What I made, by Sharon

As mentioned yesterday , this has been a big travel week for me. Today I went to Seymour, and, as I had to wait for my train home, I found a lovely cafe, where I sat in a lovely courtyard, drank coffee and read my book. Bliss. After a long break I decided it was time to knit the next pair of socks from Rachael Coopey's "What Would Granny Weatherwax knit" club. It's the second last pair! These are called Greebo, and I'm knitting them in lovely Dyed by Hand yarn, which has such good stitch definition. Perfect for this pattern. I'm also listening to a Discworld book - Jingo . It's one of the Nightwatch books, and a jolly good listen. I'm reading the rather more serious The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks. It's a novelised history of the rise of King David. I guess it's appropriate, because the high holidays start on Monday, buy it was kind of dry and then got very intense, quite suddenly and rather unexpectedly, although I guess it w...

I'm having one of those weeks were work is sending me everywhere. I love it, so much knitting time! On Monday I went back to Wangaratta, and visited the Woolen Mill. I am intent on reducing my stash and knitting up what i have first, but last time I went to the mill, in April, I bought what I though was a jumper's worth of bright yellow patonyle. Then I decided I want to make Vitamin D , but with long sleeves, and possibly longer. Also, I actually need to start making my clothes bigger, because my shoulders have grown. But I can walk on my hands now, so it's all worth it. Anyway, I went to the mill and bought 100 grams of the yellow yarn. it's a different dye lot, so I'll have to stripe it in if I need it, but I am rather sick of playing yarn chicken. I'm really looking forward to casting on this cheerful cardigan.

I mentioned the other day that I had decided to knit another baby Suprise Jacket, this one out of the left overs from last years Buchaille yarn, plus some extra cascade pink I had left over. I thought I had loads of yarn, but half way through I realised I was going to cut it fine. Two thirds of the way through, and I was cutting off the tails of stripes to finish rows. I used every skerick of the Buchaille, and almost all of the Cascade.  I had to use colours I didn't think looked great together, because that was what I had. Leon looked at the piece on my needles and described it, kindly I thought, as "an art piece". i asked him what sort of art, and he said "conceptual". I went to knit night on Monday, cast off, and sewed in the ends. When I brought it home and showed Leon he said "that is surprising". And it is. I love it. 

I was so excited by how my h andspun Baby Surprise came out that I wanted to make a matching hat. Naturally I chose Elizabeth Zimmermann's baby bonnet, which is on the very next page of The Opinionated Knitter. So far it looks odd, but I know to trust Ms Zimmerman. I'm reading  Dewey   by Vicki Myron. It one of those single topic passion books. It's not bad, but the good bits aren't when she's carrying on about how amazing this cat is, but when Vicki is sharing her opinions, and passion for the small town where she lives. I'm listening to Love Your Sister , by Samuel and Connie Johnston. It's narrated by them, and I'm loving it. it's a very moving memoir - Connie has cancer three times,and is terminal. That's not a spoiler, they tell you that in the introduction.  So a very satisfactory week. See what Ginny and the rest of the yarnalong are up to, over at her blog Small Things .    For those of you following along at home, that's...

I am so happy with how this Baby Surprise jacket turned out. I wasn't sure how it would come out in the handspun, but I love, love, love it. It's been a while since I knot one of these clever little jumpers, and this was so cleaver and fun. For once I followed the pattern exactly, because this pattern doesn't need any alterations. I even had the perfect buttons in stash. I enjoyed knitting this so much, that I immediately cast on another. Fun, fun fun!

After my fail shawl , I needed a win, and this shawl - Summer Camp by Laura Aylor - definitely fit the bill. It's bright and lovely and rather huge. I added an extra stripe on each colour, to use up an much yarn an possible and make this as large as possible. I just love it. Knitting it was interesting but so simple and the finished shawl, which is really shaped more like  a giant scarf, is bright, cheerful and lovely. The green yarn is Stranded in Oz  and was some of the oldest sock yarn in my stash, the speckled colour is Madeline Tosh, bought last month on our trip to New Zealand, so it was super fun to mix the oldest with the newest and get such a cheerful, springy, warm, delightful, happy making shawl.  Did I mention It is very, very long?

I finished Summer Camp shawl on Sunday night, and am looking forward to sharing photos here later in the week...after we take some. Then I rather randomly decided to knit a Baby Surprise jumper out of my handspun. I do love having a "spare" baby jumper or two in the gift box, even though there is generally quite a lot of warning when someone is having a baby! I've nearly finished City of Mirrors ,  the third in Justin Cronin's Passage trilogy, and I cannot say I'm loving it. It's like the author knew where he wanted the book to go, but wasn't sure how to get it there, so the book meanders and some things just happen by strokes of luck and coincidence. It's a shame, because the first two were quite compelling., and this one is a bit of a slog. As usual on a Wednesday, I'm joining Ginny for the yarnalong. Pop over to her blog to see what she, and the rest of the yarnalong, are up to this week.

I was home sick today with a cough and feeling exhausted, so I spent most of the day in bedreading or sitting on the couch knitting. Luckily the Summer Camp shawl is both interesting and mindless, and I'm reading the third in The Passage series: City of Mirrors , so I've had plenty to keep me busy, even if I am a little poorly. See what Ginny and the rest of the yarnalong are up to this week, over at her blog S mall Things.

As usual when coming near the end of a project I wondered what I should knit next. And then last week I put on a black dress and wanted a shawl to wear with it, but all my large shawls seemed dull. I often wear my first colour affection to work, but the colours have faded over time, and my second colour affection is navy. I wanted something BRIGHT. Since I picked up a skein of MadTosh speckled yarn I had a look for some patterns to use that. i found Summer Camp, paired it with my brightest - and oldest - skien of stash sock yarn and off we go. After spending the previous two weeks knitting mosaic, that required every stitch to be counted, it is a joy to just garter stitch go, go, go, in the loudest, happiest , springest colours I can imagine. On Friday nights I gave Kieran his mitts and hat, at the beginning if a dinner party that ended up quite merry. When I went to get the photos off my camera for this post, I discovered that someone had taken photos of him wearing them! N...

You may well ask why I would be knitting my 8th bathmat. (Also, why i sometimes spell it as bathmatt). Well I knitted my first one in 2009. Here's a picture of it now.  Holes! Actual holes! and uneven felting causing it to buckle. Bathmats are a high wear item, particularity with three cats, one of whom occasionally... well lets just say Tarragon's actions mean i sometimes have to put them through on a hot wash. But I still keep knitting them, because they are a knitted thing that given me joy every day. Now, I have one bathmat next to the shower, and one in front of the toilet. I also like to have a spare set for when one lot are being washed. So, I need four bathmats at a time, they are a high wear item, and I often use them to experiment on, or l earn new techniques with sometimes mixed results.  So that's how I'm up to knitting my 8th bathmat . The latest bathmat is finished: I mainly enjoying the mosaic knitting too. I thought I might no t , because so...