What I made, by Sharon

 We're in the middle of Autumn, but the weather has been beautiful. I took the day off work to go to the beach with Anna, knit, drink coffee and follow it up with a trip to Cosco. Bliss. Speaking of knitting, my Celeste is going very nicely - I'm whizzing down the stocking stitch body. Is there anything more soothing than stocking stitch in the round?   Yes there is - knitting stocking stitch in the round with yarn I dyed myself . The reading has been good too. It's all NetGalley all the time at the moment, since I have 23 outstanding books - all ofr the future, and my ratio is still 94 percent, but I need to stay on top of it.  I just finished  Griftopia by Suzy Vitello  a somewhat odd family drama / satire on American life.  Now I'm reading The Thornbacks by which is even stranger, about a couple of female morticians (but I'm pretty sure that's not the point). It set in an unnamed city that feels a LOT like Melbourne, and is quite the experience. I'm a ...

I don't know what the collective noun for a group of hats is - a charity of hats? A celebration of hats? Anyway, this week I knit four hats, three for charity and one for a work colleague. I do love the  Fits the Whole Fam Hat  pattern. It's simple (as are most hats) It fits all sizes and it's made with three four ply (fingering yarns) held together, so it eats up a whole lot of yarn. Perfect for left over sock yarn.  I've finished with the current spasm of hats, because I will be concentrating on my Celeste jumper, but this has been (another) very pleasurable diversion.

I've had a good month with KoboPlus, currently finishing up  Vengeful by V.E. Schwab,  the second in her superhero (or not so much heroes) trilogy.  I should just have time to finish this, and complete the book of Victoria Goodard short stories which I got halfway through and then took a break from before my subscription expires. then it's back to NetGalley reviewing, which I have let lie fallow this month. I have 20 book waiting, which for me is a lot, but they are all for the future. and spread over the next 6 months. I'll be starting with   Griftopia:   by Suzy Vitello w hich, based on a cursory reading of the blub seems to be about families and overexposure and scam and grifting.  In audio I just finished   This Song Is About Me  by Melissa de la Cruz,  which is what you would get if Daisy Jones and the Six had been about Taylor Swift instead of Fleetwood Mac. It was a pretty enjoyable read, and the audiobook narrator was very good ...

Yesterday I finished reading Victoria Goddard's Till Human Voices Wake U s. while I always love Victoria Goddard (her books are heartwarming and affirming) this one was a bit weird. It was one of her very early books. I enjoyed it, but not as much as her later stories. I'm continuing the urban fantasy theme with Dancers in the Dark  w hich is set in the Sookie Stackhouse universe. I read all the Sookie Stackhouse books a very long time ago, finishing them in 2014, but I don't think I read this one. I'm enjoying it. Next up is A Ray of Sunshine   by Astrid Harewijn. Women's fiction, for a change of pace.  In audio books I decided I needed a complete change, and am listening to the last Aaron Faulk mystery by Jane Harper Exiles .  It's been a while since I read a non-cosy mystery and I'm loving the growing air of menace.     In crafting this week Shoni asked me to knit a pair of mittens for Lulu's birthday, so I did. I've just for the thumb of the seco...

The other day someone commented that my socks look like whimsy and happiness, and I thought about how I want my life to have many moments of whimsy and happiness.  So this weekend I decided to sew some dragonfly patches I had acquired on a spare cushion cover.  I don't sew much, and it's possible that my table is not an ideal height for sewing and this was kind of fiddly, so now my shoulders ache a bit, but my couch is just a little bit more whimsical. Now I'm off to collapse on it and read a book. Happiness. 

 For no particular I decided to knit a pair of house socks out of some really fun yarn I was given at the Richmond Knitters Christmas dinner. I have a comfortable pair of house socks, but they are grey, and I thought it would be fun to have something brighter and peppier as we head into winter. In reality, there is only this short stretch of autumn when I wear house socks, soon it will be time to get out the ugg boots. I choose to knit the same pattern as last time - Andrea Mowry's Bear Paw socks. They look weird off because they are ribbed all around, even the soles, but they are comfortable to wear. I sized down from last time and made a women's small. These fit firmly, unlike the previous ones which are a bit sloppy - but very comfortable around the house. They are really fun. I've been wearing them non-stop and am wearing them as I type this. I had some yarn left over, so I knit a quick pair of socks for charity. The group I knit for likes to make sets with socks, a ju...

even though I said it was Kobo + this month. As I said in my weekend report I had a joyous amount of reading time. I read Vicious by V.E. Schwab, which I really enjoyed - more man made superheros. Then I requested  A Song Only We Can Hear by Elliot Wake, mainly because the subtitle is A novel about cancer, music and love. I'm halfway through, and I would subtitle it a novel about abusive people and the cancer patient who love them.  After I finish this I'll go back to kobo +. I might read some Charlaine Harris - there are some of her novellas available, and she writes a good story. In audiobooks I returned to Netgalley, because I was really excited to request and receive Yann Martell's Son of Nobody.   It's a strangely structured book, comprising a made up history of the Trojan War from the point of view of a commoner, the notes on it by a modern scholar, and his personal life interjected in the middle. I'm very close the end and I kept thinking it would come tog...

I just had the longest, most relaxing weekend in history! I took Thursday off because it was Passover, and so the Easter break was 5 glorious days. I feel like we made the most of it (in a relax hard way). Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were family dinners, and Saturday and Sunday night we went to comedy shows (I love Comedy Festival time!).  I did have a little knitting mission - in December I finished a cute little top called Backlit , something I had been planning for ages. One the Wednesday I noticed there was once drop of coffee on the centre front. I did everything I could - washed it, tried to scrape it, but the stain remained. So I ripped it back. And then knit it forward! In this photo you can clearly see the line between the old knitting and the reknitting. Now it's re-blocked the textures are the same. Other than that we did a lot of sleeping - 5 days without an alarm is my idea of bliss. I woke up every morning at my own pace, and then lay around reading until the ...

 Regular (blog) scheduling has recommenced! Life scheduling - who knows. I've got 5 days off in a row - one annual leave day for Passover, and then four days for Easter. Bliss. On the first day off I finished  Joji's  Hipster Top . It was a very fun knit, with some fancy shoulder stitches and then simple two row stipes, all the way down.  The only criticism i have of the pattern is that she says that, once you finish the knitting there is no finishing. Sure, if you want it to look unfinished. I put some i-cord along the back neck, and did a tubular cast off to make it look more finished. I did not do jogless stipes, something that is very obvious when you look at the side seam, but doesn't really bother me. I don't know how much wear I'll get from it this year - while yesterday was beautiful, today there is a distinct chill to air. It was a fun, satisfying knit and I can imagine it with a pair of simple denim shorts, or with a full black skirt. It styles surprisingl...

As well as everything that has been going on in the world, there have been some dramas close to home. Leon's elderly father died last week. The funeral was on Monday, and the whole family (7 children, 12 grandchildren) were there, so it was a sad occasion, but also beautiful. And the church it was held in must have seen me coming, because this window was clearly designed with me in mind. As I kept promising I signed up for a month of Kobo Plus. My first book was Lavie Tidhar's The Violent Century , which posited that some people got superpowers before World War 2. an alternative history, which I found quite compelling. now I'm reading King Cal by Peter McDade, and loving the plot, wanting to know what happens, and also finding it quite plodding and repetitious, and the relationships don't resonate with me.  After this I'll either take a turn and go back to romance (Penny Reid's The Prom King ) or read V.E. Schwab's Vicious , which sounds like it shares some...