2011 Reading List

I've always been an avid reader, but when I developed M.E a couple of years ago I found reading incredibly difficult. This year though, I started feeling well enough to read again! :h So this year, my best friend and I decided to challenge ourselves to read 50 books in a year.

And We Both Did It!

You can see what she read in 2011 over here, and below is my 2011 reading list! ^_^

February 

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

2. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

3. The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

4. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

5. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Cheast

March 

7. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

8. The Invisible Man by H.G Wells

9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

10. Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson

11. Doggie Day Care Murder by Laurien Berenson

I had to stop reading for a couple of months because my M.E got worse

August 

12. P.S I Love You by Cecilia Ahern

13. A Place Called Here by Cecilia Ahern

October

14. The Foundling by Georgette Heyer

15. Matched by Ally Condie

16. The Declaration by Gemma Malley

17. Sylvester by Georgette Heyer

18. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

19. The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket

20. The Resistance by Gemma Malley

21. Holes by Louis Sachar

22. The Eratz Elevator by Lemony Snicket

23. Room by Emma Donoghue

24. The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket

25. The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket

26. The Carnivirous Carnival by Lemony Snicket

27. The Slippery Slow by Lemony Snicket

28. The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket

29. The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket

30. The Legacy by Gemma Malley

31. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

November 

32. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

33. TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

34. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

35. Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

36. Delirium by Lauren Oliver

37. 39 Clues by Rick Riordan

38. Surviving Antarctica by Andrea White

December

39. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

40. The End by Lemony Snicket

41. Crossed by Ally Condie

42. Warriors: The New Prophecy 'Midnight' by Erin Hunter

43. My Man Jeeves by P.G Wodehouse

44. I am Number 4 by Pittacus Lore

45. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

46. The Famous Five Run Away Together by Enid Blyton

47. The Famous Five on Finniston Farm by Enid Blyton

48. H.I.V.E by Mark Walden 

49. Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

50. No Wind of Blame

Book of the Year: TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

Worst Book of the Year: Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson 

Next year I plan to read 100 books (gasp)! So please leave me some book suggestions, as I am slowly running out of ideas. 

2012 Here We Come!!

Charlotte, Can You Beat the Cube?!

© Copyright ITV

For any of you who haven't seen the ITV Gameshow the Cube, I'll give you a quick summary. Contestants are put inside a giant cube and asked to preform deceivingly simple tasks in return for big wads of cash.

No one has ever beaten the Cube, so I thought it was time that I gave it a bash.

Now, the Cube I am attempting to conquer isn't glass panelled and fitted with slow-motion cameras. I haven't got Philip Schofield to explain things to me, and I don't have large amounts of cash to act as an incentive for me to finish.

The Cube I am attempting to beat isn't even a Cube, it's a rectangle. A small wooden rectangle, filled with colourful squishy yarn.

I sat and watched, green with envy,  Kerri over at When Did I Become a Knitter, defeat her amazing stash and get it into a lovely organised fashion. So, I decided to take on the rectangularcubething and join the ranks of knitters who have defeated the enemy that is the un-tidy, IAlwaysSeemToTripOverIt, stash.

The first task was to take all the yarn out of the metaphorical cube, and lay it on my floor in a big heap. Like so.

After getting it all out (which wasn't as easy as it looked, mark one of the Cube, deceivingly simple tasks) I put all the yarns knotted together into a pile, to try and sort it out. After looking at it, I honestly didn't want to carry on. I simply wanted to pop it all back in the rectangularcubething, and be done with it. 

But I carried on anyway.

Like Kerri, I wanted to have all my yarn logged and photographed into Ravelry, but I' still waiting for that to happen. I did though, after a day or so, manage to get my yarns untangled, sorted and popped into zip-lock bags!

I managed to un-earth the yarn vomit from months past. Even now, it still sends shivers down my spine.

I started my battle against the Cube a few months ago, and am still yet to defeat it. But, I have managed to get my stash a little tidier, and when we finish doing-up my room I'll be able to resume the fight against a tidier stash.

So even though this technically isn't a FO, go check out what other knitters and crocheters (with clean & tidy stashes) from around the world managed to finish this week.

And We're Back...

Ah, its nice to be back home. Sorry I have been away for so long, I've been quite poorly with my M.E & we've been rather busy helping out family etc :D

But, just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean I stopped on the knitting front, oh no! While my Nan was staying with me, she taught me to knit in the round! I admit I felt like bit of a knitting rockstar as I was going round, and round, and round. 

I'm on the toe section of the first sock at the moment, as my Nan is round to help at the moment, I'm really worried that I'm going to muck it all up. So I am knitting reaaaaally slowly, just encase.

The pattern I'm attempting to follow, if you were wondering, is the 2nd design from King Cole's Sox Again. I'm using Rico Design Surperba Chinee in purple, which is lovely to work with ^_^

So thats all for now, thanks for having me back :) Over the next couple of weeks I'll catch you up on all my knitty adventures and hopefully introduce some more FOs into the world ;)