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 – Still blooming

February 4, 2015February 3, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Despite my desperation about knitting at the moment, I was unable to finish the Bloom tunic/dress by the weekend for a visit with my family. It’s been a busy week! Nonetheless I’m very happy with how Bloom is shaping up and I’ve had some very kind comments about it from The Richmond Knitters. This ‘Use It or Lose It’ project is definitely a keeper.

Catching up with my sister reminded me of why I love knitting for her babies. Niece #2 was wearing niece #1 hand-me-down: Baby Yoda Sweater. Ahhhhhhh…

At one point she even made the same wide yawn her sister had when Damian snapped this 2.5 years ago:

It makes the knitting time all worthwhile…

Getting back to Bloom, I couldn’t resist popping in the ribbon early, it still needs it’s ends trimmed. Little girls and ribbon are so pretty… I suspect it will need to have a double-knot so she doesn’t pull it out.

Have a great week!

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.

Wednesday WIP – formally Yarn Along

January 21, 2015January 20, 2015 | Sonia Knits

I have enjoyed writing a regular blog post on Wednesdays, but I was beginning to feel like a fraud by participating in ‘Yarn Along’. For one thing, I just don’t get through that many books. Therefore, I’m going on my own, Wednesday WIPs will be landing in your inbox from now on in. It doesn’t mean I’ll stop reporting on books, there just won’t be the expectation!

This week my Cookie A Arrow socks had a second social outing. Catching up with my tri-craftual friends at the weekend, I enjoyed a few pleasurable hours knitting, chatting and eating plenty of delights at Jo’s home.

#Latergram By the time you’re reading this I’m hoping the socks will be finished and I’ll have cast-on something new. It seems I am indeed monogamous.

Whilst at Jo’s place, a visit to Amitie Textiles was in order, and whilst I did not buy anything from this patchwork shop… seeing Amanda’s latest project did sway me to the dark side, just a little. She is in the process of sewing/embroidering a quilt which has a map of Paris on top. It turns out you can buy all sorts of cities maps from this company. I was in awe.

San Francisco is also available… I think I have a project for our next gathering in Hepburn Springs.

No really. The SF map has the street where we used to live. Can’t you tell I was sucked in? I wouldn’t need to do much piecing together. The quilt top is largely taken up with the map panel, then I just need to add a frame, buy some backing fabric and the woollen fabric for the in-between and presto, I’ll be walking down the streets of San Francisco as I’m quilting away. The website encourages you to personalise your quilt. I could pop in our apartment, my local yarn store, you get the picture.

I’m only 4 weeks away from re-visiting my old neighbourhood. I’m a little excited, nervous and afraid. This idolised memory I have of SF could be totally destroyed. Or not. I hope not. One thing is for certain, there will be souvenir yarn.

And then coincidently in some ways, I’ve just finished listening to Kafta on the Shore. It seems Murakami’s books have a haunting message in them, (as well as being bizarre and weird). He leads you on this journey and it’s difficult to put all the pieces together, but some of them fit. I don’t think I can appreciate the full meaning to his work. He is pretty amazing. The audio book was excellently narrated and I felt this added to my experience of the book.

See you next week!

Friday Night Spinning

January 18, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Due to my lack of spinning on any regular basis, I think I need to reinstate Friday Night Spinning.

I was too worn out from the week to set my mind to knitting of any sort on Friday night but spinning seemed like the ‘right’ thing to do.

I took the opportunity to add to the cormo bobbin I had begun weeks ago. I’m spinning fairly thin (for me) so it’s still going to take at least another Friday night session, but isn’t it pretty? I can’t hardly wait until I Navajo ply it into some amazing pink, white and green stripes, yum.

Getting back to spinning may also have been prompted by an ‘unexpected’ parcel delivery this week. The excitement of receiving a parcel, but not knowing what it is?! What could it be? Did I order some self-striping sock yarn in my sleep?!

But alas, it was my Southern Cross Fibre Club for January arriving earlier than I had anticipated. Once again, an amazing colour way.

This week I also received a much coveted book:

Hell if everyone else is going to do colour work this year, then so am I. Someone pass me some scissors so I can steek something!

It has been a book acquisition week, I picked up 2 books with a Christmas voucher.

Magpies, homebodies, Nomads was on my book list and What to knit: The Toddler years was a book I bought for my mum. I liked it so much I wanted a copy for myself, babies grow into toddlers after all.

Wishing you all a productive and fulfilling week.

Yarn Along – Garance Sweater

January 14, 2015January 11, 2015 | Sonia Knits

Welcome to another week of Yarn Along with Ginny, you can go see what everyone is up to this week by following the links on her blog.

I got a moment at the weekend (and some not too hot weather) to have a couple of photos taken with my finished sweater! As you know it was a ‘Use it or Lose it’ project, so there was a lot riding on it’s success.

I haven’t had the opportunity to wash the sweater yet, so I’m interested to see how much the Habu Silk Gima will soften up in the process. I’m not really fussed if it doesn’t, there’s something about the crunchy texture that appeals to me.

Despite it’s lacey ‘look’ the sweater is quite warm to wear. It is 100% silk, which i think deceives a lot of people into thinking it’s a ‘cool’ fibre because it hasn’t come off a sheep back. When in fact, in my experience it’s quite a cosy fibre to wear.

Having completed the knitting and sewing up, there was still a little yarn left on the cone. I was able to slide the leftover off to weigh (and slide it back onto the cone). Woe, there is still a third left. What-to-do-what-to-do. For now it goes back into the stash, I could perhaps make a little vest out of the left-over, or if any of my friends would like it for themselves, please let me know so that I can do this fine yarn some justice. I would love that, it would be exciting to see it reach it’s full potential as a ‘Use it or Lose it’ yarn.

I have been eyeing off my other UIOLI projects and am thinking about casting on another one very soon. At this rate there won’t be any ‘dregs’ in my stash by next year.

I’m so close to completing Kafka on the Shore, such disturbing weirdness, oh how will it end? Not well for some characters I’m tipping.

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?