Notes for the week

I keep meaning to do this because I don’t always get time for long detailed blog posts these days. There have been lots of interesting things going on this week so thought I’d do a quick round up. I hope you enjoy this content and I’d love to hear your feedback. Please note there are affiliate links in this post, which help to support the costs of this blog (just renewed my hosting!), however you may of course prefer not to use these.

I have appreciated the thoughtful content posted by Huma on her Instagram account Our Story time  and have bookmarked her post on Inclusivity here  to read at the weekend. I am intrigued by her writing course as well, having been a keen writer when I was younger! She has also written a book ‘In Spite of Oceans‘ which sounds wonderful. On a similar note, Rabya has written a blog post here on Representation.

I have discovered the joys of a traditional breakfast, not something I have time for regularly but a treat once in a while. I made the sugar parathas from Veg Recipes of India, they reminded me of some wonderful sweet ‘roti planta’ I tried at Roti King near Euston. I had the parathas with hot sweet chai a la Dishoom, recipe below:

• Two teabags
• small piece grated ginger
• 4 green cardamoms
• 3 cloves
• cinnamon stick
• 5 black peppercorns
• one cup water
• 2/3 cup milk

Directions: Pour the water in to a pot and add teabags and all the spices. Warm it up gently, allowing it to brew for 10 minutes. Pour in the milk; bring it to the boil, remove tea bags and simmer for 10 more minutes. Strain and serve.

Reading

I have recently read How to Stop Time by Matt Haig, and The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. How to Stop Time was a surprisingly emotional read, with a theme of loss and hopelessness which was very moving. Moving back and forwards in time required some concentration but it was worthwhile to truly lose myself in a wonderful book. I have picked up his ‘Reasons to Stay Alive‘ from the library to try as well. The House of Silk was a very well written pastiche of Sherlock Holmes, although the theme was a little disturbing for my tastes.

My husband and I watches the BBC’s Les Miserables this week and I’m so glad we did as it was a wonderful period drama. Having managed to avoid knowing much about the story, we were completely absorbed in the tragedy and horror. Episode 2 nearly broke us but we managed to get through it and watch to the end! Noteably, many of the characters were people of colour and it was very welcome to see in a period drama. On radio, I have enjoyed listening to ‘Threads of Life‘ on Radio 4, which touches on aspects of feminism and traditionally gendered crafts such as knitting and sewing. The art installation Womanhouse was mentioned which sounded fascinating. Another episode focussed on embroidery by female prisoners of war. I also enjoyed listening to Noor Taghouri’s interview on Woman’s Hour today. She is a somewhat controversial figure as she has previously been interviewed for Playboy (in her role as a journalist) but was recently misidentified in a Vogue photoshoot.

Craft

Sewover50 has a new challenge called #So50visible which is trying to raise awareness of the lack of age diversity in sewing. Most images related to sewing show young, white, tall and thin women and they would like to challenge that and encourage us to think outside of this narrow framework. I have finished my Deer and Doe Opium coat and am now working on some new clothes for my daughter who has grown a lot recently. Knitting-wise I have finished my daughter’s Olive’s Chunky Lace and am making good progress on my So Faded Sweater (shown above). I am hoping to wear it at Edinburgh Yarn Festival so am setting myself some targets to get it finished on time!

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