dye

Episode 70: Zero Effort

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Filmed on Friday, December 20, 2019

Dye Stuff

  • Indigo Dye Follow Up
    • My hypothesis regarding the indigo dye of the targhee yarns is proving correct. I’ve been scouring them in hot water with Kookaburra Scour that I have left from scouring the mystery fleece a few years back and a considerable amount of dye has washed out with the lanolin.
    • If you are going to be using a fiber that has a high grease content, scour before dyeing with indigo. I’m not sure if other dye methods are affected by the lanolin content in the yarn the same way, but I’m going to scour my undyed targhee as well, just in case.

FOs

  • Improv pillow covers – 2 square pillow cases with black piping – piping made with lucet tool and bias tape leftover from other projects – 1 came out exactly as I imagined, 1 got a bit screwy and has some haphazard patching, but it’s fine for what I need.
  • Palmer Ribbed Socks v3 – improv pattern – Palmer Family Farm CVM local wool, US 3/3.25 mm Cubics needles
  • Fingerloop 5 strand braid sample – made using cotton yarn and the tutorial by Morgan Donner on YouTube
  • Linen napkins – made from indigo dyed fabric

WIPs

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • The Mandalorian
    • It’s like a very nice, long screensaver. The images are great and they move along in a pleasing way, but nothing of substance is happening. Honestly, watching the slideshow of the concept art during the credits is the same level of entertainment for me.
  • The Rise of Skywalker
    • I had a great time with this movie. It had a lot of the type of Soap Opera Drama that I love in the extended Star Wars universe books/TV shows/video games, so I had a blast.

 

Stuff I’m Listening To:

(audio podcast break, so it’s been audiobooks constantly)

  • Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater narr by Will Patton
    • So many Lynch brothers feelings
  • A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Mass narr by Jennifer Ikeda
    • Definitely liked this book more than the first one, but there are some pet peeves of mine that keep throwing me out of the story
  • The Cruel Prince by Holly Black narr by Caitlin Kelly
  • The Wicked King by Holly Black narr by Caitlin Kelly
  • Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi narr by Banni Turpin

 

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters
    • I cannot even explain how refreshing it is to read a book that starts right out with queerness. Less than 20 pages and queerness already abounds. No ongoing confusion and yearning, no questioning – just Nancy dressing up in her Sunday best and going to the theater daily to see the male impersonator Kitty Butler and falling in love.

 

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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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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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Episode 60: Plying Party

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Filmed on 9/8/18

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.
  • Quilt Along!
    • Time Frame: March 2018 – September 2018 – 6 months
    • Quilt size: smallest side 3 ft/36”/92 cm
    • Quilt top pattern: Half Square Triangles – The entire quilt does not have to be half square triangles, but half square triangles should be a feature. I created a Pinterest board with some cool ideas.
    • Quilting: No rules about the actual quilting! Long arm, machine, by hand, or tie quilting is all welcome.
    • Link HERE to Jaclyn/Brooklyn Knitfolk’s quilt along tutorials

FOs

  • Sewing
    • Grey tank top #1 – Lago Tank by Itch to Stitch – I got free from Craftsy
      • Technically a women’s pattern, but the only difference between a “women’s” tank top and a “men’s” tank top is a smidge of waist shaping and the size of the arm hole, which doesn’t bring up any gender-junk for me.
      • I measured a t-shirt for finished garment measurements and ended up making the size 16 top.
      • I made this pattern according to the pattern exactly.
      • It fits comfortably except that the neckline is lower than I had anticipated.
      • First time sewing a garment with knit fabric – not my favourite, but I’ll be more proficient with it with practice.
      • Used an old jersey bed sheet that is super worn out and soft
    • Grey tank top #2 – Lago Tank by Itch to Stitch – same as before except for the following
      • Front and back pieces are 2 halves seamed in the middle because I didn’t make the best use of space cutting out the first one
      • Raised the neckline by about 2”
      • Used the armhole and neck bands as facings and trimmed the excess after zig-zagging the facings down flat
      • Sewing with knit fabric was easier the second time around
  • Slytherin Scarf – LK 150 dial tension 3, tension rod 5 – adapted from the scarf measurements and stripe repeats from Harry Potter Hogwarts House Scarf by Dovile Petra – Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport in Aurora Heather and Dove Heather – stockinette stitch double width to fold and seam instead of ribbing – I had to stop because I ran out of green, so I scrapped it off rather than leaving it on the floor while I wait for more yarn to come in.
  • Dye Projects
    • Found a white bed sheet that no one in the house remembers buying – dyed it grey with “Raven” Procion dye to use as a possible quilt back
    • Dyed various fibers blue for rolags and batts
  • Handmade rolags from stash fibers and extras – I had originally started collecting these fibers and extras to open up an Etsy shop, but I’ve come to the realization that starting a proper business is not in the cards any time soon, so I’ve decided
  • Handspun
    • Alpaca handspun – Fiber from Alpaca Obsession – 2 ply drop spindle handspun, plied on Blackfoot spindle
    • Classy Squid Fiber Co – All the Mirrors of the World batt – 2 ply, singles spun on the Hitchhiker wheel, plied on the Ashford Kiwi
    • Classy Squid Fiber Co – Intergalactic batt kit – 2 ply, singles spun on the Hitchhiker wheel, plied on the Ashford Kiwi
    • Classy Squid Fiber Co – Star Fishing megabatt – 2 ply, spun on the Ashford Kiwi
    • Watermelon from Skirted Fleece Mill – Ashford Kiwi – 3 ply fractal spin
    • The last of the Mystery Fleece! – 2 ply woolen spun on the Hitchhiker and Ashford Kiwi wheels

WIPs

  • Granny Stripe Blanket by Lucy/Attic24 – Size G/4.25mm hook marling Knit Picks Stroll Fingering in Black with a magic ball of Legacy Fiber Artz minis
  • Marled Magic Shawl by Stephen West – US 6/4.0 mm – scrap yarns and old handspun
  • Fingering Weight Sweater Blank Sweater by Renee Callahan – Brother KH 836e knitting machine with the KR850 ribber – Dial set to 8 for stst, ended up using 7/7 for the ribbing – Grinning Gargoyle Khaleesi Sock in “Shiny Penny” and Knit Picks Stroll Fingering “Black”
  • 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
  • Tablet weaving band from a chart in Card Weaving by Candace Crockett – Nazli Gelin Garden 3 in black, red, yellow, and white – on a tablet weaving loom from chuckjones on Etsy, which doesn’t appear to be a shop on that platform anymore
  • Half Square Triangle Quilt – part of the HST QAL – Basted and started quilting
  • Star Wars Aurebesh Sampler Pattern by Adleones

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Extraordinary Tales – on Netflix, animated retellings of Edgar Allan Poe stories
  • Charmed – So much 90’s witchy goodness

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Sayer – Sci-fi horror podcast, like a darker version of Portal in a space station research facility
  • Point Mystic – Documentary type fiction podcast about a strange town with strange happenings
  • Wormwood – Fiction audio drama about a supernatural murder mystery in the small town of Wormwood
  • Spirits – Podcast where two young women drink and tell myths and urban legends
  • Potterless – A guy in his mid-twenties reads Harry Potter for the first time and snarks about it
  • Passage – A short mystery podcast with supernatural leanings about a reporter following a story about a mysterious lifeboat that washes up in the Puget Sound
  • Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II by Sean Williams (audiobook) narr by Jonathan Davis
  • Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials by Marilynne K. Roach (audiobook) narr by Kate Reading

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • Knitting Comfortably: The Ergonomics of Handknitting by Carson Demers
  • Clothing from the Hands that Weave by Anita Luvera Mayer
  • All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages ed Saundra Mitchell
  • Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
  • Love That Grows series by Wizardheart83 (Plant_Murderer)
    • Less than a year after the death of the Potters, Rose Evans and her husband Lyle take care of their orphaned grandson, Harry, and try to take steps toward a future where he’ll be loved and accepted. Spring is coming, and with it, the memory of stirring warmth, and the first real hope for life and growth.

 

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Transcription

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Episode 55: It’s been a bit…

/ freakishlemon / Leave a comment

 

 

Filmed on April 1, 2018

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.
  • Quilt Along! It begins!
    • Time Frame: March 2018 – September 2018 – 6 months
    • Quilt size: smallest side 3 ft/36”/92 cm
    • Quilt top pattern: Half Square Triangles – The entire quilt does not have to be half square triangles, but half square triangles should be a feature. I created a Pinterest board with some cool ideas.
    • Quilting: No rules about the actual quilting! Long arm, machine, by hand, or tie quilting is all welcome.
    • Link HERE to Jaclyn/Brooklyn Knitfolk’s quilt along tutorials

 

Life Stuff

  • Daylight Saving Time – We’re hit that time of year where many states in the US change the clocks forward an hour to preserve daylight and it’s kicking my ass.
  • Rearranged the craft room… again
  • Stitches United – Mom and I went on the Sunday for some poking around and shopping. It still seems small to me for a Stitches event, but they did pad out the marketplace floor with more quilt displays, which were really cool to check out.

 

FOs

  • Color block weaving project – Assembled! Plain weave using a 12 dent heddle on my 10” cricket loom.
  • Dwarven Mittens by Ginger Monkey Knits – US 3/3.25 mm Nova Cubics – Plymouth Yarn Homestead Tweed

 

WIPs

  • Fabric Dye Experiment
    • Ended up having to rewash all the fabrics because when I went to soak the blue to re-dye, they bled like crazy. Ended up doing two hot-hot water baths in tubs and then rinsing in hot water in the sink until the water ran clear.
    • Re-dyed the blue plaid and the brown/purple flowers with grey wash
  • Winter Wall quilt from The Weekend Quilter- rows are assembled and trimmed, think this needs a border to finish off the top
  • Half square triangle quilt – squares pieced and cut to form half square triangles, trimmed uneven edges and dog ears, chain pieced rows
  • Tramontane Sweater by Amy Herzog – handspun and Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk Wool – Silver Reed LK 150 – finished sleeve
  • Granny Log Cabin blanket – I don’t have the crochet hook information for these scrap squares, but it’s all worsted weight acrylic scraps – Log Cabin garter stitch borders are on the Silver Reed LK150 with the dial set to 5
  • Scrap yarn pillow covers – Plain weave on the 10” cricket rigid heddle loom with a 12 dent reed – fingering weight yarns
  • Sample tablet weaving from the Card Weaving by Candace Crockett book – Northbound Knitting “Lichen”, scrap white yarn, Knit Picks Palette black
  • Intergalactic spinning kit from Classy Squid Fiber Co – finished spinning the galaxy batt singles

 

Swatches

  • Fingering held double vs plating
    • Second swatch because I didn’t write down the dial settings
  • Tuck stitch vs single color brioche
  • Cables instead of rib + cable edging
  • 3 stitch icord seam
  • 2 stitch icord seam

 

New Stuff

  • Destash black cotton fabric – approximately 9 yards
  • Brother Ameno KH 836E – used on ebay, currently working on getting it operational
  • Stitches United haul
  • Muddled Colors Studio – fingering weight merino in Halloween

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • A Stitch in Time (BBC show about historical garment recreation)
  • Selling Houses with Sarah Beeny (BBC show about selling properties and home improvement)
  • Angela Clayton on YouTube – historical clothing and costume – She came up in my feed with her 18th Century Striped Redingote, which is AMAZING.
  • Talisa Tossell on YouTube – She talks about and demonstrates the properties of play slimes (the kind you make with glue), which I knew had become popular, but I didn’t know that it was popular enough to have Instagram fads and community
  • Meghan Tonjes on YouTube – She’s a singer that I’ve talked about on here before, but she’s really putting her energy back into her music right now and just put up a whole bunch of cover songs on her channel.
  • Rusty Lake – Rusty Lake is an independent video game company that has a series of escape-the-room surreal horror games. I started out playing some of their earlier games, but I wasn’t very good at them. They do have a YouTube channel with walkthroughs on their games, so I ended up watching a whole bunch of those.

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • From a Certain Point of View anthology (audiobook)

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • Knitting Pattern Essentials: Adapting and Drafting Knitting Patterns for Great Knitwear by Sally Melville
  • Fanfic~~~
    • Reread the Jedi Shmi AU by MirandaTam
    • Reread Back From the Future: Episode VI The Clone Wars by Ariel -Sojourner – Luke and Vader time travel sometime during RotJ back to the Clone Wars
    • Heart of Kyber by esama – Jedi High Council forbids Anakin’s training – so Anakin makes his own.
      • Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t exist in this universe until Anakin steals a holocron from the Jedi Temple and builds an android to access the data
    • All That I Have Seen by Felilla
      • She died in the Temple, staring into the face of a man that she once looked up to, a man that she once thought to be a great Jedi.She awoke in the Temple, years before that event took place. Years before everything went wrong. And she decided to make it right.
      • This one is really interesting because it’s from the point of view of a Jedi that’s an original character and she’s a fantastic character.

 

 

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