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.

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!

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

Wednesday WIPs – with added projects

November 4, 2015November 3, 2015 | Sonia Knits

It’s been an interesting week, I’ve been casting on EVEN more things, so my ‘works in progress’ total is back to seven projects…

My first mitten is complete! I have the second one to go, but I’m getting distracted…

I did enjoy making this, and I learnt how to catch floats! I feel much more confident about doing fair-isle knitting now.

The next Seven Skeins club projects/s is/are a pair of fingerless mitts… which have not been cast-on despite my fearlessness last week. When it came to the crunch, I thought I might wait and see what the next project is and go from there.

This week I cast-on a much loved and anticipated project, my Watermelon socks. This yarn is hand-dyed by Abi Grosso and it’s just plain beautiful. It makes me so happy to knit with this yarn. This is also my only mindless project on the needles at the moment, so I’m savouring it a little. At the Richmond Knitters knit night this week, I got rather excited when I got around to my second repeat of ‘pips’ and the second round matched up with a couple of pips, oh the excitement! Abi is a genius!

And because there is so much love for this yarn, there is two photos of virtually the same thing.

I’ve decided to do the cuff, heel and toes in some left-over Wollmeise. Checking out the Rav projects with this yarn, I preferred the heel in particular being a solid colour rather than the pattern continuing through. By using an alternative yarn for the cuff, heel and toes this also means I could just about get 2 pairs out of this yummy yarn.

And then, because it’s just ticked over to November, I’ve joined the Brioche-along with Louisa from the Richmond Knitters. I’d decided to knit the Askews Me Hat by Stephen West, in my handspun yarn. Which sounded great in theory…

But then after I got something that looked like a cowl instead of a hat, I chose a more lighter weight yarn and went down a needle size.

As I was knitting it the second time, I was still getting odd stitches at the start and end of rows and around the decrease and increase sections. I couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong, and the pattern was not giving me any clues, it just recommends taking a Craftsy class with Nancy Marchant. When I’ve paid A$8.57 I kind of expect more from a stand alone hat pattern. I am a little disappointed and my project is now in the naughty corner. I don’t think I’ve ever had a project confined to this place before. Learning new things can be trying… I already have the Craftsy class mentioned, but I think it’s a little unfair to not provide clear instruction in the first place ~~or to provide a pattern that is free from errors (I’m not sure which it is yet)~~, or to expect people to purchase further resources to understand your instructions after they’ve purchased your pattern. There I said it.

Maybe it will make sense tomorrow.

Just a little housekeeping:

Thanks for all the comments lately, it’s nice to be reminded someone is out there reading my blog.

Also the Louisa Harding Shingle is on it’s way to Noemie who was the first commenter on the blog about the Shingle going to a good home. I can’t wait to see what it becomes!

Wednesday WIPs – A FO or so

October 21, 2015October 18, 2015 | Sonia Knits

With the excitement and anticipation of the Seven Skeins Club beginning last week, I thought it was time to finish up a pair of socks that had been on my ‘brainless knitting project’ pile for too long a time now. So old that Debs enquired ‘I’ve seen those before Sonia?’ at knit night last week. Right, I thought!

Here they are:

They are Opal socks in the Rainforest colour way.

I used Susan B. Anderson’s How I Make My Socks pattern. It is essentially a basic cuff down sock pattern, my favourite way to knit socks.

I knit the leg using 2.25mm needles, then I switched to 2mm needles when turning the heel for the remainder of the foot. My socks have a snugger feel when I do this. Ah sock Utopia!

My Bingo card is looking a little better this week:

Although this is mainly due to my Kate Davies colour work socks. My Opal socks FO haven’t got a box to be crossed off!

p.s. If anyone wants to claim 5.5 balls of Louisa Harding Shingle, it’s yours, just leave a comment. That’s my ‘Lose it’ box sorted.

Wednesday WIPs – Stuff and stuff

October 14, 2015October 13, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I took my knitting on a mini break over the weekend.

It wasn’t far, but the change of scenery and no house chores, made it an excellent escape.

I took three WIPs but as per usual, I only worked on one.

As well as that, it’s been a pretty amazing mail week for me.

I got a skein of Fab Funky Fibres, and a couple of mini skeins. (My excuse for buying yarn this time around, was that it was a tiny bonus from work, so it was FREE money).

I also received my second last Cookie A sock club, someone at knit night described it as Latté. I’m not sure I love the colour, but the skein itself feels amazing.

And Kate Davies Seven Skeins club arrived! It is tremendously exciting, I’m not sure whether to cake up my yarn yet, or wait for the release of the first pattern on Friday. I think I’ll just look at it for now. The race is definitely on to keep up with Sharon.

My UIOLI Shingle project is finished! It needs a good bath before wearing it. I’m pretty contented with it. The only downside is that about half the yarn still remains…

My bingo game is a lot harder than it first seemed. For instance, I’ve totally screwed up with the square that say’s ‘NO NEW YARN’. I might need to revise my Bingo card next month…

Bingo/Binge Knitting

October 4, 2015 | Sonia Knits

As an avid listener to the Stash and Burn podcast. I thought it was about time I participated in another one of their initiatives, if not ‘cold sheeping’ (ahahahahaha) then why not some Bingo?!

I’m having fun already!

It has been a long weekend here in Melbourne, which has given me the opportunity to take stock of where all my projects are at. At the start of this week I had 7 WIPs. And I kind of wanted to change that or at least for the WIPs to be evolving/finishing/new wips.

Laying them all out in full view helped form a strategy, (not pictured is the hexagon crochet blanket or Cookie A’s June socks), or at least helped form my Bingo card. I included aspects of these 7 WIPs in my Bingo card for the month, and then I included other things, fun things and things not yet started. The idea is that if I cross off a row of goals, there’s a reward for getting Bingo. But just achieving a row of these things for me is a reward in itself… besides I have yarn, fibre and more yarn flying towards me this month, so really…

My Cookie A socks for June are finished, and I love them. I loved knitting them. My favourite kind of Cookie A socks, cuff down, charted, no cables.

When I got these done, my other WIPs were staring me in the face.

Particularly this one. The Louisa Harding ‘Shingle’ project. It’s been on my Use It Or Lose It list for well over a year. It was time to find out what it was going to be.

I decided on the Safire cardigan by Hilary Smith Callis. It was either going to be this or nothing, was my decision. A little cropped cardigan, that I can wear over little summer dresses.

Then I Binged Knit it…

And now I’m up to the ribbing of the body…

It looks like it might be a keeper, I’m going to have to keep knitting to find out.

Meanwhile, I’m terrified about the other plans that are forming in my head. I think I’m going to be left with at least 3 balls when this is over. I’m afraid I might be considering making a matching ‘niece’ ballerina cardigan. The never-ending yarn! But how cute would niece M look in that?

Wednesday WIPs – Niece cuddles

September 30, 2015September 29, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I’ve met my newest, latest, freshest niece!

And I’m already pretty in love with her.

I’m sure she’s going to love me too…

One day, but maybe not today.

I’m playing catch-up with my Cookie A sock club socks, if I can just get these ones finished tonight…

Then I’ll just have these to do before my next parcel arrives in about 2 weeks…
That’s do-able right?

I’ve been listening to How to Kill a Mocking Bird read by Sissy Spacek. I’m enjoying it very much, no spoilers please, I don’t know how it ends… I hope it’s happy.

Wednesday WIPS and a Baby FO

September 23, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Today I was going to talk to you about the six pairs of socks I darned last weekend…

It took quite some time…

And I began to realise why I’m a knitter and not a sewer.

Because knitting is so much funner. (Can you see the knitting-in nylon holding it together?!)

But then after a day and a half of darning… it was like I made 6 pairs of hand knit socks, I guess that was time well spent.

But more excitingly I have to tell you my niece arrived today. I got to the point where I thought she was never going to arrive!

Just in time to sew on 2 teeny tiny buttons on to the Joey cardigan, then a wee visit and a cuddle with my 9th niece / nephew.

I’m pretty excited about that, and I didn’t even have to do anything!

Sonia Knits

The adventures of a Melbourne Knitter

Finished Object