I got home from the Geelong Fibre Forum yesterday, and I’m still basking in the glow of ‘craft camp’. This year I undertook a spinning class with the extraordinary Janet Day, and my friend Sharon who is also a spinner came along as well.
It was such a good week!
It went by so quickly!
I practised my ‘Woollen’ spinning and also had a crack at making beehives. We made colourful fibre batts, and laughed and laughed. It was so good to catch up with the people from my class last year, and other fibre forum friends. Every day was a joy.
There were some other fun classes running at the same time, and we got to see everyone’s work on Friday night after dinner.
Here they are! The long-kept-secret-birthday-socks I’d been knitting for my sister Suzy! They are the Riemu socks by Anna Johanna and aren’t they fabulous?! When I was thinking about which socks to make for Suzy, this design popped into my inbox and I thought they were perfect for Suzy. They reminded me of the scrunchies she wears in her hair.
The knitting of the socks were pretty straight forward. The ruffles took a little bit longer! 3 rows of ruffles, per sock! They are totally worth it. The yarn I used is from My Creative Garage, purchased from the Bendigo Sheep Show a couple of years ago.
I’ve just got 2 more pairs of socks left on the kntting ledger for ‘family’ socks this year. They’re mostly going to be vanilla… the ruffles broke my spirit ha ha.
My mum also celebrated her 80th recently, it was a very joyous occasion. One of my sister’s arranged for the number ’80’ in helium balloons for the lunch. It really helped sink in the message to her that she was indeed 80 and not 50 (which she feels!) She is very happy to have made it to such a grand age.
A couple of months ago, a couple of my friends made the suggestion to go to Canberra for a weekend to go visit the Arthur Boyd Tapestry exhibition at the NGA. Great idea, we all thought! I haven’t been to our capital city in many, many years, so it was great to get a new perspective.
If you do go, I highly recommend watching the video which was part of the exhibition; it made my understanding of the exhibition so much clearer and interesting. Whilst we were there, I visited other parts of the gallery and the outdoor sculpture walk. It was such a beautiful weekend!
On the Saturday, I also visited the Portrait Gallery and Parliament House. I had a great time wandering around.
And is travel ever complete, without a visit to a yarn store?
On Friday, a few of us arrived early and visited ‘Makerie’. I highly recommend this store, they had so much great yarn. I picked up some Sandnes Garn in their Peer Gynt. I’ll be making the Gingham sweater pictured in one of the photos.
It was a truly delightful weekend, but not much knitting was done!
It seems I haven’t knit Damian anything for quite some time, so for his birthday this year I decided to continue my tradition of gifting hand-knit socks.
Damian is quite fond of the humble bin chicken, so when I spotted the colourwork chart in the Pacific Knits Sydney Doodle Deck, I knew I had to knit him this pair.
The self-striping yarn and solid contrast colours are from my favourite local dyer, Halfbaked Hand-Dyed (aka Danni).
I presented the socks to Damian while they were still a little damp, and he very kindly tried them on for me anyway. They fit beautifully, although the first sock is a little snugger around the colourwork. As these are knit in DK weight, I used 3 mm needles with the magic loop method. By the time I started the second sock, I remembered that I actually owned a 3 mm short circular needle, which made it much easier to keep my colourwork relaxed. The difference is noticeable, with the second sock having a little more give.
I could always frankenstein the first sock and re-knit the colourwork section, but Damian doesn’t seem at all bothered by it – and, if I’m honest, I’m rather relieved. It means I can cast on a new garment for myself instead. Yippee!
Well, that was an absolutely insane weekend! Luckily, I have today off to recuperate, catch up on life, and recover from all the excitement.
Damian and I headed up to Bendigo a few days before the Australian Sheep and Wool Show officially kicked off on Friday. Arriving early gave me the perfect opportunity to visit Bendigo Woollen Mills before it was flooded with knitters. On the drive into Bendigo, I received a very exciting email from the mill announcing that the final limited release of Wollemi had just launched, featuring seven brand-new shades. I’d been looking forward to this release for ages!
Damian very kindly dropped me off at the mill before heading to our accommodation. The Factory Shop, as it was once known, has been beautifully renovated and expanded, with plenty more space to browse, squish yarn, and shop.
Then Friday rolled around, and the show began!
One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing so many of the Richmond Knitters wearing their Celeste Sweaters. We’d chosen the pattern as our knit-along for this year’s show, and it was wonderful to gather everyone together for 2 group photos. If you have a keen eye, you might even spot my sister, who is visiting from Perth this week.
Some of us also attended the Women of Wool Lunch, which was another fantastic event. It was lovely to catch up with everyone, enjoy a delicious meal, and celebrate our shared love of wool and fibre crafts.
Of course, no Sheep and Wool Show would be complete without a little (or perhaps a lot of!) yarn shopping. This year’s haul includes purchases from my Wednesday visit to Bendigo Woollen Mills, along with plenty more from Friday and Saturday at the show. It’s certainly a substantial stash addition, but I’m absolutely thrilled with everything I brought home, and I’m fairly confident I didn’t leave anything behind!
Saturday was another wonderful day. I got to pat some beautiful sheep, spend time admiring the incredible Woolcraft Competition entries, and catch up with all of my sisters. Two of them made the trip just for the day, and we were also joined by Damian’s mum and some of our friends.
We couldn’t resist taking a few more Celeste photos on Saturday.
On Saturday evening, we gathered for our annual Bendigo dinner. As always, it was a fantastic night filled with good food, wonderful company, and plenty of laughter.
It was an amazing weekend, as it is every year. Now I’m looking forward to settling back into my regular routine, sorting through my new yarn, and deciding which projects to cast on first.
After finishing my sister’s socks last week, my attention naturally turned to the next pair on my knitting queue: Damian’s birthday socks. Keeping this project under wraps is going to be a challenge, but if I can at least keep one key design element a secret, I’ll be happy knowing there’s still a bit of surprise left.
These socks will feature a small colourwork section, which meant I had to buy some extra yarn. “But Sonia, don’t you already have a sock yarn stash for every eventuality?” I hear you ask. Not in 8-ply, I don’t! The additional yarn is due to arrive tomorrow…
In the meantime, I’ve turned my attention back to my Marlene socks. I’m finally back in the groove with them, and I’m keen to get them finished, especially since they were cast on back in February 2025! This would also be the perfect opportunity to make some progress on my Nimue crochet blanket, but with Damian’s sock yarn arriving so soon, there isn’t much time before a new project inevitably jumps onto the needles.
I completed making the pair of (secret) Flamingo socks… this afternoon! About 2 hours before the birthday dinner for my sister Silvia. I’ve never knit so close up to a deadline, let alone wet-block right before gifting, hilarious! And weirdly I was quite calm about it. The socks were handed over a little damp and on sock blockers.
My sister was thrilled, as was I. I feel as though the socks are a perfect representation of Silvia, what a design brief! The flamingos, the tropical themed self-striping yarn (by HodgePodge fibres) and the co-ordinating cuff and heel (Lang Jawoll). Thank you extensive sock yarn collection! The other yarns used included, Advent mini skeins for the Flamingos and flowers and the white is Patons Patonyle.
The Flamboyant Flamingos pattern is by Charlotte Stone. After knitting these socks, I would highly recommend her patterns. I feel other designers don’t tackle the ‘getting the colourwork over the heel’ situation very well. Just going up a needle size, is not going to cut it. Charlotte has you increase your stitch count before the colourwork section (in this case by 8 sts), and then decrease back down after the colourwork. Huzzah! I have the formula for unlocking knitting colourwork socks and can apply these principles to other colourwork sock patterns not necessarily by Charlotte.
The creative juices are flowing for the next surprise pairs. But I’ll need to keep these under wraps until after the gifting, as the recipients are readers of the blog. You know me, I don’t want to spoil a surprise.
We’ve just arrived home after a wonderful weekend at Tarndie (also known as Tarndwarncoort), a working Polwarth sheep farm that also offers cosy accommodation; and is home to lots and lots of sheep. At this time of year, it’s also full of adorable baby lambs. Squee!
If you remember Damian’s surprise birthday gift to me, it was a weekend away at Tarndie where I got to name a baby lamb. It was such a blissful escape. We woke each morning to the sound of baaing sheep, and from our bedroom window all we could see were sheep grazing across the paddocks. It was peaceful, relaxing, and exactly what we needed.
I’m holding ‘Evie’, when she grows up I’m going to spin her fleece. It turns out Damian really loves sheep too…
It’s just as well we were only staying for a couple of nights, any longer and he might have tried to adopt the whole flock!
Tom and Jason are exceptional hosts who make you feel right at home. If you’re looking for a peaceful country escape, I can’t recommend staying at Tarndie highly enough.
The farm made the perfect backdrop for photographing my finished Celeste Sweater. With the Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show now less than three weeks away, I can’t wait to spend another weekend surrounded by sheep, wool, and wonderful friends.
I have finished knitting my Celeste Sweater, hurrah! I’ll endeavour to have some photos taken for next time.
Since then, I’ve cast on for my next pair of secret gift socks. I decided to have another crack at knitting colourwork socks for this pair. I thought of the perfect pattern, for my Flamingo, tropical loving sister. By all accounts Charlotte Stone’s patterns seem to manage the float fit issues that other sock designers have not, so I used her pattern: Flamboyant Flamingos.
I began knitting these on Saturday… I knit all of Sunday… I knit on these at Knit Night on Monday night… then…
I woke up on Tuesday, and all of a sudden, a little voice that I hadn’t heard all weekend… said I have to start again, very, very loudly! But as one last check… I blocked half a sock, I’ve never done that before, smacks of desperation doesn’t it?
The wet blocking only improved my uneven colourwork slightly. The yarn for the background of the colourwork is Lang Yarns Jawoll superwash. It feels like a thinner yarn, and not super soft. I also think the colour contrast between the background and the flamingos was not enough. I love the varigation in the flamingos, so the background colour needed to go.
After much yarn stash pondering, I’ve cast on again. This time I’m going to use Patons Patonyle in white for the background, it blooms nicely when washed, and will be a good contrast with the flamingo colour. I’m also going to make a concerted effort at using 9 inch circulars for the colourwork section. I used magic loop the first time.
