What I made, by Sharon

There is no theme to what I am reading and knitting this week, but that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying all of it! I'm knitting TdF socks , designed by my friend Jane. These have little roundabouts on them, so I thought they would go well with yarn I bought in Edinburg three years ago from Ginger Twist Studio, in the colour-way Old-Town Cobblestone. I've been knitting more slowly than usual, I'm just not feeling my usual sense of panicky drive to KNIT ALL THE THINGS. I have been reading a little more than usual. It took me two tries to really get going on Maybe the Horse Will Talk   by Eliot Perlman. It has an absolute classic opening line "He was absolutely terrified of loosing a job he absolutely hated" which is a feeling I think many of us understand. Some of the book is satire (the law firm the main character works for is called Freely Savage Carter Blanche) some of it is a sad reflection of late stage capitalism and some of it a bit of a chaotic corpora...

 The Richmond Knitters have a "tradition"(it's three years old,  and one of those years was 2020) where we choose a jumper and cardigan pattern and anyone who wants can knit it and then wear it at Bendigo. Last year I advocated hard for something I don't even remember, and then knit the jumper that the group decided ( Birkin ) and loved it. I also got a lot of good ideas from people's suggestions. This year I suggested Love Note (because I wanted to knit it) and Deb countered with Ranunculous ,  When I saw the Ravelry photos, I though she was joking. Yhe jumper just seemed ridiculous. but I looked at the actual projects, and loads of them looked great. So I knit it. There were a couple of dramas - I actually had to rip 3 times, twice because I misread the pattern and the last time because the yoke came out shorter than expected and I started the ribbing too early. I did the slanted cuffs, and they look odd - I don't think I did them backwards, but if I was go...

This week I am both listening to, and reading romance. Unusual for me to have the same genre in both formats, but it's happening this way. They are very different books.  I am listening to the first Bridgerton book - The Duke and I . It was the free Audible book this month. I had started the TV show, and was kind of liking it, but very confused. I originally thought they had cast Black people as white people, but then it turned into some weird made up history where regency England has a Black queen, and kung-fu fighting ladies. Anyway, I rarely watch TV by myself, so it took me 6 weeks to get through the first 3 episodes. I'm enjoying the book, it's a normal Regency Romance, without bonus race and gender issues.   I 'm reading Second First Impressions , by Sally Thorne. It's a NetGalley review book, and it's lovely. Sweet and silly and just nice. After my miss with The Midnight Library (see review here) I wanted something straightforward. Funnily, this shares t...

For our longer runs, Leon and I have traditionally run to places, and then got ourselves home in more mechanical ways. During lockdown of course we just ran around in circles - and when your circles are St Kilda Beach, Albert Park Lake, the Tan and the Yarra, you don't complain too much. But now we are out and about again. a couple of weeks ago we ran to the Docklands to meet some friends at a brewery (as is traditional) and I really didn't want to do without my knitting for a whole afternoon of fun, so I borrowed Leon's running vest .   I enjoyed being able to carry my knitting so much, that I went and bought my own vest - also a Salomon, but the ladies version, so there is room for "the girls". The guy who served me in the running shop (the legendary Sole Motive ) was really nice - but he was a footballer, working in a running shop. He kept telling me how many litres of water this thing can carry, while I was seeing how big a WIP can go in the back.  Answer: An ...

I love bags. I've always been obsessed with having the "perfect bag" whether it's for knitting socks or going camping. In August 2017 I bought a Fringe Supply Field bag and I loved it. I loved the way you can knit straight out of the bag, but it still squashed down to fit inside another bag, or a bike pannier. I used it and loved it and then it started to get tired. I had to wash it, and the grey material started to seem dull. The badges I had on the outside started catching on the yarn. And it was just tired. I have a few Joji bags (reviewed here , here,   here , here, and here . Apparently I have QUITE a few Joji bags!). but when she released the Hobo bag in in Cranberry I bought one. It's a similarish shape to the Field bag, in suede and has a perforated pocket for pins. But when it came it had damage to the handle. I emailed Joji and they were so apologetic. They gave me my money back AND suggested I take it to a cobbler and get it fixed. Which I did. It...

Last Wednesday I cast on Ranunculas , and yesterday I cast off the body. It's on 6mm needles, so it's not surprising it's quite a quick knit, but it is a bit surprising considering how much ripping I've had to do. I misread the pattern twice, and then the yoke wasn't as long as it should have been, so the body was too short. Really, it was all my fault, but I seriously cannot remember a project when I've had to rip multiple rows multiple times. I'm looking forward to seeing how this looks when it's finished and blocked.  I'm still reading  This has Been Absolutely Lovely  b y Jessica Detman. It has progressed the story at a steady pace, with a few unexpected revelations along the way. I'm loving it. The people don't feel like "characters" they feel like people - flawed, lovely, sometimes selfish people, doing their best. The only reason I haven't finished it is because I've spent every free moment I have listening to John B...

Intellectually I understand that I am not going to finish knitting my stash. Yarn goes out, and yarn comes in. I also know that since I use about a kilometre of yarn a month, I have to average a kilometre and a half of yarn in or I will run out of yarn ... in about a year. Still, I am always surprised at how much yarn (and now fibre) arrives at my house. These stunners are from the Ixchel fibre club.  I signed up for a three month subscription after I did some spinning last year and early this year, but I'm stuck in the "I don't know what i want to spin for so I'm not spinning" cycle. I did sign up for  Jillian Morena on Patreon, so hopefully I'll learn some new things about spinning. This is from Stranded in Oz . Yep, the club yarns keep on rolling in, delighting and stressing me out in equal measure.  This skein is Miss Babs (not local, for a change!) which I threw in when I put in an order from Signature Needle Arts, after I lost a DPN on a night out.  And ...

Excitingly I've got three finished things for this week.  I finished (and blocked) my Peerie Flooers mittens.  I am quite happy with how these (and the matching hat) came out. Pretty and cheerful and matchy matchy for winter. I knit another charity hat for KOGO.  80 grams of LOSY (left over sock wool) off to a good cause. They've done a call out for baby cardigans, so my next project might be a Baby Surprise Jacket or two.   And finally, I used some easy to felt left overs I had lying around to make myself a pair of  felted slippers . When I finished them they were huge. I put them in the washing machine on 40 degrees and when they came out I worried they were tiny, but they actually fit perfectly. Now the only thing I'm worried about is the seam that runs across the sole. We'll see how comfortable they actually are to wear. Wow, a great week for finishing things. I have also acquired rather a lot of yarn and fibre in the last month, so I'll be d...

This weeks Unravelled Wednesday  features two good books, and a bit of "in between" on the knitting, so I'll start with that. I have finished the knitting on a pair of felted elf slippers ! Pattern is by Drops. Now I just need to work out how they origami together, sew them up and felt them! I'm reading This has Been Absolutely Lovely    a rather wonderful family drama set in Sydney. I do love an Australian book. I'm not convinced about that cover, but since I read on a kindle, the only time I actually see covers is when I write these posts. The other book is an Audible Audio only, John Birmingham's American Kill Switch .  If you are Australian the whole series appears to be free on Audible. It's the story of what would happen if food supply lines were cut off, using, say a computer virus. So, the previous books had a lot of character development and world building - if by world building you mean watching the end of the world play out - and in this one it...

On Friday  I talked about the new riding hat I made. I did say somewhere that it was because I couldn't find my old riding hat, which is not really true. i found it in the hat drawer, when i actually looked. The old hat was a Bousta Beanie , which I knit in 2017. It was very servicable, and I wore it every work day of winter for 3 years (not last year, no riding in the cold in 2020!) I loved it, but now I'm not in the mood for blues and greys. I need turquoise and pink! While I was looking for the Bousta Beanie I found this: An Epistropheid that I knitted in 2015. It looks so much nicer in the original photos . The brim stretched out, and it is not the best colour to match my wardrobe, and it's pilling horribly. So I say, thank you for your service and goodbye. Although I like the way that looks on my polystyrene head, so maybe I'll leave it there for a bit. Decorating my living room with knitting seems quite on brand for me.

I cast on a hat to wear under my helmet for winter riding. I wanted to make something bright and cheerful - and I had some nice bright yarn to use. I chose Kate Davies Peerie Flooers, because it's very pretty. When I started knitting the contrast colours just were not showing up right, even though they all looked different in the ball. On the second evening, I took a photo, turned it black and white and discovered that, while the colours were q uite different, the values were   very similar. Then I went to bed... And woke up at 3 in the morning, realising I would have to rip and choose different colours. Which I fine with. I'm not sure why I had to worry about it for an hour or so in the middle oft he night. I found some other colours, and switched around the blues and pinks to foreground colours and made this: A pretty, cheerful, wearable hat. And look at the crown: The whole experience reminded me of Felicity's of the Craft Session's recent post " redefining succ...

The knitting doesn't look very exciting this week, but it's been pretty satisfying. I'm up to the decreases on a charity hat (number 3 of 10 ) I've just started mittens to match the Peerie Flooers hat I was knitting last week - I haven't blocked the hat, so no photos of that yet.  It's really pretty, and these gloves will be too, when they get a bit more knitting on them! The reading has been high quality. I'm reading another NetGally review book, and loving it. The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon, is the story of Benny and Esther a bi-racial musical couple. It's a book about families (his is mafia, hers is in their band) and race and music.   It reminds me a little of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, in the plot device of telling the story to a journalist (in this case a radio DJ) and also Utopia Avenue, even though this book is set in a different country and hasn't (yet) descended into magical realism. It's a rollicking read, and I...