Wednesday WIP

April 29, 2015 | Sonia Knits

This week I’ve been knitting on Romi’s Mystery knit along Shawl. I’m really happy with how this is coming along, I’m a little behind on my clues which I’m certain has something to do with me stopping to look at my knitting and thinking how pretty it is!

I’ve also been knitting my nephew’s winter jumper, despite his age (!) I’ve had to cast on for the 3 year old size. I’m making Tama by Kelly Brooker. I’m using Little Dipper yarns, and I’m loving the semi-solidness of the blues. I picked up some buttons from Buttonmania in preparedness for finishing.

I’m still listening to ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ by Sue Monk Kidd. I can’t wait to hear how it ends, even though it’s been a few weeks.

What have you been working on?

A very good mail week

April 24, 2015April 21, 2015 | Sonia Knits

One way of making your birthday go on and on… is ordering gifts online that don’t show up in time for your birthday… or a 12 month yarn club subscription, but I digress…

So my yarn gifts didn’t arrive on my birthday… so this happened…

Which was super fun…

And I got the yarn for my Ursula Cardigan a dream cardigan (by Kate Davies)! Poor Ursula (my human friend) there’s an unofficial knit-along happening in my knitting group right now, which makes for confusing conversation.

These are the colours I chose, with the light grey being the main colour of the cardigan. My cast-on will probably happen long after the knit-along ends, but it’s been on my wish list ever since the pattern was published. Dreaming about projects and finished objects all plays a part in my life as a knitter ~~and yarn hoarder~~.

And then my 2 yarn parcels showed up a few days later. The first was the result of being enabled by Susan B. Anderson’s Instagram feed. She’s dangerous, and awesome and I can’t bring myself to unfollow her, because I.DONT.NEED.ANYMORE.YARN. But my birthday month was coming up, and you know you’re allowed to buy yarn for your birthday even when you really don’t need any.

These are Gales Art sock blanks, and I’m so in love with these.

And then, I let my fingers do the walking and bought some of ‘Clara’s Yarn’. It’s birthday month remember…

I just can’t stop smelling this yarn, it’s so sheepy and gorgeous. And if you were here in Melbourne Melanie, I know you would love it too. I bought enough for a tunic dress, just in case I wanted to make this.

Anyone want lessons on how to make your birthday great? Just talk to me. As one friend said, I do birthdays right. Now I need to knit myself out of this avalanche of yarn, send tea and time… time would be good.

Wednesday WIP – The Birthday Edition

April 22, 2015April 22, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I’ve had an interesting birthday. There was not as much fanfare this year (no really, stop laughing)… and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Even my colleagues were asking if I was feeling ok?!

And then, at work, I made the rhetorical statement, ‘I have nothing to live for… after Stitches!’ It was quite tongue in cheek, but all the same they are the words that came out of my mouth. I think it came from a place where I have to say I’m quite content and I didn’t need a birthday because I didn’t need anything…

But then I was wrong. I was remembered by friends and family (and surprised by my husband, he’s still good at that), that made my birthday great. Amongst the lovely gestures received, I was surprised, no shocked, to receive two handmade gifts. I felt extremely lucky. Yeah, I was floored to have received handmade gifts (handmade by the gifters themselves). That means time, and it probably means the ‘L’ word too, but I don’t want to get all soppy on here.

My photographer was on the blink when I took these photos, but seriously, 8 mini stockings for my Christmas Tree… just adorable.

And then this:

A cake and coffee coaster, an awesome surprise.

There was also a couple of cards in the mail, and I could hear the voices of the people who wrote them. I wish I sent cards more often, I feel like I’m an undeserving friend when I receive one.

For my birthday… I bought myself yarn… but somehow posting about it here doesn’t seem right. So I’ll leave it there for another day.

Sock repair

April 12, 2015April 7, 2015 | Sonia Knits

So for a while now, I’ve had a pile of hand knit socks, 5 pairs in total that have been taken out of circulation to repair.

They don’t have holes as such, yet… but after losing several pairs of socks to unexpected holes, I’m a lot more vigilant now at spotting trouble. That is the stitches around the heel and or the ball of the foot have become thin and thread-bare and recently, some of them were just holding on when I discovered them. Whilst I know you can repair socks that have said holes in them, that’s a lot more work and darning; and to be honest those socks have gone to ‘sock heaven’.

I took the opportunity of the long weekend to tackle some of these repairs.

Before:

Eep!

See that sneaky little spot emerging under the ball of my foot…

And my Noro socks, just a random thin row of knitting, I didn’t want to chance it.

So I duplicate stitched EVERYTHING, bad/thin looking stitches and the stitches that were holding hands with those stitches.

The repairs were almost invisible on my Wollmeise socks.

My lilac socks (Dream in Colour Smooshy), needed a larger area of duplicate stitching and it took some time to cover it. Interestingly, of all these pairs, these were the quickest to wear… I even had the foresight to use ‘knitting-in nylon’ when knitting the foot… it didn’t help.

And my Noro socks, took no time at all to cover over the weakened row of stitches.

That’s 3 pairs of socks back into wearing circulation and I’m pumped. Just 2 more pairs to go and I’m sworn off ever knitting another pair of socks without any nylon content.

Cast on E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G

April 7, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Recently I discovered the saddest way to lose your knitting mojo (for me anyway) is to have nothing on the needles.

The opposite to that is a ‘cast-on-aploza’.

And that’s exactly what I did this fine long weekend.

I cast on for my nephew’s winter top…

And got going on my Grace Cardigan by Jane Richmond…

I cast on my ‘Use it or Lose it’ Shingle project, a sweet little cardigan called Safire by Hilary Smith Callis.

And swatched another ‘UIOLI’ project. I think this is going to be a Dragonflies Jumper.

I also cast-on and completed the first clue in Romi’s Mystery Shawl Knit Along.

Then (not pictured here), I cast on ‘our’ Wedding Blanket! Yes, finally. I’m going to be knitting ‘Warmth’ by Jo Sharp, a long-term wish for some deep stash yarn that was bought for the purpose of our wedding blanket. In the meantime since the yarn purchase many years ago, all of my friends have knit this blanket, it is epic! I marvelled at this fact when I checked the projects on Ravelry this weekend.

I’m still waiting to cast on a beanie for Damian (but he hasn’t chosen a pattern) and who knows what else I’ll cast on before then.

I’m so happy.

Sonia Knits

The adventures of a Melbourne Knitter

Month: April 2015