What I made, by Sharon

The annual Handknitter's Guild Market, which we all call the Coburg Craft Market renamed themselves Melbourne Fibre Fest a couple of weeks out from the event. This did not change the wonderful market, which has all my favourites and  particularly Ixchel, who no longer vends at Bendigo. Becasue the market is only a month out from Bendigo, I went with the intention of not buying any yarn, and I succeeded! I bought two beautiful braids of yarn from Ixchel: And 500 grams (a jumpers worth) of this amazing blue and green Australian fibre from Ethereal Medusa who are a collaboration between Melbourne City Dyeworks and Cat and Sparrow. I also bought some more Chiaogoo  needles - even as a monogamous knitter it is sometimes good to have two sets of needles in the same size. Kerryn who is a core trivia member came along, as did about 10 of the Richmond Knitters. we went out to lunch afterwards, admired each other's purchases and did some knitting. By co-incidence, it was World Wide Knit...

  W elcome to part 24 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 24 , 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. Despite being CFBC sometimes I like to take a look at children's books and what's out there - today we have meditative cats, Black hair and premature babies. What George Thinks When He Sits Still by Caroline Bell Have you ever wondered what a cat is thinking? In this tender, beautifully illustrated picture book, readers follow George—a dreamy, thoughtful cat—as he rests in sunbeams, watches the world pass by, and reflects on quiet moments. The story begins from an outside perspective, then gently shifts into Ge...

I'm still listening to  Pearly Gates  by Bonnie Solomon . It's quite fabulous, it's just I didn't have any time to listen (or spin) over the weekend, even though it was a three day weekend. I didn't even have time to write a weekending post about it! It was a good time. I spent time with friends  And saw both mine and Leon's parents. We went to a gig on Saturday night. B ecause of all the hanging out and driving I got a lot of knitting done, and am now on the sleeve of my jumper. As mentioned last week I've been knitting the Beehive shawl while sitting on the couch. We've been listening to   Anathem by Neal Stephenson  for rather a long time. It's a fantastic book, and quite long, so I'm really enjoying that.After we (eventually) finish Anathem we'll listen o the new John Scalzi book, When the Moon Hits Your Eye .  Over the weekend I finished  The Stories We Tell  by Charlene Carr , a delightful final instalment in that trilogy. then I said ...

 I bought a kg of "wool" last time I was at Bendigo Woollen Mills. After If finished my last project, I decided to do a sample spin. I made fauxlags and using longdraw spun up 50 grams. I plied it on Monday night, and got about a ten ply - 78 metres for 50 grams. Meanwhile - Leon and I drink a lot of tea, both black and herbal. We have a lovely, traditional tea pot with a very nice cosy. For a while we've been discussing the problem of washing the pot - we don't want out black tea with breakfast to taste of last night's camomile, yet it does. I have a glass tea maker, and we've been using that for herbal tea, which solves the problem of cross flavouring. But it didn't have a cosy, which means the tea gets cold.  You can see where this is going, right? Beautiful handspun tea cosy. I used this pattern , but flipped it around, because my tea maker has an insulated lid, but looses heat through the bottom. Or it did - now the bottom is covered! I'm so happ...

Elise said to me that she might go to Cairns, in tropical  North Queensland to visit her 10 YO cousin, who is from America and is currently doing her compulsory country work stint. I might go with her, it would be lovely to spend a week in the sun near the end of winter. By coincidence I'm reading  Moonlight and Dust by Jasmin McGaughey  a rather good YA fantasy set in Cairns!  It's a review book - the number of outstanding review books I have was starting make me feel uneasy. Next up is either my next review book  The Last Apartment in Istanbul by Defne Suman  or the Kobo Plus final book in the romance trilogy.   The Stories We Tell by Charlene Carr . I'll get to both of them in one order or the other. In audio I finished    Hello Universe, It's Me: How I scheduled a breakdown and manifested a new life  by Deepika Sandhu , which is meant to be the story of how Deepika became a new and better person, but it's like when your hot mess...

 W elcome to part 23 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 have eclectic taste and endless curiosity.   I can't believe I'm up to part 23, 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 two books about clothing and one about meditating. Custom Sneakers: Everything You Need to Personalize Your Kicks by Trasfi Kenza The long-awaited guide to upcycling your sneakers into unique kicks by French artist and TikTok star Kenza Trasfi (@knz.tv)! Packed with fresh designs for 5 iconic sneakers, easy step-by-step instructions, photos by Alexi Pav, a technique F.A.Q., and bonus inspo you to feed your i...