Insomnia Can Be Productive

This week I posted a new podcast, with the same title as this blog post. I hope that you can check it out!

I went to the lake this past weekend with my family. It was an alright time. I couldn't sleep Friday night, so I ended up working a lot on my brother's sweater, which I will show you a little later. I walked over to my grandparents' house early Saturday morning, and I saw a really huge spider web that I took a picture of. It was at least two and a half feet across. It was pretty massive. I saw others on the way, but this was by far the largest. 

There was a lot to talk about on this episode, but I'm afraid I may have rushed through some of it. So, to solve that problem, I thought I would elaborate a bit on here about the different things that I talked about. So first up are my FOs. I finished the Sockhead hat that I had dug out from forever ago and finally finished. I think that it turned out nice, and here it is, all the ends are woven in and everything! I finished it while I was at the lake. I worked in on my 16" Karbonz, US size 2. 

Then I finished the first sock of the speckled socks that I am making out of Plymouth Happy Feet 100 Splash which is a heavy fingering weight yarn. I am working them on my Addi Turbo Sock needles that are 8" around and are size US 2. I really like how these are turning out, and I have an awesome idea for my next socks that I am going to make on these needles. I got the idea off of Instagram, and basically you make stripes with two different self striping sock yarns, and the two sock yarns play together to create an even more interesting striping pattern. I think it will be really fun to work on, and it might help me use up some sock yarn that I've gotten bored by. 

That's all for my Finished Objects. Next off I have WIPs. There are two blankets, a shawl, and a sweater, and that's all that I showed on the podcast. I managed to work a bit on G's socks, but I forgot to show them on the podcast, so I will just wait until next week, when they will be nearing completion. I finished both heels, and have about 2" done on the cuffs or so. The ballband dishcloth blanket is about a third of the way through, and I have been working on it off and on. It's been made out of Red Heart Super Saver in the Primary colorway and Red Heart with Love in the Lettuce colorway. I'm almost through the first skein of both of those, so it's coming right along. I'm working it on US size 7 needles. 

I am also working on baby B's blanket. It is more than half way done. I am working it with size I/9 US Tunisian crochet hook. I am working a honeycomb Tunisian crochet stitch and switching the colors every other row, which gives it a houndstooth appearance. It is worked in Plymouth Encore Worsted in Lime Green and Navy Blue. I want to put a border on it in cream or grey or something, but my grandmother and mother insist that I use either lime green or navy. Which if that is the case I am inclined to do a thick border of lime green and then a small border of navy around it. 

The night that I couldn't sleep at all- Friday night, I stayed up and watched the movie Robots three times, once in English, once in French, and once in Spanish. I don't think I will be wanting to watch that movie for a while. I also worked on my brother's sweater's sleeve. Uninterrupted for nearly 5 hours. So I am now almost half way through the sleeve, maybe half way. I'm not really sure. I like how the pattern is turning out. It's a Hedge Fence Pullover by Elinor Brown. It's a paid for pattern on Ravelry. I am working it in Plymouth Encore Worsted Tweed in a natural colorway. I'm working it on size US 7 needles, from my Hiya Hiya interchangeable set. I really like them. Unfortunately, my size 2 needles broke, and I need to investigate about sending them back for a replacement, or what I need to do with them. I will figure it out though. 

Then I also worked on the Hippy Hippy Shawl by Gabrielle Vezina, which is a free pattern on Ravelry. Only I'm modifying it because it was written for a DK weight yarn, and I'm using fingering, so I'm working it on US size 2 needles, and I am using a mystery fingering weight in a chocolate brown and Knitpicks Chroma, but I'm not sure which Chroma colorway I'm using. I like it though, and am excited for the end product. At the end I'll have a feather and fan border using Boboli Lace yarn. 

In addition to all the knitting that I've gotten done, I've also done a ton of spinning. I've been using spinning to calm down my anxiety and help me get through the day. I finished two skeins, one from the Apothefairy is a gradient. All her braids are one-offs, so there is no colorway name to speak of. I chain plied it, and I'm not real happy about the even-ness of my plying, there seem to be some spots where it's tighter and others where it's looser, so we'll have to see how it knits up. I got 154 yards. I think I want to make a cowl out of it. Then I also finished playing the Barefoot on the Farm Isabelle colorway with the chocolate alpaca fiber, and I got 214 yards. I am not sure what exactly I want to make out of it yet. 

I am currently spinning on some wool/mohair 50/50 blend to be plied with the rest of the Barefoot on the Farm top. I think the colors will play nicely together, and there's only 2 ounces of the mohair/wool blend. I am spinning it on my Turkish spindle that I got in a swap. I have a ways to go on this one, since I don't spin as fast on my spindle as I do on my wheel, and I have a lot of projects going. 

I am also spinning some alpaca roving that is cream/white/turquoise and I think I am going to ply it on to itself and make a nice hat- hopefully I can get enough yardage. 

Finally, this week I also talked about my Etsy store briefly and showed off the hats that I've made and put up on there. So that was this week. It was pretty jam packed full of a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. Maybe if I get more comfortable I'll be able to ramble a bit more, but I doubt that I will ever do a two hour podcast by myself like the Dancing Geek does. Anywho, that's all for this week, and hopefully next week I will be able to show you some more finished objects, and maybe some new projects on the needles. 

Lots of blankets

Welcome back, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, and I honestly don't remember what I was working on last time, so this will be a general update. I did finish the hot pink socks and give them to their recipient. I'm not sure of the reaction though, but I think they went over well. Along that same vein, I started a pair of socks for my boyfriend, G. He has size 13 feet, but since I'm working them from the toe up I tried them on him, and they were a little big. So I will know next time to make them less than half an inch shorter than what I made them this time. I'm making them out of Lang yarns Jawoll Color Aktion, in the color 132.0372 (what an inspiring name). So in hindsight, while this was an excellent color, I should have made the toes and heels in a complimentary color, because they are just above the ankle, and I have run out of yarn. So what happened, was I was knitting along, and realized I would run out of yarn, so I went back to the yarn store, and the yarn has been discontinued. So you know what they did? They looked up in the computer who else had bought that exact same yarn and contacted them to see if they would be willing to sell me the rest. They found someone, and she agreed. So she brought in her skein, and I'm going to pay for part of whatever yarn she chooses to replace it. How cool is that? So the day has been saved, and the socks will be finished by the next time I see G. I am making two at a time toe up, using the same lace pattern that was in the Gridelin, because I thought it looked masculine, and not really like lace. I think the same basic pattern was used in the froot loop socks from Knitty, but I'm not entirely sure.

Speaking of Curls by Hunter Hammersen, I am making another one. This one is Janthine, and I'm making it out of Cascade Heritage Silk Prints. I'm not sure of the color name off the top of my head. It's going along fine, but the lace pattern is not nearly as intuitive as the Gridelin, so I am still working from the chart and using a sticky post-it note to mark my progress so I can sit it down and pick it up whenever I feel like. I'm not entirely happy with this color, because in the skein and wound up it looked like there would be a lot more lilac, and now that it's knitting up it's turning out to be much more variegated. My plan is to finish knitting it, and then overdye it with purple to even out the colors and make them all get along better. Not that they don't get along right now, it's just not what I was expecting.

And then there is my 3-in-1 sweater that I have been working on off and on for about 5 months. I hit a snag, because I tried to do the yoke decreases, but it ended up too shallow. So now I redid the math and have it where I just need to look at the pattern and figure out how to do the multiple layer look on the top, so it is in timeout until I have enough brainspace to look at it. I just started school again this week, so that is taking up most of my brain power (I despise college algebra, just in case any one is wondering).

Since I have stalled out on this sweater, I have been brainstorming other sweaters, and I have decided that I want to make a sweater (or two) that will feature my handspun. I am thinking about Tenney Park by Elizabeth Morrison. I think that I could do the entrelac front panel in handspun, and then have the rest of the sweater in Cascade 220. I think that that would be a really cute sweater. So I got some different braids, and am experimenting to see what would make an awesome yarn. I am planning on putting a gradient, and then two handpainted braids together to make a significant quantity of three ply that I could use as the center panel. So here is the first ply. It's done spinning, and I wound it off onto a tube to await plying.

Then my cousin is pregnant, and I wanted to make her a special baby blanket. So I got ten skeins of Dreambaby DK by Plymouth yarns, and am making a Walt Painted Chevron blanket. It's a free pattern on Ravelry, and I think it's turning out nice. I put in like a million stitch markers so I can keep track of the chevron points and so I don't have to continuously count out every single row. It's going much faster since I put the stitch markers in.

In addition to that baby blanket I am also making two others for Project Linus. One is a Corner-to-Corner throw, and then the other is an improvised knit log cabin. I think that they are both turning out quite nicely.

Other than that I am focusing on school. I also started volunteering at the library genealogy center, typing in names from old obituaries. It's about as interesting as it sounds.

Splitting A Ball in Half

Today I finished a scarf that I made with four different balls of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Wool, but before I show you the picture, I am going to describe my method for splitting balls in half without a ball winder, a swift, or a scale.

This is the ball in it's original state. One could just start knitting from the inside or the outside, since it's a center pull ball, which is perfect for my purposes. The first step is to find the inside end and the outside end, holding them together, start winding a ball, just manually. 

At the end of all that you will have a single ball held double. Cut the string in half when you get to the very end of the original ball. If you are making two at a time socks you can stop here, and can knit both socks from the same ball, meaning that if you are knitting toe up you will know exactly when to end in order to use up as much of the yarn as possible. I prefer knitting two at a time toe up, on 40" cable needles, size US 1. I think that they go fast. I will describe my vanilla sock recipe in a later post. 

 Next take both ends of the ball and start winding two separate balls. If the yarn gets twisted, simply untwist it. I never find it to become terribly troublesome.

Continue winding into two separate balls. 

Eventually you will end up with two completely separate balls.

Tadaa! A ball split in half with no fancy equipment whatsoever.

After I split the ball in half today I finished crocheting a scarf. I used half of four different balls of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Wool, so I have exactly enough to make an exactly identical scarf, which I think that I will end up doing. I would just like to say that I did not love the I Love This Wool though. I thought it was too splitty, and it kept splitting on me. It did come in a variety of different plies in the Naturals line. I started with a solid brown, then did a section of three plies of brown with one ply cream, then half and half, two plies brown, two plies cream, and finally three plies cream and one ply brown. I think it ended up being a really interesting gradient, and I may have to experiment with making gradients like this using handspun, since I have never really played around with anything more than Navajo plying or two ply, so playing with more plies would be fun. Here is the finished scarf. I used a size US J crochet hook, and used the berry stitch, which is just alternating double crochet and single crochet stitches every other stitch and then double crochet in the single crochet and single crochet in the double crochet in the next row.

I came home this evening and made an especially yummy dinner. I roasted peppers, tomatoes, and chickpeas in the oven, sprinkling them with garlic salt and pepper. I sauteed zucchini, yellow squash, and red onion and minced garlic in a skillet on the stove top, and then I cooked some gluten free spiral pasta. I waited until each component was done then I mixed them all together with olive oil and Parmesan cheese in a plastic container, I ate half and saved the other half for tomorrow. It was really delicious, and I might write out a more specific recipe, but I don't really want this to become a food blog, since I think my crafting is more interesting than my cooking. I'm also not always exact when I cook, so making recipes is not my forte.