Wednesday WIPs – Now the Slog

August 26, 2015August 25, 2015 | Sonia Knits

It’s great to have a goal, a long-wished for colourful blanket for our bed, hexagons no less.

But ‘the getting down to it’ is the hard part. No veering off and doing something else. I have to stay focussed. Blankets take a long time, even the chunky ones.

8 more balls to go, not including the border yarn…

I finished listening to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt last week. 32 hours, it was a slog, but well worth it, every minute of it. It was such an engrossing book, so well written, so well read.

I’ve begun listening to A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. She is one of my favourite authors, but so far I must say this book is not really grabbing me. It’s the first Anne Tyler I’ve ‘listened’ to, so I don’t know whether it’s the reader or the narrative that’s making me wonder, did Anne Tyler really write this? I get that it’s a totally different book to The Goldfinch, so perhaps the reader is just not doing it for me? I’ll let you know next week.

Gung ho

August 23, 2015 | Sonia Knits

There is no other way to describe my enthusiasm for wanting to complete my hexagon crochet blanket.

After knitting with the Richmond Knitters on Monday night (and inspired by my conversation with Blanket Queen Extra-ordinnaire, Katie), I felt inclined to work out just how much I had left to do.

Hexagons are not squares, so the only way I could figure things out was by drawing a schematic. I had 24 balls of the Noro Taiyo to begin with, each ball makes 10 hexagons roughly. And each rosette is made from 7 hexagons. I’d also decided I was going to ‘finish’ the edges, so that they will be straight and I would also be needing a bunch of half-hexagons. Clearly I needed a drawing to work all this out.

I began by drawing a 4 x 6 rosette blanket (with the edges filled in), that wasn’t working, too narrow. Then I drew a 4 x 5 rosette blanket… it seems like it will be big enough… then I thought, why not go for a 5 x 5 rosette blanket? I’ll have just enough for all the rosettes, the filling-in hexagons and the half hexagons. Then (at my leisure) I can pick up another ball or 2 to do the finishing border… I’m super inspired by Dover and Madden’s blanket. Whilst my blanket will have a completely different look to it, hers is so pretty and I appreciate her explanation of making square edges.

So I’ll need:

25 rosettes (7 hexagons each)

50 single hexagons (as filling in the gaps hexagons)

15 half hexagons.

So far I have:

15 rosettes (10 to go)

42 single hexagons (8 to go) and

12 half hexagons (3 to go).

I love goals.

Wednesday WIPs – Gap-tastic

August 19, 2015August 18, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I whipped up a GAP-tastic cowl for mum, finishing it at the weekend. Intentionally, it was meant for her birthday in September… but it’s still cold now and I thought it would make more sense to give it to her right away.

This is some of the White Gum Wool Boucle, which I purchased from the Bendigo Sheep Show with the exact purpose of making something for my mum. I’ve never knit with something so quickly from Bendigo, I still have yarn from the first year of my very first Bendigo Show!

The colour is more blue/green than blue. The colour name is Fairy Wren. I used 2 full balls.Altogether, it was a pretty mindless pattern, and sometimes that can be thoroughly enjoyable.

My mum loved it! I’m now on a mission to finish some of my long-standing WIPs that have been languishing on my Projects page on Ravelry. Next up, our (my) hexagon crochet blanket…

Wednesday WIPs – New beginnings

August 12, 2015August 9, 2015 | Sonia Knits

This week, I taught a friend how to spin!

I was so inspired and excited by how well she took to it, I had to go home and jump on my wheel right after.

I’m currently spinning up some Thylacine BFL mixed with camel. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered I had 2 similar colour ways of 200 grams each; so I thought perhaps I could ply the 2 colour ways together, in something of a 4 or 5 ply and have enough to knit myself a vest of some description. Stay tuned for that.

The baby blanket was completed and blocked last week. It is a relief to get it done before the baby arrives. I’m pretty pleased with the result too! The yarn was stash yarn, mainly made up of Jo Sharp classic DK wool, with a bit of this and that thrown in. The pattern: Honeycomb Stroller Blanket is free and is pretty nifty if you ask me. The slip stitch pattern forms the hexagons therefore there are no patches to sew together (just lots of ends). If I were to make it again, (and that’s a possibility if more babies arrive in my family), I would do a provisional cast on at the start, to make the border easier to pick up and knit. The other alt that I made was to make the border a garter stitch one, and rather than picking up all the way around, I did each side individually, increasing at the edges each right side row to make the mitred corners. There will be some better ‘glamour’ photos taken when the cute baby arrives.

I’ve cast on a new project, this is Cookie A’s June sock club. I’m making the Apollonia socks. I’m enjoying knitting from the sock lace chart, and knit a fair bit of the leg in one evening. I find knitting from lace charts so soothing and fun.I’m also itching to begin a garment for me, but I thought I should look at one of my Use It Or Lose It projects first.

I picked up my Safire cardigan, which had only been literally cast on. In theory I’m liking how this is working, but I am wondering whether this yarn is more appropriate for niece M, due to it’s ‘blingy’ nature. Only time will tell.

I’m still listening to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, I can’t recommend it enough. I only have 10 hours left to go!

Wednesday WIPs – Hibernation

August 5, 2015August 3, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I stayed at home this weekend, all weekend.

I began reading Anna Zilboorg’s ‘Knitting for Anarchists’ and I knew I’d like it from the very first page (see brackets).

I listened to podcasts. I’ve begun listening to Craftlit, and it’s fabulous.

My Cookie A sock club instalment arrived last week, coincidently it matched one of Damian’s birthday gifts (yes I can buy him cookware for his birthday and he loves it).

I knitted full-time on my sister’s forthcoming baby blanket.

And I did nothing else (apart from a spot of housework).

I expect the blanket to be blocking by the end of this week. Deadlines, shmedlines, that baby can arrive early if it wants, but not until the end of the week.

Taking Stock – Stash Count

August 1, 2015 | Sonia Knits

It’s only been 7 months since the last stash count, but a lot has happened since then and one major thing, Stitches WEST! Normally I like to do a stash count approximately once a year, kind of like a Spring Clean, but I know a couple of you are eager for an update; and I was kind of interested too.

In order for me to get my stash total, I downloaded my Stash Excel spreadsheet from Ravelry (such an awesome function for those who like to get down to nuts and bolts). But in order to get my total meterage I needed to pass the spreadsheet to my husband (who has excel) to add it up for me. His response, ‘you have a lot of yarn Sonia’. For those playing along at home, I recommend you don’t pass your spreadsheet to your significant other to do the math. Next time I’ll just email it to myself at work…

Just a reminder of all the glorious editions to my stash this year…

That should soften the blow, taking my stash from the New Year total of

248,623 metres

drum

roll

…

296,937 metres

Not really a surprise to me…

AS I’M RUNNING OUT OF ROOM…

to put it all.

But I’m still happy, and I don’t feel overwhelmed. Happy deliciousness.

Wednesday WIPs

July 29, 2015July 26, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Hi there! I was visited by this cheeky monkey on the weekend…

She was wearing the dress I made for her. The pattern warns to make the dress from wool, but I went ahead and made it in cotton anyway, it was the right colour from my stash!So I wasn’t super surprised to see that there were problems with the bodice. But I was surprised by just how much it was stretching, and how easy it was for her to ‘get out of her dress’ from the top down.

Easily fixed I pronounced, if I could just borrow the dress back. Niece M went home in her stockings!

Two goes at the attached i-cord to the neckline (the first attempt made the head hole too small to get over her head). And hopefully this has now solved the issue. Niece M only likes wearing dresses, I know where she’s coming from. I’m thinking maybe a rainbow dress for Christmas perhaps?

I’ve also been working on the next baby blanket…

There’s still a long way to go.

And I’ve got the wheel out and I’ve been doing some overdue plying of some Southern Cross Fibre club fibre.

And this little bit are the odds and sods to empty the little bits off my bobbins…

Because I have so much to get through. How about you?

Wednesday WIPs – Belated Cowl

July 22, 2015 | Sonia Knits

For the careful observers, I didn’t get my hand-spun Honey Cowl finished in time or over the Bendigo Show weekend. But it’s finished now!

Damian’s image of Richmond station in the background was the perfect backdrop for this photo. It’s so cosy.

I’m really happy with how the gradient stripes have worked, and it’s my handspun!

I’m still listening to the brilliantly narrated ‘The Goldfinch’ by Donna Tartt, I think I still have hours upon hours to go, but I’m loving it all the same.

See you next week.

Bendigo 2015

July 20, 2015July 20, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Wow! Just when I thought I had experienced everything that was to be experienced at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show, this year had a different flavour.

I attended the Women of Wool luncheon with a couple of friends and we had an excellent time. Everything was great about it. The speakers, the food, the company, the other people seated at our table, the competition prize drawings (even though we didn’t win anything), it was a lot of fun.

Then we got down to the serious part of the show. Nicknamed ‘Spendigo’ for good reason… I exceeded my own expectations, surprising only me. If you really want to see it all, check out my recent stash acquisitions (fibre and yarn) on Ravelry.

White Gum Wool played a large part in my purchasing. Nan Bray the owner of ‘White Gum Wool’ spoke at the luncheon, but I was a fan before that, after seeing this segment on Landline. The pink yarn above is White Gum Wool Boucle, specially hand-dyed by Kathy’s Fibres.

I was given the task of buying some fibre to spin for my husband. So that I wouldn’t run short on his next ‘winter set’ (this time), I bought 500gms of Kathys Fibres merino dyed in ‘manly’ browns, blue and black.

We also spent a fair amount of time with the sheep, searching out the babies, because, how cute?

Thank you to my partners in crime for making it such a great weekend. I can’t wait to do it all again next year.

Sonia Knits

The adventures of a Melbourne Knitter

Author: Sonia Knits