socks using an afterthought heel and 2/3 of the stitches for the heel as EZ recommends along with putting in contrasting heels and toes. Done! However, Kim knit the heel at a birthday party and went on autopilot and used her regular flat heel instead. 
4. Sit down at her wheel and spin at least 5 times. Done!



Kim"s Lendrum spinning wheel



Kim's handspun gradient yarn





5. Cast on a pair of socks in a pattern. Done! The Achilles HeAL by Lucia Light using Fishknit's panache sock yarn.

Notes: Kim highly recommends the Craftsy Class, "Drafting from Worsted to Woolen," by Jacey Boggs Faulkner. Also, when frogging her Autumn's End she realized that her UFO's often get into trouble when they are put away for long periods of time. She really likes having a variety of items on the needles with a range of difficulty and techniques; however, when a UFO is not worked into the mix on a weekly basis it tends to  languish and is more difficult to pick up and get back on track with.

Marcy finished her Casual Kimono sweater and is really happy with the fit. She highly recommends the mongolian cashmere yarn from Stitchsisterz. She is currently working on her Be My Angel shawl by Martina Behm and is really enjoying the colors of the beautiful Huckleberry Knits yarn.  Marcy recently cast on the Nesoi Tee by Miriam Felton and is using her SW 2016 Anzula Breeze yarn (silk and lace blend,) in the Key Lime color way. 

Kim was swatching for the Nesoi Tee using her Anzula Breeze in the Irene color during the podcast. She also crocheted a stuffy last week for a baby's birthday gift, the "Crochet Giraffe Pattern,' by Emma Dent. This is a free pattern on Ravelry and was a fast, fun and easy crochet project. She has entered it into the Legacy Knitz (a video cast, go check it out,) "Stuffie Along KAL/CAL."

Interview with Kathy and Linda

Got Your Goat group knitting area.

We sat down and chatted with two of our friends from our knitting group, Kathy and Linda. Kathy is ktspinner on Ravelry and Linda is picking2gogranny. Both women are members of the local knitting guild (Camellia City Stockinettes,) the local spinning guild (Sacramento Weavers' and Spinners' Guild,) and the lace guild (The Lacy Knitters Guild.)

Linda is a new weaver, a knitter and a seamstress. Kathy is an experienced and prolific weaver, knitter and spinner. Linda has the Shapely Tee by Joan McGowan-Michaels on the needles using silky wool and this is a KAL with her knitting guild.

Kathy and her woven scarf.

Kathy has attended SOAR (now Yarn Fest) hosted by Interweave, where she had the opportunity to meet and learn from Judith McKenzie, Sara Lamb and others. Both women have attended Stitches West, Lambtown in Dixon, Ca and Linda will be attending the Meridian Farms event (I couldn't find a  link for this )

Kathy only listens to our podcast (such good taste!) Linda watches The Fat Squirrel Speaks video cast with Amy Beth (she's hysterical, go watch her!) and she listens to the Knitmore Girls audio podcast.

Michelle and her hybrid shawl.

Another knitting group friend joined us at the end and she was sporting her newly finished and gorgeous Four Seasons shawl by Alana Dakos. Michelle, who is scaryhairgirl on Ravelry decided to sew a short seam on the sides of the shawl in order to change it into a hybrid shawl/poncho and it looks great. She knit her shawl out of Malabrigo Rios in a beautiful green color way.

Overview of our LYS spreadsheet and rating process

On our main blog page we have a tab on the top of the page, "Yarn Shop Evaluation" where you can find the spreadsheet that we use to list the aspects that we are looking at when visiting and reviewing yarn shops. We are not critiquing, only listing what yarn options, including fiber and price categories, ease of finding, hours of operation and community outreach among other facts about the LYS. Our goal is to give you, our friend the knitter, an overview of what each LYS has to offer so you can decide if it would be a good fit for you as you travel or are just in the area. 

Interview with Got Your Goat

We sat down and chatted with Teresa (frnd4vr) about OUR LYS, Got Your Goat, in Roseville, Ca. She mentioned that one of the trends that they're aware of at GYG is knitters using smaller gauge yarn as opposed to mainly worsted and chunky. They're bringing in many new and beautiful yarns to meet that need: Erica Knight's Studio Linen, Space Cadet fingering, Ito and Shibui,  just to name a few. This past winter, they brought in Woolfolk, which was a huge hit. 

Also, they have regular KAL's (knitalongs, where everyone knits the same thing at the same time and can get help from the other knitters or the leader of the KAL.) Currently, Teresa is leading a Radian Yoke sweater KAL. The pattern is by Wendy Bernard and there are many great spring through fall yarns to use choose from that have linen, cotton and rayon; for example, Firefly and Soft Linen.

Teresa mentions the LYS in Fresno, "Swatches" and the Mountain Meadows yarn mill in Wyoming which is 100% women owned. 

Got Your Goat has classes on a regular basis, with a short break in the summer. Diane Soucy and Nancy Weisman are regular teachers. Check out their class schedule, here. 

Mo, the beloved shop mascot

One of the fun and unique offerings from GYG is their "Mo's Stash Box." This is a quarterly offering of unusual and special tools, yarn, patterns, etc... that aren't available in the store and that are always packaged in cute and innovative ways. Even if you don't live locally, you can still take part in this fun subscription program because they'll happily ship your box to you! ***Mo is the shop mascot, btw. He's a darling little goat that keeps an eye on all the knitters and their shenanigans!

What's on Our Blackboard?

Kim isn't setting any goals this week because she is heading off to Ann Budd's "Knit For Fun" retreat and has homework to complete. She also has another trip after that so she is working on prepping appropriate travel knitting projects. We will be back with a new episode in two weeks and we'll be sharing interviews and stories from Kim's retreats as well as our WIP's, Fo's, and new CO's. 

Have a fantastic few weeks and Happy Knitting!

Episode 6: Yarn Floozy

Welcome knitters! In this episode we are "in the classroom," and it's all about our knitting. We discuss what's on and off our needles in our Show and Tell segment, our goals and if we met them, what's hot right now and we present a research paper about after and fore thought heels. Perhaps we've had a knitting howler or two in the past weeks?  Pick up your knitting and find out as you join us for our 6th episode.

Episode 6 Audio

Marcy, Kim, and Smitten
 Recording episode 6.

What's in our lesson plan today:

• Show and Tell
• Hot Right Now
• Research Paper: After and Fore Thought heels
• Knitting Howlers
• Knitting Goals
• What's on our Blackboard

Show and Tell:

We begin this segment with Kim discussing the goals that she set in the last episode.

1. Finish her Doodler shawl by Stephen West. Kim ended up crocheting the top and bottom borders using stitch patterns from the book, Complete Photo Guide to Crochet.  All info to be found on the project page.  Done!!!
2. Cast on a new sweater. The Breathing Space pullover by Veera Valimaki. Done!!!
3. Pick up her Elsie shawl and knit on it. Kim ended up frogging the original shawl, which was the Better Together shawl by Erica Jackofsky and casting on the Itineris shawl by the Yarniad.  Both shawls are beautiful and the Anzula Cloud yarn is amazing. Done!!!
4. Put her fiber stash on Ravelry. Done!!!
5. Finish her Autumn's End pullover by Nevernotknitting. not done...:  (
6. Finish her "Surprise! IDK where you came from" socks, research after and forethought heels, put in afterthought heels and write up a research paper on the topic to share on the podcast. Done!!!

In the end we decided that Kim had earned an A- for meeting most of her knitting goals during the past weeks. Phew... Setting goals doesn't work for everyone, but so far it has been working for Kim and gently prodding her to start and finish things on her knitting list. 

Errata*** The Tv show mentioned was Knitting Today and should've been Knitting Daily. 

Also, if you're in the area, check out the gorgeous Monarch Knitting yarn shop in Pacific Grove, CA.

Marcy is continuing to work on her gorgeous Casual Kimono sweater by Bonnie Riley. Both yarn and pattern are from Stitchsisterz. She's sadly running out of yarn and will need to order more. While madly perusing Ravelry and trying to decide what to knit next, she cast on the Be My Angel shawl by Martina Behm. Its beautiful and is the perfect comfort knitting for her right now!

Marcy also swatched for several projects: 

Youth Yarn Swatch

Allhemp6 Swatch

1) The Reflected Lines cardigan by Suvi Simola using Yoth Yarn in the kale color way. Although both the pattern and yarn are fantastic, with spring here and summer right around the corner, she's decided to put that on hold until fall, and 2) the Flirty Ruffles Skirt by Lana Hames using Hemp for Knitting Allhemp6 yarn in the aubergine color. Sadly, the fabric that her combination of needles and yarn is producing is not what she's looking for, so she'll continue to swatch and get back to us with the results. 

Kim mentioned that she's a combination continental knitter. Follow the link to a wonderful blog post by fellow combination continental knitter, Annie Modesitt.  She would also like to refer listeners who are interested in knitting skirts to this informative episode of the Knitmore Girls audio podcast where they review the book Knit my Skirt by Candace Eisner Strick.

Kim's Black strip version
with a ruffle bottom.

Kim's Blue version
with gray stripe.

Kim had forgotten to talk about her finished Cattails sweater in the last episode and wanted to mention how much she's loving and wearing it. She also added a seam to her finished Four Seasons Shawl,  and she's very happy with it and knows that she'll wear the shawl more often now that it's a hybrid shawl/poncho.

Kim added about a 3" seam to her Four Seasons
Shawl to make it more of a poncho.

Hot Right Now:

Marcy has been madly browsing patterns on  Ravelry while she's trying to decide on her next project. She's currently obsessed with the following patterns:

1. The Tracery pullover by Norah Gaughan
2. The Enchanted Mesa pullover by Stephen West
3. The Andrea Tee Revisited by Modern Culture
4. The Pixielated pullover by Jennifer Beaumont
5. The Faye tee by Tonia Barry, and
6. The Sandshore cardigan  by Alicia Plummer

Kim suggests the Mama Vertebrae cardigan by Kelly Brooker as a good option. Amy Beth, from the hilariously funny Fat Squirrel video cast knit one and she modded it.  Kim is thinking about summer sweaters and is pondering casting on a summer tee with her beautiful Forbidden Woolery Proverbs yarn. 

Research Paper: After and Fore Thought heels

Kim found a great blog called "Knit Better Socks" by raveler reenamd and a fantastic post on AT (after thought) and FT (forethought) heels. Go check her blog out, she's got years of wonderful information about sock knitting and she's very smart and informative. You can find it here. The post leads to another blog post from the Yarn Harlot from 2007 about AT heels and ultimately both bloggers had found their main inspiration from the renowned Elizabeth Zimmerman. Check out her great book, Knitting Without Tears. 

After completing the research Kim concluded that the term  FT heel is when we decide ahead of time, (so, with fore thinking...)to place a row of waste yarn in where the heel will go and then we go back after finishing the rest of the sock and pick up stitches around the waste yarn, unravel the WY and knit the heel. The term AT heel should be used when we knit the entire sock and then go back and cut a stitch to unravel a row where we want our heel placed and we then pick up stitches and knit the heel.

She knit her first AT heel and highly recommends that you give it a try as well. It's fun and interesting to try a new technique and keep our knitting fresh and inspired. Also, check out the great book, by Margaret Radcliffe, Circular Knitting Workshop, and the free pattern,  AfterThought Heel Socks, by Laura Linneman from the KnitGirllls video cast. Leslie, also from the KnitGirllls podcast, has a fantastic video tutorial  for knitting a FT heel. 

Getting ready to cut the
opening for the heel.

Picked up cut stitches.

Knitting the heal in the round.

Both socks done!

Knitting Howlers:

Marcy has a "tentative" knitting howler in that she doesn't know if her Casual Kimono sweater is going to be too big. She's working on the neck and front band and already knows that she'll need more yarn. She's planning on reblocking the garment after it's all done and possibly throwing it in the dryer for 5 minutes. (The Destined2Knit podcast does not advocate or recommend that you put any of your knitwear in the dryer! This is a very personal decision, especially when cashmere is involved!) We are hoping that Marcy's sweater will not be making an appearance in our next Knitting Howlers segment!

Kim howled at her knitting when she had repeated errors after knitting at night on her beautiful Breathing Space sweater and knitting short rows with black yarn. Her knitting resolution = only knit on black/dark yarn during daylight hours!

Knitting Goals:

Kim is setting a new set of goals for the next few weeks. They are:

1. Finish her Autumn's End pullover. 
2. Cast on a new summer  sweater. Possibly the Symmetry in Motion by Vera Sanon.
3. Finish her Invictus B & B socks, using an AT heel, but this time using 2/3 of the stitches as EZ recommends and also, putting in red contrasting heels and toes.
4. Spinning at least 5 times
5. Cast on a pair of socks in a pattern; maybe the Monkey by Cookie A or the Achilles HeAL by Lucia Light. Both patterns are free on Knitty.com.

What's on our Blackboard?

We'll "see you again in two weeks when we will share some fun interviews with you from our knitting group and talk about our LYS and what it has to offer. Have a wonderful couple of weeks, enjoy your knitting and  we hope that you're not howling at your knitting!