Blogger Problems

I've got this really great post lined up for you with lots of photos of getting my loom set up and weaving - but there's a problem with Blogger and it won't load any photos at the moment.

Just as soon as Blogger is fixed I'll get this post up.

Sorry!

First Steps in Weaving

This post is rather picture heavy, so be warned.

As you may have read I bought a loom last year, put it together with the help of the Evilpixie and discovered it wasn't at all what I thought I was buying. It was listed as being probably an Ashford loom but it turned out to be a countermarche loom from Frank Herring. This made it a much more complicated bit of kit than I was prepared for and I'd been putting off using the loom as the thought of it made me nervous.

However, there was no point in having it if all we were going to do was drape coats over it, so I rescued it from it tempoarary starus as coat-rack and got it warped up last week.

First I had to put new Texsolv heddles on the replace the old string ones that were on the loom when I got it.

Then I wound the warp - this was 8/2 worsted wool from Fibrecrafts, half of which I dyed in a nice bright turquoise for contrast. I have been following the instructions in "Learning to Weave" by Deborah Chandler. I'd have to say the book is pretty brilliant and explains everything in easy to understand steps that even I can follow.

This is the cross (that stops the yarn from getting all tangled and helps when you come to put the warp on the loom).

Here it is ready to warp up.

Sleying the reed (threading the yarn through the reed which is at the front of the loom and which you use to keep the woven cloth nice and even and at the correct tension)

Threading the heddles (these move up and down, making the yarn move to create the pattern when you weave)

Tying up the treadles (these foot pedals are tied onto the shafts containing heddles above and move them up and down as you press them)

And finally some actual weaving, actually woven by me.

There are some problems with this sample - the tension was wrong on the right hand set of warp threads, meaning that the selvedge on that side was a bit wobbly, also there turned out to be a knot in one of the warp threads and it snapped so there is a little blip in the middle of the sample where that one warp thread is missing. Yes, I could have replaced it but it was just a sample. Also, despite the fact that I checked every 4 ends as I threaded them (as suggested by the book) I still managed to get one end in the wrong heddle, so it didn't rise and fall in the right place and I had to manually pick it up every other row. Finally it seems that my shafts (that hold the heddles) weren't level so the shed (that's the space between the yarns that you pass the shuttle through) was quite tight at one side. I've fixed that now and the shed is much better.

I continued with the sample from here as the book suggested and did several sets of rows with different tightness, and then wove some twill patterns.

I'm really happy with the sample (despite the odd error) and I've really learned a lot about how the loom works, how important even tension is, and how I need to check the threading more than once (possibly more than twice). Plus now I've tweeked the loom a little and the action is better.

More weaving fun next week when I try to weave something real - ie not a sample, and hopefully with a use at the end of it. I'm planning a scarf to start with. Expect swearing!

Finally a book update...

I'm a bit behind with my book blogging so I'd better do a quick catch-up.



Way back in January I read A Game of Sorrows by Shona MacLean which is the sequel to The Redemption of Alexander Seaton. I have to say I was a little disappointed in this one. The previous book had been very atmospheric and had a great sense of place, which I felt was lacking slightly in this second book. It was still a good read, just not as good as the first in my opinion (such as it is).



Next up was The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths. This is the second in her series about Ruth Galloway a forensic archaeologist working in East Anglia. I loved this. Ruth is a really great character and the book is such an easy read, it simply flew along. Highly recommended!



I started Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly and normally I love Connelly's stuff, and this one is a Harry Bosch too, which I usually prefer to the stand-alones. However I seem to have got stalled with it. I'm stuck with Harry mid-air on his way to Hong Kong and can't seem to summon the enthusiasm to pick it up again. Most odd.



I had better luck with Justice Hall by Laurie R. King. It's one of her Mary Russell books and you probably know how I love those. I'm reading them all out of order as I find them (almost all are out of print in the UK at the moment, though I think I read somewhere that they would be republished to coincide with the publication of the next one later this year. I hope so. These are just too good to remain out of print.



While I was on a Sherlock Holmes theme I read Prayer of the Night Shepherd by Phil Rickman, one of the Merrily Watkins series, this one about whether or not Conan Doyle got the idea for the Hound of the Baskervilles while in Ledwardine rather than in Devon. This is the second of these I've read and I'm quite liking them. Of course, again I have been reading them all out of order, reading so far just the first and this one which I think is the fifth. I did like the first one, and this one has seen me through a short bout of insomnia so it must have been OK. (Certainly not one for hurling into the backseat, Jill!) I shall try again with one of the earlier ones, as I do like the characters, just not too sure about all the religious stuff (heathen that I am).



I only finished the Rickman this morning so I'm currently between books. I know I got a proof from the lovely Karen at Eurocrime last week, so that should be next, but I can't remember what it was, or where I've put it. (Found it - it's the new R. N. Morris, A Razor Wrapped in Silk, another Porfiry Petrovich mystery - all those Russian names!)

Oops, forgot one. I also read Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell, which is pretty much what you expect from Mr Cornwell. It has an interesting character who is a bit player in a major battle or historical event, he has a bit of love interest and some backstory, the plot is fast and the historical detail just hits the spot - just enough fascinating stuff without boring the pants off you. You know what you're getting with almost any Bernard Cornwell book and this did exactly what it said on the tin, which is fine by me. Long-term readers will know that almost all the English history I know has been gleaned from the pages of Mr Cornwell's books. (Scottish schools were none too hot on the teaching of English history when I went to school - this may have all changed now but all I ever learned was about Mary Queen of Scots.)

I think that's it for now. Next post will be (hopefully) on my progress with my loom. Yesterday I started to put the new Texsolv heddles on and today I hope to finish that and start to warp it up. There may be some swearing....

Old Dog in New Tricks Shocker

I am feeling inordinately proud of myself this morning. The above little scrap of knitting has involved the learning of several new things - firstly it requires the magic loop method of kntting, something I've never quite got the hang of until now; secondly I had to learn a new cast-on method, which is the Magic Cast On (I love this and can think of lots of ways it could be used); finally there are, in that tiny example two completely new increase stitches I've never heard of before, never mind tried.

This is of course the Skew sock from Knitty. What a fantastic design. Go marvel at it. Then come back and see how I get on - will I master it or will it make my head explode?

More Dyeing Action

I've been hitting the dyepots again this week, experimenting with various combinations of colours and techniques.




These rovings (from the top left) are a randomly dyed, hand-painted superwash merino roving using a combination of blues, yellows, reds and green, set in the microwave; a kettle-dyed superwash merino roving in oranges and browns; the bottom two are matched hand-painted sockstuff (merino and nylon) roving which graduates from red right through the rainbow to violet. I love the effect you can get from these in socks or in a shawl. There's also a number of ways you can spin them for differing effects. I never seem to get tired of these.

I haven't just done roving though. The top is a kettle-dyed sock yarn in beautifully rich tones of burgundy. This is exactly the sort of semi-solid yarn I was looking for the other week for the socks I started from the Sock Innovation book. (I had a few gauge issues and frogged them, though I'll restart them this week hopefully). The bottom two are vaguely matching skeins of sock yarn (these will be fraternal rather than identical socks) in reds and purples.

Spinning Fleece

The spinning of fleece is not something that I do a whole lot of. I tend to like my fibre all clean and processed and preferably in a pretty colour (or two).


But, my spinning group will be at Middleton Hall on Easter Monday and decided we would spin the wool for and make a peg loom rug to demonstrate spinning and peg weaving. Sadly I shall not be there as I'm working but to get the weavers off to a good start we needed to pre-spin some fleece for them.


So last week at the meeting I was handed a bunch of fleece to spin. Now it had been processed, so it had been washed and carded (this was done by a professional processor) but it was still full of bits of vegetable matter and I did keep having to stop and pick out bits of grass and moss and other unidentified things as I was spinning. The idea was to spin it as thick as possible. I'm not sure I succeeded there. My default yarn (ie what I naturally spin if I'm not thinking about it) is something like a sport weight or lightweight double knitting. Recently I've been trying to spin thinner stuff - not quite laceweight yet, but certainly similar to a commercial 4 ply or fingering weight. It's been a long time since I spun anything chunky.

Anyway here's my feeble attempt. It's thicker in some places than others and it's still full of little bits of leaf and moss. It's not washed yet though, hopefully it will look better once it's been washed.

Did I learn anything? Yes, I did. I learned that I was right - I do prefer the clean and pretty stuff over fleece anyday ( and this wasn't even raw fleece - this had been partly processed already). But I also learned that I could spin chunky if I wanted to.

Bonus - I now have nice soft hands from all that lanolin.

A Little Dyeing

My good friend Maggi came over one day last week and we did some dyeing together which was lots of fun.

(making a mess in the kitchen)

( some sock yarn ready to go in the microwave)

(some of the end results)

(sock yarn all skeined up and ready to go)

(more sock yarn and some loopy mohair)

As you can see we had lots of fun doing this and made some lovely coloured yarns. I've been doing a little bit more today so there will be more yarns tomorrow when they are dry and skeined. There's also some roving which I haven't photographed yet so you'll see that tomorrow too.

In the meantime have a happy World Book Day!

Citron Shawlette and Challenging Myself

I realise that it is now nearly the end of February and I'm still lingering hoplessly on the letter C when I should have progressed through the alphabet much further by now. What can I say, I don't do deadlines.

I have a few C-shaped things to report though before moving on to D.


I finished my Citron shawlette, knitted in Malabrigo laceweight, colourway Red Mahogany.

(Here it is held up to the light so you can see the ripple effect.)

(and here, modelled beautifully by the Evilpixie)

I added an extra round of the ruffle and then ran out of yarn before the end of the edge-frill, however I am pleased with the overall result. Given the choice (or another skein of the yarn) then I'd have made it larger. While it will sit happily on the shoulders, this is not how I would normally wear a shawlette. I liked them looped around my neck, and this is not quite long enough for that. As a knit though I enjoyed it, found it stimulating enough to want to keep knitting, but not challenging so good for watching TV or taking to Knit Night. Several pub quizzes were won during the knitting of this shawl! I grew to like the colour in the end and it sparked in interest in semi-solid yarns that will continue into next weeks post (hopefully).



But it wasn't challenging. Nothing I've knitted recently has been at all taxing, and that's been fine, but now I want to stretch myself and tackle something more complex. I've been taking the easy options and knitting things that look more difficult than they are, letting the yarns do the work and taking the credit. Now I want to knit something that will make my brain work as well as my hands.



So I'm starting a pair of socks from Cookie A's Sock Innovation book. I have a skein of Paca Peds sockweight alpaca that I bought in Florida in 2008 that's been languishing in the stash. Now that I've wound it into a ball it's looking a lot more variegated than it looked on the skein. Twisted, the dominant colour seemed to be purple. Now that dominant colour looks to be the green and I'm thinking it will stripe rather more than I want it to. Here is where I need a nice deep semi-solid colour. I'm going to have a try with this anyway. I read through the book and some of the instructions are already making my head ache. Stand back - there may be swearing.

Charity Shopping

I'm all behind with my alphabet challenge. Let's face it I'm just rubbish at this. (Letter C from a building at Cotefield Farm, Bodicote, Banbury.)


And I promised a post about Banbury so here we go rolling it all into one.

A couple of weeks ago Pete and I went to check out an auction near Banbury because Pete wanted to buy some comics they had for sale. (And yes, he did get them, very pleased.) The comics were late on in the auction so we had a bit of time to kill and we went into Banbury for one of our usual shopping trips - coffee, charity shops etc.


I got a phenomenally good haul in the charity shops (known in our houisehold as chazzas). The first shop (PDSA) had a wonderful stack of proofs, some of books not even published yet.

Just around the corner the RSPCA offered up a couple of hardbacks I hadn't read and some quilting patterns for cushions with cats on. I shall use these to make a bright cheerful cushion for the MIL for her room.

Just around the corner the Barnardos shop had some great vintage 1950s fabric - slightly faded in places but lovely just the same.

I also bought a cord skirt I can wear to work and beautiful green velvet hippyish skirt.

On the way back to the car I spotted this pub sign by where we were parked -

Finally, just to top the day off where we were at the auction I spotted a big sign on another of the buildings just round the corner - Hagger's Mill - Alpaca Spinners and Textile Centre. Sadly it was shut but hopefully next time we're in that area it will be open and I can bring you a little peek.

New Yarn Shop!!!!!!

I'm all behind with my blogging, having been laid low by a nasty cold which left me gasping for breath and woolly headed.


However, before the hideous cold virus struck I had a great day on Thursday of last week. Firstly I went to visit my good friend Maggi (ravelry link) and we did some knitting and she kept us supplied with lemon cupcakes. What could be better than knitting AND cupcakes with a friend?


And after that I carried on a bit further to Stone (Staffordshire) where there is a lovely new yarn shop just opened.

It's just opened and I went and met the lovely owner, Jeanette, and looked at all the goodies she has. There were some fantastic sample shawls knitted up, very tempting. I was quite restrained and just bought a little ball of some hand-dyed 4ply in autumnal shades and a ball of Opal sock yarn. (Because you can never have too much sock yarn, right, and she had some great shades). Some of the stock was totally gorgeous, including some Artist's Palette laceweight. I've used their fibre but never seen the yarn - it's seriously lovely. I can see that this will be a regular yarn shop outing especially as I know Jeanette has great plans for adding to the stock she already has.

It's so nice to see a new yarn store opening, and if it's not exactly local (Stone's about 20 miles from here) then it's certainly worth a trip on a day out. It could easily be combined with a trip to Stoke to Abakhan Fabrics for example. Anyway I wish Jeanette at Yarn Gathering all the best and hope the shop does well. I shall certainly be visiting it again and I can recommend it. Her website's not up and running fully yet as she's been so busy getting the shop ready but I've given the link anyway so you can bookmark it.

I'll be back in a couple of days with a belated alphabet post featuring a day out to Banbury.

Keep knitting.

What's next on the TBR pile

So that's where I'm going next on my reading journey, starting in Michigan at the top, then Medieval Glasgow, Victorian London, Spain during and just before the Second World War, 16th Century St Andrews, Hong Kong and finally Montana.


That should keep me busy for a while.


I had a little moment last week when I was neither reading a book nor knitting anything other than the perennial socks which was a tad disconcerting. I felt a little bit lost for a while. But I soon got over that, cast on several new projects and started a new book.


Currently I am reading South of Hell by PJ Parrish, which is the pseudonym of two women, Kristy Montee and Kelly Nicholls. I first read one of these last year, A Thousand Bones and I did enjoy it, then I read a second one, Dark of the Moon, which was just as good and which delved into the backstory of one of the characters. However I realise that I am reading them all out of sequence and that there are apparently 10 in the seies, not all of which seem to have been published in the UK. Anyway I spotted Dead of Winter in a charity shop last week. It is the second in the series so I'm jumping back and forth a bit here.


I just finished the other 2 books I was reading - Rome by Manda Scott or M C Scott as they seem to be calling her now, and Sweetsmoke by David Fuller.


Rome was an excellent read - just what you would expect from Manda - lots of great characters, historical detail aplenty, a cracking storyline and a touch of mysticism. Her books are really such an enjoyable read. I just get caught up in them and swept along. Reading this made me want to go back and re-read the Boudica series, and I'm glad to see that she's planning more in this Roman series.


Sweetsmoke was enjoyable too but in a different way. It's set on a tobacco plantation in Virginia during the American Civil War and is about a carpenter (a slave) trying to find out who killed a local free woman. So it's a crime novel of sorts but really it's just a very involving story about this man, Cassius, and his struggle to come to terms with who he is, and who he is allowed to be. Wonderfully written and beautifully told from Cassius' point of view. Interesting too to read about the war from the perspective of a slave. I love the cover - the hands are so expressive.


Then there is the pile to be worked through - which one first? Decisions, decisions...

What's on the Needles

This is what I have on the needles at the moment..

These are handspun merino socks. I started to spin these at the advent gathering and I finished spinning over Christmas. As you can see there is one finished sock already. They are a quick knit because the wool is roughly DK weight. The yarn is really soft and cosy. I should have had these finished before that cold spell - I really could have used them then.

These are Opal socks with the sock yarn that I bought at Twist Fibre Craft Studio when I was in Scotland. I'm not at all sure about the colours and the way they are knitting up, which is why there is only the cuff and calf of one sock knitted. I keep picking them up and knitting a few rows and putting them back down again

Anyway I got a little sidetracked with this, which is Citron from knitty.com. It's a beautiful semi-circular shawlette. It's handily designed to use just one skein of Malabrigo Baby Merino Lace, which is quite reasonable. The shawlette in the pattern is done in a beautiful lime green which I loved but I couldn't find that colourway so I'm knitting mine in Red Mahogany. The colour is not quite what I envisaged having seen the colour on the internet. In real life the yarn is more brown and less red, more a semi-solid and less a hand-dyed effect than I had expected. I still like it though and I do wear a lot of brown so it will come in handy. The yarn is soooo soft that I may not want to take it off ever.

Next time...what's in the TBR pile and what I'm reading now.

B is for.....

......all manner of things.

Firstly this lovely Bloomsbury Classics edition of The Wide Sargasso Sea.

B is also for Boots and I'm very glad that in the Autumn I invested in a pair of Berghaus Walking Boots. They have been much appreciated through all this snowy weather. Lovely and warm and waterproof and with great grip. It's snowing again today and think I've had enough now. At least today I haven't had to try and get to work. I did try and get to the mile and a half to the dentist this morning and gave up after ten minutes sitting in traffic going nowhere.

Bubba, despite the evidence of this photo, (actually taken last year, not during this latest snowfall), is not enjoying the snow. It keeps balling up in his paws so he has to keep stopping to chew the ice out from between his toes. Poor thing. Plus this prolonged cold spell has brought on a slight limp which is probably arthritis inflammation. He'd much prefer to be fast asleep on the sofa and I have to agree with him. I'm getting rather bored with not being able to get anywhere and all my groups, reading spinning etc have been cancelled.

B is also for Black Country Knitters. I have found a lovely location for my Knit Night in Walsall. Every second Tuesday evening from the 26th January we'll be meeting in the Black Country Arms pub in Walsall High Street (that's at the top end of the market, next to Sofia's Restaurant). It's a great friendly pub with a huge selection of real ales and lots of little corners and nooks to sit and knit in, depending on how many people turn up. Come and join us.

A is for....

...is for Awards.

Yes it's that time of year again when I dish out the annual Mysterious Yarns Books of the Year Awards.

I'd have to say that the quality of the books I've read this year has been very high. There have been one or two duffers of course but in general I've been pleased. I've even liked some of the Booker shortlist.

Fiat Punto Award for the Book Hurled into the Back Seat with most Vehemence goes to - Library of the Dead by Glen Cooper. Not a crime novel at all really, though there is murder aplenty, not a convincing thriller, not even really about a library and very badly written to boot. Unsurprisingly there is a sequel, called Book of Souls. Guess what - I shan't be reading that.

The I Can't Believe I Paid Good Money For That Award (nominations in this category must be books I actually paid something ressembling the cover price for (342 or staff discount notwithstanding) goes to Sweet Smell of Decay by Paul Lawrence. Quite the most unpleasant protagonist in a novel this year - ignorant and self important, not someone you'd want to spent any time with. Billed as the First Chronicle of Harry Lytle, one can only hope that it is also the last. Also the title was so unmemorable that every time I've had to write about it anywhere I've actually had to go and look it up to see that it was called.

Enough of the whinging, on to the good stuff.

Favourite Crime Novel of the Year - Salt River by James Sallis, final part in the outstandingly brilliant Turner trilogy. What can I say. It made me cry. I loved it and didn't want it to finish. I'd say you should rush out and read these but sadly the first part of the trilogy, Cypress Grove, seems to be out of print in the UK at the moment. Someone at No Exit Press needs a nudge I think.

Favourite Non-Crime Book of the Year - The Children's Book by AS Byatt. This was a big surprise to me. I'm famed for my dislike of Booker nominated stuff, but I'd just read The Little Stranger and I was on a bit of a roll. This was another book that I just couldn't put down. It was a sumptuous book filled with beauty and style and wonderful prose. It wasn't perfect, rather losing it's way towards the end, but on the whole still a wonderful book. It may not be to everyone's taste, but as it's out in paperback this week I'd recommend that you give it a try.

And finally there are the Honourable Mentions - some books that made my year and deserve a bit of praise.

White Nights and Red Bones by Ann Cleeves - loving this series, can't wait for the fourth book at the beginning of February.

Rain Gods by James Lee Burke. A beautiful, heart-rending epic tale that people were likening to Cormac McCarthy. Let me tell you that Cormac McCarthy could only write an ending like that in his dreams. Not that I'm biased.

The Girl Who Played With Fire, by that Swedish bloke everyone keeps talking about. Enthralling and fast-paced, hard edged and Scandinavian. Bizarre that I like this but I do.

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths. I liked this when I read the proof which was handy because they quoted my review in the paperback edition, prompting me to leap about in Waterstones in Nottingham waving the book at Pete yelling "Look, look, I wrote that!" Quite one of my moments of the year.

So it's been a good year for reading. I managed to dodge almost all books set in Edinburgh, though I did enjoy The Complaints from Ian Rankin. On my TBR pile I have books set in St Andrews, Glastonbury, Canada and Hong Kong so I'm planning to be quite the gadabout this January.

I'm going to range far and wide this year and will be doing some time travelling as well.
Currently I'm in Alexandria, though I expect to be in Rome before I turn too many more pages. Simultaneously I am in Civil War period Virginia. It's looking like it might be another good year.

Summing Up

I'm all behind schedule, but I've got a day off at last so here's my review of 2009.

I had a look back at what I posted at this time last year, to see if I had accomplished any of the things I had wanted to this year, and I wasn't too far off the mark. I said I was hoping to read some great books this year and I really have. I've found some great stuff, not all of it crime, as I also said I wanted to expand my reading horizons and I think I've managed that. There have been some really good fiction titles published this year and I've tried to read some that I wouldn't neccesarily have tried if I wasn't pushing myself. Next post will be the Annual Mysterious Yarns Blog Awards so more on books then.

I wanted to knit more Norah Gaughan designs and I finished the Astrid shawl and also knitted the Loppem cardigan. I finished the Civil War Quilt and started another more modern one (not finished yet, though the top is done, just needs backing and quilting. Just!)

I planned to do more weaving this year and I have done a little, mostly on the Ashford Knitters loom, but I also bought a 4-shaft floor loom this year and I've been waiting for the time / chance to get it warped up and will hopefully teach myself to weave on it this year.

We managed a trip to Scotland and a weekend in Wales at Wonderwool and in Hay-on-Wye. Seattle was postponed for another year as the exchange rate is still pants (and we still have no money).

So, looking forward I want to do more weaving, knit some good and complicated and clever stuff - something stretching and technical, plus lots of quick plain socks and stuff. I want to carry on quilting, get some more blocks done for the Teach Yourself quilt and make some bags and little projects.

We want to get to Woolfest this year so that's one weekend, and we'd like to go back to the NE of Scotland, rent a little cottage so we can take Bubba and explore a bit more of the area. Barcelona would be nice if we can get cheap flights but I'm also quite tempted by Brussels and I expect that the presence of the TinTin museum could persuade Pete that he'd like it too.

Finally I want to get a Knitting Group up and running in Walsall. I think I've found a venue for this, just need to check with the people in charge. Knitting and real ale, anyone?

The End of the Year

I've just realised that it's the last day of the year. See, that's what bookselling at Christmas does to you. Lol.

I somehow had it in my head that the beginning of next year was still about a week away, instead of just tomorrow. Did someone mess with the days again?

I hope you all had a grand Christmas and got lots of lovely pressies, or time with your family, or both, whatever you wished for.

I got a fantastic new digital camera for Christmas. Of course I already have a camera but it's a digital SLR and it's quite large and not very easy to stick in your pocket, so I asked for, and luckily got, a small, pocket-sized camera that I can carry around with me and so will use more often.

In order to get myself into the habit of taking pictures and also to make me look at my world a bit more I have set myself a challenge for the first half of this year. Each week I will do a blog post on a subject beginning with a different letter, starting with A and working through to Z. It might be a simple photo post or it might be a subject I want to witter on about, and hopefully it will be a bit of both.

Come back later this week for the annoucement of my annual Blog Awards, a quick recap of the past year and a preview of 2010.

Merry Christmas

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, now that the last book has been sold, the final giftcard swiped and the last sale sticker affixed.

(Miniature Mittens from Latvian Mittens by Lisbeth Upitis)

I hope you all have a peaceful holiday. I shall be sitting knitting socks while Pete and the Evilpixie take care of the refreshments and vittels. Dr Who is on the TV later and I don't have to work until Tuesday.

Happy Christmas!

A Grand Day Out

I had a lovely day out yesterday at the Advent Gathering, hosted by the Staffordshire Moorlands Guild of Spinners and Weavers.

I went with my spinning group (we hired a minibus so we could all go together) and we had a great time. There were lots of lovely spinners, many wearing fantastic hand-knitted, hand-spun garments and accessories - very inspiring.

There was food too, a great spread, because you know all that talking and spinning makes you hungry.

And there was shopping - The Threshing Barn were there with lots of beautiful fibres and some very interesting books, and the chap who's name I can never remember who does the woodturning and makes beautiful spindles and bobbins and stuff. I was very good and I didn't buy anything. There wasn't anything that I thought I really couldn't live without.

I did buy some raffle tickets though (and I won a prize - a large bar of Carbury's Fruit and Nut chocolate) and i bought a Fleece Log, which is for recording the different fleeces you process as you go, noting how you washed them, spun them etc. I am more than likely never going to use it - I never ever use raw fleece if I can avoid it - give me nice clean, preferrably prettily coloured roving any day - but it was for a good cause as the proceeds were going towards a Sudden Infant Death Syndrome charity.

All in all it was a very good day. Just what I needed to set me up for the mayhem that will be the next couple of weeks in the run up to Christmas. Blog posting may be infrequent during this time.

Finally I really can't let another week go by without saying how sad I am that Borders have gone into administration. It doesn't look as though there will be any buyers for the business, though a few shops may be taken over by Waterstones/HMV. Borders had a unique place in the book market, with a greater stock of American titles than most in this country, and a great selection of magazines. Borders in Oxford has long been one of my favourite bookshops in the UK and I will be particularly sorry to see it close. I hope that the booksellers all manage to find other jobs, but with the economy in the state it's in at the moment it will be tough. You have my sympathy.

Mysteriousyarns in Blog Update Shock!

I can't believe that it's been nearly a month since I last posted. I guess that's what Christmas in retail does to you. I have lost all track of time and usually have no idea what day it is.

I have been reading a bit though, finishing Simon Beckett's Written in Bone which I enjoyed, even though I had figured it all out before the end. Good characters and an interesting setting - see, I'm easily pleased.

Then I read American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld which I didn't enjoy so much. It started well, a well-turned story of a woman whose life has been overshadowed by an early tragedy, and it's based (at least in part) on the life of Laura Bush so you get to see how "Alice" gets to the White House. I have to say that the final chapters were a big disappointment - once Alice becomes First Lady the story loses all its focus and the last part is very dull. However, after I'd finished it I kept thinking about Alice and while she had been quite irritatingly self-centred throughout the book once I'd finished she kept popping up in my head and I got quite annoyed about her selfish misuse of a fantastic opportunity. She was so wrapped up in herself and her marriage to the nauseating "Charlie" that I wanted to slap her. It's not often that a character gets under my skin like that, so if that was your intent Ms Sittenfeld then I salute you - but that last section of the book was still terrible.

I'm now reading Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson (due to be published in paperback in April 2010, but available now in hardback). It's set in the 18th Century, is full if interesting characters and has really grabbed me so far, but I'm only 50 pages in so time will tell.

All my Christmas knitting (that I can report on here anyway) is done and dusted. My new loom now has a proper home in the corner of the dining room. I have a day off today and I've just remembered that it's Wednesday so it's the Christmas Party at my reading group tonight. And on Saturday I'll be at the Advent Gathering hosted by the Staffordshire Moorlands Guild of Spinners and Weavers. Hey, things are looking up!

And the winner is......

....sadly not me. The Booksellers Bursary went to Russell and Sara, whose entries I haven't read yet but I'm sure will be excellent. Several people were very complimentary about my short story, and it was really good just to be shortlisted. It makes me realise that I have been neglecting my writing of late and that I really should try and make a space for it somewhere in my hectic schedule.

We had a good day out in London anyway - any day that involves bookshops, a couple of glasses of good wine, a stroll around someplace you haven't been before (ie. Marylebone High Street) and some sushi, will always be a success in my book.

I could have done without the totally freezing journey home in a very draughty train with no heat, but that was the only dampener on the day.

Next post - knitting update, honest!