A Few Days Off

I've had a few days off work, using up some of the holiday time that's accrued over the past year. Here's a little clue as to what I've been up to -

That's the Icarus shawl, now on it's fourth or fifth incarnation after a few false starts with the wrong yarn, wrong gauge and an unfortunate incident with the vacuum cleaner. (This is one of the reasons I feel I shouldn't have to do any housework - it endangers knitting!). However, all is currently going well with Icarus (she says, tempting the knitting gods shamelessly) and I have finished the first set of repeats - now there are just another 115 ever-increasing rows of the same pattern until I hit the complicated stuff at the border.

I had a day out on Tuesday to Leamington where I scored a couple of lovely books in the charity shops (very good quality charity stuff in Leamington). There's Bliss and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield which I had been meaning to get to for a while, and then there's We That Were Young by Irene Rathbone. It's a semi-autobiographical novel which is an account of the work of women during the First World War. It's absolutely great for period detail and the everyday lives of these woman - just the sort of thing I have been looking for. Sadly, it seems to be out of print, at least in the UK.

I have just the one work day this week (Saturday) and then I'm off for another week. I'm hoping to get out into the garden next week and get some seedlings planted out. It's our first attempt at growing our own veg this year and we will be planting a herb border as well. Should be fun!