What I made, by Sharon

All the yarn has arrived from the cancelled Bendigo Show, except for one skein that is going to be hand delivered to me. I bought a jumper's worth of Pirate Purls Corriedale , in this amazing green. It's quite similiar to the green I used for my Treetops jumper , but since I'm going to make a Populux for me, I'm ok with having two quite similar coloured garments, since they are different in every other way.    I also bought some silk stocking from Dyed by Hand yarns. It has such sheen, it's so beautiful. It pairs nicely with some Stranded in Oz yarn I already had. I might finally make Waiting for Rain , after thinking about it, and planning for a very, very long time.  And last (but not least) is a yarn club delivery from Stranded in Oz . It's a heavier weight yarn, and I think there may be enough there for two hats - I'll make one for me and one to donate. So, it sucked that Bendigo was cancelled, but it did keep my stash under control. I now have 14,223 m...

I had a gap between review books (nothing due until September!) and I decided to read the oldest - and longest - book on  my Kindle , The Far Pavilions   by MM Kaye, which I bought in December 2020, so I guess the turnover on my Kindle isn't as slow as I thought it was.  I bought it when it was the Kindle Daily Deal. But the reason I bought it was because, back in the old days, before Kindles, when I used to buy most of my books second-hand from op-shops, I had a copy of this. It was about 2006, and I lived alone in a little one-bedder, and I used a bookshelf to create visual separation between the doorway and the living room, and this book sat there, unread. It had a lurid cover, the same, or similar to the one above.  At some point I got rid of it, still unread. I hesitated to start it, because it's 950 pages long, and because I was worried it would be full of distasteful colonialism. It's fine, and asks the relevant questions (what right do English peopl...

The thing about lockdown is I seem to get a LOT of knitting done. This weekend I finished the Reagen for Rachey. It took me 12 days. The first one I knit took me 3 weeks. I hope it fitsher - I was intending to try it on her as I went, but ... lockdown. Then I started my next project, a crotchet charity blanket, knit corner to corner . It took me a couple of tries to get going - I speak crotchet as a second language, but now I've got the hang of it, and all I want to do is crotchet. I love scrappy projects, I love stripy projects and I love my occasional forays into crotchet country. 

A few months ago Joji released the Envelope Bag. There were many things that I loved about this bag, but I had decided not to buy any more suede bags. It's OK in dark colours, but I do not live a suede friendly life-style. I liked that it can be worn as a shoulder bag, or take the strap off and shove it into another bag . Three weeks ago she released it in camo. I cannot explain why, but I love camo. Which is strange, because I'm anti war and violence and colonialism. I didn't buy the bag, because I was trying to be a better minimalist, and I have lots of Joji bags. I adore my latest - the Hobo with the story . This one looked to be a similar size. I didn't buy it for three weeks. And then Bendigo got cancelled, I had a couple of drinks, and home it came. It got here from Argentina in 5 days, quicker than any of my purchases from much closer to home, and I love it. It's super soft, but still stands up, and you can turn it into a yarn bucket. And its a bit bigger tha...

I know it looks like I'm knitting with the same yarn as I used last week , the week before , and back to the beginning of June , but it's not. That was acrylic 8ply, and this is sparkle sock yarn that I dyed myself. I'm making a Reagan for Rachey. Because we went into lockdown shortly after I started this, it is progressing quite fast.  The lace on this is so intuitive and simple, and the pink is so vibrant and sprarkly. It's a real mood lifter of a project. I'm reading (or have basically finished) a NetGalley review copy of  What's Left Unsaid by Emily Bleeker.    It's the story of a woman whose boyfriend cheats on her and dumps her, who then blows up her own life. Of course it's a journey. I loved this book, and read most of it during last (cancelled) weekend away. It can be a bit blunt in the approach to racism and sexism, but I love the characters, especially Hannah, her grandmother, and all the guys except Alex, so much that I could not put it dow...

Kris and I drove up to Bendigo on Thursday afternoon. We hotfooted it out of the city at 3 o'clock, knowing the announcements hadn't been made yet, and rumours of a lockdown were circulating - and those rumours are almost always deliberate leaks, warnings of a sort. We were hoping if it was a lockdown it would only be Melbourne. At 5pm they announced a five day, Victoria wide hard lockdown. We were heart broken for all the people involved in the show, already set up and ready to sell their beautiful wares. Kris and I decided to stay, and since the rules were that you could "shelter in place" that what we did. On the Thursday night, before lockdown started we went to  dinner with Nat.   On Friday I slept in (the bed in the cottage we stayed in is SO COMFORTABLE). We went out to get supplies and then sat around chatting, reading, drinking tea and wine,  and knitting. We both did some online shopping from the cancelled vendors, and I'll be catching you up on those as...

I like to do a little check-in with my stash before Bendigo (also known as the Australian Sheep and Wool Show) so i know what i have, and what I "need". You can see   2012 , 2013 , 2014 ,  2016 ,  2018 and 2019 . Of course, there is no 2020, and I've been holding my breath all week, watching the numbers every day.   And it looks like it's might be OKish. Bring on a weekend away, with friends and yarn and SHEEP! Here's the traditional useless picture of my stash-box. I currently have 13871 metres of yarn, which is about where it generally sits, although in 2019 I got it down to below ten kilometres. My oldest yarn is from 2018, but most if it from the last year, so that's not too bad. In that 13871 metres I have 1200 metres of dyed by me pink sparkle yarn for a Reagan for Rachey, 1000 metres of dyed by me yarn for a cabled knit for Leon, 800 metres of 4 ply (and some extra hand dyed by me) for a cardigan for me.  I also have 12 single skeins of sock y...

I know it looks like I've been knitting this pink sparkle yarn forever - it's because I made an adult size cardigan and then a baby cardigan and now I'm finishing the last of the yarn on a baby hat. I had 36 grams left, and I'm gambling that I can finish a February Baby Hat to match the cardigan. Lets see how this goes.  I'm reading a review copy of VIP by Jackie D. I feel really bad about it, but I really don't want to finish it. It's so boring. It's about two women who meet and then they go on a date and then they fall asleep together and then they have sex and then they are girlfriends. One is a movie star and the other a pop star, but there is no atmosphere, no glamour, no tension. It's sososo boring. There are so many passages explaining that "Audrey is this" and "Harlow is that" and "Tia (the ex) is the other" but you never see any of it. it's shallow, shallow shallow. there is meant to be something about Ha...

On Saturday we were invited to a house party in Healesville to celebrate Bee's birthday, so we decided to do our long run in the country. There is a rail-trail near there, so we caught a train to the beginning  and then ran 20 kilometres, from Lilydale to Woori-Yallock.  It was perfect - the weather was very cool, but there was no wind and the sun was shining.  I had sent a kitting project ahead, along with clean clothes, but I didn't get any done. We hung oat, and ate and drank and celebrated Bee. I also formally gave her the jumper I had been knitting for her. Here are some better photos: I think she liked it! Then on Sunday we slept in (oh the joy) cleaned the house and did all those tasks it takes to keep life going (watering the plants, clothes washing all that stuff). Then we went to the movies and saw Black Widow. i don't know why, but we rarely go to the movies. Shows, live comedy and musicals, all the time. We haven't been to the movies since 2019 ...

Life has returned to some semblance of normal here in Melbourne after the last lockdown, but we're all kind of reluctant to make definite plans. You hear a lot of "presuming restrictions allow" or "if we are allowed" when making plans. A combination of Delta, winter and our federal government failing to order enough vaccines means we've got at least another three months of this uncertainty. And NSW (the State next door) is doing very poorly, and our borders are porous.  Ugg. I'm doing some charity knitting, with yarn left over from Bee's jumper . I haven't knitted a February Baby Sweater since 2010, and it is such a sweet little pattern.  Funnily enough the last one was also quite an intense pink. I'm reading If I had Your Face   by Francis Cha. It's set in Seoul and is the story of a disparate group of young women who live in the same apartment block- an artist, a hairdresser a "room girl" and a wife, and how they are trying ...

I finally, finally finished the cardigan for Bee. I got her to try it on, but she put it over the jumper she was already wearing, so who knows? This project was a bit meh for me, but I really like the pattern and might make it for myself too. In wool. Not acrylic, even thought the acrylic is OK ... if you can't wear wool. When she tried it on the bottom buttonhole turned out to me too loose, so i took it home to fix it. I'll wrap it up and give it to her for her birthday, which is the 8th of July. I also finished Elise's mitts . These are a surprise present, and I'll wrap them up and give them to her for her birthday, with is the 7th of July. I really like how they came out, and it is a pattern I would make again, maybe as a charity knit. And now my needles are free. I'll do some charity knitting until I see Rachey, (hopefully Tuesday) because I want to measure her up for the cardigan I'm going to knit for he r. This has turned into a bit of a year of knitting f...

I tried something different in June. Inspired by Stephanie Purl-McPhee I used  the app 1SE to record a a photo from each day, which it then mashes into a video. Here's mine for June: June was weird. A lockdown, two vaccinations, getting back together with family and friends. I had some frustration around knitting, a cancelled holiday, some chilly mornings. I don't really feel like this captured the spirit of the month. There is a Sunday there where I ran 15 kilometres, and then met up with friends at a brewery. I forgot to take a photo of the group, so the whole experience, or at least the day, is just (another) picture of the beach. Nothing touches on the feeling I had, 14 kilometres in, standing at the world's slowest traffic light when Leon came back for me! Or how that first beer tastes. Or the joy of being out with friends old and new (although here are plenty of photos of that.) Or that doughnuts represent zero community transition  in Victoria. As a...