It seems I haven’t knit Damian anything for quite some time, so for his birthday this year I decided to continue my tradition of gifting hand-knit socks.
Damian is quite fond of the humble bin chicken, so when I spotted the colourwork chart in the Pacific Knits Sydney Doodle Deck, I knew I had to knit him this pair.
The self-striping yarn and solid contrast colours are from my favourite local dyer, Halfbaked Hand-Dyed (aka Danni).
I presented the socks to Damian while they were still a little damp, and he very kindly tried them on for me anyway. They fit beautifully, although the first sock is a little snugger around the colourwork. As these are knit in DK weight, I used 3 mm needles with the magic loop method. By the time I started the second sock, I remembered that I actually owned a 3 mm short circular needle, which made it much easier to keep my colourwork relaxed. The difference is noticeable, with the second sock having a little more give.
I could always frankenstein the first sock and re-knit the colourwork section, but Damian doesn’t seem at all bothered by it – and, if I’m honest, I’m rather relieved. It means I can cast on a new garment for myself instead. Yippee!
Well, that was an absolutely insane weekend! Luckily, I have today off to recuperate, catch up on life, and recover from all the excitement.
Damian and I headed up to Bendigo a few days before the Australian Sheep and Wool Show officially kicked off on Friday. Arriving early gave me the perfect opportunity to visit Bendigo Woollen Mills before it was flooded with knitters. On the drive into Bendigo, I received a very exciting email from the mill announcing that the final limited release of Wollemi had just launched, featuring seven brand-new shades. I’d been looking forward to this release for ages!
Damian very kindly dropped me off at the mill before heading to our accommodation. The Factory Shop, as it was once known, has been beautifully renovated and expanded, with plenty more space to browse, squish yarn, and shop.
Then Friday rolled around, and the show began!
One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing so many of the Richmond Knitters wearing their Celeste Sweaters. We’d chosen the pattern as our knit-along for this year’s show, and it was wonderful to gather everyone together for 2 group photos. If you have a keen eye, you might even spot my sister, who is visiting from Perth this week.
Some of us also attended the Women of Wool Lunch, which was another fantastic event. It was lovely to catch up with everyone, enjoy a delicious meal, and celebrate our shared love of wool and fibre crafts.
Of course, no Sheep and Wool Show would be complete without a little (or perhaps a lot of!) yarn shopping. This year’s haul includes purchases from my Wednesday visit to Bendigo Woollen Mills, along with plenty more from Friday and Saturday at the show. It’s certainly a substantial stash addition, but I’m absolutely thrilled with everything I brought home, and I’m fairly confident I didn’t leave anything behind!
Saturday was another wonderful day. I got to pat some beautiful sheep, spend time admiring the incredible Woolcraft Competition entries, and catch up with all of my sisters. Two of them made the trip just for the day, and we were also joined by Damian’s mum and some of our friends.
We couldn’t resist taking a few more Celeste photos on Saturday.
On Saturday evening, we gathered for our annual Bendigo dinner. As always, it was a fantastic night filled with good food, wonderful company, and plenty of laughter.
It was an amazing weekend, as it is every year. Now I’m looking forward to settling back into my regular routine, sorting through my new yarn, and deciding which projects to cast on first.
After finishing my sister’s socks last week, my attention naturally turned to the next pair on my knitting queue: Damian’s birthday socks. Keeping this project under wraps is going to be a challenge, but if I can at least keep one key design element a secret, I’ll be happy knowing there’s still a bit of surprise left.
These socks will feature a small colourwork section, which meant I had to buy some extra yarn. “But Sonia, don’t you already have a sock yarn stash for every eventuality?” I hear you ask. Not in 8-ply, I don’t! The additional yarn is due to arrive tomorrow…
In the meantime, I’ve turned my attention back to my Marlene socks. I’m finally back in the groove with them, and I’m keen to get them finished, especially since they were cast on back in February 2025! This would also be the perfect opportunity to make some progress on my Nimue crochet blanket, but with Damian’s sock yarn arriving so soon, there isn’t much time before a new project inevitably jumps onto the needles.
I completed making the pair of (secret) Flamingo socks… this afternoon! About 2 hours before the birthday dinner for my sister Silvia. I’ve never knit so close up to a deadline, let alone wet-block right before gifting, hilarious! And weirdly I was quite calm about it. The socks were handed over a little damp and on sock blockers.
My sister was thrilled, as was I. I feel as though the socks are a perfect representation of Silvia, what a design brief! The flamingos, the tropical themed self-striping yarn (by HodgePodge fibres) and the co-ordinating cuff and heel (Lang Jawoll). Thank you extensive sock yarn collection! The other yarns used included, Advent mini skeins for the Flamingos and flowers and the white is Patons Patonyle.
The Flamboyant Flamingos pattern is by Charlotte Stone. After knitting these socks, I would highly recommend her patterns. I feel other designers don’t tackle the ‘getting the colourwork over the heel’ situation very well. Just going up a needle size, is not going to cut it. Charlotte has you increase your stitch count before the colourwork section (in this case by 8 sts), and then decrease back down after the colourwork. Huzzah! I have the formula for unlocking knitting colourwork socks and can apply these principles to other colourwork sock patterns not necessarily by Charlotte.
The creative juices are flowing for the next surprise pairs. But I’ll need to keep these under wraps until after the gifting, as the recipients are readers of the blog. You know me, I don’t want to spoil a surprise.
We’ve just arrived home after a wonderful weekend at Tarndie (also known as Tarndwarncoort), a working Polwarth sheep farm that also offers cosy accommodation; and is home to lots and lots of sheep. At this time of year, it’s also full of adorable baby lambs. Squee!
If you remember Damian’s surprise birthday gift to me, it was a weekend away at Tarndie where I got to name a baby lamb. It was such a blissful escape. We woke each morning to the sound of baaing sheep, and from our bedroom window all we could see were sheep grazing across the paddocks. It was peaceful, relaxing, and exactly what we needed.
I’m holding ‘Evie’, when she grows up I’m going to spin her fleece. It turns out Damian really loves sheep too…
It’s just as well we were only staying for a couple of nights, any longer and he might have tried to adopt the whole flock!
Tom and Jason are exceptional hosts who make you feel right at home. If you’re looking for a peaceful country escape, I can’t recommend staying at Tarndie highly enough.
The farm made the perfect backdrop for photographing my finished Celeste Sweater. With the Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show now less than three weeks away, I can’t wait to spend another weekend surrounded by sheep, wool, and wonderful friends.
I have finished knitting my Celeste Sweater, hurrah! I’ll endeavour to have some photos taken for next time.
Since then, I’ve cast on for my next pair of secret gift socks. I decided to have another crack at knitting colourwork socks for this pair. I thought of the perfect pattern, for my Flamingo, tropical loving sister. By all accounts Charlotte Stone’s patterns seem to manage the float fit issues that other sock designers have not, so I used her pattern: Flamboyant Flamingos.
I began knitting these on Saturday… I knit all of Sunday… I knit on these at Knit Night on Monday night… then…
I woke up on Tuesday, and all of a sudden, a little voice that I hadn’t heard all weekend… said I have to start again, very, very loudly! But as one last check… I blocked half a sock, I’ve never done that before, smacks of desperation doesn’t it?
The wet blocking only improved my uneven colourwork slightly. The yarn for the background of the colourwork is Lang Yarns Jawoll superwash. It feels like a thinner yarn, and not super soft. I also think the colour contrast between the background and the flamingos was not enough. I love the varigation in the flamingos, so the background colour needed to go.
After much yarn stash pondering, I’ve cast on again. This time I’m going to use Patons Patonyle in white for the background, it blooms nicely when washed, and will be a good contrast with the flamingo colour. I’m also going to make a concerted effort at using 9 inch circulars for the colourwork section. I used magic loop the first time.
I may have been hinting at this a little for a couple of months. Today is the big reveal… (Because I do have one of my sister’s read my blog, hi Suzy! I kind of needed to keep it under wraps until now). I’m knitting socks for my siblings this year! Their birthdays are somewhat spaced out, so I feel as though this is an achievable goal.
My sock drawer is full, I’m drowning (in a good way) in sock yarn; and I love knitting socks. I thought this was a great solution to getting my sock yarn stash down, except I’m still buying sock yarn faster than I’m knitting socks. Nevermind that!
Today we’re catching up as a family for one of my sister’s birthdays, and also for my niece who has turned 19 this month. When I completed my sister’s socks, I thought, maybe I should do a quick pair of 8ply socks for my niece, her feet are probably not going to get any bigger!
So I knit Lily up a pair in Halfbaked hand-dyed yarn in DK rainbow. Who doesn’t love a rainbow on their feet? These are a basic pair of socks with a Partridge heel, super fancy. I hope she loves them.
I also knit 2 pairs for my youngest sister, not sure I’ll be able to knit 2 pairs for all of my siblings, but I felt that I needed to show my appreciation for all that she does.
The neon self-striping Vanilla socks are also in a 4ply yarn by Danni from Halfbaked hand dyed. The varigated socks are in a DK yarn by The Knitting Man Recommends, with the cuff and toe yarn also by Danni. These are the Hibernal Socks by Summer Lee. I think they turned out really pretty and are nice and chunky for the cold weather we’ve been having in Melbourne.
I can’t wait to cast on my next pair of socks, but that birthday is just 1 month away. The colourway I’ve selected, I think suitably matches that sister! So fun.
Melbourne Fibrefest, formally known as The Coburg Market or the HandKnitters Guild Market, was on this weekend!
Now you know, I don’t need anymore yarn, but the Coburg market to me is like an amuse-bouche to the Sheep Show in Bendigo! All the best Melbourne Indy dyers attend and it starts the yarn purchasing juices flowing!
I like to get there early, in case Danni has some one-off self-striping balls of yarn. I was second in the queue… and Danni aka Half-baked hand dyed did not disapoint! She did move spots this year, so I dashed right past her at the start! Picture the Myer Boxing Day Sales of the 90’s 🙂
I also did lots of chatting to friends, and stall holders, it was rather difficult to buy yarn! I got some ideas and saw lots of beautiful yarn… but I’m saving myself for Bendigo.
And then a few of us from the Knitting Group went to lunch afterwards.
The skeins of sock yarn have been photographed and added to my Ravelry stash page. The yarn itself is sitting in the overflowing baskets of sock yarn in my living room. Sock yarn is moving out of my stash (just not at the rate it is coming in).
A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for the My Creative Garage Advent Calendar! I’m super excited about it, not only because it is Japanese themed (Vanessa, the hand-dyer behind My Creative Garage was inspired by the 2(!) trips she took to Japan in the last year) I’m also super excited because if you recall, I took a year off from Yarn Advent Calendars last year, and I really missed it! December 2025 was kind of sad, and then hectic and stressful (mum was in hospital).
So this December, I know is guaranteed to be great! (I know it’s not, but there’s no harm in hoping)
And then on Monday night at Knit Night, Chris mentioned the Skein Advent Calendar was launching this week. And… I guess I signed up for that one as well. What’s better than one Advent Calendar, two Advent Calendars of course. I’m just making sure I have a really happy end to 2026!
I think I already know what I’ll be knitting with both calendars as well, colourful knits are the best knits! I actually get a lot of wear out of the garments I’ve made with previous Advent Calendars. I doubt I’ll be casting on in December, but it is joyous to see the new colours each day, and dream and plan about what they may become.
The Celeste Knit-along with the Richmond Knitters is going pretty well, some people have already finished!
I’m up to the boring bit, but a bit of plain stocking stitch is quite relaxing when things have been super busy at work.
Here’s where I’m up to. I’ve been tapering the body in at the sides, so that it doesn’t end up so oversized. I think it’s looking great when I try it on. So long as I don’t make it too long, it’s going to be a good fit.
Other fun things, Damian bought a hundred Yuzus a couple of weeks ago, that is 100 Yuzus, so funny. He’s really getting into making foods at home. He made Yuzu jam, yuzu butter, yuzu brandy and yuzu salt! No yuzu went to waste! This past weekend he also made Strawberry Jam. I’m supporting him in these fruitful endeavours as much as possible.
I also purchased this very cool Sock Knitting brooch from Erstwilder, and we got Carol (my MIL) the box of pencils, she loves it!
I’ve finished some socks (more on that and pictures next time), and I’ve just cast these ones on. I really hope to finish them in a couple of weeks, as they are a little gift. It’s part of my year of making socks for others.
Sonia Knits 