We’re back together! It’s been a busy couple of weeks so grab a cuppa before you watch our latest episode as it’s a long one, full of lots of yarny content!
Aquisitions
We started with acquisitions this episode because Gill had been to Loopine that morning to pick up her prize from the Socktober KAL! Thanks Alanna (of Black Cat Knitting Company!!) Gill chose a lovely skein of yarn dyed by Alanna herself! Gill also purchased a gorgeous Schoppelle Wolle Zauberball and some BC Garn Bio Balance in a beautiful purple.
We must have been both thinking about a purple summer yarn because when Kylie visited Skein Sisters in Sydney she got some Life in the Long Grass Linen Merino Singles to make a summer top! She also got a gorgeous set of 5 Life in the Long Grass skeins in their Moon base (Merino/Silk) to make the Aurora Cabin Shawl, which is the Westknits Hiberknitting shawl this year. The chosen colours are Power, Auger, Frosting, Oir and Podzolic. Super fun!
Next up in Kylie’s super fun awesome yarn crawl day was Morris and Sons in York Street where she got 3 balls of Arne & Carlos Regia – to make socks of course!!
Gill was in Christchurch for work so she got to visit Scorpio Books where she grabbed a copy of the new “52 weeks of shawls”, the latest in the Laine 52 weeks book range. This looks like a fantastic book with scarfs and shawls from lots of awesome designers.
Kylie got a lovely package from The Knit Nook which is a new shop in Napier full of gorgeous indie dyed yarn. A gorgeous set of minis from Roxy Fibres “Speckled Pastels”, a purple skein from Nana-Cindy, another purple skein from Dye Studio 54 and a fluffy skein from Yeah Yeah Yarn.
Advent calendars have started to arrive on our doorstep – Gillian got the Purple Sprouting yarn calendar and Kylie is expecting the Yeah Yeah Yarn advent. We’re both expecting one from Eskdale, and Gill is also expecting one from KiwiYarn-A
The last purchase was a copy of the new Shetland Wool Week book. There’s some gorgeous patterns in there including a lace cardigan, slippers, socks, dog coat and a poncho!
WIP’s
Kylie has picked up her Misurina sweater using Fibre2go Silk/Merino. The main colour is Light Hydrangea and the purple contrast yarn is Honesty. This is a lightweight spring/summer project so it got put away during winter, but now it’s become the perfect weather to wear it in so time to get it off the needles!!
The other thing Kylie has been working on is her DRK Everyday socks in her handspun. This has been a very long project as she hates knitting ribbing!! The sock are turning out fabulous though and she’s going to get a lot of wear out of them, so it will be worth it!
Gill has been busy with casting on lots of different projects!! Katia Tokyo yarn is working up super fun in a pair of socks which are matching really well! Another fun set of striping socks is with lefover zauberball and uneek socks.
Shawls that Gill is working on includes the Striped Esjen by Westknits using one of last year’s Christmas yarns from Harnie Hoolie’s in the Frankensense colourway; Raku from Hedgehog and some lovely alpaca fluff from Purple Sprouting. Another shawl is a mix of a few patterns, and a handmade gradient out of 12 x 20g minis. The patterns being used include The Everyday Shawl, Kallara by Ambah O’Brian, the Atiru shawl from Aroha Knits along with a 2 stitch i-cord cast on and edge from the Smash and Puny pattern.
Mittens are still being knit by Gill for her Wellington friends Christmas gifts. The bamboo field mittens are being knit in some lovely green BC Garn Loch Lomond Bio GOTS.
Gill has also been working away at a couple of long term blanket projects including a scrappy granny square crochet blanket as well as adding a few more squares of her mitred square blanket.
Finished Projects
Kylie has been doing some dishclothes for school teacher gifts. She’s been using some Sugar N Cream cotton yarn and a free dishcloth recipe.
The enormous Klementyna crochet shawl is done! It looks fantastic, wouldn’t you agree? It was made using a Scheepjes fingering weight cotton whirl in the Pistachi oh so nice colourway, purchased at Good Wool Hunting. Here’s a copy of the chart which is free on pinterest:
Gillian finished 2 pairs of mittens – the first using the Sock Hands pattern and some Miro Yarns BFL. The second pair using the Pioneer Gloves pattern and the most perfect yarn that she has ever knit with. The wool for the yarn comes from Starcrest Farm, which we bought some fibre off when we were in New Plymouth – the yarn is Wild Earth Yarns Aspen 4ply in the Hickory colourway.
And of course Gill has done some gorgeous spinning, using 2 Twisted Zisters batts combined together to make a gorgeous gradient handspun yarn.
Kylie shared her last 2 gnomes today. Choose Your Gnome Adventure was the most recent mystery gnome, allowing for the selection of the gnome size and yarn size. A Christmas gift gnome was made using the Never Not Gnoming pattern, which is a lovely go to basic gnome (and actually is the first of Imagined Landscapes’ many gnome patterns!)
Machine Knitting
Kylie has been busy on her sock knitting machine – playing with the new 72 needle cylinder and ribber. Gillian stayed after we podcasted and knit two sock blanks so watch this space to see them transform into wearable socks in the near future!
Giftalong 2022
This year is the 10th year of the Indie Design Gift-A-Long. @indiegiftalong on Instagram.; #giftalong2022 and #GAL2022 on socials.
What is Gift-A-Long? It’s a multi-designer promotion to help you kick your holiday gift-making into high gear!
The Indie Design Gift-A-Long is an almost 6 week long KAL/CAL of holiday gifts made from patterns designed by a rather extensive list of independent designers. From November 22nd, 2022 at 5:00 pm US Eastern time zone to December 31, 2022 at midnight US Eastern time zone there will be fun games, contests, and 8 KAL/CALs that will help you get your holiday knitting and crocheting done with companionship and fun! You can read all about the details in this post: click here, or on the FAQ page in our group pages.
Cup of Tea and a Yarn 