What I made, by Sharon

 My cosy house jumper is progressing nicely, and it's still cold enough here that it will get a fair amount of wear before it's time to pack it away for summer. I've just got the collar to go, but it is 24 cm of 1x1 twisted rib  - which is as longer than some of the hats I make. It normally takes me two or three days to make a hat, so I might be back with finished photos on the weekend. The reading has been a tiny bit glitchier - I started a review copy of Indomitable by Claudia Brooke, and could not stand it. In the first ten percent there was two incidents of self-fat shaming and one where the main character steps in dog poo and gets it on the laces of her shoe (how?) and then "has" to throw the shoes out, because there is no way to fix that. A main character who literally cannot deal with shit on her shoe. I'll have to give it a decent try, because it is a review book, but I'm just finding it so frustrating. Instead I decided to read the oldest book o...

We spent the weekend in Bendigo again, this time for a beer event - Bendigo on the Hop.  Leon and i decided to make a long weekend of it, and public transported up on Friday, getting there in time for a lovely lunch. Then we walked to the mill.  I was pretty excited, because I keep on buying dyes, but I don't actually have any bare yarn to dye. they only had one skein of undyed sock yarn, but it's beautiful- really round and looks a bit like Socks That Rock , so I'm looking forward to dying / using it. I also bought some slow colour-changing yarn for a TellyBean Knits jumper - or dress, maybe. We had afternoon tea in a cafe by the lake, where we ended up going back for breakfast both days. Delicious.  Then Skip, Bee and Chris arrived and we had a lovely dinner. Saturday was Bendigo on the Hop - you go to 9 different venues and choose from 4 types of beers. it was a lot of fun and the town had a really great vibe. After finishing up we ate more delicious food and col...

I have some exiting knitting plans for the next three months. I think all the designers and KALS happen now because the northern hemisphere is heading into autumn / winter. Here in Melbourne we will soon be experiencing spring, but, since I'm an equal opportunity knitter I knit just as much in summer as in winter.  So, what are my plans? I've just signed up for the Joji Fall KAL. I'm going to knit the Flores Socks  and the Lace and Fade Boxy .They were both in my queue - I recently discovered that I had the yarn for the Boxy in stash (yes I bought it for something else, but lets not be rigid). So pretty. Photo from Joji Then there is the Westknits KAL. I didn't have the best time last year - my yarn colours were not quite right, the shape wasn't to my taste and it was during this KAL that my city grabbed the "honour" or being the most locked down city in the world, so the vibe was weird.  I wasn't going to do it this year, but then I started looking ...

Last week I'd only just started both by book and my knitting project, and now i am about 70 percent through both of them! In knitting I'm on the sleeves of the Wednesday Sweater. It's a really fun knit, and I think it will fulfil my requirements for a warm, cheerful shlumpy house jumper. In reading I'm still on Harrow the Ninth . It's sort of starting to make sense (70 percent through!). I have found it a more compelling read than the preceding book  Gideon the Ninth , and it's definitely held my interest, although it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm also listening to the second in the Rivers of London series Moon over Soho . I suspect these books are all quite reliable - great narrator, interesting plot, but not so interesting that I can't do other things while listening. And that's my week in knitting and reading.  To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as  Sharondoublekni t and on...

Katherine is getting married and, as is the tradition of the Richmond Knitters, we are making her a blanket. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog - and she knows in general terms about the project - she gave Katie the quiet word that she would like us to all choose our own square design and use yarn from our stashes. I've got swancho left-overs that I have been saving for the right project, and this seemed like the right project. I started by crocheting a nice, pretty square, and then I found I could not stop. So far I've made 4 squares - 3 from Swancho left-overs, and one from my handspun. It's probably time to stop, but although I'm more than happy (and have the yarn to) make a couple more if they are required. I could always go back to crocheting my own blanket. 

Last week I knit a jumper for AKWAK -  Australian's Knitting For War Affected Kids, who are my current knitting charity of choice. They are mainly a facebook based group, although they have a Ravelry presence. Basically their volunteers knit through the year. You email to let them know what you are knitting, and occasionally they post saying they need more cowls, or jumpers for a certain age group or whatever. Then at a certain point they call for the donations to be sent in. Someone packs them up, puts them in a container and they get shipped to Syrian refugees living in camps in (I think) Afghanistan. I knit for them because I think it is a worthy cause, but also because they want 80 percent or more wool in garments, and since that's what most of my left-overs are, it works well.  This jumper was really fun: I started it as a raglan, but as soon as I joined the body and sleeves I decided I wanted to make it a round yoke. Also I ran out of the green contrast colour, and used ...

This week everything is fresh and new. In reading I've started Harrow the Ninth ,  the second in the Locked tomb trilogy. I did't love the first one, but it was interesting. This one is, if anything, weirder. All the reviews and Leon say stick with it it makes more sense later. It's 560 pages, so plenty of time for anything to happen! In knitting I've just started a new jumper, PetiteKnit's Wednesday Sweater . It's oversize, and slouchy and I think it will make a really good house jumper. Here's the back, after one episode of The Expanse and one of Ghosts, so about an hour and a half. It might be quite a quick knit. It's certainly fun so far. I've also been spending some time crocheting blanket squares for another Richmond Knitters blanket project. I'll be back on the weekend to tell you more about that. And that's what I'm knitting and reading this week.  To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ra...

 After I finished my giant pink brioche cardigan I still had half the yarn left over. Now, the yarn came from an op-shop (thrift store / charity shop) and was new, in it's original plastic packaging By the time I finished the cardigan it smelt odd. Like moth-balls and something unpleasant. I already knew i didn't want two projects in this marvellous shade of pink, so I decided to overdye it. i wanted to run a light blue of gentle mauve through it. I tested out a couple of colours, and then carefully measured out the blue dye - I have a history of being heavy-handed! I mixed the dye well, and then poured it into the dye pot, mixing it well again, before placing my pre-soaked yarn into the pot. The dye-stock was so light as to be invisible. And then the dye kind of separated and clumped and I got this. Now, I really like it. iIm carrying it along with some mohair for the Wednesday Sweater, and it swatched up beautifully, but I'm still super-confused about how my attempts to c...

I went looking for a pattern for a very specific cardigan - V-neck, brioche, hits just on the waist, puffy, puffy sleeves. I couldn't find exactly what I wanted, and I didn't quite have the confidence to design my own, because I've never knit a brioche garment before. I found the For the Love of Brioche Jacket, which had the essence of what I was looking for, and then knit it with a few modifications.   I left off a couple of the increases and added waist shaping I shortened it, stopping at the waist I omitted all sleeve shaping, and then halved the stitches when i got to the wrist. look - puffy! I used the buttons that I bought at Bendigo , less than a month ago, and I think they are perfect. This cardigan is big and pink and exactly what I had in mind when I started it.  The photos were not quite what i had in mind - we took them in the evening in the park. It get's dark early, and we just haven't had the opportunity to take day time photos. 

I finished the giant pink brioche cardigan that has featured here for the last 5 weeks! Modeled photos on Friday, but I love it . I'm filling in a bit of time, and finishing off some left over yarns by knitting a charity jumper for AKWAK, just a little bottom up raglan , although I may convert it to a  round yoke, because Elizabeth Zimmerman says I'm the boss of my knitting. Or maybe I'll just follow the pattern, because I'm brain-lazy. And I forgot to take photos until we were at the pub tonight, so here's a pub photo: I'm (successfully!) reading  NetGalley review copy of Real Bad Things by Kelly J. Ford. It's crime fiction set in the American South, touching on things including poverty, family violence and gender / sexuality issues. It's a good read - I'm 70 percent through, and I only started it on Sunday. And that's what I'm knitting and reading this week.  To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on R...

I've been working on my brioche cardigan for exactly a month today, which really isn't that long, considering.Ii'm normally a monogamous  knitter, but did also knit a hat and crotchet a large square during this time. This project has been enjoyable, but also a slog. It reminds me of when i was marathon training, and I'd go out for long slow runs. I'd leave home, knowing exactly how long / far I was going to run, and some if would be easy, and some would be hard, but you just keep going, one foot, two foot, and then it's done and it feels like everything and nothing at the same time.  And now here it is, blocking before I pick up stitches for the button band, having taken forever and also over in an instant.

In reading, I redownloaded The Rabbit Hutch, and now it works. which should be great, except I got 20 percent through it and realised i just can't. I don't know if it's a good book, but I didn't care about anything, and it jumps around between a lot of perspectives. And i know I'm meant to forgive formatting problems in Advanced Reader Copies, but I don't know why publishers send out e-Arcs where the formatting is messed up. i know I'm meant to be reviewing the content, but  it's hard not to be distracted. All this to say, I've put it aside, as I read for pleasure and this is not. While I was deciding whether to keep reading I started listening to The World Played Chess  by Robert Dugoni. It's through Kindle Unlimited, and the audio just appeared in my library. I couldn't quite get into it as an audio-book, but decided to see if I enjoy it more an an eye-read - and I do. It's got three timelines - the diary of an American marine in Vietna...

 A while ago I saw Daryl Gregory had released a book called The Album of Dr Moreau .   Daryl Gregory is one of those authors whose book are all different and have descriptions that sound odd, but are brilliant. The description of this was: Daryl Gregory's  The Album of Dr. Moreau  combines the science fiction premise of the famous novel by H. G. Wells with the panache of a classic murder mystery and the spectacle of a beloved boy band. It’s 2001, and the WyldBoyZ are the world’s hottest boy band, and definitely the world’s only genetically engineered human-animal hybrid vocal group. When their producer, Dr. M, is found murdered in his hotel room, the “boyz” become the prime suspects. Was it Bobby the ocelot (“the cute one”), Matt the megabat (“the funny one”), Tim the Pangolin (“the shy one”), Devin the bonobo (“the romantic one”), or Tusk the elephant (“the smart one”)? Las Vegas Detective Luce Delgado has only twenty-four hours to solve a case that goes all th...