Episode 25: Special Guest Stars

Finished Objects

Erica

The shawl!!!! Erica was so excited to finish her Half Pi Shawl. In Episode 1 she was swatching for this shawl! Erica has knit a few small shawls, but really wanted a really nice big shawl! She switched between Signature Needle Arts and Chiaogoo circular needles. Erica does love her Signature Needle Arts needles, but found the join on these difficult once the shawl got large and heavy.  Erica would love to hear listeners tips for knitting from center pull balls. Do you knit from the center or the outside?

Michelle

Michelle has been going through some of her older hand spun yarn and setting the twist in it. She was particularly bad about wet setting a couple years ago and the wash is helping refresh the yarn as well. Some was balled up already so it had to be put back into skeins. She finally got the opportunity to use this beautiful Amish style swift that was made by a friend of her Mom's and gifted to Michelle.

 

 

 

Works in Progress

Michelle

Michelle skirted and washed the fleeces she got from shearing day at Queso Cabeza farm. They are taking a long time to dry out in her garage in the cold weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Erica

Erica seems to have taken Michelle's spinning mojo, oops! Erica is back to spinning the Organic Polwarth in the Fractured Dawn colourway from Crafty Jax. Erica purchased 3 braids and decided to spin a 3 ply yarn. Fractured Dawn is a random colourway so each braid starts with a different color. So Erica split each braid into 3 carefully put each split into a ball, then put all 3 balls from the same braid in a bag together. Erica is spinning a single from braid one, then braid two, then braid three and will start over again to make up for not being able to randomize the singles when plying to help distribute any variance in the singles spinning.

 

 

Erica is prepping the drawloom for her next warp. This will be a 4" warp sett at 60 epi (2/dent in a 30 epi reed). She is using the last of the Treenway Silks Bordello color yarn from her previous project. This will be woven into trim to use for her husband's garb, and probably some for herself too.

 

 

Socks

Erica currently has socks on the needle for everyone in her family! She is extending her previous sock study by trying toe up socks again and testing out different short row methods. She has cast on the second sock for Oli's second pair of socks. For this sock she used the toe up Ann Budd short row toe method.

 

 

She cast on the first sock for TJ's second pair of socks. For TJ's sock Erica tried out the toe up German short row. Erica thinks TJ, yet again, picked the best color of all of us.

 

 

Erica also cast on for her second pair of socks using the toe up wedge toe, which she was the very first type of toe construction she tried and did not initially fall in love with this method. She is enjoying testing out new methods and looking forward to finally settling on a method that she really likes.

 

 

Finally, Erica bought the book Knitting Magic and plans to knit a Weasley Jumper for each member of her family. She started with TJ's jumper that is in Harrisville Highland Black and he chose Periwinkle for the contrasting color for his initial.