Episode 68: OCTOBER

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Filmed on Sunday, Sept 29, 2019

Western CT Yarn Crawl!

  • This is an annual yarn crawl put on by the Western CT Yarn Council for 6-7 stores in Western CT. This year, the crawl ran from Thursday September 19 – Sunday September 22.
  • This year, the passport was free and there was a $5 tote bag designed to hold a pin from each of the seven stores.
  • Friday
    • Westport Yarns – Westport, CT
      • Didn’t buy anything at this location. It’s a smaller store in a wealthy area, so their stock is very targeted to the local clientele and is more expensive than other stores I’ve been to.
    • Nancy O – Ridgefield, CT
      • This store moved locations and the new location is really nice. It’s in this sort of plaza with lots of other small stores. It’s a larger space and this space is more handicap friendly with wider aisles inside the store. I didn’t end up buying anything at this store either, but Mom bought something.
    • A Stitch In Time – Bethel, CT
      • Gabby from Once Upon a Corgi was having her yarn crawl trunk show at this store and we ended up turning into the parking lot at the same time. Mom and I helped her set up for the day. The yarns had been out the day before, but that table needed to be cleared for knit night. I think we overwhelmed the shop staff a little because we just dove on in and got her set up.
      • Meadowcroft Dyeworks Yarn Rehab Rockshelter Sock in “Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son” – just leapt out at me and wouldn’t let me leave it behind. It’s been a while since a single skein did that for me.
    • New England Yarn and Spindle – Southington, CT
      • Usually we visit this store with the other northwestern CT stores, but the Mum Festival was happening in Bristol that weekend and the area of Bristol affected is right on our route to and from the shop. Friday during the day was likely to be less of a traffic issue than on Saturday.
      • Also, there’s an IHOP just down the street and pancakes for lunch in the best.
      • Cascade Yarns ® Heritage – 5881 — I’ve been trying to supplement specific items in my stash and when I took stock early this year, I found that I had exactly 1 light colored skein to use for contrasting colorwork.
  • Saturday
    • Stars Hollow Yarns – New Preston, CT
      • New shop! They just opened last December and it’s a nice shop. They’re currently showcasing BIPOC dyers, so they had The Farmer’s Daughter, Lady Dye Yarns, and Cashmere People front and center in the shop for the crawl. Pretty sure the whole shop was small dyer and small mill operations, but I can’t be 100% sure.
      • Just some accessibility points – There are steps to get into the store and an upstairs loft, so it wasn’t wheelchair friendly. I don’t know if they have an accessible entrance on the side or back of the building, but it wasn’t readily apparent to me. Also, the lighting upstairs in the loft is dim, so that may be an issue if you have vision considerations affected by lighting.
        • A note on this — I have, in the past, identified accessibility issues in yarns stores I’ve been to on Yarn Crawls before, but if you have questions about accessibility at the yarn stores I mention, please ask! I’d rather answer repeat questions or revisit the stores to confirm accessibility so that you don’t end up wasting your time visiting a store that you physically can’t navigate
      • The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers Juicy DK “Porch Pumpkin”
      • Round Mountain Fibers Spruce Fingering “Dark Gray”
    • In Sheep’s Clothing – Torrington, CT
      • 3 balls Noro Ito for a blanket
      • PRIZE!
    • Kit & Pearls – Avon, CT
      • Finished out the crawl!

Dye Stuff

  • Indigo Dye – Used pre-reduced indigo crystals from Dharma Trading Co and followed the directions on their website. In the future, I’ll be reducing the amounts in the recipe to half or a quarter because after all these items, I was still getting strong color within 5 minutes of the materials being in the dye vat. I wasn’t in a place to store the vat properly, so I ended up disposing of a lot of good dye.
    • Fabric – would absolutely do again
      • Solid/semi-solid dye
      • Muslin shibori/resist dye – thread drawn
      • Shibori/resist dye napkins – pressed tiles
      • Shibori/resist dye other fabrics – pressed tiles
    • Yarn – like the colors, but problems rinsing out the excess indigo particles
      • Sweater Quantity Targhee
      • BFL/BFL overdye
      • Mohair dye/overdye
      • Cellulose fibers/overdye
  • Pokeberries
    • Three stalks of berries, mashed with water in the sun for two or three weeks – deep reddish purple
    • Approximately 8% alum to water in the sun for two weeks

 

FOs

  • Two stranded colorwork hat – Brother KH836e knitting machine – punch card 2D, Dial 8 – Once Upon A Corgi “Dark Like My Soul” and “Snow Scout”
  • Comfort Fade Cardi by Andrea Mowry – Once Upon a Corgi Handmade yarns (Queequeg/Briny Beach,Tomorrow I Shall Be Fetterless/Lemony Snicket, Miracles and meatballs/ Ghoul Haunted Woodlands of Weir, Dark as a Crow at Night/ Dying to Burn at the Stake) – US 4/3.5 mm needle
  • Simple Seed by Toni Lipsey – Blue Ridge Yarns Kaleidoscope Worsted leftovers – US J/6 mm
  • Weaving pattern GW T001 S-XXL from GetWeaving – Sampled yarns, made a muslin, warped the loom, wove the fabric, reinforced and cut the fabric, assembled and hand-sewed – Cascade Yarns ® Ultra Pima Fine “Armada”, Classic Elite Yarns Bella Lino “Natural”, Classic Elite Yarns Firefly “Silver”, Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy “Palm Springs”, “White Beach”, and “Peacock Luck”, Plymouth Yarn Nettle Grove “31”, Schachenmayr Catania Solids “0419”, Scheepjes Catona “Emerald”
  • Altar Cloth – Ashford 24” loom, low contrast houndstooth – Cascade Yarns ® Ultra Pima Fine “Armada”, Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy “Palm Springs” and “Peacock Luck”, Schachenmayr Catania Solids “0419”

 

WIPs

  • Redford by Julie Hoover Machine Knit – Swatching and making mistakes at this point, decided to use the LK150 instead of the KH836e – Green Mountain Spinnery Lana in “Gris”
  • FAIRY RING embroidery kit by cozyblue
  • Yellow/White rolags – Electric Eel Nano wheel
  • 501st fluffs – Electric Eel Nano wheel
  • Half Square Triangle Quilt – Moda 5” charm squares, HSTs trimmed to 4”, started assembling motifs

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo narr by Michael Eric Dyson
  • Race Matters by Cornel West narr by Cornel West, LD Jackson
  • The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller narr by Frazer Douglas
  • Dracula and Carmilla by Bram Stoker, L Sheriden Le Fanu narr by Clive Hayward and Alison Larkin
  • Eldest by Christopher Paolini narr by Gerard Doyle
  • The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis narr by Michael York
  • The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis narr by Alex Jennings

 

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Episode 67: Vlog Style

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FOs

  • Jyn Erso socks – Must Stash Yarns self striping – US 0/2.0 mm needles – vanilla socks with after through heels

WIPs

  • Hand-dyed Falkland for 1st ply and Phoenix Fiber Co “Lake Shore” for 2nd ply – Ashford Kiwi 2 – short forward/worsted
  • Experimental rolags – Electric Eel Nano wheel
  • Altar cloth – Ashford 24” rigid heddle loom – warp sley

Discontinued

  • Blue Cone Boxy Sweater – self drafted pattern, Brother KH 836e main bed, dial 1 (even on the tension rod), tuck stitch pattern punch card 2 on long, mystery cotton cone from a closing mill

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A response to “Go vegan” as an answer to the current Amazon burnings

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I’ve been seeing an increase in posts proclaiming the Go VeganTM gospel in response to the burning of the Amazon rainforest and I have some Thoughts.

First, support the indigenous work on the ground in Brazil –

Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil

https://coiab.org.br/

https://www.fundopodaali.org.br/

 

The Go VeganTM rhetoric I’ve been seeing on Instagram, specifically in response to corporate greed leading to burning the Amazon, rings of colonialism, ableism, classism, and the “Urban Mindset” (I don’t really have another term for this?).

  1. Colonialism – Ranching/herding, hunting, and fishing has been accomplished sustainably by indigenous cultures since time immemorial. It’s also culturally important to those cultures that are still thriving and reinvigorating themselves. It seems ignorant to say Go Vegan to coastal/island communities where fish are so important in the culture and diet, to where sustainable hunting of deer/rabbit/etc in the forest is important in the culture and diet, to where the dependence on reindeer/cattle/nomadic herd animals is important in the culture and diet, etc. Also, especially for indigenous communities in North America, a lot of the food culture and knowledge was stolen and destroyed with colonialism. Not all crops grow in all places and the historical crop production and foraging information for much of North America is lost or unknown because of our governments’ and ancestors’ active genocide of native culture and the homogeneity in modern farming. (There are a lot of indigenous food culture revival movements currently happening, check out the Toasted Sister podcast for some really great interviews with native food folks in the Americas, but these movements are not necessarily open to non-natives and they have every right to be closed.)(Also look up the varieties of corn and compare that to what you can buy in your grocery store.)
  2. Ableism – Not everyone CAN physically or mentally make the change to a vegan diet. There are any number of things that can affect diet requirements – allergies, intolerances, gut health, mouth/teeth health, how an individual’s body processes fats/sugars, food textures, eating disorders, physical capability… I mean, “just” depression can make it hard to eat food regularly, never mind the content of those meals/snacks until that person’s mental health improves.
  3. Classism – Not everyone can afford to go vegan. I’ll go into this more in the “Urban Mindset” section, but vegetables** are not universally available. Food deserts exist. If grocery stores don’t or can’t afford to (i.e. bodegas, mom + pop grocers, etc) supply vegetables in your area, you can’t go vegan. If grocery stores supply vegetables at a higher cost than you can afford, you can’t go vegan. Homeless folks cannot access food reliably, never mind a vegan diet. Hell, many places, including cities and native reservations in the US and Canada- affluent countries, cannot even drink the water safely. Those communities do not have the same access to vegetables as wealthier communities. Subsistence hunting, ranching, and fishing is still a major way that people get their food.
  4. The “Urban Mindset” – A lot of the talk revolving around Saving The PlanetTM are very urban centric. Not everyone lives somewhere where you can get to a well-stocked grocery store in a reasonable amount of time. Subsistence ranching, hunting, and fishing is often necessary in rural communities. People can and do farm vegetables and grain, but those are seasonal and if the nearest grocery store is several hours away by car (if you even have a car), then winter/dry season/not growing season is going to be a light on vegetables in order to make those winter/dry season/not growing season preserves last until the growing season returns. Also, not all communities are in areas with long growing seasons or in areas with “good” soil. It’s hard to grow soy in northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia, etc. If you don’t live in a city that far north, your diet likely depends on fish and meat. (That’s an example – there are obviously other places where the growing season is short/hard because of other environmental factors.)

**I’m using vegetables as a catch all, since most of the things I’ve seen VegansTM preach about are a variety of vegetable substitutes, but also non-local herbs, seeds, nuts, mushrooms, grains, etc. will follow the same availability patterns as fresh veg.

My experience is as a white person in a pretty well-off family in the US in a semi-suburban area (used to be more rural when I was a kid, now is pretty suburban), so I have blind spots in regards to other communities around the world, but these are the things that have been pointed out to me via BIPOC response posts on IG and indigenous podcasts in response to ongoing native food and health reclamation work. There are entire continents where I don’t know enough about the food and farming cultures there to point out the issues with the Go VeganTM response (namely Africa, huge swathes of Asia, and I barely understand Australian climate zones).

It’s fine if you’re vegan and you want to share your diet or recipes with people looking to make that change or expand their food choices. It’s fine if you look at the affluent white, able friends you have and suggest maybe less meat to stop supporting factory farming. Maybe suggest local rancher/butchers who supply local sustainable meat or local chicken folks for eggs for the environmental factor, if your affluent white, able friends are opposed to full vegan or vegetarian. Feel free to post about your personal reasons for changing your diet! But the proclamations being passed around feel like *shaming*-

-which does not help folks who don’t have the health/monetary privilege to afford a vegan diet

-which does not help the exploitation of workers and wage issues (and the white supremacy within those structures that cause an increased affect for BIPOC workers) (money=choices)

– which does not help the spread of misinformation about what harms animals that have already been historically bred to need our help to live and are treated well by non-factory farms (sheep/wool, chicken/eggs, cows/milk) or naturally need intervention (honey bees/honey)

-which does not help folks just scraping by day by day, mentally and/or physically

-which does not improve access to and advancement in health care so that more people can make food choices

-which does not change the “diet” culture and fatphobia in Western society that causes disordered eating

-which does not gain universal access to food

-which does not help grassroots food communities

-which does not stop exploitation of indigenous land and peoples in farming and food production

-which does not stop slavery in agriculture

-and which does not dismantle the systems and power in place that has led to this event.

 

Episode 66: Real Talk

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Filmed on July 19th, 2019

Real Talk

  • Ravelry
    • Since my last episode, Ravelry has updated their TOS to be more strict with prohibiting hate speech and white supremacy, which I fully support. There has been a lot of emotional labour involved in the BIPOC community to push Ravelry to make their site safer for BIPOC members and I’m really glad to see that Ravelry listened.
  • Nathan Taylor and Benjamin Till.
    • Nathan made a post tone policing BIPOC contributors under the #diversknitty hashtag
    • When called out and educated on his post, Nathan closed comments and edited most of the text on that post.
      • I posted about this on Instagram, but I saw a troubling amount of silence from white folks regarding his post. There was also an unsurprisingly large base of fans supporting his tone policing.
      • His post was damaging and irresponsible, but I was not surprised by it.
      • Nathan is an openly gay man with HIV, which is not at the top of the priviledge ladder, but he is a white, cisgendered man in an affluent country who, from what he presents to us online, does not live on or below the poverty line.
      • Those are a lot of things that boost him closer to the top of that privilege ladder.
      • I have seen him more than once equate his struggles as a gay man with the struggles of BIPOC and non-cis folks, so it didn’t surprise me that when people pointed out how his words were harmful to BIPOC in particular and provided resources for him to educate himself, he shut down the thread.
      • There are screenshots of the original text of the post and of Nathan’s and his husband’s responses in the comments available on Instagram.
    • Benjamin Till (Nathan’s husband) posted to Nathan’s account saying that he had to be hospitalized and places the blame on people calling out the racism in the prior post. He continued to engage and encourage racist behaviour and language in the comments of that post.
    • Benjamin shut down his own Instagram account and has posted multiple times to an external blog, which has included detailed, graphic descriptions of his husband’s mental breakdown and calls to action against BIPOC commenters on Nathan’s account, singling out specific BIPOC Instagram users
    • Sunday, July 14th 2019, Nathan made an appearance at Yarningham to sell books and teach workshops (which had been in contract prior to his inflammatory posts on Instagram), despite his recent hospitalization. When he was approached at the book table by a woman of color and asked questions about his post, he attacked her, had to be physically restrained, and had to be removed from the event.
      • This is appalling and violent. This is why BIPOC do not feel safe in majority white spaces.
      • White supremacy is an infection. It’s everywhere, just slowly seeping in. We need to crack ourselves open and carve it out. There are many ways to do that and the amazing BIPOC in this community have been handing us the means to do it with books, workshops, videos, and posts on how to use our power, patronage, donations, words, and voices to make change and hold ourselves accountable.
      • There has been, and still is, a lot of disappointing silence from white makers, podcasters, and businesses in response to Nathan and Benjamin’s behaviour. It took physical violence against a woman of color before a lot of people even started to see a problem. This is not okay.
  • Online Responsibility
    • I also want to make a point about taking responsibility for your audience on social media and other spaces online.
    • For comparison, these are my numbers– YouTube (1389), Instagram (732), Tumblr (369), Twitter (187). If we pretend that there’s no overlap in those numbers, that’s 2677 people. That’s enough people to nearly fill the Danbury Ice Arena in Danbury, CT.
    • Nathan has over 20K followers on Instagram and over 17K subscribers on YouTube. His Instagram followers alone could fill Madison Square Garden.
    • His behaviour regarding not taking responsibility for how his audience will use his words is a serious problem.
    • This is a problem that I’ve seen time and again on YouTube and Instagram as people become online celebrities, since the first YouTube mega-celebrities back in 2008.
    • When you have those numbers, posting to YouTube and Instagram is not hanging out with a few friends in someone’s living room.
    • When you have MY numbers, it’s not just hanging out with a few friends in someone’s living room. I know it feels like that, but it isn’t.
    • When you have those numbers, ANYTHING you post is an announcement to a stadium full of people.
    • It is SO EASY for that amount of people- even if each one saw the post or video alone- to mob, to jump to conclusions, to react in a way that they never would if someone said an ignorant or hurtful statement one-on-one.
    • It’s okay to make mistakes. Offhand Twitter comments or troublesome language in a post is going to happen.
    • When it’s pointed out to you, feel your feelings in private and then stop to think about it. Reach out to people who are volunteering the emotional labour to educate you and, if they are willing, discuss the situation with them. Admit your mistakes. Own that you messed up and clarify your mistake and what you’ve learned. It’s okay to change your mind on something! This is how we learn and grow.
    • But when BIPOC point out how your words to 20K people are going to hurt them and your response is “I don’t care about that,” that is irresponsible, entitled, and damaging to the community that you INSIST you are trying to “improve.”
  • Alright. I’m going to ask you to pause this video and feel your feelings about what I just said. Come back tomorrow if you need to. The crafting? The crafting will be here.

Dye Stuff

  • Lichen Dye – I’ve had lichen soaking in an ammonia and water mixture since December and I decided that, since there is an ammonia base to this dye, I would be solar dyeing this mixture for less smell. It sat in a jar in the sun for about a week and a half.
  • Purple Basil Dye – True solar dye, about 50g purple basil leaves from my garden in water in a jar in the backyard for 4 days, 8% alum solution on the fiber, fiber sat in the dye stock for about a week
  • Eco Printing
    • Oak leaves, maple leaves, ferns, sumac leaves and berries, queen anne’s lace, sprinkled some calendula petals
    • Tea – Fabric was folded and tied into a cube shape, 12 teabags from a box of English breakfast tea, brewed at a simmer for 1 hour, no other fixative on the fabric.
    • Coffee – Fabric was rolled into a cylinder. 50 g coffee grounds, brewed at a simmer for 1 hour, no other fixative on the fabric.
  • Tea Dye – Wool – Second dye bath. No other fixative on the fiber. Fiber sample sat in tea overnight.
  • Tea Dye – Handspun – Third dye bath, sat in tea over the majority of two days.No other fixative on the fiber.
  • Coffee Dye – Wool – Second dye bath. No other fixative in the fiber. Fiber sample sat in coffee overnight.
  • Coffee Dye – Fabric – Third dye bath, sat in coffee over the majority of two days. No other fixative on the fiber.

FOs

WIPs

  • Comfort Fade Cardi by Andrea Mowry – Once Upon a Corgi Handmade yarns (Queequeg/Briny Beach,Tomorrow I Shall Be Fetterless/Lemony Snicket, Miracles and meatballs/ Ghoul Haunted Woodlands of Weir, Dark as a Crow at Night/ Dying to Burn at the Stake) – US 4/3.5 mm needle
  • Blue Cone Boxy Sweater – self drafted pattern, Brother KH 836e main bed, dial 1 (even on the tension rod), tuck stitch pattern punch card 2 on long, mystery cotton cone from a closing mill
  • Pinwheel Scrap Blanket by Mina Philipp – fingering weight held double, US 4/3.5 mm
  • Jedi Order Symbol by WootGraphicDesign – 14 count black aida
  • Button Down Shirt – drafting a pattern from an existing shirt I like the armhole fit of using painter’s tape and paper.

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sara J Maas
    • Real boring in the middle and this book would have been a hell of a lot more interesting if Tamlin was a woman.
    • I’ll probably listen to the rest of the series, but I’ll probably see if I can library the audio instead of buy them

 

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Episode 65: Handspun Sweater

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Filmed on June 22, 2019

Happy Pride!

Happy African-American Music Appreciation Month!

Happy Caribbean American Heritage Month!

Podcast Stuff

  • I just wanted to make sure to point out that this video podcast does have Closed Captioning and there are transcripts of that CC file included in the show notes on freakishlemon.com. I think that’s something that I’ve been forgetting to mention in my intro. I’m updating my default notes file to include this information, so that shouldn’t happen in the future. Also, if you use the transcript included in my show notes and have any feedback for me, please share! Shoot me a message somewhere, comment below, comment on the blog post – I’ll find it at some point.

Dye Stuff

  • Memorial Day Weekend Dye Adventures – Natural dyes, all-in-one dye method using two pots on two portable burners using 8% of the fiber’s dry weight alum as a fixative, all samples sat in the cooling dye bath for at least 8 hours (most of them overnight)
    • Yellow Onion Skins 1
    • Red Onion Skins 1
    • Yellow Onion Skins 2
    • Red Onion Skins 2
    • Yellow Onion/Avocado Pits
    • Red Onion/Dried Clementine Peel
    • Yellow Onion/Avocado + Red Onion/Dried Clementine Peel Combo
    • Apple Tree Twigs
    • Yellow Onion/Avocado/Red Onion/Dried Clementine Peel + Apple Tree Twig Combo
    • Petals from 1 dozen dark red roses

FOs

  • Handspun sweater – Knitting Pattern Essentials by Sally Melville – machine knit LK 150, dial tension 4 – Autumn Spinners Hill and Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk Wool – Still have a full skein of handspun left
  • Star Wars Aurebesh Sampler Pattern by Adleones

WIPs

  • Comfort Fade Cardi by Andrea Mowry – Once Upon a Corgi Handmade yarns (Queequeg/Briny Beach,Tomorrow I Shall Be Fetterless/Lemony Snicket, Miracles and meatballs/ Ghoul Haunted Woodlands of Weir, Dark as a Crow at Night/ Dying to Burn at the Stake) – US 4/3.5 mm needle
  • Blue Cone Boxy Sweater – self drafted pattern, Brother KH 836e main bed, dial 1 (even on the tension rod), tuck stitch pattern punch card 2 on long, mystery cotton cone from a closing mill
  • Sock Tube – US 0/2.0 mm needles, Once Upon a Corgi “Pinstripes are In”
  • Jedi Order Symbol by WootGraphicDesign – 14 count black aida
  • Classy Squid Fiber Co “The Raven King” 2 oz batt Ashford Kiwi 2 – 2 ply – long draw
  • Hand-dyed Falkland for 1st ply and Phoenix Fiber Co “Lake Shore” for 2nd ply – Ashford Kiwi 2 – short forward/worsted
  • Weaving pattern GW T001 S-XXL from GetWeaving – Sampled yarns, made a muslin, warped the loom, wove the fabric.
  • Half Square Triangle Quilt – Moda 5” charm squares, HSTs trimmed to 4”

Swatches

  • Combo machine knit/hand knit swatches
    • Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport, LK 150 Dial= 3, Hand knit US 3/3.25 mm
    • Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport, LK 150 Dial= 3, Hand knit US 4/3.5 mm

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Listening To:

Stuff I’m Playing:

  • Harry Potter: Wizards Unite – HP game in the style of Pokemon Go. It’s alright, but I think it’s leaning too heavily on the aesthetic of the HP world. The animations are so long compared to Pokemon Go and I think that’s entirely to the less detailed design of the Pokemon franchise.

 

 

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Episode 64: Am I Back?

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Filmed on 5/11/19

Welcome back from my hiatus! My last episode was mid-January, which was a period of time that culminated in some previously unrealized levels of stress. So if you didn’t see my instagram post about dropping the podcast for a bit, that’s why I haven’t been posting regular episodes here.

Things that have happened since my last episode include —

  • Medical nonsense
  • Mental health stuff
  • Job Stuff – A long-time coworker friend left the job and my supervisor was fired in the same week
  • Reading copious amounts of fanfiction
  • Started studying witchcraft
  • Taking a lot of walks
  • Making my own granola bars
  • Sleeping a lot
  • Gardening
  • Curating down my social media and YouTube feeds
  • Reorganizing my entire home library

 

Podcast Stuff

  • Schedule? Who dat? I’d like to return to a monthly schedule, but I don’t know if I’m at a place where that is a reasonable expectation.

 

FOs

  • Shagbark by Tian Foley – US 8/5.0 mm needles – Classic Elite Yarns MountainTop Blackthorn “Wolf” – gauge is looser than what is described, but I like the fabric so I calc’d what size I would need with the gauge I have – cast on the smallest size.
  • Palmer Ribbed Socks v2 – improv pattern – Palmer Family Farm CVM local wool, US 3/3.25 mm Cubics needles
  • Halloween shirt wearable muslin – McCall’s M6044 size M/L – modified – black cotton from Affordable Fabrics that I’m not a fan of for quilting and some Halloween fabric details
  • Large project bag – plain weave, 12 dent heddle, Ashford 24” loom – scrap yarns. Sewn into a boxed bottom zipper bag.
  • Pumpkin Patch handspun – singles done for the #pumpkinMAL
  • Rug hooking sampler – Loop by Loop – designed by Sharon Perry

 

WIPs

  • Granny Stripe Blanket by Lucy/Attic24 – US G/4.25mm hook marling Knit Picks Stroll Fingering in Black with a magic ball of Legacy Fiber Artz minis
  • Memory blanket by Georgie Nicolson – US 1 /2.5 mm – fingering weight scraps
  • Jyn Erso socks – Must Stash Yarns self striping – US 0/2.0 mm needles – vanilla socks with after through heels
  • Palmer Ribbed Socks v3 – improv pattern – Palmer Family Farm CVM local wool, US 3/3.25 mm Cubics needles
  • Handspun sweater – Knitting Pattern Essentials by Sally Melville – machine knit LK 150 – Autumn Spinners Hill and Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk Wool
  • Comfort Fade Cardi by Andrea Mowry – Once Upon a Corgi Handmade yarns (Queequeg/Briny Beach,Tomorrow I Shall Be Fetterless/Lemony Snicket, Miracles and meatballs/ Ghoul Haunted Woodlands of Weir, Dark as a Crow at Night/ Dying to Burn at the Stake) – US 4/3.5 mm needle
  • Rice Fields by Elzbieta Torenc – US 3/3.25mm needles – Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light for Black and Legacy Fiber Artz Hocus Pocus colorways
  • Star Wars Aurebesh Sampler Pattern by Adleones
  • Brown Cormo Sweater Spin – Ashford Kiwi 2 – finished the singles!
  • Mad Color Fiber Arts “Life is Short and You Are Hot” SW Targhee – 2 ply fractal spin
  • Greenwood Fiberworks “Mallard” Merino/Stellina – 2 ply fractal spin
  • Fall mini-batts drop spindling – with new Turtle Made top whorl drop spindle
  • Darth Scabrous mini batts – Turtle Made top whorl drop spindle
  • Weaving pattern GW T001 S-XXL from GetWeaving – Sampled yarns, made a muslin, warped the loom, weaving

 

Swatches

  • Combo Hand/Machine sweaters – I’m starting to get itchy to do circular yoke sweaters, but I want to do all the plain stockinette on the machine
  • Sock Tubes – Make an effort to actually get my ribber bed working without giving me all the trouble to make tubes for socks

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Listening To:

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages – Brilliant and amazing and I loved these stories
  • Jailbreaking the Goddess: A Radical Revisioning of Feminist Spirituality by Lasara Firefox Allen – Slow going because of the workshopping nature of this book, but I am enjoying the process
  • Magical Destinations of the Northeast: Sacred Sites, Occult Oddities & Magical Monuments by Natalie Zaman – It’s interesting, but there’s something about it that isn’t as compelling as I was expecting? Some of the entries seem too brief to be useful.
  • Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham – It’s interesting to put modern Wicca in context, but it’s just confirming that Wicca itself is not what I’m looking for and there’s some dated, problematic language in this book that can turn me off to the actually useful information in this book.
  • Natural Color by Sasha Duerr – Very helpful find from my local library
  • The Last of the Jedi by Jude Watson – Finally nearing the end of the series!

 

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Transcript below the cut

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Quilts of 2018

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You know, I had fully intended to write a blog post about each of these quilts. I really did. However, I logged in to work on the Winter Wall Quilt post and realized that I finished that quilt about a year ago. Ugh. Good job, me.

That post is, clearly, scrapped and since I only completed three quilts in 2018, that means you get a round-up post instead. Huzzah!

 

Winter Wall Quilt

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20180506_150722The Winter Wall quilt was made adapting a pattern of the same name from The Weekend Quilter: Fabulous Quilts to Make in a Weekend by Rosemary Wilkinson. The original pattern is for a twin sized bed, but my big 2018 purchase was a full sized bed. This quilt is likely more of a queen size, but I prefer my quilts to drape off the edges of the bed. It covers up the rumpled sheets that I tried to smooth out at 5 am, you know?

The quilt top is made from an assortment of recycled clothing fabrics and discarded stash from my mom’s old fabrics. During college especially, I made a habit of saving the fabric from jeans and button down shirts that were no longer able to be mended or worn without significant holes. Part of the reason why I decided to make a quilt for my new bed was to use up that stash that had been building for over ten years. It wasn’t the easiest thing to sew all these different fabrics together. My sewing machine wasn’t 20180506_1506550always happy about going from a typical quilting cotton to a thick denim, especially when sewing the rows together, but I’m please with the result. The border on this quilt is made from an old fitted sheet from my twin bed. The back is a considerable amount of black cotton fabric that an Instagram/podcast-follower volunteered to send to me for the price of postage while clearing out some old stash from her craft room.

I used the tie method of quilting for this quilt, just because it was so big and cumbersome. I do like the look of it, but I have had problems with my cotton ties untying in parts of the bed where I sit or that move a lot. If I tie another quilt, I’ll have to look into either a tie material that’s less slippery or tie them with longer ends so that they can be re-tied.

This quilt is also the first time I tried a flanged binding. I loved using this kind of binding. There’s considerably less hand sewing and it’s much more forgivable in terms of visible stitching on the front of the quilt. This has become my preferred quilt binding technique in 2018.

20180505_093507While I’m pleased with all the quilts I finished in 2018, this one holds a special place for me. Because it’s almost entirely made from recovered fabrics and destash, it’s seems to me like this is the closest to the spirit of historical quilting. There’s something very satisfying about that. I haven’t examined that too closely, but I think part of my aim in 2019 will be to work through stash. Instead of supplementing my stash with too many impulse fabric buys, I think I’d rather prefer recovering fabric from damaged/unmendable clothing as my main source of quilt materials. I don’t think I’ll ever be a capital-Q Quilter, but I think using quilting as a way to use recovered fabrics will be really satisfying.

 

 

The Half Square Triangle Quilt!

20180928_085645

This quilt was one of the craft projects that saved my sanity while I was dealing with 20180928_085706considerable hand pain. The simple shapes, the simple lines to sew and assemble, and the experimenting in machine quilting was a balm to my unhappy brain chemicals over many months in 2018. It was so important to me that I hosted an HST QAL in the Ravelry group for my podcast folks. A few people joined, which I’m grateful for, but it wasn’t very popular amongst my knitting viewers. I mean, I know it’s not for everyone, but I felt really encouraged when a couple of folks joined me.

Honestly, this quilt is one that I’ve been keeping at the end of my bed all winter because it just makes me happy. It’s sort of a manifestation of all the brightness and joy I needed in my life while I’ve been experiencing a lot of physical pain and stress over the last year.

20180928_085759

 

Halloween Strip Diamond Quilt

20190112_120717

20190112_120747

This was the last quilt I finished in 2018, but if I’m remembering correctly, this is one that I started in 2017. A while back I had the idea that it would be more fulfilling for me to finish a number of quilt tops before taking the time to finish the rest of the quilt assembly. Maybe that’s what I needed at the time, but I don’t think I’m in that place anymore. By the end of 2018, I was just looking for something that I could feasibly finish to get those PROJECT: DONE endorphins.

20190112_120759This quilt top was sitting around in my collection of quilt tops and I was reorganizing my fabrics at the same time, which happily resulted in finding that Halloween plaid backing fabric. I had originally purchased it to make a button down shirt, but I know myself better than I did and I’m not comfortable wearing shirts in full bright colors like that. Halloween plaid is perfect, however, for quilt backing fabric and within a few days, I had this quilt sandwich under the needle of my machine. It was done with freeform quilting – lots of experimenting and motif exploration – and I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

20190112_120730

 

 

So that’s it! Those are the quilts that I finished in 2018! It’s March now and I’m still not sure of my quilt plans for this year, but I’m looking forward to any of those projects that ping my inspiration.

Episode 63: #diversknitty

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Filmed on 1/12/19

Podcast Stuff

  • . #diversknitty – I wanted to briefly mention this here as a challenge to myself. I’m not caught up on podcasts, so I don’t know if any other white makers have said anything about this aloud yet, but it’s easier to write this kind of thing and so much harder to say it. Over the past couple of days there’s been an intense discussion regarding racism in the knitting community, which, I think, has been a long time coming. Go search and follow the hashtag #diversknitty to see what’s going on there and there’s a post on my feed that’s easy to spot if you need a place to get started. I’m not going to waffle on about it, but the bottom line is that white designers, dyers, and makers are more welcome because of societal racism and we, as white folks, need to do better to unlearn these biases. We need to support the groups that are harmed by the way our language and our choices are shaped by a history of oppression and genocide. Buy yarn. Buy patterns. Promote and share the amazing work done by makers of color in our community. That’s the bottom line. We have to do the work. And I want to encourage the white folks watching this to take a minute and think about why we feel guilty or angry or scared or whatever whenever this type of discussion comes up – because we all feel something when the conversation turns in this direction and that’s the first step.

 

FOs

  • Palmer Ribbed Socks – improv pattern – Palmer Family Farm CVM local wool, US 3/3.25 mm Cubics needles
  • Lace weight poncho (dimensions from snerbyarn) – KH 836e dial 6 – Leading Men Fiber Arts Ghost Light “Envy”
  • Lace weight “Sideways” shawl – machine knit shawl shapes project – KH 836e dial 6 – Leading Men Fiber Arts Ghost Light “Envy”
  • Handwoven “Pirate” Pants – plain weave, 12 dent heddle, Ashford 24” loom – a whole slew of grey and black yarns, Andre Sue Knits “Freakish Lemon” – See my Ravelry page for the full list of yarns
  • Christmas shirt – McCall’s M6044 size L – a little big in the shoulders and upper back, but a decent first go at it. Will make another muslin with the shoulders, upper arms, and back in the size below before making the next shirt. May add some darts or a cinching buttoned tab in the back on this shirt to make it fit a little better.
  • Lago Tank Top by Itch to Stitch – Scrap Star Wars and striped knit fabrics
  • Halloween Diamond Quilt – quilted and bound – flanged binding

 

WIPs

  • Granny Stripe Blanket by Lucy/Attic24 – US G/4.25mm hook marling Knit Picks Stroll Fingering in Black with a magic ball of Legacy Fiber Artz minis
  • Memory blanket by Georgie Nicolson – US 1 /2.5 mm – fingering weight scraps
  • Palmer Ribbed Socks v2 – improv pattern – Palmer Family Farm CVM local wool, US 3/3.25 mm Cubics needles
  • Shagbark by Tian Foley – US 8/5.0 mm needles – Classic Elite Yarns MountainTop Blackthorn “Wolf” – gauge is looser than what is described, but I like the fabric so I calc’d what size I would need with the gauge I have – cast on the smallest size.
  • Brown Cormo Sweater Spin – Ashford Kiwi 2
  • Darth Scabrous mini batts – Turtle Made Turkish spindle
  • Rug hooking sampler – Loop by Loop – designed by Sharon Perry
  • Halloween shirt wearable muslin – McCall’s M6044 size M/L – modified – black cotton from Affordable Fabrics that I’m not a fan of for quilting and some Halloween fabric details

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Catching up on vlogmas videos and podcasts
  • Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse – really good!
  • Aquaman – also really good!

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman (audio) narr by same
  • Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers by Nick Offerman (audio) narr by same
  • Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop by Nick Offerman (audio) narr by same
  • The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: An Oral History by Megan Mullally & Nick Offerman (audio) narr by same
  • Renewed my library card, so now Libby is at my fingertips
    • The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien – American NPR dramatization
    • The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien – BBC Radio 4 dramatization
    • Spiderwick Chronicles Vol 1 The Field Guide and the Seeing Stone by Holly Black and Tony DiTerrlizzi narr by Mark Hamill
    • The Alchemyst by Michael Scott narr by Denis O’Hare

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • A Garden to Dye for by Chris McLaughlin
  • Botanical Colour at your Fingertips by Rebecca Desnos
  • Star Wars Last of the Jedi: Return of the Dark Side by Jude Watson

 

 

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-Transcript-

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Episode 62: New Corner

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Filmed on 12/2/18

 

Podcast Stuff

  • 2018 Blanket MAL! There’s a thread up on Rav for photos and discussion, so please join us there as you work on blankets.

 

FOs

  • Marled Magic Shawl by Stephen West – US 6/4.0 mm – scrap yarns and old handspun
  • Sideways Triangle Shawl – Machine knitting shawl project – LK 150 dial 9 – plating with Fresh From the Cauldron “Radioactive” and Knit Picks Palette Black.
  • Ritual Dyes Knitting Backpack knock off – (you should absolutely buy an official one if you have the money and want one) – Green duck canvas, brown 1.5” belting for straps, brown leather scrap for loop, approx 6”x6” zipper pocket. Edges finished using an overlocking/cutting foot on my sewing machine.
  • Liesl & Co Metro T-Shirt – Grey/black stripe and Star Wars long-sleeved T-shirts – grey/black was a little more slim fitted than I like, so I added ½” to each side of the front, back, and sleeves. The ¼” seam allowance was too small for my machine.

 

WIPs

  • Granny Stripe Blanket by Lucy/Attic24 – US G/4.25mm hook marling Knit Picks Stroll Fingering in Black with a magic ball of Legacy Fiber Artz minis
  • Memory blanket by Georgie Nicolson – US 1 /2.5 mm – fingering weight scraps
  • Jyn Erso socks – Must Stash Yarns self striping – US 0/2.0 mm needles – vanilla socks with after through heels
  • Palmer Ribbed Socks – improv pattern – Palmer Family Farm CVM local wool, US 3/3.25 mm Cubics needles
  • Shagbark by Tian Foley – US 8/5.0 mm needles – Classic Elite Yarns MountainTop Blackthorn “Wolf” – gauge is looser than what is described, but I like the fabric so I calc’d what size I would need with the gauge I have – cast on the smallest size.
  • Rice Fields by Elzbieta Torenc – US 3/3.25mm needles – Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light for Black and Legacy Fiber Artz Hocus Pocus colorways
  • Lace weight poncho (dimensions from snerbyarn) – KH 836e dial 6 – Leading Men Fiber Arts Ghost Light “Envy”
  • Yardage for sewing project – plain weave, 12 dent heddle, Ashford 24” loom – a whole slew of grey and black yarns, Andre Sue Knits “Freakish Lemon” – See my Ravelry page for the full list of yarns
  • Yardage for large project bag – plain weave, 12 dent heddle, Ashford 24” loom – scrap yarns
  • Fall mini-batts drop spindling – with new Turtle Made top whorl drop spindle
  • Darth Scabrous mini batts – Turtle Made Turkish spindle
  • Halloween Diamond Quilt – basted and quilting

 

Swatches

  • Fingering weight card reader color work for hats

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
    • I liked it
    • I don’t think it works as a stand-alone film. It’s definitely part of a larger whole.
    • Costume design was Disappointing.
  • Doctor Who
  • Luke Cage Season 2 on Netflix
  • Iron Fist Season 2 on Netflix

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Greater Boston – Fiction podcast radio show for a fictional greater Boston area
  • Waystation – Fancast from the hosts of Spirits about Lost Girl
  • Someone Knows Something – True crime investigative podcast from CBC radio
  • Celestial Blood – Radionovela about twins Sol and Mundo who discover that their father Arturo had 9 other children that they didn’t know about and their search for their brothers and sisters
  • Spines – Two months ago, Wren woke up covered in blood, suffering from memory loss, and surrounded by the remnants of some strange cult ritual. SPINES is the story of her search for answers, and the deadly, powerful people she encounters along the way.
  • Aftermath by Chuck Wendig (audio) narr by Marc Thompson
  • Yes, Please by Amy Poehler (audio) narr by Amy Poehler and guests
  • Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming (audio) narr by Alan Cumming
  • Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher (audio) narr by Carrie Fisher

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

 

 

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Transcript:

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