Aug 8, 2021
In stranded knitting what is the opposite of the dominant color? Is it the submissive color? There are lessons we've apparently not learned about alternating skeins and we have a Patreon patron giveaway! Thank you to all our patrons! You can join them in supporting us at patreon.com/twoewes
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
Atlas (Ravelry link) by Jared Flood using Navia Tradition. The pattern is also available at his website. I have attached the sleeves to the body and have knit about five rows of the colorwork. The Jared Flood video on stranded knitting was great and the tutorial on trapping the floats holding yarn in the right hand was very good except it did not show how to capture the floats with continental stitch. Knitting Help had a very good short video Trapping the Yarn (Continental).
Kelly’s Projects
Dark Green Forest cardigan (Ravelry link) by Christina Körber-Reith. She also has the pattern at her website, Strickhauzeit. The yarn is an overdyed handspun CVM in a 3-ply (fingering to sport weight). I have completed the body and one pocket lining. This is the only knitting or spinning that I’ve done.
All my creative energy has been going to class materials for my two different online classes for fall. Classes start on August 30.
Patreon Pattern Giveaway!
Thank you patrons! We appreciate your generous support! Patrons get a pattern of their choice up to $8.00. Contact Kelly with your pattern selection! Email twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com or message 1hundredprojects on Ravelry or Instagram.
Summer Spin In - Ends September 6th
About a month to go!
We have prizes generously donated by Three Green Sisters. They make beautiful bags for your knitting, looms, spinning wheels or travel. They also have now have table linens.
Show Transcript
Marsha 0:03
Hi, this is Marsha
Kelly 0:04
and this is Kelly.
Marsha 0:05
We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for
stopping by.
Kelly 0:10
You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just
about anything else we can think of as a way to play with
string.
Marsha 0:17
We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot
com.
Kelly 0:22
And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on
Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects,
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
Hi, Kelly.
Kelly 0:43
Hey, Marsha. How are you doing?
Marsha 0:45
I'm doing well.
Kelly 0:46
Good. Do you have wine tonight?
Marsha 0:49
No, I don't.
Kelly 0:50
It's not morning. So we could be drinking wine!
Marsha 0:53
No, it's uh, it's now let's see what time is. It's almost it's a
little past five 5:30. Yeah. On Thursday. Yeah. And full
disclosure. I already had a beer.
Kelly 1:03
Okay. Well, I... that's why I don't have... I guess we're in the
same boat because that's why I don't have a glass of wine. Because
Robert and I went out to Monterey. And we took the dogs and we
walked on the rec trail. And this is the first time I've been out
on the rec trail. I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've been out
there since since March of 2020.
Marsha 1:28
Mm hmm.
Kelly 1:29
So it was really nice as a beautiful day. We got to see-- we got to
watch... There were two women there with SPCA shirts on. And they
had these boxes that were like the pet store boxes like you know,
you bring home an animal in with holes in the sides.
Marsha 1:46
All right, yeah.
Kelly 1:47
And so I saw that and then I saw their shirts and I thought, Oh, I
bet they're releasing, releasing something from the Wildlife
Center! On the edge of this little point where they were sitting
was a gull, a seagull. And they were watching it and so Robert and
I stopped to watch too and pretty soon-- and then the bird is
making all kinds of noise and you know... And they're just standing
you know, just kind of standing back and watching and and finally
it takes off. And the one woman says, "Go, Falcon, go! And never
come back!" So we watched, we got to watch a seagull be released
for you know, who knows what was the reason that it was in the
Wildlife Center. But that was pretty cool. And Beary had a good
time. We did probably three miles on the rec trail with him. So
he's he's doing better.
Marsha 2:39
That's good.
Kelly 2:40
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's gotten
Marsha 2:42
and what's he like on those three miles? Is he huffin' and puffin'?
Or is he doing pretty good?
Kelly 2:47
He, by the end, he was kind of slow. And we... It was one of those
kind of walks where, you know, we weren't just powering through it.
We we stopped let him sniff and stopped to look at the scenery, you
know. It's that kind of walk. So slower than Bailey would like to
go. She's itching to just, you know, I mean, she likes to stop and
sniff too, but she's itching to just take a walk where we just
move, you know. Actually, I think she would probably like it if I
ran. I don't know that that's gonna happen. But I think she would
like that. So they had a good time. We had a good time. And then,
but the reason I'm not having wine is not because I saw a bird on
the rec trail, but because after that, this was our little date
day, it was Robert's day off. We went to lunch and wine tasting at
Taste of Monterey. We had our subscription to pick up for the month
of August. And so Robert made reservations. And it was the first
time I've been inside, like inside eating.
Marsha 3:51
Oh, yeah?
Kelly 3:52
Since, you know, since March. They had probably... it's a pretty
good sized space. And they had I would say probably six tables,
five tables, maybe was the most they had while we were there. And
they had these big fans going and and we were all sitting you know,
spaced apart. And you know, of course wearing masks when you arrive
but you can't eat or drink wine with a mask. But they don't do wine
tasting like where you stand at the bar and do the wine tasting
where they pour you the, you know, the six little pours. They're
doing flights. So we got our free flights. And oh my gosh!
Marsha 4:41
Well, Kelly, I saw your Instagram posts today. And I know there was
a lot of wine but there was no food. Did you have lunch?
Kelly 4:49
We did! Yes. We started with wine first we had, well, we both had
clam chowder, and then they have a like a flat... They have a lot
of different food but we got this flatbread pizza. Then we each had
a bowl of clam chowder. So, but yeah, I've had my wine for the day
because we had the flight. And then one of the ones from the
flight, I decided that I wanted a glass of it, but, but it was
pretty, pretty generous flight!
Kelly 5:03
I sometimes find that the wine tasting is a lot of wine. Yeah, it
can add up to several classes.
Kelly 5:21
Yeah, no, these were, I think... because they don't have a lot of
customers. You know, it's all very restricted. We had to have
reservations. And I think it was supposed to be three, two ounce
pours, but I think these were more than that. Because they looked
like they... they looked like very generous, very generous pours.
So, but very good. I had white wine Robert had red. And it was a
fun day. We, you know, I haven't done anything like that in a
really long time. Well, like everyone else, you know?
Marsha 5:53
Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly 5:54
So.
Marsha 5:55
So are they...? Sounds like they're pretty...they're still sort of
strict about masks. And
Marsha 6:01
oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Marsha 6:03
Because it's interesting here in Seattle, they're still well, it's
like, it's hard to know, people are out walking around without
masks on.
Kelly 6:11
Yeah, outside was mixed. Yeah. And I don't wear a mask outside
unless... There was a couple of places on the trail where it got
crowded... that, you know, I put my mask on. Just because there
were so many people.
Marsha 6:25
It's interesting, where you go in stores, like, I went, Oh, the
hardware store everybody's masked up, the grocery store everybody's
masked up. I went down...this was a couple weeks ago, I went down
to pick up some Thai food, they are a masked up at the Thai place.
But right next door, there's a bottle shop and I bought like a four
pack a beer. Nobody in there had a mask on. So I don't know. Now
that's several weeks ago, and now the Delta variant is now I guess,
sort of taking off.
Kelly 6:59
Yeah.
Marsha 6:59
So maybe people are getting more cautious. I wear a mask. And I'm
also trying to wear a mask, too, around... I'm not around a lot of
children. But the the little girl across the alley from me comes
over a lot. And you know, she's seven, I think right? And she can't
get vaccinated. And I hear different stories that even if you're
vaccinated, you can carry it. And then I've also heard you can't
carry it. So I don't know. I thought it's better just to mask up
when Frances comes over.
Kelly 7:28
Well, if you're vaccinated, it's rare. It's rare, but you can
actually contract it.
Marsha 7:33
Right.
Kelly 7:34
And if you do contract it, it's not generally as bad. The people
who are ending up in the hospital, most of them are, are people who
have not been vaccinated. But yeah, while you had it, if you had a
breakthrough case, while you had it, you would be infectious.
Marsha 7:50
It's not a hardship to wear a mask around Frances. So...
Kelly 7:53
Right, right,
Marsha 7:54
or out in public at all. So I'm still masking up in store.
Kelly 7:57
Yes, me too. But well, I don't go to the store very often. But
yeah, I have I have been been doing that. So. But it was nice to
get out. Marsha and I were talking about this before the episode
started. And she said to me, Kelly, have you been off the property
since last March?
Marsha 8:13
It sounds like maybe you have not been off?
Kelly 8:17
Your answer to that is pretty much no. Where did I go? Oh, I know.
I went to meet some work friends. We went to... we got together and
we worked on some stuff to get ready for classes. And I mean, we're
talking about, you know, Watsonville. So it was not that far away.
Maybe 25 miles, maybe 35 miles. I was like, Oh my god, I don't
think I've been in the car and gone this far in over a year! I
mean, my longest car trip has been like to go pick up groceries or
you go to the grocery store, which I don't do very often. That's,
you know, during the worst of it, we had it delivered and then and
then... or Robert would go get groceries. And then once everybody
was vaccinated, Aunt Betty went back to doing some of the grocery
shopping and Robert was doing the other grocery shopping so you
know, I'm lucky to not have to do that. It's not my favorite task
anyway. But honestly, that's the furthest I've gone!
Marsha 9:20
You have staff. [laughing] You have staff to take care of you.
[laughing]
Kelly 9:26
Yes. And so and, and you know, there'll be days where I think oh,
I'm going to go I'll go out to Monterey and walk on the rec trail.
But you know, like Robert takes the car. The truck is almost always
now parked in the backyard. It's a little bit of a... it's not like
Oh, just run outside and jump in the car. Right? And then if I'm
gonna take two dogs, I can't walk that far yet. So am I going to
take one? What am I going to do? Am I going to take Bailey because
she can go far? She could do a you know, a normal rec trail walk
without stopping at every bush and, you know, lots of breaks. And
then I If I leave Bailey home, or I mean, leave Beary home? What am
I gonna do with him is Aunt Betty gonna be home? Can she watch him?
Or she you know, does she have other things to do? So anyway, it's
just my-- you know, it is just become, it's just become so easy to
stay at home. So it was...I have to say it was really nice to blow
the dust off. Get out and, and actually smell the ocean. Yeah, so
that was really, really nice!
Marsha 10:28
And dust off your restaurant manners.
Kelly 10:31
Exactly.
Marsha 10:32
Did you know how to behave? At the restaurant?
Kelly 10:34
I did! Actually, yes, yes, I did!
Marsha 10:38
I read in the New York Times that a lot of people don't want to go
back to waiting tables because people are being so rude. You know,
they they're out of practice going to a restaurant I guess. So
well, I'll tell you why I had a beer already. I'm making an effort
to get out of a certain room that's under my house. The name can't
be mentioned. So I went for a hike today. I don't remember if I
talked about this or not. But I went to visit.
Kelly 11:07
You did, yes.
Marsha 11:08
Ben up in Index. Yes, I did. That's what part of the discussion...
Anyway, there was a woman who was on that hike with with me. And so
I gave her my name and email address and she contacted me. And so
we got together today. And we did a hike and a friend, another
friend of hers. And so when I got home, I gave the dog a bath.
Because he's very dusty. I took a bath. And then I poured myself a
beer and I laid on the bed and knitted for a while until it was
time to record. So that's why I had a beer so early. But anyway, it
was a nice hike. And I'm just gonna say it was... People who live
here in the northwest will know what I'm talking about. People who
don't live in the northwest will be kind of amused by the name of
where I went. Um, so the the hike was to Fragrant Lake. I don't
know why it's called Fragrant Lake. It didn't smell bad. It didn't
smell good. It just was a lake. But anyway, it's um, near Larrabee
State Park, which is on-- this is the part that people are gonna
laugh--Chuckanut drive. And so, Kelly, full disclosure, before we
recorded we were looking at, I think when we first started when we
first called you said what are you doing? I said, I'm trying to
figure out why is it called Chuckanut. So and we figure it out.
It's a ... it's a native name.
Kelly 12:33
Yeah, and Wikipedia says that it's Chuckanut well there's mountain
a mountain range and, and Chuckanut is a word for a long beach far
from a narrow entrance. Okay, so just south of Bellingham is what
it says. Yeah,
Marsha 12:55
so it basically connects. It's about about 21 miles long. Oh,
Kelly, we can walk it!
Kelly 13:02
The trail? Oh, fun. Yeah.
Marsha 13:04
21 miles, that's our number. Anyway, the it runs from about
Burlington...No it's further north than Burlington up to
Bellingham.
Kelly 13:15
okay,
Marsha 13:15
And it runs along the water so it reminds me very much of.. kind of
Big Sur a lane in each direction, you know. Steep wall to one side
and steep drop off to the other side down to the water and more
trees than Big Sur but it's just as dramatic as that. Really
pretty. So anyway, we went on that hike today so
Kelly 13:36
but not 21 miles?
Marsha 13:38
No, we didn't do 21 miles it's four or something.
Kelly 13:41
Yeah, nice.
Marsha 13:43
But I have been I have been out and about and I don't know if you
saw my Instagram post, but the the in-laws or yeah, the... so well
I should say actually, technically my former brother-in-law and
sister-in-law and nephew, but they came to visit. And I have to say
we had a great time. It was just a fun visit. And we did all kinds
of things. But one of the things we did is I, as I talked about in
the last episode, Ben is just obsessed with Index, Washington
because that's the big-- where all the walls are for climbing. And
that's where I had gone two weeks ago for the hike. Well, they were
having on Saturday, July 31, they were having a kind of an art
festival with music and and all different kinds of crafts for sale
and he really wanted us to go up there for it. Okay, whatever. So
we went. It was really fun, really good music. They had a brought
in a... like a trailer with a woodfired pizza oven on it, you know,
so you can get pizza there. And
Kelly 13:43
Nice!
Marsha 13:48
But so that was really fun. So we walked around, did that and then
and then they were really wanting to do a hike. So Paul--no Ben
said, Yeah, there's a couple of different hikes but the one I would
recommend is one called Lake Serene. Now I know I have listeners
that live here in the Pacific Northwest who are hikers, and they'll
go, yes, Lake Serene. Ben said, "I don't know," he said. And I
said, "How long is it?" He said, "So like maybe like six miles
round trip. And you know, the elevation gain," he said, "I think
it's less than 2000." Wrong! It's eight miles! I think... now I
don't remember if it's 2400 or 2600 feet of elevation gain, they
actually... Someone's done a great job on the trail where
they've... so it's pretty easy going at the beginning kind of wide.
And not a lot of rocks or roots, you know, on the trail. But the
further you go, it becomes actually like stairs. Someone's done,
built the trail, they've actually taken the rocks and put them in
place where they actually form steps that you have to climb up. And
then at certain points, they've actually brought up big like four
by eight beams and made stairs.
Kelly 16:00
Okay,
Marsha 16:00
Yeah, it's, it was hard. It was really hard. And we started way too
late, because Ben and I got to index about 10 o'clock in the
morning. But the... my brother in law and sister in law and the
nephew and Paul, they arrived, they got there about 12:15 even
though we all left at the same time. They stopped and had breakfast
and they did all this stuff along the way. So they were really
late. They got there at 12:15. Looked at the Art Festival, then
they decided they want lunch. So we get to the trail at 2:50. Which
is way too late to be starting. And
Kelly 16:33
oh yeah.
Marsha 16:34
But I didn't know it was eight miles.
Kelly 16:36
Oh my gosh.
Marsha 16:37
Anyway, so we start out, it takes us about two hours to get to the
top. I arrived at the top at five I think and we hung out there
till six. And then we started the the trip back down. And we got
back to the trailhead, probably around eight o'clock or 8:30,
something like that. Then we had to go from the trail head back
into Index. And the thing is, Index is such a small town. There's
no restaurants there. And the pizza truck was gone. So we decided
we have to find food. Because now it's like we've been out. And now
we're you know, we get back in. I mean, now it's like the minutes
are just ticking away.
Kelly 17:13
Yeah.
Marsha 17:14
And it's now like 9:30. And and so I think the only thing we can do
is just start heading down the road, down Highway 2 back towards
Seattle. And to see what we come up with. Well, everything's
closed, right. So the nearest town we can find anything is the city
of Monroe, which is... they have fast food and everything. Well,
like, and but the thing is, if you're that starving, I don't think
you could be that picky. But like nobody can eat McDonald's. Nobody
can eat Taco Time. So we end up at this pizza place. But the pizza
place is now...it's 10 o'clock and they start, they stop indoor
dining at 10. So everybody walks away and I said but the door the
door said they're open till 11. Well, they're open for takeout or
delivery till 11. I said, let's just order the pizza and we'll just
go sit in the car, because now it's
Kelly 18:00
The voice of reason, Marsha!
Marsha 18:03
I know! So it's now you know, it's like 10, 10:15, 10:30 we finally
get this pizza. And my sister in law said to me, Well, are we going
to go find a picnic table? Where are we going to eat this? I said,
you're eating in the car. We're not finding a picnic table. We're
not driving around in that hour of the night looking for a picnic
table. And her son, my nephew said, we've got all those chairs in
the back of the car that Paul had brought for us to listen to
music. I said pull those chairs out. So we pull the chairs out and
set them up in the parking lot of the pizza place. And we sit there
till about 11:30 at night in a row in the strip mall parking lot
eating pizza and salad and having root beer and anyways. I don't
know, do you know how... do you ever have that experience where
something should be awful, really the idea of being-you're so
hungry and you're tired and you know you're super sweaty but now
you're just really cold because you're wet and it's cold. But then
you end up having like a great time sitting in the pizza place
because was because we now we've been fed. And we're laughing and
everybody sort of revived. It was like the funniest thing. And then
in the middle of all of this, I posted a picture of this on
Instagram and the video. It's the streetsweeper. The street sweeper
arrived in the parking lot. So we're sitting there now with this
truck going around. I don't know, the whole thing was so
ridiculous...
Kelly 19:28
Funny!
Marsha 19:30
...that I think in some ways it was sort of the highlight of the
day in some ways. You know?
Kelly 19:35
yeah, yeah,
Marsha 19:36
Do you know what I mean. Like something that should be so awful
ended up being so funny.
Kelly 19:41
An adventure!
Marsha 19:42
it's a kind of an adventure. Yeah. And I have to say my nephew is
14 and that's that age. That's the age grumpy and crabby. You know,
honestly, and...
Kelly 19:54
teenager...
Marsha 19:57
Teenager truthfully! That's how they are. He is the most chipper
kid! I mean, he's just cheerful. He didn't complain once on the
hike. Happy. So it's like, oh my gosh, like, teenagers can be
happy? [laughing] So yeah, just really just, he's a cool kid and it
was just a really, really fun visit from the family.
Kelly 20:23
Nice. That's really good.
Marsha 20:24
So, yeah. Anyway, so those are my adventures in hiking. Because I
have to get out of... as we know, we have to get out of a certain
part of the house.
Kelly 20:34
Well, and apparently, I just need to get off of the property.
Marsha 20:40
You have to get off your property. Anyway. Well, okay, so we've
now... this is... I'm looking at the clock here. That's 22 minutes
and we haven't even gotten to fibers.
Kelly 20:50
Yeah, I think you have the most interesting things to talk
about.
Marsha 20:55
So I've been working on, let me say I've been working on the Atlas.
It's a pullover, colourwork pullover, by Jared flood. And it's
been... it's been really interesting. So since we last recorded, I
finished the second sleeve. I stayed up till... because today is
Thursday... Tuesday night, I stayed up till 2:30 in the morning,
because I became obsessed with the sweater. [laughing]
Marsha 21:24
So I attached both sleeves. So as a reminder, this is you know,
bottom up. You knit the bottom, you know the sweater from the
bottom up, then knit the sleeves and attach them under, under the
arms and then do the yoke. And when you
Kelly 21:37
when you attach them, it seems like a really amazingly high number
of stitches.
Marsha 21:45
Seems like an amazingly high number of stitches! And it's also, I
have to say, it's really hard to attach. Because you have the big
circle of the body. And then you have these two little circles on
the sleeves. And it's it's it's hard to get the, the... well,
they're not...they're circular needles, but a certain section of
the circular needles are straight, right, And it's really hard,
it's not my favorite.
Kelly 22:14
When I've done a sweater like that I've used two circular needles.
So that... so that one of them is going like on the front part of
one sleeve, the front of the sweater and then the front part of the
other sleeve. And then the other circular needle...
Marsha 22:28
Oh, that might be better...
Kelly 22:29
...the back part of the sleeve, the back of the sweater and the
back part of the other sleeve. Yeah, I was not able... I did a baby
sweater that way because I was trying to understand the
construction before I did a sweater than I was making. And when I
did the baby sweater I think that that's where I found that
suggestion. Because in a baby sweater it's especially hard because
the turns are so tight.
Marsha 22:53
Yeah. really tight then, you know, yeah.
Kelly 22:55
So it was like oh, okay, this is not just good for a small sweater.
This would work really well. I was having that same trouble with
the large sweater so I so I used the two circular needles. You
know, you have to make sure you keep track of where the starting of
your... where's the starting row marker supposed to go?
Marsha 23:15
Right
Kelly 23:16
I suggested that to Aunt Betty on a sweater that she was doing. And
she was having a little bit of trouble at first because it was
color work too. And so she had to kind of like rethink when the
pattern says at the start of your round, the start of her round
wasn't between the two needles. The two sets of circular needles.
Like it wasn't the middle of the sleeve. If that makes sense?
Marsha 23:42
Yeah, no, it does. I should have done that because it was it was
kind of a struggle I have to admit it was not really-- but I
wrestled it into submission.
Kelly 23:50
but you're done, yeah, wrestled it
Marsha 23:51
I wrestled the thing. So the sleeves are attached and so I that
that night Tuesday as I say I stayed up till about 230 in the
morning to attaching the sleeves and then I did two rows of the
color work and then I was like okay, I'm still wide awake at 2:30.
I thought, you have to go to bed, that's ridiculous
Kelly 24:11
Well after that and still being wide awake if you if you did keep
going, you could have been awake all night. [laughing]
Marsha 24:21
So I've learned... so as everybody knows I've not really done color
work. I did years ago and I did it the wrong way. You know, I just
kept dropping and picking up the different colors and that's not
the way you're supposed to do it. So I talked about this in the
last episode, but Jared Flood has a great video which there's a
link on the show notes about how to-- about color dominance. So we
talked about that. So I do know that the the dominant color is in
your left hand and I guess the submissive color... [laughing] is in
your right hand. And so then he has a really good video too, about
trapping the yarn. And so that that's excellent. What I did not
know how to do though in this while I was doing the color work is
there are some areas where you are... So let me just say, when the
the submissive color is in your right hand you're throwing, right,
and the dominant color in your left hand you're picking. I throw
when I knit, I don't pick. I don't know what throwing is really
called. I always have the yarn in my right hand and I throw and so
I don't pick or continental with the yarn in my left hand. So I'm
having to learn sort of get comfortable with that. So he talks
about picking up or trapping the yarn. But I'm throwing so with the
yarn is in your right hand.
Kelly 25:52
I mean, it's with both colors in his right hand. Is that right? I
think that's what you said.
Marsha 25:57
That's true. Yeah, he was demonstrating holding the dominant color
in your right hand. But he also does, he said he's more comfortable
holding both colors in his right hand. So I had to watch a video,
how do you trap the yarn, continental style. And so I put it...
There is... I found one a really good one, it's short. It's only a
minute long. And it's from knittinghelp.com. And they have a great
video. It's just Trapping the Yarn, Continental in parentheses. So
I have that in the show notes. So I had to figure that out. And
there are you know, all these... Everybody says this, but what did
we do before we had YouTube? Because there's so many tutorials, you
can get a question answered instantly by looking at a YouTube
video. What I'm at now, though, is, and I talked about this before,
is the chart tells you...The color work has three colors, and it
tells you which is going to be the dominant color each row. But let
me restate that a better way. Each row indicates which is the
dominant color and which is the submissive color. So and then some
of the rows, you have the dominant color in your left hand and some
of them you're going to have to submissive colors in your right
hand. Okay, yeah, this has got me confused. I'm not sure how you
manage, do yarn management, with two colors in your... well with
three colors. So one in my left hand and two in my right hand. So I
have to... I've stopped because I now need to go watch another...
there's got to be a video about how you do that. Yeah, because
right now I was started out and I'm just twisting the yarn, I mean,
the yarn keeps getting twisted and twisted. And so there's got to
be a way, perhaps his technique of holding the two colors where you
twist your hand. To watch that again,
Kelly 27:48
I had three colors when I did the Orcas Run sweater in some rows,
very few. But there were some rows where I ended up with the the
white, the dark brown and the beige color of the CVM. And I think I
looked up something, but it was really a matter of just kind of
like angling your finger one way or the other. Yeah, you didn't
really have to twist it. It turned out that you didn't really have
to twist anything. I could not describe it to you now. But when I
was doing it, I do remember it was kind of like something about the
angle of your finger holding the yarn. So yeah, I'm sure you can
find something because I must have found it. I must have found it
somewhere. Although I'm not... I'm not much of a video tutorial
person. I would much rather see the words like a blog post. I'm
sure I probably found a blog post somewhere. You know, what people
used to do before, before we used to read blog posts. And then
before that they had grandmothers and mothers who really taught
them I guess or friends. It doesn't involve all that twisting.
Although I guess your yarn could get twisted up as you're going but
but you really aren't twisting things. Yeah.
Marsha 29:04
So I've done...let's see how many rows have I done of this so far?
I've done eight rows.
Kelly 29:12
Okay. How's the color looking?
Marsha 29:16
Oh, it looks pretty good. I've not done-- I've not done really any
more than I did. I've not done as much as I did in my sample.
Kelly 29:22
Oh, okay. Okay, because I remember with your swatch you were
feeling... you were telling yourself to just keep going with that
plan, but you were kind of questioning how it was gonna look. So
I'm curious. Just,
Marsha 29:38
I'm still questioning. But I'm planning ahead. Yeah, yeah. Because
I have no choice.
Kelly 29:45
Right. You have the yarn. You have the yarn you have. Yeah,
Marsha 29:48
I have the yarn I have and I don't and there really are. I think
there's only eight colors. And they're really--the only one that
would possibly work is maybe like the cream would be more
contrast?
Kelly 29:59
Right. But that wasn't what Mark wanted.
Marsha 30:03
No, and I and I, but everything else is sort of, I don't know, I
just don't think that the work. So I'm plowing ahead and I, and I
like this yarn. It's very, it's it's a woolly wall, and I'm finding
all kinds of things in it. Straw and plastic. I'm not sure where
that's from, oh, it's almost like they, they bundled the wool up in
a, you know that that plastic, you know, like blue tarps? You know,
they're sort of fibrous,
Kelly 30:33
Kind of like feed bags. Yeah, this is the reason that you should
never if you're a fiber producer, you should never store your fiber
in a in a feed bag, those plastic feed bags, because that's
basically what they are. They're woven. They're woven plastic
strips. Yeah, they're woven out of plastic strips and those plastic
strips break off and anyway, it gets in the wool, and that's what
you're seeing.
Marsha 31:03
Yeah, yeah. Like I and just before we started recording, I pulled
this like, little piece and like, Oh, I'm gonna pull that out.
Because that can't be comfortable. You know, having it in there.
I'll pull it out. It's like, it's like it was about two inches
long.
Kelly 31:15
Yeah, spun into the wool. It really degrades the price of your of
your wool. I can't even remember now where I heard this. It must
have been at like a fleece judging where someone was talking about
it, and how how bad it is for the price of your wool if you have if
you have any of that plastic in it. So. So anyway, that's why when
you said that it was like, Oh, I remember. I remember hearing about
this stuff.
Marsha 31:43
But that's all I have for projects either. Then I have not picked
up my socks. I've not picked up my shawl. I have in the evenings in
the nice weather, I just been sitting on the deck and spinning for
about an hour or 45 minutes or so. So I'm, I'm still spinning but
not any... No progress of any significance to report.
Kelly 32:05
You still have quite a bit of that spinning to do before you're
finished with that project.
Marsha 32:09
Yeah, yeah. But I've just been obsessed with this sweater.
Kelly 32:15
Well, that's cool. It sounds like it's gonna be really pretty.
Marsha 32:18
I think it's gonna be pretty. It's shockingly bright. I mean, I
don't think most men want to wear this sweater. But Mark is. He
likes color.
Kelly 32:29
Yeah, yeah. No, I think it's really it's gonna be really pretty.
Yeah.
Marsha 32:34
You'll see him on the beach from a mile away.
Kelly 32:37
Right! Well, Robert has a couple of T shirts that are bright like
that. He has a bright Kelly green one and bright orange.
Marsha 32:45
And he likes bright socks too.
Kelly 32:47
Yeah.
Marsha 32:48
And Mark likes breaks. He likes brown socks too. So anyway. Well,
enough of my projects. What about you? What's going on with your
cardigan?
Kelly 32:56
Well, yeah, I'm also pretty monogamous. And not, not very much has
happened. Although I think from the last episode. I have actually
finished and bound off the bottom.
Marsha 33:11
Oh, wow!
Kelly 33:12
Yeah, I think I was in the pockets.
Marsha 33:14
Yeah, we were talking about pockets.
Kelly 33:17
And so the pockets are, I want to say like six inches deep. I think
I might have gone a little too far. I thought I was following the
pattern and counting but maybe not. I think I was supposed to have
five in the honeycombs. And that's what I have. So I have the the
pockets. They're they're kind of... well it's not blocked, so you
can't really tell and the ribbing on the top and the cables pull
them in. But right now they look like skinny deep pockets.
Marsha 33:49
Mm hmm.
Kelly 33:50
But I think once it's blocked, they'll be more proportional and
they won't... they actually won't look that deep. So I got past the
point I finished the pockets. I did the... I think it's a one inch
of ribbing or an inch and a half of ribbing at the bottom which
seemed too short to me because I always put like... I love ribbing
so I just do a lot at the bottom. But I didn't. I thought, This
sweater is already long enough. Because it's it's tunic kind of.
Well, like a sweater you could wear over leggings and you're behind
will not show.
Marsha 34:20
Right.
Kelly 34:21
So I don't know if you'd call that tunic length but it is long.
That was my--that's what I wanted and I looked on the project
pages. Oh, by the way, the name of this sweater is called Dark
Green Forest. And if you look on the pattern, I think on the
pattern page it looks pretty long. But then if you look on the
project pages, there are quite a few people who put quite a bit of
length into the sweater. I mean it is designed to be long. The
woman the the very first picture shows it like below the pocket you
know, below the back pocket of a pair of jeans. So anyway, I'm
excited about the progress that I've made because I got to bind off
the bottom. But then once I bound off the bottom, it just sat for a
while. And then the other night I picked it up and I needed
something just mindless to do. So I, I work the pocket lining of
one of the pockets. So while we've been sitting here, right now,
I've picked up the stitches for the other pocket lining. But I'm
not very good at counting. I think I've admitted that before. And
for these pocket linings, I really want to make sure I do the right
number of rows. So I'm not knitting on it right now because I know
I would... It's such a short little bit of knitting that I know I
would go across and back and across and be like, Oh, wait, am I on
this row? Or did I just do two rows? And so I'm not knitting on it
right now. I'm just sitting it on my lap and I'm, I'm petting it.
But then I have to pick up the sleeves. And I'm gonna admit to
something here. So how many conversations have we had about
alternating skeins?
Marsha 36:16
Oh, my God, Kelly. Don't tell me.
Kelly 36:19
So I am alternating skeins. I am!
Marsha 36:21
Okay.
Kelly 36:22
And what did I tell you about your sweater? How you should like
save off some of the yoke yarn for the sleeves.
Marsha 36:32
Mm hmm.
Kelly 36:32
So that you're not going to start the sleeves with a totally
different skein?
Marsha 36:36
Mm hmm,
Kelly 36:38
Guess what I did not do? I did not save any of that yarn at that
level where I separate it off for the sleeves. So I think it'll be
all right...
Marsha 36:49
Well, we're always good at giving advice, but not following advice,
right?
Kelly 36:52
Like what's the point of learning from your mistakes? Then after
you've learned from the mistake, you make the same mistake again
another time. I mean, I felt like I learned from my mistakes
because I was able... as they say you know if you can teach another
person, then you know something. And I taught you how to do that, I
talked about it in the podcast, I taught all our listeners about
that. And yet, I just plowed ahead. So there will be a color change
mark. But there's a... it's very slight. And there's a color change
mark when one of my skins ran out and I had to put another one in.
It's just I mean, you know, hand dyed yarn. So I don't know, I'll
look for the skein that looks the most. I mean, they all... this is
the problem. They all look, they all look exactly the same. So
maybe it will be more fine than I think. But I wish I had a few
yards of... I wish I had a few yards of the yarn where I left off
with the sleeve to blend into the next one. So anyway
Marsha 38:05
Lesson learned--again.
Kelly 38:07
I know. And I was trying to think well, could I undo it? And like
rip back but you can't because if I rip back I'm gonna be ripping
back across the body. Not doing that! So we'll see. I'll report
back. It's a it's a, but it's not meant to be a you know, go out to
dinner sweater. So it's not going to be a big deal if it's
terrible. But I don't think it... I don't think it'll be terrible.
I just wish I had remembered. It's dumb not to remember that.
Marsha 38:39
Yes, it is.
Both 38:40
[laughing]
Marsha 38:44
But you know what I would have done? I mean, the thing is, you know
I made a very similar... I mean, it's sort of the same vein as this
sweater that--I don't even remember what it was called. Remember it
was--we dyed the yarn at your house? That teal color.
Kelly 39:01
Yeah, Recoleta?
Marsha 39:03
No, wasn't the Recoleta Looking at my page... looking at this...
Oh, here it is Northern Lights. Oh no, I'm sorry. It's called Iba
I-B-A by Bonne Marie Burns, or Bonnie Marie Burns. And I called it
Northern Lights Iba. And it's very... It almost looks like it's
variegated yarn. If you look-- I'm looking at the pictures of it
now. And that's what I did is, I knit the whole body and then I
went to pick up the sleeves and they're completely different. So I
had to rip the whole I ripped it all the way back and just recast
on and redid the whole thing alternating. So dumb!
Kelly 39:41
Yeah, cuz you didn't alternate at all.
Marsha 39:42
I didn't. At all. Yeah,
Kelly 39:44
Yeah. Well, at least I at least I managed to do that. And But yeah,
I was like, yeah. Oh, well. Oh, well. Well, we'll see. I mean,
maybe, maybe you won't even be able to tell I pick up the sleeves,
but I think I think you probably will.
Marsha 40:06
It's funny. I'm just it's just a comment. I haven't worn that
sweater in years. And when did I finish that? 2018. I need to wear
that sweater.
Kelly 40:16
We should do...We should do a sweater round up on one of our
episodes where we just get out all our sweaters. And we just talk
about them and why we're gonna keep them, why we don't wear them,
or why we don't wear them, what are the ones we do wear? Why do we
wear them? That would be very interesting. We should do that. Let's
do that next episode.
Marsha 40:39
Okay, Let me write this down.
Kelly 40:42
Okay. Yeah, I think that would be interesting. I would like to
know... Well and the other thing about about skeins and handspun is
that I... With a funky grandpa sweater, in that one I was saved by
the stripes, because it has those little thin stripes of dyed
color. Because that yarn when I... I mean that was a sweaters worth
of wool that I carded and spun. And those skeins when I would put a
new skein on. I mean, just because of the the variation in the
wool. Those skeins were different colors. It was natural. I hadn't
dyed it at all. It was just the natural gray but the skeins were
different colors. And so even if I were making a sweater out of
handspun that wasn't dyed, I might consider alternating skeins.
When you have done a sweaters worth from a fleece you know they,
the skeins, can be very different. Not the whole skein is
different. But the part of the skein where you start the new skein
can be different than the skein, the part of the skein, where you
leave off,
Marsha 42:02
right
Kelly 42:03
and it can make a stripe. You know, you can have a sharp division
of color. Whereas in within the skein, you have color variation,
but it's not a sharp division of color.
Marsha 42:16
Yeah.
Kelly 42:17
So anyway, that's just a tip, if you're planning to do a handspun
sweater with your summer spin in yarn. But that's where I am with
my project. That's the only thing I worked on, I did not do any
spinning, I don't think since the last, since the last episode.
Really everything that I have, all my creative energy has been
going toward getting my class materials ready for school. We don't
start until... students come back on the 30th of August. So I still
have a good chunk of summer left, which feels really good. But you
know, we'll be online, I'm online. Our classes are-- they were
trying to get back face-to-face with more classes. So they have
some that are fully face-to-face. Very few. Some that are hybrid,
where students will be on campus, one or two days a week, and then
the rest of it is online. And that's that's a type of class we've
always had. That's just not in the pandemic, we've always had
hybrid classes and online classes. But we have many more online
classes, you know, now with the pandemic, and very few hybrid or
face-to-face, about maybe 40%, I think. But my classes are all
online, because I've worked so dang hard to get them ready. Plus,
plus, I am not confident that-- I'm not confident that we're going
to stay.
Marsha 43:48
Oh, in class?
Kelly 43:49
...any of the... Yeah, yeah, I think that at some point during the
fall semester, it's likely that we might have to close down the
face-to-face classes. So I didn't want to be in a position to have
started with plans to do face-to-face and then ended up online
anyway. So I just elected to do... I selected online classes. So
anyway, I've been working on those. And actually, it's been fun.
I've been enjoying that work. And it's been a long time since I've
thought it was really fun to get my classes prepared. Yeah. So, you
know, I've had some professional development and some of the things
that we've done in these workshops, I'm now getting to implement
and I'm feeling more comfortable with the system that we're using.
So anyway, it's just been, it's been really fun. And it's quite a
creative process because you have to create all these materials,
you know, all the things I would have told... All this is obvious
but but when you really think about all the things you would have
told students while you were in class, because I'm doing an
asynchronous online format. So everything I would have told
students in class now has to be created to be provided to them on
the, the, you know, the learning management system. So that's a lot
of content creation. But it's creative. I mean, it feels creative
to me. So it's been, it's been really, it's been pretty fun.
Marsha 45:22
That's good. Because it, it didn't start out so fun. This whole
online thing. So I'm glad you're having fun.
Kelly 45:29
Yeah, then I won't go into a lot of detail about my pain.
Everyone's heard it. But yeah, I'm getting some of the... I'm
starting to reap some of the benefits of the learning that you
know, all of that learning that I had to do. And so that's nice.
It's nice when you move from rank novice, to feeling like you
actually have a little bit of expertise. That is a good
feeling.
Marsha 46:00
Yeah.
Kelly 46:01
It's taken a while, but, but I started to feel that way. So ask me
again in November. [laughing]
Marsha 46:09
Okay.
Kelly 46:12
We'll see! We'll see whether I have progressed from rank novice to
having some expertise or not. When it's not hypothetical, so. So
anyway, yeah, that's all my all of my projects, I am going to just
talk briefly about one of Robert's projects, because it's so
interesting. So we have a toilet, that is 1938. I think the date
stamped on the toilet is 1938. Purple. And it hasn't worked for a
while. The mechanism on the inside was leaking. And he tried to get
another one and it was still leaking. And so for a while we were
using it like, turn the water off at the wall after using it, go
back in to use it turn the water on at the wall, use it, turn the
water off. Which is was terrible because the thumping in our pipes,
I mean, something about that particular valve made that thumping
sound happen in the pipes almost every time and sometimes it was
like, Oh, my Gosh it's gonna shake them loose, and they're gonna
break and that can't be good. So he took it out and put in a more
modern toilet. Oh, the idea was, we're going to do this for now and
then see what we can do with this. So anyway, he's been cleaning it
out. Well, okay, it was not, it was not a dirty toilet. We-- it was
cleaned before it was taken out of the house. So, but he's been
cleaning off all of the deposits, mineral deposits from you know,
since 1938. And so he's been working on this project for about, I
don't know, five days, with different kinds of products. First
starting with vinegar, and then moving on to hydrochloric acid. He
brought me in a chunk, I took a picture and I showed it to Marsha,
when we were first starting to get ready to record. He brought a
chunk of this in that had just come off. And he said there were
like four or five of them. It's like three eighths of an inch thick
of calcium deposits.
Marsha 48:22
It's shocking.I had no idea. Like, I..
Kelly 48:25
We'll put a picture in the show notes. Yeah. We have hard water.
And then think, you know, 80 some years of hard water deposits.
It's a, it's a chunk, a good three eighths of an inch thick, and
about four inches long. And he said there were, I think at least
four of them that came off like that. Four big pieces like that,
plus a whole bunch of other, a whole bunch of other little bits
that came off. But yeah,
Marsha 48:56
yeah, who knew? I mean, it's just amazing. It really is kind of, I
mean,
Kelly 49:00
So and I could do the math, I'm kind of curious. I'm not-- I can't
do it in my head here during the podcast. But you know, think about
the circumference of the of the pipe, you know, where it flushes.
The circumference, and think about going in three eighths of an
inch all the way around. Like how much smaller that is. How much
that restricts the flow. So anyway, very interesting. It's been an
interesting project, he's found a place to get the interior
workings of the toilet. He found out the model number. He's going
to be able to I think get the interior workings but they're
backordered. It's not the same kind of interior workings as a
modern toilet has. So anyway, I'm excited about this project but
very gross. The calcium I mean, it's just calcium, but
Kelly 49:43
It's calcium, yeah.
Kelly 49:59
But it's just it's, it's gross.
Marsha 50:04
I find it less gross as more just sort of amazing. Well, what I
want, I was like, what does it do to your insides? Like you're
drinking that water? Right? Is it just passing it through?
Kelly 50:18
Yeah, it doesn't sit. It doesn't just sit there. Well, it's
calcium. Your body uses it.
Marsha 50:22
Oh, that's true. Well then you're absorbing it I guess.
Kelly 50:25
I think, yeah, yeah. I would think, I don't know. But this little
chunk, it has all these striations like, archeology,
Marsha 50:34
you need to count all those and see the rings. So yeah, like I like
how many years is that? 1938 to 2021?
Kelly 50:43
It's over eighty years.
Marsha 50:45
Oh see this is why your the math teacher.
Kelly 50:46
Yeah, it's over eighty years.
Marsha 50:48
So you have like, in theory, you got 80 layers. Yeah, you need to
get a bandsaw, cut it in half and count all the layers.
Kelly 50:57
Yeah, when I was in, when I was in junior high we... I grew up in
Fremont. And in Fremont. Well, right now it's the Tesla plant. But
it was the GM plant, there was a GM auto plant there. And when I
was in junior high, I took a class, a plastics class. And so we got
to use all the like, tools, you know, lathe, and bandsaw, and
sanding and all that, like they do in woodshop in metal shop, but
it was with plastic. And one of the things that we got to work
with, which was I thought was really fun. And it's the same idea.
It's all the auto paint that had built up on the pipe over the, you
know, there's like piping over the, I want to say conveyor belt, I
don't know if that's the right, the right word, but in the,
Marsha 51:45
in the assembly line,
Kelly 51:46
assembly line. Yeah. So there's like a pipe and the paint spray. So
these layers of paint build up on these pipes, and then they would
crack them off. And you'd get this big chunk of layers of paint.
And then, and then you could sand it down and make things out of
it. So you know, people make rings or small things, but, but it was
about probably, maybe three quarters of an inch thick. And round,
you know, like, round on one side, because they've been attached to
a, like a pipe. And then, and then you sand it down and shape it
and all that. And it was really fun, because you could get some
really cool colors. And you could see the rings, like the, the
rings of, you know, in wood. And it was all different colors,
depending on what they were painting. And so, so. So that's kind of
cool. And it was, you know, kind of ugly at first because it was
all rough you know. But I don't think you could polish this
calcium. I don't know, maybe you could I'm not gonna do it.
Marsha 52:55
Well, it'll be interesting to see, you know, if once he gets the
new mechanism, how well it works, you know, because it probably was
so constricted. There's no flow, you know?
Kelly 53:05
Yeah, no, it didn't work very well before. But But I can Yeah, I
can see why. So anyway, that that that's not my project. But it's
something that has been going on here that I think is interesting
to share. So all right, well, we do have the summer spin in and
that ends in about a month. So keep spinning. And we are going to
have prizes, we're going to have prizes provided by Three Green
Sisters. And so get your finished objects into the finished object
thread. There's one for skeins, finished skeins, and one for
finished projects made out of handspun. So we don't have as many
people participating as last year. But we do have quite a few
people participating. And we do have a lot of people who are still
weaving from the winter weave along. So that's kind of fun, to
still be going into the winter weave along thread and... saying I
have to get going to my
Marsha 54:07
I have to get going on my spinning project. I have to finish it by
the sixth. I have to get going.
Kelly 54:12
You have a month. Yeah, well, you have time, you can do it, you
have time. And then the other thing is we wanted to take some time
to thank our patrons. So we have a Patreon account. And that's a
way that listeners can contribute to the podcast if they like to,
you sign up to be a patron at a particular a particular level and
then you just, you, know make that contribution monthly. The idea
of it is it's a, you know, monthly monthly contribution for however
long you would like to support us. And we have some patrons that I
want to thank so I'm going to just read off the names and then we
also have a Patreon Patreon patron giveaway. So I just want to make
sure that we thank Connie and Cheryl and Jan and Heddi, and Jane
and Colleen, Mindy, Eman, Amy, and Patti and Joan. And we have
Tammy and Teresa to thank and Kathy. And Nathalie, thank you so
much. Martha, Melody, Angie, Joanne, JoyLaine. Thank you! Gretta,
Barbara, Rachel W., Angela, Vicki, Charlene, Erika N. Debbie, Erica
J, Rachel S. Pat, Carin, Catherine, Jenn, and Janine. So yeah,
thank you so much. I really appreciate all of the support from our
patrons and the funds that come in through the Patreon account go
to our hosting fees, prizes, or shipping costs. All of those
things. Our transcribe, transcribing to make the transcript. We
have that expense. All that is covered by our patrons. So we really
appreciate it! Yeah, we really appreciate all they do for the
podcast, making it available to everyone.
Marsha 56:12
So thank you.
Kelly 56:13
Yeah. So what we're gonna do...
Marsha 56:16
we're not done?
Kelly 56:18
We're not done,
Marsha 56:18
we're thanking them but we're thanking them in another way,
too.
Kelly 56:22
Exactly. any of our patrons can get a pattern of their choice up to
$8. So all they have to do is contact me on Ravelry. Let me know
what your pattern selection is. And you can... then I'll just go
ahead and and get that pattern dropped into your Ravelry-- your
Ravelry inbox. So yeah, we just want to let people know how much we
appreciate their support.
Marsha 56:48
So start looking at your patterns. Pick your favorite pattern and
let us know!
Kelly 56:52
Yeah, it's always interesting. We did this last summer and it was
really interesting to see what people were were choosing. I got a
few things added to my queue. .
Marsha 57:01
Oh, yeah, dangerous. [laughing]
Kelly 57:03
Yeah. Inspirational you could say,
Marsha 57:06
Okay, well, anything else?
Kelly 57:08
No, I think that will do it for us, Marsha.
Marsha 57:11
Okay. Well, I'm gonna go back to my sweater.
Kelly 57:16
Okay.
Marsha 57:17
Get lost in color work.
Kelly 57:19
Yeah, that sounds fun. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Marsha 57:23
Hopefully, well...Hopefully when we record in two weeks, I'll have
the yoke done. We'll see.
Kelly 57:28
Oh, that'll be good. Yeah. See, anyway.
Marsha 57:31
Alrig`ht.
Kelly 57:31
Okay.
Marsha 57:32
Okay. Well, we'll talk in two weeks. All right. Bye.
Kelly 57:36
Bye bye. Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the
podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.
Marsha 57:44
Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am
betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects. Until next time,
Both 57:53
We're the Two Ewes doing our part for world fleece!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai