What I made, by Sharon

 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...

 I knit Andrea Mowry's Bright Lights shawl out of my own handspun, and there are very few joys more joyful than knitting something where I've managed to spin the perfect yarn for the situation. The project was great for taking out and about - simple and intuitive. As usual (I ranted about it here ) Andrea Mowry writes out the pattern as if they are a bunch of individual rows, rather than a simple, cohesive pattern. She wrote it out as a 16 row repeat, when it is actually a two row pattern, with one tiny tweak every 16th row. And then there are 30 finishing rows that are the same as the pattern repeat, but written out separately. The whole pattern is 8 pages, but the actual information needed could fit on an index card. I guess that's modern pattern writing. Why do I keep buying and knitting Andrea Mowry's patterns when I don't enjoy her pattern writing style? Because they are simple and effective and (usually) very wearable. Once I had the hang of the pattern I did...

It's been a busy few weeks, in a very fun way. lots of shows, some travel, just a generally good time Last weekend we say two shows (one straight play, one musical), this week we are seeing four, including one that Leon's choir is putting on, a new Australian musial, a cabaret and a pole dancing competition. It's a lot of fun, and also busy, busy, busy. I've still had time to read and craft though. The reading has included 5 short stories from Amazon's The Edge of Everything series of coming of age stories (I got them from NetGalley). They were all fine, but made me feel old and jaded. I did make some progress with my non-fiction reading and next Friday I will have a post up featuring three  Object Lessons  - Fist, Concrete and Laboratory. Now I'm reading  Friends of Dorothy by Sandi Toksvig  a LGBTQ women's fiction - if I had to classify it. It's the story of a couple who move into a house where the previous tenant, as old woman, has not actually left....

 When we were at Yarn Trader they had a 'needle taster' table set up with started swatches to give visitors a chance to try their needles. this was a great opportunity to see how the new Chiaogoo Quads  feel in hand. These are Chiaogoo's new square needles which are means to be gentler on the hands.  (c) Morris and Sons They have the same pointy tips that I love and the same smooth joins. In the shop they felt good in my hands and when the assistant mentioned that they are easier to tighten I was sold! I knit all week on them, and I had quite a bit of knitting time, and my hands felt great, the tips never came loose and my gauge didn't change, which is good, because I switched halfway through a project!  I'm thinking of getting tips in all the sizes I knit frequently in. The only "issue" is that I already have (basically) two set of the round Chiagoos. Also I would need to store these, and all the pages in my Thread and Maple needle binder are full, so I ...

As I posted yesterday I'm back from the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. We had such a good time. While we were away I finished reading  a romance -  Riverbend by Karis Walsh . It was fine - I wonder if i'm struggling with the straightforwardness of romances like this. I followed it up with Foundling Fathers by Meg Elison, a speculative fiction novella on the concept of 'what if we cloned the American founding fathers and brought them up as close to their original upbringings as possible". It's a book that is clever, unsettling and sometimes deeply funny. then, instead of reading the next book in my NetGalley TBR which is an 831 Stories romance, I choose Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt   the debut novel of Ben Reeves, which is about Travis, who is Death. It's a very beautiful book.  I've nearly finished it and after that I'm going on a non-fiction kick, because I'm finding meeting new people (characters) tiring, so I'm going to learn some ...

 We have been saying for year that we should go to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, but we are often there in March for Fringe, and it just hadn't happened yet. This year it did and it was so much fun. Four nights of nothing but cabaret, each night ending with a Dr Trevor Jones piano bar! During the days we did the things we like to do in Adelaide (and elsewhere) ate good food, slept in, sat in the sun and relaxed. We went to the port, and specifically Yarn Trader , where I bought some locally dyed possum merino to make a Noosa Scarf from the Bendigo Project. We took our traditional selfie with the Rundle Balls We also found a giant metal pigion, which has allegedly been there since 2020, but we don't recall ever seeing before. We went to the beach and ate oysters. But mostly, talented people sang at us and told stories, which is about my favourite way to spend time. I had plenty of time to knit and a reasonable amount of time to read while we were away. Come back tomorrow and I...

I moved to a Kobo just under 2 years ago, and I'm generally very happy with that decision. But I did always love Amazon Original Stories, which are free standing, original stories on a theme like time travel, or romance or, in this case, coming-of age. They often include big name authors, including this time Rainbow Rowell. But, since they are released only on Amazon, they didn't bother formatting them for Kobo. I've pulled out my beloved Oasis and will read them on that. I don't know why Amazon puts them on NetGalley at all, but I'm not complaining.  This week  I read two 5 star books  Over to You by Georgie Tunny , which is about young women setting out on their careers and  Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller , a gothic horror set in Margeret Thatcher's England.  Next up I have the short stories I mentioned, and some romance books -  Riverbend by Karis Walsh , a Sapphic romance (perfect for Pride Month) and  Down to Earth by Julia Turshen,  w...

  We had a quiet weekend - Leon has a nasty cold, and I'm fighting off the same bug. It did give me a chance to knit up a quick pastel charity baby set. I started with a  Baby Surprise Jacket pattern by Elizabeth Zim mermann . I've knit 12 of these before, but the previous one was in 2021. I love this design for using up leftovers because, no matter what,  When I looked at my pile of pastel scraps I was worried about getting the sleeves of a jumper to match, and then I remembered that, with a BSJ the stripes are all ways symmetrical.    The only problem with the BSJ is that the sleeves are three quarter length. This time I picked up the sleeve stitches and added some extra garter. Next time I'll use a provisional cast on for the sleeve parts, or even knit the sleeve extensions first. This is such a well loved pattern that there are suggestions for every variation available. Then I made a matching hat. It looks tiny off, but it's actually fine - it the adult size...