I read about this book here – it sounded lovely, so I ordered a copy from the book depository.

Here is the blurb …

 A Knitter’s Home Companion is an illustrated collection of stories, patterns, and recipes from beloved knitter and essayist Michelle Edwards. This heartwarming title will appeal to knitters interested in not only stitches, yarn, and patterns, but also in the lives of other knitters, the lessons that can be learned from their craft, the ways knitting helps knitters cope during difficult times, and the role of knitting in family life. “Let [this book] keep you company when you need another knitter’s voice beside you,” Edwards writes in her introduction.

Like a good friend, A Knitter’s Home Companion will inspire readers to laugh, cry, remember, be thoughtful, cook, and, of course, pick up their needles—sometimes to soothe, sometimes to celebrate, and sometimes to just pass the time. Divided into four chapters—Motherhood, Home, Community, and Legacy—stories range from “But She Doesn’t Have Any Underpants,” about the challenges of knitting for family to “Home Ec Workshop and the Mystery of the Indian Slipper,” about finding community at a local yarn shop. Projects range from mittens and socks to a baby blanket and afghan.

It is a very quick and easy read full of positive stories. Interspersed amongst the stories are recipes and knitting patterns. I’m not much of a cook, so I will probably never use the recipes, but some of the knitting patterns are quite appealing. For example, the zig zag baby blanket…

or the Updated Ripple Afghan (http://afghanblanketknittingpattern.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/michelle-edwards-updated-ripple-afghan.html).

This book would make a lovely gift for any knitter, but also for people interested in community and a gentler pace of life.

My copy of The Gentle Art of Knitting arrived. I also have The Gentle Art of Domesticity and The Gentle Art of Quilting.

I know there was a bit of controversy about the cost of some of the projects (£55 tea cosy), but I’ve turned my thinking around and now view my knitting as entertainment and the yarn as a valid entertainment expense. So, for example, today I bought more sock yarn at a cost of $21.50, but it will take me at least 10 hours to knit the socks. So that is about $2.20 per hour for my entertainment (seems reasonable to me).

Having said (or written) the above, I do understand the other point of view …

Anyway here are some of the projects that caught my eye.

Socks! – I do like Socks!

Chunky Cushion – should be a quick knit

and I thought this idea of using tapestry wool for the edges was great.

There are heaps of post-it notes stuck in my copy of this book and I’m only up to Lesson Two – Yoke Patterns Weaving and Finishing! I wish I had this book when I first started knitting.

Things like this …

It’s a good idea to form the habit of slipping the first stitch of every row in back-and-forth knitting as this makes any selvedge firm without tightness.

And I had no idea that knit and purl were the two sides of the same stitch!

Also, when joining the round you should use both strands for three stitches.

There is even diagrams about the way a stitch should look on the needle (for a knit stitch the right half of the loop should be in front of the needle.

There is information on decreases that lean to the right (k2tog) and the left (ssk).

This book is fabulous and I think knitters of all abilities would find something to interest them and possibly learn something new.

I have her Gentle Art of Domesticity which I loved (I’m sure she is living the life I should have had!) So I had to have this one.

Once again it is beautifully presented. It contains 15 quilts and a description of in the inspiration behind each quilt. What Ms Brocket does really well is to take away the paralysing effect of perfection – it’s all about having a go and making something usable (and beautiful).  Most of the pieces are squares or strips (much easier to cut and sew) and the wow factor is produced by the fabric selections. Who would have thought squares on point could be so spectacular (see the cover image above).

Here are three of my favourites …

Beach Hut (Ice Cream)

Amarylis

Purple Rain

Don’t let my dodgy photography put you off. I think this book is designed for quilters of all levels.

I thought my book review if The Girl on the Wallby Jean Baggott belonged to both of my blogs. This is a really lovely book and I think most crafty people would enjoy it.  (Read my review – here for more information).

The girls went back to school yesterday. We’ve had a lovely holiday, but I was keen for them to return to school.

After six weeks of very little child-free time I decided to treat myself with a trip to the Subiaco Book Store. This is a great store – independent with an eclectic mix of books and the most amazing embroidery, quilting and knitting section. It’s not particularly child-friendly hence the desire to go there on my first child-free day.

I bought a copy of Material Obsession 2by Kathy Doughtly and Sarah Fielke. I had a quick look at the first one, but the quilts in this one appealed to me more.

Here’s the description from Amazon…

Each of the pairs of quilts in this gorgeous new book by quilters Sarah Fielke and Kathy Doughty springs from a single idea or shared moment of inspiration. The results – like non-identical twins – are inextricably linked, yet intriguingly different. With their reinterpretation of traditional designs, as well as a characteristic bold use of colour and dazzling patterns, Sarah’s and Kathy’s quilts will appeal to quilters of all levels – from new quilt-makers looking for the next challenge, to experienced quilters ready to embrace some of the more complex projects. With practical step-by-step instructions, a comprehensive basics section and glorious photographs, this is a book to make your fingers tingle with sheer inspiration.

I’ve always liked their work – in particular their use of colour and applique. In this book they each write a brief essay on their inspiration and then include detailed instructions to replicate the quilts. It’s a beautiful book – well presented with fabulous photographs.

I thought this book was hilarious – I can particularly sympathise with the challenging child stories. It motivated me enough to pick up my knitting needles again – not with much success.

If you like Katie Fforde, you’ll like this one. Reminded me of The Rose Revived. I got it from here – (I love this place.)

Mister Pip, the winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, has been the novel of choice for many of my friends’ book clubs. For this reason I have been avoiding it but I finally succumbed.

Lloyd Jones, a New Zealand author, has written several novels (including This House has Three Walls and Book of Fame).

Mister Pip, for me at least, is about the power of literature to transform lives. To make us imagine different ways of living and being. Mister Pip is set in a small coastal village on the island of Bouganville during the 1990 civil war. A subject well know to Mr Jones as he was a journalist there during the conflict. The island is blockaded and most of the white people have left. Mr Watts, a white man married to a native women, agrees to teach the school. He reads Great Expectations to them. The children are entranced – the world of 19th century England becomes as familiar as their own village and Pip a member of their family.

 It was always a relief to return to Great Expectations. It contained a world that was whole and made sense, unlike ours.

and

As we progressed through the book something happened to me. At some point I felt myself enter the story.

This close relationship with a text creates problems, firstly with the more religious members of the village (like Dolores Matilda’s mother) and finally the dreaded ‘redskins’ (Government soldiers) who don’t believe Pip is an imaginary character and this has dire consequences for the villagers.

Matilda, our narrator, is 13 at the start of the story, but like Great Expectations, this story is related by the adult Matilda (across a vast distance of time and space). All of the characters are portrayed beautifully in a simple sympathetic manner – Mr Jones clearly liked his characters. During the course of the novel we watch Matilda’s relationship with her mother develop. It is a complicated relationship – there is obviously great love but also misunderstanding.

At first, Dolores enjoys hearing Matilda retelling the story of Pip, but then she fears Matilda’s obsession will take her away from her.

But that was the last time she asked to hear an installment from Great Expectations. And I blame ‘a rimy morning’. Although she didn’t say so I knew she thought I was showing off; and that I was biting off a bigger piece of the world than she could handle with language like ‘a rimy morning’. She didn’t want to encourage me by asking questions. She didn’t want me to go deeper into that world. She was worried she would lose her Matilda to Victorian England.

 The relationship between Mr Watts and Dolores is also beautifully written. At odds over the reading of Great Expectations they still respect one another.

 This was one of the times when I felt Mr Watts was personally addressing her. He was about to thread their old classroom debate into his account of the battle for the spare room. And she was ready.

And

On the sixth night, Mr Watts told a tale, his own I believe, that established the place of the nonbeliever. [ ... ]If you were my mum you might have felt you were listening to an admission from a heathen that everything he said or believed was wrong. I have come to think of it as his gift to her.

 Mr Watts is another wonderful character. He is the only white man in the village, married to Grace (who appears to have lost her mind – we learn more about that later in the book). He is a gentle tolerant man who provides the children (through reading Great Expectations) a means of escape from the hideous reality of their lives.

The characters don’t develop through the story they just become more themselves or their better selves.

I recommend this book, but must point out that it contains some horrifying acts of violence.

My book club chose to read this book because of the this review - it was very glowing.

The general consensus at book club was that it was a good choice; one person loved it and no one hated it – unlike a few of our other choices.

Here’s a description …

Eighteen-year-old Maya de Jong has moved from Warton, country WA, to Melbourne, in the hope of finding work and getting away from the stifling environment of a small town. She’s never really suited Warton, and though she loves her parents and her younger brother, Magnus, the town holds no future for her. Through a family contact in Melbourne she lands a job working at Global Imports, a small operation owned by the enigmatic fifty-year-old Maynard Flynn, whose wife Dory is dying of cancer. Maynard is entranced by the impressionable Maya and the two begin an affair. Business is not booming and after the death of his wife Maynard is convinced by a shady business acquaintance to move interstate to start up another line of business. Maynard persuades Maya to go with him, to drop everything and leave immediately. She agrees, and they go despite the fact that Maya’s parents are on their way to Melbourne to stay with her for a couple of weeks. Jacob and Toni, Maya’s parents, turn up at her share house and are told by Maya’s housemate Cecile that Maya has disappeared and she doesn’t know where she is. And so begins a search, both physical and emotional, that spans the couple’s past and present. For Jacob and Toni, their whole identity has been about being good parents, or being good enough parents. With the disappearance of their daughter, everything they have stood for, believed about themselves over the years is called into question and will affect not only their notion of who they are, but their relationship with each other.

 Ms London writes beautiful prose her description of the toilets in Maya’s office building is fabulous. This novel was written from many different points of view, which I liked, but then I always like first person narratives. I think she writes well about adolescent angst – particularly teenage boys and her descriptions of ordinary events are full of detail and very convincing.

I enjoyed reading about Perth and Warton – it’s always nice to read a story set in your own town. I thought the accidental meeting at the MCG at the end was a bit too neat (I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil the story). However, one of my friends did comment that things like that happen all the time. About two thirds of the way through the book I was ready for it to end, but overall my impression is positive and I shall try to read her other works.