Ep 168: Gamp Weaving and Spinning Weasels...We Learn Some New Words

The Summer Spin ends in less than a month so we discuss knitting with handspun. Plus, we have great prizes for the Spin In provided by the Three Green Sisters and we have our Patreon Pattern Giveaway.

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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Three Green Sisters prizes: Grand prize is an 18 by 18 pillow using fabric designed by Cheri Magnusson. They are very interested in supporting this new fabric designer who is the shepherd of an Icelandic flock in Maine. 

In addition to the pillow, they are generously providing their Patty style bag as a prize. One will be used for the Summer Spin-In and one will be drawn from a thread we’ll post in the Ravelry group. 

They are offering Fiber Adventurers a coupon code EWES2 for 15% off until the end of the year. They also make custom loom totes, spinning wheel carriers and spindle and heddle bags, along with one of a kind styles. Take a look at what Suzanne and other 3 Green Sisters are offering in their 3 Green Sisters Etsy shop.

We talk about Cheri Magnuson who has created fabric that will be in one of the prizes. She is a shepherd who had become a fabric designer.

Coldstream_Ice Spoonflower fabric shop.

Marsha’s Projects

Atlas (Ravelry link) by Jared Flood using Navia Tradition. The pattern is also available at his website. I finished the colorwork yoke and the neckband and washed and blocked the sweater before finishing the bottom and sleeve ribbing. Now I’m worried it is too small. I need to get my brother over as soon as possible to try on the sweater so I know what my next step will be.

I discussed a technique for knitting with three colors in one row that my friend told me about. Unfortunately, I cannot find a YouTube video demonstration but I will describe it. You knit the row with the dominant color and one background color, slipping the stitches that are the second background color. When you finish the row, you knit the row again but this time you knit the second background color stitches you slipped, and slip all the dominant color and first background colors. Hope that makes sense.

I also picked up a skein winder or spinning weasel from our listener Nanci (Nan4Nan). It was lovely to meet Nanci and so generous of her to pass along the skein winder. It does not have a brand name on it so if listeners know, please pass on that information. I’ve been watching YouTube videos to learn how to use it.

Kelly’s Projects

I have been knitting dishcloths at night and weaving during the day. I had a previously wound warp for the Huck Color and Weave project from the Jane Stafford guild. I decided to put it on the loom. 

Huck is a weave structure with floats. You can have horizontal floats along with plain weave on the front, you can have vertical floats along with the plain weave, or you can have both vertical and horizontal floats that make a kind of lace. Color and weave refers to alternating colors in both the warp and the weft. Depending on the sequence of light and dark threads (LDLD… or LDDL-LDDL… or DLDDL-DLDDL…) the colors will interact with each other to form interesting patterns. A gamp is a sampler that allows you to systematically pair every weft choice with every warp choice. 

It was my first time warping back to front on the floor loom. I used the instructions from season one of the guild. It was easy to wind on by myself! Robert doesn’t really enjoy helping me wind on. Once it was on the loom I got obsessed and wove it off in about 4 days. I did 4 different gamps and then I just played. The gamps became napkins (they were a good size for that) and the rest of the sampling became dishtowels. 

The fabric really changes when it is washed and curved sections become visible. 

I’m not ready to do another one of these lace projects, but I got inspired to put a stash busting baby blanket on the loom. 

Spinning Topic--Handspun sweaters

Kelly: Laceweight camel and silk featherweight sweater, Funky grandpa sweater, Orcas Run sweater, Dark and Stormy, Dark Green Forest sweater.

Four are natural colored (one of them with overdyed stripes). The current one is overdyed. The yarns  are: 

Two ply--one ply camel and one ply silk for a laceweight yarn. Spun first, then decided what to do with it. Featherweight sweater.

Medium fine wool (breed unknown) (Charlotte) two ply fingering weight. Spun first, then decided what to do with it. Funky Grandpa sweater.

CVM bulky two ply--spun on purpose for the sweater. Orcas Run sweater

Targhee lamb three ply (worsted to aran)--spun for a sweater, chose sweater based on gauge. Dark and Stormy sweater.

CVM three ply in a sport weight--started spinning first, then decided to make a sweater and selected based on gauge. Dark Green Forest Sweater.

Also used Charlotte carded with a little bit of brightly dyed silk noil to make a vest for Robert. Yarn is a heavy, dense 2-ply that is probably aran weight or larger (early spinning). The vest is quite large (gauge swatch? no!) and you can see stripes of the various natural colors of Charlotte in it from uneven carding. 

Marsha: I have made two sweaters with my handspun. Both were combo spin methods.

Beeline by Heidi Kirrmeier. For this sweater I dyed the roving in really bright colors. 

Simple Summer Tweed Top Down V-Neck by Heidi Kirrmeier. All the roving I bought at shows and did not dye any. Lots of fiber types...wools, silk, alpaca. Really fun to spin all the different fibers,

With both sweaters I did not alternate skeins on the body, but I did alternate for the sleeves.

Patreon Pattern Giveaway!

Patrons get a pattern of their choice up to $8.00. Contact Kelly with your pattern selection! 

Summer Spin In - Ends September 6th

Less than a month to go!

Prizes from Three Green Sisters

Full Transcript of show:

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 0:43
Good morning, Kelly.

Kelly 0:44
Good morning, Marsha. I thought we would be ready to go early. And then I got going doing the dishes and looked at the clock and went oh my gosh. It's time to record.

Marsha 0:57
I know. Well a little late start for me too. I was a little late today. So but here I am I have a cup of coffee.

Kelly 1:03
All right.

Marsha 1:04
I have to just before we get into-- well, we always have our first you know 20 minutes of non fiber related conversation. Here's my non fiber related conversation. I had some friends over last night for dinner. And one of the women that came does not like dogs. And she especially does not like poodles.

Kelly 1:26
Like actively doesn't like dogs? Not just isn't a dog person?

Marsha 1:30
She's not a dog person. And she's she's afraid of them. And kind of leery of them, I think not flat out afraid. But she just doesn't like them and would prefer not to be around them. And she especially does not like poodles. And she especially doesn't like black poodles. What do I have?

Kelly 1:46
Yes. Okay.

Marsha 1:47
And the. And the reason she doesn't and I can understand this, the reason why she doesn't like them is that she some family member has poodles and they jump on her. So I understand that. And so I know this about her and so whenever... So anyway, I won't make this a long story. So when they arrived, I had Enzo on leash, even though he doesn't jump on people. He does want to go over and say hi. And some people don't like that. And so, and that's fair. So I just, when they came to the door, I had him on his leash, and kept him on a short leash. And then we went out in the backyard to sit and have a drink and, and then I said-- Well, I left them out there. There's some other people there too. But I I said I had to go in because the timer went off and the food was ready. I had to go get it out and put it on the table. And I said, you guys just sit there. I'll just do this on my own. That's fine. And I told Enzo, he's down on the patio and I'm up on the deck and I use the hand signal down and stay. And they gasp because he does it and I'm like I'm 15 feet away. And and I go in the house and I get the casserole out and I toss the salad, I slice the bread and I open the wine and come back out and he's still sitting there. 15 minutes later.

Kelly 2:07
What a good boy. Yes.

Marsha 2:14
What a good boy. And that's why we train our dogs, right? Like, I

Kelly 2:58
yeah, so they can live with us.

Marsha 3:08
Yeah. And then they can be around people who are not comfortable around dogs too. You know, that's, I said to you that as why I wanted all the training that I was going to do with Enzo. The whole purpose is I wanted him to be a good representative of, you know, a good ambassador for dogs and his breed. Because it does seem like with poodles that some people really like poodles, and some people don't like poodles, they've had bad experiences with them. I don't know why. I mean, I don't you know, he's, I think he's fine. But it's all about training. Really, you know, it's just, it's not the dog. It's the dog owner. But anyway, they were very impressed. I was even I was impressed. I know, I wasn't saying I was, I kind of figured

Kelly 4:00
You were proud of him.

Marsha 4:02
I was proud of him. Yeah, I wasn't surprised. I was proud of him. And he and and they were like kind of surprised, too, you know, and so I yeah, so anyway, Training pays off. Yeah.

Kelly 4:14
Yeah, it does. My niece has a new rescue Pitbull. And she's been working really hard with her. And she, you know, like any dog that you don't have from puppy hood. And some that you do have from puppyhood?

Marsha 4:28
Yeah, really!

Kelly 4:29
You know, she has some things that she needs to-- some challenges that she needs to work on. And, and so she's been, you know, texting me and stuff and, and she texted me the other day about a good event. You know, how something that worked kind of like what you were talking about, not not anything as big. Because she's still you know, in the baby step stage. I think she's had her two and a half or three months about the same amount of time we've had Beary, a little less. But she texted me to say, Oh, this worked and it was so great and it's so nice to have a dog that does things that fit into my life. And, you know, so anyway, I thought that was really cool to hear. It's nice when they are able to, they're able to be a part of your life because they know how to act.

Marsha 5:14
Yeah. And the thing is, like I mean, I knew he would stay there. So I wasn't-- that wasn't what I was concerned about. But I, I, I don't normally have to do that, like on a Saturday when, you know, my brother comes over and Kim and Gary and they usually because they they're used to dogs, they're used to Enzo. They're not afraid of him or, and I can't say she's afraid of him, that's too strong. She just doesn't want to be around dogs. She just doesn't like him. And so when you have somebody like that you want-- you're extra careful about how your dog behaves.

Kelly 5:48
Right.

Marsha 5:48
So that's why I was I normally on a Saturday night I don't have to make him on a down stay right when I go in the house because I just go in the house because there's other people you know, watching him and usually he just goes and lays down anyway on his own. But no, I was I was really proud of him, his behavior. And then when we came in the house and had dinner, you know, he just went lay down in the entrance hall and like and how can you not like a dog that's just a flat dog?

Kelly 6:16
Right.

Marsha 6:17
looking beautiful. Or just spread eagle on the in the middle of the living room floor, you know, ignoring you. So a good a good ambassador.

Kelly 6:27
Yeah.

Marsha 6:27
So should we talk projects or?

Kelly 6:32
Yeah, let's go ahead. Actually, before we talk projects, let's talk a little bit about the prizes.

Marsha 6:37
Oh, yeah.

Kelly 6:37
For the spin-in. So we have been talking about them, just sort of generally. But I want to talk a little bit more specifically about the three green sisters prizes that they've offered us very generously. So there's a grand prize that is an 18 by 18 inch pillow. And it's made from fabric that's designed by a woman named Cheri Magnussen, and she's a shepherd of Coldstream Icelandic sheep in Maine. And she was an engineer and she's retired and has been, you know, living her dream, she says of, of being a shepherd with these Icelandic sheep. So I'll read a little bit from her bio in a minute, but. So three green sisters has met her and is interested in supporting her work that she's now doing. Because she's had to stop. She's had to stop, you know, stop doing doing the shepherding work. She has a few older sheep that she's keeping, but but she's not able to keep breeding sheep and working with sheep. So anyway, so let me tell you a little bit about Cheri Magnussen, again Coldstream Icelandic sheep in Maine. Her farm she says

Kelly 7:55
"My farm has been a journey filled with unspeakable joy and grief so raw, I felt as if my heart was being torn apart. The year my first lambs were born, my son took his own life. I'm still grieving within. There are still times when sorrow washes over me like the waves of a cold dark winter sea. As I awaited this year's lambs, my heart was full of expectation. Joy filled my heart as the lambs grew within my ewes ever expanding bellies. Now lambs are playing and bouncing about and hope has welled up in me again, and life has promised."

Kelly 8:25
So she started her journey with sheep with that combination of, of sadness and hope. And now, she's actually been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and so she's had to stop working the sheep but she's begun doing fabric design and she says, "My fabric design began just a few months ago, I watched a design show where people made their own fabric. It's like a light turned on in me, I can do that! I see designs in everything, the woodland streams, flowers, skies and of course, my sheep. So using the forest, a mossy log, some gnarly roots wrapped around rocks that I can work with, and I have some of the proceeds that I received from my designs are donated to suicide prevention and shelters, both human and animal."

Kelly 9:11
So she's now doing this fabric design. And the three green sisters have met her and are are using some of her fabrics for their bags. And then they also have this pillow that they've offered with the with the sheep fabric. So that's one of the prizes. And let me just tell you, I put a link to Spoonflower in the show notes Marsha, and I... In particular, the Coldstream Icelandic shop, but what a rabbit hole! Oh my gosh. I had heard about Spoonflower before, but

Marsha 9:51
as you're talking, I'm looking at it. So this is dangerous. Okay.

Kelly 9:55
Yeah, we'll have to have a conversation about Spoonflower when we're done with this. So Getting back to our prizes. So we have the pillow. And then addition, in addition to the pillow, three green sisters are also generously providing their Patty style bag as prize. And we're going to have one of them for the summer spin in. And then one of them, I thought it would be nice for the people who are not participating in the summer spin to also have an opportunity to go check out their Etsy shop and have a possibility of winning. So I'll put a thread up in the Ravelry group where I'll have you go and look at her shop and answer some question, some prompt. So I'll put a thread there that I will have just a regular giveaway thread. And then we'll have one of these bags as a prize for the summer spin-in. And then in addition to that, they're also offering us a coupon code for 15% off and this goes all the way to the end of the year. The coupon code is EWES2 and it's all caps. That's the coupon code. And so you can use that for 15% off and they have free shipping in the US on most items. They also make loom totes and spinning wheel carriers. I know you talked about the bag you bought Marsha, I think maybe you you accidentally bought a spinning wheel carrier! It's so large. [laughing]

Marsha 11:18
I think I did [laughing]

Kelly 11:19
yeah. And then they also have spindle bags and bags for your heddles. Those of you who have rigid heddle looms. And so they have lots of variety on there. Three green sisters Etsy shop. So coupon code, EWES2 for 15% off in that shop. So thank you to the three green sisters for supporting our spin in again this summer. We only have a-- we have less than a month to go.

Marsha 11:53
I know! Well, I have to talk about that.

Kelly 11:55
The summer has gone by so fast.

Marsha 11:58
I know. Where I am in the process. But anyway, we'll talk about that when we get to projects. Yeah.

Kelly 12:04
By the way, have you ever seen Spoonflower before?

Marsha 12:08
No, I have not. And I'm, as I say I'm looking at it now. And it's

Kelly 12:13
so you can design a fabric and then once you design-- the premise of it, you can design a fabric and then once you design the fabric, you can also make it available for other people to purchase. But you can find fabric with anything on it. Honest to God, anything.

Marsha 12:32
So I can find something with poodles.

Kelly 12:34
Oh, it's quite I'm sure you could find a million things with poodles. So this morning I put in-- I was trying to find her shop, just without going to look up the link. And so I just put in Icelandic for example. And there's fabric with four breeds of Icelandic dogs on it. Like that's, that's very niche.

Marsha 12:55
Yeah,

Kelly 12:56
There's millions of fabrics with puffins. There's fabrics with the the country of Iceland. There's... What are they called? runes, the the characters you know, that like letters?

Marsha 13:12
Oh. Right!

Kelly 13:12
I think they're called--are they called runes? I don't know that sounds right,

Marsha 13:17
yeah.

Kelly 13:18
Anyway, they're, they're the language characters like the alphabet. They have, I mean, put in something and you can find-- I'm pretty sure you can find a fabric that has something to do with that thing. You know, my my most recent obsession of fountain pens and ink, I'm sure you could find fabrics with that. Just anything you're interested in. Somebody has a fabric, and if you can't find it, you could design your own!

Marsha 13:46
Design my own. So I'm looking at-- Oh, and here's-- Okay, we are getting off topic now and are down a rabbit hole! But I just put in poodle. The style that that Cheri is using is, it's like that mirrored image kind of thing. So it looks like you know, when you look through like a kaleidoscope?

Kelly 14:11
Yes,

Marsha 14:11
that's kind of what it looks like? And she-- some of her fabric, she has sheep in there. And then you can sort of make them out and so but just now I was looking at poodles. And there is a poodle. Like that thing where you're looking through the kaleidoscope so you see the poodle upside down and backwards. So there's all kinds of poodle fabric, so yeah, yeah. Anyway, very, very fun.

Kelly 14:38
It makes me want to sew something.

Marsha 14:41
Yeah. Oh my god. So cute. Yeah. Oh, here's one with the black poodle. And lattes, a black poodle and lattes.

Kelly 14:49
There you go. Marsha

Marsha 14:51
What's the connection there.

Kelly 14:56
That would make a cute knitting bag. You could sew yourself a knitting bag with poodles.

Marsha 15:00
Yes. Here's a very stylized one. Oh, interesting.

Kelly 15:07
Okay, so this is enough. This is an audio podcast. We can't be showing you pictures of all these different fabrics. But...But take a look. If you have not ever gone down the rabbit hole of Spoonflower proceed at your own risk.

Marsha 15:24
Well, and I looked at Cheri's fabrics, and she has really interesting fabric. They're beautiful colors. And they're very sort of geometric that like I, like I say, it's like you're looking through a kaleidoscope. That's how, yeah, very, very interesting.

Kelly 15:40
Yeah, some of them, you have to really look at them more closely to see that they're actually sheep, that the fabric is created from, from sheep. So very interesting and a cool, a cool project that she has now to do. Designing fabric. Instead of her shepherding duties. And she says "My focus now is writing books and designing fabrics. This is not difficult for me and brings me so much joy. I foresee many years of design and writing ahead of me." So yeah, take a look at her shop in particular. It's Coldstream Ice Spoonflower fabric shop. We'll have it in the show notes. But also just dig around in Spoonflower for a while. You'll be inspired, I'm sure. Even if you don't sew you'll be inspired. All right. So what are you knitting on Marsha?

Marsha 16:36
Well, right now I'm sitting here knitting on-- in fact I just was rustling the paper. It's called Simple shawl. It's I've been working on it for,

Kelly 16:47
I don't know, three years?

Marsha 16:49
Three years! Anyway, so I'm just just knitting on that. And so there's not much more to report on that. I'm just, I've talked about that in the past. So I won't discuss that. But I'm doing that. I'm now far enough along I'm doing the border, there's some-- the whole shawl is garter stitch, and then you do a border. I've done one row of eyelets, and I'm just knitting a row, and then I'm going to start another row of eyelets. Okay, and then you do a, I do a little bit and then you do a Picot bind off. But that's what I'm working on.

Marsha 17:23
But let me just say about spinning. I have been spinning a little bit every night. But it suddenly dawned on me. Oh my goodness. It's gonna end! This contest is going to end. Oh my God! The summer spin-in is ending on September 6, I have to get my myself moving on this project. So I've got two bobbins are complete. And I've done a quarter of the third bobbin of the brown and I'm spinning them to do the three ply. So I'm going to get moving on that. Because I have to. Because I have a deadline now.

Kelly 18:00
Yeah.

Marsha 18:01
The other project I just want to talk about is I've been working on the color work sweater the Atlas by Jared Flood I'm making for my brother. I finished all the color work. And Kelly, remember last time we talked I was having to figure out how to trap the floats. With continental stitch, I had to look that up.

Kelly 18:22
Right.

Marsha 18:22
The next thing I-- issue I had is that there are several-- I think the whole pattern repeat the whole pattern of color work is 42 rows. Of that about 10 you actually have three colors in the row.

Marsha 18:36
Yeah.

Marsha 18:37
Oh, and so I wasn't sure. We had a whole conversation in the last episode about color dominance. And but what do you do if you have you know, you have your dominant color. And then you have two other colors that-- we were calling them the submissives. They're actually called the background colors, I should say. That's what they're really called. But if you have two background colors, how do you manage that? Because I can understand the concept of you know, you have your dominant in your left hand and your background color in your right hand. But if you have two background colors, how do you handle it? And so the first row I had, I just would, you know, of those two background colors I would just drop one and pick up the other one and drop one and pick up the other one. Well, what happens is then, it keeps twisting your balls of yarn, your the yarn coming off the ball keeps twisting and twisting. So you then have to spend all this time undoing it, untwisting it. And so we, Kim and I, had a trip planned down to the Portland area. And in the car I was talking to her about it. Telling her this because I was working on my sock because I can't work because I have to... I thought there must be a technique. I'm gonna have to go on YouTube and figure out technique and she said, there is a technique! And I don't know what it's called. And I in before the show we post, I'll see if I can find a tutorial about this. But basically, what you do is you have your dominant color in your left hand, and you pick one of the background colors. And you do the pattern with just those two colors. When you get to a stitch that is supposed to be the third color or it'd be the the background color that you're not knitting with. You just slip that stitch. And so you work all the way around just using the dominant and the first background color, slipping the stitches that are the second background color. Then when you get to the end of the row, you finish that you then go and you knit with only the second background color, the one that you did not knit with the first pass through, and you knit those slipped stitches, and you slip the other stitches that you knit. Does that make sense?

Kelly 21:01
Yes. So you're, so you're knitting two of the three colors. You're knitting with... you leave those other stitches just slipped. And then you go back and you knit them separately. So, your one row... to do one round, you have to go around twice. Right?

Marsha 21:17
So the row, you have to knit the row twice.

Kelly 21:18
That's cool

Marsha 21:20
It's very cool. And then there's not this issue with the yarn twisting and having to do all this yarn management. The other thing, and I think this is more important, is with the way I was doing it, where you were drop a, color pick up a color, is I believe it throws off your tension. And so-- because you're not getting any kind of rhythm. And I think that I... and I can tell a difference in that row that I did one row, quote unquote, wrong way,

Kelly 21:49
Interesting

Marsha 21:50
because there really is no wrong way, but differently, differently. And so if you do it, this technique that she suggested, your tension is better. I think there's less chance of pulling the yarn too tight. That's all. I'll see if I can find a YouTube tutorial about this. Because I think it's brilliant.

Kelly 22:13
That is cool. Yeah, yeah. That's very cool.

Marsha 22:19
So now that I say all of this, about tension, so as I finished the color work, I finished the neckline, and then I washed and blocked it. And I think this is where I'm going to say is because I don't do color work. I've not done very much. And this is like a given you know, it doesn't give the way...

Kelly 22:42
Yeah,

Marsha 22:43
if you're just using one color, right, right. And so I, my brother needs to come and try the sweater on before I go any further. Because so now basically the body and the sleeves are almost done, I just have to have him try it on and figure how long to make the sleeves. Because now I remember I did a provisional cast on the bottom of the sweater and the sleeves. So now I have to just pick up those stitches and knit down the correct length for him. And so he does to come in try it. He needs to come and try the sweater on.

Kelly 23:15
And you have the sleeves. I mean, the body is almost all done. You just have to put like, if it needs any additional length plus the ribbing, right? And the sleeves, the same thing, right? They're already...

Marsha 23:26
Right

Kelly 23:26
approximately sleeve length. And you just need to see if you need to add in anything and put on the ribbing.?

Marsha 23:32
Right. But I'm a little concerned that it's going to be small, because that that that color work has really no give. Not like the bottom, you know, like

Kelly 23:42
Yeah,

Marsha 23:43
Do you know what I'm saying? so it feels... and also you know, it's it's heavier too. Like that any time you do a sweater like that it's going to be

Kelly 23:51
kind of like three layers of yarn.

Marsha 23:53
Yeah. So I don't know, I'm a little concerned. But I also I have to remember he likes things more slim fitting. Yeah, he's also male, so he doesn't have breasts. So even though I try it on and I'm like, ugh! I tried it on, I'm like, I don't know. When he tries it on, it's gonna be completely different because he has a completely different body than I do.

Marsha 24:14
Right.

Marsha 24:15
So and I do have gauge so... And it's... let's see. He's 38 and this is 41 inches. So he wanted about three inches of ease, his other sweater has three inches of ease. So it should be fine. Right?

Kelly 24:32
Right, It just feels different.

Marsha 24:34
It feels Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly 24:37
Well, I will be interested to see how, how it fits on him and how he likes it. What would be your alternative? If it's too tight? Would you go back and do a larger needle size or you really couldn't add stitches, right? Because it's... Maybe I shouldn't even bring it up. Sorry, I shouldn't even bring this up! [laughing]

Marsha 25:00
Well, I, I'm laughing because I thought about this. It's like, What do I do? If it doesn't fit? What do I do? One thing is I can just finish it and give it to somebody that it fits and make him another sweater. The other option is just to rip the whole thing out and make the larger size.

Kelly 25:21
But the bottom part would fit.

Marsha 25:24
In theory...

Kelly 25:25
okay.

Marsha 25:26
Allegedly, I don't know. You know. Or I just rip out the color work and do the color work again.

Kelly 25:36
Yeah, like the first time you do something?

Marsha 25:38
Yeah. Like it's, it's like, you know, you burn the first pancake?

Kelly 25:41
Yeah. And you're more tense. And yeah, you're gauge might be different. Yeah.

Marsha 25:48
So you know, maybe it's something that I do I if it doesn't fit... I'm just thinking what my... Is it maybe I rip it out and I go up a needle size or because the body was knit on sevens and the yoke the color work was on eight.

Kelly 26:08
Yeah,

Marsha 26:09
I don't know. listeners can weigh in, I guess the first thing is find out if it fits?

Kelly 26:14
Yeah. I mean, we're, I really shouldn't have even said anything because I'm borrowing trouble. There are enough things wrong in the world without me manufacturing something that hasn't even happened.

Marsha 26:30
I have just that... This just popped into my head Kelly. This is now off topic, but about listeners weighing in. The one thing we do need to address and I forgot that we need to address this in this episode. In the last episode I started the conversation at some point I said to you, about how you had not left your property. And Pat one of our listeners and good friend of ours commented in the thread. "Didn't you go visit Marsha?"

Kelly 26:58
Yeah. [laughing]

Marsha 27:03
So it must not have been It must not have been a very memorable trip. [laughing]

Kelly 27:06
I know. It was very fast. Fast. Yeah. totally forgotten. Yeah.

Marsha 27:11
That's why we forgot. Yeah. And I'm the one that said.... I think I'm the one that said you had not left your property.

Kelly 27:16
Yeah. And to be fair to myself when I was thinking about leaving the property, and when I talked about going to visit, going to you know, visit a colleague's house. I haven't driven.Llike the trip to Seattle, I didn't drive. I just sat as a passenger. I honestly have not driven probably more than five miles at a time. You know, myself behind the wheel of the car. Yeah, I've, you know, I've gone places with Robert, not very many. But I have gone places with Robert, but actually putting myself behind the wheel of the car on the freeway. You know, for a significant length of time? More than five or 10 minutes to get to the store? It was weird. It was a weird feeling to be in the car for that long driving myself.

Marsha 28:03
Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly 28:04
So to be fair to myself, that was what I was thinking of but yes, it is true. I do leave the property.

Marsha 28:12
So, but I had to laugh when Pat said that. Because our listeners, our listeners hold us accountable.

Kelly 28:21
We can't get away with anything.[laughing]

Marsha 28:25
And also, they pay attention.

Kelly 28:27
Yes, they do.

Marsha 28:31
So funny anyway, so that's it for me for projects. I don't have much more going on in that. That's it.

Kelly 28:39
Well, I didn't have much going on. But this morning, because I felt a little bit guilty and because I really didn't have anything to knit while we were recording. I did actually get the yarn wound up. And I'm started on the sleeve of my my sweater the Dark Green Forest pattern that I'm doing.

Marsha 29:04
Oh right. So we have to talk about this. Well, yes,

Kelly 29:07
I'm gonna I've gone about... 2-4-6-8 rows. I've got almost eight rows, and I don't I don't see a bad stripe.

Unknown Speaker 29:20
Oh, this is good news.

Kelly 29:21
So I think that might be good news. There's a little bit I mean, I see some but I'm alternating skeins. And so we'll see. I think it might work.

Marsha 29:33
And um, the other thing we talked about too and we did not talk about this in the podcast in the last episode, but after we finished recording, I said if there is a strong variation, can you just knit the whole sweater and then over dye it? Remember we had that conversation?

Kelly 29:50
Yes, yeah.

Marsha 29:51
And like just doing a very low percentage solution of like the terracotta or another color or something and and that might even it out. We had that conversation. But

Kelly 30:02
yeah, so I think... I mean, I will I'm not going to pass judgment yet. I don't want to jinx myself. But I do feel like it's, it's... I do feel like it seems to be working. Okay.

Marsha 30:19
Okay.

Kelly 30:19
Again, I haven't gotten... sometimes you can't tell til you... Actually, sometimes you can't tell until you take a picture for Instagram. [laughing]

Marsha 30:27
Yes. Yes.

Kelly 30:28
And so, so we'll see. But I am working on it right now. And, and so it's back in the rotation. It's got, you know, when you have to wind yarn and join on, pick up the stitches, so that it was just sitting in a bag because of that. But I have, now I've done those things. And so it's back in the rotation. It's in a place where I can grab it at night and knit on it. I had been knitting dish cloths at night when I needed something to knit. So yeah, I'm back working on this sweater. This is again, the Dark Green Forest sweater. And the pattern designer. Oh, here it is. Christina Koerber Reith, strikhauseit is her Ravelry name, I think. So that's going well. But the other thing I did that was really super fun was I did a weaving project. So right after we recorded I last week, I-- not that same day, but maybe the next day--I decided Oh, you know what I really want to do? I have this warp that I've wound already that's ready to go, I should put it on the loom. And my original thought was I should put it on the loom, you're gonna laugh, so that I can have something that I can just take a break from prepping for classes, and go weave for a little bit. Or once classes start, I can take a break from you know, the first week of classes hecticness and go weave for a little bit. I have this on the loom. So I put it on the loom. It's a huck color and weave project from the Jane Stafford guild, season five, which is this year's season. And I had hesitated about it because I really didn't like the look of her sample that she did with the two high contrast yarns, a black and a white. And then she calls it a zinger. And she had this green, this lime color. She called it Pale Limette as the zinger. And I just really, I know I get to choose my own colors, but but that just didn't speak to me in the, in the, in the videos, and so I wasn't really excited about it. And also I think of huck as a solid color, like beige table linens. Huck is a lace, a lace design, a woven lace. So I always think of it as like beige, you know, that's kind of the color I think of doing, an all solid. So anyway, finally, I decided, let's just put this on the loom and do it. Get out of your comfort zone. And I had warped it already, I had chosen not quite as high contrast as hers. But I did use white and gray. It's actually a kind of a steel blue-gray color, and white. And then I used red as the contrast color. So I put it on the loom and got it all--it took not so long to thread it. I warped back to front for the first time, which was really cool. Well, for the first time on the floor loom. I think I might have done it at some point on the table loom. But anyway, it it worked out really well. I didn't have to get Robert to help me. Which, you know, winding on-- Do you remember that part of the process where one of us is holding all the yarn threads and the other one is winding it onto the loom? He does not like helping with that process. So, so it was nice to have a technique that I could use and and successfully wind it on myself. So the way you work front to back is normally I would sit at the front of the loom and I would thread it through the reed. You know that's that the part where you that you beat with, and then I would thread it through the heddles and then once it was threaded through those two things, I would then tie it onto the back end wind and on. So while you're winding it's having to go through the reed and through the heddles. Right? And tangles can happen, which is what Robert doesn't like. It just-- I think it offends his sensibilities of order. He feels like if I was doing it right it would just wind on with no tangles,

Marsha 35:04
But another way of looking at it is the reed and the... it's it's putting it in order.

Kelly 35:12
Exactly. Right, exactly.

Marsha 35:14
He has to look at it a different way. Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly 35:19
So this way weaving or warping back to front, what you do is you skip, you skip over the--you don't put it through the reed, you don't put it through the heddles, you stick it on this thing on the top of your loom called a raddle. So you like kind of line them up in a semi organized way, more than semi organized like a three quarters organized way. And then you wind it on to the back beam, where it's just going through this thing that's not enclosed. It's just like, basically, it's a, it's a long stick with nails poking up from it. And you have like four threads, four or five threads in each little slot. And so it's just going through that, so there's a lot less potential for tangling. So anyway, you wind it on, you have this--there's more to it than that. But that's the idea, you wind it all onto the back first. And then once it's all wound onto the back, then you thread going the other direction. So you sit at the-- I sat at the back of my loom and threaded through the heddles and then through the reed. Some people sit at the front of the loom and pull it forward through the heddles and then through the reed. But I can get closer to things if I sit at the back of my loom. So that's what I did, I sat at the back of my loom and and put it forward. So anyway, I had not done that before on the big loom, the the four harness floor loom. It was very successful. And then so then I started weaving and of course, you know what happened then is I just kept weaving till I was done. I became obsessed. I really did. [laughing]

Kelly 37:02
So Huck is a structure that has well like your floats in colorwork. You have you know, those yarn, yarns that are floating on the back? Well in huck you have floats, but they're on purpose. And they're part of the design. So you have these floats floating horizontally across the surface of the fabric. You have plain weave, your regular woven fabric, but you also have these floats floating across the surface of the fabric horizontally. Or you can have plain weave, and floats floating vertically across the surface of the fabric. And basically, if you look at the fabric, on`e side has one and one side has the other so it depends on what's your front, right. So if you have horizontal floats on the front of your fabric, on the back of your fabric you're gonna have vertical floats.

Marsha 37:52
So I'm I'm looking on Ravelry at the fabric. And look, but the floats are relatively short. They look like they go over maybe like three or four, threads? Yes, like three or four threads?

Kelly 38:05
Yeah, it depends on the way that you-- It depends on the way that you thread it, you know the pattern that you're using. But yeah, it goes i think in this one, it went over 3 or five, I think it went over three or five.

Marsha 38:21
Yes, because some are shorter that I see. They're three, Yes.

Kelly 38:25
Okay, so this was a sampler, so it had a little bit of each. And then there's another fabric that you can make that's called Huck lace, where you have floats, you have both floats at the same time. And so it makes a really lacy open fabric. And so the the project for this was to do something called a gamp. And a gamp is where you can-- Well, let me let me stop and go back a little bit. So the other thing, the thing I really objected to about this project, and I was leery of, was this thing called color and weave. And color and weave is where you alternate colors in some kind of color sequence. So you alternate colors in the warp. But you also alternate colors in the weft while you're weaving. So you might have a sequence of colors where you go light, dark, dark, light, and you just keep going that pattern over and over again. Or light, dark, light, dark, light, dark, light, dark, alternating, and that's the pattern. So some kind of sequence of lights and darks that you're repeating over and over and over. Again, so they're you know, there's a lot of different sequences that you can use, right? I mean, make them up! You can just combine lights and darks in any kind of way. Well, what what we were doing in this project was something called a gamp, which allows you to systematically pair sequences in the warp--all the different combinations that you have in your project--with the sequences in the weft, all the different combinations. So if your warp is going light, dark, light, dark, light, dark, light, dark, you can have your weft then also doing light, dark, light, dark, light, dark, but then you can also have your weft doing something else. And so I had, I don't know, like five different sequences. And then I paired them with the same five sequences in all different combinations.

Marsha 40:21
Okay, so let me go back. And so that's why-- is that why it sort of looks like it's forming squares?

Kelly 40:28
Yeah, it's like, okay, each one of those squares is a different combination of the different sequences.

Marsha 40:35
Okay, yeah.

Kelly 40:36
And that's called a gamp. And you can do that with the sequences, you can also do it just with colors. So like you have yellow in your warp. And then you can pair it with yellow in your weft, blue in your weft, red in your weft, green in your weft, and you can see all the different combinations, what they do with each other. And so, so there's all kinds of different gamps in weaving where you can test things. So that's what I did, I made, I made three different gamps. And then because they, you know, I was following a pattern. When I got done with the pattern, I had something that was not dish towel size, which is what I like to make. But turns out it was like napkin size. So what I did was I made I made-- I'm going to make them into napkins, these gamps. So yeah, and then I made a couple of dish towels. So I had fun. It's not my favorite look, it's a little busy, I think.

Kelly 40:38
um, well, let me say I like it. I. But I like I guess I like busy. Well, I like color too. I understand what you're saying about you like, you don't like high contrast?

Kelly 41:48
Yeah,

Marsha 41:48
I'm probably-- well, I don't know enough about weaving. So I'm going to say something. Bear in mind. I don't really know what I'm talking about. But I wonder if she has used the high contrast so you can see the difference between the different sequences in the pattern, right? Is that why?

Kelly 42:04
Yeah, because the whole idea of this project was not to make something. The idea of the project, well, it was to make something, it was to make gamps. And then you would keep a set of gamps in your studio so that you can then go look at them for inspiration, and say, oh, which one would I like to put into this project? Oh, I really like the way this little square looks. Okay, I'm going to use this. What was this? This was this combination paired with that combination. Okay, now I know what I'm going to put in my project.

Kelly 42:34
And I didn't want to do that. I don't want to have a pile of gamps. I wanted to make napkins or something you know, that I can use. And I can still go and look at them. If I keep them, I can still go and look at them. But yeah, but that's the idea is you were making something that you could then use as a sample to see what you'd like to do in your next project. Yeah, so. So that it does make sense that that's why you would do the high contrast, because you can see, you can see better, not only can you see what, what's going to happen, but you can also see better to look at it and say what, wait, what was this combination? Again? You know, if your colors are so close, you might have a harder time figuring out what was I did in this little square? So I mean, you could label everything. She has these beautifully labeled gamps that she shows us on the on the, you know, the videos, they tell you just what it was in the warp and what it was in the weft. And, you know, that yeah, they're teaching tools, right? So she has them all really well laid out. And, and I just want to weave dishtowels!

Marsha 43:53
Well, I I sort of, I understand. It's like I, I like to make something that's useful. Mm hmm. The idea of making something. I understand why you make something that's a sample, right, I understand that. But I still would like to be able to use it in some way. You know, yeah, I get that desire.

Kelly 44:13
If I were maybe more of a weaver or, or if I did weaving to make things for sale, or like she you know, if I was a weaver for my job, maybe I would make a bunch of gamps and have them there for inspiration when I needed to kind of come up with an idea for a project. I don't know. I'm not there yet, where I want to make things, gamps just to have gamps. But I did-- I mean, I did make a couple. I do have a sample, a sampler from one of the other episodes, that is just hanging in the studio off the side of the shelf. So I guess I'm kind of there, not quite there But I don't think I'll ever wear it as a scarf. Yeah, it's just hanging as a decoration. So

Marsha 45:05
Well these are-- it's very pretty, I think.

Kelly 45:07
Thank you! Yeah, it was fun and and then when you wash it... Ao the pictures you're seeing are unwashed. I now have pictures of them washed, which changes it because instead of being vertical and horizontal threads, all sort of stiff, and burlap-y in places, they all sort of nestle into each other, and you get these nice curves. So you get some interesting curved designs in your, in your weaving that you wouldn't get you know, you don't see until you wash it. So I'll put up the before and after pictures in my project page, because I that I think is really cool, how it changes. So and then once I got done with that, the other project that I have is that I just wound a warp for baby blanket. My cotton-- the all the cotton yarn was sitting there in the studio as I was weaving, and I kept looking at it and thinking I should do something with this spirit yarn. And so last night I I just wound it. It's not on the loom or anything. It's just a warp chain that's sitting on the... sitting on the... changed in form from being yarn and balls in a bag to being yarn in a warp chain on the shelf. But now, when I'm ready to weave again, I have, you know... That part of the process is done and I can just start by putting it on the loom.

Marsha 46:32
Mm hmm.

Kelly 46:33
So those are my two. Those are my projects. I was pretty industrious this week. Pretty, I should say, obsessed this week. With the weaving.

Marsha 46:41
Yes. Well, they're pretty.

Kelly 46:43
Thank you

Marsha 46:44
Someday, maybe. Well, I always say this. That when things calm down here, project wise. House project wise? This winter weave along coming up I will. Maybe I'll actually weave something.

Kelly 46:58
Yeah, I it's another another rabbit hole.

Marsha 47:01
Well, and I don't have as much yarn now because I got rid of so much. Did you see that? This is just a side note. Did you get the picture of my yarn stash.

Kelly 47:10
Yes, I did. It looks very well organized.

Marsha 47:13
I should put a picture of it in the show notes. I I have everything now in boxes organized by weight. I have like three, you know those bags that like down comforters come in. I have three of those, and two have the yarn from the two trips to Scotland. And the third one has the yarn that I purchased on the trip to Iceland. But I--when I sent you the picture, I think my comment was there's absolutely no reason for me to buy any yarn ever again. But I will! And the other thing I did do Kelly is I because I had all these little boxes. They're sort of like the size of like a shoe box. They hold about six skeins of fingering weight yarn approximately. And then I had like, again, like those plastic bags that sheets come in or whatever I have like the quantities of yarn, like if I have a quantity of for a sweater, and the sweater I know that I'm gonna make I printed out the pattern and I stuck it in that project in that bag with that yarn. So I'll know what I was planning.

Kelly 48:28
yeah,

Marsha 48:29
And then the other thing too is I have a lot of unfinished projects. Like I have the skull and the rabbit. And I bought yarn to do to knit a poodle. And remember, I started that color work tea cozy, it was sheep. I've not finished it and they're all stuffed in bags, you know that all stuffed in the closet. And so I took those out and I put each one in its own little box and labeled it. So now I see them. And so hopefully I'll get back to working on them. And yeah, and not let them just languish because, you know, out of sight out of mind.

Kelly 49:04
Yeah, it's inspiring when you see it. I mean, the floor of my studio has just-- I brought down. I don't know why I did. But I brought down the bags. They're the same comforter, kind of bags. Of cotton yarn that I had upstairs and I brought them down, and I put them in the studio. I don't even remember why I brought them down. Maybe because I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for that color and weave. Maybe at that time I brought them. Anyway, I haven't put them away. They're still sitting there. So the whole time I was weaving they were sitting there, right. So you could just call it a mess because I haven't put stuff away. But because I hadn't put it away and I could see it, the whole time I was weaving I was kind of in the back of my mind mulling over what I could do, and kind of getting inspired. So yeah, for me that that is very definite. The fact I have to have things in sight. So and it's true even in other parts of my life, the desktop on my computer, most people look at it and go, Oh my God. In fact, I, when I first started doing zoom, and I didn't know how to make it so that the students couldn't see my whole desktop. Before I learned, you know, how you can, how you can manage that, I took all the things on my desktop, and I just dumped them all in one folder. To put them away, because I didn't want them put away put away. I just wanted them temporarily put away like you run around your house grabbing things to put in the closet. And then you just shut the closet door when guests are coming. That's what I did with my desktop on my computer, because I normally have a lot of things out. And the reason they're out is so I don't forget to use them, you know, have them out for a purpose. They're not just sitting there on my desktop for no reason. So some things are... And some things that sometimes I go through and I clean out, I get rid of stuff that I don't need anymore. I or I do put it in a particular place. But if I need to, if I want to save something, it's like, oh, I automatically save it to my desktop. And then I figure out what I want to do with it. So. So the out of sight out of mind thing for me is really bad. I like to have everything out where I can see it. I can see why you

Marsha 51:23
Yeah, but that does not... I have to say I will take a picture and post it in the show notes of how I've got everything organized. I will say though, it is not the fleeces that I have. Right? That was another place. So there's another that's another whole

Kelly 51:42
Well, that's a different stash.

Marsha 51:45
Yeah. Yes and you know what I've always anyway always said about my stashes, you can't think of it like is... Everybody seems to be sort of embarrassed or feel guilty about their stashes and like it's it's, you know, a painter wouldn't say that about their paints. That's what we have to remember. It's like artists supplies, our supplies. Yeah, it's our supplies. Yeah. But anyway, okay.

Kelly 52:09
So Marsha, we have a spinning topic for this week. And what I wanted to talk about this week was our handspun, the knits that we've done from our handspun and just kind of, is there anything in particular that people might be interested to know about them? So I'm gonna just talk about my sweaters. And then you can talk about the stuff that you've knit with your, with your handspun the very first handspun sweater that I knit, was the featherweight. And I, I had this yarn, it was laceweight, probably laceweight. I used camel, one of the plies was camel and one of the plies was silk. I actually spun that yarn without knowing what I was going to do with it. And then and then once I had it, I thought oh, I I think I can make one of those featherweight sweaters. So that's what I did with that one. And that was interesting to knit with because it was so light. And that sweater is nice, because it's really super light. Yeah, I mean that the featherweight sweater was designed to be. It's a Hanna Fettig pattern, I think. It was designed to be light. But then using laceweight yarn using such thin yarn for it. And then also the fact that it's camel, not wool-- and silk. It's just a super, super lightweight sweater, but really warm. I like that sweater a lot. And then another sweater that I knit, where I did not spin the yarn particularly for a sweater-- in fact, I've spun the yarn for a blanket and then I never made a blanket was the Funky Grandpa sweater that was a second one that I knit out of hanspun. And I used--it's mostly natural color. But some of the some of the yarn was over dyed and that was the idea was I was going to make a striped blanket with the gray yarn and the overdyed. And so that was the that Funky Grandpa sweater with the stripes. It has stripes down the sleeves and stripes on the body. Both of those were two plies. I know you spin--the sweaters you've made have been three plies, right?

Marsha 54:22
Yeah, they've all been three plies. I'm not sure why but they all have.

Kelly 54:27
Well, three ply yarn is nice. Nice and round. And so yeah, so I can see why why you would do that. I think because I made the yarn before I decided what to do with it. They particularly were two ply.

Marsha 54:42
What I what I like about the, well, the featherweight is the camel and silk that is very lightweight because it's laceweight. Right? Because that's what you just said. But the Funky Grandpa I don't know what weight would you say that yarn is. not worsted. It's like DK or sport?

Kelly 55:00
It's probably fingering weight to maybe sport in some places. It's very uneven. So there were places in the sweater where I was afraid. Like, oh my gosh, this is so thin. It's going to look holey. Yeah, moth eaten before it's even done! Because it was, you know, it was my... It was a fairly early spinning. It was not. It was not spun in recent years. I knitted it not that long ago, but it was spun....Well, it was done more than 15 years ago, because I spun most of it, I think, I spun maybe all of it at the last house.

Marsha 55:42
Okay, yeah. Well, what I was gonna say about it, though, it's very lightweight. It's a very light feeling sweater, you know, and I and I don't know if that's because it's it's the wool or if that's because it's two ply, but my sweaters are more dense, kind of. I don't know if that's my spinning technique. I don't know if that..

Kelly 55:58
I think it's the type of prep. I think it's more the type of yarn and the preparation of the fiber. Because all of well, the the funky grandpa sweater, the one I'm knitting on right now...actually, I think all of my sweaters have been from fleeces. So it's all been carded preparation. None of it's been from top, you know, commercial top, which gives you a much smoother yarn. But also more dense yarn.

Marsha 56:33
All I have to talk about, I have handspun I've made some socks for Ben. I've made a couple hats out of handspun. But I say I really only made two sweaters. Both of them were spun with a roving, commercially prepared roving, and one the first one was corriedale top, which is very smooth and and then the second one remember I combined different fibers. I had different wools I had silk and I had alpaca.

Kelly 57:03
Oh, yeah.

Marsha 57:04
Which also is going to make a denser. I think the alpaca and silk is just gonna make it denser. You know?

Kelly 57:10
Yeah. So yeah, so they're different, you know, different styles of yarn will give you a different different sweater, all of my sweaters...Let's see the other sweater. I am just thinking about what else I have. Oh, the bulky, the bulky CVM that I made the Orcas Run sweater. Yeah, that's a that was a carded preparation. And so a light, kind of a light yarn, real puffy. And then I have that targhee lamb, three ply. That's the first one I did with the three ply was that one that I did last summer, for the summer spin in. That the brown, the Dark and Stormy made from the brown targhee lamb, that one I actually spun on purpose for the sweater, and then the Orcas Run. That's that big Cowichan style sweater. I also spun that one on purpose for that sweater. So there have been a couple of of sweaters where I actually spun the yarn, particularly for the sweater but most of mine have been yarn I spun and then later decided to make a sweater out of. And the same thing with this one that I'm working on. Now when I started spinning the CVM, and this one is a is a three ply-- This is the first-- Oh, this is the second three ply. This is about a sport weight, I think this Dark Green Forest that I'm doing now in the terracotta color. I started spinning that yarn without having any idea what I was going to do with it. And so I had several skeins of it and then I thought oh, I guess I can make a sweater. So that's when I started, you know. I think I I finished up the skeins knowing that I was going to make a sweater but when I started most of the spinning I had no idea what I was going to do with the yarn once I was done.

Marsha 59:04
Yeah. Well I have to say my two sweaters that I made I knew I was gonna, I wanted I wanted a sweater quantity. But I didn't know what sweater it was and then... I say this is the beauty of Ravelry as you don't need to know. You don't have to spin to the pattern because I just did a swatch and figured out my gauge and then I started looking for sweaters and that gauge and then something that would--a sweater that was mostly just stockinette that did not have a lot of patterning in it. Because the combo spins are the pattern kind of. Right? all the different coloring. I didn't-- they would-- that would-- you know any kind of lace or cables we get lost in that. So yeah, so then... So anyway, but I'll say the two patterns its kind of funny because the two sweaters that I made one--The first one was called Beeline and that's interesting. It's a top down raglan sleeve pullover and I think it's called Beeline because it has-- it does have I say lace detail. It's not really lace it just yarn overs that makes these little holes that run from a sort of like the like on either side of your hip. You know, I take it back. They run from under your arms, and they go in an angle down to the front of the sweater. So has this detail. And I figured it was not--it's not like having lace or cabling, its just a little tiny detail. So it's not super noticeable. I think if it had been a solid color would be more noticeable. But Beeline and then the second one I did was the pattern is Simple Summer Tweed Top Down. And both of them...

Kelly 1:00:51
That name!

Marsha 1:00:53
I know, that name. Both of them I realized today when I was making the notes are by Heidi Kirmaier. I didn't realize that. But nice patterns. But that's what's so great about Ravelry is that if you have a yarn you do a swatch, do your measurement, and then you can figure out a sweater based on that gauge. Yeah, yeah. So easy to find a pattern.

Kelly 1:01:18
Well, yeah, because I was... For the Dark and Stormy and for this one, I had an idea of what pattern I thought I might use. But then once I once I did my gauge swatch, there was no way I could use that pattern. So I did the same thing you did. Make a gauge swatch and then go searching. But in the back of my mind, I had a pattern. Like this is a like fingering, the one I'm knitting now is like a sport weight, you know, maybe fingering to sport weight. And I thought, oh, here's a sport weight sweater that I really like. But I didn't have the right gauge. So I had to go searching for something else. Oh, I should say. We talked a little bit about beginner yarn. And you know, people wanting to make things with their, with their first yarn. And that, you know, you had made a hat that weighed five pounds.

Marsha 1:02:13
Yes.

Kelly 1:02:14
So I wanted to say I was thinking about this and I thought oh, I should talk about Robert's vest. So I made a vest for Robert. Same yarn as my... same fleece as the Funky Grandpa. So it was a very early fleece and I made yarn out of it. And it was so dense, and also thick, you know. It was a probably an Aran weight yarn, maybe bigger in some places. And I found a vest pattern and of course at that time, you know, this is the probably the late 90s early 2000s I you know, just started knitting and I found a pattern that I wanted to make because I didn't know anything about gauge swatching really. so I didn't gauge swatch. I just thought, Oh yeah, I have this. It looks like the size of regular yarn. Like in my head You know, there was a size of yarn like regular yarn, probably worsted weight was my thought process. But you know, yarn had a regular size. [laughing] And so this looks like regular sized yarn. So I I can make a vest out of this. I got the pattern. I got the needles that they said and I knit him this vest. And it was a... it's a it's a gray yarn, two ply. And when I carded the wool I put little pieces of silk noil that I had dyed there's a bright pink and a bright turquoise and a dark blue in there and so that was there... little specks you know, like little little dots. Pops of color in the yarn. So I made him this vest. It's so heavy and dense. And he likes it. He wears it but it's also so big. Like its huge on him. Because I didn't know anything about gauge I just knit. You know, knit the pattern and look like it was right so anyways, I like it and he looks good when he wears it. But when I feel it you know it's like No wonder he's so hot. He's like, I can't wear this very often because it makes me so hot. And no wonder he's so hot. It's like wearing a bulletproof vest.

Marsha 1:04:37
Well as you say imagine how hot it would be if it had sleeves.

Kelly 1:04:39
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So but it's but it looks nice. It looks nice on him. He wears it. He'll wear like a lot of times he'll wear it on Christmas Eve or you know if we go out in the winter time, if we go out to dinner somewhere he wheres that vest and it's gotten it's gotten quite a lot of quite a lot of wear. But yeah, it it definitely was a different yarn than what I'm what I'm spinning now. So anyway, I thought this would be kind of a fun thing to just think about all the different sweaters that that we've made and you know if there was anything about them that maybe would be helpful for people. Thinking about what they're going to going to do with their with their yarn.

Marsha 1:05:27
Yeah, I did look up-- for some reason I thought with the the two sweaters that I made because they're combo spins, I thought I had alternated skeins on the body. I did not. I just knit. Which I was surprised. I mean, I was looking at them, turned the sweaters inside out this morning to look at them and and no evidence and I went I looked at my show notes and no, I don't mention it. So I don't think I did alternate skeins on the body. I did alternate skeins on the sleeves though, because there was more striping going on. Because you know you're talking about a much smaller circumference circle for the sleeves. And so then the stripes would be wider on the sleeve.

Kelly 1:06:12
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And maybe that's why you did it. Maybe that's why you didn't was because you wanted to actually experience what that striping was going to be like, yeah, in in the body.

Marsha 1:06:24
The second one, I wore the first trip to Scotland. I wore it for pretty much every day for two weeks, I was looking at my notes in Ravelry and very comfortable sweater to wear. Really, I mean,

Kelly 1:06:40
the second one?

Marsha 1:06:41
You could wear that the second one or no yeah, the second one.

Kelly 1:06:44
the one with the alpaca and the silk in it.

Marsha 1:06:46
Yeah, that fiber that you can wear that just like over a tank top or something it's that comfortable. I just going to add that as soon as I finish the yarn that I'm-- the one that I'm spinning now, my plan is to start a sweater for Ben. So I can report in on that too. And I have an idea about what I want to make but that doesn't mean it's going to work out. You know I had this--I was all going to be sort of this barber pole yarn. But then I found that I didn't have enough so then I had to change the plan and get more of that chocolate brown, bitter chocolate it's called, to make stripes but I don't even know if that's gonna look good. I don't know if it's gonna look good having until I swatch. I don't know if it's gonna look good having barber pole colorway combined with a solid. You I'll have to

Kelly 1:07:41
Yeah,

Marsha 1:07:43
I have to figure it out.

Kelly 1:07:44
That is one of the things about handspun is that you have to be you kind of have to be open.

Marsha 1:07:50
The last thing Kelly if we're done on that, but just related to spinning. I just wanted to shout out and thank you to NanforNow, she's on Ravelry. She's NanforNow but Nancy. and I don't even remember, But I think it was in morning coffee or I don't know where it was-- in which thread it was. But she posted that she had a Niddy Noddy is what she called it that she was just going to give away. And I contacted her I said I was interested in it. You told me just now and before we recorded you were telling me that's actually it's called a spinning weasel. And it's a it's like a stand with a wheel on it with it's like four arms stick out that have pegs. And I think that and I think what you do is you at the bottom then there's like a rod I think you put your bobbin on that. And there's a like a fishing line that goes over it. I think it acts like a scotch tension, too. So your bobbin is just not spinning freely. And then I think and I've not experimented with it yet. I'm getting ahead of myself. But I'll say I've not experimented with it yet. I think what you do is that you can then adjust these pegs to determine how long your skein is going to be.

Kelly 1:07:50
Yeah.

Marsha 1:08:07
And then it has a counter on it. So one of the arms as it spins is a little bit longer than the others and every time it hits a counter just like you know, like those old fashioned counters for counting people going through a gate at a concert, right? It's like that. And every time it hits that it turns it counts. So and then if you know how many, you know times that wheel, how many times the yarn has wrapped around that wheel then and then you can figure out your yardage. You can

Kelly 1:09:46
Yeah, that's nice.

Marsha 1:09:48
But what I want to say is, so she lives in Oregon. Nancy lives in Oregon, sort of near near Salem, Oregon. And so Kim and I drove down. one weekend, I guess it was last weekend to pick it up. And she was very nice and gave this to me and it was lovely to meet her and she has... Her dog is a wheaten terrier, is adorable. And she has a really nice garden. She's showing us all around her garden and everything. But what I want to tell you is she has a cotton plant! And when she was telling us that I had forgotten this, but we had a contest and you sent her the prize, one of the prizes was some cotton, right? And you put and you put a cotton pod or seeds or something in it.

Kelly 1:10:39
She won a cone of yarn from Sally Fox and Sally Fox puts a little cotton boll in the package.

Marsha 1:10:47
Oh Sally Fox sent it. Anyway, she grew it. She has a cotton plant from that.

Kelly 1:10:53
So cool

Marsha 1:10:55
Yeah, so I just wanted so just a shout out to Nancy say thank you again, for the spinning weasel. I've not tried it, but I'm gonna try it on the yarn that I'm spinning no w. I'm going to try and figure out how to wind it onto it. And I was just looking too, in that there are YouTube... Of course there's a YouTube video about a spinning weasel. But anyway, it was really fun trip and nice to meet Nancy and then Kim and I had the weekend down there. We went to some wineries and had both dogs. We did some hiking and it was just it was really fun. So we would not have gone down there if it wasn't for Nancy offering me the spinning weasel

Kelly 1:11:38
nice.

Marsha 1:11:38
I think that's it for me.

Kelly 1:11:40
Okay, well, I just wanted to mention the Patreon patron pattern giveaway. So all of our patrons should contact me and let me know the pattern of your choice up to $8 you can contact me through Ravelry I'm at 1hundredprojects, I'm 1hundredprojects, or you can email us to us at to Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com or you can Instagram message me on Instagram, I'm again, I'm1hundredprojects on Instagram. And let me know what pattern you'd like. And I'll get you that pattern. If you're a patron, you get a free pattern. So they are a nice way for us, a nice way for us to be able to thank you and also support pattern designers. So it's been really fun. We'll talk a little bit next time about all the different patterns people are selecting. Because it's kind of a cool list. So just wanted to mention that. Get your pattern request in to me. And then also our summer spin in ends September 6th, which I think we've talked about already. But just a little reminder on that. So that's it for now.

Marsha 1:12:48
I have to get off the phone so I can start spinning. Because I have a deadline now Kelly [laughing]

Kelly 1:12:52
Yes, right. Okay.

Marsha 1:12:55
All righty. Okay, bye.

Kelly 1:12:57
Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com

Marsha 1:13:04
Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects.

Kelly 1:13:12
Until next time, we're the Two Ewes

Both 1:13:15
doing our part for world fleece!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai