Of knitting, reading, and shelves.

One of the best things about the holidays is that there is time for knitting, reading, cooking, and being lazy. I have been doing a lot of those things with a sprinkling of dishes, laundry, and term 2 prep. I love how with my Kindle it’s very easy to knit and read at the same time—double entertainment! Despite all the rain we have been getting, dry season is on its way, so warm knitted things are a nice practical comfort, and it’s been fun to try some new things in the kitchen like homemade tortilla chips and making yogurt with long-life milk. (It can be done by the way, but it doesn’t set up as well as fresh milk does.) So, here’s a look at what I’ve been up to.

To celebrate the term being over, I dipped into my lovely bowl of Mountain Colors mill ends, and started this scarf. You work a lot of short row wedges which makes it ruffle when held flat,

and spiral enchantingly when allowed to curl!

This yarn is a bit thicker than I anticipated, so I’m not sure if I’ll use this same pattern for the blues and greens, but I’m enjoying the easy gratification of this pattern.

I’ve also started working a scarf that is destined for my Christmas gift basket. This one is from the latest edition of Jane Austin Knits, and while the main body of the scarf is very simple, it has this lovely leafy lace on the ends. I love the colors of this yarn so much—it makes me miss the fall!

I've also been engaged in 'stealth knitting' a gift for a friend, so I regrettably can't show you pictures, but I will once the gift has been received.

Some of the big news in my little house lately has been the shelves that Beth's dad made for me before he left. The ones for the living room need to be shortened a bit, but I got the pantry shelves painted and installed early this week, and now I have a much more functional pantry! My shelves are a little precarious, so having a nice sturdy unit to load up with the heavy cans is a real blessing. Here are the shelves before I put all the cans away.

I've been enjoying several books recently; I won't go into detail about all of them now, but here's a sampling of what I've been reading:

* Princess of the Midnight Ball and the two sequels--Princess of Glass and Princess of the Silver Wood by Jessica Day George. Delightful re-imaginings of classic fairy tales, plus knitting is heavily involved!
* The Greene Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine. The Philo Vance mysteries are a rather different take on the detective story, but a good read just the same.
* In preparation for the Egypt unit in history next term, The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. Since I judge all historical fiction by Rosemary Sutcliff's standard, it means a lot when I say that this is and excellent book and gives a great look into life in ancient Egypt.

Well, I think that's quite a lot enough update for now! Next time, perhaps, I'll write about my preparations for Easter. I found a new knitting pattern I want to try out...