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In which we squee over Dr. Gemma’s review, welcome baby Matilda, and chat about Shirley Paden’s Design-A-Long, clever cats, alpaca roundups, giant cows, top shelf vodka, knitting satisfaction, lots of knitting on and off the needles, lots of knitting nibbles too, bulging bobbins and that’s not everything, but it is about the grist, err, um, gist of it.

Our mud sale quilt score!

The stitch swatch for the gradient shawl/scarf.  I think I’ll name the patten “Swagger” because the ribbed border looks something like swags and I’ll surely swagger when I wear it!

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More thanks!  To new and returning listeners, for kind iTunes reviews, to stashmuffin aka Laura Rickets for making Jan feel better with the gift of her cowl pattern, sha-ZAM! and to Jennie the Potter for donating a beautiful button to the winner of the Madrona meet new friends contest.  And special thanks to Dr. Gemma of the Cogknitive Podcast for the very kind (and thrilling to us) words.

Ellen continues reminiscing about Madrona, in particular about a new friend, designer Mari Tabita.  Check out her lovely designs.  Mari introduced her to the Shirley Paden Design Along 3, which you can follow in the We Love Shirley Paden  Ravelry group.

Jan gave her alpacas the full health and beauty treatment with the help of family and friends, and retrieved the alpaca when a gate was left open, also with the help of family and friends.

In the What Would Susan Ask design element, we discussed how knitting makes us feel.  Thanks again to Susan Dolph of the Knitajourney Podcast for letting us use her interview questions in our podcast.

In On the Runway, Ellen is juggling projects - her Great Dayne top-down raglan from her class at Madrona;  Umeshu, her version of Melanie Gibbons’ Hanami Stole;  socks in the Monkey pattern which she is calling Saki and she has started swatching for the Shirley Paden DAL3 as well as gotten a start on her re-knit of the Master Knitter Level II wrister.  As she recorded, she worked on Rimfrost, aka Many Moments of Grace.

Jan is making a second version of her cape design, this one is named Beta.  She continues on her Death Spiral shawl (design by Erica Gunn).  In the design phase, Jan is planning a new shawl to use up every yard of the yarn she spun from her Fiber Optic gradient roving and has swatched for it.

In Bitten by Your Knittin’, Ellen reported that you need to follow the pattern if you expect it to turn out the way it is in the picture.  She learned this while knitting Seedling Dreams, an Amy Beth Mays hat.  She also struggled a bit with her version of Gale Zucker’s Decibella, which she is calling Massive.  Gauge and a lack of the right knitting needles held her up initially, but things turned out great in the end. Jan struggled with her new cape prototype until she started listening to what it wanted to be.

No Finely or Finally Finished Items for Jan, but Ellen did finish both Massive and her version of Seedling Dreams, The Impossible Dream.

In Design Principles, Ellen discussed starting a design with a stitch pattern as the inspiration.

In 360 degrees, Jan reported on the continuing production of singles from her Finn roving.  After Ellen described using 4 strands of commercial yarn plyed together to make yarn for her Massive cowl, Jan thinks she’ll do some cable plying of the Finn singles to make another big yarn.

In Fiber Jargon we discuss grist and how to measure it - one way being the McMorran Balance.

While there will be plenty of fun in April, the big events for Jan and Ellen both are Yarnover (April 27), and Steven Berg’s Fiber Fest April 25-29.  Let us know on the Ravelry group if you’d like to meet up!

Enjoy the episode!