What I made, by Sharon

 AKWAK is happy to receive any donations, they package things out in sets. I normally just make a hat, cowl and jumper, but this time I did things properly. Behold my full set: Jumper, hat, cowl, socks and mittens. The most complete set I have ever made, 420 grams of left-overs used up and a child who will be warm this winter. Winning all around.

For December and January Australian's Knitting for War Affected Children (AKWAK) held a "sets" knit-a-long. I managed to complete three sets in the period.  It was a fun challenge, and a great way of using up pretty much all my left over 8 ply, and a bunch of left over sock wool too. The problem is that knitting the items is not enough. After I've knit them I have to sew the ends in, update Ravelry, tally the items so AWKAK knows I've knit them and store them until it's time to send them, rather than leave them in a messy pile on the computer table. I got my act together this morning and did all that. Now they are packed up, and I'll pop them in my car-part storage cupboard  until AKWAK are ready to receive them - usually in August. It feels good to get the administration part of the project tidied away.

It was meant to be a quiet weekend - Leon and i got our 2nd COVID boosters (the bivalent one) on Thursday, and we both had side effects that felt a lot like COVID. It was a brutal 26 hours,a and then I got better. On Friday i was too fatigued to knit! Aweful. i wasn't too tired to read, and I'm reading Miranda Saphire's A Light in the Dark , which is a sexy, feminist retelling of The Beauty and the Beast, so much of the day was spent lying on the couch reading. On Saturday I went to the gym and then had the rest of the day for whatever I wanted (after cleaning the house of course. We always clean first, and then do the relaxing). I finished the sneaker liners with the SHaG heel.  I really like the heel, it's the same fit as a heel flap and gusset, but much tidier. Then I made a cat toy  That was meant to be a gift. Which would have been great, except I left it on the bed and Willow decided it was great to play with. Successful cat toy, failed gift. I'll make ...

After a delightful 11 day break I'm back at work, it's raining and I would rather be home with my cats. Still, I'm wearing a new jumper (which I will post all about on Friday), and I'm having fun with my knitting and reading, so it's all good. I'm knitting a child's jumper for AKWAK. It's based on a Drops pattern, and I was trying to knit a 6 year old size, but it's coming out closer to a ten. Still, it means I will use up lots of Left Over Sock Yarn (LOSY), which is my major goal for the early part of the year. I'm reading T he Blacktongue Thief   which is both epic fantasy and very funny / silly. A good way to start a new year. In non-fiction I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of Object Lessons OK .  This is using the development of the ubiquitous O.K. to track other social, technological and linguistic changes. I'm enjoying it. And that's my week in reading and knitting. To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I kni...

When I knit Wordle last week I finished my Left Over Sock Yarn (LOSY). Here's the clip from ravelry: I counted my LOSY in February 2022, so by co-incidence this is the one year anniversary of the listing! I knit a lot of things with that 4 kilometres of yarn. 16 really fun projects, many for charity. So does this mean I don't have any LOSY? Haha, no. I've still got 850 grams (3230 meters give or take). LOSY arrives in many ways - donations from friends, left overs from other, full skeins that creep into the LOSY pile, unravelling other projects and possibly even some miscounting. So now I have LOSY IV to play with. What fun!

Yep, after last week out in the world we are back in lockdown. It's not all bad though. I finished a secret project I was working on - I'll tell you more later! I also finished the crotchet blanket, which is currently blocking.  But the main thing that happened is a I got up on Saturday morning and thought "spinning. I have to spin". I found this muddy rainbow in my stash - it's cashmere, merino and tencel sparkle, from Ixchel Bunny. I split it in half and decided to spin it thin. I'm going to do a two ply. I'm aiming for laceweight, but it's more likely to end up a light fingering.   It's nice to have a longer, slower project to focus on, because on the knitting front, I think I'm about to go on a hat frenzy - more of that when it all comes together!

I had a gap between review books (nothing due until September!) and I decided to read the oldest - and longest - book on  my Kindle , The Far Pavilions   by MM Kaye, which I bought in December 2020, so I guess the turnover on my Kindle isn't as slow as I thought it was.  I bought it when it was the Kindle Daily Deal. But the reason I bought it was because, back in the old days, before Kindles, when I used to buy most of my books second-hand from op-shops, I had a copy of this. It was about 2006, and I lived alone in a little one-bedder, and I used a bookshelf to create visual separation between the doorway and the living room, and this book sat there, unread. It had a lurid cover, the same, or similar to the one above.  At some point I got rid of it, still unread. I hesitated to start it, because it's 950 pages long, and because I was worried it would be full of distasteful colonialism. It's fine, and asks the relevant questions (what right do English peopl...

The thing about lockdown is I seem to get a LOT of knitting done. This weekend I finished the Reagen for Rachey. It took me 12 days. The first one I knit took me 3 weeks. I hope it fitsher - I was intending to try it on her as I went, but ... lockdown. Then I started my next project, a crotchet charity blanket, knit corner to corner . It took me a couple of tries to get going - I speak crotchet as a second language, but now I've got the hang of it, and all I want to do is crotchet. I love scrappy projects, I love stripy projects and I love my occasional forays into crotchet country. 

A few months ago Joji released the Envelope Bag. There were many things that I loved about this bag, but I had decided not to buy any more suede bags. It's OK in dark colours, but I do not live a suede friendly life-style. I liked that it can be worn as a shoulder bag, or take the strap off and shove it into another bag . Three weeks ago she released it in camo. I cannot explain why, but I love camo. Which is strange, because I'm anti war and violence and colonialism. I didn't buy the bag, because I was trying to be a better minimalist, and I have lots of Joji bags. I adore my latest - the Hobo with the story . This one looked to be a similar size. I didn't buy it for three weeks. And then Bendigo got cancelled, I had a couple of drinks, and home it came. It got here from Argentina in 5 days, quicker than any of my purchases from much closer to home, and I love it. It's super soft, but still stands up, and you can turn it into a yarn bucket. And its a bit bigger tha...

 In February I decided I was going to knit 10 charity hats, or baby cardigans, or mitts or whatever this year. for the next few months I knit a charity item or two each month. At the beginning of May I was halfway to the goal. And then, because I had a bit of a gap before I wanted to start my next project, I dedicated a week to charity knitting. Turns out I can get a lot done, including 2 hats and 3 pairs of mitts. So I have, obviously, reset my goal. I was trying to knit a kilogram of LOSY (left over sock wool) for charity this year.  This lot weighs nearly 300 grams, but that's not all LOSY. Some of it was still stash, some is mohair. Anyway, I keep on acquiring more. I'm not complaining, just resetting my goal. Should it me a kilogram of donated items? A specific number (maybe ten more.Or 14 more to make it an average of two a month?) Or knit all the LOSY? Anyway, after all these very quick hats and mitts, I'm off to knit myself a pair of knee high socks. t...

I recently stumbled across Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surplice Jumper, and look how cute it is: Unfortunately, Schoolhouse Press doesn't actually sell the pattern - not even in an e-book with other patterns. So, I had to pretend it was 1990 (or 1970) and borrow it! Luckily Sonia had a copy of the very charming Knit One Knit All she could lend me. It's been a long time since I knit a pattern that is only available in a paper book! The cardigan is fairly simple. It would have only taken me three days, but I didn't read the instructions properly - for the Baby Surprise Jacket, Elizabeth has you put in two markers and increase on either side of them. for this you put in two markers and increase one each side of each marker. The pattern is clear, I just misread it. If (when) I make it again I'll make the sleeve extensions in ribbing, or on a smaller needle because they do flare a little. I'll also probably use I-Cord through the bottom eyelets, I wasn't sure whe...

The other day Suzanne texted me and asked if I wanted some LOSY (left over sock yarn) for my blanket. "Sure" I replied, even though, I have quite a lot already. I did not expect quite this much: an additional 500 grams. Some of it is 10 grams balls, perfect for blanket squares. Some of it is in little 25 gram hanks, which will be great for charity baby jumpers, 180 grams of it is in red, yellow and black, the colours of the Aboriginal flag and ready to be knit up for NAIDOC week.  And the other blanket news is that a little while ago I got the two sides even: It looks like I'm about halfway through, and I'm just going to keep knitting. I'm certainly not going to run out of yarn in a hurry!

 Much as I love it when things are matchy, matchy, sometimes things are just unthemed. I finished my Winter's Beach Cardi . I finished the knitting on it on Sunday, but only got the pockets sewn down tonight. It's currently having its bath. Finished object photos to follow, when it's dry. I started a Surplice Baby Jacket , which is a pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman that uses some of the same shaping techniques as her Baby Surprise Jacket. It's been a fun knit so far, and will go towards my charity contributions.  I'm still listening to Vicarious, by Rhett C. Bruno. It's a good listen, although I could possibly knit-pick some plot points and it is all a little overblown. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes. And I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of Yes Daddy , by Jonathan Park-Ramage.  It is described as a modern gothic, which is accurate, but it's got a lot of other things going on too. It starts at a rape trial, and then goes bac...

Excitingly I've got three finished things for this week.  I finished (and blocked) my Peerie Flooers mittens.  I am quite happy with how these (and the matching hat) came out. Pretty and cheerful and matchy matchy for winter. I knit another charity hat for KOGO.  80 grams of LOSY (left over sock wool) off to a good cause. They've done a call out for baby cardigans, so my next project might be a Baby Surprise Jacket or two.   And finally, I used some easy to felt left overs I had lying around to make myself a pair of  felted slippers . When I finished them they were huge. I put them in the washing machine on 40 degrees and when they came out I worried they were tiny, but they actually fit perfectly. Now the only thing I'm worried about is the seam that runs across the sole. We'll see how comfortable they actually are to wear. Wow, a great week for finishing things. I have also acquired rather a lot of yarn and fibre in the last month, so I'll be d...