Type B Knitting — Episode 34: Knitting Ghost Stories

[00:14] Veronica: Welcome back to Type B Knitting, the podcast of two sisters who chat about knitting, their knitting journeys, and all things knitting related. I'm one of the sisters, Veronica.

[00:27] Gosia: And I'm the other sister, Gosia. On today's episode, we are gathered around the bonfire. We're out camping for the spooky season, and we're telling ghost stories around the campfire.

[00:41] Veronica: And we have written — I can't even consider mine two sentences. I literally think it's one sentence. Horror story. Did you do multiple sentences? Are you, like, immersing me in the experience?

[00:54] Gosia: I have two ghost stories. One that's kind of a couple-sentence short story, and then one that's a spookier story.

[01:03] Veronica: Ooh, I love that. Okay. First of all, Gosia, I've not told you this outside of the podcast, and I think I might break your heart. I don't know if I want to do the Frid sweater.

[01:16] Gosia: Wait.

[01:17] Veronica: Gosia said, hold on, stop the recording.

[01:21] Gosia: Stop the recording, stop the podcast, end this. I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I don't think it's the season yet. I think it's a sweater that's perfect for the middle of winter.

[01:36] Veronica: Yeah, I think it's two winters away for me. The other thing that is unfortunate, but not unfortunate, is I found a cardigan pattern on TikTok that is free. I didn't know it was free, and I really want to make it. It's really cute. It's the Stripey Raglan pattern by Loopy Studio. It's like a regular striped cardigan, but it has a cinched waist, and I've seen that be really popular in retail recently and I love it. I don't think I'm going to do it striped. I think I'm going to just do it regular. But I literally did not know that the entire pattern was free, and I'm like, I feel like I have to do it now.

[02:25] Gosia: That's kind of cool. I saw that it's these horizontal stripes and I was like, girl, I've never seen you wear stripes. I'm not surprised that you're saying you're going to make it solid. It's so cute.

[02:37] Veronica: I really don't wear stripes a lot. It's just not my thing. But I really like the shape of it. And this is something I really do need to get gauge on — but if I can get gauge and that tight part actually looks cute, I will be very happy.

[02:55] Gosia: Maybe this is the sweater you gauge swatch for.

[02:57] Veronica: Well, honestly, maybe, because I have literally frogged the sleeve of my Tyra sweater, like, I don't know, six times because I'm not happy with it. I'm obviously going off pattern, so that is my fault and I should be prepared to frog things. But usually when I'm this close to the end of a pattern, I don't really care about mistakes and stuff like that. On this one, I'm actually caring about mistakes. Maybe I'm a changed woman.

[03:31] Gosia: You don't know — slowly but surely. Putting extra effort into these sweaters.

[03:37] Veronica: I know. Like I want to wear them, or actually want to have a sweater at the end of this or something. I don't know. Something's come over me. Maybe it's the new motivation. I want to enjoy the fruits of my labor, for some reason. Couldn't tell you why.

[03:57] Gosia: Not chuck away the fruits of your labor. Exactly. Love to hear that. I don't really have much of a knitting update. Oh — I guess this is one: I finished the mohair cardigan.

[04:14] Veronica: Big claps!

[04:15] Gosia: Yeah, big claps for me. Some thought it couldn't be done — those people being me — but I got it off my needles. I do need to block it, so technically that's still on my to-do. But it's off the needles, so I don't even want to look at it. I'll worry about blocking it once I actually want to wear it, which will probably be in spring. I think it'd be a really cute piece for Easter or something. So that was exciting, to get that bingo spot.

And now I'm just waiting for my buttons. I bought buttons for the Tulip Tank pattern that I've done. I just have to add buttons to it, and the buttons should be coming in this weekend.

[05:04] Veronica: Where did you get the buttons from?

[05:06] Gosia: I bought them on Etsy. I think it's Pigeon Wishes.

[05:09] Veronica: I need buttons — that's why I'm asking. Oh, they do have really cute buttons. I really like this place. Okay, saving it. Oh, they also have fabric and stuff. I was so focused on buttons, I was like, show me the buttons.

[05:29] Gosia: They have really cute buttons. What's really funny, though, is I found buttons in their shop and I was like, oh, I'm going to wait to buy them until I'm further along, kind of treat myself for finishing the mohair cardigan. And then I went to go buy them and they were sold out. So I messaged the seller to ask when they'd have it in stock again, and they're like, "Oh no, sweetheart, this is discontinued." So I was like, oh. But then I found some other buttons. The ones I got are very, very cute too. I was really excited about those other buttons, but these will do.

[06:15] Veronica: That's all right. No, that's great. Honestly, babe, round of applause. How does it feel to get that off of your needles?

[06:29] Gosia: It almost feels unreal. I can't believe it. I'm taking time away from doing any other knitting projects — just taking a little refresh, not getting into anything right away, so I can savor this moment. You know, I'm really working toward zero WIPs, so I'm just really cherishing this.

I am starting other projects, though. I'm also really into sewing, kind of knitting related. I really don't like how my circular needle set bag looks. And my circular needle set comes with a little key that helps you tighten the cord onto the needles. It's such a little piece, and it's just loose in the bag, so I feel like I'm going to lose it. So I'm currently working on making some kind of pouch for it. TBD on that.

[07:31] Veronica: The keys to my interchangeable needles are in a little paper envelope like this. But the problem is it used to stick closed, and now it just stays open all the time, so those fall out.

[07:50] Gosia: They also have the needle stoppers that I never use. I'm curious if anyone uses them — the threaded stoppers, to put your knitting on hold.

[08:00] Veronica: I'm too annoyed to do the threaded stoppers. I'll do it if I'm making, like, a cardigan with a drop shoulder and I'm working back and forth and have to put something on hold for a long period of time and I'm going to be tossing it around. But if it's just for a short period of time, I'm really lazy and I use my CocoKnits foam stoppers and just shove them onto the end of the cord. And I'm like, it'll stay, it's fine. It never comes off — it holds on pretty well, because the male part of the screw is ribbed, so the foam holds onto the ribbing really well. So that's my hack if I need it in a pinch and I'm too lazy to actually put it on a holder.

[08:58] Gosia: Okay, interesting. I usually use the cording with a little spring, like a little drawstring thingy — I don't know what it's called. I find that the cables that your set comes with are always too short when I want to try it on, if I'm working in the round or something.

[09:20] Veronica: Oh, yeah. If I'm trying it on, then I'll put it onto that cording for sure. I love that stuff.

[09:26] Gosia: It's really nice. Any other updates from you?

[09:30] Veronica: Um, no, honestly, I'm just chugging along. I'm definitely going to need to order more yarn for the sweater, which is unfortunate, but I'm going to wait until I'm on the last two balls — and I'm holding them together, so technically the last ball — because I don't know how much more I'm going to need. And I keep frogging back the sleeve and redoing it, so I'm making negative progress every single day. So I'm going to wait until I have the last ball. I think I'd be okay with two more balls, but I want to be sure.

But yeah, I think that striped cardigan — that I'm not making in stripes — is going to be my next thing, because I love a free pattern.

[10:23] Gosia: Honestly, if you could do a stash bust and a free pattern —

[10:27] Veronica: I know. Well, I'm not going to stash bust for it, but that's okay. I'm definitely buying yarn for that.

[10:33] Gosia: Yeah, I don't know if you have sweater quantity anymore.

[10:36] Veronica: I really don't, and I've already done a stash-busting project, so on to the next. I feel like that should be what I do next, now that we've abandoned the Frid sweater idea. Got everybody on board on the podcast, just to be like — actually, I don't want to do that anymore.

[11:02] Gosia: Yeah, so those are my updates. I think we can get into the spooky session.

[11:08] Veronica: Spooky ghost story time. Roasting your marshmallows over the fire. Turn off all the lights, get cozy.

[11:15] Gosia: Turn off all the lights. All right. Are you ready? Ready to be spooked?

[11:20] Veronica: I am ready.

[11:21] Gosia: I finally had a moment in the evening to do some knitting. I grabbed my project bag, and inside was a WIP I don't remember.

[11:34] Veronica: I like that. That is scary. Is that based off true events, because of that tank top that you found?

[11:43] Gosia: No, the tank top was done.

[11:45] Veronica: Didn't you want to dye it or something like that?

[11:47] Gosia: I did dye it. It was finished — I remember finishing it. I didn't like it in the cream color originally, so I dyed it. Spook meter: how spooked would you be, one out of five?

[11:58] Veronica: Like two out of five. I think that is scary, because then it's like, oh my god, I have to deal with this right now and I really don't want to. Somebody started some pattern and you're like, I don't know what this is. I don't want this.

[12:22] Veronica: My story. Are you ready?

[12:24] Gosia: Yes.

[12:25] Veronica: You open up a pattern that you really wanted to knit. The first sentence: "Cast on 1,246 stitches."

[12:36] Gosia: Okay, okay, hold on. Hold on.

[12:40] Veronica: It says, "You have now cast on the body of the project. You will continue working bottom-up. Make sure stitches aren't twisted." That's my scary story.

[12:55] Gosia: Oh my gosh. I would say that's a three out of five. That's pretty spooky. Casting on over 1,000 stitches — I'm sure some people have to do that, if you're knitting in lace weight and starting the body bottom-up. This one's kind of a double whammy, because of the amount of stitches you have to cast on, plus it's bottom-up. So it's double spook.

[13:22] Veronica: That is double spook.

[13:25] Gosia: I can feel the pattern in the room with us. The mohair cardigan is still haunting me — reminding me of working in lace weight. Now that it's darker out, by this fire, feeling the chills of the cold wind... Are you ready for my story?

[13:53] Veronica: Yeah, I'm ready. Take me there.

[13:55] Gosia: This is called "Grandma Hobby."

On the basement level, there lived an older lady who loved to knit. When walking through the lobby one day, she noticed my knitted hat. That sparked up a conversation. So anytime I ran into her, she complimented one of my makes and showed me one of hers.

"This one I made for my grandson, but he doesn't visit anymore. No one visits me. I can't remember the last time someone spoke to me."

I kind of felt bad for the old lady, but honestly, I didn't mind the conversations. It was nice to have someone else to talk to about knitting, because none of my friends were into the hobby.

After a couple of weeks, we got to know each other, and Eleanor started giving me some of her yarn. And she had the good stuff, too — merino wool, cashmere — and she was more than happy to give it to me. It felt like we built a mini friendship, where I looked forward to seeing her.

Eleanor brought me into her apartment. It felt like traveling back in time. The place smelled like mothballs, and there were crocheted doilies on every surface you can imagine. Very old-lady aesthetic, but really cozy. We would mostly talk about knitting, and she taught me some interesting techniques — even how to do cables.

One weird, gloomy morning, I woke up late for work and was rushing out the door. Usually I ran into Eleanor on my way out of the lobby, but she wasn't there. I thought it was strange, but didn't think much of it. I was trying to make it to work on time.

After work, when I got back to the apartment, something felt off. Something had me worried for Eleanor. So I took a breath. I looked around. The building staff was repairing a broken tile near the wall by the mailboxes. I casually walked over as if to grab my mail and struck up a conversation. The staff and everyone in the building are usually really friendly.

"Hello, have you seen Eleanor?" I asked him. At first he didn't say anything and just kept working. "You know, the old lady that lives on the basement floor? I haven't seen her, and that's pretty odd."

I saw him stiffen up. "Basement? This building doesn't have a basement."

[16:14] Veronica: She's living in your wall! She's the ghost of the building. Honestly, kind of a chill ghost — you're getting free yarn.

[16:22] Gosia: But she's a ghost! Did she have yarn? Did I just dream all that up?

[16:27] Veronica: Well, did you have the yarn?

[16:29] Gosia: I can never find that yarn. We'll never know. I've never owned cashmere yarn. My only hope of owning cashmere yarn is for a ghost lady to give it to me. Not in the budget.

[16:44] Veronica: Maybe for the ghost lady there's a budget for cashmere. Wow, honestly, very much immersed in this story. Five out of five. Love it. Good context. It was great. That was fun.

[17:00] Gosia: Thank you. How spooked are you?

[17:03] Veronica: How spooked am I? If this actually happened to me, I would be 10 out of 10 scared. I'd be like, what the actual hell? Where did she come from? I'd be really scared.

[17:17] Gosia: Thank you. I don't think of myself as an author or writer, so it's kind of fun.

[17:22] Veronica: New career unlocked. New podcast unlocked: spooky knitting stories. It only comes out once a year.

[17:35] Gosia: Oh my god, you know what would be really scary? If I looked up and you were just gone.

[17:40] Veronica: That's scary. I am Eleanor, the knitting ghost.

[17:43] Gosia: Girl, I wish. Where's my cashmere?

[17:46] Veronica: Do you have a real-life knitting horror story? Mine is: imagine you've been working on something that you really want for, like, three months. You're working on it every single day after work, on your lunch. You're like, dang, I'm working so hard on this, this is really nice yarn, I'm so excited. And then you block it, and it doesn't fit. That's my horror story. Jump scare: it doesn't fit.

[18:22] Gosia: I don't know if that counts as a horror story. Oh — I guess I do have a little bit of a horror story with a knitted pattern. I was working on this sweater, and it was a fisherman rib sweater, which was a new technique for me. And honestly, everything was going really, really great. I was on gauge for all of it. It was such a dream to work on. I found a yarn at Michaels that was very affordable, and I blocked it, did all the things. And when I was wearing it, I noticed fuzzies all over me — in my eyes, going up my nose, little fuzzies. It was because my sweater was pilling so badly that it would just go everywhere.

[19:06] Veronica: Oh my god, that's awful. That sucks.

[19:09] Gosia: Yeah, it was. I got rid of it, because I was so mad. I really liked it. I loved everything about it.

[19:15] Veronica: Wait, what sweater was this? Have I seen this sweater?

[19:20] Gosia: Probably. I don't know if you've seen it. I wore it to work a couple times and then I absolutely hated it because it would do that. I think it's because the yarn wasn't tightly plied — it was more like roving. You know what I'm talking about? That kind of fluffy yarn.

[19:44] Veronica: You have told me to stay away from that type of yarn multiple times. Literally.

[19:48] Gosia: So now whenever I go to yarn stores, I rough up the yarn to see if it's going to pill or if any of the fuzzies come off, because that's what I've noticed will happen. If you're planning to wear it as a sweater, you're going to move around — your armpits are going to rub — so you want to make sure it can hold up to that.

[20:08] Veronica: Yeah, no, that's smart. It sucks, because there was this one yarn from JOANN that I really liked, and I remember every time I saw it, you were like, "No, don't get it, it's going to pill." And I'm like, yeah, I can see that. Darn it, you're right.

[20:22] Gosia: It's always the cutest yarns, too.

[20:24] Veronica: I know. Okay, what's the last one?

[20:27] Gosia: How about this: we both come up with an ending. It's a really good cliffhanger one.

[20:33] Veronica: Okay, I love that.

[20:35] Gosia: This one is called "The Yarn Store."

My friend warned me about the yarn store at the edge of the small town. She mentioned strange things seem to happen around the area, and she tends to avoid the street altogether. One of our mutuals is a big skeptic and kind of made fun of us for entertaining the idea of a haunted yarn store.

The next time I saw her, she ran up to me, panting, trying to tell me something. "The — the — the yarn store. It's —"

That's it.

[21:08] Veronica: What is it? Oh my god, that's crazy. I don't even think we need to come up with endings for that. I think that's where it ends.

[21:15] Gosia: I think that's where it ends. I haven't seen her since. No one's heard from her since.

[21:24] Veronica: Honestly, I feel like we need an hour-long episode of you just narrating knitting stories, and I can just listen to it. You're very animated with it — you do the panting, the voices. It's good stuff.

[21:42] Gosia: Maybe I should start a podcast or something.

[21:45] Veronica: No, actually, you signed a non-compete agreement that you cannot start another podcast. So if you do that, I will sue.

[21:52] Gosia: Okay, I understand. Yeah, I do remember that contract. I signed it in blood.

[21:58] Veronica: Exactly. Well, guys, that was our episode for today. That has been Type B Knitting. I'm one of your hosts, Veronica.

[22:10] Gosia: And I'm your other host, Gosia. Catch us on Instagram, Type B Knitting, for all things knitting and spooky stories, and have a happy and safe Halloween.

[22:20] Veronica: Yeah, have a great Halloween, guys. And we'll catch you on the next one.