Work in Progress

May is for catching up

| Sonia Knits

My knitting progress has felt slow this month, probably because there has been much less time to knit. Because of this, and the fact that I have 2 sweater projects already on the needles, I’ve decided not to cast on a new sweater this month, but to try to ‘catch-up’ instead. I haven’t touched my Wool & Honey sweater, but I’ve made good progress on my Fragmentation Cardigan by Stephen West.

I’m on the ribbing now, then the sleeves, then the button bands, then the matching hood… still so much more to do. I have really enjoyed knitting this though. The modular aspect is so fun. Interestingly, looking ahead to the sleeves, the pattern calls for it to be in stocking stitch. But I think I’m going to do, what a few other knitters on Ravelry have done, and do the sleeves in garter stitch to match the rest of the garment. It’s weird that Stephen West made them in stocking stitch, it kind of bloats the top of the sleeve.

This month we took a quick trip to Kyneton, we haven’t been in more than a year. We’d been missing our favourite French rural restaurant, and there was a yarn show the following day. Of course this weekend was orchestrated by me.

Danni of Half-baked Hand dyed was at the market, and I visited her first! I might have gone a bit bananas at her stall. She does great self-striping sock yarn, and I’ve grown quite fond of 8ply socks, so I purchased both 4 & 8ply gobstopper balls.

I’ve also done a little spinning, and cast-on some DK socks since last time. I just need to ply up this gorgeous pink fibre from Cat & Sparrow, perhaps tonight. The sock yarn is also by Danni, in her special Bendigo Show colourway, Hot Jam Donuts! I’m holding a strand of fluff in the white and red sections, for some extra coziness. Only 2 months to Bendigo, squee!

Birthday Month!

| Sonia Knits

The happiest month of the year, should be your birthday month am I right? Or at least equal with July (for the Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show) or December for Christmas of course. Thankfully these months are well-spaced, so there’s always something to look forward to.

How are my monthly sweaters getting on?

I’ve put a good dent in my ‘March’ sweater, Wool & Honey by Andrea Mowry. The yarn is named Vivacious by Fyberspates. It is a really gorgeous colour and much deeper in real life. I’m hoping and expecting the slipped stitches which make up the hexagons to settle down a bit after blocking. They look a little springy and spider web like at the moment.

When April came around, I wasn’t mentally ready to cast on my ‘April’ sweater until I got to dividing the sleeves from the body. But now that’s done and it’s easy knitting from here on in… I’ve cast on for Stephen West’s Fragmentation Cardigan. I’m using my Louie & Lola Advent calendar from 2024. I selected the DK weight version, and it is my most favourite yarn calendar yet. I spent a few joyous days arranging and rearranging my colour sequence for the modular panels in the yoke.

I love knitting with colour so much! I will get back to knitting a one colour project in June perhaps! Spoiler alert, the ‘May’ sweater is also going to be super fun.

Louie & Lola have just released their pre-order for this years calendar; but sadly it’s a 12 days of Christmas calendar, 4ply 50gm mini skeins. I really enjoy opening an advent everyday in December, not to mention working with lots of colour, so I’m passing on this calendar this year. Who knows, maybe I won’t purchase a calendar, but make up my own from stash? I won’t make any rash decisions just yet.

At this rate (and because I’ve taken this week off work), I should be finished with the yoke colourwork part today. 8ply is so much faster than 4ply. And because it’s a cardigan, it’s just knitting all the way.

I’ve just picked up a copy of Laine’s newest book 52 Weeks of Scrap Yarn from Sunspun (as well as some delicious Birthday yarn). It’s like this book was made for me, seriously! There’s some really great projects in here, and I know it will be a great source of inspiration for future scrappy projects.

A colourful weekend

| Sonia Knits

I’m still going on my Stripes! sweater by Andrea Mowry. For some reason I thought I would be done by now, but a week for a sleeve is probably fair. Thank you for your kind suggestions, about knitting the sleeves 2 at a time. I just really detest knitting anything 2 at a time! I also got fed up with having to grab the next colour. So, I wound all of the yarn (in the correct order) into a gobstopper ball for fun.

The long weekend has been a good time to get a few things done. I’ve been dyeing, or rather over-dyeing some yarn and a sweater! I’ve wanted to correct some dye jobs (that I did) for a while now. Every time I looked at my yarn set aside for sweaters in my stash. I haven’t wanted to use the ones I dyed… so it was either fix it, or donate it.

These are the ‘Before’ skeins. I no longer like variegated yarn for sweaters, my tastes have changed…

This is the ‘After’

I’m much happier with these… but some of the skeins are still not quite right. The tarragon skeins look pretty good (phew!), but the ‘night’ ones have a few light patches in them. The bloodwood skeins were all good, except for one with a shocking flash of red. This was due to it being missed in the dye pot.

And here’s the Dragonfly sweater I knit, originally dyed in dusk.

Whilst I love the sweater, I never really liked all the white bits. So I attempted to over dyed in fuchsia. I kind of messed up the dyeing on this one too. I put in 50gms of dye for the 500gms of the sweater into the dye pot. Ten minutes in, I began thinking the colour was not deep enough to cover up the dusk colour. So what did I do? I dissolved the rest of the dye in my glass jar and threw it into the dye pot. Amateur! The result is uneven dyeing, there’s some really dark bits, and some not as dark bits. Dyeing is hard work! I have so much more appreciation for hand-dyers after this weekends escapades. The sweater may have gotten smaller as well…

Not to worry, I’ve ordered more dye, and the touch-ups will continue next weekend. Then I may never dye again.

Here’s my cast-on for March, I’ve casted on today. I’m knitting Wool and Honey by Andrea Mowry for my knitting group’s Bendigo sweater. If you’re not from here, The Australian Sheep and Wool show is in Bendigo, a large regional town in Victoria. It takes place every July. This is the 5 or 6th year my knitting group has made this tradition. I absolutely love this colour. This will be the second time I’ve made this, it was super fun the first time 6 years ago.

I think I may lengthen the sleeves on both versions. It’s been a week of improvements.

Strategic yarn chicken

| Sonia Knits

It’s the 2nd of March, and as expected I haven’t finished my Stripes! sweater. Why can’t we have a few more days per month?! We were short-changed in February after all.

I am on the first sleeve of the sweater, and I’m playing Yarn Chicken, boo hoo. I never like to cut it this fine, the yarn is from an Advent calendar, so there’s not much I can do. The stripes on the body are 8 rows in length. I feared that I wouldn’t have enough yarn for 8 rows on each sleeve.

And I was right. I’ve made 7 rows on the first complete stripe past the body divide.

Thanks to my trusty new scale, I’ll be weighing each colour, to know when I’m almost at the halfway point. I think I’ll be able to make 7 row stripes for all colours.

I have not cast-on for my March Sweater yet, but I will this week. Now that I’m on the sleeves, the stripe colour changes are happening more rapidly which is very motivating.

Have a great week!

Progress on my Stripes! Sweater

| Sonia Knits

With less than a week to go until February is done and dusted, my Stripes! sweater is coming along. It won’t be cast off for the start of March. But, I hope to be at least halfway through the first sleeve. Aren’t knitting goals fun?!

To be honest, I’m not sure I’m loving this knit. This week, I have asked myself more than once, am I too old to be knitting sweaters with this much colour? Should I have knit this for a niece instead? Probably. My friends disagree. And then there’s the self-doubt over my order of colours, should I have put it in a proper colour sequence… I think once there’s sleeves, I’m going to like this more. I’ve placed barber cords on the ends of the needle and tried the sweater on a few times, and it looks to be a good fit. I’m excited to get it finished, and then I can truly decide if I’m going to like wearing this, or it has been a terrible mistake.

My other striped project, vanilla socks with yarn by Danni of Halfbaked Hand dyed, is being worked on intermittently, mostly when Damian is bbq’ing a feast for us. I’d love to have these cast off soon as well, they’re just too pretty to be on the needles for too long.

Back to knitting!

Sabela

| Sonia Knits

My Sabela sweater by Isabel Kraemer was off the needles last weekend and blocking. I’m super happy with how it turned out, there never was a doubt when it comes to an Isabel Kraemer pattern, they always fit really well.

The yarn is by Great Ocean Road Woollen Mills, Summer Fiesta in their 3/4ply. It was a pleasure to knit with this yarn which is a merino and linen blend. Whilst it is a light yarn, it has enough warmth to it, that I probably won’t wear it in the warmer months. Alas, it’s 18 degrees in Melbourne today, which is quite a change from the high 30 degree temperatures we’ve had this week. So maybe I’ll be wearing it sooner than I think.

Meanwhile I have cast on my ‘February’ sweater, Stripes! by Andrea Mowry. I’m using my advent calendar yarn from My Creative Garage.

I’m hoping to have finished the yoke and divided for the body and sleeves this weekend. It’s raining outside so this works with my plans. There’s less than 2 weeks left to February, so I’m hoping to get as much of this sweater knit as possible before the start of March.

I’ve also cast on for my Marlene socks, thanks so much for your comments on this project!

The yarn is beautiful, it has a lovely structure to it. I hope to pay more attention to this after I’ve done ‘enough’ knitting on my Stripes! sweater.

Happy weekend 🙂

Tennis and the slog

| Sonia Knits

I love watching the Tennis, and the Australian Open is providing the perfect distraction to knitting miles and miles of stocking stitch in the round.

I still have a fair way to go on the body, and I’m almost certain I’m going to knit the sleeves full length. I’m aiming to have this finished in time for my February cast-on!

All but one of my Advent calendars, have been packed away in the lovely box I received for my Louie & Lola advent. Just temporarily, so that I don’t feel the overwhelm, and so that D gets some of the living room back.

My Creative Garage advent is going to be my February sweater cast-on! I’m going to knit Andrea Mowry’s Stripes! yoke sweater. I think this will fly off the needles and I’m excited to start.

I’ve been arranging and rearranging the colours in different orders. I didn’t want a fade for this sweater, as it is meant to have the look of Stripes. I still might switch a few more colours around, but I think I’m close.

Last day of Craftcation

| Sonia Knits

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end…

I’ve had a good break, and I’ve done lots of things in between crocheting, knitting and (a little) spinning. It’s been great!

The tree is packed away
Japanese BBQ
Sock knitting whilst BBQing
More sock knitting whilst BBQing
Kid sitting
Niece’s temperature blanket
Glamping
Tips for roughing it
Finished Socks
Rearranging advent yarn
Birthday pool party
Ice cream birthday cake
Sabela progress

I am so pleased with the progress I’ve made on my Sabela top. I’m past the sleeve divide, and I’ve tried it on, and I think it’s looking great. I’ve decided it’s going to have long sleeves, it’s going to be an in-between seasons garment. Whilst it’s light, 4 ply weight (closer to 3ply), the merino/linen blend is quite warm, so short sleeves (my original intention), doesn’t make sense. The yarn is Summer Fiesta by GORWM in case you want some for yourself.

I’ve also cast on a pair of Vanilla socks on January 1 (see above). So now, I’m thinking of attempting to knit a pair of socks and a garment per month again, how fun is that? I’ve made such great progress on this holiday of mine! I’m now contemplating my February cast-ons, whilst knitting my last stitches before work tomorrow. Do you have any knitting plans for the year?

Thanks Maureen for your comment on my last post about my mum and me looking alike 🙂 I’ll write more soon about my intentions for my Advent yarn… I think I’m changing my mind about one of the calendars!

2024 knit & crochet recap

| Sonia Knits

I love a good crafty round-up, don’t you?

This year, I knit approximately 2,000 more metres than I did last year, for a grand total of 7,158 metres. I cast-on and completed 4 garments for myself, 2 pairs of socks for me, 1 pair of socks for Damian, 4 hats for other people and a few Christmas decorations to top it all off.

Had I completed my Nimue blanket this year, my project yardage would have blown out of the water! Something to look forward to 2025, I make the rules 🙂

Apart from my blanket, I’m only left with one other UFO, my Painting Honeycomb socks by Stephen West. I’ve begun the second sock, and have made the double thick cuff, so now onto the fun parts. For keen observers, I’ve put my flower socks by Summer Lee into Hibernation Zzz (a Ravelry term). I’m going to restart these in a larger size sometime in the future, so that they can get over my heels more comfortably.

I have not done a stash count of yarn for a few years. Since March of 2019 to be exact. This is where you use Ravelry to total up your stash entries. I don’t think mine is going to be 100 per cent accurate, but doing a stocktake of odd balls and left-over yarns is not my idea of a fun time.

In 2019 it was:

Today it is:

397,809 Metres

Give or take a few thousand metres. Where do I put it all?! A number is just a number, and I’m totally not freaked out by it. Wondering how long I can keep my advent yarns displayed in my living room is where my mind is at right now. I think, I’ve settled on 3 projects for the 3 advents, and that’s a relief!

My Creative Garage
Louie & Lola
Fibresmith

2024 has been an interesting year, mostly a good year for which I’m grateful. I look forward to beginning a new year with hope and exciting new (self-imposed) challenges, none of the bad ones please.

Here’s a photo of my mum and my Melbourne siblings celebrating Christmas together

Happy New Year!