What I made, by Sharon

Our numbers go down, and our freedoms very gradually go up. We are now allowed to meet with small numbers of people, outside, in public places. Shops, restaurants and all that are still shut, so I've still got a lot of time at home for the knitting and the reading. And I read a  very good book this week, Why Birds Sing   by Nina Berkout. I got a review copy from NetGalley, but it is unreservedly one of the best books I've read recently. Focussing on an opera singer who is having career problems, it brings together a band of misfits, who help each other see what they need. It reminded me of Bennett Sawyer's The Hard Truth About Sunshine , but was less contrived. Nina Berkout handles her material well, never mawkish or overdone. I don't know a lot about opera, and that didn't detract from the book. And now I knit more than I ever thought I would about domesticated parrots. All in all, a thoughtful, at times sad, sometimes uplifting and overall very satisfying book. I...

I finished Kathy's tea cosy and blocked it and was going to post about it yesterday, but the day got away from me. We took the day off work to celebrate the all the scaffolding on our side of the building being down, so I thought I would have loads of time, but the day was somehow really busy, what with sleeping in and running and going down the street to pick up a beer, cheese and wine tasting.  The tea cosy went pretty quickl y,  once I final ly got the hang of the pattern. I finished it, and very carefully sewed up the top and bottom. I put it over one of my smaller tea pots to block, but I was quite worried. Kathy's tea pot has an odd shape: And the bottom of this was tight, so I was worried that it might fit but not stretch to get on. Eventually I pulled out the bottom seam and put a button on, so she can undo it to get it on. Knitting something to fit from pictures and dubious measurements is a little tricky, but I can adjust it when we go to see them, which w...

This week has been odd because life in general has been quite nice - good weather, COVID numbers going down, a general sense of wellbeing, but the knitting and reading is a bit shaky. Unusual. In knitting I put aside Leon's Jumper on Friday to make a tea cozy from my Mother-In-Law Kathy. I figured it would be done on the weekend. Well, it was struggletown for me. i couldn't get the stitch pattern quite right, and then I thought I had it, and it looked all right, but was not quite right, and not easy to work. I did some ripping, and re-hooked it and now it looks good and is nearly done. But I've only got the measurements she texted me, and there is not a lot of stretch in this so I'm worried it will be too small. I'm also worried Leon's jumper will be too small. i had him try it on the other day and it's quite tight. he said he likes it, and I think the swatch grew, so I guess I'll persevere. What a drag. In reading, I'm still reading John Birmingham...

It's been a good weekend, although a bit odd. It's Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and normally I would be spending time with family and friends. But I met up with Elise at the shops on Friday and we got a coffee and sat on on a bench (who would have thought that would be and feel like a privilege?) and she gave me some honey cake. Then this morning Arthur, my brother, messaged me and brought over a honey cake and some other treats. so I feel very loved. I started the weekend by dyeing some yarn for the upcoming Westknits MKAL. I'm pretty happy with how the speckles / colour ca me out. Here's what I think it my f inal c hoi ces for the shawl. H opefully it will work out well. In any case, it will be fun. I decided to  put down Leon's jumper for the weekend and crotchet my mother-in-law a tea cosy. It's  a bit nerve wracking, because her tea pot is not a standard size. I'm using this super cute pattern, and it's taken me a while to get the hang of the pa...

I finished my " Nether Garments" last week and they were one of the most fun things I have knit. Stripes, largely using my hand-dyed yarn and growing very quickly all make for a very fun project. I used (what I thought was) the Russian join , but I did it without a needle. While there was a bit of end clearing up to do it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I think I went a bit overboard with the waist - if I was going to make these again I would definitly shorten it a bit, and I would keep the striping going throughout the waist area. The main thing is though - these are wool leggings. I wear a lot of leggings made from fancy made up fabric like "luon" and "luxtreme" and "performance"  and "embody active" and just plain old lycra. Those leggings sit very tight to the body, and then stretch enormous. Knitted yarn is different. It bags a bit, and sags a bit and drags a bit. But it's warm and comfortable and old fashioned...

The lockdown is very slowly easing easing. Now we're allowed to go for two hours exercise a day, and sitting in the park counts as exercise.  And I just got back from a run down here (masks are only off because we were running): So life feels pretty good. I started a jumper for Leon on Monday. It's just a simple top down raglan, free, from Tin Can Knits.  It's got a couple of nice details, and I dyed the yarn myself, so that's always fun. And I'm reading the first Axis of Time book, by John Birmingham. It's a time travel novel and I don't normally like time travel. If you recall I was listening to his excellent Zero Day Code series. I started reading his blog. I've always had a fondnes for John Birminham, his He Died with A Fallafel in His Hand was one of the seminal books of my youth. So when I discovered he was on Patreon , I decided to follow him there too. But he was near the end of serialising the last Zero Day Code book, and he messaged me (!)...

We have another two weeks of stage four lockdown and then a graduated release, where things only really start opening up on the 23rd of October. I'm in a very fortunate position - I like the person I'm living with, I have time consuming hobbies, both of us still have our jobs, I "see" my friends regularly through Zoom. But like everyone else, I've got a touch of lockdown fatigue. I've done all the things I wanted to ( new kitchen , new dining chairs, redecorate my living room as a tropical lagoon ). I've got great knitting projects lined up and a lot of good books to read. But everything feels really routine and blah. So this is what I'm doing to make the next 2 months fun: At the beginning of Stage four we contacted Nath, from Enfer running and got him to program a months worth of run training. Because he's Nath, he programmed to (what was meant to be) the end of stage four - today. We didn't have any actual goals, but it got me running regu...

I finally got photos of my Ancasta Dress . It's three weeks since I finished it, and I've been procrastinating the photos. It took me a full week after I blocked it to even try it on. There are a few reason s: 1) The weather finally started to warm up, and this is quite a warm dress 2) When I queued it, I imagined wearing it to work. I'm getting the feeling I won't be back in the office this year, at the earliest it will be on the first day of summer.  3) While there are many ways around this, there are (technically) only four reasons to leave the house, and since taking photos of a dress is not exercise, caring, work or shopping it meant choosing our location carefully. But I am forever happy that I have access to my balcony for this second lockdown, so taking photos out there made sense. The dress itself was a joy to knit. Th e cables where intuitive, it grew steadily and I love the way the (now discontinued) Buachaille yarn knits up. It is a tiny bit rough against th...

 When I started naming these after the week of lockdown we are on, I didn't expect to get to week 23. We got our "roadmap" out of lockdown and it involves another three weeks of stage four and nothing much reopening until the 23 of November, and then only if we have zero community transmission. Needless to say everyone is feeling a little bit flat. At the least the knitting and reading is going well. The tights knit up remarkably q uickly, and I love how they are looking: That's ten days work, I ha ve  another maybe tw o days. It's still cool enough that I'll be able to wear them. Perfect workwear for these working from home times! Reading has also been good. I received three free months of Kindle Unlimited with my new Kindle, and Elise recommend The Night Raven , by Sarah Painter.  It's the first in a series of   four, urban fantasy detective novels. Urban fantasy is a genre that I don't always enjoy, but this is great - good characters, a slowly emer...

I got some good mail this last week - this is the August yarn from the Stranded in Oz Club . It's so purple and so pretty. I'm not sure what it's going to be yet, I'll keep you updated. I got a Joji & Co order. I'm completely obsessed with everything she does, but I try to restrain myself, since the shipping alone is $30. I really wanted one of her IC Needle wallets . I've been using the Chiaogoo one, which is quite good, but it's floppy and easy to drop all the needles out of. Not so with this one. I love it, it's compact and sturdy and fits my set of standard Chiaogoos (size 2.75 - 5mm) perfectly. I also threw in a t-shirt and pin, since I love combining postage. Last is something I created, rather than  bought. I turned this: Into this: for a jumper for Leon. I was aiming for a little bit lighter, but I am quite pleased with how it came out.    

My mother-in-law mentioned she would like a new how water bottle cover, so I decided to crotchet one because it's been a while since I got out the hook. Also because it's far quicker. I was going to knit a charity hat between large projects, so instead I took that same yarn and made a hot water bottle cover: I don't love the colour of the yarn on the tie, but I was pretty much out of matching scraps my that point. I used this pattern. It spiralled, rather than being in proper crotchet rows, which doesn't work when striping. It also has no shaping at the top, the tie is what keeps it together. Still it was a delightful way to spend a day, and I think it looks nice when it's all tied up. Old fashioned, in a good way. Kathy also asked for a new tea cosy, so I'm looking for a pattern for a crotcheted one, since I do enjoy hooking on occasion, particularly for homewares.  

It's been a pretty good week. September started, and with it I started Elizabeth Zimmerman's " Nether Garments " or leggings and I would call them. They are in a mix if left over sock yarn and yarn I've dyed for this project, and they are really fun to knit. I started them on Sunday, so they are fast as well as fun. I'm reading I'm Your Fan , which is a non-fiction book about a Leonard Cohen tribute album. It's part of the 33 1/3 series, which profiles a single album in depth. I saw it on NetGalley and thought it might be interesting, which it is. I'll probably start some fiction too, it's unusual for me to go any length of time without a novel. I'm listening to T he Secret Life of Bees . I'm struggling to get into it, and I'm not sure why, since this is the sort of thing I usually like. The blatant racism is painful - but it's meant to be. I'm just finding the book a bit aimless, but it is starting to intrigue  me, so I...