Podcasts, Or how productivity moves in opposite direction from stash enhancement

I've been hard at work test knitting the super secret sock for Megan and have been neglectful of my blog! I'm going to try to have a {WIP} and {FO} post this week but we shall see.  My current {WIP} can't really be shown until the pattern is released as it is part of a yarn club for Yarn vs. Zombies (um, can we say best name EVER??)  but if you follow me on instagram I've been posting some very exciting shots of the sole.  What I will say is that this pattern is super fun and has taught me so many fun techniques and it fits great! I'm working on the leg now, so should hopefully finish it soon...and then, then, I must finish mom's sock. And work on the Color Affection.  And...I bought three skeins of MadelineTosh Merino Light (Well Water colorway) to CO my first sweater which will be Vitamin D. 

I've recently been bitten by the knitting podcast bug and I wanted to share some of my favorites.  I tend to listen to them (and sneak views) at work, but lately I've been watching them in lieu of TV at night.  

(1) Must Stash Podcast

This is a relatively new podcast hosted by Steph and Stacie and these girls are adorable and so sweet.  Each episode is about an hour, but they stay on topic pretty well and I love how their show notes give links to any and all shops and yarns that they use. My Etsy favorites have multiplied by quite a few new shops since I've started watching them.  

(2) Stockinette Zombies

I've been having fun test knitting for Megan, but her and Amy's podcast is fantastic as well.  Just by watching them you can tell that the two of them have been friends for quite awhile, and I love how they joke with each other.  Both are very talented knitters, and I have never really pictured myself ever wanting to go to Minnesota...but hearing about their Zombie Knitpocalypse makes me want to go in the future! Episodes last about an hour.

(3) The Fat Squirrel Speaks

Clearly...we Amys have to stick together.  Amy Beth is a R-I-O-T.  The first podcast of hers I listened to I was like, "Um. I'm not sure what is going on..." but now I'm hooked.  She makes me laugh and smile constantly.  I took part in my first ever KAL with her Gratitude KAL over the spring.  Episodes are only about a half hour, and she has a way of explaining things that make it seem very easy.

(4) Penguin Soup

Ginny had followed me on Instagram and I've only recently started watching her newer podcast. Nerds unite! She's a Whovian amongst other things and I love her project choices. Seriously, I wish I knew her in life cause I would like to be part of her knitting circle :) She has made me want to try a 9" circular needle to knit socks.

Please share some of your favorite video podcasts in the comments. Now that we are in the slow season at work....I can use some entertainment while I do the office zombie routine :) 

{WIP} Tootsie Roll

Some of my projects from last week have been put on the back burner while I have fun test knitting stuff for Megan.  I finished the Weather the Weather hat this weekend, and immediately jumped on board for another test knit.  This one is super secret and this will be the only picture I will be posting until the pattern is released as it is part of a club.  

It is my first ever attempt at a toe up sock - and I have got to say that Judy's Magic Cast On is the KOOKIEST thing I have ever done.  It felt like cat's cradle. But I am very pleased with how it came out :) One new sock technique in the bag.  This pattern is definitely more advanced than my plain jane vanilla sock...so we shall see if I can actually do it or not.

I am using Sunshine Yarn's classic sock base in Wanderer.  I had purchased this yarn from a Ravelry user a year and a half ago and I've been waiting for a good pattern for it.  Notice that it's not caked, but balled. Let's just say...I think the hank was re-hanked a few times. It did not get along with my swift and ball winder. At all.

Wish me luck, friends! I am going to need it :) Thankfully I only have to finish ONE sock for the test knit....so who knows when sock #2 will be completed.

I also played around with roving and a drop spindle the other night...more to come on this adventure at a later date!

Imperfect but recognizably yarn

{WIP} Oh, Boy

So....um. Yeah. I've got quite a lot going on this week for Work-In-Progress Wednesday.  Usually, I just highlight one item I'm working on...but I've got quite a few WIPs this time around.

Clockwise from top:

(1) I finally cast on my Color Affection Shawl using Candy Skein Sweet Fingering yarn in Fudge Brownie.  I am following it per the pattern instructions...which means a lot of make ones. And I don't know why, but I'm having issues with these M1s....I cheated on the first row and used a KFB because I could not get the bar between stitches easily. 

(2) I am test knitting the Weather the Weather hat by Megan (Justrunknit on Ravelry) from the podcast Stockinette Zombies.  I love this pattern...so easy and fun. Plus I'm learning new techniques such as a Left and Right Twist.  I am using Cascade 220 which is making my palms sweat.

(3) And finally....the second sock on my plain jane vanilla beginner socks.  This led to the Color Affection being cast on incidentally.  

That's it for this week.  Check out other Work In Progress blog posts by clicking the image below.

Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival

What a lovely spring weekend, friends! On Saturday I went to the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival and it was definitely a fun time.  

From lambs to alpacas to angora bunnies and back to sheep, this festival certainly celebrated all things fiber.  I saw my first sheep shearing and was amazed to see these giant animals put up hardly any fuss when the clippers started buzzing (my dog? Not so much...).  I also saw sheep dogs work a flock. It was highly enjoyable.

I have wanted to learn how to spin for some time now and this was the perfect opportunity to watch and learn.  And finger roving and enjoy the lotiony feel of lanolin fresh of the sheared sheep. Janet, Nate's mom, and I watched the spinners corner amazed at how easily roving turned into beautiful yarn.  All of the ladies and gentlemen spinners were so helpful and answered all of our questions.  After getting a personal drop spindle demonstration from a very nice lady, I decided to put actions to words and bite the bullet so to speak.  

I purchased a cheap, basic drop spindle and another more pretty drop spindle in the Dogwood design by Spin-A-Bit.  Of course, I then needed some roving so went back to my friends at Flatland Alpacas (where I had earlier in the day purchased a yarn bowl) and picked out a 50/50 Alpaca and Merino roving blend in colors that reminded me of the sea. I also picked up a kool-aid dye kit from the 4Hers (not pictured).  When all is said and done, Janet and I will be signing up for the drop spindle class at Webs this July.

Color Wheel { 4KCBWDAY4 }

Do you ever notice that your eyes are drawn to the same colors whenever you go to the yarn store? For me, I tend to be drawn towards vibrant berries, dark teals, and cove-y blues.  My eyes are drawn, like the Bee I am, to "shiny" colors - something different, something with variegated colors, and something a little bit different from what I usually knit with. 

A quick look at my completed projects revealed a startling result.  I have a total of 67 projects listed and of those projects my color scheme falls at:

I tend to knit a lot of projects in a deep cranberry/burgundy color and I also tend to lean towards variegated projects.  

Most of the deep cranberry colors I gift even though I love the color for myself.  But the variegateds, I tend to keep and then lament that I have nothing neutral to wear with them.  

Even though I love fun, bright colors - my Hitchhiking to Candy Land shawl comes to mind - I will need to either start buying more neutral clothes....or should learn to realize that not everything I knit will go with everything I own.  

It also amuses me how much yarns that I'm drawn to linger in my stash and how many times I have to buy more neutral yarns to make a project for someone.  

{WIP} Hardly enough progress to blog about

I really don't have much more completed from last week on the second sock.  The yarn used, Classic Elite Yarns Summer Sox, is pretty tough on my hands and isn't really a joy to knit with. I know, I know - whine, whine, whine.  I will be very happy to finish my first pair of socks and my mom will be happy to receive them.  I'm hoping to finish them well before I have a knitting date with my sock knitting friend Sio in May.  

Sumo desperately needs a hair cut

I'm again joining Ginny's Yarn Along this week.  I was very happy to see Ally Carter's third Heist novel at the library on my most recent jaunt.  As I've mentioned before I am hopelessly addicted to YA fiction and there are quite a few series I've read with new books out.  

From one addict to another { 4KCBWDAY3 }

When I was a wee little new knitter I suffered delusions of grandeur.  I thought I could buy yarn for the current project at hand and be content.  On my first trip to Webs I quickly realized my efforts would be futile and I could only hope that Nate would never realize he had an addict living with him.  An addict who during the first hurricane since becoming a knitter went to Walmart to buy a plastic tote for her yarn and almost forgot to buy a case of water. 

Now obviously some yarn was purchased for a specific project.  Case in point I have three skeins of lovely Candy Skein Sweet Fingering yarn just waiting for me to cake up and start the Color Affection shawl.  I also bought some amazing TARDIS blue self striping sock yarn from Quaere Fibre to make some toe-up afterthought vanilla socks. But the majority of my yarn....I have no clue what I will ever knit with it but boy is it pretty.

crudely drawn by me

I often ask myself, as I try to cram another hank of yarn into a storage cube, was this life of buying and hiding yarn avoidable? Or, was it simply inevitable that I would join the ranks of "yarn stash exceeds life expectancy?" With all of the knitters I know...I strongly suspect it was inevitable.  And yes, like other addicts out there, when I buy a house it will be with the hope of a crafting/yarn room.