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...

 And just in time too, the chill has arrived here.  For Leon's 2024 winter set I decided to knit the Winding Road Hat and Scarf pattern by Teniana Ortuta Designs. I don't really know where I came across the pattern, but it looked interesting, but not so complicated I couldn't knit it in public, because I knew I was knitting the whole set while travelling. Full trip report here if you would like to hear about things other than the knitting. I started the hat before we left, I wanted to check that the needles and yarn worked well together. I'm glad I did, because I decided I liked it better all knit on 4mm needles, so I didn't have to carry extra needles.  I made up a pair of mitts - cast on 36 stitches, 12 rounds plain rib, start a thumb gusset and hat chart at the same time. reverse the pattern for the second one: When we went to The Yarn Trader I bought a "matching" skein of sock yarn, from local dyer  Colagirl Collective .  I finished the mitts before w...

On our r ecent camping trip Leon brought one of his old winter sets . For the first half of walking he was carrying a full length scarf, which is both heavier and bulkier than required - a neat cowl would keep him warm, and take up less space. Additionally the hat did not fully cover his ears. One night he misplaced his mitts, and we started planning a set just for camping. He wanted it representative of the mountains, a bit like the logo of the Hall's Gap Camping Shop. I was thrilled when I found this pattern, Mountain Beanie , as it exactly captured what I was aiming for. I was also pretty happy to have the perfect colours left-over from my Swancho. I was a little less thrilled when i actually started the knitting - the pattern is written to be lined, and I was not lining it, so the long floats had to be caught every few stitches.  I knit the cowl by doing a hat without the top  I free-styled the mitts, doing little triangle mountains. I blocked it on Saturday and...

I've rejoined Kindle Unlimited.  I do that periodically - I think I did a free month in 2017, and then a discount 3 months at the beginning of 2020, and then 3 free months when I bought my Kindle Oasis in 2020. Elise recommended an urban fantasy series and I saw that there was a John Birmingham series I hadn't read in KU I looked up the current deals and got 6 months at half price. it's just not worth it for me at $13 a month, but not I only have to read one or two KU books a month to make it worthwhile. So, I started with Dragons Don't Eat Meat by Kim McDougall Look at that cover! The book itself is fine. It's quite light, but also trying to address big issues. It's sort of trying to do too much I think.  If you have any Kindle unlimited recomm endations please let me know in the comments. Knitting has been toddling along. For reasons, I have been making Leon a bonus winter set. I'm almost finished, just the mitts to go, but I'm free-styling the patter...

This set was a saga, because I started with raw unwashed fleece and went from there. Washing, carding, spinning took months, before the knitting which was over in a flash.  I started the mitts on Tuesday 22 February and finished the scarf on Friday 4th of March. I wanted to knit until I ran out of yarn to use up every precious gram of handspun but the scarf was getting rather long, so I felt like I should cast off. There is 70 grams left over. It's been pretty warm here, so I brought the set with us on our weekend away . I asked Skip, my official photographer  to do a photo shoot, and he did a wonderful job. The set came out really well. All patterns are by Tin Can Knits . Although I'm not sure about making a white set, particularly the gloves. We'll see how they wear. Overall though, this was a very satisfying project and I hope Leon gets a lot of joy from it, out in the world this winter.

It's only February  and I've finished Leon's winter set (2021) This might be some sort of a record! I've certainly never knit a two metre long scarf in 5 days. This is the second set I've made with handspun, but it's the first time I've been truly happy knitting with my own handspun. There are, I think, 3 reasons for this: 1) I'm a better spinner. I'm also more experienced, so instead of being lazy and spun three lots of singles and 3 plied it. Much lighter, airier and rounder yarn. 2) The pattern - the pattern, which is essentially a broken rib was designed by handspun and very flattering. When I look at all the projects on Ravelry, I think the handspun one's outshine the commercial yarn.  3) Swatching - I did four swatches on four needle sizes, blocked them and then chose the needle size based only on how the swatch looked. A slightly onerous process, but well worth the time. As I often do with Leon's set's I found one element (in this ...

 Lockdown 3 was short, sharp and very productive for me. I finished my Colour Stacking Cowl . It's a bit odd - because you had to do the colours in full repeats, I chose to do two repeats of the colours. Originally I cast on for three and it was far too long, so I ripped it. This is just a smidge short. I'm going to donate it, hopefully someone will love it. Remember on Monday I said I was going to knit 10 charity hats this year? I knit two this week. Patterns are LOSY Hat by Barb Engelking:  And  Fits the Whole Fam hat by Cosy Up Knits.  Total yarn used was 142 grams, but 25 grams of that was left overs from the cowl. Still, it was a good start. I also knit (but have not yet blocked) the hat and mitts for Leon's Winter Set (2021). So a ridiculously productive week. I guess some people stress eat, and I stress knit.  

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...

We're going on a little holiday, and I'm stoked about it. Just like last year , we are going to Halls Gap for the Grampians Music Festival. This year we decides to roll a hike into our trip.  We are taking public transport up there - a tram, a train and two busses, camping in town for the first night, camping in the bush for two nights, returning to town (and a cabin, oh the luxury) and then two nights camping in a friend's field.  It made packing a bit strange - we're sending some bags up for after the hike with Skip and Bee, and leaving a small amount of stuff with our friends while we hike. Still, I love camping, and hiking and hanging out with friends. I know I should say I love music festivals, and this is certainly a chilled out one, lots of sitting around, listening to music, chatting with my friends, a bit of drinking. Just like last year, I'm knitting Leon's Winter Set Scarf, and have brought the wool for the matching socks. I have enough yarn ...

And today I have three finished objects! Normally I like to write about these things as I go, but I didn't get these blocked until last night, and here they are, dry and ready to write about.   This Baby Surprise Jacket might be the cutest thing I have ever made. Every time I finish a BSJ I think it's the best ever. This is number 11 and I love it. It's such a precious knit. The main colour was dyed by a friend of mine, and I think it is perfectly offset by the browns.  Leon's Winter Set 2020 Hat: I'm really happy with how this came out. The crown shaping was worrying me, since I can never picture in my mind how it is going to look, but this worked out really well.  The mitts came out well too. I based them on a basic (and free) Drops pattern . By co-incidence, both the hat and the mitts came out with 3 repeats of the arrow pattern. I've just started the matching scarf, which will have between 33 and 50 repeats of the arrow pattern. Luckily it...

As usual on a Wednesday, I’m linking up with Kat from As Kat Knits  and the Unravellers, to discuss what we have been up to this week.  The most exciting thing for me is I joined a yarn club. It’s been a long time since I did more than a pattern club, because I am all about stash reduction, but Stranded in Oz is one of my favourite Aussie dyers. I’m knitting Leon’s Winter Set (2020) in her yarn, and when I saw she was mailing club subscriptions this week, I couldn’t help myself. My reading has been a bit odd again. I finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Tara Jenkins Reid on Monday. I LOVED it. I haven’t started anything else. In my defence, at work lunch time I have been reading The gift of Pain , which is a fine book. I agree wholeheartedly with most of what the author has to say, but that doesn’t make for a thrilling read!  I’m also listening to The Erratics , written and read by Vicki Laveau-Harvie. I’m not sure I love it, but it is odd, compelling list...