I am such a copycat. Stealing a good idea from Ms Spikeygirl I'm going to list my Best of 2004


Most Worn Knit of 2004: Tricot

Honourable mention: Lara – I’ve worn this lots it’s so versatile. My only regret is that I knitted it with yarn recycled from an old sweater instead of the spanking new yarn that it deserves. I’ll be rectifying this if I ever finish the current 2 items on the needles.

Best Read of 2004: I’ve read some excellent books this year but to come top of the list it has to be more than a good story. The prose has to be as good as the storyline so that I’m enjoying the use of words as much as the story itself. This was a difficult decision so much so that 2 books came out top. They are:

“Touching The Void” by Joe Simpson. This is simply an awe-inspiring book. You’ve just got to read it.

“Fergus Lamont” by Robin Jenkins. You will dislike the main character but that does not stop you wanting to find out how his life turns out. Great use of Scottish prose. I nearly didn’t select this as a “Best Read of 2004” as I didn’t find the ending all that satisfactory but the more I thought of it the more I found the ending to be apt to the book. The book is the memoirs of Fergus Lamont written by an old man in ill-health so of course he’s bound to die before he dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts and is going to leave unanswered questions.

The runner’s up (in no particular order) are:

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger . This came highly-recommended by Ms Spikey so much so that she even bought me a copy so that I’d read it. I read it while I was on holiday in Chicago this summer so that added a new dimension to the book.

“The Perks of being A Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky. This could have been the winner. A great little book but sadly let down by the ending.


Author Discovery of the Year : Robin Jenkins. I’ve read 5 novels by him this year and not one of them was a disappointment.

Best Film of 2004: I don’t go to the cinema so all the films I watch are on DVD. I enjoyed “Cold Mountain”, “I am Sam” and “Mystic River”. Also I was pleasantly surprised by “The Butterfly Effect”.

Best film of the year though goes to the documentary “Touching The Void”. It did justice to the book.

Music Discovery of 2004: I used to buy quite a lot of CDs but over the past couple of years music has become less important in my life. I much prefer to stick on a DVD and watch a film while knitting. One new singer I discovered this year was Jann Arden and that was thanks to the knitting blogs. Indigirl Amy linked to Jann Arden way back before the summer and I followed the link , listened to some samples, liked what I heard and bought 4 of her CDs – two of which I play constantly in the car. So, thank you Amy.

Sometimes I'm amazed by my own stupidity. Chocolate gives me a migraine but I can eat a certain amount before it causes a headache. So, it was suggested to me that perhaps good quality 82% organic chocolate wouldn't cause a headache. 6 little squares spread throughout the day on Saturday has led to a massive 3 day migraine. At least now I know for sure that it's the cocoa in the chocolate that causes the headaches.I have managed to do some knitting though. I've been switching between 3 projects the socks, the sleeve and the koigu scarf. None of them are finihed yet ut I've high hopes that the scarf will be finished before Christmas.

I've done an embarrasing little amount of knitting in the past week that the sleeve to the Consuela sweater is not worth posting. I did start a sock though:

Not sure of the pattern but I'll persevere with it. Speaking off socks check out Rebecca's post of the 16th for a photo of some socks I knitted.
I've been reading more than knitting this month. Finished:
"Scott and Amundsen" by Roland Huntford
"That Summer" by Andrew Greig
and am a good way through "Fergus Lamont" by Robin Jenkins

Wow, where has the week gone? I've hardly done anything this week. I've knit 19 rows of a sleeve, read half a book and that's it. The only thing I've achieved is to make the house look more of a tip than it did on Sunday evening. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow - yeah knitting, there's still a path after all from the sofa to the kitchen through all the junk ;-)

Yet more cold weather gear:


The mitten pattern is the Gifted mitt pattern from Kate (see previous entry for link - I'm feeling to lazy to link!!)

Bring it on. I'm ready for Arctic weather:

Quick mitts:



Each mitt only took an evening to knit and sew up. I can see some more of these in my future. I used Kate Gilbert's Gifted pattern. I wanted to felt the mitts as I was needing something that would stand up to the rigours of Scottish hillwalking. I knit the man's size using Emu Chunky II which is a thick 'n' thin yarn (so it definitely needed to be felted if these mitts were going to be warm). I used this yarn for the Gatsby sweater that I knit last year. I used the size of needles recommended in the pattern but next time I'll go down a needle size.
These mitts are really warm I wore them this morning while I was scraping the ice off the windscreen.

I'm sure you've all been asking yourself the question - did she finish 9 books in a month? And the answer is yes:
"Two Moons" by Jennifer Johnston
described as one of Ireland's finest writers she has written quite a few novels and has won some major prizes. This was the first book I've read by her and it was an okay book. It hasn't given me the urge to go out and buy some more of her books. I would also not rate this as a book as worthy of taking up my limited shelf-space so once my mum has read it I'll be selling it Amazon? It's only about 240 pages long but I thought it was 50 pages too long. It just seemed to go on in the same vein without adding anything new to the storyline.
How many books will I be reading in December?