Is this bright enough?

I bought some sock wool for Project Spectrum. It might be a little bright...

It's even brighter than it looks in that photo. Here's a close-up...

That still doesn't do it justice. It's Cherry Tree Hill Supersock and is called, not unreasonably, Bright 1. It's not kidding. I think if I went out after dark in these socks I'd be accused of light pollution and may attract moths.

Also, arriving in the mail was this -

It's about a million miles of beautiful shades of blue laceweight. You know I said, way back in January, that I wanted to knit something really challenging this year? Well, this is for that project. It's going to be a shawl, when I can decide on which pattern I want to use. It will probably take me the rest of my life to knit and turn me into a raving chocolate / red wine addict. I can't imagine what I was thinking.

I finished the Raspberry Ripple scarf for my MIL's birthday and it was delivered today. (I think she liked it!) However I forgot to photograph it for the blog, because I am an idiot.

I'm still reading The Hard Way by Lee Child. I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. I guess as long as you take Jack Reacher with a pinch of salt and suspend disbelief temporarily then it's quite an enjoyable little book. But now I can't wait to finish it because I want to get started on A Fine Dark Line by Joe R Lansdale. I treated myself to this while in Borders in Oxford today and I really want to read it right now. I absolutely loved The Bottoms, probably one of my favourite books of all time, and this is in much the same vain, being set in the same time period and also in East Texas.

I spent quite a bit of time in Borders today as they had knitting magazines I never get to see in Birmingham, some different knitting books, although alas not the Yarn Harlot, a wide range of graphic novels, and many, many other books I'd not seen elsewhere, thereby re-inforcing my earlier rant about bookstores. I could have spent an absolute fortune today, just on books I'd never seen in my local bookstores. And they have a Starbucks, where we got a particularly good cup of coffee. Now I have three great weaknesses - coffee, books and wool (not always in that order), so if only Oxford had a decent woolshop I would probably never leave.