What I made, by Sharon

I thought it had been a little while since I had done any darning of socks, so I got down the Ikea basket where I store all the socks that need repairs, as well as gifts waiting to go out. I was a little shocked to find it contained EIGHT pairs of socks. The little balls of yarn to darn them with were already there, just waiting to be used. I just need to do the darning. Many of these socks have already been darned once, and a couple have GAPING holes. They are mainly Leon's and he wears handknit socks every day, so they do get worn eventually. Even looking at the photo above, you can see how some of the dyes have faded over time. I also found five hats waiting to be donated. Some of them I knit in 2019. Luckily KOGO has a drop off point right near work, so these will finally be off to their new homes. Now I have to actually do the darning, rather than match the hole with it's darning yarn and just put it back in the box!

Sock Arms is a fairly simple jumper, knit bottom up with seamless set in sleeves. there are a few things that make this very special to me. . The sleeve yarn was  dyed by Dani - from Halfbaked Handyed for the Richmond Knitters Christmas party. So 20 of my closest knitting friends have the same yarn. I am quite thrilled about how even the stripes came out, which is partly a testament to Dani's skill as a dyer. The light grey body yarn was dyed by me. It's the last of the 1.5 kilograms of yarn I bought in July. I was very surprised to  use it up so quickly. The main thing that makes this special is I only knit it out of the house. I took it to Christmas, and then on our road trip to Halls Gap , a wine tour to the Yarra Valley, to Queensland , Monday Night Knit Night , and finally to Ballarat.  It took me exactly a month to knit it, and to go to all those places. I will say that there are some split stitches, and I actually had to sew up a dropped stitch on ...

We've gone 21days with a community COVID-19 transition, and I'm pretty excited. More and more things are opening up, and it's so nice. This week's knitting was a bit of a continuation of last week. I finished the Sock Arms Jumper on our Saturday road trip , and cast on a matching pair of socks - using Dani from Half-Baked Handdyed (the striped yarn) new free sock pattern . I knit during the weekend, and we went to comedy at the Local (!) on Monday night, and I made quite a lot of progress.  In "at home" knitting, I'm slowly chugging away at my Tracey vest. I finished  the underarm-decreases and am now knitting the chest bit (the yoke?) it'll still be a couple of weeks, because it's slow going and I'm leaving the house more and more but I'm finding it very soothing. In books, I randomly requested Vicarious Vacations   by  Michael Wojciechowski n from NetGalley.  It's pub date was December, so I don't know why they were offering it,...

Before the drama that was 2020 I rarely did weekending posts. After all, weekends are times when I did things, and no one is interested in that, right? And now I feel a need to document the things I did on the weekend, the leaving my 5 kilometre and 25 kilometre areas, to celebrate seeing friends.  This weekend we started with a trip to Ballarat to play disc golf and visit some breweries. Originally we were invited to an old friend's housewarming, but when the government reduced the number of people allowed in a house he cancelled the party. It is back up to 30, but still no party. We went with the rest of our plan. It's brand new, and very nice disc golf course. On the drive up I finished my Sock Arms Jumper. It's blocking now, modeled photos to follow, and started a pair of socks. Then on Sunday Lu organised an introduction to indoor rock climbing . We've been wanting to try this for years, but not enough to organise it. It was quite fun, and I think we will do som...

Life in Melbourne is slowly moving to "COVID normal". On Monday the Richmond Knitters returned to our in-person home at the Spread Eagle Hotel, generally referred to a "The Spready. I walked in and one of the wait-staff said "you guy are back, life is back" and I nearly cried.  My very talented friend and fellow Richmond Knitter Dani (aka Half-Baked Handdyed) brought the mini-skeins that I bought last week. 300 grams and 30 colours. Look how pretty they are!   Also, look how I got a dark rainbow and a pastel rainbow. (I'm thinking of knitting this shawl) And then Suzanne had a destash (I love my friends who have "buying yarn" and "knitting yarn" as separate hobbies, so occasionally they have to destash or they will drown). I scored a bunch of minis Two balls of sock yarn (suitable for socks for Leon, or maybe abovementioned shawls main colour) And another of these, Skein Yarns "Bendigo or Bust". Now I have two, and along with...

This week doesn't really have a theme. I'm still working on Sock Arms when I'm out and about. It's going well, I've just got the end of the second sleeve and then the collar ribbing to go. I'm working on Tracery when I'm home. I'm at the stage on the vest where I need  to calculate the neckline and underarm decreases. I am reminded of why I generally buy patterns and only make basic modifications - MATHS. I'm reading Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. We saw the play in February 2018, and I decided to read the book - it may have been an Amazon Daily Deal. It's a gothic horror set in 1900 about some girls who disappear at Hanging Rock, which is a spot we went for day trips when I was a child. in fact, we went for a walk there in 2019. The weird thing is I (and everyone I asked) thought it was based on a true story. Not so. And it's actually historical fiction - it was first published in 1967. In audio I'm listening to A Short Histo...

For my birthday (in December), Kris treated me to a yoga and wine tour, which we went on on Saturday. it was a fabulous day in every way (except the weather, cold and wet). There were ten women on the tour, and then all did yoga with the organiser, Sab, but mainly didn't know each other, and everyone was open and chatty and lovely. We were meant to start with yoga in the vineyard, but since it was pouring rain we got to do it in the barrel room.  We then had a wine tasting, drove to anther vineyard, had a wine tasting and lunch and went to a third wine cellar in Healesville, before heading home. The pace of the tour was perfect, the company lovely. One thing that struck me was this was all a forty-five  minute drive from central Melbourne. We can't go far out in the world yet, but there is so much to do right here. On Sunday we got up and went for a run down to the beach. We've been doing this (at least) twice a week since July. This time, we ran past the Bowls club, and it...

When I buy or receive yarn I put it next to the computer, and then blog about it, put it on Ravelry and place it in the stash-box. It's a smooth process - except for some reason I've had yarn sitting here for almost a month. So, my new acquisitions: Stranded in Oz December club yarn. Look how pretty it is. This was such a fun club. Each lot of yarn was very generous, and pretty. The only reason I'm not resubscribing is that I now have quite a few random, pretty skeins of yarn, and I want to keep it under control. Especially since it has just been announced that Bendigo Sheep and Wool show will (probably) happen in 2021! The other purchase is more surprising. We have been trying (and failing!) to move away from those yellow and green sponges for doing washing up.When we were away we stayed in a very eco-friendly house, and they were using what looked like cut up towels. Then we went to the shop our friend runs Dot and Frankie . They sell lots of environmentally good produ...

Life is returning to something like normal. After our last small COVID outbreak we are back at donut days - 6 in a row, so we've all got our fingers crossed. I appear to have returned to the office pretty much full time, which I am not sad about, particularly because I work in a physically large office with only 3 other people. I have found it hard to settle into a book, which is really strange. I'm reading Jew(ish) by Matt Greene. It's a memoir about identity and I'm finding it fascinating because we have very similar backgrounds, and similar personal identity challenges. I'm wouldn't be enjoying it as much if I didn't see myself and my family reflected so strongly.  I haven't had any problem settling in to the knitting. I've got one sleeve left on my Sock Arms jumper. I love how it's looking, although it didn't occur to me to separately check my gauge for the sleeves, so the body fits how I expected, and the sleeves are quite fitted. I...

The title of this post is a sort-of pun. We spent a long weekend on the Gold Coast (near Surfers Paradise).  I spent all winter in lock-down dreaming of the Gold Coast - sunshine and  no COVID. They went 118 days without a case - and then, as we left for the airport, they had a case get out of hotel quarantine. Also the weather was rubbish - it was mild and raining. because we had had a couple of cases in Melbourne we started the holiday with a cotton bud up the nose and down the throat. Ah COVID times, when will you end? Putting all that aside and it was a wonderful holiday. We stayed with Fiona - Leon's sister - and their family. Leon's parents have been up there since the borders re-opened, and his oldest brother lives on the Gold Coast as well, so it was a wonderful family weekend.  We did Parkrun , for the first time in a long time - it's been closed in Melbourne. I swam in the sea, which was my "resolution" for this year. Mainly we relaxed and hung out. I ...

In the rush of being able to leave the house, holidays and fun, I forgot to show you the last pair of socks I knit, finished on Christmas eve. I made Leon a pair of Rye Light socks, to match his Flax Light jumper. Same yarn, same garter stitch pattern details. It was a simple, satisfying knit, and you know I love matchy matchy. And yarn I've dyed myself. And top down heel and gusset socks are my favourite. And then seeing Leon wear them just makes my days.

First Wednesday of the year - welcome to 2021. This week I'm knitting a colourwork vest - the Tracery pattern. I've wanted to knit this for years, but I needed it in proper wool and I couldn't find a contrast colour that I loved. I ended up dying it myself , and I really like how it is knitting up. I'm a bit concerned, because the pattern is written flat, and I'll be knitting it in the round and steeking. I've also changed the shaping and am not making it cropped with long ribbing. I've done lots of maths, hopefully it will all work out. In any case, it's looking pretty so far. I'm reading one non-fiction book. It's really unusual for me not to have a novel on the go, but that's the way it is today. I'm reading a NetGalley Review book of TV by Susan Bordo. It's part of the Object Lessons series, and I've read and enjoyed a few of them. This one I'm feeling a bit ambivalent about. I'm about half way through and it seems ...

  I started writing one of my usual end of year wrap ups. ( 2019 ,  2018 , 2017 , 2016 , )    I wrote about how I knit x amount, I read z amount, but it just wasn't that interesting. I did keep knitting and reading during this "unprecedented year" but I think the interesting this is the things I did this year that I don't do all the time. Also, it's not my productivity that is interesting, but what I learnt and how I grew. The only stat I value is my stashcount - which is around 12,534 meters, almost exactly the same as the end of all those years. I didn't stress shop my way through the pandemic, I bought the same amount of yarn as I knit, which is quite pleasing, although since I knit over 20 kilometres of yarn, that's still plenty of room for shopping! These were things that stood out this year: In 2020 I sewed more than usual - for wildlife, masks (endless masks) and some oven mitts. It was very satisfying, even though sewing masks was full of feelings....

I knew I wanted to get out of Melbourne between Christmas and New Years, but everything was booked out, and sometimes not having a car is annoying, manageable, but annoying. So, I suggested to Skip and Bee that we go somewhere, maybe camping, maybe Halls Gap. Skip's brother lives outside Halls Gap on a property and was going to be away, so we had their house for 2 nights and then one night with them. Perfect. The house was amazing. Leon and I got to sleep in a self contained room, separate from the man house. It was so cute. There was a field full of kangaroos and a couple of emus, and a deck perfect for spinning -and I did take my wheel.  I got to collect fresh eggs from the chickens. Of course we didn't just hang about at the house, although I really could have spent 3 days just reading and spinning and knitting there.  We went trail running,  and hiking in the mountains. We met up with Dick and Carly and their growing family. As well as recently adding a daughter to t...