a plethora of pinks

A new yarn in the shop! Sock yarn this time. Strawberry Fields.



I've been fitting in a bit of dyeing this week during the school holidays, in between the care and feeding of three children, working here and there, disappearing to the coast for a couple of days, more gardening with rabbit-proof fencing and inedible grasses, voracious Sudokoing and reading:

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. Good yarn (haha) and I was quite moved at the end, but oh the main character annoyed the hell out of me. I don't care if she was rebelling against her posh mother, no naice gel from Double Bay "sucks on a tinnie of beer" or says "rozzers". Rozzers??! It just didn't ring true. And it makes me cringe, all that "matey" business.

In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant. To get me in the mood for August (for a Renaissance Venice subject next semester, not my next career move). Narrated by the dwarf servant, set in Venice. Colourful. I do like me a decent historical novel. Although I did turn away from a luridly covered paperback at the op shop yesterday interestingly called An Autobiography of Henry VIII with Notes by his Fool Will Somers. So you see I am fussy. (If you google that and end up at Amazon, I can tell you the cover on the edition I picked up [and put back] in horror was far far worse).

An Equal Music by Vikram Seth. It leapt out at me from the For Sale pile at the library - I couldn't quite believe that such a book was on the shelves of the withdrawn, and for $1. Such an author, and the book itself is a hardback with a glorious cover featuring a painting by Il Padovino titled Orpheus Leading Eurydice out of the Underworld. I thought Orpheus played a lute, but in this painting he has a violin strapped across his back. Beautiful anyway. And we have the cd of the music so I can listen to it each evening when I'm reading. Music, love, obsession. Started yesterday, unputdownable. Yes that's a word, shut up.

I've also been knitting something for me for a change. I've knitted fingerless gloves for everybody else in my life (real and virtual) and now it's my turn. I saw this deliciously soft silky aran weight yarn in Lincraft the other day; it's 70% wool and 30% soybean, and is called Prism. Quite lovely to knit with, albeit a little splitty as it's single ply with very little twist. Truly glorious colourways.



They were supposed to be the Fetching which I've knitted twice before, but I was on the coast and knitting from memory. My memory failed me and I completely forgot to do the cabling at the wrist. I remembered the second band of cabling just before the picot cast off though, so all was not lost. That photo was taken yesterday - I wore them today at Son #2's soccer match. Love me a quick knit.

Anyway, the point of this post wasn't knitting or boring you with my current reading, but to let you know that more yarns have been dyed so you know, when I've wound them, photographed them, uploaded them, put them on etsy, been thrashed at Scrabulous and done a load or three of laundry, they'll go in the shop too.

Just for you.