Episode 247: Wool Hair, Improv Crochet, Almost Finished Fading Diamonds Cardigan

All right, let's do this yay! It'S like good morning, good morning, um continually stuff around the shop as i go. Welcome to the sun dragon sideshow hello. I almost said the most dangerous show of the week, but that's tomorrow. No, this is the uh adventures of lisbon, rebecca. It looks like you're having adventures today, i'm trying to do a messy bun, which means then yeah a it's. It'S too messy. Now it doesn't work with a mask like it's almost cute, but not really, and that was the b the mask gets caught on it. I'M gon na gently well we'll see what happens hi. It looked good in the mirror this morning and then i moved right. How many people have not affected hairstyles, like that? It looks good. If i just stay here, do nothing anyway, yeah um, trying different bags, i'm getting bored with my hair again, but i'm not ready to do all the awesomeness that you do yet just yet so yeah hi, i'm rebecca, i'm the owner of sun dragon art and fiber In um sunny and we'll see brevard north carolina, i'm liz, i'm the minion there do. We know what the weather's gon na be today. I think there's a chance of rain every day through, like the end of eternity friday. Okay, when it's going to be like 90 degrees, of course, okay, so then there's that um yeah. So we had our sit and stitch this weekend and it was fun. Oh i i realized that um. I have more people calling me by my name at this shop because we have name tags, it's kind of nice. I think people like being able to address me by my name as they leave or come in, or you know whatever, oh, by the way. Speaking of names, i'm liz, i'm the minion there. Did you not say that i did not. I didn't i didn't i did. I thought you did. I i saw how funny and i meant to send it. I think you did because then i asked you about what no it doesn't matter. You introduced yourself twice and maybe anyway um so yes, like. If you're going to have a conversation with me, be prepared for seven side conversations and 18 squirrels, because you know that's how my brain works - that's kind of yeah, that's life right now, too, absolutely um yeah, it was it. This is our monday. I think we so often said that we film on tuesday, but it's our monday, it's our first day of the week, because yesterday i was still working on shop stuff, but the shop wasn't open um. I'M sure you've heard that before too. Oh, that's one of the sammy's okay. Over there, oh gosh um. We had our virtual sit and stitch on sunday, so it was a long weekend. It was both joyous and exhausting um. So yes, i have for coffee per usual every four to five weeks. So no, it was quite fun. I think um and i think our viewership on it on facebook rose after um after i published it, so some people retroactively watched it, which is always fun too. I i guess people find that entertaining it's just me. You get to hear uh zoom, but it's just it's i'm like hello. Let me try to hold my knitting up and you can see it yay. I i did the fun thing of trying to um rotate through projects and like every couple of rows or every row depending on the piece. I would try to stop and put it down and pick up a new project. So i think i made minor progress on a bunch of things. That'S a bonus um. My my biggest thing is right. Here, though, i'm almost done, i'm almost done with my card again, it's so exciting. So, oh i have a funny um. I have a funny avi story to tell and then we can talk about your stuff, okay, because i always like to start with liz. So i don't take up all the time. I don't have a lot of stuff. So well then, we'll go to my stuff, because i'm sure i could show many things so so the cat's gone back and forth between being nice and being cantankerous, as is his usual. He tried to sit in my lap several times on sunday and i didn't have a full lap for him to sit on, so it was awkward and i think people were entertained, but you know um, so i don't know like i. I left the house to go to a neighbor's house's porch for like a couple hours and came back and he was all bent out of shape because i was gone, but the car wasn't gone but like and he's like. Oh good you're back. I think he probably thought like a bear, took me or something yeah like when he wasn't watching um and so right before bed. He starts going into cat witching mode kind of he's, recovered from my crazy absence and he's i i can see that he's kind of stalking me at the top of the stairs so and - and one of my last tasks before i went to bed last night - was To clean out his litter boxes, so i was taking a plastic bag upstairs to get the upstairs one and, as i saw him coming at me, i was like oh no, oh no, you don't, and i just shook the bag a little bit and he freaked. Of course, because you know he freaks out everything um, i i probably should have been nicer and i wasn't, but i kind of like and he was coming across the top of the stairs. So as i go up the stairs coming across and i shake it and he gets really scared and he runs and just past the stairs, there are the doors to where his litter box is and my bedroom and that's where his social drinking is is, that is Between the two yeah right near the wall, and he ran really fast and i think had trouble making the turn he made it. But when what i see when i get up there is um is is, like you know, looks like the water bowl has been murdered against the side of the wall like in that it's just dark right. It'S a stain of water on the paint, but it's like splashed halfway up the wall and puddle on the floor and there's there's maybe a teaspoon of water in the bowl. Still it was full when he went past it and it's one of those little dishes like this right. So but it sounds like one of the cartoons where the cat is like tom and jerry or whatever, and you can see them running in place kind of thing. Yeah, it was um yeah and he's in the bedroom. Looking out at me, like i'm, still scared of you. What are you gon na? Do i'm just laughing because it's just like? Oh really, really, oh poor. Obviously life with my cat. Yes had a lightning strike! Last week, um right near the house and freaked both of us out, and he wouldn't talk to me for a while so um, because i was yelling because i was scared at the the lightning and that scared him so um. So what are you working on your big thing, your big thing for the weekend, yeah so um. All last week i had no hair. Did anyone notice? I don't know this week. I put it back in and oh those are pretty colors. I wish it showed up better on camera. I can again i can try to color saturate a little better. So what does that mean? Does that mean that they're not going to be as pretty no, i washed it in um, i always wash it in on tuesdays. Yeah after i put it in so it might just get fluffier it'll get fluffier. The colors will be a little brighter anyway, they're very pretty um mom asked she goes. Do you have a dress picked out for this and i was like yes, i'm going to wear my birthday dress and it's my dad's birthday and i was like no, not my birthday suit, rebecca won't. Let me go to work for my birthday, but i don't think i don't even think you want that, but you know yeah. Maybe you do. I have no idea. I'Ve never asked i'm not going to work my birthday suit. So, yes, your hair, your hair does match your dress, though it's very, very pretty and it's very cool. You can't see it on the the camera and maybe only in the sun, but i dyed it green, like oh. It was like yeah under hair for real hair. Mom goes, nobody knows what color your real hair is and yeah, and i said no, they just almost started to last week before you dyed it, but um it matches your hair, it, the the other hair that was the roots, the roots, yay so cool, and then I finished my braids yesterday at like i don't know six and then we ate dinner and i was like yay. I'Ve got all this time to crochet and not really but um. I managed to get oh you've got stuff done, second and third colors on second colors. On all my little bits and third colors on like three of them and remind our viewers, what the bits are the bits are gon na be the shoulder straps for this. Yes, so many people come in and admire that and then we have to um. Let them down easy and tell them. There'S no pattern. So at some point you should probably hide it or just wear it and probably wear it. Well, of course, wear it, but yeah, but yeah there's no pattern. There'S no pattern and people go oh and then there's people online. Who are hoping that i will take them through a pattern step by step on video. So i don't think they want to. They want to not buy the pattern, i don't think they're trying to sidestep the pattern um, but i think they like having the pattern explained to them and unfortunately too much of that, then the pattern writer will will probably not be happy with me. So, yes, it's it's a delicate balance and it's one i think, really only worked with the ranunculus. So now i'm just like uh. Oh, what do i do, because that worked so well and i can't really figure out exactly how to make that function for non-ranunculus patterns. I'M doing bits and pieces of other patterns, but it's it's not quite the same so well. The the nice thing about the ranunculus was. It was so many different bits that it could be like. Okay in this section - or i could do certain rows in a section in this section, let me show you this piece and but most sweaters don't have that many, i feel i feel like i could like. I could for something like the avena, which has the color work and stuff. It'S like. It'S a chart. It'S a. I could maybe show you how to get started on that, but i feel like i've done. I'Ve done videos on color work, which is what i would point you to if you're like. Well, how do i do this? Okay, i've got a i've got a i've got a video on reading a chart. Um i've got a video on separating sleeves. I think i've got a video on setting up for two at a time so like i could do one where it's like. Okay, now we're going to separate sleeps, but i already have, i think, a sleeve separation, video and it's very similar. So i don't i mean i have recently seen the benefit of making new videos about things. I'Ve already made videos about because it's a refresher or people don't want to dig back through all my videos to find the video, but sometimes it's like. I only have so many hours in the day, so i may not spend it making a video of something i already have video on and you're, not yarn. You have to explain that you can't make everybody happy you're, not yarn. That'S the meme that she sent me. So that's her phrase now she says: you're, not yarn she's, trying to um encourage me to not try to make everyone happy, because it's impossible, i'm not yarn! Yes, okay, so anyway um! This is the one. The thing i'm super excited about. I, when i i didn't, do it on virtual sit and stitch because it takes too much focus, but most of the weekend, when i wasn't doing virtual, sit and stitch, i was working on my cardigan because it was one of those like ooh three quarters. I really am, i couldn't finish. I couldn't finish the ribbing, but i'm hoping if there's some slow moments at work today, when i'm done stressing over orders - and things like that - that i can finish this, so i'm gon na try it on because it's on magic loops. So it should fit should be able to get it on over um. I finished one sleeve last week and oh: can you grab that it's stuck under that we're making a hot mess? Ah, okay, it's it is still attached to yarn. I forgot that, but oh my gosh, that looks so most exciting. Oh my gosh, i'm so excited that i'm almost done with this and it's gon na these. These are my needles for binding off. I'M gon na bind off like i do. The the body of the sweater - this is the fading diamonds cardigan hold on. Is it what your raglan's the scenes aren't rattling? You know when i wear this in real life, i'm just going to toss it on and do whatever i know. Okay, will you address me? Every day i could probably - but i could so the body of this is knit on um a nine and the ribbing is done on a seven. So this is a seven right now, i'm finishing the ribbing on this, but i bound off using my nine over here. So that it wasn't too tight - and i have i'm just over - i have like five more rows of ribbing over here. It'S 12 rows of ribbing. We have a different postal person today. I don't know if they're gon na notice, our stuff, but anyway um. I have five more rows to go here and binding off and then just weaving ends in and if i do that, like i don't think i'm going to block this, i don't think it means i don't think it needs like oftentimes. I will block lace work, but i think the cotton and the way it's lying. I don't necessarily want it to stretch anymore, it's going to stretch with wear, and so it may just live at the shop like. I might not take it home tonight. If i can get this stuff done, um unless i feel like it'd, be a comfy, both house and shop sweater, but um it is, it is super fun and i had a really good time doing it, and i think i think it only it's only gon na Take me six games with a little bit left over i've kind of lost track of how many skeins i have used. But liz was saying: oh, you can do a skein for each leaf and i was like no. I can't no, i can't it's gon na. Take more than that, it's gon na take more than that and with the three-quarter length, which is actually perfect on me. It'S not even three quarter, it's almost a full length sleeve, but the shorter sleeve option for for sizes, five and six. This is a size five. I think that is beautiful, i'm loving it very happy and the other cool thing about these sleeves is um. Some sleeves do gradual decreases. This one was just straight and then at the cuff it was knit two together around, so you go from 80 stitches to 40 and then you do the ribbing and i wasn't sure if i was gon na like that or not - and i actually really do like That it has this little puffy sleeve look, but it's not overly puffy. It'S it's nice and this one will look much the same. It'S a little stretched because it's still on the needles and everything but look look ma. I finished something. It looks pretty much so yeah with the millions like with the millions of projects going like this. I'M very very excited the sleeves started, um the sleeves started to feel like they were going uh a million miles an hour. After doing, however, many stitches, the uh, the body, the whole body, was the sleeve started to feel like piece of cake so um. So i spent a lot of time on that this weekend, which means only a little bit of things to show and honestly with this still on the needles. I can't really leave this on right now. Um. Is that a random yeah yeah, my hair is doing random things. I don't stress about my hair at all um. I would wear it the rest of the show, but to dig into things the needles are going to keep whacking something so um. I did a little bit more on my thing. That is, that is the um compliment to what liz is making the potential inspiration for what liz is making um, and i also discovered i was following the wrong instructions. There'S there's a section so like this: has it has your shape for i'm, seeing if it's the front of that? This is the front um. It has your shape for the neck and then it has to do rows on the outside and i just made an assumption and said i'm doing size five. So let me count to the fifth number for how much of this i have to do, and that was like 11 rows. Well, 12, total, and so i did that and then i'm doing this side and i realized that it's sizes - two through whatever have to these extra rows size one doesn't, which means i should have counted two, the fourth number, so i ripped some rows out over there And i didn't have to do as many over here. I only had to do eight, so the top - and i think i already showed this off, but i'm doing it again top part of this is done because huh there's another piece to this, but i don't know where it is. Oh, wait. It'S right in front of me: it's not a thing. Oh, i haven't drunk all my coffee, yet, okay, hang on hang on. Let me put this back on because it's off hasn't told me how to put it together, yet i'm trying to do things in order making all my pieces. So this is the front, and this is the back and i'm only just starting to do the shaping for the back, but like this is going to go back on this side. So like it's got blue, but then on the back on the same side, it's got the green, so it's kind of alternating patchwork, stuff um. So this one's almost done. I have to do all those side things. I have to do all those little side, things that we did in the front on the back, but i have all the little motifs all the motifs that liz is making for her straps. I already have the number i need to make for the sweater done. So it's just adding rows, so it kind of feels like when i have time to work on it. It'S going fairly quickly, which is nice. Let'S see, did i show uh. I can't remember what we showed off on fri on um now friday, thursday thursday. I don't remember everything's off a week per day, so when i set up for the um sit and stitch, i take everything that i have at home out and i and i decoratively pile it on my huge desk and when i took it off again, um sunday Night i tried to categorize. I tried to make like one bag because, let's be honest between last month and this month, it's been in a heap on the floor. I tried to categorize into one bag for all, my sweaters, of which i think i have about a dozen almost on needles, and i tried to make a bag of shawls, which again i have about a dozen. In my count there is, there was one i left here: um and then a bag for like sundry items like mittens and scarves and yep he's leaving without taking our stuff, but i'll i'll run it down to the post office later um. Sorry, i'm multitasking, or maybe we can have our minionette run them down later yep, so that would be good um. It'S tough! When you have rotating people, even though they're all wonderful male people, they don't all have the same habits or do the same nice things for us because they don't know it's not that they don't want to. They don't know, and we should you know, do some things for ourselves so um i i need to get. I would love to get a little bit more done on this before my second capyon class looks so this is liz picked. The the bright contrast for this and it's starting to get a little more orange because my color changing, let's see if i can dig it out here. My color changing has some soft like oranges and yellows and grays with the dahlia. It is not a combo that is available in our online shop, but if this is intriguing contact us - and we can make some combos for you so that i didn't touch that during the sit and stitch, let me let me try to dig up all the things I worked on during sit and stitch. I stole scale. I brought it back because i had to divide hotness of a bag. I'Ve got all these needles that need to be reorganized. Um. I had to divide up for the sleeves for this. This is the next one. I i would love to try to finish after finishing my cardigan is um. What is going on here for some reason it was all super jammed on um one side i set up for the sleeve on my yeah hotness lace, weight ranunculus, and i was going i've knit just a couple of rows because i had it on two circulars and That was pulling like just the weight of the circular was really pulling at the lace weight and making it challenging to try to knit on camera this weekend. And then i put it onto one needle. But it's a 24 inch and i think i need a 16 inch to just knit around this sleeve um, but i've got 15 grams for each sleeve and i'm super excited about that um. To get this guy done, and i think i might do some of the ribbing that i did at the bottom here. I really like how this ribbing turned out at the bottom of my sleeves instead of like the i-cord, i think i-cord with this lacy stuff is kind of wasted. Yeah, because it's going to be so see-through, it's not really going to wrap around. I mean it might look just fine if anyone's tried that let me know um, but i need to get a 16 inch circular for that and um. I'M super excited about that. Let me see, i don't think anything. Oh, oh wait, wait! Wait. I got some progress done on my brioche and i really need to invest in some of my own stitch stoppers, because i'm pulling things off of my needles um, my brioche sample, is if we look at that, i'm half listening to see if someone's leaving a message Over there and they're not uh my brioche sample for the bandana cowl, they might have actually left him here. Um with white squirrel shuffle and the mountains are calling and what i think is really cool about this. What i'm noticing so far is the mountains are crawling. Is kind of pooling you see that, like azalea bushes, it's really cool. I really like it. It'S not always gon na do that, depending on this is fingering weight on like a three or a two or something. What am i on i'm on three: it's fingering weight in a three um with a cert like a hundred and something stitches, and that might not happen when someone else does it because their gauge might be different, but i'm slowly making progress on finishing this sample. This is our knit along for next month and the pattern has three different versions like look at which weight you're buying. When you get the pattern, it is um fingering, weight, dk and bulky, so you can engage in brioche at your comfort level or your challenge level. Uh, i'm super excited about this. We we sold out of i mean i have two projects going with this. I i have used up. Two skeins of the mountains are calling we sold out of mountains are calling this weekend, but um yarn baby is sending us more. She just finished getting the whole combo dyed and what we'll be intriguing is we will have two different varieties of white squirrel shuffle. So this has some really really um subtle, speckle on it, and the new batch came out a little darker like with the speckle she sent me a picture, i said, send it. I said i said if someone doesn't like the super subtle, they might like the little more intense uh speckle, it's still mostly a white skein, but there's more speckle on the batch. That'S coming, i think i'm probably gon na they're. The speckles are a little bit more intense, like these are yeah yeah, there's more there's a little more of it and like listening there, it's a little brighter so um or a little like more vibrant. So i may list them online when they come in as um as like white squirrel, shuffle 2.0 or something so every time a batch comes in, we will classify which one it is. If it's that's the beauty and the curse of hand-dyed yarn is the people making. It are not machines, and so it's not going to come out identical every time and even batch within the same batch they're not going to come out identical. So when we list stuff on online or sell it to you, you may get something that looks a little different than the picture and if it's really different, that's when we try to um, have two pictures or have two varieties: we've done that with feeder brook as Well, we've had stuff where it's so different. We we call them. We give them a subtitle or something um. So you know what you are more likely to be purchasing you try. So that's something else. I i worked on a little bit during sit and stitch um. I made a little bit of progress on i'm gon na i'm gon na edit that out i just fold it totally off the noodles. Oh no wait what my my sock! Oh! No, it's! Okay! It means i have to find the right needle. I made some progress on it, though, if i didn't just pull it all out, i i knit like an inch on this sock um. The yarn got stuck in something i really need more organization in this giant bag, i'm starting using um. The last thing i'm going to show off before we sign off for today, if i just get it out - and this is more stuck on my new sweater - a new sweater, my new sweater - i am doing um. What is this? I really wanted to do a sweater with vivo and i really wanted to do this pale colorway. This really muted awesome. We have some brighter ones, they're, all somewhat muted, but this one's the most muted, i think of the colors we got in of the vivo um. It'S hard to show it off because i'm on too small of a needle to really stretch it up and show it off, but you can start to see the color change. I i'm at the point where i need to do some increases there's little eyelets up here that are almost hard to see this. I chose the luminous summer as a design for this. It'S a fairly simple knit that i'm hoping will just be nice and drapey, because it's like a light dk on a seven and um it. It doesn't necessarily have like there's a little bit of texture to the vivo. It'S almost got some some quinoa like texture. It'S another yarn from viroqua we used to have and um so the eyelets are almost getting lost in this, but this is a good, a good experiment to see what's going to happen, um - and i wanted something simple. So we could see the color change happen. The eyelids are um still there yeah, but it's it's almost like when you did the the will addicts, fuzzy cardigan that has eyelets that you know they're not super prominent yeah yeah, but um, but this this should be fun too. I'M trying to focus, if possible, focus with that, i'm trying to focus on the summer sweaters, while it's still summer, the thing's made out of plant fibers while it's still summer, so i do have of those dozen sweaters. Most of them are ones for the winter and it's kind of either because they're fuzzy and it's hot out or because um i'm almost hoping to get them done in the summer. I'M like the cottony ones, i'm not picking up the other ones. So people who are waiting to see progress on the other ones, eventually it'll get cold soon. Winter is always coming um. I don't, i think anything else is going to get stuck in my bag and i don't have a ton of progress to show on it. So and it's almost time for us to open the shop look at this, my hair is so long. You guys don't usually see it. The people who come to um the sunday sit and stitch get to see it because yeah, yes, i tuck it in because i i often wear my hair down for that anyway. Schedule for the week uh. We are we actually. This morning we were at 111 subscribers. Just a fun number right so um, so please consider subscribing if you haven't already, because it's always fun to watch those numbers go up um or at least like it ring the bell. All those things get that out of the way right now schedule for the week. We have virtual sit and stitch tonight. As always, i almost had half a thought of when we have a a sunday sit and stitch. We should take the next tuesday off, but not this week, we're going to keep going with that. That could be a plan in the future. We i'm i'm always struggling with work, life balance but um. We have virtual sit and stitch tonight and it is from seven to nine pm eastern standard time, uh east coast of the us, and you get in with the shop phone number, eight two, eight eight, seven, seven, three: five: five zero and that's on zoom. If i didn't mention, i can't remember what i've said and what i haven't. I have not drunk as half as much of this as i should have during the time when i unmasked in the shop, but we'll figure it out um. Tomorrow we will be putting new things on sale. Today is your last chance to get the sami or the remaining lorna's laces, and i cleaned up those listings a little bit over the weekend like to take off pictures of ones. We don't have anymore and stuff um. So the sami remaining lorna's laces and some of the non-shop related stitch markers for from trinkles are 15 off until we film tomorrow, and we do something else so um and we don't know yet so we don't know what's going on so tomorrow we don't ever know Until like nine times, inspiration strikes when we turn the camera on no or just before, um, so yeah there's so so we'll talk about things in the shop tomorrow that you can save money on um and then thursday, as always, is dear becky and lizzy. If we have questions so, if you have questions you'd like us to address, even if we don't have necessarily the answer, you're looking for um what or the socks ruler yeah, why? Because jeff asked a question on on how long does it go? Oh, how many do you want to answer that right now we could throw an answer. I have two in my bag that i found, so i need to put one back into the shop, but this is this goes in inches. It goes to 12 inches, um or 30 centimeters or what they think a u.s men's shoe size is a 14.. So if you're bigger than a 14, you have to add extra paper and measure more um or a european size. 47.. Sorry, i just no. You had a squirrely moment, squirrel um. So if people want to give us questions for thursday, you can at this point you should email liz at sundragonartnfiber.com. Yes, excellent, um, and if we don't have questions you know we'll just talk more. So if you want to direct our conversation in any mild way, you probably want to give us a question and if it's something that's not knitting or crochet related that doesn't work so a lot of negatives in there actually but try to keep it to knitting or Crochet, there's more of a chance we'll actually address it. Then: okay, um i'm gon na i'm gon na, say we're gon na stop because we might have to run down to the post office and um and a few other things before we open up the shop today. But it was great to spend some time with y'all and if you can come to knit night tonight and we'll just try to have an easy night of hanging - and we will see you tomorrow - bye, you