What I made, by Sharon

I try really hard to come up with punny titles, and while it is true that I am at the end of two knitting project I'm only halfway through my current book. I'm reading T he Other Side of Beautiful by Kim Lock. It's a NetGalley review book, and is quite delightful. It tells the story of Mercy, a doctor who hasn't left her house for two years because of something that happened. When her house burns down, she ends up heading north in a clapped out old van, with nothing but her dog and her anxiety for company. We slowly start to learn what it was that traumatised her. It sounds heavy, when described like that, but it reads more like a rom-com and I'm definitly enjoying. Additionally, as all the borders have slammed shut again around here, it is delightful reading a book that starts in Adelaide and makes its way up the Sturt Highway north, always north. I have finished the knitting portion of  Bee's Populux: I just need to do the ends and the buttons. I'm seeing ...

We got our second vaccination on Friday, which is a great relief. There have been issues with vaccine supply, and lots of people are not yet eligible. Which is a real problem, because the Delta strain got out, and now every State EXCEPT Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have outbreaks of various sizes going on.  On Saturday I didn't feel all that great. We had tickets to Tash York, for the Cabaret Festival. During the day I thought I wouldn't be up to going, but I came good. And because of Covid rescheduling, it was a 6pm show, so I was home and back in my PJs by 7.30. So nice to go to some live theatre. On  Sunday I met up with "the girls" - my group of friends from high school. It is always a pleasure to catch up. Sometime during the weekend I finally managed to finish the sleeves of the endless, endless Populux cardigan. I just looked it up, and I started it on June 11th, so it's only been two and a half weeks. I'm not sure why it felt so endless! ...

I'm STILL knitting Populux for Bee. I started the second sleeve on Thursday and it looked too big. I didn't knit on it on Saturday during the day, and in the evening we were going past her place, so stopped by to try it on. She said it was fine, but I still think it might be too big. there was more confusion about the length, so right now i'm convinced it will have very wide, rather short sleeves. Hopefully I'm just in the stage of  " knitting, it's so relaxing " and it will all come good in the end. Knitting garments for friends is STRESSFUL! I'm reading a non-fiction NetGalley review book Signs and Symbols of the World , by D.R. McElroy. It's very odd, just a bunch of chapters covering a seemingly random selection of symbols - alchemy, the periodic table, emojis, Celitc symbols. it feels like the commentary is from Wikipedia, and the symbols have no political or critical context. For example, when the book talks about Scottish tartan they do no ...

I've always knit with natural fibres. My mother calls all yarn "wool" and expects it to be so. She's also the woman who walked in Cotton On , asked them if they had anything cotton and when they could only find synthetic garments, she asked them why they were called Cotton On, and left.  I normally knit with wool. In recent years I've been trying to avoid superwash wool, because of environmental issues, and because garments knit with superwash don't keep their shape as well, they tend to droop. When I decided to make a cardigan for Bee, I knew it would have to be cotton, linen or synthetic, since she's a vegan (or a Beegan, as we like to call her). I found a sparkle pink yarn on-line for 30 american dollars a skein. It would have made for an expensive cardigan, but worth it for a beautiful friend. And then it wasn't actually in stock anywhere. And then I found a sparkle acrylic at Spotlight. It was half price, and cost two dollars seventy a ball. So c...

Normally I have plenty of time to write these posts but today got busy - partly because we got up this morning, put on our running clothes, went to the living room to feed the cats, saw how much it was raining and went back to bed! So, instead of running before work, we went out after work. So worth it though. One of the joys of working from home again. This week I am still knitting Bee's Populux .  It's a really well written pattern, and cropped, so even thought I am knitting a larger size for her than I usually would for me, the body of it has gone very quickly. I imagine I'll finish the ribbing tonight. Then it's on to the sleeves, which will, slow me down somewhat. I'm reading another NetGalley book Passing on Faith by A.M. Leibowitz. It's family drama? Romance? It's a pretty good read, although the writing can be a little bit awkward.  To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as  Sharondoublekni t and on ...

It's the Queen's Birthday long weekend. Normally I love a long weekend, but this one threatened to be a bit of a downer, since we were meant to be on a road trip to Adelaide, for (amongst other things) the Adelaide Cabaret festival. Instead we are at the tail end of the fourth lockdown, which was only two weeks, but this one was hard for me. We had no plans for this weekend, both because we were meant to be away, and because the current (rather odd) rules mean you can meet people outdoors, or in cafes/bars/restaurants, but not at home. We got to go for lunch with my parents, which was delightful. I was p lanning to knit Bee a cardigan  while we were away, so she could try it on as we went. I decided to knit it anyway, and am making quite good progress. Hopefully it will fit. At the very least, this is quite a cheering colour to be knitting with.   It's got a sparkle thread  through it that doesn't really photograph, but it's really pretty. We also went on a...

Restrictions are lifting, but for the next week we're not allowed more than 25 kms from home, so no holiday for us. I cancelled my leave, but I'm swathing for the cardigan I was going to knit on our holiday. I'm knitting it for Bee, who was coming on the holiday, and I thought it would be good to have her there as a fit model as I knitted it. Oh well, at least it's a very cheerful colour. You can't see it in that swatch, but there is sparkle in the yarn.  Just a note here for anyone who does not understand what is going on here, Melbourne locked down when we had 7 cases of community transition. We have no tolerance for this virus running loose in our community, so every time it gets out (and it does get out) we put it back to ground.  I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of We Were Not Men by Cambell Mattinson.  So far it's very good, but, being a book that starts with a collision that kills the main characters parents, and describes the crash and the emotio...

Last Thursday we decided to get vaccinated. Because of a complete balls-up with the booking system, it's almost impossible to get an appointment within the next three weeks, but the mass vaccination centres are doing walk-ups. So I knew there would be a longish wait, with a tram ride on either side of the vaccination. On Wednesday night I finished the shawl , so I had nothing suitable on the needles. I grabbed some sock yarn and off we went. It took just under three hours from joining the queue to leaving the vaccine centre, so very worth it to get  vaccinated. I cast on for the Palestra socks by Sarah Jordan in the queue. It starts with a garter stitch tab. I didn't count my stitches after finishing the tab, later I found I was two stitches short.  I knew the colours were very close. it worked well in my knee high socks,  but more contrast would have helped here.  I did everything wrong that someone who has knit over a hundred pairs of socks can do. I de...

 It's unusual for me to start, finish,block, photograph and blog a shawl in a week, but here it is: My beautiful Hallow Moon, or as I have called my project Rainbow in the Storm. I started it the first day of our current lockdown (4.0 for those playing along at home). The pattern is soothing, the colours in the middle keep it interesting.  I wanted a shawl to wear like a scarf, wrapped around the neck, rather than my more recent large shawls, which I wear wrapped around the shoulders instead of a cardigan. I am very happy with how this came out - it's been a long time since I made a one skein shawl and I was worried it would be too short, but it's not, it's perfect.  We took the photos near Polly Woodside (the boat in the background) which is outside the Convention centre, straight after getting our first vaccine shots. This shawl represents resilience to me, and that there is always some colour to be found in the darkness. 

S o, I'm near the end of my knitting project, and near the end of my book, and theoretically near the end of this lockdown that started on Friday, but everyone is waiting for the extension announcement, so probably another  5 days of lockdown? We'll know later today. I've been knitting the Hallow Moon shawl. It's a snack of a shawl, really easy knitting. i had it all ready to take to the yoga retreat I was going on this weekend. The retreat is cancelled (bitter, me?) and with my slightly frantic lock-down knitting pace I'll finish it today. I started it on Friday, so it's been a very quick, very fun knit. And its suitable for Pride Month too. I started Taylor Jenkins-Reid's Malibu Rising on  Friday as well, and it's been an absolute treat of a novel. Perfect from the current situation. It's a family drama set in Malibu. It alternates between one wild party, and the back-story, but it doesn't feel like a two timelines novel. It's a compelling...