Thursday, July 28, 2016

Episode 13: The Lucky One

Welcome to episode 13! In this "in the classroom" ep Marcy and Kim talk about all of their FO's, WIP's and new CO's. We review a beautiful knitting book, talk about our "Uber Craftiness" and roll out our 1st ever KAL. Grab your knitting, a cool, refreshing beverage and join us!

Episode 13 Audio


What's in our Lesson Plan?

Marcy is holding her stash enhancements
Kim is holding her Wedding Afgan.
  • Show and Tell
  • A book review: Baby Botanicals by Alana Dakos
  • Christmas in August KAL/CAL
  • We are Uber Crafty
  • What's on our Black Board?
***We were both wearing hand knit tops while recording. Marcy was wearing her new "Wind Wave" tee by Jo Allport and Kim was wearing her "Radian Yoke" top by Wendy Bernard.


Show and Tell

  1. Kim is knitting a blanket for her niece's wedding in September. Her "Wedding Afghan," is knit using Cascade Cherub Aran yarn in the white, gray, black and teal (#47) color ways. The pattern is "Moderne Log Cabin Blanket" from the book Mason Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne. 
  2. Kim is also currently working on her "Summer Insouciant" top, which is the Insouciant pattern by Julie Hoover. She's using Juniper Moon Farm Zooey DK yarn in the #13/ketch and #2/ toasted coconut colors. This is a linen and cotton blend yarn and she's really enjoying knitting with it. She's adding stripes to the sweater and hoping that she won't run out of the white yarn and that the stripes will look great!
  3. Another WIP is her "Summer Symmetry" top by Vera Sanon. The pattern is "Symmetry in Motion" and Kim is using Forbidden Woolery yarn on the proverbs base in the blue cymbidium color. She's really enjoying working on this top and is looking forward to finishing and wearing it.
***We mention Marcy's "Tuscarora top" designed by Patty Lyons and knit using Zooey DK yarn that she knit last summer. She loves wearing it and enjoyed knitting with the yarn.

Marcy in her
Cap Sleeve lattice Top
  1. Marcy had a beautiful FO to share! Her "Cap Sleeve Lattice Top" by Purl Soho knit using Forbidden Woolery yarn on the proverbs base and in the Earl Grey rose and Yellow Celosia colors is done and it's gorgeous! Marcy made 8 modifications and you can find them all listed and explained on her project page. 
  2. Marcy also has a new CO. The adorable "Monkey Jacobus" by Annita Wilschut is being knit out of Mountain Top Crestone yarn by Classic Elite in the Frost and Plymouth Rock Hen colors. She's using a US 4 needle. This will be a gift for her son Wilson's 2nd birthday in August. 
  3. Marcy had some fun stash enhancements to show us. She bought some O wool from their website on the balance base which is a 50/50 cotton/merino blend. She's planning on knitting the Om shawl with this pretty yarn.
  4. Marcy also picked up some Sublime yarns "Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK" yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool. Her plan is to knit the new pattern, "Light Gale" by Alicia Plummer with this amazing yarn.


Book Review

Marcy picked up a copy of the beautiful book, Baby Botanicals, by Alana Dakos when she was in Alana's LYS, Never Not Knitting, last month. The book has 5 "pint sized" patterns of the women's adult sweaters from Botanical Knits 1 & 2.  The sizes are really generous and range from 6 months to 12 years. You can purchase this book on Ravelry as an e-book for $12 USD or get the print book along with a coupon code to download the e-book from the NNK website or your LYS for only $14. USD. We both give this book a thumbs up and encourage you to check it out!

***In 2013 Marcy knit two of the adult sized sweaters: 1) Autumn's End and 2) Entangled Vines. 


Christmas in August KAL/CAL

We're very excited to be opening up our 1st KAL! Our goal is to help and motivate you (and ourselves!) to finish Christmas items early and decrease holiday stress and increase Christmas joy. Here are all of the parameters for the Christmas in August KAL (it's going to run through September!):
  1. You may use any new CO or old WIP. 
  2. Must be either a Christmas (or Hannukah!) gift, decor item or something for yourself or your family to wear during the Holiday. 
  3. We'll open a forum on our Ravelry group page on August 1st, our time (pacific standard US time,) and we'll close and lock it on September 30th at 11:00 pm our time.
  4. We will award two gifts (a Ravelry download pattern of your choice up to $7 USD in value,) at the end of the KAL: 1) a randomly chosen number from our FO thread and 2) to the person who finished the most items. In case of a tie, I'll write all names on a piece of paper, throw them in a hat and have Wilson choose the winner!
Have fun and happy Holiday knitting and crocheting.

***Marcy has set her 1st goal on the podcast! She intends to CO a Christmas stocking for her cousin's baby boy. It will be similar to this one, that she knit last year for her cousin's older son. Both will be in Seahawk's colors, but they'll be slightly different. 


We are Uber Crafty!

Kim has been spinning again and having a great time. She went back to her Craftsy class, "Spinning Dyed Fibers" with Felicia Lo and learned how to chain or Navajo ply her singles. This creates a 3 ply yarn. She's got 2 finished 3 ply skeins: 1) Garden Shadows and 2) Perfect Colors. She's also got a finished 2 ply from Three Water's Farm that needs to be wound on the niddy noddy. This was Kim's 1st time spinning BFL and she really enjoyed the process and is looking forward to knitting a lace shawl with this pretty yarn. Right now she's got some Finn Wool on the wheel in an amazing coral color. There'll be more about that yarn next time.
Kim's chain plied "Garden Shadows" handspun

Marcy and her family have also been Uber Crafty! She and Wilson made a fort out of a large cardboard box and decorated it. She and her husband have been working hard in their garden, building a fort for Wilson, planting and moving 10 yards of bark mulch.

Wilson and his fort.
Marcy's gardening work.









What's on our BlackBoard?

In episode 14 Kim will share her field trip experience of visiting the beautiful LYS in Danville, California, "A Yarn Less Raveled." She's looking forward to spending the afternoon with the  lovely, Barb (knittybarb) one of the hosts of the 2 Knit Lit Chicks audio podcast. We'll update you on the Christmas in August KAL and we'll probably share a little bit of knitting and spinning.

Happy knitting everybody!

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    1. Thanks! Kim does a really good job writing up our show notes, thanks for taking the time to read them and make a comment.

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