RS works on some striped vanilla socks. Sleeves are done and pieces are sewn together on her Sashiko Cardigan. TK is knitting the Fibonerdy Shawl. The Color Affection Shawl is everywhere. TK is making more buttons with vintage fabric and turning them into rings. Very pretty!
Brainy Moments (10:12)
“Jogless stripes” blog post from Tech Knitter. RS is using Traveling Jogless Stripes for socks. TK makes a container for holding needle files out of a glass jar, a piece of crochet fabric, and a plastic drain to keep tools handy and organized.
Shiny! (17:37)
RS shows a few of the different skeins of 2,000 yards of organic heathered gray bulky wool yarn for a future blanket. One of the blanket patterns RS is considering is the Knitted Garter Stitch Blanket by Elizabeth Zimmerman and she mentions Umaro. TK went crazy at the craft store and returned with skull beads and little black felt hats. We mention Lolita style.
Books to Stick Your Nose In (27:55)
TK continues reading the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.
I Spy! (28:21)
RS went to the beach and saw a sea lion swimming in the surf, an invertebrate (probably some kind of snail), a large black fish, and a snowy egret. The Oak Titmice are the ones that make the “tweetweetweetweetwee.” TK saw great blue herons nesting in palms, a flyby pheobe, squirrels, house sparrows, a red tail hawk, hummingbirds, and lots of pill bugs.
RS gets her walks in, including walking to work, but no yoga. TK got her four walks in AND is working out while volunteering in the garden!
Random Remnants (41:10)
RS relates a story about teaching loud and soft to first graders and students relating to the material through monster trucks. TK discovers some new cds in a car junkyard. Score! TK makes her own Ravelry “Hello My Name is” button. We make a vow to go to Stitches someday. TK shares her Kiwi Monocle.
TinyKiwi works more on her Fibonerdy Shawl, and despairs of getting it finished by the end of the month.
TK tries out a scrapbooker’s glue on her potion jar earring stoppers. Hopefully it works!
She then also shows off some of her patterned fabric stash, most of which was originally intended for purses, but TK’s trying to get ridof purses, not make more…so she’s trying to think of something else to do with the fabric.
Rambunctiousky makes good progress on her Sashiko Cardi! Sleeves are cast off, but yarn isn’t cut until they get blocked to make sure that they fit. If not, math may be in her future!
RS also works on a washcloth! The ubiquitous washcloth…
As follow-up from last week, there is also progress on her kiwi cross-stitch bookmark–it’s over half-done now, although RS now remembers that cross-stitch always takes longer than one thinks it will, and fights her need to make her stitches perfect. Sneaky cross-stitch!
TK has one small finished object this week, which is kind of a continuation of last week…but we’ll let her get away with it. She took the shank-less button she made from her grandpa’s shirt fabric scraps, and hot-glued an adjustable ring shank to the back of it. Voila! Instant vintage fabric ring.
Brainy Moments (16:23)
RS talks about wet blocking vs. steam blocking, and shares a link that she’s found useful to a video on youtube about steam blocking your knits. She’s going to use steam blocking for piecing together the parts of her sweater.
Shiny! (20:14)
TK gets new potions jars, including some weird…memory capsules? She’s not quite sure what to do with those guys, so if you have ideas or a link to a pinterest idea, do share!
RS shares the tip that using wool for stranded knitting is better, ’cause the scales of the wool fiber help keep things in their proper places, but as TK’s weaving in as she goes, this property is not as important.
Hyperventilate (29:25)
Murder She Wrote TV series with actress Angela Lansbury. RS talks about episode 2.5 “Sing a Song of Murder.”
Books to Stick Your Nose In (31:50)
TK reads the 5th book in the Mercy Thompson series, called Silver Borne, by Patricia Briggs.
She also reviews One Yard Wonders by Yaker and Hoskins, and shares the errata for the book (of which there’s a lot!) This book has so many mistakes that it’s really better as an idea book, more than a pattern book.
TK also shares the tidbit that interfacing is best when washed, as well as shares a link on the importance of washing (certain kinds) of interfacing, from the sewing blog Male Pattern Boldness. She also talks about pre-shrinking your interfacing by steaming it with the iron (like when you steam block) to keep it from being bubbly when you attach it to your pattern fabric.
Here’s a link to the Japanese book of simple bag patterns that TK talks about: (基礎からていねいに) 手づくりバッグレッスン “From the ground up, handmade bag lessons” with it’s lovely pictorial instructions. ❤
RS requests a WIP bag that’d hold two sweaters. TK may comply or might get lazy! There’s a 50/50 chance!
I Spy! (44:12)
TK hears a Flicker/Woodpecker, and sees a Kestrel, House Sparrows, Hummingbirds and some Red Tailed Hawks having a disagreement of sorts.
RS lures in Juncos and a mystery bird…perhaps a Towhee?
Ear Party (50:02)
TK recommends the CD “Dark of Days” by Bourbon Princess, a sort of lo-fi slowed down alt-rock/funk/jazzy group that’s kind of hard to pin to a genre. The lead singer Monique Ortiz has a deep smokey voice and plays the bass, with saxophone, drums and guitar filling up the rest of the sound. TK usually feels sax makes a piece sound very dated, and that it’s often an overpowering sound, but for some reason I dig it in Bourbon Princess (and Morphine.)
She’s also been listening to Fitz and the Tantrums’ “Out of My League”
RS is still digging on Kasey Musgraves, (not Musgrove as we thought last week! Sorry Kasey!) We worry a little about the hyper-sexualization in her videos, but without knowing the intention, we try to avoid passing judgement.
TK falls short of her goals, with only 3 sessions this week, but as she busted her buns gardening on Tuesday, she’s not really sweating missing the mark a little.
RS gets her two walks and a (questionable) yoga session in!
Random Remnants (59:31)
We start tangenting talking about yoga, and the benefits of doing something aerobic in a class, as it forces you to work harder for longer in a way you don’t on your own.
TK expresses her disappointment that the fabric paint she got is just Puffy Paint in disguise. She’s still searching for an easy way to do something similar to silk-screening.
TK also talks more about the iron-on letters from a different episode, and her trepidation with working with them, but thankfully she found a tutorial, so hopefully she’ll get working with them soon.
RS makes cream-puffs and dreams of her own chef knives! She tries to convince TK to do a knife-sharpening demo…which really just depends on whether or not TK remembers!
And that’s all for this week, folks! Thanks for watchin’/listenin’!
Projects of the Moment: WIPs Progress Report (0:50)
RambunctiouSky makes significant progress on her Sashiko Cardi–Look at all that progress–fronts and backs done! Now it’s time for two-at-a-time sleeves!
RS mentions The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd, although she couldn’t remember it’s name, so here’s the link!
She’s also working on an owl plushie but needs to make some felt eyes, so it’s sitting on the WIPs shelf for now.
TinyKiwi reaches the 50% mark for the row count on her Fibonerdy Shawl! She shows her progress on the octopus knee-warmers, but admits they may not get done… her enthusiasm for this project is waning. She also finally breaks down and uses her fabric button maker, and starts making little Harry Potter-inspired potions jar charms. RS wants some!
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s FOs! (15:12)
TK counts her one button as a finished object, in her desperation to showcase something finished. 😛
Shiny! (18:01)
RS got her yarn that she bought from a destash! Show-and-tell time!
Books to Stick Your Nose In (with Brainy Moment Tangent!) (21:24)
TK’s button book that she shows off: 手づくりくるみボタンの本which is full of cute ideas for embroidered, painted and crocheted fabric buttons. We both geek out a little bit. Stay tuned next week to see what TK ends up making out of this book.
We discuss “best” ways to attach buttons to knit fabric. Our consensus is to use a backing button, but if you have any other ideas, we’d love to hear them!
I Spy! (35:30)
TK sees Crows & Hummingbirds, hears Mockingbirds, and sees Ash trees in need of some TLC/pruning.
RS isn’t a fan of meadows, but sees some cool ….
INSECT/SPIDER WARNING! Skip to time stamp (39:48) if you can’t stand that kinda talk, and skip the rest of this paragraph. Ok…so she saw some cool brown spiders all along the side of the path in their in-ground lairs. So cool!
Phew! It’s safe now! Never let it be said that we don’t care about you, dear listeners! ❤
RS also sees something that she thinks is a Junco, but isn’t entirely sure.
Then TK talks about Slavic Soul Party, with their version of Opa Cupa (or Opa Tsupa) being a favorite of TK’s (although the female vocalist isn’t part of the band,) and Gogol Bordello…for which TK gave up finding a song of theirs with G-rated lyrics (they have some, but they’re not easy to find on the YouTubes), so she recommends the very NSFW Huliganjetta, which although it’s a great song, comes with a very strong language warning. Advisory! It’s got a couple of curse words.
RS finds a new podcast through the Knitmore Girls, called Geeky Girls Knit Podcast, which is also another mother-daughter podcast. We can dig it!
Walks in the Urban Wilderness (52:38)
TK hit within her flex goal (4-7), with 5 walks this week, while RS met her goal of 2, and adds one yoga session to her weekly goal.
Random Remnants (54:49)
Then we’re back to slightly bad video/sound for a bit as TK rambles on about sewing some new pillowcases, maybe for the Headmistress’ Challenge??
RS talks about her new vegetarian cooking class. Different teaching styles, ftw? Ftw!
Sisters Of The Holy Fiber 