Ep. 106 Summer socks, beaded i-cord, color app, washcloth exchange, The Placebo Effect, Arcata Fairy Festival

Brainy thing:  18:37       Behind the Redwood Curtain: 29:19 What We’re Learning From Our Knitting Margaret finished a pair of summer socks:  Top down, 1x1 twist rib cuff, afterthought heel with gusset,  (check out Ariana Hipsagh    gussets in afterthought heel  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUyJM2FBH_o Reena Meijer Dress  Knit better Socks blog  http://knitbettersocks.blogspot.com/) The yarn is  Canon Hand Dyed 80 Merino, 10 Cashmere and 10 nylon.by The Amy Lee Show and the colorway is “I will believe that there are unicorns” a part of her January Shakespeare Club and a quote from the Tempest.   She learned a lot from making the first step from Laura Nelkin’s Ducenti Shawl https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ducenti-mkal— a beaded i-cord. Made from in two different but closely coordinated colors, the two skeins of yarn came in Laura Nelkin’s Ducenti Shawl kit,  originally a mystery kit.They are a wonderfully soft single ply Dragonfly Fibers, Pixie yarn in 100 % merino in a mossy green and a variegated dark putty, with hints of a brassy brown and green. But she’s not making the the full shawl as designed by Laura.    She’s using it as the bottom of Eline Oftedal’s Waves Shoulder Cosy https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wave-shoulder-cosy   Catherine shares a free app from Home Depot for matching up colors.   She finds the matches are a tad on the dark side but still thinks it’s a nifty tool.   She found some yarn she’s long been looking for from  Lion Brand gradient stripe in pink for a dog sweater for a dog who looks fierce but isn’t.   She is working on her Dishcloth exchange using cotton she had on hand plus a  ball of lily’s sugar and cream  in white, lime, teal green, and  lavendar.  The pattern is  Vortex 5  by Rebecca Hudson  (Meditative is her Rav name.)      Brainy Thing Margaret reports on recent research on the Placebo effect  — Among the findings are that it works even if people know they are taking a placebo, it works in animals, and it changes an enzyme in the  brain. https://connect.uclahealth.org/2019/03/14/placebo-effect-sugar-pills-as-medicine/   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513296/ https://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2019/03/the-mysterious-and-maddening-placebo-effect-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-it/ http://programinplacebostudies.org/   Arcata Fairy Festival A new kid-friendly event in Arcata is the Fairy Festival, celebrating its second year and planning for the next. https://www.arcatamainstreet.com/fairy-festival   Give Away Another fun giveaway.  Be the first to request it on the Ravelry thread.     In this episode of Teaching Your Brain to Knit we discuss summer socks, beaded i-cord, the dishcloth exchange anda pink striped yarn for a dog.   We share the latest on the Placebo Effect and report on a new area event, The Arcata Fairy Festival.