What I made, by Sharon

  After last weekend's fantastic but exhausting sheenanigans, this weekend I stayed home, and had a very crafty weekend. On Friday I dyed 600 grams of Polwarth fibre, for Andrea Mowery's  Traveller  hoodie. I was not confident about dying this much fibre in one go, but I decided to give it a go and see. At the end of the oven time, I was convinced that the top was a pale muddy mess and that the bottom would be super-saturated, because it looked like this: But it actually came out beautifully.  The fibre is a bit compressed, but not at all felted, and it puffs up with just a little bit of predrafting. While I was waiting for that to dry, I plied the rainbow yarn I've been working on over the last few weeks.  I didn't have a particular goal when I spun it, I just wanted it fluffy and delicious, which I achieved.  The only problem is that it is only 130 meters for 96 grams. I want the traveller yarn to be about 250 meters (or at least more than 200) so I did ...

 The other day I was mooching around on Ravelry, looking for a two colour, 8 ply cardigan to use up some left over yarn. I was going to use it for Flink , but I really don't need anther thick jumper, and I don't have any heavier cardigans that I love. While I was looking Sussana  (Rav link) put out a testing call for a steeked, two colour, 8 ply cardigan. Perfect. I needed to dye the colours, since one was white and I have a white cardigan and a white jumper, and I struggle to keep my whites white anyway.  The other is from Leon's winter set and I don't really want to match his exactly.  Here's the yarn before the dye.   I decided to try for a light tan for the main colour and a rust red / orange for the contrast colour. These will look very nice in the cardigan, and are a little different from the pinks and purples I've been knitting a lot recently. I'm pretty happy with the colours. I really enjoy Sussana's test knits - as well as being a fabulous des...

Yes, over the last couple of weeks,as well as knitting away on my Rose cardigan as if I have a deadline, seeing comedy festival shows, my usual social activities, pole classes and having to work for a living I've been playing with my other favourite craft - polymer clay I made earrings for Kris and Katie similar to the last ones I made myself, but in colours to suit them.  Pinks and purples for Kris: Autumn colours for Katie: They are reversible, so it's wearers choice, and you can wear the circles in any combination. I ordered some monstera cutters, and I made light earrings for myself: And heavy ones too: I love the way the heavy ones look, and I also know that lighter earrings are always the ones I reach for. Please excuse the nighttime photos, sometimes done is better than perfect. While I was trying to take these photos I discovered that I can use my Head for earring photos, and I'm pretty happy about that. Next I'm going to make some buttons to match the next ca...

The Richmond Knitters used to hold frequent knitalongs, but we don't so much at the moment. There was a phase where every-time someone was considering knitting something I liked I would say "lets do a knitalong" to which they would reply "no". They were just being mean because I have more time to knit than most people, and I knit quite fast. Still as we know, a KAL is not a race. Anyway, when I was sending the group an email about something else I suggested a Find Your Fade KAL, and a bunch of people said yes! Very exciting. I was obsessed with choosing my colours. I really want it to fade and not stripe. I also really wanted to use only stash yarn. I overdyed dyed two of the left over skeins from Twists and Turns, and now my fade looks like this: I'm pretty happy with how it looks, and it puts a significant dent in my single skein sock yarn collection.  Here it is, all wound up and ready to start on Wednesday. Now to clear my needles so I'm starting wit...

 After I finished my giant pink brioche cardigan I still had half the yarn left over. Now, the yarn came from an op-shop (thrift store / charity shop) and was new, in it's original plastic packaging By the time I finished the cardigan it smelt odd. Like moth-balls and something unpleasant. I already knew i didn't want two projects in this marvellous shade of pink, so I decided to overdye it. i wanted to run a light blue of gentle mauve through it. I tested out a couple of colours, and then carefully measured out the blue dye - I have a history of being heavy-handed! I mixed the dye well, and then poured it into the dye pot, mixing it well again, before placing my pre-soaked yarn into the pot. The dye-stock was so light as to be invisible. And then the dye kind of separated and clumped and I got this. Now, I really like it. iIm carrying it along with some mohair for the Wednesday Sweater, and it swatched up beautifully, but I'm still super-confused about how my attempts to c...

I've been dying in a pot I bought from an op-shop since I started dying  with Landscape Dye in 2011. I'm 99 percent sure it's not stainless steel. When we moved into this flat 4 years ago by Le Cruset roasting pan was too big for the oven so I converted it to dye speckles and multi-colours and found I got much better results. I've known for ages that I should replace my pot, but I also know that stainless steel in expensive. I'm married to a brewer, and we ended up getting his big brew-pot for a couple of hundred buck from China-town. Anyway, i was doing a Craftsy course on how to dye, and thought I would have a Google. I found this 19 litre pot at Big W. So good. It even has a glass lid so I can see what is going on. Yesterday I dyed the final colour for Stephen Wests Shawlography MKAL. I wanted a bright pink, and that's what I got! I'm really happy with my yarn for this one, all from stash: The MKAL starts in three weeks Saturday (my time) and all I need t...

  Kieran  (or Kizza as he is usually referred to), is my favourite Brother-in-Law. I have four brother-in-laws, but he's the one I like best, and not just because every time we go away, whether it is for a night or a month, he comes and looks after our cats. He mentioned to Leon that he couldn't find the hat I made for him in 2016, so I decided it was time for a new one anyway. I dyed the yarn I recycled from my Carbeth  a light brown, and made him a Tiilda hat Since I know he wears the mitts I make him all the time, I also made him some matching mitts.  The knitting of these took 5 days total. It would have been four, but i decided to do the alternating cable cast on on the bottom of the mitts. Then I matched it with the tubular cast off. When will I learn that the tubular cast off is not stretchy? So I had to pull that out and replace it with a stretchier cast off. Other than that, it was a very smooth knit and I really like the results.

This was so hard to do. I've got no room in my drawers left, so I went through them, looking for clothes I don't wear anymore.  My Carbeth went to the frog pond. it is one of the jumpers I reach for in winter, but it's rather awful. I ran out of yarn when I made it, so the sleeves were always skimpy, and the collar was short, so it won't fold over and just sticks straight up. Add to that the cream yarn which just looks slightly grubby. I have loads of other warm, snuggly comfy jumpers (I'm thinking particularly of another Kate Davies jumper, Warriston ) which will do the job better. I frogged it and got 200 grams of feltable wool out of it. I'm going to dye it up and make felted slipped for everyone I know, because I love them so much (my felted slippers , although I am quite fond of my family and close friends.) I also frogged Boxy. I loved Boxy when I made it, back in 2018. it hasn't worn that well, and it's looking a bit tired. Also, while I blended...

This week I finished the Tracery vest. I must have been planning the vest for 8  years, when I first saw it in the Unofficial and Unlicensed  Harry Potter Knits , a book that cracks me up by waltzing along the edges of what is copywrite infringement. Here is the picture from the book: Here's what I knit A little bit different! Except the shoulders, they are the same. And yes, we had a lot of fun trying the reproduce the photos from the book! I had some issues taking this from the "I want to knit it stage" to completion, which is why it took so long. The pattern is written FLAT from the underarms up. I knew I wanted to steek it. To do that I needed  to find a non-superwash wool in the right colours. I couldn't find the right yarn. In 2016 I bought wool to spin it, but somewhere along the way I decided handspun wasn't gong to be the best for this vest. I ended up dying it myself in July last year. I was very specific in my head about what I wanted, and actu...

Sock Arms is a fairly simple jumper, knit bottom up with seamless set in sleeves. there are a few things that make this very special to me. . The sleeve yarn was  dyed by Dani - from Halfbaked Handyed for the Richmond Knitters Christmas party. So 20 of my closest knitting friends have the same yarn. I am quite thrilled about how even the stripes came out, which is partly a testament to Dani's skill as a dyer. The light grey body yarn was dyed by me. It's the last of the 1.5 kilograms of yarn I bought in July. I was very surprised to  use it up so quickly. The main thing that makes this special is I only knit it out of the house. I took it to Christmas, and then on our road trip to Halls Gap , a wine tour to the Yarra Valley, to Queensland , Monday Night Knit Night , and finally to Ballarat.  It took me exactly a month to knit it, and to go to all those places. I will say that there are some split stitches, and I actually had to sew up a dropped stitch on ...

In the rush of being able to leave the house, holidays and fun, I forgot to show you the last pair of socks I knit, finished on Christmas eve. I made Leon a pair of Rye Light socks, to match his Flax Light jumper. Same yarn, same garter stitch pattern details. It was a simple, satisfying knit, and you know I love matchy matchy. And yarn I've dyed myself. And top down heel and gusset socks are my favourite. And then seeing Leon wear them just makes my days.

On her Patreon Stephanie Purl-McPhee  released a "how to" for a planned pooling cowl. I thought it would be fun to dye some left over yarn, and make it - maybe for Elise, maybe to donate. The first thing I did wrong was not tie the skein before dying it. I have no idea why I suddenly, after all the dyeing I have done, decided that step was optional. It came out OK, and I untangled it. The problem is, I can't say for sure that I dyed it in an entirely regular pattern. I f not this won't work at all. I swatched and checked, but it's a bit tricky, because I can't really see where the start of the colour repeat is. I knit on with hope, but got this: Nope. Since no-one really wants the finished cowl, I'm going to rip it and make a nice baby jumper. I mean, no-one is having a baby right now either, but sooner or later someone will, right?  

 Did you know you can make rib in crotchet? Me neither, but now I do: Elise asked for a replacement hot water bottle cover, because she's worn through the bottom of the one I made her in 2014.  I know I could have offered to repair it, but the chance to get some crocheting  in was too great. I took the yarn I had unravelled and dyed and went looking for a pattern... And looking, and looking. In the end I made it up on the fly.  I'm really pleased with how it came out. I'm considering writing up the pattern, but I only speak crotchet as a second language. What do you think?