Random Five for 2013

Image from theweeklystitch.com

Well, this really is a random list in the truest sense of the word - my random five of things I'm loving in these first couple of days of 2013. First up, craft, craft and more craft. This year, I am really going to put some effort into improving my skills in the craft department. Buoyed with some confidence after mastering purl stitch, I've now decided I want to make a blanket composed of knitted squares, each one a different stitch. Moss stitch is first cab off the rank because I love it. I was given a voucher for a gorgeous local wool shop (Sunspun - http://www.sunspun.com.au) so I think a yarn purchasing trip may be in order...

Image from purlbee.com

In a similar vein, I am loving doing some embroidery and really want to polish my skills there too. I can sew but at the moment I tend to be a little slipshod. My needle-handy grandma would not have approved. I loved watching the work done recently by the Royal School of Needlework on The Manor Reborn. Feeling quite inspired.

Image from acmi.com.au

After watching The Mystery of Edwin Drood last night, I am in love with Charles Dickens all over again and I'm prepared to tackle his books afresh this year. I have a talking book of Bleak House on order at the local library to keep me company while I stitch...

Image from moominmoments on tumblr

I had certainly heard of the Moomins but I didn't know much about them beyond that. I read Moominland Midwinter over Christmas and absolutely adored it. I am now halfway through Moominpappa at Sea. So beautiful. They're children's books on one level, but there are all sorts of other levels at work too. They remind me very much of the Winnie-the-Pooh books or The Little Prince.

 Image from fanpop

And I am back in love with all things Japanese, especially things Japanese of the Kawaii ('cute') variety. I have always loved anything with a face, especially when something improbable is given a face - like a tomato! And so I am stockpiling Japanese craft books - so much wonderful kawaii embroidery! I am thinking another visit to Japan may be on the cards...cherry blossom season would be lovely.

So what's your random five this week? 

Looking up at the stars, and seeing the clouds pass over them in their wild flight

Charles Dickens would have been 200 years old today. His novels are so dense, so intricate, but I am growing to love them. You might remember the BBC's latest adaptation of Little Dorrit. I thoroughly enjoyed it and as much as people often complain about adaptations, I credit it with bringing me back to Dickens after some torturous experiences when I was studying Victorian literature as an undergrad many moons ago.



For some reason, whenever I think of Dickens, I think of knitting. In fact, whenever I think of the Victorians generally, I think of knitting. There are all sorts of lovely Victorian knitting patterns floating around on the Internet so if you are so inclined, I highly recommend this site - http://historicneedlecrafts.blogspot.com.au/ I bought a gorgeous pattern for a cape shawl first designed in Edwardian Scotland from Debby's Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnittyDebby) a couple of weeks ago.

When the wind is blowing

The Dorrit family, as depicted by the BBC. Image from http://thebookchild.blogspot.com/

Dear Amy Dorrit. Image from http://bbc.co.uk

Why don't more men wear top hats? Little Dorrit's Arthur Clennam. Image from http://listal.com

The original Little Dorrit cover, not in glorious technicolour. Image from http://dickenslit.com

When the wind is blowing and the sleet or rain is driving against the dark windows, I love to sit by the fire, thinking of what I have read in books...
~ Charles Dickens

Our lovely Spring weather seems to have taken a little holiday. High winds are swirling dramatically around today and it is getting cooler every hour. Apparently thunderstorms, rain and cooler weather is on its way. All this has put me in mind of doing some more reading. I have lately resolved to read more for the sake of my own creative writing efforts and even - dare one say - to improve my mind lest it be permanently corroded by the dross on TV. So I am thinking that I really need to wrap my head around the classics. As I may have mentioned before, I studied English Literature at high school and uni but always in that studenty-how-much-can-I-skip-and-still-get-by kind of way. Especially when I was faced with Victorian-era novels. Dombey and Son. Middlemarch. Oh my.

But now I want to read them. Yet where to start? I love period dramas on TV (and I especially loved Little Dorrit) but...the books never seem to be like the series! I know! Sacrilege! Clever people, I know, always complain that ~sniff~ the series was nowhere near as good as the book. But I must just be a very visual person. Or a very unimaginative person. But I very rarely find that that very life that a good period drama seems to bring to these historical tales can be found in its original pages. Or perhaps I am just a complete drip. That's a possibility too.

So where should I start, do you think? I have Vanity Fair, Great Expectations, Middlemarch, Little Dorrit and Jane Eyre waiting for me on my bedside table. I'd love your recommendations. If you're in the middle of something, why don't we read it together and have our own little book club, even.

Thieving Tuesday

I'm being a bit of a web bandit today. Librarygirl over at Living in the kingdom of too much has posted two things lately which I have keenly seized upon and bring to you today. The first is a list of unread (and half-read) books which are lurking around my living room at the moment (http://www.livinginthekingdomoftoomuch.com/2011/08/heres-my-list-of-un-read-books.html) I really do want to read them but in the evenings I find my attention is distracted by knitting, stitching or that great evil of mind-numbingness...the tv. So, in no particular order, here is what I am yet to get to -

Robert Rankin, The hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse (half-read)
Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim
Geraldine Brooks, March
Ronald Hayman, The death and life of Sylvia Plath
Avi, The Mayor of Central Park

Not to mention the books that call to me from the bookshelves every time I walk past -

Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit
Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

And the book that went all the way to Scandinavia and didn't get read (how was I distracted by tv in a language I don't understand??) -

P.C. Cast, Goddess of Legend

The other thing is this gorgeous item which I have coveted ever since seeing it on the dear Miss Amy Dorrit in the recent BBC series Little Dorrit. Now (and then) referred to as a Sontag, in the 19th century it was also rather sweetly called a bosom friend -




Librarygirl has very kindly included the link to the pattern she used - http://www.livinginthekingdomoftoomuch.com/2011/07/little-team-that-could.html. As a novice knitter I am freaking out at the sight of this pattern ever so slightly but I'll give it a go because I so want one! And just to get me (and you!) in the mood, here is the beautiful opening theme from the recent tv version of Little Dorrit -

Victoriana

Image from www.divinecaroline.com

I am currently enamoured with all things Victorian. I especially like the twist the Steampunk trend puts on it - Victorian but with a modern edge. Not quite so serious as the original Victorian look, in other words.

This is an original illustration from Dickens' Little Dorrit. Image from www.victorianweb.org

Tying in neatly with that, I am currently watching with considerable joy the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit. Has anyone else seen it? It is beautifully done with an appealling delicacy of touch and just the right tinge of melancholy. It may even persuade me to try Dickens again after my unsuccessful attempts to read Dombey and Son as an English Lit undergrad many years ago.

Would I have wanted to live in the Victorian Age? Probably not, as Little Dorrit very clearly illustrates as the title character lives out in her life in a 'Debtor's Prison' - social decline and disgrace meant far more than having to send the TV to a pawn shop. But I do find this very precise and symbolically rich look very interesting.