Author Archives: Bron

Confession time

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I have a confession to make. My exer-stash commitment fell by the wayside for several weeks. I am weak. My excuses for not getting on the treadmill could be almost legitimate – my gammy leg acting up, plus some concerns about the aneurism (alleviated by a normal CT scan last week). However, a couple of weeks ago, despite not having ‘earned’ stash funds, I let myself splurge on some yarns when I was feeling a bit low.

I bought 3 skeins of yarn from The Knittery, and 3 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock from Yarnomat. (Pictures below the fold.)

Yes, I have lashed myself with a wet noodle about it, but after a while I relaxed a bit. This year has been full of ups and downs. I’ve managed pretty well in keeping my sense of humour about the down bits, but I’m not going to lash myself anymore about doing something nice to cheer myself up 🙂 I’m not even going to try to ‘earn’ the yarn before I knit it, which I contemplated as a salve to my conscience.

However, now that the gammy leg is doing better, and we’re not too worried about other issues, I’ve been back on the treadmill – 4.6 kilometres in the past two days. That’s $4.60 more in the stash fund 🙂
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FO – Hedera. What next?

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I finished the hedera socks last night, and am pleased with the result. The lace pattern was easy enough to be almost mindless, which is the type of knitting I need just now – nothing I need to think about for more than a few seconds at a time!

Hedera socks

Hedera socks

Pattern: Hedera by Cookie A, from Knitty.com Spring 2006. Yarn: Heirloom Arglye 4ply

My next challenge is to work out what to knit next. I’m contemplating knitting a few things for Christmas gifts, but they have to be reasonably simple patterns for the afore-mentioned mindless knitting. Plus, as December is summer here down south, I don’t really want to be giving winter woollies. Socks would be okay, or light scarves or shawls, or maybe a lacy shrug or short cardigan, but nothing that folks are just going to put away immediately for five months until it gets cold.

So, I’m trawling through the gazillion patterns I’ve ‘queued’ on Ravelry, and browsing through books, and contemplating my stash. I even sorted out a box stuffed full of (mostly) sock yarns in a cupboard yesterday – its only a fraction of my stash, but I photographed and added another 15 or so lots of yarn to my stash page on Ravelry. I’m not going to run out of yarn anytime soon.

I’ve found a few possibilities, but I’m not totally inspired by any of them, yet. I may have to do a little test-knitting, to see what I like, and what is easy enough to knit without using all my braincells.

I’ll post here when I decide!

Hedera sock

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The only craft work that’s happened in the past 10 days or so is this Hedera sock:
20080910HederaSock

Pattern: Hedera by Cookie A, from Knitty.com Spring 2006. Yarn: Heirloom Argyle 4ply.

I finished the first sock last night, and cast on for the second this morning. It’s a nice easy pattern, so I can knit while I’m writing and in the few hours a week that I watch season 3 Battlestar Galactica DVDs with the DH – other than Wire in the Blood on Fridays, that’s the extent of my TV watching at present.

Oh, and I sent the red Tudora to a friend for an early birthday present, and she loves it. She’s off to Bhutan in a couple of weeks, so it will go travelling with her. Lucky Tudora!

FO – Retro Rib Socks

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Retro Rib socks

Retro Rib socks

Pattern: Retro Rib by Evelyn A Clark, from Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave. Yarn: The Knittery 4ply merino/cashmere; shade – waterlilies.

I love this yarn; it’s so warm and cosy. Although it’s officially spring today, we’ll still have plenty of cool days to wear these.

And speaking of yarn, this was the other lot of yarn I bought in San Francisco:

Ginko bamboo/silk yarn

Ginko bamboo/silk yarn

It’s from ArtFibers, and is 87% bamboo, and 13% silk. I’m not sure exactly what it’s going to be yet, but I think I might weave it, maybe in a point twill or similar, with a plain contrast silk.

Exer-stash relaunched

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Now that my surgery is over (for now), I’m back from travelling, and (mostly) over the post-San Francisco cold/flu bug, I’m restarting my exer-stash commitment.

I’ll earn $1 for yarn/fibre purchases for every kilometre walked (or equivalent exercise). For each kilo I lose, I’ll earn a bonus $5 – and I’ll ‘fine’ myself the same amount if it goes back on! If I walk everyday for seven days straight, averaging at least 1.7 kilometres per day, that will earn a bonus $5.

Since I have to motivate myself to also do some serious writing, I’ll earn a bonus $5 if I write more than 2,000 words in a day.

I started yesterday, with a relatively easy 2.3 kilometres on the treadmill in 31 minutes. I’ll restart the exer-stash progress page so you’ll be able to see my progress – and check any yarn purchases reported against my stash-fund ‘earnings’!

Travelling yarns

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I’m finally back home, after spending most of the past month travelling. I did have a week at home in between the San Francisco-Gold Coast-Sydney trip and the Melbourne-Canberra trip, but I didn’t get around to posting much.

So, I’m catching up here and posting pics of some of the stash enhancement acquired in San Francisco;

Trekking sock yarn

Trekking sock yarn

Koigu sock yarn

Koigu sock yarn


Seasilk from Handmaiden yarns – a beautiful gift from my friend Theresa.

I bought a couple of cones of gorgeous bamboo and silk yarn at ArtFibers, but I haven’t photographed them yet, as I posted them home form the US and they arrived just before I left for Melbourne. I think I’ll be using them for weaving.

Stash enhancement in Sydney was not as exciting – just two balls of Sullivans sock yarn which was on special at Lincraft:

Sullivans sock yarn

Sullivans sock yarn

Sullivans sock yarn

Sullivans sock yarn

In Melbourne I managed to restrain myself from buying yarn at Cleggs, although I did go in and drool a little. On the Melbourne-Canberra trip I managed to do some knitting, mostly on the two days in Canberra. So, I’ve finished two Tudora neck warmers:

Cream Tudora

Cream Tudora


Pattern: Tudora, by Cheryl Marling, from Knitty.com, Winter 2007. Yarn: 12ply pure wool, bougt from Wangaratta Woollen Mills at least 25 years ago! Button: Bought from WOW Wool shop in Armidale last week.

Crimson Tudora neck-warmer

Crimson Tudora neck-warmer


Pattern: Tudora, by Cheryl Marling, from Knitty.com, Winter 2007. Yarn: Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran. Button: from my button stash – probably bought more than 20 years ago.

San Francisco

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I’m in San Francisco, at the amazing Romance Writers of America National Conference. So, not much time to blog, but had to mention that I went yarn-crawling on Wednesday with some fellow writing knitters (or is that knitting writers?). Theresa, aka Knitterary, who I already knew, was one, and the other two were Ravelry-met new friends – Tara and Rachael. Rachael’s a SF resident, and a great yarn-tour guide, taking us to two fantastic yarn shops which each had shelves and shelves and shelves of gorgeous yarns. You can read her account of the day here.

Yes, there was stash enhancement. Yes, there will be photos at some stage – although of the yarn only, as I forgot to take photos of the four of us out and about.

I don’t have time for a longer post just now (I’m off to teach a workshop soon!) – but I want to say a huge Thank You! to Rachael for a great outing – and to Tara and Theresa also for their company. I definitely enjoyed myself!

Sock in progress – and The Book

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I’ve now finished one of the Retro Rib socks, and started on the second one. I love the yarn – The Knittery’s merino/cashmere 4ply. I’ve used it before for mittens, and am going to love wearing these socks.

Sock 1 is pictured here with my major finished project of the week – The Book. My first author copy of my first novel, due out in Australia in September, has arrived. It’s beautiful. It’s still a thrill to hold it in my hands, and it’s sat for the past few days on the dining table, where I’m currently working, so I can always see it.

Retro Rib sock

Retro Rib sock

I’m off to San Francisco for a writers’ conference on Saturday, and will be taking sock 2 with me (and the book!) Knitterary will also be there, and we’re planning on going yarn shopping before the conference starts. I’ll have limited internet access for a while, but I’ll post pictures when I return of any stash enhancement I’ve done!

Berocca Socks

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Another FO:

20081307BeroccaSocks2
Yarn: Berocca Sox. Pattern: the basic Patons 4ply pattern I’ve used for years.

This was another yarn from the box my friends sent to me. I think these will be great with jeans – I’m looking forward to wearing them tomorrow!

I like to have a plain pair of socks on the needles, to knit while I’m working at the computer, so now these are finished, I’ve cast on another pair in yarn from The Knittery that I bought a while ago.

Back home – and knitting!

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Sorry for the long absence from the blog. I was in Sydney for a couple of weeks, doing the surgery thing, and although the brain side of things went well, there were other complications, necessitating longer in hospital than anticipated. However, I’m on the mend and doing very well now, and home and getting back into the swing of things.

I didn’t get a heap of knitting done while in Sydney, although I did have a visit to Tapestry Craft. I was quite restrained though, and only bought a couple of balls of 4ply:

20080711GrignascoRedYarn
They’re destined to be lacy fingerless mitts. (The red is a little darker and richer than the photo appears.)

Last night, I finished this gorgeous pair of socks:

20080711DreamySocks

The pattern is a slight adaptation of Socks for Veronik, from Interweave Knits (Holiday 2007). The yarn is Dream in Color Gaia – from the box of yarns that my wonderful friends sent me.

I love the colours (especially the little flashes of electric blue), the yarn, and how it all works with the lace, and can’t wait to wear them 🙂