I’m slowly plugging away at my reading pile.

In the past week I finished four fibrey books. I’m still working on Octavia E Butler’s Seed to Harvest. It took me a bit to get into it and now that I am, time obligations have prevented me from finishing it.

I have finally read Knitting in the Old Way: Designs and Techniques from Ethnic Sweaters [revised edition] by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. I see why this is in many ravelry bookshelves and while I’m currently not in a sweater mindset this is a definite reread for when I am. But that is not to mean there weren’t lessons I to learn now. I like how it’s not a “spoon-feeding” book but a push up your sleeves and dig in book. It’s more about recipes than cut-and-dry patterns (which I don’t follow anyway). I wish I could have read the first edition where she apparently wrote about spinning (it isn’t as if I can’t open her Spinning in the Old Way to do so… I own it.) I learned a good deal of history and well… about knitting. When I first read the summary to this book I wasn’t exactly sure why it was so special. I am now wondering what I was reading (or thinking I was reading) and hope one day to add it permanently to my shelf.

Next up is 200 Stitch Patterns for Baby Blankets by Jan Eaton
If you look over at the Ravelry generated progress bar you can see that very little progress has been made on the blanket of love from h31l. I hate garter. I find it boring. That I’m doing this monochrome isn’t helping. The concept is great and I don’t want to vary too far from that, but I need to quickly change gears so this is done by MAY. About the book. I like the layout. It’s very easy to see at a glance how difficult a pattern is and how it knits up (i.e. rows, round, L-shaped rows [their terminology]).. I like that it’s knit & crochet. Have I had an epiphany? No. But I probably will knit up EZ’s mystery blanket from the Almanac. We’ll see, don’t hold your breath.

I really don’t have much to say about Vicki Square’s Folk Hats: 32 Knitting Patterns beyond that I was curious. They just aren’t me (perhaps some would be more at home at Ascot). I am happy this was a library borrow instead of a purchase.

I can completely blame Kat Coyle for my walking into Kinokuniya the other afternoon and bringing home oneHandmade Crochet Book by Sachiyo*Fukao [I think!] ISBN: 978-4-415-10530-7. I’m not sure what to tell you other than this is crochet inspiration. I just hope I can get my hands on one or two of the new Clover steel hooks. I hope my mum really does use the hook I gave her. (Mom, are you reading this??!!!)

Otherwise I’m slowly catching up on my magazine reading. I’ve caught up on The Economist and am very slowly catching up on The New Yorker. I’m also reviewing and indexing my various fibrey magazines. The amazing Casey just added magazines to the library/bookshelf in ravelry so I’ve been rediscovering patterns. It’s really really awesome (some day [hopefully soon] I’ll write up how Ravelry rocks my world from an information standpoint). I have less than 5 hours of unlistened-to podcasts. This is mind boggling and I might resubscribe to a few I had dropped. My current favourites are pretty lame and newsy. I pretty regularly listen to Global News from the BBC each morning. The New Yorker, Cast-On, Future Tense, Wait Wait Don’t Tell me, Radio Lab, Studio 360, Inspired Minds, HBR Idea Cast, Escape Pod…. it’s a pretty eclectic mix and I enjoy them.

As a client asked me today how I do all that I do (work, work, knit, read… she doesn’t know about this writing) I’m going to stop now so that I can get some other things done before bed and hopefully nip this emerging cold in the bud… We have a long week and potentially busy weekend ahead of us [think kitchen]. I’ve had a very lucky and good day (no snow, a gig that wasn’t looked forward to was postponed, etc).