What I made, by Sharon

I had Monday off as leave and Tuesday as a public holiday. Wednesdays I always work from home, and I have a medical appointment in the city that is going to write-off most of my morning. Also almost everyone else at my very small organisation is away, so I'm feeling a bit unfocussed about work. I'm not feeling unfocussed about knitting though! Yesterday I cast on a pair of baby socks out of handspun to finish a baby set. I've just got the toe of the second sock to go.  I also cast on for Joji's mystery shawl knit-along . No photos because spoilers, and also I've only just started, but it has cables AND lace. Very fun. The reading has been a bit more varied. As promised last week I started    First Famous Christmas by Carrie Wittmer*  - another 831 Stories romance.  I was lying in my tent as the rain beat down and this should have been delightful but I found it kind of annoying. Maybe it's because I'm not a Christmas person, but it's loaded with referen...

We just had a lovely 4 days in Pomonal. We go camping there every year on Cup weekend, and tradition that is now in it's fourth year, so I think I can call it every. Previously we have stayed near out friend's house there, but this year they have moved to a regional town. they still have access to their land, and we camped in a stunning spot - a large clearing in a forested area, with mountain views and a firepit in the middle.  Unfortunately I've injured my (other) knee, so on Sunday morning Leon set off for a run, and I did not. But we met him in Hall's gap. There is a Sunday market their and it was really high quality, lots of stuff being sold by the people who made them, including a new to me yarn dyer Que Sera Yarn Co . She has lots of stunning brights and pastels, but I came home with an interesting army green, to be socks for Leon. We had an inordinate amount of rain on Monday, and saw lots of soggy sheep - although they really don't seem to mind when the wea...

  I finished the skein of yarn I've been working on since I got back from spinning camp at the beginning of the month. I got about 685 meters of a heavy laceweight. I want to make a shawl tow wear to a wedding. I've settled on this shawl  (designer's photo) but with beads instead of nupps. I'm trying not to cast on until December- I'm away camping this weekend, so I'm taking a pair of shorty socks. I've also signed up for Joji's one-skein mystery shawl, which is releasing it's first clue on Monday our time. I'm excited to knit with my avocado dyed yarn . I don't think it will take all my knitting time, but i don't really want to be working on two shawls at the same time, so I might make Leon a pair of socks.  for this weekend away I'm taking a pair of shorty socks, the MKAL yarn and a pair of charity socks, just in case the MKAL doesn't work out for some reason. that should be enough for 4 days away... I hope.

I'm doing a little reading project where I read or delete all the old books in my GoodReads To Be Read. It's always at about 100, and never goes down because some books have been on there since 2018. Do I really want to read them? Let's find out.  I'm starting with   Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sas , which is an LBTQ, YA thriller and has been on my TBR since Dan Savage recommended it in November 2020. Prior to starting it I did (sort of) catch up with the NetGalley review books  -I read  The Throwaways by Greta Kelly*.  It started off as a really fun adventure situation, but went off the rails and ended up more stabby and silly than clever. Then I read  The Porcelain Sisters * by Daryl Gregory. I've loved everything he's written and this was no exception. Then I read a Roxie Noir Loveless Brothers romance -   Break the Rules .  It's the third in the series and as expected it was excellent. The romance isn't limp, but it's not full of fa...

A couple of weeks ago I started a Sanviken Sweater Dress , out of  Ístex Plötulopi – Unspun Icelandic . you can read what i thought of the yarn here . Basically it was a pain in the arse, drifting apart at the slightest provocation. This was particularly annoying since it was Fringe festival time and I was doing a lot of my knitting in bars, or on trams, which are not good places when you cannot put the slightest pressure on your yarn. Anyway, I finished it the other day. it is light, and warm and I think it will be an amazing dress to wear around the house in winter. It is, of course, currently spring and I nearly got heat stress taking these mediocre photographs, but at least I have something to look forward to when the weather inevitably and eventually starts to get colder. Now, onwards to summer and summer knitting.   

 After making my crocheted   baby cardigan I thought I would make a matching hat, also for charity. I chose the   Easy Hat pattern by Vardhman Knitting Yarn  - crotchet a rectangle, sew up and there's a hat. I took it to knit night one Monday, since I didn't have anything suitable on the needles. At the end of the night I had this: I CANNOT crotchet a simple rectangle. I don't know why, it really shouldn't have been that hard! I also had a very jammed up left shoulder because while I knit with ease and flow I have a different approach to crotchet.  I gave up on the crotchet and whipped up a knitted hat: Simple, effective and didn't increase my skill level. Maybe I'll make matching booties in crochet, or maybe I'll take the easy way out and knit some socks.   

My NetGalley queue is relatively short at the moment - only ten books, to be read between now and January. My "ratio" (the proportion of books read to books requested) is at 97 percent. The problem is that I have been reading fewer NetGalley books and more other books, and I looked away and a few deadlines came up. There is  But for Fortune  by Erin Miller Reid,  a book that I should have read and reviewed last month. I've tried to read it twice, and  while I don't think it's a bad book, I could get into it. Then I realised - on the day it was due that I hadn't started  Encore Performance  by Leila Sales . It was an 831 Stories romance which meant it was only a couple of hundred pages long. I really enjoyed it, which made it a quick read. Now I'm reading  The Throwaways by Greta Kelly  which published yesterday. It's kind of like the TV show The Americans - deep cover Russian spies, double crossing, lots of action but also about the relationships....

The day I got back from craft camp I set up my next spinning project - I'm aiming for heavy laceweight for a shawl to wear to a wedding I'm going to next March. I've been steadily spinning away, getting my first 100 grams spun up in two weeks. I'm aiming for the same for my second bobbin. Meanwhile, while I was at craft camp I signed up for Ixchel's fibre club. She's an incredibly talented dyer. She only vends at one show a year now and this year she cancelled because her partner was ill. I signed up for a double serve (200 grams each month) for 3 months.  This is the first package: While I don't usually buy yarn without a purpose, I'm a bit more relaxed about fibre. I'm hoping one month could be combined with this pile in a combo spin to make a jumper (maybe this one from Knitty) but I'm work out the rest as I go.  All I know is I'm loving spinning and this present to myself from past Sharon was a delight to receive today. 

 Last week I had just started  The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1) by John Gwynne, a Norse style fantasy. Unusually, I haven't finished it - although I've done plenty of reading this week, but this is 480 pages, and it's not the fastest read. Lot's of battles and fighting and many characters with unfamiliar names. I'll get it finished at lunch today - it's the first of a trilogy and I'm pretty sure it has a cliff hanger ending.  Next up is a quick romance  Encore Performance by Leila Sales,  from 831 Stories. It released today - I'm a bit behind on my NetGalley reading. I know they think they are being clever with those covers, and at least it's not AI, but having all the covers the same is pretty boring. I know Penguin Classics did that, but it was before we were all doing flatlays for IntstaGram.  Then I've got  Whistler by Ann Patchett,  which just came in from the library. I'm excited that I can read library books on my Kob...

 A little while ago Anna destashed some  Ístex Plötulopi – Unspun Icelandic  and I was very pleased to take it off her hands. I've heard of this 'yarn' and it's always fun to knit with something new to me. I'd hear it's very warm and light because it doesn't have a lot of twist. I bought some carry along mohair and last week cast on an oversize dress . I was between sizes, so I opted to go up rather than down. I soon discovered the yarn is called unspun because it is UNSPUN. This means it drifts apart at the slightest provocation - like pulling it out of the puck it comes in, or having the mohair on top of it, or any slight pressure.  Luckily, there are no ends, you just hold the yarn next to the break and it melds back into the knitting, kind of like joining when you are spinning.  You HAVE to centre pull from the puck, and the beginning of each on is full of yarn barf, and if you pull on it too much it comes apart.  It's Icelandic because it comes from...

I first queued the  Ravelry: Hoodie Shawl Cardigan  on 10 September 2025, bought the yarn at Bendigo in July 2026 and finally cast it on on 10 September 2026, exactly a year after I decided to make it. I cast it on with the idea of taking it on holidays to Brisbane and then craft camp. At the beginning it was the perfect project to have with me - simple and entertaining at the same time and small enough to throw in my favourite handbag  (the  Mini Tote from Bon Maxie ). It knit up faster than I expected, and, by the time I was off to craft camp I only had one sleeve left, so I left it at home. I was quite please to be reunited and finish that last sleeve.  There are no dramatic stories of knitting this - it was simple and satisfying. If I did it again I might slightly reduce the pick up rate on the front bands. The rate is 1 to 1, which gives a loose, floppy unstructured look. I might like it even more if it was a bit less wavy. I also did the bottom band in gar...

 After a few fun weeks of travel , time off and craft retreats  normal life has resumed. And while I would rather have free time than have to work for a living there are compensations, like earning money to pay for all those fun things! And tonight I return to Pole after a break due to injury and holidays.  Of course, while I was doing all those fun things I was also knitting, spinning and reading. On return from the spinning retreat I was eager to start my next project - I'm spinning up 200 grams of this gorgeous fibre as a heavy laceweight, aiming for about a thousand metres.  I've just finished the cardigan I cast on exactly four weeks ago the  Hoodie Shawl Cardigan It didn't actually take me a month to knit, I took a pair of socks away with me as a more portable project. I will be back with blocked and modelled photos on Friday. I have swatched for my next project - a fluffy dress. I don't swatch if it's a type of yarn I'm familiar with, but I wanted to know...

I'm just back from the Geelong Fibre Forum  and it was an incredible week.  Spending the better part of a week with nothing to do except craft was amazing. We stayed in the Geelong Grammar Manifold house as borders. I did a spinning class with Janet Day    E very morning I would get up, run or do yoga and  go get breakfast.  Class would begin at 9 - a day of spinning, learning and chatting with the other class members, interrupted by a morning coffee break and a delicious lunch time. At the end of the day dinner was there - no cooking, no thinking! After dinner there was a chance to go on spinning, or just to hang around, socialise, read and knit.  It was so refreshing, to have no other obligations, nothing to do except create with a community of like-minded women.  Over the week I finished made some art yarn, a batt and then I spun the batt into yarn (that I will hopefully, finally, use to weave cushions for my couch).  But for me the week w...