Saturday 26 January 2008

My needles are longer than your needles

The hap is in the process of acquiring a border, as you can see. I haven't counted the stitches yet, the total would only frighten me. There are quite a lot, and it's a very good evening if I get three rounds done. I am using the longest needle I have ever found, 150cm or 60 inches, the same length as me. It is a Hiya Hiya circular from the very lovely people at Knit'n'Caboodle, and whilst not quite as wonderful as an Addi Turbo, it is a lot pointier. And quite a bit cheaper. I don't absolutely need such a long needle (in the Knitter's Almanac Elizabeth Zimmerman says that the Pi Shawl can be knitted to the very end on a 32" circular, but I found I wanted to go up to 40" when I did mine) , and I'm sure many knitters would prefer to use a shorter one, but I've always found large objects easier on longer needles. It doesn't make for portability, alas.

Not buying books

I didn't put up a book ticker when I put up my yarn ticker because I couldn't remember the last date on which I bought a book. It was slightly before the last yarn I bought, however, so it's probably been two months.

When I say not buying books, there are reservations. Some objects with pages have crossed the threshold, most of them to exit swiftly, encased in wrapping paper (so they don't count). There may possibly have been some that went straight onto the shelves because I'd already had them from the library, loved them, and wanted to own them (so they don't count). Books for looking at rather than reading cover to cover might also have crept in under the radar.

And I didn't buy this one, I won it (although I suspect I would have bought it before very long anyway). The lovely Knititch sent it to me, and it's been following me around the house since Thursday. I've loved cables ever since I was a very small child who used to feed her fingers into the delicious holes left by the cable crossings on her jumpers and cardigans.

The not buying books thing is getting harder, though. My original intention was to make a dent in the piles (plural) of books to be read, and I have read a grand total of five since I started. A very small dent so far. There are two months still to go, but I think I need to stop reading reviews and stop going into bookshops, before I need a new notebook for the list of books I will buy as soon as Easter arrives. It might also help me to stop getting cross with the books in the piles for not being what I want to read right now.

Either that or it's time I decided that if I haven't got around to reading them in two years, they should go straight back to the charity shop unread, and no guilty feelings either.

3 comments:

Helen said...

Ooooh, send them back to the charity shop unread? I don't think I could do that. Is that allowed?

Anonymous said...

No, don't do that! I guarantee that if you do, you will end up buying them back again in a year's time - quite possibly from the same charity bookshop.

Lucy

knititch said...

glad it came. hooray for andrew at the bookdepository.