“Walter Benjamin said a book can wait a thousand years unread…”

“…until the right reader happens to come along. Books are in no hurry.” 

Tsundoku is an untranslatable Japanese word that means “acquiring books and letting them pile up unread.”

We are all guilty of this, don’t deny it. And if you are some sort of alien who does not do this, I say: "Welcome to planet earth, if you hang around here for long enough you will start buying books and letting them pile up unread."

I have stopped buying books, true, but I am still in the nasty habit of borrowing books. From whoever will lend them to me. And letting them pile up unread.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m meticulous about returning them, but it can take me a long time to get around to reading them in the first place…

As CB and I hope to move within the next year or so, and as books are a pain in the proverbial to pack up and move, we have made a pact to try and read all our unread paperbacks by the end of the year. This includes both unread books and those we wish to reread. Of course there are books we will always keep – Lord of the Rings for instance – but those I don’t begrudge moving house with. It’s the ones I know I will read once (or once more) and then will jettison off to whoever will take it.

I have also been systematically taking all my books from my parents’ house to my current flat, resulting in a huge pile of unwanted unnecessary books. I only own one bookcase so until today I had numerous piles of books on the floor of our spare room. A couple of these piles have now been transported to the local library, which was very happy to accept them.

The thing about these piles of books is that they make me sad. I love books and I love reading, and if I’m not going to reread these guys I want them to find a new owner who will. A bookcase full of gorgeous volumes is a magical thing, a wall of adventures at the tips of your fingers. But knowing I will never go on those journeys again, that just makes me feel guilty and sad.

Set your books free people! Let them find new homes and new lovers!

*Quote from George Steiner

"I may not have gone where I intended to go…”

“…but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

I’ve just realised I have been successfully blogging on a weekly basis for a year now!

Huzzah!

This makes me very proud of my dedication, but also makes me sad as this time last year I was still in the rosy, post-New Zealand glow.

Quite a lot has happened in this past year. I have changed jobs, moved across the country, and got married. In that order. Friends have got married, got engaged, bought puppies and kittens, bought houses, had babies and become pregnant. Phew.

My knitting has had ups and downs, my reading has had downs and ups. My exercise levels have remained fairly non-existent, with a couple of blips here and there, and my film-watching has remained consistent.

I think this next year I will expand my blog from 99% about knitting to about 75% knitting. I’m thinking book and film reviews, I’m thinking… Well that’s what I’m thinking, book and film reviews. Maybe the odd gig or show I go to.

Oh that’s what else I was thinking – baking! I could tell you a bit more about my baking! Did I ever mention my Simnel Cake?

It was slightly over baked and the marzipan wasn't that flavourful. But still. At least it looks pretty!

Anyway, I wanted to mark the occasion of our anniversary, dear reader. Thank you for listening to me wittering on about double pointed needles and pattern choices.

I can’t promise things will change, but I can promise…Err….No, that’s it.

*Quote from Douglas Adams

“A well-stocked mind…”

“…is safe from boredom.”

Dear reader(s),

Do you remember the picture from last week, the disturbing one of my horrific ladders?

Well I feel a complete fool, because “hidden” in that picture is the cause of why those ladders were so much worse than the others. I had dropped a stitch.

Urgh.

I still have a few laddery bits, but now I’ve corrected that pesky dropped one, the sleeve’s looking much more sleeve-y. The laddery bits stop at exactly the same point I moved from double pointed needles to a circular one. Coincidence? No. Circulars are so much better. They are quicker, there are no opportunities for ladders, and they are easier to transport so you can get more ad-hoc knitting done.

But now I am beginning the second sleeve so I am back on my stupid DPNs. I even tried to buy a new set (considering I only have two in the right size) but I couldn’t get a cheap metal set from Amazon. They were out of stock or only offered 4mm or 3.5mm. So I’m back with my brittle plastic hodge-podge.

I cannot wait to be knitting the yoke. It looks interesting and tricky and is therefore fun. I was knitting at my family’s Easter party and people seemed a bit alarmed at the pattern when I showed them, but I guess it’s what you’re used to. Although I’ve never done anything like this before I’ve knitted enough things to just trust what the pattern says (and ask people on Ravelry when it makes no sense!)

In terms of the knitting queue, I realised I was being a bit silly and knocked off all Easter knitting after finishing Egwene, my chicken (blogged about here) . I also made up my mind to knit this pattern for my friends’ unborn baby:

© MillaMia 2009

It’s the Mikael cardigan by MillaMia Sweden (Ravelry link here) and I already have the pattern and (hopefully) enough wool to knit it in black with a putty-grey trim. If I have enough wool I think I will make little pockets too as that would look freaking adorable. 

I have also decided that it’s unfeasible to try and knit a cardigan for my friend’s birthday in June. It makes me sad, but considering how long it’s taking me to knit Peloponnese and the fact that I don’t even have the wool picked out for it, I think it’s a wise decision. I still have two other piles of wool waiting with their patterns anyway: 

Confetti, by Veera Välimäki (Ravelry link here) (which I will knit in King Cole Bamboo Cotton):

© Veera Välimäki

and Navigate by Annie Lupton (Ravelry link here) (which I will knit in Cascade Yarns® Heritage Solids):

© Devon Johnson

Plus another pair of socks. Phew! 

*Quote from Arthur C. Clark

“…although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable…”

“…solutions are not.”

I have begun knitting the sleeves of my Peloponnese. Yay! Finally she gets round to it!

As you know, I prefer knitting in the round on circular needles. As I didn’t have any short needles, I had to buy a new set. Blah de blah.

When I started knitting, however, I realised I wanted to knit long sleeves (not three-quarter length as described in the pattern) and so would have to knit the smallest size to fit my wrist. Can you guess what’s coming next? My needle was obviously too big. I needed to use double pointed needles. And I didn’t have the right size…

I could have cried. I had two DPNs in the right size, and a bunch that were a size up. So I decided that would have to do.

It was really fiddly doing the pattern over DPNs of varying sizes, but I got through it. Now I’m going round and round slowly with my increases and it’s going well.

I have run into a couple of issues though…

El Snappo
Turns out using hand-me-down plastic needles isn’t always smooth sailing. As I mentioned, I have been using two 3.75mm needles and two 4.00mm needles, which brings its own special kind of joy, but yesterday I also managed to snap one (luckily one of the bigger ones) in half! As much as I’d like to think of myself as the Incredible Hulk of the knitting world, I think we can blame the perishing plastic DPNs. RIP.

Ladderinos
The reason I dislike using DPNs is that I cannot seem to avoid ladders. I try and I try, pulling my yarn as tight as I can when moving from one to another (possibly another reason for El Snappo above) and yet I still seem to create nasty ladders. I’m hoping most will come out when blocking, but this one I am particularly worried about:

Honestly, I shudder looking at that :(

Fabric yuck
Finally, not DPN related, but I still dislike the feel of the wool and of the resulting fabric. It’s horrible knowing I’m going to so much effort for a jumper that’s already pilling, but I really want to see how this jumper comes out. It’s a big step forward for me so there’s bound to be numerous errors and I will have to reknit it again at some point anyway, so I think it’ worth continuing and just using different wool next time. Knowing my luck if I stopped halfway and switched wool I would run into a completely different issue when I got to the yoke anyway…

*Quote from Isaac Asimov

“The good guys dress in black…”

“…remember that.”

So here’s the brief:

• My friends are expecting a baby in June. 
• I would like to knit them a baby jumper and hat. 
• They have asked that – regardless of the sex of the baby – all baby items be black, white or grey. 

I have already knitted a cute black hat (blogged about here) and am thinking about the jumper.

Originally I was going to knit this:

© Tin Can Knits

Gramps (Ravelry link here), by Tin Can Knits, in dark grey.

However I would have to buy new wool to start it. As I already have rather a lot of wool and a few projects earmarked to use it, I feel wasteful buying MORE. I know that’s silly, as it will all get used eventually, but I still would rather work through the wool I already have rather than buy more.

I thought I could knit this:

© Phillysaurus

Fredrik (Ravelry link here), by MillaMia Sweden, in black with a light grey trim.

I already own the pattern (and made the jumper, blogged about here) and have a few balls of black and one of ‘putty’ to kick off the project. But is a black V-neck jumper too much? Too morose? I hate gender stereotypes so believe me I cringe at saying this, but – would it be too severe if they have a girl? But they did specify black, white and grey…

Other options include this:

© Georgie Hallam 2014

Gidday Baby (Ravelry link here), by Georgie Nicolson, with black as the main colour and grey as contrast.

But is that going too far in other direction and choosing something girly?

I know I’m worrying prematurely; I just like to plan these things…


*Quote from Will Smith

“I am no bird…”

“…and no net ensnares me”

I have finally done it. I have completed my socks.

The toe is even (technically) correct on this one, though it still looks a bit unnatural.
So euphoric I was at completing this sock, I actually cast on another project:

This is Egwene, my Easter Chick. I used Janice Anderson's "Esther, Ernie & Enid Easter Chickens" pattern (Ravelry link here) and some Snuggly Sirdar DK in shade Eeyore that I had lying around. I think she looks spiffy.

I was planning on making three, like the pattern example, but I think instead I shall make one chick each year and let my fowl family flourish gradually (couldn't think of another alliterative word).

Now I eagerly await my needle set to start bashing out the sleeves for my Peloponnese cardigan…


*Quote from Charlotte Bronte

" ’Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ "

“He laughed. ‘That's against the law!’

‘Oh. Of course.’ "

I am ashamed to say that once again I have prioritised reading over knitting. I am so close to finishing my second sock, but the lure of The Wheel of Time is too strong!

Why is it so difficult to balance things?

I have now ordered the needle set I need to finish the Peloponnese cardigan, so as long as I finish these darn socks by the time it arrives I am happy. Although I also would like to knit some things for Easter. And I’d like to knit a jumper for my friend’s baby which is due in June. And I like the thought of knitting a cardi for my friend’s birthday, also in June.

That is too much knitting. Probably too much when I was a knitting machine, but definitely too much now I have returned to my bookish ways.

It all started when I challenged myself to read at least a chapter a day. Making myself make time for reading made me realise how much I enjoy it, and now I need to make sure I spend time doing things other than reading!

Maybe I should try a similar thing with knitting – at least 10 lines a day. At the time I thought I wouldn’t need any encouragement to keep knitting regularly, but I underestimated the fickleness of my brain.

But then I worry I’m trying to check off too many things a day – no snacks, no alcohol, going to the gym, reading, knitting, cleaning, taking over the world, etc., etc. – it has to end somewhere!


*Quote from Ray Bradbury