What I made, by Sharon

 I've been saying for a couple of years ( since 2019 ) that my sock draw is full, but I still find excuses to knit more socks! This time it was Socks for the Bendigo Project. I love a knitalong and I love using up leftovers / making things matchy and this fulfilled both of those. I thought they would be perfect for our trip to Launceston , and I was right. Easy to knit, compact to carry, perfect all around. I recently bought some Addi Novel for knitting socks. This came about because I read about the Addi Unicorn and they looked so cute, but I couldn't get them here and also I think they are a blunt tip. So I bought these and I really like them. They are sort-of square and have little ridges on them. They are not as sharp as some of the needles I use, but they are sharp enough. And they don't bend while I'm using them (I'm looking at you, HiyaHiya !)  As part of my packing I took my Hederas , a pair of Cookie A socks I made in 2010 from the sadly departed Socks Th...

Every book I mention this week was given to me by NetGalley. I feel so privileged, getting to read all  these books early, and for nothing more than a review!  I fini shed  The Tea Planter's Secret by Clare Flynn . It dragged for me, I struggled to emotionally engage with any of the characters. Which doesn't matter in an action packed book, but this was an historical romance. Now I'm reading  Over to You by Georgie Tunny  and really enjoying it.  In the best possible way it's giving  The Bold Type . Three female friends working in media, going through career and relationship highs and lows. And it's set in a recognisable Melbourne, which is a favourite thing for me. Next up is  Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller , which is gothic horror and I'm ready for it! It's also got a good cover, but I'll be reading it next week so I'll share that then!  I'm also listening to a review book  The Secret of Sunrises by Ellie Block . I'm only far enoug...

This weekend we headed down to Launceston for the Australian Music theatre festival. We were flying after work on Thursday, but I decided to take the day off , and Leon took an early mark. On the way to out we went to The Lincoln for our last Pint of Origin pub and lunch. The Lincoln was serving Tasmanian beers, so our trip felt like it has started before we even left the CBD!  Melbourne is famous for not having an airport train, but having a very expensive, privately run bus. By comparison, public transport is currently free and the Sky Bus is 36 dollars. Since we had plenty of time, we took a tram and train and then a bus from Broadmeadows (I think you have to be a Melbournian  to really understand the situation.)  I had only been to Launceston once, briefly. It's the perfect small city for a festival like this one. we went to shows every night and ate good food constantly. The city is built around a gorge and it's stunning. We went for a run and saw pademelons ! So cut...

  It's been quite the week for going out, which may have slowed the reading down a little, but not the knitting. The other thing that has been good for knitting and not good for reading is that I'm listening to Yesteryear . It feels like everyone has read it already, and it's a pretty interesting book. I'm not sure if it's a thriller or something else. It's about womanhood and family and social media and so many other things. There is definitly a mystery here, and I'm looking forward to finding out what is going on.  I am desultorily reading    The Tea Planter's Secret (The Ceylon Series #2) by Clare Flynn , the second in a historical romance series set in Ceylon.  It's as expected - rather dramatic and quite fun, but I just keep doing other things instead of reading it. Next up is also a NetGalley book - Over To You by Georgie Tunny , which I think is about newsreaders and might be Australian. Can you tell I'm not much of a blurb reader? I'...

This weekend was the beginning of Pint of Origin - a ten day beer festival that happens in different venues all around Melbourne. We went West on Friday and got to catch the new tunnel home from Footscray. We don't have much call to use that route, and it's pretty exciting to have new train stations. the free public transport is still a thrill, and we are getting very good value from it. On Sunday we continued our beer adventures, going to six pubs Northside. Kris joined us, and we managed to get one, rather terrible photo with all of us!              Late last week and over the weekend I finished a little charity jacket, which was super fun to knit and also used up some left over yarn. The back is striped, but right now I've only got this one terrible photo. (I'm sensing a theme!)  Once I get the back closure on I'll post photos of the back as well as the front on  Ravelry: sharondoubleknit's French Macaroon (charity 12/26) .   I t...

I decided to use the leftovers from my Celeste jumper to knit a McKinnon beanie. This beanie is part of the Bendigo project . I test knit the jumper for this fun knit-a-long so i thought it would be fun to do a hat (and socks, but that's a next week situation. I haven't knit brioche for a while, and I've never knit brioche cables, but it was easy to remember and fun to knit.  And it makes such a beautiful squishy textured fabric. My moment of greatest pride was when I had to rip - I'd started a new background colour at knit night, and was three rounds in when I noticed that I'd chosen the wrong colour. I ripped it back and got the stitches back on the needles and it was fine. i had thought it might be one of those situations when I just keep tinkng back one more row to fix it, but no - I can't even tell which row it was.    It's such a bright and fun hat, and it was a pleasure to knit. I'll try to get some outside photos over the weekend, since Pint of...

 I've really run out of clever titles! There's no theme this week, just good books and fun knitting. I finished (NetGalley review book)   Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer , which was a good sci-fi featuring sentient robots and found family. Recommend. Now I have a break between review books, and am reading  Tyrant's Throne  the fourth and final Greatcoats novel. Swashbuckling fantasy at its best! Next up I'm back on the NetGalley wagon, and back to my original plan with    The Tea Planter's Secret (The Ceylon Series #2) by Clare Flynn  the second in a historical romance series set in Ceylon. Maybe this will inspire me to actually plan the return trip to Sri Lanka, rather than just hope a plan appears. In knitting I'm making a Bendigo project with the leftovers from the jumper I was knitting last week,  McKinnon Beanie by Susanna Kaartinen . Brioche with cables! It's been a long time since I brioched,  and I'm not sure I've ever done c...

This year  Richmond Knitters chose the  Celeste Sweater by Petit Knits  for our annual Bendigo Sheep show knitalong. It wasn't a jumper I felt particularly drawn to, but we had agreement, and early, so I was happy to knit it. the pattern is written for 8ply, and I have enough 8ply jumpers, particularly as a colourwork yoke adds quite a lot of warmth. For me a lighter jumper for inside with a jacket over the top if going outside is perfect for our Melbourne winters. Melbourne winter can be pretty sad and grey, so I wanted bright pastels (Easter egg , or 'candy' coloured were my inspiration ). I'm pretty happy with the results. There were a couple of dramas with the knitting - where the pattern calls for the main colour to be used in the yoke, it didn't really work, and then I used a speckled white, which also didn't work, so I ripped and reknit the last 8 round (the ones with ALL the stiches) twice. And then I realised the row that had been ripped out from and re...

Kat from  As Kat Knits  took a blogging break, and I missed her posts, and I also missed the communal feeling of linking up with other knitters and readers. She's back, and here we are. I finished    Major Gift   by Tiffany Izuma, which was a romance. It was fine, it was just so low stakes. Now I'm reading  Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer  After that it's  The Tea Planter's Secret (The Ceylon Series #2) by Clare Flynn  the second in a historical romance series set in Ceylon. I got the first one from NetGalley last year the day I was flying out to Sri-Lanka, and now I have the second while we are planning our return trip.  The knitting has gone very smoothly this week - I've been pumping out the stocking stitch in the round, and have only got a little bit of the second sleeve of my Celeste  to go. Knitting this has been such a joyous colour explosion, and I'm pretty pleased that my next project is going to be a brioche hat u...

W elcome to part 31 in a series of non-fiction book reviews, originally based on the idea that the books I request from netGalley 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 thanks to Netgalley. Today we have the Violent Femmes first album, the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night, and owls. Diverse indeed!  Owls by David Alderton (Publishing 14 April 2026) Owls have been a source of fascination and awe throughout history. In Indian folklore, owls represent wisdom and helpfulness, while in Ancient Greece they were seen as a good omen if sighted before a battle. Today, owls are often kept as pets by bird lovers, and can be found in woodland and forests from the Canadian Arctic to the...