Little Cabin Knits is a biweekly podcast all about knitting, mental health, advocacy, my pregnancy journey, and life happenings here in the wilds of Alaska with a little bit of Hygge sprinkled throughout. I’m your host Emily. I am a knitter, crafter, mental health therapist, and explorer of my home state of Alaska
This week’s episode contains:
Admin
’Raise a Cuppa
On the Couch
On the Shelf
A Time for Hygge
Contemplation Corner
Admin:
Andersmillknits on IG and Ravelry
Between Knits and Purls on YouTube
You can find all the show notes on our official website: www.betweenknitsandpurls.com
If you have a question, or comment you can email me at littlecabinknitsAK@gmail.com
The Hygge Home Swap sign up is now closed. Thank you to everyone who signed up and you should now have your partners information emailed to you. Remember to have your swap package out by March 4th!!!!
I just saw on our Ravelry group of Between Knits and Purls there is a thread going entitled "EMILY DO NOT LOOK" lol it gave me such the giggles. No idea what you guys are up to but I do love a good secret so I promise not to look my friends lol.
“Project Down Along” is going strong! I am seeing a lot of people post on IG and on the Ravelry thread their FO's so keep it coming!
PAL (project Along) is running from January 1- May 31st
We have a new prize donor for the PAL! Alexandria of wee_ewe_knits on IG has very generously donated 8 prizes of her patterns! Winners will receive the code to download 1 of her patterns for free from Ravelry!!!!
listen to past epsiodes for a list of all the other amazing donations/prizes we have for this KAL/PAL
o Remember to use the hashtag #projectdownalong2022 on IG and I’ve also opened a FO thread in our Revelry group of Between Knits and Purls.
’Raise a Cuppa
These past two weeks have been, in a word, exhausting both emotionally and physically. To the point my friends that I finally gave in and took yesterday and today off work. I just needed a break. The past few months have been both stressful and wonderful and I needed some time for self-care.
Last week my husbands beloved grandmother Jean past away suddenly. She was 96 and the glue to his family. Even though we hadn't been able to visit her in person since covid started we talked to her on the phone regularly and Mr Radio has been keeping her updated on all our exciting news. She was over the moon about our wedding and the news that we are expecting and her greatest wish was to be here when her newest great grandchild was born. Sadly that did not happen and it has been very hard to absorb for all of Mr. Radio's family.
We had a beautiful memorial service for her this week in which we had no set program but instead we all sat around her open casket and recalled stories. It was especially beautiful when I would her either Mr. Radio, one of his siblings, or his cousins relate a fond memory and other people report with a little giggle "I'd forgotten about that."
Mr. Radio's aunt was there and she told us so many stories of growing up with Mr. Radios mother, who sadly past away many years ago, and what it was like growing up with Grandma Jean as a mother. I will cherish the memory of that day as both precious and incredibly sad.
After the memorial, Mr. Radio, his brother and sister, myself and one other all went to have a farewell lunch at Burger Jim's a local burger join that was grandma's favorite. It was a bittersweet meal as Mr. Radio's sister only had an hour before she had to race back to the airport but we crammed as much love into that hour as we could.
I feel so blessed to be a part of such a loving family, both with my immediate family and now to be a part of Mr. Radios means so much to me.
In other news, we have begun the remodeling of the master bedroom (formally my office and our storage room) transforming it back into the master. We painted the walls a light but very calming blue, painted the doors and moldings a bright white, tore up the carpet, spent a whole day scrapping the sub floor clean of staples and junk and then had a three day saga of getting our floors level again to put in the vinyl wood flooring.
This last part we have been blessed to be helped by one of Mr. Radio's good friend and another radio host who's nickname on air is Beetnick - so that's what everyone calls him these days. Beetnick has a passion for remodeling and to say that he is a self learned expert in the field is an understatement so his help has been simply invaluable with the flooring because even though our foundation was fixed we discovered that our floors are still very uneven and it was an arduous process to get them all level for the new flooring.
Mr. Radio has about 3/4ths of the floor done but it has been slow going as he keeps getting hurt, and the flooring keeps breaking - we've decided to take back the leftovers from this room and get a higher grade flooring for the spare room and the rest of the house because this stuff is just to thin and poor quality to work with. Don't get me wrong it looks great on the floor and feels great too but the process of putting it in has been a nightmare.
Mr. Radio is leaving the radio business for now. He has been contemplating it for the last year. The business is very draining, radio hosts do multiple jobs with very little compensation and he rarely has a day off. So when we found out we were expecting he started putting his resume out there. He has taken a job with the municipality (or the city of Anchorage as they may say in the lower 48). He keeps telling me that he feels really good about this move, both because it provides us with a livable wage and benefits, but also stability and weekends to spend with the baby and me. I can't help feeling a sense of guilt though my friends as I know just how much he has loved being in radio for the past 20 years. I wonder sometimes if I am struggling with the change more than he is.
The other day I posted about him on social media and referred to him by Mr. Radio and he asked me "are you gonna give me a new nickname now that I won't be in the business anymore?" I looked at him in shock and replied "no way! you will always be Mr. Radio!" So though he won't be in the business anymore his nickname will remain my friends.
So you see between all the health scares we had at Christmas with our beloved dog, and my dads massive heart attack and multiple emergency surgeries, then loosing a cousin, and now loosing grandma, add in the changes my body has been through the past 5 months being pregnant, the house being remodeled and in upheaval, and now Mr. Radio career change, I hit a wall this week and had to admit that I just needed some time to rest. I have been finding myself knitting an incredible amount these past two weeks and I recognize that it is in response to all the stress build up for as we know our crafting is at once both an outlet and a solace to us during trying times.
With this idea of rest in mind, I decided not to include my usual segment of "personal skill set" this episode. While I adore that segment it does take an enormous amount of time to prepare and write up and I felt that it wasn't in line with my resting goal for this week. However I have so much to share in knitting that we have no lack of content. lol
On the Couch
For on the couch this week I have really just one project. However, I did take the time last week to write out my goals for knitting for baby and thought I would share that with you here.
Baby Jimmy Knit Goals
Jelly Roll Blanket (aprox 50% done)
Anker's Onsie
A romper
Sweater kit from Wool & Honey for the Little Sprite Sweater
Blanket kit from Wool & Honey for the Ziggy Baby Blanket
A toy bear (either crocheted or knit - undecided)
Crib Mobile (probably crocheted)
3 hats for new born
3 hats for months 3-6
6 pairs of new born socks
4 diaper covers
4 bibs
8 wash clothes
Sleep sack (completed in 2021)
Moose (completed Feb 2022)
The one Project I currently have on the needles is:
The pattern is not found on Ravelry, at least that I can tell but honestly it is pretty much the exact same pattern that I used to knit my girlfriend her baby blanket back in October called the Chevron Baby Blanket which is a free pattern as well.
I bought the kit from wool and honey when they were having their customer appreciation sale earlier in January.
The blanket is knit in Big Bad Wool the weepace base. I had never worked with this yarn before and let me tell you it is so soft and luxurious! the make up is 50% fine washable wool, 50% baby alpaca and each skein only has 95 yards. The kit came with 8 colorways to be knit up in the following order:
mustard
leaf
minty
raw white
ashes
water
wink
and great lakes
I have knit trough the mustard colorway with about 4 yards left over, and am now on the leaf colorway.
I plan on making a magic cake ball out of scraps to knit baby Jimmy up a little hat to go with it.
On the Shelf
On the Shelf this week is pretty major. I have a total of 8 projects completed! 6 of which have never spoken of on the show because I cast on and completed them in just these past two weeks!
First lets start with my latest FO for the #projectdownalong2022
Socks for Sister in Law knit with Online Sock Yarn in 6 ply or DK weight in the colorway 01001 and I also held that double with a mohair lace in pink for the heels and toes. knit on US size 1 needles so a very tight gauge!
I started this project back in March of 2021 and set it aside as it was hurting my hands to knit. But when I discovered my sister in law was coming up for the memorial service I determined to dig it out and have it done for her.
I designed this pattern myself. I will not be publishing it however, you are free to use my notes, as I wrote up everything I did on my project page in Ravelry (linked in the shownotes for this episode).
I love how these turned out and so did my sister in law and other family members they were oohing and ahhing over them at the lunch we had after the memorial service to the point that I was a tad embarrassed.
My goal in knitting these was to have something for my sister in law to wear while working in the cold winter wet months on her farm. I may have mentioned before that she rescues mules and horses that otherwise would be put down. She does this all out of her own pocket and love of the animals. She recently lost her beloved horse which was a very old race horse and I what with that and the loss of her grandmother I really wanted her to have something to comfort her right now.
this makes 4 finished objects from my languishing wips pile in 2022!
3 hats from my Sentro Knitting Machine.
I had some leftover yarn from the sister in law socks and wanted her to also have a hat so I made her a double thick hat on my knitting machine with contrasting yarn for the brim in Loops and Threads Flecks Mouchetures Base in the colorway 27 blue lapis. To tell the truth I am not really very happy with the finished product but it does look cute on. I just need to get a pick with my sister in law wearing it!
I had some trouble getting my sentro knitting machine to work right. I had a lot of failed projects that day. I think I started and had to rip out 4 other hats before I finally got it working right so when I did I decided to keep going.
I knit up a double thick hat for my sister in laws husband too out of Knit Picks wool of the Andes in the currant colorway. I used 2 skeins for his hat which turned out the best of the bunch if I do say so. the yarn weight is absolutely perfect for this machine!
One of my experiments that day was also to see how the machine would handle knitting up fingering weight held double. I had recently pulled out all the yarn from a blanket I frogged using Noro silk in the world of nature line. colorway S184.
The machine struggled to pick up both strands and I had to go pretty darn slow throughout this project to make it work. In the end I ended up with another double think hat but what I noticed is that the yarn stitches were pretty loose. So after soaking the hat I threw it in the dryer for 15 minutes to try and tighten everything up. It sort of worked, however I also notice that the yarn looks to be knit on a bias, which ofcoarse it wasn't knit up that way. It does look rather cute on but I have to say I hate how it looks not on a head lol.
so those are my 3 finished knitting machine hats.
I knit up 2 pairs of socks for Baby Jimmy using the Itty Bitty Teeny Weeny Socks pattern from Tracy Henwood
For both pairs of socks I used the Loops and Threads Perfect Pair sock yarn in the colorway River. This yarn is70% acrylic, 23% viscose from bamboo, and 7% polyester. I will be honest I have never used this yarn before but I wanted some handknit socks for Baby that I didn't also have to hand wash and this base really surprised me! It is really pleasant to work with and has a pretty cool stretch to it that I think will grow with the baby until at least 3 months of age.
In fact I like this yarn so much I am thinking of making Mr. Radio a pair to match baby's lol.
These knit up so fast! I can knit up a pair in 3 hours!!!! plus I love the garter stitch heels on these, I mean baby Jimmy doesn't need hard wearing heels so why not do something soft and squishy for the heel?
Anker's Onsie by Petite Knit
I used the colorway Christmas Confetti by Lucky Dog Yarn. I think it is so cute! Mr. Radio still thinks it looks like clown barf though. I told him he will be singing a different tune when it is on our baby boy.
I had to make some pretty hefty changes to how the legs and arms were knit for this project as I just wasn't going to have enough yarn if I hadn't. Plus my gauge was different in the round and I couldn't make her pattern directions work well. I am really happy with how this turned out. I am calling it done even though I don't have the buttons on the project because I need to go and find some buttons that will look just as cute as the project itself- am I weird in that I am thinking little green frogs?
Lastly I cast on and finished the Little Sprite Sweater kit by Wool and Honey that I also purchased when I got the ziggy baby blanket kit.
I knit this up in Big Bad Wool in the Weepaca base in the Tree Frog colorway.
I love the finished object. It has a mock turtle neck, with a placket and a cable running down the front. What I did not love was the incredibly sloppy way in which the pattern was written. To be honest I had to make to many corrections to the pattern that I felt I pretty much rewrote it. I don't want to go on a rampage about this but if you want to knit this sweater up, I advise looking at my project notes as I kept copious notes there about all the corrections and rewrites I made.
I cast this project on, on Tuesday and Wednesday night I finished it about midnight. I think I was so upset by the sloppy pattern writing that I was determined to fix it and get it done so I wouldn't have any bad mojo going into the sweater. In the end I was generous and said it took me 12 hours to knit but honestly what with taring back and rewrites it was closer to 20 hours.
I will say though that Mr. Radio and I simply love the finished project and can't wait to put it on our little boy!
A Time for Hygge
My house is in chaos at the moment. Our little condo is less than 700 square feet with very little storage space. So this remodel of the rooms has us in complete uproar. Our living room currently has all the stuff from the master bedroom and is doubling as my office space. It feels messy and cramped even though we are constantly cleaning because of all the dust we are kicking up with the construction it just never seems quiet clean enough. It also doesn't feel very restful or peaceful.
So Mr. Radio and I have made the room we have been using as our bedroom into a sort of haven. We've piled all the comfy blankets and pillows onto the bed, and made the rule that we will not bring the construction equipment into that space. We have multiple candles going in there every night when we retire to bed, which to be honest has been about 7:30pm every night as we are so exhausted. And we try to reframe from talking about all the things going on when we are in that space.
We all pile into the bed and either I read aloud to us, or Mr. Radio checks his twitter and reddit feeds while I knit on projects and watch movies that bring comfort and laughter rather than suspense and fear. Last night we watched the two newest Jumanji movies and it was perfect accompaniment to my working on the baby blanket as we cuddled next to each other snuggled down in out pile of blankets and pillows.
Later in the evening, we put on deep space nine and Mr. Radio feeds us with crackers or apples and cheese as a midnight snack (we have to make sure my glucose doesn't go to low while we sleep so these snacks have become essential).
Finding a place of peace and solace when your world is in chaos can feel daunting and overwhelming. It can feel as if the worries follow you no matter where you go. It requires us to make a conscious effort to remove those from our conscious mind and concentrate on relaxing and finding peace where we are.
I encourage you to make a conscious effort to dedicate a place in your home that is removed from the stress and chaos of your world.
Contemplation Corner
"True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment." - William Penn
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