What I made, by Sharon

I finished spinning some yarn in February  and I got it on the needles within to months! I think the only thing more delightful than  spinning a project and knitting it up right away might be doing that, and having it come out this well: I love this yarn and I love the resulting shawl. I'm also quite surprised I got a shawl this big out of about 370 meters of yarn. Please also note the personalised Richmond Knitters t-shirt, courtesy of Sonia's artwork and StickerMule 's deal on t-shirts. I'm not sure I should have been let loose on that website. Stay tuned for more spinning, knitting and personalised things ordered from the internet! 

  I just got out of COVID isolation, and it is so good to be back in the world. That said, I was lucky - although i was quite tired, I felt more like I had a (very) bad cold than anything worse. I was coughing and snuffly, but I didn't have brain-fog or exhaustion. And that meant i could indulge in some of my favourite things - reading, crocheting and knitting. I tested positive on Saturday night, and I'd just cast on the toe of a toe-up test sock by Kat . It used some very clever and simple techniques, and I really enjoyed knitting it this pretty Stranded-in-Oz yarn. It was a very relaxing knit. The pattern should come out in July and I recommend it.  When I wanted something that used a little more of my brain power, I crocheted squares from Granny Square Flair. I did 9 different squares. So fun and I learnt so much. I also finished the final square from Granny Square Academy. Now I have 30 squares done from there, and have realised that I Iike variety in my ...

 It feels like spring has sprung today and it's delightful. Other things that are delightful are my reading this week. After DNFing Reason's for Avoiding Friends,   I read Neil Sharpson's When the Sparrow falls , a rather delightful piece of dystopian fiction. Now I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of He Gets that From Me by  Jacqueline Friedland . It's an interesting book that asks questions about family, blood, relationships and what holds us together. It's also well written, which is always an important factor in my enjoying a book. The knitting has also been going quite well. My parents have a "no shoes" rule in their holiday house, so I thought I would make them felted slippers to slip on when they are there. Did they ask for them? No. Will they felt down to the right size? No idea. Still, it's been fun. I'll try to get them finished and felted by the weekend. We're still not allowed to see other people, so it will be a while befor...

As promised I decided to knit the H at H eel S ock as part of my sub sneakerliner project playing with different sock construct ions . H ere's my thoughts on this one . I t looks really interesting in a self stripping yarn: There are a lot of edges and picked up stitches in parts of my foot that don't need ridges , an d it will be interesting to see how these wea r. They are qui te skimpy, which is not the pattern's fault, I had only almost just enough yarn and I should have just done the toes in a different colour. I nstead i just knit the ribbing really short. Despite this, they don't dissapear into my shoes, like lots of other socks do. In an exciting ribbing development, I seem to have found a solution to my toe up c ast off problem. after knitting the l ast round o f 1x1 ribbing, I slipped the purl stitches to a separate needle and kit ch enere d them together. Simple and no ru ffling. Now I jst need to work out how to do this on 2x2 rib... ...

Alberta! This was a relaxing knit, around and around and around. I may have mentioned how much I love knitting in the round.   I'm really happy with the steeks. They were very simple, and have made me feel significantly more confident about adding steeks to my current project.   I'm also really happy about how it looks and how it fits Leon.   I loved this pattern. It is simple, effective, fun to knit and looks wonderful on my wonderful husband, if I do say so myself.  

We're in my favourite park of summer; the days are long and the sun is hot. The sky is an endless blue and it makes my heart sing with joy. The beach, which I ran down to this morning, is white and the water is stunning, with the sun shinning back of the tiny wavelets of the bay. Which really does not explain why all my knitting has gone grey. I finished Leon's scarf: This is a detail blocking shot of the end. Once it's dry and the weather is cooler I'll get an action shot of the whole thing. I decided not to go straight on to the matching mitts. I wanted a break for this design and I had an absolute craving to knit a garment. I cast on Pliver , from Shetland Trader, in grey. To sum up, I cast on a winter garment in grey yarn in the middle of summer. Even my spinning is full of dark colours, (it's darker than this picture, one day I'm going to buy a fancy camera and take pictures that are the right colour) although at least this time it's dark greens as we...

I finished the silk and wool for my 198 yard of Heaven shawl although for some reason in my head I keep thinking of it as 198 yards of happiness. I actually have 239 meters of wool plied with silk, and another 15 meters of Navaho plied silk, which may be enough for the cast off, as I plan to modify the pattern a little to make it larger and use up all the wool. I'm working hard on spinning the corriedale that I cleaned. It spins like a dream, but the preparation takes longer than the actual spinning, so I have to allocate time to that. Luckily flicking the locks is nearly as much as fun as spinning: I take a clean lock, flick it with the little flick carder and FLUFF, a magic puff of easy to spin fibre. I am actually going to leave the house today, I'm meeting a friend down the beach. This will give me a chance to keep working on Leon's jumper. I've finished the body and one sleeve up to the point where I need to join and have about half the second sleeve, so I think I...