Preparing for the MKALs

This time last year I wrote a post about how I was going to plan a good time, even though we were in lockdown etc. And it's true, I did all the things I said I was going to do and enjoyed the heck out of them! Now we're a year down the track we're in lockdown again and I am very tired. So when I saw imagined Landscapes was doing a Gnome MKAL I said "yes please". I've only knit one Gnome, and it was a lot of fun. I had yarn in stash, and I'm loving the whimsy of a mystery gnome knit-a-long.

And then of course September is prep month for the Stephen West mkal - this year it's called Shawlography, and features 5 bold contrasting colours. just like last year I found 4 perfect colours in my stash, and I'm going to dye that white (which is a sparkle yarn) the colour of the pink sample I have there.

I'm stoked about the Aussie dyers I'm using - Louie and Lola for the light and dark grey, Stranded in Oz for the purple and The Purl Box for the teal.

I'm pretty excited for this KAL, it's was a lot of fun last year and I made a shawl I wouldn't have chosen but love and wear a lot. I hope this year's is huge and silly. I know I'll love the colours, because they are all my faves. Also, I'm finally using the Stephen West / Joji collab shawl bag I bought in May. It's so pretty.

And sitting down to write about these plans has cheered me up no end. I'm looking forward to dying the pink, probably next weekend and casting on the Gnome in a fortnight. Even when things are quiet, when we are staying sloe to home and staying safe, there is always small joys close by.

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Unravelled wednesday and WAYRN - the one where I prepare

We are heading off for some camping and hiking and general R&R on Friday, so I'm currently in planning and preparing mode. Of course that mainly means deciding what to knit - I'm going to make the Old Romance cardigan by Joji Locatelli. The yarn is wound and I'm ready to go. I completed Leon's Winter Set (2023) just in time, and it's currently blocking. I'm reading Georgette Hayer's Fredrica , which I am enjoying very much. Regency romance is so sweet and, unlike current romance offerings, I know it won't suddenly tumble into gynaecological territory! For unexplained reasons, NetGalley is offering some Georgette Heyer books at the moment - (maybe it's re-release?) and I'm taking this opportunity to read a few more of them And that's my week in knitting and reading. To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as Sharondoublekni t and on GoodReads as Sharondblk . I'm joining in with Kat ...

Yarnalong - the one with the final bit of transport

Remember how I took every form of transport known to man a fortnight ago? Well, I was missing just one thing, suburban trains. But today I got to remedy that, knitting my way to Dandenong for work. Yay? My Char jumper has been knitting up ridiculously fast. It's easy, pleasant and a well written pattern. I'm reading Rachael Herron's latest book The Ones Who Matter Most . It's a good read so far, family centered fiction, easy to read but still emotionally challenging. I'm listening to Evelyn Waugh's Men At Arms . I'm enjoying it, I didn't really know what to expect, but some of it reminds me of Catch 22, in that it catalogues the absurdities of war and bureaucracy. The narrator has the perfect upper crust English accent and I'm very pleased it's the first of a trilogy. And that's another week of reading, knitting and catching trains everywhere for me. Do pop along to Ginny's blog to see what she and the rest of the yarnalong ...

Slowly slowly

I haven’t posted about my actual knitting for a while. This might be because not much has changed since the last time I talked about my knitting. This is the edging of my Village Sweater Wrap: The picture fails to capture how much further there is to go. I'm just past the first arm hole, so just over a third of the way through. It’s 47 stitches of relatively simple lace. I’ve been knitting it since Monday two weeks ago. It’s quite pleasant, and slowly growing but I can’t quite work out why it’s growing so slowly. One reason I know is that the first week I was knitting it during Good Beer Week, so I didn’t take it out and about with me. I knit other things, and when I’m knitting two things it makes everything feel like it takes forever. But the main reason, I think, is that this is just a slow knit for me. I love the needles I’m knitting on ( Karbonz of course) I love the yarn, I love the way the lace looks. So really, what’s the rush? I’m not going to be cold...

What I made, by Sharon

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