Craft - completion! THE blanket

Finally! I did manage to get outside and take a picture of the massive blanket I worked on for around a year - but then I didn't get around to writing the blog till now. So here - just 2 months after completion - is THE blanket.

There's nothing to provide scale in this picture, but each stripe is made up of 4 rows of granny clusters, and it covers a single bed generously.  It's made out of Stylecraft Special DK (14 colours, I think) and is a combination of daisy granny squares (based on Zooty Owl's pattern) and the Attic24 Granny Stripe, with a border of my own devising.  It's big, bold and snuggly, and will hopefully be able to give my eldest hugs when I can't, once she's a few hundred miles away at university.

Read - Juliet, Naked (#11/52)

I think my rather Pollyanna-ish take on this book is that sometimes it's quite rewarding to come across a book I don't enjoy, to remind me that I still have critical faculties.  After loving the last few books I've read (including Funny Girl, also by Nick Hornby) , Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby was a bit of a let down. The story is about obsessive fandom, reclusive rock stars and mid-life angst, but I didn't feel sympathetic to any of the characters and I found the plot in turn clichéd and implausible. I don't mind fantastic stories or wild twists and turns in a plot (not that there were many of these in this book), but overall it has to feel true to the characters and circumstances, and this book didn't really work for me in that way; the motivations and psychology of the main characters didn't feel real enough to me, and it felt too contrived in places.  Sorry if anyone's read it and loved it - I'd really like to hear any opposing views!

To be honest, I chose this as light relief between book club books, as it was on the 'borrow me' shelf in the staff room at work, so it will be going back there next week! And, on the upside, it's been very enjoyable to read a few 'real' (ie not 'e') books recently - my Kindle's been having a welcome rest.

Read - The Summer Book (#10/52)

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson is a truly delightful book.  Short and very sweet, it consists of episodes in (I think) a single summer, on a tiny Finnish island where  six year old Sophie, her father and her grandmother are spending the summer.

Originally written in Swedish, the language of the translation is perfect, and I imagine it echoes the original in style and simplicity. The landscapes and seascapes are described beautifully, and the depiction of Sophia and her grandmother, and their relationship, make them feel very real people. I found the simple, but sometimes hard way of life on the island very attractive (I have a not-so-secret yearning for isolation by the sea).

This was the second time I've read it (it was a book club book) and it won't be the last - there's more to discover in it each time, and the short chapters make it ideal for dipping in and out of. It's a great summer read. Tove Jansson also wrote A Winter Book which I haven't read yet - maybe one for later in the year (and she's the author of the Moomin books, which I loved as a child).

Craft - crafters' block (and a completed flower garland)

I love having a project on the go but sometimes (often? always?) I have the delusion that I'm much more capable of finishing things than I really am, and end up with numerous things on the go at once. Then I think - wouldn't it be nice to whip up a small hook roll or garland as a present for a dear friend.  Then I start to panic because there's a deadline, and the item inevitably doesn't get made on time, but I can't possibly get on with anything else because I have to concentrate on the present I'm making. Except I'm not actually making it.

This garland (and the hook roll I made a couple of weeks ago) were just this sort of project. I'd been putting off making them - and been busy with other non-crafting (or reading or cooking or running)  stuff - for so long that I'm sure I've been having dreams about them.  But once I knuckled down to making it,the hook roll got finished in one night. Then I made myself do a bit of the garland every evening this week.  And do you know what? It only took a few evenings.

The main problem was not quite knowing how I wanted it to be. First of all I made an enormous butterfly which was too big (and a bit scary) for the delicate garland I had envisaged.  So then I found a lovely small butterfly pattern, and tweaked this flower pattern to make some smaller flowers, and invented (=cobbled together) a new tiny flower pattern (I'm quite proud of that!) and they all seem to go together quite well.

The cotton is lovely - it's Cascade Ultra Pima Fine in Wood Violet, Pansy, Dark Sea Foam, Primrose and Spring Green from Wool Warehouse and was a delight to work with, soft and non-splitty with lovely muted colours with a slight sheen. I used a 3.5mm hook which seemed to be about right.

Read - The goldfinch (#9/52)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt was another book club book,  but I would have read it anyway as I loved Donna Tartt's first novel (The Secret History).  Luckily book club didn't meet in April (our usual date fell in the Easter holidays) as this book really needed more than a month to read.

It's long, complex, full of twists and unexpected turns of plot - I absolutely loved it! It's so cleverly written in the voice of Theo, who is 13 at the start of the events recounted in the novel, 27 at the end, and tells the story of what happens to him after he is involved in an explosion at a museum. I don't really want to say much more about the plot than that as it was great reading it and being truly surprised and intrigued by all the different elements of the plot.  The characters are brilliantly written and I felt real affection for several of them - we spent a long time at book group discussing who would play each role if it was made into a film (and it would be a great film - or tv series)  - we all had very strong opinions, as the characters had become very real to us all!

It's not without its flaws - I felt there were some slips in historical accuracy when Theo's teenage years were being narrated,  and a few sections could have done with stricter editing.  But overall it's a fabulous book to read - a worthy winner of the Pulitzer prize and wholeheartedly recommended by me.

Craft - Completion! A crochet hook roll

It's been a while since I've had any time to sit down and do some uninterrupted crafting - especially sewing, which I always seem to find harder to get started on than crochet. But today I gritted my teeth and once tea was over and the smallest boy was in bed, I dragged out my sewing machine and got to work on an overdue project (the recipient's birthday passed a few weeks ago).

























This Crochet hook roll  from the blog Today We Made ended up being very simple to make, largely due to the excellent instructions in the PDF tutorial (some of the pictures on the website are a bit broken, but the downloadable PDF is great). I used a couple of bits of cotton fabric from my large collection of odds and ends, with a green velvet ribbon as the tie - it was very pleasing to find a ribbon that matched so well. I'm also quite happy with how the pattern matches on the inside of the roll - this was in no way deliberate!

The photos are a bit shadowy but hopefully give an idea of what it's like,  and I've broken two self-imposed rules - only using one photo per blog (as I wanted to show both the inside and outside) and only having landscape photos. Who knows where this anarchy might end up - hopefully with more sewing, as once I get down to it I do really enjoy it. And it's especially satisfying to start and finish a project in one evening.

Read - Five Red Herrings (#8/52)

Last year I (re-)read Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers for one of my book clubs and it made me remember how much I'd enjoyed reading the Lord Peter Wimsey books when I was younger.  With easy availability provided by my Kindle, I started to download the series a book at a time so I could re-read them all in order.  When I read them previously I'd borrowed them from my local library, which meant reading in order wasn't an option - it was down to chance which title was available on the shelf, and I have a feeling I may have missed one or two altogether.

So I read the first few titles last year, and am now up to number 7 - Five Red Herrings.  I started it a while ago but have had to intersperse a few books for book club between, so it's been a rather disjointed read.  On the whole, it hasn't been one of my favourite Wimsey books. It's set in an artistic community in Scotland, and when one of the artists is found dead, there are, as the title suggests, five suspects for the murder. I enjoyed the descriptions of the community and the evocation of 1920's life, but the way the plot hinges on detailed analysis of movements and train times and the like became a bit tedious.  Still worth a read though - and I'm enjoying the challenge of reading all the books in order this time.  I remember really enjoying a couple of the later books when I read them first time round, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I think of them now.

Read - Funny Girl (#7/52)

I read 'Funny Girl' by Nick Hornby for book group this week.  I wasn't looking forward to it for a couple of reasons - I'd inadvertently read some reviews on Amazon before downloading it which were pretty unfavourable, and I've been preferring to read 'real' books rather than ebooks recently.

But do you know what? I really enjoyed it.  I haven't read anything by Nick Hornby for a while, probably not since 'About A Boy', and I'd forgotten how engaging his writing style is.  This is a charming novel with a heroine holding her own in sixties London.  There are obvious parallels with several stars of the era (Cilla Black, Barbara Windsor) but Barbara / Sophie is original enough to be a believable character.  Real people and events are cleverly woven into the story (reminiscent of William Boyd's 'Any Human Heart', although that's on a much grander scale) and it was an easy, pleasant read.  Probably not a prizewinning piece of literature, but I'd definitely recommend it if you want something light and enjoyable.

Read - Hallowe'en Party (#6/52)

I do like a spot of comfort reading.  So far this year I'm way behind on my book club books, and it seems like there's not a hope of reaching my self-imposed target of 52 books in a year. Rather than attempting to read something challenging and worthwhile, I'm reverting to comfort reading - easy, familiar books which I may or may not have read before.

When I was younger I devoured Agatha Christie books.  I think I moved on from children's books at a time when 'teen fiction' wasn't really a thing, so Agatha Christie's detective novels were just at the right level. Intriguing, readable, and readily available in my local library - I read at least one a week for months and months.  I'm never quite sure which ones I've already read - turns out I had already read this one (Hallowe'en Party) but that didn't really detract from my enjoyment. In fact, it made it more fun to see if my memory of the denouement was accurate. They may not be high literature, but they capture many aspects of English society that no longer exist, and still provide some welcome escapism from our technology driven lives - especially if you read a battered old hardback edition like the book above. 

Craft - completion! Garden tote part 2

This is the finished garden tote, filled with gardening bits and bobs ready to give as a present. I managed to finish it just before midnight, ready to take away with me when I went away the next day.

I really like the finished bag, but found the instructions a bit erratic - the pattern was fine, but a big chunk of instructions seem to be missing which detail how to attach the pockets to the bag. Luckily I managed to work out roughly what to do, but when I googled it I found I wasn't the only person to have this problem. It's the first thing I've made from this book (which I've had for ages) but I don't think it will be the last (I'll just remember to read the instructions very carefully all the way through first in case any bits are missing!)

One of the aspects I'm most pleased about is that it didn't cost me a penny in new materials as I was using fabric from my stash, most of which had been recycled from other items.  I didn't want the bag to feel 'too nice' to use so deliberately planned for it to feel well worn!

Details:

Pattern: Garden Tote from Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter 

Fabric: base + side pockets - denim from an old pair of jeans, exterior of main body + front and back pockets - navy canvas from an old pair of curtains, interior - blue cotton sateen from stash

Craft - string of hearts

I made a tiny little string of hearts last night for a birthday present - I like making little bits to give people (hopefully they like to receive them) and it's always satisfying to start and finish something in the same evening.

They're simple to make, but I think they're very sweet.

Details:

Pattern: Small hearts , a free pattern from the lovely PlanetJune website  

Yarn: Rico Creative Cotton in aran weight - it was all leftover scraps so I'm not sure of the exact shades, but three different pinky-red colours.

Hook: 4.5mm

Craft - completion! (circles in squares blanket)

I mentioned earlier that I was nearing the end of my 'travel' blanket - so-called because it was very portable.  My  family thought I was (possibly more than) slightly bonkers when, the night before we went on holiday last year, I was busy weighing out 10 gram balls of different coloured yarn , so I could crochet lots and lots of circles while we were away. But it worked - I made lots of these squares in Spain, some in Surrey, some on the tube in London - anytime I went on a journey I grabbed one of my bags of small yarn balls and made a few squares.  And gradually I ended up with 42 squares - 7 rows of 6 graduated colours, and now a finished blanket - hurrah!

Details:
Pattern: The graduated colour scheme was inspired by Bear's Rainbow Blanket on Purl Bee , and the square pattern was an interpretation of the Retro Circles Blanket on Three Beans in a Pod , but with an extra round in the circles and different 'squaring' stitches.The squares are crocheted together on the reverse through the outer loops.
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in the following colours:
Row 1 - Burgundy, Claret, Raspberry, Fondant, Candyfloss, Soft peach
Row 2 - Spice, Gold, Sunshine, Saffron, Citron, Lemon
Row 3 - Bottle, Teal, Khaki, Green, Meadow, Spring green
Row 4 - Midnight, Royal, Denim, Aster, Cloud blue, Sherbert
Row 5 - Emperor, Plum, Grape, Magenta, Wisteria, Clematis
Row 6 - Dark brown, Walnut, Copper, Mocha, Camel, Stone
Row 7 - Black , Graphite, Grey, Silver, Parchment, White
Border - 2 rows of trebles in Cream, then a row of half trebles in each of Camel, Grape and Meadow interspersed with a row of trebles in Cream, followed by a row of trebles and a row of half trebles in Denim.
Hook: 4mm

Phew - think that's it! I'm very pleased with my first finished blanket - there are a few things I would do differently (the corners especially are a bit wonky), and I may make another one with a grey background and fewer colours for the spots ... however, as I've just started on an exciting new crochet project today I think that will have to wait!

Read - Margrave of the Marshes (#5/52)

Margrave of the Marshes starts as the autobiography of John Peel, but after 200 pages or so it morphs into a biography written by his wife, Sheila Ravenscroft, with help from their four children - this is due to John's sad and untimely death in 2004, shortly after he'd started writing the book.

I had been wanting to read this for ages, then once I'd started it I found it very hard to get into it.  It's been sitting on my bedside table, 50 pages read, for the best part of a year.  I picked it up again this weekend and after some initial effort found it much easier to get on with second time a round. The first half is very much in John Peel's voice ( a very familiar voice if, like me, you grew up illicitly listening to his late night radio shows under the bedclothes in the 1980s) and was very poignant to read.

This part of the book comes to an end while John is still in America and well before he's started his British career as DJ and national institution, and it's left to Sheila (also, apparently affectionately, known as Pig) to take over and write the account of the subsequent years from their meeting to his death.  This is interesting but feels understandably rushed - more of a summary of events.  Extracts from John's diary are interspersed here and there which make it more interesting.

All in all I'm very glad I read this book.  I enjoyed the memories it sparked of the thrill of hearing an amazing piece of music for the first time when I was just a teenager, I loved hearing John Peel's voicce come alive again as I read it.  And I was listening to 6 Music today as Tom Ravenscroft  (John's son) was doing the afternoon show, and he mentioned Robert  Wyatt - one of John's favourite musicians whose amazing version of 'Biko' I first heard on the John Peel show - and it felt very apt.

Craft - finished project #2

The front of this cushion cover was the very first thing I made after learning to crochet a year ago.  I felt too nervous to tackle a big project so I found a pattern on the internet, bought a few balls of wool from The Creative Sanctuary, where I learnt to crochet.  That turned out to be the straightforward bit - once finished it then took forever to find a suitable jumper for the backing panel and for me to finally get round to putting it all together.  I've finally finished it - turns out the front panel is actually quite wonky, I'm hoping that's a product of my novice crochet skills, and I've improved a bit over the past year. But I still love the colours and pattern, and it will sit proudly on my sofa.

Details:
Pattern: Wave pattern (from Lanas de Ana blog)
Cushion construction: Attic24
Yarn: Bergere de France Magic+ (this link goes to The Creative Sanctuary, but I don't think they stock the colours I used any more) in Criquet, Seneve and Estuaire  
Hook: 5mm 

Read - The improbable story of Orion Goss (#3/52)

I've just finished reading a print book - a real rarity as I read most frequently on my kindle nowadays - The improbably story of Orion Goss by Vicky Woodcraft. I can admit that I would never have read this book if it hadn't been chosen by one of my book groups. But all in all, I'm glad to have persevered with it. It was a gentle, enjoyable read; I'm not sure how realistic a depiction it is of early 20th century Cornish life but it's not badly written and the story moves along at a reasonable pace.  I've definitely read (several) far more badly written books for book club, by far more established authors.

The thing I liked most from a personal viewpoint is that it's set in Falmouth - a place I've visited several times over the last year or so, so I enjoyed trying to place bits of the action.  In fact, my very first post  featured a glimpse of Falmouth from the coastal path - and I must have gone past several places mentioned in the book on that very run.  If the book hasn't made its way to a charity shop by the next time I visit Falmouth, I'll try and take it along for some location spotting.

Read - We are all completely beside ourselves (#2/52)

I finished another book this morning in the 10 minutes I had between waking up and my alarm going off - sneaky reads are the best.  This time it was a 2nd reading of We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler - I read it last year for fun, but now it's been selected for book club so I needed to refresh my memory of it.

I really liked this book first time round and still enjoyed it on a second read.  The writing is very engaging, there's a 'surprise' which doesn't spoil a re-reading and it provokes lots of questions - I think it's going to be fun to discuss at book club next week.

The next book I'm reading is one I failed to finish (or even start!) in time for book club last month - I've promised myself I WILL read all my book club books this year, even if not in exactly the right order (and even if I would never have chosen them myself ...)

Craft - finished project #1

I've finished something! A garland for a friend's birthday.

Details:
Pattern: Maybelle Crochet Flower Free Pattern, then chained together with a foundation chain and a row of dc (both worked on the right side).
Yarn: Rico Creative Cotton in Aran (this link goes to Wool Warehouse, where I get most of my yarn from, but lots of suppliers sell it) -  flowers in red, cardinal, cherry, royal, pistachio, light pistachio, green, candy pink, orange, tangerine, sky blue, chained together with pistachio 
Hook: 4.5mm 

Read - The Mitford Girls (#1/52)

I'm usually quite a voracious reader but this year I've managed to read the grand total of half a book so far.  I've flicked through others , I've amassed a pile to read, but I've only actually sat down and solidly read half a book so far.

The book I'm wading through is The Mitford Girls by Mary S. Lovell - it's for one of my book clubs but the meeting was a while ago and I couldn't make it, so the urgency to finish it passed. I think the reason I'm taking so long to read it, is that the Mitford family and other characters in the book seem so very far removed from my own background and experiences.  I don't dislike them (well, not all of them) - but I'm finding it hard to comprehend how the family apparently had such involvement in key events of the 20th century. What the book has done is spur me to read The Pursuit of Love - so I shall add that to the steadily increasing books-to-read list.

Edit (21-02-15): Turns out that my Kindle's idea of 52% and my idea don't quite match - as this book included a large number of  footnotes, all at the end, the main text only made up about 65% of the overall book. A couple more hours reading last night and this morning and job done! Only another 51 to go in 2015 ... ?