Reading List of 2025

When I can overcome brain fog (thanks, fibro!) I love to read so I thought I'll keep track of what I read this year. I'll periodically update this entry but it's really just for my own enjoyment and as a record of my reading. I won't be commenting in great individual detail unless something is very bad or I abandon it before finishing.

1. Marie Antoinette, The Journey: Antonia Fraser (re-read).
2. Shady Hollow, Juneau Black.
3. Cold Clay, Juneau Black.
4. Mirror Lake, Juneau Black.
5. Twilight Falls, Juneau Black.
6. Summers End, Juneau Black.
7. Invisible Helix, Keigo Higashino.
8. A Japanese Mirror, Ian Buruma.
9. March Sisters, Kate Bolick/Jenny Zhang/Carmen Maria Machado/Jane Smiley.
10. Song of Spiderman, Glen Berger.
11. Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, Ruth Franklin.

Notes (20/04/25): I powered through the Shady Hollow series quite quickly - think Beatrix Potter with Miss Marple - and don't overthink it and you'll enjoy these quick reads, they are cozy mugs of hot chocolate and nothing more but what can I say? I love me some hot chocolate. Glen Berger comes across a bit too 'oh gosh gee, I'm just a little guy' but tbh, the Spiderman musical kinda started off a bad foot since he doesn't overly mention looking at the source material (nor did anyone else who worked on the book and music by the sounds of it) with anything close to respect which lead me to think 'who exactly was this musical meant to be for?' very early on. A bad sign. And he doesn't really ever look at the mistakes made with a critical eye, indeed he comes across as aggressively self-defensive about everything despite going on about how he's being constantly humbled by the whole experience. Invisible Helix was good, not my fave one in the series but it was interesting and definitely not my least favourite (perhaps Silent Parade?). The Shirley Jackson biography felt disappointingly light weight towards the end but that might have been out of consideration for still living relatives, perhaps? Not bad so far, I think.

Forest Bathing.

A couple of days ago, I finally got to use my new toy camera, a Camp Snap, that I received for my birthday last year (a gift from Papa Bear). From what I've read, it wasn't the ideal weather for it - a little overcast, in fact, it rained and hailed towards the end of our walk but I got some nice shots considering I wasn't over thinking it.

 

 

 

 

The light effects are extremely subtle but I'm happy with the pictures I took. I think it'll do better in the summer with more colour on display and more sunshine. We walked up to the cafe and had a snack (me: dirty chai latte + ginger cake, him: pup cup and doggie ice cream) before getting rescued from the rain and hail by PB. We're lucky that we live so close to this park and I should walk here more often. 

 

My Sophie Shawl has been frogged and restarted, a few little fumbles here and there, and I just couldn't take it anymore. My inner perfectionist won out. To be fair, I'm much happier with the start of the icord edging now, it looks much neater which is important for such a simple design. I haven't accomplished an awful lot since Wednesday, a gentle flare up is urging me to move slow and do less so I've been doing a little bit of knitting, hand sewing and happily eating through a batch of cookie dough hummus (yes, I've become one of those people...) and this weekend, I'm going to see Opeth with PB and a friend which should be fun and a good test run for my stamina when it comes to the expo later this year. I'm hoping I won't need to use my cane but will take it along in case.

 

I am fortunate to be in a season where my fibromyalgia flares aren't so debilitating although I'm aware that can always change. The thing is, there's nothing I can point to as a reason for this development which is part of the overall problem, it can be managed...but it's management in the same way that balancing six spinning plates that need to go different speeds and change direction are managed. You can't just expect a routine (though those are helpful) to have the exact same result and that's why it's so frustrating when after a 'good' period, you have people saying "but you could do this last time..." or "you weren't like this the other time..." when things change for the worse. 

 

Yes, I know. I'm mourning the change, it never stops feeling devastating when I can't do something that I did easily the day before, the week before, the month before. As well meaning as those comments can be, it really does illustrate that people can't really understand it unless it happens to them and  I wouldn't want anyone to suffer with chronic illness or pain just to understand but that's been my experience and the experience of many others. 

Oof. I went off a little bit there unexpectedly. Anyway, at the moment I have a lot to be happy about and that is truly a privileged position to be in these days.

Bistitchual Identity Crisis.

Who am I? 

I mean...who is this person within me that wants to knit a cardigan? I can knit, very slowly and very easy things like scarves and shawls but recently I've been on a kick to knit Liesl (like, a decade after everyone else has) for a light layer this year. Nevermind the fact I'm already working on a cardigan (crochet, Iron Lamb's Sunday Funday) made from cheapy aldi yarn which needs my attention and the pile of finished shawls that need blocking...

 I just want some yummy yarn, chunky needles and to knit. I've been pining for my Fox Wedding shawl that fell victim to a traumatic house move (where I didn't get to pack my own things so many items went 'missing' in between my home and there) which was made from Malabrigo chunky I bought from Ewe and Ply when they had a market stall in Shrewsbury. I remember studying each colour intensely because it was the most I'd ever spent on yarn and for myself too. I end up settling on a reddish orange, I can't remember the name of the colour and I think it's since been discontinued. Alas, I loved that shawl and it's squishyness. Maybe I should make another one...

I gave up knitting as soon as my crochet skill developed much faster - I find it easier to read my crochet than my knitting and it's so much easier to go back and redo! I knit so slow that it really is torture when I have to rip back for mistakes. I hadn't picked up knitting needles for years so I thought I ought to practice a bit on a nice little project before wading out into the cardigan ocean; enter the Sophie shawl. I really love garter stitch, it's so squishy and simple but it can look a bit...basic? Untidy? It's not an elegant stitch all by itself, is it? 

Then I realised the Sophie series (Scarf, Shawl, Hood) have all sorts of think pieces about them on youtube where people wring their hands in a very hipster like fashion about how it's just too much that other people spend their time and money knitting them...like, what? I do think it's a little cheeky to split the pattern into three when they're all simple variations on one theme but people can knit whatever they like. Anything that encourages people to pick up two needles or a hook can only be a good thing. 

Anyway, back to the shawl. I love a huge squishy thing around my neck so I went for the largest size and splurged on some Malabrigo Rios in a lovely yellow colour. I love knitting with Malabrigo - so soft, so colourful! - and I'm about two thirds through the increasing part. The i-cord edge is exactly what I want - it tidies up the garter stitch but also lets it show off the naive and simple beauty of it. Very excited about getting this off the needles...

This is all a long preamble to the fact that I'm now procrastinating daily on Ravelry, trawling through patterns and going 'oooh, I need to make that!' without figuring out where I'm going to find the time to make all these things. Time management is difficult when I'm so easily led by my whims (I have recently also accepted that I am a Person of Many Whims which was somewhat of a 'well, duh' moment for me) and my whims are likely to divert from any given course at any given moment. 

But for now, the whimsy is in knitting and for that, I'm quite content.

Growing.

Resurrection! Of course, I would come back to blogging when everyone else has migrated to the sunny shores of Instagram. I'm there too, I'm sure you could make a lucky and accurate guess to my username over yonder...

What a difference a couple -- few -- many (!) years make. In some ways, little has changed but everything around those little things has changed a lot. This blogpost was actually saved as a draft, reflecting on then recent realisations, stuff I had started doing (and continued! How proud past me would be!) and then I pretty much forgot about this blog and why I even started it and so on...

"Last year was a very up and down one for me, luckily more up than down. It's very funny to me that I'm much more at ease with myself now - I couldn't imagine doing anything that I do now without thinking (barely wearing makeup, wearing my handmade dresses, saying no to things I would have felt obligated to do in the past...) a few years ago. Maybe age does bring wisdom after all!"

That's me all the way back in 2020. Before the plague times (that was a rough..well, it's still kinda rough out there tbh). I've started working a little part time job since then and moved to a new area and well...

"It's been a very relaxed start to the year so far, me and M. went away to Conwy for a week this month. More a holiday for our dogs really as there was plenty of walks on the beaches and fields. Very good for us humans too though! We visited the Water Gardens one day (it's free and I highly recommend you visit!) where we saw a capybara, sadly his mate had very recently passed away so he seemed quite depressed, I hope they find him a new friend soon." 

 

Yes. That's a huge change. No more M in my life. The dogs remain with me, plenty of walks in fields and cuddles. After many years together, M decided he loved someone else. Someone else I suspect he had always carried a torch for. Oh gosh, it really fucking hurt. Then I got angry and determined. I got a different job (playing with ribbons! Oh, I loved it so!) and started planning for a very different future. Me and the dogs. No man, no master. 

And then something stupidly contrived and saccharine and horribly rom-com...I met someone. He reached out from a very unexpected place and it just gently happened without me really realising it. Maybe I had been carrying a torch for this one the whole time, holding it up and never seeing the face I was meant to be looking upon every morning until I met him. Or maybe I went with my gut, fuck it, life is too short to do the whole to hell with men thing and deny yourself a bit of happiness.

And I am very happy now.

Accurate Cutting Is Not My Jam.

I signed up for a quilt block swap on swapbot, I don't tend to follow patterns but there's a first time for everything, right? I followed this tutorial for 16 patch blocks and made two for my partner. 

Not the most aesthetically pleasing pictures, sorry! I used some fabrics I've been hoarding for a while and after I made a couple of practice blocks, they came together very quickly...frustratingly, I made one following the instructions exactly but it came out about an inch under. Argh! I enjoyed doing something different though but I think I might stick to my scrappy improv blocks in the future...

These are my two practice blocks. The blue/white one is my favourite but turned out way too small and I didn't have enough fabric for another go, boo. It's probably going to be turned into a cushion at some point. 

Swapbot May 2016.

I left swapbot around three years ago for a few reasons, it's not a perfect site (in fact, one of my first return swaps has seen me having to send to a confirmed scammer/multi-profiler because even though it was reported, the scammer was just partially suspended) but it's full of really wonderful, creative people and it's a real boost to be surrounded and interacting with like-minded people.

The only real unpleasantness so far (apart from that scammer...) is how expensive postage has gotten! I posted a tea swap yesterday and three of the envies went to Germany...£2.45 each! I posted two out of EU packages and they were £3.15 each. Ouch! I'll have to be very selective with my swaps in the future...

But of course it's all worth it when...

Something exciting arrives! I signed up for a chocolate swap (£4.75 to post to the USA, eep!) and this was from my partner...

Caramel chocolate! Dark/milk chocolate! I love the packaging design too. My partner was very generous and included some notepaper and this adorable postcard which she used to write a quick note to me. What I really loved about this package is that I loved all these things but I probably wouldn't have chosen them myself, if that makes sense? That's the reason I returned to swap bot. 

I've sent off quite a few swaps now but those have mostly been small bought items, I did send off this yesterday though:

It's for the Unusual Holidays June TM patch swap! It's to celebrate International Sushi Day (June 18th) and I based it on the local sushi place (Yo Sushi!). Oishii is a variation on saying 'delicious!' in Japanese. I didn't notice the dragon fabric was upside down until I nearly finished...but I think it gives a slightly sinister Pee Wee playhouse vibe to this sushi bar. Upside down dragons, sushi with eyes and the fact all the sushi is the most expensive plate...truly a bizarre place. I hope my partner likes it!

Every Last Scrap.

I made a fabric yarn ball. All the long skinny fabric bits just knotted together. Once I have enough, I'll knit a mat. I really want to try the t-shirt yarn making method now. 

Just before my machine finally gave up (rest in peace, tiny machine!) I started this patch. I was going to add some beads saying 'believe' but I think it feels complete this way. 

Seeing as I'm starting to grow a nice collection of patches, I thought I should start on a bag framework. This is one of the side panels. I used cotton batting because I want each side to be the same size and this is the easiest way. I want to keep them somewhat simple because all the fun stuff will be on either front side. The bottom panel will be demin, just for toughness. 

On Monday, I realised we had some yogurt and eggs that were close to going off so I made this recipe substituting Greek yogurt for banana and custard flavoured yogurt and adding chocolate chips. I definitely try hard not to waste food (and to be fair, everyone in this house loves food so there's no excuse!) so it makes me very happy when I can save produce and make something delicious.

On the subject of my machine...I've had it for over five years and it was very much a beginners machine and probably never meant for so much use but it has always tried to do as I ask. It would have cost almost half what its original price to fix and I've wanted to take a step up the machine ladder for a while so I bought a replacement.

 I do feel like it's the sewing machine equivalent of that Simpsons episode where Bart orders a schmancy catalog dog leaving Santa's Little Helper in the cold but...that's not even that great an episode so I think I can live with it. :3