This week, progress has been good on my Poisoned Apple top. I do feel I’m playing yarn chicken though, but it’s still too close to tell.
The yarn is La Bien Aimee Merino DK. Too expensive to buy an extra skein until I’m sure. So for now, I’m going to knit faster and trust the pattern designer. But what if I want my top to be longer? … then faster I will knit!
D and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary this weekend. We went to Kyneton yesterday and had dinner at Midnight Starling, one of our favourite restaurants. The food was delicious as always; we love coming here.
It’s been a very navy blue week, I’ve also been spinning the singles for a sock project and the fibre is a beautiful blend of navy blues. I’ll have a photo for you next week!
Today, I wondered if it was time to do another ‘stash count’. It’s been a little over a year since the last count (December 2024 to be exact)
Back then it was a shocking 397,809 metres!
So you can imagine my surprise that when I downloaded my Stash excel spreadsheet from Ravelry today, and summed the total of the meterage column to find I have:
379,870 metres
Amazing! I’m amazed, that’s a reduction of 17,939 metres! Every other time I’ve done a stash count over the years, the number has always increased. I’m not exactly certain how this stash reduction has occurred. Perhaps I gifted more yarn than I thought in the past year? I have continued to purchase yarn (probably more than I’ve knit, 8,820 metres in 2025). Hopefully this is not an accounting error!
I don’t have any stash goals moving forward, except to not increase the stash count by too much! My stash storage is pretty much at capacity, so it would be good to turn the stash over, buy with intention, and knit a lot more socks (and not purchase anymore sock yarn!). Let’s make a date for 12 months time to see how I go.
This week I’ve cast on a new garment project. I’m knitting the Poisoned Apple Top by Lily Kate France. It has been in my queue for quite some time, and I even selected the yarn specially for it, with a gift voucher from my Melbourne siblings for my last birthday.
The yarn I’m using is La Bien Aimée Merino DK, and Kumo for the fluff.
I was very excited about casting on and have made fast progress. Then a couple of days ago, when looking at the pattern photo for the 1000th time, I realised I might need a new bra to be able to wear this knit, gah. Then I knit some more, and I realised that the Kumo (the translucent part) was not looking all that translucent. Kumo is an alpaca, silk blend. It looks denser than your regular silk/mohair blend.
I’m looking forward to finishing this and hopefully it will be everything I wanted, look at those puff sleeves! Even if the top section isn’t transparent, I think it will still be a lovely top, and who knows, perhaps I’ll make another one from yarn in my stash, I’m pretty sure I have options!
As revealed this week, my EXP sweater is finished. I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. It took what felt like forever to knit, but then again everything I knit feels like that. I’d love to surprise myself one time, and say, wow that was quick knit, it only took 2 weeks… bwah ha ha, like that’s ever going to happen!
It was the half fisherman’s rib or ‘Shaker Stitch’ as Susanna describes it, that took the time. It looks like brioche, which is cool. I’ve done a little bit of brioche but not a lot, and the Shaker Stitch was actually really soothing to knit, everyone says so. That’s right, I knit this along with some of my quilting friends (turned knitters). I was really happy to have their support, because not everything in the pattern made sense. For a lot of the time, each of my friends were in front (it’s not a race!) so they had encountered the same questions I had; and were able to help. I’m looking forward to wearing my EXP with them for a photo soon.
I made only minor adjustments to the pattern. I lengthened the body and the sleeves. I omitted the decreases in the body, and I didn’t do the 2 extra rows at the raglan seam before kitchenering, I just didn’t think it was worth it for the extra ends to sew in. I also didn’t block aggressively, I didn’t need to, as I had the amount of ease. Except maybe the sleeves could do with a bit more of a block, they’re a little snug.
I’ve cast on for my next garment project, and I’m excited! It’s been in my queue for quite some time, and here we are in February already. I hope I get it done in 2 weeks 🙂
Sonia Knits 