2023 - The Year To Get Stuff Done!

Again, I have been away for AGES - why does this always happen?!

I have started a new job and it is keeping me very busy. After being a SAHM for 25 years, it is taking a little getting used to juggling all the housework, kids' stuff and work.

But I still want 2023 to be the year of getting stuff done. All those languishing WIPs, project plans that I really want to make but never quite got to, books I have been meaning to read for ages, organising the spare (aka junk) room, all the things! 

So let's roll up our sleeves and get to it! 

Knitting

I will be continuing on with my 35c earned per 10g knitted rule. Believe me, there is no way in this world that I need any more yarn, so I may allow my 'earnings' in different categories to be spent across any of the categories. 
It is 38 degrees C here today (100F) so knitting is not really on my mind today! But autumn/winter will be on us soon, thank goodness, and then the real knitting can begin.
And I will continue, slowly, slowly, with my vintage knitting, in particular from Stitchcraft magazines. 

Quilting

While I do not have any specific earning goals for quilting, I certainly have projects that I would like to finish and fabric stash that needs to be used up. Some of this fabric will sneak on over to the cross stitch category to use as finishes. And I really want to make some project bags using Elizabethanncanstitch's Youtube tutorial.

Cross Stitch

Again, I will be continuing on with previous earnings projects for cross stitch, using the guidelines from the Stitch From Stash Facebook group. 
I will also be participating in WIPGO, hosted by Jessie Marie Does Stuff  (this link will take you to the How To WIPGO video).

I do not have enough WIPs (in cross stitch, anyway!) to fill all the squares on the board once, so have chosen to add projects multiple times. Hopefully this will lead to at least a few finishes in 2023.

I will be working on each project for 14 hours in the month it is called.
So January's calls were squares 6 and 10 - the 2020 Pandemic Sampler by Sarcygurl and Ice Angel by Lavender and Lace. 
Ice Angel is one of my oldest WIPs. I couldn't say exactly how long I have been working on this. Let's just say, the last time I remember stitching on it was when I was in hospital for the birth of my oldest son and he turned 18 last year! It needs to be finished! 

This is my progress as at the beginning of January on the 2020 Pandemic Sampler.

And for Ice Angel.

Let's see how far 14 hours of stitching on each can get me! 

I picked up these planners from Amazon (using Christmas gift money) to help keep me on track. 

Reading

I have a ridiculously high Goodreads goal this year - feel free to friend me over there. 

I would like to focus on more Australian authors and nonfiction this year as well as continuing with my reading from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Boxall. 

I participate in a number of reading challenge groups as I always like a list or prompt to follow! 

Walking

Not a crafty goal but I am finding this to be a lot of fun and quite motivating. I found this free app (or you can use it on your computer) called World Walking. It links to the health app on my iPhone so I can add my steps for the day to my chosen walk. 
And always one to take on the biggest challenge, I have of course chosen to 'walk' from London to Lapland! 
It is fun as you can look at a street view of where you are currently (except for when you are crossing an ocean!) as well as follow on the map. 

As you can see, this will take a while! My movement is hardly registering on the map but I am almost at Canterbury. Looking forward to reaching Dover and heading across to the Dunkirk Ferry Terminal. 

You can also set up walking groups, so you can walk with friends.

I may walk Transylvania next - after I make it to Lapland! 

So that is some of what I have planned for 2023 - I will expand on each section soon. I am attempting to publish two blog posts a week - fingers crossed! 

Happy crafting, reading, walking, or whatever you have planned! 

Finally Some More Knitting!

Finally I am back with some knitting!

Joining today with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Not my shelves - I just wish I had this organisational space! I am more the plastic crate kind of organiser! 

2021 seems to be the year of stash knitting, if the number of KALs related to using stash are any indication. This suits me just fine as I had already decided this would be the case for me personally this year. 

Believe me when I say that I have enough yarn to last more than just my lifetime - I think I could keep a few people in yarn for their lifetimes as well! My Ravelry stash says I have 664 items. What?! Admittedly, about 100 of those are 20 gram mini skeins, but still - that is a lot of yarn!

I am also hoping to stash away some savings for a change in home this year, so stash knitting would help in a few ways. Obviously I could save money by not purchasing yarn. But I could also save by making the majority of my gifts this year from stash yarn as well. Double saving, yay!

I will tell you up front that I will be purchasing a little yarn this year as I will lose my Deramores reward points if I don't use them. But I will not just impulse buy because I love the colours. I will purchase yarns that can be added to other stash yarns, for example if I need a specific colour for some colourwork. 

Added to this, I will also be using stash patterns and books. Same as the yarn, I have LOTS of these and they just do not get the love they deserve as I am easily drawn in by the next new, shiny thing! 

All that being said, let's move onto some actual knitting!

I have completed one project this year, which is a free pattern from Deramores called Oh Bee Hive Cowl. You do need to have signed up for an account to download the pattern but it is very easy to get their patterns and they have quite a lot of free ones. 

The yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply in Turmeric and Poppy Seed which has been in my stash since June 2020. The project used 382 metres / 82 grams of yarn. Not much to have left my stash but it is a start! 

I am now working on my first Icelandic jumper from Lopi 28 pattern book. I thought I would start out with a child's jumper so this is the Kambur in size 4, using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted. So far, it is a lot of fun. I cannot believe how fast it is knitting up compared to the cowl, which seemed to take weeks to grow a few centimetres! I have a feeling this will not be my last Icelandic jumper! 

Reading wise, I have set up my 2021 reading challenges in my LibraryThing group and am excited to have kicked up the new reading year. 

I am currently reading The Yield by Tara June Winch, which is a book to really immerse yourself in. It is wonderfully told using three different voices which helps to relay so much more than just using one. 

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year, no matter how you had to spend it this year. And that 2021 is treating you kindly so far. 

Books In 1932

The Diamonds are moving along so slowly that I thought I would cover another subject from 1932. 

So what was happening in the book world in 1932?

The Cheney Report was published in the US in 1932. This report was commissioned by the National Association of Book Publishers to examine the overall structure of the book publishing industry and suggest possible improvements.

Cheney recommended standardising the physical size of books. He was also the first to suggest a machine based coding system for the organisation of books. It was not until several decades later that the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) was introduced.

Albatross Books, a German publishing house was established in 1932. They produced the first modern mass-market paperbacks. The first list included ten books with authors such as James Joyce (Albatross Number 1 was Dubliners), Virginia Woolf and Aldous Huxley and was called the Albatross Modern Continental Library.

A possible forerunner to the orange Penguin Classics?

The Royal Shakespeare Company's new theatre was opened on April 23 (Shakespeare's birthday) by the Prince of Wales, after the original theatre was destroyed by fire in 1926. Designed by architect Elisabeth Scott, it was the first major building designed by a woman in Britain.

The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to John Galsworthy for The Forsyte Saga. It is a collection containing three novels and two interludes. 

The Pulitzer Prize for a Novel was awarded to Pearl Buck's The Good Earth. I remember reading this in high school and being absolutely blown away. 

I did not know until recently that this is the first book in the House of Earth trilogy. Sons and A House Divided are the second and third books, both of which are currently out of print. 

Other books published in 1932 include:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Little House In The Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell

Save Me The Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald - the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Peril At End House by Agatha Christie, the eighth Hercule Poirot book

And of course, many more! 

This is a really interesting website that is featuring the top selling books of the last 100 years. 

Top Selling Books of 1932

The books I have mentioned are the ones that have remained in print but most of the books that were top sellers in 1932 are no longer in print.

I found it most fascinating to see the books that everyone was reading in 1932. 

As you can tell, I do love a book list! 

Have you read any of these books? Do you have another favourite book published in 1932?

Not Much Knitting - But A New Shop!

Joining in today with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday and all the knitting (see below!) and reading. 

 Unfortunately there has been next to no knitting happening in my life at the moment due to a bad case of tennis elbow. I remember Andrea at Fruity Knitting podcast had this problem a while ago and had to take a complete break from knitting. Reluctant as I was to undertake such drastic action (no knitting, what?!), I decided to just do it. I have not knitted for a week and believe me, that is unheard of, but it seems to be doing the trick. Hopefully I will be able to pick the needles up again in a few days. 

So what to do while I cannot click those needles? Why, open a new Etsy shop, of course!!

This has been on my plans list for a long time as I wanted to offer some of my vintage hand knitted items for sale. Then I had a brainwave. I have been creating PDF downloadable files for a friend of mine to use in her business and I often purchase PDFs of vintage knitting patterns. Why not combine the two? So I have been happily scanning away, making some of the patterns in my extensive collection available.

I have tried to scan ones that are not currently available, so hopefully vintage knitters will find some hidden treasures in my collection.

I have opened my shop with three patterns, which I have for sale for the princely sum of about 10c each. This is as a special offer as I am asking any lovely knitters out there (or just lovely people in general!) who would like to purchase a pattern and give me some feedback. I have never sold digital downloads before and would love to hear if people are happy with the patterns. The PDFs all look fine on my computer and print fine on my printer so I have my fingers crossed that the same will be true for any purchasers. 

These are the three patterns I have up for sale, so if any of them catch your fancy, I would greatly appreciated any feedback. And you will have a lovely pattern to knit! 

I have always wanted to attempt a knitted dress and I have many gorgeous vintage patterns for them. A huge time investment though! 

Oh, and here is the link to my new shop! You can find me on Etsy at Dorothy Jayne Vintage. Any help greatly appreciated! 

I will be adding new patterns at the weekend, when my self-imposed trial is over. I am also planning on selling some of my paper patterns as I have some double ups. And hand knitted items made to vintage patterns, so the non-knitters can still enjoy some vintage knitting. 

Reading has gone the same way as my knitting for the moment! I have been reading Planetfall by Emma Newman for over a week, which is a long time for me to get through a book.

I am really enjoying it - a very different approach to space colonisation. I wasn't expecting what has happened so far. It certainly makes me want to continue with the series.

Hopefully you have been knitting more than me - I will be back next week with some actual progress! 

Unraveled Wednesday

 Joining in for Unraveled Wednesday today with As Kat Knits.

I have been working on my Victory jumper and am really enjoying it. It is a very simple pattern to remember so makes great TV knitting. 

It is worth taking a look at the Ravelry project page for the pattern as there are some wonderful colour combinations that have been knitted.

I worked on it last night while watching this movie, Another Mother's Son.  I must admit to not knowing much about the history of German occupation of English territory during World War II. I feel it really was not mentioned much and is just coming to light in more recent times. 

The movie is based on the true story of Louisa Gould, a shopkeeper in a small rural Jersey village. Her own two sons are fighting in the war and Louisa takes in an escaped Russian POW, as she would like another woman to do for her sons.

As you can imagine, this heartbreaking movie ends in tragedy. 

The screenplay was written by Louisa's great-niece. 

Louisa's brother, seen on the left of the picture played by Ronan Keating, was one of only two English men to survive Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

In 1995, a plaque was unveiled in Saint Ouen, Jersey, dedicated to Louisa. Burriy (the Russian POW) and Louisa's surviving son, Ralph, met for the first time at the unveiling.

In 2010, she was named a British Hero of the Holocaust. 

The German occupation of the Channel Islands first came to my attention when I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. I adore this book. I must have read it five times and cry every time. 

For non-fiction accounts, there is The German Occupation of the Channel Islands by Charles Cruickshank. 

And Model Occupation by Madeleine Bunting. 

For a child's account, A Child's War: The Occupation of the Channel Islands Through A Child's Eyes.

Have you read any of these, or any books about the occupation of the Channel Islands? I would love to hear about them. 

Now I suppose I should talk about what I have actually been reading rather than books related to a movie I watched!

My current read is Promise by Minrose Gwin. Another interest of mine is books set in the US South, particularly historical fiction. This book is about the aftermath of a true event, the Palm Sunday (5th April 1936) tornado in Tupelo, Mississipi. This book is a fictional account of those events. 

The Tupelo tornado is the fourth most deadly tornado in US history, with the death toll between 216 and 233. The author grew up in Tupelo and she says in her Author's Note, that she thought she knew everything about the tornado. But she was wrong. She recently discovered that African-American casualties were not included in the numbers. They made up a third of the town's population and were simply not counted. 

This book is about much more than the tornado. It is about black/white relationships in the town leading up to the event and how the tornado changed these. It is about destruction and salvation, good and evil, our innate humanity, racial divides, set against the terror and force of the tornado.

I literally wanted to rip through the pages without putting this book down. It was totally compelling. Well, well worth picking up this book.

And one interesting fact about the tornado. Amongst the survivors were a one-year-old boy and his parents, who lived in this house.

That little boy's name? Elvis Aaron Presley. 

 

Unraveled Wednesday

 Joining in for the knitting and reading with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

I missed a week or two there due to lots of happenings so you think I would have more knitting progress to show. Sadly that is not the case!

Due to an increase in coronavirus in my state, I had to pull my sewing machine from the cupboard and get to sewing some masks.

My son had his 12th birthday last week and in our state it is now mandatory to wear a mask if you are 12 or over.

So happy birthday to my Eddy Bear - here is your mask! 

Many lost celebrations this year. Hopefully his 13th will be an improvement!

Knitting wise, most of my projects have had little movement. Sewing took up some time and my own tendency to jump from project to project also contributed. 

So what did I do? I started a new project, of course! 

It is VP (Victory in the Pacific) or VJ (Victory Over Japan) Day on 15th August and I have wanted to knit the Victory Jumper for sooooo long. I purchased the yarn a month or so ago and have finally cast it on.

I am using the traditional colours, but am using cream instead of white. I am neary finished the rib and am excited to start the pattern.

The Victory Jumper is a free pattern, available here in the Victoria and Albert Museum's 1940s knitting pattern collection. 

I will also be casting on the next pattern for my Adventures In Stitchcraft project. This jumper is from Issue 2 of the magazine, from November 1932. 

I am thinking this pattern will be fiddly but relatively easy. 

And then I will keep adding slowly to my other projects (which I didn't bother to photograph yet again - I will when there is some progress to show!)

My current reading is Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. 

There are lots of books at the moment, retelling or reinterpreting Greek mythology. So I was happy to come across this one based on Mayan mythology and folklore. It is set in the 1920s in Mexico and the main character has to undertake a journey with the Mayan god of death and help him recover his throne from his treacherous brother. I am really enjoying it so far (I am about halfway into the book). I particularly love mythology about the interaction between mortals and gods/goddesses. And the descriptions of Art Deco Mexico City are splendid! 

I had to look up some photos of Art Deco architecture in Mexico City.

The attention to detail was just fabulous in that era. 

I also finished reading Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster aloud to the boys.

This is a delight of a book. It paints a vivid picture of Victorian London and the children who worked as climbers, cleaning the chimneys of the well-to-do. A wonderful book for children to learn more about childrens' lives in the past without it being too much like a lecture. 

The relationship between Nan, the climber, and her golem, Charlie, is so beautiful. The pathos of the ending is reminiscent of Charlotte's Web (we know we all cried at that!). I found my voice catching as I was reading the last chapter - the boys always ask me if I am crying when we read aloud! 

Truly a lovely book.

What are you knitting and reading? I hope you are keeping well, whatever you are currently doing. 

Unraveled Wednesday

Joining in today with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Of the three (oops, make that four!) projects, some have made some progress and some have not.

Please be aware that the links to the projects are all to my Ravelry page. If you are having issues with Ravelry and would like any more info, like pattern names, etc., please just let me know in the comments. 

I have had no physical issues with the new Ravelry - I just don't like the new format. I thought the old one was much cosier and friendlier. 

The Sparkly Shawl is still moving along nicely. I have been using this as my TV viewing for the past week as there is no real counting or concentrating. 

The poor Naptime Doll has had no progress on her head at all!

The Pool Party leg warmers have had a little movement but not a great deal.

And you may wonder what that pink snake with all the eyes is all about?! Interestingly, it is the neckband for With Angora Tie, my Adventures In Stitchcraft 1932 jumper. The neckband is knitted separately and sewn on. The 'eyes' are for the angora tie to be threaded through. I am intrigued by this so am looking forward to fitting all the pieces together and sharing the finished jumper on Sunday's Adventures In Stitchcraft post. Barring disasters, of course!

For reading this week, I thought I would talk about our read alouds. 

We just finished Inkheart, which would be the third or fourth time I have read this one aloud. I do love it! 

This is not the cover we own - we have the first edition hardback. But I do love the covers of the 2020 paperback reissue of the Inkheart trilogy.

We are now moving on to The Penderwicks, which I adore even more! 

The Penderwicks is just a delight!

I am totally addicated to middle grade fiction and am happy to read it just for myself. I will still read it even when all the children are grown and have left home!

Have a lovely week with your knitting and reading - and I hope that you aren't feeling like this! :)

Unraveled Wednesday and Yarn Along

Joining in today with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday and Small Things for July Yarn Along.

The three projects have become four - how did that happen?!

The pink Stitchcraft jumper (With Angora Tie from the October 1932 issue) looks like it is at exactly the same place as last week. But it is not! Last week's was the first sleeve and this is the second sleeve. So close to finishing!

If you can see the placement of the progress keeper, the Pool Party leg warmers are probably getting the least love at the moment. It is very monotonous knitting!

The Naptime doll has her head knitted. Still waiting for wool to dry - takes a while in winter!

And the sneaky fourth project, the Sparkly shawl, has been moving along nicely, just so I can see the colours emerge!

Maybe, hopefully, I will have some sort of finished object for next week!

In reading, I have just finished The Woman In Black by Susan Hill.

This is the review I wrote on LibraryThing.

This is my kind of scary read! The understated, dare I say elegant, nature of this book is far more atmospheric and scary for me than blood and gore and lurid details.

From the first few pages, when Arthur says:

'I had always known in my heart that the experience would never leave me, that it was now woven into my very fibres, an inextricable part of my past . . .'

to his very last words in the book:
'They had asked for my story. I have told it. Enough.'

I was reading so quickly to find out what had happened.

This is a book that has star ratings on Goodreads ranging from two to five. It very much depends on what you expect from a scary book. If you like a Gothic in the true tradition, where the atmosphere and the setting plays as much of a role in the story as the actual characters, this may be for you. I read a review that called it the ghost story Jane Austen would have written.

Now to see the movie!

I have just started to read A Robot In The Garden by Deborah Install. I needed a book about sentient things for a science fiction reading challenge and this description stood out to me. It is for fans of The Rosie Project and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and I loved both those books. Quirky is my thing!

I am only three chapters in but it has caught my attention and I am sure I will like it.

And I was excited to see that Curvy Month has begun over at Subversive Femme. Let's face it, most vintage patterns are for more petite figures so every year, Bex hunts out the patterns for those of us with fuller figures in her annual Curvy Month.

The first pattern is fabulous - I do love some stripes! It is called California Basque and is from circa 1940s.

And the model's hair - gorgeous! 

Reading and knitting are my favourites - hope you have been getting time for lots of both this week!