Episode 25: Shut the front door!!!!

 

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to the Stitch Sisters Podcast!  We’ll be doing episodes once a month until September because of crazy work schedules, but we’ll be back to every two weeks after that 🙂

Events:

Val’s Birthday was June 26th!!! She had a great day and got some great pressies!

Hamilton Comic Con – October 3rd & 4th at the Hamilton Convention Center – Guests include Lea Thompson, Tara Reid, Ian Ziering, John Schneider, Nichelle Nichols & probably more!

FanExpo Canada – September 3-6 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center – Guests Include Hayley Atwell, Robin Lord-Taylor, Robert Picardo, Kate Mulgrew, Ming-Na Wen, Graham McTavish, Orlando Jones, Norman Reedus, Chandler Riggs, Lennie James, James & Oliver Phelps, Billie Piper, Karen Gillan and Jenna Coleman, Jennifer Morrison and many more!

Kitchener/Waterloo Knitter’s Fair – September 13, 2015 at the Kitchener Aud in Kitchener, ON – lots of vendors, panels and draws.

KAL/CALs

The Crochet Crowd – Stitchcation Challenge starts July 1st – September 7th, afghan project meant to “tempt, tease & teach you new tricks” and have a cool afghan at the end. It’s an afghan mashup of 2 patterns & w original patterns by Mikey & there is no sewing of afghan pieces either

. Stash Dash 2015 – Started May 22, 2015 and Ends August 14, 2015 – visit the link provided for full rules and instructions on Stash Dash this year! They have 3 levels this year: 3k, 5k & 10k metres. So bust out your wips and raid your stash! You can knit, crochet, spin, and weave your stash into lovely things!

Around your neck Kal – hosted by Diane of the Suburban Stitcher Podcast is holding a KAL for anything you can wrap around your neck – shawls, cowls, kerchiefs, scarves, etc. Starting June 1st and running to August 31st. You can include WIPs too and feel free to double, triple, quadruple dip into any other KALs you wish. You can find the full details at the Suburban Stitcher Ravelry Group.

Summertime and the Living is Easy KAL/CAL – June 1-August 31, 2015 – hosted by the Geeky Girls Knit Podcast. Anything you can tie to Summertime somehow (knitting, crochet, spinning) and if you can’t think of anything, you made it in the summertime. You can find the full details at the Geeky Girls Knit Ravelry group.

FOs and HOs Katy finished her Mama Vertebrae using Malabrigo Arroyo in Aguas! And she wants to knit more. She completely finished a Gateway Cuff by Laura Nelkin using the Wooly Witch sample in ‘Ice Queen’. She also finished one sock each out of Red Heart, Heart & Sole in ‘Spring Stripes’, ‘Toasted Almond’ and ‘Blackjack’.

Finished Mama Vertebrae

WIPS:

Val is working on her Rainbow granny square afghan and her Easy Triangle Shawl. Val is in a crafting slump for the summer.

Katy is very nearly done her Clockwork using Cascade Heritage Sock in ‘Mossy Rock’ and ‘Walnut’ as a gift for her husband. She picked up her Outlander mystery shawl again and also cast on the Button Jar Shawlette using Shibui Staccato in ‘Pool’

NEEDS AND WANTS

VAL WANTS:    Webster Personal Planner Kit in Dark Pink  (Katy is horrible enabler!)
KATY WANTS: More quiet time to herself.

VAL NEEDS:    New Ereader; Val’s Kobo finally died
KATY NEEDS:  More baths to use her yummy LUSH stuff!

VAL WANTS TO DO:  Lose Weight!  Been walking a lot more and she wants to learn Tunisian Crochet
KATY WANTS TO DO:  See Jurassic World

VAL LEARNED:  I love cottage cheese!  How to pronounce L’Occitane (Lox-Ee-Tahn)
KATY LEARNED: She can drive to Oakville and back without being nervous 🙂

You had me @ Yarn:   All from Wee Chickadee Woolery on Etsy – Mystic Forest, Smitten and Hyacinth 🙂 KnitPicks Felici is back!  Val wants Countess & Highland…or maybe all of them!

Katy wants a gorgeous Holly and Acrylic spindle from Aaron Makes stuff, and a beautiful braid of fibre from Pigeonroof Studios in ‘Gloworm’.

New Stuff Val got some birthday presents from Katy – a bar of ‘Karma’ from LUSH, the ‘I am Pusheen’ book, a skein of Knitpicks stroll handpainted in ‘Hayride’ and a Gateway Cuff she knitted with her own little hands .

Katy received her Wonder Woman yarn from Desert Vista Dyeworks, she picked up some of the new Felici at Knitpicks, she went to Passionknit in Toronto and picked up some gorgeous koigu kppm in two speckly colours, and Em gave her two awesome LUSH bath bombs – Dragon’s Egg and Sakura and a pretty cool Journal.

Wonder Woman Self-Striping sock yarn from Desert Vista Dyeworks

Presents from Em and Koigu bought at Passionknit

She also picked up some other things at LUSH as well, ‘It’s raining men’ shower gel, shimmy shimmy massage bar and a ‘Space Girl’ bath bomb.

Reading/Watching:

Val is pretty sad that Hannibal has been canceled after 3 seasons (Boo!) Outlander’s first season has finished, Game of Thrones is done for the season and has gone through all of the books in the series.

Katy finished watching the 2nd season of Finding Carter and is happy that Max and Taylor are back together even though there was a huge drama bomb dropped at the end. Katy’s also been watching a lot of WWE and is still cheering for Dean Ambrose despite his loss at Money in the Bank. Lunatic Fringe all the way!

Val is rereading The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon and Katy is reading To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han.

Val is Listening to a lot of Nicki Minaj as she works out every day. Katy is listening to Florence + the Machine, Lights and Cider Sky.

Episode 17 – No I DON’T want to build a snowman!!!

Hello everyone! Thanks for coming back and if you’re a new listener, we hope you enjoy the podcast and choose to return 🙂

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Congratulations to Heather’s little (not so little) girl who made the cut in performing with Cirque de Soliel in the pan-am games this summer.  Apparently out of 450 kids, only 115 were chosen and K. was one of them!  Her mom and dad are very proud of her and so are we 🙂

Also, the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary is looking for 8″ crocheted or knitted wildlife nests for the orphaned animals that they shelter!  You can find the details on our Facebook page complete with the patterns for the nests (the pattern is for 4″ nests but they have requested you enlarge them to 8″ nests) and the address to send them too. Also, check in your area to see if your wildlife sanctuaries would be in need of these nests, or your local Humane Society may need pet blankets and other sorts of things for animals this winter.

DOWNTON ABBEY TRIVIA CONTEST!!!! ROUND 3 !!

A big CONGRATS!!! to Lina (Dragonbard on Ravelry) for being our Round 2 Winner! She won the sock yarn and matching stitch markers in the colourway ‘Lavinia Swire’ from Canon Hand Dyes!  She correctly answered the question: What did Mary give to Matthew before he left for War?  The answer was a good luck charm and/or a stuffed dog. 🙂

So for Round 3, the process is pretty much the same!  All you need to do is be a member of our Ravelry group and click on the link below! It will direct you to Rafflecopter where you can answer this episode’s trivia contest and you can also earn extra entries in the draw by joining up at our other social media sites (it will do it automatically 😉 )  The raffle link will stay active for 1 week and we will draw for the winner and announce their name in the next podcast where we will ask a new question and a new link will be provided, as well as a new prize will be up for grabs! The Prize for this round is a skein of Lady Sybil sock yarn and matching stitch markers from Canon Hand Dyes!

Lady Sybil sock yarn and matching stitch markers from Canon Hand Dyes

and the question is: Who taught Anna to dance the Reel to surprise Mr. Bates?

Click below to Enter and Good luck Everyone!!!

Downton Abbey Trivia Contest No. 3

Shops We Mention

Canon Hand Dyes
Vintage Rose
Moonrover Yarns
Western Sky Knits
Turtle Made
Jimmy Beans Wool
Knitty Kat Bags
Desert Vista Dyeworks
The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery
Knitpicks
Yarnspirations
Penguin Soup

Podcasts We Mention

The Knitmore Girls Podcast
The Sampler Girl Podcast
The Suburban Stitcher Podcast

Blogs We Mention

Hey Porkchop!

KAL/CALs

Val is advising that the Crochet Crowd is holding a 2015 Mystery Afghan CAL! Sign up and you receive the first set of instructions February 10th and it goes until May 15th when you have the last day to submit your final photo for a yarn draw 🙂 They are in cooperation with Yarnspirations.com where you can order the kits with crochet hook in different colour sets.  She also plans to sign up for it! Go Val!

Katy is still working on her Hitchhiker for the never-ending Behmalong with the Knitmore Girls Podcast, and since it’s using rainbow yarn, and double-dipping in KAL/CALs is always fun (and encouraged), she’s also participating in the February Rainbow-a-Long with The Suburban Stitcher Podcast!

Also, for those interested, The Sampler Girl podcast is having a Jane Austen Knit-a-long! Anything related to Jane Austen, just knit away and enter in her Ravelry group for great prizes! ❤

FOs

Val finished her Cabaret cowl and couldn’t be more pleased how it knit up.  Forgot to leave yarn at the end to sew up the different ends so she will stitch them together with some blue thread.  So cozy and warm!

Cabaret Cowl

Katy finally finished her Orchid Thief shawl by Ysolda Teague out of Quaere Fibres ‘Orchid’ on her sparkle sock! So glad to have it off the needles and on her person 🙂

Orchid Thief shawl out of Quaere Fibres sparkle sock in ‘Orchid’

WIPs

Valerie is working on a Baby star dishcloth in Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Crysanthemums for a friend down south as well as still working on her Easy Triangle shawl.

Baby Star dishcloth in Chrysanthemums

Katy is working on her Clockwork by Stephen West for her husband using Cascade Heritage sock solids in ‘Mossy Rock’ and ‘Walnut’, her Hitchhiker by Martina Behm using Western Sky Knits Magnolia sock in ‘Rainbow Night’ and her Snowball’s Chance in Hell mitts using KnitPicks Stroll Sport in ‘Mink Heather’ and ‘Rainforest Heather’.

SPINNING

Katy is still working on the ‘Nebula’ braid from Moonrover yarns on her Turtle made Turkish spindle and she’s onto the second colour! Loving it!

Nebula by Moonrover Yarn on Turtle Made Turkish spindle

NEEDS AND WANTS

Katy needs to create a household budget, badly!

Val Wants and Needs all the sleep and don’t know why – have to call my doctor about it; maybe my iron or thyroid levels have gone all wonk again. can sleep for 18 hours in the day and still go to sleep at night.

Katy and Val both want this cruddy weather to STAAAAAAAAAAHHHHPP!! Too much snow! Yes, we’re Canadian and we should be used to it by now, but enough is enough – it’s colder here than the North Pole as I’m writing the show notes too cold!

Katy wants to take pictures like Amanda Jennings, aka heyporkchop on instagram and she is one half of the geniuses behind The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and she has a gorgeous blog that is most inspiring to Katy right now!

Valerie wants to sleep some more, lol. Katy would like that too, but Katy wants to cast on her ‘Sherlolly’ cowl (aka the Foolproof Cowl by Louise Zass-Bangham) because she’s been seeing a lot of pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch and Louise Brealey online and she loves her Sherlock/Molly fantasy combo! The colours she’s going to use are Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in ‘Stargazer’ (Sherlock) and ‘Pop Rocks’ (Molly) 😉

Valerie learned all over again that she can use worsted weight yarn for socks! She remembered that there was a recipe pattern  in her Getting Started Knitting Socks book by Ann Budd for using worsted weight yarn – going to try with some red heart super saver – would be cozy socks for around the house.  Might be too thick to wear outside with shoes, but still, cozy nonetheless!

Katy learned that it is tough everywhere!  Trying to find a job in our area of the world is most difficult, but we have to keep reminding ourselves that it actually is tough everywhere!  It makes us feel a little bit better knowing we’re not the only ones.

NEW STUFF

Val ordered yarn!  From Willow Yarns (.ca). All things to make socks with – but not telling what colour ways – going to keep it a secret until it all comes in 😉 All prices are in Canadian (yay), shipping is a bit expensive but then so is everything in Canada. Boo. She bought enough yarn for 3 pairs of sock for under $45 Canadian, so it was a fun, affordable shopping trip!

Katy finally bit the bullet and bought ‘Zombody Loves Ewe’ from Desert Vista Dyeworks because she had extra bag money and she’s been wanting that colour for a couple years now and didn’t want to wait another year for it  to be available. She also got some early Valentine’s presents from her husband; The World of Downton Abbey, The Chronicles of Downton Abbey, and Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare! Lots of books for Katy and the pictures in the Downton Books are gorgeous and one picture of Lavinia in particular stuck them both and her dress was the obvious inspiration for the colourway by Canon Hand Dyes (which Lina is about to receive 😉 Lucky).

Katy’s new books for Valentine’s presents

Picture of Lavinia and her namesake colourway from Canon Hand Dyes

YOU HAD ME AT YARN

Val found Patons Kroy sock yarn in Rainbow Stripes at Yarninspirations.com for less than $8 a skein – really thinking of buying it if it’s not available at Michael’s.  Obviously Val is wanting ALL the sock yarn!!!!

Katy found some super pretty Wyld sock yarn at Moonrover yarn in ‘Stalagmite’ and she wants it soooooooo bad!  She also learned that Penguin Soup will be having signups for the Firefly Shiny Club March 1-4th on her website!  A Firefly inspired yarn club? Yes please!!!  And last but certainly not least, Katy checked out Canon Hand Dyes yet again to find that she’s making Jane Austen inspired colourways!!!!  Would be perfect for the Sampler Girl Podcast Jane Austen Knit-a-Long!

WHAT WE’RE READING AND WATCHING

Valerie is reading ‘Divergent’ by Veronica Roth as Katy loaned her the whole series (and Val’s mom finished the whole series in a week!). She’s really enjoying it and plans on reading the others.  Katy isn’t reading much, she started Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare and is really liking it!

Katy watched the Australian Open with her husband and thought it was a great tournament even though Genie and Milosz didn’t make the finals – they’re gaining on the champs though 😉 and she’s been catching snippets of The Walking Dead while her husband mainlines it!  Valerie is also watching The Walking Dead as the mid-season opener was on last Sunday night. She’s also watching Broadchurch and the Superbowl was super disappointing

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That’s it for this episode! We hope you all have a great Valentine’s Day and a wonderful two weeks!  Don’t forget to enter our Downton Trivia Contest!!!!  Take care, stay warm and knit fast!!!

Episode 16 – A Mighty Need

Hello Everyone and welcome back! We hope everyone had a very safe and happy New Year and that the year is going well for you so far!  If you’re just checking us out now, thank you very much for giving us a shot! If you’re a returning listener, thanks for coming back!

THANK YOU!!

We’d like to say a big thank you to Tanya from The Sampler Girl Podcast for giving us a signal boost and joining our group! We’re so glad to have her and Katy is a huge fan of her podcast!  She is also holding a Downton Abbey KAL/CAL in her group on Ravelry! So check it out and knit something Downton for a chance to win an awesome prize and chat about Downton 🙂

DOWNTON ABBEY TRIVIA CONTEST!!!! ROUND 2 !!

A big CONGRATS!!! to Angie (crouchingcheese on Ravelry) for being our Round 1 Winner! She won the Downton Abbey notions pouch from Knitty Kat Bags and the Downton Abbey Stitch Markers from Vintage Rose!  She correctly answered the question: Which country was Kemal Pamuk from?  The answer was Turkey 🙂

So for Round 2, the process is pretty much the same!  All you need to do is be a member of our Ravelry group and click on the link below! It will direct you to Rafflecopter where you can answer this episode’s trivia contest and you can also earn extra entries in the draw by joining up at our other social media sites (it will do it automatically 😉 )  The raffle link will stay active for 1 week and we will draw for the winner and announce their name in the next podcast where we will ask a new question and a new link will be provided, as well as a new prize will be up for grabs! The Prize for this round is a skein of Lavinia Swire sock yarn and matching stitch markers from Canon Hand Dyes!

Lavinia Swire sock yarn and matching stitch markers from Canon Hand Dyes

and the question is: What did Mary give to Matthew before he went off to war?

Click below to Enter and Good luck Everyone!!!

Downton Abbey Trivia Contest No. 2

Shops We Mention

Canon Hand Dyes
Vintage Rose
Moonrover Yarns
Western Sky Knits
Turtle Made
Jimmy Beans Wool
Knitty Kat Bags
Desert Vista Dyeworks
Wee Little Stitches
Rain City Knits
A Vivid Yarn Studio

Podcasts We Mention

The Knitmore Girls Podcast
The Minerva Turkey Podcast
The Sampler Girl Podcast

KAL/CALs Katy is still working on her Hitchhiker shawl by Martina Behm for the never-ending Behm-a-Long with the Knitmore Girls Podcast. She’s making her shawl out of Western Sky Knits Magnolia base sock yarn (MCN) in the colourway Rainbow Night.

EVENTS We recently had a new doughnut shop open up in our city. They make all vegan doughnuts in really yummy flavours, so if you’re in the area of Niagara in Ontario, check them out! They’re called Beechwood Doughnuts and they’re in St. Catharines, Ontario!

Beechwood Doughnuts: Nanaimo, Salted Caramel Toffee, Apple Fritter

Beechwood Doughnuts: Raspberry Glaze

WIPS

Valerie is busily working on little tiny crocheted flowers for her Molly Flowers blanket. She’s using repurposed yarn from her Flowers in the Snow Afghan and plans to use one stripe from that afghan to make a scarf for donation to Out of the Cold. 🙂 Katy is working on her Orchid Thief Shawl and playing a very close game of yarn chicken with her pretty yarn from Quaere Fibers. Looks like she may make it! 😉 She also plans to work on the Snowball’s Chance in Hell mitts a little more, and pull out the Clockwork she’s working on for her husband.

Clockwork Shawl by Stephen West using Cascade Heritage sock solids “Walnut” & “Mossy Rock”

Mollie Flowers!

SPINNING

Katy is still spinning away on her Moon Rover fibre in ‘Nebula’ and plying on the fly using her Turtle Made Turkish spindle.

NEEDS AND WANTS

Need: Katy needs a haircut, needs a change in her hairdo, really badly – she has permanent mom ponytail and it’s driving her crazy!  Val still needs to arrange for off site storage for her apartment to get her life back in order!

Want: Katy wants to finish 3 WIPs before starting anything new.  Val wants to lose weight, and a mutual friend has given her an elliptical to help her on her journey!

Want to do: Katy wants to watch Sherlock on their new TV, because the new TV is awesome and she needs to experience Sherlock on it!

Learned: Katy learned that weighing her yarn as she goes along on a shawl (or anything really) helps a lot – especially in a deathly game of yarn chicken!

NEW STUFF

Katy received one of her Christmas bonus splurges in the mail; a Steampunk inspired shawl kit from Marigold Jen on Etsy featuring a skein of her lovely sock yarn in ‘Copper Patina’ along with a 50g skein of the same colour only a sparkly version, two clockwork stitch markers and the pattern ‘A Cog in the Machine’ by Heather Laws. It came in a lovely copper organza bag and got to her really fast. Katy is looking forward to this shawl so much, it’s her first Marigold Jen purchase!

A Cog in the Machine Kit from Marigold Jen

You Had Me at Yarn!

Katy loves all the awesome, nerdy, cute cross stitch patterns from Wee Little Stitches on etsy! And a super bonus, she’s from our town!!! Katy is contemplating purchasing the Sherlock set and maybe making herself little scissor minders out of the characters. Also, Katy is in love with the Double Rainbow sweater kit from Rain City Knits!!! She loves the look of the sweater with the rainbows down the sleeves – if she got another bonus, she’d be buying this immediately! Again, another Canadian company too 🙂

Valerie is totally in love with Vivid Yarn Studio and her new colourways; ‘Te Amo’ and ‘Snow White’. The snow white she just needs, like air to breathe. She would love to have both of these colours and to support her business as she’s in Calgary. Lots of Canadian indie dyers turning out lovely products.

READING AND WATCHING

Katy isn’t really reading anything – baby keeping her up is preventing her from doing much in the line of free time activities. She is watching the new TV series 12 Monkeys based on the movie. She’s catching snippets of it here and there while trying to knit in bed. BUT!! She did finally get to see the Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies and really enjoyed it! For what it was, it was very good, she likes Tauriel even though she was an addition that wasn’t in the original story and she also loved Billy Boyd’s song a the end.

Episode 13: Sweatshop Clone

 

Hi Everyone! Welcome back and if you’re a new listener thank you for checking us out!

Just an announcement that we’re taking an episode break because of the holidays. So there will be no December 15th episode. But….

…In January, in celebration of the release of Season 5 of Downton Abbey in the US and Canada, we will be holding a Downton Trivia contest! The trivia questions will be from Seasons 1-4 of Downton Abbey and will span all of our social media outlets; Ravelry, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook! So if you’re not joined up, you should probably do so!  THERE WILL BE PRIZES!! AWESOME PRIZES!! We have had generous donations from Canon Hand Dyes and The Vintage Rose and they are so, so wonderful! Please be sure to visit these shops, because they are wonderful and we can’t guarantee Katy won’t run away to Mexico with the prizes! They’re that good!!!

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Shops We Mention

Canon Hand Dyes
Vintage Rose
Must Stash Yarns
Moonrover Yarns
Knitpicks
Gnome Acres
Interweave Knits
Knitsomniac Design

 

Podcasts We Mention

The Knitmore Girls
Knit 1 Geek 2
Minerva Turkey Knits Podcast
Dancing Geek Podcast
The Fat Squirrel Speaks

Events

The Royal Winter Fair – November 7-16, 2014 – Toronto, Ontario – Exhibition Place
Katy attended on November 16th with Agents of Sheep to compete in the Sheep to Shawl competition. It was a total blast even though we were all up at the crack of dawn!  We got in the groove and this was our first time as a team competing in the Sheep to Shawl Competition. After 4 long hours spinning, plying and weaving… our team gathered in the East Annex to find out how we did! And…. WE CAME IN 5TH our of 9 teams!!! Which is a really good debut and we were all very pleased. Our shawl (theme was Out of the Darkness and Into the Light) sold at auction for $100 too!  Our team photo afterwards was sent to Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson from the Marvel Universe) and he had retweeted our photo, which was a pretty cool cherry on top!  We can’t wait till next year!!

Agents of Sheep – Kris, Karen, Michelle, Kerry, Katy and Maggie

Spinning & Plying at Sheep to Shawl

Katy aka Agent Twist plying away

Our Finished Shawl!

On the Auction Table

 

 

 

 

 

 

KAL/CALs

We have our Loved Ones KAL and also our Corner to Corner crochet afghan CAL going on till the end of the year. They may be extended or they may just fizzle out. But we hope, if you participated, that you had fun. Let us know in our Ravelry group what you’d like to do in the future.

FOs and HOs

Valerie finished a pair of Pixie Slipper Sox with a pom pom on each foot for a family member for Christmas in the two shades of brown she described in Episode 12.

Katy finished one of the ‘Snowball’s Chance in Hell’ mitts and is waiting till December to cast on the second one because she’s working on some Christmas gifts.

WIPs

Valerie is working on a pair of pixie slipper sox in Grape Fizz and Amethyst Red Heart Super Saver for someone special as a surprise Christmas present. As well as some fun various and assorted dishcloths that she can have ready for last-minute gifts.

Katy is working on a gift for her mom (details after the holidays cause Mom listens 😉 ). She’s also almost done the Elsa and Anna socks from Must Stash Yarns in the sport sock base. And, if that’s not enough, she cast on the Fairbanks Cowl in Madelinetosh Tosh DK in the colourway ‘Isadora’ for her mother-in-law. She had the yarn in her stash too so, shopping from stash for the win!

 

Needs and Wants

Katy needs sleep and more time to knit her gifts. Valerie needs socks and underwear from Santa!!

Valerie wants a bottle of Hypnotic Poison by Dior and Katy wants LUSH bath products…and a relaxing bath.

Valerie learned about Perfumed Court; a perfume/fragrance decanting site highly recommended by twitter friend. Katy learned that coffee is her friend!

Katy wants to do more spinning and Valerie wants to bake Christmas Cookies!

New Stuff
Val picked up two skeins of Red Heart Super Saver yarn at Walmart and another pair of needles. The colourways that caught her eye were Grape Fizz and Candy Print.

Katy was enabled by The Minerva Turkey Knits podcast to pick up a braid of Moonrover Yarnsfibre in the colourway ‘Nebula’ it’s gorgeous!!! And she didn’t break her ‘yarn’ diet either… cause this was fibre!!

Nebula by Moonrover Yarn

Katy’s mon also purchased the Interweave Knits Gift issue where she found the pattern for the Fairbanks Cowl that she’s knitting for her mother-in-law! Lots of pretty hats too, a shawl with 2 sizes, a little girl’s tea party and lots of cool fun things to knit for gifts!

You Had Us at Yarn… and Patterns… and Podcasts!

Val went and logged on to and found two great colourways that she wants! The First is ‘Under the Tree’ which is lovely Christmas colours as if you were lying under your tree and looking up at all the pretty lights, ornaments and tinsel… and you can get that one in her Sparkle Gnome base so you actually can have tinsel in your yarn! And the other is ‘Eddie Griswold’, which of course is a character from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which is a favourite of ours at Christmas. The yarn is white, brown and leisure suit blue! Perfect!

Katy discovered a new-to-her knitting podcast called Dancing Geek Podcast on Youtube! His name is James, he lives in the UK and he’s adorable! Check him out if you have the chance. She also discovered that Knitsomniac Design on Etsy is carrying pretty tweed sock and dk yarn in the colourways “SherLOCKed” and “Tardis” … her geeky little heart yearns for them.

Val also found some cute Christmas patterns for you:
Christmas Lights on Ravelry – crochet your own string of pretty Christmas lights!
Christmas Characters Amigurumi ornaments – Super cute for the tree this year, or stocking stuffers for a friend!

Here are a couple special mentions for the knitter on your Christmas Gift list!

Tiny Rudolph – this tiny little guy is premade with clay antlers! You can also request to get a key fob on him for your keys!

Yarn Texture Smartphone Case – get this for your tech-savvy knitter and they’ll be happy all year!

What We’re Reading and Watching

Valerie is still reading through the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, she’s in the middle of The Fiery Cross. Katy isn’t reading anything because it would cut into her limited knitting time… but she’d love to be reading something 😉

We’re both also watching Tudor Monastery Farm on TV Ontario (TVO) and are loving it! We love the farm shows and this is the same group of people who made the Victorian and Edwardian Farm series.

AND!!!! We both watched the Season 5 finale of Downton Abbey online and we won’t give too much away but … Rose is gorgeous and is lucky to have such a wonderful father, Robert made us cry with his admissions and discoveries and his actions for Mrs. Patmore, and…OMG ANNA!!! That’s all we’re gonna say! 😉 Tune in to Season 5 in January and come back for our Downton Trivia contest and you can chat all you want about it in our Downton Chat Thread on our Ravelry group!!!

Talking Point

So we were discussing whether items made with a knitting machine or loom are less ‘handmade’ than ones knit by needle or hook.

Valerie and I are in agreement that if you make the time to craft something for someone, even if you use a knitting machine or loom, that it doesn’t make it any less handmade. Especially if you can’t use your hands because of an injury or arthritis.

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We hope you enjoyed this episode and we hope you all have a lovely Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year if we don’t release our next episode until January 1st! Everyone be safe and have a wonderful Holiday!

As always, itunes reviews and star ratings are much appreciated and please come and join us in our Ravelry Group for our KAL/CALs, contests and just plain good ol’ conversation. Take care and have a good fortnight everyone!!!

Episode 12: Horrible Teases!

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Stitch Sisters Podcast! If you’re new, thank you for checking us out and if you’re returning, thank you for doing so! We really appreciate it 🙂

Announcements

We recently had a giveaway of a cute little owl project bag from Knitty Kat Bags on Etsy and our winner on our Ravelry board was KnitbyMoonlight89!!! Congrats to you Lee-Ann and hopefully you have the bag in your hands and are enjoying it. Her favourite thing about fall was the cooler weather and being able to wear all her handknits!

AND…. We’d like to tease the heck out of all of you now!!! In January, in celebration of the release of Season 5 of Downton Abbey in the US and Canada, we will be holding a Downton Trivia contest! The trivia questions will be from Seasons 1-4 of Downton Abbey and will span all of our social media outlets; Ravelry, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook! So if you’re not joined up, you should probably do so!  THERE WILL BE PRIZES!! AWESOME PRIZES!! We have had generous donations from Canon Hand Dyes and The Vintage Rose and they are so, so wonderful! Please be sure to visit these shops, because they are wonderful and we can’t guarantee Katy won’t run away to Mexico with the prizes! They’re that good!!!

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Shops We Mention

Canon Hand Dyes
Vintage Rose
Tanis Fiber Arts
Desert Vista Dyeworks
Knitpicks
Must Stash Yarns
Two if by Hand
Redbubble
Mostly Comics
Shirtpunch
Into the Whirled
Yarn Geek Fibers
Willow Yarns
Vivid Yarn Studio

 

Podcasts We Mention

The Knitmore Girls
Knit 1 Geek 2

 

Events

The Royal Winter Fair – November 7-16, 2014 – Toronto, Ontario – Exhibition Place
Katy will be attending the Fair on November 16th with Agents of Sheep to compete in the Sheep to Shawl competition. If you’re there, come and say hi, Katy is Agent Twist – We’ve got T-shirts! Katy will also be posting pictures on her instagram account (kittyvankat) when she has a chance.

 

KAL/CALs

Loved One’s Kal going on in our group until December 31, 2014 – Just pick a pattern with someone you love and knit it together! Submit your photos in the thread so we can see your beautiful work!

Corner to Corner Crochet Afghan CAL going on in our group until December 31, 2014 – check out our CAL thread in our ravelry group with a link to the free pattern and free instructional video and make your own corner to corner afghan, and show us your pics!!!

 

FOs
Katy finished her Happy Birthday Cupcake socks by Desert Vista Dyeworks and she did a true afterthought heel for the first time and she was so pleased! She also finished the Newborn Vertebrae sweater by Kelly Broker in Tanis Fiber Art blue label fingering weight yarn in ‘Jewel’ for friend’s baby girl due very soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WIPs

Valerie has started a new dishcloth! The Christmassing has begun!  Baby Star by sewfunky in Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Psychodelic. It looks like a kid with crayons just coloured all over it! Very bright and cheery! She also started some slippers – working on two different brown yarns combined together – both by Red Heart Supersaver – the skeins were leftovers from her stash- one is a coffee colour and one is a chocolate milkshake colour.

She is also just about to start on wrist warmers – just knitting a square with ribbing on the beginning and the end and then sew up the sides but leaving a hole for her thumb. She’ll be using some Knitpicks Bare fingering weight yarn that Katy had dyed for her in raspberry and burgundy tones.

Katy is working on the ‘Snowball’s Chance in Hell’ mitts by The Anticraft using Knitpicks Stroll Sport in Mink Heather and Rainforest Heather. It’s asking a while but she has the body of one mitt done and two more motifs to sew on using duplicate stitch. She’s also working on a pair of socks for a dear friend’s daughter for Christmas using Must Stash Yarn’s Sport Sock in ‘Elsa and Anna’ and she absolutely loves the yarn!!! Katy did get some spinning in too and is half done a 4 oz. braid of polwarth in the ‘Moonpie’ colourways dyed by Two if by Hand’. It’s gorgeous and she’s having fun spinning it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wants & Needs

Valerie needs to invest in a ball winder and not get freaked out about all the Christmas knitting she wants to do. Katy needs to feel better and get rid of her lingering cough…and to stop eating Nutella straight from the jar!

Valerie wants a Horde Hoodie!  She’s a Warcrafter Geek – love playing both factions but is a Hordie at heart. She found a hoodie she wants on RedBubble, the My Little Horde Pwny ! Katy wants almost everything from the new Knitpicks catalog, especially their limited edition Rosewood needle sets!

Katy wants to go and see Mockingjay Part 1 and The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies in the theatres soon. Valerie wants to cast on the Ten Stitch ZigZag Blanket by Frankie Brown.

Katy learned that there is a second Unofficial Downton Abbey Knits and would really love to take a look at it soon. Also, we both learned that Benedict Cumberbatch is engaged to be married to Sophie Hunter!!! We both wish them all the best in their future together ❤  Valerie learned that she needs to invest in a ball winder so as not to get her yarn tangled while winding it by hand. A handy tool and a good investment.

New Stuff

Valerie’s new stuff is new, but old at the same time. She was searching for some cotton to make a dishcloth and found some new yarn she had purchased a couple months ago. Two skeins of Bernat Handicrafter cotton in the colours ‘Neptune Ombre’ which is dark green, blue, baby blue, aqua and white and ‘Moondance’ which is purple and blue and aqua and white.

 

Katy purchased a set of Doctor Who buttons at their local comic shop ‘Mostly Comics‘ and there are 15 of them. Doctor Who buttons on EVERYTHING! She also got a new tshirt in the mail from Shirtpunch which Valerie alerted her to. It’s ‘The Protonpack Guys’; the Ghostbusters drawn to look like the Powerpuff Girls! She loves it so much because she missed snagging it from Teefury a couple months ago.  She also snagged a copy of Jane Austen Knits 2014, generously bought by her Mom while she was in Ottawa! Also, her mom knit her a pair of super cute socks with Patons Kroy stripes with a pretty lavender coloured angora cuff.

Patons Kroy stripes with Angora cuff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You Had Me At Yarn

Valerie found two things she wanted from Vivid Yarn Studio on Etsy in the colourway Snapdragon and the other was Elsa, because Frozen is everywhere!!!  She also found the cutest pattern, free on Ravelry, by Frankie Brown: Gingerbread House! Make your own little, intricate gingerbread house this year for the Holidays!!! But don’t eat it… unless your yarn is really yummy 😉

Katy found lots of fibre this time instead of yarn, probably because of all the spinning she’s been doing. She found some Superwash BFL at Into the Whirled in the colourway ‘Chancellor’ and she just loves the contrast between the bright purples and the dark greens. She also found some BFL Sparkle fibre from Yarn Geek Fibers in the colourway ‘Raspberry Swirl’ that’s just gorgeous and it looks like a dessert itself.  And last, but certainly not least, she found a super cute new orifice hook from Vintage Rose with pink and black glass beads and a sheep charm at the end! So cute!

What We’re Reading and Watching

Katy isn’t really reading anything except looking through the Jane Austen knits 2014. Valerie is still reading her way through Diana Gabaldon’s ‘Outlander’ series yet again – cause being on hiatus is tough 😉  But we are both still watching season 5 of Downton Abbey over the internet. We’re loving it!!! We think that Cora and Edith’s plan was ludicrous and all this could’ve been handled a long time ago. We cried about Isis and felt so bad for Isobel and the Dowager Countess for missing her friend. Lady Mary needs to learn some compassion – even though Katy thinks she prides herself on being a bit of an ice queen. We both don’t want Tom and Sibby to leave… they’re both darling and we love them . As well, we both almost hit the floor when Barrow showed a bit of heart and generosity and was basically being nice!??!? That’s not Barrow at all!

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Anyway, that’s our show this time. As always, itunes reviews and star ratings are much appreciated and please come and join us in our Ravelry Group for our KAL/CALs, contests and just plain good ol’ conversation. Take care and have a good fortnight everyone!!!