What I made, by Sharon

As I posted yesterday I'm back from the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. We had such a good time. While we were away I finished reading  a romance -  Riverbend by Karis Walsh . It was fine - I wonder if i'm struggling with the straightforwardness of romances like this. I followed it up with Foundling Fathers by Meg Elison, a speculative fiction novella on the concept of 'what if we cloned the American founding fathers and brought them up as close to their original upbringings as possible". It's a book that is clever, unsettling and sometimes deeply funny. then, instead of reading the next book in my NetGalley TBR which is an 831 Stories romance, I choose Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt   the debut novel of Ben Reeves, which is about Travis, who is Death. It's a very beautiful book.  I've nearly finished it and after that I'm going on a non-fiction kick, because I'm finding meeting new people (characters) tiring, so I'm going to learn some ...

 We have been saying for year that we should go to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, but we are often there in March for Fringe, and it just hadn't happened yet. This year it did and it was so much fun. Four nights of nothing but cabaret, each night ending with a Dr Trevor Jones piano bar! During the days we did the things we like to do in Adelaide (and elsewhere) ate good food, slept in, sat in the sun and relaxed. We went to the port, and specifically Yarn Trader , where I bought some locally dyed possum merino to make a Noosa Scarf from the Bendigo Project. We took our traditional selfie with the Rundle Balls We also found a giant metal pigion, which has allegedly been there since 2020, but we don't recall ever seeing before. We went to the beach and ate oysters. But mostly, talented people sang at us and told stories, which is about my favourite way to spend time. I had plenty of time to knit and a reasonable amount of time to read while we were away. Come back tomorrow and I...

I moved to a Kobo just under 2 years ago, and I'm generally very happy with that decision. But I did always love Amazon Original Stories, which are free standing, original stories on a theme like time travel, or romance or, in this case, coming-of age. They often include big name authors, including this time Rainbow Rowell. But, since they are released only on Amazon, they didn't bother formatting them for Kobo. I've pulled out my beloved Oasis and will read them on that. I don't know why Amazon puts them on NetGalley at all, but I'm not complaining.  This week  I read two 5 star books  Over to You by Georgie Tunny , which is about young women setting out on their careers and  Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller , a gothic horror set in Margeret Thatcher's England.  Next up I have the short stories I mentioned, and some romance books -  Riverbend by Karis Walsh , a Sapphic romance (perfect for Pride Month) and  Down to Earth by Julia Turshen,  w...

  We had a quiet weekend - Leon has a nasty cold, and I'm fighting off the same bug. It did give me a chance to knit up a quick pastel charity baby set. I started with a  Baby Surprise Jacket pattern by Elizabeth Zim mermann . I've knit 12 of these before, but the previous one was in 2021. I love this design for using up leftovers because, no matter what,  When I looked at my pile of pastel scraps I was worried about getting the sleeves of a jumper to match, and then I remembered that, with a BSJ the stripes are all ways symmetrical.    The only problem with the BSJ is that the sleeves are three quarter length. This time I picked up the sleeve stitches and added some extra garter. Next time I'll use a provisional cast on for the sleeve parts, or even knit the sleeve extensions first. This is such a well loved pattern that there are suggestions for every variation available. Then I made a matching hat. It looks tiny off, but it's actually fine - it the adult size...

 I've been saying for a couple of years ( since 2019 ) that my sock draw is full, but I still find excuses to knit more socks! This time it was Socks for the Bendigo Project. I love a knitalong and I love using up leftovers / making things matchy and this fulfilled both of those. I thought they would be perfect for our trip to Launceston , and I was right. Easy to knit, compact to carry, perfect all around. I recently bought some Addi Novel for knitting socks. This came about because I read about the Addi Unicorn and they looked so cute, but I couldn't get them here and also I think they are a blunt tip. So I bought these and I really like them. They are sort-of square and have little ridges on them. They are not as sharp as some of the needles I use, but they are sharp enough. And they don't bend while I'm using them (I'm looking at you, HiyaHiya !)  As part of my packing I took my Hederas , a pair of Cookie A socks I made in 2010 from the sadly departed Socks Th...

Every book I mention this week was given to me by NetGalley. I feel so privileged, getting to read all  these books early, and for nothing more than a review!  I fini shed  The Tea Planter's Secret by Clare Flynn . It dragged for me, I struggled to emotionally engage with any of the characters. Which doesn't matter in an action packed book, but this was an historical romance. Now I'm reading  Over to You by Georgie Tunny  and really enjoying it.  In the best possible way it's giving  The Bold Type . Three female friends working in media, going through career and relationship highs and lows. And it's set in a recognisable Melbourne, which is a favourite thing for me. Next up is  Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller , which is gothic horror and I'm ready for it! It's also got a good cover, but I'll be reading it next week so I'll share that then!  I'm also listening to a review book  The Secret of Sunrises by Ellie Block . I'm only far enoug...

This weekend we headed down to Launceston for the Australian Music theatre festival. We were flying after work on Thursday, but I decided to take the day off , and Leon took an early mark. On the way to out we went to The Lincoln for our last Pint of Origin pub and lunch. The Lincoln was serving Tasmanian beers, so our trip felt like it has started before we even left the CBD!  Melbourne is famous for not having an airport train, but having a very expensive, privately run bus. By comparison, public transport is currently free and the Sky Bus is 36 dollars. Since we had plenty of time, we took a tram and train and then a bus from Broadmeadows (I think you have to be a Melbournian  to really understand the situation.)  I had only been to Launceston once, briefly. It's the perfect small city for a festival like this one. we went to shows every night and ate good food constantly. The city is built around a gorge and it's stunning. We went for a run and saw pademelons ! So cut...

  It's been quite the week for going out, which may have slowed the reading down a little, but not the knitting. The other thing that has been good for knitting and not good for reading is that I'm listening to Yesteryear . It feels like everyone has read it already, and it's a pretty interesting book. I'm not sure if it's a thriller or something else. It's about womanhood and family and social media and so many other things. There is definitly a mystery here, and I'm looking forward to finding out what is going on.  I am desultorily reading    The Tea Planter's Secret (The Ceylon Series #2) by Clare Flynn , the second in a historical romance series set in Ceylon.  It's as expected - rather dramatic and quite fun, but I just keep doing other things instead of reading it. Next up is also a NetGalley book - Over To You by Georgie Tunny , which I think is about newsreaders and might be Australian. Can you tell I'm not much of a blurb reader? I'...

This weekend was the beginning of Pint of Origin - a ten day beer festival that happens in different venues all around Melbourne. We went West on Friday and got to catch the new tunnel home from Footscray. We don't have much call to use that route, and it's pretty exciting to have new train stations. the free public transport is still a thrill, and we are getting very good value from it. On Sunday we continued our beer adventures, going to six pubs Northside. Kris joined us, and we managed to get one, rather terrible photo with all of us!              Late last week and over the weekend I finished a little charity jacket, which was super fun to knit and also used up some left over yarn. The back is striped, but right now I've only got this one terrible photo. (I'm sensing a theme!)  Once I get the back closure on I'll post photos of the back as well as the front on  Ravelry: sharondoubleknit's French Macaroon (charity 12/26) .   I t...

I decided to use the leftovers from my Celeste jumper to knit a McKinnon beanie. This beanie is part of the Bendigo project . I test knit the jumper for this fun knit-a-long so i thought it would be fun to do a hat (and socks, but that's a next week situation. I haven't knit brioche for a while, and I've never knit brioche cables, but it was easy to remember and fun to knit.  And it makes such a beautiful squishy textured fabric. My moment of greatest pride was when I had to rip - I'd started a new background colour at knit night, and was three rounds in when I noticed that I'd chosen the wrong colour. I ripped it back and got the stitches back on the needles and it was fine. i had thought it might be one of those situations when I just keep tinkng back one more row to fix it, but no - I can't even tell which row it was.    It's such a bright and fun hat, and it was a pleasure to knit. I'll try to get some outside photos over the weekend, since Pint of...

 I've really run out of clever titles! There's no theme this week, just good books and fun knitting. I finished (NetGalley review book)   Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer , which was a good sci-fi featuring sentient robots and found family. Recommend. Now I have a break between review books, and am reading  Tyrant's Throne  the fourth and final Greatcoats novel. Swashbuckling fantasy at its best! Next up I'm back on the NetGalley wagon, and back to my original plan with    The Tea Planter's Secret (The Ceylon Series #2) by Clare Flynn  the second in a historical romance series set in Ceylon. Maybe this will inspire me to actually plan the return trip to Sri Lanka, rather than just hope a plan appears. In knitting I'm making a Bendigo project with the leftovers from the jumper I was knitting last week,  McKinnon Beanie by Susanna Kaartinen . Brioche with cables! It's been a long time since I brioched,  and I'm not sure I've ever done c...

This year  Richmond Knitters chose the  Celeste Sweater by Petit Knits  for our annual Bendigo Sheep show knitalong. It wasn't a jumper I felt particularly drawn to, but we had agreement, and early, so I was happy to knit it. the pattern is written for 8ply, and I have enough 8ply jumpers, particularly as a colourwork yoke adds quite a lot of warmth. For me a lighter jumper for inside with a jacket over the top if going outside is perfect for our Melbourne winters. Melbourne winter can be pretty sad and grey, so I wanted bright pastels (Easter egg , or 'candy' coloured were my inspiration ). I'm pretty happy with the results. There were a couple of dramas with the knitting - where the pattern calls for the main colour to be used in the yoke, it didn't really work, and then I used a speckled white, which also didn't work, so I ripped and reknit the last 8 round (the ones with ALL the stiches) twice. And then I realised the row that had been ripped out from and re...