yarn along

Just two more gifts to knit before Christmas!  Last night I started this pair of fingerless mitts for my daughter.  The yarn is an organic merino by Becoming Art in her "Neverland" colorway.  My daughter has a hat in this colorway but doesn't wear it as much as she'd like because none of her mittens or gloves match.  So I'm hoping she'll be excited to get these mitts.

I'm still reading The Other Boleyn Girl.  It's entertaining and easy to read a couple of pages at a time.  I've seen so many of you in these Yarn Alongs mention Simplicity Parenting that I finally got a copy for myself yesterday.  I'm hoping to get through it over the next couple of weeks, while acknowledging that a book about simplicity is an interesting thing to read during what I think is one of the least simple times of the year.

I hope all of your gift making is coming along well.  As always, please feel free to leave a link to your yarn along post in the comments.  And thank you to Ginny at small things for hosting another yarn along.

Yarning Along

Hello, little owl!  I made him as a gift for my sister for her Christmas tree.  Last week he was unstuffed, but just an hour of extra work and he was done.  I made his eyes out of felt and affixed them with hot glue.  And next time I'd add a little fringe on his scarf, but I do think he's just right anyway.

I'm just about to start working on the second fingerless mitt for my oldest.  It's the only thing I'm knitting for her for Christmas.  I'm actually doing more sewing this year which is beginning to make me a little nervous given that I am a much better knitter.  I'm hoping to start the sewing projects soon.  All the fabric is here, I just need to prewash it all.

By the way, I'm really anxious and excited to start the sewing.  I'm in love with the fabrics I chose.  But I need to prewash them.  Prewashing fabrics is, in my opinion, the equivalent of knitting and washing a gauge swatch.  They're pretty necessary steps if you want the item to actually fit and look right, but they just seem like obstacles.

And I began reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory.  I found it for $1 last week at a book sale and like that I don't have to worry about returning it to the library, given that it's rather long.  I like historical fiction--although I don't know how accurate this novel is--but I'm enjoying it anyway.  It's perfect for picking up and putting down in between things.

What are you knitting and reading this week?  Thanks to Ginny at small things for hosting another Yarn Along.

yarn along

I'm happy to say that I'm in good shape for my family's Christmas get together this weekend.  Last week, I was feeling a bit panicked about finishing my niece's In Threes cardigan in time, along with all of the other gift making and preparations for this weekend.  But thanks to a stomach virus, I was able to stay home for most of last week and just get things done.  Not the way I wanted to spend my Thanksgiving, but here I am way ahead of schedule this week!

(The exclamation point above is my trying to put a positive spin on this stomach bug that hit us right before Thanksgiving and derailed our plans.  Plus, it had four of the five of us sick at the exact same time, making for a sleepless night.  But here we are, healthier now and without the added 5 lbs. I usually gain over Thanksgiving.)

I'm so ahead of schedule that I took a detour to make an owl stuffed ornament.  That first picture above is my unstuffed owl and the start of her scarf, because owls need scarves too.  I had to make one after seeing these.

And I picked up a copy of Buddha in the Attic to read this week.  I had read a positive review of it somewhere.  But I'm not getting hooked, and I don't think I'll finish it.  The story is about a group of Japanese women who come to the U.S. as brides early in the 20th century.  The narrator speaks for all the women collectively and I think that is what has kept me from really engaging with the story.  The collective voice mirrors the anonymity and invisibility the women feel here in the U.S., but it's also keeping me from connecting with any of the characters.

What are you reading and knitting this week?  Thanks to Ginny at small things for hosting another Yarn Along.

yarn along

Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, and already I'm feeling slightly panicked about Christmas.  My family (including my parents and my sister's husband and children) celebrates Christmas the week after Thanksgiving here at my house.  So that means house cleaned, presents made or bought, and food prepared for my family to come visit overnight.  And it's 10 days away.  It's always a lot of fun, but my heart starts to race just about now every year.

I've got a spreadsheet started that includes gifts and deadlines and I'm off!

I was able to check off the first gift earlier this week.  I finished the Koolhaas hat I made for my husband's birthday on his birthday.  I'm thankful he likes to open presents at the end of the day on his birthday.  And now I'm onto handmade Christmas gift #1 for my niece Brooke.  I'm making her the In Threes cardigan.  I'm second guessing my choice of size--she's a little 1 year old peanut, and I'm making her the 18-24 months size--but I'm going to run with it anyway.  I'd rather the sweater be too big than too small.

I managed to finish We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson earlier this week too.  I really enjoyed this book.  It was suspenseful and engaging without being too scary.  I don't have anything new to read right now because I'm focused on holiday preparations, but I should probably find something light to read to help me relax at night. Any suggestions?

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you participating in the Yarn Alongs.  I'm thankful for Ginny at small things for hosting these weekly gatherings and please feel free to leave a link to your knitting and reading here if you'd like.

yarn along

I realized on Monday that my husband's birthday is rapidly approaching.  So I started making him a Koolhaas (pattern by Jared Flood).  I fell in love with the Koolhaas that Joy at You Know How We're An Art Family made last week, so I was sold on making one for my husband.  The only appropriate yarn I had on hand is a black superwash sock yarn, so I've doubled it up and I'm hoping for the best.  So far so good.  But my goodness is black difficult to photograph!

I picked up We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson based on Erin at Wild Whisper's recommendation.  I love suspenseful stories and Shirley Jackson too.  Her book The Haunting of Hill House is fantastic.

Thanks for all of your recommendations last week on a toddler girl's sweater.  I've decided on In Threes and I'm just waiting for the yarn to arrive.

What are you knitting and reading this week?  Thanks to Ginny at small things for hosting another yarn along.

yarn along

Forgive the picture this week, please.  I can't decide whether I love that it's overexposed or not, but it's the only one I have, so here we are.

I finished the scrappy linen stitch scarf I was knitting last week and love it.  I blogged about it yesterday.

This week, I'm starting my Christmas knitting.  I'm making my oldest daughters each a pair of fingerless mitts.  They keep stealing mine, and they're way too big anyway, so each is getting a pair.  I'm just making them long and plain stockinette, because sometimes I just don't want to have to think about what's coming up next in the pattern.  I'm using some leftover Malabrigo for this pair.  

And I need some help from all of you.  I want to make my 1 year old niece a sweater for Christmas.  I'm eyeing In Threes.  I'm open to other suggestions, though, too.  I want to make something special for her.  The only stipulation is that it has to be for worsted weight since I've already picked out the yarn.  Please suggest away!

I'm about three-quarters of the way through Made for You and Me.  I'm finding this book interesting to read.  It's a memoir of a couple from Maine who moved west to California to seek greater career opportunities right as the recession was starting.  Finding themselves unexpectedly pregnant, then with a newborn and without work, they must move back home to Maine.  The book examines the idea of "going west" that Americans have--an image that evokes limitless opportunity--with the perceived loss of the American dream brought about by the recession.  

What are you reading and knitting this week?  And thanks to Ginny for hosting another Yarn Along.

yarn along

What a week it's been!  Between getting ready for the Nor'easter we had this weekend, and Halloween, and more Halloween...well, I'm just glad it's over.  Don't get me wrong.  I loved watching the kids celebrate Halloween, but I'm ready for the decorations to be put away and for me to get back to knitting.  (As my husband tells me, you can't knit and watch scary movies at the same time because you'll miss something.)

I'm bordering on obsessed with this linen stitch scarf I'm working on.  It's knit lengthwise, and I'm guessing it's about 6 feet long.  I've knit a few scarves before and they always seem to take forever.  Maybe because this one is knit legnthwise, I feel like I'm making progress more quickly.  It's already about 4 inches wide, so I'll probably only knit a few more rows before binding off.

I've just started Made for You and Me by Caitlin Shetterly.  I've joined a Maine Women Writers book club at my local book store, and this is the selection for November.  I just wish I weren't so tired when I finally sit down to read at night.  Thank goodness the next major holiday is several weeks away!

What are you reading and knitting this week?  Please share and link to your blog.  And thanks to Ginny at small things for another yarn along.

yarn along

After finishing up my hat and mitten set for my friend's baby, I was really stuck on what to knit next.  I wasn't feeling inspired by anything.  But Saturday night, while looking through my stash and being irritated by the number of small leftover balls of yarn, I decided to make a scrappy lengthwise linen stitch scarf.  I'm following the directions from this pattern, but I've modified the number of cast on stitches since I'm using worsted weight wools.

So Saturday night I cast on 360 stitches and worked the first row of the pattern.  I got to the last stitch of that row and realized I'd made a mistake somewhere earlier.  Looking through that twisted up, long row, I realized I'd made it almost right away--about 300 stitches ago.  I tinked back one stitch at a time until I realized it could take me an hour or two to get back.  So I ripped the whole thing out and started over.

I did find the first two rows of this pattern challenging, simply because there are so many stitches and I hadn't quite gotten the hang of moving the yarn front and back and I sometimes lost track of where I was. But now that I'm several rows in, the pattern is a breeze and it's fun to see how the colors are coming together from all the scraps.  And the linen stitch makes a wonderful texture.

I'm reading Bossypants by Tina Fey.  It's hysterical.  That's really all I can say about it.

What are you reading and knitting this week?  Thanks for stopping by, and thank you to Ginny at small things for hosting another yarn along.

yarn along

Today's post is a wrap up of sorts of previous yarn along posts.  I finished the hat and mittens for my friend's newborn daughter.  I gave them to her this morning and she loved them.  The yarn was a surprise hit for me.  It's Lion Brand Baby's First, a cotton/acrylic blend.  I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did.  Super soft and squishy and machine washable.

I worked on this cowl this weekend.  Big needles, big yarn, super satisfying!

And to wrap up my reading:  I finished The Dovekeepers.  I was surprised that I read the entire book--about 500 pages--in just two weeks.  But the story pulls you in.  It interweaves the stories of four women living around 70 C.E. during the fall of Jerusalem.  It was based on historical events but, because women's lives weren't recorded like men's, it's a fictional tale of what their stories may have been.

And finally, and most exciting for me, I'm going to a book group tonight about Melissa Coleman's This Life Is In Your Hands and Melissa herself will be there.  I read this book a month or two ago and it affected me deeply.  I'm looking forward to meeting the author, asking some questions, and hearing what other's reactions to the book are.

I hope you've been having a great reading and knitting week.  Please share what you're reading and knitting.  And thank you to Ginny at small things for hosting another Yarn Along.

Yarn Along

This week's Yarn Along feels like an update of last week's.

I'm almost done with the hat and mitten set for my friend whose baby is arriving this morning.  I had lunch with her yesterday and I couldn't get over the fact that today she'd be holding the baby in her arms.  You would think I'd never had children.  But I remember that feeling the night before my third baby was born knowing that tomorrow all of our lives would be different forever.  And the knowledge that you know nothing at all about the little person you're about to bring into the world.  I'm thinking of her today as her family welcomes this beautiful baby who is already loved so much.

Who wants to talk about fingerless mitts when there's a new baby entering the world?  But there they are in the picture anyway.

I did much more reading this week than knitting, thanks in part to a strange virus that left me stuck in bed all day Sunday while it was 85 degrees outside and my family was at the beach.  I enjoyed the sunshine through the sky lights and thankfully whatever it was passed quickly and no one else got it.  I think my husband thought I was just trying to be lazy but when I passed up eating lunch because I was too nauseous, he knew I was serious.

I managed to read the first 300 pages of The Dovekeepers this week. The story follows several women who have fled Jerusalem around 70 C.E. (because the Romans have attacked it) and are now living among a community of refugees in the desert.  Their lives are complicated and engrossing.  I read a good chunk two nights ago between 3am and 5am just hoping I'd fall back to sleep, but the book really kept me engaged.

What are you reading and knitting this week?  Please feel free to leave a comment if you stop by with a link to your own yarn along post.  Thanks!

yarn along

Joining Ginny at small things for another Yarn Along...

Since it's been raining since Saturday, I've found a lot of time to knit.  I managed to finish the sweater I was working on last week, and I started a baby gift for a dear friend and a pair of fingerless mitts.  The fingerless mitts are from my Low Tide Convertible Mitten pattern...I'm just going to make these without the mitten cap.

My dear friend is having a baby next week and we don't know whether it's a girl or boy.  I wanted to be able to bring her a gift for the baby in the hospital, so I chose a cream colored cotton/acrylic blend and I'm really happy with how nicely it's working up.  This is my friend's third child and I wasn't quite sure what to give her, but since we're heading into winter, I figured a hat and mitten set would be perfect.  I've finished one mitten and I'm almost done with the hat.  I can't wait to meet this little baby!

I'm about to start reading Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers.  I know nothing about this book.  I chose it because it was on the new fiction rack at the library and because Toni Morrison, one of my favorite authors, endorsed it.

While at the library, I also picked up Weekend Furniture Facelifts.  I have a cedar chest that belonged to my grandmother that is in desperate need of some paint, but I have no idea how or where to start.  I don't imagine for one second that any furniture painting project would take me only one weekend, but I can hope.

And I picked up a few children's books that I've wanted to read with the girls.  Two Strega Nona books, written and illustrated by Tomie dePaolo, and a Tasha Tudor sampler, based on one of your yarn along suggestions in the past couple of weeks.  Tomie dePaolo is visiting one of our local bookstores later this month, and I want my girls to be familiar with his work before we go.  They own copies of his children's bible but a friend recommended his Strega Nona series too.

I'm interested in seeing what you're all reading and knitting this week.  When you leave a comment, please feel free to include a link to your yarn along post.

And please feel free to enter my Give Thanks Hat and Mitten pattern giveaway here.  Thanks for stopping by!

Yarn Along...in which I admit that I'm afraid of my book

I'm still working on the sweater I showed you last week.  It's a sleeveless sweater, so I've only got to crochet around the armholes and weave in some ends.  So I should be finished soon!

I took a picture of the sweater sitting on top of my knitting basket.  The basket is overflowing with little projects that need to be finished:  a button missing from a sweater, a single mitten that needs a mate, some hats that need to be hand washed, some swatches that I'd like to catalog somehow, and a scarf that needs some serious attention before Christmas.

I'm still reading The Lost City of Z.  While I admitted to finding Amazon adventure stories fascinating, I think I also have to admit that they've been giving me nightmares.  I haven't been sleeping well this week and I think reading this book right before bed isn't helping.  I've just downloaded a copy of the novel Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan, and I'm hoping to start reading it soon.  I'll save my Amazon reading for earlier in the day.

What are you reading and knitting this week?

Thank you to Ginny at small things for hosting another Yarn Along.

Yarn Along (#?)

Yarn Along, oh how I've missed you!

I was doing pretty well this winter and spring keeping up with reading and knitting and participating in the Yarn Alongs.  But then summer vacation arrived and, well, I wasn't able to keep up.

So I'm back this week going back and forth between Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees and Jack Kerouac's On the Road.  The Bean Trees came highly recommended by two acquaintances randomly a few weeks back.  And I figured it was about time I read On the Road, given that I was an English major who focused on American literature.

I'm slowly making progress on Kate Davies' Paper Dolls sweater.  Between the i-cord cast on and the corrugated rib, the first 2 inches were very slow going.  But I love the effect of both techniques and I quickly got used to carrying both the pink and green yarns in my left hand while knitting and purling away.  I'm now into the body of the sweater and won't hit colorwork again until the yoke.  So I've got inches and inches of stockinette stitch ahead of me, in a sock weight yarn to boot.

I've got a long stint in a doctor's office waiting room ahead of me today, and I'm hoping this doctor has wifi so I can read all of the other Yarn Along posts.

I'd love to see what you're reading and knitting, so please leave a comment if you stop by.  Thanks!  And thanks to Ginny for hosting the Yarn Alongs.

Yarn Along (#19)

I'm joining Ginny at small things for another Yarn Along...

I didn't get a lot of knitting done this week, but I did finish my first 5k, and I did get over the hurdle I was facing last week:  how to handle the shoulder seams on the sweater I'm making.  I figured out how to shape the shoulders with short rows and used a 3 needle bind off.  And I tried it on both of my older daughters and it fits perfectly!  So that was a success.

My next challenge then was to figure out what to do with the neck.  I knew how I wanted it to look, but I was afraid I didn't have enough yarn.  So instead of going ahead with the idea and finding another ball of yarn if I need it, I decided to scrap that idea and try another one:  a dropped stitch turtleneck.  Before I even started knitting the neck, I think I knew it wasn't going to work.  But I kept going anyway because I was at least knitting and making some progress.  When I finished, I knew immediately that it was a failure and I'll have to rip it all out.  It's yet another reminder to always trust your instincts when it comes to knitting!

I knew that neckline wasn't going to work because I made a destroyed cowl last year out of a handspun yarn I had.  I had seen a number of destroyed cowls made out of handspun yarns and they were gorgeous.  But after knitting the whole thing and dropping the stitches and trying it on, it looked terrible on me.  And I didn't like the look of the dropped stitches.  I didn't even bother to take a picture of it finished.  I frogged the whole thing and now that yarn is sitting unused in my yarn stash.  I don't think I'll ever use it again.  It will remind me of the first failure.

{{I'm happy to send this handspun yarn from the cowl to anyone who wants it.  It's been knit, frogged, and rewound by hand into balls.  Just leave a comment for me with a note that you'd like it, and I'll send it to you.  Otherwise, it truly will sit here unloved.  If more than one person wants it, I'll go with the first person to respond.}}

As for reading, I've acquired this little stack of books over the past 2 weeks at yard sales and a church book sale.  I'm moving quickly through Wuthering Heights and I'll be saving the other three for this summer.  Wuthering Heights is a much darker story than I remember.  Whenever I hear references to this novel, they suggest that Heathcliff and Catherine have a romantic, tragic love story.  And it is tragic.  But it's also obsessive and hurtful.  There isn't much to redeem either character as human beings.  Maybe that changes as the book progresses.  I'm still enjoying the story, but it's a much more complex story than I remember.

What are you reading and knitting this week?

Yarn Along (#18)

I'm slowly trying to finish the sweater I started a couple of weeks ago.  It should be done by now but I'm procrastinating, not sure how I want to seam the shoulders.  If I can get past the next few rows, the rest of the sweater should go quickly.

I started reading Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.  I found it at a yard sale this weekend.  I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying this book.  I read Wuthering Heights in high school but only remember one scene so it doesn't feel at all like I'm rereading it.  I only wish I had more energy at night to read.

I'm hoping to run my first 5K this weekend so I've been exercising a whole lot more than usual.  My baby has been waking up a lot earlier than usual too.  The days are long and filled with lots of outdoor time and active kids, so by 8pm most nights I'm exhausted.  I'm reading a few paragraphs, napping, then reading a few more before finally committing myself to sleep.  I'm hoping I find more energy soon!

I'd love to see what you're knitting and reading this week.  And thanks to Ginny at small things for hosting another Yarn Along.

Yarn Along (#16)

Nothing new to report on the reading and knitting front.  Same stuff as last week.  But I'm enjoying it all.

My sweetest moment from this week was falling asleep on my daughter's bed as she read me a chapter from Charlotte's Web.  She didn't want to wake me because she wanted me to sleep on her bed all night.

It almost looks like I've been ignoring this scarf.  But I swear I've spent hours working on it.  I even brought it to a town meeting last night that lasted almost three hours.  I've never participated in a town meeting, but I'll sum it up by saying that there was a lot of "You're out of order" and "No! You're out of order" and motioning and seconding and, finally, voting.  I felt like I was watching a movie parodying small town life.

I'll just say that if, at a meeting to decide on the school budget, one needs to pull out a calculator to figure 1% of a number, then that's argument enough that we need to adequately fund our schools.  And someone did indeed need to consult a calculator for 1%.

I'd love to see what you're reading and knitting.  My "to read" and "to knit" list in getting longer as I read all of your entries every week.  Thank you!  And thanks to Ginny for hosting another Yarn Along.

********

And last week, Ginny announced that she was organizing Knit for Japan, an effort to collect 400 hats by July to distribute to those affected by the earthquakes and tsunami.  I'm offering two of my patterns at a discount, and donating my profits from their sales, for anyone who is interested.

Yarn Along (#15)

I cast on last night for a new project!  I had purchased a skein of sock weight yarn from Sweet Basil Fibre Works--many of you know her store--and I had originally planned to knit a pair of socks with it.  But I just couldn't stand the idea that I'd have to swatch, so I opted for a lacy scarf instead.  This "Bittersweet" colorway is just beautiful--the colors are rich and deep.  And the pattern I picked out seems like it will have enough lace to challenge me, but not enough to overwhelm.  It's even got beads along the edging, so I had a lot of fun knitting the first several rows last night.

I just started reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.  And the kids and I have been reading Charlotte's Web before bed.  In the last week we read Fairy Houses of the Maine Coast and a couple of Grimm's Fairy Tales.  (But in all honesty, some of the tales are pretty scary and dark, which doesn't make for good right-before-bed stories.)

But we loved the Fairy Houses book and made our own this weekend.  I wrote about it here.

Thanks to Ginny for hosting another Yarn Along.  I really look forward to these each week.  And I'd love to see what you're knitting and reading, so please leave a comment if you stop by!

Yarn Along (#14)

Please forgive me, this is my second week of not posting a knitting picture!  All I can offer is the yarn I hope to cast on tomorrow.

(I've been knitting a design that will be published by a magazine for Fall 2011.  I can't post pictures of what I'm working on.  I don't dare even post the yarn.  But I'm working hard and my deadline is quick approaching, so I haven't knit anything else these past couple of weeks.  I'm hoping to finish knitting this project tonight, however, because I've got another project I want to start swatching.)

About 2 months ago, my husband took the kids out for the day, leaving me free to do whatever I wanted for 12 hours.  At first I felt a little panicky.  How often does a parent of young children get that amount of time to themselves?  What did I used to do with myself, pre-children?  And would I get bored?

I spent the day driving up and down the seacoast visiting some yarn and antique shops.  I did not get bored and I got in and out of my car several times without having to buckle and unbuckle someone out of a carseat!  And I was a good knitter and bought only yarn for which I had an intended project.  Ok, some people might consider that to be silly, and I did have to fight the urge to buy the most amazing orange Dream in Color, but I did it.

So I'm finally now getting close to being able to use the bulky Cascade Superwash I bought (pictured above).  It's going to be a sweater for my daughter next fall, and I'm hoping to be able to experiment with the construction and design and we'll see what happens.  Hopefully I'll have pictures for you next week.

This week I've been reading Give Me Your Heart by Joyce Carol Oates.  It's a collection of short stories and not for the weak of heart.  I love suspense and mystery and these stories are very good, but I'm going to the library tonight to see if I can find myself something a little more light.

And I finished Cinderella Ate My Daughter, which I wrote about during last week's Yarn Along.  I posted my thoughts about it earlier today, if you care to read that.

What are you knitting and reading this week?  And if you're a sock knitter, have you got a must knit sock pattern that I can try?

Thanks to Ginny at small things for hosting another Yarn Along.

Yarn Along (#13)

Another week has gone by and we're another week closer to spring-like weather.  It's hard to knit and read indoors when I'm wanting so badly to be outside.  But I've started a thought-provoking book this week:  Cinderella Ate my Daughter, by Peggy Orenstein.  I worry all the time about raising daughters who will love themselves, be strong, smart, courageous and curious.  Cinderella Ate My Daughter addresses some of the more recent cultural forces that are defining what it means to be a girl, forces that are somewhat different than when I was a child.  I'll write a more in depth post about this once I've read more of the book and thought about it more, but it's holding my interest at night even when I'm tired.

I finished the cowl I was working on for the past 2 weeks and I'm in love.  I will say that as much as I relish spring weather, I was a tiny bit happy yesterday that it didn't warm up to the predicted 70 degrees until later in the day.  The morning was damp and chilly, perfect for a wool cowl!

And realizing I've never posted pictures of other projects I've shared during these yarn alongs.  So here goes.

The little one's shrug:

My oldest's cardigan:

and my Rosamund Cardigan.

What are you knitting and reading this week?  Thanks to Ginny at small things for hosting another Yarn Along.

Yarn Along (#12)

Thanks to Ginny at small things for hosting another Yarn Along...

Just this year, as my oldest daughter has learned to read, we have begun reading longer chapter books.  We started reading Tumtum and Nutmeg:  Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall several weeks ago.  My children have really developed a love for this book and the characters.  Our newest ritual is to read two chapters every night before the girls go to bed.  This is a new experience for us--reading just a little at a time and leaving more for the following night.  They both get so excited to see what will happen next in the story.  And they love conjecturing about what will happen and whether they'll have guessed right.

I finished Pride and Prejudice last week and immediately started in on Middlemarch by George Eliot.  I first read Middlemarch in a 19th century literature graduate course and remember nothing about it (which is extraordinary given it's over 700 pages long).  During my grad school days, I often had to read just about 1200 pages a week.  At the time I was just reading to get through it all.  How did I manage to write a 15 page paper about this book?  It must have been rubbish.  Graduate school ruined me on reading.  I didn't read a book for 2 years after I finished my Master's program.  I was afraid I'd never want to read another book again.  But time away from school has renewed my love of reading.

I'm knitting along slowly this week.  I've been working on some other projects and haven't actually knit much.  I knew that I'd be doing this which is why I picked this easy pattern that I could just drop and pick up whenever I wanted.

I'd love to see what you're reading and knitting this week.  And if you have any suggestions for books I could be reading with my children, please suggest away!