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...

 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...

A week or so ago I finished the Xena socks I was knitting for Leon. I love this technique, it looks so cleaver and is so easy. It's just helical stripes and 1x1 cables in a pretty intuitive, charted pattern. I used Sarah Jordan's SHaG  heel, which doesn't interrupt the stripes, but still provides the fit of a heelflap and gusset. What went wrong was something about this technique, combined with some other factors in my life, has borked my right shoulder. Which is a nice change from my left shoulder hurting, which it does if I spin without the exact right posture.   Anyway, I'm rehabing the shoulder, and I'm still allowed to knit, which is the main point really. Because when I can make projects as fun as this, why would I want to stop, or even slow down?

  I made Leon a pair of socks and it took me 13 days. They are lovely socks, but I whined about them for the last week. They are lovely because; A) The pattern was designed by my friend OzKnitter Jane and it's lovely. The circles down the front are meant to represent roundabouts, and the pattern was easy to memorise and cute. B) The yarn is from our trip to Scotland three years ago , and we bought it directly from Ginger Twist Studio . The colour is "Old Town Cobblestone" and it's a lovely shade of grey. So why the delay? Well, it's 72 stitch sock, but I don't think that was the issue. Despite last weekend being four days long (glorious!) I spent a lot of my crafting time doing other things, including knitting donuts and sorting out some worn out knitwear (Come back Sunday if you want to hear ALL about that). And it was oddly hard to match the first pair to the second. In fact, I think the heels are different lengths, but the legs are the same, (although th...

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.

We hadn't been away since June, and this weekend we took Monday off and spent the weekend in Marysville. We love Marysville, a little village in the mountains, and I am lucky enough that my parents own a (shared) holiday house there. We had a lovely time - we went hiking on Lake Mountain ,  trail running the back way to Steavenson Falls , reading, drinking coffee and waking up somewhere else! It was a good weekend. But, I hear you ask, did you do any crafting? Yes, thank you for asking, I did. I cast on a sock for Leon on the Friday, and am motoring down the foot of the first sock. Photos on Wednesday, but it's a fairly simple grey sock. I am very surprised I got the far, because I also knit a fairly significant swatch for the Tracery vest. I'm basically using the chart and re-writing the rest, because I am not interested in knitting colourwork flat. I also brought my folding wheel and spent a little bit of time sitting in the sun spinning. All in all, a very relaxing, mu...

Three weeks ago I finished the Sou'wester Socks  for Leon. I finished them on Friday, and on the weekend we went to the beach and took photos. And then I forgot to blog them or put them on Ravely! Must be my busy social life. These are, in typical Rachel Coopey style, quite wonderful. They are mirrored and asymmetrical but still manage to have simple charts.  As an added bonus, I knit them in the exact same yarn as the pattern called for, right down to the colour. It is Wendy Roam , and Katie destashed it about a year ago. This also means I have finished the Pretty Feet book. I wonder what theme my next block of sock knitting should have...

It's been quite a weekend. To start with, it was three days long. All weekends should be three days long. On Saturday night we went and saw Come From Away again.  I loved it the first time, and cried the entire time. I thought this time I would cry less, but no, I bawled for the whole show! The on Sunday night we saw Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, who were doing a bushfire benefit . It was, of course, fantastic. Also, I remember (a month) ago when we were worried about the whole country burning. Now we're worried about everybody getting sick, and also toilet paper hoarding. Things go downhill so fast. And then today (second Sunday!) we played D isc Golf with Skip and Bee. WE're all a bit obsessed right now. I used the opportunity to take a few shots of Leon in his now completed winter set. I must say, I'm quite pleased with it. The scarf came out quite long, he has is wrapped around his neck three times in these pictures.  Now I'm off to finish the fi...

While I was waiting to cast on my Good Beer Week project I started a pair of socks for Leon - the House Martell socks, the second last in the Game of Thrones sock series I'm knitting my way through. I really like the way they came out, but the knitting of them was actually quite annoying! The pattern was simple enough, but for some reason I could only do some of the cabling without a cable needle, and it was just fiddly. The yarn is Shibui , so a nice yarn, which I got when Suzanne was doing a big destash , but it bled all over my hands.   Ans weirdly made my pink shellac nails go purple. As an aside, those nails also lifted really quickly. This week I've switched to SNS and I'm really liking it.   The finished pattern looks quite nice, but if I had known it was going to stripe I might have overdyed it.  When it was time to do the toe of the first sock I asked Leon to try it on and he could barely get it over his heel. He took it off and put it back on aga...

I knit one pair of socks in February, from left over yarn from Leon's Winter Set 2019 - which I promised to get photos of, and completely forgot. Drop by over the weekend and you can see the glory that is Kate Jordan's " Alight " pattern. Kate designed a hat and mitts set, inspired by tiles in the Wellington Railway Station. I then used the pattern on a hat, mitts, scarf and: SOCKS. I'm really happy with how these came out. It's basically the mitts pattern, but whacked onto a 64 stitch heel-flap-and-gussett top down sock. As well as being the completion of Leon's winter set it is also eligible for the Kanga/Kiwi KAL, since the pattern is New Zealandish and the yarn is the extremely soft White Gum Wool sock yarn. And that's February. My sock plans for March are (after I finish the cardigan I'm knitting for myself) is to make another pair of Game of Thrones socks for Leon. This was my attempt to get a photo that showed the detailing on bo...

This weekend we went to Ballarat, to see Leon's parent's, catch up with friends and go to Ballarat Beer Fest. All this gave me some serious knitting time on Leon's socks  which was good because while these socks are not complicated, they were quite slow. Mainly because every 5th row involved knitting three together, and that was slow, and a little hard on the hands, although mine seem to have held up ok, which is always a relief.  I knit these on 2mm needles - a mixture of HiyaHiyas and Chiaogoo. I originally had a set of each, and I lost one on the way, so now I just grab 5. I like the Chiaogoos better - they are pointy without being sharp, and they appear to be stronger - one of the HiyaHiyas bent a little, with all the intense levering of stitches. I like the way the socks came out. They are named after House Targeyen from Game of Thrones, and they do look like dragon scales. When Leon first put them on, I was worried they were too tight, but they have stretche...

Katie brought some destash in to Richmond Knitters on Monday, and I scored this lovely green sock yarn:   I had to laugh though, since I keep on talking about reducing my stash, and really, the bulk of my stash is sock yarn for Leon, and it never goes down. I have 10 balls in colours suitable for him (you know, grey, dark green, blue, brown or black: Look at that glorious pile!  And it doesn't seem to be going down. In between my friends' generous destashing, buying yarn as tourists (could you go past a grey yarn called dreich, while at a yarn shop in Edinburgh?) I'm getting it an fast as I'm knitting it. And, since Leon's sock draw is quite full, I'm not really knitting it all that fast - I'm only aiming for four pairs for him this year. I only knit him three pairs last year. So, this pile of yarn will last two or three years. Although, I might use that green in the bottom right for something for myself, because it really is very pretty.

As part of Kate Davies latest collection, she released a pattern called Highland Rogue . I immediately knew I was going to use it for Leon's winter set. I've actually made Kate Davies inspired winter sets for the last two years.   It seemed fitting, since this pattern is about Rob Roy, and Leon's nickname is Roy (Leon - Leroy - Roy. His friends are weird). Walking the West Highland Way, we walked through Rob Roy territory, seeing his (probable) cave. We also did some trail running on the Rob Roy Way. Rob Roy country I had already thought of making Leon a pair of socks in this stitch pattern, although in my head this was going to happen after I made his winter set. While we were heading for Inverness I realised I was going to run out of yarn before I was reunited with my EYF purchases. we visited a yarn shop in Inverness, and while it was not a bad shop, it had NO Leon coloured sock yarn. I was feeling quite desperate by the time we visited the small, multicraft shop...