Tag Archives: books

Good mail day

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I don’t know how, but somehow all the knitting-related things I ordered in the last two months arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Granted, there were not many things, but still. My sister was visiting for the day and both times I went to the door to let her in (when she arrived and after she moved her car) there was another package. Seeing as she was also in town (in part) so I could teach her how to knit a hat, it felt a bit like fate was telling me to spend my day off knitting. Ahem.

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This means I’m pretty much set for the holidays now. I was planning to pick up The Yarn Whisperer anyway, since I own everything else Clara Parkes has written and have found it invaluable to my development as a knitter. I pre-ordered her book way back at the beginning of October, and while on Amazon I saw that I could also pre-order Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting, which sounded so entirely excellent that I added it to my cart before really thinking twice (I’m pretty sure I read an excerpt somewhere, too, but I can’t think where now.)

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The yarn is a real treat. It’s Gynx Self-Striping Strong Sock in the Christmas Bells colourway, and it is for my Christmas socks. Every year, after all my gift knitting is finished, I knit myself a pair of socks over the holidays. Generally, I cast on right after finishing my gifts and try to cast-off before New Year’s Eve gets underway. It’s a general guideline, though, and last year I cast on my holiday socks before my last gift was finished because I needed some social knitting to do around my family. I thought about knitting myself something fancy this year, but since these socks will be mostly knit while in transit or sitting around with family, it’s better to work on something that won’t require constant attention. With such fun stripy action, I’m thinking this year I’ll knit myself another pair of Jaywalkers.

Do you have holiday knitting traditions?

Friday randoms

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First I don’t usually cross-post, but today it just makes sense. Over on my other blog, Books Under Skin, I reviewed All Wound Up by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, also known as the Yarn Harlot. It’s hilarious and lovely and while I think it’s a book that almost any non-knitter would enjoy, it’s definitely got a little something extra for knitters (it’s like reading a book that’s set in your city, but not geographic, if you know what I mean).

Anyway, if you’re interested, the review is here.

Second I am making great progress on my sweater. It seems Colour Affection has instilled in me a great enthusiasm for simple knitting, and that coupled with the Euro Cup has brought the sweater to full time status. It’s ticking (not tinking) right along, and with any luck I’ll have it done before the end of the tournament. This obviously depends on nothing else catching my fancy (and honestly, so many things are), but the sweater is good sports knitting, so I’m feeling cautiously optimistic.

That black line indicates about where I was when I picked it up after finishing Colour Affection on Saturday. I’ve knit about 5-inches since then, which isn’t bad considering how long it took me to get to that black line in the first place.

Third My parents were in town for my sister’s graduation on Wednesday and my mum has requested a knitted double-thick tea cozy for Christmas. That means the scarf is on the back-burner and I am probably going to start knitting practice tea cozies. Don’t say you weren’t warned. (For context, my first attempt, which I knit for myself, turned out like this. This is what she based her request on, but I intend to make something much nicer and less, erm, puckered.)