Aaaaand...

I'm back!!

A month away in which I have done much job searching and reading and getting frustrated at my broken internet and little knitting, I am finally able to return, my Internet provider has finally bestowed upon my village adequate broadband speeds to be able to load Google (yes for a while there it was so slow it took 20 minutes to load Google, insane ja?) I blame the new housing developments in my village, we have 3 new housing area's, 3!! And obviously they hadn't upgraded the exchange enough to manage these.

Now, unfortunately, I mean what I said, I haven't done a huge amount of knitting, I have finished 2 projects and am just over half way on another, so without further ado, prepare for the update!

The Hurricane Mittens:

Pattern Name: Swirly Hurricane Mitts

Yarn Used: Malabrigo Worsted in Ravelry Red and Blue Graphite

Needle Size: 4mm and 5mm Circ's in Magic Loop

Problems: I had a little trouble when incorporating the thumb when it came to the swirlies, I had to do some quick thinking and guesswork, it worked out fine though!

Modifications: I have incorporated a whole thumb and when I get round to it I will make them into flip tops. I have also added a longer cuff.

Skills Learnt:To make the smaller size first

Score: 6/10 as they aren't quite finished yet.

Comments: I did indeed rip out my first mitten on these and reknit it in the smaller size, and I am so glad that I did, they are nice and snug on my hand and when I am not feeling so lazy will hopefully keep my finger tips nice and cozy too.

A project I hadn't even started last time I blogged is up next,

The Mum slippers:

Pattern Name: French Press Felted Slippers

Yarn Used: Cascade 220 in Chocolate

Needle Size: 10mm

Problems: My washing machine is front loading and I decided that the locking mechanism combined with the lack of control with being able to get the slippers out when I needed to meant I should hand-felt these. These are the first time I have felted and were a challenge but came out fine.

Modifications: They don't have any buttons yet because I haven't found any I like.

Skills learnt: Felting!! I hand felted them by soaking in boiling water in the sink and then rubbing them against a cooling rack as well as rubbing with my hands and with a potato masher for more accuracy. Then i would dunk them in ice water to get them to shrink a bit. They were still a bit big after fully felting so I then dunked them in boiling water again and put them in the pre-heated tumble drier on hot for bouts of about 15 minutes until they were the right size for my Mum, this meant they were a little late for her birthday but she still loves them.

Score: 8/10

Comments: I am rather tempted to make some of these for myself, my Mum loves them and the sock stop which I got from p2tog to make them non-slip is great, and I have plenty of it so I think slippers will be a good present for people!

I have one more thing that I am working on, but I haven't had a chance to take any pictures yet, but hopefully I will soon!!

Slow Coach

Ach! I did it again!

This post was supposed to have been a few days ago, but I went and got distracted, time flies when you have nothing to do it seems.

SO!

Remember the snow from my last post? And how cute my red wellies looked in it? Well check out how they looked a few days after that!

The snow got quite a bit deeper for a few days there, I had to wear 3 pairs of walking socks when I went out, and my feet were still cold! I am really not used to this kind of weather.

On the plus side look how pretty the garden looked, it's Narnia!

(Note, that light is actually only about to my knee, not a full blown Narnia lamp in the middle of nowhere, but that is still thick for this country)

Now, what else kept me from posting, aahhh yes, Ms. Charlaine Harris and her wonderful Sookie Stackhouse books.

This picture of books 3-6, but I now have all of them, because when I went out the other day I had to get 7, 8 and 9, I just had to. After reading books 1 and 2 I decided to wait to get the others, well I waited long enough for the postie to bring them, but I couldn't wait for the next ones I really couldn't, they are just great. I only feature books that I really really like on this blog so that gives you an idea of how much I like them, they completely gripped me, I literally put down one after finishing it and had to pick up the next one, I stayed awake until 4am to finish one of the books and had to stop myself from staying up any later then that to start the next. They have just the right balance of humour, grit, and make believe that they go down nice and easy like a glass of cold milk. Perfecto!

Now I just have to wait until May for the next one, though I do keep reading the snippets of the first chapter that are available on Ms. Harris' website.

Obviously the Sookie books have a TV series to go with them and I may have come across series 2 of that show online somewhere *ahem* and sat and watched all 12 episodes one after the other twice now, including repeating episode 9 at 26 minutes into the episode just to fully take in how pretty Mr. Skarsgard, aka Eric, is in the buff, which allowed for some knitting time :D (knitting while reading only leads to dropped stitches, read on for an example of this)

The main thing I have been knitting is these:

I have only finished one as you can see, but do not fear! This is not a case of the One Mitten Syndrome!! I have actually cast on the second one and it is about one third complete, I am only taking a break from it to update this actually.

These are the Hurricane Mittens pattern which was written to compliment that hat I featured a couple of posts ago. I have done them in an opposite colour scheme to add a bit of interest and so far I am not sure about them, the second mitt I have actually started in the smaller size, as the first one doesn't fit very well, it is a bit loose, so if I prefer the smaller size I will be frogging this one and redoing it. I have also added a full thumb which isn't in the pattern and I am intending to add a flip top to make the mitts changeable between fingerless and full mitts.

I have also... wait for it...

FINISHED my Bella's Cable Scarf in purple for my sister!! This scarf has been on the needles since the beginning of september so it is a huge relief to have it cast off and wrapped up in some nice paper waiting for January the 23rd.

Here is a little shot just before I wrapped it, note, no needles anywhere! So happy about that! Especially as this is where the dropped stitches when reading occurred, I made a mistake in the cable and frogged back 8 rows to fix it and in doing so managed to drop 6 stitches back a couple more rows, it was very frustrating, but now it is all done.

I was going to do a FO report on this one, but I have knitted the pattern before, so I will just remind you of what I used, I knit my own pattern on 10mm needles with Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn in shade 13. I used about 3 and a half balls of the stuff and it took forever, but it is a really nice open scarf and is really long and should wrap around little sister's neck plenty to keep her snug. If I could change anything I would probably slip the last stitch on each row to make it a little neater.

Right my last crafty persuit of the past could of days is one I am rather chuffed with. It came about when I got these through the post:

I had completed my Knit Pro needle set, and they needed a home, the tin I was keeping all my knitting stuff in wasn't very organised at all. So I whipped up this new nice safe home for them.

I think it looks a little like a clutch handbag, but it rolls out like this:

As you can see there are spaces for everything. I made it from that lovely red striped fabric I have used before (all my stuff matches) and some plain cream cotton for the lining and some dense sew in interfacting for rigidity, and I basically had a look at the ones available to buy and whipped up the perfect combination of all the ones out there already.

Here we have my needles from 3mm through to 6mm tips, and a pocket for my fixed circular needles which are sizes 2mm to 2.75mm. As you can see if you look closely I had to make the pockets for up to the 5mm size shorter to accommodate the smaller needle tips that I have in those sizes.

And on the other size I have pockets for the needles up to 10mm in diameter and then I have little pockets for my cables (the idea for this I borrowed from the Della Q interchangeable needle cases) and they lay nicely over the larger needle pockets so that it all fits. in the folded out picture you can also see I made a zipped pocket to fit into the middle seam to hold bits and bobs like stitch markers and point protectors and crochet hooks. A simple velcro fastening holds everything together.

I think it looks quite smart, it used things I already had around the house so has saved me the £25 it would have cost to buy one and it has already had plenty of use. Good all round I think!

Going on a treasure hunt...

Yesterday morning I was woken by a lovely sound, the doorbell, the postie was bringing me some packages! So I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs, I couldn't find any keys, so annoying, I had to run upstairs and get them from my handbag, by the time I got downstairs the postie had gone. This is where my detective skills came into play, I could see footprints in the back garden. I sensed a hunt for my packages!

I went and put on my red wellies that I got for christmas and went out into the snow

The footsteps were leading down towards the path so I followed them

They went past the garage so on I went, I was sure they were heading for the greenhouse.

They were! However, there seemed to be some confusion and they went back on themselves, I tried the greenhouse door and it was frozen shut, 180 turn and following I go again

When I was passing the back of the garage I noticed these steps out of sync! The packages were under the table!!

I was far too excited then to take pictures so I just rescued the 3 packages and went back into the warm.

So what were they? Well the first came from a lovely website called Pure Purl. They have lots of the nicer brands of yarn that I find it difficult to find on many other websites. The package was wrapped so prettily I almost didn't want to undo it, but I did of course.

I just have to draw your focus to this for a second, it is a badge! It is safely pinned onto my coat at the moment :) Now to the yarn pron!

Malabrigo Sock, in Cote D'Azure. It is a gorgeous blue and I am thinking of turning it into Ysolda's Damson shawl but I think it will stay in the skein for a while because it is just so pretty!

Now package number 2, remember I kept slipping little hints about receiving a package from the US? Well I got this! It is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Goody Goody, I absolutely ADORE the colours, I love pastels, and I am thinking of using it to make Bellatrix socks for my homework in HPKCHC.

Last but not least is some more knit pro needle tips, some fixed circulars, 2 crochet hooks for dropped stitches and some soak wash all from the lovely lady at P2tog. I nearly had the complete set after receiving these (more in my next post, later)

So after that haul I sat and appreciated my stash a little and my needles, and I got a bit creative and decided to sew something up, more in my next post which should be along shortly after this one :)

Happy New Year!

(there is knitting stuff further down if you'd like to miss out the new years stuff :))

A couple of days late, but better then never!

Man am I glad that 2009 is over, I have had some good times this year, I taught myself to knit and found a whole new world with lots of new people for me to talk to. I graduated from University. I left a job I had been in for 5 years, one which I had been miserable in for those 5 years and was liberated.There were bad times also and I am going to put those behind me, every year as the clock counts down to zero and I am alone with no-one to kiss I tell myself that this year I will make sure that I will put myself first, that I will vet men for any traces of being too selfish or too immature to be able to handle a real relationship, and for lacking the backbone to stand up and tell me the truth. This year this is even more important to me then the last, after being careful about who I gave my heart to this year I found that the man embodied all of those traits.

This year I have decided will truly be about me. If I happen to meet a man along the way, then he can come along for the ride, but I will still make sure that I leave enough room in my life for me to be happy. I am tired of waking up in the morning and not feeling happy with my lot, and really, although I am unemployed and heartbroken, I have my family and my health and my knitting :)

So with that in mind, a couple of resolutions:

I will learn to do some new knitting things, just now I have ordered yarn for my first jumper, I have also done my first piece of colourwork today (more later). So this year is for teaching myself new things. I would really like to be able to write a knitting pattern that I can put up for sale too.

I will try and be more healthy, already I am eating more fruit and vegetables, I don't drink very much fizzy drinks so that isn't much of a problem but I do love puddings, so I am hoping to off set those a little.

I hope to be able to read all the books on the list on my wall, it is around 60 books but I think I can do it.

I would like to be happy. My current situation leaves me without many of the things that have made me unhappy in the past, like the pressures of studies and working, bills and rent and paying for food, I hope I can use this time without as many stresses to be calm and happy, and not get wound up about so many things.

Those are just a few things, and there are more, but I am waffling so I am going to head on over to the knitting content.

First, my first piece of colourwork ever!

It is the Hurricane Hat, and I have used my two different shades of Malabrigo merino worsted to knit it up (the dark colour looks black here but it is the blue I have shown before) and so should go nicely with my coat. My first finished object of 2010! It is nice that it is something for me for a change. I knit it as a project for the HPKCHC in Arithmancy, it had to be a pattern with spirals on it.

The pattern is actually just knit in one colour, but I chose to make it a bit more interesting by adding the extra colour, when the pattern called for purl stitches to make up the swirl I simply knit that stitch in the red. I used the intarsia method so that i didn't have to carry the yarn across and impede the stretchiness of the fabric.

Pattern name: Hurricane Hat

Yarn used: Malabrigo worsted in Blue Graphite and Ravelry Red, I used a tiny amount of red and I am guessing less then half the blue!

Needle size: I went up to a 5mm circ.

Problems: None, the pattern repeat was really easy!

Modifications: Colour and needle size.

Skills learnt: Intarsia, I am also going to convert it into some mittens.

Knit again?: yes it is a really nice hat, hopefully have a pic of it on later in the week.

Score: 8/10, If i did it again the colourwork would be neater.

I am still waiting on some of the yarns and needles that I ordered (and have just ordered 2 types more, some more Rowan Kidsilk Aura for Kim Hargreaves' Calm and some Malabrigo Sock for Ysolda's Damson) but I got a couple through the post today!

YarnAddict Yarns Exotic Sock in emerald.

YarnAddict yarn Silky merino lace in silver.

These were a couple of reduced yarns, the green sock to commemorate my HPKCHC sorting which i think i will knit into the Nagini socks and the silver to attempt a shawl.

My mum also got me a knitting magazine which I forgot to photograph but it is great! It is called Verena Knitting and has over 50 patterns in it and only cost about £4!! I usually pay £6 for the knitter and get no where near that many!

It has begun!

The Harry Potter knitting and crochet house cup had it's sorting yesterday! I am waving my geek flag high up for everyone to see at the moment because I am rather proud that I get to be a Slytherin! Obviously in the book they aren't very nice, but in the HPKCHC the Slytherin bunch have been the friendliest from what I have seen, they are certainly the most talkative, and I have ordered some nice green sock yarn to commemorate what I hope will be a fun three months.

If any of you knitter's are fans of the Potter books, and are on Ravelry feel free to join the group, you don't have to participate but you can certainly cheer us on as a Not Quite First Year (NQFY) which is what I was for a while. It is definitely fun seeing the massive tasks people take on for their OWL projects.

In other knitting news some of the packages that I ordered a couple of weeks ago have started to arrive! The one from the US hasn't yet and I am seriously regretting not paying the extra for tracking (it was about $15 more though!!) as I would like to know if it is in the country yet, but two packages from the UK are here.

First up from Get Knitted, some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Midway.

Have a clickity to see it bigger and marvel at the pretty blend of colours. I can't wait to plan what I am going to use it for, I have around 420m so I am tempted to make Ysolda's Damson shawl as I do have other sock yarns in my stash and more on the way, I shall have to wait and think about it a little bit though.

Also from Get Knitted I got some chunky 10mm straight needles in the Knit Pro acrylic version. I looked at treating myself to some wooden ones but I couldn't justify the price for a size of needle that I wouldn't use very often. At the moment I have transferred them to my Bella's scarf in purple so that I don't have to use those awful metal Addi needles any more (which I am contemplating sending to a new home) but they are a size up on the size I was using before, I am hoping that it wont be very noticeable, and that I can block it out if you can tell.

When they have done their job finishing that scarf they will be used for what I actually bought them for, the french press slippers. I haven't cast on first thing this morning because I am waiting to see if they will fit as on of the classes for the HPKCHC when the classes are posted tomorrow!

ALso my order from Amazon came today, so I am the proud owner of the Harry Potter knitting pattern book and have now completed my Harmony stitch dictionaries! The edgings and trims was the last of the 5 knitting ones, so until I decide to branch into crochet I have everything I need for getting creative.

Speaking of getting creative, I ordered some beautiful silver coloured laceweight yarn last night to make a shimmering shawl which I plan on trying to design myself! Obviously this is something which is in the future and I am just preparing myself at the moment, but it is an ongoing project that I am really looking forward to. I really want to do something with stars in the yarn overs.

Just a couple of fun pics now, I got this little guy for christmas:

He's called Bramble, I have wanted a Beagle for years and again didn't get one, I am not allowed while I am at my parents house, so my Mum got me this little Steiff Beagle instead, he is my current desk mascot!

I am contemplating popping a pic of my favorite things at the bottom of my posts for fun, good idea? These are one of my favorite things right now...yum!

Me. The dumbass!

Yes, I am, because I finished 'The Thirteenth' about a week ago and forgot to blog about it!!!

I really must keep better track of my post it notes!

SO.

It was really good, I mean really really good. The idea behind the story is perfect, it is something I have never come across before and it is something I thoroughly enjoyed. It is well structured and doesn't feel like it has lost its rails at any point which is good for a first novel.

The ending had a twist and I was surprised by it, which doesn't often happen, this was a good thing because it was the sort of surprise that had clues and it could have been guessed at but I certainly didn't guess, it didn't come out of nowhere and yet was enough of a twist for me not to have sussed it out, which considering the amount of detective fiction I read is impressive.

Obviously I don't want to ruin it, but it is really difficult not to tell you what happens so I will just give you a snippet of the first of the crazy things that I mentioned last time.

Well, Val as I mentioned wakes up with a tattoo on her arm and as I mentioned she manages to make water suspend as a ball in the air at a boiling temperature, well what I didn't mention is that she does this after one of the symbols for the tattoo starts burning and she then sees someone in trouble in a piece of glass. When she touches the glass she gets transported to where that person is and has to use her powers of manipulating the elements in order to save the person. After she saves the person, the symbol disappears!

This happens several times and Val faces all sorts of situations and meets new people who become her scooby gang and we begin to learn that there are people out to get her who are causing the danger. I wont say any more, but it is always nice to know that a book has a villain in it.

The best bit? The ending is lined up for there to be more books!! I really hope she carries the story on because I really liked Val and her friends, I want more. There aren't many books that I immediately want there to be more of, Harry Potter and Twilight were two of the main ones, and defiantly the books in the True Blood franchise, but these are things that are already established, this isn't and I still want more.

A good thing to note which I realise a lot of parents of teenaged children worry about is obviously sexual content, there isn't anything more then a kiss in this so far, so that isn't something to get anxious over. There is obviously the age old message of "with power comes responsibility" (which for some reason that I can never quite fathom some parents seem to want to protect their children from) but I think that the choices that Val has to make in this book are the sort of choices that wouldn't directly affect most children, but are ones which they can find parallel's with, and in turn this would teach them the value of many things in their lives.

Working at W showed me just how difficult it is for a parent to judge the content of books in that way, thats why us booksellers are so required, and this is definitely ok for audiences of around 14/15+ I would say, which in itself is quite strange for a book where the main character is 18 years old.

So if you fancy a bit of an actiony/fantasy adventure then I would give it a go, or if you have a friend or relative that is into teen fantasy stuff this would also be a good one for them, I am already lending it to my younger sister.

On a non knitting note, I got the coolest new trainers today, they are made by Simple, and are eco trainers, made from natural and sustainable resources and recycled products, the sole of the shoe is an old tyre (very apt as my dad works for a company that makes recycled lorry tyres) and you can even still see the tread and the skid marks from the tyre! It is nice that my shoes have a history. (Also I didn't pay that price for them, they were £64.99 at Schuh and I got Student discount :D )

I also may have treated myself to another Radley handbag with my christmas moneys, one that is a more every day one in a satchel style!

Round up

Hello!

It feels like it has been ages since I blogged about any knitting content, when really it has only been a week, strange! I think it is because it has been a very busy week for me, and I have only managed a couple of little posts about the holidays. Well it is time for knitting content.

First up! The Bella's Mitten's for my sister's christmas present were finally finished today. I finished the main body yesterday evening but couldn't bring myself to fiddle with the DPN's for the thumb until this afternoon. My sister doesn't like modeling things for me so I only managed to take a picture of one what with holding the camera with my other hand, but here it is:

I really like them I have to say, if she doesn't wear them I might just steal them back, they are really smooshy and warm because I held two strands of the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino together. I like the colour too, purple is my favorite colour but it doesn't really suit me, it is just the right colour for my sister though so I hope she enjoys co-ordinating them with her outfits.

All I have to do now is finish the scarf. I decided to stop doing the scarf so that I could use what was left after knitting the mittens at the end of the scarf and get a bit of extra length out of it. Well it turns out there is quite a bit left so I should get a fair few repeats extra and I am rather glad that I wont have little bits left in my stash.

So:

Pattern Name: Bella's Mittens

Yarn Used: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in 013, around 3.5 balls, maybe a little less.

Needle Size: 5 mm, 100 cm circular, magic looped.

Problems: The yarn became a bit splitty when I was doing the decreases, I think this was a combo of juggling two strands and my knitting getting a bit tight, the needles just kept going through.

Modifications: I chose to do the moss stitch palm pattern again as that is how the originals are Tonia likes things to be correct.

Skills Learnt: I magic looped this, and this is the first project I have done that on, I did a trial swatch a while ago but haven't used the technique throughout a project yet, it was much more enjoyable than managing the DPN's. I had also never held two strands together before and although it wasn't particularly enjoyable it was torturous either.

Knit Again? If you look back through the blog I am actually half way through a pair for myself!

Score: 7/10 I liked these but the little things that frustrated me made me bring the score down.

Now for a few things I have acquired. As presents I got a couple of knitterly things. Two more Harmony stitch dictionaries (I only need the edging one now, which is on order) so that I can start getting creative with colourwork, which is something I haven't done yet, and try out some more cables.

I also got the Cath Kidston 'Sew!' book which has some great things to make in it and even comes with the fabric to make a little shoulder bag.

I only got this one skein of wool for christmas, though I did get money to spend on more. I had been wanting to try out Noro but it's price and my lack of creativity had always stopped me from getting some, Mum jumped in though so now I can see if I can find something that will make the colours knit up nicely, I am thinking maybe the Noro Hat or maybe a shawlette so that I can really show off the colours. It is the sock weight Kureyon and a lot of shawl patterns seem to work with a skein of sock yarn so I shall hunt. I have a couple of other sock yarns at the moment too (and two more to come in the post, stay tuned) so I wont be detracting from my sock knitting abilities by doing this and I want to make this into something more then socks as it was a christmas present, and is therefore special.

I have recently signed up for something on Ravelry called the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup, basically you sign up for a term, get sorted into houses and then take classes, each class has a requirement for homework and your homework is a project which you propose and then finish within the time frame for points. Points obviously win your house points. I am a big harry potter fan and so I am looking forward to this, I literally can't wait to be sorted. I am hoping that this will be something to keep me from losing my mind now I am job hunting again too. Hopefully I will be able to make my skein of Noro into one of my class projects.

A couple of other things that arrived via the postie are these lovely balls of yarniness:

These came from Loop, that fab shop in Islington which I rave on about quite a lot, on top is a skein of Malabrigo Worsted in Ravelry Red to go with the Blue Graphite colourway I already have which I am going to use in my first ever colourwork project. I am planning on making these Herringbone Mittens only without the pom-poms (I am not fond of pom-poms, see Koolhaas hat for why, a crime against knitting my Dad made me commit there, he did like his hat on Christmas Day though!)

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get a Blue Duffle Coat with red toggles and red tartan lining. I have been after a blue duffle coat for a very long time, I have Paddington bear calendars and always wanted one. I have also always wanted red wellies and this year Santa brought me some red Hunter wellies for christmas, well a red and blue outfit requires red and blue mittens, so I finally decided what I would do with the blue Malabrigo I had bought. The colours match my coat perfectly, a really dark navy and a really bright red. I am waiting to cast on though to see if it will fit into my HPKCHC projects!

This next yarn is some very nice Cascade 220 in Chocolate. Another yarn I have never used before and one lots of people talk about so I am looking forward to using it.

A couple of weeks ago I said I was going to knit these French Press Slippers for my Mum's birthday, well this is the yarn for them, It will be my first felting project so I have been reading up on hand felting as I don't trust my washing machine. The needles I need are on order and now it is just a matter of waiting until the post gets back to normal after the holidays.

Hopefully I will have a Bella's scarf FO post soon, I am looking forward to getting back to not present knitting, and an update on recently ordered things next week, especially something winging its way over from the U. S. of A. which I am a little excited about!

Merry Christmas!

Just a quickie to say Merry Christmas and that i hope you all have a wonderful day whatever you are doing to celebrate.

Also, my sister's present didn't quite get finished but she got to unwrap one mitten with a note saying the other is 2/3 done and she was happy.

Have a great day everyone!!

Georgina xx

Snippet

So. Pretty.

P.S. Bella's Cable Scarf for my sis is ALMOST done, prob wont get the mitts done too by thursday but she has a birthday in January so.

The Thirteenth.

This one is going to be a book related post and is one that is currently close to my heart.

Working at Waterstone's I come across a lot of books, some great and some not so great, and The Thirteenth is one that I think is great!

It is a self published title from an author local to our area and is G. L. Twynham's first book, and I think she is off to a great start. I received a complimentary copy today for helping to arrange that the book be sold in our branch and I started to peruse it on my break, big mistake, my break is only 15 minutes long and I really didn't want to put it back in my locker! It is classed as part of the fantasy genre and is sort of in the same sort of area as all the twilight and other supernatural books with teenage characters and things that are currently selling, except there so far isn't an amazingly beautiful vampire lurking anywhere, and it is about the female character of the story being the strong powerful heroine. It's British too which makes a change for this genre.

Obviously it is self published, so there is the odd spelling mistake etc, but so far I am really hoping it does well so that the author can bring out some other titles!

I will give you a brief summary of what has happened so far.

The story follows a young girl named Val who is turning 18 the day after the book opens. The day before her birthday she starts to experience excruciating pain, and on the day of her birthday a mysterious tattoo of the circle of the zodiac, plus a thirteenth mystery symbol, appears on her forearm and crazy stuff starts to happen. Already at this point I am struggling to not just sit and read it all in one go, and not to tell you some of the crazy stuff that happened in just the first couple of chapters. I love the character and what I know of the plot, the character is written to be very real, leading a normal life, working in a musty old bookshop (I can so relate to bookshops), and this appeals to me. Having had a normal English childhood it is nice to see a novel with more of the elements I grew up with so that I can find paralells with my own life within the story, as opposed to the American teen supernatural books which I can only partly relate to, though I couldn't make water suspend in the air in a ball and heat to boiling temperatures for when I am in trouble, and I doubt the majority of American teens can either!

I literally cannot wait to read on, so I am going to take a quick snapshot, let you know it available on amazon.co.uk and that I will give a much better review when I have read the whole thing. I have a day off tomorrow, something tells me that I will have it finished!