Podcasts about so kelly

Wow! The San Francisco International Pen Show! After hearing about all the beautiful pens Kelly saw, we may all want to start collecting a few ourselves. We also learn that pens join knitting, dogs, chickens, and teaching on our Venn Diagram. Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links 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 Three Green Sisters prizes: Grand prize is an 18 by 18 pillow using fabric designed by Cheri Magnusson. A fabric designer who is the shepherd of an Icelandic flock in Maine.  In addition to the pillow, they are generously providing their Patty style bag as a prize. One will be used for the Summer Spin-In and one will be drawn from a thread we'll post in the Ravelry group.  They are offering Fiber Adventurers a coupon code EWES2 for 15% off until the end of the year. They also make custom loom totes, spinning wheel carriers and spindle and heddle bags, along with one of a kind styles. Take a look at what Suzanne and other 3 Green Sisters are offering in their 3 Green Sisters Etsy shop. SF International Pen Show Kelly saw lots of great pens and stationery supplies. Bailey got to attend , too. Some favorite vendors were Peyton Street Pens, and Curnow Bookbinding. Marsha's Projects Atlas (Ravelry link) by Jared Flood using Navia Tradition. The pattern is also available at his website. I finished the colorwork yoke and the neckband and washed and blocked the sweater before finishing the bottom and sleeve ribbing. My brother tried on the sweater and we confirmed it was too small. I need to frog it and start over. I'm waiting for Kelly to get here to help me unravel it over a glass of wine. I finished the picot bind off of my Simple Shawl by Jane Hunter. I still need to wash and block it. I cast on the tea cozy pattern, Nanny Meier's Tea Cozy by Amelia Carlsen. I am using Cascade 220 Heather in Red Wine Heather (9489) and green Irelande (2429). Finished my Summer Spin In spinning project. Want to make a sweater for Ben and I am considering these patterns: Thun The Blue Mouse Poche Caitlen Shepherd Phrancko  Frank Jernigan Kelly's Projects Dark Green Forest by Christina Korber-Reith. I am using a terra cotta yarn that is a dark red overdyed over the light brown color of the CVM yarn. Working on the first sleeve but I'm almost done. More dishcloths--I'm now using two shades of variegated green from the cotton that we dyed back in 2015 (I think) Patreon Pattern Giveaway! Patrons get a pattern of their choice up to $8.00. Contact Kelly with your pattern selection!  Patterns people have requested (Ravelry links) OMG Heel Socks by Just Run Knit Designs Beautiful Together by Romi Hill Georgetown by Hannah Fettig Girlang by Linnea Ornstein Friday Tee by PetiteKnit Mosaic Musings by Steven West Avion by Katrin Schneider Stripes! by Andrea Mowry Edie by Isabell Kraemer Songbird Shawl by VeryShannon Derecho by Alison Green Nydia by Vanessa Smith Morning Rituals by Andrea Mowry Riddari by Védís Jónsdóttir for Ístex Sleepy Polar Bear by Susan B Anderson Summer Spin In - Ending September 6th! Get your projects posted this weekend. We'll draw prizes in the next episode. Prizes from Three Green Sisters Full 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, Marsha 0:29 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 0:42 Hi, Kelly. Kelly 0:43 Hi, Marsha. How are you? Unknown Speaker 0:45 I'm doing well. Kelly 0:46 Good, me too! School has started. Yay! Marsha 0:54 Yay! It's your favorite time of the year. Kelly 0:55 It is it really is. And actually, it's been a lot of fun. The last couple of days I've gotten to meet-- I had, I had some activities that I didn't do in previous semesters. And so I've gotten a chance to meet students online. A little bit, a little bit better than what I've done in previous semester. So yeah, I'm learning. I'm getting better. It's getting to be a little more interesting and fun. And all that training pays off. Marsha 1:25 Yeah. Really. Kelly 1:25 Yeah, really? Ask me again, though in November. Marsha 1:33 Yeah. Yeah. Kelly 1:35 But right now, day three, right. This is Wednesday? Yeah, no, this is Thursday, day, four of the semester, it's going great. Marsha 1:46 It's going so great you don't even know what day of the week. Kelly 1:47 I know, really, this is a good sign. I feel like I'm attached to the hip with my computer between doing all the school stuff. You know, I mean, I don't have zoom class meetings, but jumping on zoom to help students with questions, emailing back and forth to students, putting up assignments to students, grading assignments to students--with-- you know--of students. Checking in to make sure they've done all the things that they needed to do. It has data analytics, so I can see what pages they've been looking at. And, you know, figure out what I need to do like, oh, they're missing this. Students don't seem to be looking at this page. They're missing this information, I need to make sure I put out a notice, you know, all this stuff on my computer. And then when I'm done for the night, well, and then then the morning before I start, you know, I'm looking at the news on the computer, I'm looking at Ravelry on the computer, and then when I done at night, I take the computer to bed and I watch TV, watch Netflix Like this computer is like attached to my-- practically attached to my body. Hmm, I'm going to really be in need of a digital detox at some point. Marsha 3:00 Well. Yeah, maybe someday. Maybe. Kelly 3:05 Yeah, I don't know. It's funny, because I don't, I don't really, I don't really mind. You know, most of the stuff on the computer is, is it's enjoyable, you know, looking at Ravelry and talking to students and all that, watching Netflix or Amazon Prime. You know, it's it's not terrible. It's just-- It's so funny. This one device is doing everything for me Marsha 3:31 That's a lot of time. That's a lot of time looking at that blue screen or whatever it is. Kelly 3:35 Yeah, yeah. That's true. Marsha 3:39 Well, what have you been up to? Kelly 3:41 Since we last talked? Well, I went to the San Francisco International Pen Show! Yay! Marsha 3:50 I saw your pictures. It looks very cool. Kelly 3:53 Who knew? First of all, that there even was such a thing, although I should know that. You know, if there's a yarn conference, of course, there should be a pen conference. I mean, every hobby's got to have their you know, their their get togethers. I saw on Instagram, the like mascot for the pen show was a white German Shepherd. And so on their Instagram feed they were posting pictures, you know, Odin says wear a mask and have you gotten your you know, do you know what pens you're going to be looking at? A picture of the dog with the pen in his paws and, you know, all these different pictures with pens. And then I saw there was a hashtag dogs of the San Francisco pen show. And then somebody said something about, oh, and then one of the posts was, is your pooch coming or something like that? And I thought, Wait a minute, what? Wait, what? Because we were trying to figure out what to do with the dogs, you know, they don't really have a lot of experience being home alone. And that's a you know, that's a distance away for for us so it's going to be all day. And the two together is a lot for Aunt Betty to, to have to deal with. So we were trying to manage what we're going to do and we had thought we would bring them both in the truck, but then it was going to be like almost 90 degrees. And there was covered parking but Robert's truck is tall and so there's always a worry what if it doesn't fit in the covered parking? The old truck didn't fit in covered parking. This one the shell is a little bit lower. He didn't get the, the taller shell. So anyway, there was all this like angst about what we're going to do. And and I had, you know, thought, Oh, I need to call the hotel and get information about their parking structure. Anyway, when I saw that, it's like, oh, she can come to the pen show. So Bailey came to the pen show. It was so fun. Marsha 5:48 Did she by a-- Did she buy a pen? Kelly 5:50 No, I didn't let her have any money. But she was really good. And there were other dogs there. We didn't get to see the white German Shepherd. I guess they were busy running the show. And not you know, didn't have the dog. But But yeah, he was there at the party-- the after party that evening. But we had already gone by then. So Marsha 6:17 The pen show has an after party? Kelly 6:18 Yeah. It's called a pen show after dark. It looks like a lot of fun. Marsha 6:27 It's so clever. Kelly 6:28 Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like, you know, kind of like the lobby at stitches. Marsha 6:33 Mm hmm. Kelly 6:34 So after, you know, after hours, so yeah. I also found out that there's an intersection. Quite the intersection between pen lovers, and knitters. Okay, so I wanted to give a few shout outs to some people that I talked to at the pen show. One of them, her name is Rena. I don't remember her last name. But her Ravelry name is sewwhatsports and sew is an s-e-w. And she actually was telling me that she had written an article for ply magazine. And I don't have this issue, but it's in the electric issue. I was gonna try to get it because I'd love to see her article. It's in the electric issue of ply magazine, which I think was in May or April. And she wrote an article about being a nomad spinner. So she's sold everything and she's just living on the road. And one of the things that she that she's doing as she lives on the road is these pen shows. She was at a booth for a guy, a shop called Toys in the Attic. And so yeah, I bought a pen case from them. Little travel case that fits in the pocket of my briefcase, and she showed me all about it, how it's--you could step on it and it won't crush and and so it won't, you know, my pens won't get smashed in my briefcase, and has a magnet clip that is super strong so that it won't pop open. And but anyway, her article was about how she spins on the road with an electric spinner. Marsha 8:20 Mm hmm. Kelly 8:21 So that was really cool. So shout out to Rena, Ravelry name is sewwhatsports. And then I was at the Peyton Street Pens booth. And Peyton Street Pens is the one that's local to me. It's an online shop, but they are in Santa Cruz. All the pens I've bought, have been from there. Marsha 8:43 Except, except the one from college, right? Kelly 8:47 Yes, the one the one that I bought in college I bought, I did not clearly did not buy from them. But then that inspired me to get-- make a small collection of Sheaffer Targas from that same era, which I bought from them. And then I got the older Sheaffers for Christmas and my birthday. And those were also from them. So anyway, I wanted to meet Teri and introduce myself and say hello and have her put a face to an order blank, you know. Marsha 9:20 yeah. Kelly 9:21 So I went over there to talk with her and helping in her shop is a woman named Elizabeth. And she's like, did you knit your sweater? So I think this actually is what what created my knowledge about this intersection because I wore the Edie my Edie Tee that's that variegated yarn, the turquoise variegated. And so she said, Did you knit your sweater? And I said yes. And then I said, Are you a knitter and she said, Oh yeah. And so she goes to her bag and she pulls out her shawl and, and she was making a beautiful or she had in her in her bag it was finished. It was what she was wearing. She had in her bag, a beautiful, multicolor shawl. So that was really fun to get to meet somebody who--and she's on Ravelry. But I don't, I didn't get her Ravelry name. And then there was another booth where I actually bought a little leather cover for a field notes-- for my field notes notebooks. Marsha 10:26 Yeah, Kelly 10:26 It's what they call a traveler's style notebook where it's a cover with elastics and then you just, you just insert almost as many of these little Field Notes notebooks as you want inside by using these elastics to attach them. So I bought the cover from them and it's Curnow Bookbinding. Marsha 10:49 Okay, Kelly 10:49 And the woman there was also a knitter and I did not get her name, unfortunately. But yeah, she she, she told me her Ravelry name, and I didn't write it down. So I don't remember. But But yeah, that was really fun to meet her too. And I was able to buy the little, the little book and they have-- Curnow bookbinding it's C U R N O W. They have an Etsy shop. And they sell the cutest notebook thing. I didn't buy one at this shop, but I think I might have to at some point go on their Etsy shop. But they take old books. And then they use the covers of the old books. Marsha 11:34 Mm hmm. Kelly 11:35 And they put hand sewn notebooks inside. Okay, so they had Hardy Boys and some other titles that I didn't recognize. But I was just thinking I should go back and look at their site because what a fun gift for someone. You know, if you know that they really loved a certain book when they were young. Like let's say they love Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys and you go on Marsha 12:01 Yeah, Kelly 12:01 and see, you know, that notebook So, so I thought that was very clever. And then they also had wooden notebook covers that were like laser engraved. And there's one with a really cool octopus. Oh, I almost I almost bought the octopus one. And then there was also a woman who made felt art notebook covers and had bowls for your paint brushes. Marsha 12:34 Okay, Kelly 12:34 And and she was like, No, they're not knitting bowls. They're not yarn bowls. Like okay, she knows about yarn bowls? Kelly 12:43 Yeah, really? Kelly 12:44 I guess if you if you craft with felts maybe you do know about yarn bowls. So but they have little lips on them. So you could put your, you know, your watercolor brush on Marsha 12:56 Okay, Kelly 12:56 the bowl edge. So yeah, it's very cool. I so I bought the cover to the note-- the notebook cover. I bought a pen, a really darling little, small, like four-- under four and a half inches. A little orange and black, a 1920s or 1930s pen that fits into my little notebook. So that's really cool. Yeah, I had a great time. It was a lot of fun. I didn't spend all my money. Marsha 13:30 Oh, good. Kelly 13:31 Yeah. Well, Marsha 13:31 I guess that's good. Is that good? Kelly? Kelly 13:33 Yeah, it was fine. I wasn't sure you know, what I was going to see or what I was going to want. And there was there was a lot of interesting stuff there. But a lot of the things I don't feel like I know enough. Marsha 13:46 Mm hmm. Kelly 13:47 You know, so it was mostly, it was more of a learning, was more of a learning experience to go. And yeah, there are a couple things I wanted. I wanted the case, the pen case that I could put in my briefcase to protect my pens. Marsha 14:01 Mm hmm. Kelly 14:02 If I ever get back on campus, if I ever go anywhere. And then I wanted the cover to the field notes notebooks. So, huh. So yeah, but lots of intersection between knitting and this whole pen, pen and stationery world. Marsha 14:23 I remember having this whole discussion about the intersection of knitting and chickens. Kelly 14:27 Yes. Now we can add knitting and pens, knitting and pens, knitting and chickens. knitting and dogs. Marsha 14:34 Yeah, Kelly 14:35 There are a lot of intersections. Yeah. knitting and teachers, pens and teachers. Anyway, yeah, we could go, we could go on. Marsha 14:46 The list goes on. Yeah, Kelly 14:47 yeah. You know, all the cool. All the cool people do all the cool crafts, right. Marsha 14:54 Yeah, that's true. So yeah, well, that sounds like it was really fun and I think you sent me some pictures. Yeah. And the pens, some of the pens are just beautiful. Kelly 15:05 Oh my gosh, yeah, just Yeah, really, really, really beautiful. And some are really, really, really expensive. Yeah. You know, there's a pen price for everyone. That was another thing that was pretty cool to see, you know, really wide variety. Marsha 15:23 Well, and I was gonna say, you know, if you had those really expensive pens, you probably wouldn't want to take it out of your house and bring it to class because it'd be easy to lose something like that, you know. Which it's nice now that you have the case too, because you it's that'll be harder to lose, than a pen, you know, Kelly 15:39 yeah right. And then the case, I've been using the case. I have a bag that I pack in the morning when I go out to the trailer just because it's easier to carry all my stuff. And so I've been using the case in there. And it's really nice, because it just fits exactly in the pocket of my felted bag. And then the flap. The flap closes, because it's magnetic, it closes over the edge of the pocket. So it's really easy to just flip that flap up and grab the pen out and then close it back up. It's not like I have to take something out, take the pen out of that. I could just reach in like, it's become like a... it's not permanent, but it's almost like a permanent pocket. Or, well, yeah, a permanent hard sided pocket in my, in my bag. And that was kind of what I wanted was something that I could just put into my bag. It'll stay in my bag, and then I could just flip up the top and get the pen out. Marsha 16:36 Yeah. Kelly 16:38 So yeah, it was nice. I also saw Marianne, our friend Marianne. Kelly 16:42 Oh, yeah, Kelly 16:43 Arunningstitcher or Mariknitstoo on Ravelry. I think is her her Ravelry name there anyway. Yeah, so that was fun. She was-- she said she was gonna come for the end of the pen show. So we stood around and talked, probably a good 30 to 40 minutes. So I hope she had enough time to do damage after we got done talking. So we were headed out and she was headed to take a loop around and see what she could find So, huh. So yeah, I was really fun to see someone in person. Marsha 17:20 Yeah. Yeah, cuz it's been years. Well, year and a half when we're getting up on it. Kelly 17:28 Yeah, I mean, I haven't.. The last time I saw her it was in February of 2020. At tSitches. Yeah. So it would...that was really fun. To have a chance to meet somebody in person. It was, it was just a fun, fun day all around. Marsha 17:47 Yeah. Good. Yeah. Well, um, yeah. So it's very cool. Next year, maybe I'll come down for it. I'm not, maybe I need, maybe I need to get into these pens. I'm not into the pens. Maybe Maybe there's, maybe I shouldn't be into these pens. I don't know. Kelly 18:01 Oh, it's pretty fun. Yeah, pretty fun. Well, and I've got, okay, we won't to talk a whole lot about this. But I've now got a little system with my notebooks, to help me remember what I have to do for my classes and stuff. And that's been kind of fun to to...You know, we've talked about our lists. And I still have the steno pad that I use to keep lists. But now with that little small notebook cover, I have a couple of notebooks in there and one's for each class. And so I just take and jot little things or have like, I need to make a list of students that I need to contact, you know, like, I can actually write their names down on it. It's all in the computer. But sometimes you just need to write it down, have a list, and then go back to your email and create the email, you know. So I'm using it for all that kind of stuff, just like little scratch notes that I have for my class. So it's kind of fun to have a new little notebook system that I'm developing here. Marsha 19:00 Yeah, yeah. Oh, very cool. Yeah. And what else? Kelly 19:05 Well, I have some knitting. Okay. Marsha 19:07 You want to talk to me-- talk projects, then? Kelly 19:10 Yeah, I do have some knitting. I'm working right now on my sweater. And I'm almost finished with the first sleeve. I have probably 18 to 20 more rows of the cabling, and then the ribbing at the bottom. Marsha 19:30 Wow, good progress. Kelly 19:32 Yeah, it's it's going. It seems like it's going slowly. But that's just because I haven't had a chance to pick it up recently. Or the other thing is, when I've had the chance to pick it up. I've had to then rip back because my problem is that the rows are you know, the rounds on a sleeve are so short. Yeah, I forget to mark them off. Marsha 19:58 Oh, okay. Kelly 19:59 And so I'm going... You know, if it's a longer one and you get finished with it, it's like more momentous, I think. And so you remember to mark it off. I still forget, but I have an easier time remembering in that case. But with this, I'll get to the end of the row and just keep, you know, just keep plowing on. And yeah, keep going. Yeah. And every fourth row, I think it's every, Yeah, every fourth row, I have to do cable crossings. And so I was like, oh, shoot, have I gone three rows? Is this the time for the cable crossing? Or was it only two and I'm trying to count. And then I make the cable crossing and like, oh, shoot. No, that's too small. I needed to go one more or Oh, no, that's too big. Oops, gotta go backwards. So I've done quite a bit of, of unknitting the whole round or going back and just undoing the section of the cable crossing and fixing it. It's, it's a little irritating that I can't count. Marsha 20:58 [laughing] Kelly 21:03 I find it to be annoying. Not so annoying that I've learned to do it. But Marsha 21:10 to do it. Yeah funny! Kelly 21:12 But yeah, it's annoying, I get really irritated with myself. But it's it's well pattern I am I'm enjoying this pattern. I'm really enjoying the yarn. This is my handspun CVM three ply that I overdyed. And the natural color is a light tan. I think when I originally named the the the yarn, you know, in my project page, I called it "have a little coffee with your cream." Because the color of the yarn is if you... we used to have as a kid, I don't know if you guys did this, but my grandma would make us coffee milk. Marsha 21:57 What is that? Kelly 21:58 Well, it's like an inch of coffee. And then the rest of its milk in your cup. Oh, and so it's like you're having coffee with your adult family members. It's like you're doing this thing of having coffee, but you're really just having a glass of milk. So anyway, we used to have coffee milk, not all the time. Special, you know, special treat to have coffee milk. So it reminded me of that coffee milk where you're really just having milk and you're having a little coffee with your milk. And that's the color of the yarn. And then I dyed it with a color, I think it's called dark red dye. And so I've gotten this terra-- kind of orangey rusty terracotta color. So that's the the yarn I'm using, which of course you already know. But I'm letting people people know who might not have listened to before because I don't know if you noticed Marsha, but we have quite a few new listeners. Marsha 22:55 We do. Kelly 22:56 Yeah. Yeah, over the last few months. Marsha 22:59 Welcome. Kelly 23:00 Yeah, Marsha 23:01 all that talking is paying off. [laughing] Kelly 23:07 Well, and I think, I think some of them have come from... I can, you know, I can kind of look at the statistics, the analytics on our on the lips inside, but some of it has come from Spotify. So now that the our podcast has been on Spotify for a while, it's starting to get more more listeners there. And then there's another one called Gaana, which is I think it's in I want to say it's in India, is where that podcast app is used more. Okay, so we have we have some listeners on that app anyway. So yeah, welcome everyone who's new. Nice to see you and I wanted to just make sure you know about my sweater. And the pattern that I'm using. I think I forgot to say that the pattern that I'm using is called dark green forest. And it's by Christina Korber Reith. Or Rieth. Marsha 24:07 and I have a question about your sweater because where are you with the sleeve issue? Because remember, we were talking about this the last time that you think it's going to be okay? That because the color is slightly different but you think the last time we talked, we recorded I think you said we thought was going to be okay. Kelly 24:23 oh yeah, cuz I was only like an inch or so past and I now I'm now I'm quite a ways down and this sleeve is looking fine. Marsha 24:32 Okay, Kelly 24:33 There's a there's a slight change in the in the variation, you know, because then kettle dyed yarn is varied. Anyway, there's a slight change in the variation about the place where I started the sleeve, but there's also a slight change in the variation a little higher where it was within within a single skein. And then there's slight changes in the variation as it goes down the sleeve too. So I think I think it looks pretty seamless. Marsha 25:07 Good. That's nice to hear. Kelly 25:08 Yeah. Yeah, that was, I think that's what kept me from actually putting the sleeves on for so long. I was kind of worried about that. But this one's going well, hopefully the second one will go will go just as well. But I think it's going to be fine. Yeah. Yeah, I'm pleased to say. Marsha 25:29 Very nice it is really pretty. Kelly 25:31 Thank you. Yeah, I'm really enjoying this pattern. I'm glad I found it. It's not a very-- it's not a very well used pattern. I think there were only like, maybe 20 projects. Let me see. There are 25 projects. Okay, so yeah, only only a very few people, two dozen people have made this pattern. So, but I'm having a good time with it. And I think it's really well written. It's very detailed, a little bit daunting when I first opened it up, but once I started actually reading... Kinda like my students and my online class. Once they actually read the directions, Marsha 26:16 yes. It's not daunting at all. Kelly 26:19 It's not so daunting. So yeah, no, it's, it's, it's, it's been really a good pattern, I would, I would highly recommend it. So and then the only other thing that I've been doing is, I've now I finished with the pinkish purple yarn that I was using for those dish cloths. And I cracked open as a couple of skeins of green. So I've got a dark green and a light green variegated. They're really pretty. And I was thinking back to when it was that we did this. I think we dyed this yarn in, like 2015 Marsha. Marsha 26:58 Well, it was... Yes. It was a while ago. Kelly 27:01 Yes. So I'm really glad to be finally getting some use out of it. Yeah. Marsha 27:09 Nice. Nice. Is that it for projects for you? Kelly 27:14 That's all I got. I haven't done any spinning. I haven't touched Faye's blanket. But her birthday is in October, so I'm thinking I'm gonna finish it for her birthday. Kelly 27:24 Okay, Kelly 27:25 That just seemed like a good, A good milestone. Once I passed a certain point, it was like, Okay, now it's just gonna be a birthday present. Marsha 27:34 And it's an achievable goal, right? Kelly 27:36 Oh, yeah. I yeah, I have just the edging to do so it should. The crochet goes pretty fast in October's a month, away. Marsha 27:45 Thinking of October, I was thinking the other day at you know, I think I texted you a picture that I threw out a bunch of yarn, God gave it back to the goodwill... to the universe. And then I organized all my yarn and I also got these little plastic boxes to put the yarn in. And I had extra boxes. So I decided to put my unfinished projects in these clear plastic boxes so that I would see them. Kelly 28:09 Oh, I think I know where this is going. [laughing] Marsha 28:13 And one of my clear plastic boxes that contains my unfinished skull. And I was thinking I think this the third October, but I I yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the third October, Kelly 28:28 I think you're right. Marsha 28:30 Hmm. And I'm not getting... I'm not... well, I don't know. Maybe I'll maybe something will happen and I'll get it done by the 31st. You know, by Halloween. unlikely but I could do it. Kelly 28:42 Didn't you start on the teeth? Marsha 28:44 I finished the teeth on the ...now I can't remember. Kelly 28:51 You finished all the teeth? Marsha 28:53 No, no, no, no, I finished the teeth on the lower jaw. Kelly 28:56 Oh, okay. Marsha 28:57 And now I think I have... And there's how many teeth? Do we have? 32? . I don't know. It has accurate... an accurate number of teeth. So yeah, how many teeth is that? I've done half of them. That's 16 teeth. Kelly is that 16 teeth? Yeah, here's math. Can you divide 32? Kelly 29:17 I can do that math. I just can't count. Marsha 29:21 Anyway, um, and then I need to... so I, so I can... I was looking at it. And I've actually knit all the parts except I have to finish the teeth. And then sew it together. And I have to knit I have to get some dark gray yarn, or black or some dark color to knit like the the, the eye sockets. Yes, if I recall and I never... as I say I didn't get to that part in the pattern yet. But I think what you do is you knit basically like it's a ball kind of, like that's not as... like some like a half circle, kind of that you then push it back into the skull, kind of, to make like the eye So okay, Kelly 30:01 I'm remembering the one I did. I did the mask, The Day of the Dead mask. And it had it had the eye sockets too. And I think it was just kind of like a, it had some short rows in it. But yeah, it was kind of just like making a circle. And then that gets sewed on the back. I should bring you... do you need dark yarn? Kelly 30:23 Yeah. Kelly 30:23 Okay, I should bring you--that's another thing. We haven't talked about that. I'm coming up to see you. Marsha 30:28 Yeah, we'll talk about that in a second. Yeah, I have something to say about that, too. Kelly 30:31 I'll, I'll try to remember to pack... I have some of the that Rambouillet that, you know, the replenish Rambouillet that we have in our shop and I have some samples of that from from Lani. One of them is a dark color, I'll bring that and that might work. Marsha 30:49 Well, the other thing I have, I will get to my projects. But the other thing I have is just I have a lot of fleece, dark brown, black fleece, that I could just spin some and spin a little bit, knir with and... Kelly 31:05 that's, that's another obstacle though, to make it not get knit. Marsha 31:09 I know. I know. So Kelly 31:11 I'll try to remember to pack it, because Marsha 31:14 I will just remind people, because you, Kelly, you said we have a lot of new listeners. But I bought this pattern. So it'll be it was not last Stitches, but it was the Stitches before the Stitches we went to before the pandemic started. Because I can't even remember Kelly, when did the pandemic start? Is that 20 2020 Kelly 31:35 Yeah, it was 2019 when we got crazy about the skulls. Marsha 31:39 Yes. And we went crazy with the skulls and you bought like the Day of the Dead and they're kind of flat? Where mine is actually like, like round three dimensional sculpture. Yeah, that you felt and then you stuff and Kelly 31:51 I have that pattern too, I just never... I just didn't start that one. I got excited about starting the day that the Day of the Dead mask skulls. Marsha 32:00 So But anyway, it's in a clear box, so I can see it now when I go down there. Yeah. into the cellar.... Kelly 32:08 The room under your house? [laughing] Marsha 32:10 Yes. Um, so anyway, and I'm trying to think to remember who the pattern maker was? It's Wooley. Kelly 32:20 Wooley. Wooley Wonders or something. Marsha 32:23 Yeah. Wooley Wonders. Yeah, right. Kelly 32:25 I think so. But you talk and I'll look. Marsha 32:29 Oh, well, anyway, so that's it with that. So anyway, I just I'm bringing that up, because I found that skull down there. And it's, it's October so it just kind of made me laugh again about it. Okay. While you're looking I'm... we'll go back to it. But I'm going to talk about my next project. So Kelly, the last time two weeks ago, we talked about the Atlas, the Jared Flood pullover that I'm making for my brother. And remember I said I was...had some concerns. Kelly 32:54 Yes, about size. Marsha 32:57 I know. So it's too small. I mean, like he can get it on. But he said it's just like it's not there's not enough room through the shoulders. It's like, let me back up. It fits through the body, like the torso, then when you get up onto the the yoke through the the shoulders. It's... he said it just feels tight. Like he can put it on and it looks okay. But he said it's not super comfortable. And he said to me, Well, maybe if you wash and block it, and I said it is washed and blocked. So I think what I just... it's just sitting in the guest bedroom. And I'm thinking about it. And I thought I'm not going to rip it out yet. Kelly 33:38 Yeah. Marsha 33:38 But I think it needs to be frogged. And I and I but what I'm... You mentioned that you're coming up and so I will, I'm going to speak about that now. So you're coming up. You're driving up from California. Kelly 33:49 Yay. Marsha 33:50 Yay. And we're.. we are beyond excited. Kelly 33:52 Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That is definitely fair to say. Yeah. So I, I decided that since I had to endure the pain of teaching 100% online for three semesters now. That well, actually three and a half semesters. This is my, the start of my fourth semester. Let's see spring, fall, spring? fall? Yes. Marsha 34:22 Again. Kelly, again, the counting. [laughing] Kelly 34:26 This is the start of the fourth semester with 100% online. And so I thought if I have to endure the pain of this, I'm also going to get some of the benefit of this. And one of the benefits of teaching 100% online... Which in the... in the before times not very many people at the college had the opportunity to do that. It was not something that was routinely done. And in fact, there were moves towards making it so that people couldn't teach 100% of their load online. So there were just very few people who could do it. But one of the advantages of doing it is that you can teach from anywhere. And so I thought, okay, I could teach from Seattle. And then I could work during the day, and then I could play in the evening. And actually, with online classes, you can play in the day and work at night, you know, you can rearrange your schedule, however you need to. So I thought, I'm going to take advantage of this once in a lifetime, for me, because I don't intend to teach 100% online, ever again, if I can help it, right, Marsha 35:38 right. Kelly 35:39 But I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to teach really remotely, so I'm going to be teaching from Seattle. It's just gonna be so fun. Marsha 35:48 I know. So you're, I'm very excited. So and we have our, we have everything planned, well sort of planned out what we're going to do. Basically, when we're in Seattle at my house, we're just going to sit on the deck and spin and knit. Kelly 36:00 Yep. Marsha 36:01 When you're when you're not working, we're going to be spinning and knitting on the deck, and walking dogs and just playing with dogs. And because you're bringing Bailey, you're not bringing Beary though he's gonna stay home. Kelly 36:13 No he's staying home. In fact, he's having afternoons with Aunt Betty, because because he needs to get practice in staying with her. And he's, you know, for months, he, this pair of dogs are the only dogs I've ever raised where I haven't practiced having them be by themselves. Marsha 36:32 Mm hmm. Kelly 36:33 You know, all the other dogs I raised from puppyhood. And that was just a part of the routine was that they had to get used to being alone. And, of course, Bailey came with her own issues about being alone. And with Beary, it's just, you know, it's harder now because there's two dogs and we're always home. So he really hasn't had a lot of opportunity to to learn to just be the stay at home dog and not have me around not have Robert around. So he's been practicing. Practicing afternoons with Aunt Betty. She gives him cookies. And he's learning to be happy down there. Marsha 37:14 Well, he's a pretty easy going dog. I mean Kelly 37:17 Well, it's funny, because he does seem like that. But he has fears that you just don't notice because of the way he acts. Like he was really afraid to go in the door to her room from outside. I don't know why. There was just something really strange about it. Maybe it felt like going into the basement? I don't know. Yeah, he just had a real fear of it. And so we've had to really work on work on that. And then once he got in, he immediately wanted to go out. And so but you know what? He likes food. And yeah, and so she's been giving him cookies. And he's been, he's been learning that it's a happy place. Marsha 37:59 Mmmhmm. Well, and aunt Aunt Betty is fun. And she loves dogs. And you know, all the dogs love Aunt Betty so he'll be fine Kelly 38:08 Yeah, it'll be, it'll be fine. He'll, he'll be okay. while I'm gone. Yeah, it'll be different for him. But he'll be okay. But anyway. Yeah, I'm really excited to be bringing Bailey on a road trip. Marsha 38:19 Yes. So we're gonna have a week in Seattle. And then we're going to go down for about a week to the Washington coast and do the whole beach thing. Kelly 38:28 Yeah. Marsha 38:28 And so we're excited about that, too. And let Bailey and Enzo run on the beach because Bailey's been to the beach a couple times with you and Robert, right down in California? Kelly 38:38 Once Yeah, we went once. Marsha 38:40 Oh, just once. And so I'm excited about that. Just to the beach... Well, you know, it's my favorite place. A side note, I'm going more and more side notes that we're going down. I will get back to my project. Because we're going to that community called Seabrook where we always go and I've talked about String Theory Yarns, that's owned by Jean. And I noticed that she posted on Instagram that she and her husband bought an Airstream trailer. Marsha 38:43 Oh, wow, Marsha 39:13 For traveling, which is super cool and super exciting. And my first thought was, how are they going to go anywhere? Because she was telling me in the summer, she usually she works like 120 days straight because she has... she's open seven days a week, and she's the only person in there. She doesn't have an employee. And so I thought when's she gonna use that trailer, and I thought I have a bad feeling about this. That she's retiring and she's closing the shop. Kelly 39:42 Oh no, Marsha 39:45 Well, I assume she's closing the shop. They just, she... Seabrook then posted that she's retiring. So I don't know. Honestly, I don't know if somebody has purchased the business from her or what's going to go on with the yarn shop but I'm a little heartbroken. I have to say. Because we love, We love Seabrook, but it was really nice having the yarn shop like we go in there and check in you know, before you go to the beach and say hi and then stop by afterwards and she always had knit nights on Thursday nights and it was really fun just to go there and you met a lot of the people who lived in Seabrook or in the surrounding communities. So I'm a little heartbroken. But she still lives in Seabrook, so I'll see her and that's good. So I'm Kelly 40:29 Maybe someone will buy the shop, and it will continue. Marsha 40:32 Yeah. I don't know. It's, Kelly 40:35 well, it's a difficult I mean, yarn shops are a difficult endeavor At any point Marsha 40:42 Yeah. Kelly 40:42 and then Seabrook is a little place, kind of out of the way, and then the pandemic can't have helped. So I can, I can certainly understand. Marsha 40:53 And I suspect part of it, too, probably is, it's just a lot. You know, your... she has a dog Cooper and she said, it's hard too when she works in the summer, he doesn't get down to the beach at all, because she's working. Yeah. So anyway. But back to projects back to this my Atlas. You're coming up. And I... See everyone probably thought I'd lost my train of thought, thank goodness. [laughing] I went so far off track. No, but you're coming up, and I decide I'm going to wait till you get here to look at the sweater. And look at it on Mark, because I don't know. And I know you've done color work before. I also I need to have Kim come and look at it too. Because as I've talked about in other episodes, this is the first color work sweater I've done in 20 years. And it looks nice, but I'm wondering if maybe my tension is too tight or something? I don't? Because it doesn't seem like it has a lot of give. Kelly 42:02 Yeah. Marsha 42:02 Now I realize it's not going to have this... It's not gonna be the same type of fabric that is on the body because it's color work, right? But I wonder if maybe that might I need to go up a needle size. So the body is worked on sevens, and the yoke is worked on a size up so on eight, and I want to talk to you about it. And maybe Kim. Do I need to maybe go up two sizes on the yoke? Kelly 42:28 Yeah, maybe. Marsha 42:29 I don't know. And listeners can weigh in on this if they want. I you know I bought a color work sweater in Iceland, where it's a it's a cardigan, zippered cardigan and has the same type of concept of like the... at the yolk. And when you feel that, it doesn't feel much different than the body that is not color work. And I'm wondering, is it... if it's I'm getting too tight or something? Kelly 42:56 Maybe the yarn isn't a good match for the pattern. Yeah, it's...Yeah, I'll be happy to look at it and see. It could be any number of things. It could be that the fabric is stiff, because of all the layers and the type of yarn that it is. Or it could just be a tension issue. Yeah, well, and Kim's done quite a bit of color work too. So she... Marsha 43:19 She's done a lot of color work. And then and the other person I thought I should contact too is momdiggity, Joanne. Because she lives just a few blocks from me. And she does a lot of color work too. She might be able to... Kelly 43:34 Yeah, that would be good. Marsha 43:35 Maybe I'll reach out to her and see if she could take a look at it and see because it it. Yeah. Anyway, I need a little bit of help on that. But it does, it needs to be ripped out. And I'm just gonna wait till you get here. And that can be one of our projects as we sit on the deck over a bottle of red wine is rip out that sweater. Kelly 43:55 Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. You need you need companionship for for something like that. Marsha 44:00 Yeah. Well, and you know, the thing is like, it's like it takes... Well, I knit it pretty fast, because I worked on it exclusively. Pretty much. And it's, you know, bigger needles and whatnot, but I don't know, two months. Maybe. I know that it'll take literally 10 minutes to rip that thing out. You know? Anyway. So that's what's going on with that sweater. And then do you remember I've been...? I looked it up. I cast on Simple Shawl back in 2018. Kelly 44:29 Oh, right. Marsha 44:31 And it's been to Scotland twice. I think it has been to Iceland. Anyway. It's a pattern by Jane Hunter. And I finished the Picot bind off. So that's bound off. I've not washed or blocked it yet. Let's see. I cast on a new project. I we have a friend Brian, who likes the tea cozy that I made for my other friend Gary. So I said I would make him a tea cozy. So it's that Nanny Meyers tea cozy by Amelia Carlsen. I've made, I made one for Gary. And I've made two for myself. And it's that one where you alternate, it's all garter stitch, but you alternate, like, six of your main of one color, and then the second color and keep alternating that across. And so and you pull tight, so it it keeps, oh, yeah, these stripes create like ridges, Kelly 45:26 kind of like corrugated right? Marsha 45:28 Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's like corrugated metal kind of. And so I, he looked at all of my spirit yarn, there wasn't any colors that he liked. So I said, let's just go down to acorn street here in Seattle. And what it is is just buy cascade 220. Because it's, it's a good all purpose workhorse yarn, and a really nice colors and stuff. So he went down there, and he couldn't decide what he wanted. He was really attracted to a red and green. And then he also was attracted to a blue and yellow. And you know where this is going, Kelly. I can, as I'm saying it out loud. I'm thinking, don't say it. And then I said it. I said, Oh, just buy all four colors, and I'll make you two tea cozies. So so he's getting... I know... so he's getting two. I've cast on the red and green one and they're there. The cascade... Both... All of these are cascade 220 heather's, and there's one called, the one I cast on is red wine heather. And that's a pretty one, and a green called Ireland with an extra e at the end. So I don't know how you pronounce that. But they're really soft colors. Kelly 46:48 Yeah, I think that red wine heather is the one that I used for my heroine jacket. Okay, a long time ago, this I might even have been kind of pre pre Ravelry. Marsha 47:03 Heroine as in a woman who's Kelly 47:05 Yeah, Marsha 47:07 Not the drug. Okay. All right. Yes. Kelly 47:10 Yes. I can't remember who the pattern designer for that was. But it's a felted, it's a felted coat that you knit with two strands, held double. And then you put it in the washer and felt it and it's double breasted. Anyway, I think that's the color. It's a really pretty color... has some blue, some little blue strands through it. Marsha 47:34 Yeah. Yeah. A really nice, they're really nice together because, yeah, super nice together, the two colors so... But I just thought it, just kind of funny going down there to Acorn Street. You know, of course, any yarn shop, people are super friendly. Right? And, and so we go in there and to figure out colors. And of course, you're you're you're confronted with a wall of cascade 220. And where do you kind of start, you know, and I said, Well, let's, let's just narrow down. We want to do heathers. He was pretty sure he wanted that. And so we were picking out the colors. But this is the part I think is so funny is, you know, everybody gets involved in the project. Righ? What are you making and both the the, the people working there, the shop owners or the clerks but then also customers. So I think it was actually kind of fun, you know, that everybody got involved with picking colors. You know, that's, I think he was surprised. But I also thought it was a really enjoyable process, you know. Everybody has a say. So anyway, I'm working on that. And you knit, sort of the two halves and then sew them together. And I have done, I would say, three inches of the first side. So that's coming along. And then I finished my summer spin-in spinning project. Kelly 48:58 oh yay! Marsha 48:59 Yes, I know I'm very excited. I just dedicated myself to and I have a couple things to say. The first thing I'm going to say about plying is the the lazy Kate that comes with the little Herby spinning wheel, the bobbins are vertical on it. Right? And then there was like a spring and then you screw down a knob to hold it on there. But then that spring provides makes, puts some tension on the bobbin right. So that is just not free spinning off the single is not just free spinning off the bobbin, right? Kelly 49:37 Yeah, because if it if that happens and it gets spinning too fast, then it stops and it starts turning around the other direction and then you have a mess. Marsha 49:45 And then it starts plying on itself kind of the single, right? So do you remember when I bought the that Ashford spinning wheel from was it the 80s and it had never been assembled? Well, it came with a lazy Kate, but the bobbins are on there horizontally. Okay, Kelly, so much better! Kelly 50:11 Oh, good, Marsha 50:12 Because what I found and I think it was when the, when the bobbins are horizontal, the, the single sometimes like the, what I would... what am I trying to say? It's like the, you're putting pressure on it like because you have to tension it right, those springs, but some tension so it's just not free spinning, but it also then sort of pulls the single into the layers of singles that are wound on to the bobbin. Kelly 50:43 Yeah, and then the other thing that happens too is if you're pulling just up and you know it's like it's below you and so on on the wheel attached to the wheel and you're pulling on so what you have to do is you kind of have to put your hand down there and pull out and so it's a real, it's a real technique. And then also when you're pulling up it can catch on the edge of the bobbin which is rough and that will break. There's lots of ways for the yarn to breakwhen you're plying with it. Marsha 51:14 What I found is it was the the single would break but then I couldn't find the end because it got buried into the other yarn wrapped around it. So for this I had the the green and brown that I had made. I use the lazy Kate from the little Herbie and then I think when when the podcast we were talking about this and so I got out the other one from the Ashford where the bobbins are horizontal and so all the brown I... well three skeins of brown I plied with that on the horizontal lazy Kate Totally different experience! My yarn didn't break once. Kelly 51:57 Nice. Marsha 51:58 And so I yeah, I don't it's it's... I love the little Herbie. But that design is not very good. I think it's good if you-- but you're right, you have to keep your hand. Yeah, so it's coming up and then this one you don't have to worry about Kelly 52:12 and I'm not as tall as you know, I'm closer. Marsha 52:17 That's true. Kelly 52:18 I'm closer to those bobbins you know, and and so I just kind of got used to a technique but yeah, it is true. spinning off of a horizontal-- plying jof a horizontal bobbin is very different. Marsha 52:32 Yeah. And then I also remember too, when you were first showing me how to ply the yarn You had me put the the lazy Kate quite a ways away from you know, like several feet away and and I noticed like when I was spinning I just had it you know on the side of my chair blocked by the table leg because it doesn't sit flat either. That's everything that's that Kelly 52:54 yeah, it's designed to attach to the wheel Marsha 52:56 Yeah, the wheel and yeah, anyway, so that was just a cool thing. I just, it's making it much better for me, much easier. And anyway, I've got the two tone one I'm calling it the barber pole is the green and brown together. I have about 950 yards. And I think because it's already in skeins I didn't think of doing the wraps per inch. So it's somewhere between a DK and a worsted. Okay. It might be DK I don't know. And then the the solid Brown. I have 661 yards. That is a three ply plied off of three bobbins and then I had you remember when I first the first time I plied I didn't have three bobbins of the brown so I thought oh well just do the chain ply or Navajo ply, but it's a little bit different. And so if you count that skein in, I have Oh, I'm sorry I have that other way around. I have 536 yards. If you add in that odd skein, I have 661 yards of the brown. Okay. So adding that all up it's about 1600 yards or about 1500 yards you know, so I get... I think I have enough for a sweater for Ben. And so I've been looking at sweaters and I need to do a striped sweater so I have couple-- three options. The first one is a pattern from... it's called Thun T h u n by the blue mouse. And I don't know if you've looked at that Kelly it's Kelly 54:39 I'm looking at it right now.And I'm I'm looking, well I'm trying to look at it, here we go. That's cute. Marsha 54:47 So so it's cute. It shows it's a... it shows on a woman but it's a unisex sweater. What I and it's a striped quite big, so the the yoke is one color, a solid--no stripes, I should say. And then like the the body. And the sleeves, partway down are big, thick stripes. Kelly 55:08 Yeah, I like those stripes better than I like the little stripes in the other pattern that you showed me. Marsha 55:13 Okay. So the only thing I would change about this is it has a split. The ribbing at the bottom is split. And the back is longer, twice as long as the front. The ribbing is twice as long as and I think I would make... that for a man, I would make that without the split. And then the same, you know, Kelly 55:35 right. Consistent ribbing all the way around. Yeah, yeah. Marsha 55:41 Yeah. And then the other one I'm looking at is let me go back. It's called poach pooch, p O, ch, E. And that is by Caitlin Shepard. And it's sort of the same idea. It's saddle shoulders. So the same idea, but you're--You're right, Kelly. It's thinner stripes. And but I thought that was a pretty good. It seems like I have enough yarn for that. And the only other thing I would change too is you...after you've knit the sweater you apply over the left breast a patch, like a leather patch or a fabric patch. Do you see that? I don't think I'd put that on Kelly 56:30 Yeah, I don't like that. No. Marsha 56:31 Yeah. And then the other thing I'm considering, as you remember, the I think it was the last time we went to Stitches. And we were having lunch with a bunch of people friends that we know. And there was a man there named Frank Jernigan, and he has a website. It's Phrancko Ph. r a n k. I'm sorry. That's wrong. ph RANCKO, and he does custom fit sweaters. That's not what it's called but it's that same thing where you put all your measurements in and your gauge and it will create a sweater for you. And so I was thinking I might do that. And he has saddle shoulders. So I was the... I might do his sweater. And then add stripes to it. A basic sweater, because Ben is is very tall, but he's very slender. And so if you just do one of these sweaters is actually designed for your body would fit really well. I would think. Kelly 57:32 Yeah, that might be a good idea. Marsha 57:35 Yeah, so those that's what I'm considering. Kelly 57:39 That sounds good. So you got some choices there. Marsha 57:42 Yes. Kelly 57:44 Well, before you make your your segue Marsha, I just wanted to say while you were talking about your spinning, I went and looked up the skull designer, pattern designer and her name is Ellen T. Sebelius. S i b E L I u s. And yeah, give her patterns I look, you may never want to knit something that fiddle that fiddly. But there may be something that you fall in love with on her yarn pages. Because she has some very cool patterns. So yeah, so yeah. But yeah, with your spinning finished Marsha. I didn't, I didn't finish my summer spin-in yet. Maybe I'll finish it while I'm up visiting you. I'll bring up... bring it with me. I just-- I mostly have plying to do so. So we'll see. Marsha 58:35 We'll just remind people that summer spin-in ends Monday at midnight on Monday, September 6, that's right. Kelly 58:45 So get your new projects into the pages, your your finished spins and also if you made anything using your handspun. And I didn't finish this sweater that I'm that I'm knitting out of my handspun either So this time I was a I was a spin along fail, Marsha? Marsha 59:04 Yeah. Kelly 59:06 There's no failure in spinning. I have a beautiful sweater mostly finished and I have quite a bit of singles on my bobbins so I'm happy with with what I was able to accomplish Marsha 59:17 well, that then, uhhh... Kelly 59:22 Oh, I should say about prizes. And we have prizes for this spin-in that we'll draw on our next episode when I'm up in Seattle. And the grand prize is going to be a pillow-- fabric designed by Cheri Magnussen who is a shepherd of an Icelandic flock in Maine. And then we also have project bags donated by three green sisters. And then we also, for people who aren't spinners who might want to enter, or spinners who want two chances to win one of these bags. We have a thread up in the Ravelry group that you can win, we're going to do a giveaway in that thread for a project bag as well. So and then, if you don't want to wait to see if you won, you can just go and look at her bags. And if you use the coupon code EWES2 e-w-e-s -2, you'll get 15% off all the way till the end of the year. Hmm. So take a look. She has some very pretty bags. . Marsha 1:00:28 Really! Yeah Yeah, really cute stuff. So. Alright. Well, we have one more thing we need to talk about. We want to talk about Kelly 1:00:36 Yes. So we're still having the pattern giveaway for our Patreon sponsors. People have been messaging me about the patterns. You get a pattern of your choice up to $8 and just message me on Ravelry or email. I have one email that I have to get to that I haven't haven't sent out the pattern yet. I'll have to do that tonight after we get finished here. But the patterns that people have selected, so fun to see. It's fun to be able to give a prize to our patrons. It's fun to be able to support designers. But I'll tell you, Marsha, it has also been fun to see all these patterns that people are selecting. Marsha 1:01:21 Yes, a few have gone into my... well....a lot have gone into my favorites. Yeah. Kelly 1:01:27 Yeah. So I've done similar. I've done a similar thing. I have a queue. I keep them in my queue. But yeah. Marsha 1:01:34 Like oh, yeah. So we'll have we have a list of them in the show notes. So you can... so anything that really stands out? Kelly 1:01:40 Well, the the beautiful together shawl, I think is really nice. And I haven't done a lace Shawl in a while. It's a Romi Hill pattern. And I have not done a lace Shawl in a while. And so that was kind of like, Oh, I kind of... I'm now at a point where I kind of miss shawl knitting. I think I need to, I think I need to think about casting on a shawl. So that was one of them. And then of course, I'm just gonna say Edie is a great pattern. Unknown Speaker 1:02:08 Mm hmm. Kelly 1:02:09 I was happy to buy that for someone. Because it's just a great pattern. I love my Edie. I have two of them and I love them both. They get a lot of wear. And I just was happy to see that pattern on the list. What about you? Marsha 1:02:25 Well, there was another cuz I love the Edie as well too. That's a great pattern. I but there's I know somebody else picked a tee Derecho. How is it pronounced. Derecho. By Alison green. That's a really cute t shirt too. Kelly 1:02:40 Yeah, that is. That's cute. Marsha 1:02:45 What else do we have here? There was the well Stripes. I've been looking at this Stripes by Andrea Mowry. That's cute. Kelly 1:02:56 I like the the cropped pullover the Nydia by Vanessa Smith. I I don't really wear clothes that it would work with. But I really like how it has the sweater and the cowl. And so when you wear that, you know... I... growing up in the late 70s I guess it was the late 70s cowl neck sweaters became a big thing. And I've always liked them. And so this you can have a cowl neck if you wear the cowl and then if you take the cowl off, you just have a scoop neck. And it's really I think it's a really clever design. Marsha 1:03:40 There's another cute t shirt the Friday tee by petite needs, no petite knits. Do you see that one's a striped sweater. It's very cute too. Kelly 1:03:50 Let me look. Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember seeing that one. Yeah, Marsha 1:03:55 and did you see the sleepy polar bear? Kelly 1:03:58 Oh my god. That's that. I think I'm gonna make that one when that one went on my list of things to make. I had heard of that pattern. I had no idea he was so big. He's big. Marsha 1:04:14 Yeah, it says here about 17 inches in length. Yeah, so yeah, he's he's a big boy. Kelly 1:04:19 Yeah, Marsha 1:04:20 I'm assuming it's a boy Kelly 1:04:21 A chunky boy. Well, it wouldn't have to be you know, not all polar bears are boys. Marsha 1:04:26 Did you? Did you look at the picture of its rear end. That's adorable. Kelly 1:04:31 It's cute. Yeah. Marsha 1:04:33 And little tail and the little paw is adorable. Kelly 1:04:36 Yeah, it's a cute cute pattern. Susan B. Anderson has some darling, darling patterns. But like you could make it a little color work sweater. You know, it has a sweater on but yeah, it's a plain, kind of a plain sweater. With a marled, looks like the marled yarn. I love the little toe pads on the bottom of its feet. Mm hmm. So but it would be fun to make that and also make it a little color work sweater. Marsha 1:05:06 Yeah, look. Yeah. Well, and then speaking of color work sweaters, there's a beautiful Ridari? Kelly 1:05:15 Yes. Marsha 1:05:16 The Icelandic, the Icelandic one and look at I'm not pronouncing this correctly. But it looks like it's Vetis Jonsdotter. Kelly 1:05:25 That's beautiful. Yeah, that is. So Marsha 1:05:29 anyway, everyone should just take a look at them. Because there's... really they'll end up in your in your queue. Kelly 1:05:35 Yes. Yeah. There's danger there but... Marsha 1:05:38 or not queue, but in your favorites. Or you might even just click the buy button. That's right. Kelly 1:05:43 Yeah, there's danger there. But it's the good kind of danger. [laughing] Marsha 1:05:48 Yeah. Yeah. Kelly 1:05:50 Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. Very cool. So yeah, it's, and this is still going on. So if you haven't contacted me yet, and you're one of our Patreon patrons, just get in touch with the pattern that you'd like, for your special gift. Marsha 1:06:06 So I think that's everything. Do we have anything else we need to talk about? Are we want to talk... any more rabbit holes we want to go down or deep dive? Kelly 1:06:14 We'd better not because I have office hours in about 20 minutes Marsha 1:06:18 Okay. Kelly 1:06:19 I can't think well, I can't think of any real big rabbit holes. I stopped myself from going further into Spoonflower after the last episode. But there's quite a discussion going on about--there was quite a discussion going on about Spoonflower in the Ravelry group. So yes, Marsha 1:06:39 I know. I saw that. So. Kelly 1:06:43 So speaking of the Ravelry group, if you are a new listener, come join us. On the Ravelry group. We have discussions about spinning and weaving the the big discussions going on now are the spinning discussion that's been going since the summer spinning started. We have a winter weave along discussion that's been going on since last October. We're almost ready to start our next winter weave along. And then we have morning coffee, where you can talk about anything. Recent conversation has been about dogs and how chaotic the start of the school year has been for all the different teachers that are there in the session. But yeah, it's fun. I go there every morning while I have coffee. That's why I called it morning coffee. But you don't have to drop in in the morning and you don't have to drink coffee. Marsha 1:07:34 No. Kelly 1:07:35 Yeah. Just a fun way to keep in touch with some fiber friends. Marsha 1:07:39 Yeah, Kelly 1:07:40 yeah. Yeah. So feel free to join us on Ravelry and the discussion and the Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group is where you'll find it. Marsha 1:07:48 Okay, any? I guess that's it, though. Yeah. I'm gonna-- I'm gonna let you go so you can get to your office hour. Okay. All right. And then I will... well, I will talk to you in person because you will be here in just a few days. Marsha 1:08:02 Next week, in a few days well, not a few days, but a week. Kelly 1:08:04 Well, less than a week. Marsha 1:08:06 Less than a week. Yeah. Kelly 1:08:07 It's less than a week. You'll be ... very close. Tuesday, I leave. Marsha 1:08:13 So as soon as you finish your office hours, go pack. Kelly 1:08:15 I know. I really, and I'll remember that dark yarn. Marsha 1:08:20 Yeah, yeah.Put it on your list right now. Okay. Use your finest fountain pen and put it on your list. [laughing] Kelly 1:08:28 Okay. Marsha 1:08:30 All righty. All right. Bye. Kelly 1:08:32 Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. Marsha 1:08:39 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects. Kelly 1:08:47 Until next time, we're the Two Eews Marsha 1:08:49 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

Our Summer Spin In is underway and in this episode we answer listener questions on washing a fleece and drafting techniques. Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links 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 Walk Along Tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link) It has been slow going but the sleeves are done and I've started the bottom ribbing! Halfway on the foot on the second sock of a pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.   My Barber Pole spinning project has hit a road bump. All the green and brown has been plied into a three-ply. I decided to spin a bobbin of just dark brown in Navajo (or chain) ply. This was not successful because I'm an uneven spinner and this technique emphasizes the variation. Back to the drawing board. Kelly's Projects  Faye's Flower Blanket, a crochet project, is mostly sewn together. The triangles and corners need to be put on. I am using single crochet to attach them all. The pattern is Persian Tile Blanket (Ravelry link) by Jane Crowfoot. I am using Knit Picks Brava worsted. Finished one charity hat. It's a beanie style with a small 1” ribbing and the rest is just stockinette with two fingering yarns held together.  Dishcloths! I've made about 7 dishcloths out of some cotton spirit yarn that Marsha and I dyed about 4 years ago and never did anything with.  Spinning Questions We Answered:  Drafting Techniques: What are the different drafting techniques and what are some tips? How are you drafting? What hand is where? Short, medium, long… Forward, backward…   Drafting techniques: what have you used and what is your favourite? What is the preparation? Commercial preparation: top vs roving vs sliver vs batts Abby Franquemont's take on it How to get started with long draw? Here is a good article: Seven Drafting Techniques How do you wash a fleece? Here is a good article: Washing Grease Fleece and for further information you can listen to our episode on washing a fleece and read the show notes for lots of links! Washing: Episode 27B Fiber Myth Busting Bonus Episode. Resources:  The Intentional Spinner: A holistic approach to making yarn. Judith MacKenzie McCuin. 2009. The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning: Being a compendium of information, advice, and opinions on the noble art and craft. Alden Amos. 2001. More cool info! A Spinner's Study Ravelry group. This month's breeds (June 2021) are Finn and Teeswater. The spinning challenge for the month is “Spinning and Plying the Other Way.” From SalPal, Sarah: The Three Waters Farm Ravelry group maintains a bundle and thread of patterns that are good for handspun. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#pattern-topic=257… Momdiggity--Jo Ann suggests that any pattern calling for Spin Cycle yarn would be a good pattern for handspun.  Spring Summer 2021 Knitty-Spin column by Jilian Moreno: Planning for a Project-The Beginning Drafting from Worsted to Woolen, Craftsy class be Jacey Boggs Faulkner. Summer  Spin In Memorial Day - Labor Day May 31st - September 6th  Transcript of Show 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 Adventure 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 0:43 Good morning, Kelly. Kelly 0:44 Hi, Marsha. People will notice that we are not together. We're coming at you from separate microphones in separate states. Marsha 0:58 And yes, I think we have thought it would happen. But well, we should explain why we thought it was going to happen. Maybe people don't know that we were together over the Memorial Day weekend. That you and Robert drove up from California Kelly 1:12 It was a very exciting trip, for lots of reasons. Marsha 1:17 And well, so we should say that you brought the two dogs. You brought Bailey, who travels pretty well. She's gone camping with you hasn't she? Kelly 1:26 she's gone... Well, not too much because of the pandemic. Marsha 1:32 Okay, Kelly 1:32 So she's gone on two camping trips. The first one was right before the pandemic started. And she was... she was just learning. You know, we had not had her all that long. And so she got a lot of walks. And she was-- we were really worried about, you know, leaving her in the crate when we had to leave the trailer and stuff like that, because she went crazy and broke crate doors and stuff. And then the last time we went camping was in November of 2020. So she's only been twice but she's pretty good. Yeah. I mean, at least she's, she's more experienced at living with us. Yeah. then then then Beary. Kelly 1:40 And then I'm sure this is Beary's first camping trip. Kelly 2:23 I would guess, yeah. Marsha 2:25 And he did great. They will both dogs did great Kelly 2:29 Well Beary came to us not even really knowing how to get into the car, and not liking getting into the car and he has a ramp that we use to get him in. And at the SPCA they were really, you know, really careful to tell us you, you can't push him up the ramp, and you have to lure him with food and toys and you know, get that cheese in the can and you can spray it on the ramp, get him up there. And anyway, we didn't do that. But we did use a lot of liver and we taught him to get up into the truck, which is much higher than a regular car, with the ramp. So we were practicing. We were practicing on the ramp for a couple of weeks before we left. Marsha 3:14 It's steep! That ramp is pretty steep The truck is really tall and the ramp is not that long, either. It's what, six feet maybe Kelly 3:23 Maybe Yeah, Marsha 3:24 unfolded. So it ends up being kind of a steep ramp. And I was watching and he does sort of have to get a running start. Kelly 3:31 Yes. {laughing] Marsha 3:32 And then don't stop. You don't want him to stop on that ramp. Kelly 3:36 He'll just start sliding back down. But, and when we're first practicing, he would get tired. Like he would go up it a couple times. You know, I could only do it, I can only practice with him a few times because maybe like by the fourth time it was too much work. Now he's in much better shape now. Marsha 3:56 Well, so we have to talk a little bit about well, there's so many things. I know that, but you guys, you basically arrived on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, which I don't know what the date is that like the 29th I think or something like that. Kelly 4:10 Something like that. Marsha 4:10 I don't remember, anyway. And you left Tuesday morning. So Memorial Day was Monday and you left Tuesday morning. And while you were here I think Saturday we just sat on the deck the whole day, didn't we? Kelly 4:25 Yeah. Marsha 4:26 And we took the... we took our dogs for walks through the neighborhood and then just sat on the deck and everything. And then both Sunday and Monday we took them to the dog park at Magnuson Park which is on... people who are not in Seattle that's on Lake Washington. It's a former, I believe, Navy base that's been converted to quite a nice park with all sorts of different activities there. Anyway, one part of it is a dog park where you can take your dogs off leash and you were, I think, a little worried about Beary at first, but you let him off and he did fine. Kelly 5:05 Yeah, I wasn't sure. You know, we only had him a month. He doesn't really have much in the way of training. And you know, he recognizes his name, I think. And then he doesn't have a reliable, you know, come when called. But it was such a long walk from the parking lot to the dog park that he wasn't he wasn't fast enough to get away from me. If he wasn't coming. If he wasn't coming, I could have run over and gotten him and brought him back to where he needed to be so that... Marsha 5:43 Well, yeah, because I be parked at the southern end which then you have a long walk to the dog par. There's a parking lot that you just walk a few feet to the dog park but of course, I made them go on the long one, but it was better. It was funny though watching him because, and we've talked about this Kelly... I should also say too, that the three dogs Bailey and Beary and Enzo all got along pretty well. They--when you guys first arrived, we just took them for a walk. And Enzo was. really curious as to what who these dogs were and what was going on, but we didn't have any problems at all with them Marsha 6:19 No, they were fine. A little grumbling and raised lip Marsha 6:22 yeah, Kelly 6:23 And hey, this is my space. But it wasn't bad. It was it was relatively easy. Also just so everyone knows, they were also very highly managed. Marsha 6:35 Yes, Yes, they were. Well, they were. Kelly 6:39 It felt easy, because we were doing a lot of work to make it that way. Marsha 6:42 Yes. Well, they were on leash a lot all three dogs were on leash. And I think Enza was on a leash the night you arrived. Yeah, Friday night and then a good part of Saturday. Yeah. And then I finally let him off leash it because he was pretty good. I mean, he was pretty good about leaving them alone once they all kind of lost interest in each other. Kelly 6:48 Yeah, Marsha 7:04 But your your dogs were on a leash a lot and then oh, at dinnertime you would put them, you know, put them in the truck. So...Yes, there was a lot of managing going on. Kelly 7:15 Yes, in their giant four wheel drive silver crate. [laughing] Marsha 7:20 Yeah. Just a side note about that truck. I've never seen such a big truck! I mean that it's...I hope Robert doesn't listen to this. Kelly 7:32 It's Ridiculous! Marsha 7:33 I'm sure it's lovely. But it's it's so big. And the... And I know Kelly, you're, you're shorter than I am. Right. And I'm not a giant but I'm also not really short either. I'm just average height. But I swear the hood of the truck is over my head or level with my head it'ss so tall. Kelly 7:35 That's ridiculous. And the key fob weighs about 17 pounds. Marsha 8:05 Because if you drive a big truck, you have to have a key fob with some heft to it. Kelly 8:10 Yeah, it's a it's a manly truck in the most ridiculous way. But I have to say it. It got us up there and got us back. Marsha 8:23 And filled with furniture Kelly 8:25 filled with furniture, filled with dogs. Yeah, it's gonna pull a bigger trailer because that's another part of the reason we went up there was to take a look at a trailer that we bought that we're having worked on. That will replace the little trailer. It'll be a little bit bigger. And so this truck will pull that bigger trailer. So you know, I can't laugh about it too much. But Marsha 8:49 yes, stop your complaining! It's funny, because I did think that your old truck was big. It seems small compared to this one. Kelly 9:01 Yeah, yeah. If they were sitting next to each other, it would look puny. Mm hmm. Yeah. Marsha 9:08 Anyway, but uh, yeah. So that so part of the trip was to go look at the trailer, which is in Bend Oregon, right. So you looked at that, and then you came up. And then the other part of the trip, besides seeing me and Ben and my brother in the dog thing was to pick up furniture. Kelly 9:28 That you and Mark had been very graciously storing for us throughout the pandemic. Yeah. Marsha 9:37 And I think the mirror was actually Kelly 9:39 a year before the pandemic. Marsha 9:42 I think it's more than that. Kelly 9:42 No, I mean, it was a year before the pandemic started. Marsha 9:45 Oh, yeah, I think we've had it two plus years. Yeah. Kelly 9:48 Cuz we were supposed to come pick it up. We were planning to come pick it up last year, but the pandemic happened so it had already been in your house, a year when we were, when the pandemic. At least a year when the pandemic started. So yeah, Marsha 10:04 you posted on Instagram about getting... like... something like getting your crap out of our house. And I didn't say this, but what I wanted to say is it didn't really make a dent. [laughing] Anyway, but it's very nice you have the mirror and then a secretary that my brother had found and Robert's using that, and he's very excited about it. He's been posting pictures of it on Instagram Kelly 10:33 Yeah, he's very excited. So yeah, he likes it. Marsha 10:38 And it's old. Kelly 10:39 And it's fancy, because Robert is fancy. [laughing] Marsha 10:44 So my brother says it's from 1790 to 1810. Something around that. Kelly 10:49 Kind of cool. I wish it could talk. Marsha 10:51 I know. But you know what I was thinking. It's a perfect place for you to write with your fountain pens. You need to use your antique fountain pens. Kelly 10:59 Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know that he's gonna let me near it. [laughing] Marsha 11:08 Well, it's very nice. Anyway, but the so the dogs were great. I was laughing though. When we were walking through the dog park, that Enzo and Bailey, were darting all around sniffing and you know how they run ahead and then they run behind you and they run ahead. And Beary reminds me of a container ship, you know that it takes three miles to stop. He doesn't... he just walks in a line. He doesn't veer off to the right or left like he, if he sniffs anything, he sniffs it because he is crossed his path, or his path has crossed it. Not that he's... you know, where the other dogs, ooh they smell something and they start off in another direction? He doesn't do that. Kelly 11:50 He conserves his energy. Marsha 11:52 He conserves his energy. And didn't we notice we think that he... we were laughing we thought he had a little bit of a waist. Yes. Kelly 12:05 Because I can almost feel a rib. Marsha 12:12 He is a very sweet dog. Kelly 12:14 He's very good. Yeah, I was very, very pleased with how well he did and when we... we camped in a tent. And it turned out to be a six person tent, which was perfect because there's me and there's Robert and there's Bailey and then there's Bearry who's like three people, so we fit perfectly. But when we blew up the air mattress inside of the tent and, you know, made the bed and he comes in and he immediately lays down on the air mattress like "Well, good god. Finally you got me the right size of dog pillow." He was just so funny. He cracks me up. He's a very, very goofy dog. And he just, he's a lot of fun. So he had a great time. Bailey worries a lot. But I think she had a good time too. And I had a great time. And we didn't have time to record. Marsha 13:14 We didn't have time to record. We didn't even really knit very much. Kelly 13:18 Not very. You were able to do some on your on your sweater. But yeah, I did a couple dishcloths. Marsha 13:23 A little bit and we were mostly just managing dogs, getting furniture, you know, walking dogs. Cooking, talking. Whatever. And the weather was gorgeous. Kelly 13:41 I was surprised for that time of year. I was kind of surprised. And I felt really lucky that the weather was so good. Marsha 13:47 So we spent pretty much three full days on the deck. Kelly 13:49 Yeah, it was nice. It's very nice. Well, let's talk about what you were working on on the deck. Marsha? Marsha 13:56 Oh, yes. What was I working on? Oh, my projects. Oh, so my... Well, my sweater. And we had a some conversations about my sweater too. So the Walk Along tee by Anka Stricke. I have to tell you where I am now. I think actually, I can't remember, Kelly. I was working on the sleeves when you were here, wasn't I? Yes, it was my second sleeve. Anyway, I finished both sleeves. Kelly 14:21 Yeah. Marsha 14:22 And I was listening to our last episode. And I was talking about making them not three quarter length, but just to hit just above the elbow. We had that whole conversation about what's the right length. Anyway, and I ended up making them so they hit sort of, you know, halfway between the arm pit and the elbow. So they're not...they're not capped, So they're not capped sleeves, but they're not...They're definitely not three quarter and they're definitely not down to the elbow. Kelly 14:53 Yeah, they're like a regular sleeve, I think they're like a regular short sleeve. Yeah, that's like a regular --like a women's t shirt short sleeve? Marsha 15:02 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, and I'm gonna have plenty of yarn. I was worried about yarn. And we've had a lot of conversations about that. I'm fine. And I... Kelly 15:12 The dreaded yarn chicken is not on the table! Marsha 15:13 Yeah, yes. And I did. So the last episode, I think I was talking about how I had put the body on waste yarn and was gonna do the sleeves, and then go back to the body. So now I have gone back to the body. And when you were here, we I tried it on. You said I should make it an inch longer before I start the ribbing, which I've done. And now I've done... I've done two rows of the ribbing, and I have to do a total of five. And then I'll bind off. Now what I had talked about doing is putting... On the sleeves, you do the five rows of ribbing, and then you do reverse stockinette to make sort of this in the contrast in color. And we had a conversation about that we decided that it's probably best not to do that. So I'm not going to put that contrasting border on I'm just going to do the ribbing and bind off and call it good. So I'm getting close to being done. Kelly 16:09 Yay. Marsha 16:10 Finally, yeah. Kelly 16:13 I need to weave in the ends on that tee that I made. Because I think there is some time I could actually still wear it with the weather we've been having. I could actually. I don't have anywhere to wear it to but but I probably could with the weather I probably could still wear it. And same with you. Right? When you finish it. You'll still you'll still have plenty of weather you could still wear a wool tea. Yeah. Marsha 16:41 On Instagram, Kelly, I posted a picture of you sitting on the deck and you have your bare feet but you have a flannel on. Somebody, I remember somebody made a comment about your bare feet and the flannel. And it's like, yes, it's Seattle, you wear flannel in the summer. Maybe you don't have it on all day. But you probably have it on in the morning. And in the evening. Yeah. So I can wear too. I can definitely wear this, I can wear this during part of the summer, because it is not exactly hot here all the time. So anyway, but yeah. And then I'm still, you know, endlessly working on the pair of socks that I've been working on for months and months. There's really nothing to report. I'm still on the foot. I do, you know, three or four rows every so often when I pick it up. Yeah. And then I would continue to work on my spinning project. But I think, Kelly, why don't you talk about your projects, and then we'll talk about my spinning because we're gonna talk a little bit about spinning. Kelly 17:41 Okay, yeah. Marsha 17:43 Does that make sense? Kelly 17:44 That does make sense. So I have some exciting news and then some really boring. Okay. So the most exciting thing is that since the last episode, I've actually put together the entire... all of the octagons and squares of the blanket that I'm making for my grandniece. I'm calling it Faye's flower blanket. It's a crochet project. I've been talking about it for a while. It's made of Knitpicks Brava sport. No, Knitpicks Brava worsted weight, is the yarn. So it's the Persian Tile Blanket by Jane Crowfoot. And I really love it, it looks great. It's all put together with you know, single crochet, I didn't sew it together, I single crocheted it together. And I was able to with the yarn, because you know, I talked about how much yarn was leftover. I was able with the yarn I had leftover to always be crocheting it together with a color that was on the edge of either the octagon or the square that I was putting together so that that was nice. I didn't have to... I didn't end up having to mix colors at all with the with yarn that I was, you know, that I was putting it together with and I just now have the triangles that go on the sides. It's the triangles have to go on it and then four corners. And then I'll be done. Marsha 19:23 All right!. Kelly 19:24 Yeah, but I think she's gonna really like it. Because it's so colorful and it's turned, it's turned out really nice. And I might, I keep thinking maybe I'll make another one of these. I still do... once everything is put together. I still do need to do the edging as Marsha and I talked about Yeah. So it's not you know, it's not like it's gonna be done tomorrow Marsha 19:29 And have you thought more about how you'll do th edging? Kelly 19:50 I am probably just going to do the edging as the pattern calls for just four rows of it and that's not... nothing, nothing special. The real action is in all the flowers. So I think the border will just be kind of plain. Marsha 20:08 Yeah, it would distract. Kelly 20:10 I may, depending on how much yarn I have left, I may have to do like, not the same color all the way around the whole blanket. You know, for each round, I may not be able to use the same color. But I don't think that will be a problem. I think it will, it will go just fine. There won't even be noticeable with as much riot of color is going on in that. So that's really exciting. It went together a lot faster than I expected it to. And then I finished a charity hat, this little beanie with this... Usually I make you know enough ribbing that if you wanted to, you could fold it up when I make a hat. But this time I thought No, I'm just going to make it one inch or one and a half inch. I don't remember something like that. A ribbing and then the rest of it is just a little beanie. Not slouchy or anything like that. And it's made of, it's actually not... I don't think it's very pretty. I just made it with all the scraps I had left of sock yarn. And the colors. only marginally go together. So I'm not sure it's the best looking thing. But I said that to Robert and he said, Oh, I think it looks nice. So I guess you know, to my eye the colors don't go together but, but they do kind of. I started with the yellow and purple that I had used in one hat and then from that I went to just a purple and then I did purple and blue and I added in a pink stripe. And anyway, by the time you get from the bottom to the top, it's changed from this purple and gold. You know, purple and gold purple and yellow, to like a bright blue and greeny blue color. So, kind of a gradient but not really. It's a hat. It'll be warm. It's okay. Marsha 22:19 It will fit someone's head. Kelly 22:20 Yeah, it's not ugly. It's just not.... it's just not the prettiest thing I've ever made. So yeah, and then dish cloths. I've been making dish cloths. That was my travel project. I did work on the hat while we traveled but mostly I worked on dish cloths. I worked on dish cloths a little bit on your deck. So I've made about seven dish cloths out of I think it's well,... It turned out to be four skeins of yarn... so I guess, no three skeins it's three skeins of yarn that we had dyed. Some cotton yarn, 100 gram skeins that we had dyed. I think it was originally on cones. Marsha 23:12 Were they cones or ball? Well you know those balls that are wrapped around cardboard centers you know Kelly 23:18 Yes, it's nice cotton. Yeah, I don't know. It's thicker than crochet cotton. Marsha 23:23 Mm hmm. Kelly 23:25 So yeah, I don't remember what it came on but it came from the... it came from a weaving stash so Marsha 23:35 Isn't it the stuff I brought down that I got at the goodwill? Kelly 23:38 Oh, yes. Yes, it was you who'd gotten it. That's right. Yeah. Marsha 23:43 I went there...that was the days when... in those days when I used to go to the Goodwill. I don't go there anymore except to drop stuff off. Kelly 23:54 She's leaving the yarn for the rest of you who are in the Seattle area! [laughing] Marsha 23:57 Yeah, really go to the Goodwill and find treasures. Kelly 24:01 So yeah, we got dyes for cotton yarns, and we had dyed all of these. This was maybe four years ago, maybe five years ago. It was very early in the podcast that we dyed this and then we just never did anything. We were going to do something with it. And we were going to have it as a show topic, dyeing cotton, and we never did that. But anyway, it's making nice dish cloths. I guess. I haven't used one yet. Marsha 24:32 But well, and I haven't either because I would go out in the kitchen and there would be a dishcloth sitting by the sink. And then I go out to the kitchen a couple days later. Well, I was back and forth in between two days by go a couple days later I go out there and there was another dish plot that you had made. I've not used them. I promise I'm going to use them because I am under strict orders to use them But yeah, Kelly 24:58 I just threw one away. The last one that was in my drawer, I just threw away with a hole in it. So actually, I've put it in the compost with a hole in it. So I need to, I need to get the ends woven in and get a couple of these in my, in my drawer. So yeah, it's my standard dish cloth pattern it's, I think it's called the triple L tweed stitch. And it's, I just, I borrowed it from a pattern that was on Purl Soho. And I really like it. So I use it to make dish cloths all the time. And that's it. That's the sum total of my knitting and crocheting. So crocheting the blanket together, knit one hat, knit seven dish cloths. In what, three weeks? Because we were late, this episode is late. That's a lot of time for very little amount of production. Marsha 25:55 Yeah, yeah. Well, we got the rest of the summer. Kelly 26:01 Yep. Yeah, true. Marsha 26:03 So I have not gotten very much done either. But because I've been very busy with projects around here. But anyway, um, so let's just talk a little bit about--we had some topics. Well, let's talk about our spinning projects now together. And then we can talk because we had some questions from listeners. So spinning projects, let's talk about that. I, as everyone knows, I've been working on a green and dark brown, three ply. And the last time we talked, I think, I don't remember now where I was, but I have finished plying all of the green. And so all I have left is the brown. And this is a Merino. And what I decided to do is just to spin one bobbin of the dark brown, and I want a three ply. So I decided to do a Navajo ply. And the the upside of a Navajo ply is you just need one, bobbin, and you don't need to spin three bobbins of yarn. And which I learned too is that the whatever was on the bobbin, that singles on the bobbin ends up on... all of that yarn ends up on another bobbin Do you know what I'm saying? It's if you have three bobbins you can't fill a bobbin with three bobbins. Kelly 27:25 Right, right, right. Marsha 27:27 But the Navajo ply, you just know that it's all going to fit on that bobbin. And the downside of a Navajo ply, is, if you are spinning like me a bit unevenly, is you don't have two other plies that might fill in if it's if you're in a thin section, it won't be paired with a thick section necessarily. So because you're you're doing... the Navajo ply is basically like a crochet chain stitch. Kelly 27:59 In fact, it's also called the chain ply. Yeah. Marsha 28:02 Okay. So, which is great if you're doing like... if you want to, you want to keep the color order in your roving, keep that color order in your final yarn is great. But you then have it spinning in order. So if you have a thick section, it's all going to be thick. And if you have a thin section, it's gonna be thin. Because you don't have your two other bobbins of yarn that are randomly being placed together. And so three singles are...at some point, it's all going to be... the chance of having three thick pieces and three thin pieces ply together are greatly reduced, right. So I spun an entire bobbin and plied it. And it's it's nice yarn, but it's not going to... it doesn't match with the three ply that I did with the two colors. So that's going to become something else. And I have more roving, which I'm going to just spin three bobbins and ply it the way I did the other. Kelly 29:14 Do the traditional three ply. Marsha 29:15 Yeah, yeah, Kelly 29:16 yeah, in the same way that it keeps... in the same way that using that chain ply technique keeps all the colors together, right? It preserves your color order. It also preserves your thickness. So the thin parts stay really thin and the thick parts get really thick. And yeah. Marsha 29:37 And what I would say is I don't, I'm not such a.... I'm not such a perfectionist that I think that that yarn is now bad yarn, right, though. It's not bad yarn, because I think it looks good. It's just that it doesn't match the yarn that I have, which is a problem if you're going to use use it together in a project. Kelly 29:58 Yeah, I mean, it's not even really that thick and thin. It's just that it's, it's different when you put it next to the other yarn that you've made. it is very different. Marsha 30:09 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that is that is true that is not, you know, when you're seeing the yarn thick and thin, it's not like night and day. It's not really dramatically different. But it's different enough that I don't want to use them together with, you know, in a project. Kelly 30:28 Yeah, and I have a feeling that even if your yarn was totally consistent, that just the texture or the feel of the, of that chain ply technique is different than a traditional, a traditional three ply. I mean, if you're making socks, and you know, you've done a traditional three ply, and then you have one bobbi left and you just chain ply it and use that. You know, in case you have yarn chicken issues, you're not going to notice, Marsha 30:59 okay, maybe I'm not thinking of this the right way. But if you have three bobbins, you're pulling the single off the same direction, right? So the way you spun it is all coming off the same direction. But with a chain ply, because you're making a loop is one half of the loop going back the other direction. It's the opposite direction. So it's like, like... I always when I spin a single the, the bobbin is turning... I say it's turning to the right. Yes, it's turning to the right. So is that an S? Kelly 31:41 You spin z and ply s. Marsha 31:44 Okay, so but with the chain stitch ply or Navajo ply isn't one of the singles is going to be z or S or what? I'm now... I'm getting confused, but they're not going to be all... you said. What did you say that you spin singles Z and ply S? So if you are ... if you have three bobbins, you would be plying all of this three z singles. s ply, right. But with the Navajo ply, the at least one of them is going to be s and the two zs. Is that? Kelly 32:32 I think if you turn it upside down, you know, if you turn it back the other way, it's still it's still spun the same direction. Marsha 32:40 Oh, it is. Kelly 32:40 Yeah, but but you're right, there's something about making that loop. There's something about making that loop that makes it a slightly different texture, I think it feels different. Or maybe it's the twist, the amount of twist you put in. That might be part of it too. Because it's easier to get too much twist or to get more twist when you're trying to manipulate that, you know, making the crochet chain loop. Marsha 33:08 And it could be me just being tense. Well, yeah, I mean, when was the last time I did this type of plying it was years ago. And so I thought, Oh, it's gonna be exactly the same. Well, it's not going to be, it's never gonna be exactly the same, because it's a completely different vibe. It's a different technique. Kelly 33:31 Yeah, it's a different technique. Marsha 33:32 So it was it was an idea I had, but it was not... Yeah, it didn't work. And Kelly 33:38 and yeah, and it's like you said it's not bad yarn. It's just not the same as it's not the same as the other ones. And when you do it more... When you use the same technique, you'll get something that's closer. Marsha 33:39 Yeah, yeah. So that's where I am, back to that. But anyway, Kelly 33:58 All right. Well, I am I just finished spinning. I had about I had about 20 grams of Santa Cruz Island fleece left, had 20 grams unspun. And then I had tiny little, maybe like one gram amounts on two different bobbins. And so I thought, Oh, I know I need to get this off my bobbins and I don't want to throw it away because that was a really nice fleece. So since I had some ready to spin, I just spun all that up onto those two bobbins plus another bobbin. Split it up to make it even as I could. And then I three plyed it. So I have a traditional three ply of the Santa Cruz Island, which is the same fleece that I used when I made I made the sock yarn that I put in the fair years ago. And I had this... I think it was 2018 when I did it, and so I had this leftover from then so it's been sitting on my bobbins since then. So I wanted to clear them off for the summer spin in. But while I was spinning, I was thinking about how different this spinning that I was doing was from what you were doing. And then also thinking about the questions, some of the questions that we gotten in the thread about drafting techniques and fiber preparation. And so let's just talk a little bit about drafting. So how do you draft Marsha, when you're spinning this yarn that you're spinning right now, how are you drafting? How do you hold your hands? And what do you do? Marsha 35:40 Well, it's sort of depends upon the hour and the day of the week, because I have to admit, I'm not consistent, I keep changing a little bit I normally do. Yeah, I keep changing a little bit. And I don't know, it's not even about whether that's right or wrong. That's just how I am because we're human, and we need to move our bodies and sometimes my hands get tired, so I have to change a little bit. And, and sometimes, depending, like when I first start a bobbin, I am a little, it's a little it's different than when I'm just getting into the rhythm. So I typically I hold the fiber in my left hand. And I always think of what you said, you know, you have to put, like you're holding a baby bird, or a butterfly or something in your hands and not like, grasp it really, really tight. I always sort of pre draft my fiber, let me just say that what I'm spending is, most of what I've been spinning recently is just roving that I've purchased. Which is different than something that you've carded yourself, it's a little bit, you know... Kelly 36:43 You have a lot more choices. I'm that's what I think about a commercial roving, I think you have a lot more choices in how you can draft and what kind of techniques you can use. Marsha 36:53 Also, I'd say to just about I keep sort of changing throughout the spin, especially when I've done the combo spins, because if you're using different fibers, like sometimes I have, you know, Merino in there and targhee and corriedale, and then silk thrown in there. So that, and sometimes the mohair too. So that changes, you're going to have to change how you draft depending on what fiber you're actually spinning. Kelly 37:19 Right, right. Marsha 37:20 But typically, like just now what I was just doing, you know, 100% Merino, I hold the fiber in my left hand. I've pre drafted it. So it's fluffy and kind of light and open. And then I try not to do that, that...what do you call it? Pinch an inch or whatever? Kelly 37:37 Inchworm. Marsha 37:40 And that's where you know, you hold the where the twist is going in. Just before that twist, you hold it with your thumb and forefinger and pull out the yarn, I find that I get more cramps in my hand. That's how I started spinning, because I felt like I had more control. But now that I've gotten more comfortable, I find that I get more cramps in my thumb, if I hold it that way. So what I do is I, a lot of times, I don't even use my right hand, I don't, like I'm just holding it in my left hand. And then every so often, if it starts getting a little thick, then maybe this is why I have thick and thin bits too. And if it starts getting a little thick, then I just take my right hand and pinch. So it doesn't... it stops putting that twist into the thing and maybe unroll it a little bit and pull it out. You know, but I did sort of, and sometimes I get a long, I get a long piece with a twist in it that's maybe 12 inches long. And then I just sort of pinch both ends and sort of pull it apart a little bit to get it to the thickness I want. Does that make sense? Kelly 38:38 Yeah, Yeah. Marsha 38:40 You know, I don't know what you call that. Kelly 38:41 Well, there's a lot of different names for the different techniques and it sounds like what you're doing is... Marsha 38:47 I'm doing chaos. Chaos, the technique! Kelly 38:51 No, I mean, I think you're doing a lot of the things that happen in a long draw. Right, because you're using only one hand and then your other hand is helping when you need to, to kind of pull it out a little bit more and make it a little bit thinner. Are you pulling back with your left hand very much or mostly just holding it straight? Marsha 39:09 Yes, I'm pulling back. Kelly 39:11 Spinning is such a, I mean, it's such an old form of creation, that I think every person who who's ever spun has spun slightly differently. And you know, there's categories of techniques, but within that there really is a lot of variation. So, but like that inchworm technique is called a short forward draw, because you're taking out a little bit and you're pulling it a short ways. You're drafting it a very short ways and then you're letting the twist into a very short little segment. So short forward draw because you're pulling forward. I typically don't pull forward with my right hand most of my spinning is happening with my left hand, that's where I hold the fiber, too. And so I usually do backward draw, maybe not short, backward draw, but maybe a longer backward draw using my right hand... I probably use my right hand more than you do. If I were spinning like a commercial roving, not trying to spin long draw, I probably use my right hand, it sounds like I use my right hand a little bit more than, than you do. But mostly I, I, you know, pull backwards with my left hand. And my right hand is helping things along, as opposed to actually doing the work of the spinning. But it's interesting. So the commercial preparation that you have, you know, the commercial roving or commercial top allows you to do a lot of different things with it. Right, you can do all those. What I was spinning the Santa Cruz Island, I was spinning punis, which are like a roll of fiber off the drum carder... or the not the drum carder, the hand cards. And really, because the fiber is so short, they're really tiny, thin, you know. The reason I'm calling them punis and not rolags, it's just the size of them. You normally when you roll it off of the hand cards, you have this like sausage shaped thing of fiber, it's called a rolag, the ones that they make with cotton, are much smaller, you know, and thinner diameter, and they call them punis. Marsha 41:32 Okay, Kelly 41:33 And because cotton doesn't stick to itself, they kind of roll them, we kind of you know, smash them a little bit to make them stick to each other better and not come apart. But with wool, you don't need to do that. And especially with this Santa Cruz Island, you don't need to do this because it is so crimpy that it's it really sticks to itself. So with these tight little...and the tightness of the of the roll that comes off of the handcard wasn't because I made it to be super tight. It's because of the crimp of the fiber. And what that fiber just wanted to do, it's not going to make a loose kind of loose sausage shape. It just had to come off in this little tiny, narrow diameter roll. Anyway, it's so clingy to itself, that really the only way that I could spin it was with either short forward or short backward draw, which is not my favorite. But it's a nice fiber. And I really enjoyed spinning it because it's an unusual breed. And it's one of the endangered breeds. So I'm happy to spin it the way it wants to be spun. But this is a good example of a fleece is going to tell you how it wants to be spun. Because I couldn't do... I could not do a long draw with it, that fiber just clings to itself way too much. Yeah, I couldn't do my normal kind of relaxed, backward draw spinning because the fiber just clings to itself so much. Sometimes you can use whatever you want. And sometimes you have to go with the with what the fiber is telling you to do right. Yeah. Marsha 41:51 I don't know that you have to start and go oh, and think to yourself, oh, this is the technique. This is the typical, or this is the technique that I need to use, or the draw that I need to use. You just organically do it because you have no choice. But to just to do it because of the fiber will tell you. Kelly 43:37 Yeah, that's right, I didn't sit down and say this is what I'm going to do to spin this fiber, it just, that's what I had to do to make to make it, you know, to make it work. And because the fiber is so short and so crimpy, in my carding I've created, I've created neps, you know, little tangled balls of fiber. And so I'm also I was also constantly picking off as I was going along, constantly picking off those little neps where I could, to make the yarn a little bit smoother. And I was only doing that because that's what I did for the skein that I entered into the fair because I wanted, I was hoping I would get a ribbon for it. And I did. So I was being really careful when I spun that. So I was trying to at least marginally make it match that yarn that I spun, because I want to make a pair of socks. And so this will give me a little bit more flexibility, you know, when I'm knitting it, into how long to make the top part of the socks because I'll have a little extra about 20 more, it turned out to be about 20 more grams. You know, by the time I had a little bit of waste at the end and everything. I got about 20 more grams of yarn out of it. So that was kind of nice, but I thought it was a good contrast between a carded preparation on my part and a commercially combed, or you know, mill carded preparation on your end. And then the two different techniques that we're using. Interesting, though, we both-- and maybe because you talked to me when you got your spinning wheel, but it's interesting that we both hold the fiber in our same hand. All the fiber with our left and a lot of people who are right handed do it the other way. Marsha 45:27 Hmm. It's interesting. Maybe it's because I, the first time I spun I spun on your wheel. And you showed me how to spin and you probably said, put it, put it in your left hand and I follow orders, you know, Kelly 45:38 yeah, I probably, I probably did! I switch sometimes and spin the other hand again, if I'm spinning for a long time, and I think oh, my hands getting a little tired. But that's...my typical is to put the fiber in my left hand. Marsha 45:51 I did some research. And I did find an article and this was on spinning daily.com. There's an article by Janine. I don't know how to pronounce this. It looks like back ridges, ba k r i g e s. And it's seven drafting techniques. And she has the names of the seven and descriptions and photographs. So I'll put a link to that because that was actually pretty interesting. Kelly 46:18 There's another really good resource for people, Oh, I thought I linked it and I didn't, I'll have to grab the link for you to put in the show notes. There's a craftsy class that I took from JC Boggs Faulkner, called Drafting: From Worsted to Woolen. And it was really good. I enjoyed that class. And she had swatches made out of all the different drafting styles. And some of them, I thought, Wow, you can really tell the difference between those. And some of them, I thought, okay, there's barely a difference. And so it's not going to matter in to my, for my purposes. It wouldn't matter whether I used one drafting, you know, one of the two drafting techniques or the other. And so, you know, it's like, Okay, well, I could just choose whichever one I liked, the better, whichever one I like better, because it looks like you get the same thing when you knit it up. So that was an interesting course, too, that I'll make sure is linked in the in the show notes in case someone wants to take that Craftsy class. It's still available. I checked it this morning. Marsha 47:21 Any more to add to about drafting. Kelly 47:24 I have a link in the show notes about the different names of the different preparations and you know, what is top versus what is roving versus what is sliver versus a batt of fiber. And so I have a link from Abby Franquemont's website that that I thought was a good kind of a primer on, you know, what are the... what do the different terms? What do the different terms mean? Marsha 47:49 We do have a question about how to get started with long draw from howmanystitches Liz, who's in Scotland. Did you want to touch on that? Kelly 47:57 Sure. I just want to thank prairie poet and supercut. For the other questions about what kind of drafting techniques we use and what our favorite drafting techniques are. We kind of got into earlier long draw is, you kind of just have to have a, well have a carded preparation, first of all, would be my suggestion, have a carded preparation of fiber, and then just be willing to make a lot of mistakes and have the yarn break, and then you just start again. Because you, you have to try not to touch it with your right hand and let the fiber come out of your left hand. Marsha 48:41 I think what we said is, you know, not only do you pretend you have a baby bird in your left hand, but you have a glass of wine in your hand. So you can't touch your left hand. Kelly 48:51 Yeah, yeah. And, and it works. I mean, and it's gonna be lumpy when you first start and you have to be, you have to be prepared to have lumpy yarn when you first start because you're--you have to just get the feel of it. And you have to be prepared to have it sometimes stretched out too fine and break. You know, slip apart, drift apart. It doesn't really break, but like you know, drift apart. And then you have to start again and pull out your end and start again. But you eventually do get the feel of it. And, and it is pretty amazing that it works. And you can also there's like a something called a double draw where you where you draw it back. And you let some twist get into it. And then once the twist is in it, you can you can pull it even pinch it off, you know, don't let any more fiber come out of your hand and pull it back even more and get it to be finer and like the lumps come out. Any lumps, you can get those lumps to come out by pulling a little bit more. It takes, it just takes experience and willingness to be wrong. Marsha 49:57 Yeah, Kelly 49:59 Again, that's my opinion and my experience. If you get frustrated by having it drift apart, or frustrated that you can't make consistent yarn, then it's just going to be an unpleasant learning experience. But if you just know that you're going to make lumpy yarn and get better the more you do it, then it will be... it will be a great experience. It's a fun way to spin I think. And it's pretty fast. Marsha 50:26 Yeah, Kelly 50:27 If you've ever used a supported spindle, that's another way that you could kind of get started. Not a drop spindle where you're using both your hands, but a supported spindle where one of your hands is having to spin the spindle and the other hand is drafting. That gives you a good... I think gives you a good feel of what that is like. So yeah, let us know, if you want more information, we can do a little bit more research. Marsha 50:53 I have a question. Just as we're talking about this, what is the best drafting technique to use when you have those long wools, you know, like a Lincoln? Kelly 51:02 Typically, people say, you know, with a long wool, you can comb it and keep all the fibers in order, you know, all parallel and spin worsted. So a worsted spinning would be where you don't let the twist get into your fiber hand, you keep all the twists in front of your, for us, it will be our right hand, keep all the twist in front of our right hand. And then be able to draft the fiber in your left hand. So you could do a short forward or, or short backward or you know, kind of go back farther because it's a long fiber, so you keep your hands further apart. Right here, your inchworm would not be an inchworm it might be like a, I don't know, a five inch worm. Because you want it you know, you need to keep your hands further apart. So you're not pulling on the same piece of hair. Marsha 52:02 Right. Okay, Kelly 52:03 I don't typically do a worsted technique, even with long wool. I'm... my tendency, when I'm just spinning for like, relaxing pleasure, I let the twist back into my into my left hand. I'm not, I'm not real good about keeping that twist out of my fiber hand, you get a little hairier yarn that way, you know more halo, less smooth. But that doesn't bother me. But if I wanted a really smooth long wool I would make sure I didn't let the twist get back into my back into my fiber hand. Okay, I wanted to just give a couple of other resources that I think are really good for people who are just beginning. Or if you have some resources, but you haven't really built a spinning library or ,you know, done more than just looking up a few things in Ravelry groups. There's one book that I have, called The Intentional Spinner: A Holistic Approach to Making Yarn. And that's Judith Mackenzie McCuin. And it's a 2009 book, I would really highly recommend it. And then the other one I have is the Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning. And I love this title: "Being a Compendium of Information, Advice and Opinions on the Noble Art and Craft." And this is by Alden Amos and it was in 2001. And he has since passed away but he was a very opinionated guy. Lots of spinning knowledge from you know, hand spinning to machine spinning. And so there's a lot of historical knowledge in that book and a lot of other things. So those two books I think are really a lot of information in them. And then I also wanted to mention the Spinner's Study Ravelry group. This month they're spinning, they pick a couple of different types of fleece each month and this month they're spinning Finn and Teeswater. And the spinning challenge for the month is called spinning and plying the other way. So we were talking about spinning z and plying s. So I think what they're doing is doing the opposite of that and looking at what that what that does to the yarn. I also wanted to mention that we've been talking about knitting with your handspun and Salpal had mentioned to me, sent me a message, to say that the Three Waters Farm Ravelry group has a bundle and a thread of patterns that are good for handspun. Marsha 54:38 Okay, Kelly 54:39 And so we'll link to that in the show notes. And then Joanne, momdiggity, she suggested any pattern calling for Spincycle yarn would be a good pattern for handspun. Marsha 54:50 That's true. Kelly 54:51 And then the other thing that I found is this month just by coincidence, the Spring/Summer 2021 Knitty Spin column in Knitty magazine. It's written, it's a column by jillian Moreno, is "Planning for Your Project, the Beginning." So she's talking about how do you, you know, if you're going to knit something, and you're going to spin for that particular project, what kind of things do you have to think about? And so all of those resources will be in the show notes. And then we had Marsha one more question, and that was about how to wash a fleece. Marsha 55:27 Mm hmm. Kelly 55:28 I'm haven't washed a fleece in a while. Marsha 55:30 I know I haven't either, Kelly 55:31 But superkip that's Natalie. She asks, How do you wash a fleece? This is what she says. "For the washing bit. I usually do a cold soak or two and then wash my fleece with really hot water. And in the second hot water wash, I add dishwashing soap. It works to get it clean. But I do have a lot of lanolin left in my fleeces" and then she says, "I was recently advised to use colder water or wash with soda. However, the soda felted my fleece, I might have used too much soda. And the colder water seems counterintuitive. Although I have not tried it." This was a couple of weeks ago. But I hope that we can give some advice to Natalie on this. Marsha 56:16 Well, first I think we have to discern, differentiate what the soda is. Explain that when it says soda it's not baking soda she's talking about it's soda ash right or, or washing soda, which is different. And I I had to look this up. So it's... baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. And soda ash or washing soda is sodium carbonate. And it sounds like from what I'm reading, it's a bit more caustic. And can be an irritant to your eyes, nose, throat. And looking at Wikipedia it's used as a sweetener in soft drinks. Think about that. Kelly 57:03 That sounds odd. Marsha 57:04 I know. And I also didn't realize what it is and that it is used a lot because it changes the pH. So it's used also for dyeing non protein fibers. like cotton or Kelly 57:25 Yeah, we used it when we dyed this yarn that I'm knitting right now the dish cloths, Marsha 57:31 right. So it changes the pH, I guess and so then the the dye can attach to the fibers is my understanding. So I don't and I was trying to get what does it actually do? How does it separate the lanolin from the wool? Kelly 57:51 But I know it's a washing aid. I mean, just in general, you can buy washing soda and you put it in for especially if you have hard water it it makes your laundry detergent work better. So from that standpoint, I guess. I guess that might be why she was advised to use it. I don't ever use that on wool. Yeah. I it it's wool likes an acid Ph. And it's too basic. And so I I know people do use it, but you are limited to how long you should keep the wool in contact with it. Marsha 58:32 Yeah, the article I was reading it says not to use more or leave it to soak any longer than 20 minutes and I wonder she doesn't say how long she left it. But she she says here she thinks she may have used too much. But I wonder if maybe it was in there too long. Kelly 58:48 Yeah. Either one of those things could have done damage--could damage your wool. Make it really harsh. And kind of I want to say crispy or crinkly. Marsha 59:01 So it was the the washing soda or soda ash. Was that something that was probably developed before we had detergents. Kelly 59:09 I would say yes to that, Yeah. Marsha 59:11 Because when I see people use different things like a lot of times they're using that wool wash you can get anywhere with Eucalyptus in it. Kelly 59:21 Eucalan. There's also another one. There's a scour there's a Unicorn Scour. That's actually not for washing garments but for washing fleeces. Marsha 59:33 But I just I use what you taught me to use, which is I use Dawn and I don't know.... I know SuperKip is in Europe. So I don't know if Dawn is available. I think she's in Holland I believe. I don't Kelly 59:47 Dish detergent. I think a dish detergent is-- for me that that works really well. And if you use that I would use dishwashing soap in both of those washes. Mm hmm and And make sure the water is really hot and that it doesn't cool off, you know before you drain the water, because the lanolin can reattach to the fleece. It's basically you know, it's like it's like grease. And so if you think about your dishes, even if you put detergent in dishwater if you then go to bed and leave them in the dishwater overnight and it cools, that grease will be redeposited on your dishes. I prefer to use dishwashing detergent and really hot water. And we do have an episode where we talk about washing fleece it's Episode 27B, Fiber Mythbusting Bonus Episode, where we talk about washing, washing fleeces and there's some links in that show, 27B. In that show's show notes there are also some links to some resources about detergents and how detergents work. And Marsha 1:01:02 Well, I was going to say we didn't even talk, we're just talking about washing it with detergents and hot water. We didn't even talk about the washing with the fermentation process. That's another whole episode about that. But that's where you basically, you let it just kind of for lack of a better word ferment in it. The suint, which is the sweat from the sheep. Kelly 1:01:24 Right. Marsha 1:01:25 And I've never I've never tried that you've tried it Kelly 1:01:28 Oh, I didn't do it the true way. But I did let it sit in water and get very smelly for about a month before I washed it. I ended up going ahead and using soap to wash it too. But I did have to use less. And it washed up faster. Yeah, but but I don't know that I actually got fermentation happening. Hmm. It just was very smelly. Marsha 1:01:54 Yeah. So, but I have a question about that--when, after you took the wool out the fiber out and washed it It didn't smell, right? It's just while sitting the it's the water that it's sitting in that's so bad. Kelly 1:02:08 Right. Yes. Okay, one thing that that that I think sometimes people don't do when they wash wooll is one, use enough water and the other, use enough soap or detergent. And it depends on the fleece too, you know. Is it a super super greasy fleece or is it a not so greasy fleece? Different breeds have different amounts of lanolin. But anyway, yeah, good. Great question. Lots of opinions about that question. If you go out and look. Look around for you know, advice about how to wash a fleece. The Alden Amos book talks a lot about using soda to wash fleeces and soap instead of detergent, which I think if you're using soap, maybe the the washing soda helps not create the scum that soap and hard water would create. Lots of methods have been used over the years. And maybe the washing soda is an older method too like you said. Before detergents were widely available when people did use soap more. Marsha 1:03:22 Yeah. So anything else we need to say about it? Kelly 1:03:27 I don't think so. I think that's it. Marsha 1:03:30 We'll talk more about spinning over the summer during the summer spin in. And if people have questions they want us to answer or try to answer. Just put them in the in the forum, the discussion thread. Kelly 1:03:45 Yeah, or email us.Two Ewes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. Marsha 1:03:51 And since we are talking about the summer spin in we should just remind people that it started Memorial Day, which was May 31. And it ends September 6. We will talk more about washing fleece because I I have--someone gave me a alpaca fleece. And we've been talking about sheep's wool. But now it'd be interesting to talk about how you wash alpaca, but that'll be another time. I have questions about that. I have questions for you about that. So Kelly 1:04:20 I don't think I've ever washed alpaca. Oh, well, maybe you'll have questions for someone else. Marsha 1:04:27 Or maybe I'll just have to answer the questions and answer my own questions. Right. Well, the last thing I was going to just say is that we had such a great time on our visit and it didn't really hit me until after. Well, when you walked up on the front porch. It kind of hit me as like this is the first time we've seen each other since February 2020. It was last time you saw us when we went to Stitches. Kelly 1:04:53 Mm hmm. Marsha 1:04:54 And it was kind of like and then when you left I felt like wow, we just saw each other It's been so long since Kelly 1:05:02 Yeah, face to face. Marsha 1:05:05 It was really kind of remarkable. And I we have to thank science right? Kelly 1:05:09 Oh, yeah. Marsha 1:05:10 Yeah that we were able to...you were able to drive up here and visit. So thank you to scientists. Kelly 1:05:18 Yes. Thank you for that vaccine! Marsha 1:05:20 Alright with that, I guess we should say goodbye. All right. We'll see you in two weeks. Kelly 1:05:25 All right. Bye. Kelly 1:05:26 Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. Marsha 1:05:33 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is Kelly 1:05:39 1hundredprojects. Until next time, were the Two Ewes, doing our part for world fleece. Transcribed by https://otter.ai  

Lots of ends to weave and finished objects to discuss this week. Plus we announce the winners of our Winter Weave Along.  Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links 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 Walk Along tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link) Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde (Ravelry link) Almost done.  I started the heel flap on the pair of socks (Ravelry link) for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.   Spun three more skeins of merino green and brown three ply. Have a total of five skeins and 716 yards Kelly’s Projects  Finished! Iced Matcha socks (Ravelry link) from the Coffee Socks Collection by Dots Dabbles Designs. I used Invictus Yarns Seraphic.  Finished! Frog and Toad (Ravelry link) from frogandcast.com.  Finished! Reading in Bed blanket (Ravelry link) Started the Huck weaving sampler from the Jane Stafford Guild Winter Weave Along The Weave Along is over and we drew winners! Listen to see if you won! Extremities Knit/Crochet Along This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns: Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah It ends on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet). Full Transcript Marsha   Hi, this is Marsha Kelly    and this is Kelly. Marsha   We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by. Kelly   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   We blog and post show notes at to Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com Kelly   and we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm  1hundredprojects  Marsha   And I am betterinmotion. Kelly   We both look forward to meeting you there.  Both   Enjoy the episode. Marsha   Good morning, Kelly.  Kelly   Good Morning, Marsha. Marsha   How are you today? Kelly   I'm doing all right. The sun is finally coming out. I would say if you want to travel to my neck of the woods don't come in April. April's not-- I don't think April is that good of a weather month for the Monterey Bay Area. It's cold. It's very coastal feeling this morning that cold ocean breeze and overcast and the sun is now finally coming out. So maybe I'll get my hat and my fleece vest off att some point today. Marsha   Well, we are having beautiful weather in Seattle. Kelly   That's good. Marsha   I haven't checked the temperature but warm, you know, Sunny blue sky. Yeah, no rain in the forecast. I think it's gonna be up to 70 Kelly   Oh, nice. Marsha   I'm sorry. I don't know what that is in Celsius for those who are on Celsius. Kelly    30? Somebody in the Ravelry group posted and they said they have like milestones, like body temperature is 37. Marsha   Okay, Kelly    I think they said 30 degrees was like a 70 degree day. Now, I may be totally wrong on that. But but that's-- I'm just doing that from memory and then you know, zero is freezing. And below zero is nobody wants to, nobody wants to feel that! Marsha   Anyway, Well, anyway, it's beautiful. So I have Mark came up and helped me move the patio furniture app onto the deck. So we've been sitting in the furniture and we got the umbrellas out yesterday  Kelly   Wow! Marsha   and, we've had so and I'm... you probably saw my Instagram post that I painted the south side of the garage. Well, primer and first coat yesterday. I have to do the second coat today Kelly   You and Robert so I just have to ask. Did you vacuum it before you primed it? Marsha   Well, Ben power washed it for me. [laughing}   Kelly    Okay. Because I looked out at one point when Robert was... and he's got the vacuum up on the roof of the garage and a paintbrush, like to brush off cobwebs and stuff like that. Oh my gosh, he is meticulous. Marsha    He is meticulous but he's doing it the right way.  Kelly   Yes, yeah. No, I have no complaints. I just laugh when I see. I mean like, Who in the world looks out the window and sees someone vacuuming the garage wall? [laughing] Marsha   Well, I have to say I did not vacuum it but I, as I say Ben went out and power washed the south side. And then what started this whole thing, I probably talked about this but what started the whole thing is he was super excited about power washing and he powerwashed the driveway and I said well why don't you power wash my pots, my the planter pots, which he did. And then on the south side of the driveway where I have the tomatoes, the neighbors have a fence so it creates shade like from the pots down. And so it's super mossy, there was like an inch of moss over there. And he was--can hardly wait to get over there and attack the moss. He powerwashed that whole walkway, power washed the pots. I said Well then, if I'm pulling the pots away... Because they're so heavy, I take all the soil out, which is now piled up in front of the garage so I can't get my car in the garage. If we're going to do all this I should paint the garage because the garage has not been painted in, I don't know, 15 or 20 years? I don't know. A long time. I don't remember when it was painted. Kelly   Well that's what led Robert to paint was that the he wanted to get the garage painted before the grape came back. You know, he pruned it. So it was all pruned back and you can actually see the garage wall. And, and he knew you know, within a couple of weeks that was all going to start leafing out again and so he's like Okay, I gotta get this garage wall painted. Yeah. So so good to do it while the pots are out of the way. Marsha   Yeah, but then I have a tendency, well I was like, just put the paint on there. It's okay. And it's like no, my father was a painter. And I can't, I can't do that. So I, as I say Ben power washed it, I primed it. I put my first coat on. So and I'm gonna go put the second coat on. So that's the right way to do it. Now, all of this, that was just one side of the garage. I have, you know, it's a rectangle. So I have three more slots. [laughing] Kelly   Yeah, that's the west side. So that's one of the sides that gets the most Marsha   No, it's actually south side.  Kelly   Yes. The South Side. Yeah.  Marsha   But I, you know, my parents built that garage. And my father taught me how to put the shingles on it. So it has cedar shingles from probably 1968. And he showed me how to nail shingles onto the side of the garage. So when I was-- okay, let's see. I was probably 10. And I sided, at the age 10, I sided the south side of the garage.  Kelly   That's cool.  Marsha   Yeah. Anyway, and he told me how, like you put a double row at the--the first row at the bottom is a double row, double thickness. And then and how to use the now I don't even know what they're called. Is it a snap line? Chalk line?  Kelly   Oh, yeah.  Marsha   You know, to to get a, to, so that they're all even. And so I was out there painting them. I thought I did a pretty good job at the age of 10. Kelly   That's nice. Yeah.  Marsha   Child labor.  Kelly   Exactly. Exactly. Marsha   But I remember as a kid thinking, it was really fun. It was, yeah, it was super fun. So he left, he showed me how to, he showed me how to do it and then he left me on my own out there one day, and I just did the whole thing. But I will say, I'm not 10 anymore. [laughing] And  painting, so you know, primer, and then the first coat, my right hand holding the brush. I can't hold-- I in fact, I intentionally did not buy as big a brush as my dad would have used. He had like an eight inch brush, they would use like my hand can't hold that you know. So I have a smaller brush. But by the end of the day, my right hand was really sore and my left elbow. I pinched a nerve or something in their, I--or done something. And I think what it is now with my left hand is or my left elbow is from holding the paint pot. You know, just imagine holding something in your hand.  All day,  Kelly   Right Marsha   So it's-- I think it's affected my elbow. Yeah, I'm a wreck. Kelly   Well, even with all of that you still are able to knit right? Marsha   Yes, I'm working on socks right now as we're recording. So I'm still able to knit. Yeah.  Kelly   All right.  Marsha   Anyway, enough home improvement. Should we talk knitting?  Kelly   Yeah. What are you working on? Marsha   Well, I'm working on my socks. Just the you know, vanilla socks. In fact, I don't even have it in the show notes. It's the What yarn is this? It's the Fabel yarn that I remember we bought it down-- I reaching over to my bag to grab a label--when we went to San Luis Obispo years ago for the yarn crawl. Kelly   Oh, right. Marsha   And this is Drops Fabel Print. I've talked about this before, but not for a while. This is the second sock and I'm just starting the heel flap. It's you know, it's an easy project.  Kelly   Yeah. Marsha   So since I'm talking about these should I just talk about my projects? Kelly   Sure! Yeah, that's a good idea. Marsha   Because I don't have much to report. Marsha   I've been periodically picking up the Walk Along Tee by Ankestrick. And I have-- I really have not progressed much since we last talked. In fact, I have to tell you, I listened to the last two episodes while I was painting the garage. And knowing that we were going to record today, thinking Well, there's not much more to report. I think I've knit four more rows since we last talked. So but as I say, there's been so many projects here. Oh, and I should say too. Not much knitting got done last week because Ben had his wisdom teeth taken out. And so,last Wednesday, a week ago, so there was a lot of up and down the stairs changing ice packs making milkshakes and getting him to take pain meds. He alternated between ibuprofen and Tylenol. So yeah, I have not made a huge amount of progress on that and then the Abington Mitts also haven't... Kelly   Oh no! You jinxed them when you said you hope they're not like your skull. [laughing] Marsha   They are like my skull but as I said, again as I'm out there listening to the podcast the last episode while I was painting, we reiterated the deadline for the extremities, extremities knit crochet, macrame along. And I need to get going. Kelly   Yes. April 25th, right? Marsha   Yeah. So I need to get going. So I'm so close. I just have to do the thumb. Kelly    Right! So yes, Don't jinx yourself. Marsha   Yeah. You know what I also, when I listened back to myself, I always, this is what I always say. "I'm going to do that tonight." [laughing] I'm not saying that. That seems to jinx me too.  Kelly   Okay. Oh my gosh. Marsha    But the one thing I have been working on though, is the spinning. So I plied... have made three more skeins, I plied three skeins of yarn. So I now have a total of five, which is a little over 700 yards. And I think I'm going to get at least two more skeins, and maybe a bit more. But I had the idea that I was going to make a sweater out of this the green and brown three ply. But I'm not going to have enough. So I do think I will have more of the brown left. And even if I don't have enough of it. I can order more. Which I should probably do that sooner than later. So I was thinking well maybe I would just add stripes to the sweater. Kelly   Yeah. Marsha   To to extend it. So I think that will look okay. If I have like that barber pole yarn mixed with a solid but it's that same, the same color. I think it will be okay. Kelly   Yeah, I think that would be really pretty. Marsha   We did have a conversation though. Just thinking about spinning. We did have a conversation. I called you. Do you remember I called you last week, I think or this week that?  Kelly   Oh, right. I want to know how that how that went. Marsha   Yeah, well, so I'll tell people what happened. So and this probably happens to a lot of people, is that you're single is-- you're plying and one of your singles will break. And then you can't find the end on the bobbin. And that's what happened. And so I called you and I said because you know, you have been spinning a lot longer than I have, you've probably had this experience too. And you said a couple of things to do. One of them is put the bobbin back on the spinning wheel and spin the opposite direction that you plied it. But, and but loose. I mean, you don't have the yarn coming--well, because you're trying to find the end, right. So you just let it spin on there. And it will sometimes just fly out. Kelly   Right Marsha   That didn't happen. Kelly   I don't have too much luck with that. I haven't had too much luck with that technique either about Marsha   that didn't happen. But I think what it did is it must have loosened it some way because I finally took it off. And I just took it out in the sunlight. And I actually found the end Kelly    Oh, nice. Oh, that's good. Marsha   So because I had done that before I took it outside in the light and I could not find it. So I do think that that spinning, did must have jarred it some way that I could find it. But just the other advice you gave me too. And this is not-- this doesn't help find the end. But just when you're spinning, don't let the singles pile up too high as you're spinning across the bobbin and keep moving at across the hook sooner. Because I sometimes you know, as I'm watching TV, or I'm talking, I lose track of what I'm doing. And sometimes they get a little too high and then they can fall down onto the next row is that the right way, how would you describe it? Marsha   Kind of like the next layer the way I would... Marsha   Layer,  right.So I'm going to keep that in mind for next time. Because that has it's happened to me more than once that Kelly   And a lot of people use something called a Woolly Winder. And Robert from the very beginning, when I first got my spinning wheel, he was like this needs to have something where it's you know, laying the laying the thread down or the yarn down, going evenly all the way across and then coming back. Like you know, like a fishing reel. And I said, No, you just move the yarn on the hooks. And then I discovered, you know, this was back in 98. And then I discovered that there was this thing called a Wooly Winder that I think that's what it's called, that does do that it it winds your yarn onto a bobbin more like a fishing reel would do so you're not moving the hooks yourself.  Marsha   Make sense. Kelly   Yeah. I like to move the hooks because it helps me remember not to sit in one position. Not to put my hands in one position. Not to, you know, not do things that could give you a repetitive stress injury, the more adjustments that you make to your body, the better. But a lot of people like to have that and just be able to get into that rhythm. And, and it, you know, people think it helps, and it probably does helps them make a more consistent yarn to, because every time you stop and start again, you have the possibility of your yarn not being, not being consistent. But I'm old school enough to think that that moving the yarn from one hook to another is, is good for you. But I also am guilty as you are forgetting and then, Oh, no! And the finer you spin, the worse it is, the more careful you have to be about that happening. Marsha   Yeah, and I also think, too, is if you, if you have the the single on the bobbin. And you  just went and decided that you were going to wind it into onto another bobbin or something. Not that you would do that. Like so you're just going to take it from the one bobbin and put it onto another bobbin...  Kelly   People do that. They put it onto like a storage bobbin. Marsha   Right, I think then you might not have as much of a problem. But when you put it on the the lazy Kate, it has to have some tension on it.  The bobbins that you're plying off of have to have some tension. Otherwise, if they move too fast, then it all starts twisting back onto itself.  Kelly   Right, right.  Marsha   And so I think that tension also then forces the single down into the layers.  Kelly   Yes. Marsha   And I don't know how to get around that other than, as you said, spin... change more frequently.  Kelly   Yeah. And the other thing that I have done with my lazy Kate, when I wanted to make a super, you know, try to be super consistent in my plying, I was taking a class and I was trying to follow you know, the instructions of the class. And so, on our wheel, the lazy Kate on the little Herbie, is connected to the wheel. And I mostly ply from the Kate on the wheel. But if I have a yarn that I think is going to be really temperamental, what I learned in the class I took a while back, is that if you have the Kate away from you, it gives you the chance, it gives the yarn a chance for the twist to even out in the singles. And so if I have something that I think is not going to behave nicely, I'll take my Kate off. And, you know, put it behind me, like four or five feet. Kind of prop it up behind me four or five feet. And that does, that does help. Because it doesn't get so tight. You know, you know that that that tightness when you're when you're trying to pull it up, up from the bobbin instead of out from the bobbin. Marsha   Yes and I--and so we have the same wheel and I find that I tried plying with the lazy Kate attach to the wheel the way it's designed. It was a nightmare, because I, it kept...Yeah, I was not able to do it. So you had shown me that trick. And so now I always like I sit in my chair in the study, you know watching TV,which is probably part of my problem [laughing]  with my applying and then I put the lazy Kate behind me and I block it with the table leg to try and hold it up. So, because you want it to stay upright and not have the bobbins hit anything. So that stops them. The other thing is Kelly, you remember when I got the Ashford wheel?  Kelly   Yeah, Marsha   It came with a lazy Kate.  Kelly   Oh okay. I don't remember that. Marsha   And so I tried that too. And it's, it's basically it's like two posts that stick up. Wood posts that stick up and then the bobbins go in there. Ours are put in perpendicular to the ground, right?  These bobbins are parallel. But there is nothing to slow them down. So they just--and I tried I thought, well maybe it'll be easier. No. It did not work at all. It's-- I think that's just going to be for storing bobbins because they look pretty. Kelly   So my my Wyatt wheel has a Kate like that built into the wheel and it does not have a tension--any tensioner on those bobbins. And so what I've done is I've taken the springs, the springs that do the tensioning for the Herbie and I just put them on there so you might try it. It might not fit the same springs or those springs might not be long enough. It depends on how long the, what are they called, the sticks that go through the bobbin are. But if you can find springs to go on the end of them to provide a little bit of tension.  Marsha   Yeah, I could just go to the hardware store probably and get something.  Kelly   That might be a better Kate because you're not pulling up from the bobbin you are actually pulling out from the bobbin. And it's a little bit, it's a little bit easier to keep your attention even in that case. But you have to, you really need to have some tension on the bobbins in the Kate. Marsha   Right. I think I'm going to, I'm going to bring that lazy Kate from the Ashford to the hardware store, because what I've discovered? Men love anything to do with spinning wheels. They'll be like, oh! Yeah, they're gonna love it. It's engineering, right? Kelly    Yeah. Get some assistance with those springs for sure. Marsha   So that's it for me with projects. Kelly   Okay. Well, I'm glad you didn't have to waste yarn, you know that you didn't have to cut through your yarn. Because just to finish that conversation, the last resort to try to find your end is really just to cut the yarn and start spinning, or start unraveling. I've just cut the yarn and then started plying, from that, you know from that section just to wait to see what happens. And sometimes it makes a tangle. And then you have to cut even more off. And sometimes you found the end and sometimes. And sometimes you end up, you know, your cut end you ply back to the one that was hidden. And then you can find where you need to start up again. So but that's not much fun, because you often will end up having to unwind a lot of yarn. Marsha   Yeah. Before and put it in a compost pile. And that's and I was really hoping and I'm glad it didn't happen because I want to use every bit of yarn... Kelly   your already short Marsha   ... that I can  Kelly   Yeah, yeah. Marsha    In fact, I even like I've had some sections that have, you know, when you're plying, and you get the twist in one of the singles, but you can't get it out, it ends up just plying into the three. And that's not nice. I cut some of those out but I saved them. Just in case I need it for some something and then also when you skein the yarn on the niddy noddy, and then you have to tie it in four places. Well you don't have to, but I do tie it in four places. I have some waste yarn of some other commercial waste yarn that I tying the little... because each one say it's four inches, right? How many stitches how many knit stitches is four inches? You know, like maybe I could get the maybe that four inches what I'm gonna need, you know,  Kelly   Your yarn chicken stitches.  Marsha   Yeah, so I have my little stash set away.  Kelly   Yeah.  Marsha   And also, you know, on the niddy noddy, too, it doesn't always-- as you're winding, it doesn't always make-- two ends don't always meet so sometimes you have to unravel a bit and so that'll be 18 inches, 20 inches or something. And so I've been saving all of those.  Kelly   Sometimes what I do there is I'll take waste yarn and tie it. It depends on how precious the yarn is. Most of the time, I don't do this, but if I'm trying to keep as much yarn as possible, I'll tie waste yarn to the end of my handspun and then use that waste yarn to finish the, to finish the loop around and then tie it to the starting end. Marsha   Oh, that's a really good idea too. Kelly   That saves you. It saves you, you know, a yard  or less than a yard. Saves you Marsha    yeah  Kelly   Saves you from having to throw that little piece away. So so you maybe haven't had a lot happening with your knitting, Marcsha, but I had a Finish-a-Palooza! I'm sure you can see it in the in the show notes finished, finished finished! Marsha    Mm hmm.  Kelly   So the biggest finish of all was Frog and Toad. Frog and Toad are finished and delivered. Marsha   Well, and I want to ask you about that too. Yeah. So Kelly   they turned out so cool. I was so happy with how they turned out. And I I definitely have somewhat of a desire to knit them again. We'll see if that actually comes to comes to pass but Marsha   so and will... and were they a big hit? Kelly   They were a big hit. Yeah, so I had my I've had my second vaccination. And that was right before Easter. And then so I was gonna deliver them on Easter but I didn't feel well. So I just stayed home that day and laid low. And you know, the reaction wasn't fun, but it only lasted a day and I think if I had been--if I had been a little more, a little less stubborn, the nurse at the vaccination site, she said, you know, if you're not feeling well after the vaccine, you know, go ahead and take a Tylenol or, you know, go ahead and take Tylenol or Advil, you know, that's fine. And, and I know when they did the trials, they didn't tell people, you know, don't take anything after you have the vaccine. And so I'm sure people did who didn't feel well. And, you know, the vaccines are 95% or 90%, something like that, effective. You know, in the trials with people possibly taking something afterwards, but I had gotten it into my head that you, you know, you want your immune response to kick in, and I don't I, in talking with one of my colleagues, she said, You know, that's not really logic. That's not really that logical, even though it seems logical. It's not, it's not really the way the body works. But I had kind of thought, Well, you know, when you're sick, you kind of want that response to happen.  Marsha   Mm hmm.  Kelly   And, and so you know, as much of your immune, letting your immune system deal with the problem as you can is good. And so, you know, maybe not take something right away. So I didn't, and I think I would have felt much better if, as soon as I started feeling a little sick, I had taken something and for some reason, I thought, No, I should probably let my body just do this. Anyway, I don't think that's, that's not really good biological logic, according to my biology teacher friend at school, and the nurse at the at the vaccine clinic. So if anybody has their next vaccine coming, listen to what they say.  Marsha   Yeah. Kelly   And they tell you if you don't feel well, to take something, I would say take something. But anyway, enough of that. I didn't get to deliver them on Easter. But on Tuesday after Easter, we were, my mom who has been vaccinated fully and met her 14 days. She had like her freedom... what my aunt Pat calls her freedom day when her vaccine was, you know, fully the 14 days afterwards after her second vaccine. And Aunt Betty had passed her Freedom Day and Dennis had passed his freedom day. And Kye, who who runs the Post No Bills brewery,  my nephew, he'd had his freedom day. Anyway, so we all met at Post No Bills. Even though I really hadn't had my freedom day. We all met at Post No Bills, and Sarah brought the kids. Of course Post No Bills is a is a, you know, brew house. So we sat outside, they couldn't even come up on the patio. So they were down. They were down, out, you know, out from us a little ways. But I went out there with them and gave them their presents. And, and Faye was really happy with her Frog and Toad. She had never read the books before. So she was excited about that. And and then, of course, there was a little bit of throwing of Frog and Toad between her and her brother. Which I knew was gonna happen, I mean, their stuffed things. So it doesn't really matter. But it was kind of funny. That's the first thing they do is start throwing them back and forth. And then, you know, taking off the clothes, putting on the clothes, she was having a good time with them. So So yeah, very big hit. This Frog and Toad project was a very big hit. So she's now taking them to the grocery store to teach them how to grocery shop, according to Sarah. Because they've never been to the grocery store before.  Marsha   Mm hmm.  Kelly   So anyway, she's having fun with them Marsha   very cute  Kelly   Yeah, yeah. And I had a great time making them so. Lovely pattern Really well, really well done. Yeah. So. Marsha   So I'm looking at your picture on Ravelry. They're very cute. And their mouths, their mouths and their eyes it's very... well and their little toes and it just.. Kelly   Yeah, there's every little detail about them is fun. And every time I do a little detail, it was just, it made them even better. So it's a really-- I think they're really fun. It's a really fun knit. And there are just so many things. I just kept telling Aunt Betty, Oh my gosh, I'm so delighted by this. She's like, I don't think I've ever seen you so delighted by your knitting before. But the little knees and fat little calves and anyway... Very cute project and well received. So I finished that. I finished the Iced Matcha socks last night. So they're done and I did have to redo the toe on one of them. Thinking of sock toes and Robert, it kind of made me laugh. I decided I was going to just follow the pattern and not just do the toe I always do. And it's slightly different. I mean, it wasn't wildly different. So I don't think it was the pattern. I think it was more that I jumped the gun on how... Well I think there's two things. I think I jumped the gun on how soon to do that first toe, which often happens to me. It's like, Oh, yeah, they're far enough. I'm ready to do the toe. And really, they couldn't use another quarter inch of length. And then I want to say,  I can't remember exactly in the pattern, but the number of stitches that people typically decrease to before they Kitchener I've actually found that I like to have more than that. So like I'll use at a minimum 16 stitches on my needles when I Kitchener. So and I think like when I was first making socks, I want to say they were having me go down to like 10 or something.  Marsha   Yeah, Iusually leave 10. So what is, why, what was your thinking? Why? Kelly   [laughing] It just, it cramps my toes. Marsha    Oh, okay,  Kelly   They just seem a little smaller. I just like the I just, I just like to have a more blunt end to the toe. Here we back... Marsha   You don't like looking at the pointy toes in your drawer. The dresser drawer. Kelly   Yeah. Except it's, you know, my eye. For some reason, it just feels more comfortable on my foot to have a little bit wider. Like they're not, I don't think of myself as having particularly wide feet. Especially when I was younger, but I do have now on one foot a pretty good size bunion. And so maybe that's why, you know, maybe that my foot is just wider at that. At that.  Kelly   Yeah,  Kelly   Now and so. So anyway, I took that one sock out and added to the toe. And now I'm and now I'm done. So the pattern's very cool. We talked last time about how I was gonna-- thinking about making a pair of them inside out.  Marsha   Right.  Kelly   But the thing I didn't think about is when you stretch them over your feet. That ribbing doesn't look the same... that wobbly ribbing isn't wobbly anymore. Okay, so if you stretch them over your over your leg, it would just look like a one stitch stockinette ribbing. So I don't know I would use... I would use that reverse pattern on something that didn't have to stretch. Because then you could actually see how that ribbing wobbles in and out. But the right side of my socks, I really liked that. I really liked the pattern. I think it would be a good one for a highly variegated yarn. Mine is a little bit variegated. It's a little more variegated than tonal. But it's not--it's not a really wild variegation. But I think in a you know, pretty wildly variegated yarn, this would make a good pattern for that too, because it would break up that, you know, it might break up the... not that pooling is bad, but it just kind of gives another texture to the way the yarn is is changing. So those are done in time for the Extremities Knit Along. Kelly   And then I finished the reading in bed blanket.  Marsha   Oh, nice.  Marsha   Correct. Yes. Kelly   Yeah. And Robert will say it's not entirely finished. Because, I'll tell you why. Because I washed it. And this is a little bit of a cautionary tale for people who want to weave with different yarns. Like when I do the blanket with the Gotland yarn that you bought, I really won't have to worry about this so much. Even if I'm doing wide stripes. It's all the same yarn.  Kelly   It's dyed different colors, but it's all the same yarn. But as you know, different yarn felts in different ways, right. And I always like to full a blanket so it doesn't feel like and look like burlap. I like the all the yarns to kind of snuggle together and I maybe like it a little more felty then fulled. I don't know. I just I like that look of you know, nice well fulled blanket. And what that means is that some of them had the tendency to shrink in more than others. So the one of the yarns in there was the Tasmanian Comeback and that shrunk up more than the other yarns did. And so I have a stripe--well, I have different stripes, but like I have a five inch stripe and a two inch stripe of the Tasmanian Comeback. A couple different stripes. And those stripes shrunk in so on the edges you could see it pull in. So I laid it out on a table and I stretched, pulled those out. So they were even, you know, I did a pretty significant like block, you know, stretching that part out. I tried to get all the edges as even as I could. And I did a pretty-- I thought I did a pretty good job. But I didn't want to leave it on the table to dry. It was a nice breezy day. And I thought I'm going to hang it up. So I took it out and I hung it up in the tree and then it blew. And so anyway, it ended up with like hanger marks. So  Marsha   Oh  Kelly   Even though I had made the edges straight, once I hung it up, now my edges... One edge is kind of wobbly. So it's not permanent, I have to just wet it and do that blocking process again, let it dry flat, so it'll be straight, and it won't have little bumps where the clothespins were.  Marsha   Right?  Kelly   But so that's what Robert was saying is, well, it's not done because did you rewet it and straighten it out? No.[laughing] But I'm really happy with it, it's got a nice drape to it, I used a twill threading, a point twill threading, so  that it's like denim. Right, twill is like denim. So the the diagonal goes up and then turns around and comes back down for a point twill. So it's got some diagonal interest in it. And then I have the, you know, the horizontal stripes of the different colors. And if I wanted to avoid that, that differential shrinkage, what I think would have been a good strategy would be to, first of all have more shuttles than I have. So that I could stripe the yarns in a small, smaller section. So like to, you know, throw two weft picks of one color, throw two weft pics of another color, throw one or two weft pics of a third color. You know, just alternating like I did in the warp. The warp doesn't have any one thread more than a few times in a row. Marsha    Yeah.  Kelly   And if I had done that with the weft, I wouldn't have had any worry. But because I had a limited number of shuttles. I thought I'll just use this one, I'll just use this one shuttle. And you know, fill it with one color, use it up, fill it with another color use it up. And so that's what I did. So in stripes, but super happy with it. I twisted the fringe. That took a while. But I you know I did like, you know, a certain number of strands twisted one way, another group of threads twisted the same way, and then ply them back on each other and knot it. So I have, I don't usually do things with fringe. But I have a fringe on this blanket. So yeah, I'm super happy with it. I have not yet used it to read in bed. But maybe tonight. Marsha   And you don't have a finished picture of it. Kelly   I know. I don't! I have to take a picture of it.  Marsha   That's funny. I guess he's using that as you know, all the last little bits that you have to do before the project is actually finished. That's funny.  Marsha   And then I also, I thought when you were talking about Robert about like saying that it's not really completed. I thought he said something the other day and I thought what was it about weaving in ends and I looked and it's on Instagram. He said the front the garage is complete and complete is in quotes. And then in parentheses, he says "I do have a few ends to weave in." Marsha   Yeah, yeah. Anyway,  Kelly   That's a good, it's a good expression. Marsha   Yeah, no, it is. Kelly   At least we all know what he means when he says that. His family's probably What! Marsha   Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, he's picked up he's picked up our jargon. Kelly   Yeah, just a few ends to weave in Marsha   And, and then anything else? Have you started anything? Kelly   I haven't started any... Well, I haven't started any new knitting projects. I still have the crochet blanket and I've been off and on working on that. You know, nothing really new to say there for a while. I'll just be working on squares and octagons. But I did start, once I got the blanket done, I thought okay, I'm gonna put the  next Jane Stafford project on my table loom. So I had already wound the warp for it. And so I put it on, and I did a little weaving. I did a little weaving of the sampler. In fact, I'm knotting, I'm knotting ends right now. It's a seven yard warp. So I cut off I think about it's a little more than a yard that I've woven so far. It's a purple silk. It's the same purple the coned purple yarn that I used for that sweater that Cherry Vanilla.  Marsha   Yeah Kelly    that I made, I held a strand of this, along with a strand of gray linen. I think those were the two yarns I used for that sweater. And I love that sweater. And I've had this yarn, my God, for a long time. I think I bought it in the early 2000s. And I thought, Oh, I'll just, I think I'll use this. The the sample that that Jane is weaving is a purple bamboo. And it just reminded me that I had this yarn, so I went got it. And that was the yarn I wound for the warp. And I also used it for the weft. And it's the the weave structure that I am practicing is called Huck. And it's a lace weave structure. And I don't have a picture of it either. I'll take a picture for you to see while we're talking here.  Marsha   Oh, yes,  Kelly   Huck lace is related to Canvas, we, which is the last week the last episode. So it was kind of similar. It has kind of a similar look, there are some differences. But this was you know, just a little experimental piece that I've done. And so now I'm knitting the fringe on this. I'm not actually sure I'm going to leave it with fringe or if I'm going to hem it. It's just a sampler. It's long enough that it could be a scarf, but I don't typically wear-- I don't typically wear scarves. I mean, I may give it away to somebody at some point, but I think I just might keep this as a sampler and hang it on the wall in the studio.  Marsha   Yeah, yeah. It's nice.  Kelly   So I have a lot of... maybe, six more yards, I think. Yeah, I think was a seven yard warp so I, I have five to six more yards to play around with. I don't have enough of this yarn to continue using it for very much longer as weft. So I'm going to have to get creative with what I use as my weft yarn, which could be kind of fun. So but yeah, I'm keeping up with the Jain Stafford Guild, which is, this is a first. I've never... This is the first year I've ever woven along and not just watched the videos for you know, while I was knitting or you know, before bed or whatever. So yeah, I'm actually doing what the what the video is talking about. So that's been fun. But that's it. So I have a kind of alarming status have nothing on my knitting needles. I do have ends to weave in and pictures to take for a couple of projects. my sweater, for example, that striped sweater, the striped pullover. I still have ends to weave in there.  But yeah, nothing is actively on the needles. That's a little odd. Marsha   Yeah. Kelly   So well, stay tuned. There'll be something next time. Marsha   Yeah. Well, since we've covered projects, we should talk about the Winter Weave Along since we've been talking about weaving.  Kelly   Yeah, Marsha   It actually ended. And should we say anything about it? Before we talk about our prize winners. Kelly   Well, just that it was really fun. And we had, I think over 600 posts in the chat. Of course it was going on since, you know, November. But lots of really good discussion in the chat. And some people that... I always like it when like an episode will strike a chord with somebody and somebody who's never posted before will post in the episode thread and say, Oh, I was just listeni ng. And you said such-and-so.  It's always fun to hear from people. I mean, of course, it's fun to hear from people that  I feel like I know online already. But it's it's fun to see new faces show up. And this year, in the Winter Weave Along, there were a lot of new faces who showed up. And that was fun. It was nice to get to know some people that you know, have not participated in the Ravelry group until now. So that's been fun. Marsha   So should we just start with our prize winners then?  Kelly   Yeah, let's do that. Marsha   Okay, so I'm going to go first. Before we go on, we should just say, too, that we pick names with the random number generator. Kelly   And mostly from the finished object thread, although I did, I did also select one from the chat thread. Marsha   Yeah. So this is gonna--The first three are from the finished objects. And our first winner is number two, which was JoanneCarol. Joanne from Santa Cruz. And I want to make a comment about this too, that she made woven potholders with a potholder loom. And I had one of those as a child and I had a huge bag of the... they kind of remind me like, hairbands kind of there, that you stick on that loom and then I think you crochet around the edge to finish them. And I remember I had one of those and I made so many of them that I started walking around the neighborhood knocking on doors, trying to sell them. You would never let your child do that now. But anyway, that's what I did. Kelly   Did you actually sell any?  Marsha   Yeah, I did but I can't believe that, you know, in this day and age, you would never let your child just go and walk around the neighborhood and knock on random, I mean, neighbors we didn't know.  Kelly   You know, we did that all the time selling Girl Scout... you know. Well I wasn't in Girl Scouts, I was in Bluebirds, Campfire. Selling campfire Mints. Oh my gosh. And then the number of candy bars that we sold for school things. Yeah, we did that all the time. Marsha   Yeah. So I was in Campfire, and we sold Campfire Mints, and we actually literally just went knocked on people's doors. And  now nobody does that at all. They're all you know...Anyway, but that's another rabbit hole conversation that we won't go down. But anyway, so congratulations, Joanne. Yeah. And Kelly, do you want to announce the second winner? Kelly   Yeah. So the second one is a weaving book. And I haven't, I haven't purchased it. I'll go ahead and and purchase it and have it sent directly. And since we had quite a few Weaver's using rigid heddle looms, it's a choice one of two books, either the Marguerite Porter Davison red paperback book, which is the paperback version, newer version, of the one that I always use to find interesting weave structures. So that's for a four harness loom. And then or there's a  Liz Gipson rigid heddle book that has 17 projects in it. And so depending on which kind of Weaver you are, and which book you would like, I will send you one of those two books. So the winner of that number 40. Teaandknittingtoo is Colleen in Ohio. And she made napkins as her first double heddle project. And I think she has rigid heddle loom and bought a second heddle is what she did. Because I did see she was weaving on a Cricket in one of her project pages. And then she also made a scarf later on in the weave along and has  posted that as well. So congratulations, Colleen and just let me know what which book you would like and your address and I'll get that sent along. Marsha   And I have to just interject I made a mistake on the first prize winner. Joanne I didn't say what she won.  Kelly   Oh, how do they do that on the on the game shows?  Well tell Joanne what she won!  Marsha   Yes, Joanne, I do apologize. I'm sorry. I actually am reading notes believe it or not. [laughing].  So a pair of Christmas dish towels that Kelly that you wove. Joanne, also I know you'll contact us and send us an email or through Ravelry and we will get your address and get those to you. So okay. And then I will... the third one is a class that was generously donated by Erica at Weavolution. And she has a great website for weaver's with projects and discussions and classes and lots of resources. And the winner of that is number 51 Heddicraft and she is also in Santa Cruz. We have a little bit of a Santa Cruz... Kelly   We had a large Santa Cruz contingent in the weave along this year, I have to say. Marsha   But Heddi made, she made, she entered a lot. She had quite a few projects but the number 51 was some spring tea towels that she made. Kelly   So she was a weaving machine!  And I think she's new to having a floor loom if I'm remembering correctly, she's a relatively new weaver and and maybe it was weaving with a rigid heddle at first or or maybe last summer and then started and then got... I'm, I'm mistaken. I think she has a table loom that she bought a stand and treadles for because I was asking her about her stand and how she liked it. Because I have also a table loom and I was trying to decide do I want to buy a stand or do I want to put it on just a card table or do I like having it on the six foot table that I just cart in from the garage when I need it. But yeah, I think I do think she's a relatively new weaver as well. So all right. And then the next prize is a gift certificate, a $70 gift certificate for the Jane Stafford guild or for the Jane Stafford website. You can use it toward whatever you like. You can use it toward a guild subscription. You could use it for yarn or kits. She has equipment on her site has quite a few different things on her website. And so I'll give certificate for her site is going to CindyQ, our friend in Washington, yes. Now CindyQ, she made a queen size blanket. She had had a large collection of handspun. Sounds familiar. And over the years, you know, had just been spinning and you know, certain handspun she didn't have a purpose for and so she just been collecting it. And she put them all together and made a beautiful blanket. Sort of, I want to say purples, blues, grays all from her stash. And yeah, that was a fun project to see. And she finished it fairly early in the Weave Along. If I'm remembering correctly, she talked about it, you know, from the, from the stage of getting out all the yarn and identifying what she had, and then planning the project and everything. But but once she got going, she really got that done quickly. And yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, it's really nice, huge. Marsha   It's huge. Yes. Kelly   Queen size bed blanket. So, very inspirational there. So Cindy, let me know, I, I actually I think I have your your email address, but just confirm for me your email address so I can get that gift certificate. It's like an E, you know, an E card, gift certificate that will be emailed to you. So all right, congratulations.  Marsha   We also have a drawing for the chat thread, we're going to pick out-- we've picked one person from the chat thread. And they're going to also win a pair of Kelly's Christmas dish towels. And the number we drew is number 538. And that's Cian also known as Suzanne in Florida. And she posted a canvas weave sampler. So congratulations to everybody who participated. A couple things I just wanted to note about I went through, you know, I've been following everybody and noting what they were saying about their projects. And it seems like a lot of people were new, that was like the first time waiting on their new loom. In fact, it sounds like Suzanne, that she just got a floor loom and that's what she was weaving on, her new loom. And there was also making things I hadn't thought about making out of handspun-- or I'm not-- sorry, out of hand--excuse me. Hand woven material. Sorry. Um, the one thing is a lot of people made dish towels, right. And I was struck by Kelly11 that she made potholders where she doubled up the fabric and then put an edging around it. And really cute potholders and they are... Kelly, you told me this, it's called overshot is the technique. Kelly    Oh, yeah,  Marsha   Really beautiful! And the other thing she did too, was she made tote bags, a tote bag out of the dish towels. Which I thought was a really clever idea. Kelly   Really clever. I have a dish towel addiction. And that means that my dish towels take up two drawers in the kitchen, plus a part of a shelf in the upstairs linen closet. And so yeah, that's a really  good idea for a dish towel warp, if I feel like making dish towels, but I don't I don't find another drawer to put them in. Yeah, that's a good idea.  Marsha   And then the other person that was was interesting, too, was MissIssabel. And she made shawls using an elongated hexagon pin loom. Kelly   Mm hmm. Marsha   And those were really interesting too. And a pin loom is something that is not a huge investment. You can just make one. I actually watched a YouTube video about how you can make your own pin loom, so that was interesting. And then oh, and then Seine1. She talked about was the first time seaming a weaving project. I never really thought about that as I am assuming, Kelly, you know more about this. It's where you're taking two pieces, I guess. And you're seaming them together to make a larger... Kelly   right.  Marsha   Then to make like a blanket or an afghan Kelly   Something wider. Yeah, like Stella last year made a baby blanket seaming the two strips. Well Heddi made panels that-- she didn't seam them, but she hung them as a as a closet door.  Marsha   Yes, Kelly   That was interesting. But yeah, even when you have a narrow width loom, you can still get a wider width piece of fabric by seaming them, by seaming them together.  Marsha   It was, it was very interesting what everybody was doing. I enjoyed seeing all the finished projects.  Kelly   Yeah, I did too. I have to say this year... I've never I've never really been a big fan of overshot. I always think... Well, I have some scraps, some overshot quilt scraps or you know, coverlet scraps that I bought at the quilt show. Gosh, a number of years ago, the Pacific international quilt show. They had a booth that was selling all kinds of things, but one of the things that they were selling, they had this big bin of, of cut up pieces of old coverlets, hand woven coverlets and that those are traditionally done with overshot and I like, I like it for that look, right. For the sort of bedspread, old fashioned colonial style coverlet look. But I had never really thought Oh, I would love to weave something in overshot. But the projects! There were several overshot projects this year. I think there was a class going on that people were taking And out of those several projects it's like okay, this is kind of inspirational. This is not, this is not your grandmother's overshot.[laughing] So I I'm like, Okay, I'm looking forward. I don't know when we'll do overshot in the Guild, but I may just put something on the lumen and work on overshot. The only overshot that I've ever woven was some potholders, some Christmas potholders. So real small project that, you know, just took me a couple of weeks at the weaving class. I wasn't really studying it or anything, I think the loom was actually maybe already even warped. You know, I was just weaving off an old warp from someone else. So it wasn't like I really learned anything. I mostly just followed the directions. But I was really impressed with the kind of versatility of overshot that I didn't really think of. So, yeah, it was fun.  Marsha   Another year. We'll start  Kelly   And now we're ready to start our, uh... not quite yet. But pretty soon we'll be starting our summer spinning.  Marsha   Yes. We'll talk more about that later on. But we're planning on doing that again this year. Kelly   Thank you to everyone who participated, it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot. I think a lot of people learned a lot. It was really informational and educational, and fun to get on the thread every morning and read what people were doing and making. So thanks to everyone!  Marsha   And so just a reminder, we talked... we touched on this briefly earlier, but our Extremities Knit Crochet Along or any other type of crafts you want to do for your extremities. And that is underway and that ends April 25. And the prizes are the pattern for the Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde and the Coffee Socks Collection by Dotsdabbles Designs. Marsha   So get your finished objects in I and I'm saying that to myself. [laughing] Kelly   Let's see what's today? Today's the 14th so you have 11 days Marsha.  Marsha   Yeah,  Kelly   And how many rows? Marsha    Five Kelly   And how many stitches?  Marsha   12.  Kelly   So 60 stitches in 11 days. You all you have to do is six stitches a day.  Marsha   Well, maybe tonight.[laughing] Kelly   All right. You officially jinxed yourself. [laughing] Marsha   I know! It's not it's not happening tonight.  No, you know what I need to say is I am not doing that tonight. Right? Kelly   That's right! I have too much going on. I'm not doing that tonight. Marsha   I am not doing that tonight. So we'll see what happens now that I've put that out there. We'll see what happens tonight. Kelly   Oh my gosh!  Marsha   Anyway, Do we have anything else? I don't think we do. Kelly    No, I don't think so either.  Marsha   Well, I will get off the phone and I will go put that final coat of paint on my garage right? Kelly   Yeah, I have papers to grade Whoo hoo. Marsha   Put on your...put on some latex gloves. Kelly   Well, actually, yeah, no, they're not really papers. But yes, I have  Marsha   Oh, they're not real actual paper.  Kelly   I have virtual papers. I have grading. okay. That's what I should say. Yeah, integration practice to grade. So. All right.  Marsha   All right.  Kelly   It's been fun.  Marsha   We'll talk in two weeks! Kelly    All right.  Kelly   Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com/ Marsha   Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects. Kelly   Until next time, we're the Two Ewes Both    doing our part for World Fleece!

Tree removal competes with Spring Break weaving and the stuffing of Frog and Toad for the content this week. You never know what you'll hear about on the Two Ewes show! Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links 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 Walk Along tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link) Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde (Ravelry link) Almost done. Just the thumb to finish. In the evenings I've been spinning the green and brown merino. Kelly’s Projects  Iced Matcha socks (Ravelry link) from the Coffee Socks Collection by Dots Dabbles Designs. I’m using Invictus Yarns Seraphic. It is a merino/cashmere/silk yarn in a gray blue purple tonal color. I want to knit more with this yarn base! I started stuffing Frog from Frog and Toad (Ravelry link) from frogandcast.com. I’m using the crushed walnut and it is staying inside and not coming through the fabric. Frog is currently sitting in a tumbler with a funnel in his head! I realized I should put the needles into the provisional cast on before I start filling them so I will be ready to kitchener the top. I anticipate it will be somewhat messy.  Canvas weave sampler (Ravelry link) from JST Online Guild. Throughout spring break I spent time weaving and watching the Canvas Weave videos of Season 5. I used the warp that I wound at Christmas and adapted the sampler threading to fit the number of threads I had. I wove a dresser scarf for the linen cupboard, 5 dishtowels, and a small hand towel.  I had Cesar Chavez day off and I got the Reading in Bed blanket (Ravelry link) threaded onto the loom and ready to start weaving. This is all using my handspun yarn. With 6 epi compared to 22 epi  and a 3 yard warp instead of a 7 yard warp it went really fast! Like the difference between a fingering weight sweater and an Aran weight sweater.  News/Other Extremities Knit/Crochet Along This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns: Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah It ends on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet). Transcript Marsha 00:03 Hi, this is Marsha   Kelly 00:04 and this is Kelly.   Marsha 00:05 We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.   Kelly 00:09 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 00:17 We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.   Kelly 00:22 And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hudredprojects   Marsha 00:29 and I am betterinmotion. We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.   Both 00:35 Enjoy the episode.   Marsha 00:43 Hi, Kelly.   Kelly 00:44 Hey, Marsha. How's it going?   Marsha 00:45 Pretty good.   Kelly 00:47 Good.   Marsha 00:48 lots going on here.   Kelly 00:49 Yeah, nothing noisy, though. We waited till late enough that all the noise is gone.   Marsha 00:54 Yes. We were actually.. were scheduled to record yesterday but moved it to today because yesterday, I had the Alaskan yellow cedar   Kelly 01:06 bonsai!   Marsha 01:07 Yeah, the former so I just the former bonsai. So I think I talked about this. But in case I didn't a really quick story about this is when my parents bought this house in 1962, there was a Japanese garden between the two houses that actually belonged to the neighbors. And in that Japanese garden was a bonsaied Alaskan yellow cedar. That was maybe four feet tall. And years have passed.   Kelly 01:38 Yes, I can say because I was born in 1962. So yeah, 59 years have passed   Marsha 01:44 yes have passed. Anyway, it was about 40 feet tall, and had grown. There were originally five trunks. And two are removed. I was able to remove two of them a few years ago, because the reason I wanted to get rid of this tree is it had damaged the sewer line. And we had to put in a new sewer line, irrigation line, the new deck, and a new roof. So it does so much damage that it was-- it had to go. And here's the real reason. Last summer sitting on the new deck, I got hit twice by bird poop! Because the crows would hang out in the tree. That's the real reason. [laughing]   Kelly 02:28 Well, the palm tree next door, the date palm or? Yeah, I think it was like a date palm next door, was taken down yesterday, also. So we would have had tree work at one of our houses regardless. And Robert saw the owner of the house this morning. And he's like, what happened to the tree? And he said, Oh, it was old it had to go. Which there was nothing wrong with that palm tree. I'm not a particularly big fan of palm trees. But it was it was a nice--I mean, it was a pretty nice specimen. If you like palm trees. In your case, you really actually did have a good reason to get rid of the tree. Not just yeah,   Marsha 03:11 It had done so much damage. Yeah. And it is just, I mean, I'll put on it... I have not posted any pictures yet on Instagram. I'll post pictures and when people see... Yeah, you know what it was like, but it was kind of a an emotional day, just because I don't like cutting down trees. I mean, this was a, it was a spectacular tree. It had been beautiful at one time, but it's just so big and in completely the wrong place and cutting off light. So my bedroom is much lighter, the kitchen is much, much lighter. But mostly it was just the damage. And then, you know,   Kelly 03:49 Well and the fact that it was right next to the neighbor's garage, and pulling up things that it shouldn't   Marsha 03:55 Yeah, it's about a half inch from the neighbor's garage, you know. So anyway, it's been a long process, I won't go into the whole thing. But have you have to get a permit in the city of Seattle to have a tree taken down, especially a tree this size. And it was it was a long, a long journey. But they finally got the permit. And they came yesterday and cut the tree down. I got the estimate and signed the contract in August, last August. And I can-- got the -- I think was on Thursday or Friday of last week. I got the email from the company that was going to cut the tree down that they had received the permit and they had scheduled me gave me the date that the tree was scheduled to come down. I said that's great. And so then I call them on Monday to confirm because it's in the contract and I confirm, I confirm once again that they are bringing protection for my new deck. Because this tree is sandwiched between my deck, it's, it's about four inches from my deck, the base of the tree. And so I had confirmed that they were going to bring protection and put something down on the deck. And they arrived at nine o'clock in the morning with nothing, no plywood to put on the deck. And the guy who was-- I found out later was the manager of the crew was a little snippy with me, a little rude. And I was like... and I kind of have that feeling of like, What do I do? And I decided, you know, WWRD, what would Robert do? And Robert would go out there and tell him to stop until they got the plywood. So I went out there and I told them to stop. And they said, okay, and they stopped for a few minutes. And then I went back in the house, and I saw they were dropping branches again. So I went back out and I said they have to, I said, I told you to stop, you need to stop. I've called the company. And they are sending plywood and you need to-- I'm telling you--you need to wait until the plywood arrives. So they stood there on my deck. And I went and made a cup of coffee and I sat in my breakfast nook, which is right overlooking and I just sat in the window so they could see me and then they just stopped. They dropped--put all their tools down at that point and went and sat in their trucks.   Kelly 06:40 Cursing out Old Lady Failor   Marsha 06:42 Yes. But I, you know, like in the end, I want to say something sort of sexist. I... it... there's moments like this when I wish I had a man. But you know that because I sometimes feel being female. And now, you know, when...when I was... Well, I think it's always been this way, just being female, that I think that I'm discounted in some way and especially when I was younger. And then when you get older, you're discounted in another way. Right? And I...and it's...and so I just thought, you know, Robert would go out there and tell them no, you're stopping! Because they all said to me, Well, we have insurance to cover any damage to the deck. But my point is, I don't want to have any damage done. I don't want to go down that path of having to deal with it. I don't even want to deal with having a damaged deck.   Kelly 07:36 Why? Why would you want.. Yes. Why would you not take precautions rather than just say, Oh, I have insurance in case something happened?   Marsha 07:42 Yes!   Kelly 07:43 That does not make sense.   Marsha 07:45 Yeah. So yeah. So I'm glad I did it. And then I did go out afterwards... So I'm not gonna say the name of the company because they ended up being great. And the we had a rough start. But they once the plywood came, the guys got to work, there was a crew of five. And I was watching them. And it really is remarkable what they were doing because they have to climb up into the tree. And it's 40 feet. They're up there. 40 feet with rope. You've had tree work done. So you know   Kelly 08:14 my tree work, yes,endless tree work.   Marsha 08:17 And then they, you know, they tie every branch. Before they cut it it's tied onto a rope and then it's lowered down. So there's..it's not like they're just up there dropping wood, you know, they're very careful. And such a tight area that they had to work in with two houses and a garage and the infamous deck. So I went out at the same time they're doing all of this. First Mark and then later on Ben and I were working on the garage roof because we've had to do some patching because it was leaking. And so we were...that's another whole story for another episode of the podcast, but we're up there working on this roof. And I came down at one point. And while I was up there working, I got to thinking, I wonder if there was just like... Oh, I know what it was! It was when the the young woman from the company arrived in the pickup truck with the plywood. She then said to me, okay, now we're grinding out the stump, right? And I said, No, we're not because first of all, it was too expensive. But also, they couldn't.. if now that the deck is built, they can't get the machinery in there. And just to grind out the stump was going to be the same price as removing the tree. And it doesn't matter. It's an area once the my fence is up it's like a no man's land. Nobody goes over there. So I wasn't going to do that. And so then I started thinking about that. I thought, how come she didn't remember that I'm not having the the stump removed?   Marsha 09:43 So the young man who was the foreman of this group, this team that removed the tree I said to him, you know, when he had a quiet moment, he was smoking a cigarette, and I said, Hey, can we just talk for a minute? And I could just tell he's like, Oh my god, what's this woman want now? But I went, I said to him, I said, I just want to talk about this morning. And I said, I think we were both a little irritated with one another. And I said, I got to thinking, is it perhaps you were not getting any inf...? Were you given any information about the job before you arrived? And he said, No, I was given your address and told to cut down the Alaskan yellow cedar. He said, I had no idea that there was a deck. I had no idea that it was sandwiched between these two houses. I had no idea that it's like an inch from the the garage and three inches or four inches from your deck. He's had nothing. Yeah. So and he said, I came in you know, it's a dangerous job. And so his adrenaline gets a little up, which I understand after having watched them.   Kelly 10:43 and especially if you arrive and find all these obstacles that you have to be worried about.   Marsha 10:48 Exactly. And then he said, you know, and he said me, I apologize to you, too. He said, I was kind of rude to you. And he...and he was he was very rude to me! And I said, you know, I accept it. I said, that's fine. I said, I think we were both a little frustrated with one another. And he said, Yeah, yeah, he was not given any information about what his job was going to be. As I say, we figuratively, not literally, kissed and made up. [laughing]   Kelly 11:14 There was no kissing. [laughing]   Marsha 11:16 Yeah, there was no kissing   Kelly 11:17 No actual kissing that occurred!   Marsha 11:19 And he was a very... and, he started talking. He's a very interesting man. He's actually a certified arborist. And so we started talking about the other trees in the back garden and things that he said he would like to come back and, you know, work on them, because he said they they need some help, which they do. Yeah, they definitely do. They've, I mean, the whole garden needs some work. So anyway, it turned out fine.   Kelly 11:43 Well, and I, I can vouch for having an arborist do the work as opposed to just a tree service with the trees in our yard. But But I have to , you know, you said the tree was in the wrong place. So there was one arborist that we had that-- he's actually too busy now and working mostly on the Monterey Peninsula side of the county--and so we haven't been able to use him, but he was really good. And, and so one day, he was talking and he's like, you know, this... Robert had planted... We have Monterey Cypress, really large ones in the yard. And there were some babies. And so, you know, thinking sentimentally as you do, like, oh, we'd like to grow one of these babies to replace them. Because our cypresses are at the end of their life. And you know, the death of a tree could take 100 years, but they're definitely in the, the death side of their-- not necessarily tree hospice. But you know, they're on the downward slope of life, most. And some of them are gone, and have had to be removed. So anyway, Robert had planted one of these babies, and he's like, you don't want this tree here. You really don't want this tree here! Because by the time it gets to the point where it needs work, I'm going to be too old and you're going to be too old. So I started talking to him about like, well, what tree should we plant? And we have a lot of space. You know, there's quite a bit of space. Like, well, what tree would work?. And he reminded, he reminded me of me in the summer that I volunteered at the SPCA where people would come in to adopt a dog. And I would be like, read their application. Like, in my head. I knew they were going to adopt a dog. But in my head, I was like, No, no, this is not a good enough family. No, this is not good enough! And basically, there was no tree that was right for the space. He cared so much about the trees having the right habitat, that he he practically couldn't tell me a tree that I could plant to replace the cypresses because it would, it would like physically hurt him to be in the wrong place, right? To not have the habitat that it deserved, like the Monterey Cypresses deserve the habitat of highway one, where the wind is pruning them, and they can break all they want and they can have all these broken hangers. And you know, it doesn't matter, but the wind keeps them pruned. Anyway, it's just like, I couldn't get him to tell me like he was so so so... I don't know, just so reluctant to tell me a tree that would be right. I really can vouch for having an arborist. They do a great job making sure that the trees in your yard are not just cut right but that you know information about them.   Marsha 14:59 Yeah. So I even gave him cuttings. So he was excited about something that's in the garden. Yeah. So I gave him cuttings. So   Kelly 15:12 You know the other thing about about that job that I think about whenever we have...Here again, 15 minutes in, and we're still talking about trees! [laughing]   Marsha 15:21 More than that!   Kelly 15:24 But when I, when when we have three work done, I'll always think about, you know, like, as a job. Anybody who likes to climb, like Ben likes to climb. I don't know if he would like to climb trees, but you know, people who like climb, who like to work outside who like... I mean, there's there's some science involved to the arborist job. But there's also the working outside and the climbing and it just seems like an interesting... It seems like it would be an interesting career choice that people wouldn't necessarily think of.   Marsha 16:00 Well, and there's a there's a real skill set, because you have to know how things are going to fall.   Marsha 16:07 Right.   Kelly 16:07 How to cut so they grow the right direction.   Marsha 16:10 Oh, yeah.   Kelly 16:12 What to cut to make the tree not grow in a funky way?   Marsha 16:17 I was thinking, Well, I was just thinking, Yes, that's true. Yes, you have to... In fact, Ben has said that he is interested interested in that, too. You know, the, the being an arborist. But just watching these guys with the ropes, you know, going up there that you've got a chainsaw, so you have to be strong. But a lot of it is, is I think, sort of like what Ben, how Ben talks about rock climbing. It's not so much about strength, but it's about skill, you know, using using your body the right way and, and, and using your tools to um... what's the right word... is like leverage. Yeah, that's not the right word. I don't know. But you know, to, like, block and tackle.   Kelly 16:59 Right, right.   Marsha 16:59 If you just had a rope you couldn't move it, but if you have the block and tackle you can move something. Yeah, I was so thinking that way.   Kelly 17:05 It was a real problem solving.   Marsha 17:07 But the other thing is funny is like you were talking about, you know, it always hurts you a little bit to take a tree down.   Kelly 17:12 Yeah. Yeah, even the palm tree that I didn't like, I was sad to see it go.   Marsha 17:16 Yeah, and so it was, it was just, it was a difficult day, in a lot of ways. Because I had to go I had to channel Robert and and... you know. Or, as I say, pull up my big girl panties. And go out there and tell him to stop. It was kind of emotional, too, just because I don't like that--cutting down a tree. And honestly, if this tree had been in a different spot in the garden, it would still be there. Right? It just it was in the wrong spot. And I have another, that deodar cedar out in the front yard, which I will never get rid of. It's beautiful and I've spent a lot of money you know, having work done to it to make it..to keep it. And so it does hurt to get rid of it and so I was kind of emotional and when Ben finally arrived to help me with a roof and I said to him you know I'm just kind of emotional about the tree and I was all... And he says to me, Oh My God, grow a pair! [laughing]   Kelly 18:27 Someday he'll be sentimental about something.   Marsha 18:29 Yeah, he's not sentimenal now, he's too young. Right now he's too young to be sentimental about anything   Kelly 18:35 That's right.   Marsha 18:36 Mostly it's just the idea that I don't like cutting down a tree. Well, anyway,   Kelly 18:40 Well, you could plant another one.   Marsha 18:42 No, I'm not going to plant another one. [laughing]   Kelly 18:43 No, I don't mean in that spot. I mean you can plant another tree somewhere.   Marsha 18:48 Oh, I can plant another tree. Yes. Well actually what I really like to have is an apple tree   Kelly 18:54 so there you go.   Marsha 18:56 Okay, so Kelly!   Kelly 18:58 Knitting!   Marsha 18:58 I'm now looking at this is 20 minutes and 40 seconds of tree talk. So let's get on to   Kelly 19:08 There's fiber in wood!   Marsha 19:10 That's true. [laughing] So let's go on about projects. So I don't have very much so I think I'm just gonna go first.   Kelly 19:19 Okay. Do it.   Marsha 19:20 I don't have very much. So I have really nothing to report on the walk along tee. I've knit on it a little bit but I've not made very much progress because other things have been going on. And mostly I've been spinning. So every night I've been spinning on the the Merino in the green and then the bitter chocolate. And so I almost have enough now that I can start plying it.   Kelly 19:48 Oh cool!   Marsha 19:49 And then I am almost done with the second Abington Mitt by Jennifer Lassonde. I bound off the second mott. And I just now have to go and pick up the stitches for the thumb.   Kelly 20:07 Oh, you just have one thumb left to do that's it?   Marsha 20:10 One thumb. And it's only... I only have to pick up 12 stitches.   Kelly 20:13 Oh my gosh. Yeah.   Marsha 20:14 And and knit five rows. So yeah, I'm so close. Very hoping this will not be the like the skull. [laughing]   Kelly 20:24 Don't jinx yourself by saying that! [laughing]   Marsha 20:26 Yeah, so maybe tonight, I should just finish it so...   Kelly 20:30 Nice.   Marsha 20:31 Anyway, I like them a lot. So anyway, that's all I really have. Oh, that's it. I don't have much to report.   Kelly 20:39 All right. Well, I have a lot because last week was spring break. This week we have Cesar Chavez day. So I'm not sure why... I'm not going to get into a whole calendar and union discussion on top of the tree discussion, but I am not really sure why the union decided not to give us Easter week off as our spring break, because then   Marsha 21:05 Yeah, that's odd.   Kelly 21:06 Cesar Chavez day would have been in the middle of spring break, and not an additional holiday. But instead, they split the 16 week calendar into halves, and gave us spring break after week eight, which was the week before Easter week. So I had spring break, came back, now I have Cesar Chavez day off, and then go back to work. So weird. But anyway, the end result of it is great, because I got a lot of stuff done. So I have been working. In fact, I'm working right now on the Iced Matcha socks from the Coffee Socks Collection by Dotsdabbles Designs, and I finished the first sock. And I've got the... I'm at the top of the second sock, I've got the cuff finished. And then I'm starting on the pattern. And I think I mentioned this before, it's not really cable either way I thought it looked. It's more purl stitches. But it's really fun, really easy to memorize. And I also, I should take a picture of it showing the inside. Because even though it's... even though it's just done with purl stitches, that the design on the inside makes these ribs that are curvy. So you have this like, I don't know, they're like wobbly ribs. I really like the inside, I think I might make a sock that was wobbly ribbing. The outside is a three by one rib. It's...that's the base. And the pattern is a three by one rib. So the top of the sock is a three by one rib. So if you look on the inside, you have a one, one stockinette stitch going up, right. When you get out of the ribbing that one stockinette stitch curves in and then curves out and then curves back in and curves back out. And so you've got this really interesting, ribbed pattern on the inside that I would not have expected based on what's on the outside.   Marsha 23:12 Oh, that is so pretty.   Kelly 23:14 You would not expect even though it's just purls and knits on the backside makes that sort of wobbly rib.   Marsha 23:22 Mm hmm.   Kelly 23:23 So I think I might use this again and make socks inside out. Well, you know, inside out from this pattern. Yeah, and have that wobbly rib pattern. It's really pretty. So and I love the yarn. It's a it's got some heft to it because of the silk and maybe because of the cashmere. Nice and soft. And I love the color. It's a bluey-purple color. So anyway, Iced Matcha socks, Invictus yarn, Seraphic. And it's a Merino, cashmere silk yarn. And it's really nice. The other thing that I've been working on, I've basically finished all the knitting for Frog and Toad. And I got excited and started stuffing Frog with the crush walnuts-- walnut shells, and I figured out Okay, I'm gonna use a funnel because I don't want these things all over the place. And I put them into one of my really tall glasses. So he's sitting inside of a glass with a funnel in his head, like   Marsha 24:25 Like a specimen, right?   Kelly 24:26 Yeah! And he has a funnel, the open crevice of his head. Then, you know, his provisional cast on and I start stuffing him and I'm poking this stuffing down into those legs and poking into the arms and suddenly I realized, Oh My God! When I get the stuffing all the way up to the head, I have to be ready to knit him closed. You know, do my, my kitchener stitch. I haven't even picked up the provisional stitches. So I thought okay, Kelly, just stop. put this aside. Come back to it. Pick up all those stitches. And then you know, do the job, right? Don't just get excited that you can stuff...start stuffing him. So he, right now he's sitting in a glass on my kitchen table with a funnel in his head.   Marsha 25:15 I say like Doc Ricketts. [laughing]   Kelly 25:18 Like Doc Ricketts lab. [laughing] Yeah. So anyway, but all the clothes are done, I just have to fill them up, fill up Toad and kitchener the the head together. And that's, I think I might do that outside. Because that seems like it could be a very messy job with all those crushed walnut shells. So yeah, but they have to be done by Sunday. So I don't have a lot of time. But I have a little bit of time to get that finished. Because I'm gonna take them over to, I'm gonna take them over to Faye and take Kye his books on Easter. So drop those off. Do a drive-by, drive-by drop-off because I still-- I will have my second vaccine because I have it on Saturday. But you know, I mean, the full immunity doesn't happen for 14 days. So I'm still going to be careful when I see them. But I will drop it off on Easter. So that's Frog and Toad. And I'm already starting to forget how fiddly they were and thinking, Oh, I could make another set. I have a colleague whose daughter is the same age as Faye. And I thought, Oh, you know what? I should get another set of those books and make another Frog and Toad. I don't know if I'll do it, but but I am kind of forgetting the pain of the fiddly-ness. Oh, and then I have weaving!   Marsha 26:43 Mm hmm. I saw your post on Instagram. You've been busy. Mm hmm.   Kelly 26:48 Spring Break I declared myself a weaving retreat. I cleaned house Saturday and Sunday of spring break. I edited the podcast on Monday of spring break and did a little bit more housework. And laundry, I think. And then I declared the rest of spring break to be a weaving retreat. And so basically all I did was weave. The last day I didn't stop for lunch. I just wove. Like all day long, I wove. Dinner was on our own. You know, there was just me and Robert here and we just ate while we wanted. And I just wove all day the last day of my of my designated weaving retreat. So I did the canvas weave sampler from the Jane Stafford guild online. And what I turned it into was instead of doing just one long sampler I made the first part of it... was a... I called it a dresser scarf, like a little table runner, but for a dresser. And so I made a little and I don't know, is there another name for it?   Marsha 27:57 Well, runner, I guess but I don't know.   Kelly 28:00 Yeah.   Marsha 28:01 I don't know,   Kelly 28:02 Like a like a, a woven doily, you know. So anyway, I made a cover, a top table topper, dresser scarf for the cabinet that Robert has for the linens in the dining room.   Marsha 28:17 Mm hmm.   Kelly 28:18 And so it's a little wider than I would like it. And he expected it to, like, flow over the edges. And I didn't do that. I made it like stop at the top not hang over. So I did that first that was just plain canvas weave. And then it was bright white because I used the warp that I had put on--the warp that I had a wound at Christmas time that was white with red trim. And I wove it with white and then I tea-dyed it. So now it's beige and looks a lot better. So that was the first thing and then after that I made towels, and I made I think six towels altogether. Five dish towels and a hand towel and did a whole bunch of different experimenting and used a whole bunch of colors. I had just a fabulous time! I got them washed, washed them up, hemmed them up. The only thing that's not quite finished is I'm going to hand hem the thing I made for Robert and that's not--that is not done but the first hem is done like the the sewn... you know to get the raw edge out of the way and then I'm going to turn it and hem it by hand the last hem so.   Marsha 29:35 Wow, impressive.   Kelly 29:36 Yeah, it was.. that was a lot of weaving. I was tired.   Marsha 29:41 And it--was it sort of cathartic to just to do that after all of the the first half of the quarter?   Kelly 29:49 Oh yeah, I totally. I totally felt like making things is my mental health. Like just the ability to just stand there at the loom and just make stuff was... Yeah, it was it was so... rejuvenating, I guess would be the word. Yeah, it was! It was great. And I watched the Jane Stafford videos and I watched my, the knitting men video podcasts that I that I started watching a little while ago, I caught up on those and... Sweet Tea, No Shade and Needles at the Ready. And then I watched all the, you know, some other knitting podcasts, and I watched Netflix. And you know, just standing there at the loom with a computer going, and thinking, and just making, I just felt really, really good. So that was fun. And then I thought, Okay, well, weaving's gonna be on a hold for a little while. But I had a little extra time. So first, I wound the warp for the next Jane Stafford guild thing. She put out the information about what it was going to be and it was small, it's a scarf. And, and I thought, well, maybe I'll make it into a dish towels. And then I thought, No, just make a scarf, because it's not wide. It'll be fast. And you have yarn, so I wound the warp for that. So that's all ready to go as soon as she publishes the next episode, which is huck weaving. And then the Reading in Bed Blanket, I had the time to actually thread the loom with it. I yeah. But the reason is, after you know, weaving something with 300 and some odd ends, you know that you have to thread twice once through the dent and once through the hetal. And then you have to tie them all. There's a lot, there's a lot of threads, right?   Marsha 32:03 Mm hmm.   Kelly 32:04 The the blanket is, you know, like worsted weight yarn. And it's only six ends per inch as compared to 22 ends per inch. So that's a lot fewer threads. And then the warp is only not even three yards long. Because the blanket is going to be three feet wide, and five feet long. So it's not even two, the blanket is not even two yards long. And then you need a little bit for waste. So I think its like a two and a half or three yard warp. So really short. So I was able to thread it, Robert was able to help me wind it on it went really smoothly. It didn't take hardly any time at all. It felt like making you know, an Aran weight sweater after making a fingering weight sweater,   Marsha 32:58 a lace weight sweater?   33:00 Yeah, yeah. Going from size zero needles to size nine needles or something. It was really, it was really easy and fast to just do an evening. So a couple of evenings. So I got that I got that accomplished. And so I've got something to... I've got something ready to go to start weaving tomorrow, which I won't because tomorrow is a work day. But you know, I have something ready to weave on the loom and then I have something warped and ready to thread on my table loom once I get the instructions from the the Jane Stafford guild on how to weave it, so   Marsha 33:42 Okay,   Kelly 33:42 yeah,   Marsha 33:43 That's very nice   Kelly 33:44 My projects!   Marsha 33:47 Well, I was looking at Ravelry at your reading in bed blanket.   Kelly 33:51 I'm so happy with it.   Marsha 33:53 The colors are nice.   33:54 I did make a rookie mistake. I will, I will admit to a rookie mistake, even though I've been weaving for a while. When I was counting, I was organizing my-- I was doing it in three parts. And I thought, okay, I've got I've got 24 ends in each section. I knew how many ends I needed. But I was counting in a place where when I count once it was actually two warp threads. So I got about two thirds of the way through it. I got two sections done before I realized that every thread I counted was actually two warp threads.   Marsha 34:38 Mm hmm.   34:39 And I didn't need to go any further. In fact, I had already gone further than I needed to be because I went further than half. You know what I mean? If I was going to count everything, if I was going to count every two as one, I only needed to have half of it. So anyway, I won't explain how that happened it's kind of embarrassing that I even made that mistake but but so I you know so I stopped. And I have a little section of the warp that that I didn't use at all that I'm going to use for my weft I'm going to save it and if I have to use it for weft threads I will. But yeah it's really pretty on the loom I I'm really happy with the way it turned out.   Marsha 35:27 yeah. Well the colors are pretty, really nice   35:30 and it's all handspun   Marsha 35:32 mm hmm   35:33 and not all dyed by me. I think two of them are dyed by me and three of the-- three of the colors came that way. You know came dyed and two of them I dyed but it's... I'm going to be really happy with it when it's done. So I'll keep you posted once I start weaving   Marsha 35:50 Yeah. Really nice. And what else   Kelly 35:56 the Weave Along is ending!   Marsha 35:59 Oh no... well, is that it?   Kelly 36:00 Yeah, that's that's my projects   36:04 yes the weave along is about to end so quickly go in there and put your projects in there.   36:10 Yeah, actually by the time this gets posted it will be over   Marsha 36:15 Yeah, yeah,   36:16 By the time this episode is up and published it will be over. In the next episode we'll announce prizes and talk about... talk about sort of the highlights of the Winter Weave Along.   36:29 So um, we should also then talk about our Extremities Knit and Crochet Along. I'm making the Abington mitts for that and that ends April 25. So and that's it. Anything for your extremities which we've talked about in every single episode but we'll just briefly say it's hands, arms, legs, feet. So you can... and it does say even though it does say knit crochet along, you can weave you can macrame, you can...   Kelly 36:59 I haven't seen any macrame socks or hats or anything in there! [laughing]   Kelly 37:05 Or those friendship bracelets or I mean...Jewelry.   Kelly 37:08 Yeah, jewelry. Would work   Marsha 37:10 Yes, anything. So   Kelly 37:13 an ankle bracelet? Oh yeah, I need an ankle bracelet. I have beads. I should make myself an ankle bracelet--crochet an ankle bracelet with the beads I have.   37:25 So anyway, we will draw the winner after the 25th of April and I will have two winners. One will receive a copy of the Abington Mitts pattern and the other person will win the Coffee Socks Collection patterns.   37:41 So yeah, so thank you! Shout out to Jen, Boston Jen for the Abington mitts pattern and Dots Dabbles Designs, who is Deborah, for offering us the Coffee Socks Collection prize.   Marsha 37:58 Yeah. So Kelly, is there anything else we have to talk about?   Kelly 38:04 I don't think so. This was an amazingly short episode.   Marsha 38:10 Most of it was talking about trees. [laughing]   Kelly 38:17 Well, you know, sometimes you just don't have a lot. You don't have a lot of knitting going on. It has been I mean, I had a lot because it's spring break, but you've had a lot of construction stuff going on. So   38:30 yes, cuz I yeah, cuz I've got the Ballard house under construction right now or you know, the remodels. So I have a lot going on. So   Kelly 38:39 I do have one question.   Marsha 38:41 Yes.   38:41 I just thought of this. Have you been able to find a or been able to sign up for an appointment for a vaccine? Do you know?   38:52 No, I have not. I've actually I signed up for the... in Washington State, they have the Washington, what is it now?   39:02 Find your phase.   39:03 Oh, find your phase, find your phase dot wa dot org. I think it is anyway, the point is, I signed up for that. And I have received three emails. And so they send you an email and so for the... and it says, you get it. I got it like at nine o'clock in the morning, and there's there's a there's ... over the next three days, there's appointments available at these locations. And then you get in and you just start clicking on it and but nothing's available. There was nothing available at all. So then the three days pass I get another email for over the next three days. There's spots available at at all these locations. Go in there, nothing available. Got my third one. Their spots, they'll but all these locations and nothing's available. So I don't know. So you know, you were talking about your experience. It's sort of like getting concert. tickets. And so I've heard today that even though my medical insurance is not Kaiser Permanente, you can go to Kaiser Permanente and get a...go to their website and schedule an appointment. Okay, so I was going to... I was... Tonight, that was something that I was going to do is see if I can get an appointment. So what I'm finding is I fit the criteria now I'm eligible, but I can't find an appointment. And I think it's one of those things, you have to just, I think, really, what I need to do is just sit down and just start in the morning and just early in the morning and just start looking.   40:38 Yeah, where to get them? Yeah, ours, I mean, I always just looked at the county, the county website, that's where I started looking at the COVID data, because I was interested in, you know, how bad it was in Monterey County. And I started looking at that, and that's where I was looking for the vaccination information, but there's getting to be more and more supply. So   41:00 I think so. And I think that it's one of those things when you get the email, you can't wait three hours. Like I saw the email and well, I mean, when I looked at my email, when I first looked at my email, I saw Oh, I have an email and I realized it had been sent like, three or five hours before. That's just too late. Yeah, I have to just like every morning, like, just start checking my email.   41:19 Yeah or check the site that they tell you to go to, like, just bookmark the site and just go to it.   Marsha 41:26 Even when I... After I get the vaccine, I don't really think that I'm going to be going to restaurants and   Kelly 41:30 Rght. No.   41:31 I don't honestly, like sitting here right now, I have no idea when I'm gonna be going back. I mean, I feel like once I get the vaccine, I'm probably not going to go back. When am I going back?   Kelly 41:41 I don't know. Yeah.   41:42 Not really. I don't really have. I mean, I would like to go somewhere on a plane. I mean, because I want to go someplace. But I'd like to go back to the life the way it was when we got to travel and stuff, but I can't see myself getting on a plane.   Kelly 41:55 Right.Well, that'll take a while. Yeah,   41:58 So yeah. Anyway. Well, so yes, it's something that I need to work on. I think I need to be at be a bit more proactive or more on the ball with it, too. And I'm going to, you know, as soon as I get the email as soon as I, I mean, I need to start searching for the email, instead of just like, Oh, look, I got an email.   42:16 Yeah, well, and I had, you know, emails from colleagues. It'd be like, Oh, I was on the website. So I saw there's this many appointments available. You know, I had I had that sort of network.   Marsha 42:27 Yeah, yeah.Okay, well, um, since we have nothing else to talk about. I'm sure we could go on forever.   Kelly 42:34 But let's not. Yeah. [laughing]   Marsha 42:39 Okay, my dear. We will talk.   42:41 Yes. Bye, everyone. Bye, Marsha.   Marsha 42:43 Bye.   42:44 Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast, visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.   Marsha 42:51 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundred projects.   Kelly 42:59 Until next time, we're the Two Ewes   Both 43:02 doing our part for World Fleece!

What's blooming, tomatoes, Frog and Toad, and lambs join in with the knitting content this week. It must be the start of Spring, or even Spring Break!  For full show notes with photos and links visit our website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com If you’d like to become a patron and support the show financially, visit our Patreon page.  Transcripts at bottom of post. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Kelly’s Projects  The Iced Matcha Socks by Dots Dabbles have been restarted with a more appropriate yarn. The handspun I had originally planned was abandoned because I thought I would run out of yarn. So then I cast on with Bear Brand Caprice--a vintage sock weight wool yarn that is very stretchy. But it also had textured bits. So I found the pattern wasn’t showing up. So those will become my Not Matcha Socks! I’ll just continue them without any patterning. Even in plain stockinette these socks will be ultra-stretchy.  So what about the Matcha socks? I restarted them with Invictus Yarns Seraphic--a lovely merino, silk, and cashmere blend. Yummy! Most of my knitting has been on Frog and Toad from frogandcast.com. I just have Frog’s jacket to finish and then I will stuff them with crushed walnut shells from PlumEasy.  Mending socks: I found a bag of socks that needed work. So I fixed one pair of (pre-Ravelry) cotton/wool socks that had gotten a hole. I’ve started to fix a pair of (pre-Ravelry) purple wool/silk socks that I really loved. And I rediscovered the CoBaSi Socks that I made in 2017. After one wearing I discovered one toe was too short. I’ll be ripping it out and making it about ¼ inch longer.  Marsha’s Projects I have knit about 9” of body of the Walk Along tee by Ankestrick. I am still worried if I will have enough yarn but I’m assured by other knitters I’ll be okay. Stay tuned... I finished the first of the Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde  and knit to the thumb gusset of the second. Love the mitts and the yarn is perfect for them...and free! News Livestock Conservancy released a press release about their Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em campaign. You can see more about the project and a video at rarewool.org. The Finnish artist Liisa Hietanen is a crochet sculptor extraordinaire. Check out her lifesize replicas of people in her town.  Lambs!  Twinsetjan has an Instagram feed full of lamby cuteness! Extremities Knit/Crochet Along This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns: Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah   Extremities K/CAL ends on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet). Winter Weave Along Ends on March 31. Transcript: 1:02:00 Marsha 00:03 Hi, this is Marsha   Kelly 00:04 and this is Kelly. We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures.   Marsha 00:08 Thanks for stopping by.   Kelly 00:10 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 00:17 We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.   Kelly 00:22 And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects   Marsha 00:29 and I am betterinmotion.   Kelly 00:31 We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.   Marsha 00:36 Enjoy the episode.   Marsha 00:43 Good morning, Kelly.   Kelly 00:44 Good morning, Marsha. I'm celebrating. I should be having champagne.   Marsha 00:51 No, you don't like champagne. You need to have something you like.   Kelly 00:54 Well, I'm having coffee. which is which is fine. This is perfect. It's exactly what I want. And I'm having it in my mug that I got at the thrift store. The downtown-- the same downtown shop where I got the Niebling tablecloth. That same day, I bought two mugs and they're sort of Mexican pottery style with a lot of flowers, a blue flower with a pink center and then a pink bud and green leaves. Well, they're restaurant china. And I think they would have been like Mexican restaurant china. But I thought since it's not only just the first day of my spring break, but it's also the actual first day of spring. That would be appropriate.   Marsha 01:39 Yes and things daffodils are up here in Seattle and trees are you know like cherry trees are beginning to bloom.   Kelly 01:48 Yeah, we're on kind of the same the same flower schedule this year. Because all of our the plums have already-- the the earliest plums are already done. The Santa Rosa plum is, the new one, is fully bloomed. The apricot has started. And then just the other day, the cherries that are later, the cherry trees in our the little orchard area of our backyard. The cherry trees have now just have a few blossoms opening. So yeah, and I have one last batch of daffodils that are kind of in a more shady area in the yard. And I think they're also a later a later variety because they haven't come up yet. Yeah. But all the rest of them are done.   Marsha 02:37 I was as you know, all last week, we were down at the beach. But the week prior to that I did a cleanup in the backyard you know and all the ferns like I cut off the fronds from last year. So then there's space for the new ones to come up and, and I cut down a bush and I did a bunch of cleanup in the back garden everything. But what I'm really excited about is, you know, I always have the pots on the deck with all the just the annuals in there. And that's the real color in the backyard is the pots. And last year, I was not able to do that because I didn't have a deck!   Kelly 03:17 Right.   Marsha 03:18 So I'm very excited this year to plant those pots one of my favorite things to do so. Anyway,   Kelly 03:28 Yeah, you usually do that, what like in April?   Marsha 03:32 Yeah, April, May, sort of depending on... well. And then the other thing-- I'm in a different house than I used to be in, the vegetable garden at the other house was a great spot. It was on the south side of the house. I don't have as much space. And so this last summer, I put tomatoes-- there's a three or four foot wide concrete path on the south side of the garage. And so I put tomatoes out there last year, I guess I've had them for the last two years. And they do really well because they're up against the house. But I always remember I would go to the nursery near the house and they always would have the tomatoes in the in the greenhouses and they were really particular that they didn't really want you to buy the tomatoes until all danger of frost had passed and so that the nights didn't drop below 50. Well in Seattle, that's a little hard. I mean, you're really putting them in July, late June early July for the nights not to drop below 50 and so when you're... I got impatient and I just went and I bought some tomatoes at Fred Meyer and they'd had them sitting out there since March, you know sitting out in their Garden Shop. And then I also bought some from the nursery that and I put them in late June, early July. Guess which ones did better?   Kelly 04:55 The Fred Meyer.   Marsha 04:59 And I think that they So the theory the nursery said is you take they've been grown in a hothouse. And then you shock them by putting them outside, right? And so then it--they don't produce, grow as fast and produce as much. My feeling is that they must have been shocked so early...   Kelly 05:13 They'd gotten over it! [laughing]   Marsha 05:15 Th ey got going, then, you know, I don't know. It was just funny that   Kelly 05:18 They recovered!   Marsha 05:19 Those cheap tomatoes from Fred Meyer that have been sitting out in the cold and march did fantastic. So...   Kelly 05:25 That's funny! Yeah, by the time you bought them, they had gotten over their shock or all the weak ones had died. And you got the strong...   Marsha 05:33 Yeah. Yeah,   Kelly 05:35 The Darwin tomatoes.   Marsha 05:37 Yeah, my Darwin tomatoes   Kelly 05:38 My mom says, she always said, you know, she has a really warm backyard. She lives just north of San Jose. And it gets pretty, gets pretty warm there. And she lives in Fremont, which is where I lived growing up, you know, where I grew up. But she lives in the different part of Fremont with a little different climate and is much warmer. And she even still says you don't plant tomatoes until May 1, because the soil has to warm up. Yeah, you know, even if that even if the exterior temperature the air temperature is, is fine. It's the soil temperature that needs to be right for tomatoes. And if you plant them early, you don't get any benefit from that.   Marsha 06:09 Yeah, that's exactly what they were saying.   Kelly 06:25 But you did clearly benefit from your Fred Meyer tomatoes! Well, one more plant thing here. This is a knitting podcast. But one more plant thing related is we have a company called Annie's Annuals in the, the San Francisco Bay Area. Now I would dearly love to actually go up there, they have a nursery, and mail order business and they have a beautiful catalog. And I always get tempted, I bought a lot of things from them. And I do like, I do like their, their plants. And they, they pack them really nicely. And you know, they ship really well. And but I do find like I have some of the same varieties that I've bought at native plant sales. And then I'll buy you know, another one. Like, Oh, I want another one of these! And Annie's annuals has it. And so I order it and it comes in They're kind of wimp!, They are used to being in this really lush, well-cared-for environment. If you look at the the nursery, and you look at the, you know, their catalog, the pictures of their nursery on the website, and, and everything in their catalog, everything is just really lush and beautiful, and thickly planted, and you just get the feeling that these plants are really well cared for. And then they come to my yard where, you know, a native plant has got to hold its own, you know, I don't do supplemental watering and in much of the backyard at all, you know. They get what they get in spring, and then they have to make it all the way. They have to make it all the way till the rains. And there have been a lot of times where the things that I bought from Annie's annuals, you know, they haven't they haven't made it. So yeah, I would... now when I buy from them, I treat the plants a little nicer, and I kind of slowly wean them off of care.   Marsha 08:17 Yeah. Yeah, you can't just throw them into the desert.   Kelly 08:30 No, I have to. I have to give them a little bit of pampering. But it is true. They do seem to. They do seem to be more used to fertilizer and water. And so their little princess plants.   Marsha 08:47 Yeah. Well, before we move on to knitting, I just have one other thing I just want to mention is some feedback from Kelly, from you, and also from our listeners. So you know, I was talking about Enzo and how he seems sort of bored and everything. And so I've been doing a lot of playing with him. And we've been trying to work on tricks. And of course, we had I just had a week at the beach where he had, you know, three and a half hours a day on the beach and was just exhausted, you know, when he come back to the house, which is great. You know, that was I think there's nothing better for a dog than just being off leash running on the beach. That's so much fun. And then he got, you probably saw the pictures too where he, we met up with Jean from String Theory Yarns in Seabrook and her dog Cooper, who is an English setter and you met him as a puppy.   Kelly 09:38 Right! When we had the meetup there, must have been a couple of years ago.Yeah, he was --she had just brought him.   Marsha 09:48 He's just like the sweetest dog. He's very super chill. very chill dog and, but very happy to be on the beach. But we were laughing because he's he's black on white spots and he has all these, you know, feathers or pantaloons, you know. But we didn't realize how dirty our dogs are because he's, you know, Orkney's brown and Enzo is black.   Kelly 10:13 Oh, yeah.   Marsha 10:14 Cooper is black and white has a lot of white on him and his legs because of the, like the, you know, the foam on the beach, it's kind of green? His legs were green when he's, when he's done on the beach, it was very funny. Anyway, no but here's the thing. So it was very good and sort of therapeutic I think for Enzo to be on the beach. For this to get him out of his his doldrums and h is funk that he's in. But, here's something that I've discovered about Enzo, in the last couple of months. The other thing he does is like I for example, I this morning, I went to type, the show notes on my laptop, and he was asleep on the bed. As soon as I get the computer out and I start typing on the laptop, he gets up and he runs down to the basement and gets in his crate. Every time! And every time I get out the computer to type an email or type anything on the laptop, he gets up and goes and hides--I say hides--he goes down and gets in his crate in the basement. What is that about?   Kelly 11:12 I don't know.   Marsha 11:14 Like, and I thought, am I like, typing in an angry way? You know, because he is so sensitive and soft, you know?   Kelly 11:21 Yeah.He knows that the computer makes you tense, like, Oh, she's on that computer again. She's gonna be mad.   Marsha 11:27 Have anyof your dogs done anything like that? Or does Bailey? Are they sensitive in that way? Are they just,   Kelly 11:33 I'm not sure I would notice this because I'm not sensitive in that way. I think one thing I have noticed with Bailey, and I find it really irritating, but it is kind of funny. She'll be in the trailer with me and she has learned what the end of a zoom call sounds like! So when I'm in a meeting, and you know, doing my Zoom thing, she'll be fine. She'll, she knows to lay on her pillow. And now I rarely have to, you know, wrangle a dog while I'm in a meeting. But whatever it is that I say when, you know, when people are leaving, when the meeting is over and when I'm leaving, she knows what that is. Because she'll immediately get up and come over and start pestering me. As soon as I start the Okay, bye, you know, whatever I say at the end of it at the end of a zoom call--suddenly, she is up and she's poking at me and prodding at me and trying to get me off the off the bench. And and sometimes it's not the end, right? Sometimes somebody has to leave the meeting. Or like if I have, if I have a student, like I'll have office hours, drop in hours, for students. And I'll have a couple of students and then one of them will be done. And so I'll say goodbye to the one student. And then here's Bailey like being a real brat. And I still have a student on the call that I'm helping. So anyway, that was just I just noticed she has discovered what the end of Zoom call sounds like.   Marsha 13:12 Yeah, yeah, well, and I also Enzo is similar to that. I have these cameras at the front door back door. And then I have one out at the garage. And I get an alert on my phone that makes a little sound if there's any-- if the cameras detect motion, an animal, a person or vehicle. And so Enzo has also now connected that sound that it might possibly somebody at the back door that he wants to see. Ben coming in or my brother coming in. And so a lot of times, not always, but a lot of times he'll hear the phone make that little sound because there's a there's an animal, a squirrel will set off the cameras or the wind blowing a branch or something. And he jumps up and runs to the back door all excited. And then his tails up and then there's nobody there and his tail just slowly drops down. So sadly, so sad.   Kelly 14:06 Well and that tail of his is like a flag. If you could see it, you can see it like does kind of sink sadly. It's so funny,   Marsha 14:17 We will get to knitting, but just thinking about those cameras. I can see what's going on when people come to my house or they leave the house and you know Ben always says like, oh Enzo, like he's always teasing me about Enzo like, you know, he's, he's not that smart. And it's always to get my goat, you know. And I saw him on Saturday night Ben had come to dinner and he'd been playing with the dog and everything and then he leaves. And I can and then I can see the video after he left that he actually calls Enzo to the back door and Enzo's still standing there. And then he goes and he gets down on his knees and he hugs him and he kisses him on the top of the head. So when I'm not around, total love is shown to this dog.   Kelly 15:01 Yeah.So you're spying on private moments between a boy and his dog?   Marsha 15:04 Yeah, but it made me feel good!   Kelly 15:07 Yeah.   Marsha 15:08 I mean, I know he loves him, that Ben loves Enzo, but he sometimes -- I think for me, he tries to-- I just like the dog so much, just to sort of put me in my place about him.   Kelly 15:18 And tease you about him.   Marsha 15:21 Anyway, anyway, on to knitting. I think you should go first because you have a lot to report.   Kelly 15:26 Okay.   Marsha 15:26 Well, you have a darling thing to report.   Kelly 15:28 I have some fun things to talk about. So first of all, I am currently, right now this minute, knitting on the Matcha socks. And I have a long, it's kind of a, it's kind of a story. But before I get into the story of the Matcha socks, I just need to say that this yarn is so luscious. And compared with the yarn and I you know, it's a different yarn from what I'm using to knit my other projects. And so it's really a treat. So this is Invictus yarns, Seraphic. And the colorway is Endless Night. So it's a purple. It's a it's a kind of a blue gray leaning purple. Tonal. Yeah, mostly tonal, not really variegated, more tonal.   Marsha 16:18 Mm hmm.   Kelly 16:19 But the yarn is 70%, superwash, Merino, 20% silk, and 10% cashmere, so it's nice, really nice! And I'm using it for the Matcha socks. So this is the story because this isn't what I was originally planning for those Matcha socks. Remember, I was gonna use my handspun   Marsha 16:43 Mm hmm.   Kelly 16:43 So I was gonna use my handspun. And I got it out. And I looked at it and it's a little short in yardage. And it's a little thicker than fingering, a little short in weight, and a little thicker than fingering. And sometimes handspun is more dense or has you know, has more weight per yardage, even if it's the same thickness. And it's a little sticky too, I mean it was that old fleece that I had. So the yarns a little sticky, so there's probably some lanolin that could wash out of it. That would make it less, you know, a little less weight. But I just started thinking I'm going to--this is going to be short of yarn . It's already short of weight of a sock, you know of a sock yarn skein. Some of that weight is the probably the lanolin that's making it sticky. It's a little thicker, I'm not gonna have...I'm gonna run out. So I changed plans. And so I grabbed something called Capri. Let me just, I have to look   Marsha 17:51 Is this in your in is this in your project page?   Kelly 17:54 Uh, yes, I have a project and that is called now Not Matcha Socks because because they were I   Marsha 18:00 was looking for your Matcha Socks. And now I see there's Not Matcha Socks.   Kelly 18:03 Yeah, so these are, these are not well...So let me just say this. It's Bear Brand Caprice It was one of the vintage spirit yarns that I have, sock yarns that I have. And I thought oh, this would be so cool. So I grabbed this blue kind of a navy color and I thought these will make really nice navy blue socks. So I started looking...you know and the -- Let me just talk a little bit about the yarn before I go on. It's the label says "Magic-Skein. Ready to Knit. No balling or winding. Draw yarn from center." So, you know, this is that type of commercial skein but I guess at some point in time, in history, that was a big deal. There was a new a new innovation not to buy your yarn in a hank. And so   Marsha 18:55 okay, well, it's funny I'm just gonna say, interject-- I always thought this was the old way of doing it. What they were the way these were wound this Caprice is wound and that the idea of buying the hank was a new thing. But maybe it's the other way around.   Kelly 19:08 I have a feeling it's a Back to the Future thing. Okay, that originally it was in hanks, and then somebody came up with this preskeined idea. I don't know. I'm just saying I'm just thinking, why would they make such a big deal on the on the band, calling it a magic skein and ready to knit, draw yarn from center, blah, blah blah. Also made in the USA. So I don't know what the vintage of this is. I could probably find it online. I've done that with some of my older yarns, figured out when, you know, when they were for sale. But it's Bear Brand Caprice. And I got this--I'm pretty sure I got this from the destash room at the NocCKRs retreat one year. And then it also says all virgin wool. Now I don't think it's 100% wool yarn because it's super stretchy. And there it looks like there's a thread, a ply of something that's not wool in it. So I think all virgin wool means all the wool is virgin wool. Not everything in it is wool, but there's no other thing on the label telling the content. And I think that's also an old, an old-fashioned thing. I think now they have to, I mean, I think it's a requirement that you have to label. You have to label with what's with what's in it. So anyway, this yarn is really stretchy. And I thought this would be cool. I really want to knit the socks. What I didn't realize is that it has a little like a little nub or nep every, I don't know, like every inch or so on the skein is a little slubby part. texture. So I'm knitting along and I'm like, Oh, this texture is really cool. This is this is going to make really nice socks. And then I get to the patterning. And it's like realization hits me. I'm not even going to be able to see the pattern because of the texture. And I can't read my, I can't read my knitting very well, because it's dark blue in and the texture of the yarn. So it's like, wait, was that a purl stitch? I'm taking my glasses off, and I'm looking to see okay, was that a purl stitch or a knit stitch? Because there's a lump there, but I don't think that's the purl lump. Anyway, finally after about two inches of ribbing, and then a little bit of the pattern. I thought this is ridiculous, Kelly, you cannot continue these socks with this pattern. This a very bad marriage of pattern and yarn.   Marsha 21:53 Yeah.   Kelly 21:54 So but I am going to continue them. I'm just going to rip back a little. Actually, I could just, I could just keep going you you'll never be able to tell that one sock had some purl texturing in it from the Matcha Socks pattern and one sock didn't. You'll never be able to tell that I should just keep going. So I have about three inches. And so I just left them there and then I dug through the spirit needles collection that you brought.   Marsha 22:23 Oh, right.   Kelly 22:24 Last year right around this time when you came for our... No. Yeah, when you came for Stitches. You brought it because we were gonna bring it to the NoCKRs retreat. So I've actually had a pretty good time with that bag of, of, honestly, there must be over 100 sets of needles in that bag.   Marsha 22:43 Yes. In fact, I because I needed the--My shirt, my t shirt I'm working on is on threes. And I don't really have a long enough pair of threes. And I thought oh, I should have called Kelly and have here send it,   Kelly 22:55 Yeah. So I dug into that. And I grabbed out another. I used to have multiple... Well, I had a birch set. I really liked the birch needles. I can't remember the name of the company that makes them but I had two sets of the birch needles. And over this--and I had them for years. But over this last year, or maybe maybe the last two years. So the year of broken foot and the year of pandemic did a real number on my wooden needle sock needle collection. I think I had a little bit of stress going on.   Marsha 23:37 Yeah,   Kelly 23:38 Because I broke, I broke a lot of them. So now I'm just down to one set. And so the the Not Matcha Socks are on the remaining birch needles. And then I dug out a pair of size zero bamboo needles from that, that bag and that's what I'm using for the actual real Matcha Socks with this beautiful, luscious Merino, silk , cashmere yarn.   Marsha 24:05 So that you don't have in your project page though.   Kelly 24:07 No, I haven't actually, I haven't put that. I'll put that in before before we go to publish.   Marsha 24:12 While you've been talking. I have been listening! But I've also been looking at Bear Brand on... Oh, well I just googled it and then it just referred me to Ravelry and so I'm looking at Ravelry there's all kinds of yarn on there but I do not find Caprice. And what... and it's a bit...there's all kinds. There's Angel Crepe and there's Petite Knitting Worsted. I don't know what that is. It says it's sport weight.   Marsha 24:43 But there'ssomething called Deluxe Crepe Vilain.   Marsha 24:49 Wow,   Marsha 24:49 Casa Laine. There's all kinds there's three pages of yarn. There's something called Ever Match. Ever Match Baby Zephyr? There's something called Gigantic. Feather Glow, Lady something whether I can't read it. Heather Laine. Anyway, there's all there's a ton. There's three pages of yarn on there. Okay, but there's no information about, you know, when it was made it might be okay. I have to find a...It's just interesting Ravelry has everything on there all kinds of.   Kelly 25:26 Yeah, well, in one of the yarns I have I have some silk yarn that I bought from somebody who was destashing when I was in the weaving class. And it's, I was able to find a newspaper ad. I just googled and was poking around trying to figure out, you know, how old this yarn really was. And I found a newspaper ad and I don't remember now what the year was. But, you know, I was able to find out how old how old the yarn might have been. I mean, that doesn't give me... that doesn't tell me that it wasn't sold after that date. But, but it was kind of fun to see the newspaper ad for, for that particular yarn and know, you know, at least when it was being advertised in a newspaper. So it gives you a you know, it gives you an idea anyway, so But yeah, I'm so I, It's weird to knit with because it's so stretchy. But it's going to be a nice pair of socks that that Caprice, lumpy, lumpy sock yarn. It's fairly thin. It's a light fingering, I would say it's a light fingering but with the texturing it works with the size with the size zero, the size zero needles, so it reminds me a lot--nd this brings me to my mending part of the episode--do you remember the CoBaSi sock?   Marsha 27:00 Yeah,   Kelly 27:00 it reminds me a lot of the CoBaSi sock. And I was-- I don't remember why I was poking around. Maybe I was digging around for things to use for the frog and toad, which I'll talk about in just a bit. But I uncovered... You know, I think I'm so virtuous with no unfinished objects. And, you know, I don't have like, piles and piles of things that need to be mended or projects that I haven't woven in the ends and they're just sitting there waiting. Not true anymore. Or maybe it was never true. [laughing] I just had this idea. Anyway, I dug out, I found this bag of socks that needed to be mended. And, and in the socks in this bag are my CoBaSi socks. So, they are like a turquoise and a red orange. And I striped them opposite. So like I started one of them with the red orange cuff and I started the other one with the blue cuff, turquoise cuff. And then I striped them. And I did toes and heels also in the same colors. Really fun. I enjoyed doing them. I really liked knitting with the yarn because it was so stretchy. But once I wore them, I thought one of the toes was too short. And then when I when I looked at it, I realized Yeah. I had , I don't know, probably a quarter of an inch less in one toe than another toe. I'm not sure how I did that. But maybe when I lined them up to measure them against each other. I lined the stripes up evenly. Yeah, and they were alternating stripes of about a quarter inch. So that's probably what happened. So anyway, when I wore them and found that one of them was uncomfortable, I put them away to rip out the toe of the one sock... three plus years ago! I don't even, I don't even know. It was a long time ago. Anyway, I found this and I have to repair them. I haven't started. I did start to take apart the toe of the one sock but I haven't done any of the knitting. But the CoBaSi is not quite as stretchy as this Bear Brand Caprice. It's it's more stretchy. It's got to have elastic in it. I can't imagine how it's 100% wool. So yeah, it just doesn't say that on the pattern. And then the other thing I found in this bag, were a pair of cotton socks that needed to be mended. So I mended those. And those I made Oh my God, my niece's were... They're all in their 30s now, I think even the youngest one. And they were   Marsha 27:08 OK, that's shocking   Kelly 28:07 I know. They were in high school. I think they were in high school.   Marsha 29:48 I remember when the oldest was born.   Kelly 29:51 I know. I know. It happens.   Marsha 29:52 Okay, let's not let's not go down that path.   Kelly 29:54 Children grow up. Your own included!   Marsha 29:56 Gosh darn it.   Kelly 29:58 Yeah, so anyway, The cotton socks I found needing repair I made for myself a long time ago. So I repaired those. And then I have a pair of wool and silk socks pre Ravelry think this is Hazel Knits. And so I have to repair the heel on on one of them but the other one is going strong. So I haven't... I started with a duplicate stitch and I think I'm going to actually, I think I'm actually going to cut out the heel and like just pick up stitches and just re knit the whole heel because the the threads are real it's really threadbare. I can't remember now if it actually had a hole or if it had just become so threadbare that I put them in the mending pile. But I... these are one of my favorite pairs of socks all ribbing all the way down on the top of the foot. And super felted I mean, I you know I that's it's washable wool but they've been around a long time. So, so they're kind of they're kind of filthy but they're really comfortable. And I remember I remember really liking them and that's why I didn't just toss them I put them in the mending bag. So I have one pair mended one pair started and then the CoBaSi socks, the CoBaSi socks are not they don't need mending they just actually need finishing. That's, so that's all the socks that's happening a lot of sock stuff is happening. And then the other thing is   Marsha 31:28 I'm going to I'm going to interrupt for just one minute. I'm going to go back to your your the other sock, the Caprice   Kelly 31:37 Oh yeah.   Marsha 31:37 So while you're talking I, You know I said I had just googled and so one thing is kind of interesting this answers sort of two questions. Because you remember I had when I made the the Christmas tea cozy and I was using some yarn from Sears that actually said it was like a C grade or something? Having saying it was like worsted weight it said it was C? I just what popped up in here is for 10 cents you could buy an interchangeable yarn chart from Sears and it says what are interchangeable yarns it says interchangeable yarns are yarns that when knitted by the same person on the same size needles will have the same gauge. Anyway, they are all have groups ABCD and E   Kelly 32:24 Oh sort of like that yarn-- craft yarn council like one two, like what they have now.   Marsha 32:29 Yeah. And then it has about how to use this chart. Blah blah blah it goes on. But then on the second page it has the interchangeable yarn chart group A lightweight and it says recommended needle size two three or four and on there is Bear Brand. Oh, and there's... Let me see if I scroll down. What you have is you think is its fingering weight?   Kelly 32:53 Yeah.   Marsha 32:54 Well anyway, this just says okay, here's also Bear Brand and or, and, or Fleischers. And there's baby Germantown, Casa, Laine, Crepe Velain, all these ones we were talking about. So I think this is a Sears...Well, maybe it's not a Sears brand, but it was something that was sold by Sears I should say.And I'm just looking down here to see if I find Caprice. I don't see it   Kelly 33:22 Well, and it may be that, it may be that someone listening was the donor to the destash room.   Marsha 33:33 Anyways, at the top on the very first page where it has, you know, the whole description of what are interchangeable yarns? This has got to be from the 60s because there's a woman and she's knitting and she has a knit suit on and she has the, you know the bouffant hair? You have like a braid that went around the front and then you had your hair all puffed up and hanging long. That's so this is clearly the 60s.   Kelly 33:55 interesting.   Marsha 33:56 So there you go. That's my little bit of research while we were talking.   Kelly 33:59 All right, well, the yarn that is in the same bag with this, actually, I don't think it came in the same bag though. I think I put it there. But I have another batch of these tiny little magic skeins, called Spinnerin and it's actually finer than sock weight. And it's it says it's 6% nylon, but again, it feels very much like... it feels very nyloney. It kind of reminds me of... Do you remember like the the knit shells? Yeah, older ladies would wear really fine, fine gauge knit. And storebought is what I'm thinking now. I'm not thinking of a hand knit one but that that kind of crepey feeling. nylon knit shell. So anyway, that's what that feels like. And I'm not sure what I'll use that for. I don't think I'll make socks out of it because it doesn't feel wool enough. And it's very thin. I think. I think even with the size zero needle, it will have a lot of holes in it. So it may be relegated to a weaving project. Yeah. Or it might be relegated to the trash. I don't know. That's hard for me to do so probably not, but I don't see much use of that. It just it feels really?   Marsha 35:18 Yeah.   Kelly 35:19 Synthetic. In a way that I don't think I would find... in a way that I don't think I would find a use for. We'll see.   Marsha 35:27 Enough. Enough of that searching on the   Kelly 35:30 Antique Socks. Yes.   Marsha 35:31 Yeah. Yeah.   Kelly 35:33 So with with that yarn experience of the Not Matcha Socks compared to the yarn experience of this cashmere silk Merino. Oh my gosh! I might have to buy more of that. That's just really lovely. So, but my other thing that I've been working on and I am in love with is Frog and Toad.   Marsha 35:58 Yeah.   Kelly 35:58 And I talked about them before. And at that time, I think I was still working on Frog. My goal is to get them finished by this Sunday, which is Easter. And, I have the set, the four book set, of the Frog and Toad books for Faye and then I'm gonna, I'm gonna have these, and then I have a set of books for Kye as well. Not frog and toad. He likes   Marsha 36:20 Okay, you just threw me into a panic. I'm sorry to interrupt again. Tomorrow is Easter?   Kelly 36:24 No, no. Next Sunday, the following Sunday.   Marsha 36:27 Okay. Oh my god! Okay, deep breath. Okay. Yes, continue!   Kelly 36:35 Marsha, if it even if it was Easter tomorrow, nobody in your family seems to know. You could just like   Marsha 36:42 that's true.   Kelly 36:43 Just like keep going right past it.   Marsha 36:46 I don't have to panic. Just, maybe I'll do that next week.I'll just do it next week and pretend that it is.   Kelly 36:53 So it's, I think it's the fourth of April. Okay. I don't remember exactly the day but it's at the end of our spring break. So it's next week, okay. But I'm almost finished. So Frog is finished and Toad. Well, they're not stuffed, so their heads are still open at the top. But you can see on my project page that they have their clothes on. Toad has his bathing costume which I made out of kind of a pale turquoise and cream color. And then Frog is a really kind of yellowy green color. And he has these gray brown like taupy natural color wool, light gray pants, and they're ribbed. So they look like little corduroy pants. They're so cute. Oh my god, they're cute! Last weekend, I had my vaccine. And I could, I worked on, I was a little nervous. I don't know why I was nervous. But I was just a little bit nervous. So I just I like focused totally on getting the eyes done and putting the eyes into frog and toad. And then and then I had a headache after I got my vaccine but it felt like a headache from like doing all this really close, close work. So I don't think my original headache wasn't that you know, the headache that I had as I drove home from getting my vaccine was I'm sure not from the vaccine. I did feel a little bit sick the next day but but all this little tiny close work to make the eyes-- I did that last weekend. I made the pants and now I have the jacket. I just have one more sleeve to go on the jacket. But then you have the details. So like I thought I was done with the the bathing costume but then you need to do, like, edging, you know around the sleeves?And I skipped the edging around the neck because I thought the neck looks pretty good the way it was. But this little jacket is gonna need all its edging so it doesn't roll. You know, so the stockinette doesn't roll. There's just all these little tiny details that are exactly what makes them perfect in terms of matching the books. And I just keep getting the books out and comparing my little Frog and Toad with the Frog and Toad in the books and yeah. So I'm having a lot of fun with this. The jacket's almost done I actually bought the crushed walnut shells that she recommends for the stuffing. I mean it's one of the things that she has on the on the pattern for the stuffing is crushed walnut shell so I bought those and I bought the ones that have lavender. So it will smell nice and, but it's very fine. So I'm really glad I decided to go down to the size zero needles with the yarn I was using. Because if you if you didn't have really really bulletproof fabric, that little walnut is like sand. That little walnut sand is going to come out. And I might, I might just test a little bit of it with mine. I think Toad is a little bit felted because I washed him kind of vigorously to make sure that he was nice and tight. Frog might have a little bit of gap, but I think he's pretty good. But if he-- if the stuffing, if the sand, you know, the walnut shells look like they're going to come out. I think I will just wash him just a little bit more.   Marsha 40:34 Mm hmm.   Kelly 40:35 And get him more fulled.   Marsha 40:37 Yeah,   Kelly 40:38 so that he's a little stiffer.   Marsha 40:40 They're, darling. They're... their expressions... Their eyes are so cute.   Kelly 40:45 I can't wait to put their mouth on.   Kelly 40:48 You know, you do that last. I don't know why. Maybe because it's easier to follow the line with them stuffed. I'm not exactly sure. But yeah, very, very cute. So those are, those are my projects.   Marsha 40:48 Yeah,   Marsha 41:06 Very cute. So Kelly, my projects, I'll give you an update on what I'm doing down the beach. I worked a little bit on my sweater that the T shirt that I've been working on.   Kelly 41:16 Oh, I have a question about that. Okay, did you need to buy more yarn?   Marsha 41:20 Well, I was gonna talk about that. Oh, not buy more yarn. It's the Walk Along Tee by Ankestrick, and I've made about nine inches of the body. And I have probably two two inch balls of the second skein.   Kelly 41:36 Oh, well, yeah.   Marsha 41:37 And remember, I divided them so. No, I have even less than that. They're probably about an inch. So I have about two one inch, say I have like a two inch cake left. And then I have one more skein and I did not buy more, she has lots down there. Worst case scenario, I can call Jean and just ask her to send me a skein. But Kim said she, she's making the same sweater and of course was there with me at the beach. And she said she's still doing the increases of the Raglan. So she's not gotten to the body yet. But she did say that the pattern, a friend of hers made the pattern also and the sleeves are quite slim. They're not loose baggy sleeves. So she said you're not going to be using that much yarn on the sleeves. And I have to remind myself too, that I've knit because of the Raglan shaping, you know, it goes down the shoulder down off the shoulder down to about armpit level,   Kelly 42:32 right. So a good portion of the sleeve is done.   Marsha 42:35 Right. And then I'm planning on making three quarter length sleeves. So and then the cuff, I'm going to make like the collar which is the contrasting blue. So that's my plan, to just wait and see how I do. And then also the bottom of the sweater, I'm going to put the contrasting edging on. And I don't want to make it very long. I want it to be sort of mid hip, or a little above mid hip kind of. And so I can wear maybe wear a sweater over it or short jacket or something   Kelly 43:10 Right   Marsha 43:11 So I'm going to take a wait and see approach.   Kelly 43:13 That's Yeah, I sometimes panic, or worry too much about running out of yarn. And then I end up with extra.   Marsha 43:23 Right? Yeah. So, and I did check my row gauge. Because remember my last sweater that was one of the issues I had. I was using so much yarn because of the the row gauge was off-- was not the same as the pattern. And this is correct. So I should be okay. Yeah, I'm also not putting in all of the increases, they're supposed to be for increased rows, where you increase four stitches per row? I'm only going to put in two because I don't want it-- it would be--otherwise it'd be I think too much fabric around the hips. And so I've knit I think, I don't know if I said this, but I've had about nine inches of the body. Okay, so you know, another I don't know how long I will have to figure it out.   Kelly 44:07 Yeah, but not that much. But not not that much longer. Now because of the bottom edge.   Marsha 44:14 Yeah. And I think you know, I was saying earlier that I don't have very long needles. So I think what I might do is put it on waste yarn or get another set of needles that I can put it on. So I can try it on and see how it's fitting. That'll give me a better sense. But at the beach mostly what I worked on was the Abington mitts. That is the pattern that -- one of our prizes for the extremities knit   Kelly 44:47 Yeah.   Marsha 44:48 Knit along and or crochet along or weave along or macrame along or fill in the blank along. Anyway so I finished one and I've knit to the thumb gusset of the second one.   Kelly 45:05 Oh, wow.   Marsha 45:07 So, but they were pretty quick because I'm using DK weight on size six needles. So the only thing is on these, so when you do the thumb gusset, put the gusset on waste yarn, then knit, continue knitting the rest of the hand as long as you want it, and then you do ribbing, then you go back and pick up the thumb gusset, pick up two stitches. And then just knit in the round, you pick up two extra stitches, and then the first row after that you decrease two stitches. And it does say in the pattern, if you have fat thumbs.. Apparently I have fat thumbs! [laughing] No, she doesn't say if you have fat thumbs. But if depending on it, you may want to not put in those two decreases. And I think I'm going to go back on the second one, I'm not going to put the decreases in. And on the first mitt I made I'm going to-- I think I'm going to rip it out and redo it without the two decreases. I think it'd be a bit more comfortable.   Kelly 46:07 Yeah.   Marsha 46:09 So, but they're really nice. And it's a fun pattern. It's really easy. Even though you have to use a cable needle needle for all the cabling on them. It's pretty easy to memorize the pattern. And it goes very quickly. And there's so little you know that I knitted a whole mitt down there at the beach practically so   Kelly 46:29 nice.   Marsha 46:30 A mitt and a half and six days. So did you see my picture on Instagram that I did sit a lot at the beach? Yes.   Kelly 46:38 The butt shaped divot in the couch? [laughing]   Marsha 46:42 Yes, I had a butt divot in the couch. So that's it for me on projects. I don't have a lot going on.   Kelly 46:50 All right.   Marsha 46:51 That's it.   Kelly 46:52 Okay.   Marsha 46:52 Oh, and I actually, I did not bring my spinning wheel. But when I got home before I left for the beach and then when I got home yesterday, we got home you know mid day. I worked on spinning on the yarn that I've been spinning-- the olive green or pine green and the bitter chocolate the dark brown. I spun on that a little bit. So I've got, now I have two bobbins of green and one bobbin of brown. Yeah. And so I've made two skeins, but then I had to you know reload the bobbins. So I'm almost ready to-- I have one more bobbin to spin up more yarn and then I'll I'll finish plying.   Kelly 47:30 All right,   Marsha 47:31 Yeah, but that's, that's it for me.   Kelly 47:33 Okay, well, we had a couple of other, just let's just do business, get the administrative business out of the way. And then there's a couple of fun things that I just wanted to share. So we have our Extremities Knit Along/ Crochet Along/Everything Along that Marsha just mentioned, just want to remind people that that ends on April 25. And so you can get anything for your hands, arms, legs, feet, lots of good stuff going on there. And we have two prizes. One is a pattern for the Abington mitts that Marsha mentioned. And the other one is the pattern Coffee Socks Collection by Dotsdabbles Designs, and that's where this Matcha Socks pattern that I was talking about. That's where the Matcha Socks pattern comes from. The winter weave along is quickly coming to an end. It ends on March 31. And so that's just a little more than a week away. So not much time there. But I'm hoping to at least get some something on the loom. I won't-- I probably won't even get it all the way threaded. But I do have a project that I want to, that I want to get on the loom during spring break. During this week, what I really should do is housework but no. So   Marsha 48:48 It can wait   Kelly 48:49 That's ending on March 31. And so if you're weaving, I hope this inspires you to get your weaving finished and get your your last woven projects into the, into the thread. So but then I had something I wanted to talk about, that came across our email, Marsha and I thought, oh, let's just talk about this for a little bit. The livestock Conservancy sent me a press release. And it was about their campaign, Shave 'Em to Save 'Em. And the idea is that people have this passport, and they make projects out of all these different wools that are from critically endangered sheep breeds. So I just wanted to let people know about that. And we'll put a link to it in the show notes. So how it works is you buy wool from one of these rare breed fiber providers. And you get a stamp in their passport. And then you earn things. You can earn prizes. They have a Ravelry group and you can sign up for to the Ravelry group. They have prizes that they're giving away. You share your pictures either on Facebook or Ravelry. And you can earn things for completing projects. And the more breeds you use, the more stamps you collect, the more things you can earn. And I think some of our listeners maybe are participating in this. And then they have a list of fiber providers and a little online directory. 180 breeds. And I don't know of all the breeds are sheep breeds, because the livestock Conservancy has poultry and other kinds of livestock in it as well. So the online directory might be all the breeds, you know, not just for the shave them to save them. It's for people who want to buy, you know, who want to buy a sheep for their flock, or who want to buy a particular breed of chicken for their flock of chickens, and so on. But anyway, I thought it was kind of an interesting little thing, and they have a video, and we'll link to their site. rarewool.org is one quick way to get to their project. And then they have a video and stuff. So I'll put that in the show notes.   Marsha 51:08 I thought interesting. Very cool. Yeah. It's really fun.   Kelly 51:11 I know, I heard about it. I think it's been going for over a year. I want to say I originally heard about it. And I did go on their, their Ravelry group, and then I kind of forgot about it and then got this email. And I thought, oh, I'll just remind people about this. Yeah. Here's an interesting little fact. It says fiber providers are seeing an uptick in their sales for the past two years, so must be going on for two years. A recent survey of those fiber providers indicated that 37% of shepherds had sold 50% to 200% more wool than before joining the initiative.   Marsha 51:48 Oh, very cool!   Kelly 51:48 That's Yeah. That's pretty...that's pretty impressive.   Marsha 51:52 Yeah, no, this is great. I mean, I, I've been looking at the page, and I'm gonna look a little bit more at it.   Kelly 51:59 it's almost it's a fiber buying time. Right? It's almost the time where I start thinking about, I want to buy some spinning fiber and maybe the summer spin-in will, you know, come along at some point. So   Marsha 52:15 I'm thinking this is, this is a little off topic, but it's lambing season, and we follow several shepherds. But have you been following TwinsetJan?. And so yeah, so if you are on Instagram twinsetjan is the account name and it's Jan and she is has Fair Winds Farm in, I believe it's in Pennsylvania, I think. Anyway, she had a ewe that delivered four lambs, which is I think, very unusual. And four or excuse me, three males and a little female, and the female. I don't know what her initial weight was, but she's only like, maybe three pounds now. Or maybe she's up to four pounds. She's a tiny, tiny, tiny lamb so she's brought her into the house. And she's doing these darling Instagram posts, you know, all in first person in the lambs perspective and all the things that she's doing. And very cute and she's named Pikachu. And she's so cute because she just has black around her eyes. Her eyes are black but then she has all this black fur. No, it's not fur, what do you call it?   Kelly 53:31 Wool! [laughing]   Marsha 53:31 Wool wool around her eyes. She's darling. She's so delicate and tiny. Yeah.   Kelly 53:38 Yeah, they're Finnsheep and apparently they have large--twins and and triplets and quadruplets or multiple   Marsha 53:50 Oh, really? That's not unusual?   Kelly 53:52 multiples are common   Marsha 53:52 Okay. So it's not unusual. I thought in general sheep. It was too you know, they would have   Kelly 53:57 Yeah, finnsheep are known for having-- I want to say large litters. But for having multiples.   Marsha 54:06 Okay, yeah,   Kelly 54:09 Yeah, she's really cute. You should definitely.. I'll put her Instagram in the shownotes as well. Because it's really worth following.   Marsha 54:17 Yeah, she's very, very cute. And, yeah, anyway, but it's lambing season. So we follow two other shepherds that it's just been really fun to see all the lambs and, and in the business of it, yeah, there's the business you know, and just what's involved with trying to keep them alive and healthy. Because this is their business. So   Kelly 54:41 yeah, well, one of our one of our friends Kathy straightfork, she has lambs. She has sheep for the first time this year and she has lambs and she's been sharing. She shared pictures of the the lambs that she had one ewe that gave birth to twins. And was not really happy to take care of the little girl twin. And so she's been, you know, dealing with that situation trying to get the mom to at least feed her. And then she has another you who is due pretty quickly. I want to say she has blue faced Leicester and they have the biggest like satellite ears! Kind of like Bailey's ears, you know, real big and so it's been fun to, it's been fun to see her pictures, too. And hear you know what's going on. So it's a busy time for for those people with sheep.   Marsha 55:37 But these lambs are so cute.   Kelly 55:39 They really are. And baby goats too. I want to say it was probably early April when we when we found out that my niece in Seattle had COVID. So I started sending her Instagram pictures of baby goats. Just to you know, say okay, here's your here's your bright spot for today. And I sent her all such funny little videos of these goats like flying around the pasture or like just like walking along and then all of a sudden just leap in the air and skitter away, like for no reason. So funny. So yeah, it's a good time of year to be following sheep and goats on Instagram. Yeah,   Marsha 56:19 yeah. Yeah. So I think that's about it. Do we have anything? There's   Kelly 56:23 one more thing and that is the Finnish artist. I just wanted to -- it was shared in the 2 Knit Lit Chicks Ravelry group and I saw it and then I started digging around and looking, looking for more information. So her name is Liisa, Hietanon, I should have looked it up--the pronunciation for that--and in Finnish. But she's an artist, a Finnish artist, and she crochets all sorts of things. But the thing that brought her to my attention was an article about how she had crocheted life-sized replicas of the people in her town. And they're amazing. You can barely tell who's the real person and who's the crocheted version. And you know, thinking of doing these frogs and all the little details that you have to select, to make them actually replicate Frog and Toad in the books. I can only imagine all of the different things that she's thought about to make sure that these crocheted replicas actually, you know, mirror the features of these people in her town. It's amazing. So I've linked to her in the show notes as well, her artist's website, in the show notes as well, and you can take a look. Pretty amazing.   Marsha 57:38 Yeah, they are. I'm looking at them now. They're very amazing. They're really yeah, they're very cool.   Kelly 57:42 Pretty fun.   Marsha 57:43 So with that, I think we're almost at the end, and I just have to let you know that Enzo, when we started to record, he came up and got on the bed, and he's been sleeping on the bed. So the typing sent him away. But the recording brought him back.   Kelly 57:59 So you must not be tense when you record, Marsha! It 's all that uploading of your tax documents that has traumatized poor Enzo.   Marsha 58:16 Yes. I don't know if we talked about did we talk about that. But   Kelly 58:19 you and I talked about it.   Marsha 58:20 You can imagine that I've always just, would fill out like a little paper workbook that the accountant sent me and this year, you know, as as you know, Kelly, how much I love being dragged into the 21st century and having to use technology. But I did it. I finally figured it out. It took me two solid days probably. Yes. All that scanning. And and as I say we had a conversation about this. And I realized what they're doing is they probably have to scan all those documents themselves. So normally, I would just send them copies of everything, what they're doing now is they're putting the work on the client, right? They're just foisting it off on-- that sounds too negative, but they they're just making us do the work at this end. So they don't have to I think is what they're really doing.   Kelly 59:08 I don't know how much of it is is safety but it I have to say when I when I grade going forward, when the pandemic is over and I'm back face to face or when the pandemic has ramped down, I think I will still have a lot of my students assignments just be uploaded. I don't really prefer grading online. There are some nice features to it. There are some things that are are easier to grade online. But I would always when I got stacks of papers, I would know that you know there was a potential cold coming on, because I just collected a whole bunch of tests that I had to grade. And you know, I would always joke about how I was going to spray my papers with Lysol. I wonder too if that's part of it. You're not having all of that stuff arrive from everybody   Marsha 1:00:00 Yeah,I didn't even think about that. And I that makes sense. I didn't. Yeah. And honestly, I didn't think about that.   Kelly 1:00:06 I know that the pandemic, I mean, they've said, I've heard different places that actual transmission by, you know, touching objects of COVID is not the real transmission mechanism. It's still important to wash your hands and stuff, but, but that's not the real transmission mechanism the way they originally thought, but it is definitely a disease transmission. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I have experienced that, you know, the the colds come when the tests come and I have to grade papers. So,   Marsha 1:00:39 yeah, so maybe it is really not just like they're trying to make us do the bulk.They're trying to protect it. So it's probably...   Kelly 1:00:46 it's probably many fold the reasons for doing it. But that, but that's one, you know, you sharing things, sharing objects is something that people are trying to prevent in the pandemics. Yeah, I wouldn't want to be opening a whole bunch of other people's mail.   Marsha 1:01:01 Yeah, yeah, that's true.   Kelly 1:01:02 I wouldn't want to be collecting a whole bunch of student papers. If I were you know, actually in class, I'd be like, No, you can leave that right there.   Marsha 1:01:12 Yeah,   Kelly 1:01:13 All right. Well, I'm glad Enzo is no longer traumatized by your typing.   Marsha 1:01:20 I will I will try and type lightly and test it and see if. After we hang up, I will try typing on the computer so he gets up and runs to the basement.   Kelly 1:01:31 Oh my gosh.   Marsha 1:01:32 All right. We'll talk   Marsha 1:01:33 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects.   Kelly 1:01:33 Okay, Marsha, bye. Bye. Bye, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.   Kelly 1:01:50 Until next time, we're the Two Ewes doing our part for a world fleece!

One of the foremost conferences in the field of clinical trials is SCOPE, which stands for the Summit of Clinical Ops Executives. While held virtually this year, the conference was packed with interesting and innovative presentations. Spencer Health Solutions served as a premier sponsor of the event and co presented at the conference with a client and collaboration partner, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. Our content was presented in the track, focusing on accessing and generating real-world data. The presentation was titled Implementing a Transformative Medtech Device Program to Gather Real World Data. Our co presenters were Tom Rhoads, CEO of Spencer Health Solutions and Kelly Roland, Associate Director, Otsuka. In planning this presentation, we decided to show a little bit behind the curtain of how a large pharmaceutical company evaluates digital health technology before it is written into a patient protocol. Let me set the stage. My name is Janet Kennedy and I'm the host of the People Always, Patients Sometimes podcast. Coming up is a conversation between Tom and Kelly walking through Otsuka's reasons for creating an internal focus group to evaluate the Spencer SmartHub. As part of the evaluation, Spencer health look forward to having Otsuka learn about and experience our deeper data and a more comprehensive look at how patient real-world evidence can be used to support the patient and improve outcomes. I hope you enjoy this candid conversation between Tom Rhoads and Kelly Roland on People Always, Patients Sometimes.   Tom Rhoads: (01:42) Hi, I'm Tom Rhodes, CEO of Spencer Health Solutions. Spencer is and FDA class one medical device for use with medication management, patient engagement and data collection. The Spencer SmartHub is being used in care management for about three years now. And in 2019, we added the clinical trial and commercial pharma division and launched Spencer SmartHub into both the clin trials, as well as post approved commercial farm applications. We're really pleased to be presenting at SCOPE this year, and we're very proud to be joined in the discussion today by our partner in an innovative internal focus group program. With me is Kelly Roland, Associate Director of Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. Hello Kelly, how are you doing today?   Kelly Roland: (02:23) Hi Tom. Thanks so much for inviting me to join you today. I'm excited to be here.   Tom Rhoads: (02:28) Well, that makes two of us. Kelly, our presentation in the SCOPE track is focused on accessing in generating real-world data, which is having a greater impact on the design and clinical trials and patient programs more than ever before. But before we jump into a discussion of our focus group, could you share any insights on why real-world data is a priority for Otsuka Pharma?   Kelly Roland: (02:49) Happy to. So as you know Tom, real-world data, real-world evidence - it's really information that creates action. So using this information, we're able to not only look at the improved design of clinical trials, but also conduct those clinical trials in new and different ways. Better data really lends itself to potentially faster analysis and better drug development overall, with really the aim advancing towards understanding both patients and drugs sooner. So from an operational standpoint, real-world data real-world evidence can enable more efficient, effective clinical trials and hopefully remove any friction for patients, investigators, and sponsors.   Tom Rhoads: (03:37) Well, it's interesting cause you know, as we were designing Spencer, the ability of patients to provide data back to the SmartHub was always central to our design. In fact, whether we're capturing biometric data passively through a Bluetooth connection, or from the patient's direct response for survey questions. We always wanted to be able to provide multiple layers of health data beyond the moment of medication dispensing, and our program today is really to share a rare insight into how a large pharmaceutical company can bring new technology to their patients and ensure that the internal team has buy-in on the new program. So Kelly, with digital health apps have been around for quite a while; why is the team at Otsuka interested in designing an internal evaluation before introducing Spencer to your patients?   Kelly Roland: (04:21) Otsuka is a company that's really dedicated to serving those with unmet medical needs, and we really strive to innovate and defy limitations. When we first evaluated Spencer, we felt it could really help us put the patient at the center of the trial first and foremost. And at the same time, we also knew it would break those current processes and operational logistics that you have for more traditional ways of running a clinical trial. So by getting out of our comfort zone and kind of embracing this new way, this new technology, a new way of doing things, we decided to pilot our own internal focus group, Otsuka only. We could have easily outsourced this to another group to research for us. However, we thought that this internal approach would allow Otsuka functional area champions really, or subject matter experts with that really in-depth personal experience with the device. They could experience firsthand what the patient would experience and help to develop new processes and new solutions based on those insights.   Tom Rhoads: (05:29) You know, you remind me, as we went to develop Spencer, we developed it from the patient out. So to see pharma taking the same position of understanding firsthand what the patient would experience is truly innovative, and we were obviously thrilled to learn you'd be interested in having your team experience Spencer in person. So maybe let's break down a few reason why that's a good idea.   Kelly Roland: (05:52) Holding that internal focus group served a few key purposes for us. First, as I mentioned, gather those insights very quickly and you get that firsthand knowledge that you wouldn't have otherwise. We wanted our teams to look through the lens of the patient, the site, and actually their own functional area when evaluating Spencer. So in the case of Spencer, it's a new technology, it requires a bit more organization, a little more prep work on the part of the team. And we thought this could be an exciting new approach for us. So our goal was to really set up a focus group so we could better evaluate everything end to end from the program set up, data integrations, training materials, and overall how Spencer worked.   Tom Rhoads: (06:38) So when you think about really the protocol that you're outlining, why was it important for Otsuka to kind of evaluate Spencer in each of the different roles?   Kelly Roland: (06:47) So when we're planning protocols or planning our programs, we really want to anticipate as much as possible where there could be difficulties where there could be challenges. One such area are those new roles and skill sets, quite honestly, that need to emerge when you layer technology and roll real-world data into the mix. In the past, we've relied heavily on, I'd say more manual processes together feedback from patients and sites. But with new digital platforms like Spencer, we can be much more proactive in assessing how a patient's doing between their clinic visits, especially as decentralized trials become much more common here in the future. But that said, we can better respond as a company if we've lived the experience in those key roles. It makes our team more intuitive in designing a protocol, and also a little more creative in the support materials that they bring along as well. So a focus group like this creates a lot of change in the company, but it also creates change agents, I'll call them, because now they've lived the experience, they can spread the word to their colleagues and other functions about the tool. They can be that subject matter expert in their function and help others to understand either the value and or challenges of this particular tool. So I think a focus group is really interesting and great way to start that change management activity.   Tom Rhoads: (08:15) That's a great point. So as we kind of break down the roles, maybe we can take a deeper dive into the patient role for a moment. What were you interested in evaluating as a patient using Spencer in a clinical trial?   Kelly Roland: (08:27) I said it before. I'll say it again - I really think this is going to give us invaluable experience from that patient perspective for our greater team. You know, we know we're working with a tool that has really interesting data around adherence and engagement, and we really wanted to explore that further. You know, we're asking ourselves questions like, "could Spencer cause annoyance or frustration for a particular indication?" "Are there other indications that may lend themselves more readily to a Spencer device versus another?" Would the collection of biometric data in the home be more desirable to a patient or caregiver versus having to go to the doctor's office?" I think if COVID has taught us anything that does seem to be a much more desirable functionality that people are looking at now. All this to say, it's very different reading about a tool and assessing capabilities versus actually experiencing them and walking in the patient's shoes.   Tom Rhoads: (09:22) So when we look at some of the aspects of the platform, how does the ability to gather patients' answers, to post medications, dispense survey questions, factor into your plan for utilizing real-world evidence? For instance, we found some eliminating data on how different individuals - in fact, two different individuals, both were basically 98% adherent - can reveal very different situations for those patients. Just curious, how do your plans factor in for that real-world evidence?   Kelly Roland: (09:50) So I think, as you indicated, medication adherence is only part of the story. So the questions we ask patients via the Spencer device could potentially provide, I think, some interesting real-world data on how the patient is not only doing from a physical standpoint, but also a mental standpoint. I think the data can help us to potentially create algorithms that allow for some of these deeper insights. Wouldn't it be interesting to have the ability to predict a manic event in a patient with bipolar disorder, for example, using both biomarker data and survey questions before the event even happens? So finding ways to identify signals related to relapse, potentially diabetes control, et cetera. I mean, this would be something that could be explored by asking the right questions at the right time. And these types of scenarios I think are really what excites our team as we kind of look to take those data insights to the next level.   Tom Rhoads: (10:47) Oh, that is great. It does remind me of the story I mentioned a moment ago. We had two different individuals currently on platform. From a high level, they were picture perfect. They were both basically a hundred percent adherent. They were 98.9% adherent taking their medications during the time prescribed. So you think at this point, check the box and move on; nothing more to see here. When we dug in and began looking at answers to questions, we saw two very different individuals. In fact, there was about a 10 year difference in their age. One was female, one was male. Suffering from depression as a primary and other disease and comorbid. And when you dug down into the questions you found that one person was sleeping well, eating well, exercising; in many other aspects, basically was on a very good path, consistent with a high adherence rate. Yet the other person, even with the high adherence rate, was experiencing a totally different outcome. They were not sleeping well, not eating well, not exercising. And their depression was a bit spiraling. Those are the types of data and insights that we all hope to collect. And I think working with a leader like Otsuka to be able to apply, as you said, algorithms, so that we can begin to notice these patterns and alert against these patterns, are critical really for healthcare's future.   Kelly Roland: (12:11) Totally agree, Tom. I think that that's something that our team looks forward to learning more as we push forward. This is exciting.   Tom Rhoads: (12:18) The funny thing for me is often times we all go out and have a third party evaluate something for us; and then they give us a report and we read our reports and we make assumptions and decisions around those reports. You know, cause we're all busy. I think what's truly unique here is that Otsuka has decided to have their team do it. And I'll tell you, from my experience - just my past in marketing - having your own hands on, you're going to see things, ask things, question things more deeply than you ever could coming from a report. I think that's a really interesting aspect of this where companies really do roll up their sleeves to understand what it is they're evaluating.   Kelly Roland: (13:01) So Tom, we talked a little bit about the Otsuka focus group and the program that we've developed, and the partnership that we have. From your perspective, was creating the focus group program the same as launching into a new clinical trial? You know, were there many differences or any similarities you could speak to?   Tom Rhoads: (13:21) Well, overall it was a terrific experience for us. I guess on the firsthand we followed the same procedural pathway that we would use for clinical trial: treating it as a protocol and really following the regimen and structure and review process with very deep collaboration across the teams. By approaching it in this manner, I think we were better aligned with your team, certainly, with the expectations and the outcomes that you were seeking. I think the difference for us in this was that the focus group program really centered on feedback and modification to best support your long-term needs. And so for us, it was very refreshing, maybe not as nerve-wracking either - given that we had opportunities to modify and change - but being able to go in with a mandate to learn and collaborate was really critical, I think to the teams to provide honest feedback, questions, and have the necessary dialogue and how we can make things better overall, from an onboarding, a management, you know, a site management, and general support throughout the entire trial. It was a great experience for us, for sure.   Kelly Roland: (14:25) Thank you for that. And I agree, I think that some of the ease of the focus group was really around being able to be creative and work together in that kind of creative fashion, where if something didn't work or we wanted to pilot something different or add this or switch that, we had the flexibility to be able to do that. So I agree. I think that this was refreshing from all angles - ours as well. So definitely appreciate that. One other question for you. What do you think, again from your perspective, is an important thing that clients, pharma companies in particular or researchers, need to experience when working with new technology?   Tom Rhoads: (15:07) You know, digital health has been around for gosh, a decade now, I guess we've been talking about it materially, and I think clients, or really anyone looking at technology really need to understand how to best apply the technology, kind of what the upper and lower limits of the technology are. You know, where is it best used? Who best responds to it? How is it supported? Does it work for their needs or not? And you know, I think one of the things that Otsuka did such a really refreshing kind of remarkable job of is rolling up their sleeves and experiencing it themselves. I think too often clients look to third parties to evaluate technology and give them condensed reports on it. And it's hard to make decisions from that. But when you experience a technology firsthand, you're going to have a really insightful and deep understanding of the good and the bad, and be able to make decisions - and I think more informed decisions - and directionally support your strategy longer term. That was something that as we move forward, we'll certainly be sharing that as an important aspect to evaluating new technology.   Kelly Roland: (16:15) Perfect. Thank you.   (16:17) Well, thank you for having us and allowing us to present at SCOPE. We certainly hope you come and visit us in the virtual trade show hall. And it's really exciting to be able to share our focus group study. We very much look forward to sharing the findings that come out of this, maybe in the next SCOPE.   Kelly Roland: (16:35) Thanks Tom. I appreciate being here and agreed. I think we look forward to sharing our learnings in the future.

More discussion about shots (not from a glass) and needles (not for knitting). Sorry! We finally get down to knitting, bored dogs, and new projects. We end by laughing at own ridiculousness when read in a transcript.  Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com. If you’d like to become a patron and support the show financially, visit our Patreon page.  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha’s Projects I’m still working on the pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo. I’ve knit about 6” of my Walk Along tee by AnkeStrick and I’m using Little Fish Stitches fingering. Beginning to worry if I will have enough yarn. Spinning on and off with olive green merino roving. We had one beautiful sunny day this week that I could sit on the deck and spin. Heaven! I’m combining it with another merino I ordered from Paradise Fibers in Spokane, Washington in a dark brown called Bitter Chocolate. Making a 3 ply with two green and one brown single. I’ve spun two skeins. Swatching to make the Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde as part of our Extremities Knit/Crochet Along. Using Dale Garn Helio that I got from Kim’s bag of yarn headed to the thrift store. Enough yarn for a brown and a burgundy pair. Kelly’s Projects  I finished the pair of socks for Robert!  And another Ice Time Hat! The Ice Time Hat is a pattern given to me by BostonJen of Down Cellar Studio podcast. I used two different yellow and purple variegated skeins.  Check out my project page.  Started the Iced Matcha Socks by Dots Dabbles. I’m using handspun wool mohair yarn that I spun from batts I carded. The wool is Charlotte (a gray sheep whose fleece I bought twice in the early 2000s). The mohair is a similar vintage mohair fleece that I bought and dyed.  Both of these patterns are from the designers who have donated prizes for the Extremities K/CAL.  I also started Frog and Toad from frogandcast.com.  I’ve finished Toad and now need to start Frog. Then there are clothes to make. Extremities Knit/Crochet Along This KAL/CAL was inspired by the generous donation of these patterns: Abington Mitts, Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar Studio Coffee Socks Collection, Dotsdabbles Designs, Deborah It ends on April 25, 2021. Knit anything for your extremities (hands, arms, legs, feet). Winter Weave Along Ends on March 31. We will have prizes, including a class generously donated by Erica at Weavolution. Ep 157 final Mon, 3/8 5:41PM • 59:38 SUMMARY KEYWORDS yarn, knit, socks, laughing, transcript, marsha, appointments, pattern, talking, extremities, vaccine, people, thought, podcast, weaving, hat, crochet, pair, fun, vaccinated SPEAKERS Kelly, Marsha   00:03 Hi, this is Marsha and this is Kelly.   Marsha 00:05 We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.   Kelly 00:10 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 00:17 We blog and post show notes at TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.   Kelly 00:22 And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects,   Marsha 00:29 and I am betterinmotion.   Kelly 00:31 We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.   00:36 Enjoy the episode.   Marsha 00:43 Good morning, Kelly.   Kelly 00:44 Good morning, Marsha. It's Friday. Yeah. I'm not sure Friday means much to to a lot of people during a pandemic, but it means a lot to me.   Marsha 01:01 Yeah, it doesn't really mean... it doesn't mean... Friday, in fact, well, yeah. Friday doesn't mean that much to me anymore. But yeah, if you're retired, yeah. And you know, Ben does his own school thing. Idon't... I'm not involved in that. And and   Kelly 01:14 I hope I should hope not.   Marsha 01:16 I know at the age of 23. I should not be involved in it. I'm not. Such a relief.   Kelly 01:23 I have students whose children are involved in their college education, helping them but   Marsha 01:31 Oh, yeah, yeah,your children appearing in zoom meetings and stuff. Zoom.   Kelly 01:35 That too. Yeah. I have a couple of students that come to my office drop in hours, and their children are usually in the background, or you can hear you can hear the schooling going on in the background, while the children are on their own zoom, their own zoom meeting. So. So yeah, I have a class for kind of a beginning level math class, you know, basically no prerequisites. You know, anybody can take it. And some of those students have their kids helping them. "I got confused, and I watched your video, and then I got my kid to help me."   Marsha 02:14 So yeah, it's a family, a family affair. Sweet.   Kelly 02:20 When parents talk about, you know, having school and kids and all of that, I always, I always tell them how, how much I think it's great. Because it's such a role model for their children, you know, that you continue to learn, but it's rough. I can't imagine the students I have, who are, who are parents who are going back to school, who are working, who are helping their children do their school, I always admire, you know, the parents who are coming back to school and the amount of work that they have to do. But in this pandemic, it's just been, like magnified. Yeah, very impressive. Yeah. their commitment to education.   03:01 Oh, yeah.   Marsha 03:02 It's a struggle, but it'll be worth it in the end, you know?   Kelly 03:07 Yes. And some of us in the struggle, I'm not including myself in that us really, some people in the struggle will be able to talk about it in the same way that, you know, of the sacrifices that people made during war time. Or, and some people are not, are not stepping up in that way. I sort of wonder what it would be like if they were having to live through war time, or, you know, like, the Greatest Generation they talk about, that, you know, lived through World War Two and made all those sacrifices. And our society is not quite measuring up, I don't think, to that standard.   Marsha 03:47 Well, I don't know. I mean, well, you mean, in terms of wearing masks?   03:52 Willing make a..? Being willing to make a sacrifice?   Marsha 03:55 Oh,   Kelly 03:56 for the good ofeveryone.   Marsha 03:59 It may sort of depend on where you live.   Kelly 04:01 Yeah. Yeah.   Marsha 04:02 You know, because if you're talking like masking specifically, everybody masks up. In fact. I mean,here...   Kelly 04:10 what I'm specifically talking about here, I guess I should I should be clear. What was specifically talking about here in California, is all of the complaining about teachers not going back and the teachers unions not wanting to go back and parents can't get their kids back in school. And, like, I understand that, I understand that it's hard. But you don't get to have your same old life. Right? I mean, this is what I want to say to people, right? You don't. None of us gets to have the same life we had last February, none of us does.   Marsha 04:16 My mind was going... Well. And I say even with the vaccine, it sounds like we're not going to have our same lives, right?   Kelly 04:55 For a while at least.   Marsha 04:56 it's going to be a different version of our of our of our same You know, yeah, so,   Kelly 05:02 I think I talked about the whole, you know, push to get teachers vaccinated which is happening, and that's really good. But what was being said about what was happening and what was really happening were two different things. And so it makes it seem like, you know, well, all of you teachers are all vaccinated. So why aren't you wanting to come back? Well, we're not all vaccinated. I have my appointment, though.   Marsha 05:26 That's good.   Kelly 05:27 Yeah. Quick shift of the subject to be more positive. Okay. Just to be clear, I was finding myself going to an ranty place and I don't want to do that. So   Marsha 05:45 well, just before you shift, let me just say here, like, I think that where I live in Seattle, everybody's wearing a mask. And so like, it seems to everybody's very compliant. I'm not going to restaurants. Stores that I've gone to, I always go in and say like, you check, how do you want me to do this? Everybody seems very on board with this in my world. In fact, so much so like, when I take Enzo for a walk, I always bring a mask with me. Because even though I don't come in contact with anybody, everybody's masked up even walking through the neighborhood. Yeah. Which I don't even know how necessary that is. But I think it's sort of it's becoming kind of a sign of solidarity, you know, but anyway, yeah. Yeah. But yes, on to more positive things. You're getting your vaccine. Yay.   Kelly 06:27 Yeah, yeah. So my first dose is the 13th. And honestly, it felt like I was trying to get concert tickets. We had multiple alerts coming out on the faculty email at work, saying, Oh, I just checked the site, and they've got vaccine appointments, and then I go and no appointments. And when I got up in the morning, I get on the computer, I always check and I go through the whole thing. And the dumb thing is that you had to go through the whole process of putting in all this information. Not all of your information, but you had to click a whole bunch of places, just to be told that there were no appointments available. Like, okay, I'd rather on the very front page, right when I, you know, right, when I click on to the front page, you tell me there's no appointments available. But anyway, I do that every morning, and nothing would be available. And then the other morning, the other morning, I got on and I checked, and there was nothing. And all the dates were old. And I mentioned to Robert Oh, they haven't even updated this website yet. You know, they've still got all the old, all the old dates, they don't have the newest dates. And so then I went on to do my you know, play on the computer, read Ravelry, read my email, that kind of stuff. And I'm reading my email and one of my colleagues had emailed that there were now-- there was-- our county office of education was hosting a vaccine site. And so I went to that. So get this. She, she so it came on, it came on the screen, sometime in like a 10 minute timeframe of when I had looked and when I got the email that it was there. So I went there. It was I mean, at most 10 minutes after it had been live on this website. They had multiple appointments, like six to eight appointments every four minutes, from 10 until 4pm.   Marsha 08:32 Mm hmm.   Kelly 08:32 So that's a lot of appointments.   Marsha 08:34 Yeah.   Kelly 08:36 And I made mine. So I got it. I was like, Okay, I'm going to pick a time that has, you know, five appointments available as opposed to two because I don't want to be cart-jacked. You know, I don't want to get to the end and find out my appointment was already taken. So I do that. And then I texted some other people to let them know. And then I went back to look and they were all taken.   Marsha 09:01 And you were cart-jacke? I mean they took that one.   Kelly 09:05 Oh, no,no, no, I got mine. Okay. But I I texted and then I went back to check on it to see to see like, how many more appointments there still were, and nothing! Okay, so like within 15 minutes. All those appointments, you know, eight, five to eight appointments every four minutes, from 10am to 4pm. All of those appointments were taken within probably 15 minutes. Wow. It felt like I was... or like I was trying to get yarn from a super super popular dyer! Wake up in the middle of the night when the update happens and like in the early days, the Wollmeise I think was one of them. Yeah. You know, people used to get up in the middle of the night to try to get Wollmeise yarn. And anyway, I felt like that as I was trying to get my point. I've never been this excited for a shot in all my life, not even a shot of bourbon!   Marsha 10:07 So then, so you'll have, I'm assuming this is the two part vaccine.   Kelly 10:14 Yeah, yeah.   Marsha 10:15 So then how do you know when you get your second one?   Kelly 10:18 I don't know. Yeah.   Marsha 10:20 Okay, how that's gonna work?   Kelly 10:22 I'm not sure how that's gonna work. Yeah, I'm assuming that the same site will have the second round. And then all of us who got appointments for that first site will go to the second site, go to the second round at that same site, but I don't know for sure. I don't think we know for sure.   Marsha 10:41 I was gonna say the thing about the websites, too. So let me just say, you know, in the state of Washington, I don't know what this is, all states have this. But we have Find Your Phase where you can go and find out. And you know, I'm not...I'm not eligible yet. But I went back. They say, well, they will, they will email me when I'm eligible. And I've not received any notification. So I thought, well, I'll go back and to see where I am. Maybe there's more. Because it said, when I when I registered for it, they said they don't know when my category would be eligible. No information, check back. So I thought I'll go check back. You have to register again, there's no way to go in and just log back in and find your own status, even though I've registered. And so this is a long way of saying I think they've... they've thrown these websites together as quickly as they can. And they didn't have I think... Normally with websites don't they go through for companies, they go through testing, right? Everybody uses them to check them all out. I don't think they've had any time to do that. And so there's problems in the system. Yeah Because I have no idea. You can't... Right now, I'm sure if anybody lives in the state of Washington, any of our listeners, they can tell me what's really going on but I couldn't find my status in there. I just had to reregistered again. So and then just add to all of this hearsay, rumor, confusion. Um, my brother registered in Find Your Phase and never got notified. But he's he has medical insurance with Kaiser Permanente. And so he went to the website, and he just started poking around and, and he was able to make an appointment through their website to get the vaccine. And he's never been notified that he was eligible by the state of Washington. Yeah. So I don't know. And he said, also their website, too, again, I think that they are doing the best they can sort of getting something in place, right? But he said that there isn't, like, on the website, if you want a vaccine, click here and make your appointment. He said, You have to dig down through the site, you actually have to say that you want to make an appointment to get like a flu shot or any kind of shot. And then you have to go through the and then it gets you to the part where say what I want is the COVID-19 vaccine.   Kelly 12:33 Yeah, like they should have just a big button right on the front, a big button that you push to...Yeah, right. So I bet you're right. I mean, I'm complaining.   Marsha 13:08 No, I mean, I mean,   Kelly 13:10 it's something that had to be put together quickly.   Marsha 13:13 Well, and I should say cuz I'm not... I have no idea. Now. The President came out two or three days ago saying that pretty much everybody who wants a vaccine will have it by May. So I think I will get it soon. I mean, I just it's just a matter of being patient. But I will say again, rumor hearsay, guessing, all this. It is interesting like people posting on Facebook or Instagram that are getting the vaccine. There's somebody who posts on Facebook, I know who posted that she was getting the vaccine. And as far as I know, she doesn't meet any of the criteria-- multi generational household, age, underlying health, as far as I know. And so like, how did she get it? I don't know. It's like, you know, let it go. Just let that go.   Kelly 14:08 It's possible there's something you don't knowabout?   Marsha 14:10 It's possible there's something I don't know. Because like, it could be an underlying health condition that I don't know about. So. So it's not about-- you can't sit there going like, well, how come they got it? You know, but yeah, that's-- Yeah, we're human. And that's where our mind goes, right? But it really, you know, vaccinate as many people as possible it doesn't really matter even.. you know?   Kelly 14:33 I'd be and in my thinking,...Gosh, we've been on this topic for a long time. Sorry, everyone.   Marsha 14:39 Yes, I know.   Kelly 14:40 But my thinking you know, at first was well, I'm not in contact with anyone. I'm not teaching face to face yet. I don't really need to get the vaccine. You know, I wasn't too worried about jumping.... I wasn't sitting on the computer like it was a rock concert that I wanted tickets to or you know, Hamilton or something big. Cuz I thought well I'm home, you know, I'm not teaching face to face, I'm not going to be teaching face to face in the fall. I don't have to rush. But what you want is everyone, everyone who can, to get it.   Marsha 15:13 Yeah,   Kelly 15:14 Everyone who can get who can't who can, by whatever means really should get it because that's how you get immunity in, you know, community wide, right. So in the mathematics, there's an interesting-- there was an interesting article about mathematical modeling. And the mathematical model was, what if we do it in phases versus what if we do it as whoever wants it, come and get it? And it actually was more effective in the mathematical modeling, to make it available, you know, to make whatever was available available to whoever wanted it.   Marsha 15:52 I know, that's what I was kind of wondering if that would actually make more sense.   Kelly 15:55 It was, mathematically, it was more effective. Yeah. But politically, you know, like, I'm getting the vaccine, even though I'm not going to be back in the classroom. Robert goes to work every day. He doesn't work directly with the public, but he goes to work every day, and he's not eligible yet. Yeah. But politically, I mean, they're not distinguishing between educators who are going back to the classroom and educators who are not, it's just easier not to do that. And they, you know, and the the political reality is they needed to make sure that educators got vaccinated because there's such a pressure for our schools to reopen the K 12 schools to reopen. So anyway, yeah, this is a long topic. We're probably, we're probably, we're probably treading on the boundaries of what our listeners are wiling to listen to   Marsha 16:46 people are gonna be listening to this walking the dog driving the car going. "Oh, for goodness sakes, stop talking!"   Kelly 16:53 Where's the knitting?   Marsha 16:54 Where's the knitting? Well, yes, while we wait... So anyway, patience is a virtue. I will get mine soon. I I'm looking forward to it. My vaccination. I'm excited. So anyway, and grateful that we have one. Yeah, pretty speedy the process.   Kelly 17:12 Yes,so...and apparently CVS, this part of the email I got this morning. The CVS website is already doing appointments for the Johnson and Johnson one shotvaccine. So all right. That was cool to see. Yeah. That's a lot of very fast science.   Marsha 17:30 Yes. Yeah. Okay. Ah, so we talk knitting?   Kelly 17:37 Yeah. That's what they're here for. Right?   Marsha 17:43 Yeah.Let's give...   Kelly 17:43 Sorry, you guys!   Marsha 17:44 Let's give them what they want!   Kelly 17:46 Yes.   Marsha 17:48 Okay, so how about you? Do you want to talk about your projects?   Kelly 17:51 Sure, yeah. Okay. So I finished Robert's socks. They turned out really nicely. I'm actually Oh, I'm calling them finished. And I'm actually weaving in ends right now. But, but they're finished. And I've marked them as finished in the project page. He hasn't worn them yet, because I haven't woven in ends. But he tried them on. I did end up making the toe of the first sock bigger than I had done before. The look so funny! I, I have a picture of them. And because of the toe is made from my hand spun it's thicker. It's a little-- it's not quite fingering weight. It's a little bit heavier than that. Plus, it's a, it's a denser yarn. They have the most bulbous toes, but they're not pointy. So he loves them. And I'm like, they look so big. And he said, No, no, they look perfect. So   Marsha 18:51 yeah. Are they comfortable? The   Kelly 18:52 Yeah, he likes them.   Marsha 18:53 The big poofy toes. Yes, he has room for his for his toes. So they're not   19:00 pointy, and they and they are big enough, but they do kind of bulge out while the sock is ribbed. So that's part of it, too. So the ribbing sucks in the foot of the sock. And then I added stitches when I made the toe because it was too dense and stiff and tight. So anyway, yeah, it's they're interesting looking.   Marsha 19:25 Well, you'll have to share a picture of them.   Kelly 19:27 So I will Yeah, the leading men fiber arts yarn is really nice. I'm gonna get myself some more of this. Maybe not this color. I don't know. I like this color! But it's just a really nice sock yarn. This is-- I think this one might be bfl sock, I can't remember now. But it just it feels nice. It was nice to knit with and the put up is very large. You get a lot of yarn in a skein of this.   Marsha 19:59 [Laughing] Okay. Sorry, I'm interrupting. I'm just looking at the   Kelly 20:04 you see what I'm talking about?   Marsha 20:05 Yes. Yeah.   Kelly 20:10 The toes are quite bulbous.   Marsha 20:11 Yeah, but they look comfortable.   Kelly 20:14 Yes. And they aren't--I mean, they aren't baggy when he wears them. They actually do fit it. Yeah, it's really more of a function of the, the ribbing on the foot, making the ribbing skinny   Marsha 20:25 It's when they're lying in repose. [Laughing]   Kelly 20:31 But they don't have pointy toes when you fold them top to bottom. [laughing]   Marsha 20:36 Yeah,   Kelly 20:37 Speaking of starting socks, I did start the Iced Matcha socks by Dots Dabbles. And the yarn I'm using is a handspun. It's a gray. It was... the sheep was Charlotte and I bought her fleece a couple of times. It's the same fleece that I used for the funky grandpa sweater.   Marsha 20:56 Okay.   Kelly 20:57 And I finally had used both. I bought two of her fleeces two different years back in the early 2000s, late 90s. And I finally spun up the end of it a couple of years ago with some mohair. So these are mohair wool. It's only a two ply. So I don't know how hard wearing they will be. But the mohair should help. It's probably a little bit thicker than a fingering weight. But not not, not so much bigger that I won't be able to use like a size one needle. And I usually use size zero, I'll probably use a size one. And anyway, I decided to make the iced matcha sock pattern. It's like ribbing, you know, has kind of a ribbing effect, which I like. And then it has a little bit of detail, but not so much detail that I won't be able to knit on them during school meetings and that kind of stuff. So and then I'm going to start another pair of of socks. I don't know which ones. I think maybe one of the cabled pairs from either from this collection, or maybe one of the Louise Tilbrook. I have quite a few of her patterns. And I have one pair of socks that I really like that was one of her patterns. So I might make one of hers. They're very involved. So, so the the Iced Matcha of socks will be sort of a medium-involved. Not not super involved, which will be good. So I'm enjoying, I just barely started those. So that's there's not much going on there. Except basically a cast on. I did also finish another Ice Time hat. The first one that I made I don't remember if when I talked about it last. But the first Ice Time hat that I made her pattern. This is from the pattern is by Jennifer Lassonde, Down Cellar studio, BostonJen. And she gave me as a gift, a copy of this pattern. And so I thought, oh, I'll try it. And I mean, I used two variegated yarns. And I looked on the pattern because it came out a little small, my gauge, you know, I usually knit pretty tightly. And so I thought, Oh, this is a little small. But then I looked on the pattern, and she has as the head circumference 18 inches, I think, which is smaller than what I normally do for a hat. Plus the cross stitches, I think have a tendency to make it tighter. Yeah. And plus, it's like a beanie.   Marsha 23:41 Yeah.   Kelly 23:42 And so, so I thought, Okay, well, this is good, because it's the size for a kid and that was my plan. But I want to make a bigger version. So first, I was gonna, I was gonna just add, you know, like, one pattern repeat or two pattern repeats. And, and then I thought, well, it's when -- when you do the decreases, you divide it into fou. Into four groups to do your decreases. And so like the decreases make an X on the top of the hat. And I thought, okay, that's going to make those four groups different sizes.   Marsha 24:18 Yeah.   Kelly 24:19 And I just thought, you know what, I'm just going to add four repeats, because 18 inches is small to me for hat circumference.   Marsha 24:26 Mm hmm.   Kelly 24:27 So that's what I did made it a lot easier to do the decreases and then made the slouchy version, which is more like the kind of hat--again, this is nota hat that I'm going to keep-- but more like the kind of hat that I wear. Doesn't smash your hair as much, you know, hat head. So anyway, I really like it. It came out really great. And so now I have a pair like a mother and daughter a pair of hats.   Marsha 24:57 Sweet   Kelly 24:58 Yeah, in purple. purple and yellow.   Marsha 25:02 So I don't they're not in your project page yet, though, right?   Kelly 25:06 Oh, you know, the first one I finished a long time ago. And I just put the second one in the same. So it's farther down on the project page. Oh, I'm, I'm suddenly distracted, because there's someone on the roof right outside.   Marsha 25:19 Oh, really?   Kelly 25:22 We had the roof put on. And then they had to replace some flashing and replaced--we have these like scupper boxes that the water goes down. They replaced those. And so apparently they're here to do something else with with the flashing. So I suddenly looked up, and there's a stranger on my roof. Right outside the window. Because the   Marsha 25:49 and he's wondering why you're talking to yourself?   Kelly 25:51 Yes. [laughing] Because the kitchen window or the kitchen roof is right outside the vanity area where I record so anyway. Life at the Locke household!   Marsha 26:03 Yes.   Kelly 26:05 So both of the designers, dots dabbles of the Iced Matcha socks and Jennifer Lassonde from this Ice Time hat have donated prizes for our extremities KAL that we'll talk about. So it's fun to be using. It's fun to be using their patterns. Although a hat does not count for the extremities KAL.   Marsha 26:25 Yes.   Kelly 26:27 I looked it up. It's not an extremity. several I looked actually I looked at several dictionaries. When you you know, I looked at I put in extremities and then I looked under several online dictionaries. And none of them included heads. So   Marsha 26:46 it's a headless knit along.   Kelly 26:50 Exactly! I started something really fun.   Marsha 26:54 Oh, yes.   Kelly 26:55 Yes. Frog and Toad. Oh my gosh. So cute. And you know, I was talking about socks. The socks being only medium-level involved. Then I started with toad. that's involved! Okay, that kind of knitting is involved, right? I mean, it's kind of sorta like your rabbit.   Marsha 27:20 Yeah, lots of increases, decreases. And it's just like a blob until you... it starts. And then they begin to take shape. But originally, initially, you don't really know what you're making,   Kelly 27:31 Right!   Marsha 27:31 you know, it's the legs but what?   Kelly 27:34 It's pretty much one piece, you do have to go and add the arms at the end. It's pretty much one piece. So that was good. You don't have a lot of sewing to do for the extremities. But you do have to do sewing for the eyes. Okay, and you do, you do like afterthought heels where you cut your knitting to make the holes for the eyeballs.   Marsha 27:58 Oh, Dear!   Kelly 28:00 Yeah, so it reminds me of... I looked at the pattern and it reminds me of when I did the afterthought buttonholes. Because it's a real small thing that you open up, you know, you cut open a piece of your knitting. And   Marsha 28:14 so this type of knitting I have to say I'm, I always think the same thing. The mind that can think this way. , To create these very--just adorable and just so creative. I mean, to think like, they can figure out you have to put your decreases here, your increase there and your short rows here and like how they can do all that? How many frogs did the designer make to get the final pattern? You know?   Kelly 28:45 Right.A lot of experimentation.   Marsha 28:47 Yeah.   Kelly 28:48 In the creation process. In fact, her website is frogandcast.com. So as of today, March, what is it March 5 2021. The front page of her website is this little bear and the whole article is about about how she, how her design process for this bear worked. So I highly recommend it as a very interesting read. And it's also a cute pattern. But I'm not going to make this bear I'm going to stick to my Frog and Toad. So I've made toad. And I'm going to.. I want to start on frog soon. I'm gonna wash him, the toad, because I'm using the Ruama. Now I can't remember how that is pronaunced. Finnulgarn   Marsha 29:42 Oh, right, right, right   Kelly 29:43 that we bought. So this is yarn that Marsha and I bought at stitches one year because we, I was taking the Argyle sock class and so at lunch during my class, during a break, and Marsha and I went down to the floor of the marketplace. And we just started putting color combinations together. And it's Ruama Finnulgarn is what I'm using. The frog is going to be our Toad is in a brown color. And then I have another one of these Ruama Finnulgarn that is alpaca and I have a green, like a limey, goldie... Lime is not the right word, kind of a goldy, green color, kind of an avocado. You know, like 1960s, avocado, refrigerator look or something. Anyway, it's kind of a goldy green that I'm going to use for Frog. And I have the books. And I've been getting the books out and comparing the pictures on the book to the My yarns and stuff to to try to get the right combination. So but this yarn is the the one I use for Toad that doesn't have the alpaca in it is a little bit. It's toothy. You know, it's a woolly wool. And so I know those soften up when you wash them, so I'm going to block him before I stuffed him. And also the yarn will kind of bloom and help keep the anything is stuffed, you know, help keep the stuffing from showing. So yeah, but I'm using size zero or size one needles. I think I'm using size zero and the let me just double check. Yes, it calls for size one. And I'm at I'm using a size zero needle because my yarn is a little thinner. The pattern calls for a DK yarn. And I'm using a thinner yarn its more like a sport.   Marsha 31:43 I'm sorry, it calls for DK and size zero needles?   Kelly 31:47 It calls for size one needles.   Marsha 31:50 Oh one, ok.   Kelly 31:50 and it has a I mean,   Marsha 31:52 that's still that's really small. Because it's you want to have a really dense, right?   Kelly 31:56 Right, , so the stuffing doesn't show. Yeah, so anyway, I went down to size zero. And actually it was worked out well, because the size zero needles that I have are short. And the size one needles were longer. And it's so tiny, that it's really nice having the I don't know, they're just like maybe four inch needles, double points. They're they're small. They're small double points. And, and I don't use them. I can use them on socks. Like I bought them for socks. And I use them for socks for me. They're not my favorite sock needles, because I like using the wooden ones. But I can use them for socks for me. But for socks for Robert. With 72 stitches. They're just too, they're too short. Yeah, but they're perfect for this. I think magic loop would work. You know, you just have to keep track of where where she says to place the markers. Yeah. So that you can make all the all the little adjustments. Yeah, but super fun. His little fingers! You do little you do on his on his on his hands. You do little PicoT bind off. So you get little fingers. It's so my gosh, so cute.   Marsha 33:20 Again, Igo back to what I said. It takes a certain kind of mind. Yes, like amazing mind. This kind of stuff   Kelly 33:27 His little knees. He has nice has a little frog legs have little knees. So very fun. Very fun. I can't wait to start Frog this weekend. I'm hoping I'm hoping maybe I can have I can have them done by Easter would be kind of a fun thing to do for to give to Faye for Easter. So yeah, that's kind of my that's kind of my plan. We'll see if I am able to do it. But but that's what I'm hoping. fiddley definitely worth it. So that's my, that's the extent of my projects Marsha.   Marsha 34:08 Well, and I just have to ask the the, the Afghan the Oh,   Kelly 34:14 I have been working on it. The last the last time we recorded I hadn't done any significant work on it at all. But I have been working on it. Now I've made probably maybe five of the squares. Not the big octagons. But the smaller, the smaller ones that can connect and kind of... I made about five of those. And then I made another I have I have done one of the octagons but then.. I was... One night I was just focusing on something simpler. And so it's basically just a granny square. And then it has an edge that has a little bit of detail something a little more complicated. So I was just doing the basic granny square part and I did about I did about five of them and then I started...Another day, I picked them back up and started doing the outer edge of each of the squares. So yeah, I made made some progress on that. So maybe sometime in the late spring, I'll be done. I'll be done with that one. But I'm not going to make any promises.   Marsha 35:15 Yeah. Yeah. Never make promises.   Kelly 35:20 So what about you?   Marsha 35:21 So my Walk Along Tee, I've knit about six inches of the body. And I love the technique that we have discussed the Helical, right, we discussed? It's, it's great. There's some times when I get to the... there's fake side seam on the sweater and where you do you hold the yarn in front, and then slip the stitch through the back loop. And sometimes if you have any details, something like that, that's just not straight stockinette then you have to do a little fiddling around. Yeah. So like, as I said, in previous episodes, you know, this would not work for cables, or Yeah, this technique, it just has to be stockinette. But so I'm, that's just sort of my knitting when I watch Netflix. I just go around and around and around and around on them. I think you do about... you start doing increases on the way down. And I think I talked about this before, I'm not sure if I'm gonna put all of them in it. It ends up being a total of 20 stitches, which is fair amount, so I may not put all those in. I'm also beginning to worry about if I'm going to have enough yarn.   Kelly 36:37 Oh. Another one of those   Marsha 36:41 I know. It could be just illusion.   Kelly 36:44 Yeah, yeah.   Marsha 36:46 Because I have now... I had three skeins which I divided into half, right. So I had six cakes. I've used up two cakes. And I am probably halfway through the second set of two cakes. And I'm six inches of the body. And then I also have to do sleeves. So I-- but I'm going down to-- we're going down to Seabrook. I think we leave the 13th. So and that's where I bought the yarn at the string theory yarns in Seabrook, Washington. So I'm, when I'm down there, I'm going to have a better idea and I can maybe pick up another skein. I'm hoping I don't have to, but we'll see. Anyway, so I'm making progress on that. And I've been spinning on and off on the olive green Merino roving that I have that I'm combining with the dark brown, that's called bitter chocolate. And I've I had made two skeins and now I'm just filling up the bobbins again, so I filled the two green and now I'm filling up the brown bobbin. So I had-- it was-- we had a couple of nice days this week. And so I think it was Wednesday. It was nice. And I just sat on the deck. My new deck.   Kelly 38:13 Yeah.   Marsha 38:15 And spun. By the way, thinking that I was sitting out there spinning, Did you see my Instagram post of Enzo, staring at the dog.   Kelly 38:26 Yes. Yes.   Marsha 38:27 Isn't that the funniest thing that was so cute. Anyway, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go to my Instagram. And you'll see the picture of Enzo looking at the neighbor's dog. But the neighbor's dog is in the window peering out and they stare at each other for a good 15 minutes. It was pretty funny.   Kelly 38:45 I feel bad for Bailey because I think she's, I mean, she spent a good a good part of her life before she came to live with us living at a dog boarding kennel right? Doggy daycare and boarding kennels. So, so she was around other dogs all the time. And now it's you know, it's just her. And we have neighbors and they have... one of our neighbors has dogs that they fence fight, which I don't like so I keep her away from that. But the other neighbor has a lab that sometimes I can't find her in the backyard and I go looking for her and she's down at the fence and they are just like nose to nose at the fence talking to each other. Like, you know, not barking. Just like somehow communing. They're like keeping company with each other next to the fence. I feel like ohhh.   Marsha 39:36 I was gonna ask that, put this question out to people and to our listeners later on in the podcast, but since we're on this topic, I'm just going to mention it. Because Enzo has been acting really weird recently. I've been doing long walks, I take him out and he just drags towards the end of his walk. I have to pull him along to get him home. And he's very lethargic. So I thought and I was like.. I wonder if I had to take him to the vet, you know, he's not it. Maybe there's something wrong with him. I finally thought, I think he's bored.   Kelly 40:08 Mm hmm.   Marsha 40:09 His life is basically sleeping around the house while I do things. One long walk during the day, and then back to sleeping around that house.   Kelly 40:16 Yeah, he doesn't want the walk to end.   Marsha 40:19 Yeah, that's what I'm kind of wondering. And so I, I'm varying the route. I also am playing with him every day because I realized I wasn't playing with him. And Ben doesn't live with me now who would have time playing with him. So I, every day I take, I either chase him around the house, chase him around in the backyard, which he loves. Or I, the other thing I do, which he loves is that down in the basement, I take the ball and he stands at the top of the stairs, I throw the ball up to him, and then he kicks it, he knocks he pushes it down the stairs. And then I throw it back until we do that for about 40 minutes, 45 minutes, depending on how long we want to do it. And then I also decided to get him back into agility. But I'm having a difficult time getting him into class because I think so many people have dogs now. I went like all of the... We've done all the obedience classes, but they're all full till April or May. And so I signed him up for agility, but I can't get in until I think the end of April. Yeah. So I'm going to put it out to listeners if you have any ideas what to do to keep him... because he does seem depressed, kind of or bored.   Kelly 41:30 I'm going to give a suggestion. I am interested to hear what people have to say, but I'm going to give a suggestion. tricks. Teach him tricks.   Marsha 41:40 Oh, yeah.   Kelly 41:41 Well, you took a class, right? You did a trick class.   Marsha 41:44 Yeah. But I can't get into it now. So. Oh, but I can just do it on my own.I don't need to go.   Kelly 41:51 Yeah. So I mean, yeah, you know how to, I mean, you have some ideas for how to teach some of this stuff. But it's kind of fun. Is it a little more entertaining? I'd do that, at least for me, it'd be a little more entertaining than throwing the ball up the stairs for 40 minutes. Yes, for the human part of the partnership, it's more interesting   Marsha 42:13 well and use his mind more you know, I because that also, you know, he just needs to use his mind. But like, my brother came by yesterday said what's wrong with the dog? And so like he saw I was like, okay, you're here. He's usually excited. He's super excited to see Mark. But he was excited and then like, laying on the sofa. And then Mark came back in the house and he didn't even get up off the sofa. I have a towel down on the basement sofa and doesn't even get up to the greet him. He's like, That's weird. I mean, cuz he usually... Like they say poodles are smart. I sometimes wonder because he's super excited to see you. You go out to the garage, you come back into the house, and he's like, Oh, you've been gone. He's so happy to see you. Like literally two minutes, but, okay. Yeah, so anyway, people, listeners, if you have suggestions for how to get my dog, I don't think he's really depressed. But I think he feels like he's depressed and bored. And like the rest of us in the pandemic, you know. But anyway, yeah, so I'll go back to projects. so I've been spinning and I'm enjoying that I just find the spinning so meditative. And just that one day where I was able to sit out there on the deck was so nice in the sun. It just sort of gives me hope that spring is on its way. And then I, as we're talking I am swatching to make the Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde and as we talked in... that's our segue into our, the knit along. But I just tell you, the yarn I'm using is Dale Garn Helio.   Kelly 43:53 Is that like a Dale of Norway yarn?   Marsha 43:54 Oh, I'm sorry. It's it's a Heilo. It's H E I L O, and it's a, I believe it's DK weight, which is what is required for the mitts.   Kelly 44:04 Something from your stash. Okay. Your Spirit yarn.   Marsha 44:07 No, no, it's not from my stash. It's from Kim's stash. I went and had dinner with her one night and she had a bag of yarn that was going. She had gone through her stash and she had yarn that was going to the Goodwill. And I said do you happen to have anything that's this weight because I don't need a lot for the mitts and I don't really want to go out to a store so... and I didn't have... I have DK weight but I didn't have anything that was not painted. I want a solid or semi solid. I thought it would look better with this pattern. And so she had this yarn, a whole bag of this yarn in two colors. The one I'm going to use is kind of milk chocolate color, brown, like a natural color. And then also she has another color in here a kind of a burgundy. So I think there's another yarn I can make two pairs, one in each.   Kelly 44:59 Oh, that's fun!   Marsha 45:01 So anyway, I'm swatching for that. And so for our knitalong, so we should talk about the knitalong   Kelly 45:08 So we are having an extremities knit along, and it was inspired by two offers of prizes. One is the Coffee Socks Collection that I already talked about, by Dots Dabbles Designs, Deborah. And the other gift that we got-- offer of a prize--was the Abington Mitts that Marsha is making. And so with these prizes when they came at the same time, and one was for feet, and one was for hands, and so we just decided, oh, let's have an extremities knit along/crochet along so you can knit or crochet anything for your hands, arms, legs, feet.   Marsha 45:45 We've had lots of discussion about this, but it's not your head. Because Kelly did lots of research and your head apparently is not   Kelly 45:55 according to the authorities on the internet [laughing]   Marsha 45:58 Yes. According to the internet, your head is not an extremity!   Kelly 46:02 That's no no hats in this time. Yeah, but legs, feet, arms, hands, you know, there's lots of lots of possibilities there. Mitts, socks are the most...   Marsha 46:15 And even though we're saying it's called a knit/crochet along you can weave, you can macrame.   Kelly 46:24 Okay, I don't know macrame sock? That   Marsha 46:28 Yeah. Interested in any you know, like any? We were also talking in the last episode, what is it called the   Kelly 46:35 Nalbinding. Now, that's how you say it? That's a that's a close facsimile of how it's pronounced at least. Oh,   Marsha 46:45 you know what I think would be really cool. Do you know those lace the little lace gloves that Ruth Bader Ginsburg would wear?   Kelly 46:53 Yeah,   Marsha 46:55 That'd be really fun to make.   46:56 Oh, you know, as we're sitting here, I'm sitting in the vanity area of our spare bedroom. And at the vanity table normally... not right now because I move everything when I want to record. But at the vanity table, I have a little, one of those little vanity mirrors with perfume bottles. And then I have a pair of crochet gloves. Do you remember Marsha when I bought those at the antique store?   Marsha 47:24 Yeah,   Kelly 47:25 I have no idea how old they are. But they're teeny tiny still little crochet stitches. And they have the little buttons. They're long gloves though. They go up your arm and they have the little ...they have the little buttons and the buttons are crocheted. And the little button loops are all crocheted. The button holes don't go all the way up the gloves. Like the whole gauntlet part of the glove doesn't open up. There's just a section of buttonholes. Yeah, that would be fun. A knit or crocheted set of fancy, old fashioned.   Marsha 48:01 They were kind of like fishnet kinda.   Kelly 48:04 Yeah. Like afternoon tea gloves.   Marsha 48:06 Mm hmm. I'm as we're speaking, this is bad podcasting, but I'm just looking at online and there's like a, there's a crocheted pair. From J and P coats. It looks like it's very old because it's a black and white photo with an old car. Okay. I don't know if they're Yeah,   Kelly 48:25 that's a that's a company that makes like the crochet cotton. Yeah. Oh, that would be fun. Well, and you know, the other thing that I thought of is our we had bought the silk to make silk socks. Last year at Stitches. I haven't started those yet either. But I'm gonna-- I'm gonna stick to the socks that I have for right now. But yeah, the mesh gloves. There's there's a lot.   Marsha 48:50 We'll search, Yeah. And apparently you can buy this on on Amazon. It's not that old a book. It was published in 2009. I guess that is old. Well, no. That's right.   Kelly 49:03 I'm thinking of like, gloves from the 1950s or something.   Marsha 49:08 Yeah, that's what it kind of looks like but it's a it's like those lace gloves like she wore in that really fine cotton. And so and there's other patterns here too. So   Kelly 49:15 cool.   Marsha 49:16 Yeah, I don't know. Okay, well, we went we went down a rabbit hole on that. Okay.   Kelly 49:23 But you know, you can have a, you could have a nice pair of gloves for Easter. So lots of possibilities. Join us. There's a chat thread and there's a finished object thread. Quite a bit of chat going on about the projects that people are doing not very many finished objects yet but there are a few I noticed.   Marsha 49:42 So,   49:43 and then our Winter Weave Along, not much time left. I have hopes of getting at least something else started if not finished. But we'll see. The only reason I still have hope is because I have spring break. Coming the third week of March, so two weeks, two weeks from now I have spring break. Yay. So maybe I could do something during spring break in terms of the weaving, but otherwise, I'm almost, I'm almost sure that I don't I, I'm almost sure I won't get something finished. But I might get something else on the loom. Because it ends March 31. So another year of weaving coming to an end for us. But if you're in the Jane Stafford Guild, her year of weaving is just starting. So that's kind of fun.   Marsha 50:37 Okay, one ends and one begins so you get you get to truly a full year. Well, I guess it's been a full year.   Kelly 50:44 I haven't ever kept up with hers. And like woven the thing, the projects in the guild, at the time that everybody else, you know, at the time that the the videos come out? I wanted to do that this year, but I'm not sure. I don't know. This might not be the year teaching online. It's getting better. I have to I have to admit it is getting better. But well, you know. It's it's not my favorite thing.   Marsha 51:11 Well, we should not end the podcast on the same vein as it started. Listening to Kelly rant about stuff she doesn't like! Yes. So anyway, the winter weave along is, is ending March 31. So get your projects in, put them in the finished objects thread. Then we'll be doing a drawing and one of the things that we have as a prize is a class that was donated by Erika from Weavolution. So. And then the other thing that I just wanted to say, before we end is I wanted to thank our new patrons! We have three new patrons. Jane, Heddi, and Jan since the last time I mentioned new patrons. So if you'd like to be a patron, how you do that is you go to patreon.com/twoewes. And you'll see our... I guess it's a channel or a page. I don't know, our account. And then and you can you can become a patron and support the show. So really, thank you so much Jane and Heddi, and Jan for for contributing to the show. It allows us to provide, you know, the podcast hosting and prize mailing and all those kinds of things and something new, Marsha! Something really exciting that we're able to do because of the patrons. Transcripts. Oooh! Oh, yes.   Kelly 52:41 So we now have a transcript of our podcast. Having used the transcription service for my classes, I learned a little bit more about the company that's powering the transcriptions for our for work on our classes. It's otter.ai. And so I went to their website, and they have regular accounts for regular people. And not you know, not just education and and such. And so I found out a little bit more about it. And so we just when the when the podcast is done, you submit it, it creates a transcript. You have to edit it because it's not entirely... It's not entirely accurate. It doesn't always understand when Marsha and I talk over each other. So there is a little editing to do for that. But But now we have a transcript that is attached. It's in the show notes at the end. So we have our regular show notes posted on the blog. And then at the end of that show notes post is the transcript. Okay, I have to say it is almost as an nerving to read as my math. My teaching transcript. I don't know if you read if you had a chance to read?   Marsha 54:06 I didn't read it. And now actually as you were talking about all this I was sort of thinking to myself, I don't know that I want to read it because...Oh, here it is. Okay. Here. I'm sorry. I think this is what we say every every episode. Kelly: hi Marsha. Marsha: Hi, Kelly. Kelly: How's it going? Marsha: Pretty good. Kelly: Good.   Kelly 54:28 Yes. It doesn't... I have to say, yeah, it made me laugh to read how it sounds, but it makes it available to people that wouldn't be available to otherwise.   Marsha 54:41 So Kelly, we need to edit this. Because you say you know "good," and then I say "had pretty exciting weather here in Seattle. A little unusual for us that we had a huge snores" Oh! This is what I said "Excuse me, snore a huge snowstorm came through. [laughing} I did actually say that! Okay, [laughing]   Kelly 55:06 yeah.   Marsha 55:07 Okay, This is terrible. This is embarrassing. I'm gonna have to do a much better.   Kelly 55:14 So now remember when we talked about how I was like, Oh my god, how could I have been teaching this long and not make any sense?   Marsha 55:23 Yes. Well, what I'm just laughing about is is that it was not the episode where I'm trying to explain helical knitting. Yeah, and I'm waving my hands around in the air trying. Yeah, but so   Kelly 55:39 it's been an interesting process, we'll probably get better. The transcripts will probably get better as we go along. But, you know, I become more aware, it would never have occurred to me a year ago, two years ago, it would never have occurred to me that you would need a transcript for a podcast. My thinking would have been well, why would someone who can't hear even think to listen to a podcast? Right? And, and my, my eyes have been opened, you know, having to make my class accessible to my students. And then other things, you know, the conversations about racism and structural, structural racism. And all of those conversations have just kind of opened my eyes and made me think about things that, that I didn't think about before, I would not have thought about a reason for making a podcast, an audio experience, available to someone who couldn't hear.   Marsha 56:40 So I'm not.[laughing] I'm sorry, I am not laughing about what you're saying. Just so you know, I'm sort of chuckling because I'm listening to what you're saying. But I'm also kind of scanning the transcript. So I'm sorry, I am not laughing at all at what you're saying.   Kelly 56:52 What are you laughing about now?   Marsha 56:54 Okay, so um, so it was very pleasant to sit out there on a snowy day because you have heat but anyway, period. Then that night, it just started coming down and it snowed all day period. I mean, all Friday night, Friday morning, or excuse me, Saturday morning, all Saturday into Sunday. Just It never stops. And we have I mean, eight someplace about eight inches probably at my house. Snow, that's a lot of snow for us. We don't usually get that much. But of course then Sunday, late Sunday afternoon or evening. It just turned around. [laughing]   Kelly 57:36 Marsha, this is what we talk about.   Marsha 57:38 Oh my gosh. [laughing] And then it just became soup out there. You know? Kelly? We have to do a better job. This is terrible! So eye opening what sounds okay in normal conversation is not okay. The transcript it's unreadable. Pretty much. Oh, my gosh, it's too funny. [laughing] Well, anyway, I have work to do. On clarity,   Kelly 58:15 We both, we both do, I think, having having read through it last last time to do the editing. Yeah, we both do. So anyway, now we have transcripts. And I'm very happy that we're able to do that. And it's thanks to the contributions of our patrons. So thank you very much for contributing to the podcast.   Marsha 58:41 I'm still laughing I'm sorry. I will stop laughing.   Kelly 58:48 Okay, Marsha. [laughing] Are we done?   Marsha 58:54 This reminds me of those times over the course of our friendship where we'd have those laughing attacks.   Kelly 58:59 Yes.   Marsha 59:00 And have accidents. So I better get off the podcast. We better get off the phone before I have an accident.   Kelly 59:07 All right. Bye! [laughing]   Marsha 59:13 Okay, bye bye. [laughing]   Kelly 59:16 To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.   Marsha 59:21 Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects   59:29 until next time, we are the Two Ewes doing our part for a world fleece!  

Find Kelly on Facebook at Fairyland Confections.TRANSCRIPTIONThis is Changing the rules, a podcast about designing the life you want to live, hosted by KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world.KC Dempster  0:13  Good morning, everybody.Ray Loewe  0:17  Good morning. You're waiting for me? Yes, IKC Dempster  0:21  Well, you were so busy leading the chorus. I wanted to welcome everybody to Changing the Rules. This is KC Dempster. And we are experiencing what many schoolchildren would have been over the moon about, but I don't know how many actually are getting a snow day today because of the ability to homeschool. But it's it's a challenge. And we're all in our toasty warm homes and welcome, Ray.Ray Loewe  0:51  Well, you know, I was watching television the other night, and this, this actually relates to our guest today. Okay. But there was a song that they were airing where they had all these kids singing, there's no school tomorrow. Yeah, great song. Okay,KC Dempster  1:07  I know, it gets stuck in my head every time I hear it.Ray Loewe  1:11  mood changes and stuff like that. And, and now we don't get that anymore. It's it's part of this virus stuff. Because you never stop going to school, whether they like it or not. And the advantages are there. And the disadvantages are there. But hey, kids, that's what you got to put up with in life as we grow old right?KC Dempster  1:33  Well, you know, they all love their technology. You know, there's a good side and a bad side, I guess you could say.Ray Loewe  1:39  Yeah, so we have a great guest today. And, you know, we're kind of going back to our theme last year here, where we're talking about, you know, getting smacked in this change. I think one of our previous podcast people, Kevin Davis was referring to the bubble of chaos that, that we've all been thrown in and, and all of a sudden, the things that were there are not there anymore. So I want to bring on to the show a young lady, her name is Kelly Lyons. Okay. And and you can get an idea of her character when you see that her email address, says something lioness.com Okay, you know, so there's something feral about this, this person here. But Kelly has a really interesting career and, and it has nothing to do. Well, maybe it has something to do it really nothing to do with what you're doing now. Is that right, Kelly?Kelly Lyons  2:42  Very little to do. You know, I've definitely rode the wave of whatever was coming at me. I kind of tried to follow inspiration. This time. I didn't guide it at all.Ray Loewe  2:54  Well, that that's the story we want to tell. But let's give a little background first, because you grew up in this area in the Delaware Valley. Right?Kelly Lyons  3:02  I did.Ray Loewe  3:03  And then you found your way to Hollywood. And we we were told we can't get you to tell Hollywood Stories. So we're like, okay, but what did you do in Hollywood? Because it kind of fits your own career.Kelly Lyons  3:17  It does. I, I was a science consultant and a set decorator for 20th Century Fox Television. So I worked on a TV show called Angel which was a spin off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So very iconic. I worked for Joss Whedon. And now he's a household name. But I you know, I was with him and worked with him. I worked for Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox and I had a wonderful time doing that, and met a lot of great people and did a lot of fun, fun stuff.Ray Loewe  3:47  Okay, and then you came back here, and you got into the education business. So what were you doing?Kelly Lyons  3:55  Well, when I first came back from Hollywood, I actually taught science in North Philadelphia while I was getting my master's degree, and I got my masters in the business of education, which is kind of funny. And so then I stopped teaching science at a position opened up at the Garden State Discovery Museum. And I went to be the director of the museum in 2004. So...okay.Ray Loewe  4:25  And there your primary function. You describe this Discovery Museum, because it's an interesting concept. And it kind of sets the stage for where you are, which makes your transformation even more amazing.Kelly Lyons  4:39  Well, it was kind of funny, the museum. The museum was very unique. The Garden State Discovery Museum is a children's museum, which now is kind of a household name, but the Garden State Discovery Museum is actually 26 years old and at the time, that it came to be, it was a very unique idea. It was there was only about 25 Children's museums in the whole country and the Garden State Discovery Museum started, actually as a small business and not a nonprofit. And so it broke the doors off of every museum model that anyone was ever aware of. They worked with the Small Business Development Center at Rutgers and it was owned by two women. And so it was it was a lot of groundbreaking, and concept. And then since then, you know, there's 300 - 400 Children's Museum now, children's museums now in the world. We'll see after this bubble of chaos, how many are left. But you know, I had some great opportunities with that company, I actually went to Turkey and consulted on the very first Children's Museum and opened the first Children's Museum in Turkey and assemble, opened it as a business with two women who wanted to start a children's museum. In Turkey. I consulted on a project in India as well for a children's museum in a mall in India. So I've had a lot of fun and a lot of very unique business experience, as well as just you know, out of the box thinking, very different kind of corporate world. So that's amazing.Ray Loewe  6:12  All of a sudden, now, okay. You're the rules changed,Kelly Lyons  6:18  the rules changed,Ray Loewe  6:19  the rules changed. And one day, you're director of this museum The next day, the museum didn't exist anymore.Kelly Lyons  6:27  That's right. That's exactly right. Yeah, one day I had 165 employees and basically the next day I had zero.Ray Loewe  6:36  Okay, so so most people here would sit at home and cry a lot. Okay, and hide a lot. And you didn't do that. So you created from nothing out of this bubble of chaos, a new life for yourself in effect. Right? And give us give us a little background about what it is you're doing, how you describe yourself where you're going? And then you know one of the other things that I'll give them the hint is that part of this is you learned how to make bombsKelly Lyons  7:09  I didRay Loewe  7:11  okay, hold on, we're not being destructive, but we'll get into the positives. Okay, all right, so Kelly, the bomb maker tell us about what you're doing.Kelly Lyons  7:20  So you know, we're talking about we're now what home 11 months 12 months now almost i was i was done work on March 17. Which, you know, I'm Irish, so that sounded fine to me at the time. It was St. Patrick's Day that the museum was it was done. But I really thought we were gonna be closed for two weeks not you know, not gone. So you know, there was a lot of introspection, there was a lot of looking into different industries that were coming up at the time, the thing that I've learned at the museum being out of the box and I've gotten to mentor some women entrepreneurs and and talk business plans and really and develop a few different companies through the museum and so I really love that part. I love the development of creation new things happening you know, kind of you know what's going to happen next and and so instead of crying and hiding Ray, I decided to really enjoy the time at home with myself my son and because I hadn't been home and I've never been home ever like this so this was a new thing for me. So I just kind of started looking into a way to use my creative energy and I started tooling with a few things and I landed very squarely in October in chocolate bombs not on purpose I was actually just wanted to play around with them saw them on Pinterest I has wanted to make some and I made some for my friends and I gave them out as Halloween gifts to like my nieces and next thing I know people were they were so excited by them they were videotaping their kids having chocolate bombs and putting them on Facebook and tagging me and next thing I know people are Can you make these for me? Can I buy these from you? Do you make these for a living? How many can I get? Can you make them this way? Can you make them that way? So it became it came it became an entity of its very own which went from sure I can make these for you and oh no problem I can deliver to between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I made over 4000 chocolate bombs which was way too many for anyone to make in a month but it was very it was amazing. The this what what what happened at that? Yeah.KC Dempster  9:37  I was just gonna say I think for the for our listeners their imagination about what a chocolate bomb is must be running wild from like chocolate coming down the walls. So Kelly, describe for us what your chocolate bombs actually are.Kelly Lyons  9:53  Actually, if you're right, I'm sorry, I should have prefaced by that. It's a hollow chocolate ball. It's about two and a half inches sphere, you know, a little bit like probably the size of a baseball, and it's hollow. And on the inside of the chocolate bomb is cocoa powder and marshmallows. And so you put the bomb in the bottom of a mug, and then you pour hot milk over top of it. And it melts and bursts open with all the marshmallows and all the marshmallows rise to the top and then you stir it up and it's it's hot chocolate.KC Dempster  10:30  It's ChocolateRay Loewe  10:33  is what it is. And that's different. Okay, let me let me regress a little bit because you blew the image of the bomber. Okay, you know, you had to fess up and, you know, chocolate bombs, you know, what can I tell you? But there are a couple of things here. Kelly is one of our luckiest people in the world. There's no question about it. And, and if you look at some of the things that she's done, you can see. So first of all, she's living her life on her own terms. Now, maybe she didn't always do that. But the circumstances changed. And she was able to just totally redesign her own life. Okay. And part of that is you deals well with rules, so somebody changed the rules on her, so she didn't just succumb to the new rules tree. You know, she's social distancing, I'm sure, you know, she's doing this at home or in her kitchen. And so that there's, she's, she's playing by those rules that are important, but you change the ones that matter to her, she's not going to get constrained to be forced to live somebody else's life. And one of the things that, that she found is the luckiest people in the world always find a positive solution of everything. You know, and you had to look for it a little bit, right. But you know, it was there.elly Lyons  11:55  I really embraced the quarantine Actually, I really enjoyed it. I have to say, there was no way I was gonna, you know, I really didn't, I didn't want it to destroy my life. And I was really excited to see what was going to happen next. And being somebody who's a creative person. The thing about major change. My favorite thing about major change is seeing everything that comes next. What happens now what's going to happen now and as much as there's a bubble of chaos right now for everybody. I'm loving to see what's developing out of this. You know, it's happened all over the world all through history. What's going to happen next, what happened after World War One what happened after World War two? What happened after the Spanish Spanish flu? What happened in industry? What rose to the occasion? I'm very interested in that.Ray Loewe  12:41  And what better than chocolate bombs?Kelly Lyons  12:45  The end of the day, chocolateKC Dempster  12:49  In addition, in addition to the chocolate bombs, Kelly has some Valentine's Day specials, these breakable hearts, which if you go to her website page or on Facebook, and it's called Fairyland confections. And if you go there, you can see all of the products. One of the chocolate bombs is made to look like a panda. Panda Bear, not Panda, polar bear. And I just think it's the cutest thing. But these these breakable hearts are fascinating because you say people can purchase them already filled or they can sell them themselves. So how does how does that work?Kelly Lyons  13:26  So they're actually just the top of the heart and it goes down onto a cake board and they're about eight inches wide. Now. I thought they were supposed to be sealed too. But then everybody kept saying oh, no, you can just sell them just the top and then people can. So the pert the first person who asked me to make a breakable heart is a newlywed. It's their first Valentine's together. He's putting jewelry and love letters in it. He just wanted the top and I said all right, no problem. So they're doing very well. I don't know if it's an aggressive thing or again, Ray is an activity that people are really embracing but it's just you when you take a lobster hammer hammer and you whack open this this chocolate heart to see what's inside.Ray Loewe  14:08  Well, I think there's more to it than that. I mean, it kind of started with this idea about building bombs, okay, and and expanding it, but I think you do some other things with it. So you create events for other people.Kelly Lyons  14:22  I love to do that. That was probably my favorite thing to do.Ray Loewe  14:26  Okay, so talk about some of the events that you're helping people create with chocolate bars.Kelly Lyons  14:32  Okay, well, you know I did. They had a drive by baby shower for somebody. So the mother reached out to me and asked me to do the favors for her drive by baby shower, which were strawberry and cream. It was a baby girl. So she, we did that. But this Friday Whistlers inn in cinnaminson is having a polar Party, which I think is like such a great idea. They're going to use their outdoor dining space and they're just going to let the heaters run and they're going to have a polar party. And so I reached out and said, Hey, I make hot chocolate bombs in the shape of polar bears. Do you guys want those? And they said, Yes, we definitely want those. So they're gonna add Kahlua, or vodka or whatever you want to those, those bombs. And so they're super excited about that. And this weekend, I have an open house at grazing goat farm, so they'll have all kinds of stuff there. And I'm also working on gender reveal cocoa bombs withRay Loewe  15:29  what's in it in blue or pink?Kelly Lyons  15:31  Yep, they're pink and blue. So it's either a girl or boy, they have to tell me what I'm making but they won't know until it pops open. What's in the belly? And that one's a bear too, but he's a brown bear.Ray Loewe  15:45  Couple of things. Number one, you went from running a children's museum to how does one begin a career in crafting chocolate?Kelly Lyons  15:55  I you know, this is one of those things where you I I didn't plan it. I had no idea it was gonna happen. I've always worked around and with food. My mother's a chef, my parents owned restaurants. I love to work with food. I love to have people at my house. I love to entertain. I love to make dinners. I love to make things and drop them off to people. I've been doing that my whole life and that's really how the chocolate bomb started. I saw them on Pinterest. I made them and drop them off at peoples houses. I just didn't know that it was gonna take gotta get the legs that it got I had no I was I had no idea.Ray Loewe  16:29  Okay, so is there an end to this? Or do we just have chocolate bars forevermore?Kelly Lyons  16:34  I you know, I now I have kind of come up with this new concept for the company and I named it you know, I called it Fairyland Confections. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna be very transparent about that there. I am not a chocolatier. So the reason it was even called Fairyland Confections is because my decorations are a little crazy. And the reason the decorations are so crazy is because sometimes my chocolate has holes in it and has divots in it and because I'm not a chocolatier, so I had to cover it with a lot of icing and throw a bunch of stuff on top. So I thought, you know what, I'm gonna I'm gonna make this a thing we're gonna call it Fairyland confections like the fairies took over the piping bag and the decorations and and then with that, you know, I have I'm hoping that at some point, I may open it a Fairyland cafe because that that's definitely because I do unicorn bombs and, and, you know, I like sparkles. I mean, I always tell everybody when there's sadness in the world, and they try to talk to me about it. I say, you know what, I really only deal in rainbows and unicorns. That's really my thing. I've always been that way. I like to keep it I like to keep the vibration high. And you know, I like I like stuff like that. So I'm hoping that we may be able to make Fairyland Confections and actual cafe and I'm working on tea bombs. Oh,you'll love those KC, they are a clear sugar ball with the tea bags inside and flower like edible flowers. They're beautiful. Oh, cool. That will be spring. So.Ray Loewe  18:09  Okay, so we have the ability to do hot chocolate do can we do like alcoholic beverages and stuff like that. Now, you indicated, we're gonna do that this weekend. So what do you do just put the Bailey's, you just put whatever the confection is on the inside?Kelly Lyons  18:28  I could do it on the inside. I'm having a logistical issue with this. But how Whistlers is going to do it is they're going to have the mug they're going to pour the kalua or the Bailey's or whatever, they're gonna pour the shot into the bottom of the mug. Set the polar bear on top and then pour the hot milk over top of them. Because my problem is, is when you put the alcohol in the bomb, which I can, it dissolves the marshmallows. Marshmallows, I have to figure out a way to make half of it filled with alcohol and half of the marshmallows kind of in the top and then seal it together so that it doesn't mess up the marshmallows.Ray Loewe  19:06  Who would have thunk that Marshmallows would do that.Kelly Lyons  19:10  So yes, I mean, I've made rumchata for my friends, but I didn't put the Mark I did we put the marshmallows in it, but then by the time we put the bomb in that there was no marshmallow.Ray Loewe  19:19  Okay, let's talk about some of the creativity that people can do here. So, so there is no reason you're sitting at home today. And you have these people getting tired of zoom calls, right? Yeah. So what if we just sent out a whole bunch of cocoa bombs to people, and we had a cocoa Salute on zoom, right?Kelly Lyons  19:44  It's a good idea. You can either add or add some alcohol to it. Whatever you want to do.Ray Loewe  19:50  So so people can take this concept of yours the sugar, sugar concept sugar is always a good thing. And and and do creative things. And and the idea the parties creating the parties and creating themed parties. And I love the baby reveal one.Kelly Lyons  20:08  Oh, yeah, that's gonna be.Ray Loewe  20:11  And then what happens if the baby comes out to be the opposite of what everybody predicted?Kelly Lyons  20:16  I'm not making the call. They're telling me what the doctor said.KC Dempster  20:24  Yeah, I'm sure it has happened in the past.Ray Loewe  20:31  Or the end of our timeframe work here. But let's recap on a couple things. So. So Kelly is one of our luckiest people in the world. Okay, and we know that because she is creating her own life, and she's moving forward in and ignoring the bubble of chaos. Right. Okay. The creativity that that you hear is interesting, I guess, in totally unique and different. But it's the concept of creating the events out of it that I think is really where the edge is. And so we have the ability to order these things, and ship them to our friends. And we can do that and the website we put on our podcast notes. But what is the website again?KC Dempster  21:16  It's in Facebook, and it's Fairyland Confections. Really easy to find.Ray Loewe  21:24  Okay, yeah. And do you have any other words of wisdom for those who are caught in the bubble of chaos, or those of us who are just chocoholics, or those of us who want to make bombs?Kelly Lyons  21:40  I would say yeah, me here. Here's my words of wisdom. take a little time to quiet your mind. And don't overthink things and next thing you know the answers coming.KC Dempster  21:52  That's very wise, very sage. ThankKelly Lyons  21:56  Follow your joy, follow your joy. Next thing you know, everything works out just fine.Ray Loewe  21:59  It follow your joy. And with that, there's nothing else to say is there?Kelly Lyons  22:03  that's it, follow your joy.Ray Loewe  22:04  So join us. Next week. We'll have another intriguing gush. Look up Kelly on her Facebook thing, and eat, well drink chocolate in thisKelly Lyons  22:18  way. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate that. Thanks, Kelly. Have a great day.Kris Parsons  22:24  Thank you for listening to Changing the Rules a podcast designed to help you live your life the way you want and give you what you need to make it happen. Join us next week for our next exciting topic on changing the rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world. 

This is the final podcast in a five-part series focused on Equitable Food Oriented Development, a growing movement to promote food projects and enterprises as vehicles for building community wealth, health and self-determination. With us today are two leaders in this movement: urban planner Rudy Espinosa, the executive director of inclusive action for the city in Los Angeles and community activist and organizer, Camryn Smith, the founding member of Communities in Partnership, the Grassroots Organization in the old East Durham, North Carolina. Interview Summary So the movement as it's called is a systemic approach to wealth building through community projects. So let me ask, how would you each describe your vision on how EFOD can best be advanced and how do you feel of EFOD can be pathway to lasting and sustainable change in the community. Camryn, why don't you go first. I think the beautiful thing about EFOD is that it is being led by specifically people of color who have been directly impacted by food issues. For most of our cultural dynamics, we are very circular in how we view the world. EFOD is not just about food; that it's about healthcare. That it is about over policing, under policing. That is about education, that it is also about housing and that it is about entrepreneurship and job development. It is even about the tech boom. Looking at how everything is intersectional with each other and understanding that communities of color, specifically those who have been intentionally divested from that we have the tools, we have the knowhow, how to rebuild and take care of ourselves. And I think EFOD is a way forward in decolonizing that language that we use and those mentalities and those structures that we've created that have actually built and upheld the system of inequality that we're currently experiencing today. I see EFOD as a way of educating people, of having a wake-up call, so to speak and also challenging the business as usual, those that have the power have become comfortable, to challenge in ways to be who we say we are because oftentimes I think we believe a narrative about who we are in this nation. That when you look at what we do and how we operate—it is a very different identity that we have versus the one we want to portray. I challenge us to use EFOD as one of the multiple tools being created by communities who've been intentionally moved to the side, and silenced, and marginalized. I challenge us to basically reclaim our humanity as a nation and to reclaim some sort of moral compass, so we can move forward with some thread of integrity of caring for every single person and every life, so that everyone can have what they need to thrive. And Rudy? EFOD is trying to plant seeds, no pun intended, of the practices that we think can really support community in the brilliance that exists in community. And I think people can help spread EFOD by learning about it, by connecting with organizations like Camryn's, and learning about the approach, but not only learning. I think it's also about doing. And the more that we can raise our voices together and demand that the industries that have arisen in front of us—the industry of CDFIs and the industry of philanthropy, or even the industry of the nonprofit sector—that we demand that, hey, we're losing sight of the goal here. And the goal is to work ourselves out of a job. The goal is to eradicate poverty, and to eliminate racism, and to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to prosper. So, I think that that's a good way to spread EFOD. Now related to this issue are what are known as CDFIs, community development financial institutions and also foundations and philanthropy can be an important set of players here. Can you see them shifting their practices to make capital more accessible? now, I will say that related to CDFIs, I may have a heretical perspective. Full disclosure, my organization just applied for CDFI certification, so if the treasury is listening, I hope they don't, you know, judge our application. So Kelly, I feel like the CDFI industry has lost its way. And I think that generally speaking, a lot of CDFIs have become part of the problem. They become an extension of the financial institutions that have kept capital from us. The examples that I hear often is the cumbersome process to get capital from a CDFI, from, you know, some of the more traditional CDFIs. And I think what happens is that over time as an organization gets bigger, you get more money, more problems and you start to realize that these institutions forget that that they were created as an alternative to the mainstream banking sector. And they become in existence to protect themselves. I've heard even recently with this pandemic that's going on, a CDFI saying, ‘well, you know, we have to help people. We also have to make sure that we're protecting our systems.' You know, my view on that is that that's not the purpose of what you're doing. The CDFI movement was meant to be a movement, not an industry where we are here just to protect ourselves and protect our paychecks. You're trying to get capital out to people and we are here to facilitate the brilliance that already exists in our neighborhoods. I think that there's an opportunity to change that and that I hope that this pandemic reveals, you know, much more of how we can get capital deployment in a faster way and there's a lot of hope for CDFIs. That's why we want to participate in that work because we want to demonstrate a different way. Philanthropy can also help though, Kelly. And I think that from my experience, working on this loan fund for Inclusive Action, philanthropy has stepped up. We've had funders that have stepped up when banks didn't want to lend to us to, to seed our loan fund. Philanthropy came in and said, hey, we'll give you a program related investment. We'll help you out. Let's put some resources behind that because we see the value of this. And what I would hope is that philanthropy also recognizes that their role is to work themselves out of a job. And so, that also means not being afraid to spend down endowments and to take risks. Because I think sometimes I see some of our funding partners also become really risk averse. And they're worried about protecting what they have as opposed to getting resources out to people and working themselves out of a job. And that's really the bus that I'm on is like, we need to work ourselves out of a job because we have a mission and let's accomplish this mission and then find something else to do.   Camryn, what are your thoughts about how institutions like CDFIs and philanthropies can help out with these things? I 1000% agree with what Rudy has just stated. The biggest issue that I have with CDFIs is their ability to receive grants and to be in competition for philanthropic dollars with communities who actually know what's best for themselves. And oftentimes, the CDFIs have the infrastructure, they have the staff, they have the capacity, they're a finely tuned machine and engine this running, it just kind of runs over communities. And so when small community organizations like myself go to major national funders to get our initiative just to get it off the ground, from a community rooted perspective, oftentimes they lead us back to the CDFI that's in our community. Because that's where the money has been going. I have an issue with that because if that system worked, we would not be experiencing the huge disparities that we experience right now. And so I would challenge CDFIs, to make Rudy's point even more valid, to kind of come alongside of communities and to decolonize their construct and how they actually operationalized business. Because I think in a lot of areas, they have become part of the problem. I think they are trying to kind of pivot, but there's some difficulty because when you've been doing what you've been doing for so long, you create systems that you lean on and that make people feel comfortable and secure in those systems who have the access and power. But on the flip side of it, yet again, their own data is telling them what they're doing isn't working. And for philanthropy to reach out, number one, to hire program officers that actually, they themselves have been directly impacted—as Darren Walker from Ford Foundation said at Duke a few months ago—and have a very clear conversation about how the money came to be in the first place. And to realize oftentimes, from our viewpoint, we cannot separate our privilege and our access and our resources from the historical context in which that was created. So having a very clear conversation of understanding that people of high wealth and privilege often do not know what's best to remediate the issues of communities that have been impacted by the very system that they've benefited from. And so, having those conversations and being bold and brave. It's not because we want all the wealth to come into our communities. What we want is for everyone to thrive. We want everyone to be strong. We want everyone to have everything that they need and we have more than what we need to make that happen in the United States. It's just that there's a very small percentage of people who are dictating that. And often, they lack the capacity and the intellectual knowledge and the know how to do it. And again, the data is proving what I'm saying to be crystal clear, because if we were doing such a wonderful job and moving in the right direction, we would not have the deep disparities that we have. Rudy, would you like to comment on this? I really agree with what you're saying, Camryn. And I find it like really odd that we forget the history behind this work and the origins of these institutions. Like, literally capital was stolen from us. And what we're asking for is just that, you know, can we just have it back please? And so, I find it so odd when CDFIs and even philanthropic partners, essentially hoard the resources in some way. When the intention and the history of this is like, no, this money was taken from us and you have to give it back to where it should go—as opposed to creating systems to decipher, well, I don't know, are you worthy of this grant? Or, I'm not sure if you're too risky to take on this loan. It's just, I don't get it. My team and I always kind of go back to the history of this because it grounds us into the purpose of this work. Bios Rudy Espinoza is the Executive Director of Inclusive Action for the City and an urban planner with a passion for neighborhoods, entrepreneurism, and financial empowerment. He specializes in designing and managing place-based initiatives, identifying profitable investment opportunities in low-income communities, building private/nonprofit partnerships, and training the working poor to participate in the socio-economic revitalization of their neighborhoods. Rudy holds a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from UCLA and a B.S. in Business Administration.     Camryn Smith is a proud resident of Old East Durham and a community activist & organizer. She has been serving in place-based development work for over 18 years both stateside and abroad. Camryn is a founding member of Communities In Partnership, a grassroots community organizing and education group based in Old East Durham. As Executive Director, she oversees and assists in developing community-based education processes, community development, and implementation and organizing for addressing policy and systemic inequity for communities of color and materially poor peoples within Durham. Camryn's focus centers around social determinants of health and the intersection of economic development, gentrification, displacement and housing, and food access/justice.  

Thank you for having me back, but you know the unwritten rule of being on a show three times? What's the unwritten rule? The unwritten rule being on the show three times is I get to ask you questions today. So I'm taking the laptop. So Kelly is hijacking the episode. Is that we're doing? I am. I'm hijacking it because I want to be host today. And I want to ask you questions. I want to find out your thoughts on what we can ask or how we can help hiring managers get better? This sprung off the ever and Dean scenario where you're pro job board and I'm not pro job board. Obviously, I'm pro job board because I've built a business that distributed 40 million jobs a year to different job boards around the world, that was Broadbean. And now what we do is we help companies with their strategy and their tactics to get the most value from every cent they spend on- So you're hijacking my show? I'm hijacking your show. And I want to ask you some questions. We often talk about the benefits of job boards versus not job boards. And I know your historically a search business. So why are you more inclined to look for a candidate or to go and find somebody proactively than spend money on an ad? It depends on the scenario. So I'm biased due to the fact that my searches that we do at my firm tend to be executive hires. And it's a very small targeted amount of people that we're going after. So we target, I've found that the sniper approach works much better than the shotgun approach. Even when I was doing contingency search at the engineering level, I've just been far more effective and made better hires when I've gone out and I've found the person and brought them to the table than when I've farmed somebody off the job board and brought them through the process. And have you ever used job boards? Have you ever spent money on them? Okay. Yeah, I have. It's been a long time. I have not probably in the past 10 years, but back when I was doing contingency search, that's when we had all the job boards. Essentially, we'd get a job. We'd pull off anybody from any sources we can get them to. And it's just a race to get those out to the company before they either find it on their own or somebody else gets it over to them. And that's the business. That's what it came out. In your opinion, you search something that's really only for C level executives or can you use it for any position nowadays? No, you can use it for any position. Search is not necessarily scalable when you have 500 roles that are available for any given time. Then it becomes a question of whether or not you have a really strong interview process. No matter what you're hiring for, you should have a really strong interview process. That way, you're bringing people in that essentially fit your culture. They fit into your values, in your organizational structure, and they can provide impact to your company. It doesn't matter where you find them. We both agree that there's four ways to fill a job. Where you run some form of search, whether that's electronic or manual, you can use a job board or some sort of advert. You can hire an agency and pay them a fee, 15%, 20%, 25% percent. Or you can use a referral. Now, there are nuances within those, but there are about your four kind of headline ways that you find people for your company. And one of the things that most line managers don't get much advice on is asking for referrals. What would you suggest that hiring managers do in terms of maximizing their referrals for jobs? The way in which you ask for referrals is more important than asking referrals. Let me explain. When you reach out to your employees or the people that work for you or people in your network who is good at a particular role or skill set or something to that effect, you can't let them present it. You have to be the one who's contacting that person. I've found that when you put it out to somebody, "Hey Kelly, you know so and so over there, can you reach out to them? Let them know we have this role that we're looking to fill." You're going to call them up and you go, "Hey, are you looking for a job right now? Because I got a friend's company or my company is looking for some people, would like to talk to you about it." Well, somebody is engaged in their current work. They're not going to be looking for a job. I'm not even going to get past that screen. It's going to say, "No, not looking." The worst thing you can do is have your employee reach out to that person and ask them if they're looking for a job. Now, if they make an introduction and you can set up a time to talk to them, then you can get past that screen. You can get to a point where you can talk about what's happening in their current role and see if there's any problems that you can solve for that person in their career, that you might be able to enhance or make better for them at your company. I want to ask you a couple of questions, but since I'm hijacking this show, let's just take a moment. This is Kelly Robinson of Hire Power radio. Just a quick 60 seconds from our sponsors. Sorry about taking over your show here, but I'm having fun here. No, I like how you just turned the tide on me. Just enjoying as we go. Okay. You've been in this business for a long time. Tell me, what is the worst opening line you've heard? You looking for a job? Come on. You must have heard worse than that. No. Normally, I hear, "I have a job..." Yes. "... That I think you'll be perfect for. I found you on LinkedIn and I want to talk to you about it." It's riddled with me, me, me, me, me, I, I, I. The worst openers or anything that they hear a hundred times from everybody else throughout the day. I hear a lot through recruiting groups and pages where people come up with the same version of the, "Hey, I have this. I'm interested in talking to you." Me, me, me, me, me, as opposed to, "What about you?" Everything is a variation of that really bad opener. And you're putting people in a mindset where they're automatically tuning you out. It's automatically negative because you don't give a shit about that person. You just care about filling your job. That's what is perceived. I agree. I think recruiters historically are overworked and undertrained. And they forget the core principle of what we work to. Our job, I think, is to explain to people why they should quit their job and work for our client. And there needs to be a reason why they're working for our client. And it's not because you have a job. But take it even a step further. You have to find out first if somebody has a pain point. You have to understand the person. I say it all the time. You need to have conversations with people. And you almost need to play the role of a bartender or a therapist in the very beginning to understand what the motivations of that person are. Now, if somebody's completely satisfied in their role and they love their company, don't try and recruit them. It's going to be a waste of your time and their time. Don't try and get them to come talk to you, but you can build a relationship. There's going to be a time when they're going to hit their end of their juncture at that company, where they're going to be open to hearing about something that's going to help them enhance their career. And you want to be the first person they think of when that happens. Absolutely. You don't want to put yourself in a position where you're pitching a job and it's just another version of the same thing that they've heard 50 times prior. Let's pick the top three worst openers you're seeing. I can almost say this verbatim. And I've had conversations with people that I've talked to. They're like, "Thank you so much for not pitching your job." It's always, "Hey, I found you on LinkedIn. I think you're perfect for this job that I have at my company. And I'd like to talk to you about this opportunity." Perfect. So whoever's listening, take notes, write that down, and start using that rather than saying- No, don't use it. I said don't ever use it. Well, or use it. You just made my job easier. I'm happy that everybody uses the same version of that. Don't pitch your job, don't pitch your company, and don't pitch yourself. See, I heard you say pitch opportunity. And I'm a big believer that you should pitch opportunity to type. You have to pitch the opportunity, but you need to know where that opportunity lies for that individual. Everybody's different. You can kind of guess for most people that are working in a role, the main complaints tend to be growth. So they're kind of stuck. They can't go any further. Somebody needs to die above them in order for them to move up. Their leadership might have made a change. If you have any of this knowledge of, "Hey, CEO just left this company and they're taking it in a whole new direction," you can guess that there's probably some people over there that aren't really super happy with their leadership. You can craft your message in and around those pain points, so to speak. And then the last one is the content of the work. People get bored with what they're doing. They're not learning anymore. If you can get them to engage with you based on those three criteria, that's a good starting point. But ultimately, I wanted to get you to talk to me about what's happening with you. Then I know how to position my opportunity for you specifically. So what I'm hearing from that is trying to avoid what everybody else is currently doing, which is a LinkedIn message that starts with, "I have a job." Focus on the opportunity, answer the question why somebody should quit their job and work for that organization. But actually, what is the growth opportunity when you get there? So not just, "Here is a position," or "Here is an opportunity to do X, but X can lead to this role." Yeah. You're connecting the dots for people. Okay. They may not even be aware of the fact that they're stuck too. So you're giving them a path to go down. You're not giving anybody a path to go down when you say, "Hey, I found you on LinkedIn. I have a job you're perfect for. I'd like to talk to you about it." And then you start going into inquisition mode where you start really asking questions where you're asking screening questions. Again, I don't think there's anything that turns a person off more than, "Wait, you called me." You start throwing up your own hurdles so that people start pushing you away. And then they're looking for a way to get out of the conversation with you. Yeah, I think that is such a valuable point there. And it also goes to my belief that when you write a job ad, we've had this debate many times, I think job advertising is a really pure form of digital recruitment, but you have to write a job advert and not share a job description. And I think it's exactly the same as what you're talking about is your explaining to people the opportunity, the benefits of working for that business, not just sending out the HR job spec that's been in the system for 10 years. And so if people were to take more time right in their adverts, they'd probably get more relevant response, less of it, but more relevant. And it's exactly the same as what you're suggesting when you present to somebody. Last time we did an episode, a few episodes back, you said, what if you just flip everything upside down, start at the top and then work your way down? Do that with your job description. So your job descriptions, you should completely flip upside down. The normal requirements and all these sections that you have in there, a lot of them are in there for compliance reasons and so you don't get sued. But they're 100% not attractive to really anybody, which is why you get so many people that just go, "Oh, that, okay. I like that title." Click. "I'll just submit my resume." When you actually create a document that's a marketing related document. You're going to get much, much, much better results and higher quality people. So therein lies another coaching point for people listening to this is understand the job description. Ask the questions. What are the opportunity? Where can this person step up? Where can they grow in this role? Questions that just generally don't get asked. We receive a job description, we get one from a line manager, we just take it as read, we don't question it. Ask questions like, "Well, the last person that's in this job, where did they go? What did they do? Did they get promoted? Did they leave? Why did they leave?" Understanding a little bit more so you could match the opportunity to the company to the person. Well, the other thing, too, is that job descriptions don't ever give you an idea of "How will I know I'm going to be successful in this role in three, six, nine, 12 months?" Building performance metrics into the job description for a minimum of three months is ultra critical. Because then you have accountability tool. You agreed you're going to do this, this, and this. And if somebody is not performing what they sign on to to perform, then it becomes a very easy transition out or a very easy reason to keep them. And there's not a lot of thought that's put into that at all. At all. I want to round up me hijacking your show today with one question, because I find this funny, because you've told me about this before. So I'm going to put you on the spot run. Explain to everybody your little car technique. Oh gosh. Unknown secrets are coming out now, folks. As a point of reference, and by the way, I didn't make this up. I think I got this from some training or a mentor that I had years ago. But when you hire people and you want people who are pretty organized, or run a tight ship, you do this little trick. There's lots of little techniques that you go out to lunch with people. So we had always set it up when you come back for your final interview, "Let's go out to lunch." I might say, "Hey, you know what? Would you mind driving?" And so I have the person drive. Well, I'm going to get a really good view of if everything meshes up on what they told me in the interview, based on their automobile. If I'm looking at somebody who is an organized sales person, who's claiming to be super tight and everything else, I can look at their car. And now, if their car is clean in immaculate, maybe it has a couple of things, they're going to run their desk the way they run their car. A clean car means you're going to have a tidy desk, and that person, I've walked into offices and I've looked at desks and I go, "This is the most productive person in here." And they go, "You're right." Just by looking at their desk. The ones who have all stacks all over the place, there are anomalies if they're super productive. But usually, if you're organized, you're going to be more productive than other people. It's quite funny you should say that because my car is immaculate inside and my friends will often make comments about I'm obsessed with keeping my car spotlessly clean. But also my desk has got a set of rules and on my desk, if it's not a right angle, it's absolutely a wrong angle. So everything needs to be at right angles. Everything is [inaudible 00:13:01] same as my car. So I don't know where that puts me on the spectrum, but it will work for me. Thank you for letting me hijack your show. I'm going to give you back your laptop, sir.

The software that normally controls the show isn't working. So Kelly and Wood decide to just chat about parents smoking. Woods fear of public toilets, and Kelly peeing on the wall. Thanks for listening! Should be back to normal tomorrow.

The Live Launch Method is what I've been utilizing in my own business to simply and consistently scale to six figure launches. Listen in to hear how Kelly Roach, creator of the program, came up with the method and how you can use it today to get amazing results in your own business. Show Notes: Grab her new book bundle Join her Tribe of Unstoppables Facebook Group here! Partial Transcription: (Download the full transcription HERE!) Kimberly Olson: All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Goal Digger Girl podcast. I'm so excited for special guest, Kelly Roach. She's my coach and I love saying that because it's, it rhymes and it's fun and I am just beyond honored and grateful to get just a snippet of her time because she's one of the busiest people I've ever met in my entire life because she's crushing it. She's inspiring people every day and she's truly one of my biggest role models in the whole wide world. So Kelly, thank you for being on. I'm so excited. Kelly Roach: Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to be here. It's my favorite thing ever to get to like connect with my clients outside of the program, in the real world. It's, it's awesome. Kimberly Olson: Oh yeah, for sure. I feel like you're here at my house in the hot mess express zone, Kelly Roach: Oh! Don't even worry, like the the hot mess just continues. It's like in and through everything. I walked downstairs last time and I was like, Oh my God. I looked at my living room and I said to my husband, I said, I'm so in the zone during the day. I don't see it. And then I opened my eyes and I'm like, so this is what's going on at my office all day. Kimberly Olson: Right, exactly. I know it's, we are all in this together. At least we can all relate to each other. And at the time of this, of us recording this, we are all still in quarantine and everyone's home and we'll be releasing this in a couple of weeks. So hopefully things are starting to open up a little bit when we release this. But I want to get right into it because a lot of you've heard me talk about my coach and a lot of you've seen the success I've had this year and so I want you guys to know Kelly and I want you guys to know what she's doing for entrepreneurs globally. I mean you are just a force to be reckoned with. Why don't you bring listeners up to speed? Can you introduce yourself, talk a little bit about your background, your entrepreneurial journey, and then we can get into some of the amazing nuggets that we're going to share today. Kelly Roach: Yeah, absolutely. So happy to be here with you guys and, you're in great hands. Obviously here with Kim. For me, I started my career in fortune 500 and I really, I charged my way up the ladder, right? So I was promoted seven times in eight years. I was managing 17 locations and a staff of a hundred by the time I was like 30 years old. And what I always say is that I lived a whole life before I started my business. And that journey really gave me context for what I wanted to build and create when I started my own company. Because I learned in fortune 500 world how to have really high level success really fast, make a lot of money, move up really quickly, all of those things. But I didn't have the freedom, the quality of life, right? I didn't have the abundance of time, which made the money meaningless. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thegoaldiggergirl/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thegoaldiggergirl/support

No one thought, and even fewer wanted, Dr. Mike and I to reach 100 episodes.  But we did. Episode 100 is full of clips of “special” moments pulled from many of our earlier shows.  You’ll hear who all our guests were, a litany of “So Kelly, are you a ____ guy?”, and a few well wishes to boot. We have had a lot of fun with our 1st 100 and look to keep on rolling. Be sure to listen ALL the way to the end for an easter egg and check out a very special (and lightly edited) YouTube version … Continue reading →

You've got some. We know you do. The question is how do you feel about it ? Today we dive deep into a discussion of "brown furniture". Prompted by a request this episode is sure to shed some light on how brown furniture is view today and what to do with yours. Listen in ~ Brown Furniture Bummed or Blessed! So Kelly was asked to ring in on this topic. That request prompted lots of thought. Not soul searching exactly, more like stain searching ... Listen in to see how we feel about our brown furniture and how we think you should view/treat yours. Here are links to things we mentioned today: Restor-a-finish - click HERE (https://amzn.to/2JC3mFP) Touch of Orange - click HERE (https://amzn.to/2OnLXBv) YouTube Tour of Kelly's house with Mary Beth Evans ( of Days of Our Lives Fame ). Click HERE (https://youtu.be/sBvvpbcK38k). Looking for something beautiful for your home? Be sure to check out our online shop. CLICK HERE to see our current sales. Anita's collection at Soft Surroundings sold out, so it's no longer available. We are a part of the Amazon affiliate program, and if you make a purchase we may earn a small commission, but the in no way impacts your purchase price. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. And please drop us a line and let us know what you think of the podcast. Our email is decoratingtipsandtricks@gmail.com xo, Anita & Kelly

Two years ago, when we first started to raise money for Financial Gym and we were working on growing our client numbers, we decided to record a podcast episode with current clients so that potential new clients knew what the experience was like. So Kelly, Maria, and Jen all joined me to share their experience as Financial Gym clients. Last year, Jen reminded me that we were coming up on the one-year anniversary of recording that episode, so we checked back in with this FinGym threesome. Well, my friends, another year has passed and these three women are still Financial Gym clients and join me today to share what’s happened with them over this past year. For more information, visit the show notes at http://financially-blonde.com/client-happy-hour-with-kelly-maria-and-jen/

Whisky tasting, a trip to the Scottish Highlands, a knitting mishap, and podcasting in pajamas are some of the tangents 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 email us with your thoughts. twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com is our email address or you click contact us on our website. Project Updates Marsha has finished the body and one sleeve of a pullover Mountain High by Heidi Kirrmaier (again!) using The Croft Shetland Tweed by West Yorkshire Spinners that she bought at the The Yarn Cake in Glasgow. She also swatched with New Lanark Wool & Textiles DK that she bought at the mill in New Lanark, Scotland last March. She is looking for a sweater pattern for her brother. Kelly continues to work on Koru by Aroha Knits using the Dragonfly Fibers Dance Rustic Silk that she bought last year at Stitches. Somehow she began using the left chart on the right and the right chart on the left so there is about 2-3 inches that need to be ripped out. The back and two fronts of the Sonny Bono jacket are done. Kelly will definitely need more yarn for the two sleeves and collar. There is about a skein and a half left and a call to Amazing Yarns is needed. Gauntlet was thrown down by Heddicraft who finished a linen bath mitt from 2 retreats ago. So Kelly dug in her stash for NoCKRs spirit yarn with a goal to use something up before the retreat.  She is making hats from a variegated gray with soft pink, yellow and green. Acrylic yarn, called Mardi Gray. It was a full bag of 4 balls, 150 yards in each ball, so she plans at least 4 hats. Thank You Patrons! We have 21 Patrons at patreon.com/twoewes.  Patrons help us buy prizes, pay for podcast hosting, and ship prizes.  Patrons sign up for a support level starting at $3 per month. Our patrons help us make the show available for free to everyone. This month we’re giving away two prize skeins of Studio Fingering from Neighborhood Fiber Company.            Events The Winter Weave Along is ending March 31. Come chat with us about weaving in the We Sley thread on Ravelry and don’t forget to post your finished objects in the FO thread. Our first April episode will be a celebration of weaving! Recommendations Kelly recommends coming home from work and putting on your pajamas at 5:15! Also, she recommends two shows she has been watching on Amazon Prime video: Unforgotten a British police drama about solving cold cases Case Histories, also a crime drama. Based on stories by Kate Atkinson.

You want to grow your business? You want to 10x your sales? There is a million different options and roads for you to take... Which one is the right one? It really helps for you to have someone who has been there and done that. Well, today I have this person for you... and her name is Kelly Roach Now, Kelly has a unique background as compared to many other coaches and consultants. First, she has extensive experience in the corporate trenches of America. She has led monumental turnarounds for companies and has experience in managing hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. So Kelly has the experience you need, but what you might not know is before she was in the corporate world, she was actually an NFL cheerleader. So Kelly has definitely been through a lot and has had an exciting journey. Here's a sneak peek of what we will talk about today: How to be a successful entrepreneur How to grow and even 10x your sales How to take your business to the next level I'm excited to learn from Kelly today because I think we all would love to grow our businesses. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of the podcast. If you want to learn more about Kelly and join her community, please check out the following links: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2080754075505322 https://www.amazon.com/Bigger-Than-You-Entrepreneurs-Unstoppable/dp/172758726X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549071207&sr=8-1&keywords=bigger+than+you+kelly+roach https://kellyroachcoaching.com/podcasts/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-talk-business/support

You've got some. We know you do. The question is how do you feel about it ? Today we dive deep into a discussion of "brown furniture". Prompted by a request this episode is sure to shed some light on how brown furniture is view today and what to do with yours. Listen in ~ Brown Furniture Bummed or Blessed! So Kelly was asked to ring in on this topic. That request prompted lots of thought. Not soul searching exactly, more like stain searching ... Listen in to see how we feel about our brown furniture and how we think you should view/treat yours. Here are links to things we mentioned today: Restor-a-finish - click HERE (https://amzn.to/2JC3mFP) Touch of Orange - click HERE (https://amzn.to/2OnLXBv) YouTube Tour of Kelly's house with Mary Beth Evans ( of Days of Our Lives Fame ). Click HERE (https://youtu.be/sBvvpbcK38k). Looking for something beautiful for your home? Be sure to check out our online shop. CLICK HERE to see our current sales. Have you heard that Anita has a collection at Soft Surroundings? CLICK HERE. Sign up for our insider emails. CLICK HERE. We are a part of the Amazon affiliate program, and if you make a purchase we may earn a small commission, but the in no way impacts your purchase price. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. And please drop us a line and let us know what you think of the podcast. Our email is decoratingtipsandtricks@gmail.com xo, Anita & Kelly

Can you be an effective CTO without coding? You can and the man to prove it is here for today’s show, Kelly Abbott. Kelly has held a variety of roles in the tech sector, including his current position of CTO of Tablecloth. Today we’ll talk about what career decisions led him to that role, why he suggested we work together the first time we met and whether or not we actually did! You’ll also hear what it’s like to be a non-coding CTO and what he has learned from letting go of business ideas that weren’t working. It’s all part of today’s CTO Studio. In this episode you’ll hear: What was a painful yet important lesson Kelly learned from a VC? Why does one idea work and another does not? What would he do differently if he were starting over with Great Jones Street? What is the complexity paradox? Do CTOs always need bigger teams? And so much more!  Our conversation begins with talking about Kelly’s first few endeavors. They include a social biography network, a project we did together and Realtidbits, a data analytics venture in the commenting space he created, grew and later sold. From there he created the Netflix of short stories: Great Jones Street. He comes from a family of writers. His dad is an accomplished short fiction writer who has taught fiction writing throughout Kelly's life. His mom owned a children's bookstore and so books were the center of their lives.  As an adult he was addicted to reading fiction on his phone. He thought he and others would be best served by bringing short fiction because it's so difficult to read a novel on a phone. He traveled a lot and didn't want to bring books with him, and he didn't like Kindles because he thought it was just an extra piece of hardware to carry around. He couldn't find a resource for buying short stories and adding them to his phone, so he thought there was a Netflix model possibility. If he could acquire really good content and offer them to a user base for a nominal monthly fee the idea could become a sustainable business model. So Kelly went out and bought a lot of really good stories, made great artwork for them along with audio versions of the stories read by the authors themselves. But despite his best efforts, people didn’t download the app and they never gained traction. As a result, they are in the process of shutting down the app now while the content is still available online. Never one to be slowed by adversity, Kelly started a new project called Tablecloth. Today Kelly is the CTO of that company. At Tablecloth, they provide technology services to help non-profits, their funders and their corporate partners determine the impact on society from the non-profits efforts and funding. Tablecloth also reports on that impact, something that is typically part of the information non-profits have to supply to their funders and corporate partners after receiving funding. Typically this information is not well-organized and can even be messy, so Tablecloth created a better way. It combines the many streams of impact-tracking data these organizations create and streamlines this data into a single dashboard that can be used by a foundation. As they've evolved, the biggest pain point is to provide better communication tools between the different entitites. So today they have tools that look like Survey Monkey, databases and the reporting dashboard shows data visualization and business intelligence on top of layers of data. But it gets reported like a Facebook stream: one day you'll see a video showing what the organization has done with the funding provided, another day you'll see charts of data. So the funders are getting a steady stream of information and input, and not having to wait until the end of the year. Today he explains how non-profits work with Tablecloth, even when they aren't tech savvy. He also tells us the future of Tablecloth, and how he is building his team going forward. Join us for that and more on today’s CTO Studio!

So Kelly was all about getting that confused teen mother, Leanne, to take back the baby she abandoned at the clinic. But when that teen mother, Leanne, let Kelly know that, actually, leaving the baby was the right call, Kelly decided that, actually, Kelly should foster the baby...which is why, when Pam tells her that, actually, her agency has found a pair of qualified foster parents to take the baby, suddenly Kelly is a homophobe who doesn't think a baby should be raised in a household without a mother. Brandon doesn't necessarily agree, and lets her know in the form of a cover story in the Beat, which alerts Leanne to the baby's fate because Brandon doesn't have the sense to use a goddamn pseudonym. So then Leanne wants Kelly's help to recover the baby so that he isn't raised by "queers," and Kelly has to face her own bigotry when it's looking back at her out of Jessica Alba's face. Also Kelly's father's out of prison and dating Val's mom. Brandon and Steve battle over whether it's more important to keep the Beat afloat by taking cigarette ads or let it die on principle -- that is, while Steve isn't continuing to pretend he's Jill's pen pal Ted. Noah engages in shenanigans to get Donna's fashion career back on track (which is to say: finds a new way to control the world with his money). And David's new neighbour, another washed-out rock star, helps David remember what he loves about music. We discuss "The Nature Of Nurture" in our latest Again With This podcast! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hi. Hello. Hmm. All right, welcome to the show. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I feel like it is going to be a fabulous show. Is it dark? What's happening? No? Yes? Not sure. Okay, let's get comfortable. Megan Underwood what's up? There's a name I feel like I haven't seen for a while. Comfortable as fuck. Am I in the dark? How's the lighting? It feels like it looks super dark on my phone screen. I'm obsessed with lighting you guys, obsessed. Hey, Carly. Obsessed! I've just had the more hilarious afternoon ever. You can't even imagine the hilariousness of the afternoon. Okay, looks okay on my screen. Going to sit up straight. Thank you Emily, back at you. Queen to queen, hey Emma, hey Marie. Say hello if you're there people. Hmm, okay, okay, tell me there if you are there. If you're not there, I suppose you can't tell me to- Why, why? I just made this face to Kelly. Thank you, I was doing filming all afternoon. Matt was over, my videographer Matt and Kelly was here as well. We were doing the most ridiculous shit. We were doing skits. So impressed with myself. And, I was going to say something important just then and now I forgot what it was already. Why does the phone show a certain visual? And then when you look at it on the computer I can see other bits of me, and then I feel exposed. Because I'm like, like I don't have enough clothes on on the bottom half of me. That's for sure. If I sit with my legs open, it's going to be unfortunate for everybody. Or well it depends on your perspective I suppose. But anyway, I thought that I was perfectly only showing from there up, because that's what I can see on my phone. Now I feel obliged to hide behind my laptop just in case. But I'm just going to perch here and you know, somewhat, careless Marilyn Monroe-esque fashion, like I'm just casually laying here when actually I'm holding everything perfectly together. Am I going to learn something? Why would I learn something? I don't understand. I'm teaching all the time. So your soul always knows. I just did the best skit on your soul always knows. I'm so impressed with my own hilarity right now. So Kelly, one of my best friends, and Matt, who's my amazing videographer, they've been listening to me go on and on and on for a very long time about how funny that I think that I am and that I want to do skits. I want to do little funny videos that you guys will share all over the internet and they'll go viral. Okay, I'm super happy with my hair today as well. That's what's happening. There it is, all of it. It looks even better now that it's shook out, feel my head spinning a little bit. We just filmed four skits, and one them, and I wrote the scripts myself. I mean there was really no script, but there was a concept. We went all in. For one of the skits that Matt and I were filming before Kelly came around, we had me doing a scene typing at the computer, a scene cutting an apple, a scene with me in bed meditating with an eye mask on. A scene on the couch where I was eating honey-soy chips and honeycomb Maltesers, and drinking straight out of a bottle of wine, all at the same time, because it was showing like the stages of grief. Like an emotional meltdown to do with, well you have to wait and see. Right, it's funny as fuck though, or at least I think that it is. We did that, and then Kelly came around and we did a little thing that was based somewhat on truth that we think is funny that we always do. And then I did a your soul always knows script, and I'm so impressed with my own self about this. I messaged, I had Kelly go upstairs and call me and be like a pretend client on the phone, on the speakerphone, and then I'd send her a bunch of questions to ask. No matter what question she would ask, I would sit there looking like a wise, profound person, because I am. I would say, so the questions I gave her were, "I'm not sure whether I should launch my low-end programme next to my high-level mastermind, what do you think?" Then it was a question about a man, then a question about a diet, then a question about being stuck, and then, "Should I cut my hair?" And whatever. No matter what the answer was I was like, "Hmm, let me just tune in on that. Wait, I think you should check in with what your soul says, because your soul always knows." Then she would be like, "Wow, you're so wise Kat. You're just so connected." And I was like, "I know. I've been doing this work for a long time." I'm so impressed with how well I held it together while filming these skits. I did burst out laughing a few times, but we had the best time ever. I just had two hours of hilariousness. I was like, "How is this even work?" And I don't know if it technically is. But I don't know if anything technically is. And then what was hilarious beyond hilarious, after that, is as they were leaving and I was going down to the basement to swipe them out of the car park, Kelly's saying something about whatever situation in her life, and I was like, "Well your soul knows the answer Kelly." Then I was just laughing even more. But I'm like, "But it's true. This is funny because this is real." Things are funny because they're real. So I'm feeling kind of pumped, kind of high-vibe. And I'm kind of impressed with myself as well because I've been saying for at least a year, and lots of people have heard me say this, especially my close people in my life have heard me go on and on about I want to be doing these little videos, with an attempt for my videos to go viral. I want to do the funny ones because I think I'm funny. And I want to do the inspiration and entertaining ones about, "Christine's not learned anything, who promised you that you were going to learn anything. Not me, but your soul always knows exactly what you need to learn. So go and learn elsewhere if you're not learning it here. It's fine, I'm completely fine with it either way, but I can't promise anything. I definitely can't promise learning." You know what, fuck it, I promise soul shifts and deep frickin transformation, and hilarity, and sometimes shenanigans. And by the way, by the way, whatever comes out will be exactly what you need. Okay, she doesn't give a fuck. She's like, "Bye," she's just like, "I'm leaving." She doesn't know what she's missing out on. You can all send her a message and tell her if you like. I feel like this could be a good device for fixing up your hair so that you don't have to use your hand while you're holding your laptop in the other hand. It does hurt a tiny bit. Ohh, it actually brushes the hair a little bit you guys. I don't know that it was entirely designed for that. Okay, now there's hair sticking out of it and it's a bit wonky. If you look at it closely this [scept 00:07:11] has had a bit of a rough time of it. It's cause sometimes I get overexcited and I whack it on things. Not on people, don't worry, but if they were here in the room potentially someone would get a good whack with the sceptre. Tracy's already learned seven things. Okay, so we have several things we need to discuss as a community you guys. I shall sit here in my throne and discuss them with you and for you. One of them is we need to decide what my new name is. I feel that it should be put to a vote. Do you think I should have a competition to choose my new name? I'm going to drop my surname, I'm going to drop my old surname which is still legally my current surname. And I'm not going back to the previous name before that because that was my first husband's name. And I'm not going back, even though it was a good name for internet marketing, was a great fitness name, which is what it was back in the day. And I'm not going back to my birth name, because it feels weird and it's like from a 100,000 years ago. I'm going to make up a new name. I'm going to keep Katrina Ruth as it is, Ruth is my middle name. I guess the only question is, what does my soul know that my new surname is meant to be. But I think that it should start with R, so then it will be Katrina Ruth something starting with R, because it sounds like nice for alliteration purposes for fame. I think it would be a good famous person name to have a surname starting with R. If it wasn't for Ruby Rose, I would probably go with Katrina Ruth Rose, because Rose is a family name and it's also my daughter's middle name that I gave her. So I think Katrina Ruth Rose sounds really nice. It's not fucking going to be Ruthless, but thank you. Katrina Ruth Rose sounds nice, it's sounds kind of like a famous person's name, but I think that we can do better as a community. If you have any thoughts on that, there's a post about it in the daily ass-kickery, you can contribute. If I chose a name that you gave me, I would definitely have to give you something super cool as a prize for that. I can't just go walking around with a name that somebody else came up with without honouring it. All right, moving along. What do you want to talk about? Why do you even need a surname? I want one. I want it to be Katrina Ruth something. Katrina Ruth Rules. No, I don't want it, no I want a new surname. I don't want to change my legal, because you got to have a legal surname. I don't want to change it to Ruth, because Ruth is my middle name and I like it like that, Katrina Ruth. My mum used to call me Katrina Ruth, not when I was in trouble either, just like sounds nice inside my head. Fuck a duck, I dropped the sceptre. We'll switch, we'll switch to this. Have a friend who legally has no surname. Is that right? Okay I didn't know about that. All right, so anyhow, okay this could be a good scratching device down your back if you wanted it to be. Props are everywhere here. Oh my God there's two of these things. You're supposed to have a duel. There's a fucking cape on the floor over there, but it looks stupid as fuck. Madonna's real name's not Madonna though, it's whatever it is. Have a friend who, okay, anyway. The whole point of the whole point is, you can laugh about it all you like, actually my clients always make fun of me and say that no matter what they ask me I say, "Well just tune in and what would alignment look like. Or what does your soul actually say about this, or what does your soul know." And I'm like, "Well, but it's true." That's why I did the skit, because I was sort of playing into that. Obviously I do say a few more things than that one when I'm talking to my clients. And sometimes I don't even use the word soul, it has been known to happen on the odd occasion. But the reality is, you have this blueprint inside of you for, I'm going to put that down because I'm going to be serious now. I don't want anyone over here to think I'm being funny when I'm being serious. Let's pause for effect. I've been drinking wine straight from the bottle during the day, for the purposes of my filming, so I'm feeling slightly buzzed. I think I only had that much, but I don't drink during the day. And I don't know if this is just me or is this normal, but whenever I do drink anything during the day, on the odd occasion, I can have the tiniest bit, like three sips which is roughly as much as I had, and I feel like I had two glasses of wine. And then when you are literally putting wine into your mouth with chips and Maltesers at the same time, it's just a whole unusual situation happening up in there. Okay, we're going to get serious. I'm not changing my surname to Reagan, that's my friend's name, her actual name. It's not going to be Rice either, it sounds like a man's name, like a man. I don't want to be a man. Okay, I'm going to be serious and professional as fuck. I'm going to talk about soul blueprints, maybe, we'll see if it comes out. Let me just tune in on that for a moment and see what does in fact come out. Okay, I've got it, I've got it. It may or may not be anything to do with your soul at all, but it will be precisely what it's supposed to be. By the way, by the way, Wren, Ruth, Katrina Ruth Aura. Somebody suggested Chai before. I was like, I didn't understand why, but it's definitely not going to be Chia, because I'm allergic to chai tea. Okay, Katrina Ruth Riley, oh my goodness. It's got to be a new and unusual word you guys. A word nobody else knows or is using. Oh my god, I'm just seeing that my team has posted onto my page. Okay, [Mim 00:12:33], that Amanda France's Vegemite video that's on my page has a spelling mistake in it. Veget-mite it says, but Mim, do you want to drop the inner circle link. By the way, not a link, that's not a link at all. Description, comment, whatever it is. The inner circle is open, it is open. You can message me if you would like to know about mentoring with me at the absolutely highest level in my one-on-one, badass, hard as fuck, inner circle mastermind. It is indeed open. Message me on my personal page is better. Ongoing one-on-one mentoring, unlimited access to me, plus access to the hottest and most badass mastermind on the internet. On, just like, on, I think my voice just broke. Am I a 13 year old boy? For different creators and different entrepreneurs who just want more, and are willing to do what it takes in order to create it, obviously. Okay Jillian says, "To those who are even remotely considering joining the inner circle, just pull out your credit card and pay now." You can't actually technically do that, I'm sorry, you got to message me and we'll talk about whether it's aligned for you or not. And then I suppose you could pay. You know what I'm going to do? Here's what I'm going to do, here's what my soul is telling me to do, I'm going to start posting frickin case studies and testimonials of my clients every day. Give me an amen if you would like to see that because I don't normally do it and I've started to now do it, I'm going to just relentlessly, ruthlessly flaunt that shit all over the internet and inspire you with the badassery of the women that I know and that I get to mentor, but also I'm friends with and connected with. I'm starting my new show Conversations with Badasses. I've had that name for ages, and I've even got a backdrop made that goes behind her on my stands for the Conversation with Badasses show, but it's got red hair on it, so I have to change it now anyway. I'm going to be doing joint livestreams with the most badass people I know, and that will be the show. You'll get to meet lots of people from the inner circle and lots of my cool badass friends and other people that I know. It's going to be conversations with badasses. But part of it will be that I'll be talking a lot about results from the inner circle because I don't normally do that, and I get amazing results so I'm going to talk about it. And I'm going to promote, promote, promote, and find the exact perfect people who are meant to join us. Here's what else, here is what else, earlier today, I finally pulled my fucking finger out, ohh Raven, that's an interesting one. Raven, Katrina Ruth Raven. I'm going to think about that. Haven, what about Katrina Ruth Haven. Hmm, the perfect name is going to come to me, and so it is, it's done. You know I just said that I indeed pulled my finger out. Is that an Australian expression, or does everybody understand that expression? I don't know if everyone knows what I mean. I pulled my finger out means, sounds kind of dirty, but what it means is that I just finally took fucking action on something that I'd been holding myself back from and denying myself stepping into soul alignment around, which specifically was what I just said earlier, the videos, the skits, the little comedy things that I've been wanting to do for ages. It was such a good feeling. Firstly, I mean what else would you want to be doing? Okay, you did think it was dirty. It Aussie only. We have some weird expression in Australia I think, but whatever. Everybody does in their own way. What else would you want to be doing on a Friday, it's not Friday, but you could do it on a Friday, on a Wednesday afternoon except for filming hilarious stuff and just being creative and kind of acting. I guess I was acting, and I fancy myself somewhat of an actor. I'm quite certain I should end up in the movies at some point in time. And I'm going to play myself, so I need a good fucking name for that as we've just been discussing. That was fun, it was really fun. I had so much fun it was crazy. We were just in hysterics. Matt was just shaking his head, he couldn't even believe the ridiculousness of the entire situation most of the time. That's cool, but really where it's critical actually to receiving, and to abundance, and to stepping into whatever the next level is that's inside of you that you know you're meant to live into is, when you're flaking out and resisting and avoiding stuff that your soul is telling you to do that you know you should do and must do, then you dial down receiving. This is what I want to talk about. You can take the statement your soul always knows, and you can do whatever you want with that statement right. Your soul always knows what you should fucking eat for dinner. Hello Lily [Babcock 00:17:16]. Lily you know you posted last night, I'm pointing directly at you with my massive, it's actually not that big but when you point it like that it looks huge. I don't even know what this is. Is it a pitchfork? I don't need a pitchfork, let me get my sceptre back. Oh, it's way over there. Wait. Okay, all right, here I am. Why do I have to sit up? I don't like sitting like a normal person. Now I've got sequins in my bottom though. Just like kind of chewing away at it. Trident. All right, what was I saying? I'm going to tune in on that. Fuck, what was I saying? Lily, you posted last night about your hair like a mermaid, but I wore my hair mermaid style last night for a podcast, and I specifically had that thought because I had it on a side ponytail and it was very mermaidy. The reason was all the sweat from the hot yoga, and I hadn't washed it yet. Now it's cleansed and it's beautified. But last night it wasn't washed, and so I did the only reasonable thing that a person can do, which is put it in a [plut 00:18:26] for two hours before the podcast interview, and then it looked mermaidy. Then afterwards you posted that your hair was mermaidy too. I was like- Oh my god, there's seriously sequins in my ass. Okay, it's the life is now, press play cushion. If you haven't seen it, your mind will be blown. I feel like everyone's seen it, but some people probably haven't seen it. It's going to mirror language, but you're going to get the idea. Ah, ahh, amazing isn't it. It says, "Life is now. Press play," in the cushion you guys, in the cushion. I've performed this trick many times before, but there's probably new people here who haven't had the joy and the pleasure and the honour. It would be selfish and rude of me not to show it to them. Again, that was all biting my ass just then. I was sitting right on the sequins. Okay, so that's about Lily and the mermaid hair. Then the other thing was and is, your soul does always know what you should do about anything. Your soul knows whether you say yes when somebody says, "Do you want to be on my podcast?" I just go with what my soul says. You can ask me anything anytime, and sometimes I'm going to say no to you for sure. I say no to lots of people. And then you might be brave enough to ask me again another time, people do that on rare occasions, most people are not, and then maybe that day I'm vibing with it, maybe my soul says yes. That's roughly how I end up on Lily's podcast. Because typically I say no to everything, it's just a blanket rule of thumb. Everything that's not me creating my own content, but now, right now, I'm actually in a vibe of saying yes to a lot of things. So now would be a good time to ask me things. Just so you know, I feel the openness. I feel that I am open to yes to things. I feel that that can often be a good state. And in theory it sounds like it would be a good overall general state to be in, but actually the answer is, what does your soul know? I know for me there was a period of, it's time to say no to everybody and go deeper into my own content creation, and so then that's what I was doing. I was just like, blanket hard no to everybody, except obviously if it was like James out to try something, I'm sorry, but that's just what's up. That's just the truth of the matter. Okay, now your soul knows the answer to everything. What are you going to do after this? Should you even be here right now? Tune in. Does my soul say yes I should listen to Kat? She's going to drop some gold, or she going to shift and transform my emotional state in some way. And so that is a good to learn use of my time. Well one lady already left early, her soul did not care for me at all. After you get off this livestream, you go, what does my soul say that I should do, right? What is my next thing? Am I going to create content? Am I going to take a nap? Am I going to go to bed? Okay, of course you didn't, because people in my community are sneaky and badass, and supernatural as fuck. She says, "I telepathically asked you." Yeah, that doesn't surprise me at all. That would probably be the smartest way to things by the way. For all the people who I love and adore in my life, I send them messages from my soul all the time by the way. I'm not sure if they always get them. It probably depends on whether they're tuning in or listening, but I legitimately do. This morning only, I was sending soul messages to somebody. I don't know if they got them or not, I didn't ask. I mean I could ask right now in my soul, but I don't really mind. It goes through an energetic kind of frequency anyhow, but sometimes they will then reply in a physical sense. Sometimes somebody will reply on a Facebook message when you sent them a soul message. That's pretty cool right? Your soul does already knows how to do it. They did get it. Emily says they did get it. Did you tune in on that? Cool. I reckon right, I reckon they did get it. That's what I'm feeling as I tune in on it. I just love how fucking supernatural the world is, don't you? I wrote about this quite a bit in my blog today, just like the real gifts that we were giving and that we were born with. She did tune in on it. Thank you. I just wrote about the gifts that we were born with, and what's actually natural and real for us is as humans, how so many people think that it's kind of scary or bad to kind of access supernatural powers, and I guess to access the magic within, and to dive into the spiritual world and create from that place. If you didn't read today's blog post, you can go read that. I'm not sure if that's here on my Facebook business page yet or not, but it's definitely over here on my personal Katrina Ruth page. It's got a hot as fuck photo of me with my amazing client Amanda Frances, and she is an incredible client and super soul sister friend. It's just a hot photo, that's why I put it up. It's from a month or two ago. The title is, don't get scared of how much magic you are capable of, grow harder and deeper, run faster, and do more. I think I'll give you a link to it right now so that you can check it out after this. Yes Facebook, I will add Malibu, California as the location since that's where it was. All right, so I wrote about this, and I think that we could talk about it. I think that it's powerful and I think that's really relevant and true, and that we're just limiting ourselves so much when we play only in the human realm. Okay, no, correct, edit, rewind, the human realm includes the spiritual realm and the supernatural realm, right? Right, thank you for clarifying that for me. Send me some cat emojis or a love hearts if you agree with me. People can feel like, "Oh is that bad to operate in that sense in terms of I'm just creating shit inside of myself." I can sit in this chair like I just did, and I can sit in my throne, in my studio at home, and just tune in. Thank you for the cat emojis and the love hearts. I can tune in on whether somebody received a soul message from me, and then Emily who's here on live tunes in for me as well. She's not here, she doesn't know what person it was, she doesn't know anything at all. But she just tuned in energetically and she knows everything. Just like I know everything when I allow myself to, and so do you. Your soul knows. Your higher self knows every aspect of who you are inside and out. You already have the answers to everything, like fucking everything. Do you realise that? And all you've got to do is be willing to listen, right? I did this little skit earlier, I was like, it was funny. No matter what the question was that asked, I was like, "Hmm, tune in to what your soul says." And I was having the funniest time ever doing the skit. But it's also like, well honestly, honestly, how I've created all of the results in my life. Business results, money results, fitness stuff, health stuff, lifestyle, travel. Even like where should I go next? Or if ever I'm not on tour, should I book, for example recently we were finding a location for my July retreat for the inner circle. By the way inner circle's open, read the pinch comment after this if you're wanting to mentor with my on the higher one-on-one level. You would be potentially then coming along to hang with me in July for our next retreat. We do three. When we were looking for different venues for the retreat, even something like that, my assistant sends me through the details, and I'm just like, "Okay, let me just tune in for real, this one or this one?" And I'm like, "Hmm, I feel this." For sure I'll look at the website and I'll look at what's offered, and I'll look at pricing, I look at all that stuff right, like with anything. But it's not how I make my decision. I always trust my soul. I always trust my inner guidance. I always trust what's coming through me. Your soul always knows. I just feel like I've let my life become so easy, and wouldn't you love to let your life become so easy by just responding to what's inside of you. Now earlier today I had a conversation with a new client, somebody who I know already through Facebook, but she's just stepped into Rich Hut Empire, which is kind of like the before step in a lot of cases for the inner circle, or it's not always the before step, sometimes people go straight in. But anyhow, it's my six week one-on-one which oversold and closed out the other day, and she was talking a lot about getting caught in fear, and getting caught in reactivity, and even by the time we got ten minutes into the phone call I was like, "Okay, I'm feeling that so far everything that's come through in this conversation is that fear is guiding and directing you a lot of the time, right? Firstly, that's clouding your ability to obviously connect to soul and create from faith and create from flow. But also, isn't it tiring," I said to her. She was like, "Well yeah." And I know that's it's tiring because I used to live that way. It's fucking exhausting right. The thing is, you don't have to live that way. It's actually a choice that you can make right now. It's a choice that you have available to you right now in this moment to just decide, I'm going to choose faith over fear. I'm going to choose to access the guidance inside of me. I'm going to choose to access the superpowers that I was giving. Hello. You can come in. Alyssa just got home from school. Ohh. For you, mother's day, where do I put it? That's fine, I'll take it. Okay, go get changed because we're going to go on a girl's day. Okay. We're going to go on a girl's outing after this. Yay. Yay. So, okay, what is this, school notice. Oh shit, don't do that. I'm just literally holding a nearly, an open bottle of water over the laptop. Okay, totally lost my train of thought when I saw her walk into the room. I'm sure you saw that. You can literally choose right now in this moment to let faith rule you rather than fear. That is a choice that you have available no matter what's going on. Especially when shit is going on when you feel stark, or you feel it's too scary, or there's too much riding on it, or you can't afford to or something like that. This is the leap of faith that it's time to make. This is the leap of faith that it's time to make. It is time to say, what does my soul have to say about this? What would I be doing if I were acting from faith? What would I be doing if I was coming from what's inside of me. Why aren't they post a bed in my room? Why are you talking so weird? Why? I don't know. Go get changed honey. No, no, no, this is the time to go get change. Who put it in? I don't know. I have no idea. I wasn't even in your room. Probably Diane. Usually I'm like, come on the live, but I know if that happens we won't go and do our girl's day thing. We'll just get talking about. I'll probably wrap up in a minute now anyhow. That's really the whole thing right, I could, if I wasn't going to go on little adventure with my daughter, I'd go on and on about this for probably another 20, 30 minutes, like beyond what I've already said. But it would come back to the same core underlying message. This is the thing, you can go on and on about it for 20 or 30 minutes, or 20 or 30 years, nothing is going to change except for the fact that you have the power of choice right now to come from soul. You can sit here right now in this moment and say, "I'm going to commit to operating from faith, not from fear." You can sit here right now in this moment and say, "I'm going to start to fucking listen to what's inside of me, right." It's true in your business. It's true with what programmes you should launch or put out there. It's true with how you interact in your personal relationships. Who should you be giving your time and energy to? Where is a good investment and use of that? Rather than being like, "Oh, what do you think about this? And I'm scared of that. And here's the pros and cons." And you analysing it with your friends or your partner, or your frickin dog, or even your mentor or whatever. Let's go into soul guidance. Let's go into being directed by faith. Let's go into being directed from what's inside. Even with me right, from my inner circle, my highest level one-on-one mentoring, it's a reasonable investment to work with me at that level as I'm sure you can imagine. If you message me about it, I'll send you a full overview of what it is and what we do, and how it works. Obviously we'll go through cost details as well. But I'm not going to sit there and tell you some kind of, "Well here's the secret strategy that nobody gets to know until they come into my inner circle, right." I think I said your inner self, or I might've said your inner guidance, or intuition state, something along those lines. When I mentor my highest level clients, my role is not to provide some kind of step-by-step plan that was a secret before working with me at that level. My role is to connect with you on a soul level and to help you access more deeply what's inside of you. This is something that you can already do obviously yourself. Whether or not you decide to work with a mentor, whether it's me or not me, either way, you still have that ability yourself. Obviously it's powerful to have other people who are the alliance people for us to come in and support in that, and maybe help you to see things that you don't see, and kind of remind you of where you need to kick your ass or hold yourself to a level of accountability based on being that soul based version of you rather than a fear driven version of you. Either way and regardless, it is absolutely something that you have access to right now. Guess the big thing that I just wanted to come on today and do was to remind you of that. Remind you that you've got access to everything you need inside of you. You don't need to be out there on the internet, fucking Googling and trying to figure how to get somewhere. You also don't need to be looking for the perfect strategy or plan. The strategy, the plan, the blueprint is the one you are born with. That's what's up. That is what I want to remind you of today and that's really all. I could go on and on, but I've got a very important date with a very beautiful child of my own. So I'm going to go and do that. I'd urge you to dive inside of yourself, through your journaling, or through your months at work, maybe take a walk. Whatever you need to do or desire to do, and just ask, "What is my soul directing me to do today?" Honestly, I use this question any time I feel unsure about anything. Literally down to what I'm going to order off a menu. It's not like, like it's kind of an unconscious thing, or it just sort of happens in that moment, but I know that I always know what I need and what's right for each moment in my life. Whether it's something kind of little like that, or it's something that seems like a really big deal. Either way, I just allow myself to be intuitively guided. That is a big part of why my life has gone into such flow and ease, as well as receiving in epic and abundant way financially and through my business, and with all my soul mates and client, and people and so on and so forth. If that's something you want to know more about, and you feel that I might be the person to support or mentor you around that, message me about my inner circle, I'll get you the full overview and all the details. And do not forget, life is now, press play. Life is now, press play.

15-40 Connection is focused on educating and empowering people about early cancer detection. This education helps individuals become aware of the early warning signs of cancer. Most cancer organizations focus on research for a cure, treatment or support. There are also many cancer organizations that focus on prevention. Unfortunately, we still don't know what causes all cancers, so while some preventative measures can reduce risk; it can't remove the risk completely. Research shows that detecting cancer early improves effectiveness of cancer treatment and also improves the chance of survival, which is why 15-40 Connection is empowering individuals to be aware of the early warning signs to give them their best chance at effective treatment and survival. 15-40 Connection aims to educate and empower individuals with the skills to recognize subtle health changes in themselves, rather than rely only on medical professionals. Through 15-40 Connection's 3 Steps to Early Detection individuals learn how to become active participants in their own health care so cancer as well as other illnesses can be diagnosed earlier. The result is a quicker return to health and most importantly lives saved. For more information: https://www.15-40.org  As Vice President for Engagement for 15-40 Connection, Kelly Fattman supports educational outreach and national communication that teaches people how to detect cancer earlier. She is passionate about saving lives through the power of early detection. While working in this role, she experienced health changes herself that lead to a brain tumor diagnosis. Kelly put into practice the exact education she was delivering to change the outcome of her situation. Using 15-40 Connection's 3 Steps Detect, Kelly became one of the most valuable members of her health care team. After describing how her health changes felt, she was told by two doctors. “That doesn't make sense.” Her health changes were different from what they had seen most often. As they put the piece of the puzzle together to determine her diagnosis, Kelly continued to trust how she was feeling and shared that information. It was because of one of her symptoms that were not making sense that her doctor ordered additional tests which revealed her brain tumor. Had Kelly not shared that information, her diagnosis would have been delayed, the brain tumor would have continued to grow, her treatment options would have been more limited, and the chances of lasting side effects would have risen significantly. Prior to her role at 15-40 Connection, Kelly, helped companies large and small launch products, reach new audiences and improve customer engagement. Some of the major brands she has worked with include Reebok, Dunkin Donuts, American Express, New Balance, and the Boston Marathon. Here's the Transcript of the Interview Hugh Ballou: Welcome to this episode of The Nonprofit Exchange. And yet another interesting guest, Russell. What do you think of that? Russell Dennis: Good-looking and interesting and smart. Dedicated. Those are the kind of people that show up here. I like it. Hugh: We attract really brilliant people who have good stories. Kelly, welcome to The Nonprofit Exchange. Kelly Fattman: Thank you for having me. Hugh: We had a struggle with technology, but we conquered it. Here we are. Let's start out. I don't like these dry introductions of people. I like people to tell me a little bit about themselves. What about you is important to the work you do? Then talk about this organization, 15-40 Connection. Kelly: It's interesting because I have a background in marketing and development. I have spent the last part of my career, probably the last ten years, in strategy, development, and activation, specifically around customer engagement. When I came to 15-40, my role was to really help to drive engagement and scale because we really needed to scale our message. We knew it was life-saving education, and we needed to get to as many people as possible. What is unique in my story is I was working as a consultant, and then I had a health change. Part of our education is about noticing changes in your health and acting on them. I did that. I call it my orientation to the business. I was in real time in my life testing our education. Does it work? My health change was significant. I did see a doctor. I had some challenges with getting a diagnosis, but I pushed. I became the empowered patient, which is something that we talk about, and got to an accurate diagnosis, which really changed my life. That makes me not just a business professional, but also a consumer. That combination has been very successful as we enter the drive of this mission and our need to scale it and our ability to scale it. Hugh: Kelly Fattman, y'all aren't from the South, I can tell. Where are y'all from? Kelly: I am actually born and raised right outside of Boston, Massachusetts, but my parents are from Pennsylvania. I have a little bit of a mixed problem going on here. Hugh: Russell is over there in Denver. They got a really distinctive accent, which you can't tell. The South is very distinctive, and in New England, it is of course really distinctive. Tell us a little bit about 15-40 Connection. Kelly: Our mission is we teach people how to detect cancer early. It's that simple. There is a ton of companies. Once you are diagnosed with cancer, there is a bunch of resources to access for treatment, care, mental health, and research. When it comes to the path that leads to diagnosis, there is nobody who does what we do, which is unfortunately why we are doing it. The founder wasn't necessarily looking for something else to do, but when he saw this opportunity and the gap that was available to people to maintain their health and survive cancer, he acted on it. Our education is teaching people how to recognize symptoms, act on those symptoms, and connect with their doctors to get an accurate early diagnosis. Hugh: Outstanding. On your site, there is a core educational message called Three Steps Detect. Kelly: Correct. Hugh: Say more about that. Kelly: The Three Steps Detect is our core education. It is really the entry point of what you learn when you're learning about early detection. We broke it down into three simple steps. If you follow these three steps, it will lead to not only potential cancer diagnosis early, but really diagnose anything. We have heard from people this year that have diagnosed heart disease, kidney stones, things along those lines. We know that it's not just cancer that can be detected early. It can be anything. We know that anything detected early gives you a better chance of survival, better health outcomes, getting back to your life quicker, back to health quicker. Hugh: It's not just cancer? Kelly: We are focused on cancer, but the interesting byproduct of our education is it's helping people find other things as well. But our primary focus is cancer. Hugh: Wow. So you started telling a story that you had a health change. It brought you- How did you connect with 15-40? Was it already in existence? Kelly: I was actually working here, and they were developing the curriculum Three Steps Detect. We had been doing education before I got here but knew that we needed to tighten it up, be clearer on the message, get something that was memorable and actionable. That is what I was working on. When I had the health change, I followed the three steps quite honestly. The biggest step we talk about is the part where the patient interacts with the doctor. Doctors, we call them detectives. They only can solve the case based on the clues that are provided to them. We are the people who provide the clues. I was providing my clues; however, the doctors basically outlined to me that what I was saying didn't make sense, that my explanation of my symptoms couldn't be what they are. I stayed true to my story because of what I learned here, and ultimately they ordered the right test and got to an accurate diagnosis. I had two diagnoses prior to the third, which was the accurate one. Hugh: Some of us listening that are paranoid. When I visit people in the hospital, I start hurting when they start talking about their operation. Can you give us an idea of those three steps? Kelly: Sure. First step is to know you're normal, to know that you're great. What's good for you? When you wake up in the morning, how do you feel on a good day? We don't have a checklist, but it's setting benchmarks. What's your normal sleep patterns? What is your normal energy level? What are your bowel habits? Those are the things you should be checking in with. How is your skin? Do you have a lot of moles or just a few? Are you watching your skin? If new things come in that weren't there before. It's knowing what your normal is so if something changes, you can recognize the change. That is step one. Step two is the two-week rule. Since you have set the base of your normal, when something changes, you'll notice. Your stomach starts to act up. Maybe you're going to the bathroom differently. You're more tired than normal. Most things will clear up after two weeks. The flu, pneumonia, the common cold. There are lots of things that after two weeks solve themselves. If after two weeks you are still feeling these symptoms, we recommend you go check it out. It does not mean you have cancer. The two-week rule helps people not to be a hypochondriac, as you stated; it helps them to be calm because they say, “Okay. In two weeks a lot of things go away.” Two weeks gives them a reason to go check it out. The third step is the sharing with your doctor. That piece is the most critical in that it's what I outlined earlier. What you say to your doctor is going to determine what they know about you. They don't have X-ray vision. They can certainly order tests, but they don't know which ones to order if you are not sharing the right information with them. Ultimately, that relationship is critical. In this time where health care is so challenging and so variable across the country, it is understanding all the different scenarios that people can enter. Some people have long-term relationships with primary care. Others use urgent care or medical clinics, so it's a one-and-done environment. It's making sure the patient is driving the conversation, and they are driving the outcome to early diagnosis because if we don't drive, the doctors and the way the model is now built, they don't have the infrastructure and support systems, most of them, to do the follow-up and the additional work. They also don't know how you're feeling, so you go to the doctor and leave and don't follow back up with them, but you're still not feeling well. How are they going to know? Those are really the three steps. Hugh: I guess it's tricky. We all assume that the doctor knows everything. They tell you something, and it's a tendency for us to want to shut down. What I hear you saying is that we learn to be assertive in talking about ourselves. Is that the context you're talking in? Kelly: We say the best chance is you, the empowered patient. It's all of those. It's the strength of believing in yourself, trusting in your instincts, not being embarrassed. Some of the cultural norms. In the times we grew up, people didn't question their doctor. I'm not sure people are being raised the same way now. I think now is the right time. You know you the best. It's about a partnership with a doctor; it's not about us versus them. It's about creating a partnership between you and them. Hugh: That is a really helpful paradigm because- You called them a detective a minute ago. We have to give them the clues. They depend on us telling them. I have a very good doctor who listens very carefully and spends time and asks me very good questions. Sometimes those are questions about things I have never thought about, but you are helping me think about being prepared in case I wake up and it's not normal. If you are not normal, you wait two weeks, and if it doesn't go away, then you make an appointment. Is that what I heard you say? Kelly: That's exactly right. We also say that if something changes significantly, like you break your leg or you have a really sharp pain or something along those lines, then you don't wait two weeks. It's making sure you understand the difference. Our teaching is about the subtle, persistent changes that hang around that wouldn't necessarily impact your ability to go about your day. Those are the ones you wait two weeks and they usually clear up. Things that are more like the symptom I had was more significant. I had a sharp pain in my head that would come and go, but it was nothing I had ever felt before, very different from my normal and was more dramatic. It wasn't subtle, I should say. I acted quicker than two weeks. Hugh: Why is 15-40 Connection a 501(c)3? Kelly: Essentially because a nonprofit is the best way to get to everybody. Our mission is to educate people on how to detect cancer early. The fact is it wasn't being done before. Now that the issue is raised, you have to build the case to get the education out there. What we were able to do is build the case with funders and people who are interested in the nonprofit space to make a difference and save lives. That is how we landed as a nonprofit segment versus a for-profit who would be selling the education, which is not the motivation of the founder and the other people who work here. Hugh: It's to make it accessible to more people. Kelly: Yes. Hugh: Russell, what are you hearing here? Do you have questions or observations? Russell: That is remarkable. I can think back to a health change that I had when I was working for the IRS. There was some signs. I did not act. In my case, I can speak for myself. I think fear was a factor. Does your education program go to address those things that people may have, these fears that going to the doctor could cause me to miss work or my insurance may not be adequate? Fear is unreasonable often. It doesn't make any sense, yet it is there. Does your program address any of these fears that people may be experiencing or provide a space where people can discuss it? Kelly: Yes. Fear is the #1 issue. People say, I'm afraid to go. If I don't go, it will go away. The reality is that that fear, where it's unfounded is if you catch it early, great. That's a win because you can take care of it. If you don't have anything, that's great, too. Both are celebration points. We do have a natural fear of what the doctor is going to say. We also on the flip side of that want the doctor to say you're okay. Once the doctor says you're fine, we say, Oh, great, even though you still don't feel well, even though the symptoms still persist. You heard them say you're okay, and that's what you want. We call it the get out of jail free card because that is what people are looking for. You have to trust your instincts. You have to trust yourself. A lot of the teaching is about recognizing the obstacles, all that you just outlined, that keep people from going and keep people from getting the early detection because of those obstacles. Russell: Do you have any statistics—I think you might be a source for it—of people who are finding out that they have cancer, let's say late detection? Are there- How many cases are there where people are finding out too late that they could have been treated or the treatment becomes more difficult because they waited? Do you have any of those numbers per chance? Kelly: I don't have them at my fingertips. What I can share with you is one in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Those numbers are staggering. That is about 40%. That is a big number. We need to get as many of those people to detect cancer in stage zero or stage one. We also know the cost is significantly different. We do have data that supports stage one care versus stage four is the difference is probably 300-400%. The other thing is they just started to publish these studies now in the National Journal of Medicine and a few others around. Misdiagnosis is a blind spot that has been ignored for the last 20 years. The misdiagnosis leads to the lack of early detection. The more diagnoses you get that are inaccurate, the longer the pathway is to the correct diagnosis. There has been a lot of studies published on that. But the actual numbers of early versus late haven't found that yet. But we are continuing to see stuff like that pop up. Russell: That is a lot of people, 40% of the population. That is staggering. Is that how it's been historically? Have we seen an increase historically? Kelly: I don't know how long ago it was tracked. I can't answer that. But I know certain cancers are on the rise, some in younger people, like colon cancer and some others. I am not sure to answer your question if it's on the rise. But the number is staggering. And not rising at a percentage increase like the opioid epidemic. It's relatively static from the way the government sees it. I know that. Huge numbers, but not these kind of growth rates that are alarming to people. Hugh: You said with men, it's one in two. That would be us, Russell. Russell: That would be. I get that. The funny thing is because Kelly was plugged into 15-40. Kelly, because you were plugged in there, you were looking at being proactive about this problem and actually going out to solve it. In my case, I just instinctually shied away from it. My boss and her boss had two separate one-way conversations with me to tell me to go to the doctor. They actually had to threaten to fire me before I did it. That is how strong the fear around facing this was. With men in particular, and it doesn't surprise me, we like to be angry and flex our muscles and growl, which is a good mask of fear, to be angry for guys. Kelly: No one looks forward to sitting on a stool in someone's office. It's not a position of power, I like to say. Hugh: No, it's not. Russell, thanks for sharing that story. I guess you went to the doctor then. Russell: I did because they threatened to fire me. It was crazy. Once I found out what was going on with me, I was a lot calmer. I approached it a lot better. I was a lot more optimistic than letting go of it. Because I chewed on it and kicked it around for a while. I had a support system of people around me who were there to help me gather information. Good friends that came. My goddaughter and other friends. They said, “Okay, we are going to go with you. Just listen to the doctor. We are here. We can take notes. We can use your voice recorder on the phone. Just lean into it and listen and share where you are, what's going on.” It was a partnership. It was a team approach. Some of the things that I heard, whoever went with me didn't hear. There were a lot of things that people went with me to these appointments heard that I didn't hear. We were able to gather all of this information because when you sit in the chair, facing the treatment, a lot of times you're overwhelmed with things going on. There is economics, your affairs going forward, how I am actually going to feel. Am I going to be able to go back to my life as it was with work and with family? There are just a ton of uncertainties and a ton of questions that people face. Having people that have gone through it, having the education, having that support network to say, “Look, it's better to face this stuff sooner rather than later, and you're not alone” is critical to getting better. I have recovered fully. I have been in remission. I am approaching six years since the completion. Kelly: Yay, I like those stories. You bring up a good point about examples of people sharing examples. That is our model of education. We use storytelling. We use people who have had cancer diagnoses and gone through the process. They either detected cancer early or they didn't. The different outcomes they had as a result, it really is powerful because it helps people live the situation through other people, which can make it less scary. I appreciate you sharing your story, and I am very happy for your outcome. Russell: The unspoken thing my doctor said: We have some challenges, but he hinted at the fact that if I had come in a bit earlier, it would have been easier to treat. He wasn't sure how things were going to go. They are not always sure. They don't have crystal balls. It's important to get all of that information out there. No detail is too minor. Get that information out there to assess the situation to find out exactly where you are and what steps you can take. Hugh: Kelly, earlier in your dialogue, you talked about the support systems you have. When people find out, there is an emotional side to this. How do you help people there? Kelly: We are really the path that leads to diagnosis. We are trying to encourage and engage and empower people to go through the process to get to the diagnosis. As I had said when we started, there is a lot of groups and organizations that support once the diagnosis is made. That is not our focal point. Our focal point is making sure people get to the doctor and get that diagnosis if indeed that is what is wrong with them so they have more options and better chances for care and better health outcomes. Hugh: Two more things I am thinking about. People like to say, “I'm too busy to do some of this.” How do you encourage people to cut through that excuse and do what's important? Secondly, when they actually make the appointment, how do you empower them to have that meaningful conversation with your doctor? Kelly: An hour today could save you ten hours tomorrow. Busy is busy. Everybody is busy. At the end of the day, getting to the doctor, taking the time today to get the early diagnosis could save you so much time, so much money, and your life quite frankly. It's about prioritization. It's not easy. At the end of the day, how many people prioritize themselves first, especially when you are a parent with children and with a job? But you have to reinforce it as often as possible that to the people who love you, alive is the option. They want you alive, and if it is going to mean that you don't get to make that lunch because you went to the doctor early or you might miss the last meeting of the day, you are not effective if you are not in the meeting at all. Fortunately, that is one thing that is shifting. It does feel there is support out there in corporate wellness and those environments to focus on health. It sounds like even your experience, people were like, “Get to the doctor or you're fired.” I love to hear that because they are prioritizing your health over the bottom line of the company. Not everybody does it. Not everybody works for supportive people. You have to be number one, or the consequences can be significant. Hugh: Wow. Equipping people to have that conversation. Kelly: It doesn't have to be us or them or me or you. It's more about I'm having something I have to deal with, and I need support for me to go do that. It shouldn't be too much to ask, but I know it can be trickier than it sounds. Hugh: But getting there. When you talk to the doctor. I am guilty of when I get to the doctor, it doesn't hurt anymore. Kelly: Yep. Hugh: So I have to have a good recall. This is what I was feeling. I am self-conscious or nervous, so it has surpassed the slight feeling of pain that I had. I guess there is making notes and being prepared for the doctor. What other ways can people be prepared? Kelly: You just touched on something. In advance of the doctor, make sure you write down everything that you experience. Symptoms, changes in your health, that piece. Make sure you make that list in the Notes app or handwrite them. Inevitably, when you get to the situation, you forget half the things. When you are there, make sure that you go through everything and that you don't, even if you are feeling rushed, it's your time in that room. You have to command it. It's that empowerment thing again. I am not done. I haven't shared everything I am feeling. The two other pieces that have been very helpful in the education are: ask them if they don't know what it is, what could it be? It could be this, or it could be that, or something in between. It gives you some framework to work from. Then you say, Okay. What is the path to the answer? You treat the minimal thing they think it probably is. If it doesn't work, when should I feel better? When should I come back? You have a plan on what the next act is, and you're not waiting around for somebody else to reach out to you. In this day and age, you don't traditionally get a follow-up call. The other one I just touched on is when should I feel better? If I get this ten-day antibiotic, on the tenth day, should I feel better? On the fifth day? When should I feel better? What do I do if I don't? Those two things have been powerful statements to keep people in the driver's seat of the process. Hugh: We don't know what questions to ask. That is helpful. Your website is 15-40.org. The logo is 15-40 Connection. Tell us a bit about the website. There is a Donate button. A Contact. You have a blog. What is on the blog? Kelly: To set the stage, our product is education. It's early detection education. We offer through Train the Trainers, through webinars, and through live presentations with panelists. To support the education we have provided, we have a social infrastructure. We are on all social media platforms, and we have a blog. What we do with our blog is enhance and continue to tell the stories of what we have taught. It's everything from last Valentine's day, we had a blog post on the most important relationship is the one with your doctor. We actually just are launching the 12 Days of Early Detection. Each day someone sings one of the days. At the end, on December 22, you will be able to hear the whole 12 Days of Early Detection. Each day is reinforcing our education. That is what we use all of our social platforms and our blog to do. A lot of it also is through storytelling, highlighting stories of people who have had successful health outcomes as a result of our education or because they didn't have our education, they value it and want to make sure other people have it. Hugh: Start the Conversation. Know the Power of You. Know Your Role. Be Informed. FAQs. The Three Steps Detect. Remember You're Great. Two-Week Rule. Share with Your Doctor. Learn from People Like You. Get Involved. Education & Outreach. Share Your Story. Events. Donate. Find out About Us. You have a team for the marathon. 2018 Boston Marathon. Kelly: We do. We have seven runners who are collectively already over $25,000 in funds raised. That is super exciting. Hugh: That's great. I ran for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society raising money for cancer. Kelly: For Boston? Hugh: No, I ran Atlanta. Yuengling in Virginia Beach. It is a grand event. They give you a name of somebody who is in cancer treatment who you run for. On your website, you can click on that and find out about joining the team. Is that the idea? Kelly: Our team is full. We have filled all seven slots. You can certainly support our team. Three of our seven runners are cancer survivors. They are out pushing the mission forward and empowering themselves and running a marathon and supporting early detection education, which is amazing. Hugh: I love it. You are sitting in the office? Kelly: I am. Hugh: You're in Boston. Kelly: We are about 35 minutes west of Boston. Hugh: West. Tell us about your staff, your founder, and your board. Kelly: Our founder, Joe Coghlin and his family. It is a good story. Jim, his best friend, Mark Ungerer. Jim said, “He is my best friend, second only to my wife.” How romantic, right? Mark lost his son at the age of 15 to leukemia. Mark, as a lasting legacy to his son, started a successful golf tournament. He funded research to help continue to find cures for leukemia. Mark, years after this tournament started, said to Jim, “If something ever happens to me, would you keep this going?” Jim said, “Of course, I will, but you'll outlive me.” Unfortunately, shortly after that, Mark died. Jim had a commitment to this tournament. He continued to fund the research. He is a very successful businessman. He decided to check out the ROI. For all the funds that were being put into research, what was the outcome? As a result of some of that work, he found this statistic, which showed that there had been an issue around delayed diagnosis and the impact of delayed diagnosis on cancer survival rates. Once he found that and recognized that nobody was focused on it, he met with a family and said, “This is a calling. We can't let this be. We have to do something about it.” That's how 15-40 was founded about eight years ago. We have an active board. We just had a board meeting last night. We have eight members at this point. We are actively pursuing additional board members as we scale and build new curriculum. Our staff has eight people who work across all categories: development, marketing, education, outreach to support the mission and to scale the mission. Hugh: That is music to our ears, isn't it, Russ? Russell and I reframe the word “consultant” to “WayFinder.” We don't give people fish; we teach them how to fish. We work with many nonprofits, and boards are not as active as they ought to be. Russell's specialty is funding. We think about donors and grants, but there are six more streams of funding. It sounds like you have a good thing going, a really solid platform. How many people like you in the office? There is nobody like you, but how many others? Kelly: There is eight total people who work in the office each day. A lot of us are out of the office because our education is we are out in schools, in corporate wellness, on college campuses. We are spread all over. There is eight total in the moment. Hugh: Do they all wear black furs to work? Kelly: Exactly. This is to celebrate our 12 Days of Early Detection. I wore a fancy jacket so that I could sing. Stay tuned. Watch our Facebook page. Hugh: You are going to sing. Your Facebook page is 1540 Connection. Twitter is @1540connection. YouTube is The1540Connection. Instagram is 1540connection. No hyphen. Just written out. Kelly: Each day, we will post. Everybody is singing a day of early detection. Hugh: Love it. That is clever. Russell, we are on the last stretch of our interview. I bet you got some observations and closing questions for Kelly. Russell: I love the fact that everybody is cross-trained and understands everybody's function and role and taking that responsibility onto yourselves. It's marvelous. Spreading the wealth and spreading the joy. I love what you're doing. I'd be interested to know more about your Train the Trainer process. That is something that should be spread beyond Boston. I think it should be spread around the country so that people understand what they are looking at. Kelly: Because of technology, we were able to do a Train the Trainer in Florida. We are national. Our feet on the street is here in Boston, so we have deeper traction here. We are definitely moving across the Mississippi and trying to hit all four corners and the center of the U.S. and make sure everybody gets the education. Hugh: One of your tabs says Get Involved. If people are not in Boston, how do they get involved? Kelly: So many ways. You can get involved through social media. You can share our story with your network. You can bring our education through your schools or corporations. You can also sign up for Train the Trainer. You can bring us to your college campus. It really is endless. All the opportunities are posted there. There is also an email capability to tell us what you're thinking. We are nimble, so we are constantly looking for new ideas. We welcome all ideas. Hugh: Amazing. So Kelly, as we wrap up here, is there something we haven't covered that you want to share? What parting thought do you have to leave with our listeners? Kelly: As our founder says, “Health is wealth.” At the end of the day, if you are not healthy, everything is a struggle. We have the capacity to get well. Most people can access a doctor or a hospital. Taking the extra time to do that if something changes in your health can be a life-saving decision. Our founder says often, “Don't be selfish. Think about all the people who love you. If you make this decision and you are negatively impacted as a result, they are, too.” That is a strong statement. It's not just about you. It's about everybody around you. I have young kids. I am being wheeled into the hospital with a ten- and eight-year-old. That is not an easy pill to swallow. You want to come out and make sure that you are there for them. I think that is the key component of all of this. Make it a priority because at the end of the day, nothing else matters. If you don't have your health, the rest is not going to happen. Hugh: Amazing. Russell, those are good words, aren't they? Russell: They are wonderful. Thank you for making this information available to a lot of people. It's a worthwhile cause. Access to information and resources is critical, especially in today's climate of rising costs. The thing that I would say to people as a closing thought if you got some things going on and you are stopping to think, Well, I don't know if I have the money or the resources to pay for it, I will point out that I have never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse. Dead people don't pay bills. Hugh: Kelly, thank you for making time. I know you have a lot of things to do. Thank you for sharing your story with all of our listeners. Kelly: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good evening everyone.. Welcome to another great edition of WHEELZ UP RADIO Presented by SASSY RACING ENGINES. I have to go to a track meet on Weds evening.. So Kelly and Rob and of course Mike will be at the helm. We have the only 2 time winner so far on the MELLO YELLO Tour joining us. Yes the man the myth the legend. Bo Butner will be joining us live at about 8 PM EST. We hope that you can tune in and check us out live starting Weds night at 7 PM EST. We will have a lot to talk about about coming out of Atlanta.. And of course our special guest. And a tragedy that claimed a Racers life at Fire Bird. You can be part of the show by giving Kelly and Rob by calling 347 826 7505.. Be sure to check out our FB page.www.facebook.com/wheelzupradio. We are also on twitter. @wheelzupradio .

Kelly asked her blog readers what topics they wanted her to write about. Several of the topics were super-interesting, but weren’t things she could write a full post on. She also wanted to get Carly’s view on a few of them. So Kelly and Carly tackle those questions together in this episode including:  How do you get people to think for themselves?  How do you talk about money ‘well’?  How to deal with the ‘it never rains, but it pours’ woes of being a freelancer.  How to know when to give up on something you’re ‘crap’ at, and when to keep persisting.  How to deal with the nightly news (which seems to be all bad news).  How to deal with imposter syndrome.  For more info on Kelly and Carly, and to see any links or resources mentioned in today’s episode, head over to  www.straightandcurly.com or come join the Straight and Curly group on Facebook . 

We all know that Trevor has no shame, and Kelly has a big mouth. So Kelly promised if Trevor would shave his legs on video, she would get him the Magpul Hunter X-22 stock that he has been wanting (just like Ralphie wanting the Red Ryder BB Gun). Trevor was in (was there ever any … Continue reading SFR Episode 186 – Christmas for Kids Live Show → The post SFR Episode 186 – Christmas for Kids Live Show appeared first on Slam Fire Radio.