?In which we hear many, many highlights from Madrona, consider the image of alpaca at the feeding trough, ponder whether the fact that we are knitters has caused us to make decisions differently,were thankful for finding knitting that once was lost, are illuminated by the wisdom that can come from a single gauge swatch (especially one that is garment sized), take a spin with Finn, consider what to do when massively bulky yarn is not really so bulky after all, and enjoy hearing from the greatest Dayne of all.
Dale’s Hat
First Prototype of the Entrelac Capelet
Seeded Pretzel Gauntlets
Marie knits!!
Preemie Hat complete with obscured cables.

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Five for Dinner
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More thanks!? To new and returning listeners, for kind iTunes reviews, and to stashmuffin aka Laura Rickets for the gift of her great design, Wavy Gravy.
Ellen waxed poetic about her Madrona experience.? She highlighted Susan Newhall and her Blended Intarsia designs, such as Verdant and Vitreous.?? It is worth a look at Susan’s reproduction Bohus project, Dean, which she worked as a dress.? She ordered extra yarn from Solveig Gustafson, proprietress of SolSilke, who feeds the Bohus addiction of so many of us.
Ellen also talked about classes with Brenda Dayne of Cast-On podcast fame (Top Down Raglan Design) and Catherine Lowe (The Wow! Factor).?? She spun possum fiber with Judith MacKenzie.? For info on how the brushtail possum is causing environmental and economic havoc in New Zealand, look here.
From winter in Tacoma, Ellen headed to the sunny south, enjoying the wildlife of Sanibel Island, Florida.? Jan stayed home on the farm and shoveled poop.
In the What Would Susan Ask design element, we discussed how knitting has affected our decisions.? Thanks again to Susan Dolph of the Knitajourney Podcast for letting us use her interview questions in our podcast.
In On the Runway, Ellen is juggling projects – her Great Dayne top-down raglan from her class at Madrona, her long languishing Umeshu, a version of Melanie Gibbons’ Hanami Stole (Jan finished her Sea Glass version of the same pattern years ago, though both twins started at roughly the same time), a new pair of socks in the Monkey pattern which she is calling Saki, and of course, she’s done a bit of work on her Blue Moons Cardigan and as she recorded, she worked on Rimfrost, aka Many Moments of Grace.
Jan described designing a hat for Dale out of the unusually constructed SMC Select Tweed Deluxe.? She also made gauntlets for Marie out of an SMC yarn, project entry on Ravelry coming soon, I’m sure.? She finished her design prototype, Stained Glass Cape.? She continues on her Death Spiral shawl (design by Erica Gunn).? In the design phase, Jan is planning a new shawl to use up every yard of the yarn she spun from her Fiber Optic gradient roving.
In Bitten by Your Knittin’, Ellen reported the savage bite of leaving Umeshu on an airplane, but the delight she had in Sun Country Airline’s lost and found service when they recovered it for her.
Most of Jan’s Finely or Finally Knit items were discussed in On the Runway, but Ellen got to report that Sockesan! socks are done and she is very happy with the results. Her verdict on Noro Kureyon Sock – thumbs up!
In Design Principles, Ellen discusses the many lessons in gauge she learned in Catherine Lowe’s class, and Jan discusses how gauge also applies to scale of the garment – a finer gauge allows for finer detail for a given size of project.
Ellen challenged Jan to design a bulky yarn for a Decibella cowl, Gale Zucker’s recent design.
Jan shared a recent favorite Embellishment – Mason (or Ball) jars.? She uses them for all sorts of fun purposes.
In 360 degrees, Ellen reports that she loves the yarn she spun for a Decibella cowl, but it didn’t turn out bulky enough.? Her current plan is to take some commercial worsted weight yarn and ply triples of it on itself to get the weight she needs for a massive cowl.? She loves the other yarn enough that she may still knit a lighter weight version of the cowl in it, too.?? Jan is spinning fiber from the Finn bread of sheep as she is considering choosing this breed for their farm.
Brenda Dayne is the featured 5 Minute Interview.
The twins fashion forecast looks forward to spring – the Bart County Mud Sale March 2 and March 16 for Jan and on into April (spring comes later to in Minnesota) for Ellen with a 16 store shop hop,? Yarnover (April 27), and Steven Berg’s Fiber Fest April 25-29.
Enjoy the episode!