Small Town Hermit

Well, trying to catch up at any rate. There’s a bit of feeling that the faster I go, the behinder I get. I made that observation to someone years ago, and he wisely responded, “Then slow down.”

Day 8, Doppelganger, was indeed the next color block in the socks, but they still weren’t long enough, so I used Day 9, Piskies, to add one more block. Then I finished with a cuff made from the remaining Circe yarn. Nothing fancy, so it was a bit boring toward the end. I spent most of Saturday viewing (it sounds weird to say attending for a Zoom event) something called the Stylemaker Summit — which really deserves its own post — so I was able to get a good chunk of knitting done. They are off the needles, but they need finishing … as does the first pair. That project has been bumped to tomorrow’s list. We’ll see how that goes.

Day 8 – Doppelganger

Day 9 – Piskies

Fortunately I didn’t need another day’s worth of yarn because Day 10 moved solidly away from purple and brown into yellow and green with Golden Apples.

I did go ahead and introduce outside yarn for the next project. The toes are knit with Golden Apples, and then I introduced some delicious yarn from The Knitting Goddess. It is a sumptuous blend of Bluefaced Leicester, Wensleydale, alpaca, and nylon. All of the natural fibers are grown in the UK, and the fiber is processed and spun there as well. The pattern is Plowlines from Bare Naked Wools. Here’s a messy in progress picture on a messy desk:

I modified the pattern so that I could knit it toe up rather than top down. All I had to do was reverse the order of the stitches which create those little arrow shapes. So far it is going well. It is an actual pattern beyond knitting every stitch, so it requires more focus, but I am finding it meditative and soothing.

Day 11 brings another vibrant color – Will o’ the Wisp. So pretty. Not sure how well it will play with Golden Apples, but I am going to try it out and see what happens.

Mixed into the last couple of days was some reading. I was recently in a bookstore, and the title I was looking for was near Alexander McCall Smith’s books. I had tried reading the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency years ago, and it just didn’t take, but it turns out that he has written a whole slew of other books with titles like My Italian Bulldozer and Portuguese Irregular Verbs. My little local library had quite a few, so I checked out a pile. They have been sitting, waiting patiently to be read, and I finally decided I had better get on with it. My Italian Bulldozer is the sort of book to read on a cold, dreary, February day. Travel to Tuscany with Paul Stuart as he recovers from a wounded heart and finishes his latest book on food and wine. There are adventures and mishaps along the way — none too severe or without resolution — and lots of local color and characters, a few serious moments, and enough humor to make me laugh out loud. It’s a light read without being vapid — a lovely respite from … whatever is causing your grief or stress at the moment. I look forward to reading the sequel: The Second Worst Restaurant in France.