Yarn Along – Knit wave

January 7, 2015January 6, 2015 | Sonia Knits

It seemed highly unlikely to me, that I was going to finish any of my works in progress before heading back to work this week. Ironically the heatwave was the impetus for great slothfulness and a whole lotta knitting.

I cast on for the second sleeve on my Garance sweater and set myself the challenge to see how fast I could get it done. The next step was to join both sleeves to the body and begin the raglan shaping. Following that, the rest was history. It all happened so quickly, what a rush!

My Garance sweater is finished! The photo above was taken a number of hours before the final stitch was cast-off, the collar sewn down and the armpits kitchenered. Due to the afore-mentioned heatwave I haven’t had a chance to take a modelled photo yet.

I am pretty pleased with the result, I popped it on after midnight on Sunday night and it was clear to me that I will always need to wear a t-shirt/shirt underneath this ensemble.

During this, I also listened to many hours of Kafka on the Shore, and it’s almost finished, just 4 hours left.

You can take a look and see what everyone else is knitting and reading this week for Yarn Along over on Ginny’s blog.

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?

Happy New Year – Yarn count

January 1, 2015December 30, 2014 | Sonia Knits

Happy New Year!

Today, I thought that in lieu of making any New Years resolutions, I would reveal my Ravelry yarn stash total in metres.

Many of you may recall I did this back in August of 2013. So I bet you’re all interested in what’s happened since then? I know I was mildly interested! I’ve done a little bit of de-stashing since then, plus some knitting and crocheting of course. But… I have continued to make thoughtful and considered yarn purchases, there is no denying it.

…Well of course I’ve gained milage! At first look I thought I hadn’t done too badly, an extra 1,100 metres…

…but no, I’ve gained about 11 sweaters of yarn: 11,000 metres to bring my old total from 237,565 metres

to my new total of

248,623 metres

an increase of 4.7% for those so inclined.

How do I feel about this? Absolutely fine! I love my stash. I could make some ridiculous goal of decreasing my stash by next New Year, but as far as I’m concerned, if I love everything in my stash and it’s protected from baddies and I have the room to put it; what is there to be unhappy about?

In preparation for Stitches West which is about 7 weeks away (eep!) I’ve downloaded Hannah Fettig’s app called ‘StashBot‘. I’m so excited by this. I know that I’ll be overcome by stash fumes in the market hall at Stitches West and this app is really going to help me buy more yarn!

Now all I need is somewhere to put all the new yarn…

Yarn Along – New Years Eve

December 31, 2014December 30, 2014 | Sonia Knits

I wasn’t able to clear the slate on my knitting/crochet projects on this final day of the year. I think that’s almost a ridiculous notion unless you’re Sharon!

I’m up to the sleeves on my Garance sweater. Turns out, it’s a pretty fast knit. At times I’ve had to put it aside unfortunately, the Habu Silk Gima is incredibly hard on the hands, making the experience of knitting with it a little painful. On the upside, I think the texture is going to be quite nice to wear… over a long sleeve shirt.

10 ‘rosettes’ of my crochet blanket are complete. I’m sewing these up as I go, so I don’t have to deal with all of the sewing up at the end. Who wants that?

I’ve cast-on Cookie A’s ‘Arrow’ socks for me. It is one of the 2 yarns I hadn’t knitted from her club in 2013. I have a small desire to get the last 2 yarns made into socks before my first shipment of sock club in February. The yarn is Tanis yarns purple label MCN. It’s beautiful…

Thank you to Christine for my lovely new project bag, a great match for my new project! I’m very lucky to have sewers in my life, because I completely suck at that.

This week I’ve been listening to Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I’ve read a couple of his other books, but perhaps listening to them are even more enjoyable. There are a number of stories going on, and they seem to link in some unusual way, a bit ‘tripy’, but intriguing all the same. The recording is just 19 hours.

You can see what everyone else is knitting and reading this week by visiting Ginny’s blog for Yarn-Along.

Yarn Along – Christmas Eve

December 24, 2014 | Sonia Knits

Welcome to another week of yarn-along! Take a look at what everyone else is up to by visiting Ginny’s blog.

It’s Christmas eve and I’m feeling a little frazzled already. Last minute, oops and I just need to do this… and, oh I need to get that… meant that today was spent running around and then shopping for something to wear tomorrow, I kid you not.

Is it really Christmas eve? I’m hoping to pop the Carols on T.V. on in a few hours and chill out. I’m looking forward to seeing my nieces and nephews tomorrow and their sweet little faces.

I’ve finally finished Outlander book 1, but before I venture into book 2, I thought I would pause and listen to Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I’ve also dipped back into Amy Tan’s Valley of Amazement.

I’ve been knitting a bit on Garance by Julie Hoover, in my Use It Or Lose It yarn. I’m much happier with the stockinette section of the knitting than the ribbing where the stitches look loose and wonky. I think the look of this will improve once the fabric is washed. It’s early days to tell whether or not I’m going to like this garment; but you’ll be the first to know!

I’ve also been working on my hexagons, at last count I have 9 rosettes, and another one almost ready to be sewn up. I didn’t get through as many balls as I wanted to before Christmas, but there’s always tonight.

And I’ve been spinning. This is some of Kylie Gusset’s Cormo that she kindly dyed up for me eons ago. Gosh it’s really nice to spin… I think I’ll Navajo ply it, to give it some stripes. The fibre drafts beautifully.

I hope you all have a happy and safe Christmas.

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 – Wee progress

December 17, 2014 | Sonia Knits

This week I’ve been working on the first Wee Cria for my newest niece.

I’m just past the wee pockets and have purchased the wee buttons. I haven’t cast-on the second one for my older niece yet, I’m wondering whether I can sneak in some knitting for me, or whether guilt will take hold… it’s tough having cute nieces.

I’ve only got a wee bit left of the first Outlander left to listen to. I’m hoping the holidays will offer me some more time to catch up on all things.

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.

Yarn Along – Swatching

November 26, 2014November 25, 2014 | Sonia Knits

Welcome to another week of Yarn Along! Check out Ginny’s blog to see what everyone else is up to this week.

After completing my Istanbul socks this week, I was officially left with just one thing on the needles err… hook. That is my/our Noro hexagon blanket.

So I started looking around, as you do. Come-on you don’t expect me to finish an entire blanket before starting a new project do you?!

I looked at my projects page and more specifically my Use It, Or Lose It projects. Officially they’re on my projects page, but technically they have not been cast-on. They’re there to be more of a forceful reminder of the unloved yarn lurking in my stash.

I thought perhaps doing a little bit of swatching, might get me in the mood to take things further. That’s the nice thing about swatching, there’s no commitment and you can still walk away.

I thought about combining 2 of my UIOLI entries by combining the yarn, genius right? …

Well that was short lived. Whilst it’s pretty combining the two yarns, it made it thick like iron. If I went up a needle size I wouldn’t get the gauge close to any of my intended cardigans. I might just use the Louisa Harding yarn on it’s own as a little cropped summer cardigan to wear over dresses. And the hand-dyed Shiloh optim/silk… is still up in the air…

Then I thought I would have a crack at my Habu silk tape that I’ve had in my stash for quite some time. Every time I see Steven from Dairing yarns, he asks me if I’ve used it, and I’ve had to say ‘no’. I kind of would like to go back and visit and say that I have!

I got gauge for what I wanted. And I’ve cast-on Julie Hoover’s Garance. The texture and feel of the Habu tape is unlike anything I’ve ever knit with. ‘Frightened’, only begins to describe how I feel about making a sweater out of something that feels so foreign to wool. I hope it’s a success and not a disaster, I think the only way to find out is to knit the whole thing. Oh fun.

Meanwhile, I’ve decided to whip up a pair of fingerless gloves for Damian. They’ve been on my to-do pile since winter. At least I’ll be taking all the pressure off myself next winter…

I’m making them out of my hand-spun. It’s a merino/silk blend. The fibre was blended up on Sharon’s drum carder and spun long ago. Knitting with my hand-spun is wonderful, there should be more of it.

There’s not much to report on the reading front I’m afraid, I’ve been frantically knitting/crocheting in my down time and unsuccessfully shopping for Christmas gifts in my lunchtimes. There’s been more Outlander listening… but my reading has been almost non-existent. Am I still allowed to participate in Yarn-along?!