130 - Non-Negotiable Shoulder

David Tennant as Hamlet, Patrick Stewart as Claudius. 

Abby is joined this week by Guest Barista Susan Dolph, formerly of the Knitajourney podcast.

Latte: Susan is knitting Kelmscott by Carol Sunday out of Classic Elite Renaissance. Abby mentioned Carol Sunday’s Acorns Sweater, which she knitted a few years ago. Susan is also knitting a “tutti fruitti” colored hat, scarf and mittens. Susan is using a stitch pattern from the book Pop Knitting. Susan is planning to use braids as well as textured stitches. 

Abby is almost finished with the Lady Grey shrug and is also knitting her first “vanilla” socks, which will have a Fish Lips Kiss Heel.  Abby couldn’t remember the name of Lucy Neatby’s Cool Socks for Warm Feet. She’s thinking about knitting Sivia Harding’s Lady Tryamour Socks from The Knitter’s Book of Socks. 

Grande: Susan has finished two shrugs, since we last spoke. She has also finished Stretching, a pink crocheted sweater by Dora Orenstein. She also finished Garden, a cardigan with silk scarf addition, inspired by this pattern. 

Abby finished Brickless and totally loves it. 

Brewing: Susan talks about hats, braids and how to knit a flat disk.  Abby thinks she will solve her Clapotis problem by frogging and re-knitting it using the “rule of 5” or knitting a Martina Behm pattern, which allows one to knit until the yarn runs out. Alternatively, Miriam Felton’s book Twist & Knit is full of patterns that are written for as much yarn as one has on hand.  Abby’s also planning a Leftie, and she wants to use leftover yarn! 

Bitter Cup: Susan knit an unhappy sleeve cap from some thrift store harvested sweater yarn. Abby suggested knitting set-in top-down sleeves using Barbara Walker’s method in Knitting from the Top. 

Sofa: Abby reminds everyone that new Doctor Who episodes start on November 23rd. Susan is planning a Thanksgiving Day “Cars and Trucks” themed Movie Marathon featuring Car Wash, Cannonball Run, and Convoy. Abby notes that Alice Starmore’s Tudor Roses is about to be re-issued. You can order it here. This led to a bit of a detour into a discussion of stranded knitting, negative ease, sleeves and a rant against drop shoulder sweaters. Abby recommends  the BBC/Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.  Susan recommends (and reads from) A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. 

Show notes are late, sorry.
Here is an example of what I meant about Z twist and S twist not changing:

129 Plethora of Patterns

At Pearl Fiber Arts with Bonne Marie Burns
Listen here.

Latte: Karen is working on Vivian by Ysolda Teague. She is shaping the sleeve in seed stitch in a way that makes the increases invisible. Very impressive!

Abby has done a lot of knitting on Color Affection, and is almost finished with Brickless. She has no socks on the needles - ack!

Karen's Vivian Sleeve

Brewing: Abby feels like Dr. Gemma of the Cogknitive Podcast, who sounds like she wants to knit everything right now, and that’s how Abby feels, especially about shawls! Abby is looking forward to starting a pair of socks using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel (which is fun to say!) using the self striping sock yarn she purchased at OFFF. Abby’s also looking forward to knitting Bonne Marie Burns’s Alby from ChikKnits. It’s a great holiday knitting project that only takes 245 yards of yarn!

Take a Bite: If you had one or more hours added to your day to do whatever you want, but you need to add something new, in other words, you can’t say “more knitting time” or “more spinning time”. What would you do with that found time? Karen would like to learn a few languages and how to smoke meat. Abby would like to design knitwear and learn to play the saxophone. Her inspiration was Lene Lovich. How about you? What new thing would you do with more time?

Lene Lovich, saxophone inspiration

Coffee Cart: Abby went to Pearl Fiber Arts with the smart, talented and charming Bonne Marie Burns (Chicknits). Pearl is a great place to go for locally indie dyed yarns. Rachel of Wanton Fibers was having a trunk show and a skein of Prodigal Lace (50/50 Baby Camel and Silk) caused Abby to have what Fairy Godmother Mary refers to as a “retail accident”. Abby plans to make Stephen West’s Tripartite from this luxurious yarn. In passing, Abby mentioned that Chicknits and Ysolda Teague sweaters are some that she trusts implicitly. Karen also feels this way about A. Karen Alfke’s patterns.

Abby also talks about Community Warehouse, a fantastic Portland organization. She is going to participate in this year’s Chair (and table) Affaire. 

Sofa: Abby recommends (again) the documentary about New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. On the recommendation of Linda Holmes of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, she began watching The Good Wife, which, so far, so good (no pun intended). Abby also is reading Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan and is loving it.

128 McGyver It!

Narcissa Socks. Link to podcast on the right.

I'm  baaaaaack!

Latte: I'm still knitting the Lady Grey Shrug and I love it!

I'm plodding along on the Color Affection shawl. Very slowly.

I am racing through Martina Behm's Brickless and loving every moment of it. I was inspired when I saw Laura the Joy of Cooking Fairy's Brickless in progress when she visited. 

Segue into Events: Laura visited during OFFF and the "Oregon Monsoon of 2013". At OFFF I purchased some self striping yarn from Fly Designs and two skeins of Super Sock from Abstract Fiber in the color "Portland" -- naturally. 

I had, by the way, the pleasure of joining my San Jose friends virtually, via FaceTime. It was a blast, and four of the five of us were knitting Brickless!

Grande: I finished the Narcissa Socks. A fun knit and a lovely pair of socks. I enjoyed using Crazyfoot yarn and I think it will wear very well.

Bitter Cup: I do NOT know how to fix the Clapotis I was knitting. I ran out of yarn near the beginning of the decrease section.

Brewing: I've unpacked my yarn and organized my stash into a large Ikea shelving unit; it makes me so happy! I filled a crystal bowl with leftover sock yarn and I'm hoping it will inspire me to finally put together yarn to knit Leftie, another Martina Behm pattern. 

Sewing Table Home Depot Hack (I added the shelf)

Brewing morphed into Caffienated, I was so excited!  Yes, that is the McGyver theme!

After much frustration and a great deal of effort, I gave up on truly repairing my sewing table and McGyvered it with a Home Depot hack for under $30. Now I can sew! I also used an Ikea hack to create a semblance of a standing desk, which has improved my life at work. 

Finished standing desk Ikea hack

I purloined from the Knitmores the idea of my "year". It's the Jewish year 5774, and i have declared for Abby 5774 that I will learn The Brioche Stitch. I have the book and have signed up for the Craftsy class with Nancy Marchant. I also have decided to learn double knitting, because I want to knit the Null Hypothesis Scarf from Needles & Artifice. 

Sofa: I went to see This is The End which I enjoyed, and which led me to revisit the TV show Freaks and Geeks. I recommend Freaks and Geeks highly! I have also been watching Homeland, Masters of Sex and Scandal. I also must mention that I "foisted" the movie Bridesmaids on Laura. Finally, if you haven't been watching the TED talks ("Ideas worth Spreading"), hurry up and watch some; they are amazing.

127 - Does It Ever Get Cold Here?

Listen here

Latte: Karen finished one of her Port Ludlow socks and is picking up stitches on the gusset of the second sock. Her Vivian sweater is (mostly) back on track now. She is very happy about two listeners suggestions for ways to deal with closing a sock toe without a darning needle. The first is from listener LibraryPaste on Ravelry, who recommended the Knitting Daily Finishing Tip: For Those Who Hate the Kitchener Stitch. Additionally listener knerdy suggested another way to finish the toe - see post #15 in the Ravelry thread for details. The thread also has some extremely helpful suggestions for sock patterns for Lederhosen.

Abby is working on her Abby's Narcissa socks from Mountain Colors Crazy Foot. She has turned the heel on one sock and is about to turn the heel on the second sock. When working both socks Abby has a method of turning each heel separately using a third circular needle. This boggled Karen, who thought the needles and socks looked a lot like an octopus.

Abby has finished the first sleeve of her Lady Grey shrug.

Abby's Color Affection shawl in Malabrigo Silkpaca is also still in process. She is not in love with knitting it, but thinks she will like the shawl when it's done. The knitting itself is background knitting, and not interesting enough to hold her attention if she isn't doing something else at the same time. Which may be why Abby it itching to start something new.

Bitter Cup: Karen has another round of Bitter Cup with  Alewives Cowl. Abby was right. The needs some time to sit quietly and reflect on its behavior. Abby is thinking about casting on her own Alewives Cowl now.

Karen also has a little Vivian sweater bitterness. She overshot the point in the chart where the sleeves join the body and will need to undo two rows of knitting when it comes time to join everything. This leads to the question - do you have to read the pattern before beginning a project. Abby and Paula of the Knitting Pipeline disagree on this subject.

Abby also declares her love of Ysolda Teague's patterns and discusses knitting the Vine Yoke Cardigan.

Brewing: Abby is brewing a baby-sized Star Trek the Next Generation commander's shirt for Miss Kalendar of The Brass Needles' new baby. The question at hand: how to fashion a baby-safe communicator pin? Abby's current plan is to use wool felt and metallic thread embroidery to make the pin, then sew the pin to the sweater. She is planning to be done within two weeks.

Karen is brewing hats for her daughters. Pattern suggestions are much appreciated. She has considered making kid-sized Wurms, but isn't sure. She has also just started Percy (the shawl), not to be confused with Percy (her cat). It is lovely. Abby suggested using Judy's Magic Cast-on to start the garter tab. Genius!

Percy the cat

Stir: Karen is spinning away on the Dragonfly Fibers merino/silk fiber she got at the first Sock Summit. She is spinning it into fine singles on her Hansen miniSpinner and waiting to decide how she wants to ply them. A miniSpinner is also on Abby's list of 'things she wants to buy soon'.

Abby's Matchless is still making a ticking noise. She has spoken with Sandi at Purlesence Yarns, but even after following her sage advice the wheel is still ticking. Abby is now on the trail of a local person who should be able to diagnose the problem.

Sofa: Abby and Karen are both watching Project Runway: Season 12. They both still dislike Ken intensely. Neither of them was very happy about the Belk challenge this week either. Karen is still rooting for Alexandria and Dom. While Abby prefers Kate and Helen.

They are both excited about the cast announcement for Project Runway All Stars Season 3. In an unsurprising show of partisanship, Karen will be rooting for hometown boy Seth Aaron Henderson. Abby has not yet revealed her favorite.

Karen also noticed that Arsenio Hall has a TV show again. When did that happen?

Abby expressed her frustration with the current and final season of Dexter. She loves Michael C. Hall, but hates what has happened with his character and feels this season is a train wreck.

Abby has also vowed to watch at least one episode of Duck Dynasty after hearing the Stephen Thompson and Linda Holmes discuss how much they enjoy it on this episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour.

Menu: Abby has been experimenting with making a Paleo Diet version of her Aztec Chocolate ice cream using first Trader Joe's coconut cream, then coconut sugar and coconut milk in the base. Taste testing of the latest version indicated that she should not have left out the brandy. However, as Abby learns, you cannot go out late and buy brandy or any other kind of liquor for that matter in the State of Oregon. We have standards, people.

Events: Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. We're going! It's like a county fair, with only the cute animals.

Take a Bite: Abby needs to replace her iron and ironing board. Karen has an Oliso, but she has heard on the Internet that gravity-feed steam irons are the coolest. What do you think?

Shana Tovah 5774!

126 - Too Much Caffeine

Listen here

Welcome back Guest Barista Karen! (CallmeK2 on ravelry)

Latte: Karen finished one of her Port Ludlow socks. She is also recommencing work on her Vivian sweater after an edging mishap and a miscrossed cable. Abby is working on her Color Affection shawl in Malabrigo Silkpaca. She is making good use of a listener suggestion to print out the colors of the stripes and bold the rows on which the shaping happens. She is also adding yarn-overs to the ends of the rows to keep them loose and easy to block.

Bitter Cup: Karen ripped her Alewives Cowl (again) and is casting it on (again). Abby's Narcissa socks from Mountain Colors Crazy Foot developed an error in the lace pattern. She dropped down and fixed it but... her Asterope shawl (knit out of Bumblebirch Grove purchased at Pearl Fiber Arts in Portland during her first job interview) also sprung a mistake. Attempts to fix it were unsuccessful so off to the frog pond it went. The printed copy of the pattern for Abby's SPAKAL sweater, Dark and Stormy, has gone missing. It has been revised since she started the sweater and it is currently unclear which version she was using.

Brewing: Karen is brewing sock patterns for her sister-in-law. She wants to knit traditional socks for lederhosen. Karen has found one pattern, Trachtenstrümpfe mit Stulpe, but she would appreciate any suggestions.
Abby feels like she is still living in chaos and is brewing solutions to help her take control of her living environment. She has not yet fully unpacked; this is making her feel disordered and causing difficulty for her when she can't find things. She would love input on organizing her new space and prioritizing purchases for that organization.

Coffee Cart (formerly Chai)- Where We've Been, What We've Found: Abby found Coava Coffee in industrial Southeast Portland. Karen is looking for a new coffee bean supplier and was very happy to learn about Coava Coffee.

Coava Coffee shares a space with Bamboo Revolution, which Abby also thought was cool.

Karen went to the Wollemeise store in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm while she was in Germany. Her husband tells her that "Pfaffen" is a slightly derogatory term for priests and that "Hofen" is yet another word for village.
Karen took pictures of the adorable yarn art in the store:
Abby is making a Lady Grey shrug out of one skein of her Wollemeise yarn.

Sew Steep: Karen has a quilt top, her first, that needs to be quilted. Abby promises to help her. She also has a quilt top in need of quilting, a quilt that she started for Ben when he was young.
Abby has a magic tool to baste the quilt sandwich together.
Abby is also making a dress for herself, but needs to make some alterations to the pattern.

Sofa: Abby and Karen are both watching Project Runway: Season 12. Neither of them has a favorite yet, but so far they both like Alexandria and Dom. And they both dislike Ken. A lot.
Abby watched the Dr. Who movie, which she hated. But she really liked Paul McGann as the eighth Doctor. Karen admitted that she has never seen Dr. Who. Abby wondered whether the answer.
Karen watched Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work and enjoyed it tremendously. It is NOT about plastic surgery, in case you were wondering.

Events: Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. We're going! Are you? Critters. Classes. Fleece Sale. Awesome!