I’ll Knit If I Want To: Episode 140

Welcome to I’ll Knit (& Spin!) If I want To! I asked y’all to send in some of your questions (from everything from fiber arts, to designing and on!) so I could put together a little video for y’all every Friday doing my best to answer your questions!
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In this week’s episode we cover:
1. Hi Andrea, Love your patterns and I am excited to cast on the Throwback cardigan. If I have the right time of yarn, could I do this in the round and steek it at the end? I have done steeling before but not for a Colorwork pattern. Super excited about the sock KAL too! Happy Knitting and Spinning.
2. Hi Andrea! I'm super excited to knit the Totally Tessellated socks! I immediately hit my stash to pick out yarn. I have a great sock squad skein from FDF, a skein of Nocturne from Spincycle, and a skein of FDF's Mighty Mo. Is there any concern with using a mohair/silk blend for the socks instead of an alpaca/silk blend? I figured as both contain silk, either would be okay, but I would greatly appreciate a second opinion! Thank you
3. Help! I recently finished your tesselated sweater, and absolutely loved it. However, I just wet blocked it, and it stretched so much! I knitted with spinsters daughter, dyed in the wool, and oh dang. I did block my swatches, but they don't seem to have really conveyed how much the finished sweater would stretch with the weight of the whole thing. Any tips for blocking a swatch to figure out how much the final sweater would stretch with a superwash yarn? Additional tips for styling oversized sweaters also welcome
4. I absolutely love your new tessellated socks!! From the picture, it looks like the Spincycle is used for heels and toes - I've always heard that sock heels and toes need some nylon to really hold up. (And in my experience, this has been true - the one pair of socks I knit using nylon-free sock yarn had holes within a few months!) Do you have any thoughts on that? Should I hold something with the Spincycle perhaps if I'd like to keep that look but want the socks to last longer?
5. First, I want to tell you how soothing your videos are. It is really refreshing to have someone like you who just want to freely share knowledge and enthusiasm. I am really looking forward to it every week, since the first one! I have a very personal question for you, and I hope I am not oversharing. I’m also working in a creative domain, not fibre related, and sometimes I feel drained. Recently I dreamed about you, you were calling me to tell me that you really like my work. I was confused, and reply that no, it’s me that like your work! In french, work and job are the same word, so it was as if you were telling me either you like my job, or my knitting work. It made me realize that I don’t like my job anymore, and I want to do something that fuel me with the same enthusiasm that you are showing for knitting. Right now I don’t have the energy or mental space to make big changes, but I know it will come. My question is, how do you keep the creativity juice flowing, with the business responsibility? I know you’ve been through health issues. What do you do when the energy and enthusiasm is low? How do you relight the sparks of joy in creating stuff?
Sisters United: sistersunitedm...
I’m wearing the DRK Everyday Sweater:
www.ravelry.co...
www.dreareneek...
Totally Tessellated Fall KAL Challenge: www.ravelry.co...
Patten on Ravelry: www.ravelry.co...
Pattern on Website: www.dreareneek...
Instagram hashtag for KAL: #totallytessellatedKALchallenge
Instafriends KAL 2023: Instagram - #InstaFriendsKAL2023 & link: / instafriendskal2023
Ask a question for next week’s Q&A: forms.gle/pKM9...