I so wish I had more exciting things to show you.

I have been knitting. In fact, for the last couple of days, I’ve been carrying Susan’s socks around the house with me–making my Dad shake his head every time he walks by and sees me knitting while reading.

Although, that only works when reading something that more or less stays open by itself, since I am totally adverse to anything that will crack the binding of one of my books. I’m, well, not actually obsessive, but very concerned about keeping my books as unmarred as possible. Obviously, you need to open a book to read it, but you shouldn’t open it so far that it causes damage. Having the spine cracked open bothers me; the very sound of it makes me wince. And when I read (which you know I do a lot), I never open the book without supporting the spine. Which means that, if I want to read while I’m knitting, it’s got to be a book that can stay open more or less on its own. Just about every one of those special book-holding, pillow/stand things I’ve ever seen requires the book to be pressed flat and held down at the corners. They are torture instruments; they are book equivalent of the Rack. Not something I’m willing to inflict on my poor, innocent books.

Anyway, I am making great progress on Susan’s socks. I have about one more inch before starting the heel. The stitch pattern (which is hard to see) matches the cable I’m using in that nameless Saffron project of mine. I thought the symmetry of using the same stitch for both projects using MV Fiber Farm yarn was kind of nice.

The yarn is really lovely.  SO soft. For those of you who have lost track, it’s 70% kid mohair and 30% cormo, making it ultra-soft and just a little fuzzy. And I love the colors–they’re “semi-solids” which is one of my favorite kinds of colors. Little variations, but it “scans” as a solid when you look at it.

The only thing I’m not crazy about is that–for the sock yarn in particular–I don’t think it’s very well plied. As in, it’s often barely plied at all. If I had realized how irregular it was, I could have actually run both skeins through my spinning wheel to make the twist a little tighter, but I didn’t think of it soon enough. The knitted fabric is fine, too–but the fact that there’s really not quite enough twist makes the two plies lie next to each other on my needles for every stitch, so it’s almost like knitting with two separate strands. That’s a little annoying on the cable rows because the plies don’t want to work together, but that’s okay. It’s still beautiful and soft and handgrown on Martha’s Vineyard.

Otherwise? I spent most of yesterday either reading or in front of the computer. The ongoing money crisis is still ongoing and yesterday was one of the bad days (sigh). My father is just not a salesman, and while it’s not strictly necessary for what he’s trying to do, it would be a help. And the company he’s working with has great products that we’re all impressed with–especially the new, Heartland Select drink which just blows us all away–so we all believe in what he’s trying to promote (both as items to sell himself and for other people to sell to make money for themselves, kind of like selling Avon, but better). But, while he’s great at getting things set up, he’s not good at the promotion part, and that’s where we’re running into trouble.

And even though I spent much of the day yesterday reading, at the moment, I’m “fictionless.” The only book I’ve got going is a non-fiction biography of the Beatles, Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America.  It’s actually more than just a biography–it’s almost a cultural analysis of their musical influences and their impact. It just seemed like a good “next” book after reading Girls Like Us, the biography of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon. And, at least with the Beatles book, I know most of the songs being discussed!

It’s interesting (to me) how very auditorially suggestible I am, though. All I need to do is read the title or description of a song and, boom, it’s stuck in my head.  Every time I see Dream When You’re Feeling Blue on my bookcase, for example, the song jumps into my head. It’s a lovely song, but it’s particularly annoying because I don’t know all the words, and darn it, if I’m going to be humming something, I at least want to be able to follow the lyrics. And don’t get me started on that movie that just opened on Friday–whether you like ABBA or not, their music is addictive.

I just remembered that I wanted to make banana bread today. It’s 11:30 and already in the 80s and humid, so if I want to use the oven, I’d better do it NOW.

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning, Reading • Permalink:Knitting and Reading //