What I made, by Sharon

I was obsessed with knitting a cable jumper for quite a while. I started looking at patterns on the 4th of May, I bought the yarn for a cabled jumper on the 14th of May, and then I finished a jumper for Leon and started and finished a cardigan for myself. Two Sunday's ago I cast on the cabled jumpe r and I haven't been able to stop knitting it since. I've just divided for the sleeves, and it's such a pleasure to knit. I cannot put it down. I'm knitting at lunchtime, I'm knitting all the time! Of course, this has made my audio-book reading go fast, and my eye reading quite slow. I'm listening to the fifth Rivers of London book, Foxglove Summer .  like all the previous volumes, it's great. Perfect narrator, interesting plot, a story arc within each book, along with a larger arc. All 'round marvellous. I'm eye reading A Year Of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman, who wrote Still Life. I t has a similar tone, and themes, like community and belonging an

  Leon had a birthday on Friday. I bought him a fun gift (some fancy puzzles) and an indulgent gift ( a top of the line electric toothbrush) but I thought it would be nice to make him something too.  So I made him this little Alien.  It's the cute st little thing I've ever made. Based on his face, and the fact he was posing him drinking whiskey I'm pretty sure Leon likes him too.

  Yep, shortest day, longest night is today and it's very cold here. You would have thought that I would have extra time to knit and to read, but I'm busy, busy, busy with lots of fun stuff. The middle of winter is an odd time to pick up running again, but that seems to have happened, and we seem to be going to a show every week (last week it was Mart Poppins, the week before was &Juliet.) It's an excellent time. I'm knitting Scotch Mist by Thea Coleman. I've just joined the front and back hems, and I feel like there might be a mistake in my set-up row. Which serves me right, I said i wasn't going to try to set this up at the pub, and then I did anyway. I'm really looking forward to getting home and working out what - if anything - I did wrong. It looks small on the needles now, but it looked huge before. All will become clear once I have knit on a little further. I'm reading Our Magic Hour by Jennifer Down. It's a book about a 24 year old with

When I decided to knit Stephanie Lotven's Rainbow Party Cardi on holidays I was hoping it would be simple enough to knit everywhere and also interesting enough not to bore me when I got home. Well, it was the perfect holiday knitting project.  I finished the second sleeve on the plane on the way home, and the fronts, with their short-row shaping, changes of colour and glitter yarn were a quick dream to knit.  it's the finished garment that is taking my breath away. It fits perfectly and it really comfortable. The "rainbow" front makes me smile, And the little peek of stripes on the colour makes me giggle inside. This was a joy to knit and a joy to wear. Delightful.

 After finishing Cloud Cuckoo Land (review here, I LOVED it) I've been struggling through a review copy of the romance Was It Good For You?    The premise of this book is strong, challenging the idea that attractive men should be a certain kind of alpha male, and forcing our heroine to look twice at someone she discounted initially. And I'm into that - I'm married to a kind and gentle man and always dated nice men. The problem is that a nice (if a bit of a hot mess) woman and a nice, quiet man getting together does not an interesting story make. This book has pages of very pleasant text exchanges when they are making plans and making each other smile. Sweet? Yes. Interesting, no.  I'm backing it up with another romance with a cartoon cover on audio, Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok. I initially requested this one as an eye-read from NetGalley and was denied, so when it came up as an audio book I requested it. It's a romance set in the orthodox Jewish community of

We got back from our Queensland holiday yesterday and it was quite marvellous. We spent the first night with Fiona (Leon's middle sister and her family), and the next four days hiking in Green Mountain. with Geoff (Leon's oldest brother) and his family. We stayed in O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat  which meant we got the best of both worlds - long hikes, and then nice dry accommodation at the end, and views, views, views. The rainforest was amazing - ancient trees, interesting birds and numerous, stunning waterfalls. There were trees with tiny vines that reminded me of lace: And giant vines that fed my ever-growing cable obsession: We did a little guided walk which showed us the birds and taught us to identify them by their calls, but the birds were not shy and came and visited us on our balcony, and other places too! There were so many beautiful waterfalls, river crossings and leaches - but lets not talk about the leaches... I used a hiking pole for the first time, and

I started Leon's Humulus  at the beginning of a two week beer festival, with yarn I bought that very day . I finished it two weeks later, 2 days after the end of the festival. It was a very satisfying knit, from start to finish. When I say "start" I mean at the bottom, because I flipped this jumper so I could knit all the simple, plain stocking stitch while drinking at pubs and fancy beer events. When I say "finish" I mean completely changing the neckline, since boat neck is not to Leon's liking. I ended up freestyling it, it turned out I needed 30 stitches less than the pattern wanted, and a lot more ribbing besides.  I felt very satisfied that I got my planning right, after my near disaster on my last trip. We are heading off to Queensland for ten days to do some hiking and then go to a beer festival, and I'm hoping that I planned this one effectively as I planned the Good Beer Week knitting. I've cast on the Rainbow Party Cardi , and I'll be