What I made, by Sharon

Last week I said I was struggling with      The Intrigue* by Silvia Moreno-Garcia . Unusually for me I put it aside and read  The Music Between You And I by Quiana Glide * a book that was full of grammar and plot errors. After that I returned to The Intrigue, but I didn't suddenly start caring about the characters or plot. I had just read three 5 star books in a row, so I guess I was due a slump. Now I'm reading  Double Standard*: An 831 Stories Romance by Mallory Thomas . All 831 romances have the same boring cover, in different colours. The book itself is an easy read and I'm liking it. I have an unusual number of ARCs to read - after Double Standard  there are four due on the 11th of August, which should be quite achievable, none of them are particularly long. Although i really should stop requesting ARCs with short timeframes! these all sounded really good. They are  Ninefox Gambit*  by Yoon Ha Lee ( military space opera)  Never D...

It was good! we (this time meaning me, Nat, Katie and Kris) stayed in a very nice place across from a different lake! We had our traditional Thai dinner on Thursday night.  Friday morning dawned chilly but sunny. Kris and I walked to the show and then we shopped hard until it was time to meet for our traditional Richmond Knitters Bendigo Knitalong photo.  Then we went to the Women of Wool lunch, which was fun, interesting and dleicious.  After lunch we looked at some sheep, which is always a highlight for me. Every year Dani, our friend who runs HalfBaked Handyed runs a competition where punters can make their own selfstriping combinations. I think she makes the best one (or a random one, I'm not quite sure).  I made mine with my theme colours for this show - teal, lilac, pink and grey. It's in the middle here:  Friday night we had pizza, and I took my traditional terrible photo that doesn't have everyone in it. This year I manages two different, incomplete phot...

Every year, before I go to the Australian Sheep and Wool show I like to assess what I have, what I'm planning to make and what I want to buy. Then I come back at the end of the weekend and see whether my shopping matched those plans! (Planning Posts from 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , 2016 , 2018 , 2019 , 2021 , 2022 , 2023 2024  and 2025 )  I also now only press post on this on the Thursday morning before I leave for the show, because of what happened in 2021 ! This year I was doing a very good job of reducing my stash. I thought I might even get it below 10 kms for the firs time in ages. And then Anna  came to knit night a couple of weeks ago and presented me with a one kilogram bag of handspun BlueFaced Lester because she thought I would like it.  Like it? I LOVE it. So much lustre, and so even. Just stunning. Also some Lopi, which I'm excited to knit with and a single skein of Koigu. So I go into this with 13988 metres, over 21 entries.  The three on the bottom row ...

That's right, tomorrow I leave for my favourite weekend of the year - the Australian Sheep show.  As usual all NetGalley copies are marked with an *. I finished  In Wonderland * by Joyce Maynard . It's a mediative tale told from the point of view of a 14-year old having a very different summer, a poor girl being a 'mothers helper' for a rich, but dysfunctional family and reflections on how it affects the rest of her life. Now I'm reading    The Intrigue* by Silvia Moreno-Garcia . I'm a third of the way through. It's well written on a paragraph to paragraph basis, but i just don't care about any of the characters, or what happens to them. We have a failing scam artist, a bitter spinster and a frustrated young woman, and I'm completely not invested. They all deserve each other. I might not finish it, but I'll struggle on for a bit.  After that, I'll be reading   The Music Between You And I by Quiana Glide * an age gap, rockstar romance with a...

This weekend I finished my final project for Bendigo - the  Noosa Scarf . This means I've knit the Richmond Knitters jumper for our annual Knit-A-Long , and a hat , j umper , socks ,  and now this scarf for the Bendigo Project, which is an initiative launched last year by some Australian designers. Last year I didn't knit any of the patterns, this year I went wild with it!    Knitting this was pure joy. I bought the yarn (locally died merino possum) on our recent tr ip to Adelaide . I cast it on the same month as I bought it, which is always a fun time It's the sort of knitting that uses just enough of my brain to keep it interesting. A little too complicated to knit when out and about, but just right when sitting at home on the rare quiet weekend or unfortunate sick day that has happened recently.  I knit it to pattern - right down to using a merino possum wool! I went up a needle size because I think my yarn is just a tiny bit thicker than the...

I got a cold AGAIN. It's been a winter for them! Leon is sick as well. This meant we stayed home Sunday, knitting and reading. On Monday, instead of my usual after work routine of gym to knit-night I came home. Tuesday I took off work, and spent the entire day on the couch - reading and knitting. I'm feeling better now, but it's been pretty restful and I did get a lot of reading and knitting done.  Books given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honet review will be identified with a *. I read 3 5 star books in a row  Cherrywood by Jock Serong ,  The Followers * by Maree Prat and  Starlight Mountain * by Taylor Gray. Then I blew the streak with  Hot Girl Murder Club * by Ashley Winstead , which was a book about sisterhood and revenge and I thought it was a hot mess (a lot of reviewers thought otherwise, so that is, obviously, just my opinion). This morning I started  In Wonderland * by Joyce Maynard . So far I can say I like the writing style, but I'm re...

 I knit a Ranunculus in 2021 as the Richmond Knitter's Bendigo jumper for that year's (later cancelled) Richmond Knitters Bendigo Sheep Show project. It was never quite right - it got shorter over time and the colours were a bit too swirly.  It is a very useful layer - in winter under a jacket, in summer it's light enough to stuff into a small handbag. Two Tuesday 's ago I cast on a Love Note , which is a similarly themed garment - fluff knit on 6mm needles. The day after I cast on I washed Ranunculus, since I had taken it on both my recent interstate trips. It came out like this: It's not felted, but it seems to have become shorter and wider and the sleeves are long and tighter. Weird, since I did it on a wool wash with all my other woolens, as usual, and the rest of them are fine. Luckily Love Note fills the gap: No too short Not too weirdly coloured. Not too anything. Just a really light, wearable, delightful jumper.  I knit it to pattern, except I didn't do...

This week I started the  Noosa Scarf  for the Bendigo Project . This is addictive knitting, which meant I spent my weekend reading time knitting and listening to audiobooks. I finished the excellent  Quitters Club by Jessica Strawser and then the silly but enjoyable action adventure   Hell Island     by Matthew Reilly the fourth  Shane Schofield book. I have  15 days to finish this scarf, which should be easy - I'm getting one repeat done a day, there are a total of 16 repeats and I've completed 5. It's not a complicated pattern, but it is too much for knitting on a quick tram ride, and I do find i need to glance at the chart. So, it's a it slower than plainer knitter. Luckily, for the first time ion a long time, we have not much in the way of weekend plans, so I can sit and relax and knit! The joy of a little extra time is real. All the knitting meant that it took me longer than usual to read the excellent  Cherrywood by Jock Serong , a beau...

 W elcome to part 32 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 books from the Object Lessons series, which is a series of 's hort, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.' I love these, and have previously read  Sticker, Blackface, Fat, OK, Glitter, Gin, TV, Recipe, Wine,   Trench Coat,  Videotape, Cat, Taco , Metronome, Snack, Lipstick, Stock Photo,  and Microphone.   There are currently a total of 110 books in the series, so more than 15 percent. Not bad! Today I add Concrete, Fist and Laboratory to...

Yes we have passed the winter solstice and the days are getting longer, if not warmer. For some reason, probably because I work from home 2 days a week and am not currently running in the mornings, it hasn't felt as dark as many other years. Leon's birthday was yesterday, and it always gets brighter from there. Enough about the weather, what have I been reading and knitting this week? I've nearly finished listening  The Quitters Club by Jessica Strawser. Quality fiction about four old friends who make changes in their lives, I've really loved this book. I got approved for it after I said i was going to stop requesting audiobooks on NetGalley after a string of misses, but this is a real hit for me. In eye-reads I finished    Friends of Dorothy by Sandi Toksvig . I felt like it was trying to do too much, so it had to go shallow. Now I'm reading  Cherrywood by Jock Serong which is set in inner Melbourne in 1993, and thre is a magical dissapearing pub. I'm enjoyi...