What I made, by Sharon

 ... mainly ups though. I finished Nadine Cohen's Everyone and Everything and loved it. It's got a lot of trauma, but also a lot of joy. It releases next week and I highly recommend. Then I read Sara Goodman Confino's Don't Forget to Write  and then best thing I can say about it is I hope it's forgettable. (Ranty review here ). I've just started reading a NetGalley review copy of Adama by Lavie Tidhar. I started it at lunch today, as so far it seems epic and multi-generational and I want to know what happens next. I'm knitting a top-down raglan for my mother. It's a Kate Davies pattern, but it really is just the most basic, sensible cardigan. I am enjoying how the BWM Prism is knitting  up. I've just divided for the underarms, so you'll be seeing this for the next few weeks. 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 ...

Just like last year   a couple of weeks after going to Bendigo for the sheep show, we went back for Bendigo On The Hop, a beer festival where you go to lots of venues, and drink lots of beer and have lots of fun. This year we all drove up together on the Friday after work, had our traditional dinner and had an early night.  On Saturday Leon and I went for a run in perfect conditions, and then met the others by the lake for breakfast.  On the way back to the house, we all stopped by Bendigo Woolen Mills. I didn't actually buy anything (I still have the yarn I bought here last year, oops) but if was good to check out the colours in person.  Then we started beer fesitvalling.  At our third venue, I noticed a guy who was wearing a hat, purl side out. the ends were not sewn in, but I decided not to say anything. Then we went to a number (three? four? who knows?) more venues. It got so I thought taking a picture of this new friend was a great idea! At o...

It's NetGalley madness around here! I reviewed two NetGalley books about mixing drinks  and talked about drinking earlier in the week . Then I finished Shmutz , which I really enjoyed, even though it was confronting at times. I'm currently racing through The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tindar. It's a strange book in the best possible way, reminding me of the  tone and wierdness of Kurt Vonnegaught. The story is about a science fiction book and religion founded by it's author and people keep getting kidnapped and it's madness and I'm loving it. Next I have another review book - Everyone and Everything   by Nadine J. Cohen.  I was very excited to get approved for this one, I follow Nadine on the socials and she's another (relatively) local author, so hopefully that will go well. The knitting of Elise's Spectra has been calm, if not soothing. Endless short rows and stripes: I've got  8 grams of the main colour left, so maybe four wedges to go,...

  While I was knitting Luna's jumper, I decided I wanted one for myself too. But in in black- in a pink fade. I had four skeins of pink yarn with no purpose in mind, and some fluffy angora that I  bought not enough of for another project. The jumper came out really wearable: in fact, I'm wearing it as I write this. It's comfortable, warm but not too warm and it came out exactly the length I wanted. It was a fun knit, pink fluff is always a good time, and having just knit it, I knew the style and fit. I don't think I've ever knit the same thing twice in a row, but I was such a fun and soothing knit that I really enjoyed both times. And as a bonus, here's a picture of Luna wearing hers: A really  satisfying and successful pair of projects.

Katie calls herself the beverage goblin when she has three drinks - which is the correct number to have. This might look like a glass of (sparkling) water, a glass of wine and a cup of lemongrass and ginger tea. Illustration -  my coffee table one evening: While I was writing this Kris, who had the audacity to go on holiday without me or Katie, unprompted sent through this:  Of course, the drinks don't have to be alcoholic. The breakfast beverage goblin could drink water, orange juice and a coffee.  I actually sometimes "joke" we have drinking problem - not a problem with alcohol, but tea and bubbly water and hot drinks and cold drinks forever. I must drink. That's all background to two books I requested from NetGalley: Mr Lyans Cocktails at Home  and  and  Party Drinks: 62 Nonalcoholic Dirty Sodas, Punches & More to Celebrate! I'm reviewing these together because, although the content differs, and they are both unique and charming books in their o...

I have mixed feelings towards my Spectra Scarf. It's pretty and looks fun, but it's quite a fiddly knit with endless short rows, and messing about to get the stripes in the right spots. It  is really effective though. I have positive feelings towards my fuzzy jumper : Probably one good night's knitting and the second sleeve will be done and I'll have a very fuzzy, very pretty  quite warm jumper to wear while it's still chilly winter here. I have very mixed feelings about the NetGalley review book I'm reading - The Modern by Anna Kate Blair. The issue is that we spend the whole book inside the main character's head, and she's more frustrating than interesting. She is trying to get another contract at MoMA, but she only talks about what a terrible place it is to work, she is sad because no-one realises she's bisexual, she is engaged to a man who is off hiking and has so little personality that she (and I) doesn't think about him when he is not pr...

We went hiking in the Little Dessert, and it might have been the hardest hiking I've done! There were no mountains, and barely any hills, just 76 kms of sandy path. called the "Discovery Path".  Being outside in nature for four days was wonderful. Clean air, no phones and so much quiet. We saw kangaroos and echidna and lots of birds. In the park was lots of emu tracks, but we only saw emus when driving - both into and out of the National Park. The camping was amazing - two nights in hikers camps, with no-one else. Both camps had what Leon told me to stop calling a "murder hut" - the overhang provided some protection from the little bit of rain we had, but the inside was quite creepy. The middle night was spent in a drive in campsite, which was also very quiet and well maintained - and had so much birdlife and echidnas, wandering around, saying hi, trying to steal our food.  In between camping there was a lot of walking, a lot of talking, a lot of thinking.  Ther...

I'm all packed up and ready to go. We're hiking 76kms over 4 days in the Little Desert. I'm a little worried about how cold it might get at night but I also know we have the right gear for it.  That's my hiking knitting hanging from the side of my pack in the red dry bag. I'm going to knit a modified version of Stephen West's Spectra Scarf for Elise while we are away. I'm using a self striping, rather than a gradient, so it will require a little bit of fiddling. Here's my trial / swatch: I often don't get a lot of knitting done when we're hiking in winter. It gets cold and dark early and we climb into our nice warm sleeping bags and read, but I do love having a project with me, and the hike is a four hour drive. I didn't want to take the jumper I've been working on. because it's bulky now, and would probably get finished during the drive up. I'll get it done on my return. So close. In reading,  I've been reading Nona the Nint...

 I finished Luna's jumper last week, and now I just need to send it to it's recipient. It looks a little short to me, but it's aligned with the model jumper she sent me, and also I used a full 200 grams (1400 metres) of yarn and had very little left. This is why I normally only post modelled photos!  While I was knitting this, I decided I wanted one for myself, using a fade and some fluff that I had bought for something else and not sued. In the past I would have resisted knitting the same thing back-to-back, but now I rather like it, it feels very soothing. Also, mine (as mentioned) is a light pinkish super fluffy fade, rather than the more restrained black I knit for Luna!

I decided to do Stephen West's Contrast Blast mystery sock knit-a-long on a bit of a whim.   It was four clues in four weeks, I had plenty of left over yarn in stash and there was no reason not to. Unlike Stephen's Shawl mystery knit-a-longs, which I have participated in the last three years, and will probably do again this year, it was a bite sized commitment, usually taking two knitting days each week. The techniques we used were fun, lots of texture and variety and, like the rest of Stephen's knit-a-longs, a really great, chatty community on Ravely.  Look at that heel. It's beautiful. What about the finished object? Well, I think my socks are slightly too big for me, but going down a size would have made them too small. They are quite comfortable, but the purling near the ankle makes them sag down and look a bit like the Michelin man. They are certainly cute, and comfortable enough. I wouldn't wear them hiking, but I mainly wear vanilla socks hiking, so that'...

This week I finished the black V-neck jumper I was knitting for a friend, and cast on the same pattern, but in a rather more pastel colour palette. I'm not sure I've ever knit the same thing twice in a row (except pairs of things like socks and gloves) but I'm very excited to be knitting in these pretty colours, rather than the black. I'm reading a NetGalley review book again - this time the book, which I am half-way through - is rather bafflingly called  One Day We're All Going to Die , by Elise Esther Hearst.  It's set in Melbourne, and the protagonist works in the Jewish Museum and shops in my local shopping centre and I love a Jewish book and I love a Melbourne book. While some people have described Naomi as unlikable she feels very familiar to me.  A woman in her late 20s, insulated by family money, making not the best decisions.  To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as  Sharondoublekni t and on GoodR...