Sisters of the Holy Fiber -Episode 15- Life is Full of WIPs

Sisters of the Holy Fiber Episode 15 <Click here to listen to audio only!

Projects of the Moment: WIPs Report (0:37)

TinyKiwi works on one of her longest long-term WIPs–a colorwork crocheted shell scarf!  RambunctiouSky tries to convince her to make it into a cowl. TK also makes a smidge of progress on the stained-glass “swatch” (actaully wristers) she’s making based on the  Tracery Vest out of the Unofficial Harry Potter Knits Magazine.

RS makes the ever-exciting washcloths! (Hey! Somebody’s got to!)

We talk break month, more O.W.L. plotting, the Hedwig Memorial Society in Slytherin, and other things to do with the craziness in the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup on Ravelry.

SPOILER ALERT at (7:20) as we discuss some of who dies, on the very off chance you haven’t read the 6th or 7th Harry Potter books (or movies.)

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Finished Objects! (9:30)

TK finishes a small shuttle-tatted flower.

Brainy Moments (13:34)

RS talks about how the border for the Evenstar Shawl requires more of the color that’s to be used for the border section and The Unique Sheep makes it so!

TK plots to give a beginning tatting demo, but hasn’t figured out how to make it happen yet.

Shiny (15:55)

RS shows off her new hand-dyed 50% silk 50% merino gradient yarn in the Winter Wonderland colorway from the aforementioned Unique Sheep (we don’t get paid for this name dropping, people!) which she bought with the Evenstar Shawl pattern, as the yarn is one of the recommended choices listed in the pattern page.  RS talks about how the Evenstar Shawl is gigantic and needs a lot of heavy blocking, so the yarn choice for the pattern has to hold up to that need and if you decide you want to substitute your own yarn, keep that in mind.

Books to Stick Your Nose In (20:50)

Reads a smidge more of Orphan Train by Christina Baker, and re-reads The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Oh noes! It’s true! TK is an unashamed Shakespeare fan, and is probably one of the only people in her age group who can spell Shakespeare right on the first try. MacBeth has been her favorite ever since she was a wee child (she was a strange child.)  She also talks a little bit about the 75 Floral Blocks to Crochet by Betty Barnden that she’s talked about before.

RS reads Singing Games for Children by Denise Gagné, and sings a song game from it!

I Spy (28:16)

RS sees llamas in someone’s backyard while she was hiking.  We squee.
TK only sees the neighbor’s cat.

Ear Party (29:15)

TK listens to some EDM Trap by Baauer, notably Swerve, and gives a very brief overview on her understanding of the differences between Trap (Rap) and Trap (EDM/Electronic Dance Music) as genres of music.

RS listens to Meshell Ndegeocello (Sorry we butcher your beautiful name Meshell! which Wikipedia tells us is pronounced N-deh-gay-o-chel-o), and RS is listening to the album Weather

Walks in the Urban Wilderness (32:52)

TK gets her 9-5 gardening work-out in on Tuesday, and one extra session of gardening in, but has otherwise missed her exercise goals.

RS wanted to walk or bike to work more than she rode in the car to work, but that didn’t quite happen this week, but she still biked and walked and biked again, so she’s still doing great!

Random Remnants (A bit before 36:35)

RS and her S.O. sign up for CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box and talks about what that is and how they’re using it.  They’re loving it, so tune in to find out more about it!

We talk again about fresh food. (Sorry we talk about it so much! We can’t help it! Apparently we just love fresh food!)  Then we talk about freezing bread to extend the shelf-life, especially for preservative-free breads.

Sisters of the Holy Fiber – Episode 11 – Kiwi Monocle

Sisters of the Holy Fiber Episode 11 <Click here to listen to audio only.

Projects of the Moment: WIPs Progress Report

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.

Ear Party (33:29)

TK listens to the blues with Billy Holiday singing Pennies from Heaven and Ma Rainey.

Walks in the Urban Wilderness (36:21)

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.

Sisters of the Holy Fiber – Episode 10 – I Learneded It Good

Sisters of the Holy Fiber Episode 10<Click Here to Listen to Audio Only

Projects of the Moment: WIPs Progress Report

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 rid of 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!

RS finally casts on socks for her partner Terri in Knit Picks Stroll. Cast on one cuff. We mention Terri’s previous socks in the Herringbone pattern from Around the World in Knitted Socks by Stephanie van der Linden.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s FOs! (12:34)

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!

She also gets  more “cotton crochet thread” to finish up some wristers/wrist-warmers based on a section of the Tracery vest pattern by Kathleen Sperling out of the Unofficial Harry Potter Knits magazine

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.

RS is a sneaky teacher using “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg from the Peer Gynt suite to introduce musical concepts to her students.

Walks in the Urban Wilderness (56:58)

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’!