What I made, by Sharon

Yarn, it flows in and out of my stash. I buy it, I use it, I get given it, I win it, I give it away. There is a sort of trade that goes on at the Richmond Knitters. A few months ago I was worried about running out of yarn for my blanket and my friends gave me loads of their leftovers. There are leftover from the leftovers, and Katherine mentioned the other day that she is going to crochet a blanket, and will be using any size of leftovers, so I packed up 200 grams of left-over left-overs for her. When I got to Monday night knit night, Louisa was crocheting a blanket and she wanted soft colours, so I let her go through my leftovers. she said she had heaps of brights, so next time she comes I'm going to pull out as many gentle colours as I can, and she'll bring me some of her leftovers. Of course, once I've knit a blanket square with each colour I will pass the left-over-left-overs on.   Then one Monday Jane brought in some Tofuties , because she is allergic to it. I hav...

I put aside the Kildalton cardigan for most of this week, because I decided to make another baby jumper for Olivia, this one a Baby Surprise Jacket. I over-dyed some of the sock yarn Kris gave me last year because it had pink in it and some people don't like that for boys, and paired it with some navy based self striping. I do love me a BSJ.  It just needs buttons and the ends sewn in, although I discovered I don't have any suitable buttons. I have an extensive button stash, inherited from my grandmother, but nothing suitable.   I'm almost finished Kildalton, just the end of the second sleeve and then buttons. I did find some nice buttons in the stash for this, which makes me very happy. This week I read the most fabulous fantasy novel: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. It was so good it made me want to take a star off every other book I've ever read, just so this can stand out. It's the first in a trilogy, but I don't normally read series in a row,...

It felt a little indulgent, buying a polystyrene head mainly to block a couple of kippot, but it made such a difference: The weird pointy shape of the single crotchet (US) one was mitigated, and the too straight edges of the double crotchet one developed a much better shape: I'v got one more to do, and I've done a bit of research, that suggests that the pointiness is due to either a too small hook, or not enough increases so I'm going to try again, but using a 3.5mm hook, rather than the 3mm hook I used here. These have been a super fun experiment, and I always enjoy my period forays into crotchet. 

I wanted to use up the 50 grams of 12 ply I had left over from Olivia's baby jumper , so I decided to make a charity hat. Woolley Wormhead has a very interesting side-ways knit hat, and I striped it up to make the yarn go the distance. It gave me a chance to use the larger Joji and Co BA bag: and I love it. It's pretty roomy, I'll be interested to see how much yarn is actually comfortably fits, and it's really good to work from, because the top zips up trapping the ball inside. Because it's thinner (that my beloved Fringe Field Bag) footprint, it sits comfortably on my lap. I love the depth of colour, and the quality of the lining. We'll see how it wears, because I do wear my knitting bags - I take them with me every-were I go, so lots of pubs, restaurants, public transport, and every day life, which can get messy. But so far I'm loving this.   As for the hat, it was a lot of fun to knit - it's Woolley Wormhead's Sideways Bobble Hat . as...

This week I've read a couple of small things, including The final of Martha Well's fabulous Murderbot series of novellas. Luckily there is a full length novel coming out next year, otherwise I'd be very sad to have finished. They were a really good read. Then I read a short story, from NetGalley called The Weddings , by Alexander Chee which was a pretty good read. It only took me about an hour, but the story raised some big issues. You can see my full review here . Too many short stories do my head in though. I like to get really immersed in a book's world, so I started The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin which so far is very interesting, with some serious world-building going on. I'm just at the very beginning of this fairly epic fantasy trillogy. Leon read all three series in a row, and recommended them, so I think it will be good. I've been knitting something big (ish) - my Kildalton cardigan. I really like the way the the cables pop. I'm part...

Kate Davies is one of my very favourite designers. I have knit about 40 of her pattern over the years, and I generally like the way she writes her patterns. But sometimes she annoys the crap out of me.  I'm putting the button band of Kildalton and once again, I have to work out the ratios for myself because the pattern just gives a number, and I cropped it. As I ranted last time , just giving a number makes everything more difficult than giving a ratio. Also, there is no selve-edge stitch, and the cable goes right up to the edge, which means that the stitches are picked up from a wavy edge. I thought that was odd while I was doing the knitting , but made the mistake of trusting the pattern. All of that said, look how pretty those cables are. It's going to be a fabulous addition to my wardrobe - once I finish the button band and sleeves, so a little while to go yet, but putting aside my rant, it is a very enjoyable knit, and a well written pattern.

My Kildalton cardigan is coming along, nicely but it is big, and lives in a big bag, and has three charts.I can cram it into my bicycle pannier, but it's only worth doing it I have significant knitting time. I wanted a small project that I could throw in a small bag just in case. In case of what, you may ask? In case I get stuck in a lift, and get unexpected knitting time. Or for when I'm going out for coffee with my boss, or I'm in the waiting room at the physio. Enough time to get a bit done, but not worth carrying around a huge cardigan, opening a chart, starting a long row. So I cast on for a kippah . I'm planning on making three of these as channukah gifts - two in black and red for my brother and nephew (it's Essendon football team colours) and one in multi coloured self striping for my father. I finished the first one during the week. Here it is, in need of a good blocking! I've ordered a polystyrene head because I think that's going to be the...