yarn along: august musings

Something about this summer has opened up a lot of time for reading.  Maybe I'm avoiding important things?  I finished Made This Way and Animal Farm while on vacation.  My sister thought Made This Way would be a nice gift for my brother-in-law’s upcoming birthday.  I paged through the copy I got for him, and decided it was worth ordering myself a copy.  So I did, and it was.  I hadn’t read Animal Farm since middle school, and M will read it this year, so into my pile it went.  I’ve been contemplating all of the different social issues that keep cropping up this year, both in the knitting community, and society at large.  With the goal of educating myself in a multi-faceted way, I’ve been compiling a list of books to read that engage or challenge my notions of self and society.  There's a lot of variety in the list!  I definitely don't want to read to confirm views I already hold--I want to be a bit uncomfortable.  Animal Farm was one of them, so finishing it checked two different boxes.  I'll try to share more of the titles from my list as I read them.  Small is Still Beautiful is the next one.

For pure pleasure, I've completed about half of Anne of the Island, one bearing my favorite kind of cover.  I totally finished At Home in Mitford yesterday, also for pleasure.  The first hundred pages were a bit of a struggle, but I couldn't put it down for the remainder.  I got the next volume from the library today, and am not allowing myself to start it until I have filled out some necessary but boring paperwork.

Knitting, knitting... I finished a sweater for a friend's new little girl just in time for her to arrive.  The pattern, Carl's Cardigan, is one I've made before, and one I plan to make again.  I love the texture!  I had plenty of yarn, and it is so soft!  I highly recommend it.  I also finished the socks I was knitting.  I'll post a picture of them after the recipient has 'em.  Just to use up the yarn, I started another pair for myself. (Or someone who has similar feet.)

In a fit of restlessness, I started the Chauncey sweater by Isabel Kraemer, adding a steek up the center to make it into a cardigan.  The tension in my colorwork had me a bit worried, but when I tried it on this morning, it looked better than I thought it would.  Another change I made was to the colorwork pattern itself.  All I saw on the sweater was a creepy gnome or clown, an opinion which was verified independently by Z, who made the same observation without hearing my comments.  I hope that the changes will help!  The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in antique lace, whiskey barrel, and well water, which can all be found here.  Those are my kinds of colors!

joining Ginny...