New passions

I'm not the sort of person who normally gets caught up in the world of fandom, but I have a confession to make; I've become a bit obsessed by the Outlander TV series and books. I started to read the books by Diana Gabaldon when I noticed the first book in the series at my local library because it was originally titled 'Crosstitch' in the UK and being mildly obsessed with all things textile, I decided to read it. It looked just my sort of book, with a historical theme so I just ignored the fact that it said that it was being made into a TV series by the US channel Starz. I thought that as it was being made for the US by an American production team that it would never be aired in the UK. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book and have now read the first 5 books in the 8 so far of the series and I am very seriously hooked on them. These books are all very long, or the ones I've read so far have been, but all of them have been real page turners.
Now I know that not everyone is into reading books where violence is rife, with more than a smattering of sex thrown in for good measure, but there's just something in the books that seems to hit some sort of feeling, haven't quite managed to put my finger on it yet, but I certainly enjoy them. Sometimes I wonder how the main characters manage to survive so many unfortunate events and still live, and there are times that I want to just smack Claire the main female character, but then I remind myself that this is fiction - escapism in a story and I just sit back and enjoy it. However I know there are many detractors who just think the book is utter nonsense and just cannot see past the fact that these books are written with more than a nod to the mores and standards of the day. Yes we of right mind in the modern world look at rape whether heterosexual or homosexual, torture, beating etc. as totally wrong, but it is supposed to be the 18th Century where these things did occur. I suggest that many of the detractors have never bothered to actually do any kind of research into the way people lived then, if they did perhaps they would be somewhat less censorious about what the author writes. I think you have to get past the beginning of this book, take a lot of it with a very large pinch of salt and remember that it is a story, the product of the author's mind. Obviously if you don't like it put it away, but when people right long reviews then tell you how bad it is, I wonder how sincere they are. But then again I have read books that have many rave reviews but I've put down because I thought them absolute drivel, so it really is a matter of choice.
So if you enjoy a real mixture of genres but a really enjoyable tale then try it

So then on to my next new passion, weaving. I have had a rigid heddle loom for a number of years and while that was good to weave on, I missed making the more intricate weaves that can be done with a multi-shaft loom, so last year I acquired a 4 shaft Ashford table loom. I've enjoyed the weaving very much, but haven't had much time to do much & him indoors isn't up for retiring yet so it looks like my weaving will have to be done in fits and starts along with all my other textile passions. I just wish I had more hours in the day to pursue everything I want to.

 These are just a couple of tea towels that I've woven so far. I don't really need that many as we have a dishwasher, but I'm sure they'll come out some time to be used. In fact i have 4 tea towels on the loom at the moment, orders from my niece & of course I can't make for one niece without the other one, hence why I'm weaving 4 of them. I'm looking forward to getting them off the loom so that I can weave some lovely silk that I've got, probably into a scarf or shawl, although my loom is only 60cms so unless I do a double width it will be fairly narrow for a shawl, but I might just put some wool that I have here on first to see how I like weaving with wool on there as so far I've only woven with cotton