Wednesday WIPs – Planning

May 27, 2015 | Sonia Knits

This week I’ve begun thinking about the next baby blanket I need/want to knit. Planning is my favourite part of a project!

The blanket is for my new niece/nephew due to arrive in September. Can you guess the gender of this baby?

A couple of months back I found this ‘Honeycomb’ stroller blanket pattern on the internet. I just love hexagons. What’s more, is that this blanket is an all-in-one deal. There’s no sewing patches together. I’m really tired of sewing patches together.

I also thought it would be good to use my stash yarn (hahahahaha). Turns out I didn’t have as many options as one might have thought shopping from my stash of yarn. I love the combination above though. The majority of it is vintage Jo Sharp wool DK. I’m going to use the ecru/white as the main colour, with the ‘colours’ as the hexagons themselves. It’s going to be a pretty rainbow.

I’ve begun listening to Haruki Murakami’s Colourless. And it’s interesting, his stories always are. Hopefully I can give you more of a summary next week.

I have cast on April’s shipment of the Cookie A sock club… only 2 weeks to go before the next one arrives ::gulp::

And I’ve been knitting on my Grace cardigan by Jane Richmond. The yarn is Lisa Souza’s organic merino, and I’m so in love with it. It is yarn that I bought at Stitches West and I’m so excited to have a lasting souvenir of the event.

A very good mail week

April 24, 2015April 21, 2015 | Sonia Knits

One way of making your birthday go on and on… is ordering gifts online that don’t show up in time for your birthday… or a 12 month yarn club subscription, but I digress…

So my yarn gifts didn’t arrive on my birthday… so this happened…

Which was super fun…

And I got the yarn for my Ursula Cardigan a dream cardigan (by Kate Davies)! Poor Ursula (my human friend) there’s an unofficial knit-along happening in my knitting group right now, which makes for confusing conversation.

These are the colours I chose, with the light grey being the main colour of the cardigan. My cast-on will probably happen long after the knit-along ends, but it’s been on my wish list ever since the pattern was published. Dreaming about projects and finished objects all plays a part in my life as a knitter ~~and yarn hoarder~~.

And then my 2 yarn parcels showed up a few days later. The first was the result of being enabled by Susan B. Anderson’s Instagram feed. She’s dangerous, and awesome and I can’t bring myself to unfollow her, because I.DONT.NEED.ANYMORE.YARN. But my birthday month was coming up, and you know you’re allowed to buy yarn for your birthday even when you really don’t need any.

These are Gales Art sock blanks, and I’m so in love with these.

And then, I let my fingers do the walking and bought some of ‘Clara’s Yarn’. It’s birthday month remember…

I just can’t stop smelling this yarn, it’s so sheepy and gorgeous. And if you were here in Melbourne Melanie, I know you would love it too. I bought enough for a tunic dress, just in case I wanted to make this.

Anyone want lessons on how to make your birthday great? Just talk to me. As one friend said, I do birthdays right. Now I need to knit myself out of this avalanche of yarn, send tea and time… time would be good.

Cast on E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G

April 7, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Recently I discovered the saddest way to lose your knitting mojo (for me anyway) is to have nothing on the needles.

The opposite to that is a ‘cast-on-aploza’.

And that’s exactly what I did this fine long weekend.

I cast on for my nephew’s winter top…

And got going on my Grace Cardigan by Jane Richmond…

I cast on my ‘Use it or Lose it’ Shingle project, a sweet little cardigan called Safire by Hilary Smith Callis.

And swatched another ‘UIOLI’ project. I think this is going to be a Dragonflies Jumper.

I also cast-on and completed the first clue in Romi’s Mystery Shawl Knit Along.

Then (not pictured here), I cast on ‘our’ Wedding Blanket! Yes, finally. I’m going to be knitting ‘Warmth’ by Jo Sharp, a long-term wish for some deep stash yarn that was bought for the purpose of our wedding blanket. In the meantime since the yarn purchase many years ago, all of my friends have knit this blanket, it is epic! I marvelled at this fact when I checked the projects on Ravelry this weekend.

I’m still waiting to cast on a beanie for Damian (but he hasn’t chosen a pattern) and who knows what else I’ll cast on before then.

I’m so happy.

My visit to San Francisco

March 3, 2015 | Sonia Knits

After eight years of being away, I returned to visit San Francisco on Valentine’s Day. I can see the irony.

The first thing I did after getting off the plane (and after checking in at my hotel and taking a shower), was to visit my old neighbourhood in the Marina district.

Much to my surprise and pleasure; nothing had changed, aesthetically speaking.

Not a damn thing. That was my greatest fear, and probably what kept me away for so long; that going back would somehow diminish my memory of one of my most inspiring times. The memory that I walk through like it’s a dream.

My personal landmarks, our apartment, my dry-cleaner, my local yarn store, heck even the muni bus tickets… were all the same as they were. Nothing has changed in eight years. It’s like I left the city as a time capsule.

Intellectually I know it has changed. My local friends told me it was busier and much more expensive than it was when I was living there.

The cable car rides are as fabulous as they were and the cable car drivers just as hilarious.

A pre-stitches visit to Imagiknit was in order. I hate to say it, but now with a few fabulous Melbourne yarn stores, Imagiknit had lost a bit of it’s shine for me. That’s not a bad thing.

I still managed to buy a project and a tiny wee sheep for my desk at work.

A bridge visit was mandatory.

As was a visit to the Palace of Fine Arts, my number one favourite place in San Francisco. I couldn’t really get across to Debs (my travelling partner), why it was so amazing, she thought I was just taking her to some park. Until we got there, then I think she got it.

Debs wanted to see the Painted Ladies, I was happy to oblige.

We caught up with a few of my SF Knitting buddies and there were many laughs to be had and suddenly the eight year gap had closed.

There was a visit to Coit Tower (because I had never been, and this was a regret) Did I tell you Debs has a wicked sense of humour?

A walk down the crooked street was also in order.

And. We went shopping!

That was my visit to San Francisco after all this time and as I said to Deb, I’m no longer living in the past. That makes me happy. I’ve created some new memories of the city and Debs created a lot of laughs. I don’t think I could have had a better time in SF* and I have Deb to thank for that.

*ok maybe with my husband because I have to say that

Stitches West – The Loot

March 1, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I’ve had a few days to recover from my jet-lag and my disastrous trip home (long story short, it took 2 days to get home) so I think you’ve waited long enough, without further ado here’s the yarn I came home with!

You can read more about our experience at the show here on the Richmond Knitters blog. I’ll also be covering other aspects of the trip here, over the next week or so.

At this point, I think that I should say that I am very happy with everything I got and clearly I didn’t leave anything I wanted, behind. That was my mistake 8 years ago, I think there’s a lesson in that…

My shopping experience was made better by having a partner, Deb did an awesome job of inspiring my purchases; I was lost without her when she was in her class on Friday morning. I did not/could not buy a single thing then, go figure.

Yoth Yarns (Yarn On The House) was hot at the show

Western Sky Knits (WSK) a personal fave. Came home with 9 skeins…

Jill Draper Makes Stuff; love this colour!

Koigu (yes more koigu), Canon Hand Dyes, Invictus Yarns (gradient), WSK

A Verb for Keeping Warm / Romi Hill Mystery Knit Along

From left: Miss Babs, Anzula, Lisa Souza

I’ll be popping all this up on Rav now in case you want the finer details and more eye-candy. On the blog this week I’ll cover off my trip to San Francisco, my class with Anna Zilboorg, and anything else I can think of. ‘Till then, enjoy!

Wednesday WIP – Gone Knitting

February 12, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Just a quick one. I’m about to embark on a very yarny adventure of a lifetime (I will tell you all about it when I get back) and hubby is not coming, weeeeeeee!

The Bloom Dress is finished and it is stunning, I’m so happy with it. It hasn’t been given to my niece M yet, but it will be on my return and then there will be adorable photos, hopefully.

I’m about to cast-on for my trip knitting and after some sound inspiration and advice, I’m casting on for a Clincher scarf by Ash Kearns. I’m using deep-stash again for no other reason than, I think I have the perfect yarn. Colinette Jitterbug in colour way Toscana. In my opinion, this yarn is no good for socks (I’ve had 2 pairs die on me), as it has no nylon content in it. So… after buying up heaps before this discovery… it is now accessory yarn.

I also gave it the Citric Acid treatment that Jasmine from the Knitmore girls prescribed for suspect yarns. It was probably safe from colour loss for this particular colour way, but I didn’t want to chance it again (my experience with Jitterbug). After all that, it’s still a beautiful yarn, if you treat it right.

See you soon!

Wednesday WIP – Knitting fever

January 28, 2015January 27, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I’ve been overcome by Knitting Fever, well that’s the only way I can describe it.

I want to knit ALL OF THE TIME, so much so I’ve knitted in my lunch break this past week. I just want to knit and knit and knit.

Except for Friday night. I spun on Friday night, completing the singles on the Cormo fibre. This Friday is pencilled in for plying.

I’ve cast on for Bloom, a little tunic dress for my niece. I’m using some Use It Or Lose It yarn, a Jo Sharp cotton. It is surprisingly nicer to knit with than I expected, it’s a bit splitty, but overall ok. There are a few wonky stitches from an accidental dropped stitch… which I’m hoping will rectify itself in blocking… but nothing a crochet flower won’t sort out.

I’m up to the eyelet row which will be woven through with some pretty ribbon. I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of getting this done before the weekend. I’m feeling quite good about knitting with deep-stash and the fact that this project is working out. It means that ‘stashing’ isn’t such a bad thing and I’ll use EVERYTHING eventually. Or I can, if I put my mind to it…

This week I’ve begun listening to The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I’ve read some great reviews on the story and the narration which so far seems excellent. It is only 10 hours long, so I should get through a fair chunk of it this week.

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…