Episode 8: Snow Dance

Welcome to Episode 8! Kim is back from the "Knit For Fun" retreat filled with excitement and inspiration to knit new things. Both Marcy and Kim have some WIP's to share and are enjoying their knitting. Grab your knitting, fill your thermos with your beverage of choice and settle in for a nice meaty podcast!

Episode 8 Audio

Marcy with her beautiful shawl and
Kim with her howling socks

Whats in our Lesson Plan?

• Show and Tell, including howlers
• Revisiting Got Your Goat LYS
• Field Trip Notes
• What's on our Blackboard?

*** Admin notes: 

• Our podcast is organized around a classroom/school theme: Show and Tell, Field Trip notes, What's on our Blackboard. etc..
• Our original goal was to create a podcast wherein we could share our passion for knitting with each other,  our listeners AND to celebrate Local Yarn Shops (LYSs',) fiber festivals, expos, retreats, knitting groups and anywhere else that knitters gather in the wild.
• We mention "Spinning at the Winery" in Livermore, California at the Retzlaff Winery. 
• Some podcasts that are hosting retreats are: Twinset Designs, Knitting Pipeline, The 2 Knit Lit Chicks and The Yarniacs.

We thanked the 2 Knit Lit Chicks, Tracie and Barb, for the kind words and shoutout on their podcast! Thanks ladies!!! We are thrilled to be fellow Northern Ca podcasters. 

Show and Tell

Kim is continuing to work on her Crazy Zauber Socks knit with Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball in the Cafe Flair color. These are knit 2 at a time on magic loop, top down, with a 2 x 2 rib and a 1 x3 rib down the body of the sock. These socks were Kim's Knitting Howler due to the abundance of black yarn which is SO hard to see! She also cast on some "Frankensocks" and is really enjoying knitting those. Finally, she's been working on her Nesoi Tee by Miriam Felton knit out of Anzula Breeze yarn in the Irene color.

Kim's two bobbins are ready to be plied

Kim has been doing some spinning and is still using up her beautiful fiber that has sadly been separated from its bag a/o band. This time she pulled the braid in half and spun 1/2 with intentional barber poling and the other 1/2 without. Then, she will ply these together and hopefully have a spectacular result! She mentioned the Fat Squirrel video cast with Amy Beth who spun a braid in this way and was Kim's inspiration.

Marcy and Kim with their Nesoi Tees

Marcy is also knitting a Nesoi Tee. She's using the same yarn in the Key Lime color way. We are both knitting size medium, but Marcy is using US 4 needles and Kim is using US 3's based on the results of her gauge swatch, which was also washed and blocked. Marcy is also continuing to work on her beautiful Be My Angel shawl by Martina Behm. She's just about done with that and really enjoying the knit.

Marcy's method of stitch markers
 to keep track of her increases and decreases.

We talk about Marcy using stitch markers to keep track of her increases and decreases. Kim mentions the waste yarn method for keeping track of increases, decreases, counting rows and many other uses. She learned this at the Strungalong Retreat from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

We talk about inserting princess seams and lace motifs into a simple tee. We'll keep you posted with our progress on that and post pics, etc... I see a research paper in our future!

Revisit Got Your Goat:

We both felt that we needed to revisit our Got Your Goat yarn shop review that we did in our last episode. We wanted to add more detail to the ratings that we gave and explain more about our spreadsheet and how it can be a useful resource for knitters. You can find that here. We highly recommend that you visit GYG if you are in the area!

Field Trip Notes:

Kim has just returned from Ann Budd's "Knit For Fun" Retreat held in Park City, Utah. It was Ann's first retreat, and she will be hosting two a year: one in April and one in September. These are fun and relaxed events with wonderful instructors and they are all held in beautiful locales.  Ann and Cindy do an excellent job of creating an inviting, friendly and informative event. Kim met and was able to interview Ann last November, you can find that interview here. 

Snow!!! Kim really enjoyed the snow and was hoping for more

At this retreat, the instructors were: Ann Budd, Nancy Bush and Susanna IC. Kim enjoyed all of her classes, met wonderful people and had a fantastic time. We will be revisiting the classes that she took and play an interview with Susanna IC and another with Sandy from Shibui yarns in the upcoming episodes. We want to give them the time that they deserve as we really appreciate them spending time with Kim for an interview.

Some of the amazing women that Kim met at the retreat!

What's on our Black Board?

In our next episode we will revisit the Knit For Fun retreat that Kim attended. She'll talk more about the interesting and informative classes that she took and play an interview with the amazing designer, Susanna IC. 

Thank you joining us today! We hope that you enjoyed the episode and we ask that you  join us on our Ravelry group and subscribe to the podcast. We'll "see" you in a week or so and we wish you happy, well behaved knitting with no howling involved!