January 31, 2012

Circling Along


Another week gone already, and my goodness, hasn't it been a week of yarn crafting?!  Well, it has for me, anyway.  Friday I attended my first monthly meeting of my new church's prayer shawl circle; since I didn't yet have their pattern, I just took along some yarn for a new baby blanket I've been wanting to start and got crocheting on it while I got to know everybody a little.  So, two crochet baby blankets in two different colorways going at once right now, and one of them is almost finished.


The big victory this week, however, was that I cast on a new project onto my newly-acquired CIRCULAR NEEDLES!  Are we so proud? Because I am.  Yes, after five years of scheming, dreaming, and several disastrous failed attempts, I am finally making some headway on the Ravenclaw house scarf I have dreamed of knitting.  Indeed, it was my ambition to make this scarf that drove me to learn to knit in the first place!  It's slow going, obviously, since I'm a very new knitter.  Even the halting rhythm I have slowly begun to build up with regular needles still hasn't developed yet on the circular ones, so it's definitely going to be awhile before it begins to look like a scarf, instead of some kind of yarn covered halo, but still I'm terribly pleased with my progress.
 

For any Harry Potter fanatic like me who may be wondering (because I would be, if I were you), yes, I will be using the Ravenclaw house colors as described in the BOOKS, blue and the closest I could find to bronze, rather than the blue and silver of the films.  Anything worth doin', etc., you know?


And what have I been reading in the interim since we last met?  Nothing less than one of the greatest writers in the history of the English language--yes, I have finally read Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.  I feel almost as proud of getting through that thrilling but linguistically challenging tome as if I had written something monumental myself!  If you've never read the book, let me just say that while the effort is absolutely worth it, the way that Jane Austen's language twists and writhes in this one may leave you feeling like you're trying to navigate a dense maze without even a breadcrumb trail, let alone a map.  Don't give up, but be sure to bring a lot of patience and your best attention with you!


7 comments:

  1. That blanket is BEAUTIFUL!!

    I remember when I finally figured out how to work circular needles--I thought it should have been made into a national holiday, so I totally know how you're feeling. :)

    I hope you enjoy making that scarf--I'm currently making a Ravenclaw scarf, myself (movie colors and the later year design). I'll probably eventually get around to doing one like what you're doing. Have fun!!

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    1. Yeah, I did the exact reverse. I like the later scarves, and will probably get around to them, but it's become a matter of honor between me and that scarf from the first movie now. I MUST defeat it! :D

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  2. I love the colors in that baby blanket! Not too frou frou pastel. :)

    I had totally forgotten the books have the Ravenclaw colors as blue and bronze!

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    1. I actually hate overpowering pastels quite dramatically, and always have, so I decided this colorway would be ideal for me. You can't tell it very well in this picture, but it's really reminiscent of an impressionist painting. Very soft and garden-like.

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  3. The baby blanket looks fantastic! And your doing a great job on the scarf. Steady does it wins the race. Looking forward to seeing it when it's finished.

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  4. Pretty Blanket and scarf, can't wait for the FO.
    I guess my experience of Austen's work and "Mansfield Park" in particular was very different than yours. I read a lot of 18th and 19th C. literature and find it very readable. Have you read Anthony Trollope's "The Warden"? You might like it. Nice to see another book lover!
    willow4

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    1. Oh, I'm an old Jane Austen lover from WAAAAAAY back. (I love Trollope, too, though I'm only partly through my first of his.) I just don't remember her language making me work this hard for it in some of the others. Maybe I simply had to fight harder to focus on it, since I've got a lot on my plate right now. Either way, I just wanted to warn anyone who didn't already know that reading her is NOT like reading the English of the average modern romance novel.

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