Reading My Way Around the World

Wednesday 1 March 2017

Yarn Along: Reading and Making

Reading and knitting - two of my favourite pastimes.

I used to think I was a good knitter.   Well, I am ... a good knitter - I've always got something on the needles, usually more than one thing.   But I've recently discovered that I know very very very little about the subject.  One of the plus points of being laid up in bed for an extended length of time is that I've had loads of time to look around short reads - i.e. blogs - and I've found so many great knitting blogs and it has really recharged my interest and enthusiasm.

So I'm joining in the Yarn Along today, run by Ginny at Sweet Things for the first time.  The point of this blog hop is to share what you're knitting and what you're reading.   Some of these other knitters are quite amazing and there are some good ideas for reading as well.


So this is my first attempt at knitting socks - it's been slow going over the past few weeks,  but thanks to the brilliant instructions of Winwick Mum and her Sockalong, I've finally nearly got my first pair of hand knit socks.  Woohoo..  I love the wool too - Regia sock yarn self striping wool.  I was shamed into this by the lovely Amy at Love Made My Home who, although she is a fabulous crocheter,  started knitting by knitting socks!  You what?!  So, finally caught up.

Reading, I've finally slogged my way to the end of Edith Wharton's "Age of Innocence".   She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature with this novel in the 1920s.  I'm sure at the time it was scandalous and a great look behind the scenes of the New York elite, and the descriptions are superb and suitable claustrophobic and paranoid, but I found it hard going and frankly boring.  However against my usual rule of if it doesn't hold my attention leave it there, I ploughed through to the end and I'm glad I did, sort of - there's a different rule for classics isn't there?  Although I confess that I diverted for a day in the middle to read the first Dr Siri Mystery which was brilliant - more about him at a future date.


5 comments:

  1. Hi Fil - I hope you're recuperating well - chest and flu symptoms are difficult to throw off ... some books we just can't get into - many of the classics too. I can't do knitting - as I can't do it for one, and for two it makes me think of wool ... and that drives me dilly - so knitting is off my radar - but I know it's therapeutic ... cheers and feel more spring like very soon - Hilary

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  2. I hope you are feeling much better. I remember liking that book. As far as knitting goes, in school, a million years ago, I knitted a pair of wool socks. Believe it or not, I still have them. That's as far as my knitting goes. But I have joined a crochet group here and I'm enjoying that. Right now I'm reading a Swedish trilogy about a a woman's life from 1937 to I imagine the end of the 20th century (I'm not that far yet). I can imagine my mother's life and also my own from these books, so it is a lot of fun for me.

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  3. Oh my word, dear Fil, your time in bed produced this amazing pair of socks!!!! And reading as well, although a Pulitzer award winner and an amazing register of the elite in NY, and the first woman to win such an honour, it's hard to go through it - I guess that's why there are films to fill the blank... Back to the socks - I looved them, you are a real artist in every field, these socks are really amazing, with stripes, it's complicated to knit so! I don't know how to knit :( My mum was brilliant. I once asked her to teach me and I was doing kind of fine, but she said sh didn't have the patient to see me losing stitches :) and now, that we would both have more patient, she can't teach me anymore. I am very nostalgic these days, dear Fil :( I hope you have a very lovely weekend, share more of your stories with us, I really love them! Hugs and kisses,dear Fil!
    DenisesPlanet.com

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  4. Hope you're feeling better.

    Way to go with sock knitting! I've yet to make a pair of socks so I'm in awe of anyone that can. Recently I did bookmark Winwick Mum's tutorial on sock knitting.

    Have a good weekend.

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  5. Hope you're feeling better. Your socks look amazing. Great job!

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