Episode 63: #diversknitty

 

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

 

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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Episode 61: Back at Rhinebeck

 

Filmed on Saturday 10/27/18

Podcast Stuff

  • Transcript and CC – Podcast episodes are going to be released slower in relation to the filming date because I want to make more of an effort to transcribe and CC these episodes. I discovered that YouTube has made an effort to do the automatic transcription on videos longer than 45 minutes, so I’m going to be using that to clean up and make CC’s and transcriptions for my episodes. I did the CC on the last video and I’ve added to CC as a transcription to the post on freakishlemon.com. I’ve added the transcription to any posts where I had a CC file for back episodes. If anyone would like to help me edit the auto CC files, please check out the link below. It takes a while to go through these and I have a not small amount of back episodes to work on, so any help would be appreciated. Episode CC Project
  • 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

  • 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”
  • #05 Open Front Cardigan by Rosemary Drysdale – Briar Rose Fibers Fourth of July – LK150
  • 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 – finished!
  • So Sew Easy – Easy Serger Scrap Catcher – I think I found this for free on Craftsy. Used some interfaced quilting cotton. I found most of the tutorial to be easy to follow, but towards the end it started to lack in details. Not a big deal because I’ve sewn enough rectangles to see how they should fit together, but I don’t think that this was the best way to assemble these pieces.
  • Sew Much Ado – Reusable Swiffer Duster Cloths Tutorial – Really liked this one. It’s super easy and is a well explained tutorial.
  • 5 out of 4 Patterns Pajama Pants – Rebels fabric
  • Pumpkin drop spindling handspun – mystery stash – Turtle Made Turkish Spindle

 

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
  • Jyn Erso socks – Must Stash Yarns self striping – US 0/2.0 mm needles – vanilla socks with after through heels
  • Pumpkin Patch handspun – singles done for the #pumpkinMAL
  • Fall mini-batts drop spindling – with new Turtle Made top whorl drop spindle
  • Ritual Dyes Knitting Backpack knock off – Gabby/OUAC and Lauren/Colorwheel Yarns both had these knitting backpacks from Ritual Dyes, which are really well made and lovely and you should absolutely buy one if you have the money and want one. It seemed like a cool idea and I have some additions that I want to play with, so I took some measurements and started a pattern draft to work out my own.

 

Swatches

  • Cotton Cone – Eight – Two Valley Fibers Corp
  • Knit Picks Comfy Fingering
  • Wool Cone mill leftovers
  • Non-SW Wool leftover
  • Nettle Grove 45% Cotton/28% Linen/12% Nettle Fiber
  • Queensland Collection United 55% Lambswool/45% Cotton
  • Hempathy Cotton/Hemp/Modal blend
  • Classic Elite Yarns Bella Lino 58% linen/26% viscose/16% cotton
  • Classic Elite Yarns Firefly 75% viscose/25% cotton

 

Rhinebeck Recap

  • Needles Up
    • Classy Squid Fiber Co – Quoth V.1 and Quote V.2 batts, Cuttlefish no 33
  • Rhinebeck Day 1
    • Clemes & Clemes Walnut Orifice hook
  • Rhinebeck Day 2
    • Cat’s View Farm – Soap “Cookies”
    • Dragonfly Fibers – Djinni (80% SW Merino/ 10% cashmere/ 10% nylon) in Spooky

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Kubo and the Two Strings
  • Coco
  • The Great Interior Design Challenge
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 2
  • The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell – like a Halloween Henson Martha Stewart
  • Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
  • The Worst Witch

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • 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
  • Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (audiobook)
  • Under Pressure – Fictional audiolog of Dr. Jamie MacMillan-Barrie while aboard a deep sea research facility – mostly related to the interpersonal relationships with the crew and personal musings
  • The Ghoul Gang – Like My Favourite Murder for ghost stories.
  • The Ghost Radio Project – Fiction podcast, post-societal collapse pirate radio drifters

 

 

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Episode 60: Plying Party

 

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 59: Forgot the Fanfic

 

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
  • Podcast Show Format
    • Nixing the “New Stuff” segment from the normal episodes of this podcast. At this point in my making, I’m trying to work through older stash and exploring new forms of making. Any new yarn coming is, in general, there to supplement what I already have. I’ll be talking about any new equipment pretty quickly after I get it, since I want to play with all the things. I don’t think the “New Stuff” segment is currently adding anything to the podcast.
    • I’ll resurrect “New Stuff” for event hauls, like Rhinebeck and Yarn Crawls, since there’s value is showing what is available at events like this for folks who might be thinking of attending in the future.
    • Also nixing “Life Stuff” as a routine segment. If I have things to talk about from my life, I’ll just talk about them throughout the podcast as it becomes relevant.

FOs

  • Plain Weave Rectangular Pillow – 10” Schacht Cricket Loom – 12 dent heddle – warped at 108” – 2 seamed panels per side
  • Shawl Scarf – Lion Brand Scarfie leftovers – st st rectangle on the LK150 – “killed” the acrylic with a hot iron and a wet pressing cloth
  • ½ & ½ Machine Knit Shawl – Brother KH836e – dial tension 10, loose mast tension – Fresh From the Cauldron “Painting the Roses Red” graduated skein and
    Cloudborn Fibers Highland Superwash Sock Twist in Black
  • Lamp shade weaving – plain weave, 12 dent heddle, Cricket 10” loom – Knit Picks Stroll Hand-Painted “Train Station” tonal
  • Lanyard out of wool tablet weaving – tried sewing it together, which worked, but the ends were uneven and it was really bothering me. I cut that bit off and needle felted the join, which feels and looks much better.
  • Practice free motion quilting squares – done with all my practice squares. While my machine quilting is not the best, I definitely have a better handle on the free motion quilting foot and what designs I can get started with to build up those skills on actual quilts.

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
  • Watermelon from Skirted Fleece Mill – Ashford Kiwi – 3 ply fractal spin
  • 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 – I added the two borders to the quilt, cut out the batting, and sewed the backing piece. Nothing’s been basted together yet, but I’m hoping to get that sorted today.
  • 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.

Swatches

  • Fingering weight sweater blank sweater – KH836e – I’ve done all the calculations for this sweater, so I should be starting it soon and then I’m going to move on from this pattern for a while.

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Missing & Murdered – Nonfiction podcast about investigating missing and murdered indigenous people
  • Breakdances with Wolves – Nonfiction current events and discussion from Native Americans’ perspectives
  • Lake Clarity – Fiction horror podcast about a “haunted” summer camp
  • The Lost Cat – FIction horror podcast about a man looking for his cat
  • A Scottish Podcast – Fiction humor/horror podcast about a former radio host starting a paranormal investigative podcast
  • Aftershocks – Fiction horror podcast about a girl who has hallucinations as part of her schizoaffective disorder and is also being visited by ghosts
  • A New Winter – Fiction horror podcast about a series of weird murders in a small British village
  • Crossing Wires – Fiction podcast about people after the apocalypse told through snippets of radio signals
  • The Deep Vault – Fiction horror podcast about a secret bunker and the horrifying experiments performed within. This is by the folks who put on Archive 81, so warnings for graphic audio body horror
  • Jim Robbie and the Wanderers – Fiction, post apocalyptic podcast about the tales of two travelling musicians and a junk robot

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • The Last of the Jedi: A Tangled Web by Jude Watson

 

 

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Episode 58: Shop Hop and Other Tales

 

 

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

  • I-91 Shop Hop – 11 store yarn crawl in CT, MA, and VT
  • Hand Update – Saw a hand surgeon/specialist after not getting answers from the general ortho doctor. I have double jointed wrists which means that my carpals stretch more than the average. The carpals are loose and in certain positions (like hands flat out for typing), the carpals won’t stay precisely in place and will touch the nerve, causing irritation and inflammation. The doc said that if I didn’t work an office job and I had a job with more hand movement, I probably wouldn’t have exhibited symptoms.

FOs

  • Tuck Stitch Hat – LK 150 – Once Upon a Corgi “Snow Scout” held double – used mock rib at the same tension as the main body (dial 6) – Fits well, but still a smidge snug
  • Tuck Stitch Hat – LK 150 – Once Upon a Corgi “You Are In Fact In the Dark” held double – hung hem at the same tension as the main body (st st is narrower than tuck stitch) – best fitting out of the 3 hats I’ve made with this tuck stitch pattern
  • Ace Shawl – machine knitting shawl shapes project – Brother KH 836e –
    Zealana Performa KIWI Lace “Blue” – 3 balls
  • Scrap yarn dryer balls – Addi Express Professional – 20-24 rows, cinched at each end, stuffed with cut off yarn ends
  • Quilted dust covers for my knitting machines – scrap denim back, jelly roll tops
  • Last Son of Krypton scarf – 12 dent heddle, warped with fingering weight yarns with vertical stripes, weft is handspun that I called The Last Son of Krypton. Plain weave.
  • Scarfie Sweater Blank by Renee Callahan – Lion Brand Scarfie – LK150 tension 7 dial 8 – the size Large with the Medium sized neck size. – I really like the fit. I added 2” to the back for a high-low hem. Hung hem for the waist and cuffs, rolled hem for the neck. I tried this on and I really like how this fits. I’m definitely going to do one more of these in fingering weight.

WIPs

  • Granny Stripe Blanket by Lucy/Attic24 – I’ve done a little bit of crocheting! 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
  • Plain Weave Rectangular Pillow – 10” Schacht Cricket Loom – 12 dent heddle – warped at 108” – 2 seamed panels per side
  • Alpaca Obsession – Light Brown – drop spindle and Turkish spindle – Some had already been spun, but I don’t remember when I worked on this before
  • Brown Cormo Sweater Spin – a little bit of spinning here and there on Ashford Kiwi – finished a bobbin
  • Classy Squid Fiber Co – Star Fishing batt – long draw spinning on Ashford Kiwi – finished half a batt

Swatches

  • Brother KH 836e
    • Manual with hold button – short rows, slip, tuck, yo lace
    • Punch Card no 2 – slip and tuck
    • Punch Card no 2 – 2 color slip and tuck
    • Punch Card no 3d – fair isle and long fair isle
    • KR 850 ribber test swatch – rib, circular, u-shaped, english rib, and fisherman’s rib
    • Sport weight ribbing – A little too big for dial tension 8, which is the largest the ribber goes to. Ended up having to force the carriage
  • LK 150
    • New swatches for the handspun sweater

New Stuff

  • I-91 Shop Hop – 11 store yarn crawl in CT, MA, and VT
    • Shop hop bag and patterns
    • Village Wool – Glastonbury, CT
      • Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk Wool – 2 skeins black, 3 skeins grey
    • WEBS – Northampton, MA
      • Small boat shuttle
      • Harrisville Designs sport weight – 2 cones
    • Sheep & Shawl – South Deerfield, MA
      • Nazli Galen Garden 3 – 4 balls
      • 5 Year Celebration – stitch marker and tote bag
    • Green Mountain Spinnery – Putney, VT
      • Sock Art Lana – 2 skeins “Noche 8955”
    • Marji’s Yarncrafts
      • Wooden tag
  • Suzuki standard gauge garter bar for the Brother KH 836e
  • Bench for machine knitting

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Anthony Bourdain – Parts Unknown

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Our Fair City – Our Fair City is an online Audio Play/Podcast set in a future dystopian version of Hartford, CT. Following a climate-change-related disaster, humanity is now confined to subterranean cities. HartLife, an insurance company, now runs the lives of all “policies” in the city. Lightning rigs high above the city gather energy from thunderstorms, mad scientists walk the earth, and adorably monstrous Molepeople dig tunnels deep underground to expand the city’s habitable space. Framed as “true dramatizations of our city’s glorious history,” Our Fair City is equal parts camp, sci-fi horror, and folk tale. So listen, and remember. (TVtropes.org summary)
  • Freed – Freed is a radio-drama podcast detailing the ramifications a worldwide pandemic has on people and the world as a whole, told through bi-weekly updates from the cozy yet abandoned mountain town of Freed. Learn more about the town’s history, the fall of humanity, and how to help rebuild society. In the meantime, be safe. Be strong. Be alive.
  • Subject: Found – Subject: Found is a bi-weekly audio drama. Each new season will feature a new subject, a new story, a new monster. In Season 2, Janis Herring pursues the monster terrorizing Memphis, Tennessee, and the story will make her a legend.
  • The Walk – A thriller in which you, the listener, are the hero. The Walk begins in Inverness station, Scotland. Through a case of mistaken identity, you, “the walker,” are given a vital package that must be couriered to Edinburgh. But as you’re about to board the train, terrorists blow it up and set off an electromagnetic pulse! None of the cars or trains are working – you’ll have to walk – but now the terrorists are on your trail because they want the device you’re carrying, and the police are after you as a suspect in the bombing. To survive, you’ll have to join up with other escapees from the city – but how many of them can you trust, and are they really who they say they are?
  • Tunnels – The Tunnels is a serialized audiodrama about the mysterious tunnels that can be found underneath a small town in Georgia. What are they? What is their history? What are those mysterious sounds heard within them? Find out what’s just below the surface of the town, because if you look underneath, there is so much more.
  • Station to Station – A handful of fading memories, the remains of a research project, and a garbled tape recorder are all Dr Miranda Quan has to her name when her research partner goes missing on the eve of a 10-week ocean expedition. Now, she must try to find closure in the midst of a rapidly-unraveling conspiracy, surrounded by a handful of unlikely allies, several likely threats, and the icy waters of the North Pacific. Something sinister lurks in the heart of the research ship Astrid, and Miranda must rely on her wits to piece together an answer. Station to Station is an scifi-horror audio drama about loss, memory, morality, and what gets left behind.

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages by Saundra Mitchell
    • Take a journey through time and genres to discover stories where queer teens live, love and shape the world around them.Seventeen young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens.

      From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.

  • The Library of Elvish Lore by evansentranced
    • Harry is an elf. No, he’s not a bloody house elf. He lived in a place where they had got him confused with a house elf for nearly six years. They had him doing all the chores and he slept in a cupboard. Not a particularly cheerful cupboard, either. But he’s not a house elf. He’s a regular elf, thank you. Come on, people. It’s like you’re not wizards or something. PreHogwarts, NOT a creature fic. Character study.
    • There are 3 parts to this fic, pre Hogwarts, Hogwarts, and another fic during Hogwarts and it has the best kind of in-universe kid-logic I’ve ever seen in a fic featuring young Harry
  • Running on Air by eleventy7
    • Draco Malfoy has been missing for three years. Harry is assigned the cold case and finds himself slowly falling in love with the memories he collects.
    • Sort of a finding himself while searching for someone else fic.
  • Hermione Granger’s Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run by waspabi
    • ‘You’re a wizard, Harry’ is easier to hear from a half-giant when you’re eleven, rather than from some kids on a tube platform when you’re seventeen and late for work.
    • An excellent alternate Year 7 where Harry never attended Hogwarts and learns about the magical world while dodging Death Eaters with some of the DA crew and Draco Malfoy while teaching these witches and wizards street smarts in the Muggle world

 

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Episode 57: Learning Experiences

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
  • Podcast Schedule – The past few episodes have been monthly, so I’m going to switch to a monthly schedule instead of a fortnightly schedule for a while. That puts less pressure on me to have content to talk about, especially since the crafting I am doing right now involves more planning that the crafting I was doing before my hand injuries.

 

Life Stuff

  • Hand Update – I’ve started occupational therapy for my hands, which right now is mostly nerve stretches and hand strengthening exercises. It has helped slow down the pain and has allowed me to do a little more hand-activity, but I’m still feeling pain in general. I’m meeting with my orthopedic doctor again this week, but if that doesn’t amount to anything, I’ll be setting up an appointment with a hand surgeon/specialist at the recommendation of my occupational therapist.

 

FOs

  • Sample Tablet Weaving Band from Card Weaving by Candace Crockett – 2 smooth yarns (Nothbound Knitting “Lichen” and Gnome Acres “Milk”) and 1 grippy yarn (Knit Picks Pallette Black)
  • Tramontane Sweater by Amy Herzog – handspun and Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk Wool – Silver Reed LK 150 – Done! But…
  • Cowl neck poncho from schematics by Bren Boone (snerbyarn) – Leftover DK weight yarns from my 2017 Western CT Yarn Crawl Sweater plus Dyenamixx Yarns “The Peculiar Miss Peregrine” – tension rod 7, dial 5 – all stockinette and seamed on the machine
  • Tuck Stitch Hat – LK150 tension 7 dial 6 – A Hundred Ravens Epona “Draco”
  • ½ & ½ Triangle Shawl – LK 150 Dial 8, tension rod 7 – Worsted Weight – Knitologie “Groovy” and Plymouth Galway Worsted in Black – part of the shawl shapes design project

 

WIPs

  • Last Son of Krypton scarf – 12 dent heddle, warped with fingering weight yarns with vertical stripes, weft is handspun that I called The Last Son of Krypton. Plain weave.
  • Quilted scrap strips – Leftover bits of batting and short strips sewn together
  • Granny Stripe Blanket by Lucy/Attic24 – I’ve done a little bit of crocheting! Size G/4.25mm hook marling Knit Picks Stroll Fingering in Black with a magic ball of Legacy Fiber Artz minis
  • Scarfie Sweater Blank by Renee Callahan – Lion Brand Scarfie – LK150 tension 7 dial 8 – swatched for gauge and am nearly done with the math to put this together. Doing the size Large with the Medium sized neck size.
  • Quilted dust covers for my knitting machines
    • Project inspiration from about 6 tote bags that I’d made years ago that have been sitting in the trunk of my car for years. I’d made them out of scrap denim and t-shirts, but since tote bags are the easiest thing to come by, these ones haven’t been used in a very long time. I cut them apart and recovered the denim to use as a backing for the dust covers. The denim is hardwearing and since all the pieces are from worn out jeans, it’s a great fabric to hold up to use and possibly get stained by any oils or lubricants I will use on these machines.
    • Used the “jelly roll race quilt” technique for the top, which is to sew strips together, fold the super long strip in half, seam, and repeat. Only did this 2 or 3 times to get the right size, depending on the strip width.
    • Quilted top onto scrap batting using walking foot.
  • Star Wars Aurebesh Sampler Pattern by Adleones
  • Free motion quilting practice squares

 

Swatches

  • Preliminary swatch for the Brother KH 836e
  • Fabric swatches from Fabric.com

 

New Stuff

  • Tilt stand for the Brother machine!
  • Must Stash Yarn – The Last Jedi and Lando

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Jessica Jones – Season 2
  • Deadpool 2
  • Solo

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Dark Force Rising (Book 2 of the Thrawn Trilogy) by Timothy Zahn narr by Marc Thompson
  • The Last Command (Book 3 of the Thrawn Trilogy) by Timothy Zahn narr by Marc Thompson
  • Tanis – In the first episode of Tanis, our host, Nic Silver, wonders if the Internet age might contain one last great mystery, an ancient myth known as “Tanis.” His exploration into the enigmatic Tanis begins by asking the seemingly simple question, what is it? The answers, he soon discovers, are far more complicated.
  • The Last Movie – Tanis podcast host Nic Silver and regular contributor MK, explore the possible existence of “The Last Movie,” an infamous underground feature film, reputed to drive you insane. Legend has it that every screening of this film was surrounded by bloodshed and controversy: one reviewer actually described slipping on blood in the aisle, as he ran through dozens of people trying to tear him apart.
  • Rabbits – When Carly Parker’s friend Yumiko goes missing under very mysterious circumstances, Carly’s search for her friend leads her headfirst into a ancient mysterious game known only as Rabbits. Soon Carly begins to suspect that Rabbits is much more than just a game, and that the key to understanding Rabbits, might be the key to the survival of our species, and the Universe, as we know it.
  • Mars Corp – MarsCorp is a 12-part scripted comedy podcast about Station Supervisor E.L. Hob’s first year at MarsCorp, a terraforming colony established on the red planet in 2070.
  • Girl in Space – Abandoned on a dying ship in the farthest reaches of known space, a young scientist fights for survival (and patience with the on-board A.I.). Who is she? No one knows. But a lot of dangerous entities really want to find out.Listen biweekly as the story unfolds for science, guns, trust, anti-matter, truth, beauty, inner turmoil, and delicious cheeses.It’s all here. In space.
  • Marsfall – Marsfall follows some of the earliest colonists to settle on Mars in the year 2047, and each episode continues the story from a different character’s perspective. Led by their fearless commander Jacki O’Rania, and assisted by the colonial artificial intelligence unit ANDI, they strive to make a home on the Red Planet while exploring its deeper mysteries. Balancing tension and humor, this sci-fi audio drama reinvents the radio play for the twenty-first century.

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • Humans Wanted ed. Vivian Caethe
    • Humans are tough. Humans can last days without food. Humans heal so quickly, they pierce holes in themselves or inject ink under their epidermis for fun. Humans will walk for days on broken bones in order to make it to safety. Humans will literally cut off bits of themselves if trapped by a disaster. You would be amazed what humans will do to survive. Or to ensure the survival of others they feel responsible for. That’s the other thing. Humans pack-bond, and they spill their pack-bonding instincts everywhere. Sure it’s weird when they talk sympathetically to broken spaceships or try to pet every lifeform that scans as non-toxic. It’s even a little weird that just existing in the same place as them for long enough seems to make them care about you. But if you’re hurt, if you’re trapped, if you need someone to fetch help? You really want a human. Twelve authors provide their perspectives on human ingenuity and usefulness as we try to find our place among the stars. From battletested to brokenhearted, humans are capable of amazing things. Humans Wanted shows not only what we are, but how awesome we can be.
  • Ashlesha by Jer Keene (reread)
  • From Ashes by Caedes12
    • When Draco comes back for eighth year, he starts an unexpected friendship with Hermione Granger. Between his new friendship and his parents kicking him out of the house, Draco’s life starts down a new path.
  • Secrets by Vorabiza (Biza)
    • Beginning with Draco’s unexpected arrival at the Dursleys, Harry’s summer after sixth year becomes filled with activity and many secrets. As his summer progresses, Harry generates several unexpected allies as he finds himself actively becoming the leader of the Light side. H/D post-HBP ~~Complete~~

 

 

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Episode 56: FOs and Nearly FOs

 

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

  • Temporary Boss – I had about a week and a half of no energy to do crafty stuff after work because my supervisor was on vacation and, despite the fact that I am not in the Team Lead position, they make me play backup for when she’s out. I don’t mind it for a few days, but there’s always stuff that builds up in stress and intensity as people try to pile things on before she gets back.
  • The Wadsworth Atheneum – Gabby, her friend Margaret, and I skipped over to the Wadsworth Atheneum (4/15/18) to check out Gorey’s World – an Edward Gorey exhibit – before it left Hartford. We joined a tour of some other artwork when we got there, missed the beginning so I don’t know the theme, but we saw and discussed 3 pieces of art – 1 sculpture and 2 paintings. We then took a wander through the Cabinet of Art and Curiosity, which is a really neat room to poke around in. Then we went upstairs to the Gorey’s World exhibit, which was really cool. There were pieces of his artwork, some animation of his playing on a screen, art that Gorey collected, and these really cool posed fur coats that Gorey owned that were suspended at the start and end of the exhibit.
  • CT Sheep and Wool – This is a brilliant little show. There aren’t many booths, but every booth is quality. I didn’t buy any yarn, but I did collect a couple of business cards to investigate later.
    • Twist of Fate Spinnery – A local CT mill. I was interested in some of their yarns, but I need to finish some sweaters before making a purchase from them. I also may inquire if I can buy coned yarn from them instead of skeins, which would be brilliant for the knitting machine.
    • Prado de Lana Sheep Farm – Definitely interested in buying a sweater’s quantity from this farm, but that will be an investment. They’re a farm in Vermont and their booth was really well set up. They had cubbies and each cubby was labeled with information about the single sheep that the yarn came from. The yarn in each cubby came from a single sheep, which is brilliant if you’re aiming to buy something like a sweater quantity.
    • Flatland Alpacas – I think they had more than one booth, but the only purchase I made was from their indigo dyed shibori booth. I bought a set of napkins, but everything in that booth was stunning.
  • International Tabletop Day – Went to a tabletop party with friends and played board games.
    • Codenames – team game, getting your partner to guess the right cards on the board with word association
    • Joking Hazard – NSFW card game from Cyanide and Happiness, players take turns being the judge, complete a 3 panel comic with cards from your hand
    • Red Flag – card game, players take turns as a single person and all the other players have to create a date for the single person with good cards from their hand and sabotage the player next to them with red flag cards
    • Wits and Wagers – trivia game, a question is asked with a numerical answer, each player writes down a guess and then players bet on which guess is closest to the actual answer

 

FOs

  • Scrap yarn pillow covers – Plain weave on the 10” cricket rigid heddle loom with a 12 dent reed – fingering weight yarns.
    • Two rectangular panels sewn together, the seam pressed open, and stitched down. Traced a circle from the pillow form on each panel and then out of backing fabric – blue dyed plaid.
    • I was going to put a zipper in the pillow cover so that it could be removed, but that didn’t work out, so the pillow covers are sewn shut.
    • Had to unstuff the pillow forms a bit. I’m pretty sure I overstuffed them for a previous project. I used the extra stuffing and two square panels of the blue plaid fabric to create a third pillow.
  • Winter Wall quilt from The Weekend Quilter- pieced with scrap clothing fabric and quilting cotton, border is an old fitted sheet from my old bed, back is two pieces of the black destash cotton seamed up the middle, quilt sandwich basted with both spray baste and pins, tied with 3 strands of embroidery floss, flanged binding with the black cotton and some of the blue fabric I dyed

 

WIPs

  • Tramontane Sweater by Amy Herzog – handspun and Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk Wool – Silver Reed LK 150 – Finished the second sleeve, seamed the shoulder seams, neckband is done, just need to seam the arms and body
  • Last Son of Krypton scarf – 12 dent heddle, warped with fingering weight yarns with vertical stripes, weft is handspun that I called The Last Son of Krypton. Plain weave.

 

Swatches

  • Multi Swatch – hung hem, alternating tuck stitch pattern, tuck rib, slip stitch pattern on one side for possible roll control (which is not great), slip stitch patterns, knit on border every other row, knit on border every row
  • Knit Weave Swatch
  • Swatching for next sweater – 3 swatches – Lion Brand Scarfie

 

New Stuff

  • KR 850e ribber assembly for my Brother KH 836e knitting machine – there are two pretty important pieces missing, but I contacted the seller and they found replacements and are sending them to me

 

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Playing:

  • Daymare Town series – point and click game (kind of escape the town?) and the game is completely done in line drawings. I bought the whole collection for $14.00, which is eight games. They’re pretty brilliantly creepy.

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Pacific Rim Uprising – awesome
  • Avengers: Infinity Wars – shocking, don’t think I’ll know how I feel about the results until a few more movies into the Marvel universe
  • Season 2 of Jessica Jones on Netflix

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Heir to the Empire (Book 1 of the Thrawn Trilogy) by Timothy Zahn narr by Marc Thompson
  • The White Vault – Explore the far reaches of the world’s horrors in the audio drama podcast The White Vault. Follow the collected records of a repair team sent to Outpost Fristed in the vast white wastes of the Arctic Circle and unravel what lies waiting in the ice below.

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • The Red Past by Toruviel
    • Hanging below the Cloud City, in shock and pain, abandoned by friends dead and alive alike, Luke Skywalker knew better than to ask for help for the third time. He begged for understanding instead.The Force heard.
    • It’s a very compelling fic. This is Luke at his most hurt and angry thrust into the days of the Republic at the height of its corruption and hypocrisy before the war. Anakin’s a young teenager at this time and they haven’t had much interaction yet, but Outer Rim farmer turned Rebel!Luke spends a lot of time criticizing the Jedi Order and the Jedi Council in particular for their lack of compassion and their willingness to turn a blind eye to suffering on the whim of the Senate.
  • Identity series by madame_alexandra
    • A distress signal reaches Coruscant after the Empire’s demise, claiming to be the beacon of Bail Organa. what would the reappearance of Leia’s adoptive father mean for her life in a post ROTJ context. What would he think of Han Solo, and what could he tell her about the dark shadow of her heritage?
    • AU where a ship from Alderaan is trapped in a weird space-time field caused by Alderaan’s destruction, which included Bail Organa, Winter Celchu (Leia’s sister), and one of Leia’s aunts. Leia’s just coming to terms with what her life might mean now that a Republic is forming after the Empire and suddenly she has to come to terms with this influx of Alderaanian survivors and deal with several familial relationships that she was in the process of grieving.
    • Just a warning, the last fic in this series mainly centers around a pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage. It’s not necessary to read that fic, if that’s something that you avoid in fiction.
  • Dominoes by meridianpony
    • “So. We died.” Hevy’s voice is flat.
      “Yes, we died,” Fives confirms. Even though his hands are steady on Echo’s shoulders, his voice trembles. “We all… remember?”
      Everyone nods. Droidbait shudders, and shuffles closer to Cutup.
      “How is that possible?” he mutters. “We’re not Jedi. We can’t… see the kriffing future, or whatever it was. We can’t—it’s just not possible. How could we all have had the same dream?”Domino squad wakes up to find themselves back on Kamino, hours from taking their final test… except they remember passing the final test, and they each remember dying afterwards.
    • This is brilliant and I’m really looking forward to more. I mean, Star Wars time travel is my jam, but this particular squad going back in time is really fascinating, since three of them died very early on in their deployment.

 

 

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Episode 55: It’s been a bit…

 

 

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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Episode 54: Dyeing and Shawl Shapes

 

Filmed on Saturday March 3, 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

  • Weather – It’s been weird. Alternating between super warm and seasonably cold. Yesterday we had a nor’easter, which usually results in pretty good snowfall, but it’s been too warm so it was just really heavy winds and rain.
  • Slow Down – I’ve mentioned it before on this podcast that I’m trying to slow down so as not to over-exert my hands. I’ve always been the type of person to overdo things, which is why I hurt my hands last year in the first place. So I’ve been making a conscious effort to just slow down a bit – with making, with work, wherever I can.
    • Spread out the crafting. Put feelers out into new types of craft or new aspects of crafts I already dabble in. I’m further developing an interest in weaving and sewing. I’m doing a lot of planning and exploring with machine knitting.
    • Read more. Write more. I’m always thinking to myself, I wish I did more reading. I grew up doing a lot of reading and writing. I’ve been doing a little more of both while trying to spread out the crafting a bit.
    • Sleep more. I’m tired of being tired all time.
      • Avoid using overhead lights after dinner
      • Read for 15-ish minutes before bed (book or Kindle)
      • Aim to be ready for bed at about 9 pm
        • Note: I do find myself waking up for a bit in the middle of the night, but it’s super easy for me to fall back asleep.

FOs

  • Woven Sample Scarf – warped black and white with stripes on the ends (Cloudborn fingering weight in black and “Milk” from GnomeAcres Milk and Cookies skein set) – woven with approx 8” color blocks of Once Upon a Corgi yarns – twisted fringe

WIPs

  • Winter Wall quilt from The Weekend Quilter- started assembling the rows
  • Tramontane Sweater by Amy Herzog – handspun and Classic Elite Yarns Mohawk Wool
  • Color block weaving project – sewing the panels together

Dye Adventures

  • Dharma Trading Co Procion Dyes – for plant based materials, like cotton, linen
  • Bought primary colors and black
  • Fabric To Dye For: Create 72 Hand-Dyed Colors for Your Stash, 5 Fused Quilt Projects by Frieda Anderson
  • Overdyed cotton/cotton blend fabrics from my stash, many of them from my grandma that somehow made their way into my stash

WIP Round Up

  • Rice Fields by Elzbieta Torenc – Legacy Fiber Artz Hocus Pocus colorways and Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light for Black – Frog to use for my machine knit shawl shapes design project – 3 wedge shape shawl
  • Marled Magic Shawl by Stephen West – Scrap yarns – Frog to use for my machine knit shawl shapes design project – short row wedge semi-circle
  • Akiko by Regina Moessmer – Lion Brand Scarfie – Not sure what I’m doing with this yet, but having it on the needles is stressing me out, so what I’ll likely do (once I have some free time on the machine) is frog it and do a real simple drop shoulder pullover with rolled hems on the sleeves and neck, maybe an applied border and a split hem on the bottom. This is project was meant to be a simple, comfy sweater and it doesn’t need to wait on my hands to become that
  • Jyn Erso Vanilla Socks – Must Stash Yarns self striping – Leaving them for now, but I’m pretty sure once I cave into my brain and buy a CSM and practice, this will be frogged, washed, and machine knit. It’s just a vanilla sock and it’s not stressing me out, but I want to play with a CSM so much and I love self -striping vanilla socks, so it’s just a likely outcome once I shell out the dollars for the machine.
  • Dwarven Mittens by Ginger Monkey Knits – Plymouth Homestead Tweed – these only need thumbs, so I’m probably just going to make Gabby finish these for me next time she’s up here because it’ll take her 10 minutes
  • Granny Stripes by Lucy of Attic24 – I’m gonna let this one sit. I’m used to leaving crochet projects for ages. If it turns out I want to use these scraps for other things, I’ll just grab them.
  • memory blanket by Georgie Nicolson – I’m also going to let this one sit. I want the finished object, but just having the giant tote of minis in here is stressing me out, so I’m going to move the blanket and associated tools to a smaller bag to tuck away and take that tote of minis to do a Pinwheel Scrap Blanket by Mina Philipp, which I think can be easily adapted to the machine as a stockinette project instead of garter
  • Scrap Acrylic Granny Squares – I counted them up and I have enough of them to make a rectangle with a pleasing ratio, but it rectangle itself is not big enough. So, I’m going to get some practice in with my garter bars and do garter log cabin borders on these granny squares

Shawl Shapes Design

  • Asymmetrical Shawl – (like the Halloween one) maybe with a cable – Zealana Performa KIWI Lace
  • Half & Half Triangle Shawl – (triangular shawl made by seaming two pieces together)
    • Fresh From the Cauldron – Painting the Roses Red and Valyrian
    • Knitologie – Groovy
  • End to End Triangle Shawl
    • Fresh From the Cauldron – Radioactive & Knit Picks Palette Fingering Black (intarsia)
    • Tentatively – some brown Cascade Eco wool I have
  • Three Piece Shawl
    • JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18 – Blue for the 3 pieces and grey for the knit on border
    • Legacy Fiber Artz and Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light Black
  • Semi-Circle Wedge Shawl
    • Scrap fingering-ish weight held double for marling
    • ???

New Stuff

  • Strauch Jumbo Ball Winder
  • Card Weaving by Candace Crockett
  • Small weaving shuttle from WindhavenFiberTools
  • (coming) Card weaving cards from FolkTalesPI
  • Knitting Pattern Essentials (with Bonus Material): Adapting and Drafting Knitting Patterns for Great Knitwear by Sally Melville

Other Stuff

Stuff I’m Watching:

  • Black Panther
  • Frontier

Stuff I’m Listening To:

  • Relistened to Star Wars Clone Wars: Wild Space by Karen Miller narr by Jeff Gurner

Stuff I’m Reading:

  • The Last of the Jedi #5 – The Tangled Web by Jude Watson
  • Dreams from the Witch House short story collection
  • Fanfic~~~
    • Home We’ll Go by appalachian_fireflies
      • “I can’t, I don’t know how,” Remus stuttered as Molly dropped the infant into his arms, who immediately ceased crying and stared up at him with wide eyes.”Nonsense,” Molly said. “Be a dear and keep him from falling while I feed Ginny.”

        “Ba!” Ron giggled, and slapped Remus in the face.

        Molly is the emergency contact for the Order when those listed can no longer be reached. Remus’ life finds a different path.

      • Awesome look at Remus’ life after the Potters’ deaths, the Weasleys being amazing, and Molly’s intervention in Remus’ self-destruct spiral causes events to go differently.
    • Simple by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
      • Obi-Wan Kenobi saved Qui-Gon that day in the Theed Generator Complex—But it came at a terrible price.
      • Obi-Wan Kenobi used Force Healing on Qui-Gon, but he’s not a Healer and it was beyond his skill. He ended up causing himself irreparable brain damage while doing so. He can speak short sentences, dress himself, still commune with the force, can still perform physical tasks well, but his brain can’t always make the connections in complex ways. He can’t always make eye contact with you. He can’t always be around people who are feeling strong negative emotions because he no longer has the capacity to shield that part of his mind.
      • This is an incredible fic. It deals with Obi-Wan’s coping with his injury, Qui-Gon’s inability to accept the changes in his former apprentice, Anakin’s steadfast defence of a friend that people don’t understand, and how other characters in the Temple help Obi-Wan when he needs it.
      • WARNING: This fic has a sad ending. While changes happen to the Star Wars universe because of Obi-Wan’s injury, Palpatine’s plotting is still in place and similar events to the movies still unfold.
    • Who Are You? By I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
      • Obi-Wan insists he knows what the hell is going on. The only problem is… none of it matches.And Anakin’s just as sure he’s wrong. Nope. More sure.
      • Amnesia-fic. Something happens to Obi-Wan and he loses his memories of growing up. He thinks he’s thirteen and he’s scared – of the Clone Wars, of Anakin, of what is happening to the Jedi. There’s a bittersweet ending to this fic, but it slots neatly into the established story-line, so it’s not really an AU.
    • Declarations by Nny11, White_Ithiliel
      • A series exploring Obi-Wan and Ahsoka’s relationship as Grandmaster and Grandpadawan.
      • Does what it says on the tin. Gen-fic. We don’t get to see much interaction in Jedi student-teacher lineages, so this is really nice. Ongoing.
    • A Brother Is Born For Adversity by tb_ll57
      • A series following Remus Lupin over four phases and relationships: spying on Fenrir Greyback and the werewolves in the first war against Voldemort’s forces; a chance reunion with Severus Snape in Paris five years after the war, where all is not as it seems; learning how to like each other again with Sirius after teaching Harry’s third year at Hogwarts; and back again to werewolves, this time with Bill Weasley hostage to Voldemort’s agenda. Features the origins of the Order of the Phoenix, hitting rock bottom repeatedly and still trudging into work the next day, ambigious mentoring from Albus Dumbledore, and learning to live with the monster inside.
      • The last part of this series is unfinished, but there’s a lot of great writing here to really get into.

 

 

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