What I made, by Sharon

This is not a finished object Friday post for so many reasons.  1) It's not Friday 2) Nothing new is finished here. I do have a new picture and a story about socks: Remember last week , when I thought I might have sent my sock back with a return? I emailed the company and asked them to look out for the sock. Well, my return came back, and with it the missing sock! The funniest thing is that the company is a sportwear company called Abi and Joseph . They make great leggings and have great customer service. They are based in Queensland, Right now, Queensland's borders are closed. My sock went on a holiday to a place I can't go! 3) I was going to post about unfinishing my Breathing Space . I knit it's replacement, and then couldn't find it . Eventually I discovered it had fallen down behind my shelv es.  Anyway, I started unwinding it - I thought the yarn could be reused for socks, or dyed for my sock blanket or even made into a baby jumper. BUT it...

No picture of the balcony or the cupboards this week - the balcony is progressing, but looks exactly the same as last week, and the kitchen cupboards are coming next Wednesday, so that's the state of the renovations.  Our lockdown is gradually getting lifted, with bigger groups allowed to congregate and gyms (hopefully) reopening on the 22nd of June. I'm working at home until at least the end of June. After that, we shall see. In these crazy times at least I can rely on three things: Knitting : Sleeve Island is going well: I'm halfway through - the stitch marker at the top marks the halfway mark. I would have gone one stripe further, but I was weighing my yarn as I went and it was clear I would run out if I went further. It's a bit strange, since I starting with exactly the amount of yarn the pattern called for, and I have shortened the arms by 10cm each. Still, it's a beautiful, distracting knit that is interesting enough to keep my attention, but not too ...

Joji Locatelli the knitwear designer started selling bags about a year ago, and I've been obsessed with them. Eight  weeks ago I got a Pampa bucket delivered., which I reviewed here . It's been perfect for lockdown. It's big enough to take a jumpers worth of yarn and comfortable to carry on a longish walk It's wearing well, and has proved useful as well as beautiful. In the picture above, it has my half finished Sleeve Island , and all the yarn needed to finish it. So when she made a box bag for socks, and it was available in pink leather, I got up at 2am to buy one: It's great. Big enough to knit out of, and it will be perfect for socks (which i knit a lot of) or maybe a small shawl. It will  be a while until I get to use it though, my Sleeve Island is not a speedy project!

When I finish something, I put it to the left of the computer that I sit at to blog. Then I (at some point) photograph it, blog about it, update my Ravelry and off they go. I also occasionally use the spot as a holding zone for other things. The other day I received some leggings and had to return them for sizing issues. I put them on the pile, organised the return, put them in the envelope and sent them off. The only thing is that now I can't find one of the socks I JUST finished. They were on the pile, and the only thing I can think of is that I put them with the return. So, here's a single sock: Flores, by Joji, in a yarn I dyed myself. I've emailed the company, so hopefully they will find the sock with the return. The other item isn't actually quite finished. I made a tea cosy for Elise's tea pot, but I'm doing an afterthought spout hole. I say Elise for a few minutes the other day, but she forgot to bring the pot. So it's not technically finished...

The balcony reno is coming along nicely (at least as far as I can tell). There have been some not-so-good days with lots of dust, and the concrete sealant made the house smell like almonds for a couple of days, but now it is looking smooth and I think they will be tiling soon. Because outside renovations during a pandemic weren't enough, we're getting our kitchen done too: I love our kitchen, but before we moved in, someone painted the cupboard doors with cheap house paint. It made it impossible to keep clean, and was starting to wear off, so I'm very pleased we can finally get them replaced. The new doors sho uld be installed in less than two weeks. I'm very excited.     After weeks of knitting projects that were finished very quickly, on Friday I started Kate Davie' Sleeve Island , a side to side, all over colourwork 4 ply jumper . That should slow me down! It is quite an enjoyable knit, and I'm loving the colours (which I dyed myself).   The ...

As I mentioned on Friday, I dyed the yarn for Kate Davies' Sleeve Island , an all over stranded jumper, that's knit side to side. Kate described it as a giant sleeve. I think she named it Sleeve Island as a bit of a joke, (stranded on sleeve island... geddit?) but I don't understand knitters attitude to sleeves. It can be a third of a jumper, and people talk about being "marooned on sleeve island". The Yarn Harlot (whom I respect, admire and sponsor on Patreon ) calls it " getting stuck on the desolate and emotionally barren shores of “sleeve island” .   It's knitting, like doing the body is knitting, like knitting socks and hats and gloves is knitting. Also, I don't know how people are getting marooned - sleeves are (for me) knit in the round, and they go by swift as a riptide.So, I don't understand the feeling of being stuck. But then, I don't get second sock syndrome either, so maybe it's just me, not being like other people again. ...

I started a jumper for Leon on Sunday two weeks ago, and finished it the very next week. It's the Seamless Saddle Shoulder by Elizabeth Zimmermann. Look at that shoulder detail!     I think one of the reasons it knit up so fast (putting aside the fact that we are not allowed the leave the house, of course) is the yarn. Field of Dreams is a collab between the Purl Box and Great Ocean Road Woollen Mills. The yarn is a mix of Polworth, Linen and Alpaca, and it is milled locally in Victoria. It is so nice having an increasing number of truly local yarns available. I ordered online, so I didn't see the true beauty of the colour until it arrived. And once I saw the fabric I was hooked, which is how I knit a man's jumper in a week. The only other notable thing about it is I used Wolly Wormhead's alternate cable cast on and I love it. It looks like a tubular cast on, without all the issues I have with tubular cast ons being tight. I also...

Our "State of Emergency" has been lifted. That's the legal term. I'm very worried about how excited everyone is - the idea is that you can see people, not that you should visit everyone you know. I am pretty happy to go see my parents this weekend. We'll see how it goes. Our infection rates here have been very low, but we've seen that change very quickly in some places. The renovations continue. The cats seem to feel the need to supervise, particularly when it is loud. It looks the same as last week, but they have actually been working very hard. I finished a couple of knitted things (pop back Friday, I'll catch up with a FO post), and started a pair of Joji's Flores socks . She is selling the pattern to raise money for a women's shelter she supports, and I thought it would go well with my failed attempt at speckle yarn . I've only just knit the first one, but the colour was even more full on than I expected. And then I realised I ...

I got up at 2am, so I could order a pink box bag from Joji , and I am really excited about the bag, but also kind of tired today. I did have quite a productive weekend. I finished Leon's jumper (that I started last Sunday. That's definitly a personal best for jumper knitting). Photos to follow once it's dry. I dyed the yarn for Kate Davies Sleeve Island . I'm really looking forward to knitting this strange garment. I'm also interested to see what colour this yarn is once it's rinsed out and dry, because (particularly the dark yarn) is not quite the colours I was expecting. And I baked some "cookies". Like everyone else, I've been doing my share of lockdown baking. We always make our own bread  and Leon and I have developed a tradition (or habit?) of having a 3pm coffee and a little something, so  when Sarah Keiffer's 100 Cookies  came up on NetGalley, I said "yes please". It's a beautiful book, one that would be muc...

Well, we're into week 7. The demolition part of the renovation seems to be finished. Hopefully some rebuilding soon. We are also going to find out on the 11th (next Tuesday) what is happening with our lockdown in Victoria. so that will be interesting. I am reading The Bridge by Enza Gandolfo. It is a another novel set in, and with a very strong Melbourne voice, this time focusing on the near west. I am enjoying it, but I don't seem to be putting a lot of time aside for eye-reading in this "new normal" we are currently inhabiting. I'm still listening to The Caine Mutiny . It's not a fast book, but two thirds of the way through it we are getting to the point.  Leon and I are listening to Neil Gaiman's American Gods together, and all I want to do is sit around and listen to more and more of it. I've read the book in the dim and dusty past, and  watched the TV series last year, with was really well done, but this audio book is so good.   ...

On the weekend I finished Skips hat: It's great, although it's too big for me. Skip is bigger than I am though, so hopefully it will fit. While knitting this, I decided to move on to a bigger project. Elise's tea cosy can wait, and knitting 6 projects in 7 days was a big much! As I was setting up my next make I came across this post from Felicity, of the Craft Sessions. She talks about many things, including what we can do to fill our tanks, and how our crafting makes us feel connected (read her post, this is what the post said to me, it will probably read very differently to you).  I realised that I had made all these hats for my friends because a) who doesn't love a quick win, but mainly b) it made me feel connected to people I can't see right now. Also, it was quite fun. Now I've settled in to the enjoyable grind of a plain, stocking stitch jumper for Leon, one of those "we'll be here for a while" projects that I can really relax into...

It's funny, I'm still working from home, and I'm getting done what I need to to, but I feel scattered and not all that productive. On the other hand, my knitting productivity is out of control! I  started the weekend with a pair of Elizabeth Zimmerman May Mitered Mittens for my mother. They are much more loosely knit than I would have done gloves, but we live in Melbourne, not Antarctica, so they should be enough.  This was a really fun pattern, and I see more of these in my future. Then on Monday I made a Woolly Wormhead Classic Beanie  for Kieran.  On Tuesday I made a bigger version of the same hat for Raph: I love them. Quick, fun (look at the crown) and very classic. I made them in Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury , and it reminded me of what a lovely (and economical) yarn this is. On Wednesday I diverted from hats to make a teeny weeny hot water bottle cover. You may remember last year I tried to order mini hot water bottles an...