Jitterbugging!

Socks number 3 for the year are complete! I finished the Jitterbug socks with some yarn to spare. I was able to get a 7" leg which is my preference. The LYS warned me that the yardage was not as generous as some and I decided to knit a plain sock to conserve the yarn and to enjoy the colors. The skein came with a free pattern. I knit the number of stitches recommended for a medium woman's sock but knit the length for a man's sock figuring there must be enough yarn for at least that. Anyway, I am pleased. The colors are fun. There was no pooling.

Meanwhile, I have been trudging along on the FPL shawl. I am almost done with tier number nine. I traveled to Columbia last week for business and took some colleagues. I took knitting with me but was only able to work on the sock a little and never had a moment to concentrate on the lace. The weekend was not generous either. We did some car shopping Sat and that put me way behind for my chores.

I have cast on for a new sock to carry with me. It is the Sophisticated colorway in 50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel dyed by Susie at To Knit, Perchance to Dream. The yarn is a little thinner but the colors shimmer, almost like silk. I am going to jump on the band wagon and knit Monkey. Hope to soon have some progress to post!

The Knitting Circle

I do a great deal of professional reading and writing for my job. I love to read and look forward to those times that I can sit down with a book of choice and not something work related. I have been known to read while I knit, however, my last couple of projects have been too tedious to allow that. I was book shopping recently looking for some diversionary reading and picked up a copy of The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. This review is totally my opinion and not meant to offend, please keep that in mind.

I was totally disappointed by the novel and found it very depressing. The character development was weak and I never really cared if the characters resolved their troubles and the knitting content was rather off.

The Knitting Circle is a group of women who knit every Wednesday evening. They are not drawn together through their love of knitting but through tragedies in their lives. Horrific, life altering tragedies; two experience the loss of a child, one looses a son and a pregnant daughter in law in the Twin Towers after being divorced by her husband of 25 years, one is raped in an incident similar to the Central Park jogger and one has battled cancer. Most of the women are emotionally dysfunctional in their lives and are drawn to knitting as a rather zen-like experience. The repetition of the knitting is soothing. There is nothing about the joy of design and color and completion and texture. I just didn't feel it.

The heroine of the book goes to one of the women's houses for help with a sock. While listening to the woman's life story, amidst stitches falling off the needles, she completes 6" of cuff and turns a heel!!! It seems that they all have stitches dropping off needles, that is about the only knitting error mentioned. What about not getting gauge or messing up cables or sleeves that are too long? You know, those things that plague us all.

I found myself getting very depressed while reading it. Each one had such emotional trauma. Some of the women have been in holding patterns for years and seem to finally begin to move back into life again by the end of the book. It is not believable and I just didn't 'feel' it.

I also picked up The Friday Night Knit Club and began it this afternoon. Already, it is so much better than the first book. I am caught up in the characters and want to continue reading to see what happens next.

On a knitting note: The only sport my husband watches is basketball and only when the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or North Carolina State plays. He attended both of these institutions. They both played this afternoon in back to back games. I finished tier 6 in the shawl. The will face off tomorrow afternoon for the ACC championship so I will have some more knitting time. I would not say I am flying along on this project, however, I am making progress!!

Moving ON

The shawl is progressing and it is a little less painful. I ordered this contraption (Chart Keeper) from KnitPicks. I copied the pages of the pattern and cut each of the patterns into segments. The patterns are ordered by tier and as I finish one, I move it to the back and the next one in line is the one to knit. I have been marking off each segment as it is knit so that it is easier to pick up the shawl when I have just little bits of time to work. Look - - I have almost finished Tier 5. Just truckin' on. The prom is March 30th. I don't think I am going to make it for this year!

Tier 4

Yes, I have finished one more Tier! Crawling along, not worthy of a photo. Just more of the same.

I took my mom to the Medial University of SC today for a follow-up appointment. I took my knitting, thinking I would have some time to kill. What a surprise. We got there early. Good thing, they have finished a new parking garage and we had no idea where we were and got all turned around in the building. We signed in 1/2 hour early and I took out my knitting. Before I could get my pattern situated, a nurse was taking us back, took her history and the doctor was there. Absolutely incredible! It was nice not to have to wait for a change but it meant that I got absolutely NO knitting done!!!