I recently discovered an inspiring knitting-related blog and handmade shop called Small Things, written by Ginny. I’m new to the party, I know, but I hopped onto Small Things yesterday and found her post on her Yarn Along initiative, which seems to be quite a thing that I’ve been oblivious to. Knitters and crocheters share what they’re knitting and what they’re reading. So often a knitting fan is also a reading fan, don’t you find? It’s a shame the two hobbies are hard to do simultaneously! Well, I find it hard to do both at the same time. Does anyone out there read and knit together happily?

What I’m Knitting

So here’s my contribution. At the moment knitting-wise, I’m working my way through an edging stitch dictionary called Knitting on the Edge by Nicky Epstein, swatching whatever stitch takes my fancy. I’m finding the book quite delicious – I want to try them all! Actually I’m planning to do a book review for you of this book once I’ve explored it some more, so be on the lookout for that. The edging I’m working on right now is called Blooming Flower which creates cute, large flowers using bobbles as petals.

What I’m Reading

 

My evening read at the moment is called The Happiness Trap Pocketbook by Dr Russ Harris and Bev Aisbett. It is also marketed as The Illustrated Happiness Trap, and you can get a copy here. This book and the therapy approach underlying it is big Big BIG in psychologist land (for those of you who are new here, I’m a psychologist taking some time out to be a stay-at-home mum), and is pretty popular for the general public too. Very briefly, the principle behind it is that instead of doing what we always get told, to “be happy”, and to “think positive”, we can learn to accept negative emotions and thoughts and not spend all our energy trying to suppress them, and in doing so have the time and energy to do what we value. The Happiness Trap Pocketbook summarises the principles behind the theory using easy-to-read comic strips. It’s a companion to a book called The Happiness Trap (which I also own) which is similar but with more detail and no pictures. Both books are worth a read, whether you’re feeling good or not. There are some useful skills in there that more people could benefit from knowing.

 

Please join in Ginny’s Yarn Along! Check it out here. It looks like fun and I’m going to try to do it every month.

 

Peace,

Kat

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