2015 Knitting review

January 3, 2016 | Sonia Knits

Happy New Year all!

Each year I like to do a wrap-up of all the things I’ve knit to see how I’ve fared over the year.

I’ve knit 22 things in 2015! That’s 3 projects up from last year!

I didn’t knit as much for little ones this year, niece M is now 3 and takes a lot longer to knit for!

22 projects, that’s almost like finishing something every other week, but not.

There were:

7 pairs of socks (including the Baffies)
1 Chook Vest
A group blanket project
A huge crochet blanket
A baby blanket
only 3 Kids/baby sweaters
3 scarves/cowls
3 tops for me (2 of which were use it or lose it)
Christmas ornaments
1 Winter set for Damian

Of these 22 things, 8 projects were for other people.

I’ve carried over 6 WIPs into the new year, but there was no way the Noro blanket was coming for the ride. I finished sewing in the ends on the last day of the year.

2016 is going to be a ‘Cold Sheep’ year. There will be no yarn purchasing except maybe for the Sheep and Wool Show in July. And … only if I travel overseas to a yarn haven. But there might be some de-stashing to accommodate that…

In 2015 I was lucky enough to visit Stitches West in California in February and then Tokyo in November. It’s been a fun year! There was ‘a bit’ of yarn tourism involved in visiting those places, and I hope to relive those fun memories as I knit with my souvenir yarn.

My stash count as of today is:

277,180 metres

It is a little less than the last count, but I suspect the last count was inaccurate (the wrong column was added together).

Here’s to 2016 the year of knitting more and stashing down!

Dragonflies

December 26, 2015December 26, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I’m chilling out (read:recovering) this Boxing Day after a full-on but lovely day with our 2 families yesterday. I’m knitting Dragonflies, a jumper by Joji Locateli. I cast on a little while ago, but I’ve finally gotten ‘into it’ and I’m enjoying knitting it so very much. The yarn/project is my last ‘Use It Or Lose It’ project on my Ravelry projects page.

It’s been interesting, the UIOLI project. At this stage I don’t have any desire to classify any more yarn as ‘UIOLI’, because the project has shown to me that every yarn can find a purpose, even less loved yarn (mostly, there were a couple of casualties). For now, I want to knit with what I love at the top of my pile. I might revisit this idea again some time.

The yarn is Shiloh Wool with Silk, hand-dyed by me a long time ago. It took a while to find the perfect pattern for this yarn, I’m glad I persevered because I have to say I’m loving knitting Joji’s Dragonflies pattern. The lace is fun and easy.

Coincidently, I’m listening to Outlander book 2 Dragonflies in Amber. That was not intentional!

Leslie, from the Knitgirllls my favourite video cast show is also listening to it right now, but she is ahead of me. So whilst Leslie does her book review once a week, I have to mute the sound whilst she is talking about it! Her arms wave around, and I can kind of understand why, after about 10 minutes the hand actions settle down and I can begin listening to the video cast again. I hope to go back to these tid-bits later on after I’ve completed my 38 hours of listening…

Sparkle, sparkle

December 23, 2015December 23, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Remember my Use It Or Lose It, Shingle project?

I finally have had the chance to get a couple of photos taken. I am very happy with how it’s turned out.

The fit and shaping of this little cardigan, Safire by Hilary Smith Callis is perfect to wear over dresses. Now I just need to find the perfect dress for this little number (something a lot plainer!)

(Here I am looking super hot on a 40 degree Melbourne day)

It’s been a sparkly kind of month.

I wore a wrap my mum made for me eons ago, to the Richmond Knitters Christmas Dinner… wait for it…

And I sparkled all night, becoming my own personal mirror ball. I enjoyed wearing it very much on the night.

Here are the Christmas decorations I’ve knit so far for our tree, (in addition to the ones I received for my birthday from a wonderful friend).

The Swirl bauble ^

and I also knit this mini sweater!

The gifts are wrapped, now all there is to do, is knit and wait to see the happy little faces of my nieces and nephews on Christmas Day.

Take care everyone x

Around and Around

December 9, 2015December 9, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Around and around I go, is the theme for today’s blog post! Here I am spinning around in Alice’s Teacups ride at Disneyland Tokyo.

And here I am in the first few border rows of the crochet blanket.

I’ve filled in all the gaps, thanks to some great directions I found on Dover & Madden’s blog. She’s a Melbournite as well, and I love checking out her blog, everything is beautiful.

I have 3 balls remaining of the Noro and at this stage I think I’m going to keep going until I run out. It might be 4 treble rows or so.

I’ve also picked up my Use it or Lose it project this week, it is the Dragonflies jumper by Joji Locatelli. I’ve really gotten into the swing of this. I’m certain this is not going to be a ‘lose it’ project.

I’m so close to the end of listening to ‘The Girl on the Train’, I have really enjoyed the voice actors and the story, but I hope it doesn’t go on for to much longer, I need to know the ending!

Sunshine and stash less

December 5, 2015December 5, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Yellow is a ‘new to me’ colour in knitting. I’ve gradually been building up to knitting with yellow and casting on some on Cookie sock club socks was just the introduction I needed. Looking at them makes me feel happy.

I wanted to talk to you about something else today, something else that has recently plagued me. It kind of snowballed after I got home from Tokyo and I needed to pack away my new stash… literally a snowball that has just gotten bigger and bigger…

Felicia Semple of the Craft Sessions has explored this recently. The theory of ‘Stash less’. Not to be ‘stash less’ (like who would want that?!), but ‘to stash less’. That’s how I’m reading it anyway. She is quite an inspiration in what she has done in a short amount of time. Anyway, you should go read her blog.

I started thinking about this more recently after arriving home from Tokyo, and knowing I hadn’t gone overboard on the purchasing… and yet I was still struggling to squeeze my new yarn in to my yarn case.

Stash less; I couldn’t Stash more if I tried!!!

It’s beginning to feel a bit burdensome to be utterly honest. Don’t worry, in a couple of jumpers and socks time I’ll feel much better…

So there you have it, I really mean it this time. No more yarn purchasing until the Bendigo (Sheep and Wool show)… then I’ll take stock. I say until Bendigo, because a. I’m going! and b. it’s just cruel to suggest I go to a fibre event and do not allow myself to buy anything, it doesn’t mean I have to, but I can.

The six month challenge is on.

p.s. can you all please continue to buy yarn and add an extra skein in there for me with your next yarn purchase, someone has to keep our LYS’ going.

Wednesday WIPs – A race to the finish

December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 | Sonia Knits

The tree is up!

Full disclosure, it is a small tree, requiring only a few decorations. I was hoping for a larger tree this year, but then I remembered all the presents I still need to buy…

A small tree has enabled the sock decorations knitted for me by a friend, to absolutely sing. I love it.

I’ve been slogging away on my crochet blanket this week, with just a few seams left to sew. Then the border; and then no more blankets for a while…

I’ve been listening to The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and loving it.

It’s going to be a race to the end of the year to see how many projects I can finish, but I also want to start new things. Oh the dilemmas of a crafter.

Tokyo – Wow

November 22, 2015November 22, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Why hello there!

I’ve arrived home from Tokyo and I really don’t know where to begin about my mind-blowing experience there. Here are some of my insights…

Japanese people are SO nice. Not that I thought that they would not be nice. But they are above and beyond NICE, friendly and helpful. On one occasion when we were trying to navigate, we had not one, but 2 people approach us one after the other just to make sure we knew where we were going. And they spoke perfect English.

Fancy toilets… I didn’t take pictures because that’s just gross. All of their toilets were fancy, consisting of buttons which did different things, from making flushing or nature sounds for discreetness, to Bidet and shower settings, to seat heating and deodorising. One of the restrooms I walked into had the toilet lid open as I entered the cubicle and a blue light lit up the bowl, I nearly crapped my pants!

But enough about the toilets (but really they are amazing)…

This was the view from our hotel room, with my Watermelon sock/s in progress. Everything in Tokyo is so damn cute, so I though this would be the perfect project to take.

The crafting culture is huge, obviously, you all knew that. Knitting plays a part, but only a part. Sewing is HUGE. The craft stores also boasted needle-felting, crochet, loom beading, weaving, stitching, tatting, jewellery making, polymer model making, paper crafts… it goes on. We saw a few ‘handmade’ gift-type stores which carried beautiful simple items made from clever crafts which met design. And I was inspired to become a little ‘multi-craftual’. I used to do more crafts, but now it’s just knitting/crochet and spinning. But I can do more! I’m not about to go out and buy a sewing machine, but I did pick up a few little kits just to put my toes into the water.

I also bought a little bit of Washi tape, heaven knows what I’m going to use it for? But how cool?

And I bought some yarn, I tried to make sure it was all Japanese yarn. A lot of the stores import European yarns, which are beautiful, but not ‘special’ to me kind of souvenirs.

Here I am outside Avril!

I also hope to have a crack at knitting this Japanese pattern:

We did Karaoke. Twice. For 3 or 4 hours, each time.

How cute are the rooms? Just like singing at home in your bedroom!

We went to Disneyland! I totally had a moment whilst walking through the Entrance Hall otherwise known as the World Bazaar, it was just like watching Disney at 6:30pm on Saturday evenings as a youngster. I don’t know what overcame me. I didn’t know that I wanted to go to Disneyland that badly. Luckily Damian had not noticed the tears streaming down cheeks. How embarrassing. But what’s not embarrassing is wearing Minnie ears all day and all the way home back to the hotel through reception. It felt like the most natural thing ever.

I ate a lot of sushi, and some other interesting ummm things.
To finish, here’s just a small view from the very top of Tokyo Tower, all 250 metres above sea level. This town is huge.

There really is too much to say about this place, I hope you enjoyed my snippet.

Wednesday WIPs – with added projects

November 4, 2015November 3, 2015 | Sonia Knits

It’s been an interesting week, I’ve been casting on EVEN more things, so my ‘works in progress’ total is back to seven projects…

My first mitten is complete! I have the second one to go, but I’m getting distracted…

I did enjoy making this, and I learnt how to catch floats! I feel much more confident about doing fair-isle knitting now.

The next Seven Skeins club projects/s is/are a pair of fingerless mitts… which have not been cast-on despite my fearlessness last week. When it came to the crunch, I thought I might wait and see what the next project is and go from there.

This week I cast-on a much loved and anticipated project, my Watermelon socks. This yarn is hand-dyed by Abi Grosso and it’s just plain beautiful. It makes me so happy to knit with this yarn. This is also my only mindless project on the needles at the moment, so I’m savouring it a little. At the Richmond Knitters knit night this week, I got rather excited when I got around to my second repeat of ‘pips’ and the second round matched up with a couple of pips, oh the excitement! Abi is a genius!

And because there is so much love for this yarn, there is two photos of virtually the same thing.

I’ve decided to do the cuff, heel and toes in some left-over Wollmeise. Checking out the Rav projects with this yarn, I preferred the heel in particular being a solid colour rather than the pattern continuing through. By using an alternative yarn for the cuff, heel and toes this also means I could just about get 2 pairs out of this yummy yarn.

And then, because it’s just ticked over to November, I’ve joined the Brioche-along with Louisa from the Richmond Knitters. I’d decided to knit the Askews Me Hat by Stephen West, in my handspun yarn. Which sounded great in theory…

But then after I got something that looked like a cowl instead of a hat, I chose a more lighter weight yarn and went down a needle size.

As I was knitting it the second time, I was still getting odd stitches at the start and end of rows and around the decrease and increase sections. I couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong, and the pattern was not giving me any clues, it just recommends taking a Craftsy class with Nancy Marchant. When I’ve paid A$8.57 I kind of expect more from a stand alone hat pattern. I am a little disappointed and my project is now in the naughty corner. I don’t think I’ve ever had a project confined to this place before. Learning new things can be trying… I already have the Craftsy class mentioned, but I think it’s a little unfair to not provide clear instruction in the first place ~~or to provide a pattern that is free from errors (I’m not sure which it is yet)~~, or to expect people to purchase further resources to understand your instructions after they’ve purchased your pattern. There I said it.

Maybe it will make sense tomorrow.

Just a little housekeeping:

Thanks for all the comments lately, it’s nice to be reminded someone is out there reading my blog.

Also the Louisa Harding Shingle is on it’s way to Noemie who was the first commenter on the blog about the Shingle going to a good home. I can’t wait to see what it becomes!

Wednesday WIPS – Cast-on-aplooza

October 28, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Something strange happened last week, I got down to 3 WIPS on my Ravelry page!

At first I thought that was excellent, it’s been a long time since it’s only been 3. But then, it didn’t take long for an uncomfortableness to creep in. I had no mindless knitting on the needles, let alone any socks! The only way to rectify that was to cast on MANY things.

I properly cast-on my UIOLI Dragonflies sweater by Joji Locatelli.

And then I cast on my next pair of Cookie A club socks; using the August yarn on an October pattern. At which point I say BINGO!

There was some spinning (or plying) to cross another Bingo box off.

And finally I cast on my Kokkeluri mitts by Kate Davies as my week 2 project for the Seven skeins club.

I am smitten by them. Get it! They are a joy to knit, although I fear I won’t have these done in time for the week 3 pattern release. I have no qualms about casting on another project, the more the merrier.

I hope all your projects are making you happy, if not… you know what the answer is!