What I made, by Sharon

I love summer, and we've finally had some some days where it is warm enough to sit outside with the reading and knitting. As I said earlier in the week, I'm making the most of the nice weather, and  knitting the summery Conic, by Cookie A. I'm up to the first sleeve, which is also the back, because it's a rather strange design. I am happy to be cruising into this busy period with some straightforward knitting in the round - straightforward now I have finished the cables, anyway. I have quite a few social events coming up - oddly enough mainly birthdays, rather than Christmas, so simple and in the round is definitly the best.

 I'm reading Fool's Quest the second last of Robin Hobb's Fitz and the Fool series. I'm half way through. Such an exciting book, and so many changes, and so much happening. If you are a fantasy fan, read this - but start all the way back at the beginning 15 books ago. What a journey!

And that's December's yarnalong. If you ne…

Saturday was the first day of summer, and Melbourne celebrated by having absolutely beautiful weather. It was also the first day in decades that Junction Oval - at the end of my street has hosted the cricket. The last couple of years have been spent renovating and reviving the ground, and it's lovely. So much smaller than the big stadiums,with grass to lounge on. And people giving away fairy wings. No idea why, but I enjoyed my day wearing them.

Needless to say, I got a lot of knitting done. I'm knitting the appropriately summery Conic, by Cookie A, out of a linen / wool mix. It was just so relaxing and pleasant, and  sign of things to come. Today the weather is much more ordinary, and I'm curled up at home, knitting and reading, but Saturday showed so much promise for the coming season - both in cricket, knitting and just relaxing in the sun. 
I'm also pretty excited about this shrug: it starts with the back panel, and then you pick up stitches for the sleeves and the f…

My mother asked me for socks, lace socks. I decided that the multi coloured sock yarn I got from Kris' destash would be perfect. Looking around Ravelry I found Embossed Leaves, from Interweave Favorite Socks, a book I bought sometime before 2011, which has survived my many and various culls. I really liked the way it looked in multi coloured yarn, and I really like the way it came out in the yarn I used. There are two odd things: It uses a different cast on, and I think I did it wrong, because in the Interweave pictures the cast on looks lovely, almost like a tubular cast-on. 

Mine looks fine, but not like that.I did the first and second differently - the second (on the right) is closer.
 And the toe shape is a bit interesting too.

It will be fine for my mother, she has very flat toes. partly because 25 years ago she had arthritis in her big toes and they removed the big toe joints. I've always joked that her fat little feet look like they have been hit on the ends by a hammer…

I knit this cute baby jumper out of left over sock yarn and FINALLY used up all my navy blue left overs. I'm pretty happy with it, I think it's really cute, and used 3 colours as well as the navy blue. It was quite a fun knit, although there were a lot of ends to sew in at the end. That's always the cost / benefit analysis when using LOSY. Now I've got two baby jumpers in the gift box, one grey and one blue. I think the next one will be a pink, purple and green one for girls.

Sonia, the hostess and founder of the Richmond Knitters decided to run a little competition during sOcktober. She donated a bunch of beautiful prizes, and made up a whole lot of catogories, including "most socks knit". Much to nobodies surprise, I won that category, with six pairs.

I chose this yarn as my prize, because it's really pretty. What I didn't realise until I saw it in real life (and you can't see in this photo) is that it has sparkles, and you all know how much I love sparkle yarn. The cat bag was also part of the prize, and it seems so appropriate for me and my cat based lifestyle. I think this yarn would be amazing as part of a two colour shawl - maybe paired with a dark green. Thanks to Sonia for organising, administrating and providing prizes, and all the Richmond Knitters for making it such a fun month. Now i presume this will be my last sOckober post until next year, but you really never know, do you?

What feels like a million years ago, Kate Jordan told me she was going to write a book, with patterns and a short istory of Wellington Train Station. She finished it and has published it as Onward Knits.  You can read what Kate has to say about it here, and see a preview of some of the patterns.

She  was kind enough to allow me to test knit, so before we went to Scotland, I knit Leon a pair of Sojourn gloves. I accidentally reversed the colours, without changing which side I held them on. Yet another lesson in colour dominance.


All the patterns in the book are lovely, and I'm going to use another of them for Leon's winter set 2019. She's having a launch party in Wellington, New Zealnad right now, and I wish I could be there. Instead I'm going to admire her designs, photography and stories, and plan what I should knit next.

You can see all the patterns, and buy the book here.