Month: June 2014

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

Posted on By Margot

 

Just like the One Hundred Year Old Man, this book is an extremely enjoyable read as it gallops through the last 50 years or so of history. This time the focus is on South Africa and Sweden. There are some common elements with the one Hundred Year Old man, nuclear weapons, world leader reduced to human beings, an irreverent take on history and Jonasson’s view of liberal humanity. There is a cartoonish quality to thi romp through history, but this does not detract from the enjoyment of the book.

Nombeko is a South African woman, born into poverty during Apartheid. We first meet Nombeko as a 14 year old girl working in a latrine facility. Life is not kind to Nombeko, and injustice haunts her very existence. But Nombeko has great intelligence, a capacity to wait and a resolve to make the best out of the hand that life deals her. She ends up as the guardian of a nuclear bomb accompanied by an assortment of characters who are as odd as she is. Oh yes, she is pursued by Mossad agents who want the bomb and her death.

Knitting socks

Posted on By Margot

I had avoided sock knitting – until now. And I am now a convert to this strange pastime, converted by the enticing balls of sock yarn that are available.

 

My first pair was in Aran weight wool. Great to knit – really quick – but too chunky for almost all my shoes. They do make really great bed socks, although denim blue is not really my choice of colour for bed-socks.

Having mastered the techniques I then moved on to knitting socks in 4 ply sock yarn. The yarn I chose was Drops Fabel, the multi-coloured variety. Great to knot with but I found the resulting socks need to be washed using fabric conditioner in the final rinse to soften them up. Hand knitted socked should have a cosy, soft foot feel.

I found a simple pattern for top down socks and discovered that the sock consists of 4 main areas:

  • Cuff
    • Top of leg
    • leg
  • Heel
    • Heel flap
    • Heel turn
  • Gusset
    • Pick up stitches from heel
    • Gusset
  • Foot
    • Instep
    • Toe

Although lots of patterns call for double pointed needles, it is much easier to use circular needles and the magic loop method. This way you can arrange things so that the front/upper section of top the sock is one half and the bottom/back section is on the other half of the circular needle.

Reading and knitting – multitasking

A latte, an eReader, one sock finished and the second a work in progress.

Unless the pattern is very intricate, knitting lends itself to multitasking. Here is my eReader (Sony not a Kindle) set up on a table. I use a stand which was designed for an iPad. Supporting the reader like this lends itself to fast knitting and reading.

Perhaps the most distractive activity when knitting is being in conversation. This is where the mistakes creep in.

 

 

The Boy from Reactor 4 by Orest Stelmach

Posted on By Margot

As I read this, the situation in Ukraine was getting worse, day by day. Crimea had voted to throw in its lot with Russia, and leaping out of the pages was a Tartar from Crimea who spoke Russian and Crimean, but no Ukrainian. As the pro-Russians were claiming their fight was with the fascists in Kiev, the brutality wreaked by the Nazis in Kiev was laid out before the reader. Why would the people in Kiev want to side with those who had caused so much suffering in  the city and Ukraine? Running through the book were the ugly wounds of history intertwined with the sad reality that Ukraine has a long way to go before it becomes a modern democratic state.

The story centres on Nadia, daughter of Ukrainian emigres who is tricked into searching for her uncle Damian and her cousin. the purpose is to bring her hitherto unknown cousin to America and safety.

Good read- yes

I a looking forward to reading the next book of the series,  The Boy who Stole From the Dead.