Another (long) Podcast Episode Published!

Yay!  I managed to get a new episode posted, and that was no small feat.   HOLY BAJEEZES!  I don't know why I didn't realize that the longer an episode is, the longer it takes to edit and to post.  All the more reason to post shorter, more frequent posts.

Working hard on my knitting and ignoring all else, per usual, but I feel like I'm making some real progress.  I've got so many ideas for new projects and techniques to try in the new year.  I can't wait to get started, but I still can't stop signing up for classes.  It's crazy!  I think I'm going to have to try to restrain myself over the summer and finally start writing out some patterns.

Stitches East is making a return in the form of Stitches United and I've signed myself up.  See what I mean?  It's an illness.  I can't stop myself.  I'm thinking about going Saturday to hang out and maybe check out the market place while a friend takes classes, then I'll be back to take classes myself on Sunday. What a whirlwind!  This will be just the first in what I hope to be many knitty mini-getaways I'll be attending over 2017. 

I'll be back soon with a more condensed synopsis of what I'm up to.  Thanks for dropping in!

Fiber Festival of New England 2015

Clockwise from Top: Mad Color Fiber Arts (look at those colors),
hats from Bethany Homecrafts, goldfish soap.

This weekend is the 6th annual Fiber Festival of New England.  I come to this festival every year and always have a great time!  This year I was especially pleased to see an increase in upcycled products, like the beautiful hats pcitured here by Bethany Homecrafts.  They had some beautiful clothing made of up-cycled materials- the "twirly skirts" especially caught my attention.  I didn't have a very large budget this year and I've got the next several months worth of projects queued with yarn bought, so I didn't make a lot of purchases (yes, I realize this is very un-knitter-like)- just a new drop spindle and batt of roving.  Both were very reasonably priced and from Winterberry Farm in Colrain, MA.  That's my favorite part of these festivals, having the opportunity to buy from local farms and companies, goods being produced right in my back yard.  I did manage to collect a monsterous number of business cards and there are definitely some vendors that I will be following a bit more closely in the next year as I knock some more projects off of my list.  One that stuck in my head in particular was Holiday Yarns Dye Studio with their superhero inspired sock kits and some drool-worthy colorways.  I also have to give a shout out to June Pryce Fiber Arts.  I spent so much time "ooh"ing and "ahh"-ing in their booth!  They had beautiful colorways, amazing kits, and their "shawl pin without a pin" is genius!  

Let's talk about that WIP list!  I've dropped my Christmas knitting for now in an attempt to keep up with my NaKniSweMo KAL and Supernatural MKAL.  I suspect I had too much fun with my last KAL and in a moment of FO ecstacy I went a little insane and joined a handful more, now I'm stretching myself a little too thin.  I'm rightly worried I won't be able to knit all the socks I planned to gift for Christmas.  I suppose there's birthdays or next Christmas but that just feels like a defeatist attitude.  :-(  I've got a week of "stay-cation" lined up the first week of December, so maybe I can crank a few pairs out then.  I've also been trying to consciously knit a bit faster.  I've never been too impressed by speed because I'm a process knitter, I like to savor every last stitch as opposed to cranking out projects in record time, but desperate times call for desperate measures!

I've been working on Tin Can Knits' "Snowflake" for NaKniSweMo 2015.  The challenge requires an entire sweater composed of 50,000 stitches or more be completed in the month of November, that's about 2k per day.  My estimated stitch count for the finished project was over 58k stitches at a size Large with 3/4 sleeves (OMG what have I gotten myself into?!) so I'm confident it will qualify even if I was a bit off in my estimates.  I'm doing this with a friend who is participating in the original writing challenge that the knit challenge is based on, NaNoWriMo and I think we've both already fallen behind by a couple days.  I've had a seriously hectic work week requiring more overtime than I've needed to work for some time, so I really didn't have much time for anything else but eating and sleeping.  I managed to pick up about 1/2 of my missed progress after the festival yesterday and hope to catch up completely by tonight- only a couple thousand more stitches to go!

My NaKniSweMo and Supernatural MKAL projects, nestled together in my project bag.

As for the Supernatural MKAL, I'm falling way behind.  In order to catch up with NaKniSweMo, I sacrificed the shawl for a while and now I'm about a full clue behind when I should be past the half way mark.  I have been keeping up with the progress of others through the forum on Ravelry.  I'm still really jazzed about the project- still in love with the color and I'm enjoying the pattern immensely.  I tend to pick really difficult patterns to keep my mind fully engaged which might also be why I tend to knit so monogamously, so it's been a nice change to do something a little simpler for a change.

I wanted to take the time this week to share a technique I finally had the opportunity to use!  I'm sure I read about it somewhere- and I'll be damned if I can't find where.  I promise that if I find my original source, I'll come back and link it here.  Basically, it's a tip for making stripe/color changes that are clean and smooth when working in the round.  The problem is that if you just pick up and knit the next color, you have a very obvious spot where you stop using one color and pick up the other.  When you're working in rows this really isn't a problem, but when you're working in the round it's more obvious because your round never really stops- it's one giant spiral.  If you were to just drop one color and pick up another, it might not be so noticeable in a project where you were striping similar colors, but with the colors I've selected and making a change on the shoulder/bust area- that would be a pretty obvious change!

I've found the best and simplest way to deal with the color change is as follows:

1. Knit normal/in pattern until you reach the point where you need to change colors.
2. As your first stitch made with the new color (below, that's black)- make one extra stitch using the bar between your last stitch and the next stitch (known as a "M1" in most patterns).
3. Slip your last stitch in the previous color (in my example, the magenta) over the new stitch (black).  This way, you maintain your stitch count and the slipped stitch looks to be on the same level as your previous color.  

I've included two shots below of my end result- the first au naturale so you can see what a clean line is made using this technique, and in the second image I circled the slipped stitch just so it's clear where I made the change.  It really disappears- especially on this pattern where the end of the round is in the middle of a raglan.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again next week!

Ryan

The Road So Far...

I had to share this because it made me giggle when I read it on Tumblr the other day:

That's only sort of true for me.  I'm starting to realize I'm not going to get nearly as much Xmas kitting done as I would prefer, but that's really because I'm doing so much selfish kitting this year and I think my work in progress (WIP) pile is about to get bigger.   (What am I thinking?!)  It's been a while since I've made a true status report, so let's talk current WIPs before I move on to the projects in my queue.

I finished my first Drakar sock (yay) and I'm finally on to the second.  The foot may look a bit short, but these babies stretch pretty good- probably thanks to the squishy yarn, Tess' Designer Yarns: Super Socks and Baby Yarn (in Metallurgy) and the fantastic toe in this pattern!

You'll also see the socks modeling my new stitch protector. I've been seeing a lot of these from other bloggers/podcasters and thought it would be a worthy investment, so I bought one on Etsy- made to order by Pokdej.  This is the larger size.  I thought it was worth investing in the larger one now, even if I don't have any extra long double-pointed needles (DPNs) at the moment.  I'm really enjoying it!  There are great options for patterned cloth and lining and it's roomy without being too loose to hold the project.

I've also got a circular shawl on the needles, but it's part of the Supernatural MKAL by Shannon Sanchez.  Because of the mystery bit, I cant very well post pictures of it- then it wouldn't be a secret!  I'm running a bit behind on this one though.  :-/


Now, I bought the above stitch holder before the end of the Knitting Expat Rainbow KAL, not at all expecting I would win a prize or anything but that's exactly what happened!  If you've not yet watched the Knitting Expat podcast, I highly suggest it! I'm a big fan of Mina and her two feline co-stars.  Mina also makes really wonderful project bags and she can be found on Etsy as Mina Makes.  I knew the prize included the stitch holder, that BEAUTIFUL skein of Ewe Who Knits: Irish Fairy Tree base in the colorway Rainbow Dash, and some really adorable rainbow stitch markers.  What I did not expect was for her to generously include some flavored teas, absolutely scrumptious toffee candies, and a postcard of her boys, Derek and Hugo.  Those adorable felines are accumulating quite the following of their own!  Thank you, Mina, for your generosity!

So what's coming up?  I'm so tempted to use that beautiful skein of Rainbow Dash to cast on a pair of  Mystik Spiral Socks, but I think that will have to wait.  I had hoped to make at least two more pairs of socks for Xmas gifts.  There are a few Xmas knitting KALs I'm already participating in, so that's helping keep me (kind of) focused.  I've also stumbled on this idea of NaKniSweMo: knit a 50,000-stitch sweater in a month- specifically November. CRAZY you say! Yeah, I said that too, but I did hope to have a new holiday sweater for this year and I bought some beautiful yarn with this very intention back at the WEBS test sale in May.  You've actually seen it already in a previous post- that b-e-a-utiful magenta gauge swatch that I made for the Tin Can Knits Snowflake sweater.  I've even counted the stitches in anticipation!  I had to guess-timate a bit on row counts (you know, knit till you have 16.5 inches, etc), but I came up with roughly 58k+ stitches knitting up a XL size with three quarters sleeves.  I figure if I make it by the November 30 deadline that's great, but if I don't I'll still have a really great start on a Christmas sweater.

Well, now that I've gone on and on, it's time to get some of this knitting done as opposed to just talking about it! I'm going to cuddle up with some Mexican hot chocolate and see what I can do about that.  Till next week!