Episode 9: Susanna IC

Welcome to episode 9 everybody! We are almost in the double digits and we're excited about that. In this episode, Kim continues to share her experiences from her recent "Knit For Fun" retreat and has a special interview with designer Susanna IC. Enjoy!

Episode 9 Audio

The "Knit For Fun" retreats are put on by Ann Budd and Kim discusses her classes there, which were taught by:

1. Ann Budd: Steek and Zippers and Fixing Your Mistakes.
2. Nancy Bush: Estonian Traveling Stitches
3. Susanna IC: Cables and Lace

Admin notes: We are taking attendance! please join us in our Ravelry group if you are a new or returning "student," we promise that we won't let you sit alone at lunch or play by yourself at recess!

Marcy, Kim and Wilson after recording

What's in our Lesson Plan?

• Lots of retreat info!
• All of my retreat classes
• An interview with the designer Susanna IC

Retreat Info:

1. Goody bag donation items: Cloudborn Fibers, Merino Superwash Sock Twist in the Majestic Purple color, Cloudborn Fiber Alpaca and Highland Natural in the Camel Heather color, Vice blurred Lines in the Canyonlands color way to go with the Park City Cowl pattern by Ann Budd, Elemental Affects yarn and the Midsummer bouquet pattern by Karen Kendrick-Hand and Buffy Ann Designs yarn cozys.
2. The yarn shops that vended at the retreat were: Wasatch and Wool, from Park City, Utah and Blazing Needles from Salt Lake City, Utah.
3. Our fund raiser was the Haapsalu Lace center in Estonia and $1,110 was raised over the weekend!

Kim's cup cozy that has been steeked and zippered!

The awesome goody bag and its' contents

Podcasts hosting sock KAL's: 

There are so many sock KAL's (knit-a-longs) running right now that I thought we'd mention a few for you all to jump in on. Remember that you can double, triple and quadruple dip on these! So, go knit some socks, post some pics and win some prizes!

• The Knitmore Girls audio podcast has an on going KAL, "Operation Sock Drawer". Use #operationsockdrawer on Instagram and you can also post in their group thread. 
• Yarngasm Video Podcast has a year long (until 1/1/17) "Box of Sox" KAL. Use #boxOsoxkal on Instagram and put your 12 pairs of adult socks in a pretty box. 
• Grocery Girls video podcast has a "Fancy Feet" KAL  from 5/1/16 thru 6/14/16 and the goal is to try a new technique. #ggfancyfeet on Instagram. 
• Bakery Bear's Video podcast has a "Summer of Socks" KAL running from 5/25/16 thru 8/31/16. #summerofsockskal on Instagram.
• The lovely ladies from the Mason Dixon blog are having a "One Sock" KAL and 1st time sock knitters are welcome! 5/1/16 thru 5/31/16. Post using the #onesockkal on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or on their Ravelry thread.

Susanna IC interview:

I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Susanna IC at the Knit For Fun retreat. Susanna is "zuzusus" on Ravelry and her website is artqualia.com. She is very active in her Rav group and hosts at least 2 MKAL's a year in addition to other knitalongs using her gorgeous lace and cable patterns. Susanna has 150+  patterns on Ravelry and more are in the works!

Even though it was a challenge to do so, Susanna did choose a few of her designs as her favorites: Annis, Belarra, Brina and a cardigan, Eadon. Head on over to Ravelry and take a look at all of her beautiful designs. 

***The "Fruity Knitting" video cast was mentioned. Andrea knits lots of Alice Starmore sweaters and does a lot of great tutorials, go check it out!

What's on our Black Board?

In episode 10 we be talking about our knitting (Show and Tell,) and doing a Shibui yarn tasting with yarn that Kim received at the retreat. We'll play an interview with Sandy who was helping us all weekend with our Shibui buying needs : ) . 

Have a great week everybody! Happy knitting!

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!

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!

Episode 5: Interview with Ann Budd & Knitting Howlers!

Hi Knitters, we're happy to share our 5th episode with you. Kim went to the Strungalong retreat where she got to meet and interview Ann Budd.  We are continuing to learn about podcasting and we are perfecting our style, I hope you are enjoying our conversations and knitting info that we are always excited to share with our listeners.This is another nice, long, meaty episode; so pick up your knitting, a soothing beverage and settle in for a great knitting session. Enjoy!

Episode 5 Audio

Whats in our Lesson Plan?

• Show and Tell
• Field trip Notes
• Interview with Ann Budd
• We are Uber Crafty!
• Homework/Goals
• What's on our Blackboard?

Show and Tell:

Marcy has been wearing and really enjoying her True sweater by Joji Locatelli. She is currently working on her Casual Kimono  pullover  by Bonnie Riley. She bought the gorgeous 100% Mongolian cashmere yarn from the  Lambtown fiber festival that we attended last fall. The cashmere and pattern are from Stitchsisterz Yarn. 

Marcy wanted to pick up and work on the cute Monster pants, but it didn't happen. She finished the Gray Lady Tablet case and is very happy with it. As part of the Stitches West KAL, Marcy is planning on casting on the pretty Be My Angel shawl by Martina Behm using her Huckleberry Knits singular in the winesap color. 

Kim's Doodler Shawl.

Kim finished her Bankhead hat by Susie Gourlay.  She CO three things: 1) the Doodler shawl by Westknits, 2) a pair of socks knit on magic loop 2 at a time with Invictus Yarn, and these socks will have contrasting heels and toes and (for the 1st time!) a Fish Lips Kiss Heel, and 3) another pair of vanilla socks, also 2 x 2 on magic loop with Zauberball yarn.

Kim's other Wips: 1) the Autumn's End pullover by Alano Dakos which is about 3/4 done, 2) the "Surprise! IDK where you came from" second sock (hopefully a horrible case of SSS will not attack her!)

While sick, Kim did some swatching for a few sweaters (there's no better time, right?!) 

1) the Breathing Space pullover sweater by Veera Valimaki using Madelinetosh Merino Light  and 2) the Heartfelt cardigan also by Veera Valimaki which will be knit out of merino light as well. Both of these sweaters are from the beautiful new book by Veera and Joji Locatelli, Interpretations vol 3.

 A good tip when swatching is to tie knots in your yarn tail to remind you of the needle size you used to swatch (for ex, a US size 5 would have 5 knots,) or if you are swatching with multiple sizes, as you change needles indicate the size you used by adding that number of purl bumps to the right side of your work. This works like a charm and your future self will thank you! Also, its always a fabulous idea to wash and block your swatch, especially before investing all of your time and $$$ into knitting a sweater.

A  Show and Tell Note, please check out the Sox Therapist's pattern, Fish Lips Kiss Heel because this very inexpensive $1  pattern will help her pay for some of her medical bills as she is battling cancer. 

Field trip Notes:

Kim attended the Strungalong retreat last November in Port Ludlow, Washington. She learned about this retreat from reading Spephanie Pearl-Mcphee's blog, The Yarn Harlot. This retreat is held three times a year and each session has a different theme. Last November, the amazing Judith  Mackenzie taught the spinning portion, Stephanie taught the knitting and Debbi Stone taught the informative technology class.

While at the retreat, it was really fun to meet and interact with the teachers and other attendees. Kim met:  Ann Budd, Jennie the Potter and Cecelia Campochiaro who wrote the amazing book, Sequence Knitting, along with many other amazing, smart, fun and creative knitters!

Ann Budd Interview:

It was such a pleasure to meet and interview Ann Budd. You can find all of her books here, and the information about her Knit For Fun retreats here.

Ann started working for Handwoven Magazine and moved over to Interweave Press in 1989, first working on the magazine and then as an editor in the book department.

This April's Knit For Fun retreat will be held in Park City, Utah and her guest teacher will be the amazing Nancy Bush. In September, the retreat will be held in Estes Park, Co and her guest teacher will be the  talented Galina Khmeleva.

Cindy Hallam is the event coordinator for the retreats and wants to ensure that all attendees will have a ball and that there will be many fun surprises too!

Ann mentions Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee and the lever knitting technique that she teaches. Head on over to Ann's Revelry group and join in on the fun.

Knitting Howlers:

We really like the Knitmore Girls podcast segment, "When Knitting Attacks!" We don't want to steal a segment name from them, so we came up with our own name, "Knitting Howlers." A howler is defined as," a glaring blunder, typically an amusing one." We know that we've had many howlers in our knitting lives and we will continue to do so (for your amusement, dear listeners : ) We also liked the name because knitters typically want to howl when their knitting misbehaves! ***By the way, we very much enjoy the entire podcast experience with the Knitmore's, please go on over and give them a listen if you haven't already. 

Here are the Knitting Howlers that we experienced since we recorded last: 1) Kim's vanilla socks had some very stubborn stitches that continually wanted to bale out of the sock experience. Even though she's picked up many, many dropped stitches over the years; these proved to be stubborn due to their placement and the dark color of the yarn. 2) Marcy experienced a massive Howler attack while working on her Casual Kimono sweater. There were multiple frogging sessions and issues with cables and finally, some errata in the pattern. The designer, Bonnie Riley, was very responsive when Marcy pm'ed her on Ravelry. She's back on track now and the sweater is coming along beautifully.

We are Uber Crafty:

Kim spent at least 15 hours over the past two weeks re-organizing her stash in both physical and virtual space. It had been at least three years since she'd gone through her stash, skein by skein, and made sure that everything was photographed, in the proper bin and on her stash notebook on Rav. Its a big process, but well worth it. If you're going to truly use that function on Rav, it can only work for you to its full potential if it's complete, accurate and up to date. Also, it's a great opportunity to de stash unwanted yarn and make sure that there are no critters lurking.

The mess that Kim had while organizing her stash.

Marcy took advantage of a wonderful, rainy weekend to get some sewing in. She was able to use up some fabric that was in her stash and sew up two adorable tops. She used the Simplicity pattern #1589.

Homework/Goals:

Marcy has set an "in general" goal of finishing her Casual Kimono sweater before we record next. Kim, who really likes setting crazy goals and is comfortable with not accomplishing all of them, has decided that she wants to: 1) finish her Autumn's End sweater, 2) finish the "Surprise! IDK where you came from" socks and research and be able to talk to you guys about the whole after/fore thought heel subject, 3) enter her fiber stash onto her Ravelry notebook, 4) CO another sweater, 5) finish her Doodler shawl and 6) pick up her languishing Elsie shawl by Fiddle Knits. Good luck Kim! Stay caffeinated!

What's on our Blackboard?

In our next episode we will be in the classroom all alone and spend the entire hour (or two...) talking about our knitting and crafting. We will also have our 1st installment of the Ravelry research paper series. Thank you so much for joining us! Please subscribe to our podcast and join us next time. Happy knitting!!

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Episode 4: SW Part 2

Hi Knitters, we are happy to share our 4th episode with you, it's a long one so prepare yourself for a 2hr D2K episode getting to know more about Stitches West. So make sure an give yourself enough time to enjoy all the information we gathered, fun interviews from random knitters at Stitches, and getting to know us a little more.

Episode 4 Audio

What is in our lesson plan today:

Marcy and Kim on the last day at Stitches in the Marketplace!

Show and Tell:

Kim set some pretty crazy knitting goals last week! She completed  1)her MKAL Shawl by Nevernotknitting, the Four Seasons Shawl. This is a gorgeous cabled worsted weight shawl with botanical elements and was very fun and interesting to knit. The yarn used was Madeline Tosh DK in the Oceana color way.  She also finished her 2) Cabo socks, although there were some issues with starting the toe decreases too early (twice!) These pretty socks were knit with the Fishknits Panache sock yarn. Kim also finished, (well almost! and we're going to count it!) 3) Her Cattails sweater. Melissa Schaschwary designed this cute stripped open front cardigan and it's a great knit. Here is Kim's 1st Cattails, the modded version. Both were knit with Silky Wool. Here's Marcy's  cute Cattails.

Instead of casting on something new, Kim pulled her 4) Autumn's End sweater from Nevernotknitting out of hibernation. This gorgeous, lacy pullover is knit out of MadelineTosh Pashmina in the Amber Trinket color way. She is also continuing to work on her, 5) "Surprise! IDK where you came from" socks. This is bringing up some interesting conversation and blog reading about afterthought and forethought heels. We'll be delving into that topic in two weeks.

Marcy had some really good knitting time while recuperating from knee surgery and was able to finish her 1) True sweater coat by Joji Locatelli. This beautiful sweater was knit on size US 7 and 8 needles and used the Fiesta yarns Grace DK in the Sugar Cane color way. She loves the soft yarn and enjoyed knitting this garment. Sadly, due to sizing issues, Marcy had to frog her 2) Monster pants and hopes to cast on a new pair soon in a smaller size. She is continuing to make good progress on her 3) Gray Lady Kindle case for a friend. 

Both of us had a fun and yet crazy knitting week! Much time was spent perusing patterns on Ravelry, looking at our yarn in virtual and real form and generally planning our future CO's. Both of us have decided to finish up some of our WIP's before delving into our new Stitches yarn.

Research paper:

We thought it'd be fun to do a little bit of research about the topic that so many of us (at least here, in Northern California,) have been obsessed with in recent weeks: Stitches West. We were able to find out some fun information about XRX, the company that owns Stitches, and their first  knitting expo. That was held in October, 1991 in Cherry Hill, NJ. Part of the event was on a race track and was held under tents in a rainstorm! Stitches West is the largest of their expos and attendance is somewhere around 10K. You can find all of this year's Stitches events, here.

Interview with Laura and Pat:

Two Sw attendees, Laura and Pat, were kind enough to sit down with us and talk about their experiences at the knitting expo as well as their own personal knitting story. Thanks ladies! Both women are from San Francisco and one of their LYS's is ImagiKnit. We discuss some of the many needle options for knitters: magic loop, DPN's, straights and circulars. Socks can be knit with afterthought heels on magic loop and either toe up or top down. 

We mention many of the fun activities at the Stiches expos: the fashion show, classes, student banquet and classes. Two other LYS's were mentioned, Greenwich Yarn in SF and Fengari in Half Moon Bay. 

We touch upon the history of knitting, you can read about it here. There's a big difference between a narwhal (which is an amazing aquatic animal that pretty much looks as if it was created as CGI,) and nalebinding (a fabric creation technique that predates both knitting and crochet.) Kim was momentarily confused! We're going to blame that on the yarn fumes.

Field Trip Notes:

Marcy had a wonderful idea for us to talk about what we wore at SW. Here's what we chose:

Kim wore her Radian Yoke Tee by Wendy Bernard on Friday. On Saturday she pulled on her Lillian Tank by Amanda Reed and finished up the weekend by sporting her 3rd Hitofude by Hiroku Fakutsu on Sunday. Her policy for choosing knitwear for Stitches is to treat it like a 95 degree day and dress lightly.

Marcy wore her stunning yellow Veronika by CocoKnits on Saturday and her Snowflake Beauty pullover on Sunday. This gorgeous sweater was only the 3rd sweater that she'd ever made but the construction is quite complex.

Kim added to her fiber stash by purchasing: 1) Greenwood Fiberworks 4 oz sock braid. BFL/nylon blend, 2) Greenwood Fireworks Jingle Bells, heather BFL in a 4 oz braid, 3) two RedFish DyDyeworks, 50/50 blend of silk and superfine merino in a gorgeous red and a red and blue blend, and finally 4) a gorgeous and super soft Redfish Dyeworks 50/50 silk and baby camel in a green color way. Kim is really looking forward to spinning all of this amazing fiber and wants to establish the 15 minutes a day spinning habit.

 Top photo: Marcy and her son Wilson with his bear.
Bottom Photo: Bear for Brooke's new baby girl Lena,
both bears are from Ranch of the Oaks.

We both stopped by the Bar-Maids booth and picked up some of their Lo-Lo bars in the Red Clover scent and Kim also bought some of their Face Pudding. 
Marcy tells the fun story about her friend Brooke,  her adorable new baby girl Lena Elizabeth and the ever so soft and amazingly cute teddy bear from the Ranch of the Oaks booth that she bought in 2014 for her yet to be born son and again in 2016. You can visit Ranch of the Oaks in Lompoc on California's beautiful central coast. Check it out here.

Interview with Celine and Monique:

At the end of the day on Saturday we wanted to interview a few more attendees and we were very fortunate to come across a very special mother daughter duo from France. Thank you ladies for allowing us to interview you! 

These two lovely women discovered Stitches West a few years ago when they were visiting a family member in San Diego and they wanted to visit Ranch of the Oaks; yes the same one that Marcy was just talking about! It's such a small world! They were unable to visit the ranch because they had a booth at SW and weren't open to the public that weekend. Our French friends were so intrigued by everything that they heard about SW that they planned this trip around it so that they could first attend the expo and then go visit family. Good priorities! 

They attended and really enjoyed the Steven and Stephen show on Friday night. Celine took a class from Patty Lyons and really enjoyed it. She has knit Westknit's Enchanted Mesa and really and wants to knit another. 

From Left to Right: Kim, Celine, Monique, Marcy
On the table is Monique's fiber treasures from Stitches.

Fun and Games:

Head on over to the Stiches West Ravelry board and join in on the year long "Use up your SW yarn" Kal! There will be monthly prizes and lots of support and encouragement from other awesome knitters. We will also open a thread in our group; join us!

What's on Our Blackboard?

Our next episode will feature a special interview with the author and designer Ann Budd. Kim had the privilege of interviewing her in November at a retreat. We think you will really enjoy listening to how Ann ended up with a thriving career in the knitting industry. 

In two weeks we will be getting back to, or really just establishing, our regular schedule of recording every two weeks with one week being "In the Classroom," when we focus on our projects, a research paper and whatever we've become obsessed with recently in the fiber field! The alternate weeks will feature a "Field Trip" when we visit a LYS, retreat, festival or other event or group and do some interviews and generally mingle and frolic with knitters in the wild. 

Thank you for joining us today, please subscribe to our podcast and we look forward to "seeng" you again next time. Happy Knitting!