Episode 13 - The Great Outdoors!

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. 

Episode 12- Cotton-Eye Joe Socks

Thanks for joining me this week. Lots happened this week, I was busy all the time, but I still managed to eek out a bit of crafting. I don't think it's too terrible, considering how really busy I was. My episode starts off kind of slow, but gets rolling pretty quickly, and then I really get in the groove.

Needlework is a big deal in my family. My mom knits, crochets, cross-stitches, sews and quilts. She mostly quilts. My grandmother used to crochet and has tried to knit, and embroiders and sews. My aunt crochets. My great grandmother crocheted, and knitted. Another cross-stitched, and another crocheted. So there is a lot of crafting mojo in my family, and I think that has inspired me and kept me going in my own crafting life. There is a cross-stitch piece that was done by my paternal great grandmother, and it hangs in my living room, and I look at it every day.

I went to Project Linus Make-A-Blanket Day, and it was a blast! I got to see some of my yarn-y friends that make blankets for Project Linus, and then I also worked on my blankets while I was there. I am really close to finishing my corner-to-corner throw. The pattern is available on the Red Heart website. I am not sure of all the yarn that I am using for this blanket, because most of it was donated to Project Linus and is just various acrylic.

I also worked on my mitered square blanket that I am using the same pattern that everyone is using for their sock yarn blankets, but I am doing it with worsted weight. In reality I was testing to see if I wanted to do a sock yarn blanket. The jury is back and it is a decided "no". I have no desire to make squares that small, even if I don't have to do any seaming. I also needed to use up a bunch of different scraps, so I thought that the mitered square blanket would be a good way to do that.

My third blanket that I'm making for Project Linus I didn't actually work on at the Make-A-Blanket Day, just because the long hook can get unwieldy. I am working it in orange and black. I was going for tiger stripes, but I think it is coming off more like Halloween. I like working on it, and hope to have all three blankets done for Project Linus next month.

The name of the podcast comes from my rambling about the mystery yarn that my socks are being made out of. I never figured out where the yarn came from or what kind it is. I made up the knit and purl pattern on the top of the socks, and it turned out pretty well, I think. It's interesting and keeps me engaged in them when I work on them, but they are really purse knitting.

As promised, here are the pictures of me dying self-striping sock yarn with koolaid. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the finished socks. It was before I was really podcasting and blogging on a regular basis, so they just kind of fell through the cracks. The first picture is the yarn in the dye pot.

This second picture is the dyed yarn out to dry, so hopefully that gives you some idea of what it was like to dye up the yarn, or at least a better idea of what I was trying to describe in the podcast.

My last knitting work in progress is a shawl that I am making up the pattern completely myself, using lots of short rows to try and make it really long and not very deep. I won't be sure how well it has turned out until I bind off, but so far I think it is going pretty well. i am using Boboli Lace Yarn and Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Weight. I kind of wish I had chosen another color beside grey for the contrasting color, but I think that it is turning out pretty well.

Last but not least I finished the singles of the Malabrigo Nube Solis that I will ply with itself, and have about a sport weight yarn. I really love the colors and the way that it spun up so thin. I am really enjoying this spin.

Thanks for watching and I hope that you enjoy your week! See you next week with new scenery since I'll be at the lake, and hopefully I will be outside, with a lovely view.

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.

Episode 6: My Computer Ate My Podcast

This week was a bit of a doozy. Not only did I start my first week of school, which went reasonably well, all things considered, but I recorded an ENTIRE episode for the podcast, and then I went to open it up, and the file was corrupted, so I went and did a take two. Last week it was an editing issue, this week it was a corrupt file issue, I wonder what issues will await me next week.

So first off I talked about my grandfather passing, which was my storytime for this week, and then I talked about the past week at school. I also talked about processing my wool, which I got from a friend that raises sheep on her farm, and she had a lot of extra wool. It was a pretty awesome experience, because I actually got it clean, and now it is white and fluffy instead of beige, like it was before. I didn't get a picture of the wool, but I'll try and show a sample of it next week.

Then I talked about my lack of FOs (Finished Objects). I'm almost done with G's socks though, and hopefully I will get those done this week.

I am also a good way through my Stripey Socks, that I am making out of Berocco Sox yarn, with two different colorways, and I am striping the two colorways to make super stripey socks. Both yarns are self-striping themselves. I have turned the heel on the second sock, and just have the leg and cuff to finish.

I am also continuing to work on the Hippy Hippy shawl by Gabrielle Vezina. It's a free Ravelry download. I'm working it with KnitPicks Chroma and a mystery brown acrylic yarn. It's a slow going shawl, since it is fingering weight and I'm working it on Size US 2 needles.

I also continued working on the ballband dishcloth blanket for Project Linus, which is a charity that gives blankets to children that have been through some type of trauma, and are distributed by either hospitals or police and firemen. I think that it will probably be two to three more weeks until it is done, The variegated is Red Heart Super Saver in the Primary colorway and the green is Red Heart with Love in the Lettuce colorway.

Finally, I am making good progress on the sweater that I am making for Knit for Kids, which is a charity that collects sweaters, hats, and blankets for children in impoverished areas. The items are collected in Pennsylvania, and then once they have a pallet worth of items the items are shipped all over the world. I'm using Caron One Pound to make the sweater.

I also spun this week. I finished a skein of alpaca. The colorway is Murphy's Ocean, and there were 4oz. I got 168 yards and I'm going to say that it was between a sport and worsted weight. I plan to use it to make a cowl for someone for Christmas, since it's nice and soft.

I am also spinning some art yarn from an art batt. It too is 4oz. I am getting between a fingering and a lace weight, and I will be plying it with some reflective and metallic decorative thread that I got for another project, but I think that it will be really great with this wool.

And then I have just a bit of stash enhancement because of the great sales that they had at JoAnn's this week. I got a Caron One Pound skein in grey that I am going to use to make a sweater for one of my baby cousins for this Christmas, and then I got two skeins of Patons Kroy in the Meadowstripes colorway. I'm excited about working with this yarn, and I think it will be a blast.

I finished up the podcast by talking about the quilt that my mom made me for my high school graduation, and then my thought of the week was just musing about how great it is to be able to shop your stash and how I feel like it's an important part of the creative process for myself. Thanks for watching and reading, I'll see you next week.

WIP parade!

So it has been a while since I have been on here, but worry not, I have been quite busy! I didn't even remember what projects I had started and finished, or what projects were on the needles that are now off. I tried to take pictures of everything, but note to self: evening/dusk might as well be night time as far as light goes, and the flash tends to wash out all the colors. But I played with the filters on flickr, trying to get "true to life" colors, but take all pictures of this post with a grain of salt. First, my long term project that is FINALLY done, and has been sent off to be blocked. My 3-in-1 sweater! It's done! I'm not sure if it's the majestic finale that I was expecting, but it does fit, more or less, and it is done. All the ends have been woven in as well, but I didn't take a picture at that point. I'm waiting for it to be brought back from being blocked, so it's all good. 

Then I cast on and cast off a corner-to-corner crochet throw. It's super addicting, and just crochets up so fast. I think that diagonal blankets tend to go faster for me personally anyways. This was made with a size I/9 crochet hook, and I used some of the nicer acrylic in my stash. This blanket is going to be donated to Project Linus this month, along with the other corner-to-corner throw that I was working on last time. 

Similarly, I cast on about two days ago another diagonal blanket. This one is my own design, just working corner to corner, increasing at the end and beginning of every row until it is larger enough, and then decreasing and the beginning and end of every row until it goes back to a point. It's all just single crochet. And this blanket is just scraps of all my projects from the last couple months. I love, love, love working on blankets like this, and even though I rarely make a pattern twice I think this is my fourth or fifth blanket of this same theme. All have been donated to Project Linus, and this one will be too this month. I plan on finishing it either tonight or tomorrow. 

Then there are a couple other old projects. I started a hat way back in about February or March, with the intent that I would wear hats all year round, and this would be my "summer" hat. Silly me, I forgot that it's about a MILLION degrees in Missouri during the summer. So, so much for that idea. but I like how this yarn is knitting up. It's a fingering weight, knit up on size 2 needles. 

Another fingering weight project that I am working on is a preemie blanket for Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. I like working a blanket from the center out. I was experimenting with a center out blanket with both stripes and lace. You can't really see the lace, but it's a diamond lace pattern stolen from a blanket pattern from the 101 Lace One Skein Wonders book. This blanket is also being worked on size 2 needles. 

A third sock weight project is a second pair of socks for G. He really liked and appreciated his first pair, and so I thought I would use the rest of the second skein with doing coordinating heels and toes, and I think that I will have enough yarn. finding the second skein was an adventure in itself. I made the whole sock, and it was going to be like an ankle sock, so I went back to the yarn store, and the yarn was discontinued. So they looked up in the computer who else had bought a similar kind of yarn, and they brought a skein back to the store, and I bought it from them. It was quite the production to get everyone coordinated! So now, I have coordinating dark green yarn for the toes, heels, and cuffs, and have my fingers crossed that I will have enough yarn left to make them a decent length!

Almost off the needles is the baby blanket for my baby cousin J. He is due in November, and his baby shower is in September, so I am WAAAY ahead of schedule. I like how this blanket has turned out, but it was written for worsted weight yarn, and this was worked on size 5 needles in Dreambaby DK, so even though I cast on more stitches, it still ended up being a little narrower than I would have liked. I am happy over all though, and it has a really nice hand to it. 

Since I am making a blanket for baby J, I also need to make one for baby B (who was born about two months ago- so I am a bit behind with him, OOPS). I am tunisian crocheting, with lime green and navy Plymouth Encore, size I/9 hook, and it's a worsted weight yarn. It also has a nice hand, and I am liking the new technique, because I got the new double ended hook, with a cable connecting the two ends. It's pretty exciting how long I can make my rows now!

On the other end of the spectrum is another blanket for Project Linus made out of bulky yarn, that is being knit on size 11 needles. I am just having a hard time getting into this project. The needles are too big and they honestly hurt my hands, after knitting on such a small scale for so long, it's just too big of a transition. The yarn was donated to me after a Make-A-Blanket day about a year ago, so it is high time that I actually finished this project though. The blanket has only been on the needles about a month or so though. 

Last but not least I have been spinning as well. I'm not really participating in Tour de Fleece, but everyone else posting their beautiful pictures to Instagram has inspired me to sit at the wheel a couple times during the last week, so I am making slow, but steady process on a braid that I got at the All MO Spin-In that was held in Chillicothe, MO that was a ton of fun. The colors are way funky, and I tried to correct them with flickr filters, but I don't think it worked very well. They are pretty muted and almost muddy in real life, I am going to ply them with a dark brown alpaca and have a really interesting yarn for a cowl or something of that nature. 

And in upcoming news, I have my next project planned. Granted, there are a few projects hibernating, and several that I've blogged about in this post that are almost done, so I don't really feel like I am being to crazy here. I am wanting to make a crescent shawl- I haven't finalized the pattern yet, but I am really looking towards something that I can have stripes on. I am really digging stripes right now, and just don't have enough of them in my life. So I picked out a skein of Boboli Lace that was on sale at the yarn store, and paired in with a skein of Knit Picks Chroma fingering, and a skein of mystery fingering weight brown yarn from a consignment yarn store. I am really excited about watching them all play together, and I think it will make a lovely shawl. I've never made a crescent shawl, so I am excited to see how the construction varies from just a regular triangle shawl. 

I will try to post some time in the next few days and get back into a schedule with my posts. I'm really tempted to start a podcast, just because I think it would be fun, but I think I need to be more disciplined with releasing different blogs and whatnot before I actually invest into that kind of equipment and such. 

Spring is Springing!

Sorry for such a long hiatus, but I have been knitting, just so you know. Where I am, spring is springing. I don't know if it has completely sprung yet, but it is definitely getting there. I have finished several projects, and have started a garden out on the solarium so that the baby plants can grow before it is totally warm/hot outside. I planted oregano and cilantro in a strawberry planter.

Then I planted some broccoli and Asian peas in a disassembled three tier planter, and they are sitting on the ground.

And finally, from top left, there is asparagus, onions, and green beans. Then on the bottom left, or front left there is zucchini, sweet peppers, and spinach.

I'm so excited to have fresh veggies to eat this summer. I know that my garden is small, but I am really only feeding me, so I didn't want to have just a ton of food for it to go bad. So that's my garden. Anticipate garden updates as well as knitting updates in the future! 

I finished a preemie blanket for the Children's Mercy Hospital, where the preemie babies are generally taken care of here in Kansas City. So making blankets for sick babies will definitely be a thing for me in the future. I like them, since they are small enough to knit and not get bored or frustrated with, and I can try out different stitch patterns on them. I have plans for others in my head. This one is the kind of basket weave pattern with the slipped stitches that they do on washcloths a lot. I'm not sure who "they" are, but I think you know what I mean. The yarn was worsted weight Caron Simply Soft in lavender, and a Red Heart Super Saver Multi-Color. I knit it on US Size 7 needles, and it knit up in about 4 days of working off and on. I took it up to the LYS, which is the drop-off point, and they said that it needed to be blocked just a bit, so I will be blocking it and then turning it back in. 

Then I made a blanket for the Make-A-Blanket Day Project Linus competition. At the last Make-A-Blanket Day six months ago they gave the knitters and crocheters a skein of Red Heart Super Saver in Cherry Red and told us to make a blanket with it, so this is just from stash donations that I have, and it is based on the quilt block of Dutchman's Puzzle. It is all ready to go and be entered into the competition this Saturday. I'm really excited to go and see everybody and make another blanket!

And then I have three shawl/scarf type items done. These are all going to my mom, well, at least the first two are. I think that the last one may go into the shop, which I need to do another update, but I have been thinking, that most of my items are for fall/winter, so I might wait until it is closer to that season until I post other things. The first one is a Nairi by Amanda Muscha. It was made from Malabrigo Rios, but I am unsure of the colorway, since it was from stash. The pattern calls for fingering weight, but I did it with the worsted weight on a US Size 9 needle. The ladies at the LYS thought that I am a tight knitter and I should have used an even larger needle, but I like how it turned out. I liked the pattern and I thought that it knit up well. 

And then I finished a Curl from the book Curls by Hunter Hammersen. This one is the Gridelin. And I made it out of fingering weight yarn, named Army Girl by Pagewood Farms. I've shown this one as it was in progress, but it was a blast to work on, and I've started another pattern from the same book. 

And finally I used the picot edge from the Nairi and just improvised a triangle scarf, with a skein of worsted weight wool that I dyed myself. I really like how it turned out. I'm not sure if I'm going to give this one to my mom, or if I'm going to post it to the shop. 

In final news, I have an Instagram account! I'm spinningknitting1 on there too! So follow me, and I'll try to do mostly daily updates of my knitting on there.