fourth edition

Borders has gone into administration here in the UK. Its Glasgow flagship store is covered in huge EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! STOCK LIQUIDATION!!! posters. It makes me very sad. I am an independent retailer sort of consumer, but Borders holds a special place in my heart. For years it was the only place I could find [...]

I was looking for some gift ideas when I found the Adopt A Polar Bear Gift Pack:
The Adopt A Polar Bear is the perfect gift for those who have always wanted a pet polar bear, but are scared of getting mauled to death
(..)
What a fantastic feeling to know that you have done a little bit [...]

We have a pile of wrapped presents in our living room. David is celebrating his birthday this week and I finished wrapping his presents yesterday whilst he was out looking at naked ladies at his art class. I also made a head start on wrapping the Christmas presents. Now I’m all antsy because we have [...]

Yesterday I found a new favourite place in Glasgow. Walking into Tam Shepard’s Trick Shop is like walking into another world, another era. The shop could have been straight out of the 1930s – except for the Obama masks and the nu-rave-esque wigs. It is a place where the owner will start a Victor Borge [...]

I appear to be having one of those days when coffee is keeping me upright. I’m working, let there be no doubt about that, but I’m also clutching my coffee cup like there is no tomorrow.
First, though, there is the Booker longlist. After a few years where the prize appeared to be a tiny bit [...]

When I talked about independent bookshops and Glasgow, I mentioned that my neighbourhood has several excellent secondhand bookshops. This is my favourite: Voltaire & Rousseau just off Otago Street. Sometimes I even think it is my favourite bookshop in the entire universe, full stop.
As someone whose idea of a good time is digging through piles [...]

Our local independent bookshop, Lost in Fiction, closed its doors recently. I greeted the news with very mixed emotions.
Independent bookshops are becoming increasingly rare and it hurts every time one of them closes. The closing-down of LiF also reflects that rents and commercial property prices in the Glasgow West End are spinning out of control. [...]

My good friend, the old maiden aunt better known as Lilith, is away on holiday and yesterday I went down to West Kilbride to look after her workshop.
What did I spend my time doing? Did I pet her handdyed yarns or fondle the abundant piles of spinning fibres?
Of course I did, but actually I [...]

After spending the afternoon drawing, laughing and singing at Dr Sketchy’s (brief nudity, beware), it was a bit of a downer heading back onto Glasgow’s streets to find that Rangers winning the football league equalled people heckling other people and a lot of drunken aggression. Sectarianism is such an ugly thing and never fails to [...]

As I am finally getting to the last Ishbel chart, let me round up some of my yarn purchases. First, though, a few comments on knitting Ishbel.
It seems every time people are touting a pattern as “really easy” and “you’ll knit this up in a few days”, I struggle with said pattern. Ishbel was no [...]