Yarning Along: Getting strange looks in coffee shops

This week has been all about finishing things. By the end of the week three children's garments will have been cast off, blocked and have made it to the post, but as they're all for magazines you'll have to wait a while before I can show them to you. Yesterday I decided that I would go and sit in a coffee shop to get a garment finished rather than sit at home and stare at the housework that also needs doing. As the decision was rather last minute (I had my knitting and wallet in the car and little else), I had failed to bring my book (After You) out with me, so popped into a discount book shop to see if anything took my fancy.

I'm quite happy to read while knitting, so long as neither the book nor the knitting are too complex, so with that in mind I browsed the shelves to see what I wanted to read. Having dismissed the fiction shelves for being too cheesy or later parts of a series I hadn't read the earlier books for, I saw the biography section and Sue Perkin's autobiography immediately jumped out at me - look at the cover, isn't the design fab! So simple, yet so distinctive.

Spectacles is excellent, and I'm really glad I chose it. It's currently living in my bag along with my West Yorkshire Spinners Yarn Shop Day socks, which I'm also enjoying. I am trying to knit a bit less this week, but it is always useful having a book and some knitting in my bag, so the socks will be my out and about project, and when I'm at home I'll be catching up on some paperwork and getting on with my sewing plans to give my hands a break.

At home I will also be finishing After You. The plot got rather dark about midway through, but is starting to become a bit less so now, and I'm looking forward to getting to the finale. I will say though that in hindsight I might have been happier just reading Me Before You and imagining Louisa's exploits after that point!

Linking up with Rachel for this week's Yarning Along.

A month in books: January 2017

One of my goals for 2017 is to read for at least 15 minutes a day. And it's working! I am actually getting through a few books! Here's what I've been reading in January.

The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan
The story starts with newly-engaged Rosie finding out that she's unexpectedly pregnant. Her war-hero fiance (Steven) hears news from Africa that the sister of two children who died while he was trying to protect them is also pregnant, and the couple plan a trip to Africa. Obviously things don't go quite to plan, especially when you add in Steven's aloof family. The action in this book splits itself between Africa and Derbyshire, and while you have to suspend your disbelief for some of it, I was caught up in it and found it a very enjoyable read, especially over Christmas.

This book is the third in the Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop series, and while I have read the second (Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop; over Christmas 2015), I don't think that matters on this occasion - the book has a handy summary of what happened in the previous stories, so you can start this one with all the background in place, and it is an easy read. I definitely plan on reading more of Jenny Colgan's books when I fancy reading something light, but well-written.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a novel based on Judith Kerr's experiences as a Jewish child in the 1930s and her life as a refugee. Anna is a pretty typical nine year old girl living in Germany when her family are forced to flee and live as refugees, first in Switzerland, then Paris and finally England as her father is a high-profile anti-goverment writer with a price on his head as Hitler comes to power.

This book is one that I had been meaning to read for a long time, but may never have actually got round to if a friend hadn't sent me a copy for Christmas. I have read many of Judith Kerr's books for children, including the Mog series and The Crocodile Under the Bed, but hadn't read any of her novels. I found the book very easy to read, and wanted to know what happened to the family, and their wider community; there is peril, and a lot of laughter mixed in with pictures of poverty. Highly recommended.

Five Give Up The Booze by Bruno Vincent
Five Give Up The Booze is one of a series of Enid Blyton parodies written for the Christmas gift market. The Five in the title are the Famous Five, whose childhoods were depicted by Enid Blyton as they went on adventures and drank ginger beer and are now grown up and struggling with modern life. These characters are firm favourites from my childhood, and the book didn't disappoint; in this instalment the Five give up alcohol for January. Very light, very enjoyable. My only criticism is that the pictures (which hark back to the original books) are in no particularly order, and don't often faintly relate to the section of text they are placed in. I have another to read, and will be looking out for the others when I fancy something quick to read.

A week in the life: 8th January 2017

I've decided that this year I will try and post a few more progress shots of projects, rather than just declaring them done before I show pictures, so thought I would start by trying a little round-up post for the week.

This week has been a busy one, with the kids going back to school and nursery, and I've had lots of little bits and pieces to catch up on that didn't get done over the holidays. I have enjoyed being in one place for the whole week and not having to travel the length of the country.

My main project this week has been a sample for a new design for a magazine, so I can't show you more than these two pictures (it's seamed, and is purple), but now that's done, and I have been working on some things I can show you.

I've been working on my Toft chameleon. Progress is a little slow as I can't work on him while I watch TV (I have have to look at crochet all the time, and as every round is different, it takes a lot of concentration). I have made it to the neck, and finally made a start on stuffing him yesterday, only to realise that I really ought to have started that step rather earlier! I had to use the blunt end of a knitting needle on the inside of the piece to poke the stuffing into the tail, and then the pointy end of the knitting needle to shuffle the stuffing around from the outside of the tail to give it a good shape. So fiddly! But worth it; the tail looks pretty fab now.

My out and about knitting is the pair of socks I started during the holidays. I've not made much progress, but feel I ought to get cracking on them as they're currently housed in a Christmas project bag, and I don't want to hunt out a more seasonally-appropriate one.

Annoyingly I've injured my 'pushing finger' (the one that I use to push the stitch off the needle when I've finished the stitch, so I constantly have a plaster on that finger (it is healing, but very slowly, occasionally I forget about it, remove the plaster, then promtly stab myself again and am back to sqaure one), which is starting to get annoying. Hopefully it'll be better soon.

Yesterday I cast on a new project: a jumper for me! It's a reimagining of the Antler cardigan I cast on last year, then decided that I wanted it to be a jumper instead, and a bit bigger. I have knitted as far as the elbow on the first sleeve, but the only photo I have shows way to much of the chaos on my living room floor, so I'll wait until I've done a it more before sharing any photos.

I have managed to stick to my target of reading for 15 minutes every day (though not necessarily by going to bed earlier - I slept for longer into this morning than I meant to, oops), and have finished my first book of the year: The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan. I started reading the book over Christmas, and enjoyed it. It's part of the Rosie Hopkins' series (not that it matters - there's a series summary at the start of the book), and is a light, easy read. The surprises start pretty near the start of the book, so there's not much I can tell you about the story, but it's lovely and heart-warming, defintely one of the better examples of chick-lit out there.

Hope you'vbe had a good week this week. What have you been up to?