April 26, 2024 • 44 mins
Jess leads the episode talking about different various sad times during their yarn experiences, starting with when the pins gave up on life on their older yarn swift, retiring dramatically, as put by Meg. Tina talks about the swift that Drea now has inherited, and how the yarn swift completely dropped off the table with the yarn skein, throwing the swift and yarn on the ground. Drea talks about a time that the umbrella holding piece in the middle needs a binder butterfly clip to hold it up, and it decided to not do its job anymore becoming a tangled mess. The episode in general features a lot of sad trombone noises from Tina's soundboard.
Find out more about the podcast as well as our cast Meg, Drea, Tina, and Jess at our website pardonmystash.com. Leave us a comment on your thoughts on our episode blog posts, or through our social media accounts!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm Drea. I'm Meg. I'm Tina. And I'm Jess. And this is Pardon My Stash.
(00:13):
Welcome to Pardon My Stash, a podcast about knitting, the fiber arts, and how awesome it is.
Before we get into this week's topic, let's share what we're working on right now, Drea.
I'm Drea. Arcahne shawl. Verily Knits. Claire Slade. Me too!
With moon yarn.
(00:36):
I am working on the Arcahne shawl by Claire Slade slash Verily Knits. I am using Plies and Hellhounds
Penny in Flower Moon and Nightmares plus 10. I just noticed the plus 10 on there.
It's extra nightmares. Extra 10. Just to be sure I've had enough.
(00:58):
Have you seen the tag? I do. And now I'm like, I thought mine was a typo. I didn't think it was
an actual plus 10. It says nightmares plus 10. Oh, okay. Well, there is a modifier on the nightmare.
Listen. You don't know. Extra nightmares. That's funny. Meg. I'm on the struggle bus.
(01:19):
That's fair. Me too. I have not to date, I have not been able to finish a single project this year.
I have not been able to focus on a single project this year. So I started a new one because that's
how I roll apparently. So right now I'm working on, I just started tonight,
(01:43):
the Impressionist shawl by Helen Stewart. I've had the yarn for this for a really long time
and I just finally decided tonight was the night. And I'm making it out of Ash and Bumble
meadow fingering. And off the top of my head, I don't know the other two colorways,
but the one I'm currently using is called Water Lilies. It's a pretty colorway.
(02:04):
I love this yarn. I've had this yarn for almost two years now. And for whatever reason,
I have never picked up the, and I knew when I bought the yarn that I wanted it for this shawl.
That's why I picked it. And I just never buckled down and did it. But this is like a really,
it's a really user friendly pattern. One of the things I like about Helen Stewart's patterns is
(02:27):
that not everything is charted, but the directions for every single row and the stitch count for
every single row are knit out. No math involved at all. So like, you know, when you put down your
pattern for a while, maybe this is just me. I don't think it's just me though. And you go back to it
and you pick up your row counter and you're like, okay, I'm on row 60, but it's a pattern. And now
(02:47):
you have to figure out what row 60 was. You don't have to do that with this. You can literally just
look, it will tell you how many stitches you're supposed to have on the needle and exactly what
you're supposed to be doing in row 60. And I really, really love that about her patterns.
So we'll see where this goes. I mean, by next session, I may be doing something totally
different because it's just been my year, but, uh, Hey, you know, we're going with it. Jess,
(03:11):
what you're working on? I am working on between the dragon and his wrap by Kathleen Sperling.
And I'm on the last edge before the border or last border before the edge. I don't know.
So I've got like five rows left and then I start the garter and then there's actually decreases,
(03:36):
like there were increases of start and decreases then, and then I have to stick it. So we'll see,
we'll see how that's going to look amazing. It's massive. Every time I had to change,
like I had to do a new yarn thing. I did it in the sticking section. So I would have less to
worry about, or I was hoping I would have less to worry about. So there's a ton of just like
(03:58):
yarn ends hanging out here. Cause I'm not weaving them in if I'm just cutting them anyway.
That's fair. So that's how I did that. And, uh, yeah. So we are getting there. It is huge. Um,
it's like a blanket at this point. We're supposed to
stick it first and then block it. And then, yeah, it's weird. So, and then you like tie the,
(04:21):
tie the little ends and, and then, yeah, that's, that's how that goes. Are you going to, um,
reinforce the stick before you do it? Um, I might. So I'm using, I'm using superwash. So
supposedly if you're not going to do like the crocheted, um, reinforcement, you can
(04:42):
needle felt. And I have plenty of those supplies. I guess we know what you're going to do. So I'm
probably going to do a very minor needle felt and see how that were just as sort of like, cause it
says you don't need to like basically the way this one is set up is you sneak it and you,
you actually want to unravel a bunch of it. And then you tie it like you basically create tassels
(05:08):
and you tie them all off. Um, you don't necessarily need the sneak edge, but I may, like I said,
do it just as a in case. And I've done all this work and I don't want to watch it. Just
also like stuff with the needle. Yeah, you do. So, well, you could, you could like stab it or
stick it or whatever. I don't know what sticking is. So just ignore everything I'm saying. I know,
(05:32):
but like, I don't know how to set it up. So just ignore anything I'm saying right now, but you,
could you do this set up part where you want the tassels to start? So what you basically do is,
um, you cut in between. So I know the people listening can't hear, there's this section.
That's all just like, it goes, why and you go into the middle of that and you cut it and then
(05:56):
you unravel it. So the lines become different. So, and then it's supposed to be pretty even on
both sides and you trim them. So that's actually quite brilliant because like a lot of the,
the sneaking is like, what do you, what do you do with those edges when you're done?
And it's kind of neat that they created this thing where purposefully leaving those,
those ends. Right. Like those, those bits hanging off the end. It's cool too. Cause it's like,
(06:21):
you know, you can do color work without having to do like a garter type color work thing,
which I hate doing. So it works out. Tina. I'm doing the same thing as Dreya. The end. No,
I'm actually, I can say this. I am closing it. I have two, no, no, no, one, one repeat of one set
(06:47):
of repeat to do before I'm at the spider butt. Ooh, spider butt. Yeah. Give yourself a hand.
Thank you so much. We are almost there. No, because I've actually, I've been in this section
for a very long time where Dreya flew through that section in like three days. So, um, so yeah. So
(07:09):
it took me a really long time to get through this section. Um, but I finally did. So I'm at the,
I'm about to hit the number to go to the last repeat. So I'm excited. Nice. That's it. Awesome.
And if any of you want to see pictures of our current projects or get more information about
pardon my stash, be sure to check out our website, pardon my stash.com for info, pics, patterns, and
(07:35):
yarns. All right. So this week we are going to talk about those, those terrible tangled
yarn experiences that all of us have at one point. That's going to be the entire episode.
(07:56):
Okay. It's all of it. All of it. Lots of sad trombones. Lots of sad trombones. We've all been
there. We've all been there. We, we, we have all been there. You don't know it because that's not
the thing that we post pictures about all the time. Although in hindsight, some of the things
we probably should, because I'm sure in hindsight, they're hilarious, but at the time, not so much
(08:18):
at the time you're wanting to throw everything out the window and burn it. So this is an episode
about laugh, crying about past experiences, things that we can actually look at and laugh about now
and not like stop. So, so yeah. Um, my, my, my personal fave was, um, when, when the umbrella
(08:43):
swift decided that the pins didn't want to be there anymore, I forgot to say you were there.
I literally just fell apart. Boom. Half of it collapsed. The other half was trying. It was
hanging on. There's yarn was, I don't even know what it was doing. Like half on half off it.
(09:04):
There were, there are things sticking out. Like you ever see an umbrella where like one of it
bees free of its confine of the umbrella cloth. Yeah. That's it. That's what it was kind of doing.
It was like sticking out that swift had given us several years of good, you know, good service.
You know, and it just, it decided to retire dramatically. Um, well then that's swift too,
(09:30):
you know, that was a beautiful swift. That was the one your dad bought me for Christmas. And the,
the one thing about that swift that always killed me was that it didn't clamp to anything.
Yeah. So you would be spinning and it would kind of be like edging its way to the edge of the table
and you're like, can you please just sit there quietly and not move? And it would be like,
no, here we go. It was like when you had the full skein, like when you first started,
(09:55):
it was fine. Cause it was held by the weight of the skein and as the skein got like less and less,
it started to do its shuffle. It started walking. And you're like, I either got to stop my mojo
and like push it back or I got to like play that game of chicken and see if I could finish this
game before it walks off the edge of the table. And you know what we've won some, we lost some.
(10:20):
Usually lost. It was a good swift. Pour one out for the swift. It was a good, it was a good,
I like the one we have now better, better swift, but yeah, that, that one, it gave us many years
of good service. It just, yeah, it did have the side dance and you know, it did. I don't know what
happened that day. It just decided it was like a pin just disappeared and the whole thing just
(10:44):
collapsed. It was, it was like slow motion. I saw the Pingo one, like one arm half collapse. And
then the whole thing, just the swift had like an existential crisis, like all at once it just
collapsed. It's like, well, my time is done. I have a story slightly related to an umbrella
swift, but I was trying to whine a skein of yarn. And so I went to go put it on the swift.
(11:09):
And when I went to go put it on the swift, I don't know what happened. I misjudged distance,
but I went to like put it on, I had it on one side and I went to go wrap it on the other.
And I completely missed. And the other side was just the edge of the table. So then the whole
thing just went completely down. And then this side decided, nah, I don't want to stay on. And
it just went down and it actually pulled the swift off. Cause that's where the clamp was. And it just,
(11:32):
the yarn weight just like completely, the blue one that you have now, yeah. Throw the rest of
the yard too. It was like, literally like, I was just, I was like, okay, this is going to be great.
And then I'll just, and that was the last time when I load the yarn, I don't load it from the
back. I go from the side where the edge is hanging off, not from the side that the it's on the table.
(11:56):
So that was the lesson I learned. So I have that swift now. Um, congratulations.
Let me tell you, it has burned me as well. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to, I didn't give it to
you for that. You just didn't have a swift at all. Before I even had it, like it was still in your
(12:16):
office at your house. Um, I think you guys were on vacation and I was winding yarn for Frank's hat,
the green and gray one. Oh yes. Yeah. And you know how like the swift doesn't stay on broiled out?
No, no, it doesn't. So it doesn't, it doesn't lie. So the, I would, to explain that there's a middle
(12:40):
part that is supposed to, um, clamp in the middle and hold the thing out. Yeah. It slides up like
an umbrella. No, I have a, I have one of those black like big clips that I put underneath it
to give it some extra. Yeah. It's a little binder clip. Like a butterfly. You know what,
go with what works. Yep. But when I was winding one of these skeins of yarn, you know, the,
(13:02):
the 100 Ravens that it is, Oh God, that middle clamp just decided, yeah, I'm not doing this anymore.
See ya. And like mid wind, it just collapses and it becomes like a complete tangled mess.
And I left it there for like an hour. Oh yeah. No, there is, there is no coming back from that.
(13:25):
Look mom, a center pole. Barlow came in and he was like, what's going on? Not now Barlow.
We're having dramatic, dramatic crying in here. I was so sad and Frank had come in because
I had gone upstairs to wind the yarn and I hadn't come down for a while and he's like,
I'm just checking on you. I'm inwardly raging right now. As you can see, things are going great.
(13:52):
So the fun part is the reason why you ended up with that Swift is because I got my squirrel cage
Swift, which if you don't know what a squirrel cage Swift is, is a free standing vertical Swift.
And it has two wheels that hold that hold tension apart to hold the yarn Hank in place so that you
(14:13):
can wind it into a cake. But let me tell you, even the squirrel, even though a squirrel cage
Swift has problems. Yeah. And the first time I would, so I wasn't used to, there wasn't no how
to on the squirrel cage. And I don't, and I don't know if there is at this point now that it's been
out for a little bit and it's gotten more popular. There's a YouTube video. There's a YouTube video
(14:33):
now. There was no YouTube video. I didn't watch it, but there were instructions. I disregarded them,
but they are. I can figure this out. I get to, I'm telling you right now when I got mine, there was
no instructions. The only instructions were to put it together, not how to actually use it. So I was
like trying to use it and I was like, okay, so I think I got the gist, you know, like make sure it's
(14:57):
tensioned. Well, so I thought I had it tensioned enough. I did not. Yeah. And so it was like,
Oh, you don't need me on this. And so I started spinning and then like, as soon as it started
spinning, it just, you know, and I went, Oh, my favorite was when I didn't like, I was adjusting
(15:19):
it and I forgot once I adjusted it because I got a good tension on it. So I forgot to actually
tighten the wheel. So as it's like going all of a sudden the wheel drops and I was like, Oh,
that was on me. I also don't always use the wrench. So this is a user error. Like the
Swift itself is amazing. You're supposed to, I never do. I never do. I just do, I do the double
(15:44):
pole where you hold one side and hold the other side and you twist it in opposite directions.
But I, I may use the wrench every once in a while. I straight up hold the knob on the other side.
And I just go, yeah, I cannot with you because honest to God, like you will sit there with a
(16:05):
stupid Lego booklet and be like, I will read every one of these instructions, but the Swift,
you're like, I'm just going to wing it. Like everything in my life, like listen, every leaf
needed to be in the correct spot. But here's the thing. Like I'm not a good directions person.
I'll admit that I really am, but you are. And that's why I'm like, I don't understand.
(16:29):
You just twist. I don't get it. And mainly because I know me and I don't know where that wrench is
right now. I'm pretty sure it's on the fireplace somewhere. I'm just not positive. I think that
is the thing I found the other day. And I went, I don't know. I didn't throw it out. I went,
(16:51):
it's just a little flat wrench and I know. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a little flat wrench. It's
very, it's very small. It's sitting on my craft table. I put it in a little box and I said,
I might need this later. Watching you two have this epiphany about this wrench is one of the
funniest things I've seen in a while. I'm just saying, you know, this, I will totally own up to user error.
(17:14):
No, same, same user error. Oh, that thing, that thing can yeet yard. If you don't have the tension,
right? Like it just flies. I mean, it does go at an incredible speed, which is good because you can
get the cake done fast, which is bad. If you haven't set it up correctly, cause it will,
it will literally fly. It will fly across the room. Um, take it for me and Jess, who apparently have
(17:39):
experienced it. It has, and I'm seeing they're like, no, that doesn't happen. What?
It's the yarns fault. You know what it is? It's, it's the yard dyers fault. They wound it wrong.
Oh my God. So can I tell you, you know, I used to do that all the time. I did that all the time. It
was terrible. I'd be like, Oh, who, who, who wound this? Not realizing that most yarn comes
(18:01):
and already like wound hanks. No, I'm telling you, but that's the thing. Like earlier today,
I was having a problem winding and I was sitting there and I'm like, I know it's not the dire.
Can, can these like manufacturers not do this? Like, can they not like triple weave in before
they tie the knots? And you know what? Like I, I do not have patience. That's not true. I just use
(18:26):
it all up at work. I use it all up at work. Like, and that is, that is unfortunate. Like, because
that's the thing I have to, I have to have patience at work. I can't just like haul off and yell at a
bunch of teenagers. I'll get in trouble for that. But then I come home and the last thing I want to
do is wrestle with some yarn because I will verbally abuse that. Just turn into a cake.
(18:49):
Cake times. I put you in the oven. You should be a cake now.
The Swift is an oven. The Swift is an oven. I don't know if you know this. Oh my God. And
sometimes when the yarn eats, I just told, tell myself that the yeast overflowed the pan and I
just put the, yeah. Okay. Oh my God. No, this metaphor is like running away from you. You know,
(19:13):
when we started calling these cakes, like Mariel would come up when she was, she was like,
maybe two and she'd pick it up and be like, delicious cake. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. And
it was, it was really cute. Anyway, that's a tangent. That's a tangent. I'm not the only,
I'm just, my mind is that of a two year old. So we knew that. Oh God. Yeah. No.
(19:38):
So I have an un, unswift winding, not, not a winding related tangle. Well, no, I wasn't going
to tell that one. I was going to tell any tangle. We just went on a no. So, um, back when I was
knitting, I was knitting calliope and, um, w my lovely friend, Mary, um, was encouraging me to
(20:01):
do two at a time sleeves. She had done them herself. She said, um, you know, here's a tutorial.
You're going to love it. You're never going to go back to doing sleeves one at a time. I said, fine,
I'm going to do it. And I did do it. And it is a fantastic technique. Highly recommend, um,
figuring out a way to do it when you're already using two yarns held together was an adventure.
(20:32):
Because calliope as, as written is knit with a, um, a strand of,
I believe it's merino and a strand of mohair. So you've already balanced, you're already doing
two balls of yarn, but then when you're doing two at a time sleeves, you multiply that by two. So
four balls of yarn and I'm sitting on the couch and I'm trying to do this and the balls are just
(20:56):
rolling everywhere. And Jess is just watching me just, I'm just swearing constantly as they're all
tangling in each other. And of course, because I was knitting calliope in a monochrome, they're all
the same color, which is just making things that much better. Um, and the tech, the, the technique
I finally came up with to handle this was I put each, uh, sleeves worth of yarn in a separate
(21:21):
Ziploc bag sandwich bags. And I just kept moving the sandwich bags around to me. I don't know if
that's a good get long enough. You can talk them up. You can talk them in, but they have to get,
I wasn't there yet because you're starting way up at the top. It was, oh my God, it was such a mess.
Um, anyway, the sleeves came out great. I was very happy with them when they were done,
(21:46):
but just figuring out how to juggle four balls of yarn while you're also learning a new technique
was, was not fun. And there were a lot of tangles. I find that with doing two sleeves and
with doing two sleeves at a time, it is easier to do at least five rows on each sleeve. Cause then
you can tuck typically, right? It gives you just enough of a, of give that you can tuck the yarn
(22:09):
for that sleeve into that sleeve. You do, you can get that underarm a bit tighter. You get,
you get rid of that hole. There's, there is an underarm technique that you can do,
but you really can't do it two at a time. You have to do it like in, like do that resolve the holes
first and then, um, yeah, there is a fantastic, uh, arm hole, uh, under armpit hole technique
(22:33):
on YouTube. I don't know the lady's name. It's just on my likes videos on my YouTube thing.
So I will find that out and I'll give it to you, Meg, to put on the blog post, but it is like the
best works every time makes my sweaters look a plus. Can't not tangling, tangling a bunch of balls.
I'm not doing that. Just put me in a little, go sit on the couch and think about what you did.
(23:03):
Give me a hat. I need a time. I'll sit in time out. Think about what you've done. Oh God.
Other disasters. Um, dude, remember that bamboo yarn I had though.
Okay. Yes. That was back in the pre ball winder days in the long ago in the, in the like second
(23:31):
year that we were all hanging out and knitting before time way back in the day. I actually got
a quote unquote fancy skein. That was a skein and not an already made into a ball. Yeah. Back,
back when we weren't buying, um, like this is back when we were still just strictly buying big box
store yarn that's already in a center pole ball. And we went to, I think it was hither and yarn.
(23:52):
Oh yeah. When it was still open and you bought that beautiful purple bamboo, it was beautiful,
beautiful bamboo yarn. And of course she has to sit down and hand wind it. Yeah. Because you know,
how else were you supposed to do it back then? I think I might still have a picture of that
on my Facebook. And if I have it, I'm going to put it up at the time too. Again, this was a long
(24:15):
ago guys. I don't even think I had a smartphone like you didn't have a smartphone until we were
dating. So what do you mean? Like, this is like 10 years before that. So that was like all the
things. So it was just like, okay, you open it, you kind of like put it on the floor in a circle
and then you wind it and you just like make sure the wind like goes in a circle. And I forgot what
(24:37):
happened, but I pulled really hard and the circle collapsed on itself. And it was just a mess,
but I couldn't cut it because it was nice yarn and I spent a lot for me on it at the time. So
I spent the next like two hours just slowly unraveling that stupid thing. I don't know if
(24:59):
I ever actually used that yarn at the end. No, you didn't because I remember a couple of years ago,
we were going through the stash and I pulled it out and you were like, oh my God, get rid of it.
But I still won and I rolled it into a ball, but you know, that was a time.
I'm not going to do the sad one because you won. I did. I won. I rolled it. It was a beautiful
(25:24):
little ball of yarn that sat next to its friend for the rest of eternity.
I hope someone did get it and are enjoying it now because it was nice yarn. I hope someone,
like whoever ended up with it, opened it and started using it and went, wow, what a nicely
wound ball. Nicely wound yarn. It's also bamboo. So, you know, as it's doing that, you know,
(25:49):
it's getting the little, the fuzzies that connect it to itself. And you're like, is this a knot? Is
this just, it's fused to itself? Like, fantastic. I was making a hat for, I was trying to make a
49ers hat. It was made out of alpaca yarn. This was before I realized I was allergic to alpaca.
(26:11):
Do it. Just do it. Just hit it. Hit the thing. I was, I was,
I was like, okay, here I go. And if you've ever worked with alpaca yarn, it sheds like a mother.
And it, yeah, it started shedding and then it decided, oh, you know what? I know you made me
(26:35):
into a cake, but all the shedding yarn you started tossing towards the cake. And now all the shedded
pieces are going to get tangled in the cake. Phenomenal. So then I was like, oh, it's tangled.
Let me untangle this. It wasn't tangled. It was like a shedded piece had attached two pieces.
And so it wasn't in a knot at all. It was just needed to literally be ripped apart. But because
(26:58):
it's alpaca, you don't know if you're ripping apart the yarn or you're ripping apart. You're
basically snatching it. What's wrong with that yarn? That is exactly what's wrong with that.
Yeah. I have that project now. I still haven't finished it. I've had it for over a year.
I was going to give it to somebody who was also a 49ers fan. Yeah. And, uh, I just,
(27:19):
I don't think it's meant to be. I think that needs to be burned.
I'm like in the decreases for the crown. Oh, wow. I'm in the home stretch.
She that alpaca just didn't like the 49ers. It's like, no, it's going to be, it fought its destiny.
Talking about barf. Dre is ball. Wow. Wow. It doesn't look like it's going to be that bad
(27:49):
though. It looks like it'll no, no, that's deserved. I'm going to pull it. Can you,
can you take a picture of that so that all of our listeners can see what just happened to Dre?
Yeah. Literally. All right. Yeah. No, pull. I'm going to pull it. It might. I'm going to try.
Here. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Oh, yeah. Let's see what happens. It might be an okay one.
(28:13):
It may be okay. Let's see. Let's see how it do. We're going to see. Okay. Oh, that's,
that's promising. Oh, I think it's okay. Yeah. It's separated. It's good. It just pulled out a
double inside. What about that side? What about that side? What about that side? The ugly side.
So, um, had a little bit of yarn barf. It resolved itself.
(28:37):
Hooray. It looked way worse than what it actually was. So, um, such a propos for this episode.
Needed just a little bit of barf just to go with it.
Everything, everything needs a little bit of barf.
(28:59):
Well, I mean, I could talk about when I've already pulled this project out, but I had a, um,
Oldenburg sweater, which was made out of like a mint yarn and the bottom of it. I was like,
I'm totally done with this. This is totally fine. No, it's not. I missed an entire stitch and it
rolled all the way back and I went, I went, Oh no. And so I was like, so I fixed it all the way down,
(29:25):
but then there was a color change at the, at the hem. So I was like, you know, we'll do,
I'm going to put a nut and I put a nut. Um, it's unraveled. The entire project is unraveled.
I, I, I unraveled on the entire project because between that and like, there was like a pulled
stitch in one of the sleeves and like, it was just, no, it was, it needed to come out.
(29:50):
I might make it again because I really liked that project, but I totally, absolutely. That was like
its own barf. I swear because like I had to like, refix it and then like, it just sat there with a
knot at the bottom of it. And I was like, fantastic. Fantastic. I think that's one of the most
frustrating things when you, you really want a project to work out and it just keeps having
problem after problem after problem. I don't have the patience for that. Um, if I keep having issues
(30:17):
with something, that's it for me. That's it. Like once I have corrected this problem, I think you
said once on an earlier episode, like three problems, I'm out. And I think that's fair though.
I think that is fair because it's like, I said at the beginning of this episode, I've been on
the struggle bus with knitting for a while and that's fine. But like when you're on the struggle
(30:41):
bus with one project, you kind of get to the point where you're like, how much effort and stress am I
really, am I really putting into this? And, and am I actually finding any joy in it at all? Yeah. Um,
and when you keep having issues with it. And that's actually what happened to me with the, um,
the Celtic myths shawl. I made a mistake and I mentioned this before we started the episode when
(31:04):
you were here earlier tonight and it took me like three weeks to go back and fix it. Wasn't a huge
mistake. And I went back and I fixed it and I'm like, okay, moving forward and probably about three
days later, I made another mistake and it was a bigger mistake. And I was like, you know what?
I'm just, I'm done. I'm done. I don't have the wherewithal to go back and pull this out.
(31:24):
I don't want this project badly enough. Like I'm all set. I still have not blocked that.
I still have the, I mean, yeah, me too. Really? Yeah. You haven't worn it yet. No. Oh, why?
I haven't blocked it yet. Okay. But why it came out so good. Why would you not?
(31:46):
So you're the only one that finished it. It's done. The ends are woven in. I just never blocked it.
Cause I did that project was so boring when I was like, no,
I've never heard her complain about a project so much. I mean, the whole beautiful piece, but oh
(32:11):
my God, I did mine so fast. Yeah. I, you know what though? Like, I mean, I say, see, but I did that
with, um, dark academia, but it's because I was like convinced it wouldn't fit. And that's why I
just didn't block it. I was convinced. Like I had a reason. I'm like, I'm not going to block it because
(32:34):
it's not gonna, I know this isn't going to fit me. So what's the point?
I just realized though, I never finished blocking my little like, I know, no, no, you didn't just
realize because you bring it up every three months and you go, I'm gonna block that. Yeah. No, because
I couldn't find the steamer because I have to steam block it. And I found the steamers like,
oh cool. I can do that. And then I put the steamer away and still haven't done it. Which project is
(32:55):
it? It is. So you remember her, I am her Morgana or I am dragon shawl. The one that, yeah, yeah.
It's like a, it's a mini one. It's like a cowl and she made that out of, um,
our yarn ranger in the colorway Morgan. So it's like this nice, like red and green color. That's
(33:15):
not Christmasy. It's more like autumnal. Um, but then you have like, uh, like a clamp on it, like
to close it. I gotta get that too. Jess, it's literally been like every couple of months.
You're like, I don't block that. I know, because every, don't do it because every couple of months
I see it in its box and I'm like, oh yeah. And then I moved the box and I don't see it and I forget
it exists again. But the talking about having stuff that has remained unblocked reminded me.
(33:42):
Oh my God. I think that's like the 19th time I pressed that button. Oh my Lord. I think,
I think you kind of have to get to a point where you look at a project and you're like,
not, not one that's done. Absolutely. But that you haven't done in a while. And you just kind of
(34:03):
have to come to terms with like, I'm not going to finish this. I'm not going to finish this. Wait,
wait, let me just rip it out. I'm going to play the noise first because that's how sad this is.
Hold on a second. Oh, pre trombone. Oh no. The silver can pour one out for the silver can.
I did wind it back up. Yeah. You know what? That was such great yarn though.
(34:28):
I've got a, I deserved a pro deserves a project that yarn. I'm glad you were able to be something
else. So for the silver cami that I actually had, um, two skeins of yarn held out for that. So I
feel like, and Dre, you could tell me this, how many yards on average does it take to make a pair
of socks, adult socks? So usually a fingering weight skein of yarn has like, what you usually
(34:56):
have about four, a little less than four 40, somewhere around there. And I can make a whole
pair of socks with a skein of yarn then with some leftover, depending on like the, the length of the,
um, of the leg. Yeah. Cause I think what I could do, what I could do is I could make myself a pair
(35:17):
of socks and I can make the girls a pair of socks and then we could have cutesy little matchy socks.
But then I would make socks for my kids who would not appreciate it and they would destroy the socks.
Well, you should make a pair of socks for you and a pair of socks for me.
Well, I will just make, how would I just make two pairs of socks for myself? How's that?
How's that? I don't need your socks. Just a suggestion.
(35:42):
How about I remember I'll make four socks and everybody gets one sock. How's that?
Beautiful. Y'all can share. Beautiful. Everybody gets a little sock. We'll use them as stockings.
They'll be part of my stash stockings. I have a womp womp sock story. Okay. Hold on.
No, you don't need to do it. So we've, we've talked before about, you know,
(36:05):
their wedding and Jess made shawls for me. She made shawls for everybody at this table pretty much.
That was kind of our plan from the get go is I helped pick the yarn and the patterns.
And then I said, go. And she made all the shawls. That was all of my contribution.
So as we got closer to the day, I decided I wanted to make her a pair of socks.
(36:29):
Because at the time I wasn't knitting shawls and I was knitting socks, which I don't knit anymore.
So I picked out, it was called spring forward. I think is the pattern. It's a really pretty pattern.
It's free on nitty. And I made it out of this beautiful yarn. And I cannot remember what the brand was anymore.
(36:50):
It was this, it was gorgeous Navy blue. It matched the vest that she wore for the wedding.
It matched the shawls she made for me. And they came out really nice. I thought.
And she wore them the day of the wedding and go back to the hotel room at the end of the night.
And she takes them off and I am for whatever reason. And I know how to do it.
(37:14):
But my nemesis is the Kitchener stitch. Like I can't do it every time I do it.
Something goes wrong and it falls apart. So we got back to the hotel room.
She takes her shoes off and the entire toe is gone from one of the socks. I ended her like it's, it's just gone.
Like completely unraveled. I noticed the hole when we were doing makeup. Oh, you didn't tell me.
(37:41):
Of course I didn't. Cause I was, you were going to tell me to take it off and I wasn't taking it off.
I wear those socks all day and night. That's really sweet. And I didn't know that. Yeah. No.
And I tried, I tried like, like a quick mend and folding it, but I could feel it like the whole night.
Oh, no. And I felt so bad. I'm like, I'm ruining it, but I'm not. And the other one was fine, but that one was like, ha ha ha.
(38:04):
Yeah, no, I don't know what it is. It's, it happens. And I said,
well, probably one of the reasons why I don't like knitting socks anymore, because
I will be so careful and somehow I will still screw it up. I'm also super acidic. So I mean,
and yeah, but that wasn't your fault. That was my fault. No, no, no. She melts jewelry, man. Like
(38:25):
literally her wedding ring is made out of, um, Damascus, Damascus steel, because she'll just melt
gold. Yeah. Gold is gone. No, she will. So you are a dragon. Silver is gone. It's like, or like,
you'll, I'll take it off and it'll be like warped. Yeah. Like why? So when we were, when we were
looking for wedding rings, we were like, we got to find something super durable. pH levels are stupid.
(38:49):
So yeah, but that wasn't, that wasn't your fault. That was my fault. That's me like messing up the
toe of a sock again. And I've, I know because I've done it multiple times. So did I fix them? No,
I didn't. She still has them. I didn't fix it. It's the memory of the sock. Well, now I know
it was the memory of the sock falling off her foot all night. And I feel bad. Anyway, it was the
(39:16):
thought that counts. I guess. Whatever. Oh, I got one. Oh, wow. I have a Francis story. Yep. It's
another sock story. Um, I was, you remember, so he was a baby. He was probably only about four months.
We'd probably only had him about four months. I'm going to keep you in this France. And I was
(39:37):
trying to knit. I was knitting socks for Jess and it was, I don't even remember what the pattern was.
I was really struggling with it. Like I had had to tear it out like three times and restart.
And Francis unnoticed to me, grabbed the loose end of the ball in his mouth and just ran. And the
(39:59):
whole thing fell off the needles and he just ran away with it. And that was the end of that. Like
I literally just got upset. I got upset. Like Francis didn't know why we were both upset because
he was a baby and he was like, I don't know what's going on. I'm just trying to play with some string.
Um, he's actually, I can't remember a time since then that he's ever tried that,
(40:24):
but he, it was like that one time and I was just like, you know what? I'm done. This is it. Like
that was probably the fourth, third or fourth time that something had gone wrong with those socks.
And I was just done. I never, I never tried to do that pattern again. Three times you're out.
Yep. That was, that was the end. When I was thinking about was I was doing sweater of swords
(40:44):
and he wanted cuddles and he jumped into my lap when I did not see him coming and landed right on
it and pulled the color work and took me a good 20 minutes of pulling the color work back because
it all disappeared into it. He also destroyed your, uh, shalawene. Remember he tore a whole
(41:05):
section out of it. Oh, that wasn't him. Who was that? That was baby girl. She jumped. Oh,
that was tabby. No, that was, oh, she was in my lap and she put her head back and then she pulled
it forward and her ponytail got caught on my needle. Oh, I thought it was Francis. So she pulled
one of the needles forward and it just pulled everything off. She had to rip back the entire
(41:27):
section, the whole thing back to the start, uh, yarn over twice and two together. And I could not
figure out in that where the drops is where it was. I gave it a good attempt and I was like,
Nope, you know what? And I was, and she was almost done. She was almost done with the section. She
had to go back and do the whole thing. I was like, that went away for like a day and then I went back
(41:51):
to it. But yeah, that was, I don't know if I would have recovered from that. I think that one was
tough because I hated that. I hated that section. I hate doing the double yarn over. Um, double
yarn over pain in the neck. They really are. It looks great, but I'm like, but it is, if you drop
it, it's like, Oh God, where is it? Which, which one of these is the knit two? Which one of these
(42:12):
is the yarn over part? What is happening? Yep. But do you remember like a billion years ago?
When you were living in Bristol? Yes. Tempest.
Okay. So Meg had a cat named Tempest. She was a black cat and she was an angry old lady even
when she wasn't old. Beautiful. Flawless. I was sitting on the couch and I was knitting a pair
(42:38):
of socks using socks that rock. It was like gorgeous yarn and a Tempest tried to like take
a bite out of it, which was weird for her because she never did that ever. That was like, like the
one time in her many, many years that she ever tried to bite yarn. So then I swatted at her
(42:59):
to get her away from the yarn and then she jumped up on the back of the couch.
No, no. She was already there. She tried swiping it from behind you. She reached down over your
shoulder. I thought it was next to me. No, no, no. Because when you did that, she actually like
looked at you for a minute. Like, you could see this cat was like angry that she got her from
here. You pushed her away and she, and she kind of like tipped her head and looked at you.
(43:23):
And then she took a, like took a bite out of the back of my head. She, she did. She looked at you
like, like this bitch. And then just, you could see her think about it because it was slow. Like
she legit just opened her mouth and took a very deliberate bite out of the back of my head.
She was not a biter either. No, she was not a biter. But her face was like the audacity. How dare you.
(43:51):
And she never did anything like that again. Like ever. She never, she never went after yarn. She
never chewed yarn or attacked projects. But man, like that one time, she was, she was mad. Like, oh man.
And that's all the time we have for this episode. For additional content and opportunities to
(44:15):
connect with the cast, be sure to check out our website at pardon my stash.com and remember to
tune in next time for more tips, knits and whips at pardon my stash.
I'm Drea. I'm Meg. I'm Tina. And I'm Jess. And this is Pardon My Stash.
(00:13):
Welcome to Pardon My Stash, a podcast about knitting, the fiber arts, and how awesome it is.
Before we get into this week's topic, let's share what we're working on right now, Drea.
I'm Drea. Arcahne shawl. Verily Knits. Claire Slade. Me too!
With moon yarn.
(00:36):
I am working on the Arcahne shawl by Claire Slade slash Verily Knits. I am using Plies and Hellhounds
Penny in Flower Moon and Nightmares plus 10. I just noticed the plus 10 on there.
It's extra nightmares. Extra 10. Just to be sure I've had enough.
(00:58):
Have you seen the tag? I do. And now I'm like, I thought mine was a typo. I didn't think it was
an actual plus 10. It says nightmares plus 10. Oh, okay. Well, there is a modifier on the nightmare.
Listen. You don't know. Extra nightmares. That's funny. Meg. I'm on the struggle bus.
(01:19):
That's fair. Me too. I have not to date, I have not been able to finish a single project this year.
I have not been able to focus on a single project this year. So I started a new one because that's
how I roll apparently. So right now I'm working on, I just started tonight,
(01:43):
the Impressionist shawl by Helen Stewart. I've had the yarn for this for a really long time
and I just finally decided tonight was the night. And I'm making it out of Ash and Bumble
meadow fingering. And off the top of my head, I don't know the other two colorways,
but the one I'm currently using is called Water Lilies. It's a pretty colorway.
(02:04):
I love this yarn. I've had this yarn for almost two years now. And for whatever reason,
I have never picked up the, and I knew when I bought the yarn that I wanted it for this shawl.
That's why I picked it. And I just never buckled down and did it. But this is like a really,
it's a really user friendly pattern. One of the things I like about Helen Stewart's patterns is
(02:27):
that not everything is charted, but the directions for every single row and the stitch count for
every single row are knit out. No math involved at all. So like, you know, when you put down your
pattern for a while, maybe this is just me. I don't think it's just me though. And you go back to it
and you pick up your row counter and you're like, okay, I'm on row 60, but it's a pattern. And now
(02:47):
you have to figure out what row 60 was. You don't have to do that with this. You can literally just
look, it will tell you how many stitches you're supposed to have on the needle and exactly what
you're supposed to be doing in row 60. And I really, really love that about her patterns.
So we'll see where this goes. I mean, by next session, I may be doing something totally
different because it's just been my year, but, uh, Hey, you know, we're going with it. Jess,
(03:11):
what you're working on? I am working on between the dragon and his wrap by Kathleen Sperling.
And I'm on the last edge before the border or last border before the edge. I don't know.
So I've got like five rows left and then I start the garter and then there's actually decreases,
(03:36):
like there were increases of start and decreases then, and then I have to stick it. So we'll see,
we'll see how that's going to look amazing. It's massive. Every time I had to change,
like I had to do a new yarn thing. I did it in the sticking section. So I would have less to
worry about, or I was hoping I would have less to worry about. So there's a ton of just like
(03:58):
yarn ends hanging out here. Cause I'm not weaving them in if I'm just cutting them anyway.
That's fair. So that's how I did that. And, uh, yeah. So we are getting there. It is huge. Um,
it's like a blanket at this point. We're supposed to
stick it first and then block it. And then, yeah, it's weird. So, and then you like tie the,
(04:21):
tie the little ends and, and then, yeah, that's, that's how that goes. Are you going to, um,
reinforce the stick before you do it? Um, I might. So I'm using, I'm using superwash. So
supposedly if you're not going to do like the crocheted, um, reinforcement, you can
(04:42):
needle felt. And I have plenty of those supplies. I guess we know what you're going to do. So I'm
probably going to do a very minor needle felt and see how that were just as sort of like, cause it
says you don't need to like basically the way this one is set up is you sneak it and you,
you actually want to unravel a bunch of it. And then you tie it like you basically create tassels
(05:08):
and you tie them all off. Um, you don't necessarily need the sneak edge, but I may, like I said,
do it just as a in case. And I've done all this work and I don't want to watch it. Just
also like stuff with the needle. Yeah, you do. So, well, you could, you could like stab it or
stick it or whatever. I don't know what sticking is. So just ignore everything I'm saying. I know,
(05:32):
but like, I don't know how to set it up. So just ignore anything I'm saying right now, but you,
could you do this set up part where you want the tassels to start? So what you basically do is,
um, you cut in between. So I know the people listening can't hear, there's this section.
That's all just like, it goes, why and you go into the middle of that and you cut it and then
(05:56):
you unravel it. So the lines become different. So, and then it's supposed to be pretty even on
both sides and you trim them. So that's actually quite brilliant because like a lot of the,
the sneaking is like, what do you, what do you do with those edges when you're done?
And it's kind of neat that they created this thing where purposefully leaving those,
those ends. Right. Like those, those bits hanging off the end. It's cool too. Cause it's like,
(06:21):
you know, you can do color work without having to do like a garter type color work thing,
which I hate doing. So it works out. Tina. I'm doing the same thing as Dreya. The end. No,
I'm actually, I can say this. I am closing it. I have two, no, no, no, one, one repeat of one set
(06:47):
of repeat to do before I'm at the spider butt. Ooh, spider butt. Yeah. Give yourself a hand.
Thank you so much. We are almost there. No, because I've actually, I've been in this section
for a very long time where Dreya flew through that section in like three days. So, um, so yeah. So
(07:09):
it took me a really long time to get through this section. Um, but I finally did. So I'm at the,
I'm about to hit the number to go to the last repeat. So I'm excited. Nice. That's it. Awesome.
And if any of you want to see pictures of our current projects or get more information about
pardon my stash, be sure to check out our website, pardon my stash.com for info, pics, patterns, and
(07:35):
yarns. All right. So this week we are going to talk about those, those terrible tangled
yarn experiences that all of us have at one point. That's going to be the entire episode.
(07:56):
Okay. It's all of it. All of it. Lots of sad trombones. Lots of sad trombones. We've all been
there. We've all been there. We, we, we have all been there. You don't know it because that's not
the thing that we post pictures about all the time. Although in hindsight, some of the things
we probably should, because I'm sure in hindsight, they're hilarious, but at the time, not so much
(08:18):
at the time you're wanting to throw everything out the window and burn it. So this is an episode
about laugh, crying about past experiences, things that we can actually look at and laugh about now
and not like stop. So, so yeah. Um, my, my, my personal fave was, um, when, when the umbrella
(08:43):
swift decided that the pins didn't want to be there anymore, I forgot to say you were there.
I literally just fell apart. Boom. Half of it collapsed. The other half was trying. It was
hanging on. There's yarn was, I don't even know what it was doing. Like half on half off it.
(09:04):
There were, there are things sticking out. Like you ever see an umbrella where like one of it
bees free of its confine of the umbrella cloth. Yeah. That's it. That's what it was kind of doing.
It was like sticking out that swift had given us several years of good, you know, good service.
You know, and it just, it decided to retire dramatically. Um, well then that's swift too,
(09:30):
you know, that was a beautiful swift. That was the one your dad bought me for Christmas. And the,
the one thing about that swift that always killed me was that it didn't clamp to anything.
Yeah. So you would be spinning and it would kind of be like edging its way to the edge of the table
and you're like, can you please just sit there quietly and not move? And it would be like,
no, here we go. It was like when you had the full skein, like when you first started,
(09:55):
it was fine. Cause it was held by the weight of the skein and as the skein got like less and less,
it started to do its shuffle. It started walking. And you're like, I either got to stop my mojo
and like push it back or I got to like play that game of chicken and see if I could finish this
game before it walks off the edge of the table. And you know what we've won some, we lost some.
(10:20):
Usually lost. It was a good swift. Pour one out for the swift. It was a good, it was a good,
I like the one we have now better, better swift, but yeah, that, that one, it gave us many years
of good service. It just, yeah, it did have the side dance and you know, it did. I don't know what
happened that day. It just decided it was like a pin just disappeared and the whole thing just
(10:44):
collapsed. It was, it was like slow motion. I saw the Pingo one, like one arm half collapse. And
then the whole thing, just the swift had like an existential crisis, like all at once it just
collapsed. It's like, well, my time is done. I have a story slightly related to an umbrella
swift, but I was trying to whine a skein of yarn. And so I went to go put it on the swift.
(11:09):
And when I went to go put it on the swift, I don't know what happened. I misjudged distance,
but I went to like put it on, I had it on one side and I went to go wrap it on the other.
And I completely missed. And the other side was just the edge of the table. So then the whole
thing just went completely down. And then this side decided, nah, I don't want to stay on. And
it just went down and it actually pulled the swift off. Cause that's where the clamp was. And it just,
(11:32):
the yarn weight just like completely, the blue one that you have now, yeah. Throw the rest of
the yard too. It was like, literally like, I was just, I was like, okay, this is going to be great.
And then I'll just, and that was the last time when I load the yarn, I don't load it from the
back. I go from the side where the edge is hanging off, not from the side that the it's on the table.
(11:56):
So that was the lesson I learned. So I have that swift now. Um, congratulations.
Let me tell you, it has burned me as well. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to, I didn't give it to
you for that. You just didn't have a swift at all. Before I even had it, like it was still in your
(12:16):
office at your house. Um, I think you guys were on vacation and I was winding yarn for Frank's hat,
the green and gray one. Oh yes. Yeah. And you know how like the swift doesn't stay on broiled out?
No, no, it doesn't. So it doesn't, it doesn't lie. So the, I would, to explain that there's a middle
(12:40):
part that is supposed to, um, clamp in the middle and hold the thing out. Yeah. It slides up like
an umbrella. No, I have a, I have one of those black like big clips that I put underneath it
to give it some extra. Yeah. It's a little binder clip. Like a butterfly. You know what,
go with what works. Yep. But when I was winding one of these skeins of yarn, you know, the,
(13:02):
the 100 Ravens that it is, Oh God, that middle clamp just decided, yeah, I'm not doing this anymore.
See ya. And like mid wind, it just collapses and it becomes like a complete tangled mess.
And I left it there for like an hour. Oh yeah. No, there is, there is no coming back from that.
(13:25):
Look mom, a center pole. Barlow came in and he was like, what's going on? Not now Barlow.
We're having dramatic, dramatic crying in here. I was so sad and Frank had come in because
I had gone upstairs to wind the yarn and I hadn't come down for a while and he's like,
I'm just checking on you. I'm inwardly raging right now. As you can see, things are going great.
(13:52):
So the fun part is the reason why you ended up with that Swift is because I got my squirrel cage
Swift, which if you don't know what a squirrel cage Swift is, is a free standing vertical Swift.
And it has two wheels that hold that hold tension apart to hold the yarn Hank in place so that you
(14:13):
can wind it into a cake. But let me tell you, even the squirrel, even though a squirrel cage
Swift has problems. Yeah. And the first time I would, so I wasn't used to, there wasn't no how
to on the squirrel cage. And I don't, and I don't know if there is at this point now that it's been
out for a little bit and it's gotten more popular. There's a YouTube video. There's a YouTube video
(14:33):
now. There was no YouTube video. I didn't watch it, but there were instructions. I disregarded them,
but they are. I can figure this out. I get to, I'm telling you right now when I got mine, there was
no instructions. The only instructions were to put it together, not how to actually use it. So I was
like trying to use it and I was like, okay, so I think I got the gist, you know, like make sure it's
(14:57):
tensioned. Well, so I thought I had it tensioned enough. I did not. Yeah. And so it was like,
Oh, you don't need me on this. And so I started spinning and then like, as soon as it started
spinning, it just, you know, and I went, Oh, my favorite was when I didn't like, I was adjusting
(15:19):
it and I forgot once I adjusted it because I got a good tension on it. So I forgot to actually
tighten the wheel. So as it's like going all of a sudden the wheel drops and I was like, Oh,
that was on me. I also don't always use the wrench. So this is a user error. Like the
Swift itself is amazing. You're supposed to, I never do. I never do. I just do, I do the double
(15:44):
pole where you hold one side and hold the other side and you twist it in opposite directions.
But I, I may use the wrench every once in a while. I straight up hold the knob on the other side.
And I just go, yeah, I cannot with you because honest to God, like you will sit there with a
(16:05):
stupid Lego booklet and be like, I will read every one of these instructions, but the Swift,
you're like, I'm just going to wing it. Like everything in my life, like listen, every leaf
needed to be in the correct spot. But here's the thing. Like I'm not a good directions person.
I'll admit that I really am, but you are. And that's why I'm like, I don't understand.
(16:29):
You just twist. I don't get it. And mainly because I know me and I don't know where that wrench is
right now. I'm pretty sure it's on the fireplace somewhere. I'm just not positive. I think that
is the thing I found the other day. And I went, I don't know. I didn't throw it out. I went,
(16:51):
it's just a little flat wrench and I know. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a little flat wrench. It's
very, it's very small. It's sitting on my craft table. I put it in a little box and I said,
I might need this later. Watching you two have this epiphany about this wrench is one of the
funniest things I've seen in a while. I'm just saying, you know, this, I will totally own up to user error.
(17:14):
No, same, same user error. Oh, that thing, that thing can yeet yard. If you don't have the tension,
right? Like it just flies. I mean, it does go at an incredible speed, which is good because you can
get the cake done fast, which is bad. If you haven't set it up correctly, cause it will,
it will literally fly. It will fly across the room. Um, take it for me and Jess, who apparently have
(17:39):
experienced it. It has, and I'm seeing they're like, no, that doesn't happen. What?
It's the yarns fault. You know what it is? It's, it's the yard dyers fault. They wound it wrong.
Oh my God. So can I tell you, you know, I used to do that all the time. I did that all the time. It
was terrible. I'd be like, Oh, who, who, who wound this? Not realizing that most yarn comes
(18:01):
and already like wound hanks. No, I'm telling you, but that's the thing. Like earlier today,
I was having a problem winding and I was sitting there and I'm like, I know it's not the dire.
Can, can these like manufacturers not do this? Like, can they not like triple weave in before
they tie the knots? And you know what? Like I, I do not have patience. That's not true. I just use
(18:26):
it all up at work. I use it all up at work. Like, and that is, that is unfortunate. Like, because
that's the thing I have to, I have to have patience at work. I can't just like haul off and yell at a
bunch of teenagers. I'll get in trouble for that. But then I come home and the last thing I want to
do is wrestle with some yarn because I will verbally abuse that. Just turn into a cake.
(18:49):
Cake times. I put you in the oven. You should be a cake now.
The Swift is an oven. The Swift is an oven. I don't know if you know this. Oh my God. And
sometimes when the yarn eats, I just told, tell myself that the yeast overflowed the pan and I
just put the, yeah. Okay. Oh my God. No, this metaphor is like running away from you. You know,
(19:13):
when we started calling these cakes, like Mariel would come up when she was, she was like,
maybe two and she'd pick it up and be like, delicious cake. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. And
it was, it was really cute. Anyway, that's a tangent. That's a tangent. I'm not the only,
I'm just, my mind is that of a two year old. So we knew that. Oh God. Yeah. No.
(19:38):
So I have an un, unswift winding, not, not a winding related tangle. Well, no, I wasn't going
to tell that one. I was going to tell any tangle. We just went on a no. So, um, back when I was
knitting, I was knitting calliope and, um, w my lovely friend, Mary, um, was encouraging me to
(20:01):
do two at a time sleeves. She had done them herself. She said, um, you know, here's a tutorial.
You're going to love it. You're never going to go back to doing sleeves one at a time. I said, fine,
I'm going to do it. And I did do it. And it is a fantastic technique. Highly recommend, um,
figuring out a way to do it when you're already using two yarns held together was an adventure.
(20:32):
Because calliope as, as written is knit with a, um, a strand of,
I believe it's merino and a strand of mohair. So you've already balanced, you're already doing
two balls of yarn, but then when you're doing two at a time sleeves, you multiply that by two. So
four balls of yarn and I'm sitting on the couch and I'm trying to do this and the balls are just
(20:56):
rolling everywhere. And Jess is just watching me just, I'm just swearing constantly as they're all
tangling in each other. And of course, because I was knitting calliope in a monochrome, they're all
the same color, which is just making things that much better. Um, and the tech, the, the technique
I finally came up with to handle this was I put each, uh, sleeves worth of yarn in a separate
(21:21):
Ziploc bag sandwich bags. And I just kept moving the sandwich bags around to me. I don't know if
that's a good get long enough. You can talk them up. You can talk them in, but they have to get,
I wasn't there yet because you're starting way up at the top. It was, oh my God, it was such a mess.
Um, anyway, the sleeves came out great. I was very happy with them when they were done,
(21:46):
but just figuring out how to juggle four balls of yarn while you're also learning a new technique
was, was not fun. And there were a lot of tangles. I find that with doing two sleeves and
with doing two sleeves at a time, it is easier to do at least five rows on each sleeve. Cause then
you can tuck typically, right? It gives you just enough of a, of give that you can tuck the yarn
(22:09):
for that sleeve into that sleeve. You do, you can get that underarm a bit tighter. You get,
you get rid of that hole. There's, there is an underarm technique that you can do,
but you really can't do it two at a time. You have to do it like in, like do that resolve the holes
first and then, um, yeah, there is a fantastic, uh, arm hole, uh, under armpit hole technique
(22:33):
on YouTube. I don't know the lady's name. It's just on my likes videos on my YouTube thing.
So I will find that out and I'll give it to you, Meg, to put on the blog post, but it is like the
best works every time makes my sweaters look a plus. Can't not tangling, tangling a bunch of balls.
I'm not doing that. Just put me in a little, go sit on the couch and think about what you did.
(23:03):
Give me a hat. I need a time. I'll sit in time out. Think about what you've done. Oh God.
Other disasters. Um, dude, remember that bamboo yarn I had though.
Okay. Yes. That was back in the pre ball winder days in the long ago in the, in the like second
(23:31):
year that we were all hanging out and knitting before time way back in the day. I actually got
a quote unquote fancy skein. That was a skein and not an already made into a ball. Yeah. Back,
back when we weren't buying, um, like this is back when we were still just strictly buying big box
store yarn that's already in a center pole ball. And we went to, I think it was hither and yarn.
(23:52):
Oh yeah. When it was still open and you bought that beautiful purple bamboo, it was beautiful,
beautiful bamboo yarn. And of course she has to sit down and hand wind it. Yeah. Because you know,
how else were you supposed to do it back then? I think I might still have a picture of that
on my Facebook. And if I have it, I'm going to put it up at the time too. Again, this was a long
(24:15):
ago guys. I don't even think I had a smartphone like you didn't have a smartphone until we were
dating. So what do you mean? Like, this is like 10 years before that. So that was like all the
things. So it was just like, okay, you open it, you kind of like put it on the floor in a circle
and then you wind it and you just like make sure the wind like goes in a circle. And I forgot what
(24:37):
happened, but I pulled really hard and the circle collapsed on itself. And it was just a mess,
but I couldn't cut it because it was nice yarn and I spent a lot for me on it at the time. So
I spent the next like two hours just slowly unraveling that stupid thing. I don't know if
(24:59):
I ever actually used that yarn at the end. No, you didn't because I remember a couple of years ago,
we were going through the stash and I pulled it out and you were like, oh my God, get rid of it.
But I still won and I rolled it into a ball, but you know, that was a time.
I'm not going to do the sad one because you won. I did. I won. I rolled it. It was a beautiful
(25:24):
little ball of yarn that sat next to its friend for the rest of eternity.
I hope someone did get it and are enjoying it now because it was nice yarn. I hope someone,
like whoever ended up with it, opened it and started using it and went, wow, what a nicely
wound ball. Nicely wound yarn. It's also bamboo. So, you know, as it's doing that, you know,
(25:49):
it's getting the little, the fuzzies that connect it to itself. And you're like, is this a knot? Is
this just, it's fused to itself? Like, fantastic. I was making a hat for, I was trying to make a
49ers hat. It was made out of alpaca yarn. This was before I realized I was allergic to alpaca.
(26:11):
Do it. Just do it. Just hit it. Hit the thing. I was, I was,
I was like, okay, here I go. And if you've ever worked with alpaca yarn, it sheds like a mother.
And it, yeah, it started shedding and then it decided, oh, you know what? I know you made me
(26:35):
into a cake, but all the shedding yarn you started tossing towards the cake. And now all the shedded
pieces are going to get tangled in the cake. Phenomenal. So then I was like, oh, it's tangled.
Let me untangle this. It wasn't tangled. It was like a shedded piece had attached two pieces.
And so it wasn't in a knot at all. It was just needed to literally be ripped apart. But because
(26:58):
it's alpaca, you don't know if you're ripping apart the yarn or you're ripping apart. You're
basically snatching it. What's wrong with that yarn? That is exactly what's wrong with that.
Yeah. I have that project now. I still haven't finished it. I've had it for over a year.
I was going to give it to somebody who was also a 49ers fan. Yeah. And, uh, I just,
(27:19):
I don't think it's meant to be. I think that needs to be burned.
I'm like in the decreases for the crown. Oh, wow. I'm in the home stretch.
She that alpaca just didn't like the 49ers. It's like, no, it's going to be, it fought its destiny.
Talking about barf. Dre is ball. Wow. Wow. It doesn't look like it's going to be that bad
(27:49):
though. It looks like it'll no, no, that's deserved. I'm going to pull it. Can you,
can you take a picture of that so that all of our listeners can see what just happened to Dre?
Yeah. Literally. All right. Yeah. No, pull. I'm going to pull it. It might. I'm going to try.
Here. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Oh, yeah. Let's see what happens. It might be an okay one.
(28:13):
It may be okay. Let's see. Let's see how it do. We're going to see. Okay. Oh, that's,
that's promising. Oh, I think it's okay. Yeah. It's separated. It's good. It just pulled out a
double inside. What about that side? What about that side? What about that side? The ugly side.
So, um, had a little bit of yarn barf. It resolved itself.
(28:37):
Hooray. It looked way worse than what it actually was. So, um, such a propos for this episode.
Needed just a little bit of barf just to go with it.
Everything, everything needs a little bit of barf.
(28:59):
Well, I mean, I could talk about when I've already pulled this project out, but I had a, um,
Oldenburg sweater, which was made out of like a mint yarn and the bottom of it. I was like,
I'm totally done with this. This is totally fine. No, it's not. I missed an entire stitch and it
rolled all the way back and I went, I went, Oh no. And so I was like, so I fixed it all the way down,
(29:25):
but then there was a color change at the, at the hem. So I was like, you know, we'll do,
I'm going to put a nut and I put a nut. Um, it's unraveled. The entire project is unraveled.
I, I, I unraveled on the entire project because between that and like, there was like a pulled
stitch in one of the sleeves and like, it was just, no, it was, it needed to come out.
(29:50):
I might make it again because I really liked that project, but I totally, absolutely. That was like
its own barf. I swear because like I had to like, refix it and then like, it just sat there with a
knot at the bottom of it. And I was like, fantastic. Fantastic. I think that's one of the most
frustrating things when you, you really want a project to work out and it just keeps having
problem after problem after problem. I don't have the patience for that. Um, if I keep having issues
(30:17):
with something, that's it for me. That's it. Like once I have corrected this problem, I think you
said once on an earlier episode, like three problems, I'm out. And I think that's fair though.
I think that is fair because it's like, I said at the beginning of this episode, I've been on
the struggle bus with knitting for a while and that's fine. But like when you're on the struggle
(30:41):
bus with one project, you kind of get to the point where you're like, how much effort and stress am I
really, am I really putting into this? And, and am I actually finding any joy in it at all? Yeah. Um,
and when you keep having issues with it. And that's actually what happened to me with the, um,
the Celtic myths shawl. I made a mistake and I mentioned this before we started the episode when
(31:04):
you were here earlier tonight and it took me like three weeks to go back and fix it. Wasn't a huge
mistake. And I went back and I fixed it and I'm like, okay, moving forward and probably about three
days later, I made another mistake and it was a bigger mistake. And I was like, you know what?
I'm just, I'm done. I'm done. I don't have the wherewithal to go back and pull this out.
(31:24):
I don't want this project badly enough. Like I'm all set. I still have not blocked that.
I still have the, I mean, yeah, me too. Really? Yeah. You haven't worn it yet. No. Oh, why?
I haven't blocked it yet. Okay. But why it came out so good. Why would you not?
(31:46):
So you're the only one that finished it. It's done. The ends are woven in. I just never blocked it.
Cause I did that project was so boring when I was like, no,
I've never heard her complain about a project so much. I mean, the whole beautiful piece, but oh
(32:11):
my God, I did mine so fast. Yeah. I, you know what though? Like, I mean, I say, see, but I did that
with, um, dark academia, but it's because I was like convinced it wouldn't fit. And that's why I
just didn't block it. I was convinced. Like I had a reason. I'm like, I'm not going to block it because
(32:34):
it's not gonna, I know this isn't going to fit me. So what's the point?
I just realized though, I never finished blocking my little like, I know, no, no, you didn't just
realize because you bring it up every three months and you go, I'm gonna block that. Yeah. No, because
I couldn't find the steamer because I have to steam block it. And I found the steamers like,
oh cool. I can do that. And then I put the steamer away and still haven't done it. Which project is
(32:55):
it? It is. So you remember her, I am her Morgana or I am dragon shawl. The one that, yeah, yeah.
It's like a, it's a mini one. It's like a cowl and she made that out of, um,
our yarn ranger in the colorway Morgan. So it's like this nice, like red and green color. That's
(33:15):
not Christmasy. It's more like autumnal. Um, but then you have like, uh, like a clamp on it, like
to close it. I gotta get that too. Jess, it's literally been like every couple of months.
You're like, I don't block that. I know, because every, don't do it because every couple of months
I see it in its box and I'm like, oh yeah. And then I moved the box and I don't see it and I forget
it exists again. But the talking about having stuff that has remained unblocked reminded me.
(33:42):
Oh my God. I think that's like the 19th time I pressed that button. Oh my Lord. I think,
I think you kind of have to get to a point where you look at a project and you're like,
not, not one that's done. Absolutely. But that you haven't done in a while. And you just kind of
(34:03):
have to come to terms with like, I'm not going to finish this. I'm not going to finish this. Wait,
wait, let me just rip it out. I'm going to play the noise first because that's how sad this is.
Hold on a second. Oh, pre trombone. Oh no. The silver can pour one out for the silver can.
I did wind it back up. Yeah. You know what? That was such great yarn though.
(34:28):
I've got a, I deserved a pro deserves a project that yarn. I'm glad you were able to be something
else. So for the silver cami that I actually had, um, two skeins of yarn held out for that. So I
feel like, and Dre, you could tell me this, how many yards on average does it take to make a pair
of socks, adult socks? So usually a fingering weight skein of yarn has like, what you usually
(34:56):
have about four, a little less than four 40, somewhere around there. And I can make a whole
pair of socks with a skein of yarn then with some leftover, depending on like the, the length of the,
um, of the leg. Yeah. Cause I think what I could do, what I could do is I could make myself a pair
(35:17):
of socks and I can make the girls a pair of socks and then we could have cutesy little matchy socks.
But then I would make socks for my kids who would not appreciate it and they would destroy the socks.
Well, you should make a pair of socks for you and a pair of socks for me.
Well, I will just make, how would I just make two pairs of socks for myself? How's that?
How's that? I don't need your socks. Just a suggestion.
(35:42):
How about I remember I'll make four socks and everybody gets one sock. How's that?
Beautiful. Y'all can share. Beautiful. Everybody gets a little sock. We'll use them as stockings.
They'll be part of my stash stockings. I have a womp womp sock story. Okay. Hold on.
No, you don't need to do it. So we've, we've talked before about, you know,
(36:05):
their wedding and Jess made shawls for me. She made shawls for everybody at this table pretty much.
That was kind of our plan from the get go is I helped pick the yarn and the patterns.
And then I said, go. And she made all the shawls. That was all of my contribution.
So as we got closer to the day, I decided I wanted to make her a pair of socks.
(36:29):
Because at the time I wasn't knitting shawls and I was knitting socks, which I don't knit anymore.
So I picked out, it was called spring forward. I think is the pattern. It's a really pretty pattern.
It's free on nitty. And I made it out of this beautiful yarn. And I cannot remember what the brand was anymore.
(36:50):
It was this, it was gorgeous Navy blue. It matched the vest that she wore for the wedding.
It matched the shawls she made for me. And they came out really nice. I thought.
And she wore them the day of the wedding and go back to the hotel room at the end of the night.
And she takes them off and I am for whatever reason. And I know how to do it.
(37:14):
But my nemesis is the Kitchener stitch. Like I can't do it every time I do it.
Something goes wrong and it falls apart. So we got back to the hotel room.
She takes her shoes off and the entire toe is gone from one of the socks. I ended her like it's, it's just gone.
Like completely unraveled. I noticed the hole when we were doing makeup. Oh, you didn't tell me.
(37:41):
Of course I didn't. Cause I was, you were going to tell me to take it off and I wasn't taking it off.
I wear those socks all day and night. That's really sweet. And I didn't know that. Yeah. No.
And I tried, I tried like, like a quick mend and folding it, but I could feel it like the whole night.
Oh, no. And I felt so bad. I'm like, I'm ruining it, but I'm not. And the other one was fine, but that one was like, ha ha ha.
(38:04):
Yeah, no, I don't know what it is. It's, it happens. And I said,
well, probably one of the reasons why I don't like knitting socks anymore, because
I will be so careful and somehow I will still screw it up. I'm also super acidic. So I mean,
and yeah, but that wasn't your fault. That was my fault. No, no, no. She melts jewelry, man. Like
(38:25):
literally her wedding ring is made out of, um, Damascus, Damascus steel, because she'll just melt
gold. Yeah. Gold is gone. No, she will. So you are a dragon. Silver is gone. It's like, or like,
you'll, I'll take it off and it'll be like warped. Yeah. Like why? So when we were, when we were
looking for wedding rings, we were like, we got to find something super durable. pH levels are stupid.
(38:49):
So yeah, but that wasn't, that wasn't your fault. That was my fault. That's me like messing up the
toe of a sock again. And I've, I know because I've done it multiple times. So did I fix them? No,
I didn't. She still has them. I didn't fix it. It's the memory of the sock. Well, now I know
it was the memory of the sock falling off her foot all night. And I feel bad. Anyway, it was the
(39:16):
thought that counts. I guess. Whatever. Oh, I got one. Oh, wow. I have a Francis story. Yep. It's
another sock story. Um, I was, you remember, so he was a baby. He was probably only about four months.
We'd probably only had him about four months. I'm going to keep you in this France. And I was
(39:37):
trying to knit. I was knitting socks for Jess and it was, I don't even remember what the pattern was.
I was really struggling with it. Like I had had to tear it out like three times and restart.
And Francis unnoticed to me, grabbed the loose end of the ball in his mouth and just ran. And the
(39:59):
whole thing fell off the needles and he just ran away with it. And that was the end of that. Like
I literally just got upset. I got upset. Like Francis didn't know why we were both upset because
he was a baby and he was like, I don't know what's going on. I'm just trying to play with some string.
Um, he's actually, I can't remember a time since then that he's ever tried that,
(40:24):
but he, it was like that one time and I was just like, you know what? I'm done. This is it. Like
that was probably the fourth, third or fourth time that something had gone wrong with those socks.
And I was just done. I never, I never tried to do that pattern again. Three times you're out.
Yep. That was, that was the end. When I was thinking about was I was doing sweater of swords
(40:44):
and he wanted cuddles and he jumped into my lap when I did not see him coming and landed right on
it and pulled the color work and took me a good 20 minutes of pulling the color work back because
it all disappeared into it. He also destroyed your, uh, shalawene. Remember he tore a whole
(41:05):
section out of it. Oh, that wasn't him. Who was that? That was baby girl. She jumped. Oh,
that was tabby. No, that was, oh, she was in my lap and she put her head back and then she pulled
it forward and her ponytail got caught on my needle. Oh, I thought it was Francis. So she pulled
one of the needles forward and it just pulled everything off. She had to rip back the entire
(41:27):
section, the whole thing back to the start, uh, yarn over twice and two together. And I could not
figure out in that where the drops is where it was. I gave it a good attempt and I was like,
Nope, you know what? And I was, and she was almost done. She was almost done with the section. She
had to go back and do the whole thing. I was like, that went away for like a day and then I went back
(41:51):
to it. But yeah, that was, I don't know if I would have recovered from that. I think that one was
tough because I hated that. I hated that section. I hate doing the double yarn over. Um, double
yarn over pain in the neck. They really are. It looks great, but I'm like, but it is, if you drop
it, it's like, Oh God, where is it? Which, which one of these is the knit two? Which one of these
(42:12):
is the yarn over part? What is happening? Yep. But do you remember like a billion years ago?
When you were living in Bristol? Yes. Tempest.
Okay. So Meg had a cat named Tempest. She was a black cat and she was an angry old lady even
when she wasn't old. Beautiful. Flawless. I was sitting on the couch and I was knitting a pair
(42:38):
of socks using socks that rock. It was like gorgeous yarn and a Tempest tried to like take
a bite out of it, which was weird for her because she never did that ever. That was like, like the
one time in her many, many years that she ever tried to bite yarn. So then I swatted at her
(42:59):
to get her away from the yarn and then she jumped up on the back of the couch.
No, no. She was already there. She tried swiping it from behind you. She reached down over your
shoulder. I thought it was next to me. No, no, no. Because when you did that, she actually like
looked at you for a minute. Like, you could see this cat was like angry that she got her from
here. You pushed her away and she, and she kind of like tipped her head and looked at you.
(43:23):
And then she took a, like took a bite out of the back of my head. She, she did. She looked at you
like, like this bitch. And then just, you could see her think about it because it was slow. Like
she legit just opened her mouth and took a very deliberate bite out of the back of my head.
She was not a biter either. No, she was not a biter. But her face was like the audacity. How dare you.
(43:51):
And she never did anything like that again. Like ever. She never, she never went after yarn. She
never chewed yarn or attacked projects. But man, like that one time, she was, she was mad. Like, oh man.
And that's all the time we have for this episode. For additional content and opportunities to
(44:15):
connect with the cast, be sure to check out our website at pardon my stash.com and remember to
tune in next time for more tips, knits and whips at pardon my stash.
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