What I made, by Sharon

Six weeks ago I went to the hand therapist  and I've been very, very compliant about following her instructions. And it's gone really well, I'm basically not in pain, and my hands don't go numb when I knit, and I've had some serious knitting time over the last month. So that's all good. One of the exercises that can help nerve problems like I have is learning to juggle, (I was pretty happy it said "learning to juggle" rather than actually juggling, because I still can't keep more than two balls in the air). so I made some juggling balls :   These are quite nice, but I thought it might be nicer to have some that are knit or crocheted. I knit this one from the " oh Balls " pattern (and watched the movie the pattern talks about too).  I need to get around to knitting or crocheting to more, to have a set. I haven't decided if I'm going to make them all matching, or experiment with different patterns. Either way, it's going...

It's Wednesday but it feels like Friday because I have the next two days off work. Even so, for Ginny and the rest of the Yarnalong it's definitely Wednesday. Go to Ginny's blog to check out what she and the other participants are knitting and reading this week.   I'm knitting my mother's jumper. I'm still amazed how much more I have done this week, compared with last week , and I'm still enjoying knitting it. Ten centimeters more on the body, most of one sleeve and then it will be time to steek.   I'm reading Katabasis , the fourth book in the Mongoliad series.  It's good, and I really want to find out what happens to the characters. But some of the authors have changed since the previous book and I don't think it's quite as strongly written.   And I'm listening to Persuasion by Jane Austen.  I'm enjoying it, particularly since it's read by one of my favourite narrators -   Juliet Stevenson . I just love her vo...

I've been knitting away on the body of my mother's cardigan this week. Before I started it I thought it would take for ever, but it's growing not just steadily but surprisingly fast. And it's actually really fun to knit. I took Elizabeth Zimmermann's advice and am knitting with a colour in each hand, which, after I got the hang of how to tension yarn with my right hand, seems to make everything go smoother. The pattern itself is easy to memorise and other than that it's my favourite kinds of knitting: around and around and around.   The only fly in this ointment is I haven't quite decided what I'm doing with the neck. I thought I would work it out as I slowly knit my way up there, but if I go on like this I'll have to have decided by the end of the week. I guess I'll check out what the original pattern says, but there is something about the way that pattern is written that I find entirely incomprehensible. The Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern ...

This weekend I wove the sampler for my placemats. In most ways I'm happy with how it came out, and I learnt a lot, which is the point of making a sampler. I love the colours, and I love the pattern - I think it's called a point twill. I was going to try out all the different patterns because the final set is going to be all these colours, but in different weaves - but then I fell in love with this and couldn't stop. I need to work on keeping the edges even and I machine sewed the ends, and, well, why does so much of my crafting lead to sewing, which really is one of my crafting weaknesses. Something the work on. The only thing I still have to decide is if it is big enough. If I decide it's not, I can weave them the other way, which means that, instead of sewing the edges under I can leave a little fringe. Either way, it will be a few days before I've got time to be at the loom, so it will give me something to think about during boring work meetings.

I bought a big knitting bag, and it arrived today.  The reason I need a big knitting bag (need, want, can any of us really tell the difference?) is that when I'm knitting 8ply jumpers they get to a certain point and then just don't fit in anything. I don't often knit things that big, I'm more likely to knit socks, or shawls or 4ply jumpers, but when I do it's annoying. So, after I decided to knit my mother's cardigan I ordered a YarnPop totable  bag, in  a very silly green giraffe print, to match to pink giraffe print I have on my smaller yarn pop bag. And it came just as my mother's jumper got too big for any of my other yarn bags!

This week I am reading Mishka Shubaly's kindle single  Of Mice and Me  which is the full story of a situation he live tweeted about keeping a baby mouse alive. I'm a bit taken with Mishka, after coming across him on the Rich Roll podcast I've read all his stories and am amused by following him on Twitter .  Unfortunately this is not really a book, more a free standing short story and I'm loving it and wish it was much longer. I had a bit of an issue working out what to read this week. After I finished Busting Vegas  I read the next  in the (tacky, I'm loving it) Stage Dive series and then I tried to get into Dave Eggers  What is the What . This is the second time I've tried to read it, and I just can't get into it. Which is strange because I've read most of his other books, without struggling. After I gave up on that I started  Paulo Coelho 's  The Witch of Portobello Street ,  but after I read the first page I realised I had already rea...

Before I kept knitting away on my cowl, going with my pla n to "fix" the fact I read the pattern wrongly to begin with. Then, as planned, I got to the mid point and moved the cable crossing to where it was meant to be - every 20 rows, rather than every ten. I immediately noticed two things: 1- the texture of the newer knitting was much floppier and softer  2 - it looked stupid having the two together. I ripped it back to the short cables and decided it was better just to continue with the pattern I had begun with.   It got long enough that I could wrap it around my neck, at which point I discovered that the short cables are rather weaponised. You could beat someone to a pulp with them. They sat in a sea of squishy garter stitch, all bunched up and uptight and heavy. So I ripped it all out:     After