What I made, by Sharon

Reading has been rather good this week. I finished  Orbital  and gave it 5 stars for being lyrical and beautiful. Then, as predicted I started Penny Reid's Homecoming King .  I'm pretty close to finishing it and it's also looking like a 5 star read. It's tropey romance, and also well written, sweet and (unlike many romance novels) full of communication, trust and consent. It's just so sweet - except the bits which are sexy, which are genuinely sexy. I'm often more of a closed door kind of reader, but, maybe because I liked the two main characters, this didn't seem intrusive. It is a bit of a Christmas novel, which is weirdly themed with my unusually Chistmassy activities this year. Next up I think I'll read Loving Day by Matt Johnson, the oldest book on my Goodreads "want to read" shelf.  Still the same two knitting projects as last week but they are both ticking away nicely. I've added a stripe and a half the the  Electric Village  shawl

I'm getting ready for Christmas (which is funny, because I don't really do Christmas) with polymer clay crafting. On Saturday I made some candy-cane earrings and stitch markers. The weird round thing at the top is some sort of Christmas yammulka that Katie asked me to make. Something from the OC. I hope she likes it. It's been really fun making these. I tried a different brand of clay for the second lot - the first were  Sculpy three, which is softer and the next lot  Fimo, which is much firmer. I hate conditioning the Fimo, but it is easier to work with after that, particularly when it is warm.  I find polymer clay earrings so light and easy to wear. On Sunday night we went to a gig at the Forum. Frank Turner was the first big thing that was cancelled for us in 2020, so seeing him felt like we had closed that circle.  Now we can move on with music and friendship and folk / punk music. That traumatice chapter is closed! Needless to say it was a fabulous night, topping of a

 I finished the Arrows Down Dress a couple of weeks ago, and documented it here . At the time I described it as "pretty short". It was mid thigh, and I had been aiming for top of the knee: I thought it looked good, if a bit skimpy. And then I wore it to work without tights underneath and I realised I had to lengthen it, to make it a truly wearable garment.  i had to talk myself into it - once I've completed a garment in my head , it's done, but I knew I would get a lot more wear from it if I made the effort.  I ripped back the (thankfully only six) rows of ribbing and added ten centimetres: It's a little less risque and a lot more work appropriate. Short or longer, I really loved knitting this dress and I really like wearing it. 

The knitting looks a lot like last week , with the  on my  Drawing Sweater  growing slowly, requiring attention to every single stitch and coming out looking amazing. I'm 8 rounds from splitting for the underarms, but since the colourwork continues after the underarms, so will the concentration.   Electric Village  shawl also looks similar, but has two more stripes. Since the whole shawl is 10 stripes (four stripes to go) I predict we will be seeing it here on Wednesdays for another two weeks.  In reading I finished The Nix , and loved parts of it and couldn't stand some of it. I have very mixed feelings, except that I'm glad I read it and am enjoying ranting about the whole experience!  I'm listening to Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton. It's well written and well read but also feels like the plot is meandering and repetitive. Hopefully it will pick up it's threads again. It's certainly a good book to have in my ears while working away on the Drawing Swea

Some time in the distant past (before 2015) we bought ukuleles. We did two terms of classes. I had never played a stringed instrument and I cannot say that it took. Even during lockdowns, when I kept thinking I should take it up again I found other things to do. Well, the other day NetGalley was offering 21 Easy Ukelele Songs for Christmas I could not resist.  I'm not one for Christmas, so it was a weird decision, but there you go. I downloaded the book, got out my pretty pink uke and off I went! This book is easy to follow, has clear notation for people who read music and people who do not and linked video tutorials. A winner of a book, and delightful to be strumming away again.  

This is part four in a series of non-fiction book reviews, based on the idea that the books I request tell you everything you need to know about me. All books in this post were provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and I'm always honest. Sometimes it feels painful to be totally honest, but that's the deal. Iron Man: Tony Stark Declassified by Dayton Ward    It might come as a surprise to some, but in 2019 we watched every Avengers movie. Methodically. From start to finish. By the end of it I was quite sick of some aspects of the Avengers, but when I saw this book I was curious.  This book promises  N otes, Interviews, and Files from the Avengers' Archives, and it fits into  "non-fiction November" as th e structure of this book is to pretend the MCU is real, and that the author has interviewed Tony Stark. They also have "extracts" from SHIELD files and other "sources". It is a really fun conceit, and a deep dive into not just