Books and Knitting

If there is one thing that I do not lack for it is a loving bunch of friends.
And if there is one thing they do not lack for it is copious amounts of literature.
The meeting of these two happy realities is manifest in my receiving many books when I go to see my friends.

Baba gives me lots of old fantasy and science fiction (much of which predates me and I'd never encounter otherwise) and the occasional bizarre volume. Such as "In This House of Brede" which is a recounting of an author's living in the gate house of a cloistered convent for a year.

Dan Vera always has a few issues of White Crane for me to give to people. This time around I was gifted with some lovely poetry and a new edition of Taking Off the Masks by Malcom Boyd and the Isherwood Century; I looked on my bookshelf and have a copy of A Single Man and think I'm going to read it before I read a book of commentary and biography about the author.

For my part I bought the Boys from Boise , about the famed "scandal" in the 50's written in the 60's, and Wrestling with the Angel, a compendium of essays regarding gay authors struggles with the institutional religions that have rejected them.

On to knitting.

I made my first needle case. It did the job but then I suddenly had DP needles in every size, and straight needles, and then circulars.

I thought it time to get a new case. So when I was in Stitch DC my eyes fell on this lovely case.

The outside is tapestry like while the inside is a raw silk print.

I think it's quite lovely and there is plenty of space for anything I could want to place in it. The only downside is that circulars don't fit easily.

As far as actual knitting goes I've been busy with a number of projects.

This lace shawl out of the EZ Almanac. It is very simple and just goes around and around I'm on the 48 rows of 250 stitches and am not looking forward to the 48 rows of 500. I'm knitting a pattern of lace diamonds into it. I'm enjoying the mohair yarn though.
Then there are these socks; Tofutsies yarn though I am sad because my last socks in this yarn have hole that I need to darn already. I've got another ball in green but recieved some yarn from Dan that I'll use for my next sock project.
And finally there is the sweater. It's for Flopper and I have been working on it for months.

I love the reduction lines in this pattern that form the shoulders and neck.

It will hopefully look like this eventually except in blue and not in black and white.

~Eikon