First, thank you everybody for all your kind comments on my shawl. I think it’s a good thing I knitted her in red . . . it hides her blushing! (Naturally, I’ve passed on all your good wishes to her . . . babies thrive on compliments, why wouldn’t new knits?) I might need some bigger hats, though, from all this flattery . . . (grin) (No, really, keep it coming!)

But, enough about the knitting . . . not that there’s ever enough, of course, but a change of topic–however brief–can be refreshing. You know what they say, “A change is as good as a rest!”

One of the books I’m reading is “1812: The War That Forged a Nation.” It’s excellent–informative, well-researched, and with an appealing writing style that makes the history simply a good story. This is a war I know very little about–we covered it in grade-school, but it was more . . . AMERICAN REVOLUTION! . . . War of 1812 . . . CIVIL WAR! It didn’t exactly make a large, educational impact. Dolly Madison saving the George Washington portrait before the White House was burned, the Star-Spangled Banner, and there’s a darn good Overture . . . that’s about the extent of my knowledge of this little American/British conflict.

So, I’m finding this book fascinating. Well written, as I already said, but it’s all new. I had no idea that so much of this war took place in and around the Great Lakes, for one . . . I just always assumed it was clustered along the Atlantic coast since, hello, that’s where the U.K. is. But no. There were battles fought in Detroit–and not on basketball courts. By Niagara Falls. Buffalo, New York. And, all this reading has brought one, burning question to my mind: How on earth did we ever win this war?? Because, what a lot of mistakes and acts of incompetence! Luckily for us, these happened on both sides, but from the sounds of it, if it hadn’t been for our tiny Navy, things would not have gone well at all. Fascinating story–not least because it’s all true!

(Edited to add: Ah. I finished the book. Apparently nobody won; they just called it a draw and agreed to go back to the way things were before the war. Go figure! Still, I’ve had the Johnny Horton song, “Along the Mississip’ ” in my head all day because of that next-to-last chapter. You remember the old song, right? “In eighteen-fourteen we took a little trip …”)

I also finished reading a book by Susan Dexter last night. She’s been a favorite Fantasy author of mine since her first book came out in the 80s. There are only a few books (7, I think, maybe 8), but they are all so good! I recently got a friend hooked on them (Hi, Carolyn!) and in the discussions with her, decided I had to reread some for myself, and so I pulled “Wizard’s Shadow” off the shelf. I do like this author! Good story, beautiful evocations of place, interesting characters, almost uniformly decent people just trying to do the right thing. And of course, a magic horse, which never hurts! It’s such a shame that they’re all out of print. I cherish all my copies–some of which are covered in wide, clear tape, I read them so often back in high school.

Chappy, this morning, got himself in trouble. I told you the other day that my Birch shawl had a tear, and it was sitting–loose stitches secured with a safety pin to prevent further damage–on the ottoman in my bedroom. This morning as I was brushing my teeth, I glanced into the hallway just as Chappy started to dash down the stairs, shawl in his mouth. I yelled at him (more a command than an actual yell, really) . . . you have to understand, Chappy has a penchant for stealing things. Towels, slippers, napkins . . . he doesn’t damage them, he just sits with them, waiting for one of his people to come by so he can play the “Look What I’ve Got!” game. He’s remarkably patient about the waiting part, too. I keep telling him, though, that there’s a difference between a towel and a fragile (injured!) handknit.

Anyway, he dropped it right away and just kept on going down the stairs as I scooped the shawl up from the floor. I gave him the Angry Mom Look (not that I was that angry because, well, it IS a game), but after a couple seconds, he came back up the stairs to lean against my legs to apologize. I mean really, how could you be angry with that?

The Birch shawl is now up on my bed, and the baby gate is across the bedroom door while I’m at work.

Which brings us neatly back to knitting. I did, in fact, start my Peacock Feathers shawl last night, and am all the way up to row 22! (This sounds very impressive until I tell you that the first row only had 3 stitches, but still!) I think I’m going to like the pattern–there’s a lot going on and it’s different for practically every row, so while it’s not going to be an automatic-pilot kind of project, it won’t be boring either. So far, the Knitpicks yarn is nice and smooth and very soft. The colors are lovely but I DO wonder if, perhaps, the variegated yarn colors will take away from the lace pattern of the shawl?? I hope not!

How’s that for a complete post? Books, dogs, knitting . . . except for spinning and baking, I think I about hit everything, huh?

And, oh yes, she’s off the bed now:

Tags: Finished Knitting, General, Knitting/Spinning, Reading // 5 Comments »