Knitting and Reading

I finished reading Station Eleven and really liked it. I enjoy post apocalyptic tales for some reason, I think I like to scare myself about how easily and quickly society and all its infrastructure would break down. Cheerful stuff. The book followed several people over time from before the event and during life afterwards and ended positively. I really enjoyed it. 

I'm now reading The Miniaturist for my book group. The story is set in 17th century Amsterdam and the main character is a young girl who goes to live there after her arranged marriage to a businessman. She knows very little about her new husband and his household and there are a few mysteries. There is also a kind of magical sinister thread running through the book to do with a dolls house (giving nothing away) and I am looking forward to getting to the bottom of it. I only have a hundred pages or so left. The book group are planning to follow up with a visit to the Dolls House exhibition at the Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green. The museum is always good for a visit and this new exhibition looks interesting. 

This year (and last year, only this year I MEAN IT) I resolved to deal with some unfinished projects. So yesterday I decided it was time to pull out my purple poncho and coral cardigan and finally get both of them completed. The poncho just needs some sewing up. I love the yarn (James C Brett Marble Chunky), it is very warm and soft. The poncho is knitted as a series of different squares that are sewn together, and sometime I would like to use this yarn and knit a throw from the same squares for our living room. First I need to decide on a colour scheme for the room and decorate it. That's a whole other project! There's one sleeve to knit to finish the coral cardi, so I'm working on that now and then will sew it together. I'm looking forward to wearing it as it goes well with my coral sandals that I hope the weather will be warm enough for soon. 

Joining Yarn Along and Keep Calm Craft On

Today

For Today... March 20th, 2015. Spring Equinox and partial eclipse (apparently)

Outside my window...grey skies all morning. Brightening up this afternoon, now it's too late to see the eclipse.

I am thinking...about lunch. Decisions, decisions. I fancy boiled eggs but we're having those for tea, something light on Friday evenings as we weigh-in tomorrow morning, not that I expect that will help as I've been far from a Slimming World Diva this week.

I am thankful...for my son who rang me yesterday as he thought he'd put something important in my kitchen bin and would I look for it. I spent a happy ten minutes getting my arms wet and smelly to no avail and then found the required item on the work surface this morning. I still love him.

I am wearing...my purple fluffy dressing gown past lunchtime. I didn't really intend to, but I rushed downstairs this morning to see the eclipse and haven't gone back upstairs yet.

I am creating... dishcloths. I have a lot of part-balls of different coloured cottons and am amusing myself knitting stripes, and choosing the next colour from the bag without looking. Sometimes one must make one's own entertainment.

I am wondering...if I can't have boiled eggs, if it's acceptable to have crumpets for lunch when I already had them for breakfast. I'm sensing not.

I am reading... The Radio Times. My regular weekly Friday session of reading the interview at the back, the letters page and then going through the whole week's listings and setting up everything I want to record.

I am going... to buy myself daffodils.

I am hoping...the weather is nice at the weekend. The Prof has work to do on our new fence and I might just join him and tidy up out there. I'm sure I could do with the vitamin D.

I am learning...that I really do need to stay within my energy envelope, as they say. Overdoing it one day and then being unable to do anything for the next three, time and again, is hardly sensible. Five years down the line with ME/CFS/SEID/Whatever they're calling it now, you think I'd have learned that already.

In my garden...there are two little flowers on the very small Daphne I planted last year. The blueberry bushes are coming to life and my pot of lilies are starting to push up through the soil, there are so many as they multiply each year and I keep saying I'll repot them after they've flowered.  And as always at this time, I wish I had got around to planting daffodils last year. I even bought the bulbs and they're still languishing in the shed, I wonder if they'll still be okay to plant after a year.

In my kitchen... vegetable crisps, chocolate biscuits, pears. On the windowsill my Christmas/Easter cactus (it has an identity crisis) is in flower again.

A favorite quote for today... Bill Bailey, on twitter: 'feel left out of eclipse frenzy in W London so have draped a satsuma peel over my left eye'.

Linking today's post to Simple Woman's Daybook 

Knitting, reading

I'm knitting a baby blanket, my third time knitting this pattern. It looks quite pretty when it's finished and the lace edging has been sewn on, but knitting the main part is a huge garter stitch square and takes (me) forever. I'm not a very fast knitter!

For weeks I have been carrying the same book up to bed with me every evening, downstairs to rest beside me on the sofa during the day, and tucking it into my handbag when I leave the house. In about two weeks I have still only read 150 pages, I read that in a couple hours if I am enjoying a book. I wanted to like it; it's for my book group and others in the group have really liked it.  What I really don't like when I am stuck with a book I don't enjoy is that I'm barely reading at all, and I love to read.

I moved on and I'm now reading and enjoying Station Eleven. The story has a surprisingly gentle feel, though given the post-apocalyptic setting I am not sure if that will last! I've also been browsing through London Villages. I love that we live right on the doorstep and one of my favourite things is to drive into town on a Sunday and find somewhere that I've not been before to explore. Preferably involving cake and coffee. 

Joining Ginny and others for Yarn Along