Monday, November 23, 2015

Back to basics: socks and books

Hello, last full week of November!  And , erm, hello, socks I forgot I was knitting.


How can that happen?

Well, okay, I know how it happens.  My mind has been in a million different places for about a year and a half, since I added 'renovation' to my already crowded list of responsibilities.  Plus, we moved, and I'm still finding things in boxes, even as I'm conscious that as soon as Christmas is over I can - and should - start packing those things up again.

But these particular socks?  I found them separated into a pair of kitchen canisters.  I think I was protecting them from moths.


The socks aren't the tipping point, but they're a good visual for what's important.  This week, I'm taking my life back.  No more blender!

The biggest winner from this decision so far has been the novel I've been trying to wrap up.  It's not really a literary allusion to say I've been clutching at my keyboard with both hands even as I am being pulled away from it by the ankles and elbows, so this is an exciting development.  Even though I know that if I do get to finish it, and by some miracle it does make it through the long journey to a bookstore, it will go into a blender of its own.

There are just so many books out there.  Even more than there are socks here at Hugs, which is saying something, as you may have noticed, heh.

And yet just like socks - there are never enough.  I love reading, and now that I can consume books by ear while making a meal, and from a tiny screen on the subway, I am getting through two or three books a week no matter how busy I am.  This has created a new problem because finding the next book(s) is a time-consuming job, and I hate to buy a book and not be able to manage more than a few pages (I'm looking at you, The Lincoln Lawyer, in spite of your many glowing reviews.)

Over the weekend I spent some time at Goodreads looking for things I might like, but ugh.  Do you use this site?  It's obviously helpful, and I love that it helps to make reading a Thing... I don't know about you, but when I was in school it was assumed that if you were somebody who read for pleasure, then you weren't a lot of other things on the list of socially attractive types.  On the other hand, Goodreads doesn't give you unfettered access.  Click just one layer too far and you're informed of the need to sign in, through Facebook if you want.  But I quit Facebook a long time ago and I'm sensitive to requests to give it more of what it needs to survive.  Hello, Social Media Overlord!  I know it's a reality of making books attractive, and I definitely value that service, but it's a shame you can't have a world full of book lovers without letting a company mine your life for valuable marketing data.  Bleah, is what I have to say to that.  (After all, Amazon already mines my marketing data very nicely.)

Another thing I noticed on the most recent Book Shop is that reading reviews of other people's books makes me want to work on my own, but oddly, reading the books themselves makes me want to find more books.

This is not at all like knitting.  Everything yarn-related makes me want to do everything yarn-related.


In other news, Trish sent me an e-mail at the end of last week that basically read, I am standing in front of your house and YOU HAVE BRICK!!!

We have been on the brink of brick for several weeks now, and I am looking with a wary eye at the weather because as I write this there are still two walls to do in a week that features both snow and rain.  I know the masonry team can't work in the rain because the mortar won't work, and I know they can't work in extremely cold temperatures for the same reason.  I also know those guys are awesome and will do what they can.  It's a family business with one generation teaching the next one down - as the youngest one mentioned to me, strolling past with a wheelbarrow and a grin, "They didn't give me any choice".  The work they're doing is gorgeous even though we weren't able to match the original brick colour absolutely perfectly.

This is the fun part of the renovation, for me - when the trades come in and you get to meet them and see what's involved in those jobs.  Everything is so specialized, with so many considerations that are specific to that trade.  I find it fascinating.  Also, Ray is very particular about who he hires - he only wants the best work, and he has a knack for zeroing in on people who love what they do.  It makes me happy to be around people like that, and it feels good to know that the house we love is being worked on lovingly.


Speaking of love, I can't remember now the love I must have felt - odd purple stripe aside - knitting so much of the socks I found in the canisters.  I can't remember knitting them at all!  But here they are...


... nearly done.  What I do remember is why they aren't finished.  It's because I hadn't decided how long to knit the foot before I started the toe, and I needed to try them on and calculate the remaining distance and subtract the number of rounds I'd use in the toe decreases.  This job takes about three minutes, maybe five, and apparently it might as well be Forever.

Maybe we should make a pact to each finish one five minute job this week, and I can pick these socks.

What do you think?  What lingering job would you finish?


2 comments:

Susan LaFave said...

Loved Lincoln Lawyer!! Even loved the movie..thought it was a great book.

Mary Keenan said...

Everybody loved Lincoln Lawyer Susan! You are in very good company. One of the best rated books I've come across!