Literature Inspired Knits

When looking around on Knitty the other day for some knitting inspiration, I noticed there were a lot of knits around that were inspired by literature. I've always been a voracious reader, and pairing my love of reading with one of my other loves, knitting, is definitely right up my alley. I collected a few of my favourites for you to enjoy!

Middlemarch 

This Middlemarch sweater from Knitty is fantastic--it's nicely shaped, and the lace detail is amazing and pretty. I love the reasoning behind the creation of this sweater: "Named for George Eliot’s great Victorian novel, this sweater marries Rosamond’s longing for novelty and fashion with Dorothea’s practical and egalitarian edge. Structural and feminine, it features an avant garde approach to lace."

                                                         

Pride and Prejudice

The second edition of Jane Austen knits also came out this summer, and the pattern for Miss Bingley's feathered head wrap is so cute--it's the perfect head wrap for a character like Miss Bingley as she was busy scheming against Jane in Pride and Prejudice.

Anne of Green Gables 

I mentioned the other week that I did a re-reading of all of the Anne of Green Gables books, and this hat inspired by the lush countryside and walks along Lover's Lane (the pattern is even called Lover's Lane) may make me do a bit of a nerdy dance. I love the colour too!

Little Women 

This knit inspired by one of my favourite books ever, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, is an amazing hooded shawl, called Jo's Pride. If you're not familiar with the book, Jo's pride is generally referred to in the book as her hair, which she cuts off and sells at one point in the story to help her family. At any rate, I definitely wouldn't mind keeping my head warm with this hooded shawl!

♥ Craftzilla

Socialpunk Review : Blog Tour & Giveaway

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of Socialpunk in return for participation in this blog tour, but all opinions are my own.



Monica Leonelle is a well-known digital media strategist and the author of three novels. She blogs at Prose on Fire and shares her writing and social media knowledge with other bloggers and authors through her Free Writer Toolkit. Her most recent book, Socialpunk, is the first in the Socialpunk trilogy, and I recently got a chance to preview the book.

 Socialpunk begins by placing you in the middle of the unfamiliar world of a vision of Chicago in the future, contained with "The Dome" which protects its citizens from the effects of the Scorched Years, and ultimately cuts off the citizens from the rest of the world. The plot centres around Ima or "E", a teenage girl who's in love with her best friend Dash with whom she has a complicated relationship, and who longs to escape the violence of her abusive father and the limitations of her life in The Dome. Ima gets her chance in an unexpected way after she and Dash sneak out to attend a concert and end up in the midst of a life changing event that shakes her very knowledge of the world to the core and forces her to go on the run. Throughout the course of the novel, Ima changes names, her appearance and her attitude, and ends up growing out of her shy shell over the course of the novel, and changes her

Overall, I really enjoyed this dystopic cyber-punky story and was pretty much glued to my Kobo reading it to find out what happens, and there are some amazing ideas and depictions of the future city that make it a compelling read.  However, I did feel that some of the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more in terms of what makes them tick. The whole plot line involving Ima's feelings for Dash was a little bit hard to relate to, just in that we aren't told a lot about him and why Ima cares for him and is willing to risk so much for him, other than that he's been a fixture in her life for as long as she can remember. The ending was also a bit abrupt, but I was still left wanting to read more!

Here's an excerpt from Socialpunk:

Prologue

After playing God for six years with the world he created, he couldn’t control any of his subjects, none at all. Over the years, he had watched them evolve and become the sum of their own choices rather than the sum of his; and for that, he regretted ever giving them life.

A small, blinking red light from just inside his eyelid reminded him of the news they sent him earlier that morning. The company had cancelled his funding and would shut down his project within three months. According to them, the project cost too much and took up too much space, and the inconclusive results couldn’t be published reputably, now or in the future.

Six years of his work, tens of thousands of lives at stake—and he could do nothing to save any of it. He bowed his head, letting his chin rest on the rim of his breakfast smoothie. The smoothie reeked of powder—crushed pills—but he supposed he had better get used to it. He wouldn’t be able to afford the luxury of real food after they canned him.

He closed his eyes and called up the camera view of one of his favorites, number 3281. She fascinated him; he couldn’t deny it. When he had designed her, her pre-teen rebelliousness lit fire in her eyes. A survivor, he’d thought. He’d meant for her to have it all—to grow up, to get married to the love of her life, and to have a beautiful family of her own someday.

But he had only given her sadness so far. Instead of creating a strict father, he had given her an abusive one. Instead of creating a loving boyfriend, he had given her a friend who could never love her. And instead of creating a strong, proud mother, he had given her a meek one, who watched the whole thing unfold and did nothing about it.

He looked at his last and final creation sitting in the chair across from him—his own son, not awakened yet. The law forbade him to have any children of his own, so this boy would substitute.

But he had done the unthinkable with this creation—he had bestowed on it his own thoughts, emotions, and decision-making processes. He’d given the boy his own mind, his own physical characteristics, his own wants and desires.

He had never done so with any of the others because of the dangers of investing too heavily in any one of his subjects. But who could he kid? He had not stayed objective thus far, watching some of his subjects more closely than others, wishing for the happiness of some at the expense of others. He had become an abomination, a monster of his own doing, who had created subjects only to watch them suffer.

He couldn’t forgive himself; not now, not ever. His eyes lingered on the vial that sat next to his breakfast smoothie, that he’d stowed away for the day when they destroyed all his work, his entire world. He would save it, tuck it away for now, for as long as he could protect them. When things spun out of his control, he would drink it and end himself the way he had ended them.

In the ancient stories, gods frequently gave their sons as gifts. Now, he would give his son as a gift to her, number 3281. So she could be happy in her last months on earth, before they destroyed her with the rest of them.

If you enjoyed this excerpt, the book is available to purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble and you can also download the first 10 chapters to get you started using the links below!

• Socialpunk Preview for Kindle .mobi file
• Socialpunk Preview for Nook/iPad .ePub file
• Socialpunk Preview PDF file

And there's also an awesome contest going on until April 30th, 2012 to promote the book, including the chance to win  a new Ipad 3, a Kindle Fire or 25 hardcover autographed copies of Socialpunk.

(Click the link below to continue to the Rafflecopter giveaway if you can't see it)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

National Poetry Month - 5 Ways to Celebrate

A friend pointed out that April is National Poetry Month, and I figured I'd do a little feature this month where I share some of my favourite poetry. However to kick things off, I'm going to share my favourite five ways of the 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month  that The Academy of American Poets suggested on their website.

source  - Concrete poetry by bpNichol

1) Put a poem on the pavement: Break out a piece of chalk and share your favourite line from a poem, or make up a new one.

2)  Read a Book of Poetry: Here's the obvious one - read a book of poetry. It doesn't matter if you're re-reading an old favourite,  picking up a book that's brand new to you or simply leafing through an anthology and reading a poem here or there. 

3) Integrate Poetry with technology: Share your favourite poem on your blog or Tumblr, tweet a favourite line or use one as your Facebook status (poetry is the original song lyrics, right?) Make a desktop background using your favourite poem,  take a series of photos based on a poem or start a new board on Pinterest with some of your favourite poetry quotations. Update your email signature, sign up for a poem a day newsletter or email your favourite poem to a friend. 

4) Listen on your Commute: Have you ever heard an author or just a really good performer read a poem? In some cases, this can make a poem even better. There are a number of audio resources on the AAP website, and you can find others on other literary websites or even Youtube.

5) Start a Commonplace Book:  I hadn't heard this term for it, but the Academy of American Poets describes a commonplace book like this:  "Since the Renaissance, devoted readers have been copying their favourite poems and quotations into notebooks to form their own personal anthologies called commonplace books." Heck, I've been doing that since high school, and have notebooks full of pasted quotes, lines from song and poetry stanzas. If you've never made one before, think of it like a tiny scrapbook of your favourite poetry lines or whole poems that you can carry with you to share your favourites with others this month. 

So there you go! Five ways to start celebrating National Poetry month! Make sure to check out the rest of the 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry month for more fun ways to celebrate, and stay tuned to this space for the rest of the month for some of my favourite poems and my own ways of celebrating.

♥ Craftzilla 

A Little Sherlock Holmes Love

I realized lately that A LOT of my reading, show-watching and movie-watching has revolved around Sherlock Holmes. I've recently read The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the boy and I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie last night, which we'd been waiting to see together, since we'd gone to see the first one when I first moved to Guelph, which was just a little over two years ago this month. Time certainly flies!

At any rate, I'm going to share some of my favourite Sherlock Holmes related images and crafts, since I'm so obsessed of late!

Some of the book covers and art  for Sherlock Holmes books are amazing

Source: Uploaded by user via Gillian on Pinterest

Source: piccsy.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Source: spinelessclassics.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Source: ufunk.net via Gillian on Pinterest

Plus, Robert Downey is pretty full of awesomeness!

Source: weheartit.com via Gillian on Pinterest

I've also been watching the BBC Series, Sherlock on Netflix, and it was pretty darn good as well!

Source: hyacinthsatdawn.tumblr.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Also, what's not to love about Sherlock Holmes inspired crafts? I love this felted soap, detective beagle pillow and moustachioed cowl !

Source: etsy.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Source: designer-cushions.artsydog.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Source: wanelo.com via Gillian on Pinterest

♥ Craftzilla 

7 Day Push - Read a Book - Kobos and Book Clubs, oh my!

I used to read  A LOT. The fact that I read all the time as a kid and into highschool meant that choosing to do an English degree when I was first at university an easy thing. Read lots of books and get to critically discuss them with others? Yes please! But since getting out of university, I've found it harder to actually sit down with a book for some reason. I'm not sure when my greatest pasttime became something I had to schedule in, but between everything else going on, and moving to a smaller city where I no longer spent hours a day commuting, I just haven't read as much as I used to, and I was really missing it. Not to mention I was (am still am) really trying to work my way through reading a lot of books that I have in my home library that I've never read and not always succeeding without a goal in mind.  That was part of why I made my goal to read more books as a part of my 30 before 30 list (# )

What's changed lately has been that I rented a few of my textbooks from an online site, for WAY less than buying the hardcopies and decided that in order to read them (and because I'd saved so much money) that I'd TREAT MA SELF (reference - please watch the hilarity of this scene from Parks and Rec)and buy a touchscreen Kobo!

Yup, I'm in love! I'm reading until late at night again, and have read 5 or 6 books since getting it, as well as got an awesome deal on the new Jeffrey Eugenides book, the Marriage Plot. I'm even doing a fun bookclub on Goodreads with Liesi from Too Crewel, because I'm just that excited about reading again. The touch screen is awesome and responsive, it's easy to save your place and mark up the text if you want, and there are tongs of free classics and other books available on the Kobo site. Finally I've been making a bit of progress working my way through the BBC Big Reads list  and I'm feeling much happier for it! Books I'm currently reading include "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" and soon the Marriage Plot, once I find the darn cable for my Kobo to sync it  (downside, everything uses cables which are easily lost in my apartment) I am in fact a little bit sad that another awesome new Kobo, the Kobo Vox ereader is already coming out -colour, touch screen and apps, oh my!  This sounds awesome already.

But I'm just going to settle for the awesome Kobo I already have and go and read some more books.

Do you use an ereader or do you prefer reading a real book?

♥ Craftzilla



Note: This is not a sponsored post, I just love and use this product, a lot!

Lazy Summer Days- B&W Photo Challenge

I don't know about you, but I'd love to be out in the sunshine right now, swimming, eating watermelon and reading a good book. When I was a kid, I'd always get out the chaise lawn chair, grab a big glass of lemonade, and sit in the sun, re-reading Little Women for the umpteenth time.

Here's Jesse, enjoying some watermelon

What's your favourite summer book that you keep coming back to?

30 Before 30 : #22--Read at least 10 more Books from the BBC Big Read List

source

One of my goals from my 30 before 30 List is #22- Read at least 10 more Books from the BBC Big Read List . I figured I'd show which ones from the list I've read so far, which should get me thinking about which other books from the list I'd like to tackle first. I've always been a big reader and I majored in English in university, but lately I haven't had a lot of call to read, and have been feeling a bit unmotivated in choosing some new things to read (tending instead to re-read favourites, or just any random book that comes my way), so I think this will be good in terms of that motivation I'm needing.

If anyone has any suggestions on where to begin, I'm definetely open to any and all suggestions!

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
 101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. LawrenceLife of Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews 


Total so far:  68/200 read  

♥ Craftzilla
 

Garage sale Treasures and random adventures

Ending up waking up late this morning, but decided to take a jaunt up to the Guelph Food Bank's garage sale (largely because of the BBQ also happening) and bring the pooch for a nice long walk. I've been looking out for a picnic basket for awhile at a decent price (especially since my post about picnics)  and was pleased to find one, along with a few other little treasures! All in all, a successful day :) Plans for tasty picnics and picnic basket makeovers are in the works!

We then followed up the garage sale with tea at a church tea social, where we were the youngest people there by about 50 years. I was also wearing this shirt at the time:

Source

Then I realized it had been ages since I went to the library, so went and got out some fun knitting and sewing books, as well as some comics to read (not pictured --Y the last man comics--the boy and I are currently reading through those.Something is awesome about hanging out and reading comics in the summer!)

I found a super sprouted onion in the onion bag and decided to plant it and see what happens --I think it looks purty!

 
And then we ate some cupcakes.  So. Good.

Happy weekend!