KUAS Podcast: Episode 7- the toddler who video-bombed

SHOW NOTES

WIPS
Abrianna by Berroco

SPINNING
“Midnight Tides” sport and worsted weight yarn, approx. 670 yds, 2-ply
WIP- Pink and multicolored yarn, 2-ply

STASH ENHANCEMENTS:
Frabjous Fibers Hand-dyed Blue Faced Leicester “Daffidil” roving, 4 oz.
Opal Sweet2 & Spicy2 yarn Rotkohl, fingering weight; Partie 1000
Eucalan’s No-Rinse Wool Wash samples in “Grapefruit” and “Eucalyptus” for gifts

HOT IN THE MOMENT:
Twinnings Pumpkin Spice Chai
Better Homes & Garden “Vanilla Cedar Glow” candle

WIP: Abrianna

670 yds of "Midnight Tides" 2-ply sport-worsted weight handspun yarn.

New dress at a party smile.

KUAS Podcast: Episode 6- An Irish Quickie

Note: I have extended the give-away until 12pm (CT) 3/18.

KUAS Podcast Episode 6: "An Irish Quickie" 

Copyright 2015 by Anna Maliszewski 

SHOW NOTES

 WIPS: 

Office Socks by Anna Maliszewski 

Shades of Gray Shawl by Anna Maliszewski 

Abrianna by Berroco 

Spinning: Midnight Tide double-ply yarn (worsted weight) 

 Hot in the Moment: Teavana's "Mahaja Chai Oolong" 

Stash Enhancement: Classic Elite's Montera Yarn, 6 skeins

Bookworming: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

KUAS Podcast: Episode 5- Spring is Here!

PODCAST SHOW NOTES:

FO:
Bohemian Inspired Woven Cowl for Leah
15'' Schacht Cricket Weaving Loom

WIP:
Office Socks by Anna Maliszewski

Spinning:
430 yds of "Midnight Tide" worsted weight yarn, 2-ply, merino wool
49 yds of "Merriment" worsted weight yarn, single ply, merino

Knitter's Review: 
Boye's Yardage Counter: 3 of 5 stars
Pros: easy to use, inexpensive, "mostly" accurate
Cons: needs a better suction, produces an annoying squeaking noise

Bohemian Inspired Cowl for Leah

Shades of Gray Shawl by Anna Maliszewski

Wrap-less Short Row Shaping

"Merriment" single-ply yarn, merino wool, 49 yds

"Midnight Tides" Roving, 8oz.

Two skeins, 430 yards spun so far. Worsted weight (more or less).

I am SMITTEN. Yum, yum, yum. It makes me want to spin more! (Oh, wait, I have to! I still have 73g left to spin up of this, for a total of about 700 yds when everything is said and done.)

If you have enjoyed the podcast and such, please go to Youtube and "like," "share," and/or "comment" to spread the goodness. :) Many thanks!

Oh, and by the way...I just found out that on March 9th, my Thrummed Rainbow Mitts were featured as a favorite on Craftster.org. Sweet!

Spinning Blue

My Ashford Elizabeth II has been sitting in my craft room, and then in my bed room collecting dust longer than I feel comfortable sharing. After the boys were born, I barely spun. They just turned 4, and I feel more able to get back into the swing of things again (yay for crafting and blogging regularly again). I've been watching a ton of knitting podcasts lately, trying to entertain myself and not feel so lonely while knitting up my Pumpkin Ale Sweater. One of the podcasts is from my friend from high school called Rain Drop Knits. She recently got herself a spinning wheel and watching her sheer happiness has made me reminisce and feel that urge to spin again. So hurray to making yarn again. Thanks Sarah! This is my second bobbin of blue merino (?) wool. I bought 8oz, and unfortunately did not keep the tag for the colorway name. I believe it was Old Barn (something like that, I will check the other roving label that I bought together with this). Ain't she a beaut? There are flecks of storm grey and pink. I plan on double plying, so when that happens, I believe it will come out to about sport weight once soaked. We'll see.

I'm running a "right here, right now, post what you are crafting on" in my "Knitting up a storm, the blog" group page on facebook. Make sure to post a pic on the post. Now's a good time to join the group if you haven't already, as I plan on starting up more of my random give-aways on the group page to the first member to respond to the post(s). Thanksgiving will be a very giving-y time for me :)

*Exposed*

I hope you all had a great Saturday. I know I did!
Because we were going to have smoked ribs for dinner, I made BBQ beans, onion/garlic/bacon green beans and for dessert, peach cobbler! This was my first go:

As Rachael Ray says: "Yum-O!" or "Delish!" I was quite pleased with the results! It almost looked too pretty to dig into. :)


Are you a "sense-able" knitter?
Do you enjoy knitting mostly when you have a lot of sensory elements working for you?

I noticed lately that I enjoy knitting a lot in nature (ok, and in PJ's!). Today, I lit the tiki-torches at dusk, to get rid of those darn mesquiters, and continued knitting with the cool breeze running through my fingers and cheeks, while smelling the tiki flames, and savoring the beautiful view of our block's pond, and mostly the sweet water symphony that only comes at night: singing frogs and crickets. My mind is usually too busy to really meditate, but this night was the closest I felt I could come to it. It was just too peaceful.

Oh, did I forget taste? You should probably take a closer look at the picture. Mmm, Kahlua and cream. :)

I was particularly knitting up these suckers the whole time. The first one *finally* almost has its pair. To tickle my fancy even more, they wholly match. Their stiping is exactly perfect to one another. I couldn't ask for anything better. Thanks Lana Grossa for the pretty colors & stripes!
Finally.... I finished spinning! Woo-hoo! It's just like Noro Yarn. I know what you're all thinking..."what-the!" But I must ask, why should I wind my yarn into a boring ball? It looks better like a fruit. Ha ha. After all, it's named "Cranberry-Apple."
Another crazy view.


Did you take the "knitter's poll" yet? Scoll down 2 posts before this.

Upcoming: an update on "Ripples" Reading Afghan, a finished Lana Grossa sock ("Arctic") w/ possible pattern attached, and... maybe a new WIP started, peut-etre?

Subtle Differences

Hey All! This poll's actually a toughie!

I've been doing a little spinning again lately. I reached this point, and cut the wool to continue on. It was just getting way too heavy!


Don't you just love subtle differences? It's hard to see in the picture, but there is the darker cranberry-apple color, and a more cranberry-grape every now and then.
It strikes my fancy on how similar the look, feel and size of the yarn is to Noro yarn!

I plan to knit these babies up later into fingerless mittens, like my Stitch 'N Bitch fingerless gloves, that I used Noro yarn on.

Today was beautiful! A little hot for my taste, but windy. Heh, look at my backyard tree! Yowzah!


I've been knitting my "Ripples" Reading Afghan the past couple of days. I've gotten further, although it doesn't show it. The circumference is getting wider and wider each round, so it's taking a lot longer to knit it up! I'll have some pictures for you all tomorrow. I want to knit a few more rounds first. It already looks a hundred times better than the first picture I showed you all! Ok, well I exaggerate just a tad on numbers sometimes.

I'm getting another itch to dye somemore yarn! I have a 40% coupon to Michaels. I'll probably pick up some more wool on Sunday then. This time, we'll enter the world of the Tropics! Aloha!
Edit: I just bought some natural fingering-weight sock yarn (840 yards!) from Knitpicks.com. I'll have to wait until Monday, Tuesday or even Wed. (at the latest). They are really fast at shipping! I bought 3 skeins. Lol. Liz, ya better not say a word. One more comment on the the fingering-weight, I swear i'll crack.
Oh the possibilities....

Spinning & "Ripples" Reading Afghan

I spent the better part of Saturday dying some more yarn. I let the spinning wool soak for a good hour, before I cooked it in a large steel pot full of various shades of pink and some purple. It's such a pretty color! I nicknamed it "Cranberry Apple."

I started to spin the wool using my brand-new drop spindle. My only concern is that to get it looking normal, you have to overspin, thus making it twist up on itself. Otherwise, the fibers aren't spun enough, for a strong finish. Oh well. Maybe i'm just used to double or more ply, and this is just a single ply.

I also dyed my FH (Joe)'s wool. He's a sucker for green, so I dyed him various shades of green. The food coloring company now sells "neon" colors for food dyes! I was thrilled. I used the "neon green" to get that yellowish-green color in his skein. The other 2 shades were mixes of food dyes. I'm calling this one "Woodland." He'll be checking up on this blog now and then, so I can't tell you what i'm doing with it yet. Sucka!! :-P Yeah, I love you more. It's even published!


Today, I designed my own afghan, since I've been itching to make some sort of afghan for months. It was going to be called "flowering out," since the texture looked like petals. Now, with my favorite colors, I had another look at it, and was like, "gee... you look like ripples in a pond." Ok, well, I don't talk to myself that weirdly all the time, but I did come to that realization somewhat like that. So, it's now called my "Ripples" Reading Afghan.

Doesn't it look like someone threw pebbles in a pond?

And no, you're not hallucinating. It is semi-triangular. The colors are darker in real life. That teal is a lot lighter in the camera! yuck. I'm still debating whether or not to add white after I do somemore stockinette & garter rep's. I'm a plain jane, and two striping colors seemed appealing to me. However, I think another color, white, would maybe enhance it. What do you all think? 2 colors? 3 colors? EDIT: I've already decided to just stick with those two colors. :)

The pattern will be out when I finish. It's already written up, but it would be weird if I release it, but didn't finish it myself.

The Dells & 2 New FO's

I APOLOGISE NOW FOR THIS BEING A LONG POST & HEAVY WITH IMAGES!! I HAVE MUCH TO SAY & SHOW, BUT NOT ENOUGH BLOG WIDTH TO DO IT ON! :)

Last night, I just got back from a wonderful vacation at the Dells! We lodged at the Kalahari Resort from Monday to Wednesday. Everyone had a blast! There is an outdoor waterpark by our rooms, and an indoor one jam-packed with dozens of water rides, hottubes, mini pools (for the kids), and a lazy river for slow tubing. Ahhhhh. Everything was in an African theme, so It almost looked like we were in Hawaii, because they also had fake palm trees surrounding the premises.



The outdoor water park:


The indoor water park:




Unfortunately, I decided that I would never surf for real, and so a "padded" surf machine would sufice for me do something "out there." I stood on the surf board for about 2 seconds, before I fell head first on what felt like "metal," not "padding." The hight powered jets contorted me all over the place, and pushed me up the hill on what felt like metal draining vents... still pushing me all around so I couldn't get up. My migraine dwindled, but later that night, my right side of my neck started hurting. The next day, the swelling and pain spreaded to the front of my neck too.

Nevertheless, I've been putting up with the whiplash pain, and have been knitting.


And the first sock is now officially done.
I love them soo much! The fakie fair-isle pattern worked perfectly on size 1's. However, They are a little snug. I'll try size 2's next time, and hope that the pattern still looks as cool!
I call them "Arctic" socks. Don't they look fridgid?


And I finished my "(Cover Your) Beach Bum" Skirt I just designed:

It's still blocking. I'll have real pictures soon.
I never did get to wear them at the Dells. Oh well. I'll use it to go tanning outside, or whatever.

And What was most fun on the last day (Wednesday) was going to the knitter's "candy store," Wool Warp & Wheel in Illinois, on our way home. They are known for the fiber arts, selling fiber, lots of spinning wheels and of course, some yarn. Quite the cute shop!! The owners are a husband-wife team, and were extremely nice and helpful. They guided me through what to look for in wheels and drop-spindles, and books they had on the arts. Sorry about the dark pictures.

I bought myself my first drop-spindle, and the "beginners fiber choice," some pre-cut fiber for easy drafting. I still have to dye the fiber before I jump into it. Well, ok, I still have to read that book about the "art of spinning." I can't wait!! I just love the African look to the spindle. A touch of exoticism, huh?

Of course, I bought some Opal sock yarn in my school color ("Hawkeyes") when I saw the sock yarn. Ok, I splurged... I got another one too!