What I made, by Sharon

Because I don't have all that many review books (15, but that's from here until January) I've been reading randomly and loving it. First I read  Woodworking by Emily St. James , which Katie mentioned her book club was doing.  She did then invite me to book club, but I'm not a bookclub person, even though I love it when people talk about books. My other group of friends who are in a bookclub are doing  Yesteryear , and I'm not going to that either, although I do want to know what they all think. After that I read   Only for Tonight by Kendall Ryan , a romance that I enjoyed. I don't know why sometimes I love a romance and sometimes they fall flat for me - maybe this time it's because I loved the main couple from the get go. Now I'm reading  Worry Box by Chris Panatier *. It's horror and sets up the tension early. Now it's letting me relax and I really don't think that's going to last long. Really well written.   Next up is  But for Fortune...

 I solved the 'problems' in this post  by ordering a custom Thread and Maple page. Now my extra quads can sit above my cables. And I do have extra Quads, because Morris and Sons now sell them, and I can run up there when I'm getting coffee at work. The other day I was outside the shop before it opened, begging them to open the door, crying for a needle. Just a little taste to get me through the morning.  Katrina from Lola and Louie had to special order this in and while I waited, every couple of days I sent her an email asking for something else to be added to the order. Since the whole thing took 6 weeks to come, I didn't even remember everything I'd ordered, but I'm a happy camper right now. A page of my Quads, one for my crotchet hooks, and a magnetic ruler. now I jsut need to do some crotchet!   I did also cave and get the Addi Unicorn Trio. These were hard to source in Australia and in the end I went with the evil empire. I haven't knit with them yet,...

 I've run out of themes again! This week, like so many, have has ups and downs. On Sunday we went to the Museum, which I haven't done since 2001! We saw an exhibition on ancient Rome, which felt very relevant to the  Gaius Petreius Ruso Series by Ruth Downie , which I have been gradually listening my way through. This week I read    Enemies with Benefits by Roxie Noir.  I got it free somewhere along the way and then left it sitting on the bottom of my Kobo because enemies to lovers isn't my favourite trope, but I really loved this. Good communication, good communication and four more in the series - currently on Kindle Unlimited, if that's the way you get your books. Then I read  Thoughts Be Bloody * by Auden Patrick  which is meant to be a magical Hamlett retelling. It didn't work for me, for a number of reasons mainly because I think it was a bit YA, and also there is (spoilers) basically magical time travel. I hope it finds its audience though. ...

I've been knitting the Alpine Bloom dress for a month. Heavy laceweight on 3mm needles. On Sunday night I tried it on to see if it was long enough and discovered two things: It was time for the bottom and, despite being commercial yarn and all from the same dye lot, there are clear differences in colours from the different balls. Despite knowing I won't wear it like this I finished it. It was about 20 rows of lace for the bottom and one sleeve. Now I have to decide what to do. I know I don't have the energy to rip and reknit. I could try to dip dye it, but that may well wreck the whole thing, particularly because the yarn is partly cotton. I could rip it back and have a pretty top, but I don't want a top, I want a dress. I could embroider something on it, or duplicate stitch some matching flowers to call the eye away. I could ignore it and wear it anyway.  I could always stand in dappled shadow so that the stripes don't show. The stripes did soften after a wash, b...

Last week I finished the horror novel  Tapeworm * by A.P. Thayer . It was very good - I went for lunch at work and didn't come back until it was finished - an hour and a quarter later. Oops, body horror can't be left in suspense. Then, aas predicted I read  Never Lasting*  by Angela Bourassa  . It's an 831Stories Romance, and I usually quite like these, but I hated it. Insta love, a main couple that I didn't want to get together, not ideal. I said that my next book  Thoughts Be Bloody * by Auden Patrick  was a horror - it's not, it's a Hamlet retelling with magic. It's not due until next month, so I decided to read the oldest book on my Kobo  The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride  . It's good, but is not a fast read. It's got heavy themes - race, sexual assault, privilege, poverty. After I finish this, it's on to the next oldest book  Enemies with Benefits by Roxie Noir.  It's the first of a romance series that I got for...

  A while ago, to protect my hands, back and shoulders, I made a rule. One 30 minutes of spinning at a time. this has serves me well. I think having a time cap actually encourages me to get that half hour in. Inspired and encouraged by Sonia I signed up for a one week spinning retreat. I am very excited that i get to spend an entire week just crafting.  And then I realised that I haven't  spun for more than half an hour in a day since I can't remember when. I did mention to my physio that I tend to run into trouble if I spin too much. Last time I mentioned spinning he thought about bike based exercise classes. this time her got it and gave me some strengthening pre-hab that seems to be helping.   While I haven't actually ended up spinning for more than half an hour a day, I have been spinning almost every day. Amazing how quickly the spinning gets done when I actually sit down and spin! I've finished three bobbins of 125 grams per bobbin and just have one more t...

This week I finished, and loved    I Love the Whole World!* by Victoria Hannan . It's the story of a middle aged woman from Melbourne who wins a trip to Las Vegas and starts rediscovering herself.  I  also started listening to  Don't Stop * by Bonnie Friedman , which I put on hold, because they were both set in 2000 and featured women in their early 40s. But I found the audiobook quite annoying, partly because the narrator makes every man sound creepy. I'll try it again, but I don't feel confident I'll get through it.  Now I'm reading  Tapeworm * by A.P. Thayer . I don't normally read a lot of horror, but this is my year for it! My next book, by NetGalley review order is  Thoughts Be Bloody * by Auden Patrick  which is also a horror. I'll probably pop  Never Lasting*  An 831 Stories Romance by Angela Bourassa  in between for a romance break between all that horror! In knitting I've made progress on my  Alpine Bloom Dress ....

W elcome to part 33 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. This instalment we have popular psychology, linotype machines and reality TV. All books were provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Reality TV For Snobs Turn skeptics into fans and fans into scholars with this smart, entertaining guide to 20 influential reality shows, from The Real World to The Traitors . Much like reality itself, reality TV has one main There’s just too much of it. Whether you’re a devoted fan who wants to share your passion, a specialist who doesn’t have time to watch every show, or a ske...

  After I finished  Preaching to the Choir * a really enjoyable horror novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky  I realised I had time to fit ion a non-review book, before proceeding to  I Love the Whole World!* by Victoria Hannan . I went to the library app to see what I might like to read. And there, waiting for me was a notification saying that I had 11 days left to read John of John . This is the Read With Us  September book. Read With Us is an online bookclub, run by many of the same people who participate in Unravelled Wednesday. i don't really participate, but I was inspired to request this book from the library. I had but a reservation on it when they first announced it, but had been told it would come my way by March 2027. And yet, here it was! I'm enjoying it, but it's not a light read and it's not a book to skip quickly through. The writing must be savoured and relished. I am racing through Hell Bent    the second in the Ninth House trilogy. It's a boo...

 My 83 year old mother fell over on the street the other day. She put down her left hand (she's left handed) and fractured a bone in it. While it could have been worse, it's  not great, particularly since she is very left handed. She can't go to her gym classes, or swim, which are her main sources of exercise, so, for the first time in her life she's seeing a personal trainer. She's irrepressible and I love it.     Anyway, it's winter and it's cold and she can't wear a glove over the brace she has to wear, so she asked me to make her a mitten. Just one. I tried to suggest I make her a pair, but she said she was happy wearing mismatched mitts. I was going to make her two anyway, and then i realised that was because I would hate wearing an odd pair. So I did as requested. One large simple mitten that goes over a wrist brace. I know because I tested it on my old brace. Hopefully she won't need to wear either the brace or the mitten for too long. And the...

I finished the  Primervera socks I started for something small and convenient to carry around at Bendigo. Every Christmas, our good friend Dani of HalfBaked HandDyed fame dyes the Richmond Knitter's a special self stripping, riffing of the Christmas theme. this one has twelve different coloured stripes, for the twelve days of Christmas. I stole Sonia's photo, because it was better than mine: Stunning. I have come to the realisation that I don't like wearing plain, stocking stitch socks. They sag, and don't grip my legs well. The patterning on this sock is basically a 7 x 4 rib, with some extra fancy stuff thrown in every 6th row. They are so comfortable! The heel also called for a style I've recently adopted - adding one or two garter stitches to the edge of the heel flap. For some reason if I just slip the edges of my heel flaps it never ends up as neat as I would like, but this technique makes picking up those stiches easy and very neat. Even with this modifica...

I got sick again!  This winter it's just been one thing after another. A bad cold kept me at home Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I always work from home Wednesdays, so I did log on today. Being sick left me lots of time for reading and knitting, so it's not all bad! Double Standard*  was an excellent short romance.  Ninefox Gambit* by Yoon Ha Lee is complicated  military space opera with lots of things blowing up and an interesting societal structure. It got me through a day when I barely got off the couch!  Now I'm reading  Never Date a Celebrity* by Claire Forsythe w hich is  Sapphic romance, set in rural Northern Ireland. very comforting.  Next up is the final two books in my current attempt to stay ahead of Netgalley deadlines -  I Love the Whole World!* by Victoria Hannan (Australian Women's fiction) and Preaching to the Choir * by Adrian Tchaikovsky   (horror novella).    The knitting has been very satisfying, since ju...

I often don't swatch. I cast on with a fair idea of my yarn and usual knitting style. If it doesn't work out, I stop and reassess. On Tuesday I cast on for   Alpine Bloom pattern by Caitlin Hunter  which I was intending to extend into a dress with a full skirt. It was apparent pretty early that, while I had gauge, my fabric was going to be too loose to make a dress that was decent. After googling slips and finding pout I could buy one at K-Mart, I stepped back and started swatching. I started with doubling the yarn on 3.5 mm needles, which made a nice fabric, but a bit thick. Then I went down to a 3mm needle, which makes a lovely, but slightly airy fabric. Back up to a 3.5 for comparison and that was immediately way too stretchy and flexible. I ripped what I had started and cast on again with smaller needles.  The second attempt has been much more satisfying. The colourwork is soothing, the contrast colour is slowly changing from pastel to pastel shade and the fabric...

Last week I said I was struggling with      The Intrigue* by Silvia Moreno-Garcia . Unusually for me I put it aside and read  The Music Between You And I by Quiana Glide * a book that was full of grammar and plot errors. After that I returned to The Intrigue, but I didn't suddenly start caring about the characters or plot. I had just read three 5 star books in a row, so I guess I was due a slump. Now I'm reading  Double Standard*: An 831 Stories Romance by Mallory Thomas . All 831 romances have the same boring cover, in different colours. The book itself is an easy read and I'm liking it. I have an unusual number of ARCs to read - after Double Standard  there are four due on the 11th of August, which should be quite achievable, none of them are particularly long. Although i really should stop requesting ARCs with short timeframes! these all sounded really good. They are  Ninefox Gambit*  by Yoon Ha Lee ( military space opera)  Never D...