Knitting: Quicksilver by Melanie Berg in Habu Textiles XS-45 20/3 Bamboo

I started this shawl in April of last year. It’s what I knit when I’m between other projects, but more and more I think I should just finish the darned thing. I’m not a huge fan of knitting with bamboo, but the drape it has is amazing.

Reading: Matters of the Heart by Angela Wanhalla

This is a history of intimate relations between Māori and Pākehā, from the early 1800s through to the 1970s. It’s a very tricky topic over a truly ambitious time frame, but Wanhalla is doing an admirable job at the moment (I’m about halfway through).

I did get rather outraged in the chapter about missionaries, who seemingly charged up and down the country, telling everyone they had to have a ‘regular marriage’. It all seemed so absurd, that a few words and the ‘right’ ceremony by the ‘right’ person was the only way to live a decent life. Thankfully that’s all in the past – right?

See what everyone else is knitting and reading over on the original Yarnalong.