March Magpie Madness ~Yarn Along~

How's that for an alliterative title??

 

~knitting~

I worked steadily on my Sorbet Doocot...right up until I got magpie fever and decided to stash bust some orangey-yellow yarn on a raglan cardigan for Ponchik.  In fairness, she is outgrowing almost all her sweaters right now, and we still have several months of layer-weather, whereas I can get along without another sweater at the moment.

 I've had the yarn for ages (two skeins of Preciosa from KnitPicks in a discontinued color), but I'm not sure I have enough, so I might have to augment with another color somewhere in there.  The yarn is a funny wind--it feels almost like knitting with roving, but the hand-dyed effect is undeniably pretty!  The yarn does have a subtle twist to it, so perhaps it is single-ply?  I have some vintage buttons that I think will match perfectly and am excited to use.

I've officially hit the part of the year where my hair makes me crazy and have been wearing berets on the regular.  The two I have aren't quite enough, so I swatched my ample supply of Lava Heather Swish for another, and have plans to make a second out of the leftover yellow yarn from last year's Daisy Carbeth (now retired, RIP).  I'm all about the yellow accents this year--it's my new neutral.

(This is a purchased hat, because I don't knit particularly fast, and just needed something).

 ~reading~

Nothing worth writing about.  A fantasty triology by Sarah J. Maas called The Court of Thorns and Roses.  It's fine--light bedtime reading.  Still haven't finished book two of the All Souls Triology or cracked anything I got for Christmas.  All in due season, I suppose.  Fr. Alexander Men's An Inner Step Toward God is back on my stack for a re-read during Lent.  I confess I've started this Lent with absolutely nothing--no reserve, no emotional filter, very little energy for much beyond the bare essentials of keeping the household running.  

~sewing~

Kinder Chinners!  The violin teacher at my kids' school approached me a few weeks ago about purchasing these for the younger violin students at the school (I head the Parent Association, and these kinds of requests often come to me).  They are used with beginning violin students to make the chin rest more comfortable for them.  When I priced them out, it was much cheaper to make them myself.  

It was the perfect Clean Week thing to do, and I spent yesterday cutting and sewing in an assembly line while watching Henry VI Part II and part of Richard the III with Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard.  (I decided that I can't give up screen time for Lent for a variety of reasons, but am restricting what I do watch to a narrow set of options).

~watching~

The second series of The Hollow Crown is good (but flawed as history, given Shakespeare's position at Elizabeth's court and the need to legitimize the Tudor throne).  Cumberbatch gives a great performance, but I like the first series better, both for the plays and the performances.  Also, can I just note that Anton Lesser is a very busy man these days?  He's become the British character actor to watch.  

Just before Lent started, I watched Kenneth Branagh's story about the end of Shakepeare's life called All Is True.  It was a good thing to watch without close attention (i.e. while folding laundry).  Ditto Knives Out, which was a collection of great performances, although Daniel Craig definitely stole the show.  The film is what would happen if Agatha Christie and Guy Ritchie had a movie baby together--ha!

My husband and I have been watching The Crown on and off for some time, and are slowly working through season 2 (I know, I know).  We watched episode six ("Vergangenheit") and it was stunningly good, grappling with issues of forgiveness and reconciliation, both at a societal and personal level.  My husband noted that the writers could have parsed this a bit further, and I agree, but given the complexity of the subject matter, I thought it was handled extremely well.  If you want to go all tin-hat conspiracy theory, if Joseph Kennedy had won the U.S. presidency in 1932 instead of FDR, and Edward VII had stayed king of England instead of abdicating, the world would have been a completely different place in 1950 (and by extension, today).

That's all I got today!  Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along.