A Break/Not Break

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. ― John Lubbock, The Use Of Life

I remember a while back having an online "discussion" with a friend of a friend about books that we would recommend to someone. She started rattling off a list of books for me, then stopped and said, "Wait... you DO read, don't you?" And I was mildly offended, but mostly sheepish because, in truth, I'm not a big reader. Don't tell my aunt. I'm quite sure she'd be disappointed.

I blame the knitting... or rather, I blame the fact that most of my crafts involve both my hands and my eyes, and while some of my projects are "mindless" i.e., the stitches are simple and repetitive enough for me to work without looking, I rarely put my projects down long enough to pick up and read a book.

This is not to say I do not enjoy stories: indeed, I have LISTENED to a great many movies in my time. I have also enjoyed a few audiobooks and a plethora of podcasts. But a book with actual pages has not lasted long in my hands for the past few years.

This past week felt strange to me. I really felt the need to take a break from the usual pace with which I work on my projects. It's partly because I feel like I should have something craft-related to talk about on this blog each week, but it's also because I like to get stuff done. But this week, all I wanted to do was laze around on the couch and not do much else. I have played hundreds of games of Spider Solitaire on my phone, which is a feat I am not that proud of. More than that, I've actually been reading a book. Like a book book. Pages and words and a cover. I even have a bookmark. Dude.

It's a book I picked up a couple of weeks ago when we were last in Victoria, the book that was part of the bookclub attached to the d'Histore Naturelle Crochet-a-Long by Scheepjes. And while I did not take part in the project, I was so intrigued by the idea that a designer would base her intricate crochet blanket design around a book that I felt compelled to pick it up:

So far, I'm really enjoying it. It takes place in France in the Second World War and is about two central characters: a young orphan boy who has a genius for radios and a blind girl with a love for natural history. I won't lie: part of the reason I'm enjoying this book so much is that the chapters a short, sometimes only a page or two long. What has also made it so engaging is that there are some short recorded interviews between the author and the pattern designer which discuss the book and the backstory from the author. It's been cool to watch the story unfold and hear from the person who dreamed it all up. It's probably the most engaged I've been with a book in a long time... or indeed, the most engaged I've been in ANYTHING in a long time. Go figure.

Meanwhile, I think my idea of "idle hands" is probably not the best example of such. When I say I've been taking a break from my projects, I think what I actually mean is that I'm not rushing to get it done. The truth is, I never really put anything down, and I've actually had two projects on the go this week in the background. One is a weaving project that I actually started last December but have yet to complete. I really don't want to do a repeat performance of starting a new hobby and then abandoning it a few months later. I am determined to get this thing off the loom:

Part of the problem is that I had hoped that I would be able to make a long scarf out of my leftover merino/cashmere/nylon from a sweater I completed a couple of years ago, but I ran out of yarn before the warp was finished. I'm annoyed, but given that I haven't had any formal lessons on this loom and that I'm really only playing around right now, it was to be expected that my yarn calculations were going to be a poor estimate at best.  I thought about taking it off as it is, but I don't really know how long it is at this point. I'm sure I could drag out some dusty formula for figuring it out (I think some iteration of circumference = pi x diameter would work), but I hate the idea of wasting the leftover warp yarn. I've pulled out some more leftover yarn of the same weight, even though it's not of the same fiber blend (which also annoys me), but at least I know I can finish the warp without wasting so much of it. It helps that we finally got some nice patio furniture to sit on in our backyard. It's a very pleasant place to weave, regardless of my yarn calculation fiasco:

Seymour is also lending his support while testing out the cushions on the patio furniture at the same time. He's a real multi-tasker, that one:

I'm also picking away at a summer top using the tapestry crochet technique. The pattern is the Floral Tapestry Top by NT Maglia. I spent a long time hunting through my stash for yarn that would work with it, but in the end, I decided to order some Softfun from Scheepjes, which is a cotton acrylic blend I used on my friend's hat and mitts a few weeks ago. It's a tricky charted pattern, but I do believe it's working out ok:

And while I was at it, I decided to top up my yarn order to get the free shipping. They're all planned out, I promise:

You may have noticed that I've been working with a lot of Scheepjes yarns and patterns recently. I have no affiliation with them whatsoever. I just discovered the brand back when I was making my Rozeta Blanket a while back, as it was a crochet-a-long project hosted by Scheepjes. I've been leaning more towards more plant-based yarns as of late, mostly because I've been finding them more wearable in the temperate climate I currently live in, and also just to take a break from wool and alpaca to experiment with other fibers. I found a Canadian distributor of this brand, (Taemombo, based out of Saskatchewan), and the combination of supporting a small Canadian business and the super reasonable prices is enough for me to load up the stash with this yarn. This is not to say I'm giving up on wools... I'm just enjoying playing around with other stuff.

So, I guess that's what it looks like when I'm taking a break: I pick up a book, work on two projects, and buy a bunch of yarn. I guess I'll need a break from this break sometime down the road. I wonder what that will look like...

Have a good week!