WHERE and WHAT (a general update)

This title, of course, means WHERE have I been and WHAT have I been doing? Two questions I shall answer in short order.

I have been in London. Simply in London. No travels - more's the pity - trying (and failing) to conserve all of my hard won pennies. And I have been knitting and reading and (wait for it...) writing! These are three things that, for the most part, I cannot do at the same time. Once again, more's the pity.

Since the last knitting update, I finished a cute pair of socks for my sister and an even cuter pair of socks for myself. Sorry, sister, this is what results of my art maturing. I'm proud of both of them and I figured out the lace patterns for them on the fly.* Now I'm in a bit of a knittery rut. The next person on my list is my sister's old housemate - close enough that she is pretty much like another sister to us all. And what she has asked for is either a onesie or a dress. New knitting policy** dictates that she can have neither of these things at the current moment and so what she is getting is... a pair of socks! Sadly, I don't think she'll particularly want cute socks, so I'm trying to figure out trainer socks instead. Of course, the sensible thing to do would be to scour the internet for helpful patterns, but I want to give it a good shot on my own, first. Yes, I've put myself in for more frogging, more finger ache. But I still love every second of it.

Next up, reading. I have read three books and three books only since the last update. A children's book (You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum) which I have never mentioned before and may never mention again; the collection of Tove Jansson short stories that my boyfriend gave to me and Odinsbarn. Reser med lätt bagage (Travelling Light)was gorgeous, as is to be expected. But I definitely preferred Sommarboken. Reser med lätt bagage was a bit more melancholy and a bit less hopeful, and it weighed me down somewhat. That being said, I particularly loved 'Främmande stad' ('Strange town'), 'Skogen' ('The forest') and 'Växthuset' ('The greenhouse'). The book became top priority so that I could lend it on to a friend. And then, Odinsbarn. Odinsbarn, Odinsbarn, Odinsbarn. I won't go into to details here, because this book will be getting it's own post. But I absolutely loved and adored it, and I am gutted that I will likely be unable to get my hands on the second book in the series before the end of next month. Please excuse me while I sob.

Finally, the writing. July was camp NaNo, and during that month I did the writing. I didn't reach the target of 10,000 words, but I never expected to. That was simply the lowest target available. However I did write a good 5900-something words. In Swedish. That is the longest single thing I have written in Swedish to date, and I am quite proud of myself. It's a story about goddesses who don't know that they're goddesses and it also contains deserts and rain-forests. Excerpts may be posted on Kaffee und Kuchen, but that depends on me getting them corrected and then on my translating them. There will be a lot of planning to be done for this story, although I advise you not to hold your breath for that here or on K&K - the story refuses to be planned at current, because it is insisting that I write it first.

My Currently Reading List of Doom is down to only 18 books! This feels fantastic! I'm not quite sure what to do next. Do I give in to the temptations of one of the many as-yet-unstarted books, or do I continue cutting down? Choices, choices...

Happy reading, happy knitting!
Little Newman

*Something I think I will NEVER do again. A nightmare of frogging and sore fingers at ridiculous times, such as two am or three minutes before a hospital appointment.
**Every second make will be for myself. Next up is a hat, or maybe some mittens...