What I made, by Sharon

My Kildalton cardigan is coming along, nicely but it is big, and lives in a big bag, and has three charts.I can cram it into my bicycle pannier, but it's only worth doing it I have significant knitting time.


I wanted a small project that I could throw in a small bag just in case. In case of what, you may ask? In case I get stuck in a lift, and get unexpected knitting time. Or for when I'm going out for coffee with my boss, or I'm in the waiting room at the physio. Enough time to get a bit done, but not worth carrying around a huge cardigan, opening a chart, starting a long row. So I cast on for a kippah. I'm planning on making three of these as channukah gifts - two in black and red for my brother and nephew (it's Essendon football team colours) and one in multi coloured self striping for my father. I finished the first one during the week. Here it is, in need of a good blocking! I've ordered a polystyrene head because I think that's going to be the best way…

I dislike the way everything (on the internet at least) has to be either 5 stars - GREAT FANTASTIC BEST EVER or 1 star TERRIBLE THE WORST. I think it's okay that sometimes things are just solid. And that's how my week has been.

In knitting I'm working away on Kildalton. It has lots of cables, but once they are set up they are fairly intuitive. I've divided for the backs and fronts, and finished the right front, so it's not a slow knit. Of course, making cropped garments is always a recipe for fast. In reading I'm reading a Netgalley book again - The Misfortunes of Family by Meg Little Reilly.

It a really solid read. A well written, interesting novel about family, what it means to belong and the trappings of privilege. I won't be raving to my friends that they HAVE to read this, but I'm certainly enjoying it, and looking forward to seeing where it is going. 

And that's my week. Solid, enjoyable, full of cables and novels. I'm linking up with Kat fr…

This year Sonia (the founder of the Richmond Knitters) organised a content for sOctober - or Socktober, as everyone except me likes to call it. The categories were:


I was fortunate enough to win in two categories, one for most creative Ava patterned socks, and one for any socks made with HalfDyed handbaked yarn. The prizes were all ridiculously lovely sock yarn, donated by Sonia. I feel particularity lucky, because the first yarn I got was this:


It's Skein yarn "Bendigo or Bust" which they dyed for Bendigo this year, and by the time I wandered over to their stall at 2pm on the Saturday, it was all gone.

I also got this skein of Half-Baked Handdyed yarn, which seems fitting and it stunning.


It was a very fun month. Now, lets see if I can resist knitting any socks at all for the next month or two.

Thanks to Sonia for organising, donating and all she does for the Richmond Knitters.

Last Friday I was getting my next project ready to start. I got out the yarn, which I had ordered 6 weeks before, and was joking with Leon about how weird it would be to knit on six millimetre needles, after a full month knitting socks on 2mm needles. "Hold up" says Leon, do you have 6mm needles". "Sure I replied, I bought the Chiaogoo set that goes up to 6mm". And then I got a bad feeling, and checked, and found out I have the Chiaogoo set that goes up to 5mm". Luckily we were meeting Kris that night, and she brought me, and lent me the 6mm needles. What a lifesaver.


After that dramatic pre-start, the knitting was pretty straightforward and fun, and only took three days, although it was a glorious three days, including a trip to our local, a very rainy homebound Saturday and visit to a brewery on Sunday. 
The jumper is quite large, but the baby this is for is going to be born in late November, so I figure it's for next winter. 

Wondering what the tag at…

I didn't think of taking a photo of all my sOctober socks together until I was pulling them out of the wash last night, so here is a picture of 5 pairs of wet socks:

;

I guess my plan to half-arse sOctober, and not be all socks all the time did not succeed! I reused the same yarns for some of the socks, so there are two pairs with Half-Baked Handdyed self stripping, two with glitter yarn and two with the grey Socks Yeah. This does take my total for 2019 to 15 pairs of socks, but I think there won't be any more this year, so that's not too much of an overshoot. And here's another photo of the month's efforts drying o the line:
As usual on the first Thursday of the month I'm linking up with Once Upon a Sock. Click on through to see what the rest of the crew did with their sOcotober.

What a week it's been! Last Wednesday off work for Harry Porter and the Cursed Child, (which was amazing) this Tuesday a public holiday for a stupid horse race (but I'll take the public holiday)  and lots of knitting in between.




With sOctober finished,  I've actually knit something that isn't socks - a baby jumper on 6mm needles. It's blocking right now, so I'll be back with a full report and pictures later in the week.

Then I cast on Kate Davies Kildalton cardigan - just yesterday, so here's a picture of the bottom ribbing ans the start of the first repeat. It's not going to be  a quick knit, but I think it will be a valuable addition to my wardrobe. And I just love that colour.

After abandoning The Secret Messenger  and feeling very strange about Muriel Spark's The Girls of Slender MeansI started to worry that I was in a reading slump. I don't usually have reading slumps, so this was a bit shocking. I decided to read An Everyday Hero, by Lauran T…