What I made, by Sharon

 A couple of weeks ago I wrote about welcoming whimsy, and I'm really enjoying the journey. I knit a  gnome , and I'm working on my embroidery sampler (almost) every day. I've been knitting the Stephen West MKAL for the fun of the process, rather than the prospect of the finished shawl.  So, when Romi Hill launched her second Oddments Knitdown with a very whimsical project , I was in. Small bags with woollen embroidery? Yes please.  I actually really struggled with embellishing the first bag.  For some reason I have never understood duplicate stitch, and even with her photo tutorial, this was definitly a learning experience.  The improvement for the second bag is remarkable, and I might even give this to my Mother-in-Law.  This was such a fun, interesting project, and it really consolidate the embroidery techniques I've been learning. 

Sunshine outside and sunshine in my heart. It's perfect weather to sit on the balcony and knit, embroider or read. I'm still working from home for another 2 weeks, so I might have a chance at lunch time. But before that, let me tell you about what I've been up to. I'm keeping up with the Stephen West Shawlography MKAL. Last week's knitting was epic, but this week I was finished by Monday. It's a lot, with lots of interesting and fiddly details. Also,I'm currently 8 stitches over count, so I'll (presumably) have to sort that out in some way. Because I finished the MKAL clue on Monday, yesterday I had time to knit my sOcktober knee highs. Such soothing knitting!  I've been doing some embroidery, both on my sampler and on a little Romi Hil l project. Hopefully I'll be able to show you the the finished results of the Romi Hill experiment later this week. I've started The Night of Many Endings by Melissa Payne. It's a NetGalley review book ...

On Friday lockdown lifted at last. We Melbournians like to brag that we were the longest locked down city in the world, and it was hard. (On the other hand, Victoria has a total of 1041 deaths for out 5million population, so that's why we did it) Now we're at 90 percent one vaccination and 70 percent double vaxxed and we are starting to return to normalcy. On Friday at 3pm Leon and I popped across the road and has a beer in the beer garden. We can see this pub from our house, and it was sad seeing it shuttered for so long. Now we are back! On Saturday we went to Skip and Bee's, and hung out with them and Elise and ate and drank and chatted. we haven't been allowed in people's houses since July, so that was quite a treat. On Sunday we didn't do anything we couldn't do before. I ran around Albert Park Lake four times, for a total of 21kms. It's been a while since I ran that far, and it felt ok. We all miss our friends and families, but everyone has a speci...

It's a good week for audio-books. I'm still listening to Nomadland , and still enjoying it. It's the perfect book to listen to while I'm working. I'm also listening to False Witness by Karen Slaughter. She's an author I've heard of a lot and had never read. I follow her on Instagram and she mainly posts cat memes. This book is gritty and grim and I cannot put it down. In eye-reading I DNFd a book called Adulting (review here, I really disliked this book) and am reading another book in the Object Lessons series, courtesy of NetGalley. This one is nominally about stickers, but is actually a muddled memoir, and a history of Charlottesville. It's a good read.  And the cover is equisite. I'm mainly knitting Shawlography . There is a LOT of knitting this week. I'll get it finished before the next clue but it's intense. Also, I don't know if I like it. There is a lot going on. Texture and colour and holes and bumps. I'm glad the shape is ...

Half-way through sOctober and I've finished my first pair of socks, a broken rib with an interesting heel construction for Leon (the pattern is Reverso , free from Knitty). The most interesting thing about these socks is that they are knit in Blacker Yarns , a 50 percent mohair / wool blend that is woolen spun. They were the oldest yarn in my stash -  I bought it at Edinburgh yarn fest in 2018, so it was time to use it. The colour is more beautiful than it looks here, they dyed it on white and coloured wool, so it has a lot of variation and depth of a commercial yarn. Yes, Juniper REALLY wanted to star in these photos!  So why might these be my only pair of sOctober socks? Well, I'm focussed on the Shawlography MKAL (new clue tonight!) and I'm also embroidering and spinning, so between all that there isn't as much time as I would like. I'm going to cast on a pair of knee highs, and I think that will take me well into next month. It's still a celebration of my fa...

This is the first week of Shawlography the Westknits 2021 MKAL. The clues come out Friday night Melbourne time, and I've only just finished the first clue on Wednesday afternoon. I didn't get as much knitting done on the weekend as I expected.  The first clue is odd and fun. I love those i-cord loops, and am very much looking forward to the next clue. I don't love how dark it looks, but I think when I block it that grey will open up and show the beautiful colours underneath. Meanwhile I'll go back to knitting Leon's socks until the next clue drops.  Before the MKAL started I finished the first, and am up to the gusset on the the second sock.This was quite a good project to pick up and put down in between other things. I've done daily work on my embroidery sampler and am loving working on a new skill: As you can see, it's still early days. I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of Freckles, the new book by Celia Ahern. I thought she was a rom-com writer,...

The last clue for the Gnome Mystery MKAL dropped on Thursday night, so on Friday I did the knitting, and on Saturday I sewed her up. She's pretty cute. I'm going to knit her a matching teeny tiny ice-cream, and then she'll be done and accessorised.  Every Friday during lockdown Elise and I do a Zoom call, and this week I sewed the buttons on my mother's cardiga n during the call. The buttons took a long time to get here, and then I procrastinated sewing them on. Sewing buttons isn't my favourite I'm looking forward to giving it to her and seeing how it looks on.  I also FINALLY got my embroidery threads and hoop. The post was really slow and then it went to the post office instead of my house.  I picked it up on Friday, on Saturday I watched the video tutorial on setting up. My aim is to do a stitch every day, after work, but I don't know if that is realistic. I cleaned the 600 grams of fleece I bought. To wash lanolin out the water has to be above 65 degr...

My niece is having a baby boy in February, so when some light blue sparkle yarn showed us in the mail, I knew what it needed to be. This is the Oh Baby! Cardi pattern by Roberta Rich. A really cute, simple top down, seam free, all in one baby quite. I had enough yarn left over that I made a matching hat. And then I got carried away, and decided to knit another one for KOGO (Knit One Give One). I wasn't quite paying attention, so I ended up making the large instead of the medium, and the Stranded in Oz Yarn I was using had less yardage and I realised I was going to run out of yarn. I striped  in some mystery left-overs, and a bit of the sparkle yarn, and I think it came out really well.   

I am on the cusp of finishing my mystery gnome. There are just two more clues. I guess we are going to add her features, arms and accessories. This has been so much fun. We're also on the cusp of starting Stephen West's  Shawlography MKAL . While I wait I'm knitting a pair of socks for Leon. I'm using my oldest sock yarn, which is woollen spun and 50 percent mohair. I wanted to do a nice cabled project, but it just wasn't showing up, so instead I'm doing Reverso from Knitty, which is basically a broken rib, and it knitting up very quickly. I'm still reading Empire of Vampires - it's a big book, but has also been quite a quick read, because, while dark, it has a fast moving interesting plot. Highly recommend.   I'm not listening to an audio-book right now, although I am chewing through pod-casts. I started David Mitchel's T he One Thousand Autumns of Joseph De Zoot  and I just could not get in to it. Endless tedious descriptions. Maybe it's...

A couple of weeks ago, Katie posted on Instagram that she was drinking mulled cider. Yum. I said the Leon "Can we get some cider to make mulled cider?" and he pulled a surprise can out of the giant stack of craft beer in the study. We made it, I put this picture on Instagram and we drank it. Young Henrys then contacted me and asked if they could use the  photo. Of course. And then they sent me a case of beer. So I got to use #gifted and felt like a proper influencer! By the way, I'm @sharondblk on insta, if you want to give me a follow over there. As for being a food blogger, I got a copy of the book That Noodle Life by Mike Le and Stephanie Le. It's very well presented, informative and adorable. There is a whole page of haikus about different noodles types. And they are not snobby, the book goes from crayfish noodles all the way to ways to use instant noodles. I made the "secret ingredient noodles". The recipe was easy to follow (except that all measurem...

I've been celebrating sOctober with enthusiasm since 2011, and I intend to continue the tradition this year, although a little more muted, since I'm also doing a Gnome MKAL and Westknits MKAL. In between I plan to make these socks for Leon, using the oldest yarn in my stash, bought in Edinburg in. I think I'll cast on on Sunday, so I'll have them largely done by the start of the MKAL next Saturday. When I get Leon's socks finished, I've got a lovely pair of knee highs in mind, the Emilia Socks by Erin Kostashuck.  I don't think I'll get all this done in sOctober, but that's OK. A couple of years ago Brent tried to start Sockvember. It didn't take off, but that what these socks might turn into! Meanwhile, I'm starting sOctober mindfully, with some long put off mending, because we may as well start the month with all the socks mended and well. I seem to have been saving the darning for a special occasion, and starting sOctober seems a specia...