Sunday’s National Trust secondhand booksale find! £2:50, only published last year and in mint condition. By Lisa Cook – Lisasattik on Insta.

The day after I tried knitting again ( see here ) I went off to my favourite yarn shop to buy some yarn to celebrate. Someone was away on a 10 day fishing trip and had left me emergency money only to be used in case of emergency. Last time I went on a massive pub crawl with a friend until the early hours, this year I was very, very sensible and hadn’t touched any of it. A few days before his return I thought a little might be well spent on a couple of bottles of Cornish Orchards cider and a ball of new yarn. Solid plan?

I was thinking of buying something neutral, perhaps to crochet a motif at a time; as I’m trying to rehabilitate my hand after injury last year (as you already know.) Making small pieces to eventually turn into a blanket is doable in short bursts, especially as I reckon you-can-never-make-too-many-blankets. So, of course when I got home it was with variegated yarn with glittery thread through it….and a shawl pattern.

It’s Katia Silver Paint (100) and is a soft mix of acrylic and a little wool, the glittery thread is gold. It crochets up really nicely. I’m making an Ana Lucia shawl. It’s going to be slow, but slow progress is better than no progress. This has been my mantra for most of the last year.

I’m still reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, this is not being devoured at all, but I’m determined to finish it. I don’t dislike the book, but it’s rather dry and the telling feels slow. It doesn’t help that I often find I’ve nodded off while reading at bedtime (a new and slightly worrying development) and my Kindle has long gone into sleep mode too.

I also started to read Tracey Thorn’s memoir Another Planet: a Teenager in Suburbia She writes in an engaging style.

I have two audio books on the go too: Audible’s version of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road; I really like Matt Dillon’s performance of this, his accent and voice are good and finally Ruby Wax’s new one: No Brainer. She always makes me chuckle; I like her Sane New World: Taming the Mind.

What are you making and reading?

Joining in with Ginny’s monthly Yarn Along once again. Hurrah!