March Madness

April 11, 2016 | Sonia Knits

Once you fall out of the habit of blogging, it’s really hard to come back!

I didn’t finish my Stitch Block Cowl (Stitches West Anniversary Cowl) in March as planned. A couple of silly (but very easy to make) errors meant that progress was not made for days. It was cast off on April 3rd instead. I do love it, but this is what 6 weeks of knitting looks like…

I’m going to make sure I wear it a lot this winter, for all the time it took I could have possibly knit a cardigan!

It didn’t take a thousand metres either, in fact nearly half the yarn is still left. It is delicious yarn though so I won’t be de-stashing it anytime soon, I’m only sad I didn’t use more of it because of my Stash Reduction goals.

Whilst I love knitting for myself; I actually love knitting for my nephew and nieces even more. I hope to knit up a few things in the coming weeks, for these cuties in my life.

Here’s the Barley Hat by Tin Can Knits with Nephew W modelling it. My fear was confirmed when he tried it on. It was a little firm on the head, so I’ve knit him another in a larger size and this one will be for his sister.

Upon knitting the second hat, I realised I decreased the top of the first hat too slowly, so it’s a bit of a pixie hat. The yarn I used (is Stash Yarn of course) Little Dipper Yarns in DK. I love this yarn and it’s superwash, perfect for kids knits and their parents.

February FO

February 23, 2016February 23, 2016 | Sonia Knits

After a flurry of many finished objects in January, I fear February is going to be a much quieter affair. At the beginning of the month I cast on and finished knitting my second Kate Davies Kokkeluri mitten. It flew off the needles within a couple of days.

And then I cast on many other things…

I have been dreaming about this project ever since Nicole from Stash & Burn made her Aislinn cardigan a number of years ago in the colour yellow. She no longer wears hers, but I still desperately want one. The yarn was a Christmas purchase from 14 months ago, so relatively ‘fresh’ stash. It is Cleckheaton Superfine Merino in the mustard colour way.

And then I joined a couple of Knit-alongs…

The ‘it’ pattern of the moment is a shawl called Waiting for Rain by Sylvia Bo Bilvia (yes that’s really her name). It caught the imagination of a few of the Richmond Knitters, so some of us cast-on! I was really enjoying knitting this shawl, it’s clever and fun and heck it’s going to be a great shawl to wear. But then… the yarn failed me. This beautiful yarn did not have it’s dye fixed properly and was coming off on my hands REALLY, REALLY, BADLY. Both skeins have been caked up prior to starting, so there’s no turning back, just sulking and knitting and purple hands, which gives the appearance of burnt hands, boy have they been burned.

The second knit-along I began, involves Deb and just myself; last weekend was our one year anniversary of attending Stitches West in California together. To celebrate, reminisce, feel sad about not being there this year… we decided to cast-on the same project in the same yarn together (we did shop together you know, and there were several double-ups).

We’re both knitting the Stitch Block Cowl by Purl Soho. These are my colours inspired by being in the same state as Stephen West!

Gosh we had fun!

My cold sheep February update:
• No yarn purchased (woo hoo)
• My Kokkeluri mitts used 175 metres (baby steps), so I’m 175 metres down!

March is looking more promising for stashing down with so many WIPs on the needles, it does sound great in theory.

January FO Parade

January 26, 2016 | Sonia Knits

I have finished things! I have finished knitting my Use It Or Lose It Dragonflies sweater by Joji Locatelli.

It was pretty smooth sailing apart from the beginning where I had to concentrate on the short row shaping and the lace at the neckline at the same time. The yarn (Shiloh dk with silk) was a pleasure to knit with. The combination of the lace, the yarn and the knit picks harmony circular needle, made for a thoroughly enjoyable knit.

I also completed my Stitches West 2015 Mystery knit-along Moon Shadows Shawl by Romi Hill! I’m pretty pleased that I got it finished before this years show in February, not that I’m going again this year…

Interestingly, I also found this enjoyable knit after a long hiatus.

The ends have been sewn in, I just need to block it. I hope it grows a bit as I like to wear shawls either as scarves or wraps, not semi-circles…

I love the colours, it’s a lovely souvenir from the most exciting yarn show ever!

The 2 FO’s have used 1,474 metres of yarn, which have come straight of ‘stash’.

Alas, sadly last week I made a discovery…

This beautiful skein of yarn is in fact, yarn I salvaged from a cardigan I knit, but I didn’t love. Mostly, I normally give away projects that I fall out of love with. But the Zara Plus was/is great yarn. So quite some time ago I painstakingly ripped it out, skeined it up, washed it, and then I popped it back in the stash. Last week I realised I hadn’t added it back into my stash totals… all 800 metres of it…

I’m trying to see the irony in this and I hope there aren’t too many other ‘surprises’ in my stash.

2015 Knitting review

January 3, 2016 | Sonia Knits

Happy New Year all!

Each year I like to do a wrap-up of all the things I’ve knit to see how I’ve fared over the year.

I’ve knit 22 things in 2015! That’s 3 projects up from last year!

I didn’t knit as much for little ones this year, niece M is now 3 and takes a lot longer to knit for!

22 projects, that’s almost like finishing something every other week, but not.

There were:

7 pairs of socks (including the Baffies)
1 Chook Vest
A group blanket project
A huge crochet blanket
A baby blanket
only 3 Kids/baby sweaters
3 scarves/cowls
3 tops for me (2 of which were use it or lose it)
Christmas ornaments
1 Winter set for Damian

Of these 22 things, 8 projects were for other people.

I’ve carried over 6 WIPs into the new year, but there was no way the Noro blanket was coming for the ride. I finished sewing in the ends on the last day of the year.

2016 is going to be a ‘Cold Sheep’ year. There will be no yarn purchasing except maybe for the Sheep and Wool Show in July. And … only if I travel overseas to a yarn haven. But there might be some de-stashing to accommodate that…

In 2015 I was lucky enough to visit Stitches West in California in February and then Tokyo in November. It’s been a fun year! There was ‘a bit’ of yarn tourism involved in visiting those places, and I hope to relive those fun memories as I knit with my souvenir yarn.

My stash count as of today is:

277,180 metres

It is a little less than the last count, but I suspect the last count was inaccurate (the wrong column was added together).

Here’s to 2016 the year of knitting more and stashing down!

Dragonflies

December 26, 2015December 26, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I’m chilling out (read:recovering) this Boxing Day after a full-on but lovely day with our 2 families yesterday. I’m knitting Dragonflies, a jumper by Joji Locateli. I cast on a little while ago, but I’ve finally gotten ‘into it’ and I’m enjoying knitting it so very much. The yarn/project is my last ‘Use It Or Lose It’ project on my Ravelry projects page.

It’s been interesting, the UIOLI project. At this stage I don’t have any desire to classify any more yarn as ‘UIOLI’, because the project has shown to me that every yarn can find a purpose, even less loved yarn (mostly, there were a couple of casualties). For now, I want to knit with what I love at the top of my pile. I might revisit this idea again some time.

The yarn is Shiloh Wool with Silk, hand-dyed by me a long time ago. It took a while to find the perfect pattern for this yarn, I’m glad I persevered because I have to say I’m loving knitting Joji’s Dragonflies pattern. The lace is fun and easy.

Coincidently, I’m listening to Outlander book 2 Dragonflies in Amber. That was not intentional!

Leslie, from the Knitgirllls my favourite video cast show is also listening to it right now, but she is ahead of me. So whilst Leslie does her book review once a week, I have to mute the sound whilst she is talking about it! Her arms wave around, and I can kind of understand why, after about 10 minutes the hand actions settle down and I can begin listening to the video cast again. I hope to go back to these tid-bits later on after I’ve completed my 38 hours of listening…

Sparkle, sparkle

December 23, 2015December 23, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Remember my Use It Or Lose It, Shingle project?

I finally have had the chance to get a couple of photos taken. I am very happy with how it’s turned out.

The fit and shaping of this little cardigan, Safire by Hilary Smith Callis is perfect to wear over dresses. Now I just need to find the perfect dress for this little number (something a lot plainer!)

(Here I am looking super hot on a 40 degree Melbourne day)

It’s been a sparkly kind of month.

I wore a wrap my mum made for me eons ago, to the Richmond Knitters Christmas Dinner… wait for it…

And I sparkled all night, becoming my own personal mirror ball. I enjoyed wearing it very much on the night.

Here are the Christmas decorations I’ve knit so far for our tree, (in addition to the ones I received for my birthday from a wonderful friend).

The Swirl bauble ^

and I also knit this mini sweater!

The gifts are wrapped, now all there is to do, is knit and wait to see the happy little faces of my nieces and nephews on Christmas Day.

Take care everyone x

Around and Around

December 9, 2015December 9, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Around and around I go, is the theme for today’s blog post! Here I am spinning around in Alice’s Teacups ride at Disneyland Tokyo.

And here I am in the first few border rows of the crochet blanket.

I’ve filled in all the gaps, thanks to some great directions I found on Dover & Madden’s blog. She’s a Melbournite as well, and I love checking out her blog, everything is beautiful.

I have 3 balls remaining of the Noro and at this stage I think I’m going to keep going until I run out. It might be 4 treble rows or so.

I’ve also picked up my Use it or Lose it project this week, it is the Dragonflies jumper by Joji Locatelli. I’ve really gotten into the swing of this. I’m certain this is not going to be a ‘lose it’ project.

I’m so close to the end of listening to ‘The Girl on the Train’, I have really enjoyed the voice actors and the story, but I hope it doesn’t go on for to much longer, I need to know the ending!

Sunshine and stash less

December 5, 2015December 5, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Yellow is a ‘new to me’ colour in knitting. I’ve gradually been building up to knitting with yellow and casting on some on Cookie sock club socks was just the introduction I needed. Looking at them makes me feel happy.

I wanted to talk to you about something else today, something else that has recently plagued me. It kind of snowballed after I got home from Tokyo and I needed to pack away my new stash… literally a snowball that has just gotten bigger and bigger…

Felicia Semple of the Craft Sessions has explored this recently. The theory of ‘Stash less’. Not to be ‘stash less’ (like who would want that?!), but ‘to stash less’. That’s how I’m reading it anyway. She is quite an inspiration in what she has done in a short amount of time. Anyway, you should go read her blog.

I started thinking about this more recently after arriving home from Tokyo, and knowing I hadn’t gone overboard on the purchasing… and yet I was still struggling to squeeze my new yarn in to my yarn case.

Stash less; I couldn’t Stash more if I tried!!!

It’s beginning to feel a bit burdensome to be utterly honest. Don’t worry, in a couple of jumpers and socks time I’ll feel much better…

So there you have it, I really mean it this time. No more yarn purchasing until the Bendigo (Sheep and Wool show)… then I’ll take stock. I say until Bendigo, because a. I’m going! and b. it’s just cruel to suggest I go to a fibre event and do not allow myself to buy anything, it doesn’t mean I have to, but I can.

The six month challenge is on.

p.s. can you all please continue to buy yarn and add an extra skein in there for me with your next yarn purchase, someone has to keep our LYS’ going.

Wednesday WIPs – A race to the finish

December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 | Sonia Knits

The tree is up!

Full disclosure, it is a small tree, requiring only a few decorations. I was hoping for a larger tree this year, but then I remembered all the presents I still need to buy…

A small tree has enabled the sock decorations knitted for me by a friend, to absolutely sing. I love it.

I’ve been slogging away on my crochet blanket this week, with just a few seams left to sew. Then the border; and then no more blankets for a while…

I’ve been listening to The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and loving it.

It’s going to be a race to the end of the year to see how many projects I can finish, but I also want to start new things. Oh the dilemmas of a crafter.

Sonia Knits

The adventures of a Melbourne Knitter

Author: Sonia Knits