I’m remarkably pleased with the heel turn on sock #1. I really don’t think I could have timed the color changes better if I’d actually been trying.
Recipe for Persuasion is good so far, as I would have expected from a Dev novel. It’s a loose adaptation of the Austen story, featuring Ashna and Rico, who must team up for a Cooking with the Stars piece despite having been an item in the past.
One of the things I’d like to work on in the first half of the year is to account for and decide what to do with the large number of knitting projects I have scattered around the Burrow in half-finished states.
Here we have Smock Madness, started nearly two years ago. This looks like a pretty easy project to power through in the next few days in order to have our first finished object of the year.
Jane Austen adaptations are also great ways to start the year, and Sonali Dev’s Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors was one of my favorites a couple years back. To see that Dev had planned a loose version of all six Austen novels centering around the same extended California clan was really intriguing. I’m very much looking forward to spending some more time with the Raje family.
Head over to As Kat Knits to see what others are reading and crafting.
As you can see, I’ve made some good progress on the leg of my Holiday Hangover socks, which I’m adoring. I anticipate being at the heel this weekend, but sometimes that’s where I get stuck with stripey socks. I’ll have to start thinking about whether to do a solid heel tomorrow.
I’m about halfway through Bringing Down the Duke, in part because I’ve started listening to Abby Jiminez’s The Happy Ever After Playlist. Although I admit I am getting a little tired of romances where the protagonists are described as being extraordinarily good looking. Where are the romances of people of average facades? Nondescript but supplemented with quirky fashion taste? Mousy hair but kissable lips? Honestly, is this the sort of romance everyone wants to read about? Is it a “if gorgeous people have trouble dating then it’s no surprise that I do, too” kind of thing?
I guess that means it’s probably time to move on to a different genre for a while… I know there’s a detective with “maximum tolerable chins” awaiting me.
Head over to As Kat Knits to see what knitting and reading projects others are carrying into the new administration.
I am loving the new stripey socks I am knitting. They are the pleasantly addictive kind with four rows of each color, which means they’re a lot like potato chips or cookies. You swear you’ll just knit/eat this one more and then you’ll stop. And suddenly you’re staring at an empty row of Oreos or a half-gone bag of chips or several inches of project. Except that, of course, knitting is way better for you than eating that much delicious junk food.
I am also enjoying the audio version of a book my dad recommended over the summer, The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jiminez. Apparently it’s the second book in a connected series, the first of which apparently includes a lot of tears, so I’m glad I’ve started with this one.
I have a project that’s very nearly off the needles and a four-and-a-half-hour-long training tomorrow, so I’ve given some thought to what to knit next. This is Havirland Pax Socks in the Holiday Hangover colorway, which feels right for a January knit.
Since the training is a live video discussion about equity and inclusion, I’m not anticipating being able to spend the whole time knitting. But I wanted to have something to work on while I’m doing the listening part of the work, since I feel like the repetitive motion will help keep me focused on the conversation at hand, rather than wandering back to the pile of other work I have.
Rudi is spending one weeknight each week this winter coaching and tomorrow is that night. I’m anticipating having plenty of time to curl up with my current read, Evie Dunmore’s Bringing Down the Duke, a Victorian-era voting rights romance between a nobleman and a bluestocking. I’m about halfway through, and the duke has just asked the female protagonist to be his mistress. She skipped her first ever fireworks show for this conversation, and I think she’s going to rue the decision.
Head to As Kat Knits to see what others are knitting in this new year.
Back in September, I finished a knitting project. I showed it to you unblocked and blocking, but that was it. Well, that was the week that Rudi’s mom fell, so suddenly there were way more important things to do than model a finished shawl.
But today Rudi was home in the afternoon and the sun was out and I felt like putting on real clothes, so I have some pictures for you of my Sunflowers One Way or Another shawl.
Since it was my Tour de France Knitalong project, it’s probably appropriate that I wore it on a bike ride down to the Georgetown waterfront.
