Knitting and baking, a bit of reading and some TV

I finally finished Thermal last month, but haven't blogged about it yet. This was my long term project intended to keep me going through house-building-work, moving house and wedding preparations, and it certainly did the trick!

The yarn is unknown 4ply probably wool that I bought way back on Skip North. There's still loads left, so I could have made it longer - I didn't dare when I started off as I thought I might run out as I had no idea of the yardage! I'm really pleased with how it's turned out (ignore dreadful photo of me above with the usual wonky shoulders) and think it will be a useful top.

I have started a couple of new projects. I had this overwhelming urge to get knitting and felt all inspired - which I hadn't felt for ages, probably as a result of just having one project on the go for so long! This yarn was given to us as part of a wedding present, it's Five Moons Selene in the "it's a jungle" colourway and it's gorgeous and soft as it's a merino and bamboo mixture.

And I've got a bit of a thing about cables going at the moment (my other project is the cabled jumper for a nephew) so I chose Tabitha's Owen sock pattern. The cables are big enough to show up well with a variegated yarn, as you can see below. And I love the way the pooling gets broken up by the cables. It's been a while since I did toe-up socks but I wanted to get the most out of this gorgeous yarn so it seemed sensible! It's also a great pattern for in front of the TV or on a train as there is one round where you have to be careful for the cable, but the rest is very easy to remember.

Otherwise I've been busy gardening, baking and reading. I've made a couple of cakes for colleagues' birthdays, the Victoria sponge nearly didn't last much longer after the OH spotted it through the hatch between the kitchen and the living room!

Reading-wise I read Edith Wharton's The house of mirth for reading group in July, which proved to be an interesting choice, especially immediately after getting married! After spending most of the book being puzzled about what it's got to do with mirth (it's not exactly, erm, mirthful), and not doing something sensible like looking it up on Librarything, I discovered that everyone else at reading group had a different edition, and that edition included an helpful introduction which included an explanation of the title! It comes from the Bible - Ecclesiastes 7: 4 - "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." That makes a whole lot more sense! The book follows Lily, who is basically on the shelf at the age of 29 and becoming increasingly desperate to assure her place in society by getting married to some suitable man. Whereas she was once at the centre of society she is now heading to its outer edges. She does love a man, but he isn't really in the right class so not an option. The society revolves around the social niceties and not putting a foot wrong. Lily slowly sinks further and further. At times I got very frustrated with her - why didn't she just get a job and support herself? - kept creeping into my mind. But it does become clear that she was never brought up with any idea of having to do that and has no skills or talents other than being an ornament. It is hard to identify with her as she is SO far removed from the world we're in now, but it's only 100 or so years ago (first published in 1905)! It also made me very glad that I do live now, especially with the life parallels, having just got married!

And, as there isn't anything at all on TV worth watching at the moment (other than the rather good Rev, which I've really enjoyed), we've been working our way through some DVDs of Rome, which I managed to miss when it was broadcast on TV. What exactly was I doing between 2005 and 2007 to miss it?!