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Reading Challenges

As I’ve mentioned before, I read a lot.  I always thought there wasn’t much point in me doing a reading challenge like the 52 books in a year one, since I habitually read much more than a book a week anyway.  However, on the Goodreads site, I came across the Seasonal Reading Challenge group, which posts a long list of tasks to be achieved over a season (defined as a three month period).  So I signed up.  Because while I read a lot, I only really read within a couple of genres (Sci fi / Fantasy / Urban Fantasy / SFR, and Historical Romance – I like my escapism, see!).  I used to read mystery / spy / thriller novels more when I was younger, but I moved away from them when I got more into reading sci-fi.  Anyway, as I think I also mentioned in a previous post, doing that challenge didn’t widen my reading as much as I’d hoped / planned.  It probably would have done if I didn’t have such a long list of books I already want to read.

So, last year I did the 144-books-in-a-year challenge instead.  And… I failed!!  I only read around 110 books.  Some of them were pretty doorstep-y, but still.  I spose that’s what happens when you only have one pair of hands – I can’t read and knit or spin at the same time, unless I’m listening to an audiobook.  Which I don’t do very often.

This year, the challenge group (this is also on Goodreads, by the way) has changed its parameters so that you can set your own goals to some extent.  I thought I’d be realistic and go for 100 books this time around.  That averages out to 8 1/3 books per month, and I’ve already read nine so far this year.  So that’s a good start.  If I find I’m reading more every month, there are points during the year where you can move your challenge goalposts, so I can increase to 150 if I want.  But I’m not going to particularly try for that, I’ll just see how I do.

Belated Christmassy round-up

I never did talk about how Christmas was in the end, did I?  So I shall inflict in upon the world now.  I actually did get everything finished and ready that I needed to.  All my online shopping arrived (whew!) even though the post was all over the place, I finished the present I was making for Mum, and I even made chocolate chip cookies with moderate success!

Branching OutThe scarf for Mum was the Branching Out pattern [Ravlink], and I knitted it in a lovely Merino / Tencel blend that I spun on the wheel – the first time I’ve knit with my own handspun.  I just left it as a single, and it worked really well (imo, anyway!) and I like the way the colour repeats came out.  Mum says she really likes it too, which is the main thing!

I also joined two Christmas swaps, one through the Limegreenjelly group, and one through Plurk.  The post was / is still being less kind where those are concerned.  It seems to have eaten the parcel from the latter altogether, but I have now had my LGJ parcel from Cal, and a fabulous one it is too:

LGJ Xmas Swap 2010

Two braids of LGJ fibre (one Merino/Silk, one Merino, yum!), a beautiful skein of Posh Yarn Elinor, an Orange Blossom perfume stick which I think is from Lush, mini Green & Black’s choccy bars (om nom nom!), a set of Knit Pro interchangeable needle tips and a cable for them (which spookily I’ve been wanting for ages), and an adorable Lego keyring. :-D  I just hope she likes her gifts from me as much as I do mine.

A decade of blogging

I very nearly forgot altogether, but yesterday was my “blogoversary”.  The tenth anniversary of starting this blog, in fact.

Happy Blogday to me


It doesn’t feel like ten years, but then there have been some years where I’ve barely blogged at all, or at least times when I’ve been mostly using Livejournal or similar platforms instead.  As I think I’ve said in previous anniversary posts, this blog has gone through a few changes in terms of its back-end platform – Blogger, Movable Type, and now WordPress – over the last decade.  I feel pretty settled now, though.  And at least I’m managing to post more, if not regularly.

Perhaps with this new blogging year, I should make that a mini-resolution: to pick a day and blog regularly once a week.  After all, if I can blog every day for a month, I can do once a week at the least.  In fact, since it’s Friday today, why not have Friday as my must-post day.  If I can’t think of anything else to say, at least I could do a weekly round up.  Preferably it’ll kick start me (again) into posting more frequently than that.  Right then, I’m going to go off and stop talking about posting, and actually make a start on posting something with Real Content.  Good night.

One Month Before Heartbreak

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to wrangle my brain to write a proper post of my own on this subject, but I urge everyone to go and read through the posts and links at One Month Before Heartbreak.

One Month Before HeartbreakJust to give you a bit more info, it’s a “blogswarm” event, where many bloggers post on the theme of disabilities and the UK disability-related benefits system between 14th and 16th January ’11.  Those dates have been chosen because the current consultation on DLA reform ends on 14th February this year, and frankly, it’s not looking cheerful.

As yet, I haven’t looked in detail into how any reforms might impact on me, and I’m trying not to be too pessimistic about it before I know for certain.  It’s not easy though, and I’m definitely nervous.  Deep breaths!

Christmas prep

I’m in the middle of getting everything ready for Christmas.  Actually, I feel that I’m doing quite well.  I’ve done all my shopping except for a couple of small things (and I know what those are and where I’ll get them).  Now I’m just waiting on a couple of deliveries, and of course finishing the things that I’m making myself.  I think I’m doing alright on those too, luckily, so there shouldn’t be any last minute panics.  Hooray!

Because all I’ve been working on recently are the Christmas things, I don’t have any pictures to post in case someone comes across this.  Well, maybe this one:

Shhh - secret projects on the go!And now I’m going back to the Christmas crafting.  TTFN!

Oh baby, it’s cold outside!

I took a day off of blogging yesterday, but I’m going to see if I can now do the rest of December as well.  If not, no big worry.  I actually ventured out yesterday, and I’m glad I did, even though the pavements down the hill were icy:

Snow - 01-12-2010

Today, it’s a tad snowier than it was yesterday, and it’s snowing again now.  No buses are running, and there’s very little traffic in general.  My brother’s friend was mostly OK in his Jeep, but I wouldn’t want to drive in this weather.  It’s a bit deep on my road, and we’re not likely to get gritted:

Snow - 02-12-2010
Snow - 02-12-2010

Brrr!

NaBloPoMo Success!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaay, I won!  Well, I passed the finishing line, having posted every day this month – and this time without a meme to help me along.  Woohoo!  I am ver’ ver’ proud of myself.

NaBloPoMo 2010 - I did it!Thank you very much.

In weather news, it snowed.  Luckily it didn’t start laying on the ground until I was back home again today, but now there’s a good covering out there.  Brrrr!

Snowy weather

Well, the snow is definitely here now – when I woke up yesterday there was a white blanket of it outside, and although it did melt up at my Mum’s house, it hasn’t done here yet, and we’ve had more since then.  I think there’s going to be more still over the next 24 hours – the BBC weather page seems to think so:

Weather Forecast 30-11-10

I hope I can make it to the library tomorrow!  I’ll get up early and check the bus info page.  Which means, I think, it’s time for a cosy early night under my nice warm duvet! Goodnight, internet.

Friday 5 for 26th November

Friday 5 for November 26: Holiday Music

  1. What’s your favorite holiday album?
    Either my two-disc set of Handel’s Messiah, or any album of carols. Puts me properly in the festive mood.
  2. What song’s lyrics, title, or theme best expresses the positive aspects of your general mood at this time of year?
    “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day”. It just makes me feel Christmassy.
  3. What song’s lyrics, title, or theme best expresses the not-so-positive aspects of your general mood at this time of year?
    Hmm, I don’t know.
  4. What’s your favorite song about a non-December holiday?
    More a season than a holiday, though I associate it with May Day: Summer is a Cumin In
  5. What holiday song makes you want to cover your ears and flee?
    Any cheesy Christmas song that I hear over and over and over… there used to be several, but now that I don’t work in a shop and have to hear them on loop all day long, I’m more tolerant of them all ;-)

No(t much) Snow

We’ve had a little bit of snow today, but it hasn’t really settled.  Which is good, because it meant that the rails and roads were OK for getting back from the Skunk Anansie gig at Brixton Academy last night.  That was fantastic, by the way, and if I can find the words I’ll try to write up some kind of review.

Today, I’ve finally been working on the photo album for this site again.  So, as an experiment, let’s try displaying a gallery from it on this post…

Continue reading “No(t much) Snow”

Travelling Woman shawl

Finally, belatedly, here are the pictures and info for my “Gap Year Travels” Travelling Woman shawl.

Travelling Woman shawl

Pattern: Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante [Ravlink]
Yarn: The Yarn Yard Bonny in Byron Bay & Art Deco solid, and Wendy Sunbeam St. Ives 4ply Sock Wool in Dark Grey.
Needles: 4mm metal circulars.

Travelling Woman close-up Travelling Woman close-up

On Thankfulness

I don’t normally do this, since it isn’t Thanksgiving in the UK, but I think I will this year.  So here goes: Reasons to be Cheerful, 1, 2, 3….

  1. My family and friends.  I’m lucky that I have people I’m close to, can have so much fun with, and can rely on.
  2. The Xandermog.  The biggest, daftest, and best moggy in the world.
  3. Technology.  Without it, I wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with many people so easily – wouldn’t have met many of them in the first place, in fact – and my world would be a very different place.

There are many more things I could list (music! yarn! spinning! knitting!), of course, but those are three just off the top of my head.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Pretties from NZ

My brother and sister-in-law brought pressies back from New Zealand!  So I thought I’d show one of mine off:

Creative Fibres Hand Dyed Mohair in Pukeko
Creative Fibres Hand Dyed Mohair in "Pukeko"

The name of the colour comes from a New Zealand bird which has plumage in the colour of the yarn.  Oh, and it’s a lovely 100g hank of bulky-weight mohair… I’ve been thinking about what to make with it, but I think I’ve settled on a shawl of some kind.