Two Weeks to Ohio

Oh, hello, middle of July. How on earth did you get here?

It's hard for me to believe that it's almost August already. I've been enjoying the lazy days of summer a bit too much, I think. And now, I have to face the realities:

• I move in two weeks.
• My work at Miami begins in five weeks.
• My classes begin in six weeks.

Okay, when you put it like that it doesn't seem so terrible.

Only mildly terrible.

I've been attempting to be mildly productive lately. I have 75 percent of my fall class planned. My syllabus is ready for review and I've even tried making it into a handy infographic. I'll be meeting with my mentor, Jim, in a couple of weeks to talk about this. I still have some gaps in my schedule and I'm feeling uncertain about my assignments just yet, but I'm sure I'll feel better about that after meeting with Jim.

I've also been doing some prep work for my role as an assistant director of the business writing initiative. This week, I've been reading The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. I have to admit it feels strange to come to such a practical guide about peer tutoring when I already have some experience with that under my belt. It's also weird for it to cite one of the professors from my bachelor's program so frequently.

This is really important prep work because I'm going to be presenting at the International Writing Center Association conference in October. My presentation is going to be about training new graduate student director/tutors and taking on the multiple identities required. I'm really excited about this presentation, but I need to be taking a few more notes on the prep work I'm doing now. It will definitely make writing that presentation easier come October.

I also bought myself a Happy Planner recently. This planner has become my current obsession because I'm kind of in a weird knitting place. I had to return some yarn (it just wasn't going to work out) and since then I've been feeling really bummed about knitting. Instead, I just look at planner stickers on etsy all day because that's a completely normal and productive thing to do. I'm thinking about making a post about organization/planning soon because oooooh boy is there a bizarre "planning community" out there.

Star Sand, Star Trek, and Stardew Valley

Is there anything worse than not getting much sleep?

Yes. I think so. It's not getting enough sleep even when there is literally no reason to be awake.

Boo had to get up at four o'clock this morning to go to work (this unusual), so we tried to go to bed early last night. The problem was I could not sleep. Maybe it was because I'd slept in. Maybe it was because I had a mocha and one of those yerba mate tea drinks during the day. When we went to bed at 10:30, I was not tired.

So I decided to read a book. I had gotten an email from Amazon asking me to leave a review for the novel Star Sand by Roger Pulvers, which I started a while ago when it was offered to me free the month before it released since I'm a Prime member (this is, honestly, one of my favorite things about my Prime membership). When I picked it up last night, I was at 16% complete. So I read for a while, and finally got to sleep.

But you know those nights when you don't quite get a good sleep? When you notice every sound and motion and movement? Last night was one of those nights. So when Boo's alarm went off at 4:00 this morning, I was not surprised to wake up. I was not even surprised to feel like I couldn't go back to sleep. So I picked up Star Sand again. And I finished it.

Now, to be fair, the paperback version of this is apparently 206 pages long, which means finishing it in a few hours isn't really that crazy. I didn't love the book, but I also didn't hate it. Written in three parts, it feels oddly fragmented. Part I is a diary, Part II is a military report on the events in Part I, and Part III is a reflection of someone who studied the diary in Part I. Part I is excellent: suspenseful and intriguing, a bit of a thrill. Part III sort of annoyed me, even though I ultimately enjoyed the resolution of the overall plot. (Don't know what star sand is? Check out Ella Morton's 2015 article "The Star-Shaped Sand of Okinawa" from Slate's Atlas Obscura.)

I also finally watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture. We tried to watch this a while ago, but both Boo and I feel asleep in the middle of it. To be honest, I turned it on thinking "eh, I might fall asleep again. But oh well!" I'm kind of surprised I didn't, though. There were certainly some moments where I thought I was going out, but I somehow managed to stay awake through the whole thing this time. I'm glad I watched it, but I don't know that I'll be watching again any time soon. At least I have plenty of other Star Trek to keep me occupied.

There's one more "star" I haven't mentioned, and that's Stardew Valley. I've been passing a lot of time playing this the last couple of days: time that perhaps could have been better served planning for my fall classes. Whoops. Most of my friends now I have a slight obsession with The Sims. I've been playing them for years, and I even invest my money in the fourth iteration even though I don't find it nearly as fun as the third. I keep playing it because my laptop doesn't have the power to run Sims 3. 

Anyway, Boo sent me Stardew Valley on Steam this weekend, billing it as part Sims, part Animal Crossing (another game I love), and part Harvest Moon (which I'm totally unfamiliar with). I now can't stop playing this game. The goal is to re-start a farm that's been let go by cleaning up your land, building new buildings, planting and harvesting crops, tending animals. Holy crap is it addictive! In fact, I'm probably going to rack up a few more hours on this game as soon as I hit "publish" on this post.

Now that I'm out of "fun" reading, I'm open to suggestions. Let me know a good read in the comments!

Long Distance Knits {Episode 2}

So, the blog part of my blog is sorely neglected. BUT I managed to make another episode of my podcast Long Distance Knits. You can watch it below:

{Things I Discuss}

{Projects} TAATU Socks, Sock Yarn Blankie, Absolute Delight, Trusty Rusty Socks

{Patterns} Toes by Terry by Terry Schmidt, Fish Lips Kiss Heel by Patty Joy, The Coziest Memory by Kemper Wray, Bradway by Shannon Cook, Simple Skyp Socks by Adrienne Ku, and Season's Promise by Melissa Schaschwary

{Yarns} Claudia Handpainted Yarns Addition, Knit Picks Stroll Tonal, Cascade Yarns Cloud, Cascade Yarns Eco Cloud, Rock and String Creations Jitterbug Fingering

{Shops & Dyers} LoloDidIt

{Long Distance Knits} Episode 1

Happy Friday, ya'll!

Earlier this week I sat down and recorded the first episode of my podcast (mostly) dedicated to knitting. Boy was that a learning experience!

I've been thinking about trying my hand at podcasting for a while. I feel oddly vulnerable about sharing it. BUT I'm doing it! So, here's my first episode:

{Things I Discuss}

{Patterns} Clapotis by Kate Gilbert, Flax by Tin Can Knits, Socks on a Plane by Laura Linneman, Ardent by Janina Kallio, The Coziest Memory Blanket by Kemper Wray, Toes by Terry by Terry Schmidt, Fish Lips Kiss Heel by Patty Joy

{Yarns} Blue Heron Rayon Metallic, I Love This Yarn!, Vice Paradigm, Frabjous Fibers & Wonderland Yarns Mad Hatter, Claudia Handpainted Yarns Addiction

{Podcasts} Grocery Girls, Inside Number 23, Stuff Mom Never Told You, Presidential

{Shops and Dyers} Mrs. Brown's Bags, Bags by Terry, Rock and String Yarn

Please give me a shoutout, let me know if you'd like to join my knitting adventures, and follow me on instagram and ravelry!

Off the Needles: Wine Country Hiraeth

Whew! I haven't posted in almost a month, but that's because I was really planning to make this a video blog. That just didn't work out. I'd love to do some videos soon, but I just don't think that's going to happen right away.

So, let me tell you more about this wonderful shawl I finished almost a month ago, in mid-March. As I said in my last blog about this project, Hiraeth is a gorgeous shawl by Rae Gronmark, available on Ravelry. Hiraeth is about longing and homesickness, and I made my shawl to remind me of beautiful Colorado wine country.

Finally finished!

However, it was an exhausting knit! By the time I finished the garter stripe section, I was dreading each row because there are so many stitches on the needle. Starting the lace section was intimidating. I must have been knitting a little looser than gauge afterall because I ran out of yarn and didn't complete the final repeat. I have a bit left over and I might have made it if I'd kept going, but I was relieved to have an excuse to stop knitting.

All that begin said, I love this shawl. I'm still trying to figure out the best ways to style it or how to wrap it to get a little bit of all its elements. It's truly lovely and I've gotten so many compliments on it.

There are so many gorgeous options for creating a Hiraeth. What colors would you choose, and what will they remind you of?

Half-Off the Needles: A Nice Ribbed Sock

I don't think this project should be called "A Nice Ribbed Sock." It was not very nice to me! The finished result is quite lovely, but OH MAN was it a beast to conquer!

Let me be clear: the pattern here is not terrible. It was a little finicky once I got through the gusset and had to purl the first stitch on needle 2. For some reason, my DPNs and I just were not getting along to do this. I wish I had only knit the ribbing down the ankle and then done a vanilla pattern across the top of the foot. Live and learn, though, I suppose. Now I just need to muster up the courage to make the second one.

Finally! A Finished Sock!

It didn't help that these socks are a gift and the recipient has a much bigger foot than I. I feel like I flew through my first pair of socks. I'm now completely thankful I have smaller feet, even though that also means I never get to trade shoes with my friends, who are all in the size-9 range. But the extra inch or so of knitting on the foot of this sock was a real struggle for me. Once I have finished and gifted these, I'll share the color photos. But I'm trying to keep it a secret in case the lucky lady stumbles upon this blog, especially since I might not be giving these until Christmas.
Now, I had totally intended these to be a birthday gift but I did not plan accordingly for that. So I've pushed them back to Christmas, even though that's a long way away. I definitely need a break from knitting on them. In fact, I didn't even bring this yarn or these needles with me on my spring break trip. (I'm determined to finish that Hiraeth this week before I start anything else!).

So, Glenna C's pattern "A Nice Ribbed Sock" is a great pattern. It's very well-written and easy to follow. I used size US 1.5 DPNs (2.5 mm) and Knit Pick Stroll Tonal in Pansy. Stroll Tonal is a superwash wool (75% Merino, 25% nylon) that gives you 462 yards in 100 gram hanks. I've been knitting with it a lot because it's super soft and is pretty affordable! It's even better when you can snag it on sale.

I really enjoyed how the colors ended up pooling together! I can't wait until I can share it in color!

I think I need to work on my gauge/knowing what my gauge is because I counted rows and discovered I was knitting a bit tight (like an extra 10 rows in 4 inches). I tried to accommodate by knitting a bit longer before the toe decrease and somehow, magically, my toe ended up being 2" anyway, even though my row count was off. I'm going to just cross my fingers that these socks turn out okay (especially since they're a gift!), and of course offer to re-do them if they're too big.

I really love knitting on DPNs but I'm planning to snag a long circular needle so that I can try magic loop for the second one. What are your favorite tips or tricks for making socks?

Off The Needles: Clapotis

I want to share with you one of my favorite projects. Sadly, this is also a project where I've really splurged on the yarn. It was so, so worth it though.

I just totally fell in LOVE with this yarn (you might notice a theme here) while perusing Knitorious, a fantastic yarn shop in St. Louis, this summer. I had gone in looking for something to inspire me to knit and ended up spending over an hour just looking at (and touching!) their yarn offerings. I kept finding myself going back to this bright, sparkly yarn. I didn't have any projects in mind so I just browsed and browsed. But I decided I had to have that sparkly yarn. I couldn't leave the store without it.

That yarn was Blue Heron Rayon Metallic in Parrot. That yarn was not cheap.

The colors really turned out lovely.

It was worth the price, as was the excellent help I got from Knitorious. Sandy spoke with me for a long time about what I could knit with this gorgeous yarn, clicking their computer over to Ravelry and letting me surf through projects completed with a skein of Blue Heron Rayon Metallic (550 yards, DK weight, handpainted). After a while, I decided on the Clapotis by Kate Gilbert, using modified instructions shared by Linda (lwachter on Ravelry) in her own Clapotis project. Then Sandy wound my yarn up and sent me on my way to knit this shawl in about ten days.

So pretty!

I did have some yarn leftover, so I probably could have knit just a bit more. I don't usually have as much time to knit, so I really relished the summer break and my ability to knit all day every day for about a week. I ended up with a project that became my favorite wrap. I wear it all the time and get tons of compliments on it.

I didn't block this item and, to be honest, I don't usually wear it stretched open, either. Normally, I just wrap it around my neck like a regular scarf. But I recently also got a something that could work as a shawl pin and decided to wear it open last week. AHHHHH! I couldn't stop looking at it.

This wrap really looks nice scrunched up but it looks amazing when you can actually see all those ladders. It was perhaps a bit grand for teaching but I loved it.

When I'm feeling like splurging again, I'd definitely like to get another colorway of this. What would you knit with this gorgeous yarn?

On The Needles: Hiraeth

I just fell in love with the Hiraeth pattern by Rae Gronmark when I saw it getting shared earlier this year. For a while she had made it available for free, but it's now a paid pattern on Ravelry.

Gronmark says that "Hiraeth is a Welsh term that, loosely translated, conveys a homesickness or longing for somewhere you cannot return or that perhaps never was." While the natural colors inspired by the ocean were beautiful, they aren't really my style. Instead, I wanted a scarf that would remind me of a place I currently cannot return: Colorado Wine Country. My family visited Palisade back in 2014 and we had a marvelous time exploring the wineries tucked into the area. It's just gorgeous! But I live in Indiana and I'm not sure when I'll next get back out to Colorado.

Clockwise from top: Kindling, Thunderhead, and Wine Tasting, fresh from being wound.

I queued up my Wine Country Hiraeth back in September of 2015, but I didn't actually start until January. First I had to find the perfect yarn. After much deliberation, I ordered KnitPicks Stroll Tonal in Wine Tasting, Thunderhead, and Kindling as a birthday gift from my parents. Stroll Tonal is 75% superwash merino wool, 25% nylon. It's pretty soft and squishy and knits up well. It's $10.99 for most colors (a couple are currently discounted!), and you get 462 yards in a 100-gram hank. Though a bit more expensive than most acrylic yarns I've worked with, it's pretty hard to find acrylic fingering weight (does it even exist?) and eleven bucks a hank is much friendlier for a multi-skein project like Hiraeth. Since I'll have some leftover Thunderhead and Wine Tasting, I'll probably be able to get at least one pair of socks out of this yarn, too.

The Bee Stitch is made by knitting below the stitch. Super easy!

This is definitely going to be a labor of love. At first, I was really into this project. The bee stitch was easy and the tonal yarn I'd selected was fantastic for it. Once I got into the garter stripes section and the number of stitches on the needle continued to grow (one stitch is added on every right side row), I got to feeling a little overwhelmed. I don't think I've ever hated a garter row more than trying to work on the garter stripes. And there was definitely a part of me that thought, you could just bind off and skip the lace section. It would still be beautiful.

The Hiraeth pattern is also oddly shaped, making it hard to get all of it in one picture if you're going to see any texture.

But I persevered. I finished the second "border section" Saturday and quickly posted it to my Instagram. I'm feeling quite apprehensive about moving on to the lace section, partly because I screwed up one lace shawl so badly that I had to give up on it for months. I also do not want to end up ripping out a bunch of 180+ stitch rows. That does not sound like a good time to me. And since one row can take a good 20 minutes to knit in garter, I can only imagine what it's going to be like with YOs and K2Togs. I think I might throw a few stitches of worsted on some other needles and test out the lace section before I attempt it in my actual project.

Anyone else knitting Hiraeth? I'd love to hear how your process has gone! What else do you readers have on your needles right now?

Welcome

Welcome to Not Another Yarn Pun, my fancy new corner of the internet for writing about knitting.

I'm Caitlin, and I'm an composition instructor and soon-to-be-PhD student. I've been obsessed with knitting for almost two years now. It started with a circular loom after watching my friend Kaylin knit up a thick scarf on one. So one night I bought my own circular loom set and got to work knitting up a scarf for my mom for Christmas. After that scarf, I moved on to a dishcloth on regular needles and it was pretty much all downhill from there.

Lately, I've been working on big and somewhat frustrating projects. I'm knitting up a pair of socks and though the pattern is easy, I just get a little bored with it. I seem to have misplaced a blanket I've been working on but only noticed that when I'd decided to pick it back up after nearly a month of not knitting on it. Oops.

It's kind of weird to be a young knitter. My friends (lovingly) tease me about my "old lady" habits (knitting is not the only one), and my partner and family are super supportive even though they're probably tired of my only asking for knitting-related items for gifts. Thanks to my boo, I have a wonderful set of Addi Clicks that I never would have purchased on my own but that I love so so so much.

I've been inspired to create this blog in a couple of ways. Lately, I've gotten addicted to knitting videos and podcasts. It started with Nicole at Hue Loco but my absolute favorites are the Grocery Girls. It's really fun and exciting to follow them "from the ground up" so to speak. I find myself lusting over the gorgeous yarns they talk about it. Alas, I have to be on a strict budget and don't spend often get to splurge on fancy yarn (though there are some occasions when I just do it anyway). Because I'm always trying to keep finances in mind while fueling an expensive hobby I love, I try to keep an eye out for sales and discounts or for quality yarn at a lower price. I love finding patterns that are well-written, gorgeous, and FREE! I love watching and seeing gorgeous yarn, but I wouldn't be able to knit anything if I was always saving up for it.

After trying, to no avail, to convince Kaylin to start a web series with me, I've instead turned to this new blog. Though I'd love to do a video cast or something similar, this is what we'll have for now: Not Another Yarn Pun. I love writing and keep telling myself I'm not doing enough of it, so it just made sense to kick things off by writing about my knitting.

You can find me on at cookingandcomp on Ravelry, Instagram, and Twitter.