The Long and the Short of it

I just wanted to reassure anyone who is worried that I have been frittering away my precious days off, sitting around knitting or reading or watching the TV......

that is exactly what I have been doing. I have finished Pete's socks, and knitted a pair for the Evilpixie -


Just a little difference in the sizes! These were helped by a daily dose of the old BBC drama Elizabeth R starring Glenda Jackson, which has been showing on UKTV History. Anyway I have now fulfilled my familial sock obligations for a while and can feel free to squander my knitting time on more selfish projects.

Icarus continues slowly. Although I'm in the not very interesting bit in the middle where the rows just get longer and longer, and the pattern is not at all complicated, I find that I can only knit this when there is no TV or radio, or conversation happening anywhere in the room. This is a definitely one of those for knitting when the house is empty. I'm finding the increasing rows and the steady monotonous rhythm quite relaxing, in a Zen kind of way, as long as no-one talks to me, then I find I have dropped a stitch or miscounted (and it only requires that I count up to seven!).

As I also need some knitting for when there are people in the house, or if I want to talk at the same time, I have cast on this -

Yes, I'm afraid it really is that orange. It's Rowan Cotton Tape bought a long time ago on sale somewhere and destined to look something like this when it's finished,
(only oranger!)

It may be a tad too bright, but it is for wearing in Florida where we shall be having a little holiday later in the year. All that glorious sunshine warrants a few bright colours.

Have I been reading? Oh yes. I finished We That Were Young by Irene Rathbone. It was interesting but not such a good book as Testament of Youth, probably as it was fictionalised and so I felt slightly removed from the emotions and events, which in Testament were laid bare in all their horror with no apparent filter. Not that I didn't enjoy the Rathbone book, I did, and for research purposes it was great, very informative.

I'm now reading Dark Fire by C J Sansom. I've only just started it but so far it is very good, as expected.

I had planned to get out into the garden and get some planting done in our new vegetable plot this week, but I'm waiting for the men to come and restore the garden after they drove a JCB over it a couple of weeks ago while digging a trench down the side. Half the garden bears a passing resemblance to The Somme and all the topsoil has washed down the nearest drain. Hence I am becoming more and more surrounded by broad bean and tomato plants that really want to be getting planted out and are currently occupying almost every windowsill. I wish they'd hurry up, some of these beans are beginning to look mean!