Glacial Knits Podcast: Episode 1 - Irrelevant and Irreverant

Hi all,

I know I've basically stopped blogging (I realised it was taking up a lot of time and wasn't giving me a lot of joy, so I cut back on it), but I'm hoping that this will be the beginning of a new era of talking about my crafting.

Jonas and I have decided to start a podcast. It likely won't update often (our goal is once a month right now) since we're both so busy with things, but we hope to bring you our unique perspective on knitting, sewing, yarn dyeing, running an indie yarn company, and our adventures in Minnesota and beyond.

The video quality isn't the best because my camera is old and the lighting is terrible because I live in a land of perpetual winter darkness, so please forgive us that. We promise we'll get better at this as time goes on.

I'll try to get us on iTunes ASAP, but for now you can see us on YouTube.

Show Notes (such as they are):

What We’re Knitting

Sari

•  Legolas Socks by Claire Ellen out of Sheepish Yarn Company BFL Sock in the “Jack Pine” Colourway
• Regretting Tonight’s FoolishMayhem Socks by KnittyMelissa out of Spartickes Dyes Will and Grace Sock in the “Good Trip” colourway—part of the 2015 Gilmore Girls Yarn Club
• Woodsmoke by Megh Testerman out of Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd’s Wool Worsted in the “Sage” colourway

Jonas

•  Alberta by Jared Flood out of Woolfolk Får in the “3” colourway, Ogle Design BFL Coloration in blue, Malabrigo Rios in “Bobby Blue”

Future Knitting

Sari mentions the “Just One More Row” podcast and their “12 in 17” contest.

Sari’s 12 (or 11 in the case of apparently she counted wrong) yarns chosen by random sequence generator.

• Cascade Yarns 220 Worsted that she died in the “Winter Woods” colourway (which doesn’t exist in her shop yet, but probably will soon!)
• After the Sheep Cuddles in the “Malachite”colourway
• Knit Picks Imagination Fingering in the “Galaxy” colourway (not “Castle Walls”)
• Knit Circus Ringmaster that Sari dyed in the “Mirkwood” colourway
• Three Irish Girls Adorn Luxe in the “Eddi and the Fae” colourway
• Knit Circus Greatest of Ease fingering in the “Midnight Revel” colourway
• Kauni Wool 8/2 Solids in the “MM1”colourway
• Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted in the “Garden Gate” colourway
• Knit Picks CotLin in the “Cashew”colourway
• Crystal Palace Panda Cotton Solid in the “Ketchup” colourway
• Knit Picks Imagination Fingering in the “Ruby Slippers” colourway

Jonas talks about three coloured shawls and hats. If anyone has suggestions for 3-coloured shawls that a dude can wear or assistance in Sari and Jonas actually wearing shawls without looking ridiculous, please let us know!

·         Three Irish Girls Adorn Luxe in the “Eddi and the Fae”, “Seelie”, and “Unseelie” colourways

·         The Girl Who Crafted Bulky Wool Single in the “My Head is Aching in GMT” colourway.

We mention again where to find us”

Sari

• ·         Ravelry – TheGirlWhoCrafted
• ·         Twitter – @girlwhocrafted
• ·         Instagram - @thegirlwhocrafted
• ·         Email – thegirlwhocraftedblog@gmail.com

Jonas

• ·         Ravelry – ShopBoyJonas
• ·         Twitter - @jonassollers

You can find these videos on Sari’s blogs at:
 http://girlwhocrafted.com/blog
 http://girlwhocrafted.blogspot.com

Sari’s yarns can be found at:  http://girlwhocrafted.com

(Mo)FO Friday: Giant Orange Stockinette Sweater for Jonas

It's not DONE, done, but the giant orange stockinette sweater is blocking and awaiting seaming (and then re-knitting).

Sorry for the terrible photo. It's still blocking and it's too huge for me to take a proper photo of it yet.

To recap: The pattern is Joukahainen by Krystel Nyberg. The yarn is Berocco Ultra Alpaca in colourway 6268.

I started this sweater for Jonas on March 23 and wrapped it up on Tuesday (April 14), so it took me just over 3 weeks start to finish. It's an easy pattern, being predominantly stockinette, so even though Jonas is huge and has a giant long torso and huge arms, this still knit up really quickly. That said, the bit just after joining the sleeves and before you get a good way in to the raglan decreases is probably best described as a slog. I had 300+ stitches on the needles and was working to reduce (every other row) to 92 stitches. It took me 15 minutes to knit a rest row and 20 minutes to knit a decrease row. The good thing about working it in decreases is that it got better from there, but gosh was I ready to just throw the sweater down and walk away once I realised what I was in for while knitting the full chest measurement. But I got through it and it's over.

And it needs re-knitting.

Don't panic...it doesn't all need to be re-knit (I hope), I just need to re-shape the neckline. It came out way more like a mock turtleneck than the crew neck it looks to be in the photo (plus it's way too wide for Jonas to wear as a mock turtleneck even if he wanted to). It seems like this is a common problem with the pattern and I've looked up people's fixes and have pulled out my sweater design books, so I'll devise a solution for re-knitting just the very top and the collar as soon as it's dry (it's been blocking since Wednesday and is still pretty soggy). The bigger problem might come if Jonas thinks it's not long enough. When he first tried it on, he definitely didn't think it was, but based on how much the yarn stretched when I knit my Tauriel, I'm hoping it will block out long enough for him. If not... well, I told him to expect the sweater in a few years when I can muster up the Can to rip it back to the sleeve joins and knit more onto it before doing all those raglan decrease rows again. I'm not even sure I'm going to get to re-doing the collar for a while, since I've got other projects I need to commit to now.

Good news is, he had it on in the house on Tuesday night for less than five minutes and was already too hot in a wool/alpaca sweater, so I'm betting he won't be clamoring for it until September at the earliest. So I have some time. Which is good, because this sweater and I need a break.

It's not even that I mind that much stockinette, really. It's easy knitting and I can do it while doing pretty much everything else, so it was actually good... it was just A LOT of sweater and I'd like to knit something else now.

The yarn was lovely to knit with as always. It's got a great hand and it's not at all splitty or difficult to work with, even when I had to cable it to do the raglan decreases. Lovely all around. The only complaint I had is that a lot of dye leaked out into the water when I was soaking it. The basin was a delightful tangerine colour when I pulled the sweater out and it still wasn't rinsing clean. If I remember correctly, the green yarn for Tauriel did the same thing. So... a bit of caution if you're using this yarn and want to wash the item with other things. It looks like there will be a significant amount of excess dye for the first few washes.

Jonas is weirdly allergic to Eucalan, so I had to use regular laundry soap, but I don't think that will affect the blocking process too much. I just really hope it's long enough after blocking because as lovely as it was to knit, the only challenging part is at the top, and that's the bit I'd have to do again. No thank you, please.

It's a good, basic stockinette sweater. Nothing fancy, but certainly a blank canvas for colourwork or easy design changes and a good place to start if you need to just knit a sweater with no frills. I *might* knit it again. In a smaller size. In a few years. With a different neckline.

WIP Wednesday: Giant stockinette sweater of awesome

So, back in 2013 Jonas and I (along with LAP) were at one of our local yarn (and fabric!) stores for Small Business Saturday (that's the Saturday after US Thanksgiving in case you don't know) and for some reason I decided to purchase ALL THE YARNS.

That day, I bought myself a sweater quantity of Malabrigo worsted in the "Garden Gate" colourway (which I am still ABSOLUTELY in love with and I hope you'll get to see knit up soon), the Berocco Ultra Alpaca I used in my Tauriel, and seven skeins of the same Berocco Ultra Alpaca in a sort of burnt orange heathered colourway with the intention of making a sweater for Jonas. Probably for our anniversary, which is in May. He looks really good in that orange colour and I know I'd found a pattern for a basic pullover (which, I note, the sample page is pretty much the same orange colour, so that probably influenced my decision) that I thought he'd like, so I got it for him. Not really thinking that he runs naturally very warm so an alpaca/wool blend might not be the *best* decision ever, but, you know.

Well, I'm finally getting around to knitting it. Now that it's more than a year later and it's almost summer. Yep. Nobody ever said our knitting had to make sense.