7 Quick Takes (Vol 71)

 

1.
As a knitter there is sometimes a struggle for me between my perfectionism and my WIP’s (works in progress for the non-knitter). My perfectionism tells me that I must finish every project and that it should be, well, perfect. The other part of me, the knitter, understands that sometimes you just have to throw up your hands and send something back to the frog pond.

Even if you are 3/4 of the way through the project.

Even if you have one of the socks done already.

Yes, I think that this pair of socks
is about to take a trip back to the frog pond. I love the yarn, the Arucaunia is excellent. But I really don’t love the socks. And I take my hand knit socks very seriously.  We were talking about these socks Monday night at knitting. They are just not right and I don’t want to look at them in the sock drawer and not want to wear them.

Rats.

2.
This week has sort of been “get back into the swing of life” week and I am not there yet. We have been out of town so much in the past 6 weeks that everything is just discombobulated around here. Maybe next week will be better. My house needs to be cleaned. I have work that is piling up. There are weeds that have started to govern their own country and I need to do some ironing.

Of course next week we have house guests and a family wedding. Life just never stops.

3.
I did laundry on Thursday and I was totally freaked every time I started a load. I kept looking at that darn knob to make sure that it was in the right place and not in knob “no man’s land” where it doesn’t know when to stop putting water in.

Sort of like me when confronted with a bowl full of Kalamata olives.

Or not.

4.
We have had unseasonably warm weather this week, in the upper 80’s during the day and it just feels like Summer. And when it is like that then my entire psyche says that I must sit and read a good book all day or at least part of the day. Preferably with a big glass of tea, unsweetened, by my side and no cell phone in sight.

That is what I spent most of my summers doing when I was growing up. Reading. I remember going to the library and bringing back books. When I was old enough and had some money to spend I would buy books at the Walden Books at the mall. I even bought books at the Ben Franklin by my parents cottage. And I read anything that I could get my hands on.

And every year, right about this time of the year I feel the urge to just read and read and read. I feel the urge to re-read The Lord of the Rings and Anne of Green Gables. I feel the urge to read fiction.

And the sad thing is, because I now have an adult brain (I do, REALLY) I think that I can’t just do that. I can’t just chuck all the mundane things of life and sit and read. It seems, somehow, like I am wasting time and shirking my duties around the house and yard.

I am trying mightily to get over this and just read for hours on end.

Remember “So Many Books, So Little Time”.

5.
And speaking of reading, what is everyone reading for the summer? And why is it that many of us focus so much on summer reading? Do we not read the rest of the year?

Sorry, rabbit trail. So, at the moment, I am continuing to read Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain. I have been reading this for what seems like forever. It really is good but is one of those books that you can’t just pick up and read a bit and then put down. You have to have sustained reading time. I am also reading The Stars in Their Courses by Shelby Foote. Just started that one but I do love Shelby Foote and reading about the Civil War. I am also thinking that I need to have something light fiction wise but am not sure yet what that will be.

I do have a bunch of fiction waiting to be read but I may stop all and read The Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. For many years I read it every summer. But then life intruded and children came and well, it has probably been 5 years.

6.
I am totally addicted to this stupid game that I now have on the ibrick (so called because the wifi currently doesn’t work on it). The dumb game is Scoops and it is really all TNGB’s fault. He and Shoe Queen played it all the time on the way to and from the wedding last week. They made me get it for the ibrick. MADE ME I tell you. And now I just want to play. The premise of the game is that you start out with an empty sugar cone and try to catch the scoops of ice cream and avoid the veggies.

TOTAL

ADDICTION

I was playing it at 5:45a this morning for the love of Pete.

But it is so darn fun!

7.
I have joined another knitting forum, this one in Beta testing at the moment. How many of these things can I participate in and still have time for daily life. I am firmly committed to Ravelry of course but this particular site was founded by some former Ravelry friends who were asked to leave that site, hmmmm, not really asked to leave but banned. Too long a story to go into and I never agreed with the banning though I understand why Casey et al did it.

There is never enough info on knitting to satisfy me. And I love having the connection to other knitters. AND, I saw that a high school friend is also there for the beta testing. So many connections.

I wonder, is there a similar kind of place for readers of books? I bet there is and I just haven’t found it yet.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone and remember, if you see a soldier, thank them for their service. I do.

"Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night
because rough men stand ready
to do violence on their behalf."  George Orwell