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When was Rhinebeck — weeks ago? It all went by in a blur. I spent a lot of Saturday "helping" Clara Parkes at her book signing. It was something to see: a line of knitters, all waiting to tell her how much her books mean to them, how they love Knitter's Review, how they learned this or that from her, how much they love that she shares her morning coffee with us via Twitter and Facebook. Knitters are mostly lovely people, and I got to see mostly loveliness that day. Clara signed all the copies of the book that there were, and there weren't nearly enough!

The book is, of course, The Knitter's Book of Socks. Clara asked me to design a pattern, so I did. It came to me on a wintry Sunday morning in Kris' living room, over a cup of coffee in this cup:

Herend 2010.

The pattern is Hickory, in Sundara Sock Yarn. I'm delighted with how they turned out, and with the way the pattern looks and fits into in this incredible book. We are learning so much from Clara Parkes and her books, and she's helping us become better knitters — intuitive, knowledgeable knitters. It's beautiful to see, and that's one reason why standing with her at that table at Rhinebeck, with the line of better-knitters stretching down the aisle, was such an honor.

On Sunday, Judy and the Remarkable R's and I made the rounds at Rhinebeck. It was different because they couldn't be there for both days, but it was still wonderful. I just love our Rhinebeck Tradition. I don't need yarn, of course, but I brought home a little bit of Guanaco and a pair of glass circular needles to add to my small selection.

I've knit a lot since I got home — more hats and some mitts, and a bigger project that's not ready to show yet. I've been working on a design that is about to become a pattern that will eventually become something I hope you might want to knit. Don't tell anyone, okay?

Man Hats I.

 

Man Hats II, and Foxgloves on the needles.

Untended

This picture says it all. Two months ago, the wisteria was just beginning to climb up my porch railing. Now, it claims my chair.

It's been the same sort of summer as usual: busy. I work long hours, shuffle back and forth between the bookstore and home, and marvel at how time is flying (or complain about how time seems to have stopped). Our website is a full-time job, and exciting. My head is filled with html and SEO, URL path settings and publishing options. My time is spent on updates and order processing, inventory upload files and shipping quotes. Above all, I keep in touch with books. Books and bookselling are still what I do.

There's been knitting. Free-range knitting. Dabbling. I finished my Saroyan weeks ago (Sundara Fingering Merino Cashmere). I'm working on a couple of pairs of socks, a little shawl experiment, and a few other things. It keeps me sane.

I've also been reading. This should not be remarkable, but it is. My reading mojo has been non-existent for a very, very long time. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is a beautiful memoir by Nina Sankovitch. It's about her year of reading — a book a day, for 365 days — after the death of her sister. In an article in the New York Times, she said she was seeking answers about "how to live with sorrow and how to find my place in the world." I think I knew that books can provide those answers, but I didn't go to them. Nina Sankovitch's wonderful book has begun to lead me back. I'm reading one of the books on her list now: How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall.

Maybe reading is keeping me sane, too.

 ❧ Rosemary... Rosemary is a furry firecracker. She is fond of stuffed mousies, especially when they need to be attacked at the foot of the bed in the middle of the night. She doesn't keep me sane, but she makes life interesting.

Ten on Tuesday

I signed up for Carole's emails so I could think about participating in her lovely Ten on Tuesday blog themes. But the thing is, I don't usually have time to post on Tuesdays. Tuesday is a busy day at work. After work on Tuesday is my getting-over-busy time. But the theme this week is all about books, so how could I resist? Here goes:

Ten Books on My Summer Reading List

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It's the 50th anniversary of the publication of my favorite, favorite book, so it's time for a re-read. I've already read it dozens of times, but I can always spare a few hours to be with Jem and Scout.
2. On the nightstand: Sue Miller's The Lake Shore Limited. 
3. Also reading: Simon Van Booy's short story collection The Secret Lives of People in Love.
4. And: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson. Of course.
5. I'm listening to Daniel Gilbert read Stumbling on Happiness. He has a wonderful reading voice.
6. American Music by Jane Mendelsohn. I loved her book I Was Amelia Earhart, which was quite imaginative.
7. Photoshop Elements 8: The Missing Manual by Barbara Brundage. Enough said.
8. David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Like I'll have time.
9. What a Difference a Dog Makes: Big Lessons on Life, Love, and Healing from a Small Pooch by Dana Jennings, which is being published in November.
10. Knitting Green by Ann Budd. I just got this the other day, and I'm looking forward to reading and knitting my way through it!

There! I did it! 

Almost summertime

A little damselfly paid my hat a visit!

 I was sitting there last night, about to begin to knit on a sock, when I heard some yarn talking to me. It was Catskill Merino, which Clara at Knitter's Review wrote about a few weeks ago, and which had arrived on my doorstep "by accident." I listened carefully as the yarn -- a soft, plump worsted weight singles dyed with indigo -- asked to be knit into something right away. So I cast on a Honeycomb Hat from The Knitter's Book of Yarn. 

Still there!

 By this morning it was off the needles, so I washed it and set it out on my little deck to dry. I love this yarn! It's not a true single, because up close you can see that two strands have been twisted together, but it behaves like a single, and I'm sure that it will pill with abrasion. It's just right for a soft, warm hat. I've made one of these before, and it's my favorite hat to wear.
 

A few days ago Annabelle ventured down the stairs, but something across the driveway made her turn around just after I took the picture. From this angle her rear end doesn't look too ample, so she said I could post this. She's very careful about such things, you know. She rarely goes outside; she wants to, but she doesn't like to, so every once in a while I let her try it. She lasts about three minutes, on average, which is just fine with me.

In another "right in my own back yard" moment, about ten days ago I took this picture of a pale pink peony. I like what the Hipstamatic iPhone app does with color. It looks so old.

Ten days? What have I been doing? Working. The store move is complete, except for a couple of shelves that are still being built, and we're about to enter the real Summer Season. In any spare time, I've been resting up and knitting.

I had been plugging away on this pair of Celebrate Spring socks in Sundara Sock Sage over Butter, but the second one is on time-out. This one just doesn't fit right (I think it's the unforgiving rows of purl stitches that go right over the biggest part of my big ankle), and I'll need to think about it before I proceed.

I still have socks going on, though. My friend Kristopher and I are having a little Summertime Sock Knitalong, just the two of us. We decided on a pattern (Anne Hanson's excellent Dolomite Socks), made a "rule" that we had to cast on with a yarn in our stash that we haven't used before (that's easy, but it meant No Sundara for me), and off we went. My yarn is Frija from Spirit Trail, and Kris is working with Briar Rose Grandma's Blessing. This pattern is nice and stretchy, and easy to memorize. The yarn is lovely -- it's merino, cashmere and a little bit of nylon.

Knitting will keep me going all through the summer, as it always does. There have also been quarts and quarts of local strawberries, my other early summer salvation. I froze most of them for later -- smoothies in August!

I've been trying to reclaim my reading mojo, which left a couple of months ago (distressing, when you sell books for a living). I'm reading Simon Van Booy's short story collection, The Secret Lives of People in Love. He's brilliant -- his stories really are like poems, as Roger Rosenblatt is quoted on Simon's website. He's also a frequent visitor to the bookstore (as is Roger; we're so lucky!), and he's coming to read and sign books this Saturday.  Stop by if you're in the neighborhood -- 5:00pm on Saturday the 19th.

The hat should be dry by now, and my socks are calling. Another Sunday off is coming to a close, so I want to make the most of what's left.

Catching up

Endings and beginnings
Summer is almost over, at last. At long last. The days feel different -- it's still dark when I wake up in the morning, and by late afternoon the light has that amber tinge that signals a change in the season. It's time for a shift, away from the hectic and hot days of summer, and towards my favorite time of year. It's also time to get back to knitting.

I've been so busy that I haven't had the energy to do much besides work and sleep. I picked up this forlorn sock the other day, and realized that I need to knit as much as I want to knit. My hands have missed it, and my brain has missed it, too. So I'm plugging away, a few rows at a time, and dreaming of knitting something new. What it will be, I don't know. But it has to be new. All the projects that are in various states of completion will have to wait. I need to start something.

Farewell, Portia
About a year ago, when cancer was where I lived, I had to have a chest port implanted so I could begin chemotherapy. A few weeks ago I had the procedure to remove it. I was surprised to find that I had mixed feelings about it -- Portia, as I called her, was never an easy one to get along with. She pulled, she ached, she malfunctioned at the worst possible moments (just as I was about to receive the Big Bad Adriamycin, not once but twice). She made herself a nuisance. But on the other hand, Portia was a means to a good outcome. She made it possible for me to receive the drugs more safely and with less discomfort than if they had had to be infused through a vein. She did her job, most of the time.

So when I was officially done with chemo, I lobbied Dr. Pearl. I wanted to be rid of Portia as soon as possible. When he agreed, finally, and the date was set, I was so happy! I couldn't wait -- but there was something else, too. Portia had helped save me, and what would I do without that little plastic do-dad to reassure me? To be honest, I was scared. Having a port meant I could be treated, and being treated meant I could be well. What if...? It wasn't until I caught a glimpse of her as the radiologist was tossing her away that I knew I didn't need her any more. Goodbye, my fickle friend, and thank you.

Techno-grip
I joined Facebook today. Or rather, I joined and ducked for cover. It was a whim, indulged with a few clicks. What was I thinking? That I was missing something? That I need to be so casually connected with the whole world? That I will be willing to spend even more time tweaking and arranging yet another version of my public self? Yes, yes, and yes. Oh, well. Someone please tell me it will be fun.

Literary pursuits
At least I have been reading (it's part of my job, after all). Four books have had my attention in the past few weeks. Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall is a well-told story about a woman who tends to take care of everyone. There's a bit of a dramatic story there, too, but I liked the book because I liked the character.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson is so wildly popular that I felt obliged to read it. I don't do suspense/thriller/mystery much; I want memorable words and characters, and this genre is usually heavy on plot and light on character development. But this time, the Girl pulled me in. She's fascinating, and I so wanted to see where she was heading that I read the book in just a few days. It's not for everyone, so don't think you have to read it just because everyone tells you it's fabulous. Reading is supposed to be pleasurable, after all.

Await your Reply by Dan Chaon is just brilliant. Are we who we think or say we are, and do we get to decide? I've never read anything like this book, and I don't want to do it an injustice by trying to tell you more about it.

The book I'm just finishing now is Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder. It's a true story about a man who escaped the genocide in Burundi and Rwanda and made his way to New York, eventually becoming a doctor. I spent so much of the past year becoming aware of and testing my capabilities that I came to this story with what I thought was a little bit of understanding. I'll never know though, what it takes to simply survive through the night, what just being really means. I'm a piker.

On with it, then
The Internets are calling. There's this thing called a wall, and one of my nieces just friended me, and I think I'm supposed to think of things to actually write on the wall. Right?

B is for

Book(store).

I spend an average of ten hours a day, five days a week in this long, narrow, creaky-floored, book-filled space. It is my second home, my responsibility, my daily challenge.

Each morning when I walk in the door I take it all in, survey my domain, take deep breaths. What is on my list today, orders? Will I have a chance to get to that reorganizing project? Will we be busy? Do I have enough of this or that title?

I'm fortunate. I have an extraordinary job in an extraordinary independent bookstore. It has weathered the stormy waters of the book business for thirty-seven years. In my almost thirteen years here it has been rare that I wake up thinking I wish I didn't have to go to work. It's only when I'm still worn out from the day before that I want to stay put...

...or, sometimes -- I must confess -- when I am in the midst of some knitting that consumes me!

Fidgety blathering

I don't even know where to begin. I don't have anything monumental to share, and nothing is urgent or difficult or strange, or at least no more so than usual. But I haven't had time to post, and I can't figure out how that happened. Could it be that I am busy?

I tell everyone that this is the quiet time of year at work. We're in between summer and the holidays, so there aren't many people around, and those who are here seem quieter and less ... insistent.

This hasn't turned out to be a quiet time for me, though. I have so many things to get to that had to be abandoned during the summer that it may as well be summer. I don't have the desire to put in the kind of hours I do in the summer, though, so at this slower (but healthier) pace the work seems to take forever.

It's a good thing that Rhinebeck is just a few days away, then! I need a break. More than two and a half days would be nice, but I'll take these for now. Judy and the Remarkable R's and I are planning to load up and head out on Friday afternoon, the minute the girls' school lets out.

We're going to rumble up the island, and cross those bridges, and roar into the Eveready Diner parking lot in time to grab dinner before we check in at the motel. We're going to spend the drive in fidgety anticipation of all we'll see and do (and eat, I guess) all weekend.


We'll hope to run into Ms. Clara, whose new book is hitting the shelves on Tuesday. The Knitter's Book of Yarn is so amazing that the minute I got my preview copy the other day, I wrote an embarrassing post on KR. I almost wish I'd waited.

Part of my daily job is talking about books, and publishers want me to talk about them, and to that end they send me copies so I can read them, and then they hope that I'll gush and praise and ... sell books. This is a little different for me, since I know Clara and I'm excited for her, and KR is like a big room full of my friends.

I might have gushed and praised a little prematurely, since only a handful of people will get to have a copy before Tuesday. It might have been a little like being told you can have a treat, but it's locked in the cabinet and only a few have the key, but oh yes, the treat is in there all right, and it's a doozy, too bad you can't see how great it is yet. That doesn't seem fair.

This book will have been worth the wait, I promise.


There has been lots of knitting going on. I took this picture of a slightly damp blue Hedgerow sock so you can see what happens when you knit the pattern on smaller needles. Yes, the sock really is smaller, just as I predicted. I used 2.25mm needles for the leg, and 2.0mm needles for the heel flap and foot.

PhotoStylist R has very narrow feet, so she's getting this pair. SockModel R has regular feet, so the originals fit her perfectly. I also decided to go with a longer leg and a regular shaped toe on the blue pair, because I think they'll fit their intended feet better. See? You can do whatever you need to do with a sock pattern to make it fit or feel better, or suit your knitting style. That's the beauty of knitting.

I finished the Ripple baby blanket and gave it to my friend at work. She loved it, and I was very pleased with how it turned out. But did I take a final picture? No, that would have been sensible!

My diagonal ribbed scarf is off the needles, too. Gee, it only took a year! It was my carry-around knitting most of the time. I'll post a photo after it's washed and blocked. I liked working with the Brooks Farm Acero yarn, which I got at Rhinebeck last year.

I have a confession. I've lured a knitter over to the other side. I drove Rho up the island today, to Rumpelstiltskin Yarns in Sayville, where she purchased - on her own, without any poking or prodding - an Ashford Joy wheel. We took it right to her house and put everything together, and by the time I left she was on her way. I've been getting these sweet little emails since then - first she treadled for a while, then she made yarn, and then she ordered a couple of Patsy Zawistoski DVD's. I think we've got her, don't you?

Getting away

I'm almost to the point of becoming wild-headed and crazed about getting everything done and packed and ready for my trip to Maryland. Almost. When I see the old pattern -- circular motion, no progress forward -- I stop, do some little pleasurable thing, and then go back to the preparations.


That's how I managed to spin and ply a skein of yarn this week. It's Crown Mountain Farms Corriedale pencil roving in Silver Fox. If you need some comfort spinning, this is the stuff for you. There's not much to do but watch the colors flow past your fingertips, because the roving is so well prepared. I love Teyani's color ideas, too. I think I'll end up with yarn that's almost worsted weight, which is something I rarely spin. It's soft and bouncy and I can't wait to see how it feels when it has dried.


In another few bits of spare time, and with a little serendipity, I happened upon String Theory Yarn's Etsy shop. The scenario: Dum-de-dum, I'll just browse around, dum-de-dum ... Hold on, what's this?


Silk and Merino in the Sprucehead colorway. I don't know if you can tell, but it actually shimmers and glows, and it's different from every angle. Want a closer look? Sure you do.


It's sort of like dragonfly wings, isn't it? I have 6 ounces and 750 yards. It's what you'd call heavy fingering weight, I suppose. I'm thinking about a modified Morning Glory Wrap. Maybe. It would be narrower and shorter, of course, but I think I have enough for a big, big scarf. I'm going to take my time deciding on this one.

Now back to the present: The emotion and anxiety that I've been feeling for the past couple of weeks has been softened by all the warmth and kindness and encouragement that I've received through the blog and from my friends and at work. I am one of those people who is self-conscious about "stuff" like this -- like needing a hug, or a word, or a smile. When these things are offered and put right in front of me (or, otherwise shoved in my path), I do accept, though it's hard to do so without question. I'll learn, eventually.

Thanks to every single one of you who has forced me to take your good wishes. I'll pass them along to my mother on Wednesday in the form of a big hug, hours of time together, and much knitting by her side. She is settling in at her temporary home, getting a little more PT every day, and resting up for the duration.

It's time to get back to it. I love a road trip, but there's a lot to do. I've got new tires on the car, I've downloaded Away by Amy Bloom, and I'm close to having the store organized for my absence. I've got the hotel reservation, the trail mix, and new pj's. I have enough knitting in progress to satisfy the whims of at least ten knitters, so that's no problem. Now I need to clean up around here, or else I'll be ashamed to have the landlord come up and take care of Annabelle!

Will I be ready to fly down the road at the crack of dawn on Wednesday? I hope so!

A long short story

It seems no matter how good and earnest my intentions might be, I'm only able to post here every once in a while. I do stop by from time to time, as if I might discover that I have posted again. Silly me, of course that hasn't happened.

I try to file all the little ideas and thoughts that I would like to write about, and hope to keep them safe in some corner of my mind, but they're lost or pushed aside by ISBN's and lists and purchase orders. Oh, the stories I was going to tell...

It's full-on summer at work, and crazy busy. I place orders sometimes three or four times a day. Every time I turn around there is something else that has sold like crazy, all of a sudden (and I mean Since This Morning) so it goes on to yet another order to be sent in hopes of having it arrive the next afternoon. I'm good at anticipating most of what we'll need in advance, and I have the inventory in the basement to back me up, but sometimes Stuff Happens.

All these hours spent on High Alert might make the day fly by, but they make the evenings and the days off all that much more precious. I come home and knit.


(Some of) My Secret Knitting Revealed: Tilt and Whirl Socks! This is my design for next month's Spirit Trail Fiberworks' Spirited Socks Yarn Club. It had been percolating for a while (again, back there in the dim recesses of my brain), and when Jen sent me this beautiful yarn to knit with I knew the two would be a perfect match. I love the way the little blocks work with the way she dyed the yarn.

I have been a fan of Jennifer Heverly's yarn and fiber for a long time, and I'm so pleased to be working with her on this project!


And because I can't pass up a good yarn club, I joined Jen's other one: Yarns with Spirit. The first shipment is the same as for the Sock Club (the beautiful blue/green yarn above, a lovely pattern designed by Bess Haile, a pattern notebook, and some of the best coffee I've had in a long time). I can't wait to see what's in store for next time -- a scarf design by Shelia January, I hear!

This is where blog reading takes me: I've been aware that Anne Hanson is a lover of Fearless Fibers yarn, so one day last week I decided to stop on over at Deb's Etsy Shop. What do you know, she'd just posted a whole bunch of new yarn! I picked these two Superwash Merino sock yarns to try. The first one is "Blue Rain," and the second one is "Sublime."


They're both sublime, if you ask me. It was pure pleasure to order and receive these soft skeins so full of knitting promise. I'm keeping my eyes open for the publication of Anne's Rectangle Bee Fields Shawl and I think I'll order some Fearless Fibers yarn for that as well.

~:~

One of the most wonderful things about working at an independent bookstore, and for as long as I have, is that relationships with customers have a chance to grow and ripen. I am fond of many of the people who shop in my store (and believe me, they take the sting out of the Other Ones), but a few are just plain special.

So I was delighted to look up yesterday and see the sweet smile of B D, a wonderful customer and friend from the "old days" when I worked at the East Hampton store. She happened to be in Southampton, and wanted to take me to lunch. Of course!

We spent a wonderful hour catching up over delicious salads and iced teas -- books, politics, people, life, back to books, and more. As we stood on the sidewalk, me ready to head back to work and B about to turn the corner to the museum, she pulled a little red booklet from her bag. It was a story. One Story, to be precise. From the website:

"One Story is a literary magazine that contains, simply, one story. Approximately every three weeks, subscribers are sent One Story in the mail. This story will be an amazing read.

Each issue is artfully designed, lightweight, easy to carry, and ready to entertain on buses, in bed, in subways, in cars, in the park, in the bath, in the waiting rooms of doctors, on the couch in the afternoon or on line at the supermarket.

One Story is available only by subscription."

B is an enthusiastic reader, book collector, and supporter of all things literary, and I trust her. I subscribed the minute I got back to the store.

Missing B's

It's one of those weeks. My schedule is erratic, my days off are confused, my head is swimming with titles and to-do's. While it's absolutely wonderful that a beautiful, healthy baby boy has entered this world, we miss the presence and help of the new mother.

Not only that, but the Groom (remember the wedding?) leaves for Ireland next week, with the Bride following in another week. She'll be starting her graduate studies in September. My little work family is leaving home! We'll find new staff, I've no doubt, but for now I'm a little weary, and kind of sad.

Oh, and Harry Potter is coming.

I have a tiny rant: I've had this Dell laptop for about four years now, and the damn B key has just decided to, well, stop working unless I hit it really really hard. I removed it, cleaned under and inside it, did everything I could think of -- but I had to order a new keyboard. While I wait I suppose my typing will have to continue to feel aggressive. I end up feeling aggressive after any time spent trying to type!

If you notice any missing B's in anything I've written, please just smile and move on. I try to correct them as I go, but sometimes it's just too much trouble! The space bar has issues, too, but not if I press it just so, and only on the right-hand end. I do need a new keyboard. I wish I needed a new computer, because I'd like to switch to a Mac, but try as I might, I can't justify it for the B key and the space ar.


My thoughts have been with Laurie today. Her beloved Roy passed away. If you have ever had a spirit guide in the form of a cat, or some other small creature who just always seems to know who you are and what you need, then you'll understand why just thinking about what those two meant to each other makes me cry.

This cat of mine, this Annabelle, has been keeping me company for eight years with her quiet steadfastness and her great sense of humor. Before her, Emma was my companion on some of the rockiest paths of my entire life, and she was a tireless trailblazer and guardian.

It makes perfect sense to me that in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy the humans' very souls are embodied in their daemons, and one cannot live without the other.

I'm almost finished knitting the baby blanket, and I've started to weave in the many ends. I should be able to deliver it next week. While my enthusiasm for this big thing didn't fade, exactly, it was a casualty of my attention span. There have been many days (most of this week, really) that I'm too tired to knit more than one row on a sock, if anything. Hauling out the blanket, setting it up in my lap, getting in the groove -- impossible.

The rest of this summer will have to be devoted to socks, I suppose.

Peachy

I've been spinning this gorgeous fiber for a few days now, and I finally decided that it's the colors of a peach. Or else a very old bit of exquisite Chinese embroidery. Whichever, it's dyed Baby Camel/Tussah Silk from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. I have eight ounces, and I think I've used about two and a half to almost fill this bobbin. That means I have something close to a gazillion yards so far, and a bazillion or two left to go. I'm going to stop and ply it when I have about two gazillion, which will be enough for a rectangular shawl, don't you think?

At first I was spinning a perfectly even and very fine yarn (don't ask me the wpi), but after just a bit, and a little test-plying, I decided to let there be some long-ish slubs. I like it better now, slightly uneven but still generally uniform. I can do this on Mister Reeves, see. It's a walk in the park for this wheel.

This afternoon's spinning was accompanied by the audio of Philip Pullman's Golden Compass. This is a wonderful book to spin to! I've read all three of the His Dark Materials books, but it's been a few years. I have 10 hours and 40 minutes of enchanted spinning (and driving) to look forward to!

You'd think that I haven't been knitting much, considering, well, the lack of knitting content in this space lately. I have been knitting a bit, but I'm working on a couple of projects that I'm "not at liberty" to discuss. I'm also still getting over the aches and pains of what I'm calling my "Lost May," and it's been uncomfortable to knit for more than a few minutes at a time. That horror seems to be over, and I'm picking up the needles more often without wincing. One thing I learned last month: when I feel really really sick, I am. The doctor will confirm it, so there's no use pretending it's not happening. Enough said.

Some of my six readers (about the same number as Clara!) might have noticed a "new" post from me on Google Reader or Bloglines earlier today. Well, that was my very first post from 2005! I was trying to remember when I started blogging, and after I figured that out I thought I'd add a label, now that Blogger has that nifty feature. Next thing I knew, Rho had left a lovely comment! Oh well, enjoy!

What a beautiful afternoon it turned out to be -- just right for spinning by the window, running a few errands, and listening to a great book. I hope your Wednesday has been just as nice as mine!

Take two bobbins and call me in the morning

Just what the doctor (would have) ordered ... two days spent spinning and reading and sleeping. When I got home on Saturday afternoon, all I wanted to do was ... spin and read and sleep.

I pulled out this pretty roving dyed by Jessie at A Piece of Vermont. It's her "Real Vermonter" blend of 60% Romney/Corriedale and 40% alpaca, all Vermont-grown. The color is called "Happy," which is just exactly how it makes me feel. Mister Reeves and I are getting along famously, and I'm back to spinning as well as I'm used to. This big wheel took a little getting used to!


I have four ounces of fiber, and though I didn't weigh it beforehand, I think I came pretty close to dividing it in half for two bobbins. We'll see how well I did when I finish plying. It's a sturdy, soft yarn that I think will make lovely mittens and a hat. These intense blues didn't photograph well in the late afternoon light, but the finished skein will get a real photo shoot, so you'll see how pretty it is.

~:~

I've been deeply engrossed in two wonderful books in these two days. While I was making yarn, I listened to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. This is one of those books I am in danger of telling everybody they must read, but I'll resist.

If you love Barbara Kingsolver, and her writing voice, read it. If you are interested in the slow food movement and eating locally, read it. If you're fond of the people of Appalachia in general and Virginians in particular (my people), read it. If you want to be someone who pays a little more attention to where your food comes from, read it.

It's not political or radical or preachy. It's funny and informative and a delight to read. And a huge bonus: Barbara Kingsolver narrates the audio, along with her husband and a daughter. I'm looking forward to spending some time at the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website, too.

When I needed to lie down, I picked up Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. It seems that everybody has been waiting for this book. They want to know if it's a sequel to Kite Runner -- it isn't. It's set in Kabul, so far, in the second half of the 20th Century, and the central characters are women.

I'm only about two hundred pages in, so I don't know much except that the characters are people I care about, and I'm willing to follow them to the last page. We all know the history surrounding the setting and the time period, so you can assume that this isn't a light and breezy summer read.

I am impressed by Khaled Hosseini's writing voice, as it's so gentle, and things seem to unfold rather than just happen. That's a difficult feat, considering his story has such a strong historical context.

Links to both books are over on the sidebar under "Books" (natch).

I am hoping that this coming week (a short work week, thanks to the vacation day today) will be calmer and easier to navigate. It will be if I make it so. I want to keep spinning by the open window, and listening to wonderful books. I want to spend some time outdoors, and get some pots of flowers for my tiny little deck. I want to drink iced tea from my tall blue glasses. I want cool nights of sleep and dreams. If I make it so...