What I made, by Sharon

When I got an email from Susannah (Sanna and co) asking if I wanted to take part in the test knit for  Noble Jumper pattern umper for The Bendigo Project , I couldn't say yes fast enough. I dyed the yarn myself and am so happy with this avocado colour. The jumper itself was a joy to knit - intuitive, fun and effective. I didn't need to look at the charts after the first repeat, and it just flowed off my fingers. I do love a bottom up jumper. I learnt some things - manly the edging on the split hem which was so tidy I reused it on Leon's winter set jumper. The rest of the Bendigo Project pattern were previewed today, and I definitely want to knit Susanna's brioche hat . And maybe a pair of   Sheep Show Socks.  

 I committed to making a hat, mittens and socks to complete a set for the charity I knit for. The socks were a perfect chance to try out some heel flap techniques. The set was a chance to stripe up some leftovers.  I decided it was fine to use a slightly different technique for each sock. For the first one I did two garter stitch stitches at the edge of the heel. It makes it easy to pick up, but slightly messy looking: For the second sock, I just did one stitch. And it seems like it's the best finish I've got. I have tried many things, both complicated and simple and this has the advantage of being reliable, easy and tidy I'm knitting a four ply sock next weekend, and i suspect it will be even tidier in finer wool. And back to out subject at hand: 200 grams of left over 8-ply made into useful objects that will keep a ten year old Ukrainian refugee's hand, head and feet warm. 

 The reading hasn't been great this week (with one notable exception). On Saturday I was unwell (my own fault, I had a bit too much fun on Friday night). I started  Beartown  by Fredrik Backman , and just could not get into it. I thought it might be me, but then I  started   Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire , which I've had since 2024. This is such a touching story of families and loss. It's written in a beautiful, pared back style. After that I thought I would get on with my NetGalley books,  Too Glam to Give a Damn by Claire Carver.  I'm not very far into it, but there is so much explaining and super obvious indications of what's going to happen. Although I could be wrong, and this book could be a lot more subtle and clever than I think it's going to be. The three friends remind me of the ones from season 3 of White Lotus . And while I'm struggling with the descriptions of food, the translating things into Greek (becasue they are in Greece) and...

 My favourite heel construction is the traditional heel flap and gusset. Strangely though, in recent years I've been struggling with the picking up of stitches. It's tidy, but it's not quite right. You can see the little line of twisted stitches in this photo: And then, when I was knitting Leon's second sock I decided to slip as if to knit, rather than purl. The results are wildly different (they don't look wildly different, but they are if you look closely). I generally slip as if to purl, both for sock heel flaps and elsewhere. I know most patterns specify, but the one I used for this doesn't. I tried to work out why and when I started doing it the way I do.  I looked at Cookie A's Sock Innovation - one of the first sock books I bought, and she says slip as if to purl. I looked at Stephanie Purl-McPhee's Knitting Rules , and she doesn't specify. I'm about to cast on another sock, so I'm looking forward to testing this out - on both socks, ...

 Last week I'd just started    Knight's Shadow (Greatcoats, #2) by Sebastien de Castell . I finished it, I loved it it's even better than the first in the series, I recommend it to any fantasy readers. I've got 5 review books for March, so I started  The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu . Its a mix of gothic horror, magical realism and my favourite- not so young women straggling with their lives.   I just got Beartown  , which was on hold from the library, so I'll be starting that next, unless I sneak in a quick romance as a palette cleanser. In knitting I've finished the hat, scarf and mitts for Leon's winter set.  All I have now is the socks, which I am knitting in a similar(ish) colour and a similiar(ish) pattern: I'm a bit obsessed with this pattern and am looking forward to seeing how it looks with helical stripes. To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as  Sharondoublekni t and on Goo...

W elcome to part 30 in a series of non-fiction book reviews, originally based on the idea that the books I request tell you everything you need to know about me. I have, after so many chapters of this series, realised that all these posts say about me is that  this was just a place to put these reviews! I can see how broad my non-fiction reading is, and how many interesting, good (and sometimes not-so-good) books and topics I've had a chance to explore. Today I'm reviewing two books from the Object Lessons series from Bloomsbury press, which I was given e-Arcs from NetGalley for and a kids book about bikes.  Stock Photo (Object Lessons) by Simona Supekar  Part memoir, part cultural criticism,  Stock Photo  mines the significance of the stock photo in our everyday lives, from the ads and websites we browse, to the menus and memes that we consume. Through interviews with stock photography experts, photographers, models, consumers, and other stakeholders, Simo...

In August I said I was doing a super secret test knit for my friend Anna, also known as One Pink Plum . As has been well documented, I love a KAL (knit-a-long) and a test knit is just a KAL for a project that hasn't been published. Anna had asked me if I wanted to test knit the Picnic shawl for her and I said yes very quickly! At Bendigo I had bought everything on my shopping list, and nothing that wasn't when Anna provided me with the yarn quantities. We happened to be outside the shed when Averley Finnsheep was, and I scuttled in there and bought these two skeins of light green yarn so fast! Knitting the shawl itself was a bit of a roller coaster. It's got three charts, and when I got the third chart established I just kept struggling. In fact, on the Friday night after I started it I was talking about giving up, I was struggling with the pattern so much. On Saturday I saw Katie, who was doing the same test knit and she was a little surprised with my struggles. After I g...

 As I mentioned last week I was choosing between  Sarah Painter's  The Crow Moon  and  Writers & Lovers  by Lily King . The Crow Moon came first. I read it and loved it. It's the tenth and possibly final book in the series, so I was a bit sad to finish. Then my library copy of Writer's and Lover's came through, which I devoured in two days. I did have a sick day on Monday, and it was the perfect book for lounging about the couch and resting. Now I'm reading  Knight's Shadow (Greatcoats, #2) by Sebastien de Castell,  so we're back to lots of battles, swordfights and smart-arse quips. In audio NetGalley gave me    Deadheads by Eleanor Wells,  a short novel about a band. I can never resist a story about a band! I've only just started it, and haven't really had a chance to get into it.  I've been knitting Leon's Winter Set (2026). I've finished the mitts and the hat and am a day or two away from getting the scarf done. It has ...

  On Thursday (I know that's not the weekend, but I'm counting it) we went to see Pirates of Penzance with Elise and Leon. When we were young Elise played Ruth in Pirates, and it's been a favourite of ours ever since. On Friday we went to Brimbank Park to run the MVP Backyard Ultra. It's a race format where you run 6.7 kms every hour until you stop. This year I made 5 loops (33.5kms) and Leon a massive 12 (about 80kms). We set up a base camp and Kris, Katie, Skip and Bee crewed for us. We started running at 7pm, and I finished at midnight. Leon ran on through dawn, while we sat in a marque in a park. Wild Friday night! We got home around 8am, I had a much needed shower and a nap. Skip made a video about the run, starring Leon and me.  I finished the hat for Leon's winter set and, because it was cold, ended up wearing it all night. It's a good hat! If you watch the video I'm wearing it during the second half.  I was wrecked on Saturday - from the running and ...

and hello LOSY V. My LOSY stash entries are all the L eft O ver S ock Y arn I have at the beginning of the entry. This then becomes inaccurate over time, since it gets added to through leftovers, little gifts from friends and just random accounting errors. This week I made a charity hat and officially finished all the yarn in LOSY  IV . When I started this entry in February 2022 I had 850 grams of yarn. I've knit 17 projects from it and used up all 850 grams.... and now I have 736grams for the beginning of the LOSY V entry!  So much potential! I would like to get this big bag of yarn small fast, so I think I'll make a jumper and booties to match the hat I just finished. Then we'll see because there are so many things I want to knit, and I'm having so much fun.   This does take my stashcount to  18616 over 33 number of entries.It's been hovering around 17 km for a while now, so that's not too bad.

This week I'm both eye and ear reading review books. That doesn't happen often, but I was browsing NetGalley and saw the audio of    Little One by Olivia Muenter . It's very good, a little bit of tension, and lot of relationship stuff and a cult too! The narrator is perfect for this audio book too.   I'm eye reading  The Encore by Juliet Izon . I'm half way through and it's taken a turn in both plot and tone. It was (like Little One) being told over two time periods, but now it's back to one, which is an unusual way for things to be written. I've certainly enjoyed this story of families and hard decisions so far, and am looking forward to seeing what the second half brings. Next up depends on a few things. I've pre-ordered the next (and final!) Crow Investigations book by Sarah Painter  The Crow Moon.  That's coming in the next couple of days. My hold for  Writers & Lovers by Lily King i s meant to come through on the 7th, but I've had t...

 Sometimes I like things that are fancee, just for the sake of fancyness. For my birthday Leon got me the Thread and Maple needle binder. The binder itself has room for bits and pieces, DPNs and a holder for other pages. I had already bought myself the notions page. I'm obsessed with this page, because it holds all my notions, but mainly because I cut up a piece of magnetic metal, slid it into the pocket and viola, finally a portable solution to chart tracking. For my birthday, I bought myself the Chiagoo needle tip page and then cables page, as well as the notions pouch: Most of my DPNs fit in the pockets of the binder, but I had some left over. I was debating buying the small DPN page, or the large DPN page when Katie messaged me to ask if I could use this: Yes please. So serendipitous.  I am finding this setup very convenient, as well as feeling fancy. When I need something, or to put something away I can grab the whole package. My knitting stuff lives in the study, which ...

Monday was a public holiday, so we had the day off. Then Tuesday I worked from home because it was mant to be 45 degrees at 4pm when I usually leave work, and then I went in on Wednesday because I don't like to work from home all the time. So now I really have no idea what day of the week it is, except that I'm writing this post so it must be Wednesday! I had a quiet long weekend - I said no to a number of social invitations, and saved myself for running and enjoying my new couch . It gave me plenty of reading time - I finished  Traitor's Blade , loved it. I'm so glad it's the start of a quartet and I get to spend more time in that world. Then I finished a NetGalley review copy of  The Duke's Secret  by Sue Williams .   It started well, but I really didn't enjoy the second half. It's dual time period historic fiction about the Duke of Wellington, his housemaid / mistress and then one of their descendants. Both timelines are in present tense, and some of ...

  W elcome to part 29 in a series of non-fiction book reviews, originally based on the idea that the books I request tell you everything you need to know about me. I have, after so many chapters of this series, realised that all these posts say about me is that  this was just a place to put these reviews! I can see how broad my non-fiction reading is, and how many interesting, good (and sometimes not-so-good) books and topics I've had a chance to explore. Today we are going truly diverse, with Leonard Cohen, lipstick and menopause.  The World of Leonard Cohen by David R. Shumway  (publishing 29 January 2026) Leonard Cohen's artistic career is unique. Most poets and novelists do not become rock stars. No other rock star's career peaked in their eighth decade as Leonard Cohen's did. Cohen's popularity is still growing five years after his death. In The World of Leonard Cohen, a team of international scholars and writers explore the various dimensions of the artis...