WIP Wednesday and Yarn along

I really enjoyed talking about what I was reading last week, so I think Yarn along will become a regular meme for me. I hope you all don't mind as the books will be random, not necessarily knitting related.

I have been looking forward to this post as yesterday I went into The Works (discount UK bookshop) and picked up some super bargains.

First up the knitting- I am working on a boot sock. It was supposed to be part of my Dad's Christmas present, but I worked a short row heel and decided that it was too tight when I tried it on on a similar sized foot (clean). I am making them shorter so they will either be for me or go on my Christmas present pile. This is the second sock and I have just gone past the heel. I also havve my sock yarn blanket, which is now part of one a day and my Year of Project knee high sock on the go, but they get their own posts.

The reading, as you can see I bought a couple of books yesterday and was tempted by more. The Works (at least, the one in Loughborough but maybe others too) have lots of knitting and crochet books in at the minute. Several that would be great for beginners and some that have more advanced patterns. Because I have a tiny brain (more on that later) I can't remember the titles, but it is worth a browse. I was also tempted by a load of other books on all sorts of things, but managed to restrain myself to two.

Anyone who has counted will point out that there are three books in the picture, "The Marine Aquarium handbook" came from a charity shop. I picked this up because we have a poorly fish and the disease section is far better than in the fish keeping book I already own.
This is where I confess to my tiny brainness- I don't have a marine aquarium, I have a freshwater aquarium. And it took me until I got home and was looking at the book again to register that it said marine, even though I can read and I know that clown fish are marine fishes. In my defence I had flicked through the disease section and it looks like both sorts get similar illnesses. Based on the book I think the fishes will be fine.

Oh look, another cookbook! I really do love cookbooks, although I have to admit I don't use them all that much, I just love to read them. This one is called "The takeaway secret" and the title is pretty self explanatory really. It tells you how to cook meals in the style of takeaways, I am quite pleased with this because I do love a takeaway and they can get expensive. Another bonus is that I can make them with ingredients that I choose, rather than the iffy ingredients used by takeaways, chicken in particular (I overlook the lack of free range chicken in order to enjoy takeaways but I would prefer not to).
The book is divided into sections covering the different types of takeaway- burgers; kebabs; the chip shop; Indian main meals; Chinese main meals; pizza and pasta; sides, salads and sauces; breakfast and lunch and drinks and desserets, so as you can see, pretty much anything you fancy is covered.
The recipes look straightforward with enough detail that you know what you are doing. No pictures and the paper feels a rather cheap, but that is ok because I know what these things look like, and it was a cheap book (£1.99). I am thinking about getting it spiral bound as it will not lie open.

Finally, "Big girl knits", a total bargain at £4.99. Possibly if I didn't eat as many of the takeaways mentioned above I would not need this book, but I would have bought it anyway because there are some super patterns. Oddly I thought I had flicked through this before and been unimpressed, either I was blinded by my sock obsession or I was looking at some other book because I am already a big fan of this and I have not read it properly, just flicked through.
I will do a proper review of this once I have read it in more detail since it is a crafting book but in short- There is a handy section at the start which talks about choosing patterns, sizing, measuring, and adapting patterns to fit curves. The writing is amusing and easy to follow, written by people who know what they are talking about.
There are twenty five patterns to choose from, obviously no one will ever love all the patterns in a book, but I can certainly see some I want to make- Lift and separate, Curvalicious cardigan (I prefer the pictures in the book where it is a cardi) and Bombshell top my list and I am looking forward to patterns that have boob room. And three patterns out of a £5 book seems reasonable, especially when you add in the handy advice and the other patterns that I like.

Wow, I have talked a lot there! Did I mention that I love books? In fact if I had to choose between books and yarn I think my head would explode. (Actually to the suprise of everyone I think I would choose books, no wait, yarn, no wait, books)