January 10, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode from 2012, Sasha and Jillian Moreno report from their shared hotel room at the Madrona Winter Fiber Arts Festival (now the Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat). Hilarity ensues.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:57):
Well, hello there, beloved Sheepspotter. I am taking a little break from creating
new episodes right now, but today I am sharing a segment from my very first podcast, Spin Doctor,
for your listening pleasure.
In this episode from 2012, Jillian Moreno and I report from our shared hotel
(01:21):
room at the Madrona Winter Fiber Arts Festival,
which is now the Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat, and hilarity ensues.
I hope you enjoy this conversation a fraction of how much we enjoyed having
it, and apologies for the intermittent audio issues.
(01:41):
I will be back next week with a fresh, brand new, spanking new episode of the
Sheepspot Podcast, and I can't wait to talk to you then.
Hello, podcast listeners. I'm here at the Madrona Winter Arts Fiber Retreat.
(02:06):
No, the madrona fiber arts winter retreat yay yay and i'm with jillian and we're in our room,
surveying and we don't have any we don't have any place to sit down because,
our beds are covered with our hall
(02:27):
all stuff that we bought yes are
we gonna are we gonna to talk about that first are we going to tell
everybody what we did besides shop let's
tell everybody what we did okay before we reveal ourselves all right i think
we should snuggle up on your bed with the list and shall we start with thursday
(02:54):
the first the very first day of the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat.
Yes, we both took one class similar on Thursday.
I took Franklin's Photographing Your Fiber in the morning, and Sasha took it in the afternoon.
But Jillian's version was better.
(03:15):
Our class was absolutely enthralled by Franklin. He's a fantastic teacher.
No one breathed, No one got up to pee or to get coffee or anything.
We just sat and took in every word that Franklin said.
And it was an amazing class.
It makes me want to buy a new camera, yes, but I have that kind of an issue.
(03:36):
Every class makes me want something new.
It also makes me want to practice with the camera I have to make many,
many more beautiful pictures.
My class with Franklin was also fabulous, but I think he was maybe a little
bit tired because that man, he
is one of the hardest working men in show business, and he teaches hard.
(04:00):
He does, isn't he? he lectures for like an hour and a half with no notes.
And the group I was in was a little, a little bit more chatty and maybe a tiny
little bit less attentive than Jillian's.
But oh my God, I learned so much about photography, which is one of those things
(04:21):
that heretofore I have not been able to wrap my brain around at all.
So, and you know what? He taught me How to set the white balance on my camera. Your life has changed.
Your life has changed. It has. It has changed. My life has changed.
And my Ravelry, basically, I want to go through Ravelry and take down every
(04:45):
single picture because they all suck.
I wish our lives were as easy to balance as our white balance on our cameras.
Yeah, it turns out it's really easy, which makes me feel kind of silly.
But anyway, did you have an afternoon class on Thursday? I did,
and I'm trying to remember what it was.
(05:06):
We're really tired. Yes. We're really tired. What did I take Thursday? I took...
I don't. Okay. Was it knitting or spinning? It was knitting.
Jillian's going to look at her notes. And here's what I did on Thursday morning
(05:27):
before my class with Franklin. I also can hardly remember what I did.
Oh, I know what I did. I went to the marketplace.
And I went to the marketplace. I had breakfast. I had lunch.
And here comes jillian i'm coming back and
um i'll say this some more about franklin's class i took
(05:50):
six pages of notes for a
three-hour class which is for me a lot but on
thursday afternoon i took the eps system with a amy detchin i think that's how
you say her name and just in case our listeners are forgetting what the eps
system is could you remind them it is elizabeth percentage system from Elizabeth Zimmerman,
(06:14):
a way to knit without fear and with confidence to make your own sweaters.
And it is very sensible. And I've never been able to make myself read those books.
I'm embarrassed to say all of Elizabeth's books, I snack in them,
but not enough to actually sit down and knit a sweater.
So taking this class with Amy, who's a wonderful
(06:37):
teacher and also hilarious um was fabulous wonderful it opened my brain it gave
me an overview of it all and it's easy and i should be able to go home and sit
down and knit so that brings us to friday friday.
And now, was Thursday night the night of the thing that shall not be named?
(07:03):
Yes, we are not allowed to talk about the teacher's talent show at all.
But we laughed so hard we cried.
That's all. There was a talent show, and it was put on by the teachers and moderated,
emceed by Stephanie Pearl McPhee, the yarn harlot.
And unfortunately, there was a media blackout, and we are not.
We were prevented from divulging the precise nature of what went on,
(07:28):
but it was very humorous.
So that brings us to Friday. And on Friday,
I did not have any classes, but in the afternoon, I had an ergonomic knitting
consultation with Carson Demers,
(07:49):
who is a physical therapist and an ergonomics specialist and a knitter and a spinner.
And so I was in a small group
with maybe about five
other people and we had filled out questionnaires in advance and so he basically
(08:12):
went around the room and talked to watched us knit talked to us about our particular
knitting issues turns out I do a crazy thing with my thumb,
He judged you and found you wanting, didn't he? He really did.
I think that the thumb, the crazy thumb thing, scared him a little bit.
(08:33):
Which is unfortunate. Anyway, so I'm working hard to revise the way I knit and
having some small limited success.
What did you do on Friday, Jillian?
Friday morning, I got into Sarah Anderson's drum carding class.
It was a mini class. It was an hour and a half.
(08:55):
And she went over the whole shebang of drum carding and about blend of colors,
about blending fibers and just how she does it.
And it was wonderful. I've never taken a class with Sarah Anderson before,
but I've heard a lot about her and she has a really mellow way of teaching,
(09:15):
but cramming a whole lot of information in without making your head explode,
which I really appreciate.
And, like in a teacher.
Since there has, there have been some incidents of head, exploding heads.
Yeah. And the rest of the day, I had nothing.
And I played hooky from Madrona. I put on my little raincoat because it was
(09:41):
raining outside and walked over to the Museum of Glass,
which was a few blocks away and looked at beautiful things and had lunch in
their cafe and watched people,
blow glass in their hot box and then walked home and bought cupcakes for Sasha
(10:03):
and I to keep in our room for, you know, for the necessary cupcake-ness of every day.
Can I just say that I love that it's called a hot box?
Yes. And I said it without laughing. I did or making any other comment. So I get a cupcake.
(10:23):
Yes, she does. She gets a cupcake. And she said hot box, but without mentioning
either the hot glass blowers or the hot... Rods. Blowing.
The blowing of the glass or the sweaty voice doing that.
(10:44):
And we really can't say more than that because we are 100% family friendly.
And we'll just fall into goodwill. We'll just leave it at that.
So that brings us to today, Saturday, which was mega class day for both of us.
I had two classes today, Deb Robson's breed specific yarns for knitters,
(11:11):
which was absolutely faboo.
And I learned a ton, a ton.
That woman, that woman has so much information about wool in her brain.
It's, I don't know how she keeps it all in there. Cause she's,
she doesn't, it's not like she has a tremendously large head. No.
(11:32):
There's just lots of information. We should hook up a computer and do a Vulcan
mind meld with her head to preserve all the information.
Either that or she just needs to write another book.
I vote for the other book, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure she would right away.
But anyway, so yeah, so I had breed specific yarns for knitters and we looked
(11:55):
at, I think, eight different breeds.
And it was a really great class. It was great to see commercially spun versions
of all of these breed-specific yarns.
And I heard them. And that is all. You learned that downbreeds don't felt.
And I learned that downbreeds don't felt, even if you put them through the washer and the dryer.
(12:21):
Although, she issued a caveat, and I'm going to issue it too,
which is knit a swatch. and try it before you put that whole sweater in there.
But I thought that was really interesting and I didn't know it. And you know what?
There are these sheep, these Icelandic sheep,
(12:42):
they're called leader sheep, and they are more intelligent than regular Icelandic sheep,
and they are the leaders of the flock and so they've jillian is laughing but
this is really true i'm trying not to sing the mickey mouse march song go ahead
no i will not speak of your sheep speak of the sheep i do not want to mock the sheep.
(13:11):
They are the leaders of the sheep and the band and the pack and so they've started
actually I guess this is a social structure that arises naturally within flocks,
but they've started actually breeding the leader sheep to each other to preserve
their genetics so that all flocks of Icelandic sheep can have leaders,
(13:36):
which makes me kind of want to do an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation, but I won't.
No, it wasn't the Icelandic connection. It was a thing that Arnold says in a movie.
I can't remember which one, but anyway, he says, They need a leader.
(13:58):
But Jillian is delicately turning her head away from me so that the microphone
will not. Do you mock the sheep?
Do you not mock? I do not mock the sheep. I love the sheep.
I had hand carting class with Carol Rhodes this morning.
And for someone who is so relentlessly a woolen spinner, I am a pathetic hand carter.
(14:25):
So I've added hand-carding to my list of goals for the year,
and I was completely fumble-fingered in this class for about 90% of the time.
I was frustrated, and you know when you're in a class and you want to do really
(14:46):
well, you want to know how to make something work, and you're the worst one
in the class? That was me.
That was me today. And Carol was so patient.
She didn't stand over me and make me feel worse, but she kept sort of like swooping
by and saying, well, you might want to keep your elbow below your shoulder when you're carting.
(15:12):
You're making a big swooping motion and
you're one time she
was all the way across the circle and i
was carding she didn't even turn her head she said jillian
you're grinding your teeth your card
your cards together and i can hear it over here
you're supposed to card softly
(15:35):
softly you're not supposed to hear the teeth so
okay i have a question how do you
card with your elbow above your shoulder big swooping motions you should know
from the swooping you have the swooping thumb when you knit which scared carson
(15:57):
and you have your little swoopy do when you comb.
I don't think I've told them about that. The swoop-a-doo? Yeah.
Sasha has a very particular way of combing. And it's very festive.
I have a little wrist flick that I do. And I think it's very useful and important.
(16:19):
Anyway. I did make beautiful Rolags by the end.
I did. Like little kittens. They were like little kittens.
They were soft and perfect to spin. And Carol smiled upon my carding by the end.
Oh, thank goodness. I was really starting. The suspense was killing me, I have to say.
(16:41):
You're grinding your cards together.
Okay, so then lunchtime came, which was not long enough, because at Madrona
it never is. and the restaurant is a little slow.
But anyway, we somehow made it back to our afternoon classes.
(17:04):
And mine was an ergonomics class with Carson, three-hour ergonomics lecture from Carson.
And so much useful information, some of which I think I will try to parse out
and share in little bits.
(17:25):
My brain is not really in condition to do that right now, and I haven't really
absorbed it yet, but I think it was really useful.
And since I want to be able to knit forever and ever and ever,
and also spin forever and ever, I think it will help me do that.
So I learned a lot of things, and my brain was very, very, very full at the end.
(17:52):
So, and then,
No, now we need to know what happened in your afternoon. Yes,
I took recycled yarns with Judith McKenzie, which nearly made my head explode.
Not so much because of the topic, but if you've never taken a class with Judith
McKenzie, she is someone who knows everything.
(18:13):
She knows so much about spinning that she'll be teaching the class and then make these asides.
You're trying to take notes on what she's saying and all of her little asides,
which are all great ideas and answers to things you've been puzzling on for a long time,
(18:33):
and also do the spinning work that you have to do for the class.
So all of your senses are on 110% for the whole time during class,
and it's a little overstimulating.
So what kind of stuff did you, what kind of materials were you working with?
We, in particular, worked with deconstructing sweaters from a thrift store, cashmere sweaters.
(19:00):
Yay. And unraveling them onto, with our spinning wheels, and separating the
plies, and then re-plying them together and cabling them.
I had a four-ply cashmere yarn from a sweater that I unraveled,
and I split that into two plies and over-plied them like I was going to make a cable.
(19:26):
But wait, there's more.
She gave us some cashmere and
merino fiber that we spun
into a fine-ish single not as fine as the store-bought cashmere sweaters and
then plied those three pieces together the two two plies and the single of the
(19:52):
Merino cashmere together.
I don't even know what to say. I don't know what to say. Because this is a way
to make your cashmere go, oh, so much farther.
And even more fun to me, because that was lot work.
And think doing it with sweaters and sweaters. So there was a woman in the class
(20:14):
who is working on this beautiful cabled hoodie that she did with deconstructed
cashmere sweaters from thrift stores.
She spun them together as four or five plies and then overdyed it all.
So it didn't really matter what color all the sweaters were.
(20:36):
Absolutely beautiful and the softest thing in the world. Softer than a kitten.
Kitten. Softer than a kitten. Softer than a kitten's whipped cream belly.
But there were also bits of the sweaters that you couldn't spin.
(20:58):
The short ends and some of the facings and things like that,
which we cut into little small pieces and carded.
And then carded together with some of the merino cashmere or just merino to
make a really textured, cool yarn.
(21:22):
Yeah, you're speechless, aren't
you? I am speechless. I am speechless because... My head didn't explode?
Well, I'm amazed that your head didn't explode. And my head is exploding now
because, well, everybody knows that I have this cashmere problem.
And you're gonna go shopping for sweaters right now i
well as soon as i get back to the place where i live i have to say i'm heading
(21:45):
straight for value village to see what i can find and there's going to be an
article about it in the spring spinoff so hit your thrift stores now before
that article comes out omg.
That's that's all i got folks omg um all right,
(22:09):
ah softer than a kitten's whipped cream belly
is it time to talk about oh
should we talk about the banquet to talk about people should
we talk about what we were bitten by oh yeah let's talk about what we were bitten
by okay i met some we both i think we both met some amazing folks lots of new
(22:33):
friends lots and lots of new friends some listeners some not listeners,
um lots of old friends we were bitten by them again yes in personal places we
were bitten by them mostly our hearts.
(22:56):
Family friendly that's what i said okay so i'm i'll give you my top three people i was bitten by.
But i don't want the well no i can't do a
top three because because okay we're just
we're just going to talk about the number one person we were bitten by
(23:16):
yeah in common yeah mary scott
huff yeah we love her love why
huge love she is effervescent she's
absolutely effervescent if you are around her you are instantly happy
and instantly laughing she's someone
who so clearly loves what
(23:38):
she does and she's amazing at what she
does you should see the bee sweater we're in
love with the bee sweater but if she is she
is infectious you and you describe
a bee sweater all right okay the bee sweater
is it's in her book which is from
interweave and it's called the new stranded color work and there's a kid's version
(24:01):
of it that's in the book but she has now done an adult pattern a pattern with
adult sizing for women really i i can't so much picture the men wearing the
adult-sized bee sweater.
But the bee sweater, it's stranded colorwork, and it has bees around... Honeybees.
(24:23):
Honeybees. Right.
Right. Yeah, not the letter B, the insect bee.
And it has these beautiful bees around, kind of around the hem.
And then Jillian's getting the book so we can actually look at the picture.
And the adult version actually has beehives on it. The kids version doesn't.
(24:50):
And then this gorgeous honeycomb pattern on it.
And it's stranded color work. And even if it takes me 10 years to knit this
sweater, I'm going to knit it.
It will take me 10 years. Let's just be honest.
A folded picot edge, which is sort of a trademark of Mary Scott Huff's,
(25:11):
and just in gorgeous, gorgeous colors.
And her sample that she was wearing is knit out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn.
Yeah, that's all we have to say about that. Yes, Mary Scott is, gosh, she's just so fun.
She's really, really fun. She's effervescent. I regret that I can't talk about
(25:35):
what her talent was for the talent show.
It's true. And, but anyway, she's, she's really fabulous. And it was a pleasure to meet her.
And so what else were we bitten by? Non-people things we were bitten by.
I finally was bitten by shells. Everyone here was wearing shells.
(25:58):
Every different kind out of the most beautiful yarns.
And I finally fell down the shawl well, never to return.
And there was one in particular that I saw, got the pattern,
bought yarn for it, and I'm going to cast on on the plane on the way home.
(26:19):
And it's called Ebb Tide by Elizabeth Doherty.
And it is just beautiful. A little lace. It's a simplest shawl,
but those are the best that have, you know, a little bit of this,
a little bit of that, little stockinette stitch in between.
And it's just gorgeous. And a fabulous little cabling detail down the spine
(26:43):
of it. It's a triangular shawl.
It's really lovely. And Elizabeth Doherty is Blue Bee Studio.
She is the listener with whom I had the discussion about Shetland-style two-ply
(27:04):
woolen yarns that I talked about a couple of episodes ago.
It was really nice to meet her in person. I bought some of that yarn.
What yarn? Oh, right. Right. The aforementioned two-ply Shetland-style yarn, Jillian, got some loft.
I did, and I'm going to win. It's going to work for me.
(27:27):
What else were you bitten by? Anything? Shopping. I was bitten by shopping. So, yeah.
The market was fantastic. How many vendors?
Hmm, I don't know. Maybe 30. It wasn't that big of a market.
I mean, it was not like going to Rhinebeck or Maryland or Stitches, something like that.
(27:49):
But every one was fantastic. And it was hard not to buy something in every single booth.
Yeah, it's a small market, but it's really carefully curated.
Like everything is amazing, pretty much.
Almost everything is amazing. Okay.
(28:10):
Okay we'll just leave it at that um be
a hater i'll try not to be a hater i okay here's here are some things i was
bitten by i was bitten by some toots leblanc merino angora worsted weight yarn.
(28:33):
I touched it. I fondled the skein yesterday.
And then I thought about it all night. And then I had to go back and buy it.
And it was not cheap, but it's a generous 250 yards.
And I am really, really looking forward to making it into an extremely warm
(28:56):
and fuzzy hat for myself.
Because it's bunny and i have an affinity for the things like a morphic.
Let's see what else what i was i bitten by we met the amazing mr and mrs pocket
wheel and spun on the pocket wheel,
Yes. Tell them about Mr. and Mrs. Pocket Wheel and the actual pocket wheel.
(29:20):
The pocket wheel was a huge surprise.
I thought it would be okay. It's a tiny wheel, sort of on the lines of the hitchhiker, right?
It weighs six pounds and is beautiful.
It's beautifully made. It's beautifully put together.
(29:41):
You can get it in a variety of woods. There is a one-year waiting list.
Mr. Pocket Wheel is very busy. But it was one, it was so much more comfortable
to spin at than I thought.
There is how the treadles are put on forces you or allows you to sit all the
(30:03):
way back so you can support your lower back in a chair while you spin.
That is what impressed me the most how comfortable it was and how smooth it
was it doesn't have huge ratios the smallest ratio is 10 to 1 right so all you
speedy speedy lace weight spinners,
(30:25):
probably wouldn't like the pocket wheel jillian came up to me in the marketplace
and she said you you need to try out this wheel and i was just thinking because
because i don't know it's just It's tiny.
Because I'm such a liar. Is that why? Yeah. Well, I mean, you are a bit of a
fabulist, but no, it wasn't that I didn't believe you.
(30:51):
I just looked at the wheel and I just... I thought it was a gimmick. I thought, exactly.
I thought this is a wheel where size is trumping everything else in the design.
And it's just supposed to be, like the most important thing about it is,
or the best thing about it is that it's small.
(31:11):
But I sat down and I started spinning on it. It has a really lovely long treadle stroke.
It's incredibly ingeniously designed. I really liked the feel of it.
Really stable for such a small wheel.
And you can pick it up with one finger.
(31:33):
I'm sure that Carson wouldn't really approve of that, ergonomically speaking, but you can.
And it packs almost flat. And
it packs almost flat. Mr. Pocketwheel fits three of them in a suitcase.
Yes. And also we have to talk about Mrs. Pocketwheel.
(31:53):
And we're calling them Mr. Pocketwheel and Mrs. Pocketwheel because that's what their name tags.
That's how they were identified on their name tags.
Mrs. Pocketwheel is a spinner and she is a fantastic salesperson.
She really is. She has a gift. She does. She's also an elementary art school teacher.
(32:15):
So you know that kind that personality of
your favorite teacher when you were in elementary school that
is mrs pocket wheel it's really true so
i you know i don't because there's a one-year waiting list i don't think i'm
going to be able to get them to send me one for a real review trial but if you're
(32:36):
looking for a really really portable wheel you should definitely think about
them you They're amazing.
There's a group on Ravelry, and you may be able to find a pocket wheel owner
near you that you would be able to try out a wheel. Yes.
Yes. And we haven't even talked about the veneers.
(33:00):
It's a, well, and all the woods. So you can get it in any number of really beautiful wood veneers.
Maybe it's eight or ten on display. Yeah.
And he's starting to do these the drive wheel is probably some what is it some kind of hardwood or,
it may even be plywood but he puts some kind of beautiful veneer on it he had
(33:24):
a bird's eye maple version and a black walnut version and,
and he's also starting to put copper veneers on some of them which I think could
be incredibly cool looking,
so So I think that covers all the bitage for me,
(33:46):
the major forms of bitage.
Well, hello there, beloved Sheepspotter. I am taking a little break from creating
new episodes right now, but today I am sharing a segment from my very first podcast, Spin Doctor,
for your listening pleasure.
In this episode from 2012, Jillian Moreno and I report from our shared hotel
(01:21):
room at the Madrona Winter Fiber Arts Festival,
which is now the Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat, and hilarity ensues.
I hope you enjoy this conversation a fraction of how much we enjoyed having
it, and apologies for the intermittent audio issues.
(01:41):
I will be back next week with a fresh, brand new, spanking new episode of the
Sheepspot Podcast, and I can't wait to talk to you then.
Hello, podcast listeners. I'm here at the Madrona Winter Arts Fiber Retreat.
(02:06):
No, the madrona fiber arts winter retreat yay yay and i'm with jillian and we're in our room,
surveying and we don't have any we don't have any place to sit down because,
our beds are covered with our hall
(02:27):
all stuff that we bought yes are
we gonna are we gonna to talk about that first are we going to tell
everybody what we did besides shop let's
tell everybody what we did okay before we reveal ourselves all right i think
we should snuggle up on your bed with the list and shall we start with thursday
(02:54):
the first the very first day of the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat.
Yes, we both took one class similar on Thursday.
I took Franklin's Photographing Your Fiber in the morning, and Sasha took it in the afternoon.
But Jillian's version was better.
(03:15):
Our class was absolutely enthralled by Franklin. He's a fantastic teacher.
No one breathed, No one got up to pee or to get coffee or anything.
We just sat and took in every word that Franklin said.
And it was an amazing class.
It makes me want to buy a new camera, yes, but I have that kind of an issue.
(03:36):
Every class makes me want something new.
It also makes me want to practice with the camera I have to make many,
many more beautiful pictures.
My class with Franklin was also fabulous, but I think he was maybe a little
bit tired because that man, he
is one of the hardest working men in show business, and he teaches hard.
(04:00):
He does, isn't he? he lectures for like an hour and a half with no notes.
And the group I was in was a little, a little bit more chatty and maybe a tiny
little bit less attentive than Jillian's.
But oh my God, I learned so much about photography, which is one of those things
(04:21):
that heretofore I have not been able to wrap my brain around at all.
So, and you know what? He taught me How to set the white balance on my camera. Your life has changed.
Your life has changed. It has. It has changed. My life has changed.
And my Ravelry, basically, I want to go through Ravelry and take down every
(04:45):
single picture because they all suck.
I wish our lives were as easy to balance as our white balance on our cameras.
Yeah, it turns out it's really easy, which makes me feel kind of silly.
But anyway, did you have an afternoon class on Thursday? I did,
and I'm trying to remember what it was.
(05:06):
We're really tired. Yes. We're really tired. What did I take Thursday? I took...
I don't. Okay. Was it knitting or spinning? It was knitting.
Jillian's going to look at her notes. And here's what I did on Thursday morning
(05:27):
before my class with Franklin. I also can hardly remember what I did.
Oh, I know what I did. I went to the marketplace.
And I went to the marketplace. I had breakfast. I had lunch.
And here comes jillian i'm coming back and
um i'll say this some more about franklin's class i took
(05:50):
six pages of notes for a
three-hour class which is for me a lot but on
thursday afternoon i took the eps system with a amy detchin i think that's how
you say her name and just in case our listeners are forgetting what the eps
system is could you remind them it is elizabeth percentage system from Elizabeth Zimmerman,
(06:14):
a way to knit without fear and with confidence to make your own sweaters.
And it is very sensible. And I've never been able to make myself read those books.
I'm embarrassed to say all of Elizabeth's books, I snack in them,
but not enough to actually sit down and knit a sweater.
So taking this class with Amy, who's a wonderful
(06:37):
teacher and also hilarious um was fabulous wonderful it opened my brain it gave
me an overview of it all and it's easy and i should be able to go home and sit
down and knit so that brings us to friday friday.
And now, was Thursday night the night of the thing that shall not be named?
(07:03):
Yes, we are not allowed to talk about the teacher's talent show at all.
But we laughed so hard we cried.
That's all. There was a talent show, and it was put on by the teachers and moderated,
emceed by Stephanie Pearl McPhee, the yarn harlot.
And unfortunately, there was a media blackout, and we are not.
We were prevented from divulging the precise nature of what went on,
(07:28):
but it was very humorous.
So that brings us to Friday. And on Friday,
I did not have any classes, but in the afternoon, I had an ergonomic knitting
consultation with Carson Demers,
(07:49):
who is a physical therapist and an ergonomics specialist and a knitter and a spinner.
And so I was in a small group
with maybe about five
other people and we had filled out questionnaires in advance and so he basically
(08:12):
went around the room and talked to watched us knit talked to us about our particular
knitting issues turns out I do a crazy thing with my thumb,
He judged you and found you wanting, didn't he? He really did.
I think that the thumb, the crazy thumb thing, scared him a little bit.
(08:33):
Which is unfortunate. Anyway, so I'm working hard to revise the way I knit and
having some small limited success.
What did you do on Friday, Jillian?
Friday morning, I got into Sarah Anderson's drum carding class.
It was a mini class. It was an hour and a half.
(08:55):
And she went over the whole shebang of drum carding and about blend of colors,
about blending fibers and just how she does it.
And it was wonderful. I've never taken a class with Sarah Anderson before,
but I've heard a lot about her and she has a really mellow way of teaching,
(09:15):
but cramming a whole lot of information in without making your head explode,
which I really appreciate.
And, like in a teacher.
Since there has, there have been some incidents of head, exploding heads.
Yeah. And the rest of the day, I had nothing.
And I played hooky from Madrona. I put on my little raincoat because it was
(09:41):
raining outside and walked over to the Museum of Glass,
which was a few blocks away and looked at beautiful things and had lunch in
their cafe and watched people,
blow glass in their hot box and then walked home and bought cupcakes for Sasha
(10:03):
and I to keep in our room for, you know, for the necessary cupcake-ness of every day.
Can I just say that I love that it's called a hot box?
Yes. And I said it without laughing. I did or making any other comment. So I get a cupcake.
(10:23):
Yes, she does. She gets a cupcake. And she said hot box, but without mentioning
either the hot glass blowers or the hot... Rods. Blowing.
The blowing of the glass or the sweaty voice doing that.
(10:44):
And we really can't say more than that because we are 100% family friendly.
And we'll just fall into goodwill. We'll just leave it at that.
So that brings us to today, Saturday, which was mega class day for both of us.
I had two classes today, Deb Robson's breed specific yarns for knitters,
(11:11):
which was absolutely faboo.
And I learned a ton, a ton.
That woman, that woman has so much information about wool in her brain.
It's, I don't know how she keeps it all in there. Cause she's,
she doesn't, it's not like she has a tremendously large head. No.
(11:32):
There's just lots of information. We should hook up a computer and do a Vulcan
mind meld with her head to preserve all the information.
Either that or she just needs to write another book.
I vote for the other book, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure she would right away.
But anyway, so yeah, so I had breed specific yarns for knitters and we looked
(11:55):
at, I think, eight different breeds.
And it was a really great class. It was great to see commercially spun versions
of all of these breed-specific yarns.
And I heard them. And that is all. You learned that downbreeds don't felt.
And I learned that downbreeds don't felt, even if you put them through the washer and the dryer.
(12:21):
Although, she issued a caveat, and I'm going to issue it too,
which is knit a swatch. and try it before you put that whole sweater in there.
But I thought that was really interesting and I didn't know it. And you know what?
There are these sheep, these Icelandic sheep,
(12:42):
they're called leader sheep, and they are more intelligent than regular Icelandic sheep,
and they are the leaders of the flock and so they've jillian is laughing but
this is really true i'm trying not to sing the mickey mouse march song go ahead
no i will not speak of your sheep speak of the sheep i do not want to mock the sheep.
(13:11):
They are the leaders of the sheep and the band and the pack and so they've started
actually I guess this is a social structure that arises naturally within flocks,
but they've started actually breeding the leader sheep to each other to preserve
their genetics so that all flocks of Icelandic sheep can have leaders,
(13:36):
which makes me kind of want to do an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation, but I won't.
No, it wasn't the Icelandic connection. It was a thing that Arnold says in a movie.
I can't remember which one, but anyway, he says, They need a leader.
(13:58):
But Jillian is delicately turning her head away from me so that the microphone
will not. Do you mock the sheep?
Do you not mock? I do not mock the sheep. I love the sheep.
I had hand carting class with Carol Rhodes this morning.
And for someone who is so relentlessly a woolen spinner, I am a pathetic hand carter.
(14:25):
So I've added hand-carding to my list of goals for the year,
and I was completely fumble-fingered in this class for about 90% of the time.
I was frustrated, and you know when you're in a class and you want to do really
(14:46):
well, you want to know how to make something work, and you're the worst one
in the class? That was me.
That was me today. And Carol was so patient.
She didn't stand over me and make me feel worse, but she kept sort of like swooping
by and saying, well, you might want to keep your elbow below your shoulder when you're carting.
(15:12):
You're making a big swooping motion and
you're one time she
was all the way across the circle and i
was carding she didn't even turn her head she said jillian
you're grinding your teeth your card
your cards together and i can hear it over here
you're supposed to card softly
(15:35):
softly you're not supposed to hear the teeth so
okay i have a question how do you
card with your elbow above your shoulder big swooping motions you should know
from the swooping you have the swooping thumb when you knit which scared carson
(15:57):
and you have your little swoopy do when you comb.
I don't think I've told them about that. The swoop-a-doo? Yeah.
Sasha has a very particular way of combing. And it's very festive.
I have a little wrist flick that I do. And I think it's very useful and important.
(16:19):
Anyway. I did make beautiful Rolags by the end.
I did. Like little kittens. They were like little kittens.
They were soft and perfect to spin. And Carol smiled upon my carding by the end.
Oh, thank goodness. I was really starting. The suspense was killing me, I have to say.
(16:41):
You're grinding your cards together.
Okay, so then lunchtime came, which was not long enough, because at Madrona
it never is. and the restaurant is a little slow.
But anyway, we somehow made it back to our afternoon classes.
(17:04):
And mine was an ergonomics class with Carson, three-hour ergonomics lecture from Carson.
And so much useful information, some of which I think I will try to parse out
and share in little bits.
(17:25):
My brain is not really in condition to do that right now, and I haven't really
absorbed it yet, but I think it was really useful.
And since I want to be able to knit forever and ever and ever,
and also spin forever and ever, I think it will help me do that.
So I learned a lot of things, and my brain was very, very, very full at the end.
(17:52):
So, and then,
No, now we need to know what happened in your afternoon. Yes,
I took recycled yarns with Judith McKenzie, which nearly made my head explode.
Not so much because of the topic, but if you've never taken a class with Judith
McKenzie, she is someone who knows everything.
(18:13):
She knows so much about spinning that she'll be teaching the class and then make these asides.
You're trying to take notes on what she's saying and all of her little asides,
which are all great ideas and answers to things you've been puzzling on for a long time,
(18:33):
and also do the spinning work that you have to do for the class.
So all of your senses are on 110% for the whole time during class,
and it's a little overstimulating.
So what kind of stuff did you, what kind of materials were you working with?
We, in particular, worked with deconstructing sweaters from a thrift store, cashmere sweaters.
(19:00):
Yay. And unraveling them onto, with our spinning wheels, and separating the
plies, and then re-plying them together and cabling them.
I had a four-ply cashmere yarn from a sweater that I unraveled,
and I split that into two plies and over-plied them like I was going to make a cable.
(19:26):
But wait, there's more.
She gave us some cashmere and
merino fiber that we spun
into a fine-ish single not as fine as the store-bought cashmere sweaters and
then plied those three pieces together the two two plies and the single of the
(19:52):
Merino cashmere together.
I don't even know what to say. I don't know what to say. Because this is a way
to make your cashmere go, oh, so much farther.
And even more fun to me, because that was lot work.
And think doing it with sweaters and sweaters. So there was a woman in the class
(20:14):
who is working on this beautiful cabled hoodie that she did with deconstructed
cashmere sweaters from thrift stores.
She spun them together as four or five plies and then overdyed it all.
So it didn't really matter what color all the sweaters were.
(20:36):
Absolutely beautiful and the softest thing in the world. Softer than a kitten.
Kitten. Softer than a kitten. Softer than a kitten's whipped cream belly.
But there were also bits of the sweaters that you couldn't spin.
(20:58):
The short ends and some of the facings and things like that,
which we cut into little small pieces and carded.
And then carded together with some of the merino cashmere or just merino to
make a really textured, cool yarn.
(21:22):
Yeah, you're speechless, aren't
you? I am speechless. I am speechless because... My head didn't explode?
Well, I'm amazed that your head didn't explode. And my head is exploding now
because, well, everybody knows that I have this cashmere problem.
And you're gonna go shopping for sweaters right now i
well as soon as i get back to the place where i live i have to say i'm heading
(21:45):
straight for value village to see what i can find and there's going to be an
article about it in the spring spinoff so hit your thrift stores now before
that article comes out omg.
That's that's all i got folks omg um all right,
(22:09):
ah softer than a kitten's whipped cream belly
is it time to talk about oh
should we talk about the banquet to talk about people should
we talk about what we were bitten by oh yeah let's talk about what we were bitten
by okay i met some we both i think we both met some amazing folks lots of new
(22:33):
friends lots and lots of new friends some listeners some not listeners,
um lots of old friends we were bitten by them again yes in personal places we
were bitten by them mostly our hearts.
(22:56):
Family friendly that's what i said okay so i'm i'll give you my top three people i was bitten by.
But i don't want the well no i can't do a
top three because because okay we're just
we're just going to talk about the number one person we were bitten by
(23:16):
yeah in common yeah mary scott
huff yeah we love her love why
huge love she is effervescent she's
absolutely effervescent if you are around her you are instantly happy
and instantly laughing she's someone
who so clearly loves what
(23:38):
she does and she's amazing at what she
does you should see the bee sweater we're in
love with the bee sweater but if she is she
is infectious you and you describe
a bee sweater all right okay the bee sweater
is it's in her book which is from
interweave and it's called the new stranded color work and there's a kid's version
(24:01):
of it that's in the book but she has now done an adult pattern a pattern with
adult sizing for women really i i can't so much picture the men wearing the
adult-sized bee sweater.
But the bee sweater, it's stranded colorwork, and it has bees around... Honeybees.
(24:23):
Honeybees. Right.
Right. Yeah, not the letter B, the insect bee.
And it has these beautiful bees around, kind of around the hem.
And then Jillian's getting the book so we can actually look at the picture.
And the adult version actually has beehives on it. The kids version doesn't.
(24:50):
And then this gorgeous honeycomb pattern on it.
And it's stranded color work. And even if it takes me 10 years to knit this
sweater, I'm going to knit it.
It will take me 10 years. Let's just be honest.
A folded picot edge, which is sort of a trademark of Mary Scott Huff's,
(25:11):
and just in gorgeous, gorgeous colors.
And her sample that she was wearing is knit out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn.
Yeah, that's all we have to say about that. Yes, Mary Scott is, gosh, she's just so fun.
She's really, really fun. She's effervescent. I regret that I can't talk about
(25:35):
what her talent was for the talent show.
It's true. And, but anyway, she's, she's really fabulous. And it was a pleasure to meet her.
And so what else were we bitten by? Non-people things we were bitten by.
I finally was bitten by shells. Everyone here was wearing shells.
(25:58):
Every different kind out of the most beautiful yarns.
And I finally fell down the shawl well, never to return.
And there was one in particular that I saw, got the pattern,
bought yarn for it, and I'm going to cast on on the plane on the way home.
(26:19):
And it's called Ebb Tide by Elizabeth Doherty.
And it is just beautiful. A little lace. It's a simplest shawl,
but those are the best that have, you know, a little bit of this,
a little bit of that, little stockinette stitch in between.
And it's just gorgeous. And a fabulous little cabling detail down the spine
(26:43):
of it. It's a triangular shawl.
It's really lovely. And Elizabeth Doherty is Blue Bee Studio.
She is the listener with whom I had the discussion about Shetland-style two-ply
(27:04):
woolen yarns that I talked about a couple of episodes ago.
It was really nice to meet her in person. I bought some of that yarn.
What yarn? Oh, right. Right. The aforementioned two-ply Shetland-style yarn, Jillian, got some loft.
I did, and I'm going to win. It's going to work for me.
(27:27):
What else were you bitten by? Anything? Shopping. I was bitten by shopping. So, yeah.
The market was fantastic. How many vendors?
Hmm, I don't know. Maybe 30. It wasn't that big of a market.
I mean, it was not like going to Rhinebeck or Maryland or Stitches, something like that.
(27:49):
But every one was fantastic. And it was hard not to buy something in every single booth.
Yeah, it's a small market, but it's really carefully curated.
Like everything is amazing, pretty much.
Almost everything is amazing. Okay.
(28:10):
Okay we'll just leave it at that um be
a hater i'll try not to be a hater i okay here's here are some things i was
bitten by i was bitten by some toots leblanc merino angora worsted weight yarn.
(28:33):
I touched it. I fondled the skein yesterday.
And then I thought about it all night. And then I had to go back and buy it.
And it was not cheap, but it's a generous 250 yards.
And I am really, really looking forward to making it into an extremely warm
(28:56):
and fuzzy hat for myself.
Because it's bunny and i have an affinity for the things like a morphic.
Let's see what else what i was i bitten by we met the amazing mr and mrs pocket
wheel and spun on the pocket wheel,
Yes. Tell them about Mr. and Mrs. Pocket Wheel and the actual pocket wheel.
(29:20):
The pocket wheel was a huge surprise.
I thought it would be okay. It's a tiny wheel, sort of on the lines of the hitchhiker, right?
It weighs six pounds and is beautiful.
It's beautifully made. It's beautifully put together.
(29:41):
You can get it in a variety of woods. There is a one-year waiting list.
Mr. Pocket Wheel is very busy. But it was one, it was so much more comfortable
to spin at than I thought.
There is how the treadles are put on forces you or allows you to sit all the
(30:03):
way back so you can support your lower back in a chair while you spin.
That is what impressed me the most how comfortable it was and how smooth it
was it doesn't have huge ratios the smallest ratio is 10 to 1 right so all you
speedy speedy lace weight spinners,
(30:25):
probably wouldn't like the pocket wheel jillian came up to me in the marketplace
and she said you you need to try out this wheel and i was just thinking because
because i don't know it's just It's tiny.
Because I'm such a liar. Is that why? Yeah. Well, I mean, you are a bit of a
fabulist, but no, it wasn't that I didn't believe you.
(30:51):
I just looked at the wheel and I just... I thought it was a gimmick. I thought, exactly.
I thought this is a wheel where size is trumping everything else in the design.
And it's just supposed to be, like the most important thing about it is,
or the best thing about it is that it's small.
(31:11):
But I sat down and I started spinning on it. It has a really lovely long treadle stroke.
It's incredibly ingeniously designed. I really liked the feel of it.
Really stable for such a small wheel.
And you can pick it up with one finger.
(31:33):
I'm sure that Carson wouldn't really approve of that, ergonomically speaking, but you can.
And it packs almost flat. And
it packs almost flat. Mr. Pocketwheel fits three of them in a suitcase.
Yes. And also we have to talk about Mrs. Pocketwheel.
(31:53):
And we're calling them Mr. Pocketwheel and Mrs. Pocketwheel because that's what their name tags.
That's how they were identified on their name tags.
Mrs. Pocketwheel is a spinner and she is a fantastic salesperson.
She really is. She has a gift. She does. She's also an elementary art school teacher.
(32:15):
So you know that kind that personality of
your favorite teacher when you were in elementary school that
is mrs pocket wheel it's really true so
i you know i don't because there's a one-year waiting list i don't think i'm
going to be able to get them to send me one for a real review trial but if you're
(32:36):
looking for a really really portable wheel you should definitely think about
them you They're amazing.
There's a group on Ravelry, and you may be able to find a pocket wheel owner
near you that you would be able to try out a wheel. Yes.
Yes. And we haven't even talked about the veneers.
(33:00):
It's a, well, and all the woods. So you can get it in any number of really beautiful wood veneers.
Maybe it's eight or ten on display. Yeah.
And he's starting to do these the drive wheel is probably some what is it some kind of hardwood or,
it may even be plywood but he puts some kind of beautiful veneer on it he had
(33:24):
a bird's eye maple version and a black walnut version and,
and he's also starting to put copper veneers on some of them which I think could
be incredibly cool looking,
so So I think that covers all the bitage for me,
(33:46):
the major forms of bitage.
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