Domesticity, and 2 related book reviews

Like everyone else, I have become even more domestic during this strange period in our lives. We have always made our own bread, and our own pasta. I've always had a couple of plants around. In the last three months though - I brought in my outdoor plant, because of the renos and it thrived. Then one day when I was sad, I went to Pop Wilder and bought this little beauty, but Princess Daisy kept trying to eat it. So planted some grass for her.

Did you know you can grow grass hydoponically? Easy as.

When NetGalley had both The Ultimate Pasta Machine Cookbook by Lucy Vaserfirer and Houseplant Party by Lisa Eldred Steinkopf I said "yes please" pretty fast, even though I knew it meant I would be dealing with the nightmare that is Adobe Digital Editions. Which turned out not to be a problem, since NetGalley now has it's own app and it works much better for me.

Houseplant Party is a lovely book. fairly simple, so perfect for a relatively inexperienced "plant parent" like me. It has lovely pictures, and would, in paper form, make a great gift. it gave me a bit more confidence around my plant care. If I have one criticism it is that it is a bit too Instagram ready and a bit too apolitical - at one point the book mentions GMO plants and that it's illegal to sell clippings from them and I squirmed at the idea of a corporation being able to own a plant in that sense, but pretty plants and decorating your house is the point of this book, not tearing down capitalism and starting the revolution.

The Ultimate Pasta Machine Cookbook is also a very pretty book. the first half is divided into thirds, with one third each dedicated to each of the main types of pasta machines. After that it's sauces and fillings. Yum. It is a bit odd having an instruction book where there are whole chapters that are are irrelevant to my kind of pasta maker (I use a Phillips machine) but this is a pretty, useful and tasty book.

Both these books had useful information, but were also a lovely journey into a tidy, plant filled, delicious home based life.

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Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises.

Linky Wednesday - the one with the drama

The drama about the Stephen West MKAL continues, and I can't be bothered with it. It's meant to be a fun, interesting, communal knit and and that's not what this year has turned in to. Stephen has done his best in a difficult situation, but I'm just not feeling it. Meanwhile, Israel is at war, and we (as a country) are going to vote "no" on a referendum that asks for basic consideration for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders. So yeah, lots of turmoil here. It's very tiring. I'm knitting a sock and considering what happens next. Luckily the reading was dramatic in a good way. I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of Last Summer at the Lake House and it's great. Super dramatic family drama about three sisters who loose their father unexpectedly and then find out that the family has secrets. I 've nearly finished it and I don't know what I'm going to read next. I've got a bit of a break between review books, so maybe Sta

Mussleburgh musings

I made a Mussleburgh hat earlier in the year, and even though I thought I was following the directions exactly it did not come out quite right. It was a little bit loose. My head is 51 cm, my gauge was 7 stitches, so according to the pattern I knit the right size. It's also a little bit shorter than I would like it. Too long for a beanie, too short for a good turn-up. I couldn't work out why. I still wore it, but it was not quite right. When I decided to knit one for Elise I knew I wanted to make it longer, and tighter. After I finished Elise's (with 24 fewer stitches) I realised something about mine: Now, this is a knit tube. I know how to knit tubes. When I make sleeves or socks, they don't balloon out in the middle. So I decided to reblock it. The instructions actually specifically say to fold it inside each other after blocking, but I probably folded it and dried it on my head, because that's how I block my hats. Not this time: Now it's longer and thinner

What I made, by Sharon

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