5 books by Gok Wan

Gok: If I set this up for you, will you invite me to your wedding?
Melissa: Yes! It's in Rarotonga...
Gok: *confused look* I don't know what that is.
Melissa: It's an island. It has Rarotongan boys.
Gok: I love boys!
- Gok Wan, British fashion consultant, 30 May 2012 (and I know he said this because I was there to hear it)

I have never watched an episode of Gok Wan's show How to look good naked, so when I saw the signs start popping up in Westfield Manukau advertising an in-mall appearance, it didn't mean anything to me. I'd walk past the posters and smile because something about him - he's quite adorkable, really - makes me do that. That's not to say I don't know who he is. I do. I'm not totally clueless. I've just never watched his show. (I'll be honest and admit I don't watch America's next top model OR Project runway, either). Yesterday, on the way to work, and after having walked past yet another poster with his face on it, I decided I'd go and have a look during my lunchbreak, and drag Natalie and Jolene with me. After having seen Gok in action yesterday, I have to say, I'd be more inclined to watch his show now. Not because he takes women and shows them how to dress well and with confidence (a knack I've never mastered and think very little about - some mornings it's hard to remember to put on matching shoes), but because he's funny. Actually, he's hilarious. I spent the entire time screaming with laughter. I think the women who put their hands up to have makeovers done were extremely brave. A colleague asked me later, "What did you learn from watching the show?" THIS! That Gok is riotously funny, cleavage is (very probably always) in, and you should use belts. In that order. Well worth working late to make up for the extended lunchbreak. When I got back to my desk, though, I wondered what books or DVDs we have of Gok's. And so there you go - today's list: 5 books by Gok Wan.

5 things I can't knit

"...the number one reason knitters knit is because they are so smart that they need knitting to make boring things interesting. Knitters are so compellingly clever that they simply can't tolerate boredom. It takes more to engage and entertain this kind of human, and they need an outlet or they get into trouble."
- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Last year in October I wrote a post for the Auckland Libraries blog about knitting. To be precise: 5 knitting books that confirm what I already suspected: I suck at knitting. In June some time of 2011 I was gung-ho for knitting and tried to make a scarf. I gave myself six weeks. It was a disastrous. I dropped stitches, made stitches up out of thin air, managed to stab myself with the knitting needles more times than I could count, broke a needle and mourned its loss briefly and, in the end, ended up with a great big mess that resembles my hair in the morning after a restless night's sleep. I gave up. I'm not proud of being a quitter, but I've long since gotten used to my half-abandoned projects. My pathway to hell is paved with the debris of a lifetime's worth of my good intentions and crafts projects. You'd think, then, that I'd spit at any and all knitting books I came across and make the sign of the cross. Not the case. If anything, I deliberately keep an eye out and count the number of items I cannot make myself. It's a weird love/hate relationship. And so I present: 5 things I can't knit!

Do you knit badly? Or are you a knitting fiend?