Thursday, October 26, 2017

Episode 39: Christmas is coming and deep stash knitting!


Hello dear knitters and welcome to episode 39! In this 'in the classroom' ep Marcy and Kim share more information about the Octopus for a Preemie crochet project, gift ideas for knitters, lots of FO's, WIP's and even some Uber Craftiness. Grab your knitting, a PS beverage, get comfy and join us!



Marcy, Pippa and Kim after recording

What's in our Lesson Plan?

  1. On the PA System
  2. Show & Tell
  3. We are Uber Crafty
  4. What's on our Black Board?

On the PA System

Octopus for a Preemie Project.
  • We are very excited about the Octopus for a Preemie project. All of the information can be found on it's own page on our blog, here, and on the forum in our Ravelry group, here. We hope that many of you will take a little time and crochet an octopus for a wee baby too. ***It is important that we follow all of the guidelines for crocheting these stuffies, otherwise they won't be able to use them in the NICU. So please read all of the instructions carefully and check your tentacle length and gauge. 
  • Marcy pointed out that there're only 10 weeks until Christmas!!!! YIKES! We thought it might be helpful to make a list of gifts for knitters. ***You may want to share this with the non knitters in your life that will be buying for you this season!
  1. The amazing Sirka counter. Kim has 2 and Marcy has one and we really like them and highly recommend them.
  2. Gift certificates to your Lys if you have one, or an online shop if you don't.
  3. Interchangeable knitting needle sets; both of us like KnitPicks, which are also very reasonably priced. 
  4. Marcy loves her Knitkit and has found it to be very durable.
  5. Project bags, scissors, tape measures and stitch markers are always needed and appreciated. 
  6. A subscription to a yarn or fiber club. There are many of these available (check Etsy!) and can be purchased for a few months or up to a year long. Such a wonderful gift for those of us that are fiber obsessed!
    The cute emergency case Marcy's
    friend Brooke made for her.
  7. Subscriptions to knitting magazines; there are the traditional monthly or quarterly ones like Vogue and Interweave Knits and now we also have the gorgeous Pom Pom Quarterly and Making magazines. (You can google 'knitting magazine' or spinning or weaving magazine to find many more.)
  8. Last, but definitely not least- you can make your knitter some cute wall decor. Marcy's friend Brooke made her the cutest 'knitting emergency kit' and Marcy made Kim adorable 3D K2TOG letters for her birthday! Head on over to the craft store or raid your stash and get creative!

Show & Tell

Since it's been about a month since we shared all of our knitting, Kim has a little parade of FO's. She finished her Handspun shawl. This is a project that began on her birthday in August when she dyed a bunch of fiber. She quickly spun a lot of it and was eager to get it on the needles. The shawl has brioche, garter and lace sections and was a very fun knit. Kim was thrilled to completely use up both handspun and hand dyed yarn from her stash. 

From the same batch of hand dyed fiber, Kim spun up yarn for  her "Birthday Sweater Spin #1." The pattern is based off of Andrea Mowry's So Faded pullover and Kim made some mods that are listed on her project page. 

The Ninilchik Swoncho was such a fun and addictive knit and it's DONE! All of the yarn for this project was from stash and some was held double and some held triple. This great pattern is by Caitlin Hunter and Kim highly recommends it. All yarn details are on her project page. 

After months of having zero sock mojo, Kim has finally finished the socks for her nephew. Sadly, they won't be gifted to him since they fit her DH perfectly and he really liked them and he's never asked for any knitwear before! These vanilla socks were knit 2 aat, top down, magic loop and with an after thought heel. The yarn is some very aged Regia (more deep stash used up!) Now Kim needs to quickly knit up a pair of socks to gift to her nephew!!! 

Kim's current WIP's include the P-Rex by Susanne Sommer. This brioche and garter stitch cape/poncho/sweater hybrid is a fun fingering weight knit. It will take awhile to knit as it is a lot of fabric. Marcy and Kim are doing an informal KAL with this project and it's fun to see how different they look in different yarns and colors. Kim is using her hand dyed yarn. The MC is KnitPick's Galileo and the CC is KnitPick's stroll sock yarn. 

The crochet shawl Hotel of Bee's hasn't gotten any love (due to the greedy Ninilchik : ) but Kim is looking forward to getting back to it and finishing this beautiful shawl. In addition, after finishing the Ninilchik, Kim was anxious to knit more fair isle and chose the Damejakka Loppa by Pinnegurri. This fair isle cardigan is knit in the round and steeked. She is planning on putting in a zipper and using the cardigan as a jacket. So far, the yarn has been chosen and she has swatched and she's looking forward to casting on and getting started on this beauty.

Kim and her DH are going on vacation next week and her 1st priority for packing is always knitting and books. She has wound some pretty cotton yarns in preparation to crochet some Octopuses (octopi? octopuses?!?) ***Check out this video from Merriam-Webster about which word is the  correct plural form for octopus. *** 

Also, since socks are the perfect take along project for flying and poolside knitting, Kim has pulled out 3 languishing sock WIP's. 
  1. The Achilles Heal by Lucia Light is a free patter on Knitty.com and they were CO on 4/11/16. These socks looked so fun and different and the result is gorgeous...but the unusual construction proved to be a little too unusual and all of the Dpn's and magic loop needles that were needed to knit these concurrently became unwieldy. One of the needles broke and..well, they just need to be finished because the yarn is amazing and should be worn. It's Fishknits yarn Panache in the Sunday Brunch color. Kim is going to see if she can figure out how to finish these without ripping too much out. 
  2. The Crazy Zauber Socks were CO 2/29/16 and were intended to fill the color gap in Kim's sock  drawer. She doesn't have any black socks and this yarn (color =Cafe Flair,) is teal and black. Sadly, there's far too much black and it's no fun to knit. Hopefully these will work well for poolside knitting and come home as an FO. 
  3. Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder. This popular and free pattern on Ravelry is a fun and easy non vanilla sock pattern. They've got enough texture to keep your interest but are easy enough to memorize. The yarn is Malabrigo sock yarn in #416 Indiecita. These were CO 3/4/17 right before all of Kim's sock mojo went away!
Marcy has been working on a 2nd Octopus in a cute cotton that she picked up from Hobby Lobby. She is also prepping to knit a few more. Marcy is working on becoming a certified Ambassador for the Octopus for a Preemie project and she has talked with a few women from our LYS about a tutorial session for help with the pattern. Yay! hopefully we'll end up with a bunch of octopuses to donate to our local NICU. 

Marcy is continuing to work on her P-Rex and it's looking beautiful. We are both excited to finish and wear these cute capes. She is using KnitPick's Stroll Glimmer in the kestrel color and KnitPick's Chroma Twist fingering in the Get Your Neon color way. 

Marcy has CO the Hotel of Bees Shawl by Christina Hadderingh. This crochet shawl takes you through the 'Hotel of Bees' from Anthony Doerr's book,  All the Light we Cannot See. This will be a Christmas gift for Pippa's daycare provider who is known as Mrs. Bee. Marcy is using the yarn that is called for in the pattern, Scheepjes Stone Washed which is a sport weight 78% cotton 22% acrylic yarn. It's looking so pretty and she's really enjoying having a crochet project on the hook. 

We are Uber Crafty

Marcy has been sewing! She's working on her yearly formal dress that she wears to her husband's office Christmas party. This year she is also planning on wearing her beautiful dress to her brother in law's wedding. The pattern that she's sewing is based on Burda #6868. Her goal is to finish the sewing this afternoon; go Marcy! We have faith in you and know that you can finish. 

Marcy's formal dress she is working on.  The corset is done and
the fashion fabric for the top is done. She just has to make the skirt.

In her  quest to use up stash yarn, especially deep stash, Kim spent a day overdyeing several sweater quantities of deep stash yarn. She knows that she wants to knit the beautiful new fade pattern, Comfort Fade Cardi by Andrea Mowry, and she will probably knit a gradient pullover or cardigan too. It's fun to give stash yarn new life by over dyeing it and also simply revisiting what you already own.
Kim's over dyed yarn

What's on our Black Board?

In our next episode we will share all of our FO's, WIP's new CO's and our spinning, dyeing and sewing with you. In addition, we anticipate visiting one of our Lys's and we'll let you know all about it!

We hope your knitting, crocheting, spinning, sewing, dyeing and general making are going splendidly! Have fun and Happy Knitting. 

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Episode 38: Cloth Carousel and Lambtown Fieldtrips

Welcome to ep. 38 Knitters! We have a fun field trip podcast today for your listening pleasure. We revisited the 1st LYS (Cloth Carousel in Winters, CA,) that we went to 2 years ago on the day that we decided to start our podcast and we also went to a local fiber festival; Lambtown in Dixon, CA. In addition, we share our progress on our informal P-Rex- along and we have a special philanthropic crochet CAL that we are excited to tell you about. Grab your knitting, a soothing or bracing beverage, get comfortable and join us!

***Thanks to our LYS, Got Your Goat in Roseville, CA for allowing us to record there again! It's always a fun and lively time there and you may hear a little ambient noise.

Episode 38 Audio


What's in our Lesson Plan?

  • On the PA System
  • Show and Tell 
  • Field trip notes and interview from Cloth Carousel in Winters, CA
  • Field trip notes from LambTown in Dixon, CA
  • What's on our Black Board?
Pippa, Marcy, Diane, and Kim

Pippa, Marcy and Adina at the Cloth Carousel


On the PA System

Octopus for a Preemie
  1. We wanted to remind everyone to take a look at the main page on Ravelry each week. They highlight a new option or  knitting technique and it's always interesting and educational. 
  2. Marcy shared a really special philanthropic crochet project: "Octopus for a Preemie." This is a free pattern on Ravelry and was designed to help premature babies in the NICU. The crocheted arms remind babies of the umbilical cord and help them to feel safer. In addition, the babies are able to grab and hold onto the tentacles instead of any tubes or cables that are in their bassinet.  We've decided to hold a CAL for this worthy project and we have a forum on our Ravelry group page.  Our LYS, Got Your Goat, has offered to be a receiving point for the Octopus (octopi?!) and  then Marcy will deliver them to the NICU's in our area. We hope that you'll join in on this easy and fast crochet project that will comfort a baby in distress. (Make sure to read the section below in Show & Tell about the octopus that Marcy made.)
Jacob with his Octopus, isn't he adorable,? It just melts my heart.

Show & Tell

Marcy and Kim are doing an informal P-Rex KAL. This cute cape/poncho/sweater garment has both brioche and garter stitch and was designed by Susanne Sommer. We are both really enjoying this addicting project and are looking forward to cooler weather so that we can wear and enjoy them.

A friend of Marcy's had a baby and sadly he was born with a medical issue that required surgery right away. She had learned about the Octopus for a Preemie project and decided to crochet one for him. Her friend quickly got back to Marcy and said that the nurses in the NICU were asking for more crocheted Octopus because it was comforting the baby so much and keeping him from grabbing any cables or cords. 


 ***There are specific instructions for making the Octopus, please read all about it on this website.***

Fieldtrip Notes- Cloth Carousel


Two years ago Kim and Marcy went on a day trip to Cloth Carousel in Winters, CA. There are actually two shops:  a quilt and a yarn shop  both owned by Adina. During the drive home 2 years ago we decided to start our knitting podcast. We thought it would be fun to revisit this beautiful LYS and interview them and share all of the wonderful yarn, needles, classes and fabric that they offer. 

Diane, the manager of the shop was kind enough to sit down and tell us all about the store. Kim and Marcy are both really impressed with their amazing needle and notions selection, gift items for any and all knitters and of course, beautiful yarn for your current knitting obsession. They also stock some fiber for spinning and felting and  embroidery materials. Cloth Carousel offers classes for all levels as well. This is definitely a LYS that is worth a visit and you'll love the small town of Winters, CA. While you're there you can walk across the street to the quilt shop and pick up some fabric for your next project. 

Please make sure to check out all of the information about Cloth Carousel on our Yarn Shop Evaluation page. Thank you to Adina and Diane for hosting us!
So many beautiful yarns to choose from!


Cloth Carousel
Pippa is just too cute, she had fun shopping!


Fieldtrip Notes- Lambtown

We also visited a local fiber festival in Dixon, CA, Lambtown. This is a great festival that offers yarn, lots of fiber, alpacas, llamas, sheep, sheep dog trials,  classes, demonstrations, great food, entertainment, beer and local booths of all sorts for old and young alike. Sadly, the day that we attended was very windy and we stayed indoors as much as possible, but we both found some beautiful items that we couldn't leave behind and we'll talk more about those stash acquisitions as we knit and spin with them.
Wilson and his cute felted slippers.

Pippa and her new cashmere hat.

Pippa joined us and was the hit of the festival! She was even gifted a beautiful lace knit bonnet from Bonnie Riley of Stitchsisterz! Bonnie had knit the hat for her granddaughter, but it was too small. Happily, it fit Pippa perfectly and looked adorable.

We all had fun wearing our knitwear and Marcy ran into her Cullum Tee twin! Carol, aka caliknitpurl on Ravelry, was wearing her  Cullum Tee and denim and they're both blond and they looked great in their knitted tops. 
Marcy and Carol, they are twins in their Cullum Tees!

What's on our Black Board?

Our next episode will be in the classroom and we'll update you on all of our FO's, WIP's, new CO's spinning, and uber craftiness. 

Thank you for joining us today! We hope that your knitting and making are filling you with joy and that you're having fun. Happy Knitting!