Winter of Books and Yarn

You may remember that back in the summer I ran a really successful and enjoyable 6-week reading challenge - Summer of Books and Yarn.

I’m pleased to say that the readalong challenge is returning for the winter months with a similar format and an equally imaginative name - Winter of Books and Yarn.

Starting on Monday Dec 26 and running for 6 weeks, the challenge will feature:

• A weekly prompt theme (although actual book choice is up to you)

• A free knitting pattern for a cowl

• Daily chat and sharing of our reads in the Everyday Knitter Facebook Group

The weekly prompts (and the free pattern) will be sent out by email - make sure you register at the button below to receive them. Chat and general social shenanigans will mainly be in the Everyday Knitter Facebook group although I will also be talking about it over on my Twitter account - @EverydayKnitter and on Instagram @LouiseTilbrookDesigns with the hashtag #WinterOfBooksAndYarn

The weekly prompts/themes are entirely optional and I always include a wild card as well, so if you have a particular book you are keen to read you can include it. And any book counts - ebooks, audio books, paper books - all are equally valid and included here.

If you are interested and would like to be the first to get all the details, please just tap the button below. And if you have any questions please just ask.

Summer reading and reflections

My reading choices for the Summer of Books and Yarn challenge

It’s been an odd sort of summer in many ways and I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it all. It’s been a time of highs and lows. Some wonderful times spent relaxing as a family, and time spent with other family members. Coupled with a lot of driving around the country and a lot of emotions as we deal with grief and inevitable upheaval that happens when people die.

I’ve been really grateful to have the time to spend with my boys, especially as we are now staring University open days in the face, and I’ve really loved both taking part in and running the Summer of Books and Yarn challenge.

No-one was more surprised than me to find me blitzing my way through all 6 books that I had planned - although losing my knitting whilst on holiday in Greece (it’s a long story and I eventually found it) certainly helped me with my reading target.

It’s been lovely to see all the great feedback in the Everyday Knitter Facebook group as well - it seems that I’m not alone in having a ball with it. And there have been lots of calls to have a repeat challenge, maybe even to make it a seasonal event and I’m definitely putting that on my to do list for the next few months.

There were so many good book titles shared that I promised I would do a little roundup of some of the popular book titles, and true to my word, you can find a list below of the titles that seemed to crop up repeatedly in people’s reading lists and which got good reviews. I haven’t hyperlinked the titles as everyone has their own favourite place where they like to buy or borrow books.

• A thousand ships by Natalie Haynes

• How the light gets in by Louise Penny

• The salt path by Raynor Winn

• City of Friends by Joanna Trollope

• Tidelands by Phillipa Gregory

• The Thursday murder club by Richard Osman

• Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng

• Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

• Where the crawdads sing by Delia Owens

• The miniaturist by Jessie Burton

• River Kings by Cat Jarman (non fiction)

• The midnight library by Matt Haigh

• The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini

• Endeavour by Peter Moore (non fiction)

If you aren’t already a member of the Everyday Knitter Facebook group do please come over and say hi. We are a really friendly bunch, I promise and if you are interested in another reading challenge that will be the best place to follow along with it.