What I made, by Sharon

Bet you didn't see that coming! I'm knitting Joji Locatelli's Longline Cardigan . The yarn is lovely (I dyed the 4 ply myself) and fizzy and very pretty. BUT it's going to be a very warm cardigan, and summer is coming. It's knit flat, so lots of purling, and it's the kind of knitting  that I normally do when I'm out and about. Even many things are open (26 days of zero COVID cases, and the last active case in Victoria got better on Monday!) we're still mainly at home. Anyway, I'm plugging away at it, and it's fine.  On Saturday I got an urge I haven't had for a very long time and sat down at the spinning wheel! I really haven't felt the urge all year, and then I sat down and spun up most of a bobbin of grey yarn, destined for Leon's Winter Set 2021. I'm reading Boone by Emily March.  Like the previous book in the series (reviewed here ) it's a lovely romance, set in a lovely town, where everyone heals their pain, and helps ea...

 Did you know you can make rib in crotchet? Me neither, but now I do: Elise asked for a replacement hot water bottle cover, because she's worn through the bottom of the one I made her in 2014.  I know I could have offered to repair it, but the chance to get some crocheting  in was too great. I took the yarn I had unravelled and dyed and went looking for a pattern... And looking, and looking. In the end I made it up on the fly.  I'm really pleased with how it came out. I'm considering writing up the pattern, but I only speak crotchet as a second language. What do you think?

Nineteen days in a row with no COVID in Victoria! The sun is shining and things are ... not returning to normal, but at least we can see our family and friends. We took Monday off work to drive up to Ballarat to see Leon's parents, which was delightful. It was exacrly a week after the government disbanded the "ring of steel" , checkpoints to stop city people from going to the country. I cast on a new cardigan. it's Joji Locatelli's Longline , a simple, open fronted longish cardigan. I'm knitting it in mohair and 4-ply held together, so it will probably be far warmer than I want, but it is so fuzzy and pink! It doesn't look like much yet, because it starts from the back of the collar, and I only started it on Sunday night.  I'm still reading  Peter F Hamilton's The Saints of Salvation . No surprise there, it's a nearly 6 hundred page book. What is surprising is that one thousand pages into this trilogy, they start talking about time travel. I...

When I decided to play along with Stephen West's ten year anniversary mystery shawl knitalong Slipstravaganza I did it for fun and for the distraction. Things were not good here , and the idea of having something to look forward to every Friday, and Stephen's kooky Instagram posts and the community chatting on Ravelry was too good to pass up. I'm usually a product knitter. This time I didn't care if by the end of this I had a fun shawl to wear on the couch, or something to give away. The knitalong did not let me down. Each clue was something fun and different, but still easy to follow a long with. knitting in such bright colours was cheering. Using my own hand dyed yarn as the main colour was pretty sweet, and the colours from two of my favourite local dyers ( Stranded in Oz and The Purl Box ) just added to the fun. Each weeks clue only took about three days of knitting, except the last, which was a solid ten days of intense knitting. And then it was done, and I had m...

  Apparently I only give you progress updates on the  sock yarn blanket  once a year. Last August I reported that I had decided to make it twice as wide. Since I started knitting this in 2009 I figured it might take me another decade to get it all evened up. It's not even yet, but I've made some really good progress. One of the things I did was untangle all the LOSY yarn and group it in zip lock bags. This made it much easier to see what I had, and to stop constantly icing up blue balls. It turns out I have a lot of left over blue sock yarn, and not very much brown, red or yellow. I decided to take some of my left overs, and overdye them with various shades, to get new colours: Before: After: I thought they would be more brown and less yellow, but it's all grist for the blanket mill. If I focussed I could get the blanket even by the end of the month. Since I don't particularly want to finish this project, I'll just keep picking away at it, a couple of squares a mo...

We've had 12 days with no COVID cases and no deaths in Victoria. It's weird to come out of lockdown and be doing so well when the rest of the world is doing it so tough (except our Kiwi cousins). As of Monday we were allowed to go anywhere - although I've only just burst my 5 km bubble, going 6 kms to get a pedicure. I live really close to all the good things - the beach, and the shops and my friends and family.    This week was largely spent reading US election coverage. What a roller coaster! I also started Peter F Hamilton's The Saints of Salvation .    It's the third in a very dramatic science fiction series, and it's just getting faster and more exciting as it makes it's way towards a resolution. I read the second one in June, in that brief time between lockdown 1 and lockdown 2.0, and the final book was just released. I'm still knitting Slipstravaganza. There was a lot of knitting in the final clue. All I have now is the i-Cord cast off - on 950 st...

My camera is making my photos come out even prettier than they actually are, although it's definitly true that all my new yarn is gorgeous. This week my Stranded in Oz Club October yarn arrived (three weeks in the mail from Adelaide). Look how pretty it is:  It's a light three ply, and it came with a shawl pattern, but I'm probably going to use it for something else. I'm not sure what yet. Maybe it's a bit of replenishing the stash, which is getting quite thin. My first Ixchel Bunny club package also arrived (three weeks from the Yarra Valley. I hope Australia Post gets itself together soon. I'll stop talking about the post now!) It's solids and speckles and splashes. Such inspiring dye techniques.  I also think the three yarns look amazing together. You know how I love a three colour shawl. I also dyed some yarn myself. I wanted something to hold together with some Purl Box Fluff I bought at the beginning of the  first lockdown. I'm very pleased with...

 There are many, many, many things going on today that have nothing to do with knitting and reading, but have everything to do with the mood of today.  1) Australia has had 5 "donut days" (no new COVID cases) in a row! This exceeded all my expectations. All of that intense lockdown seems to have worked. 2) This morning someone tried to throw themselves off the bridge outside our flat. A passing driver dragged her back, and two people restrained her until the police came.  An ambulance came and took her away. I'm so proud of the heroes who helped, and the police were so gentle, while still protecting her. I hope she gets the help she needs.  3)   It's Wednesday here, but still Tuesday in the US. The election is happening and you'd be surprised how many people in Australia are following it closely, with a mixture of home and fear.  4) England (and all the people I know there) are about to go into lockdown 2.0 and they don't trust their leadership an...

I've written before about how I love my Joji and Co bags ( here and here ). For the whole of lockdown I've only used two bags - the Box bag for small projects and my beloved Pampa bucket for everything else.  A few months ago Joji launched a "box slingback" and I bought one in stone. It arrived, I'd say a month ago. So why am I only writing about this now? Well, initially it didn't really work for me. It's only a little bit bigger than the Pampa bucket and round the house I would rather knit out of the bucket. I tried using it as a general backpack, but the strap isn't really set up to take heavier loads. And then the other day I was meeting a friend out, and I wanted to take my knitting. I was knitting on my giant blanket . Popped it in, slung it over my shoulder, and knit out of it while I was out. Perfect. I also bought a Amba bag, which is like a bigger version of my first Joji bag ever. I haven't used it yet, I bought it because I think it w...