boneyard and books

At the beginning of every year, in the depths of winter, I seem to struggle finding the right knitting project. Start and abandon, start and abandon, start and abandon. Finally I had to choose something and just see it through. So I picked up a Boneyard shawl that I started ages ago and finished it. Phew.

This wool took a bit to get used to. The plies really separate and since it's cotton there is no bounce at all. But the colour - which is why I bought the Americo in the first place - is really lovely, and the cotton makes the shawl drape nicely. Now that it's finished I'm really pleased with it and I hope it's helped kick my project rut.

I haven't been abandoning books though. Each one in this stack was wonderful in its own way. Farley Mowat's Owls in the Family was probably my favourite of the four. I read it with the kids at bedtime and it's utterly charming. We learned so much about owls and Mowat is such a fantastic storyteller. My other Canadian read, Mary Lawson's Crow Lake, started out as a tough, heartbreaking story but the character development was so strong that I stayed up late into the night to find out what happened to the compelling siblings from northern Ontario. I heart rural Canadian landscapes and exploring family relationships. Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending left me somewhat indifferent but like all the theories that sprung up with True Detective, it was fun to read people's reactions to the novel's ending and their take on the narrator's trustability. I may have enjoyed that more than the novel itself! And finally, Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette? was really fun, but a little painful too. Any story about women disappearing into marriage and motherhood is tough to read. But the characters, the dialogue, the time spent in Antarctica...like I said, really fun.

For more stories about knitting and reading visit today's Yarnalong.