What I made, by Sharon

The 2019 Boxing Day Test (Aus V New Zealand) finished yesterday, at the end of day four. It was quite good cricket this year, even if we did beat the Kiwis fairly convincingly. The previous two years have had a lot of interruptions for rain and some very dull cricket. For those of you who are not familiar with test cricket, play starts at 10.30am and goes until 6pm, with breaks for drinks, lunch and tea. It can go for up to 5 days. What that equates to is a lot of knitting time. If you want to see my daily updates have a look at my Instagram. Here's the body at the end of day four: 56 cm, which is the length in the pattern. I'm taking it to 66cm, so it will be long enough to wear to work. progress should continue fast on this: although the cricket is over, I've got a whole week off work. The weather is stinking today, hot and cloudy and windy, so we're going to keep watching Marvel movies, (only 7 to go!) and I'm going to take a break from the body and start...

I was thinking about how, despite being Jewish, there are some very strong Christmas traditions that I, and my friends, have developed. It starts with Christmas day lunch at Elise's. This started with an orphans lunch Elise used to host when she lived overseas. Now it tends to be a collection of Jews and atheists with nothing better to so. The food is always delicious, this year being largely vegan. I made my traditional steamed Christmas pudding - this year with margarine, and whipped brandy "butter". we had lunch, took the dog to the park and then watched a Christmas movie. very relaxing and fun. Then comes the Boxing Day Test. I've been going to all 5 days (when there are five days) for the last 5 or six years. It's a great opportunity to sit and relax and knit  - I'm knitting Kate Davies' dress Gries , so getting a really good start on in helps. 3mm needles. Even with 12 days off between Christmas and New Years, this may take a while....

I had my husband's family Christmas on Sunday, which is always fun.  This year we went to the one's who have horses, and got to play with the horses.  Such fun. It was a lovely day in the sunshine, away from the city.  it also meant a little bit of travel time, where I finished the LOSY hat I started on the Saturday.  I also had a little bit of time to work on the final present for Channukah, a kippah for my brother. Now I just need to block it and I'm good to go.  Sometime on the weekend I also found time to knit, wash and block a swatch for my Gries dress, so I'm good to start on that. Which is great, because work is definitely winding down,and I'm looking forward to having lots of time over the Christmas / New Years break to work on this rather large project.  

Ok, so complaining because a large pair of socks took me 7 days is ridiculous. But the first one took two days (a weekend) and the second took 5, so it felt really slow.  Particularly since I didn't get any time to knit yesterday (Thursday). We're hosting Friday night dinner tonight, and it's going to be 43 degrees Celsius, so we cooked and prepared all the food yesterday, and we are serving cold soup, followed by cold roast chicken, followed by chocolate mousse.   The socks were originally going to be all in the top colour, which was destashed by Kris, but there were breaks in the yarn, and I lost 30 grams of it to tangles while skeining in up. So i faded in the second colour. I used by new Signature 2.25mm double points for the first time and I love them. The fabric they are creating is lovely, and the needles themselves are sharp and sort of grippy but still fast. As for the socks, they are the Vanilla is the New Black pattern, which is a top down heel f...

Yes, I'm knitting socks again!  These are for my father, who likes pooling and crazy colours, so hopefully they will be well received. I have to say, they have knit up very quickly, I started them on Saturday and was on the heel of the second sock by end of play Monday.  Of course, going to work has rather slowed down progress, but I need to work so I can afford to buy yarn. My reading has been rather less focussed than my knitting. I've read a few short more stories from Take Us to A Better Place (NetGalley), which has been good, but there are only so many short stories I like to read in a row. If you want a copy of these stories, and there are some top shelf authors here, including Martha Wells, here is the link. Then I tried to go back to Bird Summons (also from NetGalley) and just couldn't settle into it. So I went the old fashioned route, and am reading a romance, King of Hearts , the third in a series by L.H. Cosway. I'm really enjoying it, the ...

I finished Birds of a Feather on Friday, blocked it as soon as I got home from work and it was dry to wear on  Saturday.  On Saturday we went to Moon Dog World  - which has amongst other things a lagoon -  to celebrate mine and Jen's birthdays and Rachey's 4 year release from hospital, although I more like to think of it as "any excuse to go to a brewery". Anyway, that explains the flower crowns, it's how we celebrate. Apparently I only took 2 pictures of my friends, and didn't mention I was taking them, so here they are, mainly with their backs to the camera, and not smiling at me! It was a good chance to get photos of the shawl, and also to wear it, because I had doubts right up to the end. One issue was that there was no schematic, and because of the unusual construction it wasn't clear to me until I had cast off that it's a shallow triangle shape. Mine is HUGE. I quite like it, particularly with the weird weather we'v...

I've been undecided about this shawl ( Birds of a Feather by Andrea Mowry) since I cast it on. Not sure about the colours, not sure about whether I was enjoying knitting it, then not sure about the shape its turning out.  I also want to get a pair of socks cast on for my dad, which have a deadline. the shawl does not have a deadline. Someone else might have set this shawl aside, or abandoned it completely. Not me. I've been obsessively knitting it to get it done before the weekend. Knitting at lunchtime, sneaking a row in at work, just knitting, knitting knitting. the yarn amounts in the shawl are the same as the Elton oversize cardigan, and I'm trying to knit it in two weeks. My hands are pretty tired, which is not smart, since I'm then going to mission knit the socks, and then it's 5 days of Boxing day cricket match. Never mind, I'll rest them after that. Due to the above facts, reading has been a little slow. I'm listening to Three Women by Lis...

Every year in December, the Richmond Knitters have a Christmas party ( 2017 , 2018 and I don't appear to have blogged any of the earlier ones.) I did table decorations again, and I was really happy with them – the little boxes have a cotton mini-ball of yarn, a couple of Lindt chocolates and a Redskin lolly. Dani from Halfbaked Handdyed did her traditional Richmond Knitters colourway – this year a stunning darker colourway, which is going to stripe up in big and little stripes. I’m looking forward to knitting that up!  I knit a Gnome for the ornament swap, which might be the most adorable thing I’ve ever put together. I hope Chris who received it agrees. Deb organised the games this year, and I won two skeins of yellow Jitterbug . Very exciting, since it was one of my favourite yarns, and is now discontinued. As always, the highlight was laughter and friendship, the continuation of old traditions and the beginning of new ones.

This cardigan is named after the Kildalton Cross on Islay. Leon and I went there because Kate Davies told us about it -we went on a Sunday, and there was no way to get there, so we took a taxi, and ran back. It was beautiful. When we actually got there, my first through was "I thought it would be bigger".   But it was one of those places that felt sacred and beautiful.(I just checked and it's actually 2.6 meters, so not small)  So, the cardigan. I had a rant about Kate's instructions the other week . well, she topped that by the blocking instructions "if you want your cardigan to have a nice shape like the one in the pictures, block it on a dress form".  Really? there are miles of reverse stocking stitch where we could have done actual shaping, like grown ups. anyway. I do quite like my cardigan. I cropped it shorter than the pattern, and wish I had done that shaping, since it's a little loose at the bottom. It's perfect at the ...

Success in this case meaning I did not knit any socks at all! I do have fairly major sock news though: During sOcotober I used my Signature 2.5mm sock needles to knit ... something. I actually can't remember what. But I love them so much. Now, I moved away from them because I needed a tighter gauge for socks, and I've been knitting on 2mm Chiaogoo double pointeds. They are good, but very smooth, and some of them have bent over the years, and they are 6 inches instead of my preferred 5. A couple of weeks ago I got told I was being made ongoing in my role (which I have been doing for over two years). Yay. To celebrate I decided to treat myself to a set of the smallest Signature needles available, which is the 2.25mm. We'll see how we go in terms of gauge. They are just so beautiful to touch and use and handle. (I also bought a matching cable needle, which is the short one there). To celebrate, and try them out, I'm going to make my father a pair of plain socks in cr...

This week I started Andrea Mowry’s Birds of a Feather shawl. I’m not 100 percent convinced about my colours, because I think it looks nice when the mohair and the sock yarn are quite similar, but I decided to press on anyway. I go between thinking it’s quite a fun knit, and being bored by it. I’m thinking of doing something a bit out of character and setting it aside for a bit, I want to make my father a pair of socks as a chanukkah gift, and the Richmond Knitters does an ornament swap, so I’m going to knit something for that before Saturday I finished a NetGalley book This Train is being Held by Ismee Amiel Williams. I read this young adult book because I had a book hangover from N.K. Jemesin’s excellent The Fifth Season , so, as soon as I finished it I started the next book I the series, The Obelisk Gate . Much more satisfying. And that’s my week in knitting and reading. I'm joining in with  Ginny and the Yarnalong , hosted on the first Wednesday of each month and...