End of year wrap up

End of year wrap up - 2025

Happy 2026!

In 2025 I joined a reading challenge for the first time. Partway through the year I wandered off from it. I didn't enjoy structuring my reading that way. I went back to my usual method - read all the NetGalley review books, and then grab something that somehow found it's way onto my Kobo. According to my (not entirely reliable) records I reviewed 84 books for NetGalley this year, of a total of 121 books. That seems high, but I did listen and well as eye read on NetGalley. I discovered some new to me authors, including Lily King and Taylor Gray, and read lots of delicious fantasy, sci-fi, romance and plain ordinary fiction.

We had some fun holidays, including Sri Lanka, Queensland, hiking twice once by the mountains and once by the sea, Bendigo twice (once for knitting and once for beer) two running weekends (Marysville and Warburton) Sydney and Adelaide in one trip,

I knit 19,490 meters of yarn over 40 projects. Only 9 were for charity, which is significantly less than last year. I finally met my goal of knitting less socks, with only 6 pairs this year. I knit three projects out of handspun, including one where I dyed the fibre myself. That was the only project I made out of my own hand dyed yarn.

I have 17,592 meters of yarn, over 33 stash entries. this is holding reasonably steady - I do keep spinning which has added some to the stash.

What's coming in 2026? I brought my loom home with the idea of making handspun cushion covers, but warping scares me so I haven't actually started that. I've already dyed the yarn for two jumpers, so I'll be knitting with more of my hand-dyed yarn. I've got a couple of long runs planned, including my first ultramarathon. I'm loving Pole dancing more than ever. We're getting a new couch delivered next week, and I plan to spend lots of time relaxing on it with Leon and Willow. Obviously I'm going to keep knitting and reading and talking and dreaming about knitting and reading.

Previous years here: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

Comments

Why Andrea Mowry, why? (A rant and a rather nice finished object)

As mentioned, prior to our hiking trip I suddenly, and rather randomly, decided to knit Andrea Morwy's Traveler Shell . It's basically an open fronted rectangle in a knit purl pattern. The pattern is FOURTEEN pages long. Why is the pattern 14 pages long? Because, instead of explaining the ten row repeat and then putting the shaping on top of that (e.g. decrease while continuing to knit in pattern), she writes out the entire ten row knit purl sequence every time something changes. Additionally, most of the time she starts with even number being the right side and wrong numbers being the right side,which is just plain odd. It's confusing and it's like she wants to keep you looking at the pattern for every row, rathe than following the very intuitive stitch pattern, which I had memorised after one repeat. The instructions for the band just say 'pick up x number of stitches'. No ratios, no acjnowledgement that different bits of the band have different ratios. Afte...

Linky Wednesday - the one with the pause

In meditation it's said that the pause between the in breath and the out breath is a gap, a space to rest. Well, I'm in that in-between space for reading, listening and knitting. This is a random photo of a highlight of my week - I filled up my lolly jar. These are just supermarket party mix. During the lockdowns, we sources a great pick-and-mix delivery service, but at some point they started sending from the UK, which is a bit silly. Rachey messaged me a new one she found, and I impulsed purchased a kilo of mixed lollies, and then she sent me a link to the biggest lolly shop in Melbourne, which also delivers sweets by the kilogram, so i think I'm sorted for the rest of the year! In reading I've just finished The Beckoning Lady by Margery Allingham . It's the second last book in the Summer of Mystery, and I have to admit, having now read nine Margery Allingham books, that they are OK. I wouldn't have read them if they were not connected to this club, but on...

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises.

What I made, by Sharon

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