The Librarian

I've made excited exclamations about the Made in France series before. I love the way they put these craft books together, the styling is beautiful, the craft ideas are gorgeous, and I'm always inspired. Cross-stitch samplers by Marjorie Massey is as stylish as all the others, and with a focus on linen, and white, blue and red, it has a distinctly french feel. I've never managed to complete a cross-stitch project (I still have the unfinished rooster I was cross stitching for my older brother's 10th birthday, and he just turned 40. I did contemplate finishing it for his birthday this year, but I decided the time had well passed since it was appropriate to give my brother a cross-stitched rooster ), but if  I ever get inspired to start a new cross-stitch project, I think I'll begin right here with one of the loose leaf patterns in this book.                    x Library Girl

I finished The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain, over a week ago, but every time I think of it my throat constricts, my eyes get smudgy, and I realise I'm still a little bit heartbroken. The story, written as fiction, and told in the voice of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife, is based on known facts about their relationship. It's a love story, but as far as love stories go, it's pretty devastating. Hadley and Ernest meet at a party in Chicago, when he is only 21, and she six years older. Each carrying sadnesses and baggage, they fall in love. They marry and move to Paris, where, spurred on by new friends such as Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, Hemingway begins to make tentative steps towards fiction writing. They become parents, he becomes famous, and they come apart. I cried. x Library Girl PS I feel abit guilty. I got a recommendation for this book from a friend, and rushed out to get it from the library. Somehow, in doing so, I actually p

I am unsettled.  I have a handful of authors who, in my opinion, can do no wrong. It's their names I rattle off when people ask who my favourites are. They are my top people. And being a bookish librarian, that says a lot. Anne Tyler has topped my list of favourite authors ever since I read Patchwork Planet a decade ago.  As John Updike describes, she "gives the mundane its beautiful due". Her work has been described as 'domestic realism' - she writes about people grappling the stuff of ordinary life, and she captures the nuances and quirks of that everyday life in such a way that we see it afresh. Her work always carries an edge of melancholy; yet her amused tone makes us smile as we read, detached and charmed, taking nothing to heart. So, when I finally had her new book, The Beginner's Goodbye , in my clutches last month, I quickly made up an excuse to spend the afternoon curled up reading. It's a slow-moving tale of a man grappling wi

 I have found the perfect company for my knitting projects this week: Lark Rise to Candleford   by Flora Thompson and Cranford   by Elizabeth Gaskell are two of my all-time favourite classic books, so it is pure happiness to snuggle and knit in front of the fire, brew of tea at my side, and watch them brought to screen in these BBC productions.  And thanks for all your enthusiasm about my helmet project...it's all finished and packaged off to it's unsuspecting recipient, and now, fired up with the excitement of accomplishment, I am starting in on another fair isle project, a pair of warm, winter socks.  I heart winter knitting. x Library Girl

I got this idea in my head about a baby's hat I wanted to make. A helmet style with an extra front flap to be fastened up with a button....and a bit of fair isle thrown in too. My freestyle knitting confidence is not peaking right now, but I knew I had to push myself to bring the idea to fruition, else I may regret it for ever . So I gathered several books from the library, and between them, and with a bit of extra experimentation thrown in, I am getting closer to the finished object. I've never done fair isle knitting before, but by following the little grids in the book Icelandic Knitting by Helene Magnusson (I guess it's not technically fair isle then? but I love it no matter!) I nutted things out, and was delighted when I saw real deal knitted snowflakes starting to form! I think I'll have to make the most of the long weekend and head down the garden with my knitting and thermos to enjoy the last of the autumnal sunshine, and finish this thing I've starte