What I made, by Sharon

 Unsurprisingly I'm still reading   Empire of the Dawn . It's so good (if you like vampires and family and endless, endless bad things happening, which I do!) It's a big book, but it's not dragging at all. I'm near the dénouement, but I kind of never want it to finish, but I need it resolved! I'm going to have the biggest book hangover when I do finish it. I'll be returning to the second half of  Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser , so at least I know my next book will be well written. In audiobooks I finished  Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami . I didn't love it. Now I'm listening to  Persona Non Grata (Gaius Petreius Ruso, #3) by Ruth Downie . It's a relaxing, somewhat silly, cosy mystery series set in the Roman Empire.  In knitting I do have a new project on the needles: Backlit by Stephanie Lotven . This has been in and out of my queue for years - I've bought yarn for it at least three times, and as far back as 2022 . T...

 Today I have three finished items that are gifts, so, while I wrote about them while knitting them, I haven't had the opportunity to show you them on their intended recipients. First up is the Swancho that I knit for Kris, so that Kris, Nat, Katie and I can all match. She looks so cute it it! Then there is the Albizia cardigan for my mother. Practical and pretty, this was a (rather lengthy) very satisfying knitting adventure. It's made out of Holst Garn Supersoft, and while it washes up reasonably soft, i actually ended up with a cut on my tensioning finger from the yarn rubbing on my skin. I'm really pleased with how it fits her , and I think she is too. Then we have a charity jumper and hat, which I knit to try to minimise some of my every growing leftovers. here it is modelled by a bear. Hopefully the bear is smaller than a 9 month old. Also a  bonus pair of socks for my father, because he likes fun socks and complained that I haven't knit him socks for a while, wh...

 So, I did DNF    The Emergency ,  because I hated it. It was kind of wooden, and not very interesting. I got  Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser  from the library and started it. It's a book in two parts which can be read in either order - I remember when it was originally published the paper copies had one part starting on one side of the book - or turn it over and the other part starts from the other side of the book. The first half was very good - I am going through a bit of literary fiction by women stage. Anyway, just before we went away I found out that  Empire of the Dawn  the final volume of Jay Kristoff's E mpire of the Vampire series has come out that very day. Unusually for me, at the end of part one of Scary Monsters I set it aside and starting this amazing 800 page epic finale to this brilliant series. I am loving it - vampires, quests, endless dark, battles, love and so many emotions! After I finish this I'll go back to Scary Mo...

 This weekend we headed up to Marysville to hang out with my parents and run the 10 km in the Marysville Marathon festival. I did the half last year, but this year training did not go to plan, so the 10km it was! we did all our favourite things including walking up to the falls and getting a selfie.  Getting harassed by King parrots parrots. It was my mother's birthday last week, so I finally gave her the cardigan I made for her- and promptly forgot to take photos! Hopefully she'll wear it when I see her this week. It was  a very satisfactory weekend. the run started cold and a little damp, but was cool and delightful. Same falls, different day: We got home mid afternoon, which, after also being away last week was a bit of a relief. I've cleaned the bathroom, hung the washing and now I'm going to flop onto the couch and read the very excellent book I started on the weekend. If you come back on Wednesday, I'll tell you about that, and about what I knit this weekend t...

Last week I said I was going to read   The Emergency  by George Packer,  but we were going away for the weekend  and I didn't want to read dystopian fiction. One of my travelling companions was Bee and she is the romance queen (funny story - Bee didn't read fiction for a good long while and then she fell in love with romance. Now she reads more than anyone I know We have different tastes - she loves first person dual POV, I don't.) So I requested  Silver Sky by Taylor Gray  from NetGalley. It was perfect! Well written, lovable characters, third person. It's the second in a related series and I loved it so much I've bought the first one. (I think its on KU for those of you who subscribe).  Now I've gone back to The Emergency . I'm having mixed feelings - there is a lot of exposition and I'm not finding the main character at all sympathetic. Additionally, things just sort of happen and I can't see why - although that might be because our main chara...

 As has been our tradition for three years now, we spent cup weekend (which is Saturday to Tuesday, for you non-Australians) camping on Dick and Carly's bush block near Pomonal. I only took one photo because I finally got a phone plan that works even in the country and it turns out I don't really want my phone to work in the country, so I had it off for most of the weekend!   The rest of the photos here are stolen from Leon, who also didn't take many. We did all our favourite things- we went on two runs, a little bushwalk and even swam in a lake. We sat around a fire and bullshitted with out mates. Bee and I had a reading circle - which consisted of us sitting and reading.  We got to see how the bush is recovering after catastrophic fires over the last couple of years. We saw all out favourite animals, including loads of kangaroos, yellow tailed black cockatoos, gangang cockatoos and this wallaby with a joey.  We had a ripper of a time.  This is the last ye...

  It's not secret that I'm obsessed with knitting bags. I've managed to limit myself to Joji & Co bags, becasue they are so good. I last posted about buying Joji bags in Jul y , but somehow a new envelope bag made it's way to my house (it's a  better colour in real life!)  it's to replace the previous one , which I had used a lot and also was always a bit too lipstick red, and not quite the right shade of pink I was hoping for. Weirdly, I seem to replace these every two years. At Bendigo this year, Nat brought out her Thread and Maple Needle Binder. I was obsessed! It's funny, because I don't really need any storage - I have a Joji needle binder  in beautiful brown from 2020 and a DPN holder from 2021 in human skin pink.   So, I've been resisting, although I always knew I was going to give in at some point!  Last week I was having a very bad day, and also I got a pay rise, and I gave in and put an order in. I started with the notions page: And so...

Tarragon and Willow didn't interact much, but since he died last Friday she has become even more interactive with us. She's sitting on the couch, which she never did before, and helping with everything. Here she is helping my newly finished cardigan for my mother to dry: Now I'm knitting a quick charity jumper from leftovers. I love using up leftovers. This weekend we're going car camping, and I'm going to cast on a pair of socks for my dad to knit while we sit around a campfire. In reading, I finished  Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson.  It was fine, I guess. Loads of characters, lots of unnecessary details and an unsatisfying ending. Now I'm reading   a NetGalley review copy of  The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell . I'm loving it, even though it is time travel. It's also full of magic, so in my mind its more fantasy than time travel and for some reason I can deal with that! I'm about a third of the way through and looking forward to seeing...

 On Friday we said goodbye to Tarragon. He was the last of our OG cats - Princess Daisy, Ms Juniper and Lord Tarragon.  We then spent some serious time trying to get the house to smell less like pee. The last few months have been hard on the floors and the couch.  Other than than the weekend has had all the usual (running, friends, dinner with the folks) but it's all just a little bit sadder than usual. My house smells better, but feels rather empty. 

 In 2021 I made t he first lot of dishcloths . In January 2024 I made some more . They were all made of left over cotton from my weaving attempts. Some of them have worn out. Some are very tired. I suspect some are lost in our linen 'closet' (a single shelf in our laundry cupboard). So this year at Bendigo I bought some thicker cotton and, between other projects I've been making dishcloths. We use these to wash dishes, not to dry them, and we like quite a small one, knit tight, not a big floppy one. I made the Ballband Dishcloth pattern by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne And then the traditional corner to corner 'Gradma's Dishcloth'  Ravelry: Dishcloth Recipe pattern by Robin Wiest I probably shouldn't have bought two balls of yarn, I have quite a lot left over. Back into the stashbox until these wear out and I have another dishcloth frenzy!

I know every week is full of review books, but I said I was having a break. Instead I requested and received   Case Study: A Dystopian Novel about Absolute Empathy by Arsenii Moskvichoff . The description is in the title! It's not the best novel I've ever read, but an interesting thought experiment.  I'm also listening to  a time travel anthology from A mazon Originals  published " The Time Traveler's Passport ". Time travel stories are not always my favourite, but there was a John Scalzi story, so I requested it. I've listened to 5 or 6 of them, and its been really rewarding. Each story is very different - time machines, time loops, stolen time. Really original, even the one that I didn't love.  Now I'm finally reading    Shrines of Gaiety  by Kate Atkinson , before my library loan expires. I've only just started, so no opinions yet.  Next up is another review book  The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell , which might also have time...

  On Saturday we gathered to celebrate the Richmond Knitters 18th birthday. I've been a member since 2008, not long after they started although it felt very well established even then. I'm close to an OG member, although there are a solid group of longstanding members. It was a lovely day, with cake and friends. we played pass the parcel, with the biggest parcel I've ever seen - and the best prizes too. Thanks Sonia, the Richmond Knitter's founder and leader, for organising this and so many other things. We used this opportunity to choose the jumper for this years' Bendigo project ( Celeste by Petite Knit) and caught up with friends from near and far - including Nat, who came from Tasmania for the day. Then Sunday we had afternoon tea to celebrate Isabella, my niece's 18th birthday. She is such a delightful human being, and it's always delightful to get together for such joyful reasons.   

 I normally work from home on a Wednesday, but this week our new manager started today, so I worked from home yesterday and now everything feels a bit off kilter. I finished  Annie Bot by Sierra Greer . It was a very powerful and compelling read, focussing on misogyny, freedom, personhood and a whole lot more. Then I decided to get  Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson  from the library. Which I did, and I got it as far as Adobe Digital Editions, but it wouldn't actually open on my Kobo. I'll keep working on it. In the meantime, I'm reading the final of John Birmingham's silly action romance books  The Bjorn Identity  . It's enjoyable, silly and low impact. In listening I requested a time travel anthology from NetGalley  The Time Traveler's Passport.  I don't always love time travel, but there was a John Scalzi story I wanted to listen to. I actually really enjoyed the R.F. Kaung story, which is interesting, since I don't love her books. I've got t...

  W elcome to part 27 in a series of non-fiction book reviews, originally based on the idea that the books I request tell you everything you need to know about me. I have, after so many chapters of this series, realised that all these posts say about me is that  this was just a place to put these reviews, but now I can see how broad my non-fiction reading is, and how many interesting, good (and sometimes not-so-good) books and topics I've had a chance to explore. Today we have three takes on popular culture:  disability representation in the movies, an audiobook about the Golden Girls and a book about number one songs on the Billboard charts. Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies by Kristen Lopez  Publishes 27 November Popcorn Disabilities  is an impassioned but nonetheless fun and engaging survey of how Hollywood has dealt with disability over the last century, covering not only the many ways that cinema has dis...