What I made, by Sharon

Good Beer Week is an annual even that happens in Melbourne in mid-May, and it starts tonight! Of course, it is not just a week - it includes the weekends either side, so it's more like "Good Beer ten days". And it's not just about beer - it's about beer and food and friends. This year we are booked to go to a beer and cheese tasting, and a vegan beer and food thing, and I think we'll be meeting friends on four days to explore "Pint of Origin" pubs. So, lots of lovely food, delicious beer and knitting time. In previous years I have knit garter shawls, socks, Boxy. This year I planned my GBW knitting months ago - I was going to make Quicksilver. For reasons that escape me now, maybe over enthusiasm? I knit that shawl a couple of months ago. Then I was going to knit the Still Light Tunic - I bought the yarn, swatched and everything. 

But then the opportunity to test knit the Treetops came up, and it's perfect. I've done the "complicated&qu…

I was intending to do these Netgalley review posts monthly, but at the moment they are almost every week - I've been reading a lot of review books, all of a sudden. Of course, I don't only read from Netgalley, and if you want to see all my reviews, follow me on Goodreads, where I am SharonDblk. 


During The Longest Weekend in History I wanted to read something breezy and light, so romance it was. I'm very picky about romance books, and this one ticked the boxes. The reasons for the main characters being kept apart did not feel  forced or fake. All the characters were flawed and likeable in equal measure. The plot moved at a decent pace. A very smooth, well written read. 
Another plus (for me) was that it was not porny. Contemporary romance should come with a porn rating, so readers can decide how gynaecological they want to get. 
It did contain one romance trope that annoys me - the main character has one best friend - who she speaks to multiple times a day - and no other frie…

I don't know what it is about test knitting and reading review books that makes me so happy. Yes, free stuff is good, but I'm in the fortunate position where I can buy books, and support designers by purchasing patterns. Still, I love test knitting. It makes me feel special. When Sallyravels put out a call for test knitters, I sprained by shoulder I put my hand up so fast. 

The jumper I'm going to be knitting is "treetops" which is a big, square, boxy jumper. I'm excited, because two of my favourite recent knits are Strathendrick and Boxy. I wanted to stick with my goal of knitting more Australian, so I asked Dani of Halfbaked Hand Dyed to dye me up a jumpers worth of her 8ply, in this sage colour: 

My favourite colour at the moment. I'm lucky enough that Danni is a member of the Richmond Knitters, and she dyed it up for me, we did a handover at a pub between her house and mine. Love at first sight. I dashed home, wound the yarn and swatched: 

 And I'm …

Edited - I thought Once Upon a Sock was finished, hence the name of my post being different, but I like it, so I'm keeping it.

This month I knit one and a half pairs of socks. While we were away in Marysville knit another pair of sneaker liners, this time the Diamond Lace Sockets.

Toes up with a short row heel - and a "mini gusset". I've never used a gusset on a short row heel, and I like it.

I changed a bit of the pattern - I started the lace earlier and I made each diamond bigger. I also started it on fewer stitches.

I think it's pretty, and they fit very well.

I also started some socks for Leon, but I'm only up to the heel (of the second sock), so I'm calling them my May socks. Now all I need to do is not cast on any new socks this month, and I'm on track to not go over my 12 pair maximum. We'll see how that goes.

As always, on the first Thursday of the month (even though it's Friday, like I said on Wednesday everything is suddenly really busy a…

It suddenly got very busy in my life - I'm not sure with what. Maybe just going back to work, which is why this photo was taken on the street, when I had 5 minutes in between work and an appointment. I did also manage to sneak in a round or two of knitting, so there is that.

I am currently knitting a pair of House Martel socks for Leon. Named after one of the now extinct great houses of Westeros, it feels very fitting, since Game of Thrones is back and bigger than ever. I started the second sock on Tuesday while watching the third episode, so it might come out tighter than the first sock - it was a pretty tense episode. I've just started reading Kings of the Wyld which seems like a good read so far - it's a fantasy novel about a band of mercenaries who split up and got old, and now for reasons, they are putting the band back together. Seems like good fun with a bit of heart, but I've only just started it, so stay tuned for a full opinion later.

If you want to know about…

In the middle of our "longest weekend ever" we heading up to my favourite relaxing place in the world, Marysville. On the way we stopped and took photos of my just finished Stranachlachar.

It was a really fun knit. I changed nothing at all - except ignoring all the weird directions when Kate Davies says to "push the stitches around the needle" Makes no sense, so I skipped it.

I even knit it to the length specified in the pattern - very unusual for me, because I'm fairly short.


I also made a pair of little mitts a very clever pattern by Martina Behm, that took me one evening to make, and like the vest are a very clever construction. 

The outfit kept me warm and comfortable during a very relaxing weekend, which involved much sitting on the deck looking at this view:

Quite a lot of drinking tea form the ugliest tea pot in history, on said deck, 

And some trail running to the top and bottom of waterfalls. 

I love my urban life, with it's cars and business and neighbou…