This is a week late, but I still wanted to give it it's own post. This is episode 13, and it was shot at the lake. The lighting is a little funny, but I still manage to talk about my different projects. There weren't any FO's, but I did manage to make some pretty good progress on some projects.
Before I get to the project photos, which are phenomenal, I have to give a shout out to my brother, the one I am making the epic cable sweater for, who caught a pretty good sized fish, and I snapped a quick photo of him.
Another shout out has to go to my mother who was also crafting at the lake. She was making quilts for Project Linus, a charity that donates blankets to children that have experienced trauma, whether they are in the hospital, or are in other trauma. I just thought it was fun for how she could transform the kitchen table into a miniature crafting area.
Then I went on a photo shoot, the next morning, it was pretty epic, all on the back deck of my parent's house down at the lake. I have first my not-quite vanilla socks that are almost ready to turn the heel on.
Then I have the short row shawl that I am completely making up the pattern on, and it was almost ready for a lace border on it.
Then I have my cowl that I started, that I am putting in different fair isle patterns on from a pattern book from the library. I am thinking that I will need to buy this book in order to complete the project. This is all being done in Knit picks Palette Fingering weight, on US size 2 needles, 16 inch circular Karbonz needles.
Then there are the two Project Linus blankets that I am working on. There is the orange tiger striped blanket that is turning out more "Halloween" than I hoped for. It is tunisian crochet, and I am making up the pattern.
Then lastly there is the mitered square blanket that I am making out of left over acrylic yarn and I am working it on US size 10 needles. I added 7 more squares this week.
Thanks for coming on my adventure at the lake. I hope you enjoyed this little look into a different aspect of my life. Join me next week when I will be at home, and it will be my birthday.
Hello, welcome to another week (this time very short) of the spinningknitting1 podcast. I hope that you enjoy this week, I kept it pretty short and sweet. My family and I went to the lake this long, Labor Day weekend, so I recorded and edited while we were still there, so the background is different yet again. I also didn't have all my projects to show, since I wasn't at my usual abode, so forgive the lack of projects (I still had three, just not seven like usual).
There were no FOs this week. Instead of doing a ton of knitting I spent my time going to a couple job interviews, and then accepting a new job! I'll be working at a before and after school program at an elementary school. I go to training this up coming week and I'm super excited!
Since I didn't bring all my projects to the lake, I spent a lot of time working on the Hippy-Hippy Shawl by Gabrielle Vezina. It's a free pattern on Ravelry, and I am making it out of fingering weight yarn, instead of the DK called for in the pattern. I think that I am going to do the lace edging in the brown that I have been striping throughout the shawl. I am using US Size 2 Karbonz needles, on a 40" circular. I am enjoying working on this shawl, even though there is a lot of plain stockinette, and it takes forever to get through a row by now, since the rows are so long. The long color repeats are Knitpicks Chroma, and the brown is a mystery acrylic that I found at a crafting consignment shop.
I put a little bit of work on my chevron cowl. This is a pattern that I am making up as I go along. I provisionally cast on 100 stitches, using a crochet cast-on. Then I have been working a chevron stitch in the round, and I have been holding two different skeins together. One is Mille Colori by Lang Yarn, and the other is Berroco Comfort sock weight. I am using a 16" US Size 4 needle for this. I will keep knitting until it is long enough to go around my neck, and then I will kitchener stitch the two ends together.
I also put just a little more work on my ballband dishcloth blanket for Project Linus. I am using a US Size 7 needle, and the green is Red Heart with Love in the Lettuce colorway, and the variegated is Red Heart Super Saver in the Primary colorway. I should be done with this blanket in time to donate it to Project Linus this month.
As a bonus project here on the blog, I thought I would include a recent picture of my Crackerjack scarf that I am making this season to record the Kansas City Royals' season. The royal blue is for wins at home, the powder blue is for wins on the road, the gold is for losses at home, and the white is for losses on the road. As you can see, there is quite a bit more blue than gold or white, so that's always a good sign. I'm working this on US Size 6 needles, with Plymouth Dreambaby DK.
In addition to knitting, and going to school and going to interviews, I also read this week, quite a bit. I talked about two books that I have been reading this week. The first one is by Debbie Macomber and is A Good Yarn. It's a pretty light story that is about three ladies that are taking a class on knitting socks in their local yarn store, and their background stories, and the shop owner's background story, and just a glimpse into the lives of other knitters, so that's kinda a fun read. The second one is Six Hours One Friday by Max Lucado. It is just a series of character vignettes that expand on stories from the life of Jesus and different places in the Bible and just really brings them to life. I really like his writing style, and think that I will be reading more of his books.
Finally, the thought for this week was about how important it is to stay positive and flexible, and just trying to keep a good attitude. That's all for this week, I hope you'll join me next week for the weekly update on spinningknitting1's podcast.
I just posted my new podcast episode, and the title of this blog post and the episode comes from a slip of the tongue that I had while talking about how I knit socks. Enjoy the video for this week, it's a little longer, and I think I'm a bit more charismatic in it.
This week I finished three blankets. Two for Project Linus, and one for Baby J that will be born in November, and who's baby shower isn't until September. So I am way ahead of schedule.
This is Baby J's blanket. It was made with Plymouth Dreambaby DK using the Walt Paint Chevron Baby Blanket by Danielle Romanetti that's a free pattern on Ravelry. I like how all the colors play together and the yarn is very soft.
This blanket I just pieced together. I got the squares at a thrift store, and then used donated Red Heart Super Saver one pound skein to go around and make a border. I used almost the entire skein. I probably have 20-15 yards left. I used a size H hook, because that's the size that fit into the loops on the squares that were already made. I prefer to use a size J or I usually.
This is a log cabin that I improvised that is just garter stitch worked in really bulky acrylic that is all discontinued now. It got a little stuffy working on it during the summer, but at least now it is finished.
Then I have my WIPs that I am working on right now. There are three more blankets, a hat, two pairs of socks, and a shawl.
This is Baby B's blanket. I'm working it using tunisian crochet honeycomb stitch in Plymouth Encore Worsted in lime green and navy.
This is another knit blanket for Project Linus. It's being worked using the ballband dishcloth stitch pattern, and it works up quick and easy to to see progress. I like working with a variegated yarn in the background, I think it gives it more interest than just a plain color would. I'm working this blanket on size US 7 knitting needles.
This is a ripple blanket from the 100 Colorful Ripple Stitches to Crochet by Leonie Morgan. I love this book. It has so many great stitch patterns in it, and the patterns are charted and the instructions are written out so it's super easy to figure out what the pattern is doing. I almost exclusively use the charts, but not everybody like charts so it's great that both are included. This is being made using scraps of Red Heart Super Saver, and I'm using a size J hook.
These are the socks for G. I almost have one heel done, so I'm pretty much half way on them. I am using a contrasting color for the toes and heels and upper cuffs, just because there's not enough yarn to really go all the way, and heels and toes use up a fair bit of yarn. These are being worked on size 1 circular needles using the two at a time magic loop technique.
This sock is from the Plymouth Happy Feet Splatter Dye. I'm working it on an 8" circular, US size 2. It goes really fast and there's no patterning to it, just plain stockinette stitch. I really like this yarn, it's soft and all the colors make it fun to work with.
This hat is a modified sock head hat pattern, that's also a free pattern on Ravelry. I am making it out of Sausalito yarn by Crystal Palace Yarn. I wanted this to be my "summer" hat, but my mom keeps insisting that I don't need a hat in the summer, so all my hats are languishing, waiting for the weather to cool down so I can wear them again and not have a naked head.
This is the Hippy Hippy Shawl by Gabrielle Vezina. I like how it's turning out so far. I'm just going to do the body until I run out of yarn in these two skeins, then I have a skein of Boboli Lace that I'm going to do a border on it. I'm making this out of mystery chocolate yarn from a consignment shop and Knitpicks Chroma, on size US 2 needles, Karbonz.
Last but not least I have my spinning wheel still going, this time spinning chocolate colored alpaca fiber that I will ply with a single from Barefoot on the Farm, and hopefully get a DK weight, with enough to make a nice cowl or shawlette.
Those are all my FOs and WIPs. My thought for the week was trying to encourage everyone to think of what they can do to give back to the community. I was working exclusively on Project Linus blankets for several days, working on them instead of whatever I wanted to work on to try and donate my time and talents that way.
So this week I tried, I really, really tried to get done these hot pink socks that I am making because of an idea that I had to make the prize for the King's cake this year to be a knitted something. So really, it has just been a little over a month or so since that event, so that's not too bad of a turn around on a size 11 men's pair of socks. (!!!!!!). But it feels like I should have been done sooner, so here are the socks, and they are just not quite done. I need to do just a few more rows of ribbing at the top cuff and then bind off and weave in ends, and so that should be pretty smooth sailing. I used Knit Picks Stroll Brights, in their hot pink that was new and was on sale (?) (I may be lying about this, but I think it was on sale when I got it. It wasn't that pricey anyways, but yeah). And I am working them on my size 1 US needles that are the Addi Turbo Sock Rockets with the 42" cable. They are just a vanilla sock recipe that I use for just about everything, although I may be changing my recipe- more on that later. With 2x2 ribbing along the top of the sock the entire way and then the cuff after the heel is 2x2 ribbing all the way around for around 4" or so and then 10 rows of 1x1 ribbing. Hopefully that all made sense.
Then I finished two polar fleece blankets that I am going to donate to the Project Night Night here in Kansas City, which is a charity that puts together a tote bag with a blanket, a stuffed animal and a bedtime story and gives them to the children in KC that are homeless. My young adult group at church is donating 15 bags and asked me to get/make the blankets for them. So I decided to do the polar fleece kind, since they are quick to make and I can get 15 done by the end of May, so two down, thirteen to go.
And then I am still working on a Curl from the book Curls by Hunter Hammersen, and it is going great! I am trying to do about one repeat on it a night or so. And so it is slowly growing. I am thinking about overdying the finished product with purple, so that I will like the coloring better, because right now it is just not doing it for me. I liked the lilac color, and thought that there would be more of that, I guess it's really more of a pink than lilac per se, but close enough. Only when it is knit up there is a whole lot more blues and greens and browns to it than I was expecting when I looked at the skein, so I was going to fix the discrepancy and just overdye all of it to a color I would like more.
And finally I finished a pair of vanilla socks for myself! I got an 8" circular from Addi Turbo and they are US Size 2, so they are larger, and I can start from the cuff down and make a sock that is only 64-60 stitches around and it fits my feet amazingly! I didn't even use any 2x2 ribbing along the top or anything, it is all just negative ease from having fewer stitches around. I don't know why this should be such a huge revelation to me. It should be pretty obvious that if you knit something with negative ease then it won't need ribbing to stay on your foot, but I am apparently a slow learner. Also featured in this photo are my spinach plants which are growing wildly away, and if they will just get a little bit bigger than I will be able to pick them and make a delicious salad or omelette or whole host of other things.
I cast on another pair of socks using the same super small circular, and they will be done shortly-ish, hopefully. I also now have an instagram account, and am @spinningknitting1 on there. I am also on twitter and I am @spinknitting1 on there. So check it out!
