A New Podcast!

I decided, like today, that I would make a new podcast and publish it, and see how it turns out. I think that I did alright. I definitely need more practice though. I think that with time it will get much better and it will all turn out.

I showed all my WIPS on the podcast, but here are pictures of a few of them.

The Royals crackerjack scarf that is coming right along and is clearly more blue than white and yellow, so the boys in blue are doing good! I don't know what I'm going to do with all the ends, since I didn't leave them long enough to weave in, they may just stay that way. It'll all be good.

Then this is my speckle dyed sock that I'm really excited to be working on. It's fun to see the colors pop up, even if it is just for a stitch or two, it keeps it interesting to work on. This is my second purse project, I probably shouldn't have cast it on, but I couldn't resist.

Then this is the other blanket for Project Linus. I think this stitch pattern is called the ball band dishcloth pattern. I like working this pattern it is a slip stitch pattern where you alternate the colors every row. It also keeps it interesting. I cast it on yesterday, because I didn't have anything else to work on at Project Linus once I had woven in the ends for the 15 blankets that I turned in!

This is the stack of blankets. 12 of them were just borders around polar fleece that had punched holes in them. Then there was a Ten-stitch tunisian crochet blanket that I did, and two corner-to-corner throw blankets. I was pleased with all of them, and hopefully I have another productive month.

This is the hippy hippy shawl. It is worked in stockinette stripes and it will be a crescent shawl. It's made out of Knitpicks Chroma fingering weight and a mystery acrylic brown that was purchased at Fabric Recycles, which is a consignment store for yarn and fabric.

This is a preemie blanket that I finished that will be given to Children's Mercy once it's blocked. It was worked from the center out, in stripes, with a diamond lace border and then a garter stitch border of six rows or so.This was acrylic yarn that my grandparents got for me at various garage sales. I will probably make another one similar just because this was fun to do and I still have quite a bit of yarn.

This is a diagonal striped blanket that I made from scraps from my most recent Project Linus blankets. This is my fourth or fifth blanket just like this, and I like how it turned out.  I will have to make more blankets to have more scraps to make another blanket or two like this one.

And this is my most recent spinning. I have been spinning it thick and then, so it is like art yarn, and I just have about an ounce and a half left of fiber to spin. This is an art batt that I got at the All MO Spin In. I'm not participating in Tour de Fleece this year, but seeing all the pictures on Instagram are really inspiring and have made me want to spin more.

Spindle Spinning

I finished a thing! I have been working on a big spindle spinning project, not huge like a sweater quantity or anything, but a pretty big project, for me anyway. To start off I would like to state that I have issues with making my singles anything much thinner than a worsted or aran. Most of the time I get a bulky or even super bulky. So I wanted to try and get a sock weight yarn on a spindle. Not only that but I wanted to get a navajo plied sock yarn on a spindle, and I got closer. I think that I got around a DK weight, so that's closer. I got around 130 yards from 4oz of BFL (Blue Faced Leicester). It was in the Scrambled on the Insides colorway by Nerd Girl Yarns. I like how it turned out, and I think that I am going to make some kind of slippers with them.

I spun it on my Kundhert spindle that is 1.3oz, and it is my favorite spindle by far. I really like the weight at how it spins. I am planning on going to a spin-in at Chillicothe, MO in April, and am wanting to get another spindle there, just to try out another one, but I am definitely going to get one in this weight range. I am also considering getting another turkish spindle, because I like the one that I have, but it is just the knitpicks one, and I like when my tools have just a little bit of embellishing on them. Makes them feel nicer. There is going to be a tool trade at the spin-in so I am hoping to find some good deals there.

In other news I am still reading For Calvinism, although I am almost done, and will likely finish within the next few days. I am also reading New Monasticism by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and it is an interesting read that has given a history of the monastic movement, and now is getting into how principals of monastic living can be applied to the church as a whole. I also went to the library yesterday and got The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, which is the book club book for the March book club, so I don't know anything about it, but it looks like it will hopefully be an enjoyable read.

I did a lot of math yesterday in order to figure out the sleeves on a sweater I am making. It has a bottom up construction, where the body and the sleeves are knit separate and then joined and the shoulders are knit. I've finished with the body, and my arms are just not shaped like a normal person's, I have shorter arms that are rounder, so I had to increase quickly in a short amount of rows in order to ensure that the sleeves will indeed fit me (which is important to me considering that I have invested a fair amount into this yarn).

I also have a time frame for getting my products professionally photographed for my Etsy shop, and so everything is on track to get it all up and running in March, which will be awesome!