Ep 109: Skulls, Friends, and Fun Fur for Grown-Ups

A Stitches recap with a Two Ewes twist. We'll let the others tell you about the popular knits at Stitches West. We fell in love with skulls, knitted plants and animals, and furry jackets! Plus we met some great listeners. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com. Join the community on Ravelry or email us with your thoughts. twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com is our email address or you click contact us on our website.

What did we wear on the Stitches West carpet?

Marsha wore her cardigan Cloud Cover and her handspun combo spin sweater made with Simple Summer Tweed pattern. Both patterns are by Heidi Kirrmaier.

Kelly wore the Mystery Knit Along with Cozy Up Knits using the Two Ewes Replenish Rambouillet and the Running Water cardigan by Claudia Eisenkolb.

What did we work on at Stitches West?

Marsha exclusively worked on a pullover Mountain High by Heidi Kirrmaier (again!) using The Croft Shetland Tweed by West Yorkshire Spinners that she bought at the The Yarn Cake in Glasgow.

Marsha has a finished object her Slack Tide Scarf by Poststitch for her brother

Kelly worked on Koru by Aroha Knits using the Dragonfly Fibers Dance Rustic Silk that she bought last year at Stitches. However, with three traveling stitch charts, it wasn't the best choice for social knitting. Anticipating the need for a second project Kelly brought an in-progress Mother Bear and a kit of leftover yarns. She got one bear to the point of needing some stuffing and started a second bear.

What did we see at Stitches

Ellen's Wooly Wonders has fabulous patterns including Daphne's Skull

Amazing Yarns is where Kelly found her dream project. New cast on!

Lady Dye Yarns had great colors and her signature "BadA$$ Knitter," Sheep Fro, and other bags.

Neighborhood Fiber Company is full of beautiful yarns as always. It's one of our favorites.

At Bay Street Yarns, Anne, spent some time talking to us about her Fire Relief yarns.

Knitting on the Fringe had a wide variety of non-yarn products, including Fair Trade felted bags.

New friends from Stitches

The Two Ewes met some great new fiber friends including Rhonda Waipahu who came to Stitches all the way from Pennsylvania, Noelle in the double knit class who recognized Kelly's voice, Drummer Girl Creations aka Drummergirlmakes aka Patricia was at the show with her two boys. Later the Ewes met Marisa Quiltotaku who came with their friend Marianne, and Pamela who they met briefly last year but got to talk with more this year. She came with their friend Alissa. They tried to talk the Ewes into going to the pajama party, but the Ewes couldn't stay up that late! They also met Sarah, Imagined Landscapes, gnome designer extraordinaire!

Madrona Fiber Arts

Marsha attended The Madrona Fiber Arts with her friend Kim. The show had a nice market. They stopped by the Brooklyn Tweed booth where Kim mentioned to Luigi Boccia that the sweater she made several years ago with Loft and developed holes. Luigi explained the company discovered the original Loft was too fragile and has reformulated yarn. He extended a discount to each of us to try the yarn again. So a huge thank you to Luigi for doing this and for those knitters and crocheters who may have had a similar experience, do give the yarn another try.

Recommendations

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble. This book reads like a textbook and takes both concentration and familiarity with the academic language of social justice studies. Kelly is really enjoying this listen but has looked up words, used the repeat button, looked up phrases,, and bookmarked clips a lot!

Events

We will be having a Thank You Patrons episode in March with patron appreciation drawings. To become a Patron go to http://patreon.com/twoewes. We have several levels of support for those who are interested. Other ways to support the show: tell others, participate in the group, leave us feedback.