What I made, by Sharon

Previous years here: 2021,   2020,    2019 ,  2018 ,  2017 ,  2016 That was quite a year! I started powerlifting and competed twice. My boss died and I've been doing her job. I lost a cat and gained a cat. We went on an epic multi-day hike and loved it. And throughout it all, I read and knitted. At the end of last year I said I wanted to read more sci-fi and fantasy, and I feel like I did that.  This year I joined Kindle Unlimited and got quite a lot of value from it. Other than that, it was the usual mix of fiction, a little bit of non-fiction, romance and some review books, although my reviewing seems to have slowed to a trickle. In knitting I completed 50 projects, for a total of 20,386 meters. I went to three year festivals and had a very good time with my knitting friends. I also, finally learnt to crotchet properly and had a lot of fun (especially when I had Covid) making squares. Maybe in 2023 I'll put the squares together into a blanket....

As I've mentioned here before, I knit for a charity called AKWAK (Ausies Knitting for War Affected Kids). They ship warm woolies off to Syrian refugees. Here's a video of some of the 2022 distribution. In December and January we are doing a knit-a-long to knit a set, so I used up my left over 8-ply yarns to knit a hat, cowl, jumper and mittens. I'm a bit disturbed by the variety of striping patterns I used, but this will definitly keep a 3 year old warm as well as cute, and that's the point. Well, that and that I now only have a few grams of 8-ply scraps. My next set will be made of sock yarn scraps held triple, and Iam in absolutely no danger of running out of those! 

My Christmas break is going swimmingly. On Christmas day we had our usual good time at Elise's place, which turned into a rather marvelous sing-a-long afternoon.  On Boxing Day, as usual, we went to Day one of the Boxing day test. Since today is Wednesday we've just finished Day 3.  The best thing about test cricket is LOTS of knitting time. On christmas eve I cast on Joji's Lace and Fade Boxy , and now I'm half way through the third (of four) lace panels. I'm not doing a lot of reading - I'm reading There is No Such Thing As An Easy Job ,   an odd book translated from Japanese about a youngish woman and her struggles with work. The blurb says its "one women's search for meaning in the modern workplace", but she's not really looking for meaning, just running around trying not to exist too much. It's not bad, but it's odd.   And that's my week in reading and knitting. To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you ...

I finish worked  today (Friday) and don't return until Wednesday the 3rd of January. Yay! As usual we will be going to the boxing day test, and as usual I have planned a good long project - this time it's Joji's Lace and Fade Boxy . Here is the yarn I'm using: The other thing I'm going to do after the cricket is a little bit of dyeing. I've got this fairly dull coloured yarn left over from Leon's jumper, which I'm going to dye two different colours for charity knitting. I have also found, from within my own stash, enough yarn to make a fade for Find Your Fade , and the Richmond Knitters are doing a knit-along in February.  The only thing is I think the pink and the turquoise need some jazzing up, since they are a bit solid, and they are leftovers from Twists and Turns, and obviously I want this shawl to look very different. I think I'll add pink to the pink, blue to the turquoise, maybe some yellow to the pink, although that might go orange. Maybe so...

Good morning. The excitement this week is that we adopted a new cat. I'm pleased to introduce Lady Willow of Dakota.  She's allegedly two years old, and she just had a litter of kittens. The foster carer dropped her off on Monday night and she's already settling in well. And she is so, so pretty. I'm reading St Kilda Blues , which is the third and final book in Charlie Berlin series. It's a detective novel full of gruesome murders, so, while I'm happy to catch up with Charlie, and thrilled to read a book set in St Kilda in the 1960s, it might not be well matched to my cheerful, about to be on leave mood. I'm knitting this and that. I knit a hat to go with the charity jumper  , and now I've almost finished a matching cowl. I'll probably cast on a pair of mittens tonight, to finish the set. And that's my week in reading and knitting. To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as  Sharondoublekni t and o...

I currently have only 7 books waiting for review from NetGalley. They were all given to me as eBooks in exchange for honest reviews. My NetGalley ratio is 94 percent - for those of you who do not use NetGalley, they recommend keeping your ratio of books received to books read above  80 percent.  So I'm doing fine, but of those 7 books there are 4 that I should have reviewed already, and I've been a bit stuck.   None of them are my usual fiction, they are a variety of non fiction and one example of "why did I request this when I knew I would have to review it" situations. So here are my reviews, in publication date order: T he Shortest History of Democracy   by John Keane. The Shortest History series is the opposite of the Object Lessons Series. Objects Lessons takes a very narrow topic and, in a very short book, drills down into it often including an element of memoir or gonzo journalism. The Shortest History series cover really large topics, in relatively ...

 I have often admired knitters who have multiple projects on the go at the same time - something simple for when they are out and about, something more complicated for at home. I've tried it before, but it has always done my head in. Well, last week I cast on Astragal , a stranded hat and I thought it would be better not to try to knit a charted pattern on a busy weekend, so I also cast on a charity jumper. End result: at the end of the week i have a very attractive colourwork hat for Elise, and a stripy  jumper for a three year old, and 200 grams less 8 ply leftovers in the stash -box. Very satisfying all around.  

I know - they all have books and knitting, but I couldn't think of anything special that links things this week. It is a good week though, we've had a quiet couple of days after a big weekend, and there are some exciting things happening next weekend, which I will tell you about if they work out. This week I'm knitting a charity jumper for AKWAK. They are running a knit-long to make set for the children, so I'm making a jumper, hat and cowl set using left over eight ply yarn. I'm just up to joining the sleeves and shoulders. I've given The Awakening a break, it's not bad but it seemed really slow and obvious. Instead I am reading Abomination . It's a story of two men who went to school together at a religious college where sexual abuse occurred. I grew up adjacent to this community - one of my closest friends went to the same school as the two main characters.  I love a book with an authentic sense of place and when that place is not just Melbourne, but...

My weekend started with How to Make Gravy, an annual concert that Paul Kelly puts on  at the Myer Music Bowl (an outdoor venue). This year Elise came too. The weather was good - we've had so much rain, but it was a clear, beautiful night. Leon wore, and I finally got photos of his latest jumper - Glennan by Kate Davies. I love it. It's one of the best fitting jumpers I have ever made him.  On Saturday I went to the gym and then got ready for the Richmond Knitters Christmas Dinner.  This is another annual tradition, and this year was so good. We did the ornament exchange - I made an ornament, which went home with Chris. Dani dyed us a Christmas colour and this year she outdid herself - this knits up with rainbow stripes divided by a black star-filled sky. Phenomenal.    Then on Sunday I went for a run -- and I do have to tell you about it every-time, since I'm running not-even once a week! We cleaned the house and then I lay on the couch and read a book. So...

I joined Kate Davies "Allover" club, because I join all of Kate's clubs. This club focuses on colour and colour work and so far it has been fantastic. The very first pattern was for a hot-water bottle cover, and I knew I wanted to make it immediately. I figured I would make the design in two colours - simple and effective. But after reading some of the club essays (especially one by Felicity Ford about colour pops)  I decided to be brave. I went stash diving for different colours, and came up with these: Then I dyed some leftovers from Leon's latest jumper black, and set to work. I love how it came out. I was ;limited in my choices by what I had in my stash (I mean, I could have dyed more, but as Kate has pointed out, sometimes having limits can make us more creative). It used leftover stash, it looks great and feels great. A winner of a project.

Since last Wednesday I've finished Leon's jumper, crochetted a Christmas ornament, knit a charity hat and almost finished a colourwork hot water bottle cover - the first project from Kate Davies' current "allover" club. FUN. I'm reading Nora Robert's The Awakening    the first in a series. It's fine but I wonder if I am in a little bit of a reading slump. Oh the horror!  I don't normally get into reading slumps, but I'm much keener on listening than reading right now, so it's good that the book I'm listening to is very good. And that's my week in reading and knitting. To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as  Sharondoublekni t and on GoodReads as  Sharondblk . I'm joining in with Kat from  As Kat Knits  for Unravelled Wednesday and Kat from the  Bookdate  for It's Monday, What Are You Reading.  Thanks Kat and Kat for hosting these linkups.    

On Tuesday I was at the pub, knitting away on the hood of Leon's jumper, when i noticed a flaw in the cable I was using - the Chiaogoo 35 cm cable, to be exact. I bought the set in late 2018, and it turns out that that is the cable that I use ALL THE TIME. I use it for hats, and children's jumpers and hot water bottle covers. So i cast on a LOSY hat for charity, since that uses the large needles and cables. I've ordered a replacement cable, and luckily Kris had a spare that she lent me, so normal programming can resume!

On Tuesday we dropped Juniper at the vet hospital - she was in good spirits, but seemed to not be eating at all and had lost a lot of weight.  We weren't too worried though - we figured they would scan her, work out what was wrong and then we would know, and  put in a course of action. Long story short, she crashed on Wednesday night.  We went to say goodbye to her, and now we are a two cat household. She was just the epitome of Cat. She loved cardboard boxes and purring and napping in the sun. She was always there when I was stretching or mobing - "helping out" by sitting on me. I don't know if Tarragon is missing her - it's so hard to know what cats  are thinking and feeling - but I know we are.