Monthly Archives: March 2021

Adding A Wheel

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all! I got the best gift (that I got myself) in the mail today. I have been saving my pennies all winter and then the virtual yarn show I had planned to attend in January got cancelled. Bummer. But I had some funds saved up and I decided to save a little more and splurge on an Ashfor spinning wheel. I ended up choosing Kiwi 3 and I can’t hardly wait!

It came “some assembly required” but the husband told me “challenge accepted” and took it to the work bench in the garage.

I bought the wheel from a local US shop but they were on back order so I got it straight from New Zealand complete with two tiny fluffs of New Zealand wool.

In the end….it’s beautiful and the hubby did a great job. So far I just sit down at night and just treadle making sure to practice going both directions. This is a double treadle wheel and so far MUCH easier to control than the single treadle Hitchhiker wheel my mom got me two christmas’s ago. I think this feels like a much better beginner wheel and when I have better skills I am going to be able to kick but on the Hitchhiker as well.

Now I just need to train PB and Jellybean to NOT TOUCH OR RUN MOMMY’S SPINNING WHEEL. It is a tool and not a toy…

Happy Spinning!

Spinning Outdoors!

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Spring reared her head temporarily and early here in Kansas. So I took advantage and kicked the kids into the back yarn and grabbed my spinning. I have long neglected my Tequila Sunrise Singles on my top whorl drop spindle.

This was a braid of fiber from Blueberry Chick Yarns back from the 2020 Splashpad Party KAL from the Down Cellar Studio podcast. Last year I had spun all the yellows and oranges so only the pink is left. After about an hour of play with the kids I have about half the pinks spun onto my spindle. My work is getting heavy and lopsided so I need to wind off my singles and finish the last half of the pink.

It felt good to pick up a dormant project and make some progress. And I think this will be a really good finished yarn. I want to three ply the yarn to maintain the color progression. But honestly…I have no idea how to three ply and not enough hours in the day right now. It’s audit season and year end close for this accountant. These singles might need to rest for a bit, lol.

Happy Spinning!!

Closer To A Hat

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Dad’s hat is swimming right along. This has been great knit night knitting and zoom meeting knitting.

I am not following any kind of pattern. I have 88 stitches and I’m just knitting what feels good. No clue how many inches of ribbing, no clue how long I’ll make the hat portion and no pre-plan for the crown decreases. I’ve been knitting long enough that I’m comfortable with just winging it.

The only thing I do want to try to do is use as much yarn as possible. But I feel like that is a chuckle waiting to happen since I’m winging it. I firmly believe I will either be wildly over or under and either run out or have a ton left. Time will tell, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

2020 Memories

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My sock yarn memory blanket has seen some recent daylight. It if officially “squared off” again as I just completed a full row.

I counted and I officially have 165 squares! It fits comfortably across my lap with lots of fabric to spare on either side. I still think I will make it wider but for now I’m going to focus on length.

Some of my more recent square additions include yarn from my Into the Light and Retro Rainbow Vanilla socks. I am still sort of planning my squares. I don’t put self striping next to self striping or solid next to solid. But it’s getting harder and hard to do that the bigger this thing gets. The good news is that it really doesn’t matter as their is enough color in this blanket that it all kind of blends.

Happy Knitting!!

A Toxic Oreo Heel

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I finished turning the heel on my Zoom meeting project. My first Toxic Oreo sock now has a heel!

I’m really happy with how evenly the speckles spread out as I increased the number of stitches in the heel. And I’m now I’m set up to just keep working up the leg. This is now PERFECT meeting knitting. And the Lemonade Shop yarn is just the perfect bright pick-me-up to the winter grey and gloom.

What is your favorite meeting knitting?

Cast On: A Hat For Dad

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I needed some easy peasy no concentration knitting after I finished my Into The Light shawl. I decided to cast on a generic worsted weight beanie for my dad.

I cast on 88 stitches in the round on a US 8 needle and started 2×2 ribbed brim. I will work the brim until it looks good enough and then switch to stockinette. I think I want a decent amount of ribbing so the brim can be folded double for extra warmth.

The yarn is some recently obtained Lilliput Yarn in her Woof Worsted. This blue color is her Man’s Best Friend colorway. I’m really pleased with the variagation and subtle tones that are playing out as this knits up. We will see if I get any pooling or flashing as I keep going.

Happy Knitting!!

Picking Up Mycroft

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Time for a confession, my Mycroft has been sitting in time out for a couple months now. I had started the short rows to build the neck. It is my first time doing German short rows and I needed complete concentration…..and in this house that is hard to find.

But I put on my big kid pants and dug this out one morning the kids were gone and powered through the rest of the short rows. It really only took me about an hour or so to get to a place where I’m working in the round.

I did fall victim to the things that can happen when you set down a project for a long period of time. My broken rib got messed up on the back neck portion.

I’ve decided to leave it because A) no one will see it on the back of my neck B) I don’t want to rip out and redo all the fiddly short rows and C) I’m the boss of my knitting. I’m now to a point where I’m working broken rib in the round with 1×1 ribbed raglans.

My brain is more engaged with this project now that I know its past the fiddly bits. I’m hoping to work this in to my rotation and get cruising on this sweater more. It’s a shame that an hours worth of work held me back for so long but I’m moving forward now. In my knitting world my heart has to be in a project or else its going to languish, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Ice Crafts

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PB, Jellybean and I decided to take advantage of the polar vortex and do a new to us craft. We made ice globes! We dug out some balloons and my food coloring and just made it up as we went.

We put like two squeezes of gel food color in each balloon and then filled up the balloon in the bathroom. After a gentle shake we set them outside in the -10 degree weather. It took about 5 hours but then we got the most beautiful globes.

We took our finished globes and transported them out front. I ended up dropping the cookie sheet in my entryway on the way outside. So this mom got to scrub food coloring and ice chips off her floor. But the globes mostly survived and looked pretty cool in our front flower beds.

Mess aside it was a pretty good craft for the kids and kept them entertained for half a day as they kept checking to see if they were frozen. And then they were delighted to see them every time we drove up to our house. I think this whole craft cost me like $1.75 so thats a win!

FO Friday: Into The Light

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My Into The Light shawl is finished and lovingly photographed in the never ending Midwest cold and snow.

Pattern: Into the Light by Casey Day-Crosier (Rav link)

Needles: US 8s

Yarn: Hue Loco Spun Sock in the Skip With Me colorway, Twisted Owl Fiber Studio Sturdy Sock in Razz-Ma-Taz and Into the Whirled Meridian Sock in the Scissors Lizard Spock colorway.

Mods: None but I did choose the fringed version

Holding sock yarn double REALLY ate up the sock yarn. This was the absolutely perfect use of my huge stash of variegated sock yarn. The marling really broke up the pooling and melded the colors. And I ended up using 1,073 yards of yarn or 260 grams of yarn. So I had a lot of pink color and middle lighter color but I only had enough of the darkest color for a memory blanket square.

I will for sure make more of these! It was a quick and easy knit but it looks so complicated and beautiful. I think my next version I will make without fringe? I have been wearing this shawl non-stop since I finished it and I’ve gotten a ton of compliments.

Happy Knitting!!

Fireside Socks

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My 2020 Advent Socks are getting me the dark cold evenings around here. Thank goodness for my working fireplace and free firewood from my parents. I can stay nice and toasty with my yarn.

I’m still just in mini number three as these have been on the back burner in favor of my Into the Light Shawl. I am addicted to that thing!

Happy Knitting!!