Knittin an readin

G'day all!

For the knitters, here's the cardi I finished in November for the local yarn shop. Apologies in advance for the wonky pics - I was trying to hold it in good light in the shop.

fo_cardi

It's knitted in Nashua Ecologie Nature Wool, supposedly all natural dyes. I'd dig up the details of the pattern book but I am lazy.

fo_cardi_cuff

It is knitted in two pieces - L sleeve, L front and back: R sleeve, R front and back and then grafted up the middle of the back. I think I did a lovely job :-)

fo_cardi_back

It was a pretty easy knit and took much longer than it should've, due to Rhinebeck getting in the way with my selfish desire to make stuff for ME to wear at it! I was a little peeved that immediately after finishing that, I had a commission to make something in a very similar colourway (FO shots shortly, as long as you don't mind the button is missing). The commissioned cardi goes to its new home tomorrow, YAY! Then apart from some little birdies out of an organic cotton I have, I don't have to knit with beige colours for a while! HOO-BLASTED-RAY!

I've been devouring books recently. Absolutely chewing through them. For ages I've been reading MC Beaton's Agatha Raisin series but I've run out of them at the local library and need to request the ones I have not read (the hard part being remembering which I have read). Since I ran out of Agathas, I started on her Hamish McBeth series instead. DH can't credit that I did not watch Hamish on the telly. But I didn't!

For some reason, I am now interested in reading things that are a little heavier. I read half of Farewell My Subaru before it had to be returned today. It is about one man's decision to go live life on the land and live a little lighter on the planet. He moved to New Mexico just as floods hit. Gotta have timing! It is amusing and a bit fluffy still, but he certainly learned a lot.

Where the Wild Things Were is the hit book of the year for me. It looks into the killing of top level predators in the USA and shows the effects it has had on the environment. It is a *great* read - there is humour and he uses interesting turns of phrase but gee the message is serious. Basically without top level predators (bears, mountain lions, wolves, heck even sea stars!), the ecology of the US is screwed. Everything is being eaten to death by deer. It has had big problems ever since the extinction of the megafauna about 13,000 years ago and white man has made it lots worse. It really made me think about how everything is interconnected and the checks and balances on life. Then I wondered about Oz - the biggest land animal we have now is the red kangaroo (unless you count salt water crocodiles but they really need water to live and roos only need to drink a little not live in it). I guess marsupial lions ate them before Aborigines and dingos arrived in Oz. What predated on the Australian fauna that exists now after the megafauna died out? Did the marsupial lion eat roos? I might have to go digging. I'm into ecology stuff and it is very different here to what it is like at home, even though the climate is not that different. The animals are different (but not the birds, oddly enough).

I even read a David Sedaris book, cos that is what White People Like. I had to find out if it was something I would like. I blush to admit I found it amusing.

The Best Science writing of 2004 is a very uneven book, imo. Some of the writing is fan-tastic! Some of it is umm, well, average. Not exciting or interesting or at all "best". I guess some people have the gift of the gab (keyboard) and others don't. Or other people find different things and different ways of writing more interesting than I do.

I've even been reading books about being introverted. I never realised there was any problem with being introverted but now I can see it is one of the reasons why my last proper job fell apart the way it did - I had had a number of introverted bosses and then got an extravert. We just did not speak the same language even though we both spoke English.

Then there are the science mags. I'm reading my way back through SciAm and various "lighter" science mags. Wish they had New Scientist in the local library. Guess I could request it....

And don't get me started on the craft books. Oh boy, a never ending series of books going through the place. Sometimes I return them only to borrow them again three days later (I figure I've given other people a chance!).

Well lovely as it is to blather at you, some of us have dishes to do. See you

anon!

Comments

  1. Anonymous3:54 pm

    The cardigan looks lovely, you have done a great job!! I'm reading the Agathas too, I'm up to #9 (You can download a whole free book from The Book Depository)
    At school we all did a 'test' in staff meeting and found out about our left and right brained-ness. I am pretty much a square/rhombus with my quadrants pretty equal, but our Music Teacher and the Principal were exact opposites. It explained why they could never understand each other or get on. I'm a bit of a believer in the brain thing. BTW perhaps it was the extravert's problem, not yours!!!

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  2. I also like Agatha Raisin. The LG library has quite a selection on talking book in case you need a change from the drudgery of actually reading them yourself!

    Nice cardi by the way.

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