yarn along

Joining Ginny‘s yarn along again today.

While I would love to be showing you great progress on the hat I began last week with more of that delicious alpaca, my needle broke bringing me to a temporary standstill. But as I had mentioned there are a few mittens on needles around here so I have picked them up in the meantime. I am using a thrummed mitten pattern that came with a kit my mom bought me a few years ago and omitting the thrums….Sounds like someone is a little too lazy to find a new pattern? This pair will be seventh I’ve made with this pattern (the sixth sans thrums). The wool is Paton’s Classic Wool in not-my-favourite shade of pink but a certain three-year-old here loves that these mittens will match her scarf and hat.

In a rather lazy, marathon day of lounging around and reading I finished (well, nearly began and finished) The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma. I perhaps didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first two but that may also have been the speed with which I devoured it. I always feel a little cheated if I speed through a book too fast (which of course gives me ample opportunities to never finish a book I am enjoying). The Prisoner’s Dilemma held the same (gentle) intrigue, adventure and excitement that the others contained, maybe I am just sad that I suspect there may not be a fourth. Hopefully I am wrong.

Now I am at an impasse over which book to get into next. The kids and I have started Mary Poppins but I suspect it will be slow going because they are too wrapped up in Tintin and the Castafiore Emerald to choose anything else for bedtime stories. I was tempted to read Mary Poppins on my own but they are still interested in it so I will wait. Now I am torn between a light, easy, yet entertaining read through Tears of the Giraffe or a longer commitment to E. M. Forster’s classic Howard’s End.

I'm drooling over this edition

As I really wanted to read a good turn-of-the-century English novel, partly thanks to watching this series on Masterpiece Theatre, I think I will happily sink my teeth into Howard’s End. Maybe I’ll amaze myself by actually making some headway on it this week….Although sadly at the expense of my knitting since I haven’t worked out a strategy for doing both at the same time.

Happy Wednesday!