Real Life Knitter

This one has a lot of pictures into.  Even though the date is late April on the entry below, I started dyeing yarn for GG KAL early March.

April 27, 2020

I started the GG Loves Orange KAL on March 15, 2020 with everyone else. I chose to work the KAL pattern, Orange Love Poncho and used orange yarn.

I didn't have any orange yarn and my yarn budget was to be spent on up coming festivals. I dug and found a skein of Lion Brand's Fisherman. I ordered 2 more, just to be sure.

 

I rewound them into hanks and dyed them with some pumpkin orange dye from Jacquard, I had mixed up years ago.

 

I was pleased with the way it turned out after drying.

I wound the skeins into cakes using my ball winder and swift. This is the largest cake I have ever wound. 8 ounces!

 

Cast on day came and I got started.

 

I worked the foundation rows before the cables begin. I looked at the chart for the cables, in which I have recently, slowly gained more and more experience with. This project however was not in the round or symmetrical so was going to take some thinking.

I am a mirror knitter as you may know and if I just followed the chart in the opposite direction as I usually do, my baubles will be in the right place, going the wrong direction.  I wanted them to be both in the correct place and going the correct direction.  The baubles in this pattern go sort of diagonally.

 

I opened the pattern's PDF and took a screen shot of the chart. I was then able to put that into my word processor and then make a mirror of it. This fixed everything! This will not work in every situation, but it did in this one.

When this rectangle is finished, the edge opposite the cables is sewn to form the neck opening. I got out a piece of paper and made some markings and did a bit of folding to see if it was going to truly work all the way through and it was.

 

I moved forward with the piece using my mirrored chart.

I worked a total of 13 repeats and the then finished off the bauble section with a few more rows into repeat number 14.

I blocked the piece before sewing the neck.

I sewed the neck closed as directed in the pattern. The only thing that I changed was the size of the crochet hook I used. I went up to an "I". I did this because working the seam with the smaller hook was pulling the piece too tightly. This crocheted seam doesn't have the give that the knitting it is joining does; so you need to make sure that the crocheted seam is loose enough to not pull on the piece.

I had plenty of yarn left over, which I wanted to any way. Some will actually be going into my Painting Bricks shawl from West Knits because I ran out of yellow. Then I will also have enough to make Dolores a version of this poncho.

I also just finished up a test knit for Shana Cohen of Shanalines designs. It is her Air Hugs design and I will share on IG when it becomes available for purchase on Ravelry.

I have been hard at work on my first sweater design. I have updated the sweater page here.

I finally, finally warped my 4 harness floor loom!

I am so excited about this. I used the video "Beginning Four Harness Weaving" by Deborah Chandler, produced by Yarnbarn and her book as well. Both of which I bought from Eugene Textiles Company at the Interweave Yarn Fest in 2019.

 

Yes the DVD was dubbed over from the VHS of the 1980's but it is so good. I am a very novice weaver and the nearest experienced weaver to me in about 70ish miles away in Brighton, Colorado. Using the book and DVD I was able to tame my no brand beast and get it warped.

I did mess up at the warping board and ended up with 240 cut ends in my hand, instead of 120 and had a huge threading mess that took a week to get under control.

I took the time to do it, a little at a time each day. After I got that mess sorted, I got the book back out and very carefully went over how to use the warping board again. One key thing that is either not clear in the video or that I missed is where it says "count here and multiply by two." That's what I missed, next time.

Now I am all set up and ready to weave. The next part is learning to read a draft.

I have updated the knitting patterns in my Ravelry store.  The crochet ones are next.

 

Patreon sign ups will be opening June 17 at $3 a month. I will have a link to that when it goes live. Here is a list of benefits.

Weekly behind the scenes design blog

10% pattern discount

Twice monthly tip videos, early release

I am excited about this and to how it goes.  If you have any thoughts or ideas for what you would like to see please leave a comment or email me.

The last thing I want to mention this week is about being a Real Life Knitter and what that means to me and for my content.

I knit, crochet or spin almost every waking moment.  Exceptions are during most meals, most of my time behind the wheel and tending to the plants.

I love to teach about things that I know about.  I know a lot about fiber arts and want to share, hence the blog and YouTube channel.

All that said my photos and videos will be done during my real life knitting moments.  So my nails won't always be great, they will NEVER be painted, there might be back ground noise or something odd in a photo.  One example is the photo in this blog of me casting on the GG KAL.  My hubby took it with the light streaming in the window behind me.  I didn't know until he text me the picture the next day that he had even taken it so there was no chance for a redo.

When I am recording or shooting for detail teaching I do my best to make sure there is little back ground noise, that the light is good and details are clear.  I do have 3 children and a few farm animals so stuff always happens.  Occassionally I will just ignore the situation and finish the shoot, other things are edited out.  I am the editor and producer as well.  I've been working on computers for over 20 years and learning more each day about the software I use.  Please bear with me.

If you made it this far, thank you!

Next time I will talk about another KAL and my newest video release on short rows.

Until then...

Happy making!