Month: August 2015

Sweater saver

| Sonia Knits

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You may recall my utter happiness and joy of knitting my Grace cardigan; the pattern and the gorgeous soft wool made my heart sing.

This glee turned to a touch of sorrow with for each subsequent wear (and there was only 3 wears), my luxurious organic merino cardigan was PILLING!

IMG_1065 Pilling EVERYWHEREIMG_1062

My gorgeous cardigan was turning into one big fluff ball. And I stopped wearing it for a few weeks…IMG_1063

Then, entered this marvellous machine:

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It’s been in my toolkit for a few years, but it’s never been more needed than now.

I turned it on and:

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The fluff balls have magically disappeared.

I’m a little weary of wearing it again so soon. I’m no fool, I know those balls will return and then I’ll be in an endless cycle of joy and sadness. That’s life I guess.

 

 

 

Wednesday WIPs – Now the Slog

| Sonia Knits

It’s great to have a goal, a long-wished for colourful blanket for our bed, hexagons no less.

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But ‘the getting down to it’ is the hard part. No veering off and doing something else. I have to stay focussed. Blankets take a long time, even the chunky ones.

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8 more balls to go, not including the border yarn…

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I finished listening to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt last week. 32 hours, it was a slog, but well worth it, every minute of it. It was such an engrossing book, so well written, so well read.

I’ve begun listening to A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. She is one of my favourite authors, but so far I must say this book is not really grabbing me. It’s the first Anne Tyler I’ve ‘listened’ to, so I don’t know whether it’s the reader or the narrative that’s making me wonder, did Anne Tyler really write this? I get that it’s a totally different book to The Goldfinch, so perhaps the reader is just not doing it for me? I’ll let you know next week.

Gung ho

| Sonia Knits

There is no other way to describe my enthusiasm for wanting to complete my hexagon crochet blanket.

After knitting with the Richmond Knitters on Monday night (and inspired by my conversation with Blanket Queen Extra-ordinnaire, Katie), I felt inclined to work out just how much I had left to do.

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Hexagons are not squares, so the only way I could figure things out was by drawing a schematic. I had 24 balls of the Noro Taiyo to begin with, each ball makes 10 hexagons roughly. And each rosette is made from 7 hexagons. I’d also decided I was going to ‘finish’ the edges, so that they will be straight and I would also be needing a bunch of half-hexagons. Clearly I needed a drawing to work all this out.

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I began by drawing a 4 x 6 rosette blanket (with the edges filled in), that wasn’t working, too narrow. Then I drew a 4 x 5 rosette blanket… it seems like it will be big enough… then I thought, why not go for a 5 x 5 rosette blanket? I’ll have just enough for all the rosettes, the filling-in hexagons and the half hexagons. Then (at my leisure) I can pick up another ball or 2 to do the finishing border… I’m super inspired by Dover and Madden’s blanket. Whilst my blanket will have a completely different look to it, hers is so pretty and I appreciate her explanation of making square edges.

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So I’ll need:

25 rosettes (7 hexagons each)

50 single hexagons (as filling in the gaps hexagons)

15 half hexagons.

So far I have:

15 rosettes (10 to go)

42 single hexagons (8 to go) and

12 half hexagons (3 to go).

I love goals.

 

 

Wednesday WIPs – Gap-tastic

| Sonia Knits

I whipped up a GAP-tastic cowl for mum, finishing it at the weekend. Intentionally, it was meant for her birthday in September… but it’s still cold now and I thought it would make more sense to give it to her right away.DSC_7095

This is some of the White Gum Wool Boucle, which I purchased from the Bendigo Sheep Show with the exact purpose of making something for my mum. I’ve never knit with something so quickly from Bendigo, I still have yarn from the first year of my very first Bendigo Show!DSC_7098

The colour is more blue/green than blue. The colour name is Fairy Wren. I used 2 full balls.DSC_7099Altogether, it was a pretty mindless pattern, and sometimes that can be thoroughly enjoyable.

My mum loved it! 009I’m now on a mission to finish some of my long-standing WIPs that have been languishing on my Projects page on Ravelry. Next up, our (my) hexagon crochet blanket…

 

Wednesday WIPs – New beginnings

| Sonia Knits

This week, I taught a friend how to spin!

I was so inspired and excited by how well she took to it, I had to go home and jump on my wheel right after.
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I’m currently spinning up some Thylacine BFL mixed with camel. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered I had 2 similar colour ways of 200 grams each; so I thought perhaps I could ply the 2 colour ways together, in something of a 4 or 5 ply and have enough to knit myself a vest of some description. Stay tuned for that.

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The baby blanket was completed and blocked last week. It is a relief to get it done before the baby arrives. I’m pretty pleased with the result too! The yarn was stash yarn, mainly made up of Jo Sharp classic DK wool, with a bit of this and that thrown in. The pattern: Honeycomb Stroller Blanket is free and is pretty nifty if you ask me. The slip stitch pattern forms the hexagons therefore there are no patches to sew together (just lots of ends). If I were to make it again, (and that’s a possibility if more babies arrive in my family), I would do a provisional cast on at the start, to make the border easier to pick up and knit. The other alt that I made was to make the border a garter stitch one, and rather than picking up all the way around, I did each side individually, increasing at the edges each right side row to make the mitred corners. There will be some better ‘glamour’ photos taken when the cute baby arrives.

IMG_1733I’ve cast on a new project, this is Cookie A’s June sock club. I’m making the Apollonia socks. I’m enjoying knitting from the sock lace chart, and knit a fair bit of the leg in one evening. I find knitting from lace charts so soothing and fun.IMG_1741I’m also itching to begin a garment for me, but I thought I should look at one of my Use It Or Lose It projects first.

I picked up my Safire cardigan, which had only been literally cast on. In theory I’m liking how this is working, but I am wondering whether this yarn is more appropriate for niece M, due to it’s ‘blingy’ nature. Only time will tell.IMG_1743

 

I’m still listening to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, I can’t recommend it enough. I only have 10 hours left to go!

Wednesday WIPs – Hibernation

| Sonia Knits

I stayed at home this weekend, all weekend.

I began reading Anna Zilboorg’s ‘Knitting for Anarchists’ and I knew I’d like it from the very first page (see brackets).

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I listened to podcasts. I’ve begun listening to Craftlit, and it’s fabulous.
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My Cookie A sock club instalment arrived last week, coincidently it matched one of Damian’s birthday gifts (yes I can buy him cookware for his birthday and he loves it).
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I knitted full-time on my sister’s forthcoming baby blanket.

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And I did nothing else (apart from a spot of housework).

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I expect the blanket to be blocking by the end of this week. Deadlines, shmedlines, that baby can arrive early if it wants, but not until the end of the week.

Taking Stock – Stash Count

| Sonia Knits

It’s only been 7 months since the last stash count, but a lot has happened since then and one major thing, Stitches WEST! Normally I like to do a stash count approximately once a year, kind of like a Spring Clean, but I know a couple of you are eager for an update; and I was kind of interested too.

In order for me to get my stash total, I downloaded my Stash Excel spreadsheet from Ravelry (such an awesome function for those who like to get down to nuts and bolts). But in order to get my total meterage I needed to pass the spreadsheet to my husband (who has excel) to add it up for me. His response, ‘you have a lot of yarn Sonia’. For those playing along at home, I recommend you don’t pass your spreadsheet to your significant other to do the math. Next time I’ll just email it to myself at work…

Just a reminder of all the glorious editions to my stash this year…

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DSC_6377That should soften the blow, taking my stash from the New Year total of

248,623 metres

to

drum

roll

…

…

…

296,937 metres

Not really a surprise to me…

AS I’M RUNNING OUT OF ROOM…

to put it all.

But I’m still happy, and I don’t feel overwhelmed. Happy deliciousness.