What I made, by Sharon

I made sure that in the thumb nail picture you can't see the shape of the shawl. I've just started clue six - the final clue in Ysolda's mystery shawl knit-along . I haven't even sneeked a peak at any of the clues until I have finished knitting them, and managed to avoid spoilers. Here's the full shawl after clue five: Only one more to go, but quite a bit more knitting. This has been such a fun project , and now I can s ee how its going to look it's very satisfying. After finishing Jojo Moyes' Silver B ay , and hating it so much (my review is here if you are interested) I really wanted to read something fun and fast. Ian Banks' Complicity fit the bill. It's a thriller / mystery / who done it / romp and I can't stop reading it. Such a pleasure to read a book that i don't want to put down, even if some of the subject matter is rather dark.  I'm joining in with Ginny and the monthly yarnalong . I recommend popping over to her...

I finished the Left Over Sock Yarn bathmat I mentioned the other day. It was a really fun - and surprisingly quick project, although i suppose holding 7 strands of yarn together , and using a 6.5mm needle is likely to have that affect. This pic was taken outside blocking, and really shows the colours: I love the ombre  effect, although I still can't believe I had THAT much left over sock yarn in blues. Over half a kilogram of them. This pic was taken in situ, in the bathroom. \I love my bathroom, but it doesn't have any natural light, hence the glare of the heat lamps. I love my heat lamps. It was also quite fun to be crocheting for a change. I haven't picked up the hook for anything bigger than a cat toy since early 2017, and I do enjoy it. All around a very satisfing  project. 

A couple of weeks ago my friend Grant showed up to the pub wearing SHOCK a commercially knit hat. It was fine, but it had a seam on the top. Also, it offends me that anyone I'm close to would be wearing a commercial hat. So, I knit a hat (out of leftovers from Leon's winter set., using this broken rib pattern. When I gave it to him he seemed very pleased. I didn't tell him that it was a one-day-wonder. i cast on on the tram on the way to my lift to Bendigo, knitted on the ride up, knitted through the Women of Wool lunch, knitted in the car back, knitted at my parents place at dinner and finished up before bed time. Look at that decrease! I love hat crowns, they always look so interesting to me. I tried to get good pictures, but we were at the pub and things were going on, and these will just have to do. I do enjoy showing my love through my craft.

I was tooling around on Ravelry, looking for bathmatt patterns, when I found this pattern. Hmm, crotchet, colour blending, I wonder what my sock yarn scrap stash is looking like? When I went to investigate, I discovered I have an absolutely bizarre amount of left over sock yarn in blues, especially navy. I also pulled my Cloud out of the wash and realised it's kind of dead. As well as being stretched out, it had what looked suspiciously like coffee stains on the front.  S o, I've rescued some of that yarn and, combined with the strange amount of blue sock yarn (where did it all come from?) I'm going to crotchet this bath matt. I'm pretty excited, colour blending really is a lot of fun, which might be why I keep on doing it!

I was spoilt this year and got a lift to Bendigo with Nat. I quickly did my shopping before the Women of Wool lunch: I'm really pleased with this wool I bought for Leon's jumper: It's from North East Yarn a fibre collective from the North East of Victoria. I said I wanted to buy more local yarn! Because they well by weight in 500g hanks, and don't know the yardage, I didn't want to risk running out, so I bough a kilogram. If there is enoug left-overs for a jumper for me as well I won't complain! I bought some Oyster yarns in merino silk and yak, which is just stunning, and this jumped into my bag: A jumpers worth of sparkle yarn from My Creative Garage . I hadn't heard of her before, but her colour pallete was amazing. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to make with it - make     This was my favourite sheep of the show Lunch with Women of Wool and the Richmond Knitters was a good time, as usual. As well as the women I knew...

I'm a bit excited, because I'm actually going to the Australian Sheep and Wool show this year. I've even got a lift up, in a car! Last year I missed out, because I spent the weekend in Tasmania . Can't complain. Just like in 2016 I'm going to the Women in Wool lunch, and I have to be back for dinner, so I'll have to be efficient with  my shopping time. There are a few projects I definitely want to buy yarn for -  Joji's Cathedral wrap , Leon's winter set and a new jumper for Leon. I have a feeling some other things might creep in there. I do like to shop in a focused way, but I also really want to support Australian growers and dyers, after giving significant support to UK wool and dyers just four months ago! Surprisingly to me, given I bought 5 kilometers of yarn then, and I have bought yarn for two other projects since I got back, stashcount is currently at 13,000 . Not too bad at all, although I may "fix" that tomorrow!

  Two Fridays ago I went back to my old workplace for the retirement of one of the big bosses, and I bumped into Katrina,  my last manager there - who had a bump of her own. She said she was off on parental leave next Friday. I didn't give it much thought, but then i bumped into my boss from one of my previous roles, and  he's had another baby. I actually new that, and wasn't surprised when he pulled out his phone to show me a photo. I was quite pleased when the new baby was wearing the Snug that I made for the first baby, in 2013. That got me thinking, and I decided to knit a baby jumper for Katrina. I had two weeks, which should have been plenty, but In also wanted to get the Gloamin-tide clue finished first. Anyway, I knit a Drops pattern, which came out very cute. It did have about a thousand ends, but I think it's worth it.  I had the perfect buttons, but after I started sewing them on I realised I had six buttons, and seven button holes. After decid...

My sock yarn swap yarn came today! It's so fun, 18 tiny little skeins of yarn from around the world. This has been a really fun experience, and I've fallen in love with mini-skeins, although I won't be buying them because I still have loads of left over sock yarn. (In fact, tune in later this week for some shocking news about left over sock yarn.) I'm going to try to convince Leon to ball them up while we watch a movie this afternoon, and then I'll add them to my sock yarn blanket - maybe then the blanket will be finished. I don't know how to tell. 

At the end of clue two, we added a weird tail and set aside the knitting. Clue three happened on a different needle, and made this interesting arrow shaped piece. I guess how they are going to come together is the mystery here!  We are half way through, and I have used significantly less than half the yarn. Maybe I ll have enough left over for a pair of socks, or a hat. This was a bigger week,a and it has taken me four days to knit the clue - the previous clues took me two days each.  This one ended up looking like this: a rather interesting rams head shape! The main thing thought is that I am having fun. The knitting is interesting, I'm already looking forward to getting my clue next Monday night, I'm chattier on Ravelry than I've been in a long time. How these are going to add up into a shawl is quite the mystery! I am, of course, hoping for a shawl I'll wear all the time, but even if I don't love the shape of the finished item - which is still a compl...

Wanida by Cookie A was such a dream to knit for me. Cookie A was clearly designing on DPNs, which is how I knit my socks. Each pattern repeat is sixteen stitches. Very simple, very fun. I knit these on the 2mm HiyaHiya's I picked up in Scotland , and I have to say these pointy, pointy tiny needles are working well for me. They seem to be bending just a tiny bit, but I have knit 5 pairs of socks on them (since April. That actually surprised me quite a lot when I looked it up. I'd better slow down on the socks). I also enjoyed knitting these while wearing Boxy (I made these from from leftovers of that wonderful jumper) and tomorrow I am going to wear them together, and it will satisfy something deep in my soul to be so very matchy matchy.

As a joke, Raph asked if I would make him this medusa hat . Looking at it, I fell down a bit of a rabbit-hole, and found a p attern for snakes. I decided it was too fun not to knit a couple, and knit 3 of them - I  actually knit them during workplace harm training, so at least something productive came of that day. I think they liked them! All of that gave me an idea - it was Elise's birthday on Saturday, so I crotchetted her an ice-cream. She looked a bit blank, but I explained it was also a cat toy, so that made sense to her. It was fun making whimsical toys and fripperies for a change, rather than huge jumpers and complex socks. . 

I was happily knitting away on Gloaming-tide clue two, which is quite consistent with clue one. Increases at the start of every right side row, some eyelets and slipped stitches thrown in, some colour changes. all very nice, all very normal. And then I did the last bit of clue two, and this happened: I finished it, and scurried over the the spoiler thread, to check I hadn't misread the instructions. Nope, everyone's looks like this. Ysolda said there would be no short rows, so this mystery shawl is currently very mysterious. I'm looking forward to getting the next clue on Monday night to see what this could possible turn into.

I've known about Once Apon A Sock for a while - it's a link up for people to talk about sock knitting, hosted here . Originally you had to email to have your links added, and I was too shy. Since they changed to a linky model, I haven't been knitting socks on the first Thursday of the month. This July I am! If you've been here before, you'll know how much I love things to match, so, I was thrilled when I had 80 grams of The Wool Kitchen yarn left over from my Boxy . Enough for a pair of socks, a blanket square and more. I hunted through the various sock patterns I have, and revived a long held desire to knit every sock from Cookie A's Sock Innovation . I'm knitting Wanida and it will be my 9th of the 15 patterns. I bought this book when I was in Portland Oregon for the  Sock Summit in 2009. I wasn't a very experienced sock knitter, so I knit the simplest socks first. Cookie A makes even more complicated looking socks simple. I am loving this k...

You know how I love a link up, a KAL or a chance to knit what everyone else is knitting? Well, I'm doing Ysolda's Gloamin-tide mystery knit along. The clues are coming out on Monday late evening my time, so I knit the first one on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I'll try to take photos of the next clue on a different coloured background! I'm reading Chaim Potok's Davita's Harp .I was at my parents a few months ago and my husband was talking about money to his brother at the back of the house. Because the conversation was none-of-my-business I went and browsed their book cases. I picked up this book - they have an old copy, which i imagine I read as a child, but i can't remember it at all. I'm wading my way through it - it is not a fast read, and the protagonist seems precocious, but I'm interested enough that I am hanging in there. The first clue only took me two knitting nights, so I am also knitting a pair of socks. Check back here on Thursday, ...

We went away for the weekend, to run the Surf Coast Marathon Half. First trail half in a while (since 2016, remember 2017's broken foot ?) and it was good to be back. Here's the after photo, I don't have any action photos yet.   While we were there I got Skip to take photos of my finished Carbeth: I'm reasonably happy with it, although I think I would wear it over a dress or a high wasted skirt, rather than these jeans. The only thing is, I had a plan. I cast on the sleeves provisionally, and was planning to knit the sleeves down, and put a whole in the ribbing, so I could pull the cuffs over my hands.  I was also planning to knit the collar longer than the pattern, because I like a big collar, only I basically ran out of yarn. I played yarn chicken, and had enough to cast off, but that was it. The pattern calls for 525 meters of yarn, and I had 525 meters of yarn, but normally there is a bit extra in there for swatching and stuff.  In the intere...