Stash Wars: Ceasefire

I took a break from my Stash war to make myself a shrug to go with the vintage dress I bought a while back, and here is the final product:

I got the pattern from 'Let's Knit' magazine, it was originally meant to be knitted in red mohair but I absolutely love the way this yarn makes the lace pattern look all leafy:

The yarn is Rowan Purelife organic cotton in Chlorophyll. It's naturally dyed as well as being organic, and it's lovely and soft. So not only is it a pretty shrug, it's Generous too! Apparently it can't be machine washed due to the natural dyes but I'm always dubious about these claims so might knit up a swatch and chuck it in a washing load.

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out, it's by far the hardest thing I've ever knitted (lace on DPNs? Now that's sadistic!) but it's also the most wearable garment I've made to date and I think my version is actually nicer than the original! How modest am I?

Well, time to get back to the war. The tabletop sale is finally organised for 26th September so I'll be furiously knitting things to sell - I've started on little cat toys and may make some potpourri sachets that look like sweeties which I've seen in one of my books. Hopefully they'll sell, I'm starting to worry that nobody will like my little creations!

200 word Review: 'The Thrift Book' by India Knight

This book should carry a warning: Only to be read by people without common sense. I thought it might teach me something new about saving money, but instead I discovered there are people who know considerably less than I do. And that’s not much.

If you need India Knight to tell you how to save money, I worry for you. What’s so difficult to grasp about using leftovers, making packed lunches and holidaying in Britain? Who needs telling to mend clothes, go to their library and buy second-hand furniture?

If the blatant stating of the obvious doesn’t annoy you, Knight’s constant references to London will push you over the edge. Why wax lyrical about the Eurostar and how it’s cheaper than a train ticket to Manchester, when some readers might be in Manchester? Add to this her rather snobbish rants (the section on weddings will get many people fuming) and you may need to take deep breaths to calm yourself.

There are some useful bits, but nothing I couldn’t have found online if I looked hard enough. Flick through this and write down the books and sites she recommends, but don’t waste your time or (more importantly) money on it.

200 word Review: 'Northanger Abbey' by Jane Austen

Now … I love Jane Austen, and I don’t want to betray her but … ‘Northanger Abbey’ isn’t her best work. I actually had trouble concentrating on it, which rarely happens to me.

It is the story of Catherine Morland, a naïve young lady on her first trip to Bath, who becomes obsessed with Gothic novels and starts to imagine intrigue everywhere. As usual, Austen’s observation of character is not only spot on, but up-to-date too – I was reminded, embarrassingly, of myself as a teenager, waiting for spectacular things to happen to me. Perhaps teenagers don’t change, or maybe it’s just me (hopefully the former!) The other characters are painted with the wit you would expect from Austen.

The plot lets her down. It takes ages for anything to really happen, with a lot of tangents along the way, and when it does happen it’s not that interesting. Austen often seemed to rush her endings by bunging a few weddings in, and this is the most rushed and formulaic of them all, which leaves you feeling disappointed.

If you’ve read the other Austen novels, then read this for completeness. Just don’t start with it, she’s got much better to offer.

Next book review: 'The Thrift Book' by India Knight

The reason for my absence

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Here's why:

Now I was meant to be posting updates on how the rehearsals went for this, but because my part isn't huge I didn't have many rehearsals for a long time, then they came in such a big glut that I had barely any free time! As you'll see, we've now done 2 out of 3 performances, and it's going brilliantly.

I've struggled with Mariana - I spent three months when I had few rehearsals trying to figure her out and going through several different interpretations, then when I found one I could engage with, the director said she'd already figured out a character for me, and it was totally different to what I'd worked out! Aargh! The final product is kind of a compromise between the two - I'm a bit of a 'thinky' actor and can't say a line in a certain tone without having a reason.  One big stumbling block was the final scene, where she confronts Angelo. Some people thought I should play her with power because she knows she'll get what she wants (i.e. Angelo will be forced to marry her). My interpretation is that she doesn't just want him to marry her, but she wants him to love her, which is something he'll never do. So playing her with power when she has no power over the thing she truly wants was a real sticking point for me. I think I've found the balance ...

The first two performances have been a blast. Nerve-wracking, yes. Exhausting, both emotionally and physically, definitely (I have to kneel onstage for about ten minutes, which is longer than it sounds!!) But the harder it is, the more fun it is, and both nights I've walked on for the curtain call with a massive grin on my face, feeling like I've given it my all, so have all the other actors, and I'm proud of what we have all created.

Last night tonight, let's hope this post doesn't jinx it! I currently have what is either bad hayfever or the start of a cold, so tonight's Mariana will be red-eyed and snotty-nosed. Ahh well, maybe that could be a new interpretation!

The Big Read books - how are you doing?

Ages ago, I posted a list of what was apparently the 100 best novels. I'm more than a little dubious about the list - for a start, it lists the Complete Works of Shakespeare, which predate novels considerably! It seems to be based roughly on the BBC's The Big Read list of 100 best books. So, to see how I'm doing, and maybe get my (few, or possibly non-existent) readers checking their total, I thought I'd do another post.

The rules are: put books you've read in bold, books you love in parentheses and books you want to read in italics:

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling

6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis

10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller

12. (Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë)

13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling

23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling

24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling

25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

27. Middlemarch, George Eliot

28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving

29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck

30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett

34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

38. Persuasion, Jane Austen

39. Dune, Frank Herbert

40. Emma, Jane Austen

41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

42. Watership Down, Richard Adams

43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

44. (The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas)

45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

46. Animal Farm, George Orwell

47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

53. The Stand, Stephen King

54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

56. The BFG, Roald Dahl

57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome

58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

60. (Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman

62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden

63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough

65. Mort, Terry Pratchett

66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

67. The Magus, John Fowles

68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett (I think ...)

70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding

71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind

72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell

73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

74. Matilda, Roald Dahl

75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding

76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins

78. Ulysses, James Joyce

79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens

80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

81. The Twits, Roald Dahl

82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith

83. Holes, Louis Sachar

84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake

85. (The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy)

86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

89. Magician, Raymond E Feist

90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac

91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett

94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

95. Katherine, Anya Seton

96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer

97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez

98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson

99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Actually, I think I might be doing worse on this list than I was on the other one! Some surprising choices in there ... I doubt I'll ever read the whole list, especially since I have an aversion to Harry Potter and Tolkien, but 30 out of 100 is a bit rubbish! So, come on, anyone else out there doing better?

200 word review: 'Enduring Love' by Ian McEwan

Almost all the reading I do takes place on public transport, mostly on the train to work. It takes a special book to make me read at home in the evening, and ‘Enduring Love’ is the first book to achieve this in months, maybe years. When I wasn’t reading it, I was so desperate to know what happened next I couldn’t wait until the next opportunity to get stuck in.

I already knew that Ian McEwan is a brilliant author, having read ‘Atonement’ years ago (one of the few books to make me cry uncontrollably), but I’d been warned that ‘Enduring Love’ was too dark for me. Dark it certainly is, but I’m glad I ignored the warning. A story about a man being stalked by another man that he met through a tragic accident, it is packed with suspense, challenges and twists. The most unsettling thing about the novel is the way it draws you into the mindset of Joe, the ‘victim’, then yanks you out and makes you question his actions, his views, even his motives.

This book had me thinking like a student again, and anyone who likes to be challenged by literature should definitely read it.

Next book review: 'Northanger Abbey' by Jane Austen

200 word review: '31 Songs' by Nick Hornby

I had high hopes for this book. I’ve wanted to read it for a while, so was excited when I got it as a gift. I thought that, as someone who loves music, I’d find a book about songs interesting. Unfortunately, I feel a bit let down.

The problem is, while Hornby is a great fiction writer, his writing style in this book is a bit … well … pompous. He seems to sneer at other people’s tastes whilst regularly protesting that he doesn’t really know that much about music. A bit of a contradiction, methinks. In fact, the whole book is based on a contradiction. Hornby says very early on that people who like songs because they remind them of certain events don’t really like music. So how come so many of the short essays in the book talk about how songs link into certain periods in his life? Pot, kettle and black spring to mind.

There are some highlights. The two essays in which he talks about his relationship with his autistic son are honest and moving. Unfortunately, these were the only diamonds I could find in the rock. The rest I found a bit supercilious and smug.

Stash Wars: nearly there ...

Remember the free yarn I got recently? Well, I used up the black and white ball a while ago with the potholder and I then got some inspiration for the pink and brown ball:

I made these for the tabletop sale that I seriously hope my church are still doing at some point, once I've sewn saftey pins on the back they'll make very pretty (in my opinion) corsages. The pattern is based on one in 'Stitch'n'Bitch: The Happy Hooker' by Debbie Stoller and I first used it to make my best friend a corsage as a birthday present:

I made this a while back but she only got it this week so kept it under wraps. I'm very proud to say that she didn't realise I'd made it at first! It's a very fiddly pattern but once I got used to it I found I could play around with the yarn combination and petal sizes. Not only have the pink ones used up around half a ball of the free yarn, they've also finished off my pink acryclic and used most of my cream acryclic. Great! That, combined with some more baby booties that I've knitted for a friend who's becoming a dad soon (he'll never find my blog so I'm safe!), means my stash now looks like this:

Getting there! It will be increasing shortly but not for long, as I want to get some yarn to make a matching cardigan for my beautiful new vintage dress. But hopefully I'll be able to rid myself of the last of my stash soon - only to build it up again of course!

It's vintage, baby!

Want to be Generous with your clothes shopping, but can't find anything chic enough in the charity shops? Try vintage! When I passed my driving test recently, hubby offered to treat me to a vintage dress from The House of Rose and Brown in Saltaire, Bradford, and this is what I got:

Oh, yes, how pretty is that? It's 1960's and it makes me want to twirl and skip and be very girly! I dismissed it at first because I wasn't sure about the colour (I'm a brunette with a sallow complexion, whites and pastels don't always suit me) and thought it was a bit shapeless. But I tried it on anway and instantly fell in love. It's not shapeless - the empire line nips you in just below the bust (and the darts in the top part create the illusion that I have more bust than I really do!) and skims over all the bits you want skimming over. I'm going to wear it to my friend's outdoor wedding in August, but it looks great teamed with jeans so I'll be able to wear it more casually too. And it was only £36 - yes, you can get cheaper dresses in Primark, but will they last 40 years and look this good? I doubt it.

This was my first visit to a vintage shop and it was a little daunting. I get nervous in small shops when I'm the only customer, but the shop assistant was lovely - helpful, but not full on. It took a bit of rummaging to find things I liked but it was worth it. Here are a few tips I've gleaned from my first visit:

- Look twice. Of course, fashions have changed since whenever these clothes were made, so it can take a couple of looks for your eyes to adjust to the difference in style. I found nothing the first time I went round, but then I landed on three things I was interested in the second time.

- Try things on. In the shop I went to, everything was labelled with a guide size, but remember our shapes have changed a lot in the last half-century. I tried on a lovely maxi dress that was supposedly 8-10, which I am on top, but I'd have had to remove a few ribs to squeeze into it! Similarly, the dress I ended up buying looked too big at first, but when I got it on it was perfect.

- Think outside the box. I saw a couple of things that, with a bit of alteration (i.e. a raised hem), would look great, but I'm still on baby steps with my sewing so didn't go for them. It might be worth brushing up your sewing skills if you plan to shop vintage often.

- Visit again. I overheard the shop assistant tell another customer that they'd sold out of 1940's clothes the week before - such a shame, because I love that style. But it just goes to show that they'll have different things in every week, so I'll definitely be going again next time I want a treat! Don't be deterred if you don't find much the first time you visit.

I'm still a fan of charity shops and there's no doubt that helping a charity adds to the satisfaction of knowing you are reusing something that could have gone to landfill and saving resources. But for something a little bit special, vintage is a very chic form of recycling!

Stash Wars: Cupcakes and potholder

For the last few weeks (maybe even months) I've been trying to use up my nasty acrylic yarn by making cupcakes. I've now run out of beigey-brown yarn so I'm almost done with the cupcakes for now, they just need buttons for decoration:

Don't they look good enough to eat? Well, don't - it won't taste nice and the thought of squeaky yarn against teeth does funny things to my spine. 

I also figured out a way of using up one of the free balls of yarn I got recently - hubby mentioned that a potholder would be handy for the kitchen, so I found a crochet pattern in 'Stitch'n'Bitch: The Happy Hooker' and simplified it for my purposes:

Not the most exciting project, in fact it's really just a big tension swatch, but it used up some yarn I didn't know what to do with and it'll come in handy. Plus, it kinda matches our lovely new worktop. It's very different from the original pattern - that was made of two nearly-squares sewn together, but I only had enough yarn for one side. Plus the original had a skull picture on it - obviously, I had to simplify that bit slightly!

No stash update because, frankly, I can't be bothered getting it all out then putting it back again. But I think I'm making progress. Plus, I've started trying to learn to sew on a sewing machine passed down to me from my Godmother's mother - I'm really useless at it now, but I'm hoping I'll get better, I've got loads of fabric in my stash bag that I keep meaning to do something creative with!