I'm Drea. I'm Meg. I'm Tina. And I'm Jess. And this is Part in My Stash. Welcome to Part in My Stash, a podcast about knitting within the fiber arts and how awesome it is. Before we get into today's topics, let's check out what we're working on this week, Jess.
So I have cast on my make-along project for the Part in My Stash Tea Cozy. I'm doing the Knit Flower Basket Tea Cozy by Lily Sugar and Cream, in which you're supposed to use the Sugar and Cream yarn, which I could be doing because I have a lot of it because I use it for my- And how. I'm a Groomies and stuff a lot of the time, but it's really big and I didn't want a tea cozy that big. So I'm actually just using some like minis of random,
like yarn of ours from Critical Hit Dyes in a fingering weight to make it smaller. And I'm doing it that way. So right now I'm using, I'm pretty sure this is a either a first run of Barrett or a mini skein that got mixed in with Bronze Dragon. I'm not sure which one it is. I'm pretty sure it's a mini of Barrett. That is not Bronze Dragon. Yeah. So that much red. So it's an early mini of Barrett and I'm making the basket part of this and that's what I'm doing. Tina?
Well, I'm not working on the make-along because I still haven't picked my pattern. I have confused and alarmed by all the choices and I don't know what to pick. I'm having picking anxiety. Wow. So anyways, I'm working on the Ingles sweater, which is just stocknet right now and in the round from Boylan Knitworks. Very good. With string NYC Dolcetto DK in gray, dark gray and red. It's coming out nice though. You've actually got a lot done on that.
You know, it doesn't look like it. It's actually really long. It actually looks like you're almost done. Yeah, with the body. Yeah, I'm actually I'm probably like two thirds through. Yeah, it's just amazing that way where like you're like I'm knitting, I'm knitting, I'm knitting forever. This is never going to be done. And then all of a sudden you lift it up and you're like, whoa. Yeah, I kind of forgot. But yeah, I'm just going to keep on going. Maybe I'll have it done for Reinbeck. Who knows?
Maybe I wasn't even planning on doing a Reinbeck sweater, but maybe this will be a Reinbeck sweater. Who knows? There's time. There's time. Meg, what you got? I am still doing the yoke increases on my Sundrop Pullover by Laura Ehlor. I'm about halfway done with the raglan increases. This is my first raglan top. So it's been it's been interesting. I'm kind of ready to move on to something else because it is just round after round of of kind of the same thing.
But I'm getting excited watching it grow. I'm excited that I'm learning a new skill instead of just knowing how to do sweaters with round yokes. Now I know how to do a raglan yoke, which is kind of cool. And I'm knitting this out of Dragon Horde yarn gnome tweed in the Color Wave Fairy Yule Tree. How are you, Dreya? I am still plugging away on the Akemi Shaw by Isabelle Kramer. I have my make along picked out, but I have not started it yet. I picked the Snail Tea Cozy by Ankh Klempner.
It's going to look like a snail. Yeah. It's going to be beautiful, really quirky. And I'm really looking forward to it. They do pipe cleaners to make the eyes stand up. That's really cool. So, yeah, that will be coming eventually. I just haven't started it yet. I have not picked out like colors or yarn yet. So no, I'm in the same boat because I had picked a project and then I decided to change my project because I saw what somebody else was doing and I decided I wanted to do that instead.
Oh, very good. Because I'm a follower. Yeah, I got heavily tempted by that person who's doing the octopus. I saw that one. I just know I won't finish it. I know I won't finish it. I know I will make one leg or like one little head and then it will be a legless octopus forever. I got to figure it out. I got to find maybe I just need to do a basic, basic tea cozy, something just real straightforward. I believe in you. You can do it. If you wanted to do the octopus, you could.
I know my attention span's not there, Dre. I feel that. I'm actually going to do the the Steak This Coffee cozy like a couple of people are doing on the on the Discord. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I really, really want to try speaking and I figured this is a good, painless way to try it without knitting a sweater and being terrified. So I have to pick out my colors and I have to have to figure out what I'm going to do. But I haven't done that yet.
Be sure to check out our website, PartOfMyStash.com for more information as well as pictures regarding our current projects, patterns and yarns. For our topic this week, we are going to talk about crafting rituals. Could be knitting rituals, but I know not everybody is strictly knitting here. So rituals. Yeah, I'm glad you asked.
So after I set the temperature to a nice 68 degrees, I then, you know, decide to go sit on as comfortable of a couch as I can, which is typically my side of the reclining couch. Put on a blanket, usually the Mickey Mouse one with the Sherpa lining. Yeah, completely covers. Gotta have a snack. Gotta have a drink just in case because I don't want to get up. And yeah, if my husband's not going to let me put the light on above our head, then I need the lights around my neck.
And then I need total silence. Okay, that's incorrect because like all of that is true. Except for the total silence. Except for the total silence and the fact that you completely overlook the fact that I would be shuffling in as you finished like setting yourself up to claim the other side of the recliner sofa. Yes, that's true. With my own blanket. Yep. And my own snacks. The gray blanket. Yeah. If I didn't take the Mickey blanket. Yeah, if I took the Mickey blanket. Snacks.
Usually some kind of meat and cheese platter between us. 100%. Yeah. And sour gummies. Yeah. And Love Island in the background. Oh, yeah, because we don't pay attention to it. We just look up every so often and go, oh, well, those are some poor life choices right there. All right, Megan, just what about you? No, I love our ritual bonding through knitting and trash TV.
I don't know. I like feeling like I'm going to spend like a four to five hour period even though it never turns into that because I always end up getting distracted on my phone or otherwise to do the knits. Oh, you also got to pick the knitting that you're in the mood for. Not me. I usually have one project going so I usually don't have to worry about picking a project. I can just whip it out and go.
I don't know. I feel like I have like a different ritual for all the things that I do. Knitting is the most like, or crocheting because those are similar. And it's like during the hours like when when Meg is still awake or here we will usually find a comfy spot and figure out a movie or a documentary or something that we want and we will put it on and just kind of go and let it go.
We tend to try and find like longer movies like we'll do a marathon if we have more time or something or like a series that we can just let play so we don't have to worry about choosing a new thing to go to when the first thing ends. We have gone through a lot of TV shows that way. We have gone through a lot of TV shows or we'll watch Lord of the Rings or Unsung Histories. That's a good one. We were doing like cold case files for a while.
So that's like that's like what I'm used to doing when like when we're doing that together. If it's just me, for knitting or crochet I will throw on YouTube. Because that's my jam and there's there's like a couple things that I'll watch and it's usually like, you know, the hidden lore behind certain video games that I'm into at the time or like stuff you might have missed or speed runs of things because I think those are really cool.
And then there's like this this game that it's really weird but it's called the Binding of Isaac and there's a my know that's my go to you and there's a specific YouTuber Northern Lion that I will watch do it because he doesn't talk about the game while he's playing.
He's from Canada and he just talks about like stuff. And so I find that very therapeutic while I'm going so I'll just like, I'll have the game going and him talking about something else, and I'll be doing my and it's great and it's like I can just focus on the three things all at the same time, and it's fantastic.
If I'm doing, like, drawing or painting or something I throw on music. Um, and depending on what it is I'm, I'm or ting at the time depends on what genre of music, it is, but I will I will go through that I have like, just an amalgamation now of random music in my Spotify
list that I'm like, all right, today is a this sort of music day today is like this is just for instrumental today is like I'll do some vocals to you know we're just going to do randoms right now so that is that is how to get down.
I feel like I do the same thing. Like if I'm, if I'm drawing versus knitting, or, or even sewing because I used to do that to costumes and stuff. You know, if I were sewing, then I would create a disaster of the living room and then put on a very loud Disney movie that I would ignore, but sing to. Well that takes me back, you know, like summer 2007. Yeah, the day when your, your room was like a sea of fiberglass and Jess's sewing machine was in the living room and there was just a sea of fabric.
Disney movies playing. Yeah, every day. And Jess would just look at me without even like saying hi she'd be like, it's all going away the day after the con, and trust me and it did it did it was like a miracle. It was an absolute sea of crap until like immediately the day.
Yep, that was funny. Everything got put away then because like my eye was twitching at that point. Well that was the understanding we had at my house so that was just how we did I mean granted when I was living with my parents still I had a door I could shut but yeah I remember those days. Those were good days. I didn't want to go back to them, but they were fun at the time. But I'm a lot like you with with drawing though I'll put my noise canceling headphones on and then I'll put on.
Usually some kind of instrumental music. Maybe like a like a video game soundtrack or something, or even green noise, and just like ride the waves until I'm done doing my art. I have to do the same thing with coding, I have to have the noise canceling headphones on sometimes I don't even put anything on I just need to have. Nothing I can't think I can't hear other stuff. When my brain is talking. I'm trying to discuss logic in my head.
So it's either got to be lo fi music or it's got to be nothing. When it comes to knitting I feel like knitting is so second nature to me at this point, so I don't feel like I need to focus as hard on it. Unless it's a specific like it's a complicated project like that mystery project I'm doing I can't. I can't just sit and do that because every row is different.
It's very hard to memorize, because it's like randomly it doesn't, you don't knit as it presents. So it's like, I can't like just remember what I was doing. It's kind of frustrating. So that one I have to focus on focus. But yeah, if I'm just like, most of the time if I'm knitting it's, it's secondary to whatever it is that I'm actually doing, like I'll be watching a movie or I'll be.
Yeah, I can't just knit. No, I have fidget fingers I need, I need something to do. Like, I could be knitting and waiting in line, or knitting, like the carpool line or I could be like knitting and like listening to a meeting, or knitting and watching a show or listening to somebody but I can't just knit. Knitting is a comfort. Yeah, something to do with my hands. Exactly. What about you Meg? Are you're knitting rituals different when you're by yourself versus when you're, when you're with Jeff?
So I was actually thinking about, you know, when you guys came up with the rituals I'm, I'm like very, I'm a very ritualistic person. I do a lot of things like in certain orders, and not realizing until a few years ago like that I did that it was just kind of like, I just sort of thought that was the way everybody did it. One of the things that I do before I start a project. I like everything to be completely neat and organized.
I will clear off every surface close to me like in the area that I'm going to be working in. I will wind all of the balls of yarn for the project, unless it's like a sweater where I'm going to be using like multiple balls of the same color. But if I'm doing like a color work, even if it's going to be weeks before I get to that second color, I will roll that ball as well. I will get all the needles, stitch markers, etc. kind of like, like a cook getting all of like the things out together.
Yeah, all the ingredients. Yeah, you know what I mean, like even if they're all just going to wind up in my in my bag at the end of it like they're not going to stay there until I get to use them but I like to make sure I have everything out and I know where everything is, because I get to the part in the pattern and they're like, okay, switch to size four needles and I'm like, shit, where are the size four needles I didn't get those I didn't know where they were.
And then I have to stop everything and go get the needles and it ticks me off. There is nothing more inconvenient than needing to get up after you got comfy. Yes project and having to go find something. Yeah, and, and half the time I'm like oh the needles that I wanted her in another project so now I got to find the, the what's it called the ends for the cord so I can take the needles off the project is, it's obnoxious so I like to know where everything is.
And one of the things that I have gotten into the habit of doing again and I'm angry with myself and disappointed with myself and this will be short lived. I was about a year and a half old. I started falling asleep, very early at night, like 830 845 and waking up early in the morning at a time that is inconvenient for falling back to sleep. And I hate it. And in the last week I've started doing it again and it really really sucks.
Because I could go back to sleep, I definitely have enough time to go back to sleep but I also know that if I do I'm going to be a zombie when the alarm goes off. So what I take to doing instead is I get up, and I go down to our basement. And I take my knitting and I sit in the basement, finished basement with whatever cat sees fit to join me. They'll usually come down and be like what are you doing like why are you even awake.
And I put on one of my three comfort shows for knitting at an ungodly hour of the morning. And those tend to be, they're all period pieces. It's either Downton Abbey, Bridgerton, or The Crown. Right now it's The Crown. And I mean, every episode of all three of these shows, it doesn't matter. I don't need to really pay attention. I skip the episodes that I'm like, I wasn't crazy about this one. I've seen it before. And I just kind of zen out.
And the only concern is that this habit tends to move back in time of hours like it started out. And at first I thought that was a great idea because I'm like, oh, I'll get up at four and I'll knit for like an hour and a half and then I'll get up and go to work and it'll be great and that'll be my knitting time. And after enough time went by I noticed I was waking up earlier and earlier and earlier. I got to a point where I was waking up at two in the morning.
I know, I know, I know. And it was really bad. And you know it seemed great at first because I'm like, I'll go to bed early and then I will have all this time to knit, you know, first thing in the morning. But the worst part is it would backfire and then I would get tired again at like five. And then it was an even worse time to be getting tired.
So I'm trying to nip that before it gets too bad this time because I know I can't but spring break is in two days, and then I won't need to wake up early so I can just force myself to go back to sleep. So hopefully this won't be longer than a couple of days but that is my like alone knitting ritual if I'm knitting by myself or on Thursday nights when Jess isn't there. I will usually put on, I saved that that's all my, my me shows that Jess does not want to watch with me.
Usually involving a lot of dialogue, a lot of period drama. See I also I also like period pieces though. My, my comfort period period piece is Pride and Prejudice, which one. Colin Firth. Oh, you know I have not seen that one all the way through yet. It's good. I've seen that one's my favorite.
I have never gone all the way because it is long it is a long period piece. Oh yes, and I, and if Frank isn't home or like, there have been a couple times where Frank's gone, gone away for a few days and I'll just put that on and get so much knitting done, or if I'm having trouble sleeping. I'll stay up late and I'll watch. And I'll watch either. I liked the Netflix Marvel television series like Daredevil and Punisher and the Defenders like I'll just like marathon through all of those by myself.
It's like my comfort show. I will say we make a lot of my watching Ken Burns The Civil War. That is not a me crafting saga, I cannot knit to Ken Burns The Civil War. I've tried but you can write your thesis listening to Ken Burns The Civil War. Show that is that is my you know what when I have to write my thesis for my for my next masters, I will probably be watching it again. But I'll come over and listen to it with you.
It's not like I did I will say the first time that I, I applied on my spinning wheel, I was watching The Civil War. Because it needs to be something that I, I can't be paying too much attention to it because I have seen it so many times now. So knitting I actually do watch TV. So I cannot watch that. It's like okay I see. I know exactly what's happening. So I kind of get bored.
I will say that I never drink anything other than water when I'm knitting unless it's coffee with a lid. I don't like to drink any open beverages because I'm afraid of spilling. Like okay so for the celebratory knitting so yeah I do I would say I have a bit of a ritual with that so it's like when a special occasion happens in your life that you need to make a project for.
So for me, I don't make a lot of things for a lot of people. But one thing I do like to make is when a new baby's in the family. I like to do a matching hat and blanket set out of like a super chunky yarn. And the only reason why I like doing it is because for one, you always get these like nice blankets or really not nice blankets like there's ones that are like when you when you have the baby like you have the practical ones, but they're not pretty.
And then you have the impractical ones that you're afraid to get dirty. So I do kind of an in between. It's practical enough that you can clean it so I use like a, you know, an acrylic yarn or something like that. But it's, I make it in a nice pattern so it looks fancy.
Fancy than it is. Fancy than it is. Yeah. Yeah. So, like I gave one to my cousins when they had their first kids. And I believe to, yep, yeah to my husband's best friends, his kids, and to my niece, when she was born, I gave them all a set of something. But that's like, that's the only thing I really like. I am making a special gift for another person in my family but you know they keep postponing the event so kind of keeps postponing my gifts. How dare they. No, no, it's very convenient.
Because I'm like, all right, that's what that works. But, um, and then, and then knitting to go I always have to have something to go. Always have to have something prepared some kind of bag, some kind of thing. And I usually bring two things. I usually bring one thing that I can focus on and one thing that I can't. Oh yeah you gotta have multiples, which Dre was saying she does and she only has the one.
But you see, um, I have found that I work better on patterns that are something that looks complicated but are actually very easy. I don't actually have to pay attention to anything that I'm really doing. I just need to know what the row is doing. I kind of plan ahead for myself, and it doesn't matter what size the project is like, I'm going to work on this shawl everywhere until it's done. Just dedication. I get lost when I have more than one project going.
I think that's my last stream that I did. I pulled out all these whips I haven't touched in a year. Very good. That was a bad decision bro. I was like, I don't, it was like my own path where the worst part was the one I decided to work on was my own pattern and I forgot how to do it. And everybody was laughing at me, but it was like a good laugh like haha, you forgot your own batter and I was your ritual starting projects and never finishing.
I eventually finished some. Yeah, I do not have no finished projects. No, that's true. I you know what I think my problem is I keep picking big ones. I have a lot of big projects I have like seven sweaters up for different things like one for my kid, one for one kid one for the other kid. Couple for me, like, and you can't you just can't finish that that fast. It just doesn't work. Yeah.
I have a sweater I want to cast on so badly. I have the yarn that I want to cast on for it. And I'm forcing myself to get like at least halfway with this one before casting it on, because I know otherwise neither of them will get done I'll just be like going back and forth between the two.
So I guess if you had to put it as a ritual. The ritual is, I get very distracted by shiny sweater patterns and start casting them on, I will do the yoke, usually I get to the yoke and the sleeve split and then I'm. It's, it just sits. I do the whole top the complicated part and then I get to the easy part and I'm like, yep, I'm good.
The easy part is also the boring part. Yeah, just like when it's the straight stock in that it's just like, oh, okay, I'm no longer interested in this project, but this one I think I've stuck with because I actually want to wear it. I'm really really excited to wear it. And sometimes I like making certain sweaters but I'm not necessarily like excited to wear them I just think that they're interesting patterns and I want to like try them out.
But this one's actually something I probably would wear like often trying slogging through. For a while every time like you made me think about it when you were saying you would make clothes, but for a while every time someone, a close friend or a family member had a new baby I would make a dragon toy for them. Oh, yeah. For them, it was, they were always dragon ish. I still have Katarina's.
So yeah so I would that that was my thing for a while which is kind of nice because they're they're usually on crochet, and they went pretty fast for me. Another thing I don't always do but a lot of times they will especially after like if I do a long knit project I will switch to a crochet project for the next one. And then, and then before I go back, I don't know why because I mean sometimes I'll finish a
project faster but not always but I think it's just like the change of pace on the pattern and the stitches so kind of like your little refresher. Yeah, I do get kicks. Like sometimes I'll like, depending on like what I'm working on. I just try to keep one stock net thing so that I can just do a quick row of absolutely no thinking. I can also do like, I sometimes I get into like a brioche kick so then all my projects that I'm actively working on or brioche or a cable kick and then
everything I'm working on has cables. I mean, technically speaking you could call us doing these episodes of ritual. We do, we do get together every, every Tuesday, and we knit and we talk about knitting in some capacity. We don't like once in a while but most of the time we are. Routine. See I would actually be really interested in finding out what everybody else's crafting routines and rituals are. So if you're listening to this and you're following us on Instagram, make sure you
check those because actually we kind of want to know. Some knitters knit seasonally. Some knitters like to only knit outside. Some knitters only knit for charity. Some knitters like to make things that are reflective and meaning that they have personal
needs or meaning. So such as a Schaller blanket made with yarn from a special trip. I think I'm just an equal opportunity knitter. Yeah, I, yeah, that's the only thing like, I definitely don't understand the seasonal. I knit, it could be 100 degrees out.
I remember I was, we were at that cabin this August. I was trying to knit. I was like, well I'm hot. Nope, time to go in. Not time to go in because it's hot time to go in because it's hot and I can't knit at the same time so I'm going to go in so I can keep knitting.
Yeah, I might change the type of yarn I'm using like I might switch to my cotton projects over my heavy wool or a linen. Yeah, yeah, but like I'm still knitting. Yeah, I'll, I'll be knitting even if my fingers are sweaty like, I don't care. I definitely don't have specific times of year where I knit more, especially now, but I used to go through stages with no rhyme or reason where I would stop knitting for a while, I don't do it anymore.
Sometimes when I like prefer to do more knitting I find in the winter I tend to churn out projects faster than in the summer and mainly I think it's because with summer I'm, it sounds counterproductive but I'm home. And I feel like there's a lot of other stuff I should be doing whereas in the winter it's like, well it's cold I'm not going to go outside.
And there's also that instant gratification of finishing a project and then getting to use it right away. Right. In the summer you're like cool I finished the sweater. Yay. That away for a few months. But yeah, it's, there's, I could never, I could not put a, put a pin on it though and say like, I don't knit in the summer or I don't knit in the fall or whatever there, it comes and goes.
And it's a long period of time where I didn't knit for several years. I did that too. Yeah, I don't, but I don't know why I can't I'm like trying to think back as to why I stopped. And also how I started again. I can't, I couldn't tell you I know I stopped, because I, I mean well it was a kind of a hectic time I was, I had just gotten married I graduated school.
I was just like getting your first job, it was just a hectic time but I don't remember when I think I restarted again maybe a couple years after I got married. And I made these horrible hats I have pictures of them. Terrible terrible hats, just, just, oh, really bad. And, but yeah I couldn't tell you why other than like it was crazy. Why, or why I picked it back up. I can't imagine not getting now. Yeah, I say that but I do go days without knitting.
Oh no yeah days but I mean like years, I can't imagine myself not picking it up for a long time I did that too. Yeah, but I also think that it's a, at least for me it's an out of sight out of mind kind of thing so if I'm, if I'm not looking at my supplies and if I'm not looking at my yarn and I'm not looking at my projects like I could very easily just put it down and then never pick it up again.
I find myself struggling with trying to fit everything that I want to do into one day, and if, if it is nice out, and it comes down to I can sit at home and knit or I can go outside it sorry knitting. It's not a contest. I'll come back to you when it's dark outside. Then that's, that's kind of been more my issue lately why I haven't been finishing stuff. I really wish I could have that problem, because I really need to go outside. I have, I have quite a vitamin D deficiency.
Also I need to like exercise. And I just, I keep, no I'm just gonna, I just gonna work just a little bit longer. Oh, it's dark out, nevermind. Like, you know, I will say that's a major benefit to going into work so damn early is getting out so damn early. Yeah. You know people are like how the hell do you do it and I'm like well, I don't mind going into work for 645. If I can be out by three. It's not bad.
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