Reading While Crocheting

(And coming up for a breath of air before diving into the next project.)

What am I reading?

Daddy-Long-Legs, a classic of the early 20th century, written by Jean Webster and recently recommended to me by Ellen. I love this book -  it's funny, it's sweet, it's romantic and just a tiny bit sad, and it has a very happy ending. (I like happy endings, don't you?) Though written for a younger audience, Daddy-Long-Legs is full of great words like amiable and inimical and acquisitive and misanthrope. More importantly, it's a good story well told and well written. I raced through it the other morning (while crocheting) and liked it so much I'm actually reading it over again (while crocheting) before returning it to the library.

Here's a favourite quote from the book:

In the spring when everything is so beautiful and green and budding, I feel like turning my back on lessons, and running away to play with the weather. There are such lots of adventures out in the fields!

(Obviously a kindred spirit.) And another great quote:

It isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh--I really think that requires spirit.

Which brings me to my second topic.

What am I crocheting? In the sketch it may look like a lacy slice of pizza, but in real life it's a shawl. I call it the Shawl from Hell Shawl That Requires Spirit (see quote above). Talk about petty hazards - I've frogged and re-stitched enough to have made this thing about 3 times over. I seem to have been crocheting it forever, though it's really only been about 10 days.

First the gauge wasn't right, then the pattern just wasn't jiving with the yarn. I told myself that blocking would heal all, but on the final round realised that it wasn't good enough. So I started over, re-designed the pattern, and made the whole thing again. And then re-designed the border. About 4 times. While stitching the last row of the border, I noticed a mistake in the very MIDDLE of the shawl. (Mrs. M clutches her head and groans.) Finished the border, took my courage (and scissors) in hand, and carefully snipped into the middle of my finished (ha!) project. Placed the stitches above the snip on holders, and frogged back to the beginning of the mistake. (Luckily it was only about 4 stitches wide.) Re-worked the section, threading the yarn back through the stitches above, and splicing in a new piece of yarn to join to the other cut end. Wove in the ends. Wove in the other ends. Folded it up and thanked Heaven for the grace to see it through. Now I just have to block it.

And after all this, I can't even show you a photo because the darn thing is for a magazine! This is one of the frustrations of selling patterns to magazines: the Big Reveal comes way too late. "Hey everybody, look what I made ... last year." Ba-dump-bump. :)

Dear me, I meant this to be a short and snappy post and here I am maundering on. (Ooh, good word - "maundering".) Don't mind me. I've got yarn on the brain.

Back to the table, where another project awaits. (That is a table, by the way, in my sketch - a round table - though it looks like a giant smile with objects floating above it. I just forgot to draw in the surface and the legs. The book is not floating, either - it's propped up against another book.)

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What are you reading? Or working on?

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