February....

As a helpful reminder to myself, this is what I need to do in February....

Thrifty Knitters Sock Club - Sydney in Panda Cotton Multi

Sock a Month - Pair of Socks (may try two at a time again for this as I am SICK of second sock syndrome - I just can't be bothered to knit the second one!)

Sock Stash Elimination Campaign - One of Mama Monkey's patterns, not sure which one yet.

I also need to finish one of these A Bettna cardigan in Noro Kureyon - this is the shade I am using and I have had it in my cupboard for about 10 months!
I only have one Sleeve/Body Panel left to go and then it's on to the sewing up.

And January's projects? Well I managed to complete Sock a Month and SSEC challenges but failed miserably in the Thrifty Knitters Sock Club. I completed 1 Cabletini sock and here it is. I like the colour but I got SO BORED with the little cables going round and round and round that I just can't face doing it again. So I think I will be frogging it and moving on to February's Pattern instead.

On the reading front I completed Notes From an Exhibition by Patrick Gale - excellent, really enjoyed it, Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones - truly dreadful, I wish I'd never read it but I can't tell you why without spoiling the plot, Visible World by Mark Slouka - OK but no great shakes and there are some pretty graphic passages about Nazi treatment of Jews during the Second World War that were not exactly bedtime reading, The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon - would have been very good but it really falls apart at the end, none of the main characters is resolved and you are just left hanging nad guess what? this book also has lots of graphic description of the horrors of the Crimean War!!. The latest book I read was Random acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann which was good but not quite as good as Notes from an Exhibition. This is another book on the list with lots of gruesome stuff, mostly about the First World War and those bits really upset me. I got through to the end though and it has a very good, if somewhat predictable, ending.

I'm glad I'm following the list as I have read books I wouldn't otherwise touch with a bargepole but why, oh why, do almost all of them have to be about the horrors of war? Four out of the six contain pages and pages of human misery - now I'm no fan of light-hearted chick lit but I don't want to be reading such miserable stuff just as I'm about to go to bed, especially when you know that the books have been really well researched and that all the suffering really happened.

In February I have a Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J.Ellory and 2 others on order from the library so I'll probably have to dip into the pile of unopened books by the bed just to keep me going through the month.