What I made, by Sharon

It's the end of the year post, where I assess what I have knit and read in the last year, where my stash is at, and with my goals and plans are for 2022! I read 113 books in 2022. Since I read for pleasure it doesn't actually matter to me whether I read 113 or 3 books. I did choose not to finish 13 books this year, which is an unusually high number for me. I wished I'd DNFd a couple more (Lincoln Highway and The Far Pavilions, I'm looking at you). When I looked at my read books I noticed that there was very little sci-fi or fantasy. These are two of my favourite genres, but I have to go looking for those books, so I'm going to make more of an effort to ready fantasy and sci-fi in 2022. Other than that, I'm sure I will go on reading and listening to all sorts of books. My main knitting resolution was to knit less socks, because I have enough. I did manage to limit it to 9 - three pairs of felted slippers, two pairs of knee highs, two pairs for Leon and a pair eac...

The Boxing Day test started on Boxing Day (the 26th). It could have gone for 5 days, but due to the abysmal playing of the English cricket team it went for two and a half!  I was halfway through splitting for the sleeves on the jumper I'm knitting for Leon, and it was all over. This has seriously impacted my annual tradition of sitting and knitting for a fairly intense period of time. Instead I'm at home, doing fibre prep. This week I read my last NetGalley  review book for the year Truth and Other Lies  by Maggie Smith. It's the story of a young journalist who moves back to her home town has an adventure and makes peace with her past. It's well paced, well written and a hopeful novel to end the year on. I'm listening to Maggie O'Farell's I am, I am, I am - 17 brushes with death . The central conceit is a bit far-fetched - some of the "brushes with death" are just every day occurrences,  but it is an interesting, well written memoir of a sort, if ...

I was about to cast on a Baby Surprise Jacket for charity, when someone pointed out Joji Locatelli's first published pattern, a free baby cardigan .    Not gonna lie, mine does not look great - in fact, I would say it's downright amateurish. It looks like I tried hard, and it's definitly a wearable garment, but the neckline is weird and pulls i, and I think the striping would have looked better on a BSJ. Still, it's done - now onwards to better things. 

 I bought a Kindle Oasis in August 2020 and I never really loved it. But two things have happened recently - there was a system update that seems to help the battery life, and you can now have the book cover you are reading as the lock screen. Love it. I also bought a new cover this week, so now I'm quite happy with my device. I'm reading a NetGalley review book called Would I Lie to You. No spoilers, but the answer is yes. Faiza, the main character lies to everyone about everything. She's been lying to her husband about money for the last six years, and she lies to her parents, her friends, her workmates. She lies about everything all the time, mainly to protect her expensive lifestyle. She lies to protect her lies. Her friends are all horrible people and she is a ridiculously fickle and a bad judge of character. As someone who went to an expensive private school without rich parents, I don't have a lot of sympathy for her. I'm reading on to see how it gets resol...

It was my birthday on Friday and on the way home I stopped at the op-shop that has good craft stuff. Not for anything in particular, but just to see what they had. And I scored 500 grams of what looks exactly like Bendigo Woollen Mills Readyspin in two different colours!  I'm going to card these up together with some grey I have and spin a jumper for Leon - possible Andrea Mowry's Birch Pullover .  Of course, first i have to finish preparing the fleece for his winter set, which would go quicker if I worked on it. Let's see if I can get that done over the Christmas break....  

On Wednesday I (finally!) finished the cardigan I've been working on for the last month. It was fine, but at the end it just felt like it took forever, Probably because I knit something else, and was preparing fleece and embroidering. When you don't focus on one thing it takes longer to finish it. Surprise. Anyway, when I was finishing up I realised that all the yarn in this was "free". The background colour was taken from my Boxy and dyed, and then the pink was destashed from two different people. I bought the buttons on-line during one of the lockdowns, and fell in love with them. I'm really happy with how they look on this cardigan. Now that it's finished I'm happy with pretty much everything about this cardigan. I used tubular cast-offs throughout, and it does give a very nice finish, although I think it made the neckline a little small, but it's fine, especially with the top button open. It's a very wearable cardigan, perfect for these warm su...

Even though this cardigan has felt unbearably slow, since last week  I have finished the second sleeve, and done the button and neck bands. Now I just have 6 more buttons to sew on and we're done! Come back on Friday for blocked photos of this striped beauty. I'm currently reading The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towes. I was really looking forward to this book - to the point where I pre-ordered it. My pre-order got cancelled and the publish date pushed back, which does not surprise me, because this book is a hot mess. There are at least 8 characters that we get point of view chapters from, some in first person, some in third. it skips from person to person, from plot to plot with not a care in the word for convention. The least annoying thing is the lack of quotation marks, but it's pretty pretentious. I'm persevering because I kind of want to find out what happens to Emmett, but it's a bit of a slog. Good cover though. I'm also reading another embroidery book I g...

18 months ago I knit a teeny tiny tiny hot water bottle cover. It was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever knit. I sized the pattern down from Kate Davies Hottie Tottie and nicked the colour-work from Birkin. So cute: I barely used it, so when Sally, my manager, asked me to knit her a cover for a tiny hot water bottle, I gave it straight to her. Which gave me the opportunity to  knit another one. This time I decided to nick the colourwork from Anna Zilberg's half-stranded socks.  Comparison with a full sized bottle it came out quite well, although I am tempted to reknit it, starting the colourwork 4 rows higher, with a row of the contrast colour, and finishing it with a similar line. In retrospect I would also do a checkerboard over 6 or 8 stitches at the edges, rather than the welt I actually used. And maybe go to 68 stitches, rather than 72. We'll see if I knit it again, or if I'm ready to move on. When i was looking for this bottle I found an uncovere...

Things opened up just over a month ago around here and I am busy. it's slowing down my knitting - which is fine, but I was trying to work out why this cardigan I'm knitting is taking so long, and it's because I'm out every night! OK not every night, but it's 4 nights last week and 5 this week. And yes, I knit everywhere I go, but good company and bad lighting do not make for speedy progress. So, here's a picture of my cardigan with one (nearly finished sleeve).  The reading is going really well. I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of Bed Stuy  by Jerry McGill.It asks the question: What happens when a woman meets a man. And then adds is some complexity - an older woman, younger man. And older Jewish woman, younger Black man. Older wealthy Jewish woman... and so on. It's an own voices story and raises some issues about representation of Black people I hadn't really considered before. Mainly it's a good read and i want to know what happens. It'...

I got my test results back in plenty of time to attend this years Christmas party!  We have developed some very strong traditions over the years, and they were all in evidence. (For previous years see 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 ) Sonia did bob-bons with yarn inside, and I provided a sticker / stitch marker as table decorations.  Danni from Half-Baked Hand-Dyed did her traditional Richmond Knitters Christmas self-stripping. I really like this one (I say that every year, but this time it's even truer than the other times). We had a quiz, and good food and an ornament exchange, where I got this sweet bauble. Although not being of the Christmas persuasion, when I Iook at it I think "cat toy" rather than "tree hanging". We had random prizes, where I received this stunning bag, based on the Fringe Supply pattern, that Karen made. Mainly we had conversation, laughter and friendship. It was almost overwhelming, knowing how much we have missed, and ow much we are likel...

I got pinged as a possible COVID contact again yesterday. That's twice in 10 days, for those following along at home. I had not brought my work lap-top home last night and I feel really tired. So, we went and got tested this morning and then I went to a work meeting, with no camera and no mic, and then called in sick for the rest of the day. I expect I'm tired because I didn't sleep well last night and living through a pandemic is exhausting. I was meant to be going to my parents with the rest of the family to celebrate Chanukah, but I don't think we'll have our test results by then. I'd bought everyone presents and everything. Fingers crossed that my text come though soon, since it's the Richmond Knitters Christmas Dinner tomorrow night, and I would really like to go. Until  my text message comes all I can do is lie on the couch and read, and keep preparing this endless, endless fleece. 

We have a tunnel near our house that is covered in street art. In the 90s the council did it in purpose to stop taggers. A year ago they overpainted the whole beautiful thing in institutional grey. It's poorly lit, and creepy and that did not help, although it got muralled up pretty quickly.  Then they were clearly trailing some sort of anti-graffiti cladding - pieces of metal on the walls. A couple of weeks ago they repainted again, in bright primary colours. When we walked through there were security guards wandering around. We commented that, while the colours were pretty they would get covered pretty fast. Turns out the walls were being guarded so they would stay nice for the street artists and now St Kilda Junction is a delightful work of art again.  Which brings me to the NetGalley  review book I am reading - an unauthorised bio of Banksy called The Man Behind the Wall . While Banky's is a name I'm familiar with, and I know some of his work I had no idea of the hist...

I'm at a weird stage with my knitting. I've knit most of what I want / need. I'm enjoying some charity knitting, but I'm finding my craft energy is going into new things, things I'm not so familiar with. Tis weekend I've been processing the small amount of fleece I bought and washed last month .  I pulled out my drum carder, which I bought in 2011  and which I've barely used. It was living in my parents storage loft. I'd forgotten how much work it is to prepare fleece for spinning. It's not the drum carding that takes the time, it's the flicking and lock preparation. It is worth the effort to do it properly though. But it does make beautiful lofty batts, that will be  a pleasure to spin, once I get it all processed.  This weekend I also assembled the Dropcloth Samplers Christmas ornaments I've been embroidering. They have been a real pleasure to work on, and I felt very creative, choosing colours and stitches. Well, i feel clever now. There ...