{Yarn Along} Shrimp Socks

I'm still knitting socks. Every time I say I'm going to take a break from it, I pick up another skein and cast on. This time it's Tofutsies, the sock yarn with shrimp and crab shells in it. I bought this skein years ago, when the yarn was new and everyone on knitlist was talking about it and whether or not  it was dangerous for people with allergies. No idea what colorway this is -- the ball band is long gone.

It stripes. It plunks big patches of pink in the middle of those stripes, but it's pretty pink and it's keeping my hands busy, so I don't mind too much. If I was knitting something that wasn't going to be hidden in shoes, I'd probably be fussier.

My biggest complaint about this yarn is that it's so splitty. That makes me slow down and watch what I'm doing and if I'm knitting self-striping socks while watching TV with the love of my life, I don't want to watch my stitches.   But the socks themselves are nice and squooshy.




Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly is a thriller about a missing teenager. According to the cover copy, working mother Lisa Calisto "takes her eye off the ball for just a moment," an action which results in the disappearance of her daughter's best friend. (Really, it means that her disappearance isn't noticed until later than it could have been.) I had a hard time with Lisa. She's super critical of the other mothers around her, especially the ones "without proper jobs," and she comes across as whiny when it  comes to her own life. But my biggest problem with the book was Lisa's terrible lapse in parenting, the one that makes her responsible for Lucinda's disappearance. It just wasn't that terrible.



I'm beyond excited about What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
by Randall Munroe. Teenage Daughter told me about this one after she heard an online interview with the author. My youngest son loves to ask impossible to answer questions, exactly the kind that this book answers.  Like -- "What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning but the atmosphere retained its velocity?" That's the first question in the book. So far I've only read the free Kindle preview, but I can't wait to get my hands on the rest. The explanations are way too complex for my eight-year-old (or he might surprise me!), but I'm fascinated by it. And I'm usually not that excited about science. While I decide whether I'm going to order the paperback so that the boys can read it someday, or sign up for Kindle Unlimited so I can read it right this second, I'm keeping myself happy with the author''s website. Expensive Shoebox is probably my favorite of the posts I've read so far, along with Cannibalism and Vanishing Water.  I think I might submit some of Leif's questions!

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. For more finishes, check out Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.