What I made, by Sharon

I'm not feeling super positive as I write this. The good thing about having lots of friends who are all friends with each other (I accidentally made all my separate groups of friends cross pollinate) is that when something goes wrong everyone supports each other. We are all sad together. So many messages "are you ok?" " how are you feeling?".  The bad thing is we are all sad. Anyway, it's my birthday today and while I don't feel full of joy, I do feel very loved. And of course, throughout it all I have two of the great comforts of my life - reading and knitting.  In reading I'm reading a Kobo-Plus book  Our Liminal Spaces by Poornima Manco . It's set in India in the 1990. I'm enjoying it so far, it's a relationship based book, and covers things like changing social expectations and modernisation. I'm still listening to Longbourn . It's taken quite a dark turn, which I wasn't really expecting, since Pride and Prejudice is a r...

When I woke up on Friday morning I had a message from Elise saying 'call me'. that's never good, and unfortunately what she had to say was that Rachey had died overnight. I took the day off, and spent some time with Elise, who had been up since 3 am, helping to deal with the police, funeral home etc.  Then I went to dinner with my whole family, which was loud and lovely as usual, (and as usual, I didn't take photos) On Saturday we celebrated Katie's birthday, which was a lovely chance to get together and celebrate. Saturday night was the Richmond Knitters Christmas party, with it's joy, and traditions. Dani outdid herself with this year's yarn - designed by Suzanne.  Sunday I did the cleaning (boring but required) and then went to visit Raph, who is doing about as well as expected. Leon and I went to the Classic Cinema and saw A Chorus Line. They play musicals on Sunday afternoons and it has been such a treat seeing a bunch of musicals at the movies. A Choru...

I spent the last couple of weeks knitting Kate Davies' It's got A Bend In It Shawl.  The title is a joke in a book I didn't appreciate, but I do appreciate the cardigan. It an odd construction, it starts with a triangle shawl, and then magically turns into a wrap cardigan. Most people show theirs closed, but I like it even better open. At the moment I am keeping it closed with a stitch marker, but once I have decided on the final placement I have some magnetic closures I'll use. One of the interesting things about this garment is when I finished it it was kind of lumpy, and the sleeves were almost too tight. Then I washed it and then laid it out to dry, and now it fits perfectly.   All in all a practical, warm hug of a cardigan. 

Tomorrow I am busy all day, with work meetings and then an event at a brewery in the evening, so here's my update from Tuesday, which will be much the same on Wednesday anyway. I'm reading  Saved By The Bride by Fiona Lowe . It's a romance written by the author of the women's fiction book I read last week, and it's on Kobo-Plus.  The cover is pretty ordinary, but the book itself is a romp. Next up  The Shadow of His Hand: Book One of the Markulian Prophecies by Benjamin Patterson , an author that I found through Threads. It might be good, or not, but it was free on Kobo-Plus. Yes, that's all your are going to hear for the whole of December! I'm listening to Longbourn by Jo Baker. It's Pride and Prejudice, told from the point of view of the servants, and it's very good. In knitting I've only got half a sleeve left on my cardigan , so hopefully I'll be back with FO photos by the end of the week. I have also only got the foot of the second sock ...

  After I finished  Birds of a Feather , I read  The Money Club by Fiona Lowe , which was some very enjoyable women's fiction, set about three hours away from where I live. The next book I decided to read is  Fugitive by Krista D. Ball , which is the second in a series that I started last month. Since It was available on Kobo Plus, I signed up for my free month. Kobo Plus is like Kindle Unlimited, there is a range of books, you pay a monthly subscription and you can read as much as you want - but only from that selection. Up next (also on Kobo Plus)  is the third book in the  Unholy Island  series that I've been enjoying very much -   The Island God by Sarah Painter . If you have a Kobo, have you used Kobo plus? Any recommendations for books on this subscription would be welcomed.  In knitting, I've joined both shoulder of my cardigan - only the frontband and sleeves to go.  I am also participating in a super secret test knit, but...

 This is the Rockland crewneck , and I loved knitting it. It was soothing, and came out with me to lots of places (like camping  and running ). The yarn was absolutely wonderful. I love the way it looks, on my spunky husband and I love the way it feels. There were some oddities in the pattern, which I have gone into in my Ravelry post, and won't repeat here. One thing I'm really starting to notice is fonts and font colour. The colour on this pattern is a dark grey, which I couldn't read in bad light - and I knit at not one, but two pubs with insufficient lighting. Anyway, the results are great. I used Drover and Classer yarn, who dyes on Bellevue Park  merino. You might remember I made a dress with that yarn last year, and it is so soft, the stitches melt into each other. As I got near the collar, I started to worry that I was going to run out of yarn. I should have had plenty, but my last ball was getting thin. I looked on Ravelry and no-one had any in stash. I looked ...