What I made, by Sharon

  As happens quite often, I knit Leon's winter set while we were on holidays together. Many years, including 2025, we get to Adelaide for the Adelaide Fringe, which runs in February and early March. Since it starts to cool off here in April, it's all perfect timing. This year I wanted something simple, so I used a 4 x 1 broken rib. I wanted to let the yarn shine. It's Bombed Yarns from Tasmania, beautifully handdyed. I made the usual set - scarf, hats and mitts. This year I made a slouch hat. i do love a louchy hat: The only thing I would have done differently is that I could have (should have?) made the last 3 stitches of each row garter. It was so curly before I blocked it but blocking did it's wonders and now it's flat (or at least flat enough). I used an actual pattern for the matching socks ( Broken Record Broken Rib) , which are also 4 x 1 broken rib. And that's the best photo I have of them. I don't have a lot more to say about this set. It was a sim...

 This is the Rockland crewneck , and I loved knitting it. It was soothing, and came out with me to lots of places (like camping  and running ). The yarn was absolutely wonderful. I love the way it looks, on my spunky husband and I love the way it feels. There were some oddities in the pattern, which I have gone into in my Ravelry post, and won't repeat here. One thing I'm really starting to notice is fonts and font colour. The colour on this pattern is a dark grey, which I couldn't read in bad light - and I knit at not one, but two pubs with insufficient lighting. Anyway, the results are great. I used Drover and Classer yarn, who dyes on Bellevue Park  merino. You might remember I made a dress with that yarn last year, and it is so soft, the stitches melt into each other. As I got near the collar, I started to worry that I was going to run out of yarn. I should have had plenty, but my last ball was getting thin. I looked on Ravelry and no-one had any in stash. I looked ...

  Leon had a birthday on Friday. I bought him a fun gift (some fancy puzzles) and an indulgent gift ( a top of the line electric toothbrush) but I thought it would be nice to make him something too.  So I made him this little Alien.  It's the cute st little thing I've ever made. Based on his face, and the fact he was posing him drinking whiskey I'm pretty sure Leon likes him too.

I started Leon's Humulus  at the beginning of a two week beer festival, with yarn I bought that very day . I finished it two weeks later, 2 days after the end of the festival. It was a very satisfying knit, from start to finish. When I say "start" I mean at the bottom, because I flipped this jumper so I could knit all the simple, plain stocking stitch while drinking at pubs and fancy beer events. When I say "finish" I mean completely changing the neckline, since boat neck is not to Leon's liking. I ended up freestyling it, it turned out I needed 30 stitches less than the pattern wanted, and a lot more ribbing besides.  I felt very satisfied that I got my planning right, after my near disaster on my last trip. We are heading off to Queensland for ten days to do some hiking and then go to a beer festival, and I'm hoping that I planned this one effectively as I planned the Good Beer Week knitting. I've cast on the Rainbow Party Cardi , and I'll be ...

 I'm writing this on Friday, but I don't know when I will be able to publish it because, although I have finished the set, I haven't managed to take photos. We are heading off camping this afternoon, and Leon will bring the set so I will be able to get photos. Then we shall see what the internet situation is like (I'm with Vodafone, and you know what you are getting with country internet when you sign up to Voda!) But if you are seeing this, I have been successful! This set was really fun to knit - the sort of knitting that isn't so simple as to be boring, but also isn't too complicated to knit in all sorts of strange places. The set is based on Kate Davies Paper Caves scarf pattern.  It's a rather wonderful reversible cable that looks fantastic on both sides.   The mitts were a bit more a struggle, and in the end I decided not to include the big cable, because it pulls things in a bit much.  I struggled with the set up row of these, and actually ended up m...

On our r ecent camping trip Leon brought one of his old winter sets . For the first half of walking he was carrying a full length scarf, which is both heavier and bulkier than required - a neat cowl would keep him warm, and take up less space. Additionally the hat did not fully cover his ears. One night he misplaced his mitts, and we started planning a set just for camping. He wanted it representative of the mountains, a bit like the logo of the Hall's Gap Camping Shop. I was thrilled when I found this pattern, Mountain Beanie , as it exactly captured what I was aiming for. I was also pretty happy to have the perfect colours left-over from my Swancho. I was a little less thrilled when i actually started the knitting - the pattern is written to be lined, and I was not lining it, so the long floats had to be caught every few stitches.  I knit the cowl by doing a hat without the top  I free-styled the mitts, doing little triangle mountains. I blocked it on Saturday and...

I started knitting the Wyrit jumper, by Kate Davies, for Leon on the day before Christmas. Every year we go to the cricket, which usually provides a lot of knitting time. This year, not so much , since it only went for two and a half days. The dyer of this yarn (that would be me) made the error of not retying the skeins. They were tied a little tightly, so the dye didn't penetrate as much under the ties. I alternated skeins, but it still looks a little like someone has splashed bleach around.   The cable was really fun and quite intuitive and easy to drop down and fix on the THREE times I crossed them the wrong way. Other than that I was convinced it wouldn't fit, but now it's done I think it looks alright. I really wanted to get the photos taken and Ravelry and this blog updated, but this whole week it's going to be quite hot. Leon was a good sport, and we took the photos in the hall way of our apartment block, but this is his face when I asked him to show ow he felt ...

When I started Flax Light , a friend pointed out that there were no shortrows to raise the back of the neck. i added them in by wrapping the m all  the way around the front. I feel like some of my "turning"stitches (I use German short rows) are quite visible. Since then they have released instruction to how to add short rows, where they add them on the back only after the raglan shaping. Both ways work, I think.  There were a few things in that I don't love about this jumper. While it fits, I was definitly aiming for a larger size.  I found knitting it a bit tedious - even though it only took me two weeks with a break in the middle to work on the tea cozy . There is a time for simple projects in endless mid grey - and that time might be when I'm on holidays, or when I'm going to lots of different places, when I'm busy and knitting in public a lot. This is not t hat time, this is the time for bright colours and complicated projects.  There are a few things I do...

I started a jumper for Leon on Sunday two weeks ago, and finished it the very next week. It's the Seamless Saddle Shoulder by Elizabeth Zimmermann. Look at that shoulder detail!     I think one of the reasons it knit up so fast (putting aside the fact that we are not allowed the leave the house, of course) is the yarn. Field of Dreams is a collab between the Purl Box and Great Ocean Road Woollen Mills. The yarn is a mix of Polworth, Linen and Alpaca, and it is milled locally in Victoria. It is so nice having an increasing number of truly local yarns available. I ordered online, so I didn't see the true beauty of the colour until it arrived. And once I saw the fabric I was hooked, which is how I knit a man's jumper in a week. The only other notable thing about it is I used Wolly Wormhead's alternate cable cast on and I love it. It looks like a tubular cast on, without all the issues I have with tubular cast ons being tight. I also...

I finished the Alight mitts last week, and then knit the Alight hat . These are unblocked photos, because I haven't have time to block them, and I'm going on holiday on Friday and if I don't tell you about them now it's all going to get lost in the maelstrom of fun that is my life. Because I do so much of my knitting in public, it just keeps on getting done even (especially) when I'm really busy and social.  I didn't manage to follow the instructions for either of these exactly. For the mitts I took off 8 stitches on each - I originally cast on the required number of stitches and they were a bit big. These fit perfectly. I also shortened the wrist by half a repeat because Leon doesn't like his mitts too long. The hat was written for 2.75mm needles and in Melbourne, as opposed to Wellington, you don't need such intense windproofing. I knit it on 3.25mm needles, removed 60 stitches and did the brim to 7 cms not ten because Leon does not like a f...