Books and still not reading

When I awoke this morning, the first thing I realized was that it snowed last night. A larger skiff than the previous day, but still just a skiff. It was just 4 C today, so the snow remains in shaded areas. The wind was cold and strong and not at all spring like.

So instead of sitting down and writing, I went to town to have a coffee and start my errands.

One of my errands today was to get a library card. I remember getting my first books from the library at a small library our church had in a small nook in the vestry. I remember when Mrs. Red..., the school librarian let the grade 3 me, go over to the high school library to get books because she could not keep enough interesting things in the elementary library for me to read. I recall the provincial lending library by mail, and went often to its later incarnation as the municipal library. No matter where we lived, getting the library cards was the first thing to be done.

I let my library card go when I was working full time. That should have been the first clue that something was seriously wrong with my world. It really should have, but I was so busy just hanging on, and getting by I didn't even notice.

My first foray with the new library card had exactly what this incarnation of me needed. Some knitting books and books on CD. A couple of favourites, Clan of the Cave Bear and Persuasion. I wanted books I had read so that I could see if the picture I make in my head would be much different than reading it. So far so fair, but there is so much I am missing as the reader reads. Paragraphs that I remember aren't heard at all. Maybe I fell asleep. So far, Jane Austen is too complicated, to much to really absorb the story in the read to me version while I knit.

I'm going to try Clan of the Cave Bear on Sunday and see if the simpler, though much longer story, will work better for knitting to.

I find movies are the same way. Some I can have playing while I knit and some just are not right for knitting to. Chick flicks are great to knit to. John Adams was superior to knit by. From the Earth to the Moon a little less so.

It just seems that when the subject matter catches me too deeply, or demands too much of me, the knitting suffers, or the movie suffers. Light, fun movies work well, and I think that it is going to be the same with books.

While listening to Persuasion today, I took off several rows and reknit on the back of my sweater. I measured it against an over blouse that fits well, and it was way to wide. I cast of 1/3 more stitches on the first row of arm shaping and that seems to have done the trick. It should fit as well as I could hope for.

Now I am going to go obsess over that Morigan Pattern from No Sheep For You by Amy Singer (from the library) and let the old internal debate wash over me. You love it but it isn't to your size, and it isn't going to upsize well, and it's a little complicated and detailed and would drive you nuts, but you love it and wouldn't it look great.

I'm not going there. I'm smart enough to know how much I can bite off, but I'll play the game anyway. Just to keep me on my toes.