Ruby Wax | The Little Room of Rachell

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!

I’ve knit some more of the washcloth I started last week. Doesn’t the stitch definition look fabulous with the cotton? On Thursday morning I did some train knitting, surrounded by suits, laptops and newspapers. I will not be intimidated. I shall craft.

And look! I’ve darned 3 1/2 ends in the Wave Blanket. I meant to do 10 last night; but had to put it down to concentrate on Who Do You Think You Are. It was Ruby Wax and her family’s story was making my eyes brim (then I kept gasping.) Maybe I’ll do 16 1/2 ends later to make up for it.

I’ve felt better about adding parchment into my garter stitch blanket. It does look better than I imagined, with the blended yarns. Thanks for the reassurance Vikki. Last night I restricted myself to six rows only so as to keep my elbow happy. It’s hard to put something you’re enjoying down, isn’t it?

This is my third and last, for a while, zippy bag which I made at Sewing Club on Monday night. Next week I’m trying something different. I’m a bit slack on the prep and lack confidence about what to make. I’d prefer it if the tutor came with all we needed, did a tutorial and we went off to make it. Lazy aren’t I?! But it’s like Knit & Crochet Groups where you take whatever you want to make. (Though she does do a quick tutorial for various things which you can try at home. This week it was lacy knickers! We naughty ones sniggered seeing how tiny medium was and decided we’d just get a multi-pack from M&S!) Shelly sits across from me and is a machine. She always sits right down and starts sewing what she’s prepped beforehand. No faff, or excess chatter until she’s made a start. She’s sewn so many different items this term that I tease her about her work ethic, while feeling fairly rubbish about mine. She’s only little and wears quite high heeled stompy boots. When I said about wanting to try something new next week but not sure what, she marched across to my table and wrote in my notebook saying very firmly: “Bring four pieces of material cut to these sizes. It’s easier than what you’ve been making tonight. Just do it!” O.M.G. Right then. I’m far to scared not to do it!

Mum’s dahlias. Perfection.

Well here he is – that little cat I mentioned a few weeks ago. And oh, you did make me laugh. Occasionally I’ll write that I’ve got a bad cold, a real stinker, or that my elbow is sore. Once I remember reporting that I got out of bed and fell over as my knee had gone kaput. I don’t remember many comments about any of these, but I casually end a Yarning Along post with ‘I must dash, as I’ve got to take a little black cat with a powder puff tail to the vets’ and you’d think I’d said the sky had fallen down! The comments, private messages, both sympathetic and worried, really amused me! He was only going for a dab of this and a tablet of that. He’s young and is in very fine fettle, but I realised I’d worried the cat ladies! (But thanks for all the sympathy when I’m poorly, no really you’re just so caring.) So I took his photo for you because as I walked into Mum’s garden yesterday, to photograph the dahlias I saw him sitting under the apple tree. He was next to the shed where she was potting up hyacinth and tulip bulbs. Maybe he was being a guard cat?

This week I’m reading Ruby Wax Sane New World on my Kindle, which is why I particularly wanted to see her episode of WDYTYA. It’s interesting learning about mindfulness. And I’m also listening to the rest of the Alan Bennett plays. I feel I might need to hear A Question of Attribution again. I was marching around the countryside when I heard it and think I missed some of the nuance.

Do you listen to audio books or prefer podcasts? What are you watching on TV at the mo?

Yarning Along

If you’d like to share what you’re making and reading every Wednesday too, leave a link to your post in the comments. Don’t forget to link back to this post on your blog, and use #yarningalong on social media, so others can find us and join us in Yarning Along.

Yarning Along = yarny stuff you’re making and what you’re reading (‘a good yarn’) but let’s not get too bogged down…if you’re reading mags, gardening or recipe books that counts, as does sewing, jewellery making or whatever. Just tell us about what you are making and reading.