What I made, by Sharon

I've been getting ready to fly out tomorrow night. Because I finished my last project on Wednesday, I've been doing homework for my EYF classes and knitting on my sockyarn blanket. i'm looking forward to casting on a massive big shawl.  I have wound my yarn and packed my needles (and my spare needles, Knit-Pro have a habit of falling apart on me) Of course, before I buy a ton of new yarn (I'm predicting 5 kilometers, but it could be quite different in either direction) I did a stashcount. My new number is  11,315 meters, the lowest it's been since I started counting. And that's  my stash box, ready to receive the yarn I buy at EYF.  I am going to try to blog while I'm away - I've got a new app, so hopefully it will  be easier than last time.

I received one of each colour of Kate Davies' new 4 ply yarn as part of my subscription to the West Highland Way club. They are such sweet wee balls! After I had finished up all the knitting I wanted to do before EYF I had 6 knitting days before I'm traveling, and I didn't want to leave a half finished project. I thought about knitting a pair of socks for Leon, which I could probably do, but at quite a risk of stressing my hands out. Then I decided to knit one square of the Shieling blanket. Pre-blocking Which I did. I'm glad i did, because I was thinking of buying a lot of this yarn for the oversized, colourwork Strathendrick jumper. I was also considering...just considering making this blanket just for the fun of it. I knit the square, and decided "no" on all counts. The yarn is a singles, and once drifted apart in my hands while I was knitting - the whole piece is only 23 grams. After a good soaking grams, so i hope that's not an average...

As I  may have mentioned once or twice, I'm going to Edinburgh Yarn Festival , and the walking the West Highland Way. As I like to theme everything, I have a Scottish reading list (which can be found here .)  I just started reading A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away   by Christopher Brookmyre. Leon read it first, and did warn me that it contains aeroplane terrorism, which is helping with my generally relaxed attitude about flying ... It's a good rollicking read though.  I'm knitting a blanket square from Kate Davies' latest club , which is walking us down the West Highland Way - a serendipitous coincidence. I probably won't knit the blanket, I'm doing this as a swatch, and as a way to test her new yarn Millorachy Tweed . The pattern is based on the markers on the West Highland Way, so I'm feeling very themed and in the mindset for this holiday.  I'm linking up with Ginny's monthly Yarnalong, which can be found  here

My friend Josh came to town for his annual "I've been released from Antarctica and am visiting people" visit, and I thought it would be fun to take him somewhere new, so we spent the weekend in Dayelsford. It was lovely. We did some trail running, and we walked to five of the mineral springs the area is famous for.  And of course I did some knitting.  In fact, quite a lot of knitting. Between passangering in the car (we "let" Josh drive, we're nice like that) and hanging out at our rental cottage, going to restaurants and bars, I finished the socks for my father . I think he'll love them, with their bright colours and random non-matchiness. I enjoyed knitting them, mindless knitting was perfect for this weekend.

I've been thinking a lot about brioche recently: Seriously, I moved jobs into the centre of town nearly six months ago, and just a short walk from my work in this: I'm obsessed. I'm also obsessed with brioche stitch, because I'm going to  be knitting What the F ade s hawl on an airoplane, and I won't be able to check anything on the internet, and what if I don't know how to do the brioche increases, and what if i run out of yarn and what if they take my needles and what if, what if, what if. S hort story: The first time I flew out of Melbourne with friends, I didn't let anyone take photos of me at the airport, because those are the ones that get on the front page of the paper when something happens. As if not taking the photo would help.  Hmm, this was supposed to be a post that was punny about brioche cake and brioche stitch , and instead I've given you a glimpse inside my tortured mind. I'm going to cope with this the only way i ...