Author: Sonia Knits

A FO and Advent

| Sonia Knits

My Calm Down Cardigan is finally finished! It has been complete with buttons and all since last week, but the weather has been extremely hot or extremely humid and wet to take some photos until today. I’m very happy with the result, although I don’t feel as though it’s perfect. It’s a nice casual cardigan, but not fancy enough to wear to work, if you know what I mean.

Good buttons are now hard to find, especially since my work has relocated out of the CBD. Upon a recommendation, I went to visit the Brighton Button Shop (in Bentleigh), which I would rate as a really good experience. I was assisted by the owner of the store, and she provided me with no fewer than 4 options. These buttons stood out as the clear winner though. I’m looking forward to casting on something new very soon, I deserve it 🙂

Advent is well and truly underway. This year I am a bit spoiled with 3 yarn calendars by hand-dyers in Australia; Louie & Lola 8ply, Fibresmith 4ply and My Creative Garage 5ply. I’m so happy with how each of these are turning out, I’m going to have to start thinking about patterns to use for these in the new year.

The tree is up, for some reason it took a really long time to place all of the ornaments up this year. The sheep that my niece made for my birthday has been hanging out in my living room, decided to join hedgehog and become a festive ornament for the season.

And some of this is going on as well, fiddly Christmas ornament making. I can do it in small bursts, but I can totally see why I’m not a toy maker!

I’m looking forward to finishing a couple more projects before the end of the year, but I might be a bit too ambitious about the Nimue crochet blanket! We’ll see.

Alpaca Road Trip, Crafty Weekend & Sock Knitting

| Sonia Knits

A couple of weeks ago, I took a Tuesday off from work and joined a ‘Road Trip’ organised by my local yarn store Sunspun to go to my favourite Alpaca Farm and Woollen Mill, Great Ocean Road Woollen Mill! Do not be fooled by the name, they are now known as GORWM since relocating inland to Burrumbeet (near Ballarat).

It was a lovely way to spend a day. Virginia, the owner of Sunspun had it all very well organised, and chatting to Nick and Isabel (from GORWM) is always a fun time, they’re so cool.

The highlight for me was meeting some of the Alpacas, they had just been shorn not too long ago. They are so cute. I bought some yarn, of course I bought some yarn! For a summer knit, hopefully once my Calm Down cardigan is finished.

Then last weekend, I headed to Rye for a crafty retreat with girlfriends, it was such a lovely relaxing time. None of us quite know how long we’ve been going away together for, but we might work it out one day!

I’ve just finished these ‘Canberra’ socks, in Halfbaked Hand-dyed’s DK sock. These are my favourite socks yet.

Now back to knitting my Calm Down cardigan before my weekend is over.

So maybe I was a little Hasty

| Sonia Knits

I’ve had a bit more time for contemplation. I’ve had a week to sulk, and a week to consider what to cast-on next. Then this morning, I measured the gauge on my yet to be frogged Calm Down Sweater. Are you all giggling?

My row gauge is in fact correct and it matches the specified gauge of 30 rows. My stitch gauge is on the tighter side of 24 sts rather than 22 (but that part doesn’t matter). I’ve gone back to the pattern page on Ravelry and checked out more of the finished projects, and it appears… my cardigan is on track.

The sleeves are deep. I’ve read a few more people’s project pages, and they say the same.

See how Lily Kate the designer (and also model in real life) has her hands up above her head. The sleeve depth is a bit deceiving, not intentionally I’m sure.

Thanks to ‘Knitting is so fun’, (sorry I don’t know your real name), for your comment about altering the sleeve depth. I have found that, whenever I try to alter a pattern, it never works out for me. And maybe I’m not prepared to rip things out a million times to make it perfect, I’m not that kind of knitter. For me knitting is supposed to be somewhat relaxing, I want it to be right to start with, if not the first, then definitely the second time.

So maybe… I’m thinking about continuing. I’ll probably decrease the sleeves at a faster rate, so that I don’t get total batwings, but they’re still going to be huge, and I have to be okay with that. The body will be better fitted, so it shouldn’t end up being a sack on me, hopefully.

You see, in this week of contemplation, I wasn’t so upset about putting the cardigan aside. I was bummed because I still really wanted this cardigan. I’ve been looking at what to knit next and I can’t move past this, I really want some plain wardrobe staples. So let’s see.

The Un-Calm Down Cardigan

| Sonia Knits

So I haven’t told you, but I’d already restarted knitting The Calm Down DK cardigan once. It happened after Knit Night one week a few weeks ago, when something Karen said about row gauge triggered me. Long story short – my row gauge didn’t match the front left piece I was knitting, and I restarted the cardigan on smaller needles.

The new row gauge on 3.5mm needles still didn’t match the gauge of 22 sts on 32 rows (it had hardly changed), it was still in fact close to the gauge I acheived with 4mm needles which was about 28 rows, but the fabric was denser and I thought that it would be okay. Surely I couldn’t knit this on smaller needles?!

Fast forward to this weekend when I joined the fronts to the back after the armholes, I laid my knitting down over some of my knits from my wardrobe to compare.

The sleeves were going to be larger than my Pressed Flowers Sweater… yes that is a bad thing

Rather than investing anymore knitting time into this cardigan. I’m calling it… it’s being ripped out. I may never attempt to knit this cardigan again. I don’t think I’ve ever given up on a garment, but I’m glad I’ve made this decision at this point rather than thinking it was still going to work out, it’s not.

Good news is, I’m ready for a new cast-on for October 🙂 the next cast on has to be a winner.

The Beanie line-up

| Sonia Knits

Today, the fourth and final knitted beanie for 2024 was given to it’s recipient. So now I can show you the best bit; shiny, happy beanie people!

This is my brother, he works outdoors and gets up early to do it. Not sure how this is only the first beanie I’ve knit him, I know it won’t be the last.

This is an old colleague of mine (old, as in, I haven’t worked with him for about 18 months) who retired a couple of weeks ago. He always showed great interest in my crafting and yearly trips to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show. He’s a super nice guy, very knowledgable and helpful.

This is our friend, who is an amazing chef. I saw her chefing in the kitchen with a store bought beanie in the depths of winter, and I felt she deserved better. She loves her new beanie!

This is Tim, one of D’s oldest friends. He saw me knitting my brother’s beanie whilst I was in Bendigo and asked if I could knit him one. Of course I said I could, but there’s a queue!

I’m so glad I made the beanies for these people in my life. They were well received and I know they will be well used. For me, to see these photos, is so joyful. It makes the hours of knitting rows and rows of stocking stitch so worthwhile.

Still knitting grey

| Sonia Knits

This morning I cast-off the last of my Beanie commitments for 2024. Four grey double-brimmed beanies (triple, if you count the fold-up) is more than enough for one season I think. Fortunately now that the weather is fining up a little, the desire to knit beanies for gifts has lessened, as has the demand.

The final charcoal beanie (which is for our friend Tim) is currently blocking, so just imagine the last beanie pictured here, twice. I have got modelled photos of the first three beanies on their recipients, but I’m going to wait until I have the fourth portrait to show them all to you at once. I’ve really enjoyed handing over the beanies to the first three recipients, they’ve all been very well received so far.

This weekend, I was really hoping to have a new garment cast-on, but I thought it would be best to get back to my Calm Down Cardigan, that I’ve hardly begun (from way back in April). Sadly, it’s also grey, which really is not a joyful colour to knit for months on end. I just really want the finished thing, because I’ll get so much wear out of it. The yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic, in the identical colour of the Bendigo Classic beanies. An unfortunate coincidence, but isn’t it lovely?

I’m very happy to get back to my projects and plans after this unplanned diversion into beanie knitting. Perhaps next weekend I’ll give myself permission to start something new.

The Beanie Queue

| Sonia Knits

I don’t knit a lot for others, so when I do, you can bet it means a lot to me.

This winter I knit my brother a beanie, I can’t believe it’s his first one from me. He absolutely loves it, and I’m stoked.

I saw a friend who I felt definitely needed one of my beanies; she was cooking in the kitchen whilst wearing a store-bought beanie. Knitters don’t let friends wear store-bought beanies! I twisted her arm to ‘allow’ me to knit her one.

Then over the Sheep Show weekend, another friend saw me knitting my brother’s beanie and wanted one too. He was pretty envious and pretty upfront about asking for one. Of course I said yes, … but there’s a queue.

After the Bendigo weekend the woolliest weekend of the year, I found I needed to buy new yarn for this beanie queue! Both Thi and Tim wanted a charcoal coloured hat, and believe it or not, I didn’t have spare ‘beanie’ yarn in my stash for that. Sure I had a jumpers worth of charcoal yarn, but I wasn’t going to sacrifice a large project for a couple of hats.

I placed an order with Bendigo Woollen Mills, for a selection of yarns that I thought could work.

I bought two balls of their Classic 8 ply in Charcoal, which is great, because that’s the colour both Thi and Tim selected. Bendigo ‘Classic’ is a crepe-plied yarn. I’ve never been a fan of crepe yarns, but my opinion changed once I cast-on for Thi’s beanie.

The texture of the crepe is really ‘nice’ to knit. It’s a well-structured yarn, but still soft and not scratchy. And Bendigo Woollen Mills has an extensive colour range in ‘Classic’ much more so than their Luxury range. Why have I not noticed this before? I’m now looking at their colour card in a completely new way. Deep Rose I’m looking at you.

Whilst I had cast-on for Thi’s beanie… I got an invite to an older colleague’s retirement lunch. I knew this colleague was retiring, but I wasn’t aware of exactly when. So the order of the queue has changed once again. Damian at this rate may get a new beanie in time for next winter.

With the short deadline, it turns out I can knit Petite Knit’s Oslo hat in 2 weekend days.

This is Richard’s beanie in Luxury 8 ply in Blue Denim, it has been cast off and is currently blocking. I hope he likes it and thinks of me and my Bendigo adventures when he wears it. In the time that I’ve worked with him (12.5 years), he indulged me, by listening to my stories from the sheep show weekends with great interest, what a guy.

Crochet Mojo

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My crochet mojo is back baby!

I’ve recently picked up my Nimue blanket (designed by Shelley Husband) once again. Completing the centre square ‘Avalon’ and getting back to the 24 Caltha squares that lay around it’s perimeter.

This Saturday, I took a class with the designer of this blanket at Sunspun. I took along my Avalon block to the ‘Sit and Crochet’ which was held in the morning to show Shelley. It was great to spend some time with Shelley, chatting and laughing along until we got to the serious stuff in the afternoon. Sunspun is my local yarn store, but I don’t get there very often. It is such a nice welcoming space, the owner Virginia is lovely and some of my friends also work there.

The class I took was ‘Granny Square Academy 2’. Having made all of the squares in Granny Square Academy 1, I thought this class would be fun. I was not wrong. It did take a little brain power, but there were lots of laughs along the way!

I really enjoyed making the 2 squares Shelley selected for us to undertake. ‘Invisible Jesse’ is really cool and 3D, one of my favourite squares ever. I’m now all inspired to finish my Nimue blanket, but there’s still loads to go.

Meanwhile, I’ve knit my brother a beanie. I’ve never knit him one before, I don’t think it will be the last one either. I’ve also cast-on a DK weight pair of socks for Damian, which are working up super fast. I think I’ve finally gotten to the bottom of the fit issues for Damian’s socks, with a 3 inch heel flap, the first sock fits him like a glove.

I now have more ‘orders’ for more beanies from other friends (I’m also inclined to make the Oslo hat for Damian). Damian has selected the yarn for his 2nd pair of DK socks, surprisingly pink and green! And I’m thinking about picking up that cardigan I started a few months ago. And I’m thinking about my next sweater cast-on… so many things 🙂

Bendigo 2024!

| Sonia Knits

I’m home, exhausted and I’m wondering how my time in Bendigo went so fast. It must mean I had a really great time.

I won a prize in the Woolcraft competition! It was for my Paul Klee Sweater pictured above. Competition was really tough this year and I feel very fortunate to have been awarded a third in the Sweater category for 4ply.

The displays of work were beautiful, and I think the best ever in terms of how items were presented.

This year, the Richmond Knitters made garments and accessories from the Pressed Flowers patterns by Amy Christophers. Wearing them altogether, certainly got a lot of attention. It made the weekend super fun too.

We saw the Woolcraft Fashion parade on Saturday morning, it was amazing. We visited the sheep, and even saw a baby lamb on it’s birthday! This is my older sis in the 3rd photo above.

Here are my Bendigo purchases for 2024… the shopping list was thrown out for day 2 at the show. I found it too limiting, by the things I needed, rather than the things that sang to me. So I had a very joyous time, by the looks of things. Now to dream of all the things I can make with these. If you would like to check out all the specifics, I’ve added them to my Ravelry page. And that’s it for another year of the Sheep Show.