What I made, by Sharon

 I committed to making a hat, mittens and socks to complete a set for the charity I knit for. The socks were a perfect chance to try out some heel flap techniques. The set was a chance to stripe up some leftovers.  I decided it was fine to use a slightly different technique for each sock. For the first one I did two garter stitch stitches at the edge of the heel. It makes it easy to pick up, but slightly messy looking: For the second sock, I just did one stitch. And it seems like it's the best finish I've got. I have tried many things, both complicated and simple and this has the advantage of being reliable, easy and tidy I'm knitting a four ply sock next weekend, and i suspect it will be even tidier in finer wool. And back to out subject at hand: 200 grams of left over 8-ply made into useful objects that will keep a ten year old Ukrainian refugee's hand, head and feet warm. 

 The reading hasn't been great this week (with one notable exception). On Saturday I was unwell (my own fault, I had a bit too much fun on Friday night). I started  Beartown  by Fredrik Backman , and just could not get into it. I thought it might be me, but then I  started   Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire , which I've had since 2024. This is such a touching story of families and loss. It's written in a beautiful, pared back style. After that I thought I would get on with my NetGalley books,  Too Glam to Give a Damn by Claire Carver.  I'm not very far into it, but there is so much explaining and super obvious indications of what's going to happen. Although I could be wrong, and this book could be a lot more subtle and clever than I think it's going to be. The three friends remind me of the ones from season 3 of White Lotus . And while I'm struggling with the descriptions of food, the translating things into Greek (becasue they are in Greece) and...

 My favourite heel construction is the traditional heel flap and gusset. Strangely though, in recent years I've been struggling with the picking up of stitches. It's tidy, but it's not quite right. You can see the little line of twisted stitches in this photo: And then, when I was knitting Leon's second sock I decided to slip as if to knit, rather than purl. The results are wildly different (they don't look wildly different, but they are if you look closely). I generally slip as if to purl, both for sock heel flaps and elsewhere. I know most patterns specify, but the one I used for this doesn't. I tried to work out why and when I started doing it the way I do.  I looked at Cookie A's Sock Innovation - one of the first sock books I bought, and she says slip as if to purl. I looked at Stephanie Purl-McPhee's Knitting Rules , and she doesn't specify. I'm about to cast on another sock, so I'm looking forward to testing this out - on both socks, ...

 Last week I'd just started    Knight's Shadow (Greatcoats, #2) by Sebastien de Castell . I finished it, I loved it it's even better than the first in the series, I recommend it to any fantasy readers. I've got 5 review books for March, so I started  The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu . Its a mix of gothic horror, magical realism and my favourite- not so young women straggling with their lives.   I just got Beartown  , which was on hold from the library, so I'll be starting that next, unless I sneak in a quick romance as a palette cleanser. In knitting I've finished the hat, scarf and mitts for Leon's winter set.  All I have now is the socks, which I am knitting in a similar(ish) colour and a similiar(ish) pattern: I'm a bit obsessed with this pattern and am looking forward to seeing how it looks with helical stripes. To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as  Sharondoublekni t and on Goo...

W elcome to part 30 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! 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 I'm reviewing two books from the Object Lessons series from Bloomsbury press, which I was given e-Arcs from NetGalley for and a kids book about bikes.  Stock Photo (Object Lessons) by Simona Supekar  Part memoir, part cultural criticism,  Stock Photo  mines the significance of the stock photo in our everyday lives, from the ads and websites we browse, to the menus and memes that we consume. Through interviews with stock photography experts, photographers, models, consumers, and other stakeholders, Simo...

In August I said I was doing a super secret test knit for my friend Anna, also known as One Pink Plum . As has been well documented, I love a KAL (knit-a-long) and a test knit is just a KAL for a project that hasn't been published. Anna had asked me if I wanted to test knit the Picnic shawl for her and I said yes very quickly! At Bendigo I had bought everything on my shopping list, and nothing that wasn't when Anna provided me with the yarn quantities. We happened to be outside the shed when Averley Finnsheep was, and I scuttled in there and bought these two skeins of light green yarn so fast! Knitting the shawl itself was a bit of a roller coaster. It's got three charts, and when I got the third chart established I just kept struggling. In fact, on the Friday night after I started it I was talking about giving up, I was struggling with the pattern so much. On Saturday I saw Katie, who was doing the same test knit and she was a little surprised with my struggles. After I g...