Inspiration

Writing.

I went to a great talk yesterday by Jane Wenham-Jones. She's a great speaker - 1 hour off the cuff - and we went away very inspired. There wasn't necessarily anything new in the talk (read more, write every day, persevere), but she's such an approachable and honest person, telling it in a "warts and all" style, which leaves you feeling a realistic enthusiasm for keeping at it, and getting those words on screen. Although she did tell the slightly depressing tale of one published author, whose first published novel was the 11th she'd written. Christ! I don't think I have that much perseverance!

Knitting.

My mate Bren (she of the red lacy cardigan) wants a tea cosy too. I asked her what colour, and she did to me the same as someone else last year - she wants a colour I don't have in my stash (and there aren't many colours missing). She wants yellow, and I know from the last time I made a penguin, that I don't have much Orange or yellow. So, oh dear, I had to go shopping. In a small town near to here there's a lovely little wool shop, which sells top and budget end yarns. So I got the yarn for the tea cosy, and also some cottons which were in the £1.25 per ball basket. There were a couple of balls of sock yarn in there too, but I was an honest girl, and said to the lady "These shouldn't be here, should they?", and unfortunately, I was right.

Writer talk, and charity work

Writing.
On Friday, I'm going to a writer's talk by Jane Wenham-Jones. I'm looking forward to that. I must confess I've not read any of her books, but I like her articles in Writing Magazine, so it should be good, and will hopefully help the motivation.

Knitting
I've started one of my charity dog coats (for K9 knitters, see links below). I thought I'd try something different this time, and work it diagonally. It's a bit of at use-up coat, the pink I've had for years, and am now sick of (and then a friend gave me a load of wool, including about 400g in the same colour), and the variegated I got ages ago, and this is what's left of a cardie, so it's nice to feel as though I'm working through the stash.

Have a good weekend.