Episode 8: At the Lake

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.

The Lake

Today I went for an adventure with my grandparents to the lake. We stayed for about thirty seconds and then got in the car and came back home (after stopping at a clearance store and Mexican for lunch). Now going to the lake is about a two hour drive each way and the clearance store and the Mexican restaurant were about half an hour out of the way, so I had a lot of time in the car today. I got a fair amount done on a scarf, but nothing finished yet, and I discussed some finer points of religion with my grandfather, and for the record, if you are going to have a religious debate with someone, it helps to have terms clearly defined, as this was a stumbling point in our discussion several times. It never got very deep, but I did get new insights into my grandfather, even if those insights mean that I now realize I agree with him even less than I did before. But it's all good, we're still family and I still love him very much and I know he loves me.

Now onto pictures of the lake! It was frozen over and there were about two hundred geese sitting on it, I guess the ice here is warmer than the ice in Canada? I think if I were a goose I would've kept migrating 'til I was a little further South where it would be even warmer, but alas, I am not a goose.

A close-er up shot of all the geese sitting on the lake.

A view of our dock and the frozen lake.

A broad sweeping view of the lake where the geese where sitting.

A view from the drive way down to the frozen lake, with the picnic tables and firepit.

A view of the house while being on the dock with my grandfather standing on the deck. 

A view from the corner of the dock down onto the ice where the ice split and cracked nicely.

So that was my day, not much excitement, but a lot of talking and a quite drastic change in scenery.