What I made, by Sharon

 After a few fun weeks of travel , time off and craft retreats  normal life has resumed. And while I would rather have free time than have to work for a living there are compensations, like earning money to pay for all those fun things! And tonight I return to Pole after a break due to injury and holidays.  Of course, while I was doing all those fun things I was also knitting, spinning and reading. On return from the spinning retreat I was eager to start my next project - I'm spinning up 200 grams of this gorgeous fibre as a heavy laceweight, aiming for about a thousand metres.  I've just finished the cardigan I cast on exactly four weeks ago the  Hoodie Shawl Cardigan It didn't actually take me a month to knit, I took a pair of socks away with me as a more portable project. I will be back with blocked and modelled photos on Friday. I have swatched for my next project - a fluffy dress. I don't swatch if it's a type of yarn I'm familiar with, but I wanted to know...

I'm just back from the Geelong Fibre Forum  and it was an incredible week.  Spending the better part of a week with nothing to do except craft was amazing. We stayed in the Geelong Grammar Manifold house as borders. I did a spinning class with Janet Day    E very morning I would get up, run or do yoga and  go get breakfast.  Class would begin at 9 - a day of spinning, learning and chatting with the other class members, interrupted by a morning coffee break and a delicious lunch time. At the end of the day dinner was there - no cooking, no thinking! After dinner there was a chance to go on spinning, or just to hang around, socialise, read and knit.  It was so refreshing, to have no other obligations, nothing to do except create with a community of like-minded women.  Over the week I finished made some art yarn, a batt and then I spun the batt into yarn (that I will hopefully, finally, use to weave cushions for my couch).  But for me the week w...

 As mentioned, after ten days in Queensland I came back for a week, and now I'm heading off to Geelong for a crafting retreat. I decided not to go back to work - it was only four days (Friday is a football related public holiday and Monday was Yom Kippur), so I figured just take the full three weeks. As well as going away and my usual activities (except no Pole, since I have a slightly torn tricep), I have spent my time engaging in some rather random crafting pursuits. I think we have to wear name tags at the retreat, so i made some out of polymer clay. I think they are pretty cute, particularly the pink one. I finished the crotchet baby jumper out of handspun: It's cute and functional, although I really struggled with the stitch count on the sleeves. At some point I'll crotchet a matching hat. I finished the spinning project I was working on - 185 grams and 417 metres of a light DK weight yarn. I'm probably going to use it as the contract colour for an argyle cardigan....

  W elcome to part 34 in a series of non-fiction book reviews, originally based on the idea that the books I request tell you everything you need to know about me. I have, after so many chapters of this series, realised that all these posts say about me is that this was just a place to put these reviews, but now I can see how broad my non-fiction reading is, and how many interesting, good (and sometimes not-so-good) books and topics I've had a chance to explore. This time we have 2 books about specific albums and one about LGBTQ+ folklore and that one wasn't even a NetGalley book, but it is non-fiction, so I'm including it here. The other two books were  provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Paul Simon's Graceland (33 1/3 Africa) by Kalvin Schmidt-Rimpler Dinh Celebrated, controversial, and conspicuously eclectic, Paul Simon's Graceland stands among the monumental albums of the 20th century. This book explores how and why it made its mark, from th...

  In between going to Queensland for ten days and going on a craft retreat next week i have a full week at home. I'm making the most of it, spinning and knitting and reading during the day, as well as spending time with friends in the evenings. I'm going to to CostCo with Anna this afternoon - I love CostCo and not having a car (or all that much storage space) means trips don't happen that often. Because I've been away, it's been two weeks since my last Wednesday post - and I can barely remember what I've read! Of particular note was The Floating World    by Ben Eastham, which was a thoughtful very near future dystopian read about privilege and surviving and also the art world. I've just started  But For Fortune *. Since I'm only two chapters in, I don't really have anything to say about it yet, although the front cover is lovely. Next up? Whatever I see on my Kobo when I get to that point.  In crafting I'm knitting the cardigan I started two we...

 We're back! We had a marvelous time, although it started out rocky, with our flights delayed by three hours and, instead of going straight to Brisbane, stopping in Sydney.  I dislike flying and airports, so it was a poor start to what turned into a lovely holiday.  We Starting in the Gold Coast with some time with Leon's sisters, a beer festival, which Kris joined us for, as well as Ingrid, Tony and their son Harrison. Gold Coast was lovely. Even though the Saturday was COLD and raining, it was actually warm enough to get in the pool on Sunday, and spending time with Kerrie and Fiona is always a pleasure. Monday we took the train to Brisbane, and spent the next week relaxing, exploring and going to Brisbane Festival events. We also went to a Jim Henson exhibition and the museum.  We stopped for a coffee when we got in to Brisbane  and this Bearded Water Dragon was just hanging around in the coffee shop courtyard.  Trevor jones was there doing piano bar, so...