Thursday Book Challenge: Week 8

Well, can't believe we've managed to keep going for 2 months now! I've finally started getting back into reading which is great as I finally have something to take about.

So, this week I read The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Almost 500 pages long, and I got so engrossed in it that I managed to finish it in two days. And let me tell you, it was amazing! During the first couple of pages I really wasn't sure about the concept, but once we got to Chapter 3 I was totally obsessed. It was fast-paced, scary at times and heartbreaking. Here is the summary from Shelfari.com:

"A dystopian thriller follows a boy and girl on the run from a town where all male and animal thoughts can be heard - and the passage to manhood embodies a horrible secret. Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him - something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the other females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is."

 I give this a big thumbs up, and will tell everyone to read it. I can't wait to read the sequel "The Ask & the Answer". So hopefully I'll get to read that soon.

Now, I am about to start Paycheck by Philip K. Dick, Abby has seen the film and said that we both should read the book. So I am following her advice. I haven't started it yet, so I'll tell you all about it next week. For now though, go check out the other TBC posts this week!

In Review: Celeena Cree Creations

In Review is a new section at An Accidental Knitter. Every Monday I will post a review of an Etsy Shop, Knitting Book or Yarn. If you are a Yarn Dyer or Spinner, maybe you've just released a new book or you own your own Etsy shop, then please send an email or Ravelry message and I will get back to you! 

So, this week I am reviewing the Etsy shop Celeena Cree Creations, which is ran by Cleo (she also runs a blog called Random Ramblings of Celeena Cree) 

Neon Variegated Mini Alien - £1.29 /$1.99

The shop covers a wide range of crafts. It includes crochet, knitting & cross stitch patterns. Stitch markers, buttons, jewellery. She also sells knitted aliens, bags and felted plushies. It appears the girl's crafty talents are endless.

There is no running theme through the shop, which is a shame. Despite this though the items she is selling are adorable, and very well priced. We are all going through a recession at the moment and it is nice to know that shopkeepers take note of that and adjust their prices accordingly. 

Heart Charms - 64p/99c

My favourite item in the shop, has to be the heart charms. I think they are simply adorable. Other favourites include her Mini Aliens and Rainbow Turtle Earrings.

So, all in all Ceelena Cree Creations is a sweet shop that you should definitely check out. She is also doing an offer at the moment: Purchase anything from her shop by the end of April 2012 and receive a free pattern of your choice. You can also receive a free pattern by blogging about her offers on your blog.

So, tune in next week when I'll be reviewing Knitted Dinosaurs by Tina Barrett! 

Thursday Book Challenge: Week 7

I do apologies, this post is very late again this week. I'm in a M.E& Fibro flare at the moment, so I'm not blogging, reading or knitting as much as I would like. Saying that, though, I finished another pattern for M.E Awareness Week in May. It is a fingerless mitten pattern, and they are called 'Pixie Mitts', so I'll leave you to imagine what they look like ;)

Anyway, onto TBC! This week I am reading The Returners by Gemma Malley. Gemma Malley is the author who introduced me to the dystopian genre. She did this through her series of The Declaration books. Since I loved those 3 books so much, I decided to try The Returners. 

Here is the summary from Shelfari.com for The Returners:

"London teenager Will Hodge is miserable. His mother is dead, his father’s political leanings have grown radical, and his friends barely talk to him. To top it off, he’s having nightmares about things like concentration camps. Then Will notices he's being followed by a group of people who claim to know him from another time in history. It turns out they are Returners, reincarnated people who carry with them the memory of atrocities they have witnessed in the past. Will realizes that he, too, is a Returner. But something about his memories is different, and with dawning horror, Will suspects that he wasn’t just a witness to the events, he was instrumental in making them happen. Set in the near future, with the world on the verge of a new wave of ethnic cleansing, Will must choose to confront the cruelty he's known in his past lives, or be doomed to repeat it . . . again."

My younger sister Katy loved the book. Unfortunately though, I can't stand it. For me, there is just too much talk and not enough action. You have to read just over 100 pages (which is about half of the book) to get to the real 'meat' of the story, that of The Returners. I'm just over half way through so I don't want to just stop and start another book as I'm so far through this one already. 

When I do finish this, I'm going to start The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. My friend Jazz recommended it to me (she also wrote a review of it on her blog), but then I forgot about it until my best friend Abby came across it on Shelfari. 

So, that's all from me this week. Now it's your turn! 

Knit One, Purple Two

I've been telling you that I'll be showing you my Jacket with Moss Stitch Bands and Moss Stitch Shoes for weeks now, and today I can finally show it to you (I've had to delay it until I gave them to Sara as she reads my blog)!

I bought Baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss as not only was my sister pregnant with her little girl, Daisy, at the time, but I also wanted a simple introduction to knitted garments. Which is exactly what I got. The two patterns that really stood out to me was the Jacket with Moss Stitch Bands & the Moss (seed) Stitch Shoes. So, I decided to add them to my Year of Projects list. And now I can officially say, they are finished!!

First up is the Moss Stitch Shoes. My normal go-to Baby Booties pattern is Baby Booties by Aneeta Patel, so I decided to go for something that requires some 'real' knitting. I chose to knit these booties in Peter Pan DK by Wendy, in the Purple (3003) colourway. The yarn is 60% Acrylic and 40% Nylon, so it's perfect for banging in the wash which is just want you need for baby knits. The yarn is plied with sparkly thread, which adds a bit of depth to the yarn. (If you remember, I used the yarn to make Abby's Faye Purse) Really nice to knit with, and will definitely buy it again in the future.

So, onto the pattern. It was pretty simple, I did have to learn a new technique called KFB (Knit Front Back) which is going to be really useful for the future. They knitted up really quickly, the only problem I had with them was the sewing up.... As you know, I am not known for my sewing up skills. But, I persevered and managed to create something slightly resembling a shoe.

I probably won't knit them ever again, but at least I took a stab at it.

So, I've saved the best 'til last. I am so proud with this one, I must admit. It is my first ever garment, and the pattern is called Jacket with Moss Stitch Bands. I stared at the pattern for a while, and thought I would never be able to knit it. But, once I started knitting it everything made sense. Which just proves that I shouldn't just give up simply because I 'think' I can't do something, I need to give it a go first.

I used Heart Buttons, which also had little Daisy's on them.

So for the cardigan, I used Peter Pan DK by Wendy, in the Purple (3003) colourway. The cardigan is really simple, just stocking stitch with moss stitch on the right and left hand side. Thanks to this pattern, I learnt how to pick up & knit properly. I'm not sure what I was doing prefer, but it was definitely wrong. Now, though, I can do it well, which just adds to the 'proper finish' that all us knitters are after.

We went to tea at my sister's house on Friday, so I took my little knitted gifts with me. Sara & I did a trade, I gave her Daisy's presents and she gave me home-made peanut butter cups (which were amazing). Which I thought was very fair.

My gorgeous niece, Daisy. 

I was really worried that it'd be too small (she has just turned 6 months, so I knitted her the 6-9 months size), or that the sleeves would fall off, or something awful like that. But, not only did Daisy look adorable, it fitted and nothing fell off in the process of putting it on. Hooray!

So now I can put a line through those two projects on my new Year of Projects page, I just have to decide what to knit next. I have had a fiddle round with my list, added and changed a couple of patterns. So feel free to have a look at my new and shiny list, and pop a suggestion on what I should knit next!!

For now though, head on over to the Year of Projects group for this weeks finishes. Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks!

P.S, thanks to my best friend Abby from Virtual Stitch, for coming up with the post title. Bagwoman to the rescue once again, saving the blogging world from bad blog titles. You rock dude ;) 

Thursday Book Challenge: Week 6

So sorry that is post is sooo late. I've had a pretty rough day. Anyway, I'm not feeling up to writing so here is the Mr Linky for you all to share your TBC posts. Looking forward to reading them :) Sorry again, and will have a proper update next week! 

A Lazy Blogger

So today I thought I would have a go at doing my first vlog post. If you aren't able to watch videos, you can head on over to my Ravelry Project page to see what I have been working on this week. Once you've finished, head on over to Tami's for more WIP Wednesday fun! :)

Thursday Book Challenge: Week 5

Last week I told you all about H.I.V.E: The Overlord Protocol by Mark Walden. I did finish it, and it was great. He may have nicked a couple of story lines from Star Wars, but I still loved it. 

After finishing H.I.V.E book 2, I moved onto The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore. It's the second book in the Lorien Legacies series. The first book, I am Number 4, was brilliant. Full of action, drama and aliens. The second book, though, has been a bit of a let down. Well, no, quite a let down. If I'm brutally honest, the first 250 pages were like watching paint dry. The 3 star rating I gave it on Shelfari was due to the last 30 pages, which were very exciting. Despite all this, though, I am looking forward to the third book, The Rise of Nine, which is due out on the 21st August.

At the moment I am reading 39 Clues: The False Note (book 2) by Gordon Korman. I needed something lightweight to read, and 39 Clues delivers just that. Here is the description to the first book, 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan.

'Minutes before she died Grace Cahil changed her will, leaving her descendants an impossible decision: "You have a choice - one million dollars or a clue." Grace is the last matriarch of the Cahils, the world's most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahils, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 clues hidden around the world will reveal the family's secret, but no one has been able to assemble them. Now the clues race is on, and young Amy & Dan must decide what's important: hunting clues or uncovering what really happened to their parents.'

Each book contains a new clue, and a new adventure. They are also written by a new writer. This second book, The False Note, is written so much better than the first, and I really hope that Gordon Korman has written more than one in the 39 book series.

So, now it is over to you! 

The Tiger that Came to Tea

Today ladies & jellybeans, I have something very different to share with you. Today, I bring you Marmalade!!

I don't think I need words for this post. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking.

And I don't mean to boast... but it's deeeelicious!!! :D If you want to make your own, this is the recipe we used. Highly recommend it. It's cheaper than buying all that marmalade, is lots of fun, and really easy to make!

I've finished Daisy's cardigan, and can't wait to show you all. But, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until Sunday!

For now though, head on over to FO Friday at Tami's Amis & Other Creations, Fibre Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder and Creative Friday at Natural Surburbia!

Have a fab weekend!! x

Thursday Book Challenge: Week 4

I can't believe we're at week 4 already, the weeks have just flown by! Anyway, this week I've been busy knitting so my reading has received very little attention. So I'm afraid its a very short update from me today!

So this week I am reading H.I.V.E: The Overlord Protocol (book 2) by Mark Walden. I found this series last year while surfing Shelfari, a wonderful book website that you really should check out, you can make your own profile and keep track of what you've read so far this year (I'm Berri on the site), anyway, I really enjoyed the first book H.I.V.E and had to know what happened next to these wonderful characters.

H.I.V.E (The Higher Institute of Villainous Education) is a school dedicated to training and educating the villains and sidekicks of the future. The children that are kidnapped brought to the school are elite; they are the most athletic, the most technically advanced, the smartest and most cunning child villains in the world. The books follow Otto Malpense, an orphan who ran the orphanage where he lived and also managed to trick the Prime Minister of England. When brought to the island he teams up with althetic martial-arts expert Wing Fanchu, spunky computer expert Laura Brand and diamond thief Shelby Trinity.

In the second book, The Overlord Protocol, Otto and Wing are shipped off to Tokyo to attend Wing's father's funeral. Little to do they know that they have been tricked by super-villain and council member Cypher, who is planning to use Otto and Wing to retrieve the Overlord Protocol, a device that will help him take over the world.

I'm not very far into the book, but I am enjoying the storyline so far. Looking forward to seeing the story progress and seeing how Otto and Wing handle the situation they have been thrown into.

So, that is what I'm reading this week, now its over to you. To take part, write your own Thursday Book Challenge post, telling us what you're reading this week and how you're getting on. When you're finished, pop back over here and put the link to your post in the Mr. Linky below. We'd also love it if you'd visit the other participants posts and leave a comment or two.