Hello and welcome back to the Type B Knitting podcast. I am, oh my god, we need like a script. This is the podcast with two sisters who love to yap about knitting. Honestly, it's like half yap, half venting, I feel like. Anytime I look at comments, they're always like, I love how you guys just bit. And I'm like, yuck, sounds about right. Yeah, it's like you and you guys enjoy listening. Thanks. We love to be that's great. That's the crazy part. Yeah. I'm your host Veronica, and I'm your other host Gosia. And today, we're gonna be talking about the summer slump of knitting. Gosia and I live in the Midwest. So we have all four seasons here. And yeah, summertime is just not super fun. Knitting wise. Yeah, I feel like it's very the as soon as the weather starts changing. I think we started feeling this in like late March, early April, where it's like, Oh, it's starting to warm up. Like my knits are in danger. Like I don't want to touch them. And like, I personally have like other hobbies to one of them being gardening. So as soon as it gets nice out, I'm so excited to like start seeds, get things growing, go to the garden centers, buying a bunch of stuff. So I'm spending a lot more time outside aka not touching my needles and trying everything I can to force myself to even want to touch it. Which we're like pretty good about March, April, a little bit of May. But yeah, I don't know. How are you? How do you usually feel about your summer slump? I feel like I just completely abandoned knitting in summer if I'm being totally honest. The only thing right now pushing me through is legitimately a deadline. Um, so I am testing the tattoo flash cardigan by be creative knits. And yeah, it's it's literally the only thing that I'm working on right now, not to say that I don't want to be working on other things. Like, I think we're gonna do an episode on this. But we need to do an episode on like all the things that Gosha and I send each other through Instagram DM as far as like knitting patterns go, because I'm constantly like seeing so many cool things that I want to knit. But it's just it's really hard to want to work with like, really heavy wool when it's 80 degrees outside.

Like, and I feel like we kind of talked about this, but it's it's kind of like, because we don't have this weather all year round, when it is nice outside, it's like, Oh, man, like, I really got to take advantage of this. Like, I need to do all the things that I can't do when it's super cold out. So I feel like those things take precedent over knitting during the summertime. You know, like you have your garden. I feel like you also sew in the summertime more than you knit, right? Yeah, like I feel there were a couple projects that have been pulling me towards like, sewing a lot more than knitting. I think it's for the month of May. There's like this frugal shoot, I have to look it up. But there's like a whole group of like, in the sewing community, where you like do this like frugal thing where you you spend zero on a make. So you like don't buy a sewing pattern, you use fabric from your stash. And I think we talked about this maybe like a bingo where like inspired like one of the bingo spots, where you spend zero, I have to look up the name, whatever. And I think it's in for the month of May. So like, you create something and then you're like posting on Instagram. I'm like, oh my god, this year, 100% gonna do it. Did I do it? No, it's things almost done. Yeah, bingo. I haven't heard that same in years. Who is she? Who is that? That's a good like, I feel like a challenge like that is kind of a good way to like, get you out of a slump. To just like encourage you, especially I think again, like being part of a group. Also, like someone doing it with you kind of gives you like that motivation to work on it where it's like, I feel like if it's just me, me myself and I, I'm just gonna be like, I don't really want to, you know, oh, yeah, yeah, it's just it's so hard.

I don't know. Like, it's funny that we talk about like, not wanting to knit in summer. But like, this is like the most I've ever, I've ever worked on projects. And I feel like the desire to knit doesn't disappear in summer. It's just like the motivation. Does that make sense? You don't feel like picking up but you still work on stuff. No, it's like, I still am finding new patterns that are like super exciting, and I want to cast them on. But it's like committing to 50 plus hours on a sweater is just not realistic for me during summertime. So it's like, I'm almost just like collecting 10 times the patterns because I'm not actually knitting on anything. So I'm just like, on social media on Instagram, and I'm, I'm looking at other patterns that people are making.

And I'm like, Oh, that's super cool. So I'm just saving them. And then they just kind of go and die in like my pattern graveyard. Yes, yes. I know exactly what you mean. We're like, I think I was running into a lot of knit knitted patterns and like, Oh, tell me why I desperately want to make pants. I want to knit. Yeah, that's so bad. From all the things to knit and then I recently found knitted shorts. And I'm like, this is exactly what I want to make. I feel, I feel like knitted shorts are almost less practical than knitted pants. Because again, like the tank, like, it's the same way that I'm a big hater of knitted tank tops. I'm like, when are you ever gonna wear like, unless it's cotton, but it's like, when are you ever gonna wear a wool tank top, like those two things are oxymorons, like they just don't mesh.

So what am I working on a wool tank top and also want to make pants? Yeah. No, but the pants make sense to me. Like wool pants, wool knitted pants. I'm like, yeah, sure. Like that makes sense. Like you can wear them in fall, you can wear them in winter. Knitted shorts. Again, unless you're knitting them in cotton, which I know you, you are not going to do that. Like it that makes no sense to me. Why are you wearing wool and shorts? Gonna pick merino wool. I don't know. That's, it's funny because it's like, now I need to find that pattern for the shorts. I literally sent it to you. I don't care about the practical. I don't care. I saw it, I liked it, and I want to make it.

But there was this one influencer, Suki Knits, that modified the Rosalind pants by Sadness Garn. They were really cute. I don't know. It's something, something about knitted pants and shorts. The only thing about Sadness Garn is you have to buy the kit. So you have to buy the yarn to even get the pattern, which big gatekeepers of that. Those are big haters on the gatekeeping of patterns, and Sandis Garn is like number one, perp, number one perp of gatekeeping patterns, because I want to make this one pattern by them so freaking bad, but they will not send, sell you the pattern unless you buy their yarn, which I think is so dumb. I hate it. It's sort of booing here. Boo. Two thumbs down. I feel like they would get so many. Two thumbs down. Your yarn can't be that good, but your patterns, they kind of bust. Dude, the patterns are so good, but it's like, I, out of principle, I don't want to knit with their stuff because it's like, I, it's not fair to like gatekeep a pattern for like a hundred something dollars because you have to buy a kit with it. And it's like, well, what if I, what if your yarn's itchy? I don't know.

Wait, that's such a good point, right? Like you're literally spending a hundred dollars. Like yeah, you get the yarn, but you're spending a hundred dollars to be able to knit the thing. Yeah. Crazy. I know it is crazy. Guess what? Gatekeep Sandis Garn. I guess I won't be making those pants, but um, there's gotta be something else. Yeah, there's gotta be something else. But here's the thing. What's the likelihood of you knitting pants? Zero during summer. Zero. Knitting pants in general? Zero. Knitting in the summer? Negative zero. Yeah, literally. Like, absolutely. Just in the gutters. And the gutters. It's something I'm aspiring to. Why? Hmm. I thought it'd be fun. It's like, cause how, how do you start? Do you start with a leg and then you go up? Do you start like with the waist and then you split? Like, see, like those are questions I want answered.

I want to know how I would make that. Like, do you have to add more for the crotch? Do you have to add more for your booty? Like, you know, how does that work? Like what's the shaping? Right? A mystery I'm willing to never solve cause you're never gonna knit pants. It will stay a mystery. Yeah. If someone in the comments or someone listening to this has ever knit pants, please tell us. Um, I'm so, so, so, so, so curious what that's like. Also, let us know if us hating on, uh, hating on Sandisk Garn is a hot take. I'm like, do we, does everyone hate Sandisk Garn? I mean, obviously not. People are buying the patterns because they're super cute. Again, I don't have any issue with the pattern. It's just the gatekeeping I don't love.

Yeah. Yeah. It's so interesting because like other brands don't do that. I feel like you can find either free patterns. Okay. On the other like spectrum of it, there's drops design where they have like thousands of patterns online. Do you know what I'm talking about? Your face tells me. I know. I've never drops design. Yeah. I don't know that they have drops. D R O P S literally thousands and thousands of patterns. And, um, I want to say on Instagram or something, like you can vote on like, which are your favorite to be like released and things. Like it's so much fun. What? They have so many really pretty things and literally free thousands and thousands of patterns for free. Dude, shout out. You can buy their yarn. They give you a suggestion, but you don't have to, which I think is so cool. There's something for like everyone.

That's the other thing is like, I was looking at like woolen the gang. Like that was one of the first knitting kits. I think it was like the second knitting kit that I've ever bought. And like woolen the gang, it does have a lot of, um, kits, but they also offer not all of them, but some of their patterns. You can just buy the pattern, which is like, that's so nice. Like, yeah, it sucks when like, um, one of the patterns that you really want is only in a kit. But the thing is you still have other options. Whereas like Santa's gone. It's like, no, you have to buy my, they literally are like holding you hostage, choking you. And they're like, you have to buy my yarn or else you can never know what this, you can never know what this cardigan looks like unless you buy my yarn. And I'm like, well, what if I don't know, $16 a scheme isn't in my frigging budget. Literally. And they're like, haha, too bad, too bad, poor. They're literally like, you can't sit with us. Yeah. And I'm just like, dude, what the heck? No, screw that. Yeah.

So shout out drops design. I didn't know. Also, I like that you can vote on like what you want released. I think that's super cool. Isn't that fun? Yeah, I love that. Like, like you get invited. Yeah, you get excited about the designs. Like you can explore all the other things. Like, I feel like it's like a seasonal drop, like for like spring, winter, probably. I can't remember the last time I saw it, but it's like, it's so much fun. Like it's, I know I've spent, I was just looking at their, their patterns and they do have knitted and crocheted. So like, no matter which fiber art you do in the different things. So they like give you like a cute suggestion of like, you can use our yarn, you know, but like you don't have to because it's literally posted on here. Yeah. And then it's also nice because like drops is so affordable, you know, that too. So it's like, you know, it's nice that they're like, hey, you can use this yarn if you want to, but you don't have to, but then you know, like, this is really affordable yarn. So like this kit isn't going to cost me, you know, like hundreds of dollars, it's gonna probably cost me less than that, you know, like, if I buy for this project, it's not gonna bankrupt me. Literally. Yeah. Um, speaking of the summer slump, um, I feel like we kind of alluded to it already. But how do we feel about like typical summer fibers? And if you have a favorite, what is your favorite favorite summer fiber? Yeah, I think I would rather work with cotton than linen. There was one time I worked with linen. Our sweet sweet mama got us a souvenir yarn that was both linen and mohair and it was like you knit it together to make like a shawl, but I use it for something else. I will tell you knitting with that maybe it's that specific linen or something it was like, you have better luck like knitting with sawdust. It was like the scratchiest like craziest thing. Like I took straw from outside. Like I hated it. The mohair helped a little bit, but so it's like now I get why like a lot, some of the linen ones are like a blend because I think it helps soften that. Otherwise it's like crazy itchy and I can't. So that that's clearly out. Other summer fibers? No, no, no, no. Other than cotton. So I guess that's my default.

Yeah, I feel like cotton and linen are probably like the most popular. I don't, I, I'm kind of curious if like a fingering weight wool wouldn't be like as horrible to work with in summer because like your tank top that you're working right now is fingering weight, right? It is. It's like sport fingering weight. Yeah. Okay, so I'm like curious. Like obviously that tank top is still going to be warm, but I'm kind of curious how it's going to hold up in the summer. Like once you've actually like finished it and stuff like that, like I'm kind of curious if it will be. No, I'm just kind of curious how to hold up in summer. Like if it's something that you reach for during summertime, maybe like the earlier months or even like later going more towards fall where, oh, it's a little chilly. Maybe it's like 76 degrees outside, you know, like lower 70s.

Again, like tank tops, shorts, those are on like my never knit list. Like I really just don't see myself knitting that because as someone who's like a super sweaty girl, I just, I can't, I can't do wool in the fricking, in the summer. That's just not my thing. But yeah, I'm kind of curious like once you finish it, how it's going to hold up. The whole reason I did the tank top is because I saw it as this piece that I could layer. So it's like, oh, in the summer I could wear it just as that, like a tank top, but like maybe spring where it's like still a little chilly, but like, you know, you want to brighten up your outfits, you know, because you're excited for spring, kind of like now time, like, oh, I could wear that almost like a sweater vest.

But it's like something fun. So, you know, wearing like a button up underneath and just like that tank top over was the idea. So like a piece that's more versatile. I do love sweater vests, so that's kind of my like thinking was with it. I am also curious how much I'm going to reach for this. I feel like every time I make something like, I feel like it's been either too like winter chunky, like it's like Siberia outside. Yeah, or like it's the Sahara, like it's too hot. I'm sweaty like this girl is slipping and sliding through this stuff. Yeah, like, um, we went to a like craft fair in the city over the weekend. And I saw a lot of people with like knitted tank tops.

I couldn't tell if they were knitted by them or not. But I was just like, it was 80 degrees. And I'm like, God, I hope that's made out of God. Because if it's not, I'm so sorry for you. Like, it was just so hot. So funny. It was just like one of the hot day, one of the like first super hot days of the year. So yeah, I don't know. I just again, it's like definitely on my will not will not be knitting list for me. I won't say never, but probably never. Never say never. You never know. I mean, I'm over here talking about knitting pants, you might, I don't know, get inspired to do something or I might just I'll be talk. Yeah, I feel like if anyone in our audience has ever knitted pants before, please let us know what like the shaping of that looks like, because I would just be like, do you start with like the leg and then you work your way up and then back down? Or do you start with like the waist? And then like you increase for your butt?

Like, how does that work? Like, how does it fit? I feel like it can't just be tube. Yeah. I wonder, do you think pants are knitted like flat and then seemed at the sides? Oh, that's one thing I will never want to do ever. Isn't it something that then I have to go back and sew up because it's like I am excited right now. I'm doing this like I hate going back and finishing something. It could not be me could not be bothered. It's the same way. It's like the same reason I hate like weaving and ends. It's just like, oh my god, I really don't want to do that. No, I'm just gonna make a knot and chop the ends and just hide it. No, 100%. I totally agree.

Yeah, like right. I just I despise a cardigan that I have to like sew completely like oh, the back is just like a flat panel and you're working it flat. Then you have to like seam together the you know, like this was a one in the gang cardigan like and I think it was probably just because it was like a beginner cardigan. So you were literally knitting like panels, like front panel, left panel, back panel and then you to sew everything together and like mine was so wonky and I'm like I honestly think like this might even be worse for beginners because it's just like it's just not friendly. It's just not friendly. Yeah, well, yeah, I don't know. Well, I get it but it's also I don't know. I'd rather not it's something about going in a circle is just the best and you just yeah, I yeah, I feel like that's the one thing you never hear slander about is knitting in the round. Never that's the golden child because like why would you ever hate that? It's great. Yeah, it's fantastic. Whoever thought of that?

Two thumbs up, two thumbs up, four thumbs up from two from me to from you. Yeah. But a little project update. How is your project going? It's good. It's good. I am on my second front panel right now. So I have the back completely done. The left panel done. I'm working on the right panel right now. I'm almost done with that. And I have like a July deadline for that. So I'm trying to bust through it as much as I possibly can. But I think I'll be able to like seem just like the sides together because the top of the panels are connected to the back panel. So it's not like completely detached, which is really nice. And I don't mind it seeming when the yarn is number one, not mohair. And number two, it's like a decent weight, because then the stitch definition is a lot easier for me to see. And I can just single crochet the panels together.

And like, I don't really mind that. But yeah, when it's like completely detached, and you're like patching things together, like that's when that's when I'm not having a lot of fun. But yeah, that that deadline is definitely pushing through all my summer, my summer slump. But I can't wait to be done with it and then be able to cast on a new cable sweater and finally have a cable project done. I have made many cable projects kept zero of them. Some of them were gifts. Some of them were just sacrificed to the frogging gods. So never to be spoken of again. And never to be talked about again. So we don't need to talk about that. They've had their flowers. And we can move on. Yeah. And we can stop talking about that. All right, well, I think that's everything. If you guys have any tips and tricks for how to get out of a summer slump, or if you never get into a summer slump to begin with, let us know on our Instagram type of be knitting podcast. I did not know that our like Instagram DMs were selected for requests. So I need to be better of like looking through that because I saw a couple of people sending in DMs to us and like sending requests. I was like, oh my god, I can't believe it took me this long to see it. What? You're like, please, please, please write us. We're so excited to hear about you. Hey, this request, I'm just gonna deny it.

I don't actually know. I'm not denying them. Absolutely not. I am not denying them. I'm just like, Oh, you want to talk? I didn't realize. No, I do not deny them. It's just like weird when you have an Instagram that's not set up as like a personal account. Like Instagram recognizes that. So like the interface is a little different. But sorry, I'm not a social media guru. No, that's fine. I apologize. Yeah. Um, but yeah, send us send us a DM guys now that I know how they work. Or better yet, leave a comment. Because I will see that. But yeah, go should I read all the comments. And we really enjoy interacting with you guys. It's nice to know that there are real people on the other side of this that are actually listening to our podcast, which is like crazy. Yeah. And share the same like hobby and like, we're just doing this as like a hobby. We just thought the two of us are just so hilarious that we need to like talk on a podcast. So we're like, this is a learning curve. I'm learning how to do all the audio and like that's been a journey. Like Veronica's been, you know, doing so much with this like marketing side, putting her whole heart and all her master's degree in Canva into it. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I'm learning so much on Canva guys. You have no idea. I feel like I could basically have a marketing job now. I'm like, I know how to use Canva. Canva, I am unstoppable. Put it on your resume. Oh my gosh, that's so funny.

Yeah, I love it. I am going to put it on my resume. All right, guys, thank you so, so much for listening. Don't forget to rate us on Apple podcasts to anywhere you listen to podcasts. Again, me shilling works are rating on Spotify did increase shout out to our Spotify listeners, guys. Really hustling. I love to see it. Big love to you. I'm so sad you can't like leave comments on Spotify, but big love. Just know I'm giving you a big kiss. Big love to all y'all. Thank you so, so much for listening. That was type B knitting. I'm Goshah and I'm Veronica. Catch you on the next one. Bye. Bye.