Lots of Lovely Fibrous Goodies

So, yesterday I said I would tell you about my trip to Wingham Wool Work. I'd not been before but I'd heard tales of the wonders to be found in their "sheds".

Still, I'm not sure I was quite prepared for what awaited me. I got there just after they opened on Sunday and was given a little tour of the aforementioned sheds and their workshops which were just brimming with stacks of fleece and other fibres waiting to be processed. There was the shed with the huge carding machine which they use to make enormous batts. And there was the blebing machine which they use to combine lots of different colours and types of fibre into beautiful rovings.

Then there was the Merino shed - full of big coils of the 125 different colours of merino they hold in stock. I selected a few colours that I thought I could use but really I wanted all of them. Anyway I picked out some deep red, and a rusty colour and a bright turquoise and a pale green and an olive green plus a mid-green.

And then there was the British Wools shed, full of all the different types of wool from British breeds and a few others all undyed in their natural colours. I bought some Light Grey Cheviot which is for a particular project I have in mind, and some Grey Norwegian, just because I couldn't resist the colour. Also in this photo is a bag of Tussah Silk and some scoured kid mohair, which came from the main part of the shop.

But the very best bit for me was what they call the "rainbow shed" which is just stuffed to the rafters with bags full of beautiful, rainbow coloured blended merino and silk. What happens is that they will custom blend merino for you (and add silk if you want it) and they do it on a one-off basis, just for you. And as they almost always process more than the customer has ordered of a particular blend it goes into the rainbow shed and is sold to customers who go there in person (you can't buy this online). For someone like me who loves seeing the colours blended together it was just heaven. I was a bit spoiled for choice, and also it started off a chain of thought about which colours would be my ultimate combination. You can use up to 6 colours I think (any of the 125 they have in stock), and they will blend them for you.

I did buy a couple of bits (are you surprised).

There's 200g of this, 100% Merino with black, dark blue, turquoise and magenta. It's a little darker than the photo in real life. I think this will be the edging and cuffs for the Williamsro cardigan I was blogging about last week.


I did buy some stuff with other people in mind. As soon as I saw this I thought it would make a great pair of socks for Pete -

It's also 100% Merino and it's a mix of at least 2 possibly 3 different blues with grey and green.

There there is this which I knew I had to have as soon as I saw it -

It's a Merino / Tencel mix which gives it a beautiful sheen in places. I have tried to identify all the colours in this and there are just so many - reds, blues, purples, mustardy yellow, oranges, greens. Here's a close up so you can see for yourself -

So, I now have at least 4 or 5 different spinning projects lined up. That should keep me quiet for a while, don't you think?

Birmingham Knitters are Revolting

I went to Stitch 'n' Bitch on Saturday and there was uproar. We've been meeting in the cafe at the Central Library for a number of years now but when we arrived on Saturday we got a real telling off from the woman who runs the cafe. It seems that our moving the tables so we can sit together as a group is "damaging" the tables (?), and apart from that we apparently never put the tables back (we always do!). We were made to feel most unwelcome. However we knitters are a resourceful bunch, plus we don't like being made unwelcome all of a sudden, so we are moving. From the beginning of March we'll be meeting in the Art Gallery Cafe (also known as the Edwardian Tearooms) instead. I shall not be sorry for the move. The coffee is better at the art gallery, and they were most welcoming and helpful when we asked them if they could accommodate us. I'm looking forward to the change.

I've been progressing with the Lapland Mittens -


This is the second one so I'm hoping I will have a pair by the end of the week when the weather is predicted to turn rather nasty.

Because the mittens are not very portable, or very good to knit while nattering, I cast of a new pair of socks.

Aren't they colourful? They are Admiral R Druck in colourway 1744. Sorry Debbie, I know that's not very helpful. I bought the wool at the NEC but I don't remember who from, and a quick googling doesn't reveal any UK stockists. They are knitting up very nicely anyway.

I am still plodding on with A Vengeful Longing by R N Morris. It's plodding, not because I'm not enjoying it (I am), but it's quite a slow read. I'm having to pay attention in case I miss something and I'll admit to struggling a bit with the Russian nomenclature. The narrator almost always uses the surname of a character, but in conversation the other characters use the given name and patronymic. This means I occasionally (ok, more often than that), have to stop and think who is being referred to. It doesn't help that some of the names are similar, or have one part the same. I know this is being done for authenticity, but it's beginning to make my head hurt!

On Sunday, as Pete was away doing assault courses and crossing rope bridges with knives between his teeth, or whatever he was doing, I treated myself to a little day trip. I'd been looking for an excuse (however flimsy) to go to Wingham Wool Work near Rotherham for quite a while and this seemed like the ideal time. I had a lovely afternoon among all their fibrey wonders. I'll tell you more about it tomorrow and show you what I bought.

Friday Fibre Fest

A little bit of yarn pron as it's Friday......

This is a sample of space-dyed tussah silk from Wingham, corespun and then plied with an unidentified commercial spun brown yarn from the stash. There's not a lot of it, only about 60 yds, but then it was only a sample bag to start with. I can't remember the colourway, but it may have been Orange Grove.

I did a bit of dyeing yesterday and this is some Merino / Silk mix, again not a lot of this - about 65g but it was an experiment which I shall try and spin up later today so see how it looks. I'm planning to make this (the adult one) -

and as it would take me forever to spin all the yarn for it I thought I'd knit the main body of the cardigan in commercial yarn and handspin the edging yarn. It's one of Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's designs from the Noro 2 book. I'm planning for the body to be dark blue (probably with a tweedy effect) and the edging to be a mix of pinks and blues and purples. Looking at the experimental roving I think the colours may be a little too light but it may look different when spun.

Also dyed yesterday were these -

Matching (ish) 50g skeins of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4ply. I can't believe they've discontinued this. It's one of my favourite commercial yarns for dyeing. I have a little bit left in the stash though. These are destined to be socks one day, though probably not in the near future.

In other news .... I am officially an idiot. Somehow I have managed to lose 800g of Merino fibre. I went to get it yesterday when I'd mixed up all my colours for dyeing, only to discover that it wasn't where I thought it was. It isn't in any of the obvious places where I thought it might have got moved to either. Very odd. It's not as though it's a small bag of fibre - it's a large bag - not easy to overlook. It has to be in the house somewhere, probably hidden behind something, laughing at me getting cross because I can't find it. I think it may have run away with my Color in Spinning book which I also can't find. I swear this summer I am finally going to reclaim the house from the European Book Mountain which has amassed in virtually every room. Does anyone want 10,000 previously owned paperbacks?????

13 days since my last post!

I'm not sure how that happened. I'm not sure where the days have gone. I could have sworn I blogged last week sometime.


Anyway, enough about memory failure.


I've been knitting - look here's a finished Lapland Mitten





Well, it would be a photo of a mitten if I could get the picture to upload. We've been having terrible connection problems with our broadband recently. We've had days with no broadband at all, then days when a page takes about 10 minutes to load. Yesterday we had no email all day. Today apparently it won't load photos to Blogger. (Hurrah, it's working. Better finish this post and get it published before the connection goes down again.)



The second mitten is barely started as I have have suffering from second mitten syndrome, also it has been temporarily shelved to knit a woolly hat for Pete who is going on a team-building course this weekend. It's in Devon and it involves being outside - a warm woolly hat was definitely called for.



I finished Ruso and the Demented Doctor by R S Downie which is a historical crime novel set in Roman Britain and features a doctor (not the demented one of the title) in the service of the legions and his British housekeeper/lover. I was a bit concerned before I started it that it would be a pale imitation of Lindsey Davis, who I like very much, but I needn't have worried. Ruso was a quite different kettle of fish from Falco and the British setting was great. It's not published until March but I do recommend it. My only quibble (and it's a small one) was that there was no map to tell me where the different locations were in Britain, or even a note to tell me that Coria (where most of the action takes place) is now known as Corbridge. However it was a proof that I was reading so maybe this will be included in the actual book. I shall now have to go back and try the first volume in the series, Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls.



Now I'm reading A Vengeful Longing by R N Morris, due to be published by Faber in February. It's set in 19th century St Petersburg and features investigating magistrate Porfiry Petrovich (from Crime and Punishment) and his new assistant. This is the second book in the series, but I've not read the first. Anyway I'm about halfway through and enjoying it immensely so far. It's a pretty convincing portrayal of the city (as far as I know anyway - it convinces me!) and I'm really getting to like Porfiry Petrovich, who I guess I've met before as I have read C&P but it was a long time ago and I don't remember much about it or him. More about this one as the plot unfolds, but so far so good.

Best of 2007

So, I promised my favourite books of 2007 and a little look ahead.

This has been trickier than I thought it would be. When I had to pick my top five European Crime novels of the year for Eurocrime I managed without any difficulty to select the following five -

John Connolly - The Unquiet
Stuart McBride - Dying Light
Pat McIntosh - The Harper's Quine
Stef Penney - The Tenderness of Wolves
Ian Rankin - Exit Music

However when I add non-crime and non-European to the mix it becomes a lot more complicated. I've been trying to read more non-crime this year and have been helped in this aim by a certain ennuie with the genre. But as I've substituted the crime almost exclusively with historical fiction I'm not sure I've broadened my horizons very far, and while I've read some very good historical novels this year none have made it into my top five. After much deliberation I've narrowed it down to these -

Vera Brittain - Letters of a Lost Generation
Pat McIntosh - The Harper's Quine
Joe R Lansdale - A Fine Dark Line
Stef Penney - The Tenderness of Wolves
James Lee Burke - The Tin Roof Blowdown

That's my favourite books READ in 2007, not necessarily published in that year. I may have cheated as I have put The Crystal Skull on this year's list as it was only published in January, otherwise something else would have had to make way for it. Honorable mentions also go to Coronado by Dennis Lehane (which contains one of my alltime favourite short stories), and to the Emperor series by Conn Iggulden, all of which I managed to squeeze in this year.

So now we come to the thorny subject of my least favourite books of the year. I've read (or at least tried to read) some truly awful books this year.

The Fiat Punto Award for Book Hurled into the Backseat with most Venom goes to.... The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld.

The Friends of the Earth Please Save More Trees by Not Publishing Any More award goes to ..... Shadowman by Cody McFadyen.

The "Christ, I Can't Believe I Actually Paid Good Money for This" award goes to..... Beneath the Bleeding by Val McDermid.

The Sheila Quigley Award for Most Irritating Regional Accent in a Book goes to.... Sheila Quigley.

So, what am I looking forward to this year? Well, I'm hoping to read some better crime fiction than some of the stuff that passed over my desk this year. Perhaps I need to get over my aversion to Scandinavian translated crime and give it another go. There are new novels from John Connolly and Michael Connelly to look forward to. The second part of Ann Cleeve's quartet set in Shetland should be out in April. PJ Tracy and Karin Slaughter both have new novels due this year too.

I'm hoping that I will find a new author to savour in amongst the proofs and review copies. And I'm hoping not to have to read anything involving Edinburgh or lawyers and particularly Edinburgh lawyers for as long as I can possibly hold off. 100 points deducted from the first publishing house to send me such a book for review!!

Bonus points this week go to Faber & Faber who have sent me a couple of proofs set in St Petersburg, one a modern thriller and the other a historical crime novel featuring Petrovich from Crime & Punishment. So that puts them first in the pile for reviews this year. I don't think I've read any crime set in St Petersburg before - has to be better than Edinburgh. More details on the books when I get to them.

My good friend Helen asked me if I had any writing resolutions for this year and I have to admit that I don't. It seems to be tempting fate too much to set myself any writing goals this year, given my abysmal showing during NaNoWriMo. I shall just try and get some writing done as and when time allows and will keep blogging as regularly as I can.

Christmas Goodies

So, yesterday I promised you a look at all the lovely knitterly presents that came my way at Christmas.

There were lots of books -

There's Knitting Yarns and Spinning Tales which is full of great stories from and about knitters; Yarn Stash Wonders - 101 great patterns for all those odd balls from the stash (more about this later); Folk Style by Mags Kandis which has lots of great stylish patterns; The Best of Interweave Knits which has some great stuff in it including the Icarus shawl which I am intending to knit this year; Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan - beautiful organic designs and clever knits from one of favourite designers and Knit Knit - Profiles and Projects from Knitting's New Wave - cool patterns and inspirational interviews. That's a whole lot of really fantastic books to help keep me inspired and knitting.

Also in my stocking were these - Beautiful Lantern Moon rosewood needles - just lovely to knit with and currently sporting the Twisted Spiral Neckscarf from One Skein Wonders, using an odd ball of Noro Kureyon that was in my stash.

Best of all there was this -

An Ashford Knitters Loom. This was a total surprise and I was really chuffed. Pete had done some research and sourced it himself and got it delivered, all without me suspecting a thing. It's lovely and just what I wanted. It folds up so it takes up hardly any space (this is important in our house where I am already taking over with boxes of wool and the spinning wheel and dyeing materials and fleeces and allsorts of other bits and bobs.) It comes with its own carrybag and is very portable. Draped artfully across it is the scarf I wove on it on Boxing Day using some unidentified brown wool and some beige boucle that was in the stash. I've since bought some silk and some mohair from Texere and will be starting something a little more ambitious this week.

I've been knitting too. Here is the beginning of some Lapland Mittens from Folk Mittens by Marcia Lewandowski.

This is the second attempt at them as I wasn't getting the right gauge on the first attempt. I'm using some slightly thicker yarn now and slightly bigger needles. The yarn I'm using is some cream Guernsey, some reddish Jaeger DK Merino which I hand-dyed last year, and some green hand-spun hand-dyed unspecified British Wool.

It's the time of year for reviewing what I've done in the last year and setting some goals for the next. I think my favourite knitting project of the last year was the Luna Moth Shawl. I wear it all the time and it's had many compliments.

So my knitting ambitions for this year are to knit an Icarus Shawl (I have some laceweight in the stash for this purpose but be prepared for some swearing), to knit more of my handspun and to try and become a better, more accomplished knitter this year. I might even try and finish some of the socks that are on the needles too.

Tomorrow - my favourite and least-favourite books of last year, what I'm looking forward to this year bookwise and my reading resolutions.

Just one of those weeks

I was full of good intentions to get back to regular blogging and to get you all up to speed with what I'd been reading and knitting over Christmas....

......and everything conspired to stop me doing just that. I went to photograph the knitting and the Christmas goodies but the batteries in the camera were dead and the spare set was nowhere to be found.

Then we had a problem with our broadband connection, which is hopefully now rectified.

And it's been dark when I've gone to work and dark when I've got home so the taking of photographs with the now fully recharged camera has been just impossible.

Is that enough excuses yet?

I am off for 2 days now so there should be a period of daylight tomorrow during which I can take photos for you.

In the meantime here's a round up of what I've been reading.

I finished the proof of The Crystal Skull by Manda Scott - it was absolutely great. A cracking story, with believable characters, convincing historical details and a bit of mysticism thrown in. You know I was banging on about how poor some of the fiction I had read recently was - well this was the antidote to all that. A great plot, well written and throughly absorbing. It even had me, shameless old cynic that I am, believing in all the prophetic stuff, at least for the duration of the novel. Highly recommended.

While huddled under the duvet feeling cr*p last week I read The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower. This was also very good. A great historical novel with a riveting plot and very informative about the Bayeaux Tapestry and the whole 1066 period and its aftermath, about which I knew absolutely nothing. Strangely, Scottish schools don't labour much on The Battle of Hastings in history.

Then I picked up an absulote gem - Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. I don't usually read translated fiction (it was originally written in German) as I always think it loses something along the way. But this was a treasure. A murder mystery in which the crime is solved by a flock of sheep, told from the point of view of those sheep. I wasn't sure how it would read but it was totally wonderful.

Not sure what I will read now. I picked up a proof of The Reincarnationist by M J Rose and stuck it in my bag to read at lunchtime. 50 pages was quite enough to decide that this one was not for me. Not particularly well written and with a very irritating habit of jumping from one time period to another in the space of a sentence. The narrative voice was grating too. Not a good start. So, back to the groaning shelves to choose something else then......hmmmmm.

I promise I will try and get some photos up tomorrow.

Out with the Old!!!!!!!

OK, so I've been really bad at posting for the last month or so. I'm sorry. I will try to do better in this New Year.

I have been afflicted all over the festive season by a hideous virus which started out as general aches and pains and lethargy, bloomed into nasty back pain and stiff knees and today has finally burst out into a full-blown snot-ridden cold.

As soon as I have written this post I am going to bed with a hot drink and The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bowers. This was recommended most highly by that esteemed blogger dovegreyreader so I am looking forward to it.

I finally got around to typing up my review of The Crystal Skull by Manda Scott but I've not emailed it over to Eurocrime yet as Pete had a look and suggested that I might want to check the spelling, and the grammar and the fact that some of it was complete gibberish, before I emailed it. Seems that this virus also affects the ability to think straight. Anyway I shall sort it out later before I (hopefully) go off reading group for the first time in ages. The problem is that Crime Reading Group clashes with my evening class in knitting, spinning and weaving so I've not been able to go for months. I've really missed it, so I'm hoping that by spending the afternoon in bed I will feel up to being sociable later.

I've done very little knitting as I've been feeling so crap, but there are one or two FOs that got done during the mega-movie feast that was Christmas Eve. Details and photos of these tomorrow or as soon as I can get my act together.

I've also read Broken Skin by Stuart McBride. I believe that this may not have been quite as good as the previous two in the series, but that may just have been the fact that my brain was mush. Anyway it was still better than the average (and sooo not set in Edinburgh).

Coming soon.....my review of 2007 for both books and knitting, and a round up of the lovely knitterly goodies that came my way at Christmas.

If you need me I'll be under the duvet.

Not Alan Bennett

We had a customer in the shop the other day who was most insistent that Alan Bennett had died. She was so sure of this fact that we began to doubt ourselves.

But it reminded me that it is the time of year to pause for a moment and reflect on some fine writers we have lost this year -

Norman Mailer (Executioner's Song and many others)

Ira Levin (remember Rosemary's Baby?)

Kurt Vonnegut Jr (Slaughterhouse 5 and so much more)

Michael Dibdin (creator of the marvellous Aurelio Zen)

Robert Anton Wilson (prolific SF writer)

Sidney Sheldon (master of the airport blockbuster)

Johnny Hart (cartoonist, creator of The Wizard of Id and B.C.)

Robert Jordan (sadly dying before he finished his great and lengthy Wheel of Time series)

Peter Haining (author of many historical true crime books, authority on Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who, afficionado of horror stories and a great many other subjects.)

The world will be a duller place without these writers. I'm sure too that there are probably others who I've missed.

But not Alan Bennett who, as far as I know, is still alive and kicking.

I'm Making a List

I'm checking it twice.

Today is my last day off until Christmas Eve so I've been making sure everything is ready -

Festive Gingerbread Cookies?
Check!

Slightly Rustic Looking (but totally delicious) Mince Pies?
Check!

Presents wrapped?

Check!

Cards posted?

Check, but if you don't get one from me it's because I'm trying to save the planet I'm incompetent and I can't find your address.



Christmas knitting?

(no, there isn't a picture of this in the interests of secrecy)

Check, all finished and blocked and despatched (and it's not Christmas Eve yet, aren't you proud of me?)

Freedom Spirit Tank Top?




Finished, just blocking quietly on the bed.


So that's me ready then. Just the small detail of 5 days retail hell working in the shop to get through. I can so do that. I'm all prepared. I've got festive biscuits to get me through.....

I'm Baaaaack.........

I'm hoping to distract you from my dreadful posting record lately with lots of pictures of fibery goodies.

I've been knitting a lot - but most of it is secret squirrel Christmas knitting and so I can't show you, however I have done a little for myself so there is this -

Which is going to be a tank top in Twilleys Freedom Spirit (pattern booket 455, colourway Fire). I'm almost finished the front and have started the back.

I've also been busy surfing on eBay and have bought some lovely stuff. I love it when I get parcels of books and wool!

First I won some lovely books and some fibre from Ambermoggie -

That's the Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Hand Knitting Collection Book Two for Noro and Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle. I haven't photographed the fibre as it's just some natural wool and some black so it doesn't photograph very well. I'm already planning a part hand-spun, part commercial yarn cardigan from the Noro book.

And then there's the latest issue of Interweave Crochet which I bought to see if it was going to be of interest to me. I'm not a great crocheter but people at work all swear by it so I'm having a look. Not sure if I shall go out of my way to buy anymore issues of this but it was interesting none the less.

Then I got some lovely fibre from someone was de-stashing

I especially love the blue/black/turquoise one. It's Merino as is the orange/brown/mustard one. The cream one is merino/silk blend and it feels really soft. I think I might try dyeing it and see how the different fibres take the dye.

I've been reading too. I'm currently on The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. Amazingly, as I am typing this Simon Mayo is just telling me that JLB will be on his show this afternoon so I think Bubba will have to wait for his walk for a little bit longer. I am loving this book. It's set in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and it's a very angry book. Beautifully written though. I'm not finished it yet but there are only about 50-60 pages left and it's turning into one of those books that I really don't want to end. My most favourite thing about this book however is the endpapers. It's a not very well-kept secret about me that I am an endpaper pervert. I just love a book with beautiful endpapers and this one has them.

The smart people at Orion have used the image from the endpapers as the jacket on the paperback edition. See what I mean.

When I finally finish this one (and I'm making it last as long as I can) then I will be finishing Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. I had been under the impression that I'd read all of Mrs Gaskell's work but when I saw the trailers for the TV series I realised I hadn't read this one (or these ones if you're being pedantic). I do like the book, though the TV series is turning out to be rather sweet in a sickly sort of way and is lacking the gently biting wit of the book. It's a bit like Midsomer Murders but without the bodies.

Next up will be an ARC of The Crystal Skull by Manda Scott. I've been looking forward to this for ages. As you know, I love Manda's Boudica novels so I'm hoping this one lives up to their high standards. The publishers seem to be promoting it in a rather Da Vinci Code sort of way which I'm hoping will not prove to be the case.

Got to go now and listen to JLB on the radio. You can listen to it here (it's under Thursday about 2 hours 10 mins in).

Penultimately, I have to apologise for my abject failure to write a novel in November. Somehow the month (and the words) just got away from me. Perhaps I'll try again sometime but at the moment we are in the throes of Festive Madness at work and I'm coming home exhausted most evenings. I can just about manage the simple mindless knitting of the tank top (which is just row after row of stocking stitch), and I have some Christmas knitting still to finish but I'm not planning anything very complicated. Posting may be sporadic for the next few weeks (nothing new there then!) while I resort to wine and chocolate to get me through the rest of the month.

And finally, please remember when you are tired and stressed and at the end of your tether, that if the book you promised your Great Uncle Herbert for Christmas has been out of print for fifty years it's not the fault of the poor harrassed bookseller. Be nice to retail staff this Christmas!!!!!!!

FO Alert!!

Yes, I actually have an FO to show you.



Behold -

Fraserburgh Armwarmers to a pattern of my own devising, named after the fishing port in the NE of Scotland where in their gansey knitting they have traditionally used the tree of life pattern featured in the back panel of each mitt. I have happy memories of Fraserburgh as when I was about 10 we had a great family holiday there and I won third prize in the sandcastle building competition. The yarn is my own hand-dyed, handspun merino of approx double knitting weight.

I can't remember what I was reading last time I blogged, but I seem to recall a rant about the standards of crime fiction. So, anyway, I finished The Dead Pool by Sue Walker and am now reading Dark Angels by Grace Monroe. Contrary to my expectations I was somewhat underwhelmed by The Dead Pool, but am becoming increasing enthralled by Dark Angels. Both are set in Edinburgh (as have been rather too many of the crime novels I've read this year), although both feature a different side to Auld Reekie, and a different one again to that presented by Ian Rankin. But I'm becoming rather bored with Edinburgh for all its many guises and am longing for a Scottish novel set in Dundee or Inverness or the Isle of Skye. How about a rural murder in Blairgowrie? A lurid laying-waste of life at The Lecht ski centre? Watery doom in a salmon farm near Oban? Please anything but Edinburgh............

Too Much Crime....

I have been shamefully neglecting the blog. Don't worry though that I have been so entranced with the other blog (you know the writing one) that I have spent all my time hanging out over there having a great time. That would not be true. It has been just as badly neglected as this one.

Truth is I just haven't had much to write about. Life is a bit dull at the moment and I am sadly lacking in blog fodder.

Last week I had a few days when I almost decided to give up reading crime fiction. (It's Ok the feeling passed off after a few days). I had read several rather disappointing crime novels in a row - they ranged from the "just not very inspired, quite run of the mill" through to "downright awful, how did this get published?" I was beginning to despair. I want crime novels with a decent plot. I want crime with credible characters. I want a protagonist that I like (at least some of the time) and can identify with. While I'm at it, can I have a novel where one of the detective/police/whatever team doesn't get targeted by the serial killer. Please. It's the crime novel equivalent of that old horror movie scene where the girl is going to open the door and we're all shouting "No, don't open it." One well-known, and previously well-respected (by me anyway) writer telegraphed her intentions about this so clumsily in her latest book that I thought it must be a McGuffin. I was horrified to discover that it was actually a major plot point.

However, I had some proofs come through for review for Eurocrime so I did read another crime novel. And I have several more still to review so I guess I'm back on the horse. I swear though that the first time the detective/protagonist puts their hand on that doorknob, I'm giving up crime fiction for good and taking up chick lit!!!!

Butterfly Week

I'm having one of those weeks where I can't settle to do anything.


I've started at least 3 books and put them down again.

I've started a couple of new knitting projects and put them down again.


I've done a bit of spinning, and a bit of dyeing. Mostly because I want to knit this -

Its the December Lights Tam from Interweave Holiday Knits 2007. However it requires 8 different colours of yarn which could get expensive, especially as you don't seem to need very much of some of them. But I have some lovely bright red merino in the fibre stash, which I've almost finished spinning and I've dyed some bright green this afternoon which I can blend with some other greens from the stash to make up the 4 different greens required. I've got some rose that I dyed earlier in the year and can mix up some magenta. Then I just need a little blue and I'm sorted.

The weather has taken a distinct cold turn here and I am consumed by the need to knit warm mitts and hats. If only I could settle on which ones to knit!

Bonfire Weekend

Whatever happened to Bonfire Night. When exactly did it expand to encompass the entire weekend before (and probably after) November 5th?

Last night it sounded like we were in a war zone. Why do fireworks have to make noises like nuclear bombs? I can see the point of the pretty sparkly ones but why must they be so ear-shattering.

When I got home from work yesterday, Bubba was very agitated as the fireworks had already started (it was 17.45pm). He wouldn't go out in the garden and he spent the entire evening on the sofa, as close to me as he could get. I couldn't go to bed until most of the noise had stopped, which meant a very late night indeed. (I draw the line at a dog in the bed which was my other option!) Poor dog.

I'm a firm believer that the sale of fireworks to the general public should be banned. I think they are too dangerous for use in gardens. I have no problem with properly organised and licenced displays but the kind of fireworks that were going off all around our house last night were not the kind that I would have liked my children anywhere near, and which I would never dream of touching. These were not the little catherine wheels and small rockets my dad used to set off on Guy Fawkes Night when I was a child. These things are huge. I think it's a job for the experts. Children get maimed and killed at home firework parties every year, not to mention the thousands of traumatised pets and wildlife.

If only properly licenced displays were allowed then people would be safer. I would be able to plan to be with my dog while the display was on, instead of having to stay in and reassure him almost every night for two weeks.

I'm guessing there will be more of the same tonight and Monday and probably through to next weekend too. Then we'll just have the fireworks for Eid, Dhiwali, Christmas and New Year to contend with. Wonderful.

Can you tell I'm feeling grumpy and miserable this morning?

National Novel Writing Month has begun........

The first bit of the novel now titled "The Riddle of the Stars" is online here. Go have a read.

More tomorrow, hopefully.

I've added a link on the right (under Links - what can I say, I'm logical).

Shamefully Neglected

I have been utterly neglecting my blog this week, for which I humbly apologise.



I have no excuses other than that I've been busy at work. And have had lots to read. And lots to knit.



So here's a quick round up. I put The Book Thief aside temporarily, while I read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Not my normal type of book, but Stu at work persuaded several of us to read it in a communal reading experiment. I can't say that I liked it particularly. All the characters were too perfect, almost without exception they were beautiful, or brilliant, or talented and usually all three at once. All the villains too villainous, with no redeeming qualities. I wanted to know more about the actual building of the cathedral but there wasn't enough of that. And it was just way too long - over 1000 pages. Some of the political intrigue in the church was interesting but there was just too much of it. All in all not a great book and I don't think I shall be attempting the sequel, World Without End, which is just published.



After that I read The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. This is a lovely book. The pick of the Richard and Judy titles this year, I think. It's a beautiful story, well written, with a great narrative voice.



Don't worry, I haven't abandoned crime. On Monday, three proofs for review landed on my doorstep so later today I shall be starting The Dead Pool by Sue Walker. I liked her previous book The Reckoning which I reviewed earlier in the year so I'm hoping this one will be just as good.



Tonight I'm off to Nottingham to see Arcade Fire. Pete and I had been looking forward to this for ages but he is away this week so I am going with the Evilpixie. I can't remember the last time I went to see a band live. Anyway it should be good.



Most of the knitting I've been doing this week has been secret squirrel Christmas knitting, but midway through the week I had a need for some quick fix knitting and produced this -

The ultimate in instant scarfs - three skeins of Colinette Point 5 in stocking stitch on 15mm needles - just knit until the wool runs out. It was inspired by the lovely (and many talented) Jane of Yarnstorm fame, although mine is slightly different to hers. Her book, by the way - The Gentle Art of Domesticity - is absolutely beautiful.

Anyway, I've got all sorts of things I need to catch up on today like grocery shopping and laundry and hoovering so I've got to go. Don't forget that NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow when I hope to have the first installment of "The Riddle of the Stars" online. (Apologies to the late Erskine Childers for ripping-off and mangling his title).

Writing a Novel in Thirty Days

So, how am I going to write a novel in thirty days? Well, it takes a little planning, as I need to have a rough (very rough) idea of what I am going to write, but basically I'm just going to wing it. Bear in mind that the idea here is not to produce a polished piece of work, but to try and write a complete novel (or at least a first draft) in thirty days. The point here is quantity not quality. I am giving myself permission to write crap if that's what it takes and to have some fun while getting some words on the page.

I thought about using this NaNoWriMo to finish the half-written teenage novel that is languishing on my computer, or to bash out a first draft of the novel set during WW1 that I am researching at the moment, but neither of these options felt right. I'm not in the right frame of mind for the teenage novel at the moment and the new novel needs more research. I'm terrible for starting something before I'm quite ready and losing momentum when I get to a bit I'm not sure about. Also both these works are intended for publication (eventually, should I be so lucky) so I don't want to splash them all over the web at this stage. This means I'm going with a third option....

What I'm going to do is start with an idea I had several years ago for an opening passage. I have no idea of plot or character - just an opening scenario. I'm intending to take this beginning and to run with it wherever it takes me. It may not be pretty - chances are some (or more) of it will be utter garbage - but I hope it will be fun. I'm going to see if I can find a way to post what I write on the web so you can follow my progress if you want to (what kind of masochists are you?). Comments will be welcome (what kind of masochist am I?) There's a target of 2000 words per day in order to produce a 60K word novel within the month. I'm not sure I can sustain that but I'll give it a go.

It all starts on 1st November....here's a clue...it's science fiction, but I'm sure there will a crime element in there too....can't have a book without bodies!!!!!

A Meme About Books

I'm not usually one for memes but here's one I cadged from the wonderful Rabbitch that's right up my street.

Hardback or Paperback? - I'd say a bit of both. I love the feel of a good substantial hardback (with beautiful endpapers) but I always have a paperback in my bag to read if I get a spare moment.

If you owned a bookshop what would you call it? No-one in their right mind would ever own a bookshop, so if I had one it would have to be The Asylum.

Favourite Quote: Tricky one - I'll get back to you about this one...

Author you would most like to have lunch with? I'm sure that most authors have better things to do, and frankly some of them are just not that interesting so how about Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (but only if he makes the lunch) and then a few after dinner pints in the Oxford Bar with Ian Rankin

Desert Island Book - well, it would have to be something I hadn't already read, and something long and that I could read over and over again and still enjoy so I guess it must be time for War and Peace.

Most Longed For Book Related Gadget - something to hold the book where I can read it while knitting and which would turn the pages when told (If I were obscenely rich and decadent I could get an exquisite houseboy just for this purpose!!!!)

The smell of an old book reminds me of.... cold auction rooms with boxes of dusty tomes, finding the odd gem amongst the dross, crap coffee and the smell of bacon butties. I miss that life!

Which lead character would you be? Difficult. I'd quite like to be VI Warshawski (the feisty female PI from Sara Paretsky's crime novels), but she has a tendency to get shot. I think I'd be Boudica from the Manda Scott series of the same name - she's fiery, intelligent, mystical and inspiring. (It may be heresy for a Scot to want to be such a very English heroine).

Most overestimated book - anything that has ever won the Booker Prize (which is announced today and looks to be Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach this year. This proves my point.) Well, that shows what I know as they just announced it's gone to The Gathering by Anne Enright.

I hate it when a book....... confirms all my worst preconceptions (or has a pink cover).

I'm going to tag a few people with this but please feel free to ignore the tag if you don't feel like it.......Freestylefibre Jo, Celtic Memory Jo, Ms Knitingale.....have fun with it, or not, the choice is yours.

Snowflake Socks

Here they are in all their glory -

And so you can see the lovely stripy soles -

For the record these are the Snowflake socks from the Autumn (or is that Fall) 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. Knitted with Wendy Guernsey 5ply wool on 2.5mm dpns.

It's incredibly difficult to take photographs of your own feet. I've been looking for one of those old sock display models that you used to get in old fashioned drapers shops, but all I can find are modern plastic ones - I want a beautiful old wooden one. In the meantime you'll have to put up with my feet.

Not much knitting (or reading) has been accomplished this week as I am still feeling cr*p. That elephant is still in residence on my chest and now I have a hacking cough, a rasping throat and a head full of cotton wool to go with it. I have spent an inordinate amount of time lying on the sofa watching re-runs of STNG and Voyager on Sky. It's about as much as my brain can take this week. Also I am between knitting projects which is always a dangerous time for me. The spectre of the Christmas knitting is looming large and makes me want to go and knit myself some armwarmers. (I've always been a great believer in denial - Christmas can't be round the corner - we haven't had summer yet!)

The first issue of a new knitting magazine landed on my doorstep this morning. It's called Let's Knit and it seems to be aiming for the already crowded market currently occupied by Simply Knits, Knit Today etc etc. I'm not sure that the market can take another magazine for this sector. It's very much a beginner's magazine and therefore not to my taste and I can't say I was inspired by any of the patterns. I quite liked the sock pattern but they had knitted them in cashmere at £22.95 for a 55g skein (though they do call them a "total luxury project"). Making the socks (if you were to knit them in the suggested yarn) would cost nearly £50!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Other than that there were some interesting bits about knitting groups and knitting on the web but nothing I didn't already know about. I've signed up for the 3 issues for £1 deal they were offering before launch but I can't see that I would carry on and actually subscribe to this. It costs £4.99 per issue and I can get IK from the US for less than that with the exchange rate as it is - far better value, far better patterns.

I'm hoping the next issue of Yarn Forward will arrive soon - I've read good things about it from people who've picked up their copies at AllyPally. Mine will be coming by post so it could be a while. Poor Kerrie - she gets all the production issues sorted and the mag all ready and the Royal Mail go and sabotage it for her.