Episode 1: Casting On!

Lydia: Yeah, really. I feel like it looks shiny but
Elyssa: What do you think? Better? Yeah.
Lydia: Yeah, I think so.
Elyssa: Hi. Should we do our little intro? Hi. Yeah.
Lydia: Hi. Hello. Yeah, that's what I was about to say is that I told you I was gonna write an intro and I really didn't. does this look weird? Okay. It's a little green guy.
Elyssa: Well, the one you wrote was pretty good, I thought. I like it. I think it's on brand. I mean look, ⁓ I have like I have two Mediglianis right here that are nudes.
Lydia: Yeah. It's great. She's got art, ladies and gentlemen.
Elyssa: Anyway. I ripped him out of a book, guys. No frames. Blue tacky stuff.
Lydia: Don't be too jealous. so yeah, it's something like
Elyssa: Haircut's not good for headphones, Lydia. I'm telling you right now. Hold on. Look at this. I went too far.
Lydia: yeah.
Elyssa: She took it too far. She took it too far. Okay, so it was something like, Hi, I'm Lydia.
Lydia: Yeah, like ⁓ like hey everyone, hey everyone, I'm Lydia.
Elyssa: And I'm Alyssa. And I'm Alyssa.
Lydia: And welcome to the procrastinating podcast. Maybe not. It's too hard.
Elyssa: knitting podcast. Not at the same time. We're gonna do that again. No. Silly. And then you're gonna say, okay, get out of here.
Lydia: and we could take turns at this part. Like this is a podcast about knitting.
Elyssa: Creativity.
Lydia: life stuff.
Elyssa: And anything else and whatever.
Lydia: Like and anything else we happen to think of. And if we want I keep going back on if I like this, but you know, there's the line. and you just might learn a thing or two. But you probably won't.
Elyssa: And you miss my I like it.
Lydia: It's cute. We can always take it out later or whatever. Yeah.
Elyssa: We can and we can always do several takes. Like we can do it and then like sit and then go let's try that again.
Lydia: Yeah. I feel like my video is still kind of messed up, but should we just who cares? Really? It's fine to you.
Elyssa: Doesn't seem ⁓ it's like a tiny bit laggy.
Lydia: It's just a little laggy.
Elyssa: Just a little laggy. But you know what? My knees are pressed up against this locker, and there's a lot of other issues. And you know what? We're just gonna power through. You know why?
Lydia: Well Yeah, I just wanna get our first episode out there, baby. We're not a video podcast, so whatever. We don't even care. Okay, great.
Elyssa: Yes, baby, yes. No, we don't even care how these bangs look. Not at all. Okay, so yeah. Let's do it. Let's try it.
Lydia: Okay, let's just try it. Who goes first? No no no. I'm just trying to figure out the order. Like
Elyssa: Do you want to? Tell me, tell me what else. I'm just thinking of that friends episode where Phoebe and Rachel move in together and they're trying to do the recording. And like then Rachel's like, you get all the good words. I just have a the it. Hi, hi, it's Phoebe and Rachel. And we
Lydia: Yeah. And that's what I'm trying to avoid. ⁓ no
Elyssa: No, it's okay. We can just add words. ⁓ I hate it. I hate it. I'm just gonna try something. Hold on. ⁓ a three is then a it is then so hold on. It won't. I'll just add a word if I have to. This isn't
Lydia: Yeah, I might grab my cord I might grab my headphones too.
Elyssa: These aren't like registering that they're plugged in though. Your other ones, yeah, go try. I'm gonna see if I can we might have to leave and come back. I don't know. ⁓ maybe not. Default. Go try ⁓ USB audio. ⁓ there we go. Ooh, yeah, it works.
Lydia: Okay.
Elyssa: Think it works.
Lydia: I'll just pulled the computer off the whole thing.
Elyssa: No! No, no, no. Only problem with this is that I have to be so close now. That's okay. Okay.
Lydia: ⁓
Elyssa: Kind of works. It's just a little
Lydia: I would need to find a dongle and I just don't have one right now, so it's fine.
Elyssa: It's not great, actually. Wait, this echo cancellation is on again. It's not working. Yeah, I have to go back. Sorry. Alright, we're gonna just we're just gonna do it. We're gonna ignore the raid. ⁓ it says can't change mic while recording. Okay, I think we need to. I'm gonna leave. I'm leaving. I'm leaving and come back.
Lydia: Okay. Yes.
Elyssa: Okay. Cool. Let's do it.
Lydia: Cool. I want I'm really tempted to like change the lighting a little bit, but
Elyssa: All I did was I put my I put this like sheer so it like wouldn't reflect my glasses. But I think you look gr good. I like your background and your little pillow thing. What do you want to do? How do you feel?
Lydia: Yeah. Okay. I just feel like I look shiny, like really shiny, but
Elyssa: I don't notice at all. Actually, as soon as you joined, I was like, how cute. Look at her little setup. That was my first thought. Look at that little garden behind her. But I have nowhere to be, so you do it, you futz if you want. No, no, no, no, no. Okay. Okay. You sound great. Do I sound good? Great. Okay, let's welcome everyone to our podcast.
Lydia: Okay, then let's just go. Alright. Alright. No no no, I wanna start. Okay. Do I sound good? You sound great. Yeah. Totally. Okay. Are you gonna start or should I start?
Elyssa: ⁓ I don't
Lydia: Let's see what makes sense. If I say hi everyone, this is Lydia.
Elyssa: And this is Alyssa.
Lydia: And welcome to the procrastinating podcast.
Elyssa: Where we talk about knitting.
Lydia: Creativity.
Elyssa: Mm, washing dishes, nope. ⁓ we talk about life stuff, whatever comes up.
Lydia: Ha ha ha. And yeah. So you start.
Elyssa: You know what? You have to do it. You do it. No, you do all of it. And then we'll like one person say it and then like every other time we can do it. We can change. But it's too like we're too like Phoebe and Rachel. I can't. It's like sitcom, you know? So
Lydia: Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Okay, totally, totally. I so I'm gonna give you a chance to say your name and I'll say everything else.
Elyssa: I'll say okay, yeah, perfect, perfect. Sounds great.
Lydia: Does that sound good? Okay. Hey everyone, this is Lydia. And welcome to the Procrastinating Podcast. In this podcast, we're going to talk about knitting, the creative process, life stuff, and whatever else happens to pop into our heads. So we hope you'll stick around and listen. You might just learn a thing or two, but you probably won't. Hey Alyssa!
Elyssa: And this is Alyssa. I Hi Lydia. I'm hoping I learn something today, actually. I I feel like I'm ready to learn and absorb.
Lydia: That's so good. You're a sponge.
Elyssa: Yeah. Thank you. I've never felt so seen or absorbent. How are you since I last saw you a few hours ago?
Lydia: Yeah. I'm good. I'm sweatier than I was before. I was biking, ⁓ I was biking all around town. I'm really, ⁓ and it felt great, but I'm happy to be done. Sitting here ready to talk about ⁓ knitting and whatever with you. Yeah. I know. Let's get right into it. How's your knitting? I wanna like what are you are you working? Tell tell me what you're working on.
Elyssa: Really? Good. Yeah, me too. We've been waiting a while. Honestly. Yeah. I'm gonna tell you what I'm working on. I I'm working on several things. Look, I got I got them all ready to go.
Lydia: Mine are ready to go too.
Elyssa: Okay, so I am working on several things and I Okay. Last week we talked about how I have so many works in progress. And I tried to count. You do. You do. It's just thank you. For the of the whip the whip count.
Lydia: Which I love. I'm in full support of the the the whip mountain, yeah.
Elyssa: It's really big. ⁓ so I I sat down the other day in a moment of like, I don't know, luteal phase, I guess, of like looking at my life and just going like, ⁓ you loser, like do something different, you know? and I
Lydia: Alyssa, I don't like to hear about that negative self talk.
Elyssa: Well here's the thing. I immediately I immediately cancelled it out for myself because I had the ⁓ I had the thought. I sat down and I was like, you're going to just power through this mohair blouse. Right? Which here I'm gonna hold it up, but you know the one, it's like airy, it's beautiful, it's like basically a a bralette right now, so short. And I was sitting in bed doing it and I was not feeling pleased. It was like scratch.
Lydia: Mm. Yeah.
Elyssa: My fingers, and I then immediately so it was like a three-minute from negative thought to like cancel that. I was just like, you are who you are, babe. And you know what? Especially right now when you're like loody-ling it up, like you need to touch some like really nice soft yarn. So I actually didn't work on any of my whips. You know what I did? I cast on a new thing and finished it in one night.
Lydia: Yeah. Ha ha ha. Yeah. What? What? ⁓ my god, what?
Elyssa: Yeah, dude. Okay. Remember when I bought that I had f when I first started knitting, I was drooling over hedgehog fibers. I
Lydia: I mean, yeah.
Elyssa: I before I even learned how to knit again from you, I had seen the sun shower colorway from them, which it and it was like a super bulky, and I sent it and I was like, this is truly everything to my brain, my eyes, my senses, all my senses. I was like, I can imagine how it smells. Like it was just so sensory. I was obsessed. And then I bought this wacky pattern, the parquet vest, remember? Because I had this, I'll post it.
Lydia: Mm-hmm. Yeah Yeah.
Elyssa: It was like it's like thin yarn and like big like chevron. Anyway, ⁓ I I it was the first pattern I bought. I bought it with absolute no regard whatsoever for skill level. I I had been knitting for it's so three-dimensional. It's like fingering weight yarn in maybe like an oatmeal, like a very neutral, and then
Lydia: yes. Yeah. It's like very three dimensional. It's
Elyssa: in the whole center part of the pullover vest like a sweater vest you know v-neck and it has these like bright neon like yeah like I guess like chevrons sort of like chevron y stripes down the front a very complicated pattern and god bl goddess bless you you were like great that looks great you should totally knit that like two weeks in so I never bought I never bought the yarn but I finally did because I had to get free shipping on one of
Lydia: Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: My last orders. I had to just bump up that you know the cart. So I bought I bought my of my first hedgehog yarn in Dahlia. Okay. It's so beautiful, and I knit this beautiful headband, but it's freakishly small. It's tiny, it's basically an arm cuff.
Lydia: Of course. Beautiful. It looks very tiny. Yeah. Tell us about the colors. Like yeah, like for those who are just listening in.
Elyssa: Uh-huh. Here it is, but it is so squishy and soft. The colors? Okay, yes. Of course, of course. I'm working on my ⁓ articulation. Okay, so it does look like a field of dahlias. And ⁓ we're gonna get you some dahlia bulbs, Lydia, for your for your bulb, your rare bulb hunt. So there's There is deep like crimson burgundy like bordeaux like a pinot noir there's hot pink fuchsia there's a couple of flecks here and there of like a lilac and even some sky blue i mean it is like truly there's a couple flecks of like a golden orange i it's just it was one of those this is my first really like
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: Hardy explosion confetti variegated yarn that I've ever bought. And it's tough to imagine when you see it. Like you just have no idea how it's gonna knit up. And it's can be in my experience hard to find examples online, especially with some of these like very limited edition, like quick, quick release colorways. I don't know.
Lydia: Yeah. Mm, totally. Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: It's I sometimes find it tough to find a swatch, but this is just giving me absolute life. I I certainly I think I'm going to unravel it. And I just but I really liked it's too small. Maybe Violet will wear it. I did. It feels so nice and it looks beautiful. Maybe I could just
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah, it does look tiny. But you had fun making it. What's that pattern called?
Elyssa: Could wear it like a bow tie. So this is ⁓ from Loopy Mango and it's actually a free pattern and it's called the chunky no. I'm gonna get back to you on what it's called. I think it I think it's called the chunky twist headband, and there's two options for for it like a wider one and a thinner one, and I love this wide one, and it was cool because I wish, you know.
Lydia: He
Elyssa: I've sort of blacked out how I did it, but you yeah, you like knit legs. You like knit a leg and then you like leave one hanging and then you like come back and connect the two. You do you know what I mean? It's weird. But it's a free pattern. We'll put it in the It's a different pattern. I did the very f this this that one is you knit a long rectangle and then you
Lydia: Yeah. Uh-huh. Whoa. I don't know. Yeah. You've made a bunch of these. ⁓ Okay, okay. ⁓
Elyssa: like sand you like you take one end and you like make a taco like you fold it like this and you fold the other end and then you stitch and then when you unfold it it gives a little twist. This one has the twist by you actually knit the twist into it by by I don't to take notes.
Lydia: You just twist or ⁓ Uh-huh. It's okay.
Elyssa: Yeah, you you start you start on one end and you just knit like for five inches or something, and then you just put some stitches on hold and you just continue knitting a l like a leg. Do you see? Like kind of see how I'm I mean Yep. Yep. Yep. And then you Yep, and then you tw
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You knit half the stitches while the other half are waiting. And then you put those on hold and knit the other half. And then you those two little panels you lay one on top of the other, cross them, and then keep going. That's cool.
Elyssa: Twi f cross? Exactly. It was really cool. It was fun to knit. It was it gave me everything I needed like physically to touch. And it and I knit it in one night. It was great. So that's that. It is totally. I just I really love fluffy, squishy yarn. I love how it feels. I don't always love like a size 15 needle in my hand. It's can be, you know, but usually they knit up so quick I don't mind.
Lydia: Yeah. Just what you needed. A little like a little palate cleanser, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Elyssa: They knit up faster than I can get the carpal, the tunnels and the carpels and the yeah. And then, but other than that, I did finally get excited about my outline tee, the Jessie made pattern that I had been drooling over for so long, and I bought this beautiful linen and cotton yarn, the undine, and I got this jewel weed colorway. It's this beautiful red orange, it's so pretty. Thank you.
Lydia: Yeah, right. It's really pretty. It's like so vibrant.
Elyssa: So vibrant. It's exactly what I wanted. And I was sort of stalled out on it because I decided not to pay the three dollars for ball winding, which was a big mistake. Never doing that again. ⁓ and then you had offered so generously. You were like, I have one. And I was like, You have a ball winder? I never knew. But then
Lydia: Mm-hmm. I do have a ball winder and swift. I do. I barely ever use them, but I do have them. So what did you do?
Elyssa: Well, so I did it by hand, but because I'm so impatient and I didn't do it very well. So this yarn is very thin and very like twine-like before you, you know, so it got tangled and stuff. And it took me a while to get started too because bum ba-da-dum, I actually knitted a gauge swatch for this pattern because it's a really it's beautiful.
Lydia: Uh-huh. Yeah.
Elyssa: but it's got a lot of like technical stitching. There's like some dropped stitches and things you really need to know what you're doing because I gotta tell you the pattern the the projects area on Ravelry some of them are Disastrously different than the pattern, and I was like, I just am not gonna this is definitely gonna take me through the whole summer to knit. I'll probably be done by so I just wanted to be, you know, so it took me a while to get started. That's all I'm saying. And ⁓ but it's interesting. Thank you. Thank you. It is, it is important.
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I'm proud of you for swatching. So important. Yeah.
Elyssa: And this this pattern is cute. It's the bottom ribbing is I've never done knit through the back loop and then pearl. just exactly as it sounds. ⁓ it was very simple, but it's giving this adorable, like twisted rib. I really like how it looks.
Lydia: It's a cool texture.
Elyssa: It is, yeah. So we'll see. I'm glad I'm just like mo mostly I'm just glad I'm I like want to work on it because I was kind of feeling disappointed, like I really want to wear this shirt. Cheese. But I have to knit it to be able to wear it. And then, you know, anyway.
Lydia: Yeah. I know. It's so funny because I feel like, you know, spring rolls around and you see all these like pattern roundups for like spring garments. But it's like, well, but I wanna wear that now. Are you like making it that quickly? You know what I mean? Like this in a perfect world, we would knit our spring garments in winter, but it's hard to but But they're nicer to make in the spring, right? 'Cause yeah.
Elyssa: That's what I was just gonna say. Like I don't wanna in the winter I wanna be, I wanna have my alpaca on my lap, keeping me warm. Which by the way, I'm not I'm not done with. I ripped it out, you know? I ripped that sleeve out. But can I try it on for you before we talk about yours? Okay.
Lydia: I know. Totally. Yes. Yes. This is like a real showstopper garment that Alyssa is almost done with. You finished it once. Well, I mean I was very impressed that you you went back in to make things perfect.
Elyssa: Girl. I was done, but what happened? I had added accidentally eight stitches or six stitches, maybe even to one sleeve, which normally wouldn't be an issue, but on this gauge, it was like a good five centimeters, and it was just very noticeable to to wear, feeling-wise. Not maybe not visually, people couldn't really tell, but anyway has these balloony, puffy sleeves. But the wearing it, it was.
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: Yeah, it just it it felt like an extra like it felt like a wing. Like I was gonna like if I caught up the draft or whatever, I would like take out soar off into the like a wave, like a like a kite in the wind, like woof, there she goes. Yeah, exactly. That's how I felt every time I wore it. So I figured, you know what? The color choosing was the part that really gave me that that like the slower process. And I had already picked the colors. So I just took a picture of the order of the colors, ripped it out. I'm so happy.
Lydia: Like a flying squirrel.
Elyssa: I only have like four stripes left, so it'll be done just in time for it to be like eighty degrees Fahrenheit. Mm-hmm. And I want to know about your math. I want to know about your sleeves. Your Well
Lydia: Yes, so great. So great. ⁓ yeah. Okay. So
Elyssa: You did 75, you said Lydia texted me. I'm starting my sleeves. I have 75 grand on each or 75 grand on each one. And I was like, 75,000? What unit? And then and then it occurred to me, you typoded and you meant grams. I was like, geez, this sleeve's gonna be huge.
Lydia: Mm. Yeah. Yeah. No, so okay, so I'm knitting the port jacket by Ozetta. ⁓ I'm loving it. I'm knitting it in nitpicks simply wool. Which is lovely. It's undyed. It's very shapy. Like it smells shapy. But ⁓ here are my two complaints. ⁓ it's labeled as an Aaron and it is worsted. It just is. You can't convince me otherwise. So I'm I had planned to knit an Aaron weight cardigan with this yarn, but I have to knit a worsted weight cardigan because that's how it's like swatching. That's what it wants to be, that's what it is. So because I'm knitting a worsted weight cardigan, I need more yardage. And I thought to myself, well fine, I'll buy one more ball. Sorry babe, it's a discontinued yarn. I like bought the last five balls or whatever. So I went online, tried to find it, I could not. One friend found some for me on a very shady website, and then I had Alyssa do some sleuthing, and it seems to be a scammer website. So I'm not buying that.
Elyssa: Oof. Ha ha No
Lydia: And instead, and I checked Ravelry, I checked eBay, I checked Poshmark, I checked D pop, I checked Mercari, babe, but I can't find it. So anyway, I'm just gonna keep knitting and say a little prayer, and maybe I'll have enough yarn. Who knows? So what I did was it's right here. I mean it's like it's hard to see.
Elyssa: Let's see it. It is so chic, you guys. It is, but you know what? We're gonna we'll post pictures when you're done. But the collar for me is like really. I love the collar. It's so beautiful, it's so polished, and you're you're really like, yeah. You've yeah, you've you're really excited about this. I will say I've seen you knit a lot of things and
Lydia: It's fine. I love the collar. So Right. Yes.
Elyssa: When you you you knit a lot for the boys too. And when you were knitting when you started the ⁓ goodnight day ⁓ like the the the boying, yeah, the pullover, you were so excited, but then you like stalled out
Lydia: The Boyne Yeah, yes. Yes.
Elyssa: Be maybe it just kinda got it put away for a little bit. And then I hadn't seen you be really excited about a project. Like you were really amped this. Like I would see you one day and I'd see you the very next day, and you'd have an entire whole panel done and you were like, I've been knitting my life away. This is so great. And it really came together. And you were so focused too, like with the what is it, like the edging or something where it was very tight and lovely.
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like the button band was very fiddly. I mean that's where I ⁓ thought of the name for this podcast because I was just ⁓ ignoring every other responsibility in my life and knitting on this sweater. I was procrastinating and ⁓ a little light bulb moment. But so yes, so I knit the body.
Elyssa: Ha ha ha. Yes.
Lydia: And I've made it's it's supposed to be a pretty oversized sweater, but I decided to go ahead and knit the size small. So it's really not gonna be as oversized. It's gonna be more fitted, but I think it's gonna work for me. Especially when I block it. I think it's gonna all work out. Fingers crossed. And then I made
Elyssa: Are you changing the I mean you knit a size small, but is the pattern, does it have a lot of positive ease built into each size anyway? Okay. So cause you kind of are a small though. Yeah, I guess. So okay. So did you so did you adjust the stitch count at all or it to go in between or you're just the small will still have the a good amount of positive ease for you. Okay.
Lydia: Yes, it has a ton of positive ease and like that's not what I want from this yeah, I usually wear a small in like ready-to-wear garments. No I think it will. Yeah, I think it's gonna be fine. It's it's just not like you see in the project pages on Ravelry, some of these people are wearing like very oversized cardigans. But that's just actually not what I want from this project anyway. Like I already have oversized sweaters. I want a more fitted, little jackety kind of sweater. So I think it's gonna be good. So I knit the body, I knit the button bands.
Elyssa: Mm-hmm.
Lydia: And I knit this very cute little collar, which uses a lot of yarn, so hopefully it's okay. Cuz you you knit it up with short rows and then you reverse the short rows and then you fold it over. and I had never made a collar like that before, but I think it turned out really nice and so pretty to me.
Elyssa: I'm just gonna go on the record here and say that as a new knitter, I know that the word short rows, I know those words. I also know that sometimes they're preceded by the word German, and I know that I have done it once in the Oslo hat. and I watched a tutorial at that time and I did it, ⁓ and it wasn't that long ago, but I will tell you, I have no idea what it means. Not that you have to tell me now, but you in the beginning you did say you might learn something, but you probably won't. But if
Lydia: Yes.
Elyssa: If we want to learn, you could tell me what German shore rows are. I just remember I don't even remember why I used them in the Oslo hat, or what what the purpose was, but shaping the question.
Lydia: There you go Yeah. Yeah. Basically they're for shaping. So imagine you're knitting something and you're going let's just imagine it's a flat piece, okay? So you're going back and forth from the start of the row to the end of the row, from the start to the end. And then if you wanted to create more fabric in the center. you would knit to for example like 75% across and then turn the work and then knit let's say it's a hundred stitches. Okay you're gonna knit seventy five turn the work knit fifty turn the work and then from that point you usually will move out in in where you're making those turns and it creates This extra fabric in the piece. So, but it's more three-dimensional. But if you fold that in half, it creates a collar that just has this nice curve on the top. But you also can use short rows for like bust shaping, for example. If you were a really busty person and you wanted to create more fabric to cover your chest.
Elyssa: Like so you're not you're not making. Okay. Please, I see. Okay.
Lydia: so that your sweater hangs better over your midsection. You could do short rows across your chest and it will create more rows of knitting that are just over your bust. Not they don't go around to the back, right? So it's just this extra little and if you do it yeah
Elyssa: Mm. Whoa. Cool. Yeah. Like a reverse dart. Like a positive. Instead of like tucking the fabric, you're actually just adding more. Like if you were sewing. Yeah. Okay, that's cool.
Lydia: You're like expanding it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's very useful. It can be used for different things. Or you know like that a sweater with the eyeballs on it? Those well, those might be short rows, but it's also in Tarja. I don't know, actually. But that can give you sort of like a visual idea of sort of like what that means.
Elyssa: Yes, yes. But it's very cool. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna post I'm gonna we'll post that because it's really cool. I really wanna it's so cool. It's so gnarly. It's very off-putting in a good way. I don't remember. Dan I thought Danny maybe sent it, but ⁓ and then I don't I just was like, I wanna make this and then I of course didn't save it anywhere, so oops.
Lydia: ⁓ yeah, it's so cool. Yeah. Is that Degan? Is that ⁓ I forget her last name? Yeah. Yeah. I forget her first name, but I think it Lindsay, I think. Lindsay Deegan. I think that might be one of her patterns.
Elyssa: It's so good. Reminds me of the it reminds me of the my first like real needle felting project after you taught me how to needle felt. We did the balls and then I made this h absolutely heinous like planter like out of wool with these like horrible bloodshot eyes and like really groaty teeth and it was it was really it was. It was as a for a present for someone, but I still have it because I can't bear to I can't bear to part with it. It's too weird. Yeah.
Lydia: ⁓ yeah, yeah. It's really crazy. It's very weird. How close are you to your mic? Could you get a little closer? Let me hear if you're a little closer.
Elyssa: I can. how do I sound now? Weird. Okay, how's that?
Lydia: Mmm talk normally. Just at one point you got closer to the mic and it sounded really good. And you still like you've been sounding good, but I think yeah. Can't a little closer.
Elyssa: Okay. Test, test. How's that? I turned it up a little bit. Get a little closer even.
Lydia: Maybe.
Elyssa: Okay, I gotta find a desk, babe. I'm gonna hold it. I'm gonna hold it like this. How does that sound?
Lydia: I know. Think it sounds good.
Elyssa: Like this, six inches. You don't know. You don't know now. Hold it like right here.
Lydia: Yeah. Okay. I'm at like six. Okay. Yes.
Elyssa: Let's try it. Are you at six?
Lydia: Okay, we're gonna try it. So anyway, so I've been knitting this cardigan. I'm hoping that I will have enough yarn. I finished all the other knitting except for the sleeves. Okay, and then I weighed I weighed the yarn. I had 156 grams. 156,000 grams, which is 78
Elyssa: Okay, we're gonna try it. So you wait it. Thousand.
Lydia: And so I separate it into two balls of evenweight, and I'm also doing my decreases at a faster rate than the pattern calls for. Yes. Because I want a more fitted sleeve, and a more fitted sleeve means using less yarn. So we'll see. We'll see. I don't I don't want it to be a three-quarter sleeve, and I don't want to use different yarns. So if I run out of yarn.
Elyssa: So that the wind doesn't tickly Right. So you get a more yeah, okay. Yeah. I think it's gonna be great.
Lydia: I don't know, but I'll figure something out. Because I really want this I want this garment. I want I want it. I I need it.
Elyssa: So I know. You deserve it. So okay. If you knit you've you've separated into seventy five and seventy five, seventy-five grams. If you knit the one sleeve and it's just a little too short, you'll
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: you know, are you given your s like is there any room so can you can you then just okay I'm gonna pull it back to the elbow or a little bit above the elbow, then I'm gonna even do a few more little decreases or I'm gonna just do that. Like is there anywhere you can like you'll be able to stretch it if you find like okay I actually didn't get I took my 75 grams. It's not it's like a centimeter too short or I don't know, whatever deal breaker amount would be for you. Like can you pull it back and see if you can
Lydia: Yeah. Right.
Elyssa: You know?
Lydia: I could figure out something. I don't know. I honestly don't know. I have no I I would what I might do is just if I run out of yarn, I might just take it to the yarn store and see if I can find a close match of like some other undyed yarn. Because it's undyed, there are only so many colors of sheep, you know? So I feel like maybe.
Elyssa: Yeah, we're gonna see. We're gonna Yeah.
Lydia: I could make I could find something similar enough. But right now I'm just like, I've got to cross that bridge when I get to it. I don't know. We'll see. Yeah. I did. And in fact, the picking up the sleeves was so hard for me this time. It I had to do it three times, which was so annoying, but
Elyssa: Keep going. Did you start it yet? Did you cast out did you do your stitches? ⁓ welcome to my life. I I find picking up stitches at sleeves to be the most horrible part of knitting for me. I don't understand it at all. It doesn't
Lydia: Yeah. ⁓ I know. I put it off for like two days because I was like, I just don't feel like it. I don't want to. It's too hard.
Elyssa: It doesn't make sense to me though. Like everybody does it differently. And I know you always say, like, as long as like just pick away and just be consistent, it looks really good. Wow, it looks so good. ⁓ but but I can't see it. And that's why like some of these projects are just kind of on hold, 'cause I'm like, Welp, I don't know. I don't even know where to go in. Okay.
Lydia: Yeah. Thanks. I hear you. I feel like I picked up the stitches really well on the back. And then when you come back over the other side picking up stitches, the the stitches are oriented differently because it's you're coming down, you know? And it doesn't look as good. But I was like, you know what? I've done this three times. It's like there's I just can't keep going there or can't do it again. But something that I tried to remember.
Elyssa: Right. Mm-hmm.
Lydia: I mean of course I wanna I want this to look really good and I want it to look polished. But also somebody in a different knitting podcast was talking about this idea of I think they call it like a galloper. Like if you make a mistake in your knitting, they'll say like, is it a galloper? And what that means is could you see it from the back of a galloping horse? Just so silly. But it's about horses. I think it was maybe it was on the two U's. I don't know. I'll try if I f remember who said it, I'll try to give them credit. But but yeah, so I just need to keep going.
Elyssa: I I was like, is this about horses? Yeah. No. I like that. Yeah. I think for for me, like I I I think yeah, you have to. I think f I think you just one innately knows if a thing is gonna bug them so much. Like everyone across the board was like, do not rip that sleeve out. That is fine, no one can notice. And I just deep down I just knew
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: I didn't like putting it on. Every time I put it on, I felt this like dingle dangle on my hand. I was like, I don't want to wear this. And geez, I just really wanted to wear it, you know? And not just like as like an a around the house like little like thing. I wanted to like wear it out and enjoy it and for it to look very chic. And I am glad I did.
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. I'm proud of you for ripping it back and making it right. Have you thought any more about so when you when you finish knitting this sleeve? So this is a beautiful cardigan that Alyssa is making. It is rainbow colors. How many colors does it have?
Elyssa: Thank you. Thank you. I think I counted like 37 individual colors just also because I added, you know, I did like a two strands of and one strand. It's the Cardi Decor. ⁓ I can't remember the designer, but that's the name of it.
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. And it's this beautiful mohair masterpiece. It's like four rows of each color. Is that right?
Elyssa: It's four, yep. It's supposed to be three, but it but it again, then I was like, ⁓ right, I'm not knowing how to read my knitting quite yet, so it's four, and then I was like, I just kept kind of adjusting it. And it's actually supposed to be completely mohair, but I'm using mostly brushed alpaca, actually, which gives it like a different
Lydia: Mm-hmm perfect. ⁓ right, right.
Elyssa: You know, that was another lesson. Then when I s wanted to switch and do some rows in mohair, 'cause mohair has, you know, much more vibrant colors. I was learning too. It's because of the way that different fibers take dye. Mohair can take dye so much better than the brushed alpaca. The brushed alpaca sort of like doesn't it doesn't take it as brightly. So you'll get more like muted tones, whereas like in a mohair you might get like a carrot orange or like a very like bright vibrant grass green and you're not gonna see that that same thing just because of how they each fiber takes the dye. So in some rows though I had these beautiful bright colors of mohair I really wanted to use and learning on the fly, okay, if I'm using three strands of brushed alpaca
Lydia: So interesting. Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: I actually have to use, ⁓ let me try this. Let me try four. Let me try. And it like it ends up being six strands of mohair. And then if I want to do another one that's like more like marled or whatever, you know, two strands of the alpaca. And then I had to use two strands. It was just figuring out how to keep it looking like the same kind of consistent, you know, thing. But I love it. I really love it.
Lydia: Whoa. Yeah, it's so beautiful. It's so pretty. And so this cardigan has no closures or like, you know, button band or of of any sort. Are you gonna just leave it as is? Are you ⁓ 'cause I know at one point you were thinking about trying to like add some sort of closure.
Elyssa: I really love it. A little chilly in here. It's a little chilly. I'll just put it on. I'll just slip it on. You know, I guess I l I love it, you guys. I love it. I am so proud. I'm obsessed. Wait, so this this is really funny too. I'll get back to the closure. Yes. ⁓ my gosh, yes. It was we have ⁓ children and ⁓ my my wait, how did it how did it go? ⁓ yeah, what either my daughter or or vi or ⁓ god stop
Lydia: She's just over here feeling herself. She's like so proud. I mean you should be proud. If you go on our Instagram, it's the first photo on our Instagram is this cardigan. So check it out. ⁓ are you talking about when the children were like flabbergasted that okay, so I was babysitting Alyssa's daughter, you know, she was over at my house having played it with my son. And I was the kids were playing and I was just knitting and hanging out with them, and they were like, What are you making? And I was like, ⁓ I'm making a cardigan, and it is this undyed, like, it's like the color of
Elyssa: Rewind. One of the kids Yeah. You tell it.
Lydia: I don't know, like chocolate milk, something. ⁓ it's like taupe. And the children were like, why are you making a brown cardigan? And your daughter was like, she was like, My mom is making a rainbow cardigan and it's so beautiful, and yours is just brown.
Elyssa: It's beautiful. Yeah. It's gorgeous. 'Cause at the same time I was knitting, yeah, this one. Yeah.
Lydia: And they were like so sad for me. Like you poor, poor sad woman knitting your knitting your horrible brown cardigan when you could be making a beautiful magical rainbow. It's like I know, I just I'm in my brown era. I need brown, brown, more brown. Love it. Love brown.
Elyssa: Ha ha ha It's funny. I You rustical yeah, you you ⁓ my gosh. Yeah, well, you know what? You know what you know what my favorite color is? My favorite color is brown. It's my favorite color, actually. It is. For real. It really is. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I think there's so many beautiful shades of brown. You know, I mean my favorite color to to yeah. I mean my favorite color is like turquoise. I just love how it looks. But like, yeah, for like more practical
Lydia: Really? Wow. They really are. Yeah.
Elyssa: I think brown is so beautiful. I like it in decorating. I like it in clothing. But, you know, I'm a dopamine freak, you know. I just Anyway, I do like to look at the rainbow cardigan. So I'm not gonna add a closure. I don't think I'm gonna add a closure. I, you know, we talked about a sash. I don't I just like it. I mean
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. No, I love it. I love it. Great, great. Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: You know, the thing is it's so warm but it's also very breathable. And it's it's I think it's a great like springtime, fall, you just need a little bit of something. It's kind of like a shrug, you know?
Lydia: Mm-hmm.
Elyssa: It's very like flappy in the wind. I'm good with it. I I don't think I need to make it into something else. If it's a very cold, blustery day, I will not be wearing an open cardigan. I'll just wear something else. I'll have to finally knit crosses. Learn how to do color work and knit that sweater that I really wanna knit. ⁓ colored crosses. Yes. I love that one.
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. Totally. ⁓ yeah, colored crosses. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That's a that's a great one.
Elyssa: Cause it reminds me a lot of this old LL Bean pullover that my dad had that he passed down to me, which was sadly moth-eaten to to near shreds. ⁓ just gotta recreate it. Yeah. So I will. ⁓ Well you have to pick buttons, you have to pick closures for yours. Are you gonna pick closures? Did you already? Okay. No. ⁓
Lydia: Yeah, well you will. You can. Yeah. I love that. I know, yes. No, it has five buttonholes. They're fairly big buttonholes. ⁓ but I mean I'll probably pick something really boring. I'm so so sorry to say.
Elyssa: What do they show in the pattern? Do they have like those little toggle like nautical wooden? Yeah. Very cute. I love those.
Lydia: I yes. Yeah, they have wooden toggles, which is so cute, but I'm gonna use regular buttons. I would love like a horn button or horn that material. It's sort of like tortoiseshell.
Elyssa: It's a horn. ⁓ yeah yeah yeah like Adam's glasses, yeah. Mm-hmm. Like horn rim or whatever he has. That's cool.
Lydia: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I really like those. I mean you can get imitation ones and you also can get real horn.
Elyssa: Get real horn. Let's go to mood. Horn it up. It's great. Look, we said we were gonna talk about knitting and whatever else came up. Sometimes you get the horn. Talk about buttons.
Lydia: Let's get horned up. Sorry, not funny. It's so bad. It's so good. It's true. I would I would go to mood. I need to look through my button stash and see what I have. But if I because I would love to use something I already have.
Elyssa: I have sad news about my button stash. It was found by my daughter, and she's a collector, and she found those buttons, and she was like, Mom, what are these? I was like, these are my buttons, and she's like, Can I have them? And I was like, all of them? And she was like, not these. And she set aside like the most boring single-color, opaque ones, and took all of my like You know, the translucent ones, the ones with like some like marbling and of course these were all I did the same thing. I I I just I've collected these buttons from elsewhere, not you know. So it's fine. It's fair game, but I do wanna make a trip to Mood.
Lydia: Mm. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. You need to get her you need to get her like a little organizer so she can just organize all of them for you. You did.
Elyssa: I I did. I gave her a little I had an ol I had an old like my aunt has an Ocean State job lot problem. Do you do you know what Ocean State Job Lot is? I don't think they exist in New York. I've never seen one and I frankly don't really even understand what it is. They sell ⁓ everything. It's very strange.
Lydia: No. is it like unclaimed freight? They have that in Minnesota, in northern Minnesota. Yeah.
Elyssa: I don't know what it's like. It's so strange. They have food items. They have it's sort of like a Marshall's, but like much grosser. Like everything's polyester. Everything is like and like I don't know. You can just get like a lot of weird stuff there. and why did I bring what fun? ⁓ so my aunt has an Ocean State job lot problem and she just buys us things from there. Like we don't
Lydia: Yeah. What fun.
Elyssa: we don't need or want. You could get like a camping stove there and you could also get like so she got sprinkles like around Christmas time, like but not like edible I mean they are edible, but like you will break all of your crowns and teeth and everything like on these things. They're like
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: just like these giant weird shaped, you know, like designer sprinkles and they came in this like plastic you know, acrylic like like grid of you know of like f like you know you can picture it like fifteen or eighteen like like the s compartments exactly. So I just
Lydia: Yeah. ⁓ my god. Yes. Little compartments of different sprinkles for the cookie designer in all of us. ⁓ my gosh.
Elyssa: dumped out all the sprinkles because they were horrible and broke our teeth and I gave thank you gave it to Violet as a little treasure bin and so she's yeah she's got a place to you know she really like pines over your your thing on the wall which is like you know the typesetting the typesetting drawer that you have but you have it hung up and it has all these treasures and it's so beautiful like little shadow box.
Lydia: Good for you. Applause, applause. wow. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Elyssa: She pines for that. Every time we go over your house and she comes home, mom, can we why don't we have a cool treasure shelf like that? I'm like, well, 'cause Lydia just knows how to like find stuff and get stuff. I don't know. She's got an eye. She finds the pots and the stuff on the streets and yeah. I feel like you're gonna miss that when you move. You're gonna where are you gonna find all the street stuff? You know? It's gonna be different. There you go. There you go.
Lydia: Trash Lord. Yeah. I know it's gonna be different. Well, I'll be a garage sailing queen for sure. So there's that. And there also are actual thrift stores there, so it's not free, but you can shop. Yeah. So what Alyssa's referring to is that I am moving in one month from Brooklyn, where we both live.
Elyssa: You can actually go check out in a line. Yeah.
Lydia: to St. Paul, Minnesota. And it's very bittersweet. Yeah, where Alyssa doesn't live. Yet. Yet. and so that will be a big change in both our lives. Yeah. So we're gonna keep podcasting too. as part of a way to keep the love alive.
Elyssa: Where I don't live. Where I don't live yet. Yeah. Right. For everyone.
Lydia: For everyone and let everyone in on the love.
Elyssa: Mm-hmm. It's gonna be great, you guys. I personally learned so much today. I really did. Part of it is my sponginess and part of it is that I actually stopped and listened to another person talk, which I don't always do well, but I do listen when you talk.
Lydia: Yeah. Thank you. I listen when you talk too. Isn't that beautiful? Wait, I brought something else to show you. Have I ever I must have shown you. Okay, so this is like okay. So I have my port jacket and this is my real thing that I'm working on. I'm fired up. I'm gonna finish it. It's happening. W whatever.
Elyssa: I know. It really is. It really is. We're such great listeners. Tell me, show me.
Lydia: And I also have a I have I don't have a lot of works in progress right now. A whip, if you will, as they say. ⁓ WIP. I don't have a lot. In fact, I think I just have whip it. I I think I only have three. Yeah, you you can try, but there's not enough here. so I have this, I have a baby.
Elyssa: I was just whipping my hair in case you were wondering why I was doing this. Even though I just It's very cool. I cut it all off. ⁓ gosh, you're right. Three is good. That's nice, that's calm.
Lydia: It is. I have a baby blanket that I started for my three-year-old before he was born. I don't know if that's ever gonna get finished. Yeah, I don't know. It's probably like it's probably like two feet by two feet big. So you can I don't know. Maybe I could just make like a cushion. But
Elyssa: You're almost there, Lydia. Yep. You almost made it. Cover his toes. Maybe you could make a nor you could make a bike warmer. A bike like a like a lap blanket for the bike. You know? Not even big enough for that, probably, maybe. A giant safety pin, make like a kilt or something? No.
Lydia: Yeah. No. No, it's not. I don't know. No. It's like nothing. But okay, so then I my third whip is a cardigan that I started for my four-year-old. ⁓ like at least a year ago. I bet I started it.
Elyssa: Huh. I've never seen I don't have even know what you're talking about. This is wonderful. No, I don't think so. ⁓ yeah, ⁓ yes, I do remember. ⁓ my god. ⁓ my god. You guys have no idea what I'm looking at right now unless you're watching this on video. Okay, wait, go back up, go back up. Cover your face, your beautiful face.
Lydia: even know what I'm talking about. ⁓ my gosh, wait till you see. So it's really cuckoo. Okay, I'm going back up.
Elyssa: You guys, bottom is like beautiful, like rusty orange ribbing. We've got some like teal and like lighter blue tiny checks. Then we've got some like great big rainbow checks. Then we've got the horses. ⁓ my god, the horses. I love it. Oof. I'm like, I'm I'm having like an emotional moment.
Lydia: Horses. This is a marigold in the center. I know this is like a barn quilt moment. Cats, this is the back. Okay. So the back is done. The back is done. There it's so bananas. And it comes around, so the the fronts are almost done.
Elyssa: This is stunning. This is outrageous. So is the front gonna pa mirror that? I'm gobsmacked, you guys. I'm
Lydia: Right? Here's the armpit. Here's my chin in the armpit.
Elyssa: ⁓ cause ⁓ cause you you I see. You knit all the way across so it can just ⁓ how cool. ⁓ my god, will it fit me? I love it. I'm I'm freaked out. I don't know how to do color work. I'm so jealous. Okay, tell me the problem.
Lydia: Mm, mm hmm. I knit it all the way around. Mm. But here's the problem So yeah, so this is heavily inspired. I got my ghost I mean excuse me, I got the horse chart from the ghost horses sweater. Is that an Andrea Maori? Is that Anyway, ghost horses like you'll find it.
Elyssa: Ghost horses. So cool. ⁓ I can tell you in a second, but it's in our pattern. You guys, we have a great yes, it's beautiful. I will.
Lydia: ⁓ and then I don't remember where I got the marigold from. I like designed this with my four-year-old. So I was like, do you want to have horses on it? He's like, Yeah. And what else? He was like, he asked for, how about a marigold? I was like, ⁓ my god, yes, I'll put a marigold on it. ⁓ yeah, sorry, Caitlin. Caitlin Hunter, ghost horses. Look it up, beautiful. So I got the chart from that.
Elyssa: That's very sweet. It's Caitlin Hunter, Ghost Horses. It's gorgeous. Mm-hmm.
Lydia: And then this, there's a checkerboard like a rainbow, I mean this is sort of like your cardigan. This rainbow checkerboard intarja. Intarja motif. Yeah, and this this is inspired inspired by Keith Facet and a a pattern that he has in his book.
Elyssa: So cool, you guys. Oof. Intarja. I was just gonna say, Lydia, is that Intarja? I don't know what that means, you guys. It's okay if you don't either. We'll learn it someday. Show notes.
Lydia: Called Family Album, I think is what it's called. It's an incredible book of just the most bananas, knitting patterns. The photography is incredible. The colors, yes, it's a great coffee table book. It's a hardback, beautiful book. I look at it with my kids all the time. We just like freak out. It's got some color in the ribbing. It's all scraps. It's all scraps. but the problem is, right, I just got like design fatigue and like color choosing fatigue because I'm
Elyssa: You have the physical book? Like It's gorgeous.
Lydia: Designing it as I go and adding in different motifs and different color work stuff, and picking colors and trying to make everything like reasonably cohesive so it isn't too crazy. And that's hard for me. And I don't know what I'm gonna do with the sleeves. Like, could I just make the sleeves one color? Should I just make it a vest?
Elyssa: Mm-hmm. First of all, it could be a vest. It might fit him for longer if it were a vest. Second of all, I have a question. Could you put the loon on it? I put that chart in the file. Did you see the file for the loon? Okay. Could you put a loon on like the breast? Or is it really just the sleeve? Like, do you don't you have to come back up like the shoulder panel or no?
Lydia: Yeah. Yes. I could po well God, wait, do I have to make more cats? Wait, what is going on here? Wait, no, no, no, no, no. No, I don't have to make any more cats. You know, I just really trolled around on different like cross free cross-stitch pattern websites. And you can find a lot of stuff on Pinterest also.
Elyssa: She Where'd you get the cats from? That's clever.
Lydia: And technically it's not like cross stitch is cross stitch squares are squares, right? Knitting stitches are a little bit taller than they are wide. So if you're gonna use a cross stitch motif for color work knitting, you should always swatch because
Elyssa: Mm-hmm. And knitting's not, right?
Lydia: whatever little animal or whatever might be taller than it is in the cross stitch thing. But for these cats it worked out fine. they are just like little weird cats. So
Elyssa: What? They're awesome. I'm I'm I'm just gonna put a little marker in here for each other that I'm going to request you or I will come over and do like a full photo shoot of this and post like a carousel because this has to be shared. I am I've never seen this before. I can't believe I've never seen it. Or maybe I haven't I just don't remember because I wasn't knitting back then and my my sort of like my feelers I was knit blind, yes, like you're it's beautiful.
Lydia: Mm-hmm. I know, I mean Yeah. Yeah. You were knit blind. I mean look, this is the back of the Intarja squares. I knit in I wove in all these ends. It took so long. I've spent so many hours on this already. I have to finish it.
Elyssa: It's gorgeous. ⁓ god. If you make it a vest, I bet you could fit into it. How cute. This is like something our one of our friends is really into right now is the the idea of like a either a small like a bralette or like a small like open vest over or like a crop over a la like Cher Horowitz and Clueless when she puts on like her driver's driving test outfit where she has like the long sort of Calvin Klein like loose blouse, but then she puts on this like fitted little cute like crop sweater. This sort of look.
Lydia: ⁓ yeah. Yeah. That is so cute.
Elyssa: You could totally wear it like a shrug. Your arms could definitely fit in. You could wear this cute little like crop shrug over like a very cute button-down shirt. I would do it. I'll volunteer.
Lydia: I'm not, I don't really I don't think it is gonna fit me at all whatsoever. But
Elyssa: Uff. You're gonna finish it. Let's ⁓ workshop this. This is fun. You know, maybe
Lydia: Yeah. And I also was I was super, super inspired too, I will say, by Picky Femme on Instagram.
Elyssa: that che that cool pattern that just got released too. But all their stuff is like that. But they that that like check check sweater.
Lydia: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. She makes these beautiful collage sweaters. Her color sense is incredible. Like her work is so beautiful. I don't know her real name, but her handle is Picky Femme. And it's like everything she makes is just beautiful. Actually, did you see that she's doing a collab with Phoebe Wall? Excuse me. Yeah, I know. Gasp. Gasp.
Elyssa: It's very cool. It it tracks. It tracks. I am Gasp. Like Phoebe's designs.
Lydia: so Phoebe Wall, American treasurer and children's book creator, illustrator, and writer. Yeah, she has a number of beautiful children's books, one of which is called Little Witch Hazel, which is so wonderful and beloved by all. And they are
Elyssa: And part time fairy witch, for sure. I did see this.
Lydia: Phoebe Wall is creating with some other people like a stage show of the book and asked Picky Femme, I wish I knew her real name, but asked her to knit the sweater for Little Witch Hazel, and it's so cute. And I really, really hope that they release a pattern because I would make that in a second. So cute.
Elyssa: The sweater that the sweater that Little Witch Hazel wears in the thing is what she's designed. Her name is Erin, by the way. It's Erin. Picky Femme. So cool. Scrappy Checkers. ⁓ that's so cool. Yeah, we do. Very cool.
Lydia: Yeah, with this sort of like her name is Erin. Thank you for all your work, Erin. We love you. the cuff has this cool color work motif that makes it look like flower petals, like white flower petals going up into a green sleeve. It's so pretty. It's so cute. Yeah, hang on, somebody's ringing my doorbell.
Elyssa: The witch hazel the little witch hazels butter? You mean? Break from my headphones. I had to take a break for my I need a desk, dude. I need a desk. My feet, my legs are like asleep. ⁓ my god.
Lydia: I know, me too.
Elyssa: Alright, ⁓ so whoa, hold on. I cut way too much off my hair. You guys, this is crazy. This is too much hair that's gone. I get in these moods, you know? It's fine. Okay, I'm back. Can you hear me?
Lydia: Yeah. No, it's so cute. I think it's really cute. Yes.
Elyssa: I can't wait to see. I knew that Phoebe Wall was working on that on that thing. I was very excited. I was so sad. Everyone got so sick in the winter. She was supposed to come to a local bookstore here.
Lydia: Yeah.
Elyssa: I actually was kinda happy she didn't come because I was deathly ill and I was going to have to miss it anyway. And then I found out she wasn't, she was also sick. I wasn't glad she was sick, but I was like, ⁓ thank goodness. I had to miss so many things in the whole month of February while I was dying. Oof. Brutal. Anyway, well, it's beautiful. I would love to take pictures of that sweater. It's so pretty. So pretty. I'm going to.
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's tough winter, man. Tough winter. Yeah. Okay, okay, we'll do it. Yeah, I need to like I don't yeah, if I don't finish this sweater, I'm gonna be so bummed. So just gotta figure it out. I'm gonna finish my cardigan and then I have all summer to try to figure out how to finish this cardigan and make it so cute.
Elyssa: Yeah. You know, ⁓ Joey always has really clear design ideas as well, even if we don't always agree with them at first. Like, remember the colors he picked for that hat that disappeared, but ⁓ and it was so weird and you were like, ⁓ no, not red, don't add this, see green, like what? And it was just it was my favorite thing. It was so strange, but it was perfect and
Lydia: True. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: Totally takes the thought process out for you. You d because that's the that's the exhausting part for me with that cardigan. It's a really quick knit. It was the deciding on colors that was like, I even ripped it back a few times because I was like, no, I thought this would work, but it just doesn't. I don't like how it looks. And I took it out by like, you know, a couple of like choices. I just had to like, no, it's non this isn't like sitting well with like what comes next and yeah, but
Lydia: True. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I knit I I finished for Joey against all odds. I couldn't believe that I finished it because it like was languishing for so long too. But another really scrappy pullover that is by petite knit Holger, thank you, the holger sweater by petite knit. But instead of doing a just a two-color stripe, I did totally scrap stripes.
Elyssa: Anyway. Holger sweater.
Lydia: And picking the colors for that just drove me a little bit crazy by the end. It was so fun when I started. When I started it, I was like, yes, I'm doing it. It's so fun. I'm pulling yarn from the bag. It's it's like I'm just speeding through this. I'm having the time of my life. And then getting to the end of it was such a slog and then figuring out like, ⁓ man, does this is this cohesive? Does it look good? Does look horrible?
Elyssa: And then
Lydia: And what do I do with the sleeves? Yeah, and then actually I will say now that he's worn it a few times, I now I do like it. Now I do like it. But after I finished that one, I was like, the next thing I'm knitting is gonna be a kit. Like I'm just gonna buy a knit kit that has the yarn and the pattern, maybe even the needles. And I'm just gonna let a designer tell me when to breathe and blink. Like I don't want to make any more choices for a while.
Elyssa: I love it. I personally love it. Oof yeah. You know, I let the designers decide. Yes. You know, I the kit I really wanna buy is a is gonna be a ⁓
Lydia: But here I am.
Elyssa: ⁓ what company is it that does those ombre fades? Wait, now I'm blanking out. Anyway, and they sell like these beautiful kits where no, none, there's six skeins, none of them are exactly the same, but they they go down in like a gradient. And like each next one has a little bit, you know, that pulls it kind of together. It's so beautiful. Why can't I think of it? King Fibers.
Lydia: Yeah. Are they inspired by works of art as well?
Elyssa: Yeah, like one the one I love is like a Rothco one and it's like it's beautiful. Looks, you know. Anyway, I'll find it. I can't think of I can't think of who it is, but anyway. Beautiful. It's very expensive. But you know, but so am I. So The girl I met on the train last night was making up her own pattern and I was like, huh. Good for you.
Lydia: Yeah, yeah. That would be so fun. Yeah. I love that that you saw a knitter on the train. So you were coming home from choir, right? You're riding the s riding the rails.
Elyssa: Yes I was. Yes, I was coming home and I was riding the rails. Riding the rails. I got a little train magic. I was on the phone with my mom and I like looked up. I was at High Street and there's like this high street, w this one stop, there's like you have to descend into the depths. Like I I was listening to that other that podcast that you turned me on to. and one one girl from LA goes and visits New York and and she's just like, I was not going underground. Like there was no way, you know? And I always I think of that now every time I'm at High Street, 'cause you have to go down like s it feels like seven flights.
Lydia: Yeah.
Elyssa: It's like you you you go like down and there's an S and I saw the thing that said one minute and I was like ⁓ Mom, I gotta go. And I like there's some parts you can run down and then there's like an escalator that's like single file, and you're just like waiting, waiting, waiting. Anyway, I just like ran on train magic. It was so beautiful. I like I like bounded down in my clogs, like reached the final thing, stepped onto the platform, like whisked myself into the train, sat down, and I was like, and there's like ding ding and the doors closed. I was like, this is amazing. I'm I I'm an angel. I can
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ my god.
Elyssa: control this, you know, it's amazing. And I'm like getting myself together and I go to pull out my knitting and I turn and the girl next to me has this gorgeous white like small white swatch on her lap and she's you know got her like Chiago like needles and I was like, ooh, what is this? And it was very like it was two yarns held together. I started talking to her, ⁓ it was like a a plant fiber yarn was one of them. And she told me and she was like, honestly, I don't know. I I'm so new to knitting. And I went to Cleo's. She had gone to the new Clio's and and she's like, Yeah, like they kind of helped me pick pick it out, but it was like It was so beautiful, so shiny looking. And I said, So what pattern are you working on? And She was like, actually, I'm just gonna make it up. And I was like, cool. And then and then, you know, I was like, well, tell me about it. Like, what's it gonna be? You know, knitting like up to like right under my bust, maybe, and then like a like a v-neck, like a looser. And I was just like, ⁓ my gosh. And as you always like to say, the the hubris of a new knitter, you know, because then later I was like, I was like, well, I've just started knitting, you know, not too long ago, like six months ago, and she was like, ⁓ me too. And I was like, cool. I was like, Well, this is what I'm working on, it's a pattern, but
Lydia: Yes.
Elyssa: But we're just gonna see. And then I I thought about it and I realized like everything that I have done that I used a pattern on I have tweaked in some way. Of course, I'm not good at taking notes, so I don't remember much of how I've tweaked things, but
Lydia: No, who takes notes? I mean I who could My hands are full. So
Elyssa: Some people some people do. I don't know. I I don't my hands are full with the needles, yeah. But that's but see that's why I ended up with one sleeve on this cardigan, six or eight stitches bigger, because I just couldn't remember. And then I was like, ⁓ yeah, and then anyway.
Lydia: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Elyssa: So it was so cute. And I was like, well, actually I have a podcast. And she's like, ⁓ do you have any episodes? I was like, no. But we will. Tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be recording. ⁓ so I took a little picture and yeah, I told her we're recording. So anyway, she she's our follower now. So hopefully she hears this. I can't wait to see pictures of this of this top. I I'm she's like, you know, I'm going on a little vacation soon and I'm really hoping to wear this shirt. And I was like, I love it. I love everything I'm hearing right now.
Lydia: Check back soon. Check back soon. Yeah. Okay, let's do this for her. ⁓ my gosh, that's so cool. Yeah.
Elyssa: I love right? I just love it. Like, I love a deadline knit. ⁓ god, my brain just doesn't work unless it's on a deadline. That's why half of these things are languishing over here. Cause I don't have any reason to fit. That's why I'm working on the outline tee finally, because I'm like, I wanna wear it, babe. It's hot. It's gonna be great. A linen shirt. God, I hope it looks good. I really do. I do too. It's okay. I get over things quick. I think I will too. cool. Well.
Lydia: Yeah, yeah. I do too. I really do too. But I think it will. Yeah.
Elyssa: I think my ears are getting numb. I think I should I think I should. My ears are really getting numb. They're itching. Yeah, I wear glasses, you know, and it's like then this thing is like poking. I mean, what if I wanted to DJ? What would I do? Would I have to like get contacts? Or would I just be like, would I do this? Does this look cool? Could I do the podcast like very good? No. Anyway.
Lydia: Yeah. They're itching. Yeah. Well. It looks very cool. Looks very cool. Yeah. Well, I think we have an episode here. Yeah. Hell yeah. We ⁓ yeah.
Elyssa: I think we do too. ⁓ let's do a sign off. Should we do a sign off? ⁓ how do we do it?
Lydia: Okay, great. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So let's just say Okay, yeah. Yeah, I think well I was gonna say I was just gonna say like Alyssa, I think we have an episode. Like I think I think we done did it. So let's see.
Elyssa: Guys, I had so much fun. Like I'll say wait, what were you gonna say? Were you thinking of something? I think we do. We did. I learned something. I learned so many things. We talked about so much. Did we? I just love talking to you. The time flies. The time flies.
Lydia: I don't know. The time flies, I say it, I instantly forget it. Isn't that cool? Just as it comes out of my mouth, instantly forgotten.
Elyssa: ⁓ Yeah, it is cool. It's a goldfish. You know, do you remember hearing about my aunt who used to say that, like, this is so crazy? Yeah, you know what I'm gonna say. Yeah, I'd say, like, ⁓ I I wanted to say something, but I forgot, and she would just look me dead in the eye and go, it must have been a lie. Which I think is so crazy when I think.
Lydia: Yes. Respectfully, I hate that.
Elyssa: I hate it. Got rest in peace, Auntie Julie, but it was the craziest thing. It like haunts me. I still think about it. Like God, she she she really thought I was a liar. what a horrible thing. I I don't know who told her that. Somebody was telling her that a lot when she was little.
Lydia: Mm. Well let's rewrite it. Let's rewrite it. Instead of saying it must have been a lie, we can say you look beautiful. Well, you
Elyssa: It's a good thing you're pretty. Well your brain's empty, but it's a good thing you're gorgeous. See ya!
Lydia: See, we did it. All right, great. So on that beautiful high note ⁓ Yeah ⁓
Elyssa: ⁓ we'll see you next week. What do we think? ⁓ let's tell people. What what can they expect? Are we gonna see them next week? Are we gonna see them in two weeks? We're gonna record in two weeks.
Lydia: ⁓ I think we're gonna record again next week. And if anybody wants to see what else we're doing, what we're working on, pictures of stuff, they can find us on Instagram at procr procrastinating pod. Try typing that out. It's not easy, but I believe in you. I think you can do it, okay?
Elyssa: Procrastinating pod. I know you can. It's just procrasta, procrast, and then knitting in one word, and then the word pod, which is short for podcast, of course.
Lydia: And then pod. And if you wanted to email us for some reason, we're procrastinating pod at Gmail.
Elyssa: So are we? Is there a pod? Okay guys, try both.
Lydia: I think so. Well, try both. It's fine. Just DM us, okay? Yeah, DM us. Don't don't bother with the email or you know, just call me, because you know you have my number. And ⁓ and we'll see you next time, okay? Okay, love you. Bye.
Elyssa: We promise we'll check it. Yeah Yep. It's there. You know. Okay, see ya then. Bye.