What I made, by Sharon

We're going on a little holiday, and I'm stoked about it. Just like last year , we are going to Halls Gap for the Grampians Music Festival. This year we decides to roll a hike into our trip.  We are taking public transport up there - a tram, a train and two busses, camping in town for the first night, camping in the bush for two nights, returning to town (and a cabin, oh the luxury) and then two nights camping in a friend's field.  It made packing a bit strange - we're sending some bags up for after the hike with Skip and Bee, and leaving a small amount of stuff with our friends while we hike. Still, I love camping, and hiking and hanging out with friends. I know I should say I love music festivals, and this is certainly a chilled out one, lots of sitting around, listening to music, chatting with my friends, a bit of drinking. Just like last year, I'm knitting Leon's Winter Set Scarf, and have brought the wool for the matching socks. I have enough yarn ...

And today I have three finished objects! Normally I like to write about these things as I go, but I didn't get these blocked until last night, and here they are, dry and ready to write about.   This Baby Surprise Jacket might be the cutest thing I have ever made. Every time I finish a BSJ I think it's the best ever. This is number 11 and I love it. It's such a precious knit. The main colour was dyed by a friend of mine, and I think it is perfectly offset by the browns.  Leon's Winter Set 2020 Hat: I'm really happy with how this came out. The crown shaping was worrying me, since I can never picture in my mind how it is going to look, but this worked out really well.  The mitts came out well too. I based them on a basic (and free) Drops pattern . By co-incidence, both the hat and the mitts came out with 3 repeats of the arrow pattern. I've just started the matching scarf, which will have between 33 and 50 repeats of the arrow pattern. Luckily it...

As usual on a Wednesday, I’m linking up with Kat from As Kat Knits  and the Unravellers, to discuss what we have been up to this week.  The most exciting thing for me is I joined a yarn club. It’s been a long time since I did more than a pattern club, because I am all about stash reduction, but Stranded in Oz is one of my favourite Aussie dyers. I’m knitting Leon’s Winter Set (2020) in her yarn, and when I saw she was mailing club subscriptions this week, I couldn’t help myself. My reading has been a bit odd again. I finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Tara Jenkins Reid on Monday. I LOVED it. I haven’t started anything else. In my defence, at work lunch time I have been reading The gift of Pain , which is a fine book. I agree wholeheartedly with most of what the author has to say, but that doesn’t make for a thrilling read!  I’m also listening to The Erratics , written and read by Vicki Laveau-Harvie. I’m not sure I love it, but it is odd, compelling list...

On Friday we took the train to Ballarat to see Leon's parents. On the train on the way up I was almost up to the bit of the Baby Surprise Jacket where you switch from decreasing to increasing and I did a count to check. that my stitch counts were approximately correct (this is where I admit that they are ALWAYS out, and then I tweak them).  Well, mine were out by TEN stitches on one side. and when the count is meant to be 38, have 28 stitches is not OK! I wracked my brains and then realised I must have forgotten to do the cuff increases on one side. So I had to rip out half a BSJ! On Saturday we went to Ballarat Beer Fest, where I failed to get a good picture of my friends - or anything else much. There was a petting zoo. And adults where allowed in too!  So I got to pat a sheep and talk to some goats. And all the while I was knit, knit knitting away. Sunday was quiet, house cleaning and doing some prep for the camping and hiking trip we doing next week. I got ...

I had 38 grams of yarn left over from Elton , so I decided to make - what else - a pair of sneaker liners. It's always either sneaker liners or baby jumpers, isn't it? I knew it would be yarn chicken, and I don't really enjoy that game, so I found some black yarn of a similar texture and searched Ravelry for "bees" and "socks". I found this adorable free pattern called Free Bees .   It's written as a toe up pattern, and I chose this opportunity to try out the Hiya Hiya Flyers, which are like flexible double pointed needles. I didn't like them - as expected the short length stressed out my hands.I also found the second needle stuck out weirdly, in strange places.  It was fun to try, and now I can pass the needles on. I knit the rest on my beloved DPNs. I did the first sock as written (except I substituted the toe and the heel, so I guess that's a very broad definition of "as written"). I knit the second sock top down, so my...

Every year I knit Leon a winter set – hat, mitts, scarf, and for the last two years socks, with the same motif. I’ve been doing this since the first year we met, so it’s quite the tradition. I used to find patterns,  but now I tend to take a stitch pattern, and apply it to the items. I think of it as plug and play designing.  (see 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016,   2015 , 2014  ) for previous sets). This year I’m basing the set on a Cookie A sock pattern – Arrow . I’m starting with the hat, because this is the one thing that makes me nervous – hat decreases. I find them hard to conceptualise. On a plain hat it’s easy, I just use Jared Flood’s Turn-a-Square , or the Yarn Harlot’s formulas . This one has patterning. I have some ideas about the decreases, so check back in later in the week if you want to see be succeed … or fail and try, try again. In reading, I just abandoned  Starship's Mage   at  13 %. I’m actually really proud of myself...

You may recall that last year I made a pair of Martina Behm's Tough and Toasty mitts , and followed them up with a pair for my brother in law. I loved my mitts. Unlike most, they barely cover the fingers, which means that I have full use of my hands, but they are surprisingly warm.  It never gets THAT cold in Melbourne anyway. So, I loved the mitts. Two things happened though. I did support for a trail run , and it rained on me, and the mitts got wet and I was banging a tambourine and they felted a bit.  Also, somewhere along the way I lost one. I wasn't too worried though, because the mitts only use a tiny bit of yarn. I used leftovers from my Kildarton cardigan.  I also made a Beeswax hat, so now I can be matchy matchy. I really love this Millpost Merino yarn. These, like the previous pairs were blindingly quick to knit and are such fun to wear.A real winner of a project.

I finished Elton , and blocked it aggressively - I got my blocking wires out for the first time since we moved house two and a half years ago: I'm not sure about it, and I'm not quite sure why I'm not sure.  The top down construction was fun, simple and neat: It flicks out a bit at the back, but that's the nature of this kind of design. I keep thinking it's too short, but it's really not. Maybe what it comes down to is it's very yellow, and I'm not sure how I feel wearing a giant yellow jumper? I had originally chosen teals which is a much more usual colour scheme for me. I already have three blue jumpers, so I thought I would do something different.I am quite tempted to do a "do over" in my original colour choice, maybe going a size bigger. This was a fun cardigan to knit.  As an aside, I've recently started Curly Girl  on my hair, and am very happy with how my hair looks in these photos.      It is a surprisingly wa...

I have ALMOST finished Elton , just 10 rows of ribbing on the cuff, and the sewn cast off, and I’m done. I’ve sewn in most of the ends, the buttons are on. It was frustrating having to put it down last night, so close, but I’ll get it done tonight. Then blocking and finished modelled photos later in the week.  The reading picked up late in the week. I started reading Toni Jordan’s The Fragments because it was on my Kindle. I think I bought it on special quite a while ago. Well, I loved it.  It’s a really great story, set in New York in 1938 and Brisbane in 1986. I couldn’t put it down! After I finished it I decided to read Charlotte Duckworth’s Unfollow Me. It’s the second last NetGalley book, I’ve rather gone off NetGalley for the moment. Well, I’m loving this too. It’s a sort-of thriller, told from a number of view points. Because it’s decently written the characters are strong and I really want to know what happens next. Aside from knitting and reading...