Very excitingly, my Fragmentation Cardigan is finished, with sewn on buttons and all! I’m so glad I made the amendments to this cardigan, to give me a better fit/length, the extra effort was/is worth it. I now have a cardigan I will wear and it won’t be languishing in the wardrobe. Yay!
The final clue for Stephen West’s mystery sock knit-along also dropped this week. Whilst the final clue wasn’t a lot of knitting for some. It seems my row gauge was tighter than most, so I got to do ALL of the final patterning for the foot before the toe. Which is okay, because I would have been disappointed to have missed out on the fun basket weave rows at the end!
But I am so glad it’s now done! Another bright and fun project for the books. I’ve also done a bit of swatching this week for my next sweater project, it’s been a long time since my last sweater cast-on and I can’t wait to start.
This week’s clue, for Stephen West’s Mystery sock-along, was much shorter as it was just the heel flap and turn instructions. I completed this clue for both socks on Thursday night. Which was kind of nice after the intense knitting of the first clue.
The heel flap is made up of ‘wedges’ and after completing mine, I saw that a few people flipped the wedges on their second sock, I wish I’d thought of that!
So with all this ‘free’ knitting time until the next clue drops on Tuesday night (my time), I’ve knit a little on my Marlene sock. Which I’m starting to feel the love for again.
And then, I ripped the band-aid off on my Fragmentation cardigan surgery.
Before:
During:
I began by re-knitting the collar. As the cardigan is top-down to begin with, I had to cut the original collar off. I then picked up the stitches and knit in the opposite direction. I went down in needle size and I also knit a double collar before doing a 3 needle bind off on the inside. The smaller needle size and the structure of the bind-off has helped cinch it in quite a bit, and it sits really nicely now. Once it’s reblocked, the garter stitches around the collar should also settle down.
I’m now working on the ribbing at the bottom, after ripping out 36 body rows or 3 of the side colour tabs. I’m really excited about this now. Depending on how complex the next sock clue is, I hope to have this on the blocking mats next weekend. Oh, and I still need to get buttons.
Before I get into my happy diversion this week, I want to let you know what I’ve decided about my Fragmentation Cardigan. Thank you for your supportive comments!
I took the cardigan along to Knit Night last week, and tried it on in front of everyone. I had so many helpful suggestions. Including cinching in the neckline to stop it from ‘dragging’ so much, April even made some running stitches through the neckline to visualise this. What I found most helpful though was when I asked people to try the cardigan on. Out of the 5 people who tried it on, it looked absolutely perfect on about 3 of them. Despair! It was the right length on them and it looked great, much better than it currently looks on me. I was green with envy.
Instead of gifting my cardigan to one of these wonderful knitters, I’ve decided to go back and shorten the body to the right length, it might be a bit tricky, but it’s totally do-able. I may also shorten the sleeves, even though I like long sleeves (we’ll see). I’m going to re-knit the collar so that it is snugger. I might possibly make it a double (folded down and stitched) collar. I’m not sure if that would look weird with a single thickness buttonband? So that’s what I’m going to do. It might add 2 weeks to the making, but what is 2 more weeks or 3? Seeing it on my knitting mates, really made me want it more. Who knows, I might even consider going back and shortening my other oversized sweaters.
SPOILERS are coming!
On Monday night, I also got some opinions on my colour selection of minis for the sock along. I felt pretty happy with the choices I made on Monday night. Then came Thursday when I cast-on, and I changed my mind.
My original colour EAn old Knit Picks cord, literally snapped!
It’s a very graphic design, which I believe requires mostly solid colours. In Stephen West’s You Tube tutorial on the first clue, he suggests using your speckled or variagated yarn for colour E, which is the ‘droplet’ stitch section. I didn’t think that worked very well. I also didn’t like the contrast in my Latvian braid (and I knit it too tight). So I ripped back to the end of the cuff and switched some colour choices, and added in more colours. More is more afterall!
Here’s my Clue 1 finished. I had to scramble around to find another needle to start sock 2. I’m hoping to avoid second sock syndrome and have this done in time for Clue 2. It’s super fun so far.
I’ve finished knitting my Fragmentation Cardigan, I think. It’s been blocked, but I still need to purchase buttons, I think. I’ve tried it on now, and it has grown a bit. I wish I made a size smaller. It looks a little oversized on me, which is not my style. It’s also a tad long. Do I buy the buttons and attached them, then judge? Or do I remove the button bands and seam up the middle, making it a sweater? For now, I’m going to mope, it’s been a mopey day. I’ve unintentionally made a couple of oversized sweaters in the past year or so, and this will be the third one. It’s starting to get to me. The three sweaters have in common: superwash yarn, garter stitch or mosaic (stretchy) stitch. 2 of them are by Stephen West. I’m feeling some rage here. Maybe I’ll sew the buttons on (and sew the buttonband down for stability), and it will be fine. Maybe. I might ask my knitting group for their advice, I wouldn’t want to be rash.
I have cast-off my Hot Jam Donut socks (a Bendigo colourway by Halfbaked Hand dyed) in 8ply and they are super cosy. I added a bit of silk mohair to the red and white sections, as I had some random fluff in my stash. They feel amazing on my feet, and they fit hooray.
Apparently I’m participating in the Stephen West mystery sock along which is launching on Tuesday, Sharon told me I had to.
The socks require 5 mini skeins of yarn. I’ve wound up some minis from a My Creative Garage mini skein set that I bought at last year’s Bendigo Show (go me!), and I’ve also gathered some speckled minis from a Little Woollie advent calendar. I’ll only need 5 of these minis, but I’m keeping my options open for now.
When I posted my Bendigo haul online this year, my sister who came to the show last year, commented that she hadn’t used any of the yarn she purchased from last year yet. I then begain to wonder if I had?!
Last year’s Bendigo haul
Turns out, I hadn’t either! I’ve used the bags, sure! And now I’ve wound up the mini skein set for the mystery sock along. I’m also finally going to cast on for my long desired sweater Vintage Flannel by Anna Johanna from her book Strands of Joy II. It’s going to be in yarn purchased specifically for this from last year’s Bendigo. Vanessa from My Creative Garage, also dyed up some extra skeins for me especially for this. Today I wound them all up. The pattern is not going to be released as an individual pattern until next year (I thought it would be released this year, so I delayed casting on) but not anymore, as my sister bought the book for my birthday, thanks Suzy!
Just realised Vanessa named this colour after me!I hate winding yarn!
It’s only 360-ish days until Bendigo 2026 as my husband cruelly tells me! What a weekend, and it was over much too fast.
As usual, we headed up early on the Wednesday. We had brunch at our favourite cafe, the one that serves tiny chocolate teddies with your coffee! I visited the Bendigo Woollen Mills, and bought a jumpers worth of yarn; Cumulo which is a limited edition NZ Perendale, non-superwash. I also bought their beautiful publication which was released last year about the history of the mill.
I thought that would be my one and only trip to the mill for the weekend, but I was very wrong. I also visited on Friday after the show, as they had just released a limited-edition Corriedale wool. I was very tempted, but walked away empty-handed. I also visited on Saturday after the show, to assist our friend Charlotte (it was manic, I’ve never been there whilst it’s that busy). Charlotte has never been to the mill, she bought a few balls and left very happy. Now I know why it’s smart to go early in the week before the hoards of crafters arrive in town.
Pictured above are the Penny gloves (mitts) by Petite Knit, that I finished knitting on Thursday afternoon. For the show, I also knitted a colour sample of a beanie for my friend Danni aka HalfBaked hand-dyed. And because this was a sample for the show, I knit another version of the Bendigo Beanie by Sanna & Co. for me. The weekend, turned out to not be too cold with lots of sunshine, which was wonderful. Which meant, I didn’t need to wear my mitts for much of the time; and when my friend Sharon (a second Sharon) turned up on Saturday wearing a store bought beanie, I immediately gifted her my Bendigo Beanie. It looked great on her!
On Friday the show began! In the morning, my knitting group took some group photos of us wearing our Wool & Honey knits and hexagon/bee hive inspired accessories. 10 of us then attended the Women of Wool luncheon, which was fabulous this year.
My excited face on Friday morning!
A little bit of shopping happened before and post lunch.
On Saturday, I did a spot of shopping and ate my first Bendigo Hot Jam Donut. Our non-crafty friends arrived (except for Charlotte, she’s a mad crocheter) plus Damian’s mum, and I spent the day looking at the sheep, shearing and sheep dog trials.
The Richmond Knitters also had a second photo shoot of Wool & Honey knits for the Saturday crew.
Saturday night was the knitting group’s Bendigo Dinner. We had some extra guests, designers & hand dyers which made for a fun and lively night.
Sunday I arrived home with quite a haul. It was an amazing weekend, with souvenirs to match.
I kind of diverted from my shopping list, purchasing sock yarn that wasn’t on the list! I’ve come home with enough for 11 pairs, gasp! And 3 sweaters worth of yarn for planned projects which were on the list, hooray for me. If you’d like to take a look at the details, check them out on Ravelry, I’m just ‘Sonia’ there.
My ‘Bendigo Sweater’ for the Richmond Knitters is finished and blocked. It has turned out even better than the first Wool & Honey sweater that I knit six years ago. I love the length of the sleeves and the electric blue colour. The benefit of doing something more than once is, you’ll always do it better the second time, you would hope! There is something I’d like to re-do… but perhaps after the Show when the pressure is off.
As it’s been so cold here in Melbourne (and Bendigo town is always colder) my mind is turning to the possible accessories I can knit to go with my sweater. I don’t normally go all in, with an entire matchy matchy Bendigo ensemble, but it’s really cold right now and I don’t want to be whilst I’m in Bendigo.
I’m hoping to knit a hat, mitts and cowl, that’s do-able within a week right? I’ll report back.
It’s been a few busy weeks. I’ve been away for a romantic lunch and night in Red Hill:
I’ve been yarn shopping(!) I made it to Little Woollie’s yarn store on the way to Red Hill, then went to the Coburg yarn market the following day!
I’ve been sick again 😦 I’ve celebrated birthdays (there’s another one this afternoon)
and I’ve been knitting madly on my Bendigo Sheep Show sweater! I’m now further along since these photos from last weekend, I have half a sleeve to go!
I should have this version of Wool & Honey finished in the next couple of days before blocking and photos next weekend.
Meanwhile this week, the extra yarn from Louie & Lola has arrived for my Fragmentation Cardigan. I have just 2 half sleeves on this to go. It’s going to be very satisfying finishing these 2 sweaters at about the same time. A new sweater cast-on beckons in July.
This past week I’ve been playing ‘yarn chicken’ with my Fragmentation cardigan.
I started getting concerned whilst knitting on my first sleeve. With the button bands and a second sleeve still to knit, I was getting anxious by how much yarn I had left. So I strategised, I went ahead and knit the button bands, and then the second sleeve to match the (so far) length of the first sleeve… and after all that, I had just 23 grams of yarn left in the grey. Not enough to finish the sleeves in grey.
My options were:
To make long colourful ribbed cuffs with the remaining advent yarn, then not have enough yarn to make the matching hood. I also wasn’t sure I wanted to have colourful cuffslike Stephen West’s sample.
Or… to email the lovely Karina at Louie & Lola yarns (the yarn dyer of the Advent yarn) and hope that she could help. Which is exactly what I did. I’m so relieved to say Karina got back to me right away and offered to do a custom dye for me, so I asked for 2 skeins (to make it worth her while) and I’ll also have enough for the trim in the matching hood.
So whilst I wait for the additional yarn to arrive, I’ve placed the cardigan aside to get cracking on my Bendigo Sweater… I’d been so obsessively knitting my cardigan, I lost sight of the fact that the Bendigo Sheep Show is just 5 weeks away!
So now I’m playing ‘time chicken’ as well, eep!
Last weekend I presented my sister with her mitts, I think she loves them. It was a proud Knitter moment.
It’s a long weekend here and the weather is terrible, so I hope to get lots of knitting done in between socialising.
It’s been an interesting week. I’ve got a cold, it began as a regular (not too bad, garden-variety cold) and slowly turned into a horrible coughing-green-slime-kind-of-a-cold. At this point I threw in the towel and called my doctor. Aren’t antibiotics wonderful? I try to avoid taking them if I can, I think it’s been years. I am on the mend, but I’m not there yet.
A couple of weeks ago, one of my sisters whose birthday is coming up, asked if I could knit her a pair of fingerless mitts. Wow, I don’t often get requests from family members to knit them anything. It doesn’t take a birthday for me to make for anyone, especially family. So I went to my stash. I gave her some yarn options, from which she made a selection, then I gave her a few more options (based on her first choice) but she still stuck with her original choice. The yarn is deep stash, Colinette Jitterbug. Gosh, it’s such a good yarn which sadly has been discontinued for many years now. The colourway is Forest.
I’m knitting up a pair of Penny Gloves by Petite Knit. It is a super simple pattern, but it fits well. There is only one size in the pattern, so I hope it fits my sister as well as they fit me. I should have time to finish the second mitt and give them a good soak and block in time for next weekend.
I’ve also finished plying the singles (Cat & Sparrow, 100% merino) that have been on my wheel for an embarrassingly long time. I look forward to winding it off and giving it a bath to measure the yarn weight and meterage. I have a loose idea of a Sophie shawl by Petite Knit but we’ll see.
Sonia Knits 