Saturday 27th May - To and fro, here and there...

 Another day of 'possessing myself in patience'. But I am definitely improving.

I read for a bit (have finished a young adult fantasy book called 'The Left handed Booksellers of London', by Garth Nix, which I started yesterday because it was only 99p on Amazon Kindle)

and wandered out into the garden to commune with the broad beans. They have such a calming effect for some reason.

Then I came in, and took out the knitting I did yesterday - there was something very wrong, either with the shape of my toes, or the shape of the knitting. The knitting was going to be much easier to alter than my feet. Also, I have been having misgivings about the feel of the wool - it's not worth putting the effort into knitting socks if they are going to end up all 'itchy'. I shall use it up, no fear, probably knitting hats for charity.  

Then I ambled out to the kitchen and stare out of the window, and back to the settee and started the next book - 'Ayala's Angels' by Anthony Trollope (free on Kindle!). It was mentioned in a very light-weight romantic comedy, 'The Tall Stranger' by D E Stevenson (99p on Kindle!) which I downloaded and read in the two or three days before the Garth Nix book. (Yes, after several misunderstandings and wrong turnings, the right girls marry the right men, and all ends happily every after, never fear).

Then I spent time watching youtubes on how to do 'Kitchener stitch', having read Annabeth's comment on yesterday's post. 

Annabeth's instructions, and the video, have made everything crystal clear. Then I had a brainwave; if I leaned how to do a 'provisional cast on', I could do Kitchener Stitch on the toe as well!

So I have started another sock with a provisional cast on. Those of you with L o n g memories will recognise the yarn from the dreaded 'twice-knit' socks, the first I ever made using sock yarn and tiny needles, which took over a year to complete after many trials and tribulations. I have enough left over to make another pair... 

After lunch I went upstairs for a snooze, and Radio 3 this time. I have no recollection of what was being played, apart from waking to a lovely bit of Scottish violin playing.

And downstairs again. And television again. And knitting again. And into the garden again... sticking to anything, or being in one place for long is beyond me at the moment.

I have a hankering to make a sort of folded A3 booklet. I came across Shaun Levin's website about 5 years ago and have bought a few over the years. He creates these A3 booklets on heavy paper, either on 'how to write' topics, or as periodic collections of short stories, poems and art works (the A3 review)    

I find the writing topic books irresistible, but I'm not sure how useful they really are. That doesn't seem to matter. I just want to collect the set, because, well, there's something about collecting sets of things... I'm not so smitten with the A3 Review series which is a mercy when it comes to exercising self control.

So, when I have run out of energy or attention span for knitting, or reading, or watching, or listening, I can do thinking about how I would go about creating one/some, and what I would put in it/them.

Unfortunately cross-stitching isn't happening at the moment; that requires too much concentration. Maybe tomorrow. I have to chart something more to fill the empty spaces. Ang has sent me her May stitching. I'll post about it tomorrow.