sweater

Australian Sheep and Wool Show 2026

| Sonia Knits

Well, that was an absolutely insane weekend! Luckily, I have today off to recuperate, catch up on life, and recover from all the excitement.

Damian and I headed up to Bendigo a few days before the Australian Sheep and Wool Show officially kicked off on Friday. Arriving early gave me the perfect opportunity to visit Bendigo Woollen Mills before it was flooded with knitters. On the drive into Bendigo, I received a very exciting email from the mill announcing that the final limited release of Wollemi had just launched, featuring seven brand-new shades. I’d been looking forward to this release for ages!

Damian very kindly dropped me off at the mill before heading to our accommodation. The Factory Shop, as it was once known, has been beautifully renovated and expanded, with plenty more space to browse, squish yarn, and shop.

Then Friday rolled around, and the show began!

One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing so many of the Richmond Knitters wearing their Celeste Sweaters. We’d chosen the pattern as our knit-along for this year’s show, and it was wonderful to gather everyone together for 2 group photos. If you have a keen eye, you might even spot my sister, who is visiting from Perth this week.

Some of us also attended the Women of Wool Lunch, which was another fantastic event. It was lovely to catch up with everyone, enjoy a delicious meal, and celebrate our shared love of wool and fibre crafts.

Of course, no Sheep and Wool Show would be complete without a little (or perhaps a lot of!) yarn shopping. This year’s haul includes purchases from my Wednesday visit to Bendigo Woollen Mills, along with plenty more from Friday and Saturday at the show. It’s certainly a substantial stash addition, but I’m absolutely thrilled with everything I brought home, and I’m fairly confident I didn’t leave anything behind!

Saturday was another wonderful day. I got to pat some beautiful sheep, spend time admiring the incredible Woolcraft Competition entries, and catch up with all of my sisters. Two of them made the trip just for the day, and we were also joined by Damian’s mum and some of our friends.

We couldn’t resist taking a few more Celeste photos on Saturday.

On Saturday evening, we gathered for our annual Bendigo dinner. As always, it was a fantastic night filled with good food, wonderful company, and plenty of laughter.

It was an amazing weekend, as it is every year. Now I’m looking forward to settling back into my regular routine, sorting through my new yarn, and deciding which projects to cast on first.

Oops I, did it again!

| Sonia Knits

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for the My Creative Garage Advent Calendar! I’m super excited about it, not only because it is Japanese themed (Vanessa, the hand-dyer behind My Creative Garage was inspired by the 2(!) trips she took to Japan in the last year) I’m also super excited because if you recall, I took a year off from Yarn Advent Calendars last year, and I really missed it! December 2025 was kind of sad, and then hectic and stressful (mum was in hospital).

So this December, I know is guaranteed to be great! (I know it’s not, but there’s no harm in hoping)

And then on Monday night at Knit Night, Chris mentioned the Skein Advent Calendar was launching this week. And… I guess I signed up for that one as well. What’s better than one Advent Calendar, two Advent Calendars of course. I’m just making sure I have a really happy end to 2026!

I think I already know what I’ll be knitting with both calendars as well, colourful knits are the best knits! I actually get a lot of wear out of the garments I’ve made with previous Advent Calendars. I doubt I’ll be casting on in December, but it is joyous to see the new colours each day, and dream and plan about what they may become.

The Celeste Knit-along with the Richmond Knitters is going pretty well, some people have already finished!

I’m up to the boring bit, but a bit of plain stocking stitch is quite relaxing when things have been super busy at work.

Here’s where I’m up to. I’ve been tapering the body in at the sides, so that it doesn’t end up so oversized. I think it’s looking great when I try it on. So long as I don’t make it too long, it’s going to be a good fit.

Other fun things, Damian bought a hundred Yuzus a couple of weeks ago, that is 100 Yuzus, so funny. He’s really getting into making foods at home. He made Yuzu jam, yuzu butter, yuzu brandy and yuzu salt! No yuzu went to waste! This past weekend he also made Strawberry Jam. I’m supporting him in these fruitful endeavours as much as possible.

I also purchased this very cool Sock Knitting brooch from Erstwilder, and we got Carol (my MIL) the box of pencils, she loves it!

I’ve finished some socks (more on that and pictures next time), and I’ve just cast these ones on. I really hope to finish them in a couple of weeks, as they are a little gift. It’s part of my year of making socks for others.

My EXP sweater

| Sonia Knits

As revealed this week, my EXP sweater is finished. I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. It took what felt like forever to knit, but then again everything I knit feels like that. I’d love to surprise myself one time, and say, wow that was quick knit, it only took 2 weeks… bwah ha ha, like that’s ever going to happen!

It was the half fisherman’s rib or ‘Shaker Stitch’ as Susanna describes it, that took the time. It looks like brioche, which is cool. I’ve done a little bit of brioche but not a lot, and the Shaker Stitch was actually really soothing to knit, everyone says so. That’s right, I knit this along with some of my quilting friends (turned knitters). I was really happy to have their support, because not everything in the pattern made sense. For a lot of the time, each of my friends were in front (it’s not a race!) so they had encountered the same questions I had; and were able to help. I’m looking forward to wearing my EXP with them for a photo soon.

I made only minor adjustments to the pattern. I lengthened the body and the sleeves. I omitted the decreases in the body, and I didn’t do the 2 extra rows at the raglan seam before kitchenering, I just didn’t think it was worth it for the extra ends to sew in. I also didn’t block aggressively, I didn’t need to, as I had the amount of ease. Except maybe the sleeves could do with a bit more of a block, they’re a little snug.

I’ve cast on for my next garment project, and I’m excited! It’s been in my queue for quite some time, and here we are in February already. I hope I get it done in 2 weeks 🙂

2025 Knitting review

| Sonia Knits

Happy New Year everyone! I’m so happy to be beginning a new year and a clean slate. Nevermind those 4 UFO’s I’m carrying across to this year!

For those following along at home, I like to keep a tally of how many metres I knit each year on Ravelry. They have some handy tools on your projects pages which allows you to include your projects yardage. Then if you tag your projects by year and set up separate tabs for each year, voila! you get your total amount of metres for the year listed at the bottom of your projects page for the year.

I’ve been doing this for about 10 years now, and it’s interesting to see the trends. (I’m Sonia on Ravelry in case you want to take a look).

This year I knit 8,820 metres approx. I’m up a little from last year (7,158 metres), but I’m still a lot less than the years when I have completed a blanket and several jumpers. I think that’s the key to high numbers, finishing a blanket! 2020 and 2021 being covid and blanket years, meant that my highest amount of meterage knit was 14,147 metres in 2021!

If only I completed my Nimue blanket in 2025! But it’s not all about the quantity! I feel really happy about the projects I’ve made this year, and the ones I’ve made for me, I wear pretty often.

This year I made 5 garments, 5 pairs of socks, 3 hats, 2 pairs of mitts and 1 hedgehog ornament. It was mostly a selfish year of knitting, with just 1 hat, 1 pair of mitts and a hedgehog gifted… Damian didn’t even get a pair of socks! oops.

Knitting plans for 2026? I thought it would be sensible to be more sock-focussed this year. My self-striping yarn stash has grown at a fast rate, so I definitely need to knit more socks. But I still want to make more garments that I could wear to work, stylish and not too colourful… my first focus though is completing my 4 wips. Wishing you all a wonderful year.

December catch up

| Sonia Knits

Apologies for leaving you hanging with the reveal of my Christmas ornament. December has been a lot. It’s like all of the crappy things that could happen in a year jammed into a month, namely our 3 parents being in hospital for unrelated things. For the record January to November were pretty good. But some good things also happened in December.

Beginning with my Knitting group’s Christmas party. I made this little fellow for our Ornament swap:

The pattern is called Scrap yarn Hedgehog by Midori Hirose. It looks tricky, but wasn’t, my kind of knitting. I liked not having to attach things, it was pretty much a all-in-one knit. I hoped to make one for our tree and my niece, but as I mentioned December has been busy.

I went to Daylesford with friends for 2 nights. It felt like a different retreat this time, I wish I could have been more present. That’s okay we get to do it again in just a few months time.

Fast forward to Christmas eve and we were celebrating with our friends at their place. Our usual traditions are KK, 2 competitive activities and lunch. It is always very enjoyable and we look forward to it every year since it has become a tradition.

Here is Damian modelling our completed balloon wreath. We won, but only because Damian bribed the judge, outrageous!

Christmas Day this year was at one of my sister’s homes. It was a wonderful celebration to have everyone there. Except for Suzy (my eldest sister) who was missed.

With less than 5 days left for the year, I’m taking stock of my UFO’s for which there are quite a few, more than usual anyway.

3 pairs of socks, my EXP sweater, and my crochet blanket. I will be able to complete my Christmas socks (8ply), but I’m not sure about the rest! And I really wanted to finished my Nimue blanket this year, gah!

I will say, I am really enjoying knitting the EXP, but it’s quite slow with the half fisherman’s rib stitches. My 4 friends who are also making this with me are further along!

‘Tis the season of fiddly knitting

| Sonia Knits

I love adorable handmade Christmas ornaments, but I don’t like finicky knitting. Here is my predicament. I have cast-on for my Knitting group’s Christmas Ornament swap, and I’m hoping it won’t take more than a few night’s worth of knitting hours. No spoilers here 🙂

If it’s super cute, I’d like to make one for me, and maybe one for my knitting niece… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I might absolutely hate knitting the next part, or I might love it. We shall see.

This weekend we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday. We took her to Kyneton and spoilt her with fancy food. She loved it, and it was great fun.

Before I cast-on for my Christmas ornament, I cast on and began knitting my EXP sweater (by Sanna & co.) with a group of friends. Now that my Vintage Flannel is finished I can focus on this and try to catch up to the others.

I purchased a Louie and Lola kit from the Bendigo Sheep show a few years ago; so I was really happy when my new knitting friends (old friends who have suddenly become knitters) decided they all wanted to knit it. The light colour will fade into 4 colours in total. I am becoming obsessed with this stitch pattern. And it’s not Brioche!

I hope December treats you well, I’m doing my best not to be overwhelmed.

Obsessed

| Sonia Knits
Anna Johanna’s Vintage Flannel

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

| 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.

Finishing My Fragmentation Cardigan: Decisions Ahead

| Sonia Knits

I’ve finished knitting my Fragmentation Cardigan, I think. It’s been blocked, but I still need to purchase buttons, I think. I’ve tried it on now, and it has grown a bit. I wish I made a size smaller. It looks a little oversized on me, which is not my style. It’s also a tad long. Do I buy the buttons and attached them, then judge? Or do I remove the button bands and seam up the middle, making it a sweater? For now, I’m going to mope, it’s been a mopey day. I’ve unintentionally made a couple of oversized sweaters in the past year or so, and this will be the third one. It’s starting to get to me. The three sweaters have in common: superwash yarn, garter stitch or mosaic (stretchy) stitch. 2 of them are by Stephen West. I’m feeling some rage here. Maybe I’ll sew the buttons on (and sew the buttonband down for stability), and it will be fine. Maybe. I might ask my knitting group for their advice, I wouldn’t want to be rash.

I have cast-off my Hot Jam Donut socks (a Bendigo colourway by Halfbaked Hand dyed) in 8ply and they are super cosy. I added a bit of silk mohair to the red and white sections, as I had some random fluff in my stash. They feel amazing on my feet, and they fit hooray.

Apparently I’m participating in the Stephen West mystery sock along which is launching on Tuesday, Sharon told me I had to.

The socks require 5 mini skeins of yarn. I’ve wound up some minis from a My Creative Garage mini skein set that I bought at last year’s Bendigo Show (go me!), and I’ve also gathered some speckled minis from a Little Woollie advent calendar. I’ll only need 5 of these minis, but I’m keeping my options open for now.

When I posted my Bendigo haul online this year, my sister who came to the show last year, commented that she hadn’t used any of the yarn she purchased from last year yet. I then begain to wonder if I had?!

Last year’s Bendigo haul

Turns out, I hadn’t either! I’ve used the bags, sure! And now I’ve wound up the mini skein set for the mystery sock along. I’m also finally going to cast on for my long desired sweater Vintage Flannel by Anna Johanna from her book Strands of Joy II. It’s going to be in yarn purchased specifically for this from last year’s Bendigo. Vanessa from My Creative Garage, also dyed up some extra skeins for me especially for this. Today I wound them all up. The pattern is not going to be released as an individual pattern until next year (I thought it would be released this year, so I delayed casting on) but not anymore, as my sister bought the book for my birthday, thanks Suzy!

Just realised Vanessa named this colour after me!
I hate winding yarn!

I hope you have a great week!