What I made, by Sharon

It's only February  and I've finished Leon's winter set (2021) This might be some sort of a record! I've certainly never knit a two metre long scarf in 5 days. This is the second set I've made with handspun, but it's the first time I've been truly happy knitting with my own handspun. There are, I think, 3 reasons for this: 1) I'm a better spinner. I'm also more experienced, so instead of being lazy and spun three lots of singles and 3 plied it. Much lighter, airier and rounder yarn. 2) The pattern - the pattern, which is essentially a broken rib was designed by handspun and very flattering. When I look at all the projects on Ravelry, I think the handspun one's outshine the commercial yarn.  3) Swatching - I did four swatches on four needle sizes, blocked them and then chose the needle size based only on how the swatch looked. A slightly onerous process, but well worth the time. As I often do with Leon's set's I found one element (in this ...

I've just got out of my own little 24 hour lockdown, since I somehow got a cold and had to get COVID tested. I was planning to work at home on Tuesday, so i just stayed for an extra day. I am looking forward to getting out for a walk after work. I'e JUST started knitting a Kate Davies colourwork hat -  Peerie Flooers . I'm knitting it to wear under my bike helmet in winter - I can't find the  Bousa Beanie  which I have been wearing for the last few years, and I decided I wanted something BRIGHT. I don't know how well the colours go together, but they are certainly cheerful. This week I've been reading a NetGalley review book, The Recent East , by Thomas Grattin.   I cannot explain this book in any way that is helpful. It covers a lot of space and time, and is about big things and small things, like history and family and what sends us away and brings us back. In a good way, this would be a great bookclub book, and I've been enjoying it.  And that's wha...

 This weekend we went to Ballarat for the 10th Ballarat beer festival, and our 10th Ballarat Beer festival. Yes, ew have prefect attendance. We caught the train up - I can't actually remember when I last caught a train. I kept trying to get a picture of the scarf I am knitting with cheep out the window, but it just didn't work. But trust me, there are sheep in those fields. The day itself was lovely. We started with a run around a different lake - Lake Wendoree, rather than our local Albert Park Lake. And the festival itself was warm, but not too warm, in the shade at least. Everyone was a little bit huddled under the trees! There was the traditional beer-farm petting zoo, with lots of goats! But also some sheep. We didn't go in, just sipped a beer and watched the animals do their thing. It was as COVID-Safe as possible, but these signs cracked me up - no-one understood what "lanes" they were talking about. This is why we are only allowed out when we have zero cas...

 Lockdown 3 was short, sharp and very productive for me. I finished my Colour Stacking Cowl . It's a bit odd - because you had to do the colours in full repeats, I chose to do two repeats of the colours. Originally I cast on for three and it was far too long, so I ripped it. This is just a smidge short. I'm going to donate it, hopefully someone will love it. Remember on Monday I said I was going to knit 10 charity hats this year? I knit two this week. Patterns are LOSY Hat by Barb Engelking:  And  Fits the Whole Fam hat by Cosy Up Knits.  Total yarn used was 142 grams, but 25 grams of that was left overs from the cowl. Still, it was a good start. I also knit (but have not yet blocked) the hat and mitts for Leon's Winter Set (2021). So a ridiculously productive week. I guess some people stress eat, and I stress knit.  

We went into a 5 day lockdown on Friday midnight, and get out at midnight tonight. It's interesting to me, when we're locked down and I'm working from home I read less and knit more. This week I decided to start Leon's Winter Set (2021). Here is the  first mitt and the begging of the second. I'm basing it on Stephanie Purl-McPhee's One Row Handspun scarf pattern, and knitting it out of my own handspun , which is very satisfying.  And here is a my Kindle and my brand new Joji&Co Hobo bag in cranberry suede: I didn't mean to theme the colours, but I really wanted a stand case, and they are hard to come by for the Kindle Oasis. Who knows, maybe I'm over teal and everything will turn cranberry now. I am reading The Purl King   by Sarah Painter  It's the fourth in the series, and it's turning into quite a reliable series. Each book introduces new elements, and there was quite a surprise in this one. I'm very nearly finished, and then I've ...

I have somehow once again acquired a frightening about on Left Over Sock Yarn (losy). It's so scary that I have been intending to weigh it and document it for months, and I just haven't. But I just realised that, if I hadn't been adding to by creating more left over all the time,  it the l ast entry for LOSY (from January 2019) would be all used up.  So today, I got it together and weighed it. I've got LOSY in two places - carefully sorted by colour, with the sock yarn blanket . These colours have not been used in the blanket and there are about 710 grams (including the zip lock bags, I'm not THAT keen on accuracy, I weighed it in the thermomix) . Then there is LOSY that has already been used in the blanket, and I might use again, or use for other things: This weighs in at 600 grams. I know it says 500, but 100 grams were elsewhere. Some of this yarn is "special". So I have a separate bag for self striping and an other for sparkle yarn. Still, it's a ...

This week I finished the Tracery vest. I must have been planning the vest for 8  years, when I first saw it in the Unofficial and Unlicensed  Harry Potter Knits , a book that cracks me up by waltzing along the edges of what is copywrite infringement. Here is the picture from the book: Here's what I knit A little bit different! Except the shoulders, they are the same. And yes, we had a lot of fun trying the reproduce the photos from the book! I had some issues taking this from the "I want to knit it stage" to completion, which is why it took so long. The pattern is written FLAT from the underarms up. I knew I wanted to steek it. To do that I needed  to find a non-superwash wool in the right colours. I couldn't find the right yarn. In 2016 I bought wool to spin it, but somewhere along the way I decided handspun wasn't gong to be the best for this vest. I ended up dying it myself in July last year. I was very specific in my head about what I wanted, and actu...

...and by that I mean I'm reading two thrillers, nothing else especially exciting is going on. I'm reading Call Me Elizabeth Lark  by Mellissa Colastini. It's an e-Arc from Netgalley. Look at that cover! Unfortunately at this stage (I'm half way through) it doesn't make a lot of sense. The premise is that an eight year old, Charlotte goes missing and then "returns" twenty years later, calling herself Elizabeth. The mother decides Elizabeth is Charlotte,  she never denies it and that's the set up. It's very far-fetched and the author isn't really taking me along with it. There are too many co-incidences and weaknesses (for example and with only minor spoilers, Elizabeth returns to the cabin where she lived for five and looks in the safe, to get her ID and finds some other surprising things. The book has already stated that she was often left alone there, so why didn't she look in there before?) Also I just don't care what happens. I'...

We've been thinking for a while a bout a more environmentally friendly option than the standard green and yellow dish sponges that we use, and this weekend I crocheted some options. I started with this Crotchet Dish Sponge : It looked rather small, but has a nice texture. Then I did another Crotchet Dish Sponge, same as the first but with the yarn held double.   Then I crotchetted the Quick and Thick Bumpy Scrubby and the  Quick and  Thick Bumpy Scrubby In the Round. Genius . Holding two yarns together makes it thicker and quicker. I think I reduced the number of stitches along the way, one of the edges isn't straight. Sometimes my crotchet skills are a bit "non-technical".  Then, because I was on the couch with a cat on my lap and a glass of wine, I just did a granny square, and a freeform rectangle: Now we are going to use them for a while and decide our favourite. Do we want a hanging tag, a hole to hang it off the tap, two layers, small or big? Once we...

I finished spinning and plying the yarn for Leon's Winter Set (2021) and I have to say I'm quite pleased with it: It's 489 grams and about 757 meters, at a 8 ply (doubleknit) weight, I guess. I'm going to start swatching with a 3mm needle, and go all the way up to a 5.5, just to see where it is happiest. I'm using Stephanie Purl-McPhee's One Row Handspun scarf pattern as the basis of the set, so it's just a matter of working out decreases (or the hat) and thumb gussets (for the mitts) and I'm good to go. I also finished the socks with the left-over Sock-Arms yarn. This is the end of the 5 kilometres of yarn I bought and dyed. I'm a little sad about that and will be buying more yarn to dye. The socks are great - the pattern a simple top down short row heel designed by Danni from HalfBaked Hand-Dyed , who also dyed the striped yarn. I learnt to do twin stitches for this, and it taught me that I really prefer German Short Rows for everything!

I "read" two non-fiction books this week. I put that in inverted commas, since one was The Queen's English , by Chloe O Davis ,  a dictionary of terms related to the LGBTQI community. It is beautifully presented and put together, with descriptions, definitions and warnings. Oh yes, the warnings, which are basically "be careful using this language if these are not your people". Very true. I don't want to appropriate another culture's language. In fact, the production of a book like this is part of the gentrification of certain subcultures, some parts of which are quite happy to be joining the mainstream, and other parts who are not. So I don't know who this book for - I feel like "if you know you know" and if you don't know you can't use this language anyway. But it is a very pretty book. I also read Blackface  by Ayanna Thompson,  another in the Object Lessons Series. I requested this one because I know that blackface is wrong, but ...