Knitting and Reading Round Up – Week 14 of 2020

Hello Wednesday! And Happy April! I hope the week is treating all of you well so far. On Wednesdays I participate in two link ups:

• Kat at As Kat Knits hosts Unraveled Wednesday: a weekly gathering of readers and knitters to share their current reads and projects; and
• Sam at Taking on a World of Words hosts WWW Wednesday. The Ws stand for: What are you currently reading? What have you recently finished? and What do you think is next?

And today I’m using this post to link up with Ginny at Small Things for her Yarn Along link up – a monthly link up for knitters and readers.

Please go visit their blogs and check out the other bloggers participating today!

Reading

Finished This Week:

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I was so excited by the House of Trelawney, but ended up quite disappointed by it. There was a lot of potential in it for me – it’s set around an ancient castle in the English countryside. It’s completely decayed and will take millions of pounds to even fix the roof. There were charming details about the castle that I read out loud to my husband – they were so funny! This novel is set in 2008, right on the brink of the world financial collapse and one of the characters is a hedge fund manager, so there is a ton of technical lingo that made my eyes glaze over. Nearly all of the characters fell flat for me despite their eccentricities and all of the drama felt over the top and manufactured. It was one of those books that felt like the writer was trying to turn it into a movie rather than a novel. Darn it!

But of course, I loved my re-read of A Literary Education. This is a timely read given how “home schooling” has been thrust upon so many of us right now. If you’re looking for a way to inject more reading time into your everyday life with your kids, this is a great tool. It’s full of great ideas about how to make reading a central part of your time with your children. It’s wonderful!

Currently Reading:

Maybe I’m just grumpy, but I’m not loving Housekeeping as much as I thought I would. I’m almost finished with it – about 70% through and will plan to finish it, but… it’s just sad. These poor lonely girls!

Up Next:

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April will bring the next book in my Year of Anne reading – Anne of Windy Poplars. I’m looking forward to visiting Anne again – what comfort!

Julie Bogart is full of wit and wisdom on homeschooling. I’m excited to get to The Brave Learner this month! This is another very timely read.

The Body in the Library is Miss Marple number 1. It’s a re-read but I don’t remember anything about it, so I can’t wait to spend time with her again.

I’m very excited about rereading Deep Work. Given all of my social media diets over the last several months, I’m interested to see how some of his research and advice could be applied to my life now.

Knitting

I wouldn’t expect you to believe this if I didn’t have photographic evidence, but friends! I’ve made progress on my Birkin sweater! Reading has been difficult for me but I told myself that if I’m going to sit in front of the TV like a bum then I’m at least going to do something else while watching Dateline and the Big Bang Theory. And then I couldn’t stop once I hit the colorwork section because I loved seeing this pattern coming together! I wish I would have chosen a bolder blue, but that’s okay — I can’t believe this!

I’m nearly finished with the yoke and then will knit miles of plain stockinette for the body and arms. I’m not sure how motivated I’ll stay at that point, but I hope that I can make steady progress – even if it’s only a row or two a day.

I’ve also dusted off my sewing machine. My husband suggested that we get face masks because it’s increasingly evident that COVID-19 is spreading through the air and not just by contact. In a panic over my dwindling sewing skills, I reached out to a friend who sent me to this link – a simple pattern that can be whipped up quickly. Guys – they’re cute!

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So the last couple of weeks have been up and down. Not as much reading as I’d hoped, but I’ve made some proud progress on my knitting that I was so excited to share. As I’ve checked in on other bloggers, I see that I’m not the only one who’s finding it hard to concentrate on books and I take comfort in that. These are wild and woolly times, so I might as well focus on wool right now! I am so thankful for all of you and the joy that blogging has brought me. I hope you’re all staying cozy and finding ways to enjoy this craziness!