I'm Drea. I'm Meg. I'm Tina. And I'm Jess. And this is Pardon My Stash.
Welcome to Pardon My Stash, a podcast about crafting within the fiber arts and how awesome it is.
Oh, thank you Steve. Ghosts.
Steve's here. Oh, ghosts. Steve's a ghost.
Before we get into today's topic, which is a banger, what are we working on this week?
Actually, it's been a little while. What have we been working on while we have been on break?
Let's start with you, Tina. Over the break, I did lots of things. I ended up rebranding
Finarina Knitwear to Finarina Designs. I did that mainly because it was odd to put my bags
and graphic art stuff with knitwear. It didn't make sense. So nothing really changed. It's still
the same products and patterns and stuff that I'm doing. Just a new name. I just wanted it to be
more encompassing. I love that. Also, I really, really wanted to change my logo because my logo
skills sucked like several years ago and I just really wanted to update it. I made the updated
one. It's got a lot of teal. Yes, I noticed. Teal. I did a lot of yarn saver stuff as well
and that's been going really good. With that, I also went and they had that bag sale going on
and my intention was to go in there to buy sweater quantities for four sweaters I have in mind,
not for right now, but just in general. Bag sale where? At our favorite friend's
village. They're having their winter sale. Are they? They are. I saw it on the Facebook.
I'm on their newsletter now so that's how I found out. That'll do it.
When does that run, Tilly? The eighth. I don't usually go to it every single time,
but this time I did because I did have four very specific sweaters that I want to make.
I went and got some sweater quantity stuff and then I grabbed some Malibri Co. because why not?
I mean. Why not?
Well, have you started or worked on any projects?
Over the break, I don't believe. I'm trying to think. I don't think I finished anything over
the break. And then for my current project, I have today that I've been working on when I've
been able to work on stuff. It is the Northward Beanie by Tin Can Knits. I'm using sugar maple
fibers, bulky weight in the colorway sugar maple. I know that's a lot of sugar maple,
but that's just how it is. The color is like orange with like a little bit of black in it,
like brownish black. It's a single ply, so there's like not it's a little loose,
but I kind of like it that way. It looks like fall.
It is. That's why I got it, because it does look very fally. So that's what I figure in my head.
I'm not I've tried to approach knitting with what I'm going to do later, not right now,
because if I say I'm going to do it right now, you're not going to do it. I'm not going to do it.
So I figure I'm like, oh, this will be a nice beanie to wear in the fall. And if I finish it
for this winter, fantastic. And if not, then it will be ready for whenever it is.
I love that for you, Jess. I built a lot of Legos.
Congratulations. They're awesome. And I started the catnip pullover by Andrea Rangel.
Rangel, I'm sorry, I'm butchering your last name. It's super cute. It's smug cats.
It's pretty good. And they're being adorable. And I'm using I'm using the critical hit dies
yarn sorcerer because cashmere and displacer and embers. Did you finish anything while we've been
on break? No, no. Lots of Legos. Well, I mean, I count Legos. You also finished your 30s.
I did. I am now into the 40s of my life. Congratulations. Why, thank you.
I've entered the 40s. It is thus far been disappointing. But that's okay. Well,
I swear I'd like consider the time the minute you turn 40s, everything starts to break. I don't
know why. Didn't you like sprain your finger like two days after? No, I actually sprained it like
two weeks before and it was just worse by two days after. So I finally was told to go to the
darn doctor and I did. But then I didn't have to pay for the brace because insurance covered it.
So that was nice. Less do you think she's old lady level grinding, I had to make the appointment for
her. Hey, she's still a child. But I drove to it alone. I'm proud of you. Wow. Meg? I've honestly
been sitting here this entire time and I'm trying to think about what I did in the last like,
six weeks and I'm struggling to think of what I did. You did some embroidery. I did. I did pick
up embroidery as a new craft. I did a, Jess gave me a like an introductory kit from Clever Poppy
where you've learned, I think it was like nine different types of stitches. And I finished that
in like three days. Did you like it? I loved it. I actually bought two more kits because they had a
post Christmas sale and I'm working on another one right now. I'm about halfway done with it.
And I am having a lot of fun with it. I'm not like, I tried to start to do some like on my own
without like a kit and I don't think I'm quite there yet, but I am really enjoying it. I did a
lot of walking over winter break. I hit my, my hike goal and step goal for the year. So that felt
really good. In January? No, in, in for December. Like I'm talking back to Christmas. Like, oh,
oh yeah. No, I had, I had a mileage goal and I had a hike goal and I hit them both the last
week of December. So I was cutting it kind of close. I mean, you could have just let me think
that you made your, like all your goals in January. I was hella impressed. In, in keeping with that,
I had a, I had a rough start to the, to the year with my foot was really bothering me. And one of,
one of my resolutions for the year, my only resolution for this year was I was going to be
kinder to myself and I was going to try to make a decisions that were healthier for me. And I,
I made my mileage goal was going to be the exact same goal as last year. And after like three days
into the new year, when I realized my foot was in a lot of pain and I was giving myself a lot of,
a lot of grief for not keeping up with the mileage count every day that I was going to need to do to
hit that goal. I cried a little bit like a big kid and I readjusted my mileage goal. And I said,
you know what, if I hit this and my foot feels better, I'll extend it again, but I'm going to be
smart. I've actually the last couple of weeks, I've taken a little bit slow and my foot is
actually feeling a lot better for the first time in months, which is, which is great. Yeah.
I, I, I think I really needed to do that because I was so hell bent on like hitting that goal that
I pushed myself probably more than I should have last year, but I think two weeks has been really
good for me. So learned a lesson there. And work is work. We're halfway through the year,
which is fantastic. And I'm really happy about that. And I can't wait to get to summer, but
anyway, um, I tore out everything that I was working on the last week of, um, of winter break.
Did it feel good? It didn't. And it was, I tore out both projects because they both had mistakes
that I could not fix without either a ton of work or without ripping everything back to the point
where I might as well start again. And I said, forget it. Um, and that was when I did the
embroidery for awhile. Um, and right at the year was beginning, I pulled out a sweater that, uh,
it actually lets me do both. It's a standard, your basic standard top down, uh, decay knit sweater.
But it has embroidery on it. So I'm looking forward to that. Is that what you're working on?
No, it's called Malvara Rosa by candy key of expression fiber arts. Um, it's again,
it's just a basic sweater, but then there's, um, flower embroidery around the yolk, um, that you
do when you're done with it. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm knitting it out of yarn that I, uh,
had just die for about three projects ago. Um, and it's a critical hit dies warlock in the colorway
Vishka. So it is, it's an, it's not nice. It's soft. Well, I'm hoping it takes, but we all know
from past years, anything I start before may is a crap shoot. So we'll see. What about you?
I have started and finished up an entire project. See that's impressive. I am very excited for me.
I would like to thank me for believing in me, sticking with it, start to finish. I'm very
excited. This is, um, my coworker is about to have, uh, her second baby and I knit her a bunch of like
little things. I haven't finished making all of the little things, but I shouldn't say finish, but
I will. I still got like two weeks before she leaves three weeks before baby gets here. So I
got plenty of time. It's hats. I'm going to make hats. Yeah, there you go. Yes. Um, but the project
that I started and finished is the lion brand Martha Stewart's crafts diagonal eyelet baby blanket.
You knit it from like corner to corner, which I loved because it goes by really fast and it gets
bigger and then it gets smaller. It gets bigger and then it gets smaller. Like I could not ask for a
better project. Um, I used loops and threads, snuggly wuggly. Oh, and it's in soft lilac. It is,
it's a very pretty purple. It is a very pretty purple. I love it. She's having a little girl.
I'm very happy for me and I'm very happy for her, but I'm very happy for me because I did this so
fast. That is really fast. As always, thank you so much to Jimmy beans wool at jimmybeanswool.com
for being our sponsor. And if you're interested in more pardon my stash stuff, check out pardon
my stash.com. We got a blog where you can check out our current projects, patterns and yarns and more.
All right. I got the banger. Okay. We're going to have a lot of fun today.
Okay. You're actually going to have a lot. No, don't be scared. It's a lot of fun. We are going
to play a fun game. It's called this or that you already know the rules. I'm not even going to explain
it. I hope there are more rules than rules are this or that. Okay. Yeah. It's like the time that
you said, have you ever looked up the lyrics to tequila? I'm sure two seconds. I went, wait,
there's rules to this or that? Cause I thought, okay, maybe we do need rules. I thought it was
just like, I thought it was just in the title guy. Oh my God. I'm dead. All right. Just for
clarification, I'm going to give you two different things. You're going to pick this. You're going to
pick that. Okay. Whichever one you prefer. And then tell me why. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. I got a whole
bunch. You ready? Yeah. Listen to that. Knit or pearl knit. Why? I don't know. I just comfort. I
just prefer to knit over pearl. Dana pearl. Why? Easier in Portuguese style knitting. That is fair.
Jess knit. Why? Cause I like color work and knitting is easier in color work. That is fair.
There's an echo in here. What about you? Knit. And it's mostly because when I am knitting in the round,
I can just go. Yeah. I can just let her rip. Yep. No, I'm with you there. I have to think a little
bit more when I, when I have to pearl. So yeah, I much prefer knitting. Stockinette or garter.
Oh, stockinette. Why? I don't like the way garter looks. I'm so sorry. No, personally, not on other
people's stuff. Just like when I'm making stuff, I like the way stockinette looks over garter.
Okay. That's fair. I'm going to go with garter. Um, I like how squishy it is. It has a really nice
squish. Um, and, and I'm also not a huge fan of pearling. So just stockinette. Why? Because it
gets bigger faster. Oh, that's fair. Yeah. Garter kind of collapses in on itself. It does. I am
still going to go with garter myself though, for basically the same reason. Like I, pearling just
is not my favorite. It's not mine either. Um, and if I were honest, uh, this baby blanket that I just
finished is half garter, half stockinette with eyelets. And, um, man garter, those garter sections
were flying. Oh, they're so good. Yeah. I enjoyed it so much. It's going to get a little harder from
here on out. Oh, okay. Okay. Moss stitch or seed stitch. Moss stitch alternates every other row.
Oh no. Seed stitch. Yeah. Um, I'm going to do seed just because I, I, again, I'm going to go by look.
I like see the way seed stitch looks over moss. I like to have the attention. I don't have the
attention span of like, I agree with that. I cannot like, at least with seed stitch, it's easy. You
just look at the one underneath it and you do the opposite. Exactly. No, that's how I, that's exactly
how I feel. Jess, I hate them both, but too bad you got to pick one. I kinda like the texture of
moss stitch better because there's a little bit of more space in between. So you get the squish,
but the soft at the same time. So I do like the look of moss stitch. I will never do it.
I appreciate you, but no, someone else did it for me. It is not for me. I like looking at it,
but I, again, I do not have the attention span to figure out where I'm at and what needs to come.
Next. I don't want to look at that. No, I don't want to think too hard. No, same. I think a lot
during the day. This is not what I want to think. I know. I just want to like relax and watch TV,
go and knit. Yeah. No, I'm with you there. Ribbing or brioche. I've never done brioche,
so I'm going to have to go with the ribbing. Brioche all day, every day. I'm doing ribbing
right now and I wish it was brioche. So I too actually have never done brioche. I have a couple
patterns saved that I want to try eventually with it, but I know I hate ribbing and I don't hate
brioche yet. So I'm going to go with brioche for now and my opinion may change if we do this game
again. I love the yet. Just throwing it out there. It's got to be qualified. As a disclaimer for
brioche, it's a pain in the butt to set up, but once you're rolling, you're rolling. I agree.
And I'm also going to go with brioche for that exact same reason. Ribbing is just terrible the
whole time. That's fair. There's no break. I'm just going with, I know what I don't like to do and I
don't yet not like brioche. I also just love how squishy brioche is. It is so squishy. I have made
so many hats with brioche and man, I need like 10 more. I know. I keep meaning to do projects with
it and then I get distracted by other ones and it's just still in that stasis loading. Maybe we
should try to do one project together so we can both decide if we hate it together. That's fair.
You could always do my high vis. It's a very simple brioche. Very simple brioche. It is. Basket
weave or Entrelac. I've never done either to be perfectly honest. No? I mean, I know what basket
weave is. I've never done a pattern that has basket weave and I've definitely never done
Entrelac. All right. What about checkerboard? I don't think I've ever done that either. No? No.
I don't think so. I don't think so. I'm trying. I'm racking my brain. I know that I have definitely
done a scarf with checkerboard. I hated it. Yeah. It seems like the novelty would wear off after
about two sections. It was real fast. Yeah. Yeah. Just because basket weave and checkerboard and
all that nonsense is a pain in the butt. I'm going to go with Entrelac. I've never done Entrelac.
I had to double check because I thought I had done basket weave and I have. You know what project
was a basket weave? I remember. It was my sparkly blue cravat because I got sick of it after row 15
or something. Actually, it was longer than that. It was about the length of a forearm. I feel like
Entrelac looks awesome. I feel like I will run into the same issue. But if I'm going pure looks
wise, I kind of like the Entrelac diagonal. I think that looks pretty cool. The basket weave,
I feel like depending on the project, it'll have a place. But the Entrelac to me just looks a little
cooler. So I would go with that. But going with the, I know if that's all that pattern is, I am
going to cry. Well, see, I have, I mean, one of the earliest projects that I have in my Ravelry is
an Entrelac project. Really? It is. I don't want to do that one anymore. Dude, that's from like 2008.
I know. It's a blanket. Do you still have it? Or did you frog it? No, no, no. No, it's just in my
Ravelry. I thought you meant you started it. No, no, no, no. I did not start anything. It's been in my
projects where you're like, yeah, that looks cool. How many times do you do that? Do you add stuff to
your queue or your favorites and then you look back, you're like, whoa, no, absolutely. I will
never do that. But as I was coming up with the this or that's for tonight, I did find a different
pattern on Ravelry and it's a hat that is Entrelac. There you go. And I really want to do it. That
might not be too bad because you got to think, yeah, it's shorter. It's got the decreases, so
it'll get smaller at some point. Yeah. And they had the way that it looked like each diagonal,
like each little square was a different color. Yeah. Yeah. And I loved that. Yeah. It's like
it looked patchwork. I loved it. So I might consider that. I'm not going to say that I'm
going to do it because that's fair. I say I'm going to do stuff all the time and then I don't.
Feather and fan or herringbone. I've never done herringbone, so I'm going to go with feather and
fan. Did you like it? You know, it's one of those things that I think that I liked it like for an
edging or something like that. If I had to do like a feather and fan scarf, I think that would do me
in like it's another one of those like it's only a couple of row repeats, but I think it'd be very
pretty for like an edge or like a small part of the project. I wouldn't want to do it for like a
whole thing. That is fair. I did. So Jess and I both got the same sparkly blue yarn and I started
a scarf in feather and fan and I didn't even make enough for a cravat. It gets tedious after a while.
It does. It looks really pretty. It does. It is a bit tedious. It's not my favorite. Yeah. Tina?
I honestly I had to look at feather and fan because I don't think I've done it before,
but that looks like a huge pain in my butt. So I'm going to go with the one I've actually done before,
which is the herringbone. See, I had to look it up because I heard feather and fan and I thought,
well, yeah, I do that in crochet all the time, but I'm like, it's a little bit different. People
are thinking about knitting and I had to see and I done it in knitting too. I have tried the herring
bone in knitting. I don't like the way it looks actually. I feel like there have been some patterns
where they use it and it does look cool, but do not like it personally. And feather and fan I can
do in two crafts. So I would go with feather and fan. See, I've never done herringbone and I feel
like that's one of those stitches where you have to have the exact right needle size for the yarn
that you're doing. The exact right gauge and needle size. It has to look right. Yeah, that's fair.
No, that is fair. I was going to say for me, it has to be the right project. You can't just slap
that on anything. It's got to be really thoughtful. Yeah. And I would want to use it right and I would
want it to look good because it looks like a tedious stitch and I don't want to put that much
effort into something to have it not look good. Lace or color work? Color work. Color work. Oh,
wait. Now I'm talking about lace pattern knitting, not lace weight. I'm going to change it. Hold on.
My initial reaction was totally lace weight because I just completely blaked out. I just
heard lace and immediately went brr. The other one. Like as stitch patterning. Gotcha. Yes.
My reason I do not like knitting lace and it's mainly because I swear to God and Jess has seen
this live and it's awful. When I make mistakes, if I can't immediately understand how I made the
mistake, it is like I have a complete mental block and I cannot figure out what I did. You make a
mistake in color work, it's so easy to figure it out. It's also really easy to fix it. You just
literally drop down and change the color. Lace mistakes can be catastrophic. They can be.
And if I can't look at it and immediately figure out where I screwed up,
I just, it's like a complete mind blank. So I'll always pick color work. All right.
What do you think about it, Tina? All risk, all reward, go with the lace.
Because you know what? You're right. You do live on the edge the entire time.
Cause you know, you're like, ah, maybe it's been four rows. I could put like a, you know,
what's it called? A lifeline and stuff just in case. Or I could just go to row five and see what
happened. See where it takes us. I like the way that lace looks. So I'll go with lace.
Just, it's so hard because like most of my shawls are lace and most of my other stuff is color work,
but I did do a color work shawl. So if we're going by the amounts that we do it that way,
I guess I do color work more. But what you enjoy more. Yeah. It's hard because here's the thing too.
I usually prefer the look of lace and shawls, but I do like doing color work because it kind of flies.
I get multiple colors and usually I pick dragons. So dragons come out of it. I mean,
you can't go wrong with dragons coming out of it. That's fair. Um, personally, I would probably go
with the lace. I always liked the look of lace, the potential for tears. See, I love the look of
lace, but that's why I avoid it is the potential for tears. I don't know. Every once in a while,
a good cry is good. It's healing. Lace is one of those things that like, once you mess up and
you've had that horrific moment where you've had to tear back like so many sections, it's,
you can't touch it for a while. Yes. But you do go back to it. Yeah. And when it works out,
it's like, oh, yeah, that's a good feeling. Yeah. Like nothing beats a good finished lease project.
Yes. Yeah. Like the sense of accomplishment, eight plus bobbles or newps.
All of it sucks. I mean, it does all suck. I've only ever done bobbles though. So I guess I got
to go with that. What weight yarn? Doesn't matter. You choose, choose your own adventure.
If I am doing a new pit, better be light. And if I'm a bulky weight new, it's going to be like a
baseball. Can you imagine? I'm just. Preferencing. That's why I asked what weight and she said,
whatever. Seven dog. Seven top, super bulky. God, it better be light. No. And then for a bobble,
I really like, I actually like doing bobbles in, um, I would say fingering or less, but yeah,
I mean, a newp is a nope, right? I think that we've determined. I agree. Newps are no,
but have you tried it in bulky? I will, I will go bobble instead of a new,
but I'm glad I gave everyone that visual. Yeah. Cause I forgot. Cause, uh, a bobble is you
increase, right? And then you increase into the same stitch. And then the newp is just yarn overs
that you pull together. Yeah. Guys, this is awful. I'm going with newp. Well, most often newps are
done in fingering weight. Exactly. And, um, I kind of liked the look of the, of the lines rather than
the poofy knits. And I, you know, I, I use lace needles all the dang time. So they make the newps
a little bit easier if people are looking for hints on that. Um, I am also going to go with bobble.
I'm in team newp is nope. Um, but I also have really fond memories of learning how to make bobbles on
the Dwarven battle bonnet. Oh man. Back in the day, back in the day, like, did you make like eight of those?
I did. You know, I made one and then there were so many people that I knew who were just like, yes,
that's, that is the hat. Make me one. I remember you had a whole Facebook album for your Dwarven
battle. And the pictures got funnier and funnier. They did because I started modeling them. Yes.
They were hilarious. That is also like, if you are looking for a really fun pattern just to do
the Dwarven battle bonnet to the second one, I really enjoyed the second one that that is a plus.
You cannot go wrong. All right. Now that we've done like stitch work, let's get into like hardware
and stuff. Okay. Okay. Circulars or straights. I know I already know the answer to this one. I know
we already have a sticker. Okay. Next question. Fine. Down with the straights. Circulars forever.
Hold on. I can make this harder. If you're doing like small circumference, circulars or double points.
Actually that is in my, that is on that is that is that is on my list. But it's, it's a good,
it's a good time to insert it in. I think I would much rather do the magic loop with two sets of
circulars. And I only say that because I have a lot of experience doing double points with all those
socks that I've made in the past. And the number of times that I have had stitches slide off one
side or the other. Like I would much rather do the extra circulars. I just, this is maybe judge worthy.
I don't, I just, I just do it on the big circular and I just keep pulling it and it's awful. But I
am sitting there on the couch going, Nope, I'm not going to go get the double points. I don't even
know if I have double points in this size. So we're just going to make this as uncomfortable
as possible. And yeah. Okay. But we all do that. Do we, this is not just me. I do that. I'll be
completely honest for the longest time. I thought that was magic loop. Oh, okay. Was everybody being
lazy? No, I know it's not. I'm just saying back in the day, I used to think that was what magic loop
was. That's when you gave up and you just kept pulling the wire. You know what I feel, I feel
better about myself now. Cause I'm just sitting here like, I am not getting up. It's its own brand
of magic. It's the lazy loop is what it is. I love the lazy loop. If y'all use the lazy loop, fess up,
join us. Yeah, listen. And then, you know, but it's funny because at that point you have that
circular set where the wire is much more malleable because you've been literally, it's been clinging
for dear life as you finish your hat. Yeah. Yup. Yup. No, that's a thing. That's a thing. Oh,
I love the lazy loop. The lazy loop. I do. It's so good. I see, I actually like using the smaller
circulars because if I use double points or even when I use the lazy loop or the magic loop,
wherever it kind of like meets, I cannot figure out how not to get like the seam looking part.
Yeah. You get like a, almost like a ladder of stuff. Yeah. And like a lot of times it does block
out, but not always, not to the, so I prefer as least amount of that as I can. So if I can get away
with just doing a circular, I will do it that way. And if I have to, if I do have to use double points,
I like the shorter ones, which I feel like I'm wrestling with a hedgehog and not a porcupine.
So it's less painful. That's fair. Less spiky. Knitting charts or written instructions.
Charts all the way. Depends on the pattern. Yeah. If it's a really basic pattern, don't give me a
chart. Come on. Oh yeah. If it's, if it's just like, you know, four different stitches repeat.
Yeah. No, I don't need a chart, but if it is like, I don't like it when it's like actually like a,
relatively complicated with lots of increases and everything. And you don't give me a chart.
Yeah. If I see something that looks complicated and then I say written instructions only, I'm
not going to do it. Yeah. I'm just not, I think it's more like use your, use your judgment wisely.
Yeah. You don't always need charted instructions, but if it's going to be more complicated than a
simple knit pattern and a couple of rows. If your instructions fit on more than one line for a
single row, you need a chart. Yeah. Oh, definitely. Definitely. That's kind of my, definitely my
advice. Yeah, definitely. Um, but yeah, so I'll go with, uh, I'll go with chart just because if
it's that complex situation, but again, if it's way too simple, please don't, don't, don't chart
that. That's a waste of paper. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm, I'm in the same boat. I mean, there were,
I want to say for the, um, what is it? The enchantment shawl that I did, most of it was
a chart, but then there were sections that were written and they were like four lines long. And
it was like, why would you do this to me? And so I get, it was in a book, so I printed it out the
page so I could go down and move. And it was like a repeated section and I had to keep moving. That,
that was kind of awful. I see why they did it. Cause I don't know how they could have put it
into the chart, like looking at it. But at the same time, I was like, this is so hard. Um,
other than that, yeah, I agree. If it's, if it's a super simple one, just, just write it out. It's
usually fine. Um, color work, please just do charts, do a chart for color work. Oh God. Yeah. No,
you have to. That gets tough to read. There's color work without charts. No, and it's just
be like CC, MC, CC, MC. And there's numbers. And if you lose, like if you look at your,
and then look over and then you lose your spot, it's like you can't panic. Yeah. I would not.
I am counting and recounting all the time, trying to make sure I'm on MC and not a CC.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that's horrified and didn't know this because I did not know this.
I have not done many color work, like anything, but like that sounds like a nightmare. Most people
will do chart only some do both. And I have run across a few that are like, here's the written.
And it's like, it would be so much easier just to color in a grid tech editing that you couldn't pay
me enough to tech edit that pattern. No way. I mean, if you want to do the written, that's fine.
But at the end of the day, like just do the chart, man, especially if it's color work, it's just,
I feel like it's so much easier to make a chart too with, with just colors, but okay. You do you
boo. I much prefer a chart for almost everything. Yeah. At least something even because a lot of
times it'll have a chart and a written and every once in a while, if I feel like I'm confused or
I want to make sure I'm doing it right, I'll go to the written just to make sure. So having both is
nice, but yeah, I feel like a lot of times I find the charts just a little bit easier for me. And
again, that's easier because I'm more visual that way anyway. So I have an easier time finding where
I am on a chart than in a written portion. I agree with that entirely. And for people who
haven't worked with charts yet, or you're nervous because you've only worked with written or you
don't really understand charts, uh, take the time to like learn the symbols. Cause also like charts
are not as scary as they initially look. No, always check the key though. Cause some people
use different things. So don't just automatically assume you know what they're talking about and
check which direction it's going. Sometimes they go different directions. Yep. Yeah. I know,
I know they all could be different. I'm just more saying like if just in general, like take a,
go find a simple color work or something that has a chart and just look at it and just like see if
you can see what they're trying to tell you to do. Um, color work's probably an easy one to do.
Cause there's not like it's, it's like, do that color or do this color. But like if you want,
and then if you want to like get into something more complex with like actual stitch differences,
you could do that. But I love cable charts. I will add though. Okay. I have to admit just,
just thinking about it. I prefer crochet written. Oh no. Crochet charts are the devil.
No. And the biggest issue is, is that sometimes it's just hard to tell what they're showing and
where the stitch starts in the next row. Um, and so it can get really confusing. Um, once I already
know the pattern, the chart is fine. Cause I'm like, okay, I know where I'm at. But when I'm
first doing it, I'm like, do they want me to start with a double or a triple or does that sound
completely different? Because the things all look very similar and they're very close together,
especially the more intricate you get, it's, it gets a little scary. So crochet, please,
please add a written part to your crochets. Cause that's awesome. If not, that's fine too,
but I'll cry more metal needles or wooden needles. I'm a big fan of metal. What about plastic?
I can live with plastic. My, I have a lot of inherited plastic needles from my grandmother
and, um, even some circulars and I don't mind them. They're not my fave, but I don't mind them.
I don't really like wooden though. I'm always afraid that it, and it's happened,
like it's a real fear. It's based in fact, I sit on my needle sometimes and the wooden ones
do not survive. My, my, my rear is ample. Well, it will take those needles out. So definitely
metal all the way for me. Yeah. I'm stuck in limbo again because I have different reasons
for using wood and different reasons for using metal. Yeah. You do go back and forth. I do.
When I'm using something like this, that has a very little ply, you better not put this on wood
because that's going to be pain in the butt getting caught in everything. Um, but if I'm using like a
cotton that's going to fall off my metal needles, then yeah, I'm going to want to break out my wood
ones. That's fair. Also severely depends on the project I'm working on. Cause like, if it's like
a project where I'm having like a really long row, um, I actually prefer the wood over the
metal because it just helps, holds better for me. Like if I'm, if I'm having like,
I have a hundred stitches or something more on a row. Um, but if I have to pick,
I don't like this one. Um, if you could only knit with one or the other for the rest of your life,
we'll go extreme. I'm going to, okay, then I will say wood. I'm not going to do metal.
If I absolutely had, I'd be grumpy about it. I'm going to be grumpy about it, but yeah,
I'll go wood. Well, don't let them around me. Our cats eat wooden ones. Yeah, they do. They chew them.
That's right out. Honestly, like depending on the plastic, I don't mind plastic,
but I have a tendency to warp my plastic ones after a while. You're laughing at me, but it's true.
Well, I think all plastic needles tend to like bend and warp after extensive use anyway.
Metal are probably the best here because I don't have to worry about jerks using them as floss and
then ruining the site. Also the plastic and the wood, like the wood is great if you're worried
about stuff, um, sliding at the same time. I've noticed with both plastic and wood, um,
if you're not careful, like it tends to get like, I can't explain it, but it, there gets like a film
on it almost. It doesn't matter if you wash them. It's like sticky. Also stores need to stop putting
stickers on like the needles. Oh my God. Yes. Yes. Oh, I hate that so much. Um, yeah.
Goo Gone is your friend, but even that, like it takes a while to scrub that off. Otherwise,
you know, it works better. Um, hand sanitizer breaks down the sticky stuff, but yeah,
metals probably my go-to. And that's also because I have a bias with lace points. Um,
I was just going to say what you brought up with the wood. I see, I find that with the cheaper
needles, if you get like a nice wood set, uh, you're not going to have that problem. Yeah.
I know exactly what you're talking about. Cause when I, no offense to clovers, but when I use
clovers and I use them for like a longer project for a long time, it's like, yeah, you get that
weird, like, yeah. Do you know what I wonder that it is? I wonder if it's like the oils from your
skin absorbing into the wood. Probably. Yeah. But I could tell, I can tell you my nitpicks,
I don't have that problem. My nice, you know, they probably do a better finish or something.
Like the clovers. Yeah. They just kind of disintegrate. I just like, uh, no, but the, um,
and I can't speak on any other ones. I just, for me, the nitpick ones don't have that problem.
I have exactly one set of wooden needles and it was like, I ordered them not realizing
that they were wooden. I should have because they were ebony. I remember you got those. Yeah.
I know. But I'm, I'm happy with them. I probably will not use them as often as I would with my
metal ones. Like I'm, I use them for the project that I was working on, but now I think, um, like
I do worry that I'm going to put them down and sit on it. That's fair. What a waste of money.
I enjoy them when I'm using them. Like having them is not the waste of money, but if I sit on them
and break them, that will be such a waste. Knitting with beads or knitting with sequins? Beads.
Because sequins are sticky and they bend if you don't do them right. And usually with sequin,
like unless you use a bead as well, they like go sideways and I don't like you get the yarn with
the sequins on them and they're all sideways and stuff. And I don't, they feel weird to me. I don't
like the feeling of them. They just feel scratchy. Um, beads, you know, yes, they're a texture, but
they're usually a smoother tag. I guess you could use the triangle beads, but I don't, so I can't
speak for that, but I agree with you on the texture thing. My mom used to buy me like
sweaters and stuff that had sequins, god awful sweaters. Yeah. Well, okay. It was the eighties.
It was the eighties and the nineties. And I hated wearing them. They had the worst texture. They're
also like scratchy. Like they, they, they are abrasive. It felt like a cheese grater,
like wearing a cheese grater. I did not like it. Yeah. No thanks. Yeah. Based on the yarn
that's come in with a sequence on it. I'm going to, I'm going to go with jazz. Jazz is correct.
Let's go beads. Yeah. Teen bead here. Teen bead. Knitting in the round or knitting flat. Do you
want to go back and forth or do you want to go round and round and round and round and round?
Which one do you think I like? I wonder. Round and round. It's really tough to tell. I'm easy. I'll
go round. It just goes faster. You just have to keep going. I really don't know on this one. I,
I like both. I don't think I could pick one or the other. Most of my projects last year were
back and forth, but if we're talking sweaters round. Yeah. Sweaters I'd go round because I
know I'm terrible at seaming and it's probably something I should work on, but I don't want to.
Eventually I'm going to have to work on it if I get back around to that blanket, but
that's on a pause right now. And again, cause I do tend to like color work and that is way better in
the round. Like, listen, I, I stick to things so I could do color work in the round and have it
flattened. But like if you're doing like those nice lace work shawls, like, yeah, go back and forth.
Yeah. You can't, you can't really knit lace in the round. It's just, it's just not quite the same.
No, it's not. So yeah, that one's a tough, uh, I guess if I had to, had to, had to choose,
to choose, I'd go round and figure out seeking better and how to make lace work the best I could,
I suppose. I think that's fair. And you can have like the best of everything.
I don't want to speak though. That's fair. You know what? Like I, I over Christmas,
we had a conversation about that. And I said, you know, I used to be like, I have to have like every
single one of these tricks in my wheelhouse. And now I'm just like, no, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to knit that. Like I don't need to be a complete knitter. I do not need all of these
things. And I feel like that's some growth there. Um, instead of being like, well, I really need to
like learn that skill. Uh, you know what? There are some skills I just don't care to learn.
Steaking just scares me. I do want to speak, but of putting in all of that work and then
losing it and not just losing it, but like cutting it. I steeped my swatch the other day.
Cause I didn't feel like knitting back and forth, but I still had to measure it as a flat.
So I didn't around and then cut it. What's wrong with you? I'm just impressed that you swatched.
Like, I mean, I am too. Here comes the purists that are like, well, that is not testing your gauge
flat. That's testing your gauge. The route. No, no, it worked guys. Well, I tested it for the sweater
that was going to be in the round. So I did have to do it anyway. Um, and do you want to see it
though? Because I totally didn't follow the directions. This is my swatch. It's so little.
Yeah. I didn't need it to be that big. I didn't realize you steeped that. Oh yeah. I was wondering
where the stick was. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, it's way smaller than I did half of the swatch. And then
I was like, yeah, that's enough. Um, and then I didn't do it right anyway, because I was supposed
to then do the color work in the size up and I didn't. And I just kept the color work on the same
size. I like the sweater though, guys, don't do what I'm doing. I know I'm not following the
directions completely, but it's gauged for me. Jess has a way of making things work out even if
you don't follow it the right way. It happened and the cats are cute and I didn't have the needles
and I want to make the cats. So, but I made a swatch. Oh, it was for this. Yeah. So, cause I
hadn't done, um, sorcerer before in a sweater. So I was like, yeah, I probably should check on that
a little bit. Like ranger I got down, but yeah, so I did do it, but I know some people are so going
to be like, yeah, but did you actually do it? I'm like, yes and no. Okay. There is an actual swatch
This is all, this is like 140% right here for me. Okay. Like I, yeah, if it makes you feel any
better, Jess, I am currently making this pattern work for what I have done because I'm not going
back guys. So I feel like, what did you do? Um, I just, I skipped about, uh, five rows, Tina. It's
not necessary. I'm gonna, I'm gonna put them in later. We don't need them right now. Those are
rows for later. Okay. It's just going to look a little different on the bottom. They are arriving
late. Okay. We've moved from this or that into true confessions. It's they're fashionably late.
No, you know what? And then I thought to myself, you know what? No, I don't even like those five
rows there. I'm going to put them later. Yeah. So I did it on purpose. That's what I'm telling myself.
Oh my God. I want the cable to start at the ribbing, not this little thing. No, I'm doing
Do you realize that if you said nothing, nobody would have known that you did something weird?
No, I'm just telling you, like I understand. I also wing my kids. Watch me. Oh God. When I got home today,
I told Frank what I was going to be doing. Uh huh. And I told him we're going to play this or that
for the podcast. Okay. And he was like, Oh, can I give you one? And I was like, yeah, absolutely.
A Frank question. It's a Frank question, but it's not this or that. Oh, because he didn't understand
what this or that was. Okay. He needed the rules. I guess there are rules for this. All right. So
what did he have? I think he thought I was asking for a would you rather question. Ah, okay. That's
all right. Which is a little different, but it's okay. It counts. But he came up with a banger.
Okay. For a year, a whole year, 365 consecutive days. Okay. Would you rather knit Spider-Man onesies?
Well, I wonder where the Frank part comes in. Or knit pants for Bruce Banner, knowing that they will
be ruined every time he turns into the Hulk. And these are the only projects that you can work on
for an entire year. Do the pants. Can there be some variety in the pants? I'll say yes. I'm going
to go with the pants then. At least I'll get to knit different things and I won't get bored. The
Spider-Man onesie I think is going to get old. Oh, but think of all the color work that you can do.
And there's so many variations. I could do variations in color work on Bruce Banner's pants.
Listen, are these adult onesies or baby onesies? This is also a really good question. They are
teenager onesies and he's like super skinny. Oh, for the Spider-Man. Or for the Spider-Man.
Okay. How many does he need? A year's worth. What I can make in a year sounds like one. All right.
I'm down for the onesie. Do you know what? That's what I told Frank too. I was saying,
are we going to take me a year to make it? We're not talking Peter Parker. We're talking like Miles,
right? He did not specify. Either way, it's a tiny man. No, dude. Peter Parker is bigger. Okay.
That's what I mean. Miles is a wee thing. I don't even know who Miles is. So there's that. He's the
new Spider-Man. Oh, okay. I don't know. They're all tiny men. Whether you want to say Peter Parker
is a big man or not. I'm telling you, Pat Gleason just walked in the room and he said he's small.
Yeah, I had no idea that was a person. Well, I don't know enough about Spider-Man. He did not specify
which Spider-Man, which I am taking to mean it leaves it open to interpretation for
whichever Spider-Man onesie you would want to make. Lego Spider-Man. Got it. There it is.
And I'm only making one. With size like zero, zero, zero, zero needles. Okay. But here's,
I'm dead. I'm done. Here's the thing with the Hulk ones. Just to throw this one out here,
okay? Because you got to try and think about it. And when the Hulk and like all the shows,
he is not hulking out in knitted pants. Okay. Those are like polyester, whatever kind of
garbage. So one has to assume like knit things do grow pretty, pretty well if you use the right
stitch. So if I made one with a whole ton of crazy ribbing in it, maybe he wouldn't split them.
Yeah. That begs the question though. How does the pants get bigger in the first place?
This is a good point. Everything else is splitting, but the pants tend to stay on.
And we're grateful for that. I'm based on the cartoon I watched. Looking at it, that leads me
to believe that his calves get really huge, but his thighs and like waist in comparison only get
so big. It's true. It's true. Like he's skipping leg day a little bit. He does have a much smaller
waist. Sure. He's a Dorito. Yeah. And then his calves are pretty, like his feet and calves are
pretty massive. This is the best question. Thank you, Frank. I'm not going to lie. When you said
you started with Spider-Man and I was like, how could this get better? No, I was, I was waiting
for knitting something like a onesie for the Hulk, not the Hulk for Godzilla. I was waiting for the
Godzilla question because I, we all know Frank loves Godzilla. He does a lot. He does.
That, that I was surprised by the Hulk. The Hulk threw me. He did not bring up Godzilla at all.
I was very impressed. That's different for Frank. Yeah. I'm still going to go with the onesie because
I don't understand the physics of the Hulk. That's fair. That's fair. I don't understand.
I think I would also go with Spider-Man just because I do think that it does like open it up
for like variation. Sure. There's, there's so many different incarnations of Spider-Man. Exactly. You
could do a whole bunch of different ones. Listen, if I could come up with pants that like Tony Stark
could not figure out how to make for the Hulk, I would feel accomplished is all I have to say.
That's fair. Same. Same. Man, we should have Frank ask more questions. Like that was a good one.
I mean, we have talked about doing an interview with Frank and Patrick. We should do that.
I'm sure Patrick will have not great questions at all. I don't know. I think Pat will be a surprise.
I'm waiting for him to crack out a good one. Like I feel like he might. Guys, I'm nervous. We can't
put Pat on the air. My husband is, I love my husband. He is, his humor is dark and crude.
But we, but we are not live. We are not live. That's true. So you just might hear all these odd
pauses in between all of his questions. And that's going like, okay, great question.
That is next. Maybe one day I'll bring Frank.
Thanks for tuning in this week for our game show night. We all won. Did we though, or did Frank win?
I think Frank is the like top winner. Well, anyway, for additional content and opportunities
to connect with the four of us, check out our website at part of my stash.com and be sure to
tune in next time for more laughs, loves, llamas, and maybe some more game shows at part of my stash.