Roza, Roza, Roza + The Road

I turned the heel on Roza, and knit diligently on the foot, thinking that over Easter vacation I would be able to finish sock 1. Round about this point, I thought I would try it on . . .

and it didn't fit. I don't have gi-normous feet, I have failry small ankles (the smallest part of me!) and I got the sock on, but it was tight. What the @$%##???? Not only was it tight, but there was absolutely no give to the sock. And then on top of it all, as I am tugging it off, I popped a stitch. So I did what any self-respecting sock knitter with a stash she should inventory, but won't would do: I wound an apricot skein of Lorna's Laces and cast-on using size 1's. What a difference . . .
For whatever reason, the apricot color seems to knit prettier than the perriwinkle! It killed me to re-start, but it looks so much better. So the perriwinkle sock is awaiting a frogging!

I finished The Road, Oprah's new reading group pick---as I started it, I wasn't quite sure it would be the book for me, but I am so glad I stuck with it. It was a fabulous narrative of survival, love, despair and hope between a boy and his father.

Spring Reading Thing recap: 4/5 (but this book wasn't on my original list!!!)

Shoes, Luck and a spring scarf

I just finished Alexander McCall’s latest installment of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Blue Shoes and Happiness. This gentle, lovely series of stories (this was number 7) is such a charming, quick read, filled with lots of African details and purls of wisdom from one of my favorite chararcters, Mma Ramotswe. While I have read each of the books in the series, if you haven’t, you could easily pick up with this book.

Spring Reading Thing recap: 2 of 5

The Joy Luck Club is next on the pile. Funny, but when this book was first published, I picked it up and promplty put it back down--didn’t like it. But now 20 years later, with a far stronger apppreciation for cultures, mothers, daughters and families, I am captivated within the first 30 pages.

And finally, as if there isn’t enough knitting to do, I spotted this . . .

and then rifled through the stash to dig out some cotton fleece in caribbean blue.

March Monkeys and Assassins

My March socks are finished, and can you imagine it is not the 31st? This pattern was an absolute delight---and I loved the yarn . . .

Cookie’s Monkey Socks Pattern

Knitty
Mama-E’s nara-gansett yarn
size 1 bamboos

I am thinking of packing these away in the cedar closet, to be saved for a Christmas present--this is a shocking thought for me, as I am usually not planning ahead like this!

In other news, I finished Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. While I was a bit confused in the beginning, I am so happy I stuck with it because it was quite a read! I feel like the 3-part story--Iris’s, the novel, and the documents weave such a fabulous tangled web of secrets, it is hard to decide who to believe, and how, exactly Iris navigated through her life.

Happy Spring!

I got my free iced coffee (thank you, Dunkin Donuts) and the kids got their happy-spring- ice (thank you, Rita's!) so the first full day of spring is hopping right along. I wish I could say the same for my knitting. I am hopping through patterns, and making wish lists and knit to-do lists like a mad woman, but I can’t seem to get anywhere on any of my three socks. On top of that, I have some other things I want to yank out and finish (clapotis, sitcom chic) and more things to knit. As I was surfing the blogs, I saw a kal proposing 52 socks in 52 weeks---eeeeeeek! How does that happen? Tell me how that works in one’s life?!!?!?!

To celebrate spring, and my other passion, I have joined-up with the Spring Reading Thing. This, I am sure, is going to go much better than my feeble attempt at the Winter Classics Challenge (what was I reading, and why wasn’t I successful?!!?!). Between today, and June 21st, I am planning to read (at least) the following selections:

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (March’s KTC novel)
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan(April’s KTC novel)
Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall
Ahab’s Wife by Sena J. Neslund (the last of my 3 Chunkster Challenge books)
Fever 1794 by Laurie Halse Anderson(my daughter said it was terrific!)

Whew--knit, read, read, knit. I love my life!