What I made, by Sharon

I have a lot of self control when it comes to buying yarn. I don't shop (for yarn) when I am bored, I've been knitting largely from stash, and I try to buy for projects that I'm going to get on the needles immediately. BUT when someone puts a bunch of yarn in front of me and says "take what you want the rest is being given away" I don't say no. Last week it was Kris, this week Suzanne showed up with a couple of bags of awesome. I snagged two skeins of beautiful sock yarn, one of which I am going to speckle up and dye using the drip technique I worked on last week, for What the Fade. I'm so obsessed with my colours for that shawl. Since she was giving this yarn away, Suzanne said that if we wanted, a donation to the Epworth hospital wouldn't go astray. They had recently saved her boyfriends life, and Elise's mother is currently there after having a stroke, so that seemed like a great idea. I went to the website, and one of the options is t...

Having Friday off work made for such a luxurious weekend, time to go out and do stuff , stay in and do stuff, and  then just sit around read. I was reminded of that time in my life when I decided to work a nine day fortnight. It was glorious.  On Thursday I finished  A Closed and Common Orbit (loved it, review is here ), and knowing I had extra time to read over the extended weekend I started the next Robin Hobb, Assassin's Quest , the third in the Farseer trilogy. It's a big book and I wanted the chance to really get into before getting back to the busyness of m y everyday life . I t was perfect for this weekend , partly because it never gets that hot in The Six D uchies , and here in M e lbourne we were frying! And it's such a good book , engrossing and well written and wonderful worldbuilding. I'm linking up with It's Monday, what are you reading? over at the Book Date, and finally getting my book post up on an actual Monday!

Remember when I plied up some yarn to dye for What the Fade ? It wasn't very soft, but I figured it would be fine. This weekend I decided to do some test dyeing on some spare yarn I had, and while I was about it have some fun making minis for sock yarn squares. I took the feltable Wangaratta yarn, and some flouro Patonyle  ( which I actually bought in Wangaratta )  Here's the before shot. I dyed them using three techniques (from top to bottom)  -  dripping dots of dye on, painting larger stripe and s prinkling dry dye on wet yarn, I think they look great on the Patonyle: I think they all look horrible on the Wangaratta yarn. Somehow they turned pastel, and stripped the the existing green from the yarn and spread out a lot and just look horrible. Would you believe that this is the same coloured dyes? The base colours were different, but I think a major factor is the base yarns - superwash merino / nylon versus 100 percent wool This does mean I n...

On Monday night Kris brought some destash to Richmond Knitters: look at these beauties I picked up: This is going to be a dog jumper for George : And this is going in my What the Fade : (I think I’ve got all my colours, except the one I’m going to dye, and the one I'm going to buy there but that’s a post for another day) And this: Well, I don’t know, but it’s my favourite colour and I’ll work it out. After another really fun night I left, later than I should have, as usual. I got to my bike – which had developed a flat back tyre. No big deal, I know how to fix a flat. I found a staple in my tyre, pulled it out and tried to reinflate the old tube to see if that was the cause of the problem. Except my pump was broken. Stuck on the side of the road at 9pm, with no way to fix my flat, I decided to walk home. Google maps said it would take an hour, which was annoying, but it was a nice night. As I put my phone away a random stranger asked me if everyt...

I think I just have to accept that, while I'm linking up with The Book Date , she posts on Mondays, and I post on pretty much any other day of the week! This week in books is going much better than last week.While on Tuesday I wasn't minding Jilted . Here's a link to my r a nty, ranty review. I hate read the last 20 percent, which was not fun. Then I started Becky C ha mber's  A Closed and Common Orbit . I was somewhat concer ned because I lo ved the first b ook The L ong Way to A small Angry P lanet so much, a nd I was concerned that this book would not live up to it. well it does. new characters , but the same amazing world buildi ng, and basic decency underlying the narrative. It 's a lo vely read, and I 'm looking forward to seeing what happen s next, e s pecially because I left the main character in a dire situation when I put the book down last night.   

I made a hat to match my Stasis jumper and socks. I cast on 114 stitches, with my favourite alternating cable cast on, ribbed a bit, knit 4 rows plain did the yoke colour chart from Stasis and cast off. I particularly like the way the cast off swirls.  I finished this on the train to Ballarat for Ballarat beer fest and asked Leon to take photos at the festival. Unfortunately we didn't take the actual photos until after some festivaling had been done! I wanted to knit something simple, so I cast for Ysolda's wee Envelope . I knit the first sleeve, the front and the back: although I attached the back to completely the wrong spot, so I've just ripped that out. Needless to say, Ballarat Beer Festival  was a good time, even if it wasn't so good for the knitting. 

Juniper I have been working on my blankie recently, a few squares, here, a few squares there. Tarragon My goal is to do that during the year, and then get an advent calendar and knit two squares a day for those 21 days and then I'll be done and I won't know what to do with myself! Look how neatly it fits in my Porter Bin . I was struggling a bit, because I mainly knit in boring colours, and I gave away and used up most of my pretty leftovers. And then Moorecat brought some leftovers in. Look how pretty they are, and how nice they are going to look in the blanket. In more news of my lovely, lovely friends, Louisa  found 7 grams of red yarn so I wouldn't run our,  Sonia found a perfect match for my somewhat secret test knitting. While I'm now thinking i won't need Sonia's, she has lent me the skein so I  don't have to worry about running out.  Hopefully I will have finished the thing by Monday, and I can return her yarn untouched. I feel...

As I often do, I’m joining in with Kathryn from The Book Date ’s ‘ Its Monday, what are you reading?” but I’m joining in on a random day of the week, because I’m a rebel like that. This week I’m reading Jilted  by Rachel Johns. It’s my first outback romance, and its fine. Well written, and a good story. I always like a romance that isn’t JUST about the guy, and this has strong secondary characters. I think it might be the first romance book I have read set in Australia, which is somewhat surprising. I’m liking it, but not getting through it very fast. Maybe just because I’m quite busy at the moment – lots of knitting and spinning and dyeing and spending time with friends. Maybe I just wasn’t quite in the mood for a traditional romance.  Still, it’s a pleasant enough way to pass the time, and, although I think I can predict a plot twist, I still want to know for sure.

I had given up on finding my Stasis socks, drafted a blog post about moving on and started my next project - a hat to match the Stasis Jumper and lost socks. I was trying to be all zen about it, but I think of myself as someone who doesn't loose things, so as well as the lost socks, there was the challenge to my self image, and the bizarre mystery of the situation.  On Saturday I went to the jumper draw, and there thy were: They had gotten caught up with the almost identically shaded grey jumper that was also in my bag on Wednesday night, and I'd put them away together! Oh the relief to have that mystery solved. Oh the joy to be able to be matchty, matchy when hiking in Scotland.

I made a pair of socks to match my Stasis . I finished them on Tuesday, and left them on the arm of the couch. On Wednesday, I put them in my handbag and took them to the pub, because I was going to ask Skip to take photos for me. I forgot, until we were leaving, and then it was dark and we couldn't be bothered. The socks never left my bag: but I also don't remember seeing them in bag at any point in the evening.  This morning I wondered where the socks were, but we leave the house 15 minutes after the alarm goes off, so it was a pretty cursory look. I rang the pub at noon, and they said they hadn't seen them, although the guy definitly didn't look. When I got home tonight, I looked everywhere I can think off - and my house is a bit minimalist, there isn't a lot of anywhere for a pair of socks to hide. Leon rang the pub again, and this time they definitly looked. They even looked more and rang him back.  So where are they? That's the mystery. They could con...

Last week I was reading The Sultans Wife by Jane Johnson, and, 20 percent in I confidently stated that it was good. Well, I've now read 90% of the book, and I can say that I have rarely been so disappointed by a book.  The main female character Alys Swann has absolutely no personality. None. She is entirely passive and boring and I don't care what happens to her. I'm nearly finished and I think I just reached a big reveal, but I'm not sure that I did, and I know that I don't care. All the characters are stereotypes, the plot is odd, there are presumptions made throughout - I still don't understand who "the renegade Hamza" is. One thing I've learnt, again and again and again is that slavery is bad. So, if you're on the fence about slavery, read this book. Otherwise read Jane Johnson's Court of Lions , a book that was an absolute pleasure to read. I am linking up with ' it's Monday, what are you reading ?", over at The Bo...

Frequently with my knitting I am focused to the point of obsession. I "have" to get things finished by some arbitrary deadline. I know exactly what I am knitting next, and I have probably already wound the yarn and put it with the needles. Not this January though. I'm knitting a pair of socks to match my Stasis jumper .  I'm going to try to finish my somewhat secret test knitting , but I need to find some more of the contrast colour. I'll probably knit the first pattern from Kate Davies' new club  - which is a hat, that has a similar motif to Stasis. The first week has been announced as three accessories, so I'm really hoping for mittens and a cowl. If not, I might have to put something together myself. After that, who knows, I'm sure it will come together. I'm also still preparing the yarn for What the Fade . I finished plying the yarn and as soon as I finish writing this I am going to skein is off the wheel. Then I just need to get to th...

I finished Stasis on New Years Eve, blocked it on New Years day and here we are: There was something very satisfying about starting it at the begging of my Christmas break and finishing it at the end. I did have 5 days at the cricket, which provided a lot of knitting in public time. Kris came for three of the days, and knit socks. I only had 2 reactions to the knitting - some guy turned around and said to us "It makes me so happy that you are knitting at the cricket." He went on like that for a bit, and we just stared at him, with nothing to say. And then we moved seats. I don't care if i make some random guy happy or not. That's not my job. On the last day a woman turned around and commented that what I was knitting was pretty. Which it is. And thank you for noticing my skills and talents, and commenting on it in a way that is not creepy and entitled. I think my favourite was when I tried it on, and this guy photobombed the picture: I used my current f...

Ginny is now doing yarnalong monthly, and I am so excited! Pop over there to see what everyone is up to this month:  It's actually good, because my reading has been all over the place. After finishing Royal Assassin I read a trilogy of  Christmas storie s set in Rachael Herron's Darling Bay. these were, of course, delightful. Then I started a review copy for a book called  Eventually I settled down into The Sultan's Wife by Jane Johnson. I'm enjoying it - set in Morocco, so far it seems like a sort of romance between a eunuch and  a captured English woman. The knitting is going well. After finishing Stasis jumper, I decided to make a pair of socks using the same yarn and motif: pretty, straightforward and simple. Loving it so far. In the absence of the Yarnalong, I've taken to linking up with "It's Monday, what are you reading" over at The Book Date . There is a marked absence of knitting, but it's a good place to see what other p...

And what a year it was. I started a new job , went on holidays with my girlfriends , got sick , got better, broke my finger, broke my foot and changed jobs again! One of the constants was knitting, of course. I knit 39 things this year , using  12,697 meters of tracked yarn. I knit ten projects with left over sock yarn, and now I have a manageable amount left. All up this year I knit: 8 sneaker liners 7 pairs of calf length socks 6 hats 6 adult jumpers / cardigans 5 scarves / shawls / cowls 3 toys /  decorations 2 pairs of mitts 2 baby jumpers and one project I can't talk about yet. I'm very pleased at my stash - I've got 12,279 meters, with the yarn for one colourwork vest, and the rest is all bits and pieces. This is down from 15,807 this time last year, and around this is where I am happy for it to sit. I wish you a happy new year, and satisfaction in your crafting.