moonfrog –

After the drastic sock-frogging mentioned in my previous post, a new saying was born around my house. We don’t say ‘I’m going to clean your clock’ or ‘knock you block off.’ The words that strike fear in the hearts of mere mortals are ‘Watch out or I will frog your socks!”

But I am moving on to a new project. I will cast the socks on again, but there is no hurry. So, what is the logical thing to start after some worsted-weight socks? Why, a sweater in fingering weight sock yarn, of course! And that is just what I’ve been working on lately. It’s the Drops Design Jacket that I mentioned last month. I’m going to dub this the Nordic Sock Sweater. I love the colors, and watching them change as I knit is entertaining. The construction of the sweater will be interesting, too, since it switches directions a couple times.

The one thing I worry about it that this will take a long, long time. Will I lose interest? Get burned out? I guess I will just have to chance it. I decided that instead of looking at the rows or inches, I’d count balls of yarn completed. The estimated total is 10 balls of yarn. I’ve used one. Hmmm, that does not impress me much. I figure this will be my slow-but-steady project and am not forcing myself to knit it exclusively, so maybe I will make it to the end. Right now, I’m enjoying it thoroughly.

I’ve also been playing with yarn in other ways. I bought a yardage counter and have been measuring and re-skeining some yarn that doesn’t have labels. I’ve also been spinning a little and looking forward to filling a bobbin or two so I can run that through the yardage counter. Nothing like new toys for a good bit of entertainment!

AudioBook Blurb

I’ve neglected reviewing quite a few books in the past few months, then haven’t listened to much for a month, but I want to tell you about my latest reading that really impressed me. It’s a three book series called The Bartimaeus Trilogy, written by Jonathan Stroud. The series centers around a young magician, a rebellious girl, and a sarcastic djinni (genie.)

The tale is set in London, and the timeframe is a mix of historical and modern. (It’s a little disconcerting to have automobiles and ‘the American colonial problem’ existing at the same time.) The world that Stroud creates is magical and political and socially intriguing.

While some aspects of the story follow traditional lines, there are some deviations that make this narrative different from others I’ve read. Conflicts do not always have happy endings, although there are plenty of those. The characters do not always meet expectations, but are well-developed and complex. The telling of the story is concise and held my attention well.

I would recommend this series to young people and adults who like fantasy. It was a great break in my day. I wish it could have gone on longer.