Sisters of the Holy Fiber -Episode 8- Zebra Sweaters

Sisters of the Holy Fiber Ep 8 <Click Here to Listen to Audio Only

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!

Blue Moon Fiber Arts “Socks that Rock Lightweight”
Numma numma “The Special”,
Sanguine Gryphon “Bugga!”

RS learns things from Knit.FM Podcast

TK mentions Hermione’s Everyday Socks, but RS was thinking of the Narcissa Socks (also awesome) from the Unofficial Harry Potter Knits Magazine.

Hyperventilate (27:06)

RS keeps watching and enjoying more Murder She Wrote

TK’s hyperventilate this week blends into:

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.

Ear Party (44:59)

TK’s been listening to old American folk music like Leadbelly’s I’m Alone Because I Love You, and here’s the wiki link to the song “In the Pines/Black Girl/Where Did You Sleep Last Night” so you can see the progression of the song’s lyrics, like TK was trying to talk about.
Then there’s the blues singer/guitarist Lightnin Hopkins with “A Man Like Me is Hard to Find”
TK recommends you spend some time listening to everything you can find by both these guys. She also talks about some of the music from the soundtrack “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

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!

And that’s all for this week, folks!

Sisters of the Holy Fiber -Episode 4- Informational Placards!

Sisters of the Holy Fiber -Episode 4- Informational Placards! <Click to listen to audio only!

Shownotes!

Projects of the Moment: WIPS Progress Report (0:26)

Rambunctious Sky plugs away at her Gemini shirt, while Tiny Kiwi finally cracks into her Fibonerdy Shawl.  Progress! Glorious progress…

Timber  makes an appearance!  He’s always nosy, but then appears less than enthused by his moment of fame.  Oh the fickleness of cats!

TK needs to sit down and calculate how many rows a day she needs  to accomplish her shawl in time.  50% needs to be accomplished by the 28th of February, and it needs to be done by the end of March.  Will she or won’t she, friends?!  RS is taking bets now! (Ok, she’s totally not, and probably won’t condone betting, but she’s not typing the show notes! Bwah ha ha! Here’s to hoping she doesn’t read through them!) >_>  Moving on…

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane–It’s FOs! (4:14)

RS gets inspired, gets fabric scraps from the creative re-use place and makes a mini-quilt collage to hide her sinks knobbly knees. Pink topstitching!  TK warns RS not to try sewing over Velcro made for hard surfaces, as the glue is super tacky and will gum up your machine, but thankfully RS’s machine couldn’t handle it anyway! Crisis averted!

TK makes the Dahlia Circle, but mis-pronounces the book it’s out of (she’s slightly number dyslexic aka dyscalculic, so bear with her)–it’s *75* Floral Blocks to Crochet by Betty Barnden, and it is an all-around lovely book.
Now what though? Is it a doily? Is it a coaster…perhaps even a knee-warmer?…Pillow cover?  Sigh.

Things to Hyperventilate Over (4:10)

TK enthuses about the old anime show called Mushi-shi that she’s watching.  Available on YouTube for who knows how long, so check it out! She’s really enjoying it.  The little supernatural mushi are pretty adorbs.

Check out this Pride & Prejudice engagement! Squeeeee~!

RS is STILL SICK! This is a redonk amount of time to be sick so the doctor prescribes 6 hours of “Yummy Man” aka Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.  A&E version of P&P wondrous, and soothes the soul.

TK watches the much older BBC P&P on Netflix, laughs at it’s stiff & dated Darcy, and enjoys its saucy Lizzie.

Shiny! (15:28)

TK gives a tip to jewelers or anyone aspiring to be one…spring for good ear wire/hooks, and round the ends with a cup burr! Use nickel-free silver! Real silver! People have allergies! It’s a real thing!

Slytherin Nails! The mini-segment (17:03)

Star Attraction nail enamel by Revlon,                  color is Reality Star

Polish has steel(?) filings as very fine glitter suspended in the green polish, and the bottle comes with a magnet on the lid to make a sort of star-burst pattern of glitter in your wet polish.  On my hands, this one chipped too much and too often for me to be completely happy with, but the color was nice and the starburst pattern was something a little different. I may try it on my toes to see if it holds up better and if it stains with long use (it didn’t with 1 week of wear!).  I’ll probably do this one again for St. Patty’s Day as the starburst reminds me of 4-leaf clovers.

I recommend gooping it on in one coat to make sure there’s enough filings to make a pattern and to make sure it doesn’t dry too fast (which were two problems I had), and you really have to hold the magnet there for a while to make sure it sets properly without dripping back out into a uniform color.  It’s really hard to keep the magnet close, hovering over your nail in just the right spot to make the pattern without dinging it.  I tried using another strong magnet, but it was too small to work the same as the one in the lid. This one really is a balancing act and while over-all I still liked it well enough to use it as a once-in-a-while color,  it definitely didn’t make the cut for every-day nail color.

OT…Off Topic–We talk about how good we’ve been not buying yarn and reigning in our spending…by not going anywhere.  No mink yarn for us! Sadness!

Brainy Moments–How To: Tips and Tricks (20:35)

RS rambles on about waist shaping, tells you to compare your project to a piece you have that already fits well, and modify your pattern to add or take out waist shaping so that the finished project fits you properly! RS would like to get the book Little Red in the City by Ysolda Teague because it has a good reputation for teaching you how to make sweaters that fit your body.

TK discusses the Fit to Flatter group on Rav and elsewhere

TK also shows off how to make some cute decorative LED flower lights, out of a battery-operated string of Christmas lights and some cheap flowers from the Dollar Tree.

I Spy: nature lover’s segment (28:00)

We love trees!  The Huntington Gardens are splended and quite extensive.

TK’s critter count is high this week with a visit to both the Huntington and the Nature Center: Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Allen’s Hummingbirds, Mallards, American Coots (so cutes!), Red Eared Silders (turtles), Pied-Billed Grebe, Crow, Fox Squirrels, California Ground Squirrels, Western Fence Lizard and a Western Box Elder Bug (or two).

Also, if you dislike my willy-nilly capitalization of bird, plant and animal names, read this, and heap it up with a side of I really don’t care.  But with LOVE. ❤ Always with love.

For bigger pictures, go to our Flikr.  If you know what the plants are, drop us a note! We’d appreciate it. 🙂

 

Such pretty purple stems with the green leaves. A+ job, Nature!

Lovely bracts, as well

Some enterprising child or squirrel stuck a nut in the center of this stump

Musical Menagerie/Ear Party! (33:15)

RS talks about Brian Eno–no wait! Don’t change the channel!  RS appreciates ambient music for it’s power to help you chill out. RS has BE’s Music for Airports on every device she has, so maybe you should check it out too, if you feel a need to relax. We seem to have a need for relaxing things to listen to. What does that say about us?! Maybe we should go tuck seeds in stumps ourselves.

TK talks about the Armenian Duduk, a wind instrument, and the Chinese Pipa, a stringed instrument. Check them out and broaden your musical horizons, you won’t regret it!

Here’s also a link to a Chinese ensemble. This one just cracks me up at how hard they’re working and how into it they are.  This other group is much more mellow, if you’d like to start with something less frenetic, although I’m not always enthused by the Erhu parts…

Walks in the Urban Wilderness (36:08)

RS met her goal of walking twice a week, even while STILL being sick, so wow!

TK met her goal of walking twice a week, and exceeded it so talked about upping the ante.  She also discusses the merits of setting a flexible goal, with a minimum that’s attainable and a max that pushes you a little harder.  TK’s new goal for this week is walking 4-7 times.  We’ll see how she does!

Random Remnants (39:10)

TK talks about the wacky legwarmer/kneewarmer challenge in Slytherin House this month.  TK references RS’ Octopus Phone Cozy. The pattern for the applique octopus is the Demi Octopus. (Which is really a sextopus because it only has six arms, but hey! Accidents can happen.)  She also talks about the colorful geometric beaded leg decorations that the Kuna Indian ladies in Panama wear, but to make a knit version sounds a lot more problematic.  Got a good wacky idea? Drop us a note here or in our Rav group!

Here’s some links to Kuna ladies and their rockin’ awesome beaded leg bangles.

That’s it for this week! If you have any questions about any thing we cover in our podcast, feel free to drop us a note here, or in our Ravelry Group. 🙂 Thanks for tuning in and stopping by!