What I made, by Sharon

We just had a lovely 4 days in Pomonal. We go camping there every year on Cup weekend, and tradition that is now in it's fourth year, so I think I can call it every. Previously we have stayed near out friend's house there, but this year they have moved to a regional town. they still have access to their land, and we camped in a stunning spot - a large clearing in a forested area, with mountain views and a firepit in the middle.  Unfortunately I've injured my (other) knee, so on Sunday morning Leon set off for a run, and I did not. But we met him in Hall's gap. There is a Sunday market their and it was really high quality, lots of stuff being sold by the people who made them, including a new to me yarn dyer Que Sera Yarn Co . She has lots of stunning brights and pastels, but I came home with an interesting army green, to be socks for Leon. We had an inordinate amount of rain on Monday, and saw lots of soggy sheep - although they really don't seem to mind when the wea...

  I finished the skein of yarn I've been working on since I got back from spinning camp at the beginning of the month. I got about 685 meters of a heavy laceweight. I want to make a shawl tow wear to a wedding. I've settled on this shawl  (designer's photo) but with beads instead of nupps. I'm trying not to cast on until December- I'm away camping this weekend, so I'm taking a pair of shorty socks. I've also signed up for Joji's one-skein mystery shawl, which is releasing it's first clue on Monday our time. I'm excited to knit with my avocado dyed yarn . I don't think it will take all my knitting time, but i don't really want to be working on two shawls at the same time, so I might make Leon a pair of socks.  for this weekend away I'm taking a pair of shorty socks, the MKAL yarn and a pair of charity socks, just in case the MKAL doesn't work out for some reason. that should be enough for 4 days away... I hope.

I'm doing a little reading project where I read or delete all the old books in my GoodReads To Be Read. It's always at about 100, and never goes down because some books have been on there since 2018. Do I really want to read them? Let's find out.  I'm starting with   Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sas , which is an LBTQ, YA thriller and has been on my TBR since Dan Savage recommended it in November 2020. Prior to starting it I did (sort of) catch up with the NetGalley review books  -I read  The Throwaways by Greta Kelly*.  It started off as a really fun adventure situation, but went off the rails and ended up more stabby and silly than clever. Then I read  The Porcelain Sisters * by Daryl Gregory. I've loved everything he's written and this was no exception. Then I read a Roxie Noir Loveless Brothers romance -   Break the Rules .  It's the third in the series and as expected it was excellent. The romance isn't limp, but it's not full of fa...

A couple of weeks ago I started a Sanviken Sweater Dress , out of  Ístex Plötulopi – Unspun Icelandic . you can read what i thought of the yarn here . Basically it was a pain in the arse, drifting apart at the slightest provocation. This was particularly annoying since it was Fringe festival time and I was doing a lot of my knitting in bars, or on trams, which are not good places when you cannot put the slightest pressure on your yarn. Anyway, I finished it the other day. it is light, and warm and I think it will be an amazing dress to wear around the house in winter. It is, of course, currently spring and I nearly got heat stress taking these mediocre photographs, but at least I have something to look forward to when the weather inevitably and eventually starts to get colder. Now, onwards to summer and summer knitting.   

 After making my crocheted   baby cardigan I thought I would make a matching hat, also for charity. I chose the   Easy Hat pattern by Vardhman Knitting Yarn  - crotchet a rectangle, sew up and there's a hat. I took it to knit night one Monday, since I didn't have anything suitable on the needles. At the end of the night I had this: I CANNOT crotchet a simple rectangle. I don't know why, it really shouldn't have been that hard! I also had a very jammed up left shoulder because while I knit with ease and flow I have a different approach to crotchet.  I gave up on the crotchet and whipped up a knitted hat: Simple, effective and didn't increase my skill level. Maybe I'll make matching booties in crochet, or maybe I'll take the easy way out and knit some socks.   

My NetGalley queue is relatively short at the moment - only ten books, to be read between now and January. My "ratio" (the proportion of books read to books requested) is at 97 percent. The problem is that I have been reading fewer NetGalley books and more other books, and I looked away and a few deadlines came up. There is  But for Fortune  by Erin Miller Reid,  a book that I should have read and reviewed last month. I've tried to read it twice, and  while I don't think it's a bad book, I could get into it. Then I realised - on the day it was due that I hadn't started  Encore Performance  by Leila Sales . It was an 831 Stories romance which meant it was only a couple of hundred pages long. I really enjoyed it, which made it a quick read. Now I'm reading  The Throwaways by Greta Kelly  which published yesterday. It's kind of like the TV show The Americans - deep cover Russian spies, double crossing, lots of action but also about the relationships....