University Gospel Choir of the Year

Today I'm off down to London with my choir for gospel choir of the year competition. The past couple of weeks have been a fairly intense round of rehearsals and practices and it's finally all culminating today! Here's a rehearsal from a few weeks ago, (I'm not sure what's happened to the quality when I uploaded it) this is the first part of our set.

We've won for the last two years, so politically we think we probably won't win three years in a row but I'm really looking forward to seeing all the other choirs and doing lots of singing.

Very easy knitted cowl

 A month or so ago, when it was freezing and every evening I'd be shivering waiting for my train I decided to make a cowl. I started with this beautiful Noro yarn and crocheted my way happily for a little while until I realised it just wasn't right. I needed something big and stretchy and cosy. The crocheted one only just fit over my head and wasn't very quick to make. This however was a quick and necessary knit.

 I cast on a multiple of 6 (+2 for turning) and quickly knitted 3 and purled 3 till I reached my desired height. It's very warm and snuggly and was super quick to make, it's been fairly essential since I've made it. Just what I wanted.

Beauty everywhere

I very rarely take my camera into town with me. Manchester has so many lovely details and I often make mental notes to come back with my camera and photograph some of my favourite things. I love this huge blue tit painting on the side of a wall in the Northern Quarter, it's ever so slightly out of my way for where I normally go but I often make a special effort to pass by it because it's so cheerful.

The building in the first picture is a bit of an anomaly, it's very tall and thin and long with the most beautiful stained glass and fancy window frames, on the left beside it is a gorgeous white tile and glass art deco building, I'd love to know more about them both.
There's not much too interesting about the bottom picture, I simply liked the shape of the shadow and the way the arch framed the picture.
I'm trying to be mindful of all the lovely things I pass by.

I like reading

 One of my new years resolutions was to keep track of all the books I read, I know I have a few that I've not managed to take pictures of but this is my list so far.
 

 Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro was my book this year, my dad gave it to me as a Christmas present. It's a very Margaret Atwoodesque, dystopian story that starts out seeming like a normal reminiscence on teenage boarding school life. It was very absorbing and completely different to other Ishiguro novels I've read. I haven't seen the film and I think I'd have to be in a particular frame of mind to enjoy it, but I would like to see it. It's quite a haunting book.

Kate Atkinson is my favourite author and I'd been badgering the people who work in my local bookshop about it's paperback release date since last year. I actually borrowed a copy from the library to read as I couldn't wait but I have just reread my own version. This is such an interesting book about a woman's life replayed and replayed, each life is not necessarily better than the time before but differs slightly. It's a really intriguing read.

This is one of Jacqueline Wilson's more teenage books, I really liked her books as a child and teenager and will still occasionally buy one of newer books if I see them in charity shops. I'm not very keen on this one. All of her books have an issue, something that's not quite average in the main character's life. In Love lessons the two sisters have a very controlling father and are home schooled, when the father has a stroke the girls go to their local comp- so far fine- however the older sister develops a crush on her art teacher which is reciprocated. This is not great. It should never be implied that a child (she is 14) having a romantic relationship with an adult is OK or desirable.

 

 This is slightly cheating as this is an audio book (a rather dusty one, sorry!) however it is the unabridged version so it's still the full story. I'm going quite slowly with this as each CD is well over an hour long and I tend to listen to audio books before bed. It's really sad at the moment, full of dead family members and people blaming each other. I hope it gets cheerier!

What've you been reading lately? Do you have any recommendations for me?

Hooray for sunshine and flowers!

 After what's felt like an endless, boring winter (not even any snow!) it was so lovely to to have a warm sunny day on Sunday. It was rather a shock to be comfortable with not only leaving my coat off but also without wearing a jumper.
I headed to my local park and found a huge array of new growth, tiny buds and first flowers blossoming, it's thrilling to think about all these plants working their way underground or internally over the winter to suddenly spring forth full of life!

So much lovely light

Crochet jumper

I've recently started making my first crocheted garment! One of my aims for myself for this year was to make 20 things and I really want to try and make some things to wear, I've also finished knitting a very simple cowl but I don't think it really counts.

As my really rather dark pictures show all I have managed to create so far is a rather lacy looking collar. Hopefully this will eventually become this chevron jumper . I don't think I'm going to attempt stripes, rather I'll stick with this greenish, yellowish beigey colour for as long as I can and then switch to a navy. I'm quite pleased to be using up some Sirdar Baby Bamboo that I bought for my ripple blanket but just wasn't really the right colour.
We'll see how far I get!

Last week

 

Last week was a super busy one.

If I include the Saturdays at either end of the week, last week had two choir performances for a restaurant opening as well as usual rehearsal, twice celebrating my dad's 60th birthday (including a large ceilidh where I saw friends of the family that I hadn't seen for over 10 years and did a lot of dancing), finishing the job I've been doing for the past couple of months, the very next day having an interview for a new job all while being full of a cold.

This week I've mostly stayed in my pyjamas.