Mousy Brown's House-Creating, crafting and collecting. Enjoying Life.

Handmade gatherings.

I treated myself to Handmade Gatherings by Ashley English last week and have been enjoying stolen moments with it ever since.  The combination of recipes and crafts is my idea of a perfect book and when you add in the seasonal elements and atmospheric photography, it is a lovely way to dream away an afternoon...especially when my knitting is close at hand too!

 

Reading and Knitting.

This week joining in with Ginny

I am reading 12x12 by William Powers...I think I saw it recommended on yarnalong a while ago and decided to give it a try.  I am enjoying how much it makes me think...and I am dreaming of living in a tiny house, no matter how unlikely that eventuality really is. It is an equal mix of depressing and inspiring and I am hoping that it is the inspiration that will stay with me once I finish reading it...

I am knitting on my Memory Blanket.

After a long time debating which "scrap" project I was going to start (hexipuffs, crochet stripes and others all caught my eye) this simple but clever design has got me knitting.  It is designed to be made in a DK yarn but I only have sock yarn scraps so it's a smaller square and longer project on the needles. Every square seems like magic, as it morphs from a straight line and the joining as you go is such a neat way of doing things.  I am definitely addicted and mutterings of "just one more square.."can be heard echoing around the house...

I was tempted in the library...

I was working in the school library for a bit this afternoon and found myself tempted by two new to me books...I know nothing about them and it definitely wasn't planned but how could I resist a book that has snippets of wisdom like this...

"As I'm sure you know, the key to good eavesdropping is not getting caught."

Horseradish by Lemony Snicket.

My knitting is crochet this week...the painful elbow is back and the knitting has had to stop...I blame the linen stitch!

Joining in (late) with Ginny

A new book and some old knitting.

I thought I would join in with Ginny again this week so that I can show you the progress on my Linen Stitch shawl. I have to admit to neglecting it completely while I worked hard on projects for Christmas gifts but now it is back in my hands and I am setting a target of completing at least two rows a day, no matter how busy I am.  It is a simple and repetitive stitch and I tend to find those kind of projects hard to stick with...my mind wonders and I make far more mistakes than the complexity calls for!  The colours are so beautiful though and the texture of the fabric so soft that I can't wait to be finished and able to finally wear it...

I am reading "The Secret Garden" which I purchased after an afternoon on the sofa sniffling and sneezing as I watched the movie.  I loved this book as a child and I decided to treat myself to the very beautiful penguin threads version with some of my Christmas money.  The stitching on the cover inspires me every time I pick it up and I am already pondering some embroidery inspired by my favourite books...maybe when the shawl is finished?

Reading and knitting this week...

This week I haven't spent a whole lot of time with my book but I am really enjoying the latest copy of Taproot magazine.  I have been a subscriber since the first issue and it just keeps getting better and better...this issue is all about mending and re-using, a subject I love and my sewing to do list just got a little bit longer in response!

On my needles, the Shallows Cowl I have been planning to make ever since I was lucky enough to win the pattern and yarn at the end of Leigh's KAL.  Shoulder and elbow problems have made getting started difficult this Summer but now I'm on the mend, I've cast on and am loving every minute of it.

Joining in with Ginny...

 

Yarning Along...

Reading  Journal of a solitude by May Sarton - Reading and learning, absorbing, listening, feeling, pondering, thinking...Inspired by this book which I still love all these years on, it sits by my bed and seems to offer endless advice just when I need it most...

Knitting in linen stitch for the first time, loving the mixture of colours (it's koigu) and the gentle, simple rhythm of the pattern.

Painting our new classroom at school (did you spot the paintbrush above?)

Joining with Ginny at Yarn Along.

Reading and Knitting...

Just had to join Ginny for Yarn Along this week, so I could tell you how much I enjoyed reading this book...and how soft this yarn is!

The book is Delancey by Molly Wizenberg (of Orangette fame).  Orangette was one of the first blogs I read and I still love it's mix of conversation, humour, everyday life and of course delicious and inspiring recipes.  I also enjoyed her first book, A homemade life and put my name down to pre-order Delancey the minute I knew it was coming out.  I never even read the blurb and so didn't really know what to expect when it arrived this week but it captured me instantly...and I read it in only two sittings (it would have been one if work hadn't interrupted!)  Molly's writing is honest and touching and she is not afraid to let you see the bad along with the good, something I admire her for. Although I try not to, it is sometimes very hard not to believe that everyone else out there, all the book writing, blogging people, have got it sussed, that they never sit and wonder if it is all worth it at the end of a long day, or push dust under their sofa so they don't have to tackle the cleaning right now...that all their friends are wholesome and supportive and that no one ever lets them down and breaks their heart...Delancey covers all the hard stuff along with the dreams coming true and it is a mix that makes you see that life is the same for all of us...a mixture of highs and lows, good and bad.  Add to that the descriptions of food that make you start to salivate and it's a combination that just can't fail to please...

My knitting project at the moment is the "like a leaf on the wind" shawl in some incredibly soft (and eye wateringly expensive) pure cashmere yarn from Five Moons. This project is just what I needed, after a couple of disastrous beginnings and with life even more hectic than usual at the moment.  Simple, soft, rhythmic knitting that is soothing my soul.  I hope to be back with a finished item before too long...

Nearly November?

As we enjoy our Autumn holidays I must admit that I am finding it hard, at times, to accept just how far through the year we have travelled.  The view that I woke to this morning...warm, bright sunshine flooding into my room...was one that I might have expected to see back in June, not in nearly November.  The chill in the air later in the day is a bit of a clue but at 8am it was easy to imagine that the seasons had switched and we were just heading into Summer.  With no need to rush and the boys still deep asleep I grabbed that bag of knitting from the bedpost and sat contentedly with a mug of tea and the last of the Martin Beck series on my lap.  A pretty perfect start to the day and just what I needed...

A Summer of socks and Swedish crime.

So far this Summer has been filled with socks and Swedish crime novels.

The sock obsession can be explained by my new found discovery of toe-up-socks two-at-a-time, which has resulted in a complete end to second sock syndrome.  As someone who has been known to leave 2-3 years between completing sock one and sock two, this has come as a complete revelation and I am happy to report that two-at-a-time is the way all socks will be knitted from here on.  The Swedish crime is slightly harder to explain but revolves around;

• My childhood best friend being Swedish.
• My year of study where all reading was of a serious nature and mostly involved the brain, child development, psychology and education.
• The fantastic serialisation of the Martin Beck stories on BBC Radio 4 (if you are quick a number are still available on iPlayer)
• And the discovery that non gruesome crime fiction has it's own genre, called "police procedurals" and that this is what I like and that the Swedish are very good at them (I think I may be a lot behind the curve on this one, but what can I say, I've been busy!)

So...knitting, reading and a lot of sunshine...not a bad way to spend my holidays...how about you? What is floating your boat at the moment?

Lots of fun with a special friend....

 

This picture makes me think of magical sweets in big glass jars and it is just a short step from there to the fantastical factories that would make them...

Today I would like to invite you to come and join in with an adventure that started, for me, back in March, when I travelled to Paris to share the celebrations for a very special project with a very special friend...

Valarie and I got to know each other first through our blogs and then when we had the joy of meeting in person.  She travelled half way around the world to join me for my 40th birthday and my trip to Paris was to join her for a celebration of the "birthday" of this book....

 

Throughout the time we have known her, my children and I have become committed "Book Jumpers" and have been inspired to try all kinds of ways of bringing the pages of our books alive...

...This week there are exciting adventures for you to share in too and I would love you to visit Valarie and take part in all the fun!  You can sign up here to take part in all the birthday celebrations and discover some new and innovative ways to enjoy reading with your children, creating delicious (and often educational) treats to eat, making and playing along with the story...and there are opportunities to win some amazing prizes too! 

You can find out even more on the Charlie blog here: jump in and see what fun reading and playing together can be!