What I made, by Sharon

 This is the Rockland crewneck , and I loved knitting it. It was soothing, and came out with me to lots of places (like camping  and running ). The yarn was absolutely wonderful. I love the way it looks, on my spunky husband and I love the way it feels. There were some oddities in the pattern, which I have gone into in my Ravelry post, and won't repeat here. One thing I'm really starting to notice is fonts and font colour. The colour on this pattern is a dark grey, which I couldn't read in bad light - and I knit at not one, but two pubs with insufficient lighting. Anyway, the results are great. I used Drover and Classer yarn, who dyes on Bellevue Park  merino. You might remember I made a dress with that yarn last year, and it is so soft, the stitches melt into each other. As I got near the collar, I started to worry that I was going to run out of yarn. I should have had plenty, but my last ball was getting thin. I looked on Ravelry and no-one had any in stash. I looked ...

 I feel like I'm talking more about my Kobo in these posts that what I'm reading! Anyway, it's my blog, so here are the new cover I got for my reading device: The case I got when I bought it in July is starting to peel at the corners. I do read in the bath, and throw this in bike panniers every day, but I still think it should have lasted longer. Anyway, I had constant complaint about the stand cases available for my old Oasis, so I'm pleased with the shape of this. In actual reading, I read a novella from NetGalley  The Pigment Thief by Myka Silber.  It's the preable to a full length novel, which I'll be looking out for.   I did manage to get a library copy of  the second Masie Dobbs book  Birds of a Feather  by Jacqueline Winspear . It involved waiting util my hold went down from 'a week' to 'available soon' and then poking at my device until it appeared. Odd.  Unfortunately I'm not really enjoying it. Too much intuition, and boring descr...

As everyone knows, I try to keep as small a stash as possible. It's not that small, it fluctuates between 15 and 25 kilometres. The other day at knit night I announced that I had decided I needed orange socks, but I didn't have any orange sock yarn. Kris piped up "I've got orange sock yarn". Sonia announced that she had orange sock yarn - Collinette Jitterbug, a discontinued yarn I adore and Kate said she had some that she had ordered one day when she was not feeling well. I pointed out that it was very nice that they all had orange sock yarn, but that was their orange sock yarn, and I am a big girl who can buy her own yarn. Sonia then decided to give me her orange yarn - not one but two skeins of Jitterbug, which was once my favourite sock yarn, but has been discontinued. It's the perfect shade of orange, and knit up beautifully into Cookie A's Sake Socks. I had put off making these socks, because every knit stitch is twisted and there are cables on ever...

 About three months ago I moved from Kindle to Kobo, partly so I could use the public library (no Kindle with libraries, it's an Australian thing). And it's been the weirdest time. Books appearing, books saying they are expiring the next day, but still working, emails saying my books are available which Overdrive on my device saying they are not. Still I've read some really great books from the library, and they are free. I am currently reading Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas, #1) by Dean Koontz . Apparently it expires in three days, so I don't know if it will just disappear. After that I'm hoping to read the next Maisie Dobbs, but the library says I can have it in two days - and last time I tried this, after the countdown got to 1 day, it just said 'soon' for a week. It's very odd, and also a low stakes adventure. In audio I'm listening to Pachinko   which everyone was reading a couple of years ago. I mainly started it because it was free on audible, and I a...

We started the weekend with a run around the Lake, trying to shake out our heavy legs from last week's run in the mountains (also I psychologically start my weekends on Friday because I work from home but after this glorious run I did have to do work all day). Look at the cygnets. Fluffy. Saturday I didn't leave the house. it was the first really warm day, and I spun and knitting on the endless sock. I also organised my polymer clay findings. they were all in ziplocks in a big bag, and I put them in these cases, and now they feel much more under control. I also made some more gnomes. Leon put one on the desk of Sam, one of his colleague's. then he added a second one. She doesn't know who is putting gnomes on her desk, and doesn't yet suspect Leon. So he's going to keep adding to the collection! Sunday I went to a dance class, and then met Elise for coffee before seeing Bednobs and Broomsticks with this crew. We followed up with dinner, and then home to water th...

  Just before we left for our long weekend away I grabbed my Turkish spindle and the oldest yarn in my stash and got spinning. Spindle spinning might be very slow (for me), but it's also very portable. I got this little turtle done over that, and the next, weekend away. I'm spinning it thin, and I'll probably three ply it, for socks or a shawl. Really, it's more about the process. In wheel spinning I am more about the product! I've just finished the second bobbin. I have two more to go, but they are actually a bit smaller than the first two. I am spinning this with an end in mind ( The Traveler pattern by Andrea Mowry ) which is sport weight. I suspect this will vary from light fingering to DK, and it feels like I'll have enough yardage, but I won't know for sure until I'm done. I was worrying about that to Leon the other day and he said "But are you having a lovely time?". Yes I am, and even if it doesn't work with this jumper, I'm mak...

  I've been talking for WEEKS about reading and reviewing    The Close-Up  by Pip Drysdale . Well I finally got the formatting to work, and started it this morning.    That cover! So far it's quite good. lots of foreshadowing of future drama. Next up is  Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz , and then maybe the next Masie Dobbs. Overdrive has said it will be available "in a few days" for quite some time. Otherwise I might try Kobo Plus - they have Maisie Dobbs, as well as a few other books I want to read.  In audio I finished a NetGalley review copy of  Madam by Antonia Murphy   and I can't say I recommend it. It's about a woman who opens an escort agency in New Zealand. The main point is that, when it's decriminalised sex work is great. I live in a state where sex-work has always been legal, and we decriminalised it last year. This should have been a Ted Talk, not an 8-hour long memoir. Great cover for the audiobook: In knitting I got the sle...

 Last weekend we went to the Grampians, the mountains in the west of Victoria. this weekend e went to Marysville, which is in the Cathedral ranges to the East of Melbourne. We went, as we often do in the second weekend of November, to participate in the Marysville Marathon Festival, hand out at my parents holiday house and also with my parents. This year we had a bonus. Josh (an American friend who has featured on the blog quite a lot - he used to work in Antarctica and come visit on the way back to the USA) was coming for a lightening fast trip. He was happy to hire a car at the airport and come and see us in Marysville. that wasn't weird, we're friends because our fathers are friends, so he was glad to catch up with my folks and us. We did the things you do in Marysville. Eat good food: Walk up to the falls at night and take really bad selfies. And look at birds - I don't meant birdwatching, the birds are scavengers and hang out at the cafe and bakery! On Sunday we ran th...

Last week I said I was going to read  The Close-Up  by Pip Drysdale , but I had some issues with the formatting (sometimes NetGalley gives books as PDFs rather than ePubs, which sucks, and I've only recently worked out how to check before requesting the book)  so I read Crescendo by Joanna Howat - also a NetGalley review book. It was quite good. Then I read  Traitor by Krista D. Ball,  the first of a space opera series. It was really fun, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Then I didn't know what to read next. I was a little lost. I'm still struggling to get  The Close-Up  into a readable format, and I tried to read the next Maisie Dobbs  Birds of a Feather  book from the library. I put a hold, and got an email saying it was ready, but when I went to get it is still a couple of days off. I'm still confused about the library! So I picked a random romance off my e-Reader  Love, Lies and Lavender by D.E. Malone . So...

 We had a four day weekend - Tuesday was Melbourne cup-day so, like most of Melbourne, we took Monday off and made a holiday of it. On Friday after work, Skip and Bee came and got us, and we drove down to Skip's parent's place in Portarlington to borrow their caravan. In the morning Leon and I did our last long run before the half marathon we are doing in Marysville next Sunday. We ran along the foreshore and it was beautiful. Then we drove up to Dick and Carly's place. they live at the foot of the Gariwerd (Grampians) on a great big property and it's beautiful.  A bunch of us camped there. That's Skip and Bee's caravan in the forground, and our little tent in the background. The weather was perfect, and we ate good food and drank good wine. Mostly we relaxed, hung out and breathed fresh air. I visited the sheep: We finally climbed Mt Zero, which is a walk the other way from the Grampians Peak Track. I got a lot of knitting done, and not quite as much reading as...

I have two bags I take away with me - my hiking pack and my Country Road Kit bag. Prior to my hiking pack, I borrowed Elise's backpacking pack. I've never had proper luggage. I bought my Country Road bag in about 1996. Anna had one, and I wanted to be like Anna. It cost around 100 dollars. It's been everywhere with me. It comes on planes as carryon, it goes car camping, it's great. Here's it packed for Thailand in 2017: It's got two problems - it's starting to tear at the handles and it's not that comfy to carry full - it cuts off the circulation to my arms. After our last trip to Bendigo I decided to upgrade to a bag that could also be carried on the shoulders. I'm lucky enough to work very near Little Bourke Street, where there are a lot of travel shops, and I went looking for the perfect bag. Which I found at One Planet , who not only made my hiking pack and sleeping bag but actually manufacture in Melbourne. Its a convertible kit bag, that can al...