On the weekend I sat down to learn cables and once again, it really was not a hard as I thought!
I *think* the pattern had a typo, but I figured it out. It said C6 but I think it should have read C3!
About ten years ago, my mum's friend knit her an entire afghan for a house warming gift, made up of squares of different cable patterns. It was stunning! I love the thought of a whole new pack of challenging knitting patterns awaiting me... perhaps an afghan is in my future -or at least a scarf!
Which brings me to this series. I started with book 2, 3 and then 4 and just last night finished book 1. I think that had to do simply with availability at the library but now I am sad they are all done. I know there is a 5th coming out in May though. They are loosley centered around a knitting shop as well as along a nice street but they are written as though you are spending time with your best friends and I miss them already. I know that sounds sappy. There was a time when I would only read "challenging intellectual literature" but nowadays my main criteria is an easy, comforting read with characters I can imagine being my friends. I tend to call these kinds of books "airport books" since you imagine grabbing them as a distraction for a long flight. I, however , grab them now as a welcome distraction from the sometimes long trials of life. It gives me no end of pleasure to spend a Sunday afternoon ignoring the cleaning and reading good story, cup of tea in hand. So I am sorry teenaged Tania, I am no longer slogging through Albert Camus or Henry Miller but drifting happily into stories about nice people doing trying to do nice things, while navigating their own sometimes challenging lives. It's called escapism and I'm sold.
I hear you on the books. I used to be a self-proclaimed "book snob," reading only the classics. Now, I'm guilty of reading a whole lot of Debbie Macomber. I cant help it! Her books make me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs and The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood are also great. They are a little more sad than Debbie's books, but you feel like you are with close friends when you are reading them.
Posted by: Christen | February 25, 2009 at 11:27 AM
I am a confessed book snob ("Hello, my name is Anja and I'm a book snob") but I still have periods of 'airport' reading. Sappy is very good, once in a while. So is escapism. I have a running crime fiction habit, too, although I'm becoming more and more squeamish. Bad combination, really.
Posted by: Anja | February 25, 2009 at 01:48 PM
Off to check out if my library has this book. It sound a little like The Friday Night Knitting CLub
Posted by: Cass Ward | February 25, 2009 at 07:43 PM
I receive strong reactions about books and magazines at work. Once someone told me they were surprised to see me reading a Vogue in the work lunchroom. Another time someone told me I was gutsy or something like that for reading a scifi novel at work. The saddest is when I see a lady reading a novel with a cover over it because -- even though I know it could be that she just likes using a cover -- I worry it's because she's ashamed of what she's reading. I studied romance novels a lot in university and came to build respect for them, and I no longer feel ashamed at having reading them, too.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I still keep the "good" books in the public parts of the house and my "bad" books in the bedrooms. Still not tough enough to represent!! Just wish people didn't assume I was stupid or superficial because I like these books.
Like you said, like is challenging (you're so tactful!!) and sometimes I want an escape.
Posted by: Lia | February 25, 2009 at 08:02 PM
i'm just itching to finish my heavy non-fiction intellectual book right now so i can take a break with one of the "airport books". yours sounds like a fabulous choice!
i've also tagged you for a little something on my blog, if you like :)
Posted by: elisabetha | February 25, 2009 at 09:18 PM
Me too, me too! My mom is an English professor, so I grew up around books, and I was an English minor in college, so there were a few literature-centric years. ENG 2202, Renaissance Poetry & Prose, I miss you not at all. My book snobbery has declined a little bit every year since then, and I'm much more about escapism now. The classics are classic for a reason, but sometimes (okay, most of the time) I just want a "Sunday afternoon" read without any analysis of historical context, narritive techniques, or major metaphors and motifs... :P
Posted by: Emma | February 25, 2009 at 11:57 PM
Hee hee! My name for "airport books" is "palette cleansers" because they are able to wash that taste of disillusionment right out!
Posted by: Emma | February 26, 2009 at 01:07 AM
that cable thing has got me before too...it really is a C6 because 6 stitches make up the cable. But, somehow, you have to magically know whether the first three are front or back for the appropriate effect.
Even as an English Ph.D. (who saw the error of her ways and is doing nothing directly related to the degree), I love "airport books." There are some works of "intellectual literature" that I still enjoy, but I'm really very forgiving as long as there's an understandable story and I don't feel like I'm slogging through it. :-)
Posted by: danielle | February 26, 2009 at 02:49 PM
I love the cables. I found this pattern for mittens that I think you would like, too. http://www.kelbournewoolens.com/giveahoot.html (you use the cable idea, i think, to make little owls!)
I love to read! Reading for me, is all about pleasure and fun. Consequently, I have read very few "classics" (even when it was required for a course). I don't mind, though, because I know what purpose reading fulfills for me and choose accordingly.
Posted by: Sally | February 26, 2009 at 08:58 PM
I read Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs last year, I love easy chic lit and I love being a chic reading lit! I don't miss Camus either, I will get back to that another... eh.. year? life? :-)
Lovely knit n' cat photo!
Posted by: iHanna | February 27, 2009 at 01:16 PM
Hmmm.. Cables and I do not go well together! Pretty lacy patterns.. we go hand in hand! I'm still on my mending pile.. and paying some much needed attention to my sewing machines. The knitting will come out of storage maybe next week. We shall see.
xox
Posted by: Nicole | March 03, 2009 at 12:52 AM