What I made, by Sharon

I notice I've been requesting fewer books from NetGalley, and I've only got 8 in my "to be read" pile. I Fear my Pain Interests You   was published yesterday, and I've been putting off reading it, but after reading two excellent non-review books ( Godsgrave and The Vampire Knitting Club ) I thought i'd better get to it. The only reason I'm finishing it is because it's short. The main character is entitled, unpleasant and unlikable. The plot... oh wait, there isn't one. I'm halfway through and, although we have covered Margot's childhood, adolescence and tedious college, it also feels like nothing has happened.  Most of the writing is word salad.It reads like a first draft that no-one bothered revising. Even the cover is uninspiring. I'm up to the sleeves of my test knit. It's looking good. Apparently it will grow on blocking. We'll see: It's also the stage of the project where I'm convinced that it won't fit, and i...

I'm just at the end of a rather glorious 5 day weekend. we had Thursday off for the "National Day  of Mourning". During the day we had a barbeque at Tara and Alex's house. Jayne and  family were there - it's always a pleasure to catch up with old school friends.   Tara has a Maine Coone, and it's the biggest, loveliest  cat I've ever met. Then in the evening we headed into the city with Elise to the Butterfly club and saw Tash York and then Thirsty Thursday with Trevor - a sing-along piano bar. Friday was quiet until we went to  my parents for dinner, along with my brother, his family and both their dogs. Saturday I went to the gym (deadlifted 3 x 3 at 100 kgs, don't mind if I do) and then rested and read a good book. In the evening we watched the Disney Little Mermaid, which was significantly worse than I remember!  Sunday Leon and Elise's choir had a performance at the zoo. His whole family came, which was great.  I also got to see my ...

 Yes, it's Wednesday evening, and I have the next five days off and I'm pretty excited about it. Just doing my favourite things - reading, and knitting and seeing friends and shows. The test knit is going well - I'm up to "divide for the body and the sleeves". it's a cropped jumper, so won't be far to go after I divide. So far this has been a pleasure to knit, and I love the way it's coming out. Also it's reversible, and look at the inside: I'm reading Godsgrave , the second in the Nevernight series. It's more of the same in the best possible way, and I cannot stop reading. I've been listening to Write My Name Across the Sky for the last few weeks. It's another of my Kindle Unlimited bonus free audio scores, and I am really enjoying it. It's a family drama, and one of the protagonists is a 70 year old influencer and it's women's fiction at it's best.  I just haven't had a lot of time to listen, all my knitting t...

After I wrote about my Joji bags  I realised quite how much I dislike the flesh pink of my box bag, so I decided to colour it. I used Angelus acrylic paint, which is apparently good for painting sneakers. I knew  there was a risk that it would end up streaky, or splotchy or that I would get turquoise all over the vachetta handle and tag, but I decided it was worth the risk. i taped everything I didn't want to risk getting turquoise on and set to work. It was so much fun. I haven't painted anything in the longest time, and it came out the prettiest colour. The cleanup was simple and this really wan't messy at all. I'm curious to see if it will crack or peel over time, but right now I am so pleased with the colour and texture and how much fun this project was.

 I've made two pairs of long socks recently - these beauties in my  colours that fall down terribly and these in autumn colours that stay up like nothing else, but don't match my general aesthetic - which is pink and teal.  I've ridden my bike to the gym, done a full deadlift session and ridden home again with only having to adjust them once. The problem is that I have theme colours, and these are not it. So I decided to reknit them in pink and teal: The pattern was even better the second time around, maybe because I was knitting with colours that make me so, so happy.  I wore them to the gym today - riding there in the rain, deadlifting and then coming home and they required no adjusting at all. Also, the colours make me so very, very happy.

 I mentioned that I am doing a test knit, and I'm super excited about it. I cast on on Saturday and have made it to the beginning of the body. It's in Shaker Stitch, which is kind of like half brioche, but worked differently, so it's slow, but it's so squishy and lovely and fun.  The designer is Sanna and Co and she is just so talented. Stay tuned, because hopefully by next week it will look like a jumper, and it's such a magnificent pattern. I'm reading the latest Taylor Jenkins Reid Carrie Soto is Back . There are two different covers and they are both magnificent. The book itself is pretty good, although it seems to lack to secrets, history and backstory of Malibu Rising or The Seven Husbands...  It seems like a simple story, although it's still a good story.  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  Sha...

I had a plan for spring - I wrote about it here . All well thought out and ready to go. Something I hadn't mentioned though, is that, when we were at the Coburg market I met a woman wearing the most remarkable two-colour brioche jumper. As you know, I am currently obsessed with brioche, and that jumper is one of the reasons why. I started following Sussana on Instagram, ( @sanna_and_co )  and then she put out a testing call for it. How could I say no? I'm swatching this weekend.  The yarn is from The Australian Wool Store , a dyer called Kathryn. So, my knitting is now this jumper, rather than the Joji jumper I had planned. My other plan was to dye yarn for the Westknits KAL. I'd ordered undyed sock yarn from Bendigo woolen mills, and I had two inspiration photos I was planning to use, both were quite pastel and lovely: Then, on Thursday night I got an "out of stock" email from Bendigo. They will send the yarn ... sometime. So I bought a kit:  It happene...

Last week I mentioned that I started a review copy of Indomitable by Claudia Brooke and then set it aside. Since it was a review copy, I thought I should give it the respect of trying to read it, so I picked it back up. I was happy to read some urban fantasy about a dog that was bitten by a vampire. Sounds fun, right? Well, it wasn't. I hated the main female character Gracie. When a second first person voice appeared I thought the book might be salvageable. Then a third first person voice showed up. I guess Claudia Brooke doesn't know that books can be written in the third person? Anyway, I know we are not meant to quote directly from review copies, but let me give you a little sample of Gracie's thoughts after her boyfriend gets called in to work when she is at his apartment:  "He had picked me up, so if I wanted to go home, I'd have to call a relative. Scratch that. A relative ride would come with questions and lectures. Uber would be a better choice. But I was...

I finished the Wednesday Sweater I've been working on for the last couple of weeks,and it fits the brief perfectly. I wanted what I wanted when I made Carbeth - a snuggly jumper to wear while at home, reading and drinking tea. This jumper was a joy to knit - particularly since I overdyed the Cascade 220 that I bought from an op-shop. It's a colour that manages to be both lively and restful at the same time. I followed the pattern exactly, including doing the tubular cast offs. I ranted about tubular cast-off as recently as my last project, but here they work, are not too tight and look beautiful. The detailing on this pattern is beautiful. There is a different kind of shoulder construction, and I'm not sure what it's called, but it involves picking up stitches - and the designer provides a way that gives such a beautiful join: The only thing I would do differently is that the pattern calls for twisted rib on the sleeves - on the collar you twist both sides, so it...

 I bought a shopping bag from Lululemon the other day. I thought it would be good for knitting large jumpers. I love the bag, and it's huge, but it doesn't quite work as a knitting bag. It doesn't sit quite right, and it's a bit too big. Also, the yarn gets caught on the snap that closes the bag. It will be useful for shopping and travelling though, so it is still a good purchase. For my recent large jumper project I pulled out the large Joji  Amba bag that I bought in November 2020. I'd barely used it - since I have a bag that is slightly smaller and perfect for fingering weight jumpers. But this jumper is massive. I found I really liked it. It fits in my panniers, it's got a handle for taking to the pub and I love the way it's a bigger version of my beloved BA bag. So, will I be using it for everything now? No way. I'll be using my Envelope bag for my next Joji jumper, and my (underused) Shawl bag for the Stephen West MKAL.  But I'm done with bu...