Episode 18: Kickin' it Old School

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Michelle is

Ravelry: MichelleTF

Instagram: michelletfcrafts

Facebook: Valdelia Maker

Erica is

Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary

Ravelry: weavemage

Instagram: weavemage

Facebook: Weavolution
Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you!

Announcement:
Live recording 14 June 1800 BST/1PM EDT
You can join in to listen to us record and may ask questions in the chat, we are not asking listeners to turn on their microphones. :)

Acquisitions:
Michelle ordered a Cotswolds fleece from Ewetopia Cotswolds and received this gorgeous fleece. This will be great for hair and beards. She'll leave some white and dye some.

Finished Objects:
Erica's pair of socks is officially done, she now has 2 socks in this lovely worsted weight yarn! She is sad to see BluPrint is closing. She learned how to knit on Bluprint and still relies on it to learn how to knit new things. She is now a confident sock knitter. The first photo is the unaltered photo, you can see ends of one knot sticking out and if you look closely can see the swirl of end of needle stitches. The second photo is the glamour shot. :)

Here is Erica's beautiful damask sample. The black (top), the next light purple (third from top) and the red wefts are all Gemstone silks from Halcyon Yarn. All these colors are out of stock at the moment, some colors are currently in stock, if you are looking to buy some lovely silk yarn. Gemstone silk is great for weaving as warp for normal things. Erica would not recommend it for warp on a drawloom, where you need very high tension! It is a great yarn for all other uses. She has some new silk weft to try from Treenway Silks, more on that in future episodes.

Michelle carded a Romney fleece. It still has more lanolin in it than she's used to spinning so it will be interesting to see how it spins.

Michelle has dyed locks. These will be used for needle felting.

Michelle's daughter wanted Evan's Icelandic fleece dyed to make a colorful teddy bear. She needed to test out a few colors so she dyed a few more of the gray Lincoln locks in addition to some white Cotswold locks and then her daughter made her decision (the bright cherry red on the lower left on white wool) and won't be using Evan's fleece for her bear. She'll be able to use the locks for felting.

Works in Progress

Erica

Erica has spun both her Gotland singles. The second single, which was steamed for about a week in the bathroom, spun much easier than the first single. Erica is interested to see how much variance there is in length. Longwools definitely want less twist, using bigger whorls and slowing down your feet. She did still spin this her normal supported long daw style.

Erica has spun one single in this gorgeous Rambouillet. This is colourway is called Gizmo, for all children of the 80's. and is from Fiber Nest Studio. Rambouillet is related to Merino, but the wool is much more like Targhee, very spongy and sproingy. Below is a prepped half of the braid, the top of the bobbin, because I was not thinking, and the three-ply sample I made from the last bit that was not quite a full repeat of the colourway. Below is the first single still on the bobbin.

Yes, Erica is really feeling like a sock knitter now, she has started on the second sock for her son, TJ. His sock is in a fingering weight yarn and therefore has a lot more knitting in it than her sock. So you'll be hearing about this sock from several more episodes. :)

Below is the well-loved cup Erica has started using, instead of a yarn bowl. She does not have yarn bowl, but has wanted one for years. This cup still sparks joy, but is not quite functional as a cup anymore. So she is using it as a yarn cup, and loving it in this capacity, photo with her second sock, but now being used for TJ's second sock.