Retail Recklessness

Last week a local charity shop was offering 5 paperbacks for £1 and whilst I have plenty of reading material, including several boxes that Mr FF has stored in the loft, I couldn't resist a handful.

When I got home and had a good look through my selection I did realise that I already had one of the books on my shelf.  Anyway I made some good progress, enjoyed reading a couple and returned them and the duplicate to the charity shop.  I then embarked on another which seemed rather familiar and when after a couple of chapters I checked my book of books read it was on the list from several years ago. Fortunately I started this system of recording years ago because quite honestly as soon as a book is finished most of it just disappears from my memory, including the title obviously.

Then the lovely people at Kemps were offering Red Heart sock yarn in red or charcoal at just 99p for 100 g and some how 9 balls quickly arrived at the penthouse.  This perhaps isn't quite as bad as it seems because I have signed up for a Made in Yorkshire craft fair at the local primary school at the end of the month.  I'm not sure how this will turn out, the craft fairs I have been to in the town, at a church and the community centre, have been dreadful.  Nothing I would ever want to buy, knitters offering neon acrylic baby clothes for about £2 each and an almost unpleasant atmosphere.  The school fair will have various activities for Easter, egg painting,  a cafe etc not unlike the fairs I used to attend in Scotland so I'm feeling fairly hopeful.  Besides, no one will know me, if I am an abject failure at least I shall have tried (to get rid of the rather large bag of finished items that is in the spare bedroom and which to I keep adding).

February reductions

I really have been eating up the stash, socks, scarves, wash clothes, I've posted off gifts of finished items and put some yarn into the charity shop.  I have gone from a large wicker hamper and a wooden chest plus the bottom of the airing cupboard's worth of wool to just the first two containers that are now less than crammed full.  The fact we don't have an airing cupboard here might have been the incentive to move so much yarn.

However, I had a slight back when I sorted out some balls of New Lanark dk that I'd bought previously in packs of 10 x 50g balls direct from the mill which wasn't so far from where we lived.  I'd made Mr FF a couple of jumpers and had enough balls left over to knit another one. The yarn came in plastic bags, one of which had disappeared, with no ball bands or indication of dye lots and in my innocence I assumed they were all the same. 

I happily knitted away in front of the telly in the evenings and it wasn't until I was blocking the pieces in daylight that I realised there is a slight variation in colour. If I'd realised I could have made the sleeves in one shade the body in the other but in fact I have produced an interesting patchwork effect.   It's not that noticeable, I'm sure we will get away with it and Mr FF isn't in the slightest bit concerned he's just pleased to have another warm jumper.

I then had a downsizing set back this week when two of my local charity shops were selling books for 50p. I had been making good progress reading and returning my paperbacks but this price cut represents about 20 cm of shelf space and a couple of months of reading.  Great bargains in a good cause how could I not bring them home.

Breaking all my rules

You know what a stoic I am, how I insist on one knitting project at a time and once I start a book I have to finish it. Well not any more.

I started reading this last week. I got to page 70 something and still had no idea what it was about, might as well have been reading it in Danish, totally impenetrable.  I complained to Mr FF last night that I was getting nowhere with it and wise old engineer he said 'life's too short to read a book you are not enjoying'.  True.  So today its gone into the charity bag and I'll find another in the bookcase that I'm trying so hard to empty.  

I decided to step out of the knitting comfort zone of socks scarves etc and tackle this.  Its the patchwork aran jacket from Debbie Bliss's Family Knits.  The patterns is in double knit cotton but I'm attempting it using British Breeds Yarn's Swaledale Aran, worsted spun in Yorkshire from 100% pure new British wool, that is pleasingly hairy and slightly oily. I've adjusted the needle size and its working fine, except that I'm not sure if my 10 x 100g balls will be enough and whether I'll be able to get more of the same shade, the wool isn't dyed but sheep come in varying shades, I know that.  I intend to get a bit further with the back. decide how I feel about the cardy and then speak to the manufacturers if I want to continue.

 

Its quite a complicated design, the clue is in the name, switching round the various patterns which have different number of rows, so it requires great concentration and is not the thing to tackle whilst watching anything demanding on tv.  When I take a break from the aran I don't know what to do with my hands so to retain my sanity I've also cast on a pair of plain socks.

Then there's the rule of not bring more stuff into the house, sadly that will go out of the window when my parcel arrives. Yesterday I was at a Boden party in the village, it was so much fun.  You got to see and try on the clothes before you decided, whilst enjoying good coffee and cake, there was discount on the catalogue price and the first 30 customers got a free gift, a pretty scarf.   I went looking for a new swimming costumer but ordered a dress, two tops and a bag, all in bright colours and slightly different to my normal style which is good I think.  Pam was with me and we seemed to select several identical items so now I need to find a new friend for the summer or we'll be going out looking like twins.  
All the rules are out of the window, who said old folk don't like change, well me actually. 

I'm not paranoid but

The other morning I answered the home phone to a recorded message allegedly from my credit card company saying that there had been unauthorised use of my card and I needed to press 2 to be put through to the fraud department. I assumed it was a scam as I often get calls saying that there is a virus on my computer, that I should log on and follow some instructions to get rid of it, yeah right. (The last time we got one of these virus scam calls we asked the caller if he could give us a 12 digit log on code and answer some security questions, he hung up shortly after that.) While I was wondering what to do the next part of recorded message said it was urgent that I call them on an 0845 number. I put the phone down and checked the contact numbers for the company on their website, they were all 0885. Later I mentioned this to Mr FF who said he'd had a similar recorded call ages ago to verify a genuine overseas use of his card and that it probably was OK.If I hadn't that same morning finished this book I might not have been so suspicious but having read this fast paced insight into the world of hackers who infiltrate police and government computers and use social engineering to commit murder, a book full of bluff and double bluff, I might not have been so concerned. The phone rang again later and this time Mr FF answered, went through the button pushing process and eventually got a real person, who he passed to me. This person listed the last 5 transactions on my card, two for about £1,000, one for £450 and 2 for less than £20. The last 2 were mine (obviously) and had been accepted, the others which had fortunately been declined by the credit card company were definitely not mine. The call centre person offered to cancel my card and send me a new one within 5 working days but again I wasn't sure if this was genuine so I said I'd prefer to call the credit company rather than act on a call that I couldn't verify. He was pleasant enough and suggested I ring the customer care number on the back of my card.
So I made my own call, got through to the fraud department again, went through some security questions was given exactly the same information and again the offer of cancelling my existing card immediately and waiting for a new one, which this time I agreed to. Bad enough that some scum has used my credit card details, the attempted purchases were for a UK mail order fashion company, a UK printing company and some organisation in India, but even worse that I felt I couldn't trust the person who phoned to help me. I really don't want to feel that they are all out to get me, it was a good book though.

I've always been a borrower

I truly fell in love with books soon after I started school. Our teacher used to read to us every afternoon, I remember Little Grey Rabbit and Beatrix Potter's tales but Black Beauty by Anna Sewell is the one that got me completely hooked. Books became requested at birthdays and Christmas with the Famous Five and the Secret Seven featuring largely.
In the 1960s there was no public library in our area, my senior school had a collection of very old books that was never added to and in our village the vicar's wife kindly allowed locals to borrow her books simply by calling round on a Friday teatime to make a selection, mainly from a large number of historical novels.

I remember my delight as a teenager when a purpose built library opened in my local town, I signed up straight away and as I've moved around I've always had library membership. Working in Edinburgh I had access to an amazing choice of local authority lending, from the cavernous central library within walking distance of my office to a wonderful little neighbourhood library just round the corner that I visited several times a week. When I finished work it really wasn't feasible to keep borrowing and taking books back without a lengthy car journey so eventually I stopped. I have lots of books in the house, cookery, gardening, knitting of course and I had before I retired built up a selection of paperbacks mainly sourced from charity shops. I read and return these but I've noticed this year that all the prices seem to have increased. Where I could find 50p novels they are now probably £1.50 or more and some shops are pricing their books individually, based on who knows what. Personally I think this is a bad idea, I know I can afford to pay the asking price for a book but at 50p each I'd happily take a handful risking authors I didn't recognise and often finding some real treasures.
So with all the talk of library closures due to local authority budget cuts and despite there not being (currently) any threatened library loss in our area I decided I needed to show my support by using a library again. Our nearest one is part of a new leisure complex and about 25 minutes drive away but I can combine visits with a big shop. I went in to sign up earlier this week and even though I don't live in the Council area I was welcomed and quickly enrolled so that I could withdraw books immediately. I'm pleased to report that the place was buzzing, not just borrowers but lots of people using the computers and a children's after school reading session taking place. Back home and pleased with my selection I went on line to browse the catalogue and have reserved three knitting books that will come from other branches, excellent.

I hope you love and use your local library and that it isn't under threat, I know there are huge and varied demands on limited public spending at the moment but the provision of access to knowledge and literature surely should never be considered as dispensable.

Literary Review 2007

I really don't like the way the colour supplements at this time of year cop out with a review of the year, a year in pictures, this year A to Z etc. These articles are obviously written well in advance, I read one on Benazzir Bhuto that made no mention of her recent and shocking assassination though it was published several days after. I appreciate that journalists are entitled to their holidays too but I do resent paying full price for half a newspaper and an annual review.
Having said that, I now offer a review of my own fiction reading this year.
I used to think I didn't read enough so I started recording each book as I finished it and was surprised and pleased to find that I read at least 24 books a year. I won't bore you with the full list but some of my favourite and regular authors are Anne Tyler, Helen Dunmore, Rose Tremain and Margaret Atwood. I keep the list in my diary and rate the books with a system of ticks. The voting this year had my top three as follows
1 We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver. A beautifully written, harrowing and haunting story that I read in January and is still with me
2 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
3 The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Some books are so good I cannot part with them (usually paperbacks go to friends or charity shops), these three are still in the bookcase with some favourites from previous years that I may or may not read again but I need to own.
I'm already into my first 2008 book which is Mother, Missing by Joyce Carol Oates. She is an American author I have read and enjoyed several times and this book is no exception. I'm also delving in and out of The Gentle Art of Domesticity by my blogging/crafting heroine Jane Brocket, who never fails to inspire me to craft and tidy up.
We are all taking it easy today, reading, knitting and dozing in front of the stove, its heaven and good preparation for 2008, my retirement year.