Yarn Along – Garance Sweater

January 14, 2015January 11, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Welcome to another week of Yarn Along with Ginny, you can go see what everyone is up to this week by following the links on her blog.

I got a moment at the weekend (and some not too hot weather) to have a couple of photos taken with my finished sweater! As you know it was a ‘Use it or Lose it’ project, so there was a lot riding on it’s success.

I haven’t had the opportunity to wash the sweater yet, so I’m interested to see how much the Habu Silk Gima will soften up in the process. I’m not really fussed if it doesn’t, there’s something about the crunchy texture that appeals to me.

Despite it’s lacey ‘look’ the sweater is quite warm to wear. It is 100% silk, which i think deceives a lot of people into thinking it’s a ‘cool’ fibre because it hasn’t come off a sheep back. When in fact, in my experience it’s quite a cosy fibre to wear.

Having completed the knitting and sewing up, there was still a little yarn left on the cone. I was able to slide the leftover off to weigh (and slide it back onto the cone). Woe, there is still a third left. What-to-do-what-to-do. For now it goes back into the stash, I could perhaps make a little vest out of the left-over, or if any of my friends would like it for themselves, please let me know so that I can do this fine yarn some justice. I would love that, it would be exciting to see it reach it’s full potential as a ‘Use it or Lose it’ yarn.

I have been eyeing off my other UIOLI projects and am thinking about casting on another one very soon. At this rate there won’t be any ‘dregs’ in my stash by next year.

I’m so close to completing Kafka on the Shore, such disturbing weirdness, oh how will it end? Not well for some characters I’m tipping.

2014 Knitting Review

January 2, 2015 | Sonia Knits

As with every year, I like to reflect on the things I’ve made in the past year right about now, so that I can plan a rough direction* for my knitting in the coming year. *I’m aware I have no control over the direction of my knitting, when so many cute babies enter my life.

I have 19 new Finished Objects completed in 2014, that’s 4 projects up on the previous year.

The year began with finishing Damian’s Jayne Hat on the 1st of January (that was good thinking). Then there was Featherweight, which I love despite thinking about adding some i-cord buttonholes to keep the fronts closed. But… I haven’t done it yet.

Then Ysolda’s first mystery shawl knit-along happened. It was a lot of fun to be a part of, mainly because everyone in the Richmond Knitters got involved and knit along. I ended giving the shawl to Damian’s mum. By all reports she was very happy to receive it.

William, my nephew arrived finally! He is so terribly cute, he got 2 knits pretty early on in the piece. Then I realised he was a pretty HOT baby and perhaps my efforts were a little wasted here. He still uses my blanket lots though.

Then I did some more knitting. I made a Colour Affection which had been on my list since Veera published the pattern. I made some mitts for a colleague, socks for me and more knits for babies.

I completed my first Use It or Lose It project, which resulted in a Hooray Cardigan for me. I signed up for Ysolda’s Knitworthy gift-along KAL. Despite all the patterns being wonderful, so far I’ve only knit the first pattern, the Bronntanas Hat. Then there was another cowl for me and some mitts for Damian. I completed the year by knitting a wee Cria, for my new niece with my name-sake.

In summary, I knit 8 things for me in 2014: 2 cardigans, 3 pairs of socks, 1 shawl, 1 cowl and 1 hat. I knitted 11 things for others: 1 hat, 1 shawl, 5 baby cardigans, 1 baby vest, 2 pairs of mitts and 1 baby blanket.

This year I’m hoping to knit more garments and socks for me, and just more of everything! I must also get back to my ‘Use It Or Lose It’ list… I was kind of hoping these projects would have been sorted by now, and I could think about whether there are any other dregs in my stash. Perhaps not?!

How was your knitting year?

H-O-L-I-D-A-Y-S-!

December 21, 2014 | Sonia Knits

I love stay-at-home holidays. Today is the longest possible time before I go back to work and I hope to have the funnest time away from my desk.

I want to finish off the year right, knitting all the things and spinning all the things; relax; organise; cuddle babies and read…

I got my last instalment of the Stranded in Oz club in the mail this week, it is wonderful. Melissa is a very talented dyer and the nicest person to boot, passion, passion, passion. How stunning does this look?

A few weeks ago my November SCF club also arrived… another very happy mail day.

And I’ve finished my baby niece’s Wee Cria. I think it will look really sweet on her. But when to give it to her?

Now to crochet up as many Noro patches as possible for our new blanket, before Santa comes and brings another 8 balls… sound relaxing to you?

Yarn Along – Ridiculous knitting

December 3, 2014December 2, 2014 | Sonia Knits

Summer is here and today I presented Damian with his mitts to model for me. A truly ridiculous notion to regular people, when it’s 34 degrees out. But for a Knitter and the people in her life, this is nothing out of the ordinary.

They weren’t a difficult knit, just fiddly when it came to the fingers. I also found on the second mitt that my spinning wasn’t the same thickness, the first mitt is slightly chunkier. So far D hasn’t mentioned it, perhaps with the sweat dripping from his palms he hasn’t checked things out too closely!

I don’t have a lot of other knitting to report on. With a visit to my new niece this weekend and her sleeping pleasantly in my arms, every now and again opening up her eyes for a little peek, I’m a little smitten.

Wee Cria is going to happen, I hope, does anyone know how to do magic? There will be 2 Wee Cria’s at the same time. A 6-9 month size and a 3 year old size. That gives me about 6 months to knit both in case I fall down. That’s sensible right? I’m discovering that perhaps knitting for M is a good investment of time, because at least C will get to wear my knits too.

A dismal amount of reading has been done this week on The Valley of Amazement. Mainly before work, because I’m waking up earlier than I’m physically required, so why not?

You can see what everyone else is up to this week by going to Ginny’s blog. See you next week.

Peek-a-boo: It’s a Chickadee!

November 24, 2014 | Sonia Knits

If you recall a few weeks ago, I gave you a snippet of a photo which showed some secret knitting?

Well I’ve presented Louisa with my surprise knitting gift so now I can do the big reveal, I’ve made her a Chickadee!

It was pretty fun to make. The pattern comes from Ysolda’s Wee ones collection. It has so many cute patterns in it, they are miniature versions of some of her adult garments.

Louisa was surprised! and I was thrilled, aren’t knitters the best people to make for?

Yarn Along – Yellow

October 29, 2014October 27, 2014 | Sonia Knits

For the longest time, I’ve never been a big fan of the colour yellow. I’ve always been afraid of it, I couldn’t imagine wearing it. I always thought that it was because I have yellow (blonde) hair.

But then something happened. It’s been a slow and gradual process, but I’ve started moving toward yellow. Not all yellows though, lets take it one step at a time. Below is my first acquisition of yellow, delicious and buttery.

~~I finally gave in and~~ I dropped into Sunspun on the weekend. A well-placed picnic across the road was all the reason I needed for a visit. Wow it’s changed, quite a bit. It’s fabulous!

There were so many new yarns I felt it took some time to get my bearings. It’s a totally new store, what a treat!

I picked up some naturally dyed yarn, (the yellow) and this deep orange… another unusual colour for me, what’s going on?!

All I know is, there is a puffy yellow jacket at Uniqlo that is calling my name.

Whilst at Sunsoun, I also picked up the Stashbot publication by Hannah Fettig. I thought it would be quite useful to take with me to Stitches.

In the mail this week, I received my Stranded in Oz club instalment. It’s truly stunning to look at, yum.

This week I completed my secret project…

And I began reading Amy Tan’s ‘The Valley of Amazement‘.

I’m also on Aunty watch, and getting a little bit excited.

See what everyone else is knitting and reading this week by checking out Ginny’s blog.

Yarn Along – Hurrah, an FO!

October 22, 2014October 19, 2014 | Sonia Knits

Welcome to another week of Yarn-Along! To find out what everyone else is reading and knitting this week go to Ginny’s blog.

This week I completed my sister’s baby blanket, phew, the baby can arrive now and I’ve told my sister as much! Hopefully, I’ll have a couple of weeks to bask in the glory of having completed the blanket well-ahead of time…

I was browsing at books on my lunch-break one day this week and came upon a Mollie Makes Crochet book. I was really taken with this book and the number of cute projects it contains for the cover price of less than $15, it was a no-brainer to grab it. It also provided some much needed inspiration for the baby blanket border. The granny square blanket design in it, had a fabulous stripy border. I ditched the idea of the single colour frame and improvised.

It’s also been a very good mail week…

I finally stumped up for the shipping and bought these 2 marvellous books (and their pdfs), I’m so excited to be able to knit a couple of these projects, next year could be a sweater knitting year, and maybe a blanket year… sprinkled with some socks.

The latest installment of David’s SCF club also arrived, that man is a magician.

I’ve been listening to Outlander once again this week, it got me through that crochet border! It’s fabulous and the reader makes it so enjoyable. It’s time for a new book on my Kindle though.

Have a great week!

Yarn Along – Not one but two FOs!

October 1, 2014September 30, 2014 | Sonia Knits

So last week I promised to present some Finished Objects this week, easier said than done when you have a mountain of newly casted-on projects.

But being a Knitter, is about being a planner, an organiser and a strategiser! Taking a look at my Ravelry projects page (oh what joy it gives me to look at my WIPs all day long and I’m not joking), I took stock of all my projects and what stage everything was at.

Due to my Use It or Lose It strategy I have a number of WIPs on my page that are in actual fact not started, they’re there to remind me of my obligations to my ‘deep’ stash. I removed a UILI single skein project, because what harm would ‘returning’ a single skein of hand painted yarn to stash theoretically do? Not exactly an FO, but it was one less UFO.

Then, I cast-off my Honey Cowl and wore it for exactly one day before it got hot last week, and now I’m dreaming of a time when I can wear this for reals, please note I’m wearing a t-shirt in this picture. As expected my patience gave up before I ran out of yarn for this project, it was the never-ending cowl with a never-ending ball of alpaca yarn. I have exactly 50 grams left, I think it would be enough for mitts if I could be bothered.

Then, I turned my attentions to Ysolda’s Bronntanas Hat, the first ‘Knitworthy’ project i cast on a couple of weeks ago. It’s another small project, and I wasn’t going to let some twisted stitches get in my way of delivering on my promise. After beginning with a cable needle to cross the stitches, I switched to twisting the stitches and turning them over on the needles as I went. Success! This hat flew off my needles. Except, rightly or wrongly, I went from knitting the largest sized hat to the smallest, so my once slouchy hat is now snug… I still think the hat is adorable, and I’m contemplating whether this Knitworthy project will indeed reside in my gift box for the appropriate recipient (someone with a smaller head than mine). If I made it again for myself, I think I’d knit the medium size and hope for the best.

There it is, 2 FOs for you. All the while I’ve been working on my sisters crochet blanket, I think I’ve really outdone myself this time, it’s going to be hard to top with the next baby in the family. Oh the expectation, this is turning out just like Easters at home where my siblings and I decorated eggs, with improvements each year to design and techniques, who knows where this will end up? For the record I never got into egg craft/sculpting, that’s just crazy.

I’m still listening to Outlander (it’s the best) and reading ‘My Life in Stitches’ during some lunchtimes. I’m still to pick out my next serious kindle book to read, at this stage I’m considering Haruki Murakami’s new book. I think I’m ready.

You should go check out what everyone else is reading and crafting at Ginny’s blog this week.