May 16, 2021
In this episode we discuss knitting with handspun yarn, including estimating yardage, picking needle size, and selecting potential patterns.
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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Walk Along tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link) I’ve put the body on waste yarn to check length. I’ve decided to move on to the sleeve which will stop just above the elbow instead of ¾ length.
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.
Still spinning the green and brown three ply.
Ripped out the Bear Brand Yarn socks and will be starting them again with no pattern.
Faye’s Flower Blanket. All Octagons and squares are done. One more triangle to do. Then 4 corners (small triangles).
Memorial Day - Labor Day
May 31st - September 6th
Kelly 0:03
Hi, this is Marsha and this is Kelly.
Marsha 0:05
We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for
stopping by.
Kelly 0:10
You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just
about anything else we can think of as a way to play with
string.
Marsha 0:17
We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot
com.
Kelly 0:22
And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on
Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects,
Marsha 0:29
and I am betterinmotion. We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And
we look forward to meeting you there.
Both 0:35
Enjoy the episode!
Marsha 0:43
Good morning, Kelly.
Kelly 0:44
Good morning, Marsha. How are you?
Marsha 0:45
I'm doing good.
Kelly 0:47
Good.
Marsha 0:47
How's the newest member of your family doing?
Kelly 0:50
Oh, he's doing great. Beary is fitting in pretty well. He's walking
up to about a mile now. He lags toward the end of a mile. But he's
been able to go a mile. The first week... So a week ago he was at
the vet. And he got his thyroid medication lowered. That's good. So
now he's only on a point eight-- I think it's milligrams-- pill
once a day instead of twice a day. So that's good. And he lost. He
had lost last week he had lost three pounds.
Marsha 1:28
All right. So and that's really not with any diet change. That's
just the walking right?
Kelly 1:32
Yeah. Well, more activity. I was trying to feed him the same amount
that he had at the at the SPCA--hat they had told me they were
feeding him. I was trying to feed him that same amount. It actually
was a little bit less food than normal, because he wasn't really
eating. And, you know, my dogs eat!
Marsha 1:56
Yes.
Kelly 1:57
Even Bailey. You know, she's, well, she had Nash to contend with,
she had a lab to contend with. So she knows you put your nose in
the bowll, and up until it's gone. And I don't know if she was like
that before we got her. But she learned to be like that, at least
having Nash around. And he wouldn't, he would eat a little bit. And
then he'd walk out a little bit into the yard and then he'd pee.
And then he walked back and he ate a little bit more. And then he
like, walked over kind of towards Bailey to see if maybe she had
something better. And I was like, okay, you're not gonna-- if
you're not going to finish this, I'm going to pick it up because
it's gonna cause a problem. So he wasn't finishing the whole
amount. So then I started feeding him lunch, I thought, you know,
I'd feed him lunch to help keep his metabolism high. And so I was
doing that. But he wasn't really eating lunch. You know, he wasn't
seeming hungry. And so he was getting a little bit less food. But
anyway, yeah, he lost three pounds. And I don't know how much he's
lost since then. Bu t I do think he's lost a little bit. His feet.
[laughing] He looks like he's lost weight in his feet.
Marsha 3:12
Oh, really?
Kelly 3:13
That seems really strange. But that's the only place I can kind of
tell. They look less puffy. Like his feet were really round, not
like a shepherd. And the vet said she thinks he's mixed with
Tibetan Mastiff.
Marsha 3:28
Okay. That's very specific.
Kelly 3:31
Yes. But I went and looked at their pictures. And he does kind of,
he does kind of look like that. They have a tail that kind of
arches over their back. And he doesn't have that. But they have the
like, they call them cat feet in the standard. where, you know,
their feet are round and tight. And the shepherds feet are more
elongated.
Marsha 3:56
Yeah, yeah.
Kelly 3:57
So anyway. And his feet were like round and tight. And they still
are, but they're less round. Like they look less round on top, you
know?
Marsha 4:07
Well, I mean, maybe he was retaining water or something. his ankles
were swelling, you know, like my grandmother, [laughing] and, you
know, with all this activity, things were moving, maybe.
Kelly 4:17
Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard to tell. And you know, of course
we can't weigh him because you can't pick him up and step on the
scale with them the way you could with a smaller dog so so he'll
have to wait till he goes to the vet again, for us to know for
sure. I'm hoping I can get the vet to let us bring him just for our
weight check. Because I don't want him to lose weight too fast. And
that's part of-- that's part of regulating his thyroid if he is
losing weight too fast. That could be an indicator that his thyroid
medication is too high. So so I'm hoping the vet will, you know,
say we can bring him in like every two weeks or something for just
that. for free, just let them take him in and weigh him and bring
him back out.
Marsha 5:01
Enzo's vet you could just bring your dog in any time because they
just have the scale there in the lobby. So you can just go weigh
your dog. In fact, that's where I went. Remember that the big giant
afghan?
Kelly 5:16
Oh right! [laughing]
Marsha 5:17
I went and weighed it on that scale.[laughing]
Kelly 5:19
Marsha went to the vet to weigh her blanket!
Marsha 5:26
Yeah, but now with the pandemic, you can't, I can't go into the
lobby,
Kelly 5:30
it's a little more of a thing of a production for them to come to
them and get in weighed. So. But things are supposed to open here
in California on June 15. And I don't know if that means
everything. Like from then on. I actually think that the vets are
probably secretly glad that no owners are in the office when they
do their vet checks. Because dogs are always worse when their
owners are around in situations like that. I think, I mean, they're
probably-- I wonder if they'll... Well, I don't know what they'll
do. But yeah, there's probably been some some added convenience to
just picking the dog up in the parking lot and taking it in.
Marsha 6:16
Well, and then you don't have all the animals in the lobby, too,
because that's another thing, too, is altercations in the lobby. So
yeah, well, that's exciting news that he's he's making some
progress. Now. The thyroid medication, though, that's not because
he's overweight, but he is... he will even if he loses weight,
he'll be on thyroid medication.
Kelly 6:40
Yeah. A weight gain is probably due to his thyroid issues. Okay. I
mean, some of the weight gain might be other reasons. But some of
it, I mean, definitely for a dog to be as overweight as he was,
there was a thyroid problem there. That's what the vet said
anyway.
Marsha 7:01
And then, I'm assuming, given what you know about his history,
which is very little, I'm assuming that the thyroid medication
started after he went to the SPCA.
Kelly 7:11
Yeah, they, they noticed that. They, they stitched him up from his
wounds. And then they noticed that he wasn't kind of bouncing back.
And he was very lethargic. And then, you know, the vet first
thought it was just because of the what had happened to him and
then being in the shelter. And then she decided, no, it's, he needs
to have a blood test. So they did a blood test and his thyroid was
was extremely low. So he's progressing nicely. He now lays on a
pillow, it takes me about 10 times of putting him back before he is
convinced that I mean it and just stays there. Or maybe he's just
too exhausted. That's how I feel at the end of it! [laughing] Too
exhausted
Marsha 8:00
that you need to go lie down.
Kelly 8:02
But the other day, I even I even came in and took a nap. And
brought them back in with me during the day and you know, closed up
the bedroom and, and took a nap for about an hour and a half and he
was quiet in the bedroom. So he's got the routine, you know, the
the normal routine plus, He knows, in this location, this is what I
do. So that's good. In the backyard he's been fence fighting with
the neighbor dogs, him and Bailey. So that's not good. But we're
working on that.
Marsha 8:31
And he and Bailey are doing well together.
Kelly 8:33
go Yeah, they're having a great time. You know, they've had a
couple of little tips, little fights, but nothing major. He's
learning how to get into the truck. And in fact, that's one of the
fights they had. He has decided that the truck belongs to him. And
if she tried to get too close. If the door opens up on the truck in
the backyard and she tries to get too close to it. That that's the
two times they've had fights--it has been around the truck. So now
I have to really watch when the truck gets opened that, you know,
he...that the two of them are not real close to the door. Because
he he now thinks that the truck belongs to him and she's not
allowed to get near it. He loves his truck, which is good. That's
what we wanted, but not quite.
Marsha 9:22
He loves it a bit too much. So possessive of it. Okay, well. Sounds
like making lots of good progress
Kelly 9:26
Yeah, yeah, we have
Marsha 9:31
So that proves that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Kelly 9:33
Yeah. Yeah. [laughing]
Marsha 9:35
Fitting right in and learning that learning the routine. Hmm.
Kelly 9:38
Well, I think the routine is the biggest part of it, you know, just
having that. Like, this is what we do every day. And not
necessarily always at the same time. But, you know, these are the,
these are the things that we do. And then you gradually we've been
gradually increasing what those things are. So, luckily the
weather's been good and we've been able to use a lot of the outdoor
space. School's almost over.
Marsha 10:04
Oh, how many days?
Kelly 10:06
I mean, well, I'm not... I wasn't counting it in days. But I guess
I could now because we're in the middle of the second of the second
to the last week. Next week is finals week. I'm so glad. This week
though, I'm, packed with student appointments for them to go over
things and do review and such.Mostly out of guilt. Because it's the
end of the semester, and I haven't been able to do as good a job as
I wanted with this online stuff. And so now I'm feeling like, Okay,
well, I need to make up for that by by allowing for all this extra
makeup work and all that. So yeah, a teacher's life! It's never
good enough.
Marsha 10:56
I thought of you because the other day this was oh, maybe two weeks
ago. Ben had his-- one of his his instructors had office hours.
There were three hours long office hours. And Ben was in the office
for three hours.
Kelly 11:12
Wow.
Marsha 11:14
So like, yeah, I guess, all these students were coming in and
going, coming in and going out.
Kelly 11:19
Right.
Marsha 11:19
But I thought of you and it's like, that was a long time to be in a
meeting, you know. I thought of you when he was talking about
this,
Kelly 11:34
I think we all do it.
Marsha 11:35
I'd have to go take a nap after that.
Kelly 11:36
Yeah, I think we all do it at the end of the semester, you know, we
want to give students all the opportunities that we can to get the
material and yeah, and I, you know, I had such high hopes at the
beginning of this semester that, you know, this time I was going to
get the online thing. The second time around doing an online, I was
gonna get it right. And of course, it doesn't feel like I got it
right at all. But it was better than last time, I'm trying to have
a growth mindset. [laughing] It was better than the last semester.
So I have one class that's a repeat of the class I had last
semester. And that class is better. And then this class, the
calculus class I had last spring when we were half face to face and
half online. And I have to say that the online portion of it, this
spring is better than the online portion that I did last spring. So
I have improved, and I have high hopes that it will be even better.
In the fall semester where I'm online. I'm teaching both of these
classes again. So totally growth mindset. I'm gonna be better. I
haven't mastered it yet. But I will! You know, that kind of that
kind of thing. But then there's a little bit of aspect of guilt,
because you haven't done as good a job as you want to do so. Yeah.
Yeah. But you know, that happens to me every semester, whether
we're online or not, it's just a little bit exacerbated in the
online environment. I always felt like I could have done better.
Well, I tell new teachers, teaching is a black hole that you could
pour all of your time in and never be good enough. So you can't be
a perfectionist and do this job. Or you'll burnout. You know, you
have to be--you have to be willing to say, Well, that was good
enough. And I'll do better next time. Or I'll try. I might not, but
I'm gonna try. So anyway, I'm just glad the semester is almost
over.
Marsha 13:40
Yes. And you have the whole summer to look forward to.
Kelly 13:43
Mm hmm. And our summer spin-in.
Marsha 13:48
So summer spinning! Should we get to get to the knitting and the
fibery portion, the playing was string portion of the podcast?
Kelly 13:57
Yeah.
Marsha 13:58
So do you want to talk about your projects or...
Kelly 14:00
Sure I am making really good progress. In fact, I'm crocheting on
it right now. I'm making really good progress on the Persian tiles
blanket. And I'm making it for my grand niece and calling it Faye's
flower blanket. I don't have the name in the shownotes of the
designer, but it's called Persian tile blanket. If you want to, if
anybody wants to go look at it. And then I have it in my projects
as Faye's flower blanket and that will be linked to in the show
notes. But I've got all of the octagons done--20 of them! Which
that was exciting when I got that last one done. In fact I almost
made a 21st not remembering that I was--that I had been on 19 and
20 was done and then I reminded myself. So I moved to finishing the
squares and all the squares are done. And then what I'm crocheting
on right now is the last row of the last triangle. So now all I
have to do are the four corners, which are also triangles. But this
is lik-- it's called a triangle granny square, or granny triangle
or something. So I'm on the last row of the last one of these. All
I'll have are the four corners. And then
Marsha 15:24
I'm looking at the projects on Ravelry. Then do you have you have
to sew them all together? Right?
Kelly 15:28
Yeah. And then I'll be all done. I'll be all done except for this
big huge project and sewing them all together. [laughing]
Marsha 15:35
Sorry to bring that up. But then it looks like it has a border
around it to then do.
Kelly 15:43
Let me look, I have the pattern right here. You know that I
haven't...
Marsha 15:46
By the way, Kelly, there's a border. [laughing]
Kelly 15:51
[reading pattern] Once these are together you will have uneven
blanket edges. To make an even edge you need to work around of
stitches. So I do four, five, six rounds of edging!
Kelly 16:07
Oh, no wonder I have so much yarn left! [laughing]
Marsha 16:10
Yes.
Kelly 16:17
I'm thinking, Oh, my God I have so much yarn left over. But it's
gonna take a lot of yarn to go all the way around that blanket. I
might have to buy more. [laughing]
Marsha 16:27
And you made it a little bit bigger, you put some more squares on
it.
Kelly 16:30
Right. Yeah.
Marsha 16:32
Um, also I'm sorry to be...
Kelly 16:37
No, this is funny. This is an example of why you should read all
the way through your pattern.
Marsha 16:44
So but then also, what I was going to say is, I'm looking at the...
I don't know if you're on Ravelry. But I'm looking at the other
projects. Some of them have just the way you described. It looks
like it's a very sort of simple border. But I'm looking at one and
it's it looks like KayVicknits. And she has like a, like a lace
border around it. I mean, an interesting...
Kelly 17:07
Oh, wow.
Marsha 17:08
And let's see if she has anything in the notes
Kelly 17:10
I don't think I'll be...
Marsha 17:12
But yeah, all the way around it. It's got like a triangles all the
way around it. It looks like
Kelly 17:18
Oh, interesting. Oh, I see. Yeah. So Oh, that is pretty. Yeah.
Marsha 17:23
So if you really want to use up your all that yarn,
Kelly 17:29
I actually...now that I'm looking at the border, I might have to
buy, I might have to buy more yarn. But we'll see. I have an I have
an awful lot of it left. I think I will just do the plain border
though. On the edge. We'll see. I don't know. Getting it all sewn
together is going to take a while. And the version that I'm doing
will look more like the Eastern Jewels version. There was a kit,
apparently, for this. There was the regular Persian tile blanket
where it's all the same. Every octagon is the same. And then there
was the eastern jewels version that had all the octagons different
it looks like it's all different sizes of flowers. And that's the
look I'm going for. And I think I've accomplished that.
Marsha 18:22
Okay, Kelly, now go. I'm sorry, go look at the projects. Go look at
bytheseashore, her project. And she has a very interesting border
on hers. And in the show notes it actually said that she did the
zigzag edging from LillaBjorn crochet.
Kelly 18:42
Oh, so that is cute. She did.... So there's a little--there's a
stitch in the octagon and the triangles, where you make a criss
cross of treble crochets
Marsha 18:53
Mm hmm.
Kelly 18:54
And it looks like that's a criss cross. She's used that criss cross
of treble crochets all around the edge. That is nice. Yeah. Huh.
Okay, I'm gonna favorite her project. Because people who are
listening, if you have not discovered this, if you save a project
in your favorites, then on your project page, it will show those
favorites in the lower... well for on the computer, it's in the
lower right hand corner. So anything that I like the the comments
on or that I'm interested in--I favorite that project and then that
makes it pop up in my project page. Take a look at it. It's a nice,
it's a nice feature because I've been... I've in the past had to
kind of like you know, make a list of links of the ones that I
wanted. And then I realized, oh, if I just favorite them. They show
up at the bottom of my project page and I can get to them easily.
So yeah, I'm really happy with it, I think it's turned out really
nice. I am not looking forward to sewing it together. But I am
looking forward to seeing it kind of come together. I've laid it
out on the table. And I really like the way it looks. Yeah, it's
really nice. It's like a riot of color.
Marsha 20:23
Yeah. Well, it's
Kelly 20:24
And I know there are people who say a riot is ugly, no matter what
kind of riot it is.
Marsha 20:34
Well, I think it's such an interesting project. Because as you say,
it is a riot of color. But everyone's done such different things
where it's like you're doing it, it's like, well, a riot of color.
And then there's other ones that I think are equally beautiful, but
they're very different, where they make every square, or whatever
the main one is, exactly the same. And those are so it's very
geometric. And it's and those are beautiful too.
Kelly 21:01
Sort of Islamic or Moroccan looking. Yeah, like or well, Persian.
It's called Persian tiles.
Marsha 21:12
Right. And so the one I'm going on right now is KoKoRoRoknits And
that's--she's done everyone exactly the same. And it's, it's very
pretty, it's very geometric. Just a completely different look, you
know?
Kelly 21:26
Mm hmm. And actually kind of reminds me of Mexican tiles. Yeah. The
the Mexican tiles that some people have on their houses or, you
know, on on their steps,
Marsha 21:37
Something to think about...your edging.
Kelly 21:43
Yeah. I'm gonna have to reorganize the yarn and see what I have
left and see what I can still do. Yeah. So anyway, that's, that's
one project. And then I did make a couple of charity hats, a couple
of nights where I didn't feel like crocheting. So I used som-- I
have fingering weight yarns that I've kind of put together in a
little kit, to use doubled for charity hats. So I just worked on
those mostly--purples and pinks. And then the other thing is just
the, I'm getting ready to start the socks out of the Bear Brand.
Caprice yarn. And I wanted to mention, speaking of that yarn, we
talked about that Bear Brand Caprice vintage yarn a few episodes
ago. And just to remind you, that's the one that it says it's 100%
virgin wool. But it really feels elastic. Like it's got some kind
of elastic in it. And it looks like there might be an elastic ply.
If you look really closely, there's a really thin ply. That looks
like it might be elastic. So I think when they say...I don't know,
it doesn't say 100%, it might say all, all virgin wool. I think
they're referring to all the wool that's in it is not recycled. But
it doesn't say on the label that the yarn is all wool. But anyway,
we talked about this in a previous episode, how interesting this
yarn is, and I am going to make a pair of socks out of it. I've
ripped it out, ripped out the last pair and I'm going to restart
them. Maybe today. I have a meeting this afternoon. It might be
good meeting knitting, because I'll be done with my crocheting,
most of it.
Kelly 23:33
I got a message from Jane Haskell about our conversation of the
bear Brand Yarn. She says "I heard you mentioned Bear Brand.
Attached are copies of covers of two books. One has many socks,
including Argyle circa 1950" and then she has in parentheses, "or
MCML" because that's the way it was listed in Roman numerals
and
Marsha 23:56
Oh. [laughing]
Kelly 23:59
If you can read Roman numerals. [laughing]"The other is circa 1939.
Both were my grandmother's and have her notes in them. I have many
more vintage books of my two grandmother's and two grand Aunts and
possibly one great grandmother's that I am yard saling this
summer." I would like to go to her yard sale
Marsha 24:23
Yeah really!
Kelly 24:23
[continues reading] "I do not have any bear Brand Yarn from stash
that I inherited or if I do I've already sold or goodwilled it. I
copied the inside of the cover of the 1939 books so you can see
what it says." And she sent me that copy. "There are other pages
about blocking, measuring, showing illustrations of measurements,
and darling little swim costumes and so on." So she says she she
loves our show and listens while she's driving. She lives on an
island on an island in Maine's Penobscot Bay, where there is a
knitting retreat this summer sponsored by Portland's, Maine
yarn.
Marsha 24:52
Okay,
Kelly 24:53
So thank you, Jane for sending that information. The copies that sh
sent me, were really interesting to look at about this yarn and I'm
gonna, I'm gonna print it out and stick the page inside of the bag
that I have the yarn in, so I won't forget,y ou know, what kind of
yarn it is and where it came from. So that was interesting to get
some information about my vintage yarn.
Marsha 25:24
Yeah. Interesting. Well, yeah, maybe we have to get on a plane and
go to her yard sale. [laughing]
Kelly 25:33
Go and buy more knitting knitting books. I just got rid some a few
years ago
Marsha 25:39
I know, I just got rid of a whole bunch. But that doesn't stop me
from dreaming.
Kelly 25:44
I know. I know. There's so interesting to look through those,
through those old fashioned, old fashioned books. That's the end of
my projects.
Marsha 25:53
Well, I don't have a lot to report. I'm knitting on my sock, right
now as we're talking. The Drops Fabel Print that I've been working
on a really long time. And I'm working on the gusset. I have one
more decrease round. And then I'm just going to be doing the foot.
So I don't know, maybe in two weeks, I'll have finished it. I don't
know, it's sort of my you know, the mindless knitting that I
do.
Kelly 26:23
Yeah.
Marsha 26:24
Then my Walk Along Tee. Um, you know, in the, in all the past
episodes I've been talking about how I'm a little anxious about the
quantity of yarn, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, last night, I knit to
about 11, I think was about 11 and a half inches of the body, which
they say to knit. And then what you are supposed to do is then you
bind off, but then pick up stitches in the contrast color to make
it so it looks like you know there's a T shirt under a T shirt,
which I'm not going to do. But if you do that, it's more of a tunic
length. And I don't want it tunic length. So I decided last night
to put it on waste yarn and try it on. And I think I'm at the
length I want. I'm so this is my... Well, I still have to do about
a half inch of ribbing. And then what you're supposed to do then
is, as I said, you bind that off and then pick up stitches to knit
in stockinette in the contrasting color. What you do on the neck
edge, and the sleeves, the cuff of the sleeve is you knit in
ribbing, and then you change to the contrast in color and you just
do, I believe it'd be reverse stockinette. So then that contrasting
color sort of curls back and makes like a tube kind of you know,
and so I I have to make some decisions. Do I put that same detail
around the bottom of the sweater? Now I know a lot of people are
saying, well, you don't really want to have a line around the
widest part of your hip. I'm not too concerned about that. That
never really bothers me having stripes. But I'm.... So I've decided
how I'm going to do that. I'm also trying to decide should I just
finish the sweater now? The bottom? Or should I just leave it on
the waste yarn and go and do the sleeves and finish the sleeves?
And then think about the bottom? That'll give me more weeks to
think about it? Or do you know what I'm saying?
Kelly 28:30
That's what I would do?
Marsha 28:31
Okay,
Kelly 28:31
Yeah, that's what I would do.
Marsha 28:33
And then what I had planned on doing with the sweater is to make
three quarter length sleeves. I may have enough yarn for that.
Because I have... I just-- I had to put-- I have just two balls
left I mean, so it's basically roughly a little less than one skein
left because as I've talked about endlessly that those skeins I
split into half into two cakes. So one of the cakes I've used maybe
a quarter of it. The other cake, I just maybe did two rows of the
body with the second one. So I think between the two of them, I
would have enough to do three quarter length sleeves. But now I'm
trying to think. I'm beginning to think I don't want three quarter
length sleeves. I think I just want short sleeves, not cap sleeves,
but just come down like mid because three quarter length would come
down.
Kelly 29:24
Like past your elbow.
Marsha 29:30
Past my elbow. So I don't know. That's what I think.
Kelly 29:31
that's what I think too.
Marsha 29:32
And so I'm thinking maybe I just want it to come down. maybe longer
like this. The the pattern shows that you just knit a few rows and
then you start all of the ribbing and the contrasting reverse
stockinette. So it's more of... it's like a short short sleeve. I'm
wondering if I want to have it come down just just right before the
break in my arm kind of, or above that.
Kelly 29:55
Yeah. Yeah,
Marsha 29:57
I have to do some thinking.
Kelly 29:58
It's best not to have your... like they say you don't want to stop
something at the widest part. And so it's best like not to have
your sleeve stop at the biggest part of your bicep.
Kelly 30:13
Okay.
Kelly 30:15
So to either be up a little higher or down a little lower.
Marsha 30:18
Okay, why is that?
Kelly 30:19
I don't know, I guess it has to do with, like, to look flattering,
you know? And I have no idea if it makes it makes it look smaller
or if it just makes it look more balanced. You know, I don't know
if it has to do with... When you say flattering a lot of times
flattering is a euphemism for skinnier. Oh, yeah. That makes you
look thin, right? And that's not what I mean.
Marsha 30:51
Right.
Kelly 30:53
So I don't know if that rule applies because it does make you look
thinner, and that's what they mean by more flattering, or if it
actually has to do with the aesthetics of it. And kind of the
balance of the garment.
Marsha 31:07
Do you remember that the T shirt you made? I think it was the
Havasu Falls. And don't the sleeves hit...
Kelly 31:13
I didn't make that.
Marsha 31:15
Oh, what's the one?
Kelly 31:17
Oh, Havana? I made one called Havana. Is it brown?
Marsha 31:22
No, the one that was like, oh, and maybe it is brown. The pattern
the
Kelly 31:28
Summer Fjord? That's the one you made. That's my gold one.
Marsha 31:35
No, no. Okay, I'm wrong on that. This is where we have the bad
podcasting where we go down these rabbit holes that were not
prepared. Let me look at...let me look at your projects.
Kelly 31:52
I'm guessing it's probably Havana.
Marsha 31:54
I think it is Havana.
Kelly 31:58
It's a kind of a pale Brown.
Marsha 32:00
But you made that quite a while and I'm having to scroll down
through all of these. All of your projects. Oh, yeah, Havana? Yes,
that one. Okay, so let me look at that one. Let me look. Oh, yeah.
So those sleeves hit you right above the elbow kind of. You know,
they're a little bit..they're not cap sleeves, but they're not
three quarter length.
Kelly 32:23
Right. Yeah, they're .... I put them... I made those end at the
elbow, like right above my elbow.
Marsha 32:31
Do you think that's a flatteringlook? I'm looking at the pin.
Yeah,
Kelly 32:33
I like it. Yeah. I like those sleeves a lot.
Marsha 32:37
Okay.
Kelly 32:39
I like that sweater a lot. I think it's a really flattering
sweater.
Marsha 32:41
Okay, so then my question is ...,
Kelly 32:44
And by flattering. I don't mean it makes me look skinny.
Marsha 32:50
Okay, so now I'm looking at Honey of a Tee and you have three
quarter length sleeves. Do you like... are you happy with that?
Kelly 32:58
Yes.
Marsha 32:59
Well, you're no help because you like both of them. I
Kelly 33:03
Well, it depends. I like those because... I like those because I
think of that as a warmer sweater. Even though it's made out of
cotton. I don't-- I don't think of wearing that sweater when it's
warm out. The way I do the Havana, that one I wear when it's
warmer. I actually think just looking at the pictures. I think that
Havana sleeves look better.
Marsha 33:31
So then this is my other... the question I have to then in my mind
about this is a merino wool t shirt. So am I gonna wear it in the
summer? So do I...? That's why I think I want a little bit longer
sleeve than what they're showing in the picture. But I don't know.
Yeah, I don't I don't want full length I've decided. But I am
thinking... maybe that's why I was thinking originally three
quarter length sleeves because it is a wool sweater. I don't know
that I'd be wearing it in the summer.
Kelly 34:07
But I think probably if I had made the sleeves on this-- the
Lavender Honey is the pattern. I think if I had made the sleeves on
that a little bit shorter, it would look a little bit less like my
sheet sleeves are just too short. Oh. I like this sweater a lot.
And I wear it a lot. But it does...Looking at the picture, it does
look like maybe my sleeves are just a little too short. More than
that I purposely made them that way.
Marsha 34:41
Okay.
Kelly 34:42
I mean, I don't think it's ugly. I like it. But it does. It does
look like an odd length
Marsha 34:48
I think... okay, well that helps
Kelly 34:49
If you made them--if you made these sleeves, the longer sleeves I
would say have them stop right after your elbow. Whereas mine go
like halfway between my elbow and my wrist.
Marsha 35:03
Yeah. And that's the thing with three quarter length sleeves, too,
is you have to find that length that where it looks finished and
not like I ran out of yarn.
Kelly 35:16
Yeah, that... I mean, that is kind of the danger. You want it to
look like it was on purpose. Yeah.
Marsha 35:24
Anyway, so I'm making progress on that. And then the other thing
I've been working on is spinning. And so yesterday, we had a
beautiful day and I had been painting at the other house and I came
home and I sat on the on my deck, yay! And I've got my--I've got my
pots planted. And I've got the umbrellas out there. And so it's a
very different, very different experience than a year ago at this
time where it was a dust pit back there, no deck. But anyway, I was
working on spinning. So I'm almost done. I think the... Okay, the
last time we recorded I had ordered more fiber of the bitter
chocolate, the dark brown. And I have that. I have not opened the
package yet, I have probably another just 12 inches of the brown
roving to spin, and a little bit of the green. So my plan is to ply
that last of that green with the three ply with the three ply with
the brown. Then all the brown that's leftover, I'm just gonna do a
three ply of the solid brown. But I haven't finished plying the
green and brown together yet. So I'm going to... I still have that
to do. But I'm making progress, you know?
Kelly 36:41
Yeah, that's a that's a big... I mean, it's a big spinning project
to make a sweater.
Marsha 36:46
Yeah, it is.
Marsha 36:48
And I have not had... and honestly, I've just not had a lot of time
to spin, or the time that I've had to spin, I've been so tired that
I just get into bed and you can't spin in bed.[laughing]
Kelly 37:01
Right.
Marsha 37:02
Right. Anyway. So that's it for me for projects. I think it's a
nice lead in to--talking about spinning a nice lead in to a
question that we have from a listener.
Kelly 37:13
So yeah, one of the questions that I've had was about knitting with
handspun. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about you know,
what, what has been our experience knitting with handspun and some
things that especially new spinners can think about or use as tips
or, or tricks or strategies or whatever. So one of the things that
I kind of don't like to see is when people talk about how much
handspun they have, and that they've never knit with it. Like, oh
my gosh! You have to have to knit with your handspun. But now, if
you were to ask me that when I first started spinning, I had no
desire to knit with my handspun I just wanted to make yarn. And
then of course, you know, the knitting and the weaving were partly
self defense against all the yarn I was making. My main goal was to
make yarn but but it is really satisfying to make something out of
your own yarn. I think I always really enjoy it. So one of the
things I just wanted to mention is how I select a needle size to
swatch and I learned this a long time ago. And I usually, I mean I
usually do this as a way to kind of identify what needle I'm going
to start with. I get out my needle gauge and I double up the yarn
and I poke it through the holes in the needle gauge and I look for
one where it it goes through pretty easily. It isn't like scraping
the edge the whole time. It's not so big that, you know, it doesn't
touch at all. Where does the yarn doubled fit through the needle
gauge the best? And that's where I start and then I usually swatch
one down, one needle size down from that and one needle size up
from that and then I look at my fabric. And then if if I think, oh,
maybe I want to try a little bit looser or a little bit tighter
I'll, you know, I'll go even further up or even further down but
usually one up and one down gives me three choices. And one of
those three choices is a fabric that I like and a gauge that I like
and then I'll go look in Ravelry and use the gauge as one of the
filters in the advanced pattern search. I think I've talked about
that before--how I use that in the advanced pattern search.
Marsha 39:42
and I'm just.. This is not about... This, my comment, too This is
just about doing swatches. And this is not about handspun this was
all swatches. And people probably know this but I had not known
this and I think my friend Kim told me this, is that when you do
your swatch, like if you're going to do three different... I just,
I don't make three individual swatches, I just do--I make it all
one. I just chang the needles. But to keep track of which swatch is
which size needle, you put holes in there for the size needle. So
if you're knitting on size three needles, you put three, you know,
three yarn overs, knit two, and then knit two together, yarn over,
knit two together, yarn over, knit two together, so you get three
holes. So then when you look at your...right at the beginning of
the swatch, so then when you wash it, you know which, which one is
which. Yeah, so five yarn overs for if you're using five, size five
needles, etc. Do you do that?
Kelly 40:41
Yes. The only time that I haven't done that is been has been when
my needle size is so big that I don't have enough. I don't have
enough stitches on my swatch. And instead of making a bigger
swatch, you know, wider swatch, I have just used a different
technique, like, you know, make a little note or, or tie a little
string on it with the right number of knots, or something like
that. So, but yeah, I do use that technique a lot. You have to make
sure that you swatch long enough if you do that. Because if you
make little, you know, four row swatches, and one of your rows is
holes. That's not going to give you a very good idea.
Marsha 41:27
Yeah, yeah.
Kelly 41:29
But, I like to, I like to make a good size swatch. And then I
always wash the swatch too, just to see what that does to see what
the fabric looks like. So yeah, and then I just select the pattern
based on based on those patterns that match my gauge. Because I
don't, I don't like the game of trying to get trying to get gauge,
I'd rather get a fabric I like and then find a sweater that uses
that gauge, then try to get a gauge that my yarn is not going to
want to do.
Marsha 42:03
Well and then also select a pattern that, beyond gauge, a pattern
that will work with the type of fabric that you've created or what
type of... because you know even with with handspun, but even
commercially made yarns, some work in lace, some don't some work
with cable, some don't. Some you know, some work with texture, some
don't. So that's why another reason to make kind of a large swatch
too is that you get a better sense of what it's going to look like.
If you were to do cables, or
Kelly 42:39
Yeah, like a really textured yarn. Don't bother with a really
patterned a really detailed pattern like cables or, or... Well,
that's sort of what happened with those socks, right? I was trying
to, it wasn't handspun. But I was trying to use the Matcha pattern
that had, you know, some texture to it, with a yarn that already
had texture. And it was pointless.
Marsha 43:05
Yeah, yeah.
Kelly 43:06
So you do have to be be aware of that. So, but we've had a lot of
people make things out of their very first handspun in the summer
spin ins that we've had in previous years. So yeah, so I think I
think we do have a good, a good track record of helping people and
supporting people. And the group of people who are who are chatting
in the thread, also giving a good, good amount of support to people
who want to make something out of their handspun. Yeah, it's always
fun to see that happen.
Marsha 43:40
Yeah.
Kelly 43:41
Now you've knit with your handspun. I mean, you're not a new new
spinner, but you knit with your handspun. And right away.
Marsha 43:48
Well, my very first one that I made, I think it's still in a ball.
And then I'm like, Oh, I'm going to spin some yarn and I'm going to
make a hat for Ben. That thing is like it weighs... It feels like
it weighs a pound. I should weigh it. It feels like a weighs a
pound. Super dense. super heavy. But you know, I will never throw
it away. And then I... so this kind of leads into another thing we
were just going to mention. But anyway, I said I was gonna make him
a pair of socks. And out of my handspun. And I was going to try, I
was trying to spin fingering weight or sock weight you know, but
it's worsted weight. And so these are very heavy, heavy socks and
they're... and I got the... You wouldn't think that I would get the
stitch count off given that they were so big. There wouldn't be
that many stitches for a worsted weight pair of socks. But one of
them I got this. I don't know how I did it, but I have too many
stitches. So one is significantly larger than the other. So but I
still have those But just a side note about the comments about the
yarn isn't good enough and the allure of spinning thin. One of the
things like I talked about that a lot, I don't seem to be able to
spin... To date, I have not been able to spin yarn that's finer
than DK, perhaps. It's always ends up being worsted weight
Kelly 45:28
Well, and you always make a three ply. Right? I mean that you could
make it... you could, you could have a fingering weight yarn if you
use the singles. At this point,
Marsha 45:41
yes, yeah, yeah. ,
Kelly 45:45
or maybe only two ply,
Marsha 45:48
yeah. The but then I've made I guess I've made two sweaters with my
yarn, right? Did I make two sweaters? Because I did the, I can't
even remember!
Kelly 46:01
You made two combo spins.
Marsha 46:02
I did the combo spins. And I made two. And I really I have to say I
just really like knitting with the handspun. It's a different
experience knitting with handspun. Because there is, because I I'm
a newer spinner than you are. And that first combo spin I think was
the first time I had spun a sweater quantity of yarn. And so
because it is handspun, there is variation. And that's actually
kind of fun to knit with to see. I found it enjoyable. It just
yeah, it felt really good to knit with my handspun and I don't
know, it just... it's it's because of the irregularities it's just
much more textural and but when you actually knit..
Kelly 46:52
There's so much more life. So yeah, there's some element of life to
it, that...
Marsha 46:58
it has a bit more soul to it.
Kelly 47:01
And also, I mean, it has a little bit more spring to it, too. I
mean, really, I mean literally has more spring in it, I think, than
a commercial yarn. Its more elastic. I mean, it depends on what
you're spinning, but for the most part, I think my handspun is much
more elastic than than any commercial yarn. Yeah.
Marsha 47:27
Yeah, I just like it. It was very enjoyable to knit with.
Kelly 47:29
Your first project wasn't a sweater, but I know of people whose
first project has been a sweater. And I, you know, I'm not gonna
say... I'm not gonna stop anyone from jumping in feet first like
that. But I think some good first projects are like what you
mentioned. A hat is a good first project. I made potholders out of
the the really ropey heavy, dense yarn that I made originally. I
made potholders, I made a little bag for my spinning wheel oil, and
the potholders I felted. So they were really nice and thick. So
those are good, some good first projects. But a hat is a good
project, a cowl is a good project. Socks, I think probably better
if... One of my first projects was socks, too. And they were super
dense. In fact, I, I couldn't I could barely knit two together.
Because the yarn was so thick, and my needles were so small. And
they you know, I just, I had an impression of how thin the yarn
was, when it really wasn't, you know.
Marsha 48:43
And, and that was my experience with the socks that I made for Ben.
It was so dense that it's very difficult too. My hands hurt and
knitting together for the decreases was really, really
challenging.
Kelly 48:59
Yeah, so probably, I mean, probably you were using needles more
along the lines of sock needles, using a yarn that was closer to
worsted weight.
Marsha 49:08
Yeah, yeah.
Kelly 49:09
And so slipper socks would be a better, a better choice, you know,
a worsted weight pair of slipper socks would be a better a better
choice probably then. Just for ease of, ease of knitting. But yeah,
there are a lot of I mean, there are a lot of good projects for
handspun. And this idea that your yarn isn't good enough. I mean, a
lot of people will say that, you know, I want to get better before
I use my yarn. I would say... I would say your yarn is good enough.
It's a matter of the right, you know, finding the right project for
it. And it's only the super early yarn that is so dense and ropey.
I mean, people quickly, I think, move from that sort of ropey
plying, really dense plying. And that happens pretty quickly.
Marsha 50:02
Well and that ropey hat that I made. You can see, you know, when
you when you're plying and you get those little corkscrews, that
you can't undo and lots of that! And so and you can... so many of
you can actually see it in the finished project. But you have to
start somewhere.
Kelly 50:23
That's right. That's right.
Marsha 50:25
But I have to say, with the two sweaters that I made, as I say, the
yarn is, has character, you know, they have thin bits and thick
bits...
Kelly 50:38
Beautiful!
Marsha 50:39
Oh, yeah. They're, I think they're really nice. The, but what I was
going to say is that, and we've talked this about this before, but
you have thick and thin bits in the single, but then when you ply
it, that changes. But you still may, even if you still have thick
and thin bits after you ply it, that all changes again, when you
knit it up.
Kelly 51:02
Yeah.
Marsha 51:03
And so those thick and thin parts really begin to sort of just
disappear, I think. And worst case scenario, if you have one,
that's just one spot that's super, super thin or super, super
thick, you cut it out and just
Kelly 51:17
Right,
Marsha 51:18
spit, splice the yarn together and keep knitting, you know,
Kelly 51:21
if you have a bad spot, or if you have one of those pigtails from
plying that you don't want to be in your...
Marsha 51:27
Oh, that's what it's called?
Kelly 51:28
The pig tail is what I call it. I don't know if it's...I don't know
if that's what it's called or not, but that's kind of what I call
it.
Marsha 51:39
So, um, but then Kelly, uh, how about measuring the skein?
Kelly 51:44
Oh, yeah, that's the other thing that happens when you're new, is
you have a misperception about how much yarn you made. And, and
there does seem to be not so much anymore. There used to be a lot
of, a lot of I don't know, like, you know, the social media kind of
pressure about spinning that I didn't have, because there wasn't
social media. Right? I didn't know what other people's spinning
looked like, you know, other than when I went to guild meetings and
saw it on, you know, saw what they were working on. But I didn't do
that very, I didn't do that that often. And Spin Off had episodes,
they had issues where they started to after-- I'd been spinning
quite a while-- they started having issues where you would send
your yarn to them, and they would photograph it and they would put
the skeins in the magazine, the photographs. And that was the first
time that I really had a ton of exposure to other people's yarn.
And that wasn't even, you know, real life exposure, but picture
exposure. So I didn't have you know, the pictures that people will
post. And I'm not, I'm not criticizing people for doing this. But I
think somebody, the way people perceive it is different, like
people will post pictures, and they'll put a coin along with yarn,
right. And the idea is to give you some some element of scale, you
can tell how, how thick or thin the yarn is. But sometimes I think
when I see, you know, some of these pictures are especially... it
used to be more common. I would see I would see these pictures or I
would hear people talking about how thin their yarn was. And it was
like that was the only thing that was valuable was the thin yarn.
Like if it wasn't thin it was not worth spinning or doing anything
with and you had to try to get as thin as possible. Well, there's a
use for thin yarn. But I don't knit with lace weight all the
time.
Marsha 53:47
Right?
Kelly 53:48
So like, what are you going to do with, you know, dozens of skeins
of lace weight and thinner. So you know, make the yarn that's going
to fit what you're going to... what you're going to make. And so if
you like knitting with DK weight yarn, then that's the weight that
you should try to spin for. If you like fingering weight yarn, then
you can try to spin for fingering weight and that'll you know,
that'll mean your plies are a little thinner. But experiment, you
know, with thick yarn and thin yarn. And there's nothing inherently
better about spinning thin, I guess is my my point. And then the
other thing that's also true is the worsted yarn. A lot of times
I'll see at a spinning event that, you know, people are spinning
like this. They call it inchworm style. And again, there's nothing
wrong with spinning in that in that way. It makes it very smooth,
compressed yarn, because you're only letting a little bit of fiber
out and then you're smoothing it down before you advance it. So it
makes it very smooth, and also very compressed yarn. Which is fine
if you're wanting worsted style yarn, right? That's what worsted
style is. Very smooth and compressed. But if you want something
fluffy or light, then you know use a different spinning style. And
you'll have fluffier yarn or it'll have a halo to it. And there's
something nice about about the fact when you wash it, it gets a
little bit fuzzy, you know, more fuzzy. So I guess... I guess the
point I'm trying to make is that, I would suggest if you're a new
spinner, just spin and see what happens. I mean, it's... Yeah, it's
good to have goals. And it's good to try things like to give
yourself a lesson or a challenge. You know, for learning. But when
you're first spinning, I think, just spin and see what happens. And
some fibers are going to want to be more smooth and other fibers
are going to turn into a yarn that's really fluffy. And sometimes
you're going to get a yarn that's thick, and sometimes you're going
to get a yarn that's thinner, depending on the, the, you know, the
fiber that you're using. And that's how and then you can kind of
learn what they say, like what the fiber wants to be. And then
don't try to make fiber be a way doesn't want to be.
Marsha 56:25
Right.
Kelly 56:27
So anyway, that's... Yeah, I think that's kind of an important
thing to think about.
Marsha 56:33
But we started this about measuring the yardage. And so Kelly, you
want to talk about how you how you measure or how you taught me to
measure the skein?
Kelly 56:42
Yeah, How did I get from... because you said that
already...measuring the yardage. How did I get off...
Marsha 56:47
I know, I'm trying to guide you back on topic graciously, but I
don't think I did it very graciously. [laughing]
Kelly 56:55
No, that was nice, Marsha. Thank you. [laughing]
Kelly 56:59
Measuring the yardage. Be careful when you measure on the niddy
noddy because it's going to be stretched. So like I have what's
called a one yard niddy noddy. And it's not actually one yard. Like
if I, if I measure a piece of yarn that goes around, even if I use
like cotton string that doesn't stretch at all, and I go around
my... or if I take the tape measure and go around my niddy noddy,
it's not quite a yard. It's a little short of a yard even though it
was advertised as a one yard niddy noddy. And then if I wind the
yarn on to it, of course, it's tight. So just counting how many
times... Actually it's a two yard... Sorry, it's a two yard niddy
noddy. So just counting the number of times I went around doesn't
really give me the yardage that I have. That... I did that, I made
that mistake. I made that mistake before. Thinking I had way more
yarn than I actually had. Yeah. So now what I do is, after I've
washed it, skeined it up and washed it, I just lay it out kind of
flat on the ironing board or on the table. And then I just measure,
I just measure how long that skein is kind of, on average, like I
put the tape measure, kind of in the middle of each end and and
measure. And then I just you know, and I count how many, how many
threads there are.
Marsha 58:21
Now you do that though, after you've washed the yarn.
Kelly 58:25
Yeah, I do it after I've washed it. And, and I don't count it while
I wind it on because I can't do that. You know, I could count and
say, Oh, I went around, you know, 300 times as I'm winding it on. I
don't usually do that. I usually count them after it's been washed.
Just because I know I'm not going to keep track while I'm
winding.
Marsha 58:50
Okay, well, do you want to know what I do?
Kelly 58:52
What do you do
Marsha 58:53
So because you gave me the niddy noddy, your extra niddy noddy and
so I think we have the same one it's the two yard one. So in
theory, what I do is I do count as I wrap around the niddy noddy I
count up to 20 and then make a mark on it on a piece of paper.
Kelly 59:11
You're much more disciplined!
Marsha 59:12
And then because I could not count 300 I would lose track right?
But if I just count to... and if I'm really distracted I just count
to 10 but I count around 20 times mark on a piece of paper or 20
times mark it so then it ends up being... say I have it's I've
wrapped around 80 times it usually ends up being an odd number you
know 87 times. Then what I do is I multiply that by two and then I
measured the length, I take it off the knot and I don't stretch it
really tight but I just hold it straight out and I measure it
usually it ends up being 30 inches
Kelly 59:48
yeah mine's somewhere around there.
Marsha 59:51
So what I end up doing... but I haven't washed it yet though. So
what I do is I then my math is you know the number of wraps-- times
I've wrapped around, say it's 87 times, times the length, which is
30 inches, then doubled times two, then I divide it by 36.
Kelly 1:00:11
Right.
Marsha 1:00:11
And that tells me how many yards I have. Approximately. Now, I have
not. So this the yarns that I'm working on now, I then I put a tag
on it. You know what the fiber is, how many yards, approximately, I
think I have based on that, then I weigh it to figure out how many
ounces I have. You could also do grams too, but how many ounces
that skein is. And then in the lower right hand corner of the tag,
I put a one and then a slash, you know, like if you're gonna do
percent, one slash, and then when I'm all done... So you'll have
one, you know, a skein one, skein two, skein three. And then when
I'm all done, I fill in how many skeins I have. So it's one of ten,
two of ten, three of 10. Don't ask me why I do that. Just because
I'm I, it might be kind of weird. But then I know what was my first
skein. And what was my last skein. And I was thinking the reason
I... Well, actually I do, actually, you can ask me why I do that.
Because I do have a reason why I do that.
Marsha 1:01:17
Why do you do that Marsha?
Marsha 1:01:19
So that my theory is, when I start, say I'm going to knit a
sweater, then I can knit with my first and my last skein. Maybe
alternate my first and last skeins. And so that is because there is
going to be variation, I would think because you are like, for
example, this green and brown that I'm spinning, it's it's over a
period of months that I'm spinning it. And sometimes I take a week
or two weeks break that I'm not doing anything. So there is going
to be variation between the first skein and the last skein just
because, yeah, weeks, months or years have gone past, right. So
that's sort of my idea is well if I then can blend them, keep track
of those skeins, I can blend them as I'm knitting, alternate those
skeins.
Kelly 1:02:05
That makes sense. I think you would especially if you were a newer
spinner, it might get finer as you go, even if you're trying to
keep it consistent. And even if you have a control card, you know,
or a piece of yarn that you're using to spin to, it's very likely
that you are going to get better, your spinning is going to
improve. And and a lot of people when their spinning improves, they
do end up you know, they have more facility with drafting and they
do end up with a thinner yarn. Yeah.
Marsha 1:02:36
And then the other thing I do is I... So with that first skein, so
I know I have say 150 yards and it weighs two ounces. I know that
my... so then I then I can figure out well, how many yards am I
getting per ounce?
Kelly 1:02:53
Yeah.
Marsha 1:02:54
And so, and I have... I'm starting with this many ounces of fiber,
it gives me a little bit so it's not accurate, because it's only my
first skein. But it gives me kind of a sense of like, well, how
much yarn do I think I'm going to get, how much yardage am I going
to produce out of so many ounces of yarn. And then as I say, then I
add in skein two, skein three, and it's to see... And it's pretty
accurate from that first skein, even as I started adding and doing
the math to see how many ounces or-- excuse me-- rephrase that. How
many yards per ounce I'm going to get. It stays pretty consistent
as I started adding in the skeins. Does that make sense what I
do.
Kelly 1:03:37
Yeah. And then that gives you an idea whether you have enough fiber
or do you like in this particular sweater quantity that you're
spinning right now. You decided you needed to buy more fiber,
because you knew you weren't going to get the yardage that that you
were hoping for. Yeah, no, I think that's I think that's really
good. I think those are kind of our main thoughts about knitting
with your handspun. Or crocheting, doing any kind of working with
your handspun. like, how do you find...
Marsha 1:04:05
Or weaving?
Kelly 1:04:06
Yeah, yeah, we didn't even talk about weaving, weaving is a great
thing to do with your handspun. because textured yarn makes really
nice weaving projects. And you don't need to worry about gauge.
Marsha 1:04:24
So what are what are what are good projects for textured yarn, in
knitting or crochet, do you think?
Kelly 1:04:34
Um, I Well, I think the the slipper socks is a good one because it
will be... they will be nice and squishy and I think a nice cowl
would be good in a textured yarn. You know, for for knitting or
crocheting.
Marsha 1:04:50
What about people who are more advanced and you start doing sort of
like those, what's the word... Art art yarns, you know. Like they
actually spin...that's what I was thinking of like when you spin
in, you intentionally spin like thick and thin, exaggerated...
Kelly 1:05:11
Yeah, I've seen some really pretty sweaters with the slubby yarn,
you use kind of a loose gauge and that way the the real slubby
parts can, can show up. Well, like my Sonny Bono jacke is at a
really loose gauge, and that yarn is definitely art yarn, you have
all those locks sticking off the yarn. So I do think a looser gauge
is best for those kinds of yarns. And you could use them as... I've
seen people use them as like the, the, you know, brim of a hat and
then the rest of the hat is ... like the the part you fold, or like
a cuff, you know, on a sleeve or a yoke like a stripe in the yoke.
So you could use your handspun along with something else. And
that's a really nice way to to use up just a one skein, you know,
one small skein of yarn? Yeah, in a project that's not a handspun,
not fully a handspun project.
Marsha 1:06:17
Do you have anything more you want to add on this topic?
Kelly 1:06:18
I don't think so today. I think that's, that's good. And then we'll
add other topics. And we're interested in knowing... I put a
question in the summer spin in chat thread, to let us know if you
know if there's anything that you would want to hear about during
the spin in. The topics that you'd like us to talk about in
spinning on the podcast, you can do that. You can send us an email,
you can contact us through our website. Two Ewes Fiber Adventures
dot com. We have a Contact Us page, you can contact us there. You
can contact either me or Marsha on Instagram, through direct
message and we can add your your question to our to our topic
list.
Marsha 1:07:01
And we'll talk more. Hopefully, we'll get a lot of good questions.
And we'll add some. We'll talk about spinning over the next few
months. Because just a reminder, the summer spin in starts. It's
Memorial Day through Labor Day, which is May 31 through September
6. And so we'll be talking more about spinning over the summer
months.
Kelly 1:07:23
Yeah it's a good three months, a little more than three months of
spinning.
Marsha 1:07:28
By September, people will be saying, please stop talking about
spinning! You've spun us dry. [laughing]
Kelly 1:07:40
Anyway. All right.
Marsha 1:07:41
So I'm excited about projects plans. So anyway,so Kelly, do we have
any anything else we wanted to say?
Kelly 1:07:51
I don't think so.
Marsha 1:07:52
Should we say goodbye?
Kelly 1:07:53
Yeah. Yeah. Let's say goodbye. We'll see everyone in two weeks.
We'll talk to everyone in two weeks. All righty. Bye. Bye.
Marsha 1:08:04
Bye.
Kelly 1:08:04
Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit
to Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com
Marsha 1:08:12
Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am
betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects. Until next time,
where the Two Ewes doing our part for a world fleece!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai