Wednesday WIPS – Bingo continues

October 7, 2015October 4, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Whilst I was binge knitting my ‘Shingle’ cropped cardigan on the weekend, I couldn’t help but want to work out what to do with ‘the wedding blanket’ project.

This one:

It is another Use It Or Lose It project. 10 balls of Bendigo Woollen Mills (discontinued) Harmony yarn. It was always meant to be our wedding blanket. It kind of feels like a bad omen to just toss it out. It’s good yarn, it’s just all white, impractical white. Besides we have a new wedding blanket now, you know the crochet hexagon one, the one that’s almost finished. Bright and colourful and big. How much use am I really going to get out of a big white blanket anyway? How much pain is it going to cause me to knit it?

So whilst I was binge knitting my blingy cardigan, I pondered. Then I thought about things like this:

The Rainbow Dress by my favourite kids designer, Georgie Hallam.

And I thought about this:

And how I could dye my own.

I got out my Addi Express machine and cranked out a blank out of a ball of the BWM Harmony, in fact I ripped out the blanket I had begun and used that.

Now I just need some dyes. What shall a do? An Elsa (from Frozen) dress, A watermelon gradient or just a good old fashioned rainbow?

If this is a success, I can dye and knit more fun garments for ALL of my nieces… if not, it’s back to square one.

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!

Wednesday WIPs – Joey

September 16, 2015September 16, 2015 | Sonia Knits

My new baby niece is still biding her time in her mother’s belly. Turns out, not all baby girls in my family arrive early…

I’m hoping to finish off Joey, which I cast-on in Georgie Hallam’s class at the weekend, over the next night or two. I’ll have my fingers-crossed I can get the underarm of the second sleeve just as perfect as the first using Georgie’s nifty techniques. She was a great teacher, so organised and generous and I happen to love her designs for kids and babies.

My Opal socks have had a few rows added to the leg of the second sock. As a mindless knit, it was the perfect project to take away on a weekend of chatting, where my lace projects barely made an appearance.

I managed to get enough seams together (with help from a few safety pins) to get the crochet blanket off the floor. It’s going to be manageable now to be able to sew the remaining seams from the comfort of my lounge chair.

I finished listening to Haruki Murakami’s What I talk about, when I talk about running, I really enjoyed it, it makes me want to run! I’ve also begun listening to To kill a Mocking Bird, I’ve never had the pleasure of reading it, so I’m looking forward to finding out what the fuss is all about.

One more sleep!

September 10, 2015September 9, 2015 | Sonia Knits

One more sleep until it is Craft Sessions weekend, boy am I excited! Sign-up was so long ago, but wow how time has flown!

I’ve crammed in my homework in the last week, as you do.

• I’ve knitted a 25cm (squarish, not really square) stocking stitch swatch for my Darning class with Jules a.k.a. Wollenflower; one guess what I’ll be doing with that swatch?! I’m also going to take along some socks that need darning, no moth holes here, just good-old fashioned wear and tear.

• I had to swatch for Georgie Hallam’s class The Beauty of Circular Yokes, I’ve selected my yarn and swatched on Monday night at the Richmond Knitter’s knit night.

The class project is to knit a baby circular yoked cardigan, just the thing for a niece that is due to arrive at any minute.

• My 3rd class is with Jules, where I’ll learn how to knit for Speed and Comfort. Because we all need to know how to knit faster… I didn’t need to do any homework for this class!

Now I just need to pack and decide what projects to take with me outside class hours. Do I take my spinning wheel? Or is 4 WIPs enough?

Wednesday WIPs – Putting it together

September 9, 2015September 8, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I started laying out my patches of hexagons on my living room floor on the weekend, I just wanted to have a ‘play’ I hadn’t put them all out in a while. Mind you I still had 4 balls of patches left to make….

Or did I?

As I was laying it out, I wondered whether my first plan was the correct one. That is 4 x 5 rosette patches rather than 5 x 5 rosette patches. My reassessment had nothing to do with the fact that there was still 4 balls of Noro staring me in the face. But the blanket was fairly square at 4 x 5, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I continued laying out all the patches with the single and half hexagons which filled in the gaps.

Sewing it up has been strenuous work, a real ‘work-out’ in my living room. Oh how I wished I had the foresight of inviting a few Richmond Knitters over to give me a hand! I was sewing all day long, until my body just said no more. There’s still plenty more seams to sew before I can get it off the floor.

I’m going to use the 4 remaining balls for the border… and huzzah! I won’t need to buy anymore yarn!

I’ve begun listening to Haruki Murakami’s ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’, I’m really liking it. I’m taking a little break from Anne Tyler’s ‘A spool of blue thread’, even though I’ve listened to most of it. I’m sure I’ll get back to it, but for the moment I’m finding the underlying theme of getting old and dying a little depressing.

Wednesday WIPs – A weekend gathering

September 2, 2015August 30, 2015 | Sonia Knits

This weeks post is brought to you by a social knitting gathering at a friend’s home, where there were several WIPs in progress other than my blanket.

There was a baby blanket…

Another long-term blanket of squares, there was crochet bowls and crochet washcloths (not pictured)

Of course there was food…

And my hexagons.

Only 5 more balls to go, or (just!) 50 hexagons to make before I start the arranging and then sewing.

I’m still listening to Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread, it’s not a favourite, I even thought about pulling the plug on it. But I’m hanging in there for a little while longer.

Pattern Consumption

September 1, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Apart from yarn consumption, there’s another consumption I indulge in and it doesn’t take up any room in my house whatsoever. The digital knitting pattern.

It’s been a little while since the last ‘Knit-along e-book’ has popped up on Ravelry, or at least knit-along e-books by my favourite designers. The thing that I love most about them as compared to just a single digital knitting pattern, is the slow release of a pattern or set of patterns. It’s the surprise element, and if you know the designer well-enough, you know you are not going to be disappointed by what comes after the initial pattern release. That’s always good. The anticipation and the joy!

So I was fairly excited to see Ysolda has just released the first pattern in Knitworthy 2. I signed up for Knitworthy 1 last year and all the patterns were wonderful… even though I’ve only made the first pattern thus far…

I’m sort of on hiatus from buying yarn for a little while, but buying a pattern e-book is not going to hurt anyone!

What I love most about a knit-along e-book collection is the dreaming… of a new pattern, or pattern clue (in the case of a mystery knit-along), every week or fortnight. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Whilst its fair to say I have not knit most of these patterns, I certainly have dreamed about them, have thought about what yarn I would use from my stash, and who I possibly would be making the item for. I always have the intention of joining in and keeping up with the knit-along, but stuff just happens. Babies are born, birthdays arrive and before you know it, it’s Christmas.

So who’s with me, who’s casting on for Liebevoll? Mental cast-ons begin now.

Sonia Knits

The adventures of a Melbourne Knitter

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