things started, things finished

Today is Sunday and the playoff games for the superbowl are happening and it is best to stir clear of my husband unless the Giants are ahead by 40 points and they are not so I thought I would do this blog.  I kinda like doing the blog but I am still so slow with it.it is cold today .  Really it is.  This morning it was only 38 and later today got to about 60.  It is cloudy so it makes for beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Let's start with reading.
First, I finished "Blue Prints for Building Better Girls" by Elissa Schapell.  I have read books by this author before and I liked them.  This was okay.  It was a series of interconnecting stories.  I swear I read some of them in other places.  They seemed very familiar  to me.  The fact that I can't remember much else about the book is a bad sign-it means it did not hold my interest and I was probably daydreaming through parts of it.  Continuing with "look me in eye" by John Elder Robison .  I could probably finish this quickly but son is reading this for school and I don't want to get too far ahead.  It is memoir about his life with Asperger's syndrome and is good.  I finished "Tolstoy and the Purple Chair"by Nina Sankovitch.  I got this as a Hanukkah present.  I had been really looking forward to reading this.  The author's sister had died of a rare form of bile duct cancer 4 months after her diagnosis and she was devastated . They were very close and shared a love of books.  To help her get her zest for life back she decided to read a book a day for a year.  Some were books others were long stories.  Parts of this were good other parts bored me.  She started a blog called ReadAllDay.org where she reviews books and talks books.That is where I first heard about her.  The blog is fun.  She lives in Westport Connecticut not far from where I grew up so it does invoke memories of my childhood spent reading.I have been loving "Downton Abbey " on PBS so I started" Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks.  It takes place during World War 1..People have been telling me this is a great book but I could never get into it.  I understand it has been made into a movie which is coming out latter this year.  I always like to read the book before I see the movie so I hope I can get into this book this time around.  I am tempted to read some Edith Wharton.  It is her 150th  birthday in a few weeks.  She wrote books taking place around the time of "Downton Abbey" . Most of her books concerned wealthy Americans living in Europe looking for husbands and titles-somewhat like Lady Cora so maybe she will be my next read.  I went through a Edith Wharton reading phase about 20 years ago and I liked her writing.  All books available at Amazon.com..

Next my knitting.  I finished, blocked,sewed on buttons,and wore my Trail Jacket a Hannah Fettig pattern done in Osprey Yarn from Quince and Company.  I talked about this in other blog posts.  Love the sweater and yarn.  I have started another Hannah Fettig pattern that appeared in her book "Coastal Knits" called Rocky Coast Cardigan.  I know a lot of people are making this sweater.  I am doing it in Quince yarn  in the Icelandic color on size 10 needles the same as called for in the pattern.  Again it is knit from the top down.  I love the yarn and pattern.  At this point with all the cables I really have to pay attention so it is not going that fast but the large needles are helping.I also started the Garden Tea Cardigan from Blue Sky Alpaca Spud and Chloe Yarn.  This yarn is 50 percent wool and 50 percent cotton.  I really like the pattern and yarn.  I bought this over a year ago at Jessica Knits a great yarn store in Scottsdale.  The pattern is easy and if I put the time in it should go quickly . The only problem is I will have to put it together which I hate.  I am going to put pictures of both sweaters in.  There is not much to see right now but you will be able to watch my progress.  I am almost finished with a couple of scarfs I have been working on hopefully I will be able to show them in the next blog.Peace