Obsessed

September 9, 2025 | Sonia Knits

I’ve cast on for Vintage Flannel a sweater by Anna Johanna and I’m obsessed! It is bringing me so much joy, I’ve wanted to make this for such a long time and it’s now coming to fruition. The yarn is by My Creative Garage, who is well known for her beautiful pinks and I love everything she dyes. The contrast colour is actually 3 colours, a speckled yarn and 2 solid colours that I’m alternating through every few rows. This was Vanessa’s idea after I showed her my inspiration…

I was inspired by test knitter: Purlific Knitter’s project she always makes beautiful projects, I love seeing what she’s knitting over on Ravelry.

As the yarn I’m using is superwash (I will not be beaten this time!), I’m going to knit my collar by picking up stitches later, rather than first up. I’ll also keep an eye on the length of the body and sleeves, this pattern is kind of cropped so I don’t think I’ll be in danger of it being too long, but nonetheless, I’m paying attention!

I’ve also adjusted the amount of short rows at the back neck. Highlighted by a few knitters on Ravelry, there is an extreme amount of short rows in the pattern, so rather than ending up with a blob at the back of my neck, I’ve done a normal amount of short rows. But… this has meant that I’ve had to adjust where the vertical rows of the colourwork pattern landed to compensate for the increases that hadn’t occurred yet. It’s a bit hard to explain. Needless to say, this is NOT Knit Night knitting!

This is my current Knit Night knit, Colourblocked Rib socks by Summer Lee, from her book The Sock Project. Once again the yarn is by Danni of Halfbaked Hand dyed, and is a one-off colourway.

Last weekend I visited the Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild of Vic, to see an exhibition they were hosting for Annette Finton Instagram link aka Nini & Wink Facebook link. She is a Melbourne Fibre Artist and I’ve loved seeing her artwork around Melbourne (a lot of it outside!) for many years.

Pretty cool huh? If you click on one of these images, it will take you through a gallery of larger images.

Back to knitting my Dream sweater…

A couple of FO’s

August 24, 2025 | Sonia Knits

Very excitingly, my Fragmentation Cardigan is finished, with sewn on buttons and all! I’m so glad I made the amendments to this cardigan, to give me a better fit/length, the extra effort was/is worth it. I now have a cardigan I will wear and it won’t be languishing in the wardrobe. Yay!

The final clue for Stephen West’s mystery sock knit-along also dropped this week. Whilst the final clue wasn’t a lot of knitting for some. It seems my row gauge was tighter than most, so I got to do ALL of the final patterning for the foot before the toe. Which is okay, because I would have been disappointed to have missed out on the fun basket weave rows at the end!

But I am so glad it’s now done! Another bright and fun project for the books. I’ve also done a bit of swatching this week for my next sweater project, it’s been a long time since my last sweater cast-on and I can’t wait to start.

‘Free’ Knitting time

August 10, 2025 | Sonia Knits

This week’s clue, for Stephen West’s Mystery sock-along, was much shorter as it was just the heel flap and turn instructions. I completed this clue for both socks on Thursday night. Which was kind of nice after the intense knitting of the first clue.

The heel flap is made up of ‘wedges’ and after completing mine, I saw that a few people flipped the wedges on their second sock, I wish I’d thought of that!

So with all this ‘free’ knitting time until the next clue drops on Tuesday night (my time), I’ve knit a little on my Marlene sock. Which I’m starting to feel the love for again.

And then, I ripped the band-aid off on my Fragmentation cardigan surgery.

Before:

During:

I began by re-knitting the collar. As the cardigan is top-down to begin with, I had to cut the original collar off. I then picked up the stitches and knit in the opposite direction. I went down in needle size and I also knit a double collar before doing a 3 needle bind off on the inside. The smaller needle size and the structure of the bind-off has helped cinch it in quite a bit, and it sits really nicely now. Once it’s reblocked, the garter stitches around the collar should also settle down.

I’m now working on the ribbing at the bottom, after ripping out 36 body rows or 3 of the side colour tabs. I’m really excited about this now. Depending on how complex the next sock clue is, I hope to have this on the blocking mats next weekend. Oh, and I still need to get buttons.

Surprise Sock Along 2025

August 2, 2025 | Sonia Knits

SPOILERS ahead for Clue 1!

Before I get into my happy diversion this week, I want to let you know what I’ve decided about my Fragmentation Cardigan. Thank you for your supportive comments!

I took the cardigan along to Knit Night last week, and tried it on in front of everyone. I had so many helpful suggestions. Including cinching in the neckline to stop it from ‘dragging’ so much, April even made some running stitches through the neckline to visualise this. What I found most helpful though was when I asked people to try the cardigan on. Out of the 5 people who tried it on, it looked absolutely perfect on about 3 of them. Despair! It was the right length on them and it looked great, much better than it currently looks on me. I was green with envy.

Instead of gifting my cardigan to one of these wonderful knitters, I’ve decided to go back and shorten the body to the right length, it might be a bit tricky, but it’s totally do-able. I may also shorten the sleeves, even though I like long sleeves (we’ll see). I’m going to re-knit the collar so that it is snugger. I might possibly make it a double (folded down and stitched) collar. I’m not sure if that would look weird with a single thickness buttonband? So that’s what I’m going to do. It might add 2 weeks to the making, but what is 2 more weeks or 3? Seeing it on my knitting mates, really made me want it more. Who knows, I might even consider going back and shortening my other oversized sweaters.

SPOILERS are coming!

On Monday night, I also got some opinions on my colour selection of minis for the sock along. I felt pretty happy with the choices I made on Monday night. Then came Thursday when I cast-on, and I changed my mind.

It’s a very graphic design, which I believe requires mostly solid colours. In Stephen West’s You Tube tutorial on the first clue, he suggests using your speckled or variagated yarn for colour E, which is the ‘droplet’ stitch section. I didn’t think that worked very well. I also didn’t like the contrast in my Latvian braid (and I knit it too tight). So I ripped back to the end of the cuff and switched some colour choices, and added in more colours. More is more afterall!

Here’s my Clue 1 finished. I had to scramble around to find another needle to start sock 2. I’m hoping to avoid second sock syndrome and have this done in time for Clue 2. It’s super fun so far.

Intermission

May 25, 2025 | Sonia Knits

It’s been an interesting week. I’ve got a cold, it began as a regular (not too bad, garden-variety cold) and slowly turned into a horrible coughing-green-slime-kind-of-a-cold. At this point I threw in the towel and called my doctor. Aren’t antibiotics wonderful? I try to avoid taking them if I can, I think it’s been years. I am on the mend, but I’m not there yet.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my sisters whose birthday is coming up, asked if I could knit her a pair of fingerless mitts. Wow, I don’t often get requests from family members to knit them anything. It doesn’t take a birthday for me to make for anyone, especially family. So I went to my stash. I gave her some yarn options, from which she made a selection, then I gave her a few more options (based on her first choice) but she still stuck with her original choice. The yarn is deep stash, Colinette Jitterbug. Gosh, it’s such a good yarn which sadly has been discontinued for many years now. The colourway is Forest.

I’m knitting up a pair of Penny Gloves by Petite Knit. It is a super simple pattern, but it fits well. There is only one size in the pattern, so I hope it fits my sister as well as they fit me. I should have time to finish the second mitt and give them a good soak and block in time for next weekend.

I’ve also finished plying the singles (Cat & Sparrow, 100% merino) that have been on my wheel for an embarrassingly long time. I look forward to winding it off and giving it a bath to measure the yarn weight and meterage. I have a loose idea of a Sophie shawl by Petite Knit but we’ll see.

May is for catching up

May 18, 2025 | 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!

Sentimental

February 7, 2025 | Sonia Knits

19 years ago I lived in San Francisco. It’s when I went from being a knitter, into being a Knitter with a capital K, which just means I became more obsessed. My husband was posted there on secondment, and I joined him obviously! I was unable to work for the first 6 months, which was great, depending on your point of view. We lived in the Marina district (right near Fishermans Wharf), with my local yarn store ‘Greenwich Yarn’, just a ten minute walk away. The whole experience is now dreamlike.

Laurie, who was the owner of Greenwich Yarn, was wonderful and so welcoming, offering help to her loyal customers. It was a small store, but it was very well curated. There was a lovely wooden table in the middle of this narrow store, that you were welcome to come and knit around during the day, even eat lunch there, which is forbidden by yarn stores these days! It almost felt like home. I spent hours there, which I had a lot of. When I made a friend at a Knit Night, separate to the yarn store, we would both hang out here together. What a time!

The oldest yarn in my stash comes from Greenwich Yarn. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and now I think it’s time to cast on.

It’s Crystal Palace Panda Wool, it’s a sock yarn. Laurie recommended I get an extra ball, because of the bamboo content, the yardage is less than usual. Isn’t the colour dreamy.

I’ve decided to pair this with also one of the oldest patterns I own. It’s from a magazine, and it’s by my favourite sock designer Cookie A. She no longer designs patterns, but she also lived in the Bay Area at the time. I met Cookie at my very first Stitches West yarn show whilst living in SF. I bought a bundle of her patterns, that were print-outs in plastic sleeves; I still have them.

But for this yarn, I wanted to knit socks that were almost Mermaid like. This is how I selected to knit Cookie’s Marlene socks.

I haven’t cast-on yet, but I will in February. So this is a super sentimental knit for me after all these years.

I’d like to get through more of the oldest parts of my stash (as well as the new), so that I don’t have things that are 20 years old! And maybe they won’t be as precious as this project, but it’s time.

I hope to catch you up on my other projects soon, maybe this weekend.

Last day of Craftcation

January 12, 2025 | 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!

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

December 31, 2024 | 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!

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!

Sonia Knits

The adventures of a Melbourne Knitter

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