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Two Ewes Fiber Adventures


Welcome to Two Ewes Fiber Adventures, a podcast about knitting, spinning, crochet, weaving and all the ways to play with yarn!

This site has our player and text-only show notes.  To see the full show notes with photos, additional blog posts, and our shop, go to TwoEwesFiber.com.  Join in the conversation at our Ravelry Group.

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May 2, 2021

Kelly shares happy news about adopting Bear, a big, sweet, eight year old shepherd. And Marsha has a surprise finish!

Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.

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Marsha’s Projects

Walk Along tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link)

I finished my Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lassonde (Ravelry link) just in time for the end of our Extremities Knit/Crochet Along. 

I started the gusset on the second sock of a pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.  

I ordered another 8 oz of the dark brown roving for the green and brown three ply. I plan to spin the brown separately and make a striped sweater.

Kelly’s Projects 

I finished the Huck weaving sampler from the Jane Stafford Guild. I'm now ready for May and episode 4. 

Faye’s Flower Blanket. I now have 16 octagons

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

The KAL ended on April 25, 2021 and the winners are:

jacquiemari--Jacqueline. She made legwarmers. Wins the Abington Mitts pattern by Jennifer Lassonde

JillMabelina--Jill. She made a pair of Bernie mitts. Wins the Coffee Socks Collection by Dots Dabbles Designs.

Summer Spin In

May 31st - September 6th

Get ready to spin! Our Summer Spin In takes place again from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Transcript

Marsha 0:03
Hi, this is Marsha

Kelly 0:04
and this is Kelly.

Marsha 0:05
We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Kelly 0:10
You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string.

Marsha 0:17
We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Kelly 0:22
And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects, and I am Betterinmotion. We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there.

Marsha 0:36
Enjoy the episode.

Marsha 0:43
Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly 0:44
Good morning, Marsha. I just had to look to see if it was actually still morning and it is. It's technically, it's technically morning. I am very tired.

Marsha 0:58
Well, you have big news.

Kelly 0:59
I do. Yeah. Anybody who follows me on Instagram... And if you don't follow me on Instagram, you should! 1hundredprojects, the number one, hundred projects, you will have seen that we have a new addition to the family. And I, you know, I know that raising a baby--that type of new addition to the family is much more difficult than what I'm doing. And I... it's only actually been two days and things are already getting better. But I am totally exhausted. We adopted a new dog. So his name is his name is Bear. I call him Beary. He is,... well... I don't know if I told you Marsha. I'll tell everybody how this actually happened. We were not looking for another dog. I mean, we do...

Marsha 1:52
Yes, I actually, I don't and my brother asked me. So why did they do this? Why did why did you this?

Kelly 1:57
Yeah. So I mean, we miss Nash, you know, we lost him in the fall. And he was kind of nice to have around. And then Betty liked having a dog when we would go off. To have a dog to stay home with her. But we weren't really looking for another dog at this point. And I actually think a one dog household is too few dogs. But again, we weren't really thinking about another dog at this point. Bailey still young. And I still got a lot of work to do with her. So. But anyway, my friend Paul is interested in getting a dog and he's been talking about it for I don't know, maybe two years. And first he wanted to get a lab and he was asking me about lab breeders that I knew. And then he was thinking maybe he get this breed and maybe that breed. And just for listeners, he's a friend that I've had since I started at Hartnell. And I helped him find his first dog, which was a boxer that I co owned with him and trained and did obedience got her got her CD title. And then he got--I helped him find his last dog, which was a wirehaired pointing griffon. So anyway, now he's looking for another dog. And so and I just you know, I said you know, you're you're working so hard at this trying to find a dog online and feeling concerned. Why don't you look at maybe a rescue? Oh, I don't know, I think I want to raise a puppy. I want to know what it's gonna be like, but you know me, he was kind of not really open to it. But

Marsha 3:32
but but he didn't say no. Right?

Kelly 3:35
So periodically, over the last couple of months, because every time I talked to him, he's like, I need to get a dog. What do you think about this breed? What do you think about that breed? So I just thought, you know what? I'm going to go on, look at the shelters. So I did and I did this about three months, three or two months ago, I guess. I went to look at the shelters, and there really isn't much. In fact, that's an interesting thing that the shelters all have shortages. But anyway, I saw this German Shepherd male who it was very overweight. And I saw about two months ago and I thought oh, he's the old guy, you know, a senior and I thought well, he'll be, you know, he'll be adopted because everybody's being adopted now. This is how it's working. And then I went back and he was still there. And then the third time I went back, he was still there. I texted Robert and I said what do you think? It'd be like... His situation just reminded me of Nash coming to us later in life after a kind of somewhat unknown background, you know, to just kind of be the lay-around-the-house dog. And so Robert said, Yeah, okay. I think that might be okay. And so I contacted the SPCA. Well, it was so much faster than Bailey!

Marsha 4:54
Because Bailey was a really long time. You had to pass a lot of hurdles.

Kelly 4:58
Yeah. mmmhmmm.

Marsha 5:00
It took a couple months, right?

Kelly 5:00
They had to inspect my house and, and she had an injury that had to heal too. So that was part of it. But, you know, I was at... we were out at the boarding facility, I don't know, for 10 days going every day to see her, you know, before she was able to come home. So I contacted them on Saturday. I emailed or filled out the form on Saturday, I got a phone call. I thought I wouldn't hear back until Monday. But I got a phone call on Sunday, saying, Do you want to come meet him? Can you come on Monday? So then Robert's, like, they're just trying to get rid of him? What's wrong with this dog? And I said, well, what's wrong with him is he's you know, low thyroid, and he has a lot of weight to lose. And, you know, he's eight. And they just want to send--he's been there a long time. They just want to get him a home, you know. If we're interested, they're gonna take us up on it, but, but he was really suspicious about how fast it went. And then we went and met him. And they had, you know, they asked us to bring Bailey so Bailey met him too. And, you know, they kind of didn't really interact, they just kind of did their own thing. in the, in the area where, where they meet. We, you know, we walked them together kind of on leash. And then, and then she was-- they were able to both go off leash together, but they pretty much just kind of ignored each other mostly. Sniffed a little bit, but that was it. So then, you know, is like, are you? Well, what do you think? Are you interested? And I said, Yes. And so like, 20 minutes later, we were leaving with a ramp because he didn't like getting into the car. And you can't lift him up because he, he doesn't like being poked or prodded or pushed or lifted, or anything like that. And he turns around and grabs you, not biting you. But he does, like let you know that he doesn't want you doing that, which we're working on. So anyway, we've had him for two days. This is the third, this is the third day.

Marsha 7:10
I just, I mean, it's such a shock, because, well, I just think it's amazing that you can just go and get a dog that fast.

Kelly 7:18
That's what Robert said. He said, how do they know that we're a good home? Like they talked-- They talked to us for half an hour. You know, we brought Bailey and they saw how Bailey was with him. And then they sent him home with us. Like, how do they know we're gonna be good?

Marsha 7:34
You know, it's like when I gave birth to Ben, I couldn't believe the hospital was gonna let me take him home. Don't they know I don't know what I'm doing? I mean, it's kind of amazing that anybody can have a baby and you can just

Kelly 7:48
Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

Marsha 7:50
But it's the same thing. And I, I've told you this too. About my friend that had moved to Spokane, came to visit Seattle and got a dog and And literally, he just filled out the application paid his fee and left with the dog. And then the poor dog came to my house and met Enzo and we had lunch and then got in the car and drove across the state.

Kelly 8:14
Yeah.

Marsha 8:16
And it worked out fine. That dog adores Darryl, you know. And Darryl adores the dog. It worked out fine, but it's like, they just let the dogs go with anybody. It's just so... strange.

Kelly 8:27
When I volunteered there I never wanted to let any dog go with anybody.

Marsha 8:31
Yeah. No owner was good enough.

Kelly 8:34
Anyway, but he's, he's great. He, he's hard. It's really hard. I mean, basically, I'm used to having dogs that, you know, they they, they communicate. I know how to communicate with them. You know, we had to work on it with with Bailey. And you forget how much you had to work. I had to kind of remind myself of how hard it was when she first came. Because now she seems so easy. But yeah, like he didn't know how to be in the house. And the first day, it was great because the weather's been really good. So we've just been able to spend all day out in the backyard. And I've gotten, I have to admit, very little work done. But you know, I can set my computer up on the table in the backyard and I can work and I can be in the... I've been able to be in the trailer and talk to him through the window of the trailer. He can come and look in the door of the trailer. But he can't he can't get in because he's too big. He can't lift himself, you know, into the .

Marsha 9:35
So I know like Well, let's just let's talk about some of his issues.

Kelly 9:40
Okay.

Marsha 9:41
You said he has, is it? He has hypo thyroid? Because I don't-- I can't say it..

Kelly 9:46
Yeah, hypothyroid he's low thyroid, and he's on thyroid medication. And he was at the SPCA for three months. He came in with a wound from being attacked by a dog. And he was surrendered. And then they stitched him up that was kind of on his shoulder and they stitched him up. And then they discovered that he had this low thyroid problem.

Marsha 10:14
Well, and also doesn't he have...He's had, like you said, a chronic ear infection, which has damaged one of his ears. Didn't you say that, too?

Kelly 10:20
Yeah, he had... They didn't realize at first but but after, you know, they fixed him up, and they realize his ear had a problem. So then they had to go in and clean out his ears. And they cleaned them and then they came back, you know, got really bad again, and they so they put him on antibiotics for his ears and ear medication. And...but the one ear bothers him, he shakes his head a lot. Even though it's clean. The vet said it's clean. It's just the ear canal has kind of a lot of scar tissue. And it just... she said it just feels funny. And I

Marsha 10:22
Yeah,

Kelly 10:51
well, when he got to the... he's he lost 30 pounds. I think she said. Yeah, he lost like 30 pounds. And I think, I mean, he should probably be more like 90 pounds. Unless, unless he's just a bigger dog than I think in terms of his body structure. I'm thinking probably he should be around 90 pounds. So he has another like 40 pounds to lose.

Marsha 11:25
So he should be about 90 pounds. He is did you say he's like 137 pounds? Now?

Kelly 11:31
He's 133. Yeah, when he came home.

Marsha 11:33
133 when it came home? And he'd lost...

Kelly 11:38
almost 30 pounds. Yeah.

Marsha 11:40
30 pounds. So he would have been like 160 pounds.

Kelly 11:44
Yes.

Marsha 11:46
And he should be around 90.

Kelly 11:48
Yeah, like a large German Shepherd would be... a male German Shepherd would be like around 90.

Marsha 11:54
He was like double what he should be. More than double what he should be.

Kelly 11:56
Yeah. And you know, I don't know, do ear canals get fat? [laughing] I have no idea. But he's, he's very, he's very. He's very sweet. But he just he does whatever he wants. He's like a 130 pound toddler. And he doesn't really understand the word no. Right? I mean, he's not probably had a lot of interaction. He probably was a backyard dog, you know? And so he doesn't really... Like I'm just so much blah, blah, blah, blah, when I talk, and so he doesn't really understand the word no or anything. Yeah, you know, and he goes where he wants and he weighs a lot more than most dogs.

Marsha 12:09
He can just go where he wants, because he is so big.

Kelly 12:47
So I'm gonna say something that is probably controversial to a lot of people. But he came to us on a buckle collar. And, like, I can't control him. Right. I'm not that--I mean, I'm not as strong as I used to be when I had the wolf hounds. But also the wolf hounds, they thought I was stronger than them. You know, I mean, I knew them since puppyhood. So

Marsha 13:14
but at 137 pounds, 133 pounds.

Kelly 13:21
He weighs more than I do. Yeah,

Marsha 13:22
He outweighs, you.

Kelly 13:23
Yeah. And he's also he's used to doing what he wants, you know. So I couldn't I mean, I could barely walk him. So after one day, we got out the the chain collar that Nash had used and, you know, I wasn't jerking him around or anything, but it just gives me a lot of, a lot better control. And we were able to go for three walks yesterday, three short walks yesterday. And you know, he's not dragging me around now. Literally, he was dragging me through the house to get to toys. The first night it was like, every time he saw one of Bailey's toys, which, you know, we didn't know he was coming, so I had not dog proofed the house. And so he'd see one of her squirrels that she has--the squirrels in a tree--and he'd like take off. I was like flying behind him. Cuz he was on leash. Oh my gosh, it was so hard that first night.

Marsha 13:33
Wow.

Kelly 14:02
He just, you know, he went where he wanted and, and, and he's surprisingly fast for a big guy. If you if he's got something on his mind that he wants, he's surprisingly fast [laughing] Oh my goodness, but so so that that has made it a little bit easier to to have some control when he has the leash on. But he's still I mean, he still... he wants what he wants when he wants it. And but he's very...

Marsha 14:48
Just like a toddler.

Kelly 14:49
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. 130 pound toddler. But he learned he does learn how to sleep on the pillow the first day-- the first night. He can't be crated, because we don't have a crate big enough. And I tried the ex-pen, but he just walked pushing the ex-pen. So the ex-pen is just moving around the room as... Like, Okay, this is not gonna work! [laughing]

Marsha 15:22
Well, cuz you were saying because he's a backyard dog he's not housebroken either, right. So how is that? So I have a couple questions. That was the other issue he had. There's really no training. Not housebroken. He really is not comfortable in the house. Right? You said he was... He's used to being outside. So he sort of anxious being inside and having to spend the night inside. So what other issues did he have? [laughing] So I guess I'll just ask my question. So he seems to be doing better being inside, right. The first night you said was sort of challenging, but so you picked him up Monday?

Kelly 16:01
Yeah.

Marsha 16:01
So it's only two nights.

Kelly 16:02
Yeah. And since Robert works, swing shift, I was by myself in the evening. During the day, we were out in the yard, and it was fine. You know, he he had, he was able to go around the yard, we took him off the leash. And he was able to go around the yard and, you know, do things and-- but then when it's time to come in and got cold, and I needed to come in for the night, I brought him in, and we we sat up in the spare room. And I put the two dog pillows in there. And Bailey, he and Bailey were both there. And I told Bailey to lay on her pillow. So she did. And then I just sat and crocheted while he paced and paced and whined and whined and paced and whined and paced and whined. Until, luckily, he's so big! Because he can't stand up for that long, right. At a certain point, he had to sit down. And then once he sat down, he can only sit for so long before he has to lay his body on the ground. So, so finally he lay down. But you know, I would try to be as still as I could, so he wouldn't pop up. But you know, it was only going for like 20 minutes at a time. And then he'd be back up pacing and whining. And that was from about dinner, like 6:30 after dinner, until I finally thought you know what, okay, he's getting a little more comfortable in this room, but we have to sleep in the other room. Maybe this wasn't such a smart idea. I should have probably started already there. So then I got the bedroom ready and put the pillows down and closed the door. And so then I just let him pace around in the bedroom while I sat in the bed and did more crocheting. And again, same thing, you know, pacing and whining and pacing and whining until he finally laid on the pillow and, and fell asleep. And then Robert got home. I stayed up until Robert got home. And then once Robert got home, Robert took him out one more time. And then we--but we were up a couple of times during the night that first night to take him out and stuff. But last night he slept all the way through the night. I mean, Robert gets home around midnight. Robert took him out then. But he slept the whole rest of the night. So he was tired. We were both tired.

Marsha 18:14
Yeah. And and then what about the diet? Are you... how are you going to approach that because he obviously needs to get off additional weight?

Kelly 18:23
Yeah. The vet actually said she doesn't think he'll lose any more. I think maybe because of his thyroid issue? I'm not really sure. That surprised me when she said that. But she told me you know how much he was eating. And we're going to keep him at that amount for a while with just the extra activity and see what happens. So and then, and then we'll kind of gauge how he's going. I don't want to give him too little. You know, you don't want him to lose weight too fast. Right, like people so, yeah. So anyway, right now, it's just kind of the same amount, trying to feed him the same amount as what they were giving him but you know, watching... using a lot of that food as treats. You know, to teach him things.

Marsha 18:44
So and then the housebreaking do you think?

Kelly 18:51
They said he was clean in the kennel. Like he didn't go in his kennel. At the SPCA they would, you know, they take.. they try to take the dogs out and, and let them go to the bathroom outside of their of their pens. And they said, you know, he would hold it so that he could go when they let him out. So that was good. So that, you know, that's good. That makes it a lot easier to housebreak. So just making sure that he goes out often. You know and we've been spending... I mean, it's only been there's only the third day and it's been gorgeous. So we've been able to be outside, which is nice. But when we do go out, you know when he is in the house he's on he's on the leash or inside of a closed room.

Marsha 19:56
And then you just have to keep track of a time too like... You know, I got Enzo as a puppy. You know, like, I was like, every 30 minutes or 40 minutes. Yeah, I was taking him and giving him the opportunity.

Kelly 20:08
Yeah,yeah. And it doesn't have to be that often with Beary because he's, he's older and he does have control. It's not like he doesn't have any control. It's just he doesn't know that, you know, that room over there that we're not in is not the right place. So. But he doesn't have access to... he doesn't have access to any place except right where I am. Which is why it's so tiring, you know,

Marsha 20:33
Yeah.

Kelly 20:34
I'll just tell one more story. And then we'll get to get to the the podcast topics. But the first day, every time... So I have to take him in with me when I went to the bathroom, right? Because nobody was home. It's just me. So I'd take him with in with me on the leash into the bathroom. And he would spot the wastepaper basket, and like dive in headfirst and eat something out of the wastebasket. So every different bathroom, we went in, of course, has a wastebasket, and it's still on the floor. And here he goes diving into the wastebasket to eat something. And so yeah, so now all the waste baskets are up off the ground. In all of the bathrooms. [laughing]

Marsha 21:19
It'll be interesting to see as the months go by, if you're able to get some of this excess weight. If he starts feeling better, you know?

Kelly 21:27
Yeah, yeah. I think like some of the issues of not wanting to be lifted into the cars just like okay, that hurts. You know, and, and, and then... Yeah, so we'll see how that goes. Yeah, but it's a it's a fun. It's a it's an exciting thing. It happened super fast. It was totally unexpected. And it's been really exhausting. [laughing] But it's good. It's really good. Yeah, yeah.

Marsha 21:57
All right. Well, So I'm excited to hear about it going forward. But should we talk project?

Kelly 22:04
Yes, we should.

Marsha 22:06
I have no, I have no dog updates. Enzo is just sleeping here on the floor next to me. Okay, seriously now, projects? Yes. Would you like to go first?

Kelly 22:16
No, go ahead.

Marsha 22:18
Okay. So, um, well, I don't really have a lot to report. Walk Along, still working on it. By Ankestrick the T shirt. Still working on that. I'm alternating working on that and spinning. I ordered another eight ounces of the dark brown Merino roving. And we talked about this in the last time that I'm running out. I'm not going to have enough of the fiber that I had to make a sweater quantity. And so I decided to order more of the the dark brown to finish plying with the green, but also to have extra so I can just do three ply of this... of just the brown Yeah, so then when I... So I should have enough for a sweater I'm Fingers crossed! So then I can do stripes or something to have enough for a sweater. That's what I'm hoping. I'm just going to throw in there... I'll finish about my projects, but before I talk about my other things that are going on. About roving, remember the last time we talked about when you're plying the singles and a single breaks and how you find the end. We did have...we talked about you know ideas. We did hear from Jolene Jojocraftsalot in her comment was a tip on when you apply breaks and you can't find it try a piece of tape and tap it around on the bobbin of yarn to see if it will find the elusive end. That's an interesting idea.

Kelly 23:44
okay. Yeah sort of like a lint... like getting lint off your sweater but with tape and you hope instead of lint the end of the yarn will stick to it.

Marsha 23:54
Yeah, so that's a good tip. And I'm working on my socks. I think last time we were talking I was working on the heel flap I've now have finished the gusset and I'm moving on to the foot. Not a lot there to report but I finished something!

Kelly 24:11
Yay!

Marsha 24:12
Guess what I finished! I finished my mitts my Abington Mitts! And you remember the last time we talked I said I was not going to promise that I was going to finish them that evening because I never do? Guess what I did that night! So I posted them in our thread which, we will talk about this later, but our extremities knit and crochet along. I posted that and that has ended and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But I did finish those and that's all I have to report. All right. Nothing. I'm not a lot of progress on anything. Just just steady.

Kelly 24:51
Well, you've had a lot of stuff going on at your house. A lot of cleaning and painting and the house projects.

Marsha 25:00
yeah, I think I mentioned this contractor finished at the the rental house, finished the basement. Well his part of that. Now it's my job to go in there and paint it. So I've started I was over there Monday and Tuesday washing down the woodwork on the main floor, which the contractor wasn't there, but it was just dusty and I'll just be honest, dirty. I guess I'm not that great a housekeeper or I guess I didn't routinely wash that. [laughing] Well, I don't think I've ever washed down the woodwork in the living room and the dining room. I've washed down the kitchen and the bathroom before but I didn't routinely wash down woodwork. And so guess what? It was a little dirty! It needed to be washed. So it looks great and the good thing is it was a good paint job I did years ago and it's held up. And just a good cleaning and it's ready to go nice. So yeah, anyway, but... But what about your projects?

Kelly 25:56
Well, um, I had that... I had the Huck weaving sampler from the Jane Stafford guild and I think it was on the loom last time. I don't exactly remember. I think I had tied it on to the loom. But I hadn't started weaving or maybe I had started weaving and I... Oh no! I had woven the first part of the sampler and cut it off the loom and washed it. And then I wove the last part of the sampler and I only got... I was thinking I would have another like yard length and with the loom waste and just the shrinkage and stuff I only ended up with about maybe about 18 inches, but I wove it off. So the first one I wove, the same silk that was in the warp I used as weft, and I made a small shawl that I actually have hung up in the studio. It'll probably be a sample, I probably won't wear it as a shawl. I'll just keep it in there to kind of look at what I did. And then the second part of it, I wove with this linen, I have some cones of linen. And they're stained. This was like a porcelain blue color, pale porcelain blue. And it's a really rough spun linen. And I had used a cone of dark gray with that purple silk to knit a sweater, that Cherry Vanilla sweater that I made years ago. And this one was a porcelain blue color. And I thought oh, I'm gonna weave with it and see how it weaves up. And also, since this is just a sample, if the stains don't wash out, you know, that are on the cone, then I'll know. First of all, it's not stained... like the outer edge was stained, right. So just the first few yards, but the top and the bottom also have stains on it. So you know, as you go into the cone, you're going to pick up those stains at the top, that dirt right at the top of the cone and at the bottom of the cone. And so I was, you know, wondering if that was going to be worth using or not. You don't want to make a really nice project and then it doesn't wash out. So I thought, well I'll weave with it and see if it washes out. And it mostly did, there was a little bit of the kind of rusty looking stains that stayed. But small enough that you really can't, you really can't tell if you really... You know, if I didn't know it was there and go looking to see if didn't wash out, I don't think I wouldn't have noticed. So that gives me an idea that I can use those cones which, most of them are dirty in that same way. I can use those linen cones for other things which is which is kind of nice because I think it's really it's yarn I picked up when the weaving program at Hartnell stopped and there was a lot of yarn in the in the weaving classroom. And I managed to score. It felt like a score to me! I managed to score all these you know, rustic linen cones. But if they were you know, too dirty to use then I needed to know that. So anyway, I wove that and I have it sitting on my vanity in the bedroom just for you know, just to use it for a little while. But I think it's probably just going to be a sample that I'll keep downstairs near the, you know, near the loom and do something with it in the studio. So that was fun and got all the huck weaving done now. I'm waiting for the Jane Stafford guild. They have switched over on their classes. And I think they might have had been having to switch over on their website too. I was having a little bit of trouble accessing their website Anyway, once that switchover happens and they're in the new their new site, she's supposed to release her next her next episode for the month of May. So I'm all done. I'm keeping up again. I have my April project done and my May project we don't know what it is yet so I can't get started.

Kelly 29:50
And then I have been working on... I mentioned sitting and crocheting and saying, Good, good. Good boy! Like the calmest voice I could have is what I kept doing as I crocheted.So I did get some crocheting done. And I am now up to... let me just look. So I need 20 octagons. For this blanket, I'm going to make it 4 octagons by 5 octagons, a rectangle instead of a square. I've got 15 of them. No, I've got 16 of them done because I finished one last night. So I've got 16 out of the 20 octagons done.

Marsha 30:37
Oh, getting there.

Kelly 30:38
Yeah, I'm close on the octagons. I'm close the squares. I need 12 and I have eight done. And then the half squares, which would be triangles, I need 14 and I don't have any of those done. And then I need four corners, which are also triangles, but they're smaller triangles. And I don't have any of those four corner triangles done so. So I've still got some... I've still got some work to do.

Kelly 31:07
I'm going to end up with a lot of extra yarn, the the number of balls of yarn that they call for for this kit for the kit that you know or the for the pattern I think was so you had enough colors, but you end up with a lot of leftovers. So I'm going to have a lot even though I'm doing... Well I bought extra because I ended up buying the kit of mini skeins, the package of mini skeins. So I bought more yarn than I thought I needed. And I even needed less than that. So even with the extra octagons I'm gonna, I think I would have a significant amount of this yarn leftover but you know, Mother Bears work good in acrylic. And, and charity, charity hats in acrylic. Yeah, there's lots of things I can do with it once I'm done. So yeah, I'm making good progress on that, again, it's really been the only thing I've been working on. I don't have a knitting project. Well, I have those socks that I started that were going to be the Matcha socks. And then I started calling them Not Matcha socks because I couldn't even see the pattern. But I haven't picked those up. And I do think I'm going to... At first I thought I can just start where I left off. And no one will ever know that it was a pattern and it was supposed to be a pattern and and now I'm just doing them plain. But right now I think I'm just gonna rip them back and start over. So, but I haven't done that. So yeah, I have just the one crochet project going and that's really it. That's the only active project I have.

Marsha 32:42
So we've got a lot going. To me, it seems like a lot, you know,

Kelly 32:45
And well, the last couple days for sure. [laughing] But school, you know, school has been busy and, and, and starting a project there's always a little bit of friction, right? You have to figure out what you're going to make and you have to get the yarn balled up and you have to find the right needles and you have to do the thing-- the, you know, the kind of fiddly parts of getting going and I just haven't really had a chance to do that and the crochet has has been inspiring me to keep going because I'm so close now.

Marsha 33:17
Yeah,

Kelly 33:19
I've been pretty monogamous there. So yeah, that's that's it on my yarn projects. I now have a big, big furry project. But it's not, it's not yarn. [laughing]

Marsha 33:33
So we did have the extremities knit and crochet and macrame along. I was waiting for some macrame socks to show up but we never got any!

Kelly 33:46
But we did have some nice entries. What about 50 of them I think. 50 entries into the extremities knitalong and there were some crochet things I do believe if I'm remembering correctly. Anyway, we're gonna draw prizes for that and then we'll talk a little bit about some of the some of the projects that people that people submitted to that. So we have two prizes. One is the pattern for Abington Mitts by Jennifer Lasonnde. And then the other project, the other prize is a pattern, actually a pattern collection. The Coffee Socks Collection by Dots Dabbles Designs.

Marsha 34:30
Earlier we did the random number generator and pulled our two winners. So do you want announce who they are?

Kelly 34:37
Sure. Yeah, so the winner of the Abington Mitts pattern is Jackimarie, Jacqueline, and she made leg warmers. She actually made two pairs of leg warmers or boot cuffs, really cute! And we drew her name for one of those pairs. And so she's gonna win that Abington Mitts pattern. So congratulations, Jackie Marie

Marsha 35:03
Congratulations.Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 35:05
And then our second winner. Our second winner is Jillmabelina, Jill. And she made a pair of Bernie mitts.

Marsha 35:16
Yes, she actually made two pair.

Kelly 35:17
Oh, did she? That's right. I remember that now because it reminded me when I read it, that I had downloaded the pattern to make the crocheted Bernie you know, Bernie at the... it's a little amigurumi of Bernie at the inauguration with his mitts. And I, someone had posted a picture of it in one of my texts, you know, in one of my text groups of work friends had posted a picture of it. And I said, Oh, yeah, I saw the pattern. And somebody said, Oh, I'd love to have one. And I said, Oh, I'm downloading the pattern now. And then I never made it for her. So it reminded me that I had kind of promised to make a crocheted Bernie. I think probably that ship has sailed, but...

Marsha 35:26
I know. I think that meme is is done, but then it may come back.

Kelly 36:14
But the mittens are really really cool. And she made a really nice couple of pairs of those. So Jill, you win the Coffee Socks Collection, by Dots Dabbles Designs.

Marsha 36:27
And then I was just gonna it's always fun to see what people make. I mean, I'm always intrigued by the patterns. And, and so just a couple things. I just, well, I just... I tallied up, we had 25 pairs of socks, 17 mitts or mittens, or I'm putting it all in the same category, the fingerless mitts mitts or like wrist warmers. And the two leg warmers, and one set of puppets that go on your hands. So that's so anyway, Superkip, Natalie, she made panda puppets, and they're crocheted and they're adorable. They look like little mittens and they're puppets.

Kelly 37:09
I think she said the intention is for that to be... to actually be used as like oven mitts or like barbecue grilling.

Marsha 37:19
Oh, okay. Yeah. And the other one is, UlricaC. She did socks. And the pattern is called Vanilla Is The New Black. And I comment on this because it was such an interesting heel. Did you look at this one. Very interesting heel.

Kelly 37:38
It has kind of a diagonal?

Marsha 37:41
Yeah, they're like, their like a Chevron on the back of the heel kind of and then I guess, a couple stitches of stockinette that go up. Anyway, they're an interesting heel, so I just wanted to comment on that. And then FerretSue, Sue, did the Hilja, that's probably not how it's pronounced, but the Hilja wrist warmers by Alex Bird. And I went to look at the pattern and it's it's called an Estonian inlay technique called Roosimine. And did you see this one? It's very interesting. It looks sort of like... I don't think this is what it is. But it sort of looks like the the backside of stranded knitting. Forming a pattern. It's very, very interesting. And so I wanted to comment on that

Kelly 38:35
I always love to see the different techniques that people use. Mm hmm. Yeah.

Marsha 38:40
And then the other one I commented was both knitnaround by Patty and bikesbrewewes by Kelsey. They both did mitts that are colourwork mitts with birds on them. And Patty did Springboard mitts. And Kelsey did Providence mitts. And they're really, really pretty, but it just was interesting that they both did mitts with birds. Yeah, very nice. So that was just some comments. Well, a lots of socks and lots of nice sock patterns.

Kelly 39:16
Yeah, there's one sock pattern, the U-turn socks by, that were made by Joylaine. Those are so interesting. I have to get that pattern. Because the socks... like the front of the sock is is done, you know side to side, like if you were knitting in the round. And the back part of the sock is knit lengthwise. So like you're knitting like from the... from the top of the sock down to the heel. I don't know...by looking at them... Because they're striped, you can kind of tell the construction, but I don't know how it was done. Like I kept looking at their pictures and like, oh, how did that... how does that work? So I think I might have to try that. That looks Very interesting. And, and maybe a self striping yarn. I don't typically knit with self striping yarn because I don't make plain stockinette socks. But these look like a lot of fun. So maybe I can get a fun sell striping in and try the U turn socks. And then thinking of socks. Michelle, MichEmbrey on Ravelry.

Marsha 40:24
The monkey socks?

Kelly 40:26
Yeah, she made several pairs of socks, actually, because she's doing-- Have you heard of sock madness, Marsha.

Marsha 40:33
I've heard the term, but you'll have to explain it. Because she's got about three pairs of socks

Kelly 40:38
It's a contest on Ravelry where teams of people knit socks, and I think it goes along-- I'm gonna, I'm gonna go out on a limb because I don't know all that much about it. But I have a feeling it has something to do with March Madness. But it's sock madness. And so there's some competition aspect to it. Where people get eliminated, teams get eliminated like they do in the basketball tournament. And so you have like two weeks to knit the socks. And your team has to knit the socks faster than the other team or something. Anyway. I remember hearing about it when I was going to a knit group over in Pacific Grove at Monarch. And a woman there was doing it is like, oh my gosh. And basically she would put her vacation around this sock madness, like, you know, kind of plan vacation days and things for her her work so that she could participate in sock madness and kind of maximize her knitting time. Because she was so into this sock competition. And it just sounded it sounded so crazy that it was fun, right? [laughing] Like, oh my gosh, maybe I'm interested in this. Oh, I probably shouldn't be.

Marsha 41:55
You have another project a big project!

Kelly 41:57
Yeah, well, yeah. And I'm not that fast of.... I'm not that fast of a knitter, either. So. But anyway, very interesting to see all her socks and you know, the different patterns and they're not. They're not plain patterns. I mean, these socks that people are racing to finish are complicated, complicated patterns. So and then the one last project that I've mentioned thinking of, of socks and interesting methods, is Lisa Casson. She made yoga socks, and she used a knitting loom. And I thought that was really interesting. I mean, I know about knitting looms, but I really never think of them as a way to actually make a project like a pair of yoga socks. I mean, it is actually a tube. But I wouldn't have ever really thought about that. So she used her knitting loom and made a nice pair of yoga socks with the you know, cut out for the heel and the toe.

Marsha 43:02
Well, and I just now I'm looking at all the projects, and I realized I made a mistake on something. I thought they were mittens, but they're... because they were felted. Oven mitts by FinnElliknits. Did you see those? Oh, and that's Ellen. Yeah, they're oven mitts. It's a...

Kelly 43:19
That's a really good idea. I need some potholders!

Marsha 43:21
Yeah.

Kelly 43:22
Oh, I'm looking at them right now. Yeah,

Marsha 43:23
yeah. And then there's a pot holder in the back. And I just, I was just glancing at it and thought, Oh, they were mitts. But now that I realized I made a mistake. It's actually their oven mitts. What a great idea!

Kelly 43:33
That is a good idea. Yeah.

Marsha 43:37
When you said about you're gonna go out on a limb about what the sock madness is? I was gonna say you're gonna go out on an extremity. [laughing]

Kelly 43:50
Oh, that's good. I like it! [laughing]

Marsha 43:55
Anyway, congratulations to... Well, first of all, thank you to everybody for participating. This is really fun to see what people did. And then congratulations to our two winners!

Kelly 44:07
So go ahead and get in contact with me and I will pass along your name to to our donors, Jennifer Lassonde and Debbie from Dots, Dabbles Designs.

Marsha 44:19
Just last two things. We have the summer spin in starting. And that's gonna run Memorial Day through Labor Day. And for those people who are not in the United States where we celebrate Memorial Day and Labor Day, that'll be May 31 through September 6. And traditionally, Memorial Day is sort of the official start of summer and Labor Day is sort of the official end of summer. So that's why we pick those dates and we'll talk more about that. We've done this in the past. And we'll talk more about the the summer spin in in the next episode. Anything you want to add about this ?

Kelly 45:01
I'll put up a thread, a chat thread, where we can start talking about our spinning aspirations. For the summer. Fiber prep, washing fleeces, buying braids of fiber to spin, all that kind of stuff.

Marsha 45:17
We can start buying fleeces.

Kelly 45:19
Yeah. So we can start talking about all the all the stuff we're planning to do in the summer with our spinning.

Marsha 45:28
And then I just had one last thing. One of our listeners Jolene, I'm sorry, wrong person. I'll read my list here, Sarah, Salpal. There she had asked in the thread what overshot weaving is. And I had tried to answer the question, just looking at, you know, doing a Google search of a definition of overshot. And then her response was okay, maybe this is a question for Kelly. But how the heck do you do it? Do you alternate the background color and the contrast color so the plain weave is happening behind the overshot? Does that? I did not answer your question, because I don't know how to answer her question. Can you answer that?

Kelly 46:08
Yeah. Well, and actually, she got... she got some good answers. Cindy Q answered her in the thread also. But that is what happens. You have the kind of a background that's tabby. And then, so every other pick, that's when you throw the yarn across the weaving or you know, weave it in and out, every other pick is plain weave. So you do a plain weave, and then you do a pattern, which means you'll have like a float, the yarn will be floating over the top.

Marsha 46:39
Okay, so when you say pattern, that's the what? The overshot? That's got the floats.

Kelly 46:44
Yeah. And so those all those floats stacked together to make designs. And this is... snowflake type designs is the way I would describe them. That might not be exactly right. Or, or like I'm looking at a quilt that's hanging on the door behind me to absorb sound. And it's like a star shaped design, you know, that they have in quilting. So that kind of sort of star shaped design. There's different... there's all different designs, but they're made from these layers of threads that are going across, they're going across many threads, just like a float in stranded colorwork and the floats in stranded colorwork are usually on the back. And these floats are on the front creating the pattern, but it wouldn't be stable. You wouldn't have a stable fabric without those tabby or plain weave threads in between each of them. So and normally, too, the threads that you--that are the pattern are a thicker yarn, and then the threads that make up the the ground, the plain weave that goes in between are thinner thread so you don't really see the plain weave that much you mostly see the pattern threads, but the plain weave is there to stabilize. Okay, so all right. Yeah. It's really an interesting pattern. And I think Sarah is interested in maybe trying it on her rigid heddle loom, which that would be an interesting, an interesting thing to try on rigid heddle.

Marsha 48:15
Well, I think that is everything. Do you have any last bits of housekeeping?

Kelly 48:20
No, no, I think I better go rescue Robert from watching the dog that I wanted.

Marsha 48:29
Yes. Well go take him for a walk. He's on. He's on a training program now.

Kelly 48:36
Right.

Marsha 48:39
We should all be on a training program.

Kelly 48:40
That's what Robert said. They're going to get in shape together. So

Marsha 48:44
Okay. Keep us posted and keep posting pictures because I love seeing the pictures.

Kelly 48:50
Will do! Yeah, he's super photogenic. Bailey's hard to photograph, but he's really photogenic. And and yeah, I have some really good pictures of him already.

Marsha 49:00
And he doesn't move as fast either. [laughing]

Kelly 49:02
That is true. That's a good point. [laughing]

Kelly 49:09
All right.

Marsha 49:11
Okay, we'll talk in two weeks,

Kelly 49:12
bye bye.

Marsha 49:13
Bye bye.

Kelly 49:14
Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.

Marsha 49:21
Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects.

Kelly 49:29
Until next time, we're the two ewes doing our part for world fleece!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai