Yarn Along – False starts and decisions

September 17, 2014September 16, 2014 | Sonia Knits

This week has been a bit rough, with so many new projects and each of them requiring consideration, I’ve cast-on and ripped 3 of the projects a number of times until it was right.

The Polka Dot baby blanket caused me the most concern. Before I even completed the first patch, I was ready to throw in the towel. I wasn’t reading the pattern properly, rounds 4 and 5 were a doozy. But I got there after 3 days, and then the second patch went so much faster. But that wasn’t before I attempted a granny square as an alternative to the polka dot patches. I asked Twitter ‘What should I do?’ The suggestion that I shouldn’t make something ‘too good’ to give away, spurred me on. I only want to give away things that I love, because if I don’t love it, then it’s not good enough.

I decided I loved the Polka Dot design most, unfortunately or fortunately it also meant I needed a few more colours to make it a success. A quick little lunchtime trip down to Yarn & Co. sorted this out for me. I have 13 centre colours now, I’ll make 3 of each and 4 of one colour to make 40 patches and a blanket similar in size to Willam’s after finishing it off with a large border. So much for using yarn stash yarn! I anticipate I’ll have enough left-over for another baby blanket, ha ha ha.

I’m still listening to Outlander (the first book) and enjoying that very much, as well as dipping in and out of Rachel Herron’s A life in Stitches.

To see what everyone else is crafting and reading this week, visit Ginny’s blog here. See you next week.

Yarn along – Cast-on-a-plooza

September 10, 2014September 7, 2014 | Sonia Knits

Here’s to another week of Yarn Along with Ginny and Friends. You can see Ginny’s blog here to catch-up on what everyone is knitting and reading this week.

It’s been an interesting week, with lots of new starts! I’m always pining to knit new things and this week I just didn’t say no. My projects page is about to explode with many new WIPs.

Ysolda Teague has launched a new knit along called ‘Knitworthy’, each fortnight releasing a new pattern to total 8. I gave in to peer pressure within 24 hours of finding out about it. The first pattern ‘Bronntanas’ which is a slouchy hat with an interesting honey-comb pattern looked pretty awesome to me, so how could I turn a blind eye? I’ve cast-on using my last instalment of Stranded in Oz yarn, to make this hat for myself; if the remaining patterns are half as good as the first, I think it will be $20 well spent. This is it below, the colour is not right, but you get the gist.

And I’ve cast-on some plain toe-up socks from the Stranded in Oz clubs latest instalment. It’s very pretty. It uses 2 strands of lace weight Alpacamer : 60% baby alpaca, 25% merino, 15% nylon. You can see the toe pictured.

And I’ve begun my sisters next baby blanket (not pictured). After ‘workshopping’ my baby blanket predicament, Deb was the-voice-of-reason and a good idea. Why not used the 4ply Patons wool I have and make the polka dot crochet blanket from that, requiring only to purchase the frame colour? In hindsight, an 8 ply cotton blanket is going to be heavier than a 4 ply wool one so what ever was I thinking? I’m pretty excited about this new incarnation of the baby blanket, I’m able to use what I have, and I’m doing a different pattern (with less ends!).

I’ve also been working on my Istanbul socks by Cookie A, which I’m totally loving (with so many projects on the needles it’s been hard to focus the admiration).

And this week I’ve downloaded and have begun listening to a new audiobook, drum roll please…

I’m listening to Outlander by Diana Gabaldon! I do feel that I’m the last person on earth to read this series. Now with the TV show beginning on Foxtel, I thought it was time to give it a go. I do intend to ‘listen’ to the book/s before watching the series. I think I’m ruined on Game of Thrones, but I’m still persisting with the audio books for now. I am enjoying the narration of Outlander and because I don’t know what’s going to happen (unlike GoT), there is a reason to listen to 32 hours for the first book alone.

Yarn Along – Hooray! Week

August 27, 2014August 26, 2014 | Sonia Knits

Cough, splutter, cough… Welcome to another week of Yarn Along with Ginny and Friends. Go and check out the blog here to see what everyone is knitting and reading this week.

If you haven’t picked up on it already, I’ve had a dreadful cold this week. Well it actually began last week and then took a few days to take hold.

When I was well enough, I finally got down to finishing off my sleeves on the Hooray cardigan and now it’s all finished, hooray! I’d like to give special thanks to Louisa from the Richmond Knitters for suggesting that I knit the reverse stocking stitch sleeves, inside-out, so that I could just knit the sleeves rather than purling the whole way. Brilliant! I love my knitting group and the people in it. More often than not, I get excellent tips from these guys that I would not have come up with on my own.

These photos were taken when I was still a tad unwell, so please forgive the non-smiles and non-head shots, I find it hard to smile in photos at the best of times! My kind photographer said it was him, but I know it was me, and I asked ‘Do I really look like this, how can you be married to me?!’

I am very happy with the outcome. I did end up sewing up the last extra buttonhole I added, then to make it a little less obvious, I transferred that button to the other side of the band to cover said hole. I think the deception works.

My only reservation, and there’s always one; is the shaping around the cables at the bottom of the fronts. It doesn’t sit flat, and I wasn’t really sure why. I popped over to Ravelry to see a whole lot of other people encountered the same thing, so it’s not just me. I saw that one knitter dealt with it, by re-knitting and re-shaping somehow. I didn’t recognise or find this fault in other people’s projects, until I saw it in mine, then I could see it everywhere. I’m a touch disappointed, but not devastated. I still think it’s extremely wearable despite an odd lumpy part around the waist, the cables kind of disguise it. I would like to point out the lumpiness wasn’t visible until after the 8cm of knitted on band was complete. There was no way I was pulling out all my knitting for a slight glitch, that I have no hope of actually fixing anyway (let’s be honest). I haven’t blocked this garment yet, and if this, by some miracle fixes the problem, then I take it all back Veera and your record is intact.

My Hooray Cardigan has been my very first successful ‘Use It Or Lose It’ project. Of the 20 balls of Anny Blatt I had, I’ve used 15. I guess I’ll be losing the last 5 balls to a charity knitter, my job is done here.

I did finish reading Stephanie Pearl McPhee’s book, you know the one with the really long title. I didn’t mind it. I felt like I could relate to parts of it (not that you need to relate to a book to enjoy it, but it helps); funnily enough, one of the last chapters was about how she felt she looked in photos, compared to her ‘prettiness’ in real life, oh the irony. The departure from telling knitting tales, led to a number of parenting stories or stories about her family life. I guess most people are parents right?

I started reading a sample on my Kindle for Rachel Herron’s ‘Pack up the Moon’. I was at the second last page of the sample and was just about to dismiss it as my next read, when, all of a sudden, the author made geographical references to San Francisco, so I’m a little torn as to whether or not to give it a try. The author is a knitter after all, perhaps her character and newly re-acquainted given-up-for-adoption-daughter head down to Imaginknit for some bonding over a bit of yarn shopping? You never know right?