Books 2012, #11-20

Liz has posted more reviews. I can't help noticing her reading is far more varied and, ahem, intellectual, than mine. I have also been thinking recently that I've never been one for reading the classics. Therefore I went to the library yesterday and marched towards the classics section. I looked carefully for books that met my requirements, e.g.

1. They were by an author I recognised
2. They were short (gently does it)

So expect a bit more variation in my next bunch of reviews. Maybe. 

#11 The Floating Admiral by Members of the Detection Club

The premise of this book is quite interesting. You take the key detective fiction writers of the time and ask them to write a chapter each of a detective novel. Each one has to take what the previous one has written and add to it. The list of names includes many immediately recognisable and others now forgotten: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, G K Chesterton and more. So does it actually work? From my point of view the answer is...kind of. It's interesting to recognise the styles of each author (you are told who is writing each chapter) but the story suffers from a lack of planning and meanders all over the place. If you are a fan of classic detective fiction then I would recommend you give it a go but otherwise this is not something to read just for the story. 

#12, 13, 14 The Case is Closed, Lonesome Road and The Silent Pool by Patricia Wentworth

I took a couple of these to Amsterdam with me as they are pure comfort reading. I am still 100% committed to becoming a knitting detective once I am suitably old and have acquired the old fashioned furniture that is always mentioned. No arms on the chairs - useful for knitting, the reader is always reminded. Personally I don't mind arms and sometimes rest my elbows on them, although I have noticed that tends to lead to achey shoulders. So maybe Miss Silver knows what she's about. You see - that's where the benefit of age and experience comes in. Clever Miss Silver. To get back to the actual books, these all feature the usual woman in distress, a love match that has been derailed for some reason and which will be reconciled by the end of the book and an unsuitable man. Relaxing and lightly engaging. 

#15 I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

This book came out in 2010 and usually I would leap upon a Pratchett and devour it on the day of publication. The Tiffany Aching series though have not captured me in the same way as Discworld in the past although this one pretty much changed my mind on that score. Although aimed at younger readers this one covered some mature issues and did it very well. At the same time the Pratchett humour was there and old and new characters combined effortlessly. The ending did feel a little rushed but I still hugely enjoyed this book and will reread it in the future. 

# 15, 17 Bury Her Deep and The Winter Ground by Catriona McPherson

Parts of the Dandy Gilver series - I have quickly grown to love these! Set in the wilds of Scotland, wife and mother Dandy (short for dandelion) seems to have fallen into detection and is trying to hide it from her husband who is a local nobleman trying to keep his family estate afloat. I am reading them out of order so have missed some of the back story but by The Winter Ground Hugh has twigged what is going on and doesn't approve while grudgingly accepting that the extra income helps maintain the grounds. The Winter Ground features mismatched married neighbours and an entire circus wintering in their grounds. A member of the circus dies in an accident - or is she killed? Dandy investigates. Not knowing much of scottish nobility, circus life or even which period the books are set in I cannot say whether these things are covered correctly but they are blended well and the books work. If you like a traditional whodunnit I would recommend giving these a go. 

#18 Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders by Gyles Brandreth

Yes - *that* Gyles Brandreth. But don't judge - these are really rather charming. You do need to suspend reality though. There is historical evidence he and Arthur Conan Doyle met but not that they had the kind of friendship that pops up here. Nonetheless if you can get over that, this series is entertaining. Unfortunately this particular book is one of the weakest of the series I have read so far. I can suspend reality with the best of them - I just watched the Avengers film for a second time - but this pushes it. I admire the way Gyles weaves together the different threads but I think the cleverness gets in the way of the story and Oscar's creative deductions (the implication is that he is the real Sherlock Holmes and directly inspires the character of Mycroft) can come out of the blue in exactly the same way as Holmes' do in some of those stories. Not fair to the reader who is trying to work out the culprit for themselves. I would recommend this series but maybe A Game Called Murder or Ring of Death as a starter. 

#19 Around the World in Knitted Socks by Stephanie Van Der Linden

This book was a present and an *extremely* welcome one. There are some brilliant socks in here. It also illustrates a phrase I like but always feel slightly guilty about using in public in case it is rude - "Different strokes for different folks". The one pair I really don't like have beaded peacocks on them. Read the reviews on Amazon and you'll see that was the go to pattern for one reviewer. There are socks for everyone - simple and fiendish, colourwork, cables, travelling stitches, textures, lace...yup - this has got it all. All the yarns used are Regia so easily available and easily substitutable. I'm very glad to have this in my knitting collection. 

#20 Pawing Through the Past by Rita Mae Brown

Oh you didn't seriously think I could go for a month without reading a book where the cat solves the murder did you? Yay for Mrs Murphy, Pewter and even for the dog Tucker. I think of him as a cat. Just to help me get over the whole dog aspect. Now for something you didn't see coming - this one was really pretty bad. A very serious crime is treated very lightly and without much sympathy. The characters are acting out of character and the story was all over the place. I adore this series. It pains me to say this was a rotten one but it was. Really wouldn't recommend it at all. On the plus side here is a cat. 

Onward.

I Wasn't Going to Start Anything New

I particularly wasn't going to buy stuff so I could start something new. Then I went to Canary Wharf (and fell off a Boris Bike in the process) and bought a duvet cover. It came with pillows. They were plain blue. They're not now.

I've started doing the same thing to the duvet cover. It's actually really time consuming.

Going to take much longer than I thought.

Then when I'd decided to stop that for the day I pulled out the small towel and facecloth I wasn't going to do anything with because I wasn't starting anything new.

The edges are curly at the moment because I zig zagged them and the blue lines around the edges are a water soluble marker but both with sort themselves out once it has a first wash.

I'm very happy with how both have turned out but also kind of angry with myself for making them when I could have been working on existing WIPs. Speaking of which - this is the shawl I blogged about last time.

I have decided to keep going and finish it but I'm still not sure about the colours. The person it is for has the same colouring as me and I think it looks ok colourwise.

You can see what I mean though about the colour transitions looking better over the small number of stitches (the bit closest to my fizzog). Ah well, we live and learn.

Everything Seemed Normal at the Doctor's Surgery

She waved at the Doctor looking out of the top window as she walked past.

But then she realised....

....that was no Doctor.

Aaaarrrrgghhhhhhhhh!

Spots or Stripes

Anyone remember how Cadburys launched this big spots vs stripes concept a year or so ago? Apparently the campaign has ended. I can't say it had a great effect on me except that i have tended to buy my Wispas in the spotty wrappers just because polka dots are my first love. However, when spots are not available, stripes are my next choice.


In Amsterdam I bought a couple of Zauberballs in the same colourway intending to make a striped shawl along the lines of one of the Stephen West ones. I have used Zauberball to make socks before but thought the yarn was a bit too woolly to really do the job.

When I got back I started swatching in various patterns. By swatching I mean I cast on since this was going to be a fairly plain V shawl so it made sense to do the swatches like that. I did this four times. Ripple in 4x4 stripe with garter row, ripple in 2x2 stripe, 2x2 plain stripe, 4x4 plain stripe. It wasn't working. So I switched tactic and looked for shawls previously knit in Zauberball that looked good. I settled on Whippoorwill. Thing is though - in the large size you've got 500+ stitches on the needles. Zauberball is meant to make nice socks at 60-70 st per row. At that row length the colours gradually fade between one and the next. At 500 st you basically get stripes. The samples I'd looked at that looked nice were the small sizes and I was knitting the largest one. There's a life lesson there. Meh. Photos to come.

Something I have done rather better on is my Sister's wedding quilt. I'm not putting the photo here as she might peek but if you click here you'll see it.

Aimless Patchwork

I have always liked the look of crazy patchwork and after pinning various examples decided that crazy log cabin was what I'd really like to try. I've accumulated a lot of scraps from various projects over many years and today I started combining them. Ta da!

I know with freeform crochet this is called scumbling. So I'm thinking of these as scumbles. I imagine I'll sew them together into some sort of quilt top at some point but really this is just an excuse to do a bit of easy patchwork. And it really is very easy. There are lots of tutorials around (check my Patchwork Board on Pinterest for a few) but here's my approach. I'll use this as an example:

This is the centre of the middle bottom piece from the first photo.

• Take a scrap of fabric and cut it to a square or pentagon - I wouldn't go any higher than 5 sides. Mine was roughly 2" across. Don't worry too much about measurements - just make sure all the sides are straightish lines.  So for me this is the bumblebee piece. 
• Your next scrap needs to be long enough to cover any one side of the centre. For me this is the dark red ripple pattern piece. Sew along one side (you can hand sew but machine is much quicker). Press the seam with your fingers and lay the piece flat. Trim the left end of the new piece to be even with the next side of the centre, moving in an anti-clockwise direction around the centre. 
• Your next scrap needs to be long enough to cover the end of the second piece and the next side of the centre. For me this is the beige with little trees and flowers on. Repeat previous step (i.e. sew, finger press and trim)
• Your next scrap needs to be long enough to cover the end of the third piece and the next side of the centre. For me this is the red flower piece. 
• Continue until you have just one more side of the centre to cover. At this point you'll need to trim the end of the last piece you added, the last side of the centre AND the right-hand end of the first piece you added to the centre into a straight line. This line does not have to be parallel to any other seam so don't worry about making it a square/pentagon if your scraps aren't the right size. The key thing is that this line is straight. 
• Your next scrap needs to be long enough to cover the end of the last one you added, the last side of the centre and the right-hand end of the first added piece (this is the lilac polka dot for me). Sew and continue anti-clockwise.
• Once it is big enough simply stop adding more pieces and trim the sides to your required size. If you have a lot of long, straight scraps you could even end up with an entire quilt top just from a single centre. I would love to see it if you do make one like that. 

There are a few other types of patchwork I'd like to try and I quite like not having any finished object in mind. Charities will always take quilts and blankets so if nothing else I can join them all together for one of those. And at the same time I'm expanding my knowledge of techniques. Rather satisfying. 

After Amsterdam

I had *such* a lovely time! The people were really friendly and the weather wasn't so bad and I ate soooo much and saw some amazing things. I don't really know where to start so here is a random splurge of highlights.

Endless canals, bicycles and bridges.

Pondering life from the water on a canal tour.

Visiting the newly opened Tulip Museum.

Bags ancient to modern at the Bag Museum - this one is a sewing set and was about 5" high. So desirable.

Kitchy souvenirs.

AWESOME knitting shops. At Penelope Craft she could see I was having trouble deciding between colourways and offered me the use of her mac to look at my ravelry queue. Now that is someone who understands their customers.

Discovering some new filters on my camera that make it seem less gloomy and rainy than it was.

The Kattenkabinet (Cat Museum) with paintings by Picasso as well as more contemporary pieces.

And then there were the tulips.

I spent a morning at the Keukenhof Gardens and it was just incredible. Millions of the little buggers, which are my favourite flower.

They were arranged in every possible combination and there were hundreds of varieties.

I am so glad I went.

Plus a very nice woman took a picture of me standing in a giant clog.

If you happen to like tulips as much as I do then there are about 120 more photos of them here.

I've got lots more I could share but that's enough for now.

My knitting while I was away was mainly the ripple socks of doom. I talked about them in my last post. I'm about 2/3 done on the second sock and have run out of the contrast yarn and am about to run out of the main yarn too. I think I may just frog and give it up.

They're pretty ugly. So in lieu of those I started a free Drops pattern where you knit the sole of the socks first and the whole thing is done in garter stitch.

I rather like them and it makes a change from magic loop.

I leave you with two of my souvenirs. Someone on twitter thought these were actually wooden ones.

I assure you they're not. The second is rather more tasteful.

My littlest sister brought me back a smaller one of these after a visit to Amsterdam a few years ago which has sat ever since in my pen pot at work. These ones are for me at home. I'm now wishing I had bought 3 times as many but I'd run out of money. I guess I'll just have to go back again...

What Should You be Doing?

I got up and knew my task was to tidy up. So imagine my surprise when about 15 minutes later I found myself sewing a button onto the knitting bag I made a few weeks ago.

I finished doing that and thought "Right, this is it..." So I set myself to tidying and 15 minutes later had made a small notebook.

Wasn't my last post about keeping your mind on one thing at once? Amazing how clever your subconscious is (as well as completely neanderthally stupid at the same time).

The knitting bag will carry my revised ripple socks with me to Amsterdam (that's my hotel pool on the laptop in the photo above).

I say "revised" because I'd almost finished the first sock in just the greenish stuff when I realised I had enough wool for about 10% of the second sock. Cue ripping and striping. The notebook is because I am not good at 'the unknown' and so to stave off anxiety in Amsterdam have been carefully planning my trip. I remain flexible but at the same time I know exactly how to get from the station to my hotel and where I want to visit in each part of the city.

It is all recorded in my cunning little book - glitter card for the cover and plain purple for the inside. I used my longest straight stitch setting on my machine to create and binding. It's rather sweet - perhaps I'll start making some for presents or....etsy shop? You never know.

For those of you who sew fabric as well as notebooks, the Festival of Quilts tickets are on sale for Birmingham in August. I think this will be my fourth year and my third with Mater. I've even signed us both up to a workshop for right about the time your feet are hurting because you've walked round looking at so many jaw dropping quilts and then gone and splurged on the fabric you need to make at least three of them.

 

My photos from last year are here and I frequently flick through them for inspiration. It is a must for anyone who likes quilting or patchwork. 

One Thing at a Time

I've been doing this Mindfulness course at the London Buddhist Centre recently. I had expected it to be a bit tree huggy but actually it's very pragmatic. I'm only two weeks in but I already feel I've learnt a lot.

One of the key lessons so far is to limit how much your mind wonders. This keeps you in the now rather than letting you start to worry about what could be or over analyse what was. For me this is a massive effort. They have given us an mp3 download to do a guided meditation each day called a body-scan (not the same as a cat scan).

It guides you through your body, exploring how each part of you feels, and reminds you every now and again that if your mind has wondered off you just need to gently bring it back again. It's only 30 minutes but man, is it difficult. The clever thing is though that just by noticing your mind has wondered you're getting it right. It's not about relaxing it's initially about noticing how much your mind jumps about and then later it's about quietening the internal monologue that causes it to wonder. I think that's pretty clever.

The bodyscan is homework, but there are also two other things they have asked us to do. The first is to do one thing 'mindfully' every day. I tried making 'brushing my teeth' this mindful task.

Ha! Within seconds I realised that I never 'just' brush my teeth. In the morning I'm doing it while finding my shoes, keys, packing my bag, brushing my hair...in the evening I'm turning off lights, picking up clothes, getting undressed. That got me thinking about how often I do ever do just one thing. At the very least I'll be listening to music or an audio book while doing something like washing up or having a bath. For me - to watch TV without knitting in my hands is a waste of time. If I'm travelling I'm usually reading as well. So considering that perhaps it's no wonder my mind is always whirring away and finds it hard to be still.

The other task was to recognise a moment of pleasure every day. On Wednesday that was easy. I met up with my Dad and we went to an amazing restaurant called Ottolenghi. They have got recipes on the website and it is a deli as well as a restaurant. The moments of pleasure were multiple. Firstly seeing my Dad for the first time since christmas. Then the excellent conversation we had. But also my first mouthful of the aubergine and wild garlic dish.

I do adore aubergine and for a few seconds my mouth blissed out. Nom.

It's been a busy week both at work and home and I now have next week off. I feel amazingly ready for it. There is a funeral to go to on monday which naturally I am not looking forward to and then in quick succession I will be in Amsterdam by Tuesday lunchtime. I do have a note of various craft shops and will even have my laptop with me so there may be some blogging. It is due to rain the whole time I am there so expect soggy photos of tulips and canals.