As the new year rolls around I'm about to embark on some pretty major changes in my life. I have taken a look at the things I give my time to and how much time I will be able to give over the coming year. I really do enjoy sharing what I make with other people, and whilst I enjoyed making podcasts they became more and more work and started to be less enjoyable.
In light of this I thought I would turn back to where Lemmon Juicer started. Right here on the blog. I let the blog go quite a lot over the last year, mainly because podcasting took up so much time and I didn't have enough energy to create blog content as well, regardless of my best efforts. I'm hoping as we move into this new year things will start to fall into place, and I am going to try and promote this blog a little more over on instagram, whilst keeping you all updated on the crafty things I'm getting on with.
I hope that the people who used to watch the podcast are not too saddened by this news, my content isn't going away, just changing platform to something I feel like I can keep up with.
So to you all, happy crafting, I hope you all have an amazing new year.
It feels rather odd to write a review before I have actually finished a book. But I believe in the case of this book, I am pretty safe in doing so.
What Would Boudicca Do? is a book celebrating the women of history in brilliant bite sized chunks, perfect for a few pages before bed. The book has a chapter dedicated to each women, and with a couple of pages gives us a synopsis of their life, giving us both the good and the bad, and how we can channel them into our everyday life.
The book has a feel good vibe to it, and gives us the history which we might not think to look for, and shows us women who we may never have heard of if we didn't know where to look.
The book is written in a relaxed, and fun to read style which I find easy to follow and doesn't have me scratching my head trying to understand what it is saying.
Overall I am enjoying this book, and it is giving me so much more information about the women of history that I never knew I needed to know about, and something to look back at history and smile at how strong and amazing these people were.
Book rating: I feel like I need to explain myself here, as this is the first time I have written a book review and I want to set up a book rating system to give the book a score out of 5. So I have thought about what I want to see in a book and have come up with the following three categories, each category will be rated out of five, then all the scores added up and divided by three to get the final score out of five. They are as follows:
1 - Readability: Is the book easy to read? What sort of language is used? Does the writing flow? Is it easy to get from page to page or am I fighting to the next chapter?
2 - Content: Is there a lot of subject matter or are we going around in circles? Is the subject made interesting by the writing? Is there depth to a story or plot? Are there backgrounds to each character, situation or decision? Does the writing give you loads of information at once or does it evaluate and pick out the good bits or the important bits?
3 - Put-Down-Ability: The last and final category kind of speaks for itself. Does the book make me want to keep turning the page? Is there so much going on that I just need to put it down to get my head around it? What is so "Just one more page" about it? Is there just one more thing to find out before you stop?
I hope this rating system makes sense, and perhaps if you have anything to add, anything to make it more interesting, or something I haven't thought about, leave a comment and I will try and get back to you, or improve the rating system.
So for What Would Boudicca Do?:
Readability: The language used is informal and easy to relate to. It flows nicely and is easy to follow. There are minor minor areas where I feel the subject jumps around a little bit, but overall I can read it quite nicely, so I'll give it a 4.
Content: The content is so much more then I realised I wanted to know. There is a lot of information that I don't think I find all in one place in many other places. I've enjoyed how individual parts are picked out and applied to everyday life and even the bad bits are not just glossed over but spoken about too. But there are some places where I am wanting more, I want to know more about specific stories and more about certain aspects of the people's lives. So I am going to give a score of 3 for content.
Put-Down-Ability: This book doesn't have any kind of cliff hanger, nor does it actually have a plot! But it is delightfully potato-chip-y. In that each chapter is so small that you just want to read one more. They are perfectly bite sized and perfect for reading a few pages before bed. The only thing making me want to come back to the book is the curiosity of who is going to be next. So for that, it is getting a 3.5 for Put-Down-Ability.
So the added total for each category is 10.5, so the final score out of five is 3.5.
Not a bad score for the book at all, and a lovely read if you want to find out just a little bit more about what some of the most important women in our history have done.
My all time favourite though, has to be Gráinne ní Mháille (Grace O'Malley), Irish pirate queen who did the f**k she wanted!
Extended Shownotes you will find on the Blog or in the Ravelry Group.
Finished Objects:
Bronwyn Shawl: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/bronwyn-shawl - A lovely crochet shawl that I am pretty sure I will get a lot of wear out of. It is made with DK yarn in four different colours, Green - Countess Ablaze, Grande Merino, Footloose, Light Blue - Malabrigo, Arroyo, Cian, Yellow - Babbles Yarns, Delicious DK, Solid Gold, Dark Blue - Fyberspates, Vivacious DK, Deep Aqua.
Colin's Triceratops: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/triceratops-head---taxidermy-dinosaur - a commossion from my brother for an excellent piece of livingroom furnature! ;) This is made from Cygnet Seriously Chunky in the Fawn colour way for the pale colour and Meadow Green for the main colour.
Gift Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/c-socks - A pair of gift socks from Christmas, these are 64sts on 2.5mm needle, in a 2x2 rib pattern. They are made from West Yorkshire Spinners, Signature 4-ply in the Pheasant colourway.
Margot the 2nd - Tilly and the Buttons pattern from the book Love at First Stitch, a wonderful book for getting started sewing your own clothes.
Spinning: Shetland and Icelandic blend, spun into a simple two ply that has come out as a light sport to fingering weight yarn.
WIPs:
F1 Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/sams-f1-socks - I have two pairs of F1 socks on the go, with a range of different yarns from CoopKnits in their Socks Yeah! base. The colours I have used I've listed on a previous post, so go back and have a look if you want to find out more.
Deck The Halls Stitch-a-long by Caterpillar Cross Stitch - a lovely stitch-a-long which is not too late to join in if you want to! I'm loving it!
In The Shed:
Handmade Notebook
Kiwico Eurika Crate - Pinball machine
Podcasts Mentioned:
Babbles Travelling Yarns
The Project Bag
Crafty Historian
Real Talk:
These are some links to the people leading the conversations around racism and inclusion in the
knitting community, take a look at their stories and discover some new people - please respect
their spaces:
@su.krita - https://www.instagram.com/su.krita/?hl=en
@thecolormustard - https://www.instagram.com/thecolormustard/?hl=en
@ocean_bythesea - https://www.instagram.com/ocean_bythesea/?hl=en
@booksandcables - https://www.instagram.com/booksandcables/?hl=en
@ggmadeit - https://www.instagram.com/ggmadeit/?hl=en
Music:
"Inspired" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
It won't come as a surprise to you all that I didn't manage to complete my reading challenge. It was very definitely challenging, and once I fell behind on the blog posts, I really felt like I fell behind in the reading. Without the blog posts keeping me accountable to my own challenge, I really sucked at sticking to it!
The challenge also opened my eyes to what books I find easy to read. I went into the challenge thinking that I could read any book, be that factual, or fiction and do absolutely fine. But I was suddenly more aware of writing styles and the types of words used. I realised that what worked for me was more of a narrative, then a factual style of writing, and that using words that are more complex and unusual tend to make a book a lot harder for me to read. This in itself is not going to stop me from reading any book in particular, but at least I will now know what books I am more likely to struggle with.
So let us take the list down from the wall and have a look at what I have actually managed in the last year. So the list tells me that I started to read a total of 17 books in the last year. Which personally I don't think is too bad. As a self confessed bookworm however I would like that number to be higher, but this girl also has hobbies!
I specifically say "started to read" because there were a couple of books that I started, and didn't finish. These books I may well go back to at some point, but the challenge seemed to give me a reason to put down a book that I wasn't enjoying, or really making much progress through, which I think is what is to be said for the three unfinished on this list. There was a thought in the back of my mind for many years about reading books, that once I had started to read a book, I then had to finish it. I mostly stuck to that rule for many years, only once or twice putting a book down that I really didn't enjoy (or got rather angry with the main character - The Paper Magician I'm looking at you!), but during this challenge it became clear to me that really I am just wasting my time that could be spent reading and enjoying the books I love.
So we take out the three books that I never made it to the end of and we are left with fourteen books read from cover to cover. Not too bad if I say so myself. Looking at the titles they are a delightful mix of genres, we have a couple of autobiographies, fiction and nonfiction. I have to say that I did enjoy every one of them, and it did feel good to get some of the books on my shelves read. I still seem to have a somewhat shameful amount of unread books on my shelves and I keep buying more - help!
I feel that it is only fair to share with you the list of the books I managed to read, and mostly in the order that I read them in. Although I did start some before I finished the ones before it (shhh no one needs to know!) and I will include the ones I didn't make it all the way thorough, and maybe you'll see something there you might want to pick up yourself. The first few you will recognise if you have seen some of my previous reading challenge posts, where I have written a little bit about them.
The List:
1 - The Tales of Beedle the Bard, JK Rowling
2 - Handbook for Railway Steam Locomotive Enginemen
3 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, JK Rowling
4 - Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook, Terry Pratchett
5 - Worms to Catch, Guy Martin
6 - Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them, JK Rowling
7 - First Light, Geoffrey Wellum
8 - Giants of Steam, Jonathan Glancey (Unfinished)
9 - We Need to Weaken the Mixture, Guy Martin
10 - Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie
11 - Underground, Overground, Emily Kearns
12 - Girl Up, Laura Bates
13 - Felix the Railway Cat, Kate Moore
14 - Crimes of Grindelwald, JK Rowling
15 - Love at First Stitch, Tilly Walnes
16 - The Craft of Handspinning, Eileen Chadwick (unfinished)
17 - Empire of the Clouds, James Hamilton-Paterson (unfinished)
I really did enjoy the challenge I set for myself, or what I did of it at least, and I have decided that I am going to try again. I am thinking of starting on the 1st of January, a slightly more typical date for year long challenges, and I will probably reduce the amount of books to see if I can still reach that goal. Perhaps if I manage to reach a goal of say 20 or 15 then I can ramp it up and maybe another year I will complete 25 books.
I am also hoping to be back a little more regularly with blog posts (I know I say it every time but I am trying!) and perhaps bring you more information on my sewing projects as well as a couple of book reviews and things I have been reading.
I hope you have enjoyed this and continue to enjoy reading my blog. Until next time, all the best. xx
Extended Shownotes you will find on the Blog or in the Ravelry Group.
Finished Objects:
Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/b-socks
- Just a plain vanilla sock, with a german short row heel. Made out of Opal sock yarn, on a 2.5mm needle with 64 stitches.
Irma Hat: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/irma-hat
- Another gift knit, this is the Irma hat by Aneta Gasiorowska, knit up in Countess Ablaze, undyed Grande Merino. This was a lovely quick knit, maybe I'll do another!
WIPs:
Bronwyn Shawl: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/bronwyn-shawl
- This lovely crochet shawl is the Bronwyn Shawl by Toni Lipsey, it is going quite nicely and I am loving the outcome so far! The yarn I have used is, Countess Ablaze, Grande Merino in the Footloose colourway, Malabrigo, Arroyo in the Cian colourway, Babbles Yarns, Delicious DK in the Solid Gold colourway and Fyberspates, Vivacious DK in the Deep Aqua colourway.
F1 Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/sams-f1-socks
- These I am really enjoying, and is a pattern made up by myself, and there is one pair for me and one pair for Sam, made out of pretty much the same colours:
Grey: West Yorkshire Spinners, Bo Peep - Tin Can
Black: West Yorkshire Spinners, Signature 4 ply - Black
Ferrari - CoopKnits, Socks Yeah! - Carnelian
Red Bull - CoopKnits, Socks Yeah! - Benitolite
Mercedes - CoopKnits, Socks Yeah! - Chryso
Torro Rosso - CoopKnits, Socks Yeah! - Larimar
Colin's Triceratops: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/triceratops-head---taxidermy-dinosaur
- This delightful dinosaur was a request that I was happy to fulfill. The yarn is Cygnet Seriously Chunky in the Fawn colourway and the Meadow Green colourway.
Gift Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/c-socks
- Another pair of gift socks in readiness for christmas. This pair I am not knitting to a pattern again, but I am thinking of doing them as a 2x2 rib all the way down. They are 64 stitches and on a 2.5mm needle as always! The yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners, Signature 4 Ply in what I think is the Pheasant colourway.
Margot the 2nd - Tilly and the Buttons pattern
Spinning: Shetland and Icelandic blend
In The Shed:
Handmade Notebook
Real Talk:
These are some links to the people leading the conversations around racism and inclusion in the
knitting community, take a look at their stories and discover some new people - please respect
their spaces:
@su.krita - https://www.instagram.com/su.krita/?hl=en
@thecolormustard - https://www.instagram.com/thecolormustard/?hl=en
@ocean_bythesea - https://www.instagram.com/ocean_bythesea/?hl=en
@booksandcables - https://www.instagram.com/booksandcables/?hl=en
@ggmadeit - https://www.instagram.com/ggmadeit/?hl=en
Music:
"Inspired" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Extended Shownotes you will find on the Blog or in the Ravelry Group.
Finished Objects:
Pop Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/pop-socks
- A vanilla sock knit with 2.5mm DPNs and 64 stitches. Made out of Austermann Step yarn in the Nordcap (046) ? Colourway I think. These were knit for a gift, so will be put away ready for Christmas!
Triangle Knit Shawl: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/knit-triangle-shawl
- An asymmetrical shawl made from Bernat Pop! yarn cakes, in the radical botanical colour way. This isn't the chunky bernat pop, but is incredibly snuggly.
Spinning: Green Merino Silk Braid
- A merino silk braid that I got from the Wool on the Exe shop, which was a joy to spin and I have another skein which I have spun, so we will see what that grows up to be!
WIPs:
Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/b-socks
- Another pair of gift socks -I know organised and everything! These are again knit on 2.5mm DPNs and with 64 stitches, and is just a basic vanilla sock with a german short row heel. The yarn is Opal, but I'm really not sure what colourway it is at all (sorry! :s)
Bronwyn Shawl: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/bronwyn-shawl
- Oh I needed another crochet project! This one was perfect, the shawl is by Toni Lipsey and is a lovely asymmetrical triangle shawl. The yarns are:
Green - Countess Ablaze, Grande Merino, Footloose
Light blue - Malabrigo, Arroyo, Cian
Yellow - Babbles Yarns, Delicious DK, Solid Gold
Dark blue - Fyberspates, Vivacious DK, Deep Aqua
F1 Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/f1-socks
These I am soooo enjoying, maybe a little too much. The yarns used are:
Grey - West Yorkshire Spinners, Bo Peep - Tin Can
Ferrari - CoopKnits, Socks Yeah! - Carnelian
Red Bull - CoopKnits, Socks Yeah! - Benitolite
Mercedes - CoopKnits, Socks Yeah! - Chryso
Torro Rosso - CoopKnits, Socks Yeah! - Larimar
Colin's Triceratops: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/triceratops-head---taxidermy-dinosaur
- This deightful dinosaur was a request that I was happy to fulfill. The yarn was Cygnet Seriously Chunky in the Fawn colourway and the Meadow Green colourway.
Margot the 2nd - Tilly and the Buttons pattern
In The Shed:
Sadly nothing...
Real Talk:
These are some links to the people leading the conversations around racism and inclusion in the
knitting community, take a look at their stories and discover some new people - please respect
their spaces:
@su.krita - https://www.instagram.com/su.krita/?hl=en
@thecolormustard - https://www.instagram.com/thecolormustard/?hl=en
@ocean_bythesea - https://www.instagram.com/ocean_bythesea/?hl=en
@booksandcables - https://www.instagram.com/booksandcables/?hl=en
@ggmadeit - https://www.instagram.com/ggmadeit/?hl=en
Music:
"Inspired" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Extended Shownotes you will find on the Blog or in the Ravelry Group.
Finished Objects:
Galewood Gauntlets:https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/galewood
- Made from John Arbon Devonia 4-ply in the bleeding heart colourway, using the pattern by Honor Adams. I definitely enjoyed these more after I had blocked them, very much fell back in love with them.
Fraternal Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/lottie-socks
- A pair of socks knitted for myself on a 2mm needle using Bergere de France Goomy 50 - Imprim Jaun, and West Yorkshire Spinners Bo Peep 4-ply in the teddy bear colour way. A fun pair of fraternal socks just to give it a go.
Lyne Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/lyne-socks
-The pattern is by Dawn Henderson and is a beautifully thought through shorty sock, I've made it with Gamercrafting Yak sock in the lagoon mist colourway, which an incredibly beautiful purple and soooo soft.
Trophy Ram's Head:https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/faux-ram-trophy-head
- From a kit bought from Sincerely Louise, which was incredibly fun. Going to be entered into the Village flower and produce show, so we will see what we win!
Mum H socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/mum-h-socks
- I pair of socks knitted for my best friends mum for her birthday on Schachenmayr Catania cotton yarn, they are now being posted off the their new home, and I really hope they fit their new owner!
Stevie Top: https://shop.tillyandthebuttons.com/products/stevie
- A Lovely pattern by Tilly and the Buttons, it is now a favourite and I do like the style of the top. This top I have made from some cotton fabric found in my local fabric shop. It is so me and I made it for my birthday top, something that I feel might become a tradition in the future!
Baby Quilt: Fat Quarters for the front pieces from various fabric shops, backing fabric
from Hobbycraft.
- A quilt that I decided to make whilst looking through the scrap bin in a fabric shop near my best friends house, they had some seriously cute things and I was sold! I picked up a couple more little pieces at one of my local fabric shops and got started.
Spinning: John Arbon Corriedale
- A lovely bag of undyed corriedale for me to try came along with my John Arbon Mill membership, which I really enjoyed spinning and looking forward to spinning the rest!
WIPs:
Pop Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/pop-socks
- A pair of vanilla socks made in Austermann Step yarn. This was a yarn that I bought with the intention of making a gift pair of socks, we will see where they end up!
Triangle Knit Shawl: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Sockbug97/knit-triangle-shawl
- An imaginatively named shawl from a Bernat Pop! ball band. I loved the colours of the yarn and bought it with the idea that maybe I should try and knit more shawls and I could start with this one on the ball band.
In The Shed:
Noste Pinne - Made from windfall wood and utilising my whittling skills, which haven't really been used for a while, and I kinda miss it.
Letter Opener - I would say the words above again, but I don't need to, look up! ;)
Real Talk:
These are some links to the people leading the conversations around racism and inclusion in the
knitting community, take a look at their stories and discover some new people:
@su.krita - https://www.instagram.com/su.krita/?hl=en
@thecolormustard - https://www.instagram.com/thecolormustard/?hl=en
@ocean_bythesea - https://www.instagram.com/ocean_bythesea/?hl=en
@booksandcables - https://www.instagram.com/booksandcables/?hl=en
@ggmadeit - https://www.instagram.com/ggmadeit/?hl=en
Music:
"Inspired" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
In light of this I thought I would turn back to where Lemmon Juicer started. Right here on the blog. I let the blog go quite a lot over the last year, mainly because podcasting took up so much time and I didn't have enough energy to create blog content as well, regardless of my best efforts. I'm hoping as we move into this new year things will start to fall into place, and I am going to try and promote this blog a little more over on instagram, whilst keeping you all updated on the crafty things I'm getting on with.
