Well, I'm Drea.

I'm Meg.

I'm Tina.

And I'm Jess.

And this is Pardon My Stash.

Welcome to Pardon My Stash, a podcast about crafting within the fiber arts and how awesome it is.

Before we get into this week's episode, let's share what we're working on now.

Tina?

I am on the decreases of my Franken -Coco beanie.

Franken -Coco.

I kind of decided at a random point that this is long enough.

You know, that's how most of us do our hats.

Yeah.

This is big enough.

This is where it's ending.

And if it doesn't fit me, it will fit someone.

So that's all that matters.

Well, I did try it on and it does cover my head.

There you go.

But it's also Rio, so it's probably going to turn into a tub.

But that's okay.

It's okay.

I'll put it on my husband as I usually do when it's too big.

The pattern is called the Cocoa Bean and I'm making it in Malabrigo Rio's liquid amber.

Yeah.

It's beautiful.

Thank you.

It actually is really pretty.

It looks like watercolors and stained glass.

It's really nice.

It is very nice.

Meg?

I'm doing...

What I do best.

Did you start a new project?

I did.

I would like you all to be drawing attention to the date.

And this is where I start to pick a project that I'm going to get serious on.

It's true.

I do it every year.

It is true.

That's when I crack open the sweater.

Well, what are you serial about right now?

Right now being the operative words.

This is going to be, hopefully, the Sayuri sweater by Valentina Bogdanova of Valentina's Knits.

And I thought about this one for a very long time.

So I'm hoping that it does stick.

I really like the neckline.

It's got this cool scallop thing going on here.

And I am knitting it out of ashen bumble meadow fingering in the colorway cornflower.

It's this really pretty like French blue color that I absolutely adore.

So I am, I'm hoping.

I don't try to cast on any sweaters or anything super serious until the end of the school year.

And it's about that time.

It's about that time.

It is.

So it was time.

And with some trepidation, I cast it on last week.

And I'm really enjoying it so far.

So I'm hoping it sticks.

Drea.

Bananasaurus.

yeah forever and ever well amen i'm not gonna lie i really have not been working on this i haven't worked on this since the last time that we talked about about it like since the last time we recorded um not that i'm not enjoying the pattern it's just that i as you guys know i am into other hobbies at the moment and i have lots of bread I have so much bread.

And let me tell you, I had my first successful sourdough loaf this past week.

And that bread was like, it was just like the best bread that I've ever had.

Amazing.

And I don't want to toot my own horn, but like, oh, it was so good.

No, please toot your horn.

I am.

I made sandwich.

Frank and I have had sandwiches almost every day this week.

Man, I'm mad that it's gone.

And I really want to thank our listener, Nina.

You know who you are.

She sent me her own sourdough recipe, like from starter to bake.

I followed all of her instructions.

The bread came out so good.

I cannot thank her enough, like A plus.

And while I'm on the subject of people sending me like sourdough recipes.

Thank you to everybody who has been sliding into my DMs with sourdough recipes.

I am going to make every single one of them.

They all look so good.

Thank you so much for steering me in the right direction.

I'm definitely in my bread era right now, and it's A+.

But for the very moment, I am working on this Bananasaurus crochet pattern.

by Emerald Rose Crochet and I'm using Big Twist yarn.

Jess?

I am still working on the Catnip Pullover by Andrea Rangel.

I am still using Critical Hit Dyes Sorcerer in Displacer and Embers.

You know, it's slow going.

I also started a budgie crochet project because my daughter really wanted one.

What is a budgie?

It's a parakeet.

It's a parakeet.

Aww.

I want to say the term is used a lot in Europe, budgie, or at least in England.

So I did start that, and then I got the body done and part of a wing done, and then I kind of fell off of it a little bit.

I was going to work on it today, but I brought everything but the pattern downstairs with me, and I didn't feel like going back upstairs.

To be fair, I was covered in cats, and I didn't want to move them either.

So that was why that didn't happen.

But I am working on this right now, and I am about 12 rows from being done with the color work.

We're getting there.

It's slow going, but I'm getting there, guys.

But yeah, so if you want to see pictures of the stuff that we're working on right now or get more information about Part of My Stash, be sure to check out our blog found at partofmystash .com for info, pics, patterns, and yarns.

It's getting warm.

Yes.

It's getting...

I mean, yeah, we get the kind of weather back and forth because we are in New England, and that means the weather does what it wants to do.

Yeah, today in particular feels like winter, but the rest of the days have been feeling very nice.

Have been nice or really hot.

This is the time of year where it's like my hands are just clammy constantly, so...

So I don't know about the rest of you, but I know that I start to pick up different hobbies around this time that take up more of my time than my knitting stuff because I'm awful and like working with warm yarns and don't really like to work with not warm yarns, which is unfortunate because I hear working with cotton this time of year is actually kind of nice, but yeah, it's just not as...

Doesn't call to me as much as, you know, the wool.

Well, by the time you guys are listening to this episode, I'm going to be sitting on a beach in Portugal, probably knitting cotton.

Yeah, see, see.

You know, I do hear silk is okay.

Yeah, silk's nice too.

Actually, a cotton silk blend is really nice because it gives you like the softness that you would want from like a merino wool or something.

um the lightness of the cotton so you're not getting as yeah sticky i deliberately knit a merino silk shawl i think it was two years ago for one of our um one of our make -alongs and it does make a difference like knitting with the right stuff does but then again like what was it two years ago I did a mohair sweater.

So you do the math.

Like after I saw you do the mohair sweater.

Yeah.

Like I was like, I've always like, oh, maybe I'll do mohair.

No, I won't.

You know, I think it's one of those things like I love knitting with it.

The sucky thing about it is that I cannot wear it.

Yeah.

I can wear it.

Like I wore it to Ryan Beck because it was cold that year.

But I cannot.

I tried wearing that sweater to work and I thought I was gonna die like it was just so hot I also run hot so I feel like I'd have the same problem no I did and I love that sweater it is it is so comfy but um I want to knit another one it's a calliope I want to knit another one just out of wool no merino or no no merino no um no mohair I swear to god I have like three calliopes in progress All the calliopes.

Well, I know you had the one made out of bless.

I know you started that one.

Yeah.

And I don't know.

It's like probably three quarters to the split.

It's close to the split.

It's just, it looks like a top of a, looks like a nice little collar.

It looks like the top.

And then, you know, I was going to make a black one for.

Oh, that would be nice.

Yes.

But I think I'm going to make it for myself now.

Oh.

I don't believe you.

Yeah.

So we've had a similar, not similar, but in the same vein of making sweaters where like Jess will look at a sweater and she'll be like, oh, I love that.

I want to make that.

I'm not going to wear that.

Would you wear that?

What colors would you wear that in if you were to?

And she's never made me one.

But she has had that because Jess doesn't wear her knits 90 % of the time.

She just admires them.

It's true.

But she has looked like there was this one.

I can't remember what it was.

It was very, very pretty.

And she's like, I want to make that.

I'm never going to wear that.

But if you like it, what colors would you like?

There's still that dragon scale kind of lease part.

I don't know.

It was really cool.

It was very pretty.

I don't know if I would wear it, though.

I don't know where I would wear it to.

do you think the kid would wear the kid wears almost anything the kid i don't think it comes in a kid's size though dang she keeps asking me to make her stuff i'm like no i'm good out of here you know and and then they grow out of it immediately like yeah i know well like like yeah like the owlet sweater that i made her and i made it two sizes too big and she grew out of it like six months later no that's it is what it is kid stuff man Joe still tries to wear the sweater I made her.

But it's like...

oh no a crop top like she needs to stop where the sleeves are too tight and too short and yeah so she's like she'll put like she doesn't wear it like a crop top with her belly showing but she'll put like a long sleeve shirt on and then she throws it up on top that's so 90s though it's very cute it's very cute but um yeah i'm concerned about her arms because it's starting a little tight cut the circulation a little bit kind of you may have to cut her out of it kind of be your knitting for kids is continuous heartbreak like it really is they have such cute things and then you're like yeah you can wear it for about 30 seconds well i thought like cat would like give the sweater i made for her years ago down to joe that never happened she just uses it all the time and she continually just stretches it out yes i've watched her do it you've seen how big that thing is now right it's like a poncho Gonna make it work.

Jesus.

Like, I don't know how this works, but it's gonna.

I mean, to be fair, she is right.

Like, she has gotten it to the point where it feels right.

It feels right.

It's true.

She has worn it out.

Well, worn it in, I should say.

Yeah, she usually wears, it's usually a pajama shirt.

Hey, you know, that's, that's like a highest of compliments.

That's what I was like.

Thank you.

And it's not even me.

That means that is top peak comfort right there.

Like, look, you got to be discerning about what you're wearing for comfort PJ time.

See, this time I'm just running into the issue where it's like I'm running into it right now where, again, my hands are clammy.

So all my stitches are sticking.

Yeah.

So I have the opposite issue.

And I literally just brought this up when we started that this is my peak knitting season.

you yeah and a lot of it is just um it's a multi -layered problem um part of it is in line with what drea said at the top of the episode of i simply have too many things that i want to do and i wind up backburnering knitting because my biggies are taking walks or hiking and my other one lately that has been i mentioned this A couple episodes ago, I was learning Italian.

And those are two things I can't do while I'm knitting yet.

So I stress yet.

So during the school year, when I get home after meetings or whatever, or God, Thursday nights when I have grad school classes, I've got maybe an hour and a half to two hours to myself.

And I would love to say that that's knitting time.

That often ends up lying on the couch.

staring at the TV, playing games on my phone time.

And I'm not proud of that because it doesn't feel like, and I know like before everybody jumps in, I realized that not everything needs to be based on productivity.

But I do like to finish my projects and I always feel down on myself when I don't finish them.

But sometimes, you know, you've already done so many things during the day.

How can you add one more thing that you actually have to put thought into?

I get into these things and I've seen lots of reels on an Instagram, but the teacher thing of like you get home and somebody's like, so what do you want for dinner?

You're like, I don't want to make one more decision today.

All the time.

All every single day.

Please don't make me make choices.

I can't make any more decisions.

I tell Pat that he's, Pat, you are the choice star.

Congratulations.

The choice star.

But no, it's just like it's and a lot of the decisions that I make in an average day are not decisions that I even realize I'm making.

It's just responding to 60 individuals whose behavior is unpredictable and constantly reacting to unpredictable behavior, usually not bad, unpredictable behavior.

But, you know.

i get lots of questions and um some of them are weird like miss why didn't you become an air traffic controller why are you sorry no i'm serious this happened last week in in my politics class you know it just wasn't on my radar it was really funny um i hear they're hiring terrible um no he literally asked me that um one of my one of my favorite students he's a great kid um but yeah it was weird and it is it's like you know what when i get questions like that it's like my brain just kind of stops and i'm like wait i don't know how to respond to these did i hear you correctly first off just um so i i do get that that choice kind of overload and you get home and it's like i can't even focusing on a pattern feels like too much but then the school year ends and it's like here we go i now have more hours in the day to do things that I have to do slash want to do.

And this is when my knitting really takes off from now until sadly the end of August.

And then in September, it just tanks.

I would love to see like a line chart of my knitting productivity and watch it like skyrocket from like mid -May until September 1st and then just watch it dive into the ground until like two weeks before Rhinebeck when I panic.

And I'm like, crap, I want to finish this thing, whatever I'm making, and I want to wear it, but I have no time.

So those two weeks in October where I go absolutely ballistic.

And then it kind of peters off until May again.

It's just ridiculous.

You get little blips.

It's just, that's my life.

Those are the choices I've made.

See, I have to find, because I usually am most productive at night when I am watching YouTube.

But it has to be a specific type of YouTube.

Like it has to be a series that I can look away from but not completely like lose what's going on if I have to pay attention to the pattern.

So like I thought I was going to do real good when I was there was a new game that came out.

And of course, I don't have time to play it.

So I just found someone that played it well and I liked and I watched them play it.

And I was like, yeah, I'll get a lot done.

The game was too good.

Okay.

I didn't want to miss the game.

So I ended up like literally watching this thing like it was a movie and just got no knitting done.

So that didn't work.

I am happy that it did because the game was awesome.

But I was like, this was not the crafting YouTube.

I need to find the crafting YouTube.

What game was it?

Inquiring Minds.

I want to say, oh, God, what is it?

South of Midnight, I'm pretty sure is the name of it.

And it is it is fantastic.

Isn't it like super cinematic, too?

It is very cinematic.

You can.

It's got different modes.

So you can if you want more like hard gameplay, you could choose that or you do story mode.

Really awesome.

Music was great.

Cinematic.

The story was was fantastic.

I was like, yeah, no, this is great.

And then I was like, I'm getting nothing done.

I have to find a different series.

All of the conversations that we had about why you weren't like you're like, I'm just not in the mood to knit.

There's that you never.

ever mentioned that you were watching like full -fledged crazy video game episodes after I go to bed at night oh yeah no I do that all the time sometimes like the last well this one usually takes me a week to get through the last one that was sort of like that I want to say oh god that was like a couple years ago because usually I can't play through them I gotta find something like right now I'm back to watching some indie horror games and that's easier to craft then after that because it does sometimes i am just like all right i'm ready to craft it no no i'm just gonna also sit here and play on my phone while i watch stuff in the background for me i like to put on like um uh on demand like whose line Oh, yeah.

Because you just don't.

But you don't have to pay attention.

At any point in time, you can look up and be like, what?

Oh, OK.

It's not a plot you need to follow.

That's been.

So we started rewatching Frasier from like the 1990s.

Oh, God.

Dude, I love Frasier.

And I hadn't seen it in years.

And I don't know why we thought about it.

I think it was just because it was free.

And I quickly realized Frasier is not something that I can knit while watching.

Because I don't remember most of it.

And so much of it is physical comedy that I just couldn't follow it.

But yeah, it gets hard.

Like you need to have, like Tina, like you said, you need to have the right visual.

Like if you're listening to or if you're watching something, it needs to be the right thing.

Because if it is the wrong thing.

it's counterproductive oh god i remember though when i was making all your guys's wedding shawls my whole thing was uh the binding of isaac played by northern line it had to be by northern line anyone else that played i couldn't concentrate northern line binding of isaac i like months of just watching these things while knitting it was great i would walk into the room and i would look at this this absolutely stupid thing she was watching and i'm like i don't even know what's happening it looked like the literal same thing every time on the screen oh it was always different it's always different every time i looked at it i i just thought it looked like you were watching a tetris game yeah it's kind of weird i would i'm like it was like to me it looked like watching somebody play tetris and i'm like i could not be less interested but it was it was so good like that was that was my go -to for what that was like a year's worth of knitting projects so yeah Hey, complete left field.

I think I might finish this.

Right now?

Tonight?

I'm on the second to last row.

Oh, man.

Would this be a first?

An on -podcast finish?

I don't know about that.

Maybe.

I don't think we've ever had that happen before.

I was actually more thinking about, have I finished anything this year?

Oh, I have not.

So if you do, kudos.

I don't know if I did.

I'll be honest.

I don't remember.

I have not.

I think I've started a lot of things.

Do you know what?

I'm sitting here going, yeah, I haven't finished anything either.

You haven't finished so many things.

I haven't finished so many things.

Knitting -wise, no.

But crocheting.

I have made so many little plushies.

It still counts.

Have you finished anything this year?

I don't know.

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

I think because you've started a bunch of things.

I have started a bunch of things.

I feel like that budgie has promise.

It does have promise.

The budgie is going to get done first.

Like the body is done and half of a wing is done.

The last thing I finished was my sweater with your yarn.

And that was in December.

So I haven't finished anything this year.

Nope, I have not.

I don't remember the last thing.

I'm pretty sure I finished that shawl for Ryan Beck and that was the last thing I did.

I had so many bad starts last year, like at the end of the year.

I was super indecisive.

I couldn't finish anything.

I pushed myself through that sweater.

I definitely pushed myself through.

I was like, I can do this.

This will give me the mojo.

No, instead it gave me existential dread.

And I was like, why am I stressing myself out with a sweater?

It's hard.

I do love it, but man, it was stressful.

I finished a lot last year and then it was like the new year came and I was like, eh, I'm good now.

Now I'm going to be focused on other things.

I don't know what the other things are, but I am focused on them.

Well, I think there's like the bigger, the kind of bigger issue in this, and I imagine a lot of people will be able to relate to it, is like the lack of free time.

Yeah.

And when you have to make a choice of what you're going to do with that free time.

And that's not to like dismiss crafting at all, but you got to make a choice.

And it gets it gets hard sometimes.

Like, do I want to do this?

Do I want to do something else?

I definitely have not been prioritizing crafting.

No, until recently, I wasn't either.

And I think it just gets it gets a little bit easy to kind of back burner.

And then I don't know about you guys, but I have difficulty at times, depending on the project, like I'll pick it up and be like, I can't even remember what I was doing.

I can't remember where I left off.

This is really hard for me to kind of pick it up and keep going.

And part of that is my issue with I accidentally harvest row counters from other projects and then I don't remember what row I was on.

And my row counters.

Yeah.

This isn't yours.

Are you sure?

It was in a bag on the table.

Was that yours?

I got a new one because you took my other one.

So I got a new one.

That's so funny.

a new one because you had my other one.

I was like, I'll just get a new one.

Immediately steal.

Immediately.

I'm so bad.

It is.

I just steal them.

There's like a whole bag of them downstairs, but I was all excited when I saw this one.

I'm like, because I didn't remember.

I thought I bought it.

I've got my big one right now and the budgie I'm just sort of guessing and hoping for.

I'm a bad person.

I'm sorry.

No, you're good.

That's so funny.

You know what?

My issue is a lot of times, though, too, with crafting lately, and I don't know what it is.

It's like, I feel like, I'm like, okay, you know what?

I'm going to do this.

And then...

By the time I collect everything and get settled, I no longer want to do it.

That's because collecting everything is a chore in itself.

I'm like, that was too much work.

I had to find the needles.

I had to get the row counter.

I had to get the yarn.

There was yarn barf that I had to figure out.

Oh, no.

The kiss of death for me is when I'm winding the yarn and it tangles.

And I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore.

I'm done.

And yeah.

And so by the time I'm like, yeah, I've got everything and I'm looking at it all.

I'm like, I don't even want to do this anymore.

I haven't really talked about it, but I've been dealing with a lot of pain in my hands.

So sometimes I have free time, but I don't have pain -free time.

So it turns into like...

I have time but I feel my hands literally hurt while I'm knitting and then like other times it's like okay I don't have any pain but like I don't have any time so getting that to coincide and then on top of it it's like okay yeah that could all coincide But then like, am I crying today or am I having a good day?

It really like, it narrows down.

What a crap shoot.

It really narrows down the field of times I want to knit.

And I know probably Drea can attest to this, but like sometimes like, you know, we'll hang out.

I'll have like, I'll pull a project out.

And then all of a sudden I'm just like, I just drop it.

I just stop.

And it's just because.

I don't know what it is.

It's just because.

It's just.

It happens.

I really, really am trying to like almost force this thing to come back.

But like, if I'm really, really honest, it's like, man, everything just sucks.

No, and sometimes it really is.

Sometimes you just got to kind of.

Why am I emotional today?

Oh, my God.

I was fine.

But you're carrying a lot right now, Tina.

It's fine.

You don't have to force a project.

You don't have to force a hobby either.

No.

It shouldn't feel like a chore, you know?

I think there is a very big misconception, and a lot of it, I think, comes from literature surrounding knitting, that knitting is the perfect thing to do when you're going through any stage of grief.

Yeah, there's a lot.

There are so many books, fiction books especially, written about...

knitting through grief and knitting is this like magic, like fix it to feelings, having feelings or going through something tough doesn't even need to be grief.

I kind of found it was the opposite.

That's what I'm finding too.

I had, I think it took about a year and a half after my dad passed for me to decide I wanted to knit again.

It's really, and then there was that additional like, why isn't this working for me?

yeah which created a whole other issue so Tina are you okay I'm good I just tangled I don't know how you manage that that is actually an impressive knot no it was just like it was like just twisted yeah I'm good no it's not no you know you just gotta yeah I'm just I'm just gonna I'm it's good I have enough honestly I feel like when you are grieving or when you are going through something really heavy or you know you you've got a lot on your mind you got a lot on your plate knitting isn't actually like helping you get through things it's really just a distraction you know you're turning off all those feelings because now you have to focus on something else you pour all of your focus into something else and yeah you're getting past like the grief phase but it's it's still there like you still gotta deal with it And sometimes it can be a big help.

Yeah.

It depends.

Honestly, it's like it's some people.

Yeah, it is.

It's great.

It's it's you know, it can be a lifesaver.

But for other people, it's not.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with either of that.

But I think you hear more about the healing properties of it.

And I don't think a lot of people talk about like, yeah, you know what?

Sometimes you just know it doesn't work and that's OK.

I mean, I myself have like I've been a grief knitter.

I learned to knit when one of my best friends died.

Meg taught me.

And it gave me something to do.

But I had to deal with all those feelings much later.

Yeah, I didn't mean to get emotional.

No, don't apologize for that ever.

Seriously.

It's weird.

This is exactly what happens, though.

I'll be totally fine, 100 % okay.

And then I'm not.

Yep.

It's the way it goes, unfortunately.

No, I know.

And it's just, I honestly don't, I just don't have like time to grieve.

So it hits me like all the time.

And randomly, I just don't have time.

I'm managing everybody else.

I don't have time to do this.

I kind of turned into the de facto, take care of everything person.

There's space for everybody else to grieve.

And when everybody else needs space, they have it.

But if nobody else is and I am, there's no space for me.

So it's really tough navigating that.

And that's why I think sometimes it literally, like it is right now, just hits me out of nowhere and I'll be having a perfectly fine day.

And then all of a sudden, boop.

It is.

There's no good answers.

It's like.

No.

And it's not that like.

And I'm not complaining about being in that kind of caretaker role.

I'm just.

I know it's kind of like.

I have to.

And I get it.

And I have no issue being in that role.

Like I want to be helpful.

But it's exhausting.

No.

No it is.

And it's.

I think we all sort of like kind of one of the things that I do a lot when things are not not so much with grief, but when things are sucky or I'm having like a really bad time, I'm like, OK, six months from now, this isn't going to be I'm not going to think about this anymore.

And that works for like work things or arguments I have with people.

I'll be like six months from now.

I'm going to look back on this and I'll be like that sucked.

But you know what?

We all got through it.

We're fine.

And you can't.

put a timeline on grief.

You just can't.

You can't be like, I know that six months from now I'm going to be fine.

And that's the sucky part.

Yeah.

My Bananasaurus has peels on it.

Yeah, he sure does.

He really does.

He's super cute.

I'm leaving in my ends.

Yay!

Not to take away from the serious conversation.

No, you're not.

Because honestly, it's part of it.

You know, suddenly we're finishing things.

Why?

I don't know.

But we are.

It's just happening.

It's just happening.

It's just happening.

It's time to finish some stuff.

I am not finishing anything.

Me either.

But I did finish a row.

Granted, it was like a quarter of a row because I didn't realize I had stopped a quarter.

Oh, my God.

That's funny.

But I finished it.

So that's exciting.

Hey.

i'm not gonna lie i think i put this thing down for like several weeks now because i'm like man i don't want to have to figure out how to put these peels on but you did it so i think that is so valid too like you get to a point in your pattern and you're like i'm not i don't want to do that right now okay am i not wrong i am do you know what this was not hard no no it never is It never is.

But it's something where you're like, you know what?

Not now.

Not today.

Yeah.

And you put it down and then six months later, you're like, wow, why did I do that?

Listen, the amount of times like I finished the pieces of Anamagurumi and then they've been like, yeah, I don't feel like putting that together right now.

Listen, you better finish that budgie because I can't listen to it for another like few days.

I'm working on it slowly.

finish the budgie honestly i don't know why i was so and again i still don't know why you never know i don't know why i'm sitting here going man i don't know how i'm gonna figure out that transition when this is literally like a no -so project you but you will it is it's it is it's like and now i'm just gonna work on the neck coming up and make the head like it's not But everything, everything new, new seems daunting at first.

It does.

Do you know, I bought the pattern for this sweater like a month ago.

I had the pattern.

I had the yarn.

I wanted to make it, but I was looking at the charts and I'm like, that is daunting.

Yeah, that is going to be.

But now I'm like doing it.

I'm like, this is not hard.

It's just row by row.

yeah you just gotta sit down and piece it out row by row it's not so bad and you know that's the same thing that i tell people when they're working with double points and making socks and it's like yeah you have like 86 needles on this project but you're only using two at a time like the method of knitting doesn't change just because you added more needles you can only use two at a time i know it looks it looks crazy though i remember when i remember the before i knew what i was doing i was like oh my god i'll never do that you're handling a porcupine that's how it looks exactly i felt the same way about um what's it called magic loop oh yeah how do they do two socks at a time two at a time sleeves and but i i think um yarn harlot said it best she said um it's it's all incrementalism like yeah you you have to look at the steps Nobody is just saying like the step is not step one, knit a sweater.

I joke with my kids all the time that when I was in high school and my teacher, my junior year U .S.

history teacher was like, OK, we're going to do a research paper and it needs to be 10 pages and have five sources.

It's due in a month.

Go.

And that was it.

Like there was no guidance.

There was no like this is how you do a thesis.

This is how you do this.

Now you do that.

And I tell my kids, this is why.

I don't do that to you.

We're not talking about hauling off and doing the whole thing.

We're taking it bite by bite.

And that's what knitting is too.

But I think we forget that a lot.

I think we do.

We look at the final product.

We're like, that is going to be hard.

We look at the final product and you look at the entire set of directions because you kind of have to at least look at what you're getting into.

But in your head, you put it all like, I got to do all that at the same time.

It's like, nah, you start with row one.

I do not.

I did the same thing when I was doing the sweater.

I'm sorry, Drea.

I was just like, you know, you got to look at it once.

I was like, I do not.

I just end up on the section and go.

I'm so glad it's not just me.

I do the cursory once over where I'm like, oh, no, it looks good.

Looks good.

And then I get somewhere like jazz.

What does this mean?

I'm sorry.

same thing no i'm because most of the time i will i'll look at the whole thing and most of the time like okay i get what it's saying there are some times where i will spend days looking at because i don't understand it and i'll finally be like i don't even care we're gonna we're gonna get to it when we get to it and i get to it i'm like oh like that that wasn't as bad i mean it fits tina is wearing her hat that she literally just took off of the needles Yeah, you know what?

I think this may be our first on -air completion.

Over her headphones.

But that's how you know it fits.

Like, you could wear it.

It's a look.

It is a look.

In the wintertime.

And you know it fits your big head.

You know what?

I mean that in the best way possible.

Before blocking.

And it's Rio, so it's just going to get bigger.

That's why I said it's going to be a tub.

I mean that in the best way possible.

It's going to be a bucket hat.

Yes.

I'm never going to let this touch water.

Nope.

That's what I did to the other cocoa bean.

You know what?

Sometimes, sometimes for hats, sometimes you just have to never wash it.

Yeah.

It sounds way worse.

No, that's not what I meant.

I just, no, I'll probably, I could steam it or something, but I'm just not going to like soak it.

Yeah, I got to do like an immersion block.

Yeah, immersion blocking.

I will not help you block that.

No, but then you could do a sack race in it.

Actually, I could help you block that, and it probably won't grow in size.

No, look.

I'm kind of looking forward to making it a purse, though.

Oh, see?

When it just expands into nothing.

Sack races.

Sack races.

Fancy, Zachary.

There it is.

2020.

Oh, I didn't put my needle away.

2025 finish.

First finish.

Only took me six months.

Yeah.

Hey.

You know what?

It's not about the speed.

It's not about the speed.

It's just we all get there in the end.

So now, so how do you add the head?

Oh, you just.

You pick it up.

Yeah, you just.

You go that way.

Oh, okay.

So now I'm just going to go around and around these peels in the peel color.

It's like you would pick up a heel.

Only you're picking up a peel.

Gotcha.

Don't pick up a heel, pick up a peel.

I got a lot tonight.

Jess is on fire.

That's what you want to call it.

On fire.

You get to go home.

I have to stay here.

You chose her.

I did.

You should have heard the ones she cracked out when I was pregnant.

Yeah.

Those were good.

I had to work on my dad jokes.

It was awful.

I mean, at least Jess is good at dad jokes.

I mean, come on.

Come on.

That's an important part of becoming doc.

It's true.

So is that it?

Or do you have to finish up the butt too?

You got to finish the butt.

It's got a gaping hole on the butt.

Yeah.

Right now.

I'm going to, I assume it's going to be much like working on the neck and head now where I'm just going to pick up all these stitches here.

There you go.

Close up his behind.

Little bump.

I like that it's got the little like brown tip at the end, like the end stem.

That's great.

I like that.

Yay.

What are you going to use for the brown?

I have brown.

Oh, you have brown.

Yeah.

Why am I asking that?

I got like all the colors when Big Twist was.

on sale at joann's before they said goodbye yeah so i i pretty much bought just about every color that was available because i was like well you never know if crocheting is what i want to do then i might as well yeah and i like this yarn so i might as well got the whole rainbow And that's all the time we have for this episode.

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