About the time that I was realizing I didn't want to keep plodding away on Twisted Madness, Judy posted that she was working on Socks on a Plane. I wanted to do something different with the Sauvie Island Hawthorne... and the pattern looked intriguing...and here I am today...
This is so much faster and easier on my mind and hands. I can work on it while the family is in the room and likely to talk to me. See the big craft sticks? There are five rounds between each cable twist. Every time I knit my way past a cable section, I move a stick from the left to the right. When I twist the cable, the whole stack goes back to the left. And if I miss moving a stick or drop the whole thing? The world won't end. I'll just try to count rows and make an educated guess.
Why craft sticks? They won't roll off the table. If there were pennies, someone might pick them up (which is understandable -- loose pennies on a table top are fair game around here.) And they were handy when I decided to use something to keep track of my rounds.
These are just a bit more difficult than my usual plain stockinette socks, and different enough to banish that feeling that I'm knitting the same pair over and over and over.
Hubby and I saw the movie trailer for The Circle when we were at the theater watching Kong Skull Island and as soon as we got home I reserved the book from the library. It's the story of Mae Holland, a young woman who, thanks to her college roommate, gets hired by what appears to be the best company on the face of the earth. The Circle has put an end to online bullying and crime and is poised to make the entire world a better place through their products. With their idea that "secrets are lies" and "privacy is theft," it seems like life in The Circle is too good to be true, but Mae isn't seeing any of the warning signs. As much as I liked the book, I didn't care for Mae much. She's an entitled little twenty-something who, before she gets her dream job at The Circle, would rather say she was unemployed than admit that she works in the offices of a utility company. But maybe that's why she loves her new job so much.
The Fire Child by S. K. Tremayne is so amazingly gothic, in the best possible way, that if it wasn't for the cell phones and other modern touches I might have thought I was reading a much older book. In the first few pages Rachel makes her way through her new husband's ancestral home, going from The Old Dining Room, through The New Hall to The Yellow Drawing Room. And then there are the sprawling basements, and the mine tunnels beneath them that extend under the sea. Did I mention that her husband's first wife drowned in those abandoned tin mines eighteen months earlier and that her body was never recovered? It might have been washed out to sea, or trapped in the tunnels under the old house. And Rachel's young stepson has told her that she will die on Christmas. If you want something that's wonderfully creepy and suspenseful without being actually frightening, this is the book for you.
Disclosure -- I picked up The Circle at the library and was provided with advance review copies by the other publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, iknead2knit, and Frontier Dreams.
I have made 3 pairs of Socks on a Plane and have been keeping a tally for each row without a twist (except that I do 6 plain rows instead of 5). I like your idea of the craft sticks better and will try it on the next pair! It'll be easier than picking up a pencil and finding my paper.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the craft stick idea - great
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