What I made, by Sharon

  This week is an event called Pint of Origin (PoO), Good Beer Week, GABS (a beer festival) and the Handknitters Guild Market in Coburg. The last two years I've kicked off the festivities by going to Coburg, buying yarn and then we've started the pub crawl Northside. This year, both GABS and the Handknitters Market have been moved to June, and Good Beer Week was cancelled. PoO is happening, and we are trying to get to all (21) pubs in the ten days of festivities. This weekend we made it to 11 pubs. We drank good beer, and ate good food.  We hung out with old friends: Their friends And new friends This week we will go to the remaining pubs. It's a very fun time!

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 ...

  Yes, I went out every night this week, and I remembered to take photos at each event. I can't say they are the best photos. but I'm proud of myself anyway. Monday night I joined the Richmond Knitters, as I do most Mondays. We ate l eft over birthday cake and, as usual, cackled and chatted and talked (a little bit) about knitting. Leon, chatting with the head brewer On Tuesday Leon, Kris and I went to a beer dinner, which matched Temple beer to Asian inspired food, and it was yummy and fun.  There was someone there wearing a cream cable-knit jumper and it made me even more determined to make a cream cable-knit jumper really soon. You can just see him leaning forward in the background of the photo above. On Wednesday  Leon and I went to &Juliet, a cheering, inspiring and delightful musical. I highly recommend.  Thursday was Shavout, so we had a four course meal and my parents, with my brother and some of my parent's friends. i got a photo, but I couldn...

The first part of Good Beer Week (Pint of Origin) finished on Sunday, and it was quite a week. Mainly in beer activities but there were some other fun things thrown in too. So many things! On Monday I went to Richmond Knitters as always - no photos it would be weird to take photos of something I do every week, but maybe I will tonight. On Tuesday we went to The Park Hotel in Abbotsford for Pint of Origin Beers instead our of usual Tuesday trivia, it's fun to mix it up. On Wednesday we toured South Melbourne, visiting three pubs. Thursday we stayed home, which was a nice change, then on Friday Leon and I went to the Local and my parents place for dinner - again no photos, but I really should take photos of those who are dearest to me. On Saturday we celebrated the Richmond Knitters 16th birthday party. I've been going to this group weekly for 14 years, and they are such an amazing, inspiring, lovely group of people. It was a delight to get together and celebrate ourselves! We ha...

There is an event called PoO (Pint of Origin) that is normally part of Good Beer Week, but this year is running the week before. Basially a number of pubs  are each allocated a place, and serve beer from that place. Originally it was different States but has broadened to include other countries and regional areas. On Friday night we started at The Catfish (New Zealand) and then went to Bonnie (Melbourne) and Near or Far (Brisbane). Elise had just come back from her trip and we had a merry crew. Saturday morning was Coburg Yarn festival. I had not bought or received any yarn since Christmas (not that i get Christmas presents, but Danni's Christmas yarn was the last yarn I bought), then the Richmond Knitters went out for lunch. I'm working on my photography skills, it's hard to take pictures of groups around a table! I bought some buttons, and yarn for 2 jumpers. The buttons I had on my old romance are too small and don't keep it shut. Now I have to sew buttons on again....

  Every year at this time is "Good Beer Week." (I've posted about it... a lot! 2016  , 2017 , 2018 , 2019 , 2021 ) This year, the organising body decided not to. I don't know why - it fell between lockdowns last year and was a shining light in a blighted year. Many of the pubs had already bought their beer, so lots of good beer events are happening, even if it is not officially "good beer week". We're taking it a little bit easier, only going on Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for a beer festival. I wanted an appropriate project, and cast on  Ginny's Cardigan , a simple round yoke, bottom up cardigan I've had in my queue for ever. I've done the sleeve. You can see the sleeve in the foreground of this photo. Also Leon wearing a jumper I knit him, and Kris all in (her own) handknits. And I cast on the body last night. It has a simple lace panel up the back, so should be easy enough for public knitting. The reading is going better this...

  And what a week it was! After everything got cancelled last year, it was an extra special pleasure to get amongst it. On Sunday we went on a Pint of Origin Beer crawl, and went to 5 pubs, each serving beer from a different state or country. We went to South Australia, Scandinavia, New Zealand, and Queensland. A bit of virtual travel via beer. Then on Tuesday we went to a tea brewed beer and dumplings dinner, with Kris and Mal which was delicious. Wednesday was our traditional dinner with Skip at the Palace hotel, which is a nice tradition, a restful yet beery dinner in the middle of a big week. Thursday we went to a Danish dinner at Denmark house. Once again, eating and talking with strangers felt like such a sweet novelty. Saturday was GABS. Usually this is at the Royal Exhibition Centre, which is a beautiful building. This year it was at the convention center (for reasons, They are using the Exhibition centre as a vaccination hub, but also the Convention Centre.) They had lante...

I finished the Treetops jumper on Wednesday, so I did what I always do when I need something to knit and have no time to plan: I cast on a pair of sneaker liners. I wanted to do helictical single row stripes, and was trying to work out a way to do an afterthought heel, but by casting on the heel provisionally and then knitting in, when I found the Fork in the Road sock pattern. It does exactly that, although it uses a hat heel. Since a normal afterthought heel doesn't suit me that well anyway, I decided to go for it. I cast on in the first pub of the evening, and knit the ribbing. We left the first pub, partly because we were always going to, but also because they turned the lights down and it was kind of dark. We got to the second pub, and I tried to cast on the heel stitches using Judy's provisional cast on in two colours. I still think it's possible, but I was 4 beers down and struggling. The bar tender turned the lights down (why do they do that?) He saw me looki...

I mentioned I was excited to knit Treetops jumper, and that excitement never wore thin.Usually there is one place in a project where I am sure it is not going to fit, or I realise I should have striped the yarn, or used different yarn, or the instruction become opaque. Not with this jumper.   It was just a pleasure to knit from start to finish. The HalfBaked Handyed yarn is such a lovely wearable colour. After blocking, I would think that there was silk in it - it has a lovely sheen and drape. I pretty much followed the pattern - although I did the lace on the front and the back.  The pattern calls for just the front, since this was a test knit I asked if I could do it on both and Sally Oakley, the very talented designer, said that would be fine.  She is from Tasmania and when I mentioned it was Good Beer Week here, she told me to look out for her brother's beer - Ocho . I did, and had a great red ale and, at GABS where these photos were taken, a...

It's been a fabulous week with good beer, good food and good friends. In fact, it's been one of my favourite Good Beer Weeks yet. I finished the jumper on Wednesday, so it was blocked and worn to GABS, and we even managed to take a photo reminiscent of my favourite photo from last year. I am rather exhausted, both because I've been out every night drinking, and because I've caught the bug that's going around, so here is a collage of my good beer week. I'll be back next week with a full post of about the beautiful Treetops jumper, and what I knit after I finished Treetops.

After I finished Boxy there were still two days of Good Beer Week left. I was home sick on F riday - nothing to do w ith the week , there is a horrible cold going around, so I cast on a pair of sneaker liners, using left over Mothy and The Squid yarn. I just love these colours, and there is plenty more yarn left over from my What the Fade shawl.I did a basic sock, with a Fish Lips Kiss heel. All very simple. I cast on on Friday, and between the sick day and Saturday's beer festival I had them finished by Saturday night. I was tempted to immediately cast on a pair with the colours reversed, but I resisted that thought, at least for the moment.