Still Not Finished!

The Williamsro cardigan languishes still unfinished on the desk in the office. I've completed the knitting but I still need to sew it together. Plus I don't have the buttons yet.

I bought these -

And while they are lovely buttons and just the sort of thing I was looking for they are slightly too small for such a chunky cardigan. So I've ordered some others which are slightly different in design and larger. Hopefully they will be here this weekend and I will have no more excuses not to finish the cardigan.

I am now dangerously between projects. I did cast on an Icarus shawl in some angora that was lurking in the stash but it just wasn't right so I'm having a rethink. I have some laceweight in varying shades of blue that might work or there's also some Rowan Kidsilk Haze in sparkly purple, though there may not be enough of that. I will be stash-diving and rummaging throigh pattern books with a vengeance later.

I have 5 days off in a row over this weekend so I'm hoping to borrow a 4 shaft sample loom from my spinning group so I can have a play with it while I'm off. They also have a wider loom I can borrow later once I've taught myself the ins and outs of it all. Some swearing may be involved in this! I promise to photograph the proceedings.

Big News - those lovely chaps over at the Big Green Bookshop will be opening their doors on Saturday. So if you're anywhere near Wood Green please drop in and buy a book in the interests of supporting a new independent bookshop, run by two blokes who just love books. I wish them the very best of success in their endeavour, and if the work they've put in to getting the shop open is anything to go by then they deserve it.

I'm still reading Blacklist by Sara Paretsky, not because it's a slow read but because I have it in hardback and it's too big to be portable. In between I have finished A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R King, which is a wonderful Holmesian romp through post WW1 London. I avoided this series for a long time because I thought that an American could not possibly do justice to the great Sherlock Holmes and I was a bit affronted that she had the nerve to try, and to saddle him with a woman sidekick too. Then I had to read Locked Rooms (the eighth book in the series) for reading group and discovered that all my misconceptions and prejudices were unfounded. I loved it and couldn't wait to read more. I should have known better of course because Laurie King is a fine writer and I have always loved her Kate Martinelli series, I should have trusted that she would do a sterling job with Mary Russell. My humble apologies to her. My only regret is that I haven't yet managed to find a copy of the Beekeeper's Apprentice ( I'm on a budget here so many of my books come second-hand, hence my sometimes rather erratic reading schedule). I'd have liked to start with the first in the series. Finally I read The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill. This is the first of her Simon Serrailler novels that I've read and I shall certainly read more. He could turn out to be a very interesting character.

Last, and by no means least, in celebration of Gundog Day at Crufts, (which I would have liked to have gone to only Pete couldn't get the day off), here is a gratuitous picture of Bubba.

He's wet, muddy and having a whale of a time in the park - the perfect antidote to all those pampered and ribboned Toy breeds on display yesterday.