What I made, by Sharon

Reading has been rather good this week. I finished  Orbital  and gave it 5 stars for being lyrical and beautiful. Then, as predicted I started Penny Reid's Homecoming King .  I'm pretty close to finishing it and it's also looking like a 5 star read. It's tropey romance, and also well written, sweet and (unlike many romance novels) full of communication, trust and consent. It's just so sweet - except the bits which are sexy, which are genuinely sexy. I'm often more of a closed door kind of reader, but, maybe because I liked the two main characters, this didn't seem intrusive. It is a bit of a Christmas novel, which is weirdly themed with my unusually Chistmassy activities this year. Next up I think I'll read Loving Day by Matt Johnson, the oldest book on my Goodreads "want to read" shelf.  Still the same two knitting projects as last week but they are both ticking away nicely. I've added a stripe and a half the the  Electric Village  shawl...

I'm getting ready for Christmas (which is funny, because I don't really do Christmas) with polymer clay crafting. On Saturday I made some candy-cane earrings and stitch markers. The weird round thing at the top is some sort of Christmas yammulka that Katie asked me to make. Something from the OC. I hope she likes it. It's been really fun making these. I tried a different brand of clay for the second lot - the first were  Sculpy three, which is softer and the next lot  Fimo, which is much firmer. I hate conditioning the Fimo, but it is easier to work with after that, particularly when it is warm.  I find polymer clay earrings so light and easy to wear. On Sunday night we went to a gig at the Forum. Frank Turner was the first big thing that was cancelled for us in 2020, so seeing him felt like we had closed that circle.  Now we can move on with music and friendship and folk / punk music. That traumatice chapter is closed! Needless to say it was a fabulous ni...

 I finished the Arrows Down Dress a couple of weeks ago, and documented it here . At the time I described it as "pretty short". It was mid thigh, and I had been aiming for top of the knee: I thought it looked good, if a bit skimpy. And then I wore it to work without tights underneath and I realised I had to lengthen it, to make it a truly wearable garment.  i had to talk myself into it - once I've completed a garment in my head , it's done, but I knew I would get a lot more wear from it if I made the effort.  I ripped back the (thankfully only six) rows of ribbing and added ten centimetres: It's a little less risque and a lot more work appropriate. Short or longer, I really loved knitting this dress and I really like wearing it. 

The knitting looks a lot like last week , with the  on my  Drawing Sweater  growing slowly, requiring attention to every single stitch and coming out looking amazing. I'm 8 rounds from splitting for the underarms, but since the colourwork continues after the underarms, so will the concentration.   Electric Village  shawl also looks similar, but has two more stripes. Since the whole shawl is 10 stripes (four stripes to go) I predict we will be seeing it here on Wednesdays for another two weeks.  In reading I finished The Nix , and loved parts of it and couldn't stand some of it. I have very mixed feelings, except that I'm glad I read it and am enjoying ranting about the whole experience!  I'm listening to Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton. It's well written and well read but also feels like the plot is meandering and repetitive. Hopefully it will pick up it's threads again. It's certainly a good book to have in my ears while working away on the Drawin...

Some time in the distant past (before 2015) we bought ukuleles. We did two terms of classes. I had never played a stringed instrument and I cannot say that it took. Even during lockdowns, when I kept thinking I should take it up again I found other things to do. Well, the other day NetGalley was offering 21 Easy Ukelele Songs for Christmas I could not resist.  I'm not one for Christmas, so it was a weird decision, but there you go. I downloaded the book, got out my pretty pink uke and off I went! This book is easy to follow, has clear notation for people who read music and people who do not and linked video tutorials. A winner of a book, and delightful to be strumming away again.  

This is part four in a series of non-fiction book reviews, based on the idea that the books I request tell you everything you need to know about me. All books in this post were provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and I'm always honest. Sometimes it feels painful to be totally honest, but that's the deal. Iron Man: Tony Stark Declassified by Dayton Ward    It might come as a surprise to some, but in 2019 we watched every Avengers movie. Methodically. From start to finish. By the end of it I was quite sick of some aspects of the Avengers, but when I saw this book I was curious.  This book promises  N otes, Interviews, and Files from the Avengers' Archives, and it fits into  "non-fiction November" as th e structure of this book is to pretend the MCU is real, and that the author has interviewed Tony Stark. They also have "extracts" from SHIELD files and other "sources". It is a really fun conceit, and a deep dive into not just ...

And the decision is that next year I'm going to number these posts, because I can't really find a theme each week. Strap in for a bunch on unthemed books and knitting!  This has been a good week, in both reading and knitting. I've made (slow) progress on my Drawing Sweater.   And rather faster progress on my Electric Village  shawl - but it is one of those projects that stars with five stitches and grows from there, so I do not expect to maintain this level of growth. Reading has also been good, I'm reading The Nix by Nathan Hill.  I'm suddenly inspired to read all the books that are on my Goodreads "TBR" from 2017, and people have been talking about this book as Hill has just released his second book. This one is very good, although it is a lot. Multi-generational, detailed details and changing structures. I've also been reading some non-fiction for non-fiction November and I will be back on Friday to tell you all about that. After I finish my current...

 As we often do in the first or second weekend of November, we went to Marysville with my parents. This year we took the Friday off for a lovely long weekend. Friday and Saturday were dream relaxation days- knitting and reading on the deck, and when we got tired of that, wandering into town for coffee and cake.  I finished the little socks I was freestyling: It's so cute and fits a really well. Then I started a Kate Davies Shawl - Electric Village . This was all background to having a chance to sit down and concentrate on the Drawing Sweater. Its a slow, concentrated  knit, but I made some progress while sitting on the deck. I even played - and enjoyed playing Scrabble - with my parents. The King Parrot hanging about was just the cherry on top a beautiful time. Then on Sunday we ran! Leon did the half marathon and I ran the 10km. It was my 12th time running in the Marysville Marathon festival.Here's our traditional pre-race selfie: I wasn't expecting much, since...

I  finished the Arrows Down Dress last week, and wore it out on Saturday night.  It's the fourth dress I have knit, and the first that I have adapted from a jumper pattern, rather than just knitting from a dress pattern. I liked the details on this pattern, so I adapted it by knitting it longer, increasing a size up after the waist shaping and reflecting the sleeve colour change on the bottom of the dress.  It's pretty short - it did not grow at all on blocking, and I'm considering knitting it a bit longer. On the other hand, I'm wearing it right now, at work, and it's comfy and cozy and delightful.

 As promised last week, everything is new this week. I started not one but two knitting projects. The Drawing Sweater  is lovely, but too complex to work on when doing anything - even watching TV: And I'm freestyling the patterning on a pair of Remnant Socks , which are simple to knit in all situations. In reading I DNFd both an audiobook ( Lessons In Chemistry ) and an eye-read review book (Corey Doctorow's The Lost Cause ). I just couldn't engage with any of the characters or situations .   I was starting  to think I was the problem, but I'm listening to Trent Dalton's Lola in The Mirror , and reading an early Taylor Jenkin Reid After I Do  and finding them both interesting and engaging.  What a relief. I don't really get into reading slumps, but I was becoming concerned! I'm not sure what I'm reading next. I've got Orbital by Samantha Harvey as my only remaining fiction review book for 2023, or Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, which a...

I know many regular spinners who would not think that a finished skein of yarn is worthy of a post of its own, but for  me this is so rare I think it deserves a celebration. I think I started spinning this in June 2022. It's from Ixchel , a lovely blend of silk and bunny and merino. Then my shoulder started to hurt when I was spinning. I found out why, and how to easily prevent it, but life got busy, I did a bunch of  crocheting and spent my home down-time on polymer clay creations. When I was inspired to sit down and spin last week it only took me a weekend to finish the second braid and ply it. I do love long draw. It makes for such a relaxing spin, and beautiful airy yarn. It's 377 metres for 160 grams of fibre, probably about an 8 ply. I'm planning on spinning up some darker fibre  I have in stash and making a Hitch on the Move ... probably in about 2026!

This week I'm still plugging away at my dress. I'm a third of the way through the second sleeve, so it will only be a couple of day more. I've already wound the yarn for my next project (the wonderful Drawing Sweater ). In reading I'm loving Daryl Gregory's Revelator . Like all his books its weird - this one is about the women of a family who have a personal relationship with the God Under the Mountain. Gregory can take the most bizarre premise and make it believable. More than that, he makes you care. I'm about three quarters through and things are coming to a head. Next up is the  Cory Doctrow climate change science fiction book The Lost Cause . I had been planning it for last week, but then  Revelator   jumped the queue! So next week will bring a new book, a new knitting project and a new audio-book, since I currently have nothing in my ears. Stay tuned! T o read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as  Sharondouble...