We had an early birthday celebration for my niece who turns 18 (!) this week. Sienna’s socks were completed with time to spare, phew!
They were very well received! Someone commented she looked even more excited receiving them than her other gifts. You’ll have to imagine a gorgeous girl looking very happy, because Sienna’s not keen on having her photo taken let alone having it splashed over the internet. I can completely understand that.
Now there’s just one more pair to go for the year (maybe 2, I know, I know). But the next pair are going to be late. A 78-stitch sock takes a lot longer than 64 stitches. They are plain socks once again, so great for Knit Night knitting with the Richmond Knitters.
As the end of the year is fast approaching, I’m looking at my WIP pile and wanting… hoping to get some long languishing projects finished so I can start the new year with a clean slate. I’m also wondering when to put up the tree… the year is ending so quickly at this rate.
Recently, I did a bit of a sweater destash. I took all of the sweaters I no longer loved or wore (or fit) to a family gathering. After the official festivities were done, I had my Melbourne sisters and nieces try on my garments. It was so fun, as one-by-one my sweaters found new homes, and they looked so good! They were thrilled and so was I!
Fast forward to this week, with my Sweater cupboard now looking a lot more spacious (some yarn may have replaced the destashed sweaters on the sweater shelf) I pulled out my Enchanted Mesa, one of my all time favourite garments.
I wore it out for dinner, then the following morning as I was about to fold it up to put away… I saw this
It kind of looks like the yarn has snagged on something… but after I repaired this hole, I noticed another ‘weak’ spot directly above it. It seems ‘something’ has casually come along had a nibble and then moved on. Woe.
This sweater was knit in 100 per cent cashmere. I used up pretty much every last little bit of yarn to knit this sweater. There was no yarn to repair the holes. So I went to my trusty stash to find a close match (the original yarn company no longer exists). Sadly after the repair, it doesn’t appear to be a close match after all. Sad.
The dark green was too dark, the lighter green was too light.
As the sweater has no obvious front or back, perhaps I’ll just wear the ‘repaired’ side on the back. Perhaps it will be destined for an op shop…
Needless to say, the sweater cupboard has been loaded with more smelly things to detract nibblers and the sweater washing has commenced. Many fewer garments to wash now.
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.
