Podcasts about black sheep gathering

Oh that Sockhead Slouch hat! Find out just how ridiculous Kelly's is! Our Winter-Weave-Along ends soon and our Out-of-Hibernation-Along is underway. Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android Welcome to our first new patron of 2024, Jill P! Thank you for your support of the show and our community. Marsha's Projects Camella Hat: by Katie Pomper. Using Meeker Street Olive's Outerwear DK in the colorway Dragon's Breath.  Nanny Meier Tea Cozy: Inspired by Lily Pulitzer colors. Using Cascade 220 in hot pink and lime green. Cast on the second side. Fine Sand: by Heidi Kirrmaier. Using West Yorkshire Spinners Illustrious. Finished first sleeve and almost done with second. Alpaca Shawl: I've woven 36”. I thought I would keep alternating twill patterns but I was really struggling getting any kind of rhythm throwing the shuttle. Decided to make larger sections tabby and smaller sections (1-1.5”) twills. Going much better! Socks: The Artful Ewe Clackamas. Halfway down the foot of the first sock. Baby Surprise Jacket: by Elizabeth Zimmerman. This morning I ordered her digital book that has modifications. 30,000+ projects means it must be a great pattern! I'd like to make a hooded jacket modification.  Combo Spin #3: Made a swatch of my green combo spin. Trying to decide on a pattern to knit. Combo Spin #4: I needed something a bit mindless at the beach so I started my fourth combo spin in red.  Water's Edge Fiber and Dye: taught by Kathleen Adams Olsen. We dye with indigo. Class held in Kathleen's home in Seabrook, WA. Her website is under construction but you can subscribe to her newsletter to be notified of events. I messaged her via Instagram (watersedgefiberanddye) or Facebook (Kathleen Adams Olsen). Kelly's Projects I finished my Ultra Slouch Sockhead Hat with Punk Rock Unicorn Dirty Neon. Ridiculously slouchy hat with a cozy folded brim that can be a double or even triple layer for my ears. I finished the weaving for the Trailer bedroom curtain project.  I bought the cord to go through the bottom casing. Now Robertt needs to install the hooks and attach the cord so I can measure one last time and then sew the two rod casings in the curtain fabric. I've stalled a little with The Drifter by Tamy Gore, Narrow Path Designs. I'm on the decreasing end of the long triangle. Dozens of Little Squares I now have five strips sewn together and it's about 17” wide. I've slowed down on this because I started two new projects. For Out of Hibernation I've been spinning the batts of Corriedale x Merino x Targhee that I washed, dyed, and carded last summer. It was half a fleece from Black Sheep Gathering in 2017 (about two pounds). During the summer I spun up a violet and a blue-green 3-ply yarn. I've now spun up the red-purple and I'm currently spinning a bright blue. The final color is a red orange. Between the two colors I have about 12 ounces left to spin.  I started another Classic Knitted Ripple baby blanket using the Red Heart from my mom. There were two grays, black, white and a partial skein of red. There are also two different pinks, but I don't think I'll use them.   A book recommendation from Kelly–Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey, by Woniya Dawn Thibeaut. The author describes a lot of fiber arts in preparation for her time on the reality TV show.  Ravelry Tips and Tricks Do listeners have any tricks to share? Out-of-Hibernation Along  February 1 - June 1. Have you started? Find something that has been in hibernation and get it out and do something. Back to active status, frogging and reclaiming yarn, giving away, throwing away, composting–this is spring cleaning for your project list. Check in with your progress in the Ravelry thread.  Winter-Weave-Along  Ends March 31. Join the fun in our Ravelry group! Seattle Opera Production of Barber of Seville Friday, May 17th 20% discount on tickets with the code KNITTER20 Seattle Opera is having a Relaxed Performance of our production of The Barber of Seville. While there will be no changes to the performance, the experience for the audience will have some alterations including: Lights being dimmed in the theater instead of fully dark • A relaxed atmosphere allowing patrons to talk and vocalize as they wish • Being able to leave and re-enter the theater as needed • Special areas designated as a technology use area …and much more. These adaptations are designed for a multitude of people and as a knitter myself, I couldn't help but think this would be great for groups of fiber artists to attend and craft throughout the show! While I can knit a basic pair of socks during a performance, having the lights up alone will make it easier to find any dropped stitches or check a pattern. More information about the production can be found at www.seattleopera.org/barber. More information about what a relaxed performance entails can be found at www.seattleopera.org/themenights. Meg Stoltz Associate Director of Marketing and Knitter Thank you Meg for offering listeners a discount on tickets. It should be a fun event.  

Why do some knitter's block socks after washing? We don't and are wondering if there is an important reason to do so. We need input from our listeners. Plus, project updates, and lots of spinning as part of our Summer Spin In. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or  Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha's Projects Noromania: I am using 42 skeins of Noro Kureyon (Aran weight) to make a blanket for Mark. I've knit 70 inches and used 37 balls. I'm beginning to feel the end is in sight. Flowers from My Garden: Starting a spinning project with fiber I bought at Stitches in March. I've spun three 3-ply skeins and am back to spinning singles. Spun one bobbin Bankhead Hat: Using Dimond Laine Elmer Tweed worsted from Lamb & Kid in the colorways Fir and Farmhouse. Here are links to the tubular cast on tutorials from Brooklyn Tweed and Purl Soho. About to start decreases for the crown. Great Wall to Wall Carpet Removal Project In planning stage of Snowflower by Heidi Kirrmeier. Bought a different fourth color…rose! Also bought lime green and hot pink Cascade 220 to make a Lily Pulitzer inspired tea cozy to go with my Lily Pulitzer tray. Also bought Lang Yarn Jawol fingering in red, green and cream to make Santa's Laundry Line by Eleonore von Castelmur. Suppose to use sock scraps but I don't have any in Christmas colors. I do now!  Kelly's Projects Finished socks for myself using the yarn from Purl 2 Walla Walla called Epicurean Kitchen. Currently knitting socks using a skein of Gay Pride Flag from Weird Sisters Wool Emporium . I finished spinning the Corriedale x Targhee x Merino fleece where I dyed the wool and then carded.  This is a Black Sheep Gathering fleece from 2017. I still have about 2 lbs of this fleece left and I was losing about 10% in the carding process on this fleece.  I started and finished a 3 ounce braid of mixed BFL that was overdyed by Two Guys Yarn. It's a two ply yarn in muted primary colors.  I'm still working on processing a Corriedale x Border Leicester from 2016. I'm flicking the locks before I feed them into the drum carder, trying to keep the fibers as aligned as possible (as is done in combing). With this fleece I'm pulling the batts off the carder through a diz and making nests of pseudo-combed top. This process has resulted in about 20% loss. I worked on the quilt and completed the eleventh circle of quilting out of twenty.  Events Summer Spin In: Memorial Day - Labor Day, May 29 - September 4 Flock Fiber in Seattle August 4-6 Magnussen Park Monterey Wool Show Fleece Judging–August 12 at Monterey County Fairgrounds SF Pen Show August 25-27 in Millbrae  Monterey County Wool Auction–September 4 at Monterey County Fairgrounds Lambtown October 7-8 in Dixon  

Our Summer Spin In continues with winners of our Pop-Up Giveaway. Plus project updates with fiber and beyond. An automotive project named “Raven” and “The Great Wall to Wall Carpet Removal Project” are in this episode.  Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Weird Sisters Wool Emporium Chelsea and Megan of the Weird Sisters Wool Emporium in Aberdeen, Washington, offer our listeners a 13% discount with promo code: TwoEwesAndWeirdSisters.  Code is active through July 31 Marsha's Projects Noromania: I am using 42 skeins of Noro Kureyon (Aran weight) to make a blanket for Mark. I've knit 67 inches and used 34 balls. I'm beginning to feel the end is in sight. Anzula Socks: Using two shades of Anzula Dreamy (blue) and Squishy (coral) that I bought at Stitches 2022. Working on the foot of the second sock. Flowers from My Garden: Starting a spinning project with fiber I bought at Stitches in March. I've spun three 3-ply skeins and am back to spinning singles. Bankhead Hat: Using Dimond Laine Elmer Tweed worsted from Lamb & Kid in the colorways Fir and Farmhouse. Here are links to the tubular cast on tutorials from Brooklyn Tweed and Purl Soho. I'm about half way done. Using 2 stripes Farmhouse and 5 stripes Fir. Rose Colored Glasses Towels: I'm calling these finished. Used a weaving kit from Gist Yarns to make two monk's belt hand towels. I learned a lot on this project:  Great Wall to Wall Carpet Removal Project Kelly's Projects I'm continuing the pair of socks for myself using the yarn from Purl 2 Walla Walla called Epicurean Kitchen. I'm on the foot of the second sock. I have a skein of Gay Pride Flag from Weird Sisters Wool Emporium waiting to be cast on for my next pair of socks (for a gift). I finished spinning the Cormo x Merino x Wensleydale fleece. I have about 1500 yards of a 3-ply that is about fingering weight. The staple length gives the yarn a nice sheen but it is soft enough that most people could probably wear it in a pullover. This is a Black Sheep Gathering fleece from 2016. I still have another box of this for another project. I'm now spinning the Corriedale x Targhee x Merino fleece where I dyed the wool and then carded. The batts are a nice heathered blue/purple and I'm spinning woolen. I have 9 ounces of the purple carded batts to spin. This is a Black Sheep Gathering fleece from 2017. I still have about 2 lbs of this fleece left and I was losing about 10% in the carding process on this fleece.  I am also working on processing a Corriedale x Border Leicester from 2016. This fleece has nice long locks so I am doing the same as with the black fleece. I am flicking the locks before I feed them into the drum carder, trying to keep the fibers as aligned as possible (as is done in combing). With this fleece I'm pulling the batts off the carder through a diz and making nests of pseudo-combed top. This process has resulted in about 20% loss.  I think I'd like to finish processing the whole bag (about 36 ounces). I've processed about 8 ounces in the first batch and ended up with 6.25 ounces of nests.  I will probably use this for rug yarn.  Pop Up Giveaway:  Valley Oak Wool Mill: California Red Roving 8oz Targee/Alpaca Roving 8oz  Debouillet Roving 2 oz Shetland Roving 4 oz Events Summer Spin In: Memorial Day - Labor Day, May 29 - September 4 Monterey Wool Show Fleece Judging–August 12 at Monterey County Fairgrounds SF Pen Show August 25-27 in Millbrae  Monterey County Wool Auction–September 4 at Monterey County Fairgrounds Lambtown October 7-8 in Dixon  

Winter weaving has started and a couple knitting projects are finished-or almost! Plus fleece buying, fiber festivals, and some deferred medical maintenance.  Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha's Projects:  Happiness by Kyle Kunnecke using Yarn Snob PowerBall in the colorway Happiness. I have finished the neckband, the first sleeve and have about one inch to do on the second sleeve. Can I call this done? Spinning: Still spinning the Manx Loaghton. I have spun 11 skeins, 1,116 yards, or 22 ounces, of a 2 pound bag of roving. Filled two more bobbins. This spinning project is going to be in the works for a while. Cast on a Socks for Mark using Weird Sisters Wool Emporium fingering weight called Luke in colorway Mermaids of the Black Lake. I realized there are 328 yards, so for the heels and toes I bought a skein of Dream in Color Yarn fingering called Mini Smooshy in the colorway As A Bird.  Kelly's Projects: Finished the Central Park West shawl by Chic and Regal Knits. Using The Fiber Co. Acadia in cranberry, Jack pine, and orange storm colorways.  I did a little work on the Adult Layette shortie socks using leftovers from my Rachel pullover. I already have a hat out of leftovers so the socks will complete my layette. LOL!  Purchased some Tunis rovingfrom Charis at Tarheelbilly Farms. Visit @tarheelbillyfarmer on Instagram Turning Ground Yoga, yoga with a focus on knitters was a suggestion from a listener, Adrienne. Swedish lace fabric for curtains. Adventures: Fiber Fest in the Valley October 1st, 9:00am - 4:00pm Ellensburg, Washington Very fun event…like a miniature version of Black Sheep Gathering.  We saw: Skagit Woolen Works Compass Rose Wool Mill   The Studio@310 (Woven Rugs) Ace Fields 310 N 2nd Street Thorp, WA  98946 509 964-2473 Yarn Folk, Ellensburg, Washington Knitterly Things, Vesper Sock Yarn, Sum Sum Summertime Winter Weave Along October 1 - March 31, come chat and weave with us on the Ravelry Group! Marsha is taking an introductory weaving class.  January 30 - February 3 from Weaver's Palette

We have winners! Our Summer Spin In has ended and we announce the winners. Listen to hear if you've won. Plus, camping, hiking, and yurt adventures. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha's Projects:  Happiness by Kyle Kunnecke using Yarn Snob PowerBall in the colorway Happiness. I have joined the front and back and am about to pick up the neckband.  Spinning: Still spinning the Manx Loaghton. I have spun 11 skeins, 1,116 yards, or 22 ounces, of a 2 pound bag of roving. This spinning project is going to be in the works for a while. Cast on a Socks for Mark using Weird Sisters Wool Emporium fingering weight called Luke in colorway Mermaids of the Black Lake. I realized there are 328 yards, so for the heels and toes I bought a skein of Dream in Color Yarn fingering called Mini Smooshy in the colorway As A Bird. Kelly's Projects: Lincoln spinning on the Wyatt Norwegian wheel. It's a double drive wheel so I'm getting used to the more finicky system. So far I have two skeins finished and more singles on the bobbins. New knitting project Central Park West shawl by Chic and Regal Knits. Using The Fiber Co. Acadia in cranberry, Jack pine, and orange storm colorways.  I did a little work on the Adult Layette shortie socks using leftovers from my Rachel pullover. I already have a hat out of leftovers so the socks will complete my layette. LOL! I've finished carding the Wensleydale X Cormo from Black Sheep Gathering in 2017. I have just over 25 ounces of batts. Then I cleaned and oiled my drum carder and tucked it away. I don't have any more carding projects planned for now.   Adventures: Fiber Fest in the Valley October 1st, 9:00am - 4:00pm Ellensburg, Washington Lambtown October 1-2 Dixon, California Weaver's Palette January 30 - February 3 Marsha is taking an introductory weaving class. Winter Weave Along October 1 - March 31 Summer Spin-In  The Spin-In has ended, listen to the show to hear who won!

This is the last weekend of our Summer Spin In. Be sure and post your finished object in our Ravelry threads and Instagram using #summerspinin2022 by September 5th. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha's Projects:  I finished spinning the two 8 ounce braids I bought at Black Sheep Gathering. A Corriedale cross and 70/30 merino/silk. I have seven skeins (two ply of each single) and have about 1,790 yards/16.6 ounces. I think it is fingering weight or a very light sport. Happiness by Kyle Kunnecke using Yarn Snob PowerBall in the colorway Happiness. I have finished the front and have knit about 3” of the back armhole.  Spinning: I have started spinning the Manx Loaghton again. I have spun 768 yards, or 15.2 ounces, of a 2 pound bag of roving. I've started spinning on this again. This spinning project is going to be in the works for a while. Kelly's Projects: Finished spinning and plying yarn from a black Shetland. This fleece was purchased in 2017 at the Monterey County Wool show. I got 1,290 yards out of 19 ounces. I've continued carding the Wensleydale X Cormo from Black Sheep Gathering in 2016. On average the fiber is about 4 inches long and very fine. It isn't carding up like a long wool at all. The staple length is longer than the Shetland, but the batts are super dense and puffy like a cormo or a merino would be. I won't be spinning this right away since I need a break from spinning black yarn! I'm still considering which of these blankets to make, but now I'm leaning toward the knitted Creeper. Minecraft Blanket Creeper Blanket Adventures From our listener Wendy:  “Hi there! Love your Podcast...you asked about my LYS...well, I live in New York but my favorite LYS is River City Yarns in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada...the owners, two sisters, (Barb and Cynthia) have been absolutely wonderful at creating, and maintaining, an amazing fiber community which has helped sustain its members throughout this pandemic. Most of us have never met and live thousands of miles apart...yet, we are friends....I will be forever grateful for friendship, the tutorials, knitting supplies, quick shipping and fiber information as well as the ongoing Monday evening Zoom meet-up. Check out their Podcast on YouTube. They deserve to be recognized.  They have online classes going almost every week with nationally recognized instructors, constant KALs and this summer they assisted with and participated in an online summer-long yarn store crawl wherein each Sunday 4 yarn stores are given 15 minutes each to introduce themselves and their specialty areas. Except for River City Yarns, all of the stores are located in the US. Through this program, I discovered a weaving supply shop in Texas; through which I placed and already received my first order... I've knit a lot of years and I've never seen store owners work this hard to inspire and motivate people.” Thank you Wendy for letting us know about Barb and Cynthia and their yarn shop. Listeners may message us stories of their favorite LYS or send an audio story via Speakpipe. Wool Show judging at the Monterey County Fairgrounds: Kelly attended the judging and tells us about the variety of fleeces she has her eye on when the auction takes place September 4th. Marsha plans to attend Fiber Fest in the Valley October 1st, 9:00am - 4:00pm Ellensburg, Washington Summer Spin-In  Started June 1 and goes until September 5. (US Labor Day) If you are on Instagram use #summerspinin2022. You can also post in the Ravelry group. We have a new prize of Gotland Yarn and Roving from Sarah Sousa of Wandering Fleece Fiber Mill in Massachusets. Check out her shop to see yarn, fiber, gifts and housewares.  Other Prizes:  Shibui yarn hat kit donated by Dagmar (Dagger51) Alpaca sample fiber set from Cathy (Straightfork) and a pint of maple syrup from Cathy,  A 3 ounce braid hand painted wool/flax blend in the colorway Key West by Purple Fleece from Sarah (Salpal1) Fleeber Farms Breed Study Sampler from Marsha (betterinmotion)

Summer, spinning, and carding are in full swing for us and we count down to the completion of our Summer Spin In. Plus, more camping adventures and some future project plans. And who the heck is Steve? Full notes with links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha's Projects:  Happiness by Kyle Kunnecke using Yarn Snob PowerBall in the colorway Happiness. I've knit about 2” of front armhole.  Spinning: I'm still spinning the Manx Loaghton. I have spun 768 yards, or 15.2 ounces, of a 2 pound bag of roving. No work on this since the last episode. Started spinning the two 8 ounce braids I bought at Black Sheep Gathering. A corriedale cross and 70/30 merino/silk. I have finished four skeins (two ply of each single) and have about 994 yards/9.6 ounces.  Kelly's Projects: Finishing up spinning and plying yarn from a black Shetland. This fleece was purchased in 2017 at the Monterey County Wool show. I plan to continue carding the Wensleydale X Cormo from Black Sheep Gathering in 2017. It was already washed and waiting to be carded or combed. I have about 9 large batts so far. On average the fiber is about 4 inches long and very fine. It isn't carding up like a long wool at all. The staple length is longer than the Shetland, but the batts are super dense and puffy like a cormo or a merino would be. I won't be spinning this right away since I need a break from spinning black yarn! My next spinning project will be on the Wyatt Norwegian wheel. It's been stored in the bedroom under its cover for quite awhile now. It's time to get it out and start using it. The L'il Herbie spinning wheel needs a rest and repair. I've decided not to do it myself and will be working with our friend Stella and her husband Ron to get it professionally repaired. Hats: finished the second CVM hat with an added stripe of some variegated leftovers to have enough yarn. Another hat is on the needles. This one is using those same variegated leftovers along with the brown targhee lamb handspun from my Dark and Stormy and some leftover Rauma Tumi, an alpaca and wool yarn in an acid green color.  I am also considering a blanket project for my grand nephew. But I don't know anything about Minecraft.  Minecraft Blanket Adventures Kelly went on a camping trip to Casa de Fruta RV park where Vintage Camper Trailers was holding their Vintage Trailer Bootcamp. Robert took classes and Kelly sat in camp spinning yarn and spent time walking and training the dogs.  The weekend of August 20th is the Wool Show judging at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. Kelly hasn't attended since 2018–broken foot and then pandemic… She's planning to scope out some fleeces.  Summer Spin-In  Started June 1 and goes until September 5. (US Labor Day) Less than a month left! If you are on Instagram use #summerspinin2022. You can also post in the Ravelry group.

Summer Vacation! Camping in The Club Car and beach trips along with spinning and fiber preparation. We've got to get it all in before summer ends.  Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha's Projects:  Happiness by Kyle Kunnecke using Yarn Snob PowerBall in the colorway Happiness. I've started the armhole shaping.  Spinning: I'm still spinning the Manx Loaghton. I have spun 768 yards, or 15.2 ounces, of a 2 pound bag of roving. No work on this since the last episode. Started spinning the two 8 ounce braids I bought at Black Sheep Gathering. A corriedale cross and 70/30 merino/silk. I have finished three skeins (two ply of each single) and have about 753 yards/7.1 ounces.  Here is a link to the listing for my mother's 1968 Ford that we said goodbye to.  Kelly's Projects: Currently spinning and plying yarn from a black Shetland. So far I have about 430 yards and 190 grams. But they aren't washed yet so the weight will probably go down a bit. I have another bobbin of yarn done and I'm about half finished with the carded batts.  I've also started carding the Wensleydale X Cormo that was already washed and waiting to be processed. I'm about halfway through the carding and I have about 9 large batts. On average the fiber is about 4 inches long and very fine. It isn't carding up like a long wool at all. The staple length is longer than the Shetland, but the batts are super dense and puffy like a cormo or a merino would be. I'm looking forward to spinning it.  CVM Hats, one is finished, one is on the needles. Future project: Wensleydale x Lincoln fleece from 2003 into a lock woven rugs for the dogs for camping or for their pillows inside. Adventures Kelly went on a camping trip to Dumbarton Quarry campground in Fremont, CA. The campground opened in August of 2021 and has an interesting history. “Tuibun Ohlone Indians inhabited a nearby village for 2,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. Their descendants preserve Ohlone culture with programs and special events at adjacent Coyote Hills Regional Park. Subsequent land use has included ranching and farming.  Dumbarton Quarry was in operation from the 1950s through 2007. Quarrying changed a 190-foot hill into a pit 22 acres across and 320 feet below sea level at the deepest point, making it the lowest human-made elevation in North America. The quarry took 12 years to fill using six million cubic yards of dirt from major construction projects in the Bay Area, including the Bart extension to San Jose. The top 50 feet of dirt was then compacted with a 10-ton weight suspended from a crane.” Summer Spin-In  Started June 1 and goes until September 5. (US Labor Day) If you are on Instagram use #summerspinin2022. Post your chat and FOs in the Ravelry group. We'll draw prizes from all three. 

Our Summer Spin In 2022 is in progress and we both have doing lots of carding and spinning. Hear what we have been up to.  Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Thank you to our patrons. To become a patron visit Patreon Page. Marsha's Projects:  Happiness by Kyle Kunnecke using Yarn Snob PowerBall in the colorway Happiness. I've been knitting this sweater exclusively and have knit about 7” of the total 9” needed to start armhole shaping.  Spinning: I'm still spinning the Manx Loaghton. I have spun 768 yards, or 15.2 ounces, of a 2 pound bag of roving.  I finished spinning the fiber I blended on my new blending board from Celestial Farms. I have about 250 yards of worsted weight. I still have some learning to do but it sure has been fun experimenting with the board. Started spinning the two 8 ounce braids I bought at Black Sheep Gathering. A corriedale cross and 70/30 merino/silk. I have finished one skein, a two ply of each single, and have about 260 yards/2.6 ounces.  Kelly's Projects: Previously I had finished the Oxford blend that I had made with mohair and silk noil (about 600 yards of worsted weight) and I finished off a 3-ply sock weight with the Santa Cruz Island fleece that had been carded (about 2 ounces). I finished the 70/30 merino silk plied with the Huckleberry Knits fiber close out. I love the way it turned out. I used the extra of the merino silk to make a skein that was just a two-ply of that yarn. About 8 ounces of the first batch and 4 ounces of the leftovers.  I finished plying the Columbia fleece blended with tussah silk top. I got about 10 ounces of yarn. I'm currently carding a black Shetland fleece (~3 lbs). I also started sorting and skirting the California Red fleece that I got at the Black Sheep Gathering.  Recommendation Kath and Kim on Netflix Summer Spin-In  Started June 1 and goes until September 5. (US Labor Day) If you are on Instagram use #summerspinin2022. Prizes: Shibui yarn hat kit donated by Dagmar (Dagger51), Alpaca sample fiber set from Cathy (Straightfork), pint of maple syrup from Cathy, plus other fibery surprises. 

So much to discuss in this episode! We met at the Black Sheep Gathering, in Oregon for a weekend packed with friends, sheep, and fiber. Plus, hear about  Harvest Host camping experiences, our ongoing Summer Spin In, and project updates. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Thank you to our patrons. To become a patron visit Patreon Page. Black Sheep Gathering Kelly had lots of fun shopping for interesting bumps of roving at the Valley Oak Wool and Fiber Mill booth, plus a purchase of some Debouillet and California Red roving.  She also got a small California Red fleece from Lynda Silk's flock at the fleece show.  Plus a flick carder, a vintage sweater and Duncan Carder repair instructions. Marsha bought a blending board from Celestial Farms, plus two braids from Eugene Textile Center. On the drive to the Black Sheep Gathering, Marsha stopped at the Willamette Heritage Center for a mill tour. Marsha's Projects:  Happiness by Kyle Kunnecke using Yarn Snob PowerBall. I finished the back of the sweater, set it aside to start front, and realized I did the ribbing wrong. It should be a broken rib and not a 2/2 ribbing. I had the, “I think it will be okay” conversation with myself, and decided to unravel and start over. I have knit front and back and joined in the round. Need to knit 9” until I reach the armholes where some shaping will begin.  Spinning: I'm still spinning the Manx Loaghton. I have spun 768 yards, or 15.2 ounces, of a 2 pound bag of roving.  I've been playing with my new blending board from Celestial Farms. I can make a rolag but cannot pull the fiber off the board with a dizz to make roving the way shown in YouTube videos. I still have some learning to do but it sure has been fun. Here is a video about a DIY blending board. Kelly's Projects: Finished the shortie socks out of Tomato and Mink Falkland handspun yarn.  Trip Knitting/Crochet: I started and finished three hats using Invictus Yarns worsted weight yarn. I finished the two flat mother bears and made a third.  I started plying the Columbia fleece blended with tussah silk top. I was planning to spin all the singles first, but I plied one skein of 3-ply at Black Sheep Gathering so I could start spinning a new braid of fiber. That new spinning project was 70/30 merino silk from Eugene Textile Center that I planned to ply with the merino silk that I bought from the Huckleberry Knits fiber close out. I had finished the Huckleberry Knits at BSG and wanted to start spinning a companion braid to ply it with. I am now starting to ply this yarn and I love the way it is coming out.  Summer Spin-In  Started June 1 and goes until September 5. (US Labor Day) If you are on Instagram use #summerspinin2022. Prizes: Shibui yarn hat kit donated by Dagmar (Dagger51), Alpaca sample fiber set from Cathy (Straightfork), pint of maple syrup from Cathy, plus other fibery surprises. 

We have winners for the Stash Busting Blanket Along! Plus project updates, camping in the Club Car and some clothing memories. Full notes with photos, links, and 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 Jul Designs coupon code: 15% off with code TWOEWES. Laura Bellows Blog post series on wearing a Balinese sarong. Thank you to our patrons. To become a patron visit Patreon Page. Marsha's Projects:  Unpattern Top Down Raglan Pullover by Karen Alfke. Ben tried on the sweater and it is too big. Designers instructions were misleading so I ended up with too many stitches for the body. Need to rip back to correct number of stitches because the sweater is too big and I don't think I will have enough yarn to finish. Very frustrating. This project need to be set aside for awhile Troyggja við Mynstur (Sweater with Round Pattern) by Tora Joensen (translated by Kate Gagnon Osborne: I have finished the body and the first sleeve. Washed and blocked the sleeve to be sure the size is correct because it felt tight unwashed.  I'm spinning a 2lb bag of Manx Loaghton in my stash. This is a protected breed from the Isle of Man. I am using a woolen spun technique and have spun 5 skeins or approximately 400 yards. Spun three more bobbins that are ready to be plied. Happiness by Kyle Kunnecke using Yarn Snob Power Ball. The skein is massive, weighing 500 grams and 2,187 yards. I wound into three cakes and labeled yarn ends 1-6 so I can keep color order. In order to pull from the outside of cake, which I prefer, I am starting with #6 and working backwards. Kelly's Projects: I'm a little more than halfway done with the shortie socks out of Tomato and Mink Falkland handspun yarn. It's a 3-ply chain plied yarn. I can really see the variations in thickness since chain ply has a tendency to exaggerate the differences. I also have an overplied and unbalanced yarn. This is good for durability in socks, but is also something that can happen in a chain ply. While your fingers are doing the chaining, sometimes your feet don't slow down.  I also have a new spinning project with the remainder of the Columbia fleece. I blended this with tussah silk top that I had in my stash. It is spinning up thin so I think I'll make a 3-ply with this.  Stash-Busting Blanket Along Listen to the episode to hear the winners. Summer Spin-In  Started June 1 and goes until September 5. (US Labor Day) If you are on Instagram use #summerspinin2022. Black Sheep Gathering June 24-26 Albany, Oregon Saturday June 25 meet-up starting about 4-4:30. We will supply snacks and beverages. We can't wait to meet you! We Want to Hear You! Give us a call and tell us about your favorite LYS!  Go to speakpipe.com/twoewes and leave a message. It will take 90 seconds or less. Or you can use the voice memo app on your phone and email us the audio file. We'll put your voice feedback on the show!   Show 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. Both  0:36   Enjoy the Episode  Marsha  0:43   Good morning, Kelly. Kelly  0:44   Hi, Marsha. How are you? Marsha  0:46   I'm doing well. Kelly  0:47   Good. Marsha  0:48   Well, not really, though. Not really.  Kelly  0:50   Oh, really?  Marsha  0:51   Well, I'll talk about it when I get... oh, that's my teaser. But anyway, I want to hear how you're doing. Because I know you went on a camping trip. The first real camping trip in the trailer, not the show but a real camping trip. And I want to hear about it. Kelly  1:10   Oh, okay. Well, we got home yesterday. It was a short trip. Because by the time I made the reservations there weren't a lot of sites. You know, the sites that we liked, that we know we liked, that we were familiar with, because we wanted to make sure that it was an easy trip. The sites that we were familiar with were only available until Friday. So we left Tuesday, spent Tuesday night and Wednesday night and then came back yesterday. So it was a fun, quick trip. The weather was gorgeous, gorgeous weather. The campground that we like to go to is called Mount Madonna. And it's on what I think is called Hecker pass, it's a mountain pass through the Santa Cruz Mountains. The the far southern end, I would say, of the Santa Cruz Mountains between Watsonville and Gilroy.  Marsha  2:08   Okay.  Kelly  2:09   And, and I... the reason I'm making the point about where it is is because I have an idea to to float that we'll probably talk about later on in the podcast. But anyway, the trip was great. The, you know, getting in and out of our driveway part of it was successful, then we stopped at his work to let people take a look at it. And the guys that he works with were really, you know, I mean, it's it's kind of like the .... I don't, I kind of don't get it the same way. Because to me, it's about the camping experience. I mean, I think the trailer is beautiful. But I don't have like, you know how when, when men, and probably some women too... But a lot of times you'll see a classic car. And then there's all these men gathered around the classic car looking at things that I've no idea what they're looking at. Like, that's kind of the way people are when they look at the trailer. And so, you know, going to his work when he got a chance to show it off to the people that he used to work with. And they were super impressed. They'd heard a lot about it, you know, because it's been being worked on... it had been being worked on since well... We got it in December 2020. So you know, it's been a long time coming.  Marsha  3:27   Yeah. Kelly  3:27   They'd heard a lot about it and seen pictures and stuff. So they wanted to see the finished trailer. So we stopped there on our way up to to mount Madonna. And the second day, the you know, the only full day that we were there, my mom and Dennis arrived with snacks to christen the trailer and, you know, visit with us because they like camping up there too. But they weren't able to camp that particular weekend because their trailer needs to go in for some work. But they did come up and visit. And I took the dogs on lots of trails and sat and spun. I basically brought my spinning project that I'll talk about and sat in the sun and did some spinning and we ate cheese and crackers when we arrived so we ended up not having dinner that night. And then my mom and Dennis they came with snacks the second day. So we had snacks and didn't have dinner the second day. There was very little cooking we didn't have to do any. Oh, I made tuna sandwiches because I had made some tuna you know some tuna salad was already prepared for the first night and we didn't eat it. So the second night when we were supposed to have barbecued hamburgers. After my mom and Dennis left a little while later we were kind of hungry. So we had tuna sandwiches and so it was easy in terms of, you know, we didn't do the eggs and potatoes or pancakes for breakfast we didn't do barbeque for dinner. There was not a whole lot of cleanup because it was mostly cheese and crackers and chips and salsa and yogurt for breakfast. And so there was lots of time to just sit around and spin and take the dogs for walks. And they did really well. It was Beary's first real camping trip. And he did great. So yeah, it was really fun. Marsha  5:32   So and then where you camp at Mount Madonna. Is it...Do you plug into services or? Kelly  5:39   Yeah Marsha  5:40   Did you have to bring your own water? Okay, so you have water and electricity.  Kelly  5:43   Right.  Marsha  5:43   Well,okay.  Kelly  5:43   Yeah, they have hookups. They call them partial hookups, it doesn't have sewer hookup. You dump the sewer, and gray water, black water and gray water tanks. When you leave, there's a dump station where you do that. So we got to do that for the first time. Because we didn't have that in our old trailer. You know, our gray water just went into a five gallon you know, a five gallon... It wasn't a bucket, it was like a jug. You know, grey water went into a five gallon jug and we didn't have a bathroom. So there was no black water tank. So but yeah, we had electrical hookup. And we had water hookup. City water, they call it. So yeah, we had all the all the hook up stuff that we needed. Today I'm sitting in the trailer to record. I don't, I probably won't do this a lot, because we did get a cover for it. So he's going to keep it covered. But I thought oh, I'll record in the trailer today. It's beautiful outside. It's actually a little warm in the trailer because Robert had some of the windows closed but it's going to be in the 80s today, maybe it already is.  So anyway, I'm sitting at the trailer table and and I'm testing out the inverter because I've got my phone plugged in and I've got my computer. It's the first time I've plugged in something more than a phone, which you can charge off of the 12 volt system battery. So right now I'm running my computer, it's it's plugged in and it's being you know, being powered by the solar.  Marsha  7:31   Okay, pretty cool.  Kelly  7:33   Robert's got a small solar power panel that he uses for what he calls trickle charging when it's just sitting in our driveway. So the batteries don't get overused but they also don't go dead. And then we have the larger solar panel that we haven't used in a camping trip yet. We didn't need them because we had power hookup at Mount Madonna. But Mount Madonna also has tent campsites and we went around and scoped out the sites with no services. I mean they have they have bathrooms, obviously, and they have water but you have to go to the place where the faucet is and fill up and bring it back. And we went and scoped out those areas to find some of the sites. We marked down some of the sites that are long enough for, you know, for our trailer and the truck to both be off the road, off the main road. So those campsites there were a few that we're going to probably try out if, you know, the main area is full or if we just want to get into a more quiet area or just to try it because we haven't  Marsha  8:49   yeah you can go off grid you're self contained so to speak. Kelly  8:55   Yeah we don't need the electricity or the water so yeah, yeah, it should be really fun. Marsha  9:04   Well I thought it was really cool, too, that, you know, the one thing that you have not finished for the trailer is the curtains that are gonna go at the windows.  That's down the line but the... your sort of... your stop gap measure is you put up all your vintage linens like tablecloths and stuff as sort of temporary curtains. I thought they were so cute. Kelly  9:27   Yeah, in fact  I have the one sitting here. I'm gonna have to prevail on my more experienced weaver friends and some of the people who do more technical work because (and I'll put a picture in the show notes, in fact I'll text it to you while we're talking maybe). So this one tablecloth and I think this is one that came from the batch that you gave me when you were going through all of your all of your stuff.  Marsha  9:56   Oh, right.  Kelly  9:57   It's so... it's it's linen. It's a small tablecloth, a small table tablecloth, but every corner has this really interesting detail. And some of it is actual like cut out and and then bound. Or I guess it's possible that it's not cut out. That just the warp and weft threads are just bound to make pretty good sized, like quarter inch square, holes. And then some of it is just in the hemstitch, which I haven't ever done. But I'd like to try. I think that it's not that difficult. And I know I can find instructions for it. And then there's also this other mesh detail that is... I've done some woven lace, but this is actually with thread you come back after the fact. And you use threads to wrap the warp threads and the weft threads so that you've got these holes. Like it pinches in.  Marsha  11:07   Yeah. Kelly  11:08   It pinches in the warp threads and it pinches in weft threads and then you get these little holes. So anyways, very interesting construction. And I'd really... there's not enough. I used this one tablecloth in one of the windows, like folded over. But there's not enough even for that one window. Well, I guess... I guess there would be for that one window. But I would like for the two windows that are across from each other in the bedroom to be at least similar.  Marsha  11:43   Yeah, yeah.  Kelly  11:44   So and I don't think I want to cut this one up, because it's just pretty. But anyway, I'd like to reconstruct this fabric or do some kind of facsimile of this, of this sort of fussy, fussy work. Weave something and then try that. I think it would be really kind of a fun challenge for those two bedroom windows. And then the kitchen window--and I'm not sure where it came from, it might have been a piece that I bought somewhere else. It's like a table runner, but it only has lace on one lengthwise edge. And so I don't know maybe like a buffet? You know, something that was against the wall, you would put it on that and it would hang with the lace part hanging over the front. And I just sewed a little sleeve for the for the curtain rod and used it as a kitchen curtain. The kitchen window has two crocheted lace panels that are sewn between linen fabric. And it's really cute, it's a bit too long. And I think when I'm going to do... I didn't... All I did was put a sleeve in the top of it for the rod. So it's just one panel, one piece going across the whole window. And I think... I can't decide whether I want to do it as a valance and just have one piece going across the top of the window as a valance or if I want to cut it down the center and be able to split them for the kitchen window. But I think that one will stay. I think that one in some form. Not the form is in now, but in some form that one is going to stay Marsha  13:26    okay  Kelly  13:27   in that kitchen window because it is really cute. And  it's the perfect size whether I make it into a valance or split it down the middle. It's it's really the perfect size. So that one will stay and then the other one that I thought was really funny is there's a dresser scarf and I think the dresser scarf also came from the stuff that you gave me.  Marsha  13:51   Okay. Kelly  13:52   And one edge of it has crocheted lace that says Mother and so I hung it up in the window with  the side that said Mother facing into the  bedroom and my mom was laughing. She's like, I'm not sure you want your mother in the bedroom. [laughing] Marsha  14:14   Yeah, really. But you can't get into too much trouble on that bed, Kelly! [laughing] Kelly  14:23   With the word mother right over your head. [laughing]  Marsha  14:26   Yeah, really.  Kelly  14:29   It was really... it was... it's a really cute piece and it has plain lace on the other side. So the outside of the window had the plain lace showing. The inside of the window had the lace that had the word mother on it. So very fun. And then I used one of my I... wanted to cover the front window. Well really I wanted to keep the curtain rod from falling out. And so I put another vintage tablecloth in. I had one with flowers on it in the front window hanging up, and you know, a floral one, and then we just used that one on the table while we were, you know, while we were there. So yeah, yeah, we had a really a really good time. So the thing...Oh, Bailey's barking in the background because the mailman just came.  The thing that I was thinking as we were there, because they do have the tent sites. And they also have yurts for people who didn't typically do camping, but I was thinking it would be fun to have a little camping meet up.  Marsha  15:39   Oh, yeah. Kelly  15:40    And, and we could provide, again, for people who didn't necessarily do camping or have camping equipment. You know, we could do you know, here at the, at the trailer, we do coffee in the morning. And so people have their coffee, and then we could do dinners. You know, barbecue dinners, and some people would, who didn't camp typically could, you know, still eat. [laughing] We wouldn't need to worry about you know, about bringing a camp stove or, or that kind of stuff. You could get by with minimal equipment. You know. Marsha  16:16   Yeah, yeah. Kelly  16:16   That's what I was thinking. If you wanted to you could rent one of the yurts, or get one of the tent sites, or if you have an RV, bring an RV. So, you know, I don't know how many people that would actually turn out to be. Probably not very many. But I thought that might be kind of a fun thing to look into. Marsha  16:33   So, yeah, we'll think about that.  Kelly  16:35   Yeah, yeah. I really enjoy that campground, because it's very close to our house. And, you know, it's in the woods. But it's not like the wilderness. And then on our way...I won't get off the camping thing! But on our way to Black Sheep gathering we're going to stay at a couple of Harvest Host sites. Kelli, that we met at Stitches, had recommended Harvest Host and I looked into it and decided to get a membership. So we're going to be staying at two places. One is a rice farm on the way up, and the other one is a winery. So I'll have to report back on how that  goes. But that should be fun. It'll be at first. I've never done that kind of camping, where you just pull up at somebody's business and park in their parking lot. So yeah,  Marsha  16:45   It'll be interesting.  Kelly  16:57   Yeah, yeah,  Marsha  17:07   How fun. Kelly  17:37    I'll definitely report back. Marsha  17:39   So yeah, well, I remember Kelli talking about it. She was really excited about it. She said it was just really, really fun. So Kelly  17:47   It's perfect for a trip where, you know, where you're on the go, because it's a one night experience. You don't stay there multiple nights. And that's not something that we've done a lot of either. You know, the trip up to Black sheep is probably the one of the those... that's one of the only types of trips where we've done the camp one night, then pack up and go kind of camping. We usually, wherever we're staying, we stay a little longer than that, even if we're moving on, you know?  Marsha  18:18   Yeah. Well, I'm excited because I will see it at the end of this month, just  two weeks, I think, or so I'll see it. Kelly  18:26    Yeah, yeah.  Marsha  18:27   Anyway. Okay, should we move on? I don't want to cut this off, because it's super interesting and fun, but I don't. Should we move on?  Move on to our next topic?  Kelly  18:39   Yes. Let's move on to our next topic. There was some fiber content in there though. I have to say because I did talk about lace curtains and possible weaving. [laughing] Marsha  18:47   Yeah, Yeah, it is. Well, I think the trailer is just, it's just fun. It is just super fun. So. Okay, so before we get to projects, we just want to mention that Jul Designs coupon code for 15% off any of their products is still available. It's still going on. And just go to Jul Designs website, there's a link in the show notes and just use the coupon code TWOEWES and that's all caps. And so check that out. Did you buy your... Kelly  19:24   No I have not yet. I keep thinking I need to go in there and do it and I haven't done it. But I was looking there today as I was putting my stuff in the show notes. And I found a couple of things that I like, so I'm going to do that before we-- before I put the computer away today. And then also I noticed that she has a blog post series. Laura Bellows who has Jul Designs. She's an anthropologist, I think, and anyway, she has this blog post series on wearing a Balinese sarong and I saw the title and I saw the pictures and I bookmarked it, because I want to go back in and read it. It looks like it's like three, three or four posts on the different aspects of of that and I thought, well that's very interesting. Because, again, fabric right?  Marsha  20:17   Fabric  Kelly  20:20   So, so yeah, take a look at her her blog posts and take a look at her-- all of her different shawl pins and shawl collars and different closures and, and such. And thank you to her for providing this coupon code for for our listeners. Well, and speaking of thanks, Marsha, we have another thank you to do.  Marsha  20:45   Yes  Kelly  20:45   Our patrons from Patreon. We just want to want to give them all a shout out because we're so appreciative. These patrons that provide the funding that supports the prizes, they support the podcast hosting, all of our community events, you know. The the Alongs that we do, we are able to have prizes, you know, in the abundance that we do because of the support of our patrons. So we wanted to thank them. And our most recent patrons are--so thank you to them--Christina Y, Kelly B, Laurie M, Francesca Q, and Shelly M. They've all joined Patreon and become patrons in 2022. And then we also have Pamela R, Connie L., Cheryl C., Jan H., Hetty C, Jane H,  Colleen G, and Mindy C. Thank you for your sponsorship of our podcast. Marsha  21:56   Okay, and we also have Eman, Amy L., Patti B. ,Joan B., Tammy S,  Kathy M., Natalie, Martha P.,  Melody W., Joanne Y., Greta. H. Kelly  22:17   Okay. And also thank you to Joylaine O., Barbara G., Rachel W., Joyce G, Angela D, Laurie L, Charlene, and Erica N. Marsha  22:34   And a thank you also to Debbie F., Erica J., Rachel S., Patricia E., Catherine K., Karen B., Jenn N., and Janet S. Thank you, everyone! Kelly  22:51   Yes, thank you! We really appreciate your support. And the other members of our community also appreciate your support. Because, again, it allows us to do the kind of the kind of events and alongs and prizes. Oh, and I see I just scrolled down to the next page. Ann Gi is also a patron. Thank you, Ann Gi!  She's been a patron for quite a while. And so sorry that she was missed! Marsha  23:20   Sorry. I didn't scroll down far enough. So sorry, Ann Gi. Kelly  23:24   All right. Well, with that said, What about your projects? Marsha? We'll go from up note to maybe a down note? Marsha  23:37   Oh, yes. So here's what I have to say about both my projects. The first one. So I'm going to talk first about the sweater I'm making for my son. And I'm using my hand spun. And have you ever heard Kelly of the law of attraction that you say, you tell, you say something out to the universe, and the universe gives it back to you. You have to be careful what you say because it can give you positive things, it can give you negative things. So I'm sort of laughing about this because one of the things I kept saying is how much I enjoy knitting with my handspun. But well, the universe has given me the gift of knitting the sweater for the third time. So I will just back up and just say So, bottom line, I'm taking this sweater and I'm setting it aside for a while. And I just did a note, too, about my brother's sweater. I'm kind of setting that aside for a little bit too. So the sweater I'm making for my brother, or excuse me for Ben. This is the... Do you remember? Not to rehash this whole thing but first I started making the phrancko.com sweater that didn't work out because of my gauge. So I now started doing the unpattern by Karen Alfke. And this is the raglan pullover from the top down, where you actually just take your measurements. And basically, it's the same idea of what Frank Jernigan is doing, or Amy Herzog used to do, where you, it's like, you know, the computer does the math. In this case, I'm doing the math. But we talked about this in the last episode, about the pattern. When you get to the part where you're, you're increasing for the sleeves and the body. There's an error in the pattern. I'm calling it an error. Somebody else may not say it's an error. But when you're figuring out how many stitches to have on the arm and have for the body, it says, you do your math, and times the gauge, you know, whatever it equals and then it says front or back goal stitches: 176.  Kelly  25:48   Yeah.  Marsha  25:49   And I kept knitting beyond I kept knitting. Because it said front and back.  Kelly  25:56   No, it said, front or back. Marsha  25:58   Right, it said, front or back. I read that as I needed 176 stitches on both the front and the back. Kelly  26:05   Each, right? 176 stitches each.  Marsha  26:08   Yes. Each. For the front, 176 stitches and for the back. What it really should be, instead of saying front or back goal stitches, it should say front and back, right. So I need a total for the whole body, front and back combined of 176. I have, because we caught this when I was down there for when I was down in California at your house going to Kelly  26:37   stitches or NoCKRs? Marsha  26:41   I believe it was NoCKRs. And you said, we decided, we added up my stitches, and I have 224. Kelly  26:49   Right. And we caught it because you were so far down. It was like you had... you still weren't ready to split for the split the arms off of the body. But you were far enough down that it looked like you should be splitting the arms off the body.  Marsha  27:07   If I continued to the point where I should split the arm holes I would be at the waist. Right?  Kelly  27:13   Almost.  Marsha  27:13   That's an exaggeration. But that was right. That was the-- that was our clue. Kelly  27:18   And then you said, wait a minute, if I keep going, this is going to be way too long. Right? And then we started looking at the pattern. Marsha  27:26   And right and you caught the the mistake and the pattern. So but we had that conversation, you know that moment? And you have this conversation? We convinced each other? Yes. So they should just stop and keep going. Right? Kelly  27:42    Because how many stitches did you have on each? Marsha  27:45   I had 224 total  for the body combined. And if I had continued What's two times 176? It's 252?  No, it's more than it's more than 300.  Yeah, that's right. And so, Kelly  28:07   So you said so you were supposed to have 176 all the way around, and you had 224 all the way. So you had essentially you had about 50 extra stitches. Yes. How did we can convince ourselves that was ok? Marsha  28:24   Well, and this is what I'm gonna... so this is what I'm gonna say. To finish it, we convinced... we have this conversation. You're like you said I think it's going to be okay, . Kelly  28:34   How far would you have to rip it back?,  Marsha  28:35   But it will be ok. Kelly  28:38    Oh, that's too far to rip back. That, you know, oh, that would be unpleasant number of rows to rip. So Marsha  28:46   So. Yes, I should have just ripped back then. Because I knit the entire body.  Kelly  28:52   Right.  Marsha  28:53   And half of the first sleeve by the time he came home. And I tried it on him.  Kelly  28:59   Yeah.  Marsha  28:59   And it's way too big. Kelly  29:03   Well, and to be fair to you, he gave you a sweater that he liked as a template. And holding the sweater you were knitting up to the sweater that he liked as a template, they looked about the same size.  Marsha  29:21   Yeah.  Kelly  29:21   But the sweater that he liked as a template is alpaca and drapey and thinner machine knit. And it's fine yarn--alpaca.  Marsha  29:31   And it's also that style where it's basically you know, the body is a square, and then the and then the arms just stick off and so here's my the moral of the story. When you have that feeling, and you know what you should do, you should just do it then. Kelly  29:49   Yes, when you have that feeling and you say, Oh, I Oh, gosh. ripping all of that out. I really don't want to do that. I think it'll be okay. That phrase, I think it'll be okay. Should be a trigger. It won't be okay. You need to rip it out.  Marsha  30:07   Yeah.  Kelly  30:08   I'm so sorry. Marsha  30:10   I know. So he tried it on. I don't know now, it was two weeks ago or so when he was here.  Kelly  30:17   Yeah, right after our last episode, I think. Marsha  30:19   Yeah, it was Memorial Day weekend, I think. You know what, I don't remember because I was so upset that I sort of had to go to bed. No, I'm kidding. But I did I have that feeling like-- that feeling like, I'm gonna cry. Yeah, I feel like I'm gonna cry. And I think I should go get in bed and cry. But no, I'm a I'm a, I'm a grown woman. And I'm going to now go out and take the dog for a walk or do something else. And I'm just gonna set it aside and not think about it for a while. And then I have to just, I was and I was very angry at Karen. And it's not her fault, because well, I don't know if it's... No, I can't blame her. But it's just the way the pattern is written. It's not-- it is not clear. It's a mistake in the pattern. And I didn't catch it. You know?  Yeah, you have to actually be thinking,  I mean, you have... Because I just couldn't figure out how you could have gone so wrong from the pattern. And then, so then I took the number of stitches that were supposed to be what I thought just the front and divided by your gauge to see how many inches that was supposed to be. And realized it was the 40 inch circumference that you needed. Yeah, like, Okay, well, if it's not an error, it's at least a place where things are unclear enough that it should be changed. Yeah, but So, Karen lives in the Pacific Northwest. And I know she's a friend of my friend Kim. And so if I ever see her, I promise I will be nice to her. [laughing] Kelly  31:55   Your mad won't last too long. Marsha  31:58   It won't last and honestly, the truth is, once I rip the sweater out, yeah. for the second time.  Kelly  32:05   Yeah.  Marsha  32:05   And reknit it for the third time... Kelly  32:07   Karen, if you're listening, Marsha will be okay. Marsha  32:10   I promise I'll be kind but... And as I say, once I rip it back and start over again I now it's really clear what my mistake is. Okay, I'm crossing my-- you can't see me but I'm crossing my fingers. Kelly. Hopefully I'll be okay. And I won't have to knit it again.  Kelly  32:28   Yeah. Knock on wood right now. So Marsha  32:32   yeah, knock on wood. Kelly  32:34   Everybody out there. Knock on wood for Marsha. Marsha  32:36   It's funny because I was reading the our posts in on Ravelry in the discussion thread, like when you posted the episode, and then people make comments, and I don't remember now who it was, I'm drawing a blank. Someone said, I'm so sorry that Marsha is having these problems that I talked about in the last episode with  my brother's sweater. And I was laughing. I thought, you don't know the half of it. I had been. Yeah. Anyway, I will have the joy of knitting with my handspun a third time. Kelly  33:08   It's a good thing you like that yarn. [laughing]  Marsha  33:10   Yeah, really? But I'm not going to say that anymore. Because it got me into big trouble. I think. So anyway. Okay, so now moving on to my other sweater that's a problem. And this is the sweater with round pattern. Or Kelly, how are you pronouncing it? Kelly  33:30   Well, we have a pronunciation audio from Cat. And it actually isn't sweater with round pattern. It's well, she'll, we'll play it. So we'll put the audio in right here.  Cat  33:42   Hi, Kelly. Hi, Marsha. I believe it's "Tro-cha vee min-stur" Trocha: sweater. Vee: with. Min-stur is pattern. And I looked it up in the Faroese dictionary and I'll send it to you. Mynstur means any pattern, not necessarily a round pattern. It could also mean a pattern for for weaving, for embroidery. Depending on the context. In this case, it would be a pattern for knitting. Marsha  34:12   Okay, so, Cat, thank you for that. Yes, that really helps us out. Okay. What's going on with that sweater? I have, as you know, now, this is the second time I've, I mean, I switched to this pattern. I've knit the body up. This is a bottom up. So I've knit up the body up to the armholes. I've set that aside and started the sleeves. Kelly  34:34   and you've blocked it. Washed it and blocked it and checked it out that it fits. Marsha  34:37   Yes. Yes. And so I did it halfway through so that's why the pictures of it in Ravelry there's this weird line. Okay, body set aside. I started the first sleeve. Didn't like it because I was... oh, let me back up. The sleeve you're supposed to cast on and knit the cuff. Then you do some color work, work in stockinette, right above the cuff, and then you knit  the main color up to the armhole, set that aside, do the same thing with the second sleeve, then attach the sleeves to the body and knit the yoke. My concern about that is, once that's done, you cannot adjust the length of the sleeves Kelly  35:18   without ripping everything out Marsha  35:20   without having to rip out the yoke. Yeah. So I what I decided to do is a provisional cast on with one row of the one of the contrast. The colorwork... the cuffs are supposed to be in the navy blue. So I decided to do one row of the navy blue and then start the colorwork. And that was a disaster because you're doing it, you know, magic loop. And the tension was terrible. It was all over the place. Kelly  35:51   And you have no base to hold on to while you're doing the colorwork. Yeah.  Marsha  35:55   Right. So I ripped that out. I cast on again, provisional cast on. I did three rows of stockinette in the blue, the navy blue, which is going to be the cuff color, because I thought, what will...  and then I knit the color work. And I did about an inch of the main color. And I realized, I don't like the color work because the everything is knit on size eight. But what I've decided to do with the yoke, is I'm going to knit that on nines, and I forgot to switch to nines for the color work sleeve. So I ripped it out back to the... it was not as horrible, but I had to rip it back out to the three rows of the Navy of the stockinette. And then I reknit the color work on nines. And then I switched back to eights and I've done most of the sleeve, I would say it's three quarters done. And I thought it feels a little tight. Kelly  36:57   Oh no. Marsha  36:59   I don't know what's gonna happen. But I decided I'm putting it on waste yarn, and I washed and blocked it. So I did that yesterday. So it's sitting there drying. And so I I just want to make sure. Kelly  37:12    Yeah. Marsha  37:13   I don't want to finish that sleeve and do the second sleeve and  have them too tight. So  Kelly  37:20   oh my gosh! Marsha  37:22   All I can say is, what the hell?  [laughing] I hate... I hate these projects. I hate these projects. So just to help myself I...So Ben's sweater's being set aside for a while. My brother's sweater is going to be set aside for a while. I just need to take a break from it. And anyway, I decided to cast on something else. So Kelly, guess what I cast on. Kelly  37:53   Something for you.  Marsha  37:55   Something for me! And just the name alone is gonna make me happy. It's called Happiness.  Kelly  38:00   Yes.  Marsha  38:00   And the designer is Kyle Kunnecke and I'm using the big giant baby that I bought at stitches, Yarn Snobs Powerball, and it has all these colors in it. It's so interesting. I will post pictures, too.  It weighs... this skein of yarn weighs 500 grams, it's 2187 yards and it was a bit of a challenge to get it onto the swift. And then I wound it into three cakes and what I did is because if you-- if you break it, well... First of all I have to say this is amazing yarn. I'm kind of curious how he's able to get 500 grams and over 2000 yards with not a single break and there's no knots at all and so it's a continuous piece of yarn. I don't know how he dyes it so beautifully given that it's so thick. I mean he's got the color goes all the way through. It's amazing how it's clearly when you open it up into the hank it's it's that's how it was dyed. it was not dyed in another form and then wound into that hank, you know. You can see it's been dyed in that hank. Yeah. Is that was not reskeined. No Yeah. Well anyway, so Kelly  39:23   Hard enough to skein it in the first place before you dye it! Marsha  39:28   So what I did is... I... but I wanted... It may not be important to keep the color order given the way this thing is sort of this very, very crazy, chaotic color, you know, it may not be necessary. Kelly  39:40   I think it's necessary.  Marsha  39:42   Well, I wanted to keep the color order. So what I did is I wound it into three balls, but I put a piece of tape like painters tape on the beginning of the yarn, but as I started taking it off the swift I put it in-- I labeled that end 1 and I put it in so the end 1 now is on the inside of my cake. And end 2 is on the outside of my cake. Right, so then I break that, and then I put a tape on the next the piece that's coming off of the swift, that's 3 that's now wound on that's on the inside of a cake, and 4 is on the outside of my cake. And then the third one, end 5 is on the inside. And end 6 is on the outside. I like to pull from the outside. So I can't pull from the outside of the first cake that is labeled one and two, because two is on the outside. So I'm starting at the very end. So I'm starting with the third cake, which is end starting with six, which then five will be in the center. Then I'll go to two, 4, which is on the outside. 3 is on the inside. And then the last cake 2 is on the outside and 1 is on the inside. Does that make sense? Kelly  41:06   Yeah. And that's I think going to be really important because the cakes of yarn actually look very different. Marsha  41:14   It's true. And the the first one I wound off and the last one I wound off look the most similar. The one that's right in the middle is darker, it has more black in it. So I think I think it is important to keep the order. Kelly  41:32   Yeah, because that way you don't have to alternate skeins, it'll just go along the patterning of the skein. And whatever the differences are, they will change naturally, the way the skein changeds as opposed to abruptly if you weren't going in that order. So I think that's a smart way to do it, Marsha.  Marsha  41:55   Yeah, so I already started knitting on it. I'm so much happier. It's on size four. So it's a nice, it's a smaller needle. Because the other thing I need to mention that I did finish my garter squish blanket over Memorial Day weekend, the deadline to finish it was May 31. And I believe I finished it on May 30 with a day to spare. But that was knit on 13s and that's like, it really feels you can't really get a rhythm knitting with those, because they're so big. So I'm very happy with this so far. And I've just knit. Let's see, I'm knitting on it now. And I have to do two inches of ribbing, and then I'll switch to stockinette. And so I...this is what I'm planning to bring to Black Sheep Gathering the end of the month. So I can just knit mindlessly on it and talk to people and not look at those other two sweaters. Kelly  42:52   I think that's a really good plan. And the thing about this one is that it's a nice kind of boxy sweater with a lot of positive ease. So that's a lot of stitches going around and around in stockinette. So it'll be it'll be perfect knitting for a long time.  Marsha  43:12   Yeah.  Kelly  43:14   And I think everybody probably has the size needle that they feel the most comfortable with. Or the range of needle size that they feel the most comfortable with. I really like my sock needles at the low end. And then I like threes. Like threes, fours. That's a twos threes, fours that's a really nice size for me. It feels they feel right in my hand. Where when I'm knitting with five fives or sixes for a hat, it's not that I don't enjoy it. But it's always nice to get back to my little needles. Marsha  43:49   Yeah, yeah. Kelly  43:51   So that's that'll be good, too. It's right in your your comfort knitting zone. Yeah, well, that's good. I'm excited about it. I think it'll be I think it'll be a good project for you. It sounds like you're excited about it. The colors are great. Marsha  44:07   And then I have been spinning on the Manx Loaghton. And I've been spinning on that and I'm planning on bringing my wheel and that to Black Sheep Gathering and mostly spinning, I think.  Kelly  44:21   Oh, good.  Marsha  44:22   That's it. And then as I say finished project, I finished my garter squish. That's my only finished project. Kelly  44:27   and it turned out nice. Marsha  44:29   Yeah. It's nice.  Kelly  44:30   How do you-- have you put it next to your other two? To like, see how it compares and what you like? Like, how do you like them compared to one another? Or are there like, this is the first one that you've done with flat colors? Marsha  44:47   No, it's the second. Kelly  44:48   Oh, the second one. That the first one you did was also was the Cascade.  Marsha  44:54   The first one was flat. The main color was like a blue like a I don't know what color blue you would call that one Kelly  45:00   Not quite navy-- kind of between the Navy and kind of a darker royal blue? Not so bright as a royal blue, but not so Navy. Marsha  45:10   And and then this one, it had brighter colors more. Not really natural colors. The contrasting one? And then the second one I did is when we dyed all the yarn so we had the gradient and then all the painted variegated.  And then the this one that I just completed the background was a brown, then all the colors are like sage and orange. And I don't know, it looks more like the first one.  Kelly  45:43   Yeah.  Marsha  45:44   And ironically, I what I really would like to do is I would like to do one where the the, the main color is just a cream or a natural color like yours. That's what I-- but I found that's what I wanted to do. But you know, I had all that yarn. The first one it was using the yarn from my dad's sweater. And then the one that I just finished, I had a lot of just undyed yarn, and I dyed it because I Kelly  46:16   because  the solid was the brown. Like you've always had a different solid. Marsha  46:21   Yes. But actually now I'm kind of thinking I could have. Well, no, that really wouldn't, because even the natural colored yarns were all slightly different. I didn't have a consistent... I was thinking what I could have done is just reversed it. And the one that yarn that was sort of the... No, I did it the right way, because the yarn that I dyed for the background was all kind of camel colored, right? It wasn't natural. Yeah, yeah. So anyway. Kelly  46:44   Well, you'll have to put a fourth one on your needles Marsha  46:49   I cannot do a fourth one, ugh! Kelly  46:50   No, you know what you should do? The next one you do, because I think there will be another one in your future at some point. Not in the near future. Yeah, I'm sure there'll be another one.  Do that one that is the, I think it's called the sediment throw. Where you go corner to corner? Marsha  47:07   Yes. Um, I was thinking about that. And then the other one I'm thinking of is, there's the one for my brother that he wants.   Kelly  47:19   You're not doing any projects for other people for a while. Marsha  47:22    No. Kelly  47:23   I'm gonna lay down that law for you, Marsha. [laughing] Marsha  47:25   I know. But the one I really want to make is... I'm sorry, I should have been... because I didn't know we were going to be talking about this in depth. Let me look at my patterns... Kelly  47:37   Well, a lot of people did the habitation throw.  Marsha  47:42   I'm looking for the one that I... because I've been pulling out yarn for it. Anyway, there's the one for my brother. And that's all with the Noro. And I don't really have I don't have any Noro. So I have to figure that one out. I was scrolling through my patterns. I can't find it. It but anyway, basically, it's like chevrons, kind of, you just use sock weight yarn that you and so that's when I was sort of thinking of using that. And I was actually thinking because I have so much sock weight yarn like scraps. But I also have a lot of sock weight yarn that I bought single skeins, that I don't really like them. I don't want a shawl out of them. I don't want to make socks. I was thinking I would put that all into the blanket, but I have, you're supposed to use about 500 grams. To make the blanket. Total to make the blanket. I was sort of thinking maybe what I would do is hold the sock weight yarns double and go up a needle size. And so I could use some of those one off skeins that I don't really like very much. So anyway, Kelly  48:52   I think it's a perfect solution.  Holding yarn double is a perfect solution to using the partials or well, partial skeins that are leftover but also full skeins of, of yarn that you bought that you don't need another pair of socks or you weren't in love with it anymore. Marsha  49:13   Yeah. I'm hoping I get my Juju back.  Kelly  49:15   Well, focus on your sweater first because that is, I think, that is just such a fun pattern. That sweater is cute. The yarn is great. It's comfortable knitting because you just start doing stockinette around and around until you're sick of it. Marsha  49:36   Yeah. So I think I have these you know, my brother's sweater and Ben sweater are sitting in my bedroom in their project bags. I think I'm gonna go put them in the closet.  Kelly  49:44   I think you should. Yes, put them away where you don't have to look at them and feel any kind of guilt or?  Marsha  49:49   Yeah. Anyway. So let's go into more positive things. We'll finish my projects and go into your projects.  Kelly  49:57   Okay, well, there's not much to say This will be short. I'm making a pair of shorty socks. And I'm using a hand spun yarn that I've that I've actually used before for socks. It's out of a fiber was Falkland, which, it's not as soft as I would expect Falkland to be. But there's not, you know, it's not horrible. Just when people talk about Falkland a lot of times they talk about how soft it is. But anyway, it's Tomato and Mink, or Mink and Tomato was the colorway. I don't now remember where I got it. But it was a number of years ago, maybe 2013 or 14, something like that. And I spun it up and last summer or the summer before I made a pair of regular socks out of it. And I had spun it for socks, I made a three ply, so it's long color repeats, it's a chain ply. One thing I will comment about chain ply because there was a little bit of discussion about it on the Ravelry group this morning. One thing about chain ply, it definitely magnifies your inconsistencies. So I have some places where this yarn is super, super thin, like a lace weight. It's a three ply, but super, super thin, because my fiber got thin. And then you're putting the three thin fibers together and you do the chain ply, so it's thin. And then in the thicker area, you know, because when you're chain plying, you're plying areas that are close together, I'm plying three, three thicker strands. And then I've got a thicker yarn, so it's more like a sport. So this yarn varies from a really thin lace weight to about to sport weight. Which is fine, it makes a nice sock. It's not you know, it's honestly this is one of the things I try to tell people is that those kinds of inconsistencies, you think they look big in the skein or in the yarn, but once you knit with them, even in stockinette, I'm really not seeing that kind of inconsistency in my knitting. So it doesn't show. The other thing about the chain ply is you have a tendency to over spin it. Because your feet... you need, you really need as your hands slow down if you get, you know, stuck or you miss the chain, or you just need a little extra time. And you don't also slow down your feet, you get it over spun over plied. And this yarn is pretty overplied. I mean, it's like kinking on itself as I'm trying to knit with it. And you know, it's been washed. And a lot of times when you wash an over plied yarn, it does relax quite a bit. But this I'm a lot of times having to, you know, pull out the kinks, as I'm knitting. The places where it's pigtailed onto itself. That's really good and I did it on purpose. Well, it's a it's a good feature to have for sock yarn, because it makes the sock yarn more durable. But it is a little bit annoying to knit with. And it is a feature of chain plying, if you're not really careful, you can get you know, you can get things over plied when you don't mean for them to be. But these are just a pair of shorty socks, and they're not going to match because they're with the leftover balls. And these are... so one of them has a gray cuff, the other one has a gray and orange striped cuff. And then half the foot is gray and other half the foot is orange. And this one I've got a gray cuff and an orange part of the foot. And then I have only gray left. So it'll only have one orange stripe or the other one has, I think two or three places on it that there's orange. So these are really long pattern repeats which again is another one of those features of chain ply is that you can get those long-- or not pattern repeats, color repeats, you know, long stretches of color. So they're self striping, but the stripes are about four inches in some places. Yeah. So that's my socks. And then I have a new spinning project. So I'm using up the remainder of the Columbia fleece. I had been using the Columbia and the Oxford. Spinning those up, I spun those all. I had spun those in the past two summers and then used them for my garter squish. And then I I'd used up all of the Oxford in the final part of my garter squish. And so then I started with the rest of the Columbia fleece and I carded it and I added in tussah silk. So I have this tussah silk top I had bought like a pound or eight ounces of it or something a long time ago. It was in my stash, I got it out and I just, you know, blended that in as I was carding, and it is nice. This  fiber's really nice. I have these batts. And you can see, like, I blended the silk, I tried to blend this out pretty well. But there are places where you've got like this strand of like silk fiber running through it. That's just super pretty and fun to spin. There's a lot of silk content, I tried to get 50/50. But I couldn't. I only wanted to do three passes through the carder, and I couldn't get 50% silk into the fiber in just three passes. So that's alright, it has enough silk in it. It's going to be really nice. And it's spinning up pretty thin. So I'm probably going to make it into a three ply, but I don't know, I might two ply it and use it for a shawl or something. I'm not sure how much I'll have when I get when I get done.  Marsha  56:04   Yeah.  Kelly  56:05   And I think in this case, I am going to spin all the singles first and then decide if I want to do I want a two ply. Or do I want a three ply? How much yarn? How much of this yarn do I want? And then I think I'll also dye it after the spinning is finished. Because that'll be interesting because the dye will take differently on the silk and the wool.  Marsha  56:26   yeah, interesting.  Kelly  56:28   And I cleaned up my wheel, took it all apart, washed it, oiled it-- well, washed it, polished it, put it back together, oiled it. It's spinning so nicely. Marsha  56:41   So I have a question. I don't see your mohair sweater on here. Kelly  56:45   No, that's put away for a little while. It's been kind of warm. I haven't knitted on it since I think I was knitting on it at the last episode when we recorded and it's still sitting up in the in the guest room vanity area from that day. I haven't touched it since then. I got really into the carding that was the main thing and then the socks are just something that I started at the Pismo rally trip to have something to knit in the car and then I brought them with me in the car to this, you know on this trip, but I haven't made a whole lot of progress on them. Marsha  57:23   Well, I have a comment about it. When I was walking Enzo and listening to the last episode, you were talking about the sweater and how you had had that sweater in the 60s. You-- the mohair sweater that you bought in the boys department.  Kelly  57:41   Yeah,  Marsha  57:41   And I was walking  along and I of a sudden I thought, why was that sweater in the boys department? I mean like because it was hairy right? It was like a hairy mohair sweater. Kelly  57:52   It was a vest. Marsha  57:52   A vest Yeah, I mean a vest but like it was in the boys department? Like what boy was wearing?  Was that a style to have those hairy vests or? I think that's what just struck me is like, what boy was going to be wearing that? Kelly  58:07   Yeah, I know. I don't know. Well, I told you it was unusual. I it was an unusual piece of clothing. Marsha  58:15   I know so you always think of the boys department having...You know when Ben was born and Iwould go to get him some clothes and and all these--so much variety and interesting things with for girls. And the boys it was all like Navy and brown. Like there was nothing fun really with boys clothes. And so that's why I'm like, What boy was going to be wearing that hairy vest? [laughing] Kelly  58:44   Well, and this was ...I wonder if I have any pictures with me wearing it? This was tan, kind of a tan brown color. And they had a... I don't think the whole vest was Argyle. I don't think the pattern was totally Argyle but it had a thin orange like thin orange diagonal striping like an argyle. I just remember the thin orange stripe. I don't really remember if the whole thing was Argyle. If it was, it was muted, you know, it was like a tan and a light brown or something. It wasn't wild colors. But yeah, it was... It wasn't, you know, totally hairy like my Sonny Bono jacket. You know, it wasn't like that. But it was definitely hairy.  Marsha  59:37   You know, I guess I'm out of touch. I'm out of touch with what boys were wearing in the 60s and this  Kelly  59:42   Well, let's see, when would it have been? Late sixties or early seventies.., depending on when I had it. I think I had it in like middle school. We don't have middle schools here but-- or we didn't have middle school where I was but it would have been like middle school age, maybe fifth sixth, seventh eighth somewhere in there. So it would have been the early 70s. Marsha  1:00:09    Yeah, yeah.  Kelly  1:00:10   No, I can picture it... I can kind of. Yeah, I think  it could have been like maybe something the Monkees wore maybe.  Marsha  1:00:20   Well, you know, I mean, I don't know. I, since we're on this topic, I remember it was very popular for girls when I was in middle school. Well, elementary school, but like late elementary, like, sixth grade or something, but those crocheted vests. All the girls wanted, like, crocheted vests and it was like those granny squares, right. And my my aunt made one for me, my great aunt made me one of those vests and then Kelly  1:00:55   It would be right in style now if you still have it. [laughing] Marsha  1:00:58   Yes. And then also do you remember Go Go boots?  Kelly  1:01:01   Oh, yeah.  Marsha  1:01:01   Did you have the white Go Go boots? Kelly  1:01:03   I didn't have them for regular life. Wehad white boots for my baton. My baton group. Marsha  1:01:11   Oh, I had gogo boots and white gogo boots that I wore to school because everybody wanted them and I my parents bought me a pair, probably at Sears. And they were like vinyl. Yeah. And my feet practically rotted off in those.  Kelly  1:01:30   Yeah.  Marsha  1:01:32   Well, between you know, nylon socks and plastic boots. I remember a my mother finally said you just can't wear them because my feet were I was getting like, like athlete's foot or something and just sitting in that moisture all day long. So she said you can't wear them. So I was only to wear them like once a week or something.  Kelly  1:01:51   That's funny. Yeah, we had them for baton, for parades and stuff. That was part of our parade uniform. And, and the other part of our parade uniform was vinyl. And it was like a cowboy vest with a suede. It was the beige cowboy vest with a suede star on it and suede like edging. Right. And then the bottom part of it was these vinyl bloomers.  Marsha  1:02:24   Bloomers? Kelly  1:02:25    Bloomers Marsha  1:02:25    Pants. Kelly  1:02:26   Like, bloomers! [laughing] Marsha  1:02:32   They wouldn't they have no drape or anything, right? I mean, they must have been... Kelly  1:02:37   there's no leg, right? So they're just bloomers. So they like they just, I mean, I maybe I'm not using the right word. They were like they're like the shape of underpants. [laughing] Marsha  1:02:51   Oh my gosh. [laughing] Kelly  1:02:54   And I, honestly this is terrible. This is maybe too much information. But I remember one parade thinking of the you know, the, the vinyl and the not breathing and the... But I remember one parade where the edge of the vinyl the unsewn seam edge. Because my mom made them, right. Somebody in the troop made them and most of the girl's parents or moms made them but then there were some moms that didn't sew. But my mom sewed so she made ours. But the seam allowance wasn't covered. And I had oh my god, the most painful, painful raw area Marsha  1:03:36   down there. Kelly  1:03:38   From marching with that seam edge of this vinyl rubbing on my leg. For the whole parade. It's like oh my god. When I think back on that. Yeah. And then we had the white, the white boots. And we had cowboy hats. Oh, it was cute. Marsha  1:03:58   But painful, but very painful. Kelly  1:04:01   Well after that one parade my mom did fix it. She... I don't know what--she covered the seam allowance in some way. But yeah. Oh my gosh, I should look for it. I should look for a picture.  Marsha  1:04:14   Yeah, yeah,  Kelly  1:04:14   To put in the show notes. I don't know if I have time to do that. But yes, funny, cute. They were cute. But when I think back... So that's the end of my projects, Marsha. That's why we're talking about so much random other stuff that's not knitting. [laughing] Marsha  1:04:35   I know. Well, hopefully things will start looking up for me and so that we'll have better things to talk about in terms of projects. But anyway, moving along. Let's talk about the Stashbusting blanket along because that is done. It ended on May 31. And we have winners. Kelly  1:04:55    yes.  Marsha  1:04:56   So so let's just say what the prize is going to be  Kelly  1:04:59   okay.  Marsha  1:04:59   We debated a long time about what the prize should be. Because we thought of yarn, getting people a-- but then this was all about stash busting right? You could look at this both ways. Oh, they didn't want any more yarn because they were working to get rid of yarn out of their stash. Or you could look at it as everybody got rid of the, the yarn in their stashes that all the stuff they used, it was really a Stashbusting. And they need some yarn. So we couldn't make up our minds. We finally decided to go in a completely different direction. And everybody who the winners will receive a pattern of their choice up to $10. So that's going to be the prize. And we have five winners. So Kelly, yes, so we'll list them. Let's say who it is. Kelly  1:05:44   Our first winner is michembry, Michelle, and she made the Habitation Throw. And I really liked that pattern. I'm gonna, I think I might at some point, make one of those because it turns-- a lot of people did them and they all turned out really, really nicely. So congratulations, Michelle. Marsha  1:06:04   Yes. And our second winner is cattitude. Cat. And she made the sunburst granny square throw. Kelly  1:06:14   Yeah, congratulations, Cat. She's our Faroese interpreter. Marsha  1:06:20   Yes, yes. Our foreign correspondent. Kelly  1:06:23   Our third winner is iheartbooks. And she also made a garter Squish, blanket. It turned out really nicely. I just have to say that is the best pattern. I really think that pattern is so versatile. So congratulations, iheartbooks, and I didn't say what her real name is. I don't remember if that's because it wasn't there. Or if I just forgot, but iheartbooks, Congratulations! And Laura Sue also made a garter squish. And Kelly, you have a note here accursed Romney?  Yes. She she made a post in one of the-- I think this one was from the discussion board. I drew from both the discussion, and the fo thread to get the winners. And she was using this what she called the accursed Romney that she was trying to get rid of. But she also knit this during the caregiving and loss of her mother, and talked about how soothing it was to, to knit, you know, that garter stitch pattern. And to just-- kind of like what you were talking about with the sweater you're doing. You can just knit and knit and knit and not have to really think too much about it. So yeah, she got she got rid of a Romney fleece that she'd had forever and had been probably she felt like it was multiplying in her stash because I have that feeling about some of my yarn. Like, wait a minute, I thought you were gone.  Marsha  1:07:55   Yeah.  Kelly  1:07:57   And then our last winner, also with the habitation throw is Starwood knitter. So congratulations to Starwood knitter Marsha  1:08:08   and to all the winners. It was a really fun along Kelly  1:08:12   Yeah, it was it was. Marsha  1:08:14   I would consider doing another Stashbusting blanket along next year. Yeah. Different pattern though. Kelly  1:08:23   That's good. Give  everyone some time to think Marsha  1:08:27   and  build up their stash. Kelly  1:08:28   Build up or go through their stash and get ideas. Get some creative ideas. Because honestly, when we started this, I didn't think I had the right... I knew I had stash. But I didn't think I had the right yarn to make one. And it wasn't until I put it all out. And looked at it for a couple of weeks with different ideas before I thought, Oh, I know what I could do. I could combine these and yeah, so. So yeah, well, so definitely have to do that again. It was really fun. Yeah, we'll need to have some time in between to do something other than blankets. Marsha  1:09:08   Yeah. So as I mentioned before, the prize is a pattern of your choice up to $10. And Kelly, we're gonna have people contact you.  Kelly  1:09:20   Yeah, through Ravelry or, two ewes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot  com, the email address, Instagram, any of those ways, just get in touch with me. All I need is to know your Ravelry name and what pattern you want. And if you're not on Ravelry and there's a pattern you want that I can get to you some other way let me know that too, because I've been able to do that for some other people. Marsha  1:09:50   All right, and then the Summer Spin In is underway. It started June 1 And it goes until September 5 We've talked about what we were spinning Kelly  1:10:04   I put up the thread. So there's a thread on Ravelry and I have a hashtag summer spin in 2022.  Marsha  1:10:13   Okay,  Kelly  1:10:13   so if you want to post, if you have Instagram and you want to play, post on Instagram. Go ahead and use the hashtag summer spin in 2022. And there's no, I have no punctuation in that summer spin in, there's no dash or anything. It's just  three words summer spin in  and 2022. Marsha  1:10:34   And then the other thing Black Sheep gathering we've talked about mentioned it during this episode, but just the details: Black Sheep Gathering is taking place in Albany, Oregon on from June 24 through the 26th. And Saturday, June 25, we will have a meet up at the trailer starting around 4:00 or 4:30. And so we'll have some snacks and beverages and if you are at the black sheep gathering, stop by and say hi. Kelly  1:11:06   yeah.  Marsha  1:11:09   So I should say too, Kelly, I did sign up for a class. You will laugh about this one. I'm going to take a color work. Finally. So I'm actually excited about that. Hopefully, I'll learn some good tips and techniques. So and then our last order of business is we want to hear from you. So we've done this before where people have been sending us audio recordings about their favorite yarn shops. And so just go to speak pipe.com forward slash two ewes and you can le

Kelly's restored 1950 Westcraft Coronado trailer, “The Club Car,” finally comes home after snow related delays. Plus, we have project updates and our Summer Spin in starts June 1st.   Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Jul Designs coupon code: 15% off with code TWOEWES Marsha's Projects:  Depth Hat by Talitha Kuomi I finished this hat. The yarn is The Fiber Seed Sprout Special Speckles DK, in the colorway Dirty Seahorse. I could not get the yarn to pool in the way that attracted me to the pattern in the first place. The colors spiral, but I still like it.  Meadow Stripe Socks using Patons Kroy Sock in the colorway, Meadow Stripes and Lang Yarns Jawoll Superwash fingering for the heels and toes. I finally found the misplaced yarn for the toe and was able to finish these socks. Garter Squish Blanket On color fourteen of sixteen. I'm ready for this project to be done!  Unpattern Top Down Raglan Pullover by Karen Alfke. I finished the Fibonacci Sequence striping of the body except for the ribbing. I'm waiting for Ben to try on the sweater. Picked up and knit the neck band and started the first sleeve. Troyggja við Mynstur (Sweater with Round Pattern) by Tora Joensen (translated by Kate Gagnon Osborne: I knit my swatch and got gauge with size 8 needles instead of the suggested size 9. I plan to knit colorwork yoke with size 9. I cast on the sweater while at the beach and knit the ribbing, the colorwork and about an inch of the body. Decided the size was too small, frogged, and cast on the next size up. At about 9” I put the body on waste yarn and washed and blocked to be sure gauge and size are okay. The ball of red arrived for Navia that will be in the yoke. I'm spinning a 2lb bag of Manx Loaghton in my stash. This is a protected breed from the Isle of Man. I am using a woolen spun technique and have spun 5 skeins or approximately 400 yards. Spun three more bobbins that are ready to be plied. Kelly's Projects: Finished the Garter Squish blanket using handspun leftovers.  Mother Bear time!  Mielie vest using Schaeffer Yarn Company Little Danya mohair. This sat in the knitting basket for the last two weeks. Color is Rosa Parks and it was spirit yarn from NoCKRs retreat in 2018. Shortie socks out of Tomato and Mink Falkland handspun yarn. 3-ply chain plied yarn.  Suggested podcasts: Hooked and Booked podcast with AJ of KJKrochet, South Africa Crochet Conversations Inez and Mell from Singapore We Want to Hear You! Give us a call and tell us about your favorite LYS!  Go to speakpipe.com/twoewes and leave a message. It will take 90 seconds or less. Or you can use the voice memo app on your phone and email us the audio file. We'll put your voice feedback on the show!   Stash-Busting Blanket Along Ends May 31.  Summer Spin-In  Starts June 1. Goes until September 5. (US Labor Day) Black Sheep Gathering June 24-26 Albany, Oregon Saturday meet-up starts 3:30 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 and I am betterinmotion. We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there. Enjoy the Episode! Marsha  0:43   Hi, Kelly.  Kelly  0:43   Hi, Marsha.  Marsha  0:45   Okay, big news. Kelly  0:47   Yes. Marsha  0:47   Talk. Big news.  Kelly  0:49   Big news. So the trailer pickup finally happened.  Marsha  0:54   Yay.  Kelly  0:55   It was so much fun. It was so much fun. So we went up to, no down. South, south of us to Pismo Beach. They have the Pismo trailer rally. And it's Pismo Coast Village, which is an RV park in Pismo Beach. And, oh, it was so fun. It was all vintage trailers, you have no idea how many different varieties of vintage trailers there are.  Marsha  1:29   Mm hmm.  Kelly  1:31   It was amazing. You know, most of the park there was... there are some sections of the park that were just regular modern RVs. And probably the majority of the park was full of vintage trailers of all shapes and sizes. And they have...And one of them, I guess I should be more specific. And one of them was ours, because the people who worked on our trailer go to this rally every year. And it's kind of like NoCKRs, you know, like the retreats where if you go one year, then you have priority to get in and to actually get that same trailer spot the following year. And so, I mean, there are actually people who weren't there. But, you know, bought their spot, didn't cancel and get a refund. So they, so they'll have it for next year.  Marsha  2:25   Okay.  Kelly  2:26   So and there are people who have been going for, you know, 5 6 7 8 years. I don't know how long it's been going on. But you know, they've been going for a number of years and since everybody stays in their same campsite once they get the one they want, they're like neighbors you know. They they know each other there, they know the people camping around them. And so it's this whole community. I was talking to one man, I said, Oh, this is like a giant rabbit hole. And he's like, Oh, you you have no idea how deep this rabbit hole is! [laughing] Marsha  3:00   It's like a version of spinning learning to spin, right? Like they don't even want to drop spindle because they're gonna go down that rabbit hole. So this is this kind of the same thing. Kelly  3:06   And the people there had, like, this was the trailer that they bought to brought to the rally, but the one they usually bring is something else. Or the one they camp in or, or I was talking to one couple and they said, Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna be at the one in November. But we're not sure if we're going to bring this one or we'll bring our other one. So they have like trailer stash. Marsha  3:40   I was just thinking that. Trailer stash. Yeah. [laughing] Kelly  3:45   So yeah, and then people would talk about, well, this is my "forever trailer." So like, you have a trailer, but you have aspirations for a different trailer. And then, you know, you sell one trailer and buy another trailer. And anyway, it's a whole world that I didn't know, you know, we had not ever done rallies before. And so this is a whole world that that we are entering into. And the reason we got to enter into it. I mean, we had talked about going, you know, going to one or you know, getting a reservation or trying to get into one. But we got kind of thrown into the deep end because they were coming down, and they were going to be bringing a different trailer. But since we hadn't been able to pick up ours in April. They said, Well, what if we bring yours down and then we'll just stay, you know, stay in hotel and you can stay in the trailer? So that's what we did. And then they showed it during the open house, you know, so that the public could see it. But we were kind of mean, we didn't have the public traipsing in and out of our trailer.  Marsha  4:56   Well it's like getting a new car and everybody else gets to drive it, right?,  Before you get, right, like you, you don't want people driving it. Kelly  5:03   And so we had, you know, we had barriers. So, and a lot of people, a lot of people in the park did that or at least had one part of their trailer that had barriers. Or like they knew to have, you know, multiple rugs that are normally not on the floor when they are camping, but they use on the public day where everybody was coming in. You know, just to protect their floors and stuff. And we had none of that, because we were just, you know, literally just arriving with the bare minimum camping equipment, so that we could spend the night in the trailer before we brought it home. So anyway, but it was really fun. And so they spent a lot of time with the public and answering questions and all that and Robert and I didn't really have to deal with the crush of people. You know, coming to the coming to the site to look at the trailer, but it was like the belle of the ball. You know, it's the new trailer on the block the, you know, there aren't very many 1950 Westcrafts. And so when a new one is restored and comes out, you know, sort of like its debut.  Marsha  6:13   Yeah,  Kelly  6:14   There's a lot of excitement, there was a lot of excitement at the park. So we had a lot of people coming by. Not during the public open house, but the rest of it. Coming by and talking to us. And we met so many fun people and they, it was just it was a really nice event. So, and the trailer is nice. It's beautiful.  It's so big. I mean, it's not really that big. When I first saw it, I thought okay, good. In my head, it had grown to this enormous proportions. And when I saw it, I thought Oh, good. It is still kind of small. You know, it's way bigger other one, but it's not enormous. Marsha  6:53   Yeah. Yeah, way bigger. So your other one, you know, one person had to sit while the other person moved . Kelly  6:59   Right. Kind of you know, this one, you can both move around without... to me it doesn't feel too big inside.  Marsha  6:59   Like it's not it like those big fifth wheels that people have, you know. Those are huge things that stick... What do you  call those pop outs and stuff. Those become huge, right? This is still really small. Kelly  7:20   Yeah, yeah. Right. But it feels really open. Just like the other trailer, it feels a little more spacious, because of the layout. The other trailer felt more spacious because of the windows. And this one feels that way because of the light wood and and kind of the layout. But anyway, it was a lot of fun. And I think there's going to be there's going to be more trailer rallies in my future. You know, it's not the kind of camping I'm used to, but it was a fun event. Yeah, it's like a big party. Marsha  7:56   Yes. I'd say you're gonna have a whole new set of friends. Right? Yeah.  Kelly  8:01   Work friends.  Marsha  8:02   I'm your your one college friend. Like I guess I'm leftover from college.  Kelly  8:09   Leftover friends. [laughing] Marsha  8:14   you know, knitting-- your work people, knitting people, trailer people, bee people. I'm not sure. Anyway, Kelly  8:23   Just a whole new adventure. And it was interesting how much I learned talking to people who knew a lot more about this particular make of trailer than I did. Robert knew more than than I did. But but we we both learned a lot from people who came by and told us a little bit and and then the people who did their own work on the trailers. Oh my gosh, so impressive. All this work that that people did, you know, on their own in their garage?  Marsha  8:56   Yeah,  Kelly  8:57   You know, so that's a different-- that's a whole different aspect of it from from what we did when we bought it and had it restored. So yeah, it's a whole other world to enter. Which will be really fun. I'm looking forward to camp we're going camping in June. So I'm looking forward to actually camping in it you know, regular camping trip and, and, and just seeing what it's like to be in this trailer. The bed is nice. It's bigger. It's not as big as a regular double bed it's slightly smaller. But it's a lot better than slightly bigger than a single with two people and... Marsha  9:43   So your other was  was it the size of a single bed? Kelly  9:47   It was a little bit bigger than a single bed but not much. I couldn't get  a twin sheet on it.  Marsha  9:54   Really? Kelly  9:54   I mean I can--I could fudge it to get a twin sheet on it, but it was it was deifinitely too big for a twin sheet, but not much. So maybe maybe a couple of inches wider than a twin bed. But this one is is much more comfortable. Marsha  10:11   Yeah. Yeah.  Kelly  10:13   So that's nice. And we have a bathroom. Which is also nice. And the a shower. Which I didn't--I mean, that wasn't something that I really cared about, but Robert wanted the shower. And actually, I didn't know they did this in trailers, but it's like a, like on the train where the whole room, it's called a wet bath. And the whole room becomes the shower.  Marsha  10:36   Mm hmm.  Kelly  10:38   I don't know how that's gonna work. Exactly. But yeah. Marsha  10:42   Yeah. Well, and also you actually have a refrigerator, right? Where your other trailer was an ice box?  Kelly  10:49   That's true. I had forgotten about that. Yeah, that's the other upgrade that we have is from an icebox to an actual refrigerator. It's a small, you know, it's a small refrigerator. But I'm used to a small refrigerator at home too.  Marsha  11:03   Yeah.  Kelly  11:03   Yeah, it runs on the electricity. So if we don't have shore power--its called shore power, where you can plug in--we won't have a refrigerator, because it won't run with the 12 volt or the ... you won't get enough power from the inverter solar power to run the refrigerator. But that's okay. We're used to camping with dry ice and an ice box so we can manage with that. That's not a problem. Marsha  11:33   Well, very exciting. And then. And then I'll see it when you come up to Albany, Oregon for the Black Sheep Gathering the end of June.  Kelly  11:40   So yeah, yeah, we'll be having a get together for anybody who's going to Black Sheep gathering that Saturday. So Black Sheep is the weekend of June 24 through 26th. And so that Saturday, which I guess will be the 25th that afternoon, late afternoon, maybe 3:30 or 4 o'clock, we'll be having a meet up at the-- we're calling it The Club Car. You know, like the trains have a club car. So I... who suggested that... oh, the father of the woman who bought The Clubhouse. He asked me who is your new trailer? Does your new trailer have a name? And I said, No, we haven't really haven't thought about that. And he's oh, you should call it the... first he said you should call it The Caboose. And then he said, No, I know what you should call it, you should call it The Club Car. And so that's perfect. So we're going to be calling it The Club Car. And I've gotten train placemats and couple of train menus. So that stuff has been arriving in the mail. And so it'll have a little bit of a theme, a little bit of a theme. Not as much as as the other trailer was Giants themed but anyway. Yeah, we're gonna have a meet up at The Club Car at the Black Sheep Gathering. So come in, say hi and show us what you bought. And have some food and drink and gather with other crazy yarn people. [laughing] Who are on their way to maybe becoming crazy trailer people. [laughing] Marsha  13:22   Yes. Really Yeah. Yeah! Well, shall we? Should we talk projects or? Kelly  13:30   Let's go ahead and, and talk projects. Marsha  13:32   Do you want me to go first?  Kelly  13:33   Go ahead.  Marsha  13:36   I have a finished project. I wish I could say it was my garter squish blanket. It is not. I needed a break. Because I have to say you remember I think the last time we recorded I was struggling with some of my projects. It's been a couple... it's been months now that I've been struggling with my projects. And I think you said oh, just cast something on. So I cast on the Depth Hat by to Talitha Kuomi. And to remind people this was the yarn I bought at Stitches. And it's the Fiber Seeds Sprout Special Speckles DK and the colorway is Dirty Seahorse. And to remind people it's like they've taken the hank of yarn and dipped one half in solid, solid teal, and the other half is speckled with teal and brown and some black. And so when you knit the hat, it pools.  It's supposed to pool so you have you know, the dark sections going up the side of the hat and the speckled sections going up the front and back of the hat. So let me just say, that did not happen for me. And there's this whole technique that you're supposed to do about how you find the place where you start. You just don't cast on any random place in the yarn, there's description about how, where you're the point where you're supposed to find in the color, I think you're at the halfway point in the solid color yarn is where you cast on. They tell you what type of cast on you do, I did all of that. It's an interesting hat.  You knit I don't remember how many rows, but you knit and then you put in a purl row, and then more and then pick up the the cast on edge. So it becomes-- it's knitted into the body of the hat. I'm not describing Do you know what I mean? I'm not describing that very well. Kelly  15:42   Well, I I sort of saw the pictures. It's folded into a hem, right? Marsha  15:47   Yeah, yeah. So that looks really nice. I like that. I could not get the pooling to work the way they say it's supposed to work. The way I was so captivated by when I saw the yarn and the pattern at stitches. It spirals. And what they tell you to do is to go down a needle size, or up a needle size to control the pooling, so that it all stays in that one section. Kelly  16:17   So like you're switching needles in the middle? Marsha  16:22   Yes.  Kelly  16:22   Okay.  Marsha  16:23   And also and the other technique to do that, is to pull the yarn really tight. So if you're knitting along, when you get to the solid section, pull that yarn really tight onto the needles or go down a needle size, or the opposite, Kelly  16:40   But it didn't tell you to like pull out yarn. If you get to the part that's supposed to be solid, and you're still on speckled yarn, just pull it out to you have solid yarn and knit with that.  Marsha  16:50   No.  Kelly  16:51   Okay, Marsha  16:51   So I'm a little disappointed that I did not get that look. It's a spiral,  it's fine. I mean, it looks okay. Kelly  16:58   Did you swatch?  Marsha  17:00   Yes, because it also said in the pattern, they said you have to swatch and your gauge has to be accurate, because that will affect the pooling? And my gauge? My swatch and the gauge was correct. So I don't know what I did wrong? Kelly  17:15   Probably nothing. Marsha  17:18   Yeah, I don't know. It's like they are individually hand dyed. So maybe that has something to do with it. I don't think so. But possibly. The other thing I would say about this pattern, it does not say... there's no description on the print of the pattern about how the, it tells you how to finish the you know, to close up the top of the hat. But it doesn't give you a description of it. Like when it's talking about like, oh, this hat has a you know, a hem, a folded hem and there's nothing. So in the picture does not show the top of the hat. And the reason I'm saying all this is I had no idea how it was supposed to look. And so what it really is like, imagine you have you're on the top of your head, now you're gonna have 1990s pleated khakis. There used to be a pleat on khakis. And now that is out you know, now it's back. I think pleats are coming back. But it's basically-- it's like you have four pleats on top. So I'm not even explaining right because Kelly  18:19   It's kind of like, I mean, in order to keep the pooling happening. Right? And not change as you decrease, you really can't have decreases. So you have to make the top of the hat like the pussy hat. But then instead of having those points on the ears, on the sides, they have to do something to make it come to and end. Marsha  18:44   So when you get to the part where you're going to close up that hole. You put some of the-- you put  groups of nine stitches: nine stitches on 4 double pointed needles. So you go nine stitches, and then you put 21 stitches on your circular needles, nine stitches on the double pointed needle, nine stitches on a double pointed needle, another 21 stitches on the circular needle, and then another nine stitches on the double pointed needles. You then do a three needle bind off on the first and fourth double pointed needle. And this is where I got screwed up is you you continue on two needles, a double pointed needle number three and number two, excuse me two and three, and knit across to the end binding those off. So they become joined and then you have your 21 stitches on half of the circular needles and the other 21 stitches on the other half of the needle and you do a kitchener stitch too. Kelly  19:55   So that's what's covering up... Marsha  19:58   Yes so... These, these two sets of nine stitch bindoffs then are underneath that 21 stitch flap. I don't know if that makes sense? Kelly  20:09   I think that would be really challenging to actually knit without knowing what it was supposed to be doing. Like now that you're done, and you know what it did. But that would be a really challenging thing to knit without any picture to say, Oh, I'm doing a really thing weird here. Marsha  20:29   Yes, and it looks nice, you know, and to your point, they, it's a great solution to keep that patterning right. Otherwise, if you did, to your point, if you did the decreases, you'd throw off all of the pooling, of which I did not get but anyway. [laughing] But again, a shout out to Ravelry. And all the people who've made this hat who posted pictures of their hat is by looking at their pictures, I was unable to figure out what I had an a visual of what I was trying to do. Where the pattern there's no picture of the top of the hat. Right and no description of it kind of other than just the the instructions about how to close this up. So do you remember I call I think I texted you. Oh my god, this looks odd because I I bound it off. And it looked like a four corner hat kind of. It was terrible. It looked terrible. Kelly  21:27   Basically, it looked like yeah, you had you had like four points. Yes. And a really funky seam.  Kelly  21:36   And they were not even even  Kelly  21:39   Yeah,yeah, they were  Marsha  21:39   Yeah, cuz some were really tight because they were the three needle bind off, the two sets of nine and then the 21 stitches that were Kirschner was all kind of lose because they were kept... not Kershner, kitchener stitch. And anyway, I poured myself a beer got onto my bed with the dog next to me, and started looking at Ravelry to see and there was no notes. But just looking at people's the photographs on people's projects, I was able to figure it out. And so I made myself rip it out, and then re knit up a little bit and then thought okay, I think I understand the concept of what's happening. Anyway. So that's what beer is for. [laughing] Kelly  22:31   Yes, yeah. Oh, my goodness. Marsha  22:34   Okay. So anyway, that's done. But I have to say, again, it sort of goes into this. I was thinking, Oh, I'm just, you know, okay. It's not, I'm disappointed. It's not pooling the way it's supposed to pool. I'm getting this spiral. I can live with it. It's okay. And then that end of the hat, I thought, I really am struggling with a lot of my projects.  Kelly  22:54   Yeah.  Marsha  22:55   Anyway, I will then go on to the garter squish blanket, I have not a whole lot to report on that I am really ready for this to be done. I do apologize too. I was listening to the last episode where I was knitting on it while we were recording. And I was listening as I was walking Enzo and all I could hear with those needles, bang, bang. It's all like they were so loud. So I do apologize for that. So I'm not knitting on that. Now, as I'm sitting here. It is also too big for it to sit on my lap. But anyway, I'm on color 14, about halfway through color 14 of 16.  Kelly  23:31   Oh, you're almost done.  Marsha  23:33   I'm getting close. I'm ready for it to be done. I'm beginning to just hate this project. Because I really like it, but I'm sick of it. I want to move on to something else. So but we have, I'll just put there's a good time to put this in here that the our blanket along ends May 31. So what is today we're recording on today is Kelly  24:03   the 25th of May.  Marsha  24:04   So Okay, not quite a week. So I will get it done. I'm pretty sure I'll get it done. But I'm ready for it to be done. Okay, um, I have nothing new to report on the the unpatterned top down Raglan pullover by Karen Offski that I'm making for Ben. I have nothing to report except he's coming home today. This is the, you know, Memorial. This is the Wednesday before Memorial Day. So he has a long weekend. And so he's coming home today at some point so hopefully in the next couple of days he can put it on and I'm going to say... Kelly  24:40   Yeah, you can pin him down. Marsha  24:43   Yes. To see how it's how the body is and etc. So not much to report on that. Then my next project is the sweater that I'm making for my brother and Kelly and we before we started recording We looked it up on. We Googled that in the end it's "Tro-cha." Kelly  25:06   "Tro-cha minstur" Marsha  25:07    Troyggja Við Mynstur, which we believe means sweater. Kelly  25:10   sweater pattern. Marsha  25:13   sweater with  round pattern and which, I have to laugh because guess what it says in parentheses after Troyggja Við Mynstur, it says sweater with round pattern. So we finally figured out that that's what it is. And if anybody wants to give us feedback, if we're not saying this the correct way... Kelly  25:38   Our foreign correspondent could tell us how to pronounce that in Faroese a little bit better and maybe the translation but we did we did find a Faroese translation site, a pronunciation site online and we're probably not doing it justice but but we're trying! Marsha  26:03   So I just have to give you a little update on this. So I unravelled... Kelly  26:09    How many times have you start restarted this sweater? Marsha  26:15   Well, I will tell you! So. Okay, so we're not counting the Atlas anymore. So I knit the whole body of Atlas. And honestly, I mean, I pretty much knit the whole sweater, didn't I?  Kelly  26:28   Yeah.  Marsha  26:29   Did I do the sleeves? I didn't do all the sleeves I don't think but because he tried it on it was way too small. Moving Beyond that, that's how Cat actually inspired me to look at a Faroese sweater. Since the yarn is Navia Tradition which is a Faroese yarn. So I found this pattern and I did my swatch. I did not get gauge on the nines, it's supposed to use a size nine needle.I did not get gauge with that I got gauge with the size eight. So Kelly, I got gauge, okay! Yes. So I don't know. I don't know what my problem is. So I got gauge and when we went down to the beach, two weeks ago, I guess we were down there, I cast on the size I think it was going to make, I don't know, I don't remember now what size I was going to make for my brother. I've got the pattern right here, it'd be like I was gonna make the medium size. There was like an extra small, small, medium, and then a large and then it keeps going up. I decided I was gonna make it the medium because I thought that would be okay with the with my gauge. So I cast on and I did all the ribbing I did the color work that's just above the ribbing, and I did about an inch of the body and I started looking at it.  I thought, this looks awfully small. So I thought screw it, I'm ripping it out. So I ripped it out and I recast on the next size up. So I'm making the large. So I again did the ribbing, the color work. I knit about I would say probably nine inches of the the body. And when I was home, I decided to put it on waste yarn and wash and block it, which I did. And it's going to fit and be  roomy enough.  Kelly  28:19   Oh. That's good news. Marsha  28:20   Oh my gosh. So now I'm knitting on it. And I have knit about, I think I've knit about 13 or 14 inches on it. And I have to knit till about 18 inches, set it aside and then I'll do the sleeves and attach them. So it's been a bit of a nightmare. I have to say this, this whole project-- I don't know. Anyway. And then the other thing I'll say is that with this sweater, I need four colors. Where with the Atlas I needed three: the main color and two contrasting. With this pattern, Sweater with Round Pattern, I need the main color and three contrasting colors for the color work. And I have the color work as like a light robin's egg blue, and a navy. And the body of the sweater is like a bright grass green, kind of, so when we were together when I was down there, I think for NoCKRs, I think it was , I ordered just a natural color, a white or cream color,  which arrived. And Mark didn't like that. He wanted a color. So I think I have mentioned this before that I ordered that ball from Navia on the Faroe Islands, and it took about a month. But it arrived and he wanted red, it's a bright red. I'm not sure. I have to say I'm not sure I like the red with a bright kelly green. A robin's egg blue and a navy. He really liked it. Kelly  29:57   Havae you put the red in already? Or is it only in the neck color work? Marsha  30:03   I have not put the red in. It's only in the yoke. Yeah, just a couple of rows. It's not gonna be very much. So we'll see. I've got a ways. But I have to tell you about the the package from Navia. It came in an envelope, it was all when I got it, the envelope was wrapped with yarn, instead of twine, and a piece of Navia Tradition yarn wrapped around it and tied with a little bow on the outside of the package. Kelly  30:33   The part that went to the post office, still on there. Wow.  Marsha  30:35   And it stayed on nice. Yeah, it stayed on there all the way from the Faroe Islands. It stayed on there, that yarn wrapped around there and the bow and everything and then opened up and beautifully wrapped in tissue paper with a little sticker on it that said, thank you. It's just super, super sweet and very exciting to get that dropped off on my front porch. So that's what's going on with that. And then I go down every day, I spend for 10-15 minutes, just a little bit on that Manx Loaghtan. But I'm still spinning on that. So and I am Kelly, I am going to bring my spinning wheel to Black Sheep. Because I'm planning on doing... I've never been able to bring it because we've either taken the train or something. I've not had space, but I'm bringing that wheel so I can sit in the spinning circle, or sit by the trailer and spin. So anyway, that's all I have for projects, and I'm really hoping I've now moved past my problems.  Kelly  31:35   Oh, me too.  Marsha  31:36   Do you think? Because I've kind of gone through kind of a hard time. It's been around two months now. It's like, I've had some bad juju. I don't really know what that's about. But it's just,  Kelly  31:48   Yeah, it's been a little bit rough patch with your knitting. Yeah, maybe you need to do some crochet Marsha  31:59   Well, maybe it's like I just crochet placemats or something, you know, or Kelly  32:03   switch to another spinning project? Well, I don't know if you have enough bobbins. But you could get yourself some braids and switch to some different, you know, have a couple of different spinning projects going because it is going to be time for the summer spin in. Marsha  32:20   Yeah, so I think I am going to. I was thinking about that before we started recording. So I'm going to try and finish for the summer spin. And I'm gonna try and finish this Manx Loaghtan. I'll try and finish that, and then I think I'm gonna try and do a combo spin or I have some braids, two braids I was thinking of combining. So do something with that. Kelly  32:40   Yeah, nice. That might be a nice, that might be a nice way to kind of just put an end to the the bad knitting. By not knitting at all. Marsha  32:50   Oh, you know, I think part of it is... I'm gonna say is I think I'm making... It's all making stuff for other people. Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I'm making this sweater for Ben, the sweater for my brother. And then Kelly  33:03   when doing those tea cozies Marsha  33:06   Tea cozies. I have another tea cozy I have to make... and it's like this is knitting for other people. You know? Because like this, I have to say this Navia Tradition, this yarn. I have to put hand cream on when I knit with it, because it's so drying to my hands. It's and I'm not saying that in a bad way. It's just like, this is the type of yarn it is. It's not super pleasant. It's not like, you know that the handspun I was knitting with. I love knitting with it. This is a woolly wool. Kelly  33:36    Right. Right. Marsha  33:39   So it's, it's not a yarn I ever would have purchased. Yeah. So that's sort of part of it, too, I think it's I'm not really, not really into it.  Kelly  33:49   Yeah, I mean, the yarn. The yarn wasn't your choice. The original pattern wasn't your choice. No, yeah. And then with Ben's sweater, you had some challenges with your first pattern. And then you've had some challenges just having him try it. Like knitting for someone who's not there. And I know there are people who do that, you know, they knit for people that they don't have them try it on all the time. But I, I mean, I constantly try things on when I'm knitting for myself.  Marsha  34:19   Yeah.  Kelly  34:20   And so I think that would be really challenging to be knitting something that you know, especially when you're knitting it for the second time because the first one didn't work, and you really don't want to have to rip out again. So you want to make sure it's right. Marsha  34:35   So Mark's I've ripped out twice. So I'm on my third attempt at this sweater for him. Yeah. Okay, that is love or stupidity I'm not quite sure which it is. But anyway, Okay, nevermind my project. Let me hear about your projects, okay? Because you do have... Yeah, let me hear about yours. Kelly  34:54   Okay, it's going. So yeah, actually it's a good thing I have the trailer to talk about because I don't really have much to talk about in terms of my projects. So I can tell you that the garter squish blanket, which was already done, but I have it in the show this time because I actually slept under it. We used it. We used it in the trailer, I brought it for the trailer's bedspread. And I got lots of compliments on it. So some of the trailer people are also yarn people. Marsha  35:30   Of course, of course, there was some overlap. And, yeah, chicken and bees too. I bet. Right. Kelly  35:36   Well, yeah. I mean, I don't know how much of how much of that there is. But there were a couple of people who recognized that I had made it and asked me, Did you make that blanket? And some were working on their own.  Or saw me knitting while I was there and asked about it. So yeah. So yeah, we slept under. It was great. It looks, it looks really nice in the trailer. So I'm super, I'm super happy about how it turned out and being able to use it. I was... Oh, go ahead. Marsha  36:11   Oh, I was just going to say the picture you sent me. The colors work really well in there. Because you have all that sort of light wood with all the panels, the light wood, and then some of the burgundy kind of in there and the floor. And so the colors look really nice in there, I think. Kelly  36:29   Thank you. Yeah. I like it, too. I think it looks good. I actually think you know this, the thing about the Garter Squish, is that they can fit into a lot of different schemes, color schemes. Because you've got those, that one color going, going throughout with all the different colors that you add in. I have not finished the Mother Bear, the headless Mother Bear that I talked about a month ago. She's still headless, because I need to get some stuffing. And I started another one. So I have now have two headless Mother Bears. One flat one is totally flat, and the other one has some stuffing in it. So I need to get get some stuffing so I can finish those up. And what I'm knitting on right now is the mohair vest, which I like it, but then sometimes I look at it and I think is this actually really ugly. Marsha  37:37   And what have you decided, I mean, do you have a definitive answer? Kelly  37:40   No decision or I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure. It's not pooling or anything. I mean, there's a couple of places where it looks darker and a couple of places where the red shows through more, but it's not doing any kind of funky pooling. I'm about now maybe eight inches down from the armhole. And it's just-- it's very hairy. This is a very hairy vest. And I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about the collar. Because I seriously cannot imagine having this against my neck. Like my other vest I wear I zip it all the way up and I have like a turtleneck kind of. I don't think I would ever do that with this one. So I'm not sure. I've thought about using something that's not mohair. But I'm still not sure what I'm going to do I might just get a black yarn and do a, you know, do the border all in black. Which, knitting with black? I'm not sure I want to do that either.  Marsha  38:47   How much... I will say something. Do you think you'll ever wear this?  Kelly  38:54   Yeah, I  do.   Marsha  38:56   Okay. I'm sorry. That's so mean of me. I don't mean to be mean like that. But it's like, Do you love it? You don't know. I mean, you're unsure.  Kelly  39:04   I love mohair yarn. You know that. So I love the yarn. I'm not sure I'm loving how it's knitting up. But I don't hate it either. It's it's just, let's just say it will be unusual. It's not, it's not, you know, "on trend" exactly. It's not the, you know, a strand of kidsilk haze that you carry along with your other yarn. This is full on mohair.  Marsha  39:40   Right. There was a reason why it's in the destash. Kelly. [laughing] Kelly  39:44   Exactly. But I do like mohair and I have in my memory-- one of my fond memories of clothing. I have lots of good clothing memories from my childhood.  In fact I have more clothing memories than I have food memories. So we were talking about that. Aunt Betty and I were talking about that, and I really don't have a lot of food memories from my childhood but I have a lot of clothing memories. And I have the fondest memory of this vest. And I think it was an argyle type pattern that I got in the boys department. When I was in, I think seventh or eighth grade. And it was this kind of full on mohair. Probably not wool mohair probably that Orlon acrylic mohair, because, you know, it was a kid's vest. And I wore that thing all the time. And it was unusual. It was one of those things. It was not one of those things that all the kids were wearing, you know? Marsha  40:51   Yeah. All the cool kids were wearing it. Kelly  40:55   It was one of my, one of my many clothing items that was definitely not on trend. But I really loved it. So I have a feeling that I might, I might not feel quite the same way about this as I felt about that. But it has the same vibe to me. So I think that's why, why I decided to make this vest. And I think it would be good. Like, it'll be warm for sure. I think it'd be good for camping. It'll be good for walking the dogs when it's cold outside. So I think I'll get I think I'll get some wear out of it. I don't know that it will be my go-to piece. So we'll see. But I'm working on it. It's the Rosa Parks colorway from a yarn company called Shaeffer that isn't making yarn anymore. And the the name of the or the type of yarn was Danya mohair. And the really odd thing about it is that it's hardly taken any yarn to make this. I thought I had-- I mean I kind of debated whether I had enough to make to make the vest. But I also am making a vest that calls for, I think, DK and this is at a bulky gauge. So I had, you know, I had to reconfigure the pattern somewhat. So we'll see the, the jury will be out for a while on this one. And I may, it's so hot to knit on. It's not super warm here. But it's you know, it's kind of hot and sticky to knit on and mohair flies up my nose and stuff. So it's not the thing I grab and knit the most often either. I don't have that much to choose from. So that is my only project besides Mother Bears. That was my only project and I wasn't grabbing it to knit. And then I needed something for the road going down to pick up the trailer and bring it back. I thought I would have more time to knit but it was really kind of a whirlwind, looking at other people's trailers, talking to people about the trailer, finding out all the stuff and how it works, you know, all that kind of stuff. So I didn't have much knitting time, but I did bring some leftovers. I have a pair of socks there. Tomato and Mink or Mink and Tomato was the name of the the braid, and it was Falkland handspun and so I have a pair of regular socks out of it, but I had quite a bit of leftover yarn. So I grabbed that and cast on a pair of short socks. So just you know about maybe a maybe an inch and a half to two inch cuff. And then I started the heel and that's about where I am. I think I turned the heel. That's all I've done is a tiny tiny cuff and turn the heel that's all the knitting. And I never--I hardly took out the vest. So I really didn't have much.. Well and the dogs. we had the dogs with us and so I did a lot of walking the dogs at the RV park because they I wanted them to be good and they're a lot better if they've had exercise. And so we did a lot of walking and stuff. Yeah. So anyway, those are my projects, kind of just the vest. Some Mother Bears in the, you know, in the meanwhile. And then the barest start of a pair of shorty socks. So I'm kind of I'm kind of in that place where I don't know. I don't know what to do. I do think... So we sold the other the old trailer The Clubhouse. And this young woman came and she brought her dad because he had the truck with the hitch to pull the trailer home and her mom came too. Really nice people, super nice people. And we got to talking and her mom has this...she said, I have this sweater that I started, but I never was able to finish it, maybe you would be able to finish it. And I at first my thought was like, oh, no, this, you know. Marsha  40:55   Oh no! Kelly  40:55   But, but so I was kind of non committal. I said, Well, you know, I maybe...maybe I would be able to do that. I don't know. And, and then she brought it up again. And finally, I thought, You know what, I'm not super excited about anything I'm knitting. What the hell, you know?  Marsha  43:04   Yeah.  Kelly  43:04   And so and so I said, Yeah, you know, send it to me, and I'll see what I can do. I'm not gonna guarantee that I'll be able to, you know, finish it, but, but send, send me what you have. And I'll take a look at it and and let you know, and if I can't, I'll send it back. And if I can, I'll do it. And she's like, of course, I'll pay you, you know. And so anyway, I haven't heard from her since the trailer sold. And I'm wondering if maybe she feels like, oh, gosh, I was a little bit too forward to do that. Marsha  46:09   Yeah, she thought, Oh, yeah. This woman was just trying to be nice. She's thinking that about you like, Oh, she's trying to be nice, but... Kelly  46:17   One she got home. Or maybe her daughter after they left said, Mom, I can't believe you did that. So I thought, oh, maybe I'll text the woman who bought the trailer and say, you know, let your mom know, if she wants to send that to go ahead. You know, I'm happy to try it. So we'll see. I don't know, it. Just kind of something different. It kind of gave me an idea like, oh, well, maybe that'd be something different and, and fun to do so. And then the other thing that I did, this isn't a knitting project. But I just wanted to give a shout out. We have a new member who joined the the Ravelry group, AJ, and she introduced herself and let us know that she has the Hooked and Booked podcast. And she has a website too. It's called... her name is-- she she goes by AJ, but her website name is KJ Krochet. And the crochet is spelled with a K. And I'll have links in the show notes. But anyway, she's from South Africa. And she has just maybe three episodes, but it's just a cute, it's a cute show. And I listened to it. And I thought oh, this is fun. So I listened to all her episodes. And then she was talking about another podcast called Crochet Conversations. And she's interested, AJ is interested in having more people podcasting who don't have American accents. She said she feels like all of the podcasts, the knitting podcasts that she listens to, and maybe a lot of the other podcast she listens to also, you know, people with American accents, and there's not a lot from elsewhere. And so, so she was promoting this other podcast for these two women from Singapore. And so I went and listened to it too. And it's also very cute. It's called Crochet Conversations. And it's two women, Inez and Mell from Singapore. And the most recent episode, they're taking you through their house, like room by room talking about what crochet is in their house. And I thought that was really cute. So anyway, I'd like to give a recommendation for the Hooked and Booked podcast and Crochet Conversations and I've linked to both of them in the in the show notes if anybody's if anybody's interested. And I thought you know, that's maybe why I said to you, maybe you need to crochet something because I'm thinking maybe maybe it's time for me to crochet something because I'm just not super excited by anything that that I'm working on right now. So maybe I just need a new inspiration. And the trailer is a big inspiration. Because now I can think of all sorts of things that I could make for the trailer you know. So you know like the cover for your toilet paper [laughing] Well, I mean I'm  kidding. Kelly  46:17   Yeah, I got it. [laughing] You need potholders and  hand towels and yeah, and Kelly  49:41   and especially those potholders and like what your great aunt what your your Aunt Ruth made, you know.  Marsha  49:53    Oh yeah, Great Aunt Ruth  Kelly  49:54   1950s style of of crochet potholders, those are really kind of interesting. Marsha  50:02   She did those really cute potholders that I don't know how she did it but there's rick rack in there. So you see part-- you see one point of the rick rack but not the other point of the rick rack. So it makes all these little triangles kind of  Kelly  50:16   Yeah,  Marsha  50:17   yeah, I've never seen a pattern like that but and I was also gonna say too that I've seen I had not seen crochet patterns  for pillows, but knitted pillows I see, you know, covers with color work. And that might be kind of fun, too. Yeah. Because you're going to need some pillows on the sofa.  Knit something--a cover--or crochet something. Yeah, you did the bee pillow, but something like? Kelly  50:44   Yeah, so I think I think I might crochet or weave.  Marsha  50:49   Well, yeah, weaving too. Kelly  50:52    I think I might make -- Robert brought regular bath towels. And we used the shower at the at the RV park, not the shower in the trailer. But one of the issues with the towels is that they take up so much space. And then you have to get them to dry. And Hetti had been talking in the winter weave along about the spa towels that she made. Because in Santa Cruz, it's kind of damp where she lives and she wanted towels that would dry. She was experimenting with different weave structures to see if she could get some towels that would that would dry quickly. You know, be absorbent, but also dry quickly. And then also they take up less space. You know those heavy terrycloth towels. They--not that we don't have the space, but they take up more space. And so yeah, if I could, I could weave something that might be really kind of a cool idea. So So yeah, I have some I have some other inspirations that I haven't had in a while, or haven't ever had really, that's kind of fun. So maybe someone else's sweater and then maybe some crochet and we'll see. We'll see. Check with us next time, listeners, to see if we've improved our attitudes. Marsha  52:21   Yes, I know. Well, I'm hoping my I'm hoping it might... Well maybe it is all my attitude, hopefully my attitude will. It's funny thinking about my attitude because I made the comment that part of all these projects I've been doing have been for other people. It makes me sound so selfish.  Kelly  52:36   But you know it's your hobby. Marsha  52:39   It is my hobby. I've been doing this, but I was down working in the basement and I pulled out because I finished the the socks remember that I had lost the blue, the navy blue for the toe. And I found it in the last episode. So I finished that sock. Oh, I didn't put that in my finished projects. Yes, I completely forgot. I did not put that in my finished objects. But I did finish that. And so instead of putting the Navy away, I knew that I had bought a skein of yarn for my brother, he had picked it out. And the Navy would work really well with it for heels and toes. So I pulled out that skein of yarn and wound it into a cake to cast those on for him. And I'm thinking maybe I should not do that. Given that. Yes, I'm thinking that this is... I should have a conversation with myself. Kelly  53:35   Yeah, maybe you need to do something. Do some self indulgent knitting. Marsha  53:41   Yeah, yeah.  Kelly  53:43   To go with your, your projects for other people. Marsha  53:48   You know what I'd like to knit is I have a combo spin that I made Kelly  53:55   oh yeah, that's a pretty one with silk. Marsha  53:58   I've never knit that up. And I would sort of like to knit that but there you go.  Kelly  54:03   Start that one.  Marsha  54:04   Yeah, there's no, I don't know. Okay. No complaining. Everyone, everybody's gonna want me to finish these projects as soon as possible so they don't have to hear about it anymore. Anyway, okay, next order of business. Kelly  54:21   I'm in the process of getting all of the winter weave along gift cards purchased. So if you won in the winter weave along you'll be hearing from me or getting an email with your gift card information. Either already or very shortly. I also have sent out all of the prizes, finally for the stitches giveaway that we did. I sent them out today. And I think that's the only business that we have. We do still have the SpeakPipe. SpeakPipe, they need to change their name, no one can say it. All right,  Speakpipe.com/twoewes, you can go there and you can leave a message about your favorite local yarn store. Or you can send it to us in an audio file, send it via email. Again, that's twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com, you can email us an audio file from your phone, or your computer or wherever. And tell us about your favorite yarn shop. We'd love to hear all about your yarn shop in your area. So I think that's really all. The Blanket Along ends this week. We talked about that.  Marsha  55:51   Let's just say what's going on. So the Stashbusting blanket along ends May 31. So and then the summer spin in starts June 1, and that, and that will go all summer. So one ends on the 31st. And the next event, or along, or whatever--contest--starts the next day, June 1, and that will go the entire summer and it ends September 5, which in the United States is Labor Day. So we've talked about this before. Memorial Day is sort of the unofficial start of summer, which is in May, and then Labor Day is sort of the unofficial end of summer. And so the summer spin-in will be June 1 through September 5. And then again, we're going to be at the Black Sheep gathering in Albany, Oregon. And that's June 24 through 26th. And that Saturday, we'll have a meet up at the trailer. Yeah. And Kelly, Should we just pick a time? Yeah, Kelly  56:53   Let's say 3:30 or 4:00. Yeah. Marsha  56:57   Yeah. Kelly  56:58   It's not like there's a definite, it's not like, well, you know, it's a party, so come after 3:30. We might not be there if you come before 3:30. Marsha  57:13   Yeah. We know a few people are coming to black sheep.  Kelly  57:15   And maybe we'll see some people who we've met in previous years. Who are going to be there too. They haven't had black sheep for a couple of years. So it will be really good. It will be fun to be back to another fiber festival. Marsha  57:40   Yes. Okay, Kelly, I think that's everything Kelly  57:45    I do too.  Marsha  57:45   Or anything else.  Kelly  57:46   Oh, no, I think that's it. Next episode. I want to talk a little bit more about my plans for the summer spin in. What I'm gonna do with the fleeces in my garage, maybe. But yeah, that's for next time. Maybe I'll have a sweater to work. Yes. Maybe it'll arrive in the mail someone else's sweater.  Marsha  58:08   Yeah, yeah.  Kelly  58:10   Okay. That'll give us something to talk about. Right? Marsha  58:14   Yes, I know. Well, we'll talk in two weeks and we'll find out if you have a sweater. Kelly  58:18   Okay, sounds good. All right. Okay, Marsha  58:21   bye bye. Kelly  58:22   Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. Marsha  58:29   Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects. Kelly  58:37   Until next time, we're the Two Ewes  Both  58:40   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

The Summer Spin-In is in full swing. Add in exposure to a scary virus, a little knitting, and some deck building, and it becomes a really full episode! Full show notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.  Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Kelly’s husband has been exposed to Covid-19 through someone at his workplace so we talk about that and how strange and scary it feels. Marsha is working on replacing the deck in her backyard and we talk about the project and what it has entailed so far.. She will put up a Ravelry entry for this DIY deck project. She recommends the Fine Home Building youtube channel for DIY videos.  Marsha’s Projects: I have finished the body and started the ribbing of my T-shirt,  Summer Fjord by Trin-Annelie using Quince & Co Sparrow in three colors.  I spun the first skein of Huckleberry Knits (40/40/20 Targhee, bamboo and silk) and Sauked in Farm (50/50 alpaca/Babydoll Southdown Wool). It is a three ply with two singles of the multi colored Huckleberry Knits and one of the solid Sauked in Farm. It will probably knit up with long color repeats. Kelly has inspired me to spin the cotton roving that I bought the first time I attended Black Sheep Gathering. Thank you so much to our listener you suggested the Summer Spin In. I find the spinning meditative and soothing. Kelly’s Projects  I’m back to work on the Mariannes Cardigan by Trine Bertelsen. The faux seam is working to hide the alternation of skeins better than when I didn’t have the faux seam.  I finished a pair of socks in handspun (Falkland in a colorway called Tomato and Mink.) I spun the yarn in a long color repeat fashion. Just end to end from one end of the roving to the other. It was chain-plied to preserve the colors and there is a nice color division between the rust and the gray.  The stripes are very large. I finished a skein of the green cotton that I was spinning. Once I boiled it with baking soda, the color shifted from a goldish green khaki to an army green color. I didn’t have any washing soda, so I used baking soda and a little dish detergent. Marsha asked, “baking soda vs washing soda? What is washing soda, anyway?” Here are some links with information. Borax vs Washing Soda Baking Soda vs Washing Soda What is Washing Soda I also ordered more cotton! Check out Sally Fox Vreseis cotton lint. That led to more discussion about natural colored cotton and a promise to put some information in the show notes. This Color is Alive, on the Vreseis website is a great explanation. Also the Wikipedia entry on naturally colored cotton says, “Natural color in cotton comes from pigments found in cotton pigments and produce shades ranging from tan to green and brown.[3] Naturally pigmented green cotton derives its color from caffeic acid, a derivative of cinnamic acid, found in the suberin (wax) layer which is deposited in alternating layers with cellulose around the outside of the cotton fiber.[4] While green colored cotton comes from wax layers, brown and tan cottons derive their color from tannin vacuoles in the lumen of the fiber cells.[3] I started two new projects since the last episode, Robert’s Pandemic Socks and a rug yarn Combo spin using Lincoln roving.  Patron Appreciation!  All patrons active as of the beginning of June get a Ravelry download pattern of their choice up to a $7 value. Contact Kelly (1hundredprojects) through Ravelry, Patreon or email (twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com) Summer Spin-In The Summer Spin-In started on US Memorial Day (May 25) and will continue until US Labor Day (September 7). Join in the chat thread and show off your finished projects in the FOthreads. We will have a thread for finished spinning projects and we’ll also include a thread for finished projects made with handspun. So non-spinners can be included, too! 

Lots of finished knitting, a fleece processing and spinning project, and a new warp are all on the show this week. We also pull two winners for Stephany Wilkes’ book, Raw Material. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.  Join the community on Ravelry and discuss the episode, or contact us with your thoughts. twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com is our email address.  We’d love to hear from you. Kelly finished the Unice Unicorn Hood for her grandniece.  She also finished a second pair of Jo’s Perfect Slipper Socks. They are in one of the Western Sky Knits merino cashmere sport weight skeins that she has used for criss-cross colors in argyle socks.  This is a perfect gift knit! The bulky-weight, 6-shaft weaving is finished, too.  It turned out a little too narrow to be a loom bench cushion so it is now out in the cat’s house as a warm and comfy sleeping pad. It was a great way to sample bulky weaving and the 6-shaft draft and to get used to the Macomber loom. The argyle socks are almost finished.  The knitting is done and now the ends need to be woven in and the back of the leg and sides of the foot need to be seamed. Kelly wound warp to make a new weaving project for the 4-shaft table loom.  The yarns are fairly thin and the sett will be 24 ends per inch.  She plans to use this to warp back to front for the first time as part of the Winter Weave Along. Join in the weaving fun in our weaving discussion on Ravelry. She made a video (click here for part 1 and here for part 2) showing her stash and selection process. Marsha hasn’t made any progress on her scarf, Slack Tide -  Poststitch or her Rabbit - Claire Garland. But she has been busy working on her cardigan, Cloud Cover - Heidi Kirrmaier and her “vanilla” socks with Austerman Step with heels and toes in Knit Picks Stroll. Marsha also pulled out a fleece she bought two years ago at the Black Sheep Gathering. It is a 6 pound Wensleydale x Corriedale x Merino cross she split with Kelly. The color is a beautiful dark chocolate espresso bean. Marsha talks about carding the fiber and using her diz for the first time. Marsha also talks about her planning for her next sweater, SnowFlower, a pullover with colorwork and plans for dyeing the contrasting colors. Kelly is planning to join in the Mystery Knit Along with Cozy Up Knits.  She’ll be using the Two Ewes Replenish Rambouillet for a 3 color shawl in 5 weeks. Stephany Wilkes has donated a copy of her book Raw Material: Working Wool in the West and the Ewes donated a second. We’ve chosen winners.  Check out the episode to see who won! Stephany has another book event at Books Inc. in Berkeley, California on January 8, 2019 at 7 pm.  In February she will be speaking at the Treadles to Threads guild meeting February 27 in Contra Costa.

The Two Ewes are back home after a fun weekend at The Black Sheep Gathering. This year the festival was held in Albany, Oregon June 29th - July 1st. Kelly and Marsha discuss the highlights of festival. Marsha had twelve hours of knitting on the round-trip train ride from Seattle plus knitting time the festival. She is almost ready to start the ribbing and short row shaping on her Summer Fjord tee by Trin-Annelie. At the BSG Marsha fed her addiction with more braids for a combo spin in, this time in red. She also bought two braids to go with a white, grey, and yellow braid she bought a year ago. She is not sure how she plans to spin these braids. Will it be her Combo Spin 5?  Marsha gave into temptation and bought a beautiful Corriedale x Romeldale fleece in steel gray.  Kelly also bought a Corriedale x Romeldale fleece, this one is white. And she succumbed to a beautiful steel gray Romney fleece that was for sale in the non-judged market. Her purchases at the BSG were restrained because after the Gathering she picked up a Great Wheel style wheel that she was buying from a fellow adventurer. The wheel was made by Bill Wyatt in 2001. In addition to exciting additions to the spinning wheel flock, Kelly was able to make great progress on two projects. The Argyle socks are coming along nicely and the Clover, Bee, and Revery Pillow is almost done! For full show notes, including pictures and all the links, go to https://twoewesfiberadventures.com/blogs/podcast

Spinning and weaving projects are working down Kelly's stash, while Marsha finished a cardigan.  The Ewes also discuss linen, based on a listener question.  They're also in planning mode, thinking ahead to the trip to Black Sheep Gathering and projects that will work for that trip. Contact Marsha and Kelly here if you have a topic you'd like discussed, if you're interested in the Black Sheep Gathering Meet-up, or to provide feedback.   Marsha has finished her Little Wave cardigan by Gudrun Johnson.  She knit it using Neighborhood Fiber Company yarn that she got at Stitches West in February. She made some sleeve modifications that are detailed in her project page. Now she's working on Summer Fjord using a Fibra Natura Linen.  Her yarn is in a heavier weight than called for in the pattern so there has been some adjusting of the pattern. Kelly and Marsha have both been wearing their Wool and Wire Jewelry from Never Not Knitting shop in Atascadero, California.  Kelly has also discovered, that like her bees, she rarely travels outside of a 5 mile radius.  Find out if you travel outside a radius by using the Radius Around a Point mapping tool. All the staying at home has led Kelly to use lots of yardage already this summer.  She finished many yards of plying, spun a braid of fiber into a nice 3-ply skein, has a blanket weaving project on the loom, and has started her colorwork bee pillow.  The pillow is a pattern by Mona Zillah called Clover, Bee, and Revery. There is a matching blanket that is also in Kelly's distant future plans. Speaking of blankets, the Karoo Vintage Mystery Crochet Along caught Kelly's eye.  She has the pattern at the top of her queue and is thinking about yarn choices.  Two pattern clues are out so far and more will be released between now and the end of summer.  The project will be a SloCro according to the designer, Jen Tyler, and is meant to be crocheted over the long term. She has additional information on her Hooks 'n' Tales website. A listener asked about the biasing that occurs when knitting with linen.  Marsha and Kelly talk about knitting with linen and share some information they gathered.  Here are some links Linen and Hemp Lovers group on Ravelry Microscopic photos of different fibers Kelly and Marsha will be attending the Black Sheep Gathering held in Albany, Oregon on June 29 - July 1. We will have an Open House meet up on June 30 around 4:30 p.m. at Kelly's SF Giants themed trailer. Stop by and say hi!

The combo spin discussion last week prompted some great discussion about color, design, knitting, and spinning. So after the project updates, the Ewes talk about some of the ideas shared by listeners and the inspiration they provided. For full show notes with pictures visit our show notes blog.  Kelly has done a lot of finishing!  Not saving the best for last, she finished the Lime Green and Pink Argyle socks.  They are so much fun that she's already cast on for the next pair of Argyles. The pattern she uses is adapted from this vintage sock pattern on freevintageknitting.com She also finished two summer tops.  The first is Summer Fjord by Trin-Annelie and is really happy with the results. The second is Sommer Sleeveless Top by Mari Chiba.  These will make a great summer tops if the weather on the coast ever warms up! Kelly also urges all California shepherds to enter fleeces into the Monterey County Fair Fleece Show and Auction.  Entries are due July 31 and entry instructions can be found here on the Monterey County Fair website. The fleece judging is on August 11 by Shelia January and the auction will be held on September 3. For more information you can contact Kelly: twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com Marsha is almost done with her Little Wave cardigan by Gudrun Johnston but discovered the sleeves are too big and too long. She has unraveled the first sleeve and is knitting it again adding more decreases. Check out her project page for an explanation of the math she used. The pattern modifications continue with Marsha's Summer Fjord T-shirt and there is a discussion of changing the straight body to an A-line. In our last episode The Ewes answered a listener's question about Combo Spin yarn. Several listeners posted pictures of their combo spin techniques and finished projects. "Infryq" had very different fibers she was working with and decided to card six pieces together and and then spin the rolags. Check our her finished yarn on her project page . Gorgeous! "StaciDSL" wove with her combo spin. "Meemacox" made two different sweaters with one combo spin project.  Just a reminder that Kelly and Marsha will be attending the Black Sheep Gathering held in Albany, Oregon on June 29 - July 1. We will again have a meet up around 4:30 p.m. at Kelly's trailer. Stop by and say hi! 

The Ewes are back to regular episodes with prize drawings, weaving, a couple stories and, of course, our knitting.  The weave along ended with some prizes.  One of the prizes is a Sweetheart Loom from Hazel Rose Looms. The Sheep Thrills KAL prize was also drawn in this episode. Marsha made good progress on her Little Wave cardigan by Gudrun Johnston. She has knit the body up to the armholes and has finished the first sleeve. When the second sleeve is completed both will be attached to the body and the yoke and saddle shoulders worked. This is the first sweater Marsha has made with this technique. Marsha cast on for the Summer Fjord by Trin-Annelie. This is the same Tee Kelly is making and like Kelly, Masha is using a different weight of yarn. She is going up to DK with Fibra Natura Flax (100% linen) and Kelly is going down with lace weight Sincere Sheep Linen. Lots of swatching, washing, measuring, and math went into the decision of sizes to make. There was pronounced biasing on Marsha's swatch so the Summer Fjord seemed a good choice with the different stitch patterns breaking up the stockinette.  Kelly's Summer Fjord has the body finished and is waiting for some work on the neckline and sleeve caps to be finished. Kelly has been a little slow on her projects, although she did finish the Christmas dishtowels that she recently put on the LeClerc floor loom.  The towels are all variations of Swiss Twill from the Marguerite P. Davison weaving book.   Kelly has also cast on the Sommer tank by Mari Chiba.  The yarn is some of her oldest stash, purchased in 2007 for a tank top shown in a magazine in May of that year. That sweater never got made and the yarn has narrowly escaped destash for a few years.  Once again some math and pattern adjustment was required since the gauge of the pattern isn't the gauge Kelly got in her swatch. She is "test knitting" this for a friend who might also want to make it.  Marsha's has completed three skeins of her Combo Spin #3. Kelly and Marsha have a discussion on the math required to determine the final percentages of fiber in the finished yarn from the various fibers that were used. Marsha was unusually restrained in the destash room at the NoCKRs retreat in April with the exception of a large "friend" that drove home with Marsha. Kelly and Marsha tell the story of  "Blithe Spirit" and her impact when was discovered napping at the NoCKRs retreat.  Marsha tells the story of a very strange coincidence. Her son's girlfriend needed a bookcase so Ben and her dad went to the ReStore to look for recycled materials to build a bookcase. They came back with a chest that unbelievably had belonged to Marsha's mother Podie! The chest had been left in the house by the previous owners and Podie had used it in her sewing room for notions for over 50 years. They added the bookcase to the top, painted it green, and added the bead board to the back. Marsha had given the chest to the Goodwill over a year ago and the universe sent it back for Ben's girlfriend! Events on the horizon: Spinning at the Winery, Retzlaff Winery in Livermore, May 19 from 10-4 Black Sheep Gathering in Albany Oregon, June 29-July 1.  Listener meet-up on Saturday, June 30. Monterey County Fair Fleece Judging, August 11 at 9 am with meet-up event after (Wool show information on page 58 of link)

Barley Hat by Tin Can Knits, using Dream In Color Classy in Midnight Derby - https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/barley-2Alternate Cable Cast On by Woolly Wormhead - http://www.woollywormhead.com/cast-on/Knitting bag by Pokdej - https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/pokdejFibres West is coming up in March!! - https://www.fibreswest.com/Vivid Yarn Studio - https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/aVividYarnStudioKirby Wirby Afterthough Heel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=616gmtAYWLUIsola by Christelle Nihoul - https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/isola-4Black Sheep Gathering - http://www.blacksheepgathering.org/Zebra Mildliners - https://www.jetpens.com/Zebra-Mildliner-Double-Sided-Highlighters/ct/894Halifax by Hey June Handmade - https://www.heyjunehandmade.com/product/halifax-hoodie/Union St. Tee by Hey June Handmade - https://www.heyjunehandmade.com/product/union-st-tee/Peg Legs by Patterns for Pirates - http://www.patternsforpirates.com/product/peg-legs/Sabrina Slims Pants by Love Notions - https://www.lovenotions.com/product/sabrina-slims-pants-0-28-plus-maternity

Kelly and Marsha talk spinning! Plus they give updates on current projects and news about upcoming events. Marsha's Projects Marsha doesn't have any finished projects to report but has made steady progress on her Twice Born shawl and Summer Cardigan. Marsha had a fun day with lunch and a visit to All Wound up in Edmonds, Washington with "laterknitter" and "jchant". Look how happy we are to be together surrounded by gorgeous yarn! Marsha had a fun day with lunch and a visit to All Wound up in Edmonds, Washington with "laterknitter" and "jchant". Look how happy we are to be together surrounded by gorgeous yarn! Kelly's Projects Kelly has finally finished the Playground Shawl! This pattern caused her a lot of trouble, not because it is difficult, but because of her combination of slippery yarn and slippery needles. The only other active project is the Striped CoBaSi Socks. Oh wait! There's an octopus that needs to be stuffed and seamed up. Tour de Fleece Marsha has been spinning every day as time allows. Here is a link to to her Tour de Fleece project page for more photos. Kelly has also committed to spinning every day, along with a few other spinning related goals. Her Tour de Fleece 2017 page has a list of the goals and photos of the spinning projects. The first finished spinning of the tour is the Loop Bump that she plied with silk thread from the Black Sheep Gathering. Upcoming Events Kelly will be presenting to the Santa Cruz Knitting Guild for their July program. The title of the presentation is How Ply Structure Affects Knitting. Presentation will be July 20, 10:15-12:15 at the Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz. Want to see some wool judging? Mark your calendar for Saturday, August 12 at 9 am. This is the date of the fleece judging for the Monterey County Wool Show. The show is in conjunction with the Monterey County Fair and the auction is held on the last day of the fair which is Labor Day in September. But the fleeces are judged ahead of time and the Ann's Web Guild holds a potluck lunch for attendees of the judging. If you are attending and want more information, contact us at twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com Bees Kelly had an aspiring beekeeper come over to watch her recent bee inspection. Four of the five colonies are doing well. They were able to see a couple queens and they had the chance to eat honey comb right out of the hive. Join us for Morning Coffee! It's a chat thread on our Ravelry group that has been really fun. Come join the conversation. And if you're not a member of our Ravelry group, please join. Marsha and Kelly will be doing a member appreciation giveaway during our next episode.  

The Black Sheep Gathering 2017 was so wonderful the Two Ewes can't stop talking about it!  The wool judge was Judith MacKenzie so of course it was such a learning experience.  There are also a few finished knits, some new fiber, yarn, and, you guessed it, FLEECE! Kelly arrived in Eugene after a long hot drive through the northern California heatwave.  Marsha and Kim came down from Seattle on the train.  They met and prepared for the opening of the show the next day.  Marsha and Kelly spent Saturday in the fleece judging, soaking up all the information that Judith MacKenzie so generously shared with the audience.  On Saturday, there was a side trip to two Eugene yarn shops.  Cozy is a newly opened shop in the old downtown area near the train station.  Youthful and spacious, this shop really showed off the many indie-dyed striped and speckled  yarns in its stock.  It also had a good stock of Flax by Fibra Natura and Marsha snagged some for a linen tee.  Then on to Soft Horizons Fibre.  This shop is in an old house filled with yarn.  The attraction for the Two Ewes and their friend Kim was the Stone Hedge Fiber Crazy yarn.  It has the largest selection of this yarn of any yarn shop in the northwest.  Back at the fleece barn, Kelly found a gem of a fleece had gone unsold so she bought it. She also found some interesting breed blends at the Homestead Hobbyist booth.  Both Marsha and Kelly found plying silk on wood bobbins and Marsha also found some batts that she loved.  At the Jorstadt Creek booth, they both bought cashmere laceweight in support of The Great Steppe Fiber Project.  Maddy from Jorstadt is going to Mongolia to teach spinning and help to provide women there with the skills to have a fiber company.  To help pay for the trip and learn more, visit the gofundme page. As for the knitting, Marsha made good progress on her Twice Born shawl by Magdalena Lorentz.  Friends helped her determine that the Easy Folded Poncho is finished and doesn't need the cowl neck.  Kelly worked on an OLD project, her Playground Shawl, a pattern by Justyna Lorkowska.  Started in August 2015, this shawl has been in hibernation since early last spring.  Now it is back out and on its way to being finished.

It's been a wild week, but some real knitting,  a little fantasy knitting, and lots of travel-knitting planning are all in this episode. Kelly finished the Havannah.  This pattern by Heidimarie Kaiser is a great casual tee.  Put in the beads that are called for in the pattern, or replace them with yarn overs for a more lacy style. Marsha is on track to finish the Easy Folded Poncho in time to wear it for Black Sheep Gathering at the end of June.  It is knit in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool that she found at the Goodwill.  She also finished the Meret Beret  but this one might be frogged because the yarn and pattern don't seem to be a good match. The two pairs of socks that have been discussed in past episodes will also need to be frogged and restarted.  Neither the striped socks out of CoBaSi, nor the short socks on 9-inch circulars actually fit.  Oh well.  It's not sock failure, its a learning experience! Kelly's fantasy knitting and trip planning leads to a trip through her Ravelry queue.  Most likely to be cast on are the Lavender Honey tee from an interesting cotton yarn in red and gray and a Mohair Bias Loop from two Habu yarns in red and eggplant. She is also thinking about the Huntertwasser Neptunia shawl, the Cancun Boxy Lace Top, the Icarus tank, the Sea Glass cardigan, and the crocheted Camelia Chameleon. 

Our monogamous knitting continues, but the wool fleece auction, bees, and planning for upcoming fiber events has kept life interesting! Project Updates Marsha continues to work on Frank's Spirt Yarn Afghan using the pattern from Stephen West called Garter Squish. She loves how the afghan keeps changing with each additional color. The afghan currently is about six feet wide and about 36" long. The afghan is no longer very portable, so Marsha is back working on the Havasu Falls shawl by Alison LoCicero. It's pretty good social knitting right now. Marsha also washed the black Wensleydale-Cormo-Merino cross fleece she bought at The Black Sheep Gathering. Kelly continues for work on her Funky Grandpa cardigan that she is calling Handspun Charlotte Cardigan because she is using handspun from a sheep named Charlotte. She reports on her experience of redoing one of the sleeves. Kelly also discusses dyeing yarn for the her next project, Opus the Octopus by Cate Carter-Evans. She is motivated by the need to have a project for to work on while attending a conference. (Since recording Kelly has been on work conference travel and has made some good progress on the octopus!) "Advent-ewes" Kelly attended the Monterey County Fair and the wool auction. She sat in on the fleece judging, volunteer with set up, and attended the auction. She exercised extreme self-control and purchased only one fleece, but it is a beauty...a Santa Cruz Island fleece from Blue Oak Canyon Ranch! Here is a link to an article about these sheep to understand why we are so intrigued. Marsha will be attending some events this fall and wanted to remind people about the terrific website called Knitter's Review that lists world wide fiber events. Nice to read about the events and dream. :-) Bees Kelly is so happy to report that she had a bee swarm in her garden! Check out her Instagram account at 1hundredprojects to see videos of the swarm and how Kelly got the swarm into the hive. So interesting. Kelly highly recommends the book Honeybee Democracy by Thomas Seeley and you can see a discussion of the book here. If you want to see a presentation of the research that was in the book, here is a really interesting video.    

Spinning, dyeing moth-proof yarn, crocheting bears, and knitting handspun singles are adventures in this episode.  Kelly gives an extensive review of knitting with handspun singles so that spinners will know how to use their yarn without always plying it.  Marsha has been researching the meaning of the old-fashioned "moth-proofing" that was done to her spirit yarn.  We hope that both topics are interesting and helpful to you! For show notes with pictures, see http://twoewesfiber.com Marsha's projects Marsha has not done too much knitting recently but she has made some progress on the Havasu Falls Shawl by Allison LoCicero and completed spinning 10 ounces of golden Shetland roving that she got at the Black Sheep Gathering.  She has also been doing a little more over-dyeing in preparation for the the afghan project she is making with spirit yarn.  Detailed information about the preparations for this project (including the math that we discussed in the previous episode) is in the Project Page for Frank's Spirit Yarn Afghan.  One of the colors came out lime green, as planned.  The other skein was meant to be coral but turned out gold.  The yarn was labeled as "moth-proofed" and Marsha has done some research about what that means.  The process includes treating the wool with a pesticide called Mitin ff, and may be the reason that the dye didn't adhere properly.    Kelly's Projects Kelly has started back up on the second of the Civil War Socks for Robert.  She has put a few more sections on the NoCKRs shawl, too, but it is now time to figure out how much yarn she will need to do the final repeats.  She has modified the New Beginnings pattern by Boo Knits in order to use two colors and wants to use all 800 yards, if possible.  Kelly has also continued in her addiction to crocheting bears for the Mother Bear Project!  She now has 13 bears to enter into the Knit/Crochet Along that the 2 Knit Lit Chicks are hosting on their Ravelry group.  To see pictures of the bears with the children in African countries take a look at the Mother Bear gallery! Swatch-a-Palooza Kelly has been doing a study of knitting with handspun singles.  She used a variety of handspun yarns and swatched them with a variety of needle sizes, documenting the process along the way.  She has posted her article, complete with pictures, here on the Two Ewes blog dated July 31, 2016. Fiber in the Wild Marsha's ears perked up when she heard NPR commentators say that Hillary Clinton should "stick to her knitting" as a strategy for her acceptance speech.  The Two Ewes weren't sure what that meant and speculated that it must be an old saying.  After recording, they found this link that helps to explain the meaning!

Math, over-dyeing, color theory, and an interesting discussion of the Faroe Islands join knitting and spinning in the topics of this episode. Kelly's Projects Kelly has won the battle with the first of the Civil War socks. Several adjustments for fit were needed, but the finished sock is now perfect and it is on to the second one. The only other knitting has been on the NoCKRs shawl. The desire to use as much yarn as possible of both colors has led to some pattern modification experiments. Kelly has been doing a lot of spinning with two different wool/angora blends. One is a dyed gray and the other is a natural white. She also continues working on the CVM fleece with both a fingering/sport 3-ply and a bulky singles yarns on the wheels. Marsha's Projects Marsha was doing really well on her Fairfield Cardigan by Michele Wang but discovered she knit past the point where she should begin decreasing for the shoulders. Ugh! She now needs to do some ripping back. She started a shawl call Havasu Falls by Allison LoCicero using Freia Handpaints Ombre Lace in the color way Ice Queen. Since the last episode's discussion of the Tour de Fleece, Marsha has been focusing on spinning. She has one skein done and three bobbins waiting to be plied of the golden Shetland roving she purchased last month at the Black Sheep Gathering. When that project is done she plans to start spinning a big ball of unknown wool roving from Pendleton Woolen Mills. The Two Ewes have a discussion on the planning Marsha is doing to make the Garter Squish afghan by Stephen West. There is lots of talk of math including the golden ratio! The Garter Squish afghan is knit using two balls of worsted weight yarn. One in a main color and the second in ever changing contrast colors. For the main color Marsha will use the repurposed blue spirit yarn from the giant sweater she made for her father. For the contrasting colors she will use odds and ends from her stash. She didn't love some of the colors which leads to a Fiber in the Wild adventure. Fiber in the Wild Kelly and Marsha met Maddy Wallace (appledappy) at the Jorstadt Creek Dye Studio booth at the Black Sheep gathering. Maddy invited them to Over Dye Saturday held at the studio in Olympia, Washington. Marsha was able to attend and over dyed some of her thrift shop yarn that she will use in her Garter Squish afghan. Over Dye Saturdays supports Click for Babies who educate new parents on preventing shaken baby syndrome. Jorstadt Creek Dye Studio is owned by Kerry Graber (jorstadtcreek) and she is focusing on fiber from local producers featuring Icelandic, Finn, and Gotland wools all grown in the Olympia area. Her yarns are sold at Bazaar Girls in Port Townsend, WA and Yorkshire Yarns in Lakewood, WA. An Etsy shop is coming soon. Kerry is also part of a design group call the BK Collective featuring Jorstadt yarns. Marsha met two of the designers, Kaia Petersen (cayennepepper) and Jann Hoppler (jmhknits) at the studio. They have some lovely patterns. A couple of Marsha's favorites are.... Traslov Hat by Kerry Graber Garrison Street Scarf and Cowl by Kaia Petersen Ebb and Flow Shawl by Jann Hoppler A huge thank you to everyone at Jorstadt Creek. Marsha had a blast! Here are some pictures from the day or visit her project page, Frank's Spirit Yarn Afghan, for more photos. And finally, Marsha talks about a story she heard on the BBC World Service about sheep being used to map the Faroe Islands. Here are links discussed. Faroe Islands Sheep View 360 Free Faroese Sweater Pattern Free Sarah Lund Faroese Sweater Pattern For photos check out our blog.  

Knitting, spinning and preparing for the Black Sheep Gathering has Marsha and Kelly so excited that they can't stay on topic!  Lots of interesting (we hope!) tangents in this episode. Marsha has finished her Ricky for All Seasons by Vera Sanon.  She loves the look and the fit and recommends the pattern.  She is still working on her Spirit-Yarn-a-Long project, a shawl called Sunny Delight by Brian Smith.  This will be great train knitting for her train trip to Eugene for the Black Sheep Gathering.  Kelly cast on and finished a Spirit Yarn project.  The Bethel Tank has been in her queue for about two years. She used some coned cotton that she and Marsha had dyed a couple summers ago in a dyeing experiment.  Along with the cotton she carried along a strand of rough-spun linen coned yarn. The Spirit Yarn Along will continue until June 30 in the Ravelry Group.  Winners will be chosen randomly from the discussion participants.  Share your projects and Spirit Yarn stories. While discussing the projects Marsha speculated that there was probably a podcast about buying storage units.  Indeed there is!  Kelly found this podcast about buying storage units.   Storage Auction Shogun's Podcast.  Kelly is also working on Civil War era socks for her husband from a 19th century pattern.  The toes, cuffs, and heels will be her handspun.  It is a 3-ply mohair and merino blend fiber from Sincere Sheep.  The leg and foot of the socks will be Invictus Yarn BFL sock in an indigo color. Going to the Black Sheep Gathering  in Eugene, Oregon?  If so, we have a meet-up planned for the evening of Saturday, June 25.  We hope you can join us.  Listen to the show and check out the Ravelry Group for more details.

In this episode you will only hear one half of the Two Ewes. Kelly finished up the school year with a cold and wasn't able to record. We didn't want to miss reaching out to everyone so it is short episode with Marsha. Well, Kelly does make a short appearance at the end of the podcast since at editing time she had a little better voice! Kelly has finished two projects!  She decided that a good day to bind off the I Love My Husband scarf was their 32nd anniversary.  It was one of the projects that she brought on the camping trip they went on.  She also finished the Edie tee by Isabel Kramer.  She decided not to add the neckline edging, but she did add a moss stitch edging to the hem and sleeves.  The yarn fabric washed up nicely in a cold water machine wash and a trip through the dryer. The hem and sleeve edges are rolling up, so it will need a bit of ironing there. She continues work on the Latticework Cardigan and hopes to finish before the Black Sheep Gathering.  Breaking News!  The sweater is finished!  The end of the semester prevented her from selecting a spirit yarn project (although Pi Baby from last episode was made from spirit yarn).  Now that school is over and the grading is done, she will be searching through stash for a good candidate. Marsha has not picked up her Fairfield Cardigan by Michele Wang for weeks since she has been working on other projects. She is almost to the bottom edge of her Ricky for All Seasons by Vera Sanon. She want the T-shirt to be a little longer than the pattern is written. She plans to put the bottom edge on waste yarn, finish the neck and sleeves and see how much yarn she has to make the Tee longer. Yarnia in Portland, Oregon was awesome and sent her 2 ounces more yarn to finished her Striped Study Shawl. Thank you so much Yarnia! Marsha is still working on her Spirit-Yarn-a-Long project, a shawl called Sunny Delight by Brian Smith. She has been spinning and carding the Merino fleece she bought last year at the Black Sheep Gathering. Marsha promised herself she cannot by more fleece at this year's gathering until she spins what she bought last year! Fiber in the Wild: Marsha visited just two yarn shops, Tolt and Quintessential Knits, during the LYS Tour of shops in the Seattle area. At Tolt she bought baa ram ewe Dovestone DK from Yorkshire, in a light grey/blue call Brambly Bath . The yarn is 50% Blueface Leicester, 25% Wensleydale, and 25% Masham. Marsha had not heard of Masham so had to buy the yarn! We have a discussion thread in the Ravelry Group for the Spirit Yarn Along. Use your spirit yarn (whether de-stash or DEEP stash) to make something between now and June 30. Talk about it, show us pictures, and share the creativity. Winners will be selected randomly from the thread. Kelly attended the Spinning at the Winery on June 4, held by the Treadles to Threads Guild at the Retzlaff winery in Livermore.  What a fun event!  In addition to spinning a braid from Woolgatherings, there was much spinning encouragement going on.  Dagmar got going with her new wheel and Jennai actually won a wheel in the raffle!  Woohoo!  What a great day! Going to the Black Sheep Gathering?  If so, we have a meet-up planned for the afternoon/evening of Saturday, June 25.  We hope you can join us.  Listen to the show and check out the Ravelry Group for more details. There is a little Bee Talk at the end of the podcast.    For photos check out our blog at twoewesfiber.com

� Kelly and Marsha have been busy with non-fiber responsibilities but still made progress on various projects and even started a few. Kelly finished a crochet gift for a first-time-father-to-be. Since it was a math department colleague, she made Pi Guy for the new baby. She is currently working on the scarf for her husband, the Edie tee and the crochet Latticework Cardigan that she cast on for the Spring Fever Knit/Crochet Along. Marsha continues to work on her Fairfield Cardigan by Michele Wang, but progress has slowed because she has started new projects. (What was she thinking!) She has finished the deceases for the armhole and will soon start the shoulder and neck shaping. She is making good progress on her Ricky for All Seasons by Vera Sanon and is about to start the shaping decreases for the body. In Episode 41 Marsha discussed her plans for a shawl using the Spirt Yarn from the NoCKR's detash room. She took home with her a skein each of Cascade Yarns Alpaca Lana D'Oro (multi), Knit Pics Capra (brown), and Ranch of the Oaks Alpaca (grey). She purchased a beautiful skein of The Fiber Company Acadia (cream) that coordinates beautifully with the Spirit Yarns. She cast on the shawl Sunny Delight MK2 by Brian Smith. Marsha also has a self-imposed deadline to spin all, or at least part of, the two fleeces she purchased last year at the Black Sheep Gathering before she attends this year's festival in June. Kelly discusses some Fiber in the Wild. We have a discussion thread in the Ravelry Group for the Spirit Yarn Along. Use your spirit yarn (whether de-stash or DEEP stash) to make something between now and June 30. Talk about it, show us pictures, and share the creativity. Winners will be selected randomly from the thread. Kelly is looking forward to Spinning at the Winery on June 4, held by the Treadles to Threads Guild at the Retzlaff winery in Livermore. Going to the Black Sheep Gathering? If so, we have a meet-up planned for the afternoon/evening of Saturday, June 25. We hope you can join us. Listen to the show and check out the Ravelry Group for more details.  

The Two Ewes record together this week since Marsha is visiting Kelly for the NoCKRs retreat (last weekend) and the Big Sur 21-miler (coming up this weekend).  You'll hear about what inspired us at the retreat, the progress we've made on our current projects, and our plans to meet more listeners.  We also talk about the idea of Spirit Yarn. The retreat was a great way for Kelly to get miles of spinning done! She worked on more of the yarn for her mother's Shibui Axis vest.  Two large bobbins were filled and that should end up being 4-5 ounces of yarn once it is plied.  Kelly also knitted on the Funky Grandpa cardigan that she is making out of handspun.  Both of these projects turned out to be great social projects.  Marsha worked on her Fairfield Cardigan by Michele Wang.  She also started the Shetland Crescent shawl by Kieran Foley, but made better progress on the sweater.  The projects at the retreat were so fabulous that Kelly was inspired to immediately queue the Mesa by Yumiko Alexander.  It is a versatile garment that can be worn as a cape or as a shawl or as a poncho.   She is also planning to make the Cancun by Erin Kate Archer.  This boxy sweater is essentially a lace sampler.  The version at the retreat was tunic length and very flattering! Marsha was inspired by the colors at the retreat.  California knitters seem to use more colorful yarns than knitters in the Pacific Northwest. One item in particular caught her eye.  It was a beautiful version of the Stephen West shawl Exploration Station.   She was also inspired to one day take a trip with Kelly to Rhinebeck,  aka New York State Sheep and Wool Festival. All that inspiration has led to some big plans!  Kelly plans to make the Edie Tee since Marsha's finished project looked so fantastic on her.  Kelly bought yarn that would be suitable while visiting the Continental Stitch in Morgan Hill just before the retreat to take advantage of the discount that they were offering NoCKRs participants.  Marsha has plans to make Ricky for All Seasons by Vera Sanon Both of the Two Ewes purchased the custom dyed retreat yarn from Duren Dye Works. Kelly is thinking of making the two-color shawl Sjø by Katja Löffler.  Marsha is considering the Daydreamer Shawl by Janina Kallio.    Marsha and Kelly enjoyed the de-stash room at the retreat and came home with lots of Spirit Yarn. These are yarns that have been loved at one time, but now need good homes.  They contain such spirit and potential that just looking at them provides so much inspiration for projects to come. Going to the Black Sheep Gathering?  If so, we have a meet-up planned for the afternoon/evening of Saturday, June 25.  We hope you can join us.  Listen to the show for more details.

What's new with the Two Ewes? Well, not much knitting, but lots of other things have been going on. Both Kelly and Marsha are participating in the"Leave It" Division of the  Caithness Craft Un-Knit-Along (UnKAL).  There is also a chat thread for this UnKAL in the Twinset Designs Ravelry Group.  Marsha has put her Striped Study Shawl in the closet and Kelly has sent her Playground Shawl out to recess. :-)  Meanwhile Kelly continues crocheting on the Starwars amigurumi. She has four done, Jabba on the hook and is planning at least ten more for the May the Fourth Be With You deadline!  The designer's (Lucy Collin) Flickr page has even more ideas than the book that came with the kit! The Easter Bunny came out so cute and was so fun, Kelly decided to make a toy for both the "grands." The Purple Bunny was a free Drops Designs pattern with a few modifications that can be found in my project page.  The purple mohair brushed up really nicely to make a slightly furry bunny. The companion toy was Marshall from Paw Patrol, a pattern by Melissa's Crochet Patterns.   Bee-sides the toys, Kelly has created a nucleus hive.  See this blog post for more information.   She has seen the queen bee for the first time.  Very exciting!  Here is a photo of a queen bee from the Bee Informed website.  Maybe someday Kelly will be able to take photos of her own bees. Marsha continues to work on her Edie Tee by Isabell Kraemer. She has about another 5" to knit and then will begin short rows to shape the bottom edge. Marsha has stalled out on her Fairfield Cardigan by Michele Wang because she doesn't understand a specific stitch. She plans to contact the designer for help because she wants to work on it while visiting Kelly in April. In January Marsha set the goal of spinning the Shetland and Merino fleeces she purchased last June at the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. She plans to attend again this year and promised herself she could not buy anymore fleeces until she spun what she already has! She's spun about half of the Shetland so far.  Here is a link to information about cabled and crepe yarn.  Kelly and Marsha discuss this variation of plying. Enzo is now a little over three months old and weighs 29 pounds. Kelly and Marsha had a good chuckle over some the the crazy looks for poodles that are on the internet. (Photos from Drue Johnson's Pinterest Board, Ridiculous Poodle Cuts.)  Some of these looks seem borderline animal cruelty and Marsha promises she will never do this to sweet Enzo (unless he is a very naughty dog). ;-) We're having another contest with prizes! You are encouraged to cast on a project for spring but casting on is not required to play. (But really, why would you pass up an opportunity to cast on?)  The project can be anything that feels like spring to you. Maybe a Tee or lightweight sweater, spring colors or maybe you want to learn a new technique for a new season.  It can be knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving--or just talking about the above. Finishing is DEFINITELY NOT required!  Isn't spring fever the urge to be irresponsible? ;-) We have a discussion thread called Spring Fever Free-for-All on Ravelry. The winners will be selected by random number generator, so the more you participate the more chances you have of winning. Contest ends at midnight on May 4th. For photos, go to the Two Ewes Fiber Adventures blog.

We don't always record together, but when we do, we prefer giggles.  Please listen responsibly. Marsha visited Kelly over the Labor Day Weekend, and the Two Ewes have so much to discuss that this episode comes to you in two parts. This episode is ready for listening and Part 2 (Episode 25) will be uploaded in a few days. In Part 1 we announce our first ever Crochet-A-Long! The CAL starts October 1st and ends December 31st. Projects can be of any size or number. Kelly is planning to make Happypotamus the Happy Hippo by Heidi Bears that she has had in her queue for awhile now. Marsha is planning to make Virus Shawl by Julia Marquardt. Marsha has never crocheted before so is planning to take a class at her LYS to get started. During their visit Marsha completed her Pebble Beach Shawl by Helen Stewart using Stonehedge Fiber Mill Crazy. Thank you to our listener and Ravelry group member "kimbuktu7" for the recommendation. This is the first shawl Marsha has made that is crescent shaped and she loves the way the ends curl. A very wearable shawl, plus the colors look good with so many outfits. Kelly also has a project going with Stonehedge Crazy yarn.  She is making a Wild and Crazy version of the Mielie vest by Hillary Smith Callis using two skeins of Crazy, along with a large skein of purple fingering weight that she has dyed.  This is a great pattern and is knitting up so quickly that it is addicting! Marsha made good progress on her Lanata Cardigan by Amy Christoffers. This is a bottom up raglan sleeve cardigan. Marsha completed the body up to the armholes while visiting Kelly. It was now time to start the sleeves and in the podcast Marsha and Kelly discuss how she modified the sleeves. Kelly searched her button stash and found buttons for the cardigan. Marsha started a new shawl called Antarktis by Janina Kallio. She is using Dragonfly Fibers Pixie in the color Zombie Apocalypse. Marsha brought some of her washed Merino and Shetland fiber that she purchased at the Black Sheep Gathering. She had some trouble carding and spinning the fiber and in the podcast we discuss how Kelly troubleshooted (troubleshot?) the problem. Marsha discusses her experience using Kelly's drum carder and Kelly gives carding tips. (Perhaps a video would be a better medium for explaining the carding tips! There was lots of handwaving during the recording of this part!) The other project that Kelly worked on while Marsha was visiting was the Playground Shawl by Justyna Lorkowska, using Alexandra's Crafts Merino/Tencel and a lone ball of Frogtree coral-colored alpaca.    Besides her two new projects, Kelly has plans for a large three-color shawl.

 Kelly is camping in her newly painted trailer known as "The Clubhouse." It is a 10.5 foot, 1967 trailer that has been decorated in a San Francisco Giants theme.  They have camped in The Clubhouse for 3 summers, but this is the first trip after it got the new paint job, had some water damage repaired, and had the interior re-paneled. This episode includes an audio field trip to the Mt. Madonna Campground in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Watsonville and Gilroy. It is a beautiful "on location" recording studio!     In the background you may hear Steller's Jays and Acorn Woodpeckers. The Acorn Woodpeckers make holes in trees and store their acorns in them like a winter pantry. They often take one tree and completely cover it with holes. On the visit here last November all the holes in the trees near the restroom were filled with acorns from the Tan Bark Oaks. On this trip all the holes were empty.     While on the camping trip, Kelly is knitting on two projects: the Dorthelia tank by Corrina Ferguson from the book that the Two Ewes reviewed last episode and the Featherweight Cardigan pattern by Hannah Fettig. The tank top is knit from red Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy yarn and the Featherweight is being knit with three cones of thread (two linen, one cotton) in blue, cream and mint green. Progress on the tank is fast, progress on the cardigan is slow!     The cardigan is a project from Kelly's rescued stash of coned weaving yarn. This project started with swatching during the Yarniacs Q1 Love the Yarn You Own challenge. (Link to Yarniacs episode 92.)  It was supposed to be finished in Q2, but that didn't happen. A couple of other stash projects that were more portable got in the way. This cardigan will be finished in Q3. Also started during the Q1 challenge are a set of dishtowels with turquoise as the main warp color and a Herbert Niebling doily in the Frosted Ferns pattern. (The name in English is not very accurate since the pattern is actually oak leaves and acorns.)   Both of these projects hit the rocks with mistakes, but have been righted and are now in full swing again for Q3. The challenge has been a great way to focus on using the stash of coned yarns that Kelly was itching to find a use for!     In our last episode Marsha was blocking her Blue Juno Cardigan by yellowcosmo made with Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silky Victoria. The fit is perfect! Marsha highly recommends the pattern and the yarn. Marsha continues to work on the Wispy Willow Cardigan by Cheryl Beckenrich made with HiKoo CoBaSi.   She cast on for a cardigan called Lanata by Amy Christoffers using StahlSche Wolle Limbo Superwash that was a destash yarn from a friend. The cardigan has raglan sleeves and is knit from the bottom up featuring lace panels that look like vines trailing up the front and back of the sweater.   Marsha talks about washing some of the Shetland fleece she bought last month at the Black Sheep Gathering. Since recording the episode she bought hand carders and has carded and started spinning the Shetland.   Marsha had an "advent-ewe" to Chicago the home of "Cloud Gate," or as the locals call it, "The Bean."     She had time to visit a few yarn shops and did a little stash enhancing. She saw:     A lovely shop named Loopy Yarns. She bought a skein of HPKY Regina Louise Lace in Shamrock.   An unusual shop called We'll Keep You in Stitches   A terrific shop named Windy Knitty Marsha bought a skein of Knitwhits Freia Fine Handpaints Ombre Lace and and Fleur de Fibers Acadian fingering in the color way "Puppet Bike" inspired by the Puppet Bike.   A super cute shop called Sifu Design Studio. Marsha bought a skein of Dragonfly Fibers Pixie Fingering "Zombie Apocalypse".   Her last stop was a crazy shop called Chicago Fabric Yarn and Button.   The Chicago Yarn Crawl will take place from August 1-9. If you're in the area be sure to check it out!     Marsha loves old houses and had time to visit three. She highly recommends visiting:   The Driehaus Museum   Henry B. Clarke House   John J. Glessner House Museum  

Marsha and Kelly both finished knitting their sweaters and both are big wins!  (At recording time we both had a little left to go, but now that the episode is published we are finished).  Marsha's Blue Juno sweater fits even better than she thought it would. Kelly's Purple Cherry Vanilla sweater is the perfect sweatshirt alternative and used yarn from her extensive stash of rescued weaving cones.  Double win! Marsha is planning to finish her son's tricolor socks before the month of July is over.  Inspired by others in the Warmth of Summer KAL, Marsha has started a Wispy Willow Cardigan using a spring green CoBaSi yarn from Hi-Koo.  She has also been busy spinning some of the CVM fleece that Kelly gave her to try, and is making plans to wash and card the fleece that she got from The Black Sheep Gathering. Kelly has also been spinning a bit since returning from her trip and has some plans for Tour de Fleece. But mostly she has been finishing up current projects that she brought with her--a Rikke hat, for example. Kelly also explains why her decision to start beekeeping with foundationless frames has made the steep beekeeping learning curve even more steep.  The Two Ewes review a wonderful first book by designer Corrina Ferguson.  Review copies were kindly provided by the publisher, Interweave/F+W. Interweave also provided this information about the book: Knitting is not just for cold and snowy climates! For anyone who has ever stopped to wonder what knitters in the South are wearing—and knitting—for the changing seasons, Florida designer Corrina Ferguson has set out to show us in her new book, Warm Days, Cool Knits: Lighter Designs for Every Season (Interweave/F+W; $24.99; June 2015). “In the South we love to knit. And we want to knit pretty wearable things, not just accessories and household decorations,” explains Corrina. “That’s why I created this collection of patterns to showcase the knitted seasons of the South, with projects that are fitting for any climate.”   Marsha and Kelly had almost an identical list of favorites from the book, including the tank shown on the book's cover.  Kelly has started swatching already for one of the other tops in the book.  Another big win!  This book is full of great knitting patterns for warmer coastal climates like the Salinas and Seattle areas--not just the south. A copy of this wonderful book is awarded as one of the two prizes for the Warmth of Summer Knit Along that just ended. Check the episode to hear the winners.

In the episode Marsha  contributes the B side, or flip side, to Kelly's A side of our podcast. So much has been going on that Marsha feels her brain is a shaken snow globe with all her information, stories, and ideas spinning around. Marsha gives an update on her current projects and reports on her two recent advent-ewes. The first was a weekend in Bellingham, WA where she visited local yarn shops. The second was her fabulous weekend at the annual Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon.  HEAVEN for a new spinner (or any spinner, really)!  There is knitting, spinning, fleece, yarn and all kinds of fibery goodness.  it's enough to swirl your brain! As with the 20a series this episode is unedited, due to Kelly's Washington, DC travel constraints. We recommend listening to the 20a series first and then this episode 20b. Also, new listeners might want to start with one of our more typical episodes.  Happy listening! Don't forget to visit our blog at http://twoewesdyeing.blogspot.com/

I’m very excited to share the twenty-sixth episode of the Woolful podcast. This week we get to meet a woman who many of you have heard of because of her incredible pursuits in the fiber community, Hannah Fettig of Knitbot. Sponsor: I wanted to thank one of our sponsors for this week’s episode, Stash, a local yarn shop based in Corvallis Oregon. The owner, Sonia was a very early supporter and encourager of the podcast and it’s been so great to get to know her a bit and watch all the positive energy she puts into her shop and fiber community. When in the Corvallis area, make sure to visit and you can find more info at stashlocal.com. And you don’t want to miss a pretty special event coming up, Black Sheep Gathering, a fiber festival in Eugene Oregon June 19-21. Stash will be there with a selection of special yarns and fibers from some of their favorite PNW indie dyers. So make sure to mark this on your calendar and find Sonia and her gang of Stash Enhancers. Fiber folk: I first got to know Hannah last year when we sponsored each other’s podcasts, her’s being the infamous knit.fm with Pam Allen. I quickly […]

I’m very excited to share the twenty-fifth episode of the Woolful podcast. Today we get to meet a pair of ladies who have accomplished so much in the past several years and who are behind many incredible yarns you use…Karen Hostetler and Valerie Spanos of Mountain Meadow Wool, a fiber mill and yarn company in Buffalo Wyoming. Sponsor: I wanted to thank one of our sponsors for this week’s episode, Stash, a local yarn shop based in Corvallis Oregon. The owner, Sonia was a very early supporter and encourager of the podcast and it’s been so great to get to know her a bit and watch all the positive energy she puts into her shop and fiber community. If you’re in the Corvallis area or just passing through, make sure to visit and you can find more info and a list of classes at stashlocal.com. And you don’t want to miss a pretty special event coming up, Black Sheep Gathering, a fiber festival in Eugene Oregon June 19-21. Stash will be there with a selection of special yarns and fibers from some of their favorite PNW indie dyers. So make sure to mark this on your calendar and find Sonia and her gang […]

Episode 024 Shownotes - YARNCON 2013Work in Process - Whats on and off my needlesExploring Stripes Beaded Bag from the Beaded Knitting workshop.I completed this bag in 17 days including the icord (which I normally hate and procrastinate knitting) due to the friendly competition with Midge65 who completed two in the same time and ultimately made 4 bags.Legwarmers for Spinning Buddy Jr. in stockinet in thick and thin colorful yarn. Used all 3 balls and made shorter legwarmers.New segment -5%(Tell story of 5%) ice breaker when being irrationalwhich brings me to ...My 3rd set of Prairie Boots for Me! Me! Me!I went to sew the buttons on and didn’t like where the button holes were positioned so I am going to knit the very top flap ove r. (I substituted bulky yarn and forgot to alter for for the different gauge. A quick fix, but is put on hold now the weather is warmer. In this episode I am introducing another new segment I call... Distracted by the Shiney.This segment will talk about the products or projects that are distracting you from finishing the project that you currently are working on. We will talk more about it in On the Road Again.Guild UpdatesIllinois Prairie Spinners GuildNeedle felted birds workshopand our new temporary location Warren Tavern in Warrenville, IllinoisCultured Purls Knitting GuildBeaded Knitting Workshop 3 ways to knit with beads -Prestring beads and push up between stitches. ( makes beaded pattern a little wonky) - Prestring beads and push up in front of slipped stitch. (sometime can slip to back of work) - My favorite way - use a crochet hook by placing the bead on the hook, removing the stitch with the hook and while stitch is under tension sliding the bead on the stitch and returning to knitting needle and knit. ( benefits does not stress yarn, bead is located on both sides of your project.Shop UpdatesElgin Knit Works moved a block away from their original location in Elgin, IllinoisElgin Knit Works8 Douglas AveElgin IL 60120847-627-4700shop@elginknitworks.comMosaic Yarn Studio moved from DesPlaines to Mount Prospect IllinoisMosaic Yarn Studio, Ltd.
109 W. Prospect Ave.
Mount Prospect, IL  60056Phone: 847-390-1013Fax: 847-390-1256Email: info@mosaicyarnstudio.comWebs is having a huge 39th anniversary sale all during March online atWWW.Yarn.comOn the Road again...Yarn Con 2013New Segment...Distracted by the Shiny.What product or project is distracting you from finishing the project that you currently have in WIPs. The Rivulet Shrug by Andrea MarquisSomeone You should knowMy interview with Monika Kimrey Developing World708/601-6664 Envision UnlimitedWWW.Envision.OrgInterview with John from White Mountain Whiskey LLCWooly App for Ravelry contest and interview Kickstarter.com for version 2.0 Universal version that will be compatible with IPad and Android and uses all the Ravelry features that Ravelry makes available to developers.Why Wooly?Wooly app makes it easy to update your Ravelry project page on the go. I like how you can clearly review your projects and stash. You can also share your projects on facebook easily with the Wooly App.The reason why I love Wooly is that the Wooly app inserts your pictures first on your projects page instead of last like Ravelry does. This helps people on Iphones and Ipads easily update their project pages with the latest progress on their projects.You are able to see the basic information about the pattern such as which yarn weight, yardage and needle size is recommended if entered on your project page, however you are not able to see your pattern instructions or see the details about your yarn unless you specifically loaded that information when and if you entered it in your stash.This is because Ravelry had previously limited the types of information they would release to the developers to make the applications.I love Ravelry for access to Patterns and Yarns as well as sharing information in the forums. Hopefully Ravelry will release these features to the developers so that they will be able to be added in version 2.0WOOLY APP DrawingEnter under the Homespun Journey Ravelry Group Under the Episode 24 YarnCon thread. Leave a comment and let us know your favorite Ravelry feature.The winner will be chosen by random drawing as of June 15th, 2013 midnight.John has graciously donated access to the Wooly App for free using a download code.Upcoming FestivalsMaryland Sheep and WoolShepherds Harvest May 11-12, 20013Middle Tennessee Fiber Show May 24-25, 2013 Hoosier Hills Fiber Fair Indiana May 31-June 1, 2013Iowa Sheep and Wool June 8+9, 2013Midwest Weavers in Kansas June 20-22 , 2013 Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair June 21-23, 2013Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon June 21-23, 2013

There are so many things happening in my knitting world. I have a plan to kickstart my dyeing agenda. It sure helps to break things down into small pieces and try something completely unique. Unexpected lessons I learned at the Black Sheep Gathering help me choose gift projects with a good chance of turning into something that will truly be appreciated. The Knitterâ??s Almanac Knit-A-Long has gotten off to an energetic start. I am so pleased with my renewed enthusiasm for knitting!

Come with me to Black Sheep Gathering, a fiber festival held every year in Eugene, Oregon. In this “reality podcast” we’ll take you behind the scenes: experience (second-hand) the overwhelming cast of vendors and their tempting wares, ogle adorable lambs … Continue reading →