What I made, by Sharon

Since 2019 the  Richmond Knitters have select a pattern or a theme, and those of use who feel like it, knit it. This year we chose Wool and Honey , a jumper I first saw in Bendigo a long time ago. I loved it from when i first saw it, but it's garter stitch in the round, which is a hard no from me. It also runs the seam down the back, with a visible jog. To prevent this, and also because I was knitting with hand-dyed yarn,  I alternated skeins until the split for the underarms, and then knit it flat. There are aspects of this jumper than I'm doubtful about, most of which are not Andrea Mowry's fault: The sizing. i made the small, which is my usual size in Andrea Mowry's patterns. I spent a lot of time deciding between the small and the extra small. When I split for the sleeves, I added an extra ten stitches to each sleeve from the body stitches. The seaming. i don't mind the act of seaming, but I really struggled to make these seams nice, and, despite redoing them, t...

I decided to do Stephen West's Contrast Blast mystery sock knit-a-long on a bit of a whim.   It was four clues in four weeks, I had plenty of left over yarn in stash and there was no reason not to. Unlike Stephen's Shawl mystery knit-a-longs, which I have participated in the last three years, and will probably do again this year, it was a bite sized commitment, usually taking two knitting days each week. The techniques we used were fun, lots of texture and variety and, like the rest of Stephen's knit-a-longs, a really great, chatty community on Ravely.  Look at that heel. It's beautiful. What about the finished object? Well, I think my socks are slightly too big for me, but going down a size would have made them too small. They are quite comfortable, but the purling near the ankle makes them sag down and look a bit like the Michelin man. They are certainly cute, and comfortable enough. I wouldn't wear them hiking, but I mainly wear vanilla socks hiking, so that'...

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...

 Shawlography:   Stephen West's 2021 mystery knit-a-long report.  I had so much fun with last year's MKAL, and we were in a similar situation, (ending a long lockdown) that I was very excited for this KAL. I had four of the five yarns in stash, and I dyed the fifth, so it seemed a good use of a number of really pretty yarns that I loved, but didn't know what I was going to use them for. I found some of the knitting this year really annoying. Fiddly stitches that look great, but there was no flow in the knitting. I think this was more reflective of my state of mind than anything else.  I was actually quite pleased with the way it looked when finished. The problem is, because of the bobble row (the bright pink) it doesn't have as much stretch as you might expect. So I can't wear it wrapped around my shoulders like I would with a shallow triangle, and it's too bulky to wear around the neck like a scarf. It's sort of similar to last year's shawl shape, but l...

When I decided to play along with Stephen West's ten year anniversary mystery shawl knitalong Slipstravaganza I did it for fun and for the distraction. Things were not good here , and the idea of having something to look forward to every Friday, and Stephen's kooky Instagram posts and the community chatting on Ravelry was too good to pass up. I'm usually a product knitter. This time I didn't care if by the end of this I had a fun shawl to wear on the couch, or something to give away. The knitalong did not let me down. Each clue was something fun and different, but still easy to follow a long with. knitting in such bright colours was cheering. Using my own hand dyed yarn as the main colour was pretty sweet, and the colours from two of my favourite local dyers ( Stranded in Oz and The Purl Box ) just added to the fun. Each weeks clue only took about three days of knitting, except the last, which was a solid ten days of intense knitting. And then it was done, and I had m...

I stayed home. The end. OK, there is a bit more to it than that. Except for a daily trip to the park to work out and a daily walk we did stay home, but I started a new knitting project, and it was perfect. My knitting group decided to knit Caitlin Hunter's  Birkin as a KAL for Bendigo (otherwise known as the Australian Sheep and Wool show.) Bendigo is cancelled, and I thought about repurposing the yarn (probably for Kate Davie's Coofle , which I am quite taken with. But then I looked back at Birkin, and realised how much I like the design, especially the leaves and flowers. So, I started it on Thursday night. We had a 4 day weekend, and it was a joy to have an interesting, complicated pattern to keep me busy. I've never done three colour-colourwork before, and it is quite a mission. I do it by holding 2 colours in my left hand and one in my right, and rather ignoring colour dominance.  Prior to starting I thought I would manage all the colourwork i thi...

I finished Elton , and blocked it aggressively - I got my blocking wires out for the first time since we moved house two and a half years ago: I'm not sure about it, and I'm not quite sure why I'm not sure.  The top down construction was fun, simple and neat: It flicks out a bit at the back, but that's the nature of this kind of design. I keep thinking it's too short, but it's really not. Maybe what it comes down to is it's very yellow, and I'm not sure how I feel wearing a giant yellow jumper? I had originally chosen teals which is a much more usual colour scheme for me. I already have three blue jumpers, so I thought I would do something different.I am quite tempted to do a "do over" in my original colour choice, maybe going a size bigger. This was a fun cardigan to knit.  As an aside, I've recently started Curly Girl  on my hair, and am very happy with how my hair looks in these photos.      It is a surprisingly wa...

I never remember whether I title these by the month they are about, or the month I post them in.  Anyway, this month I knit 1 pair of socks: House Baratheon Socks by Avalanche Designs. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Leon and I are doing a rewatch of Game of Thrones before the new season comes out in 10 days. So it seemed appropriate to knit socks based on the great houses of Westeros.  Christine Pike, who designed these has only designed four pairs of socks . She's very talented - despite looking complicated, these only had a cable crossing every six rows, and the pattern was so well written that I had it memorised within two repeats.  The yarn is from our 2016 trip to New Zealand, so it's got lots of lovely memories, as well as being beautiful in it's own right. It's actually more navy than it looks in these photos.  A very satisfying project all round. For April I am currently knitting a shawl, which I will talk more ...

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...

Welcome to Yarnalong for February.  I'm taking part in a six week knitalong in the Woolgathering group, where we knit patterns and yarn from Australian and Kiwi designers and yarn producers. it's called the KangaKiwi Kal , which I find absolutely charming. I'm knitting with White Gum Wool , organically grown in Tasmania, and processed in New Zealand. This is the beginning of Leon's Winter Set 2019, from Kate Jordan's pattern Alight mitts. It's a charming pattern, and I'm really enjoying it. I've just started the second mitt. Here's a slightly overexposed pic of the first, thumb still pending: I'm reading another Netgalley book California Girls a light domestic "chick lit" book that is quite pleasant. It's a relaxing, interesting engaging read and I recommend it. It's a good week when both the knitting and reading feel enjoyable and relaxing! If you want to find all my book reviews, I'm SharonDblk on Goodreads...

Every year since the year we met (2008) I've made Leon a new winter set. Traditionally consisting of a hat, scarf and fingerless mitts. I've been doing this since the first year we met. His first set was made from cashmere! I must have really like him from the very beginning. This year I knew I wanted to use Australian yarn. I have become more conscious of where my yarn comes from and supporting MY local producers (I seem to be quite good at supporting Scottish local producers!)  So, when Kate released the Alight Hat and Mitts I knew this could be a winner. They are written for a 3 ply, and I already had some White Gum Wool sock yarn in stash, in the very Leon colour 'ironstone". I bought it on special when I was getting needles from Skein Sisters. I might have enough for the hat and mitts in that ball, but I might not, and I really don't enjoy playing yarn chicken. Recently I started looking around for another ball,and everyone was out of stock. I panicked, ...

I finished my first socks for sock knitting season - the Audrey sock yarn I was talking about earlier in the week . It's marvelous yarn, and the rumour is that Dani will be dying us a colourway for Christmas this year too, so I look forward to that too. The pattern uses a "strong" heel, which I think works quite well with self stripping yarn - the trick is that the heel turn is knitted in other yarn, which means the striping is not interrupted. It also seems quite comfortable, although I'm not one of those people who finds trouble with the fit of most heels. Additionally, its pretty: These socks used just over 60 grams of yarn - which means I have enough left over to make a pair of shorties, although I think some other yarn. Stay tuned - but first, I'm off to start some slippers for my mother.