A Bluestocking Knits

There is a tradition that what you do on New Year's Day is an indication of what you will do throughout the coming year.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, I did a lot of mom things — schlepping Julia back and forth to her riding lesson (the horses don't care that it's a holiday!), chores, grocery shopping, cooking. 

I also — hurray! — did some needlework, both on the first of a pair of Selbu-ish mitts for Laura, whose school trip to Washington DC is at the end of March.  I could hardly let her go that far without some handknits.  I made a Three-Rib Beret which I gave to her for Christmas, and now am working on mitts with the same color — which is Lorna's Laces' "Blackberry", possibly one of the most delicious purples ever — so that they will almost match but not quite.  I'm not as far along as I expected to be, since the first mitt was just a smidge too small, and I've pulled it out and restarted the colorwork section with a few more stitches, rebalancing the pattern and making some adjustments.

I also continued working on this, which is the "Long Flowers Panel" from Sandra Whitehead's first book of miniature needlepoint projects, Celtic, Medieval and Tudor Wall Hangings in 1/12 Scale Needlepoint.  Fate, I tell you — the book was in a public library not more than fifteen minutes' drive from my house.  I have for a very long time been fascinated by doll's-houses, as I've said before, and I was so pleased with the house we made for Laura that it has never been far from my mind to make one for myself.  Since needlework is at present far easier than woodworking — not to mention more portable — I am starting with that.  Oh! but it's tiny.  This center section is barely 3 cm wide, and I have to wear extra glasses to see the stitches.  Michael's had all of the floss colors recommended in the pattern, but not 24-count evenweave canvas, so this is 28-count.  But I must say it's fascinating, and I'm enjoying it immensely, despite having found four missed stitches already!

And I read, too! staying up a little too late, perhaps, but I was enjoying it — the first of Susannah Stacey's (aka Jill Staynes and Margaret Storey) Inspector Bone series of murder mysteries, Goodbye, Nanny Gray.  I was so disappointed to find that our public library had recently weeded all of this series that I bought three of them for a penny apiece off of Amazon a month or so ago.  Douglas Henshall's character in "Collison" a few years ago reminded me very much of Bone, an engaging detective coping with a tragic recent past, and rereading them now I tend to see him in the part, which can't be a bad thing.  The books are an easy read but intelligent, and I like the way that Bone's and his daughter Charlotte's stories are emerging very slowly throughout, so that you get to know them over time instead of all in a rush.

Happy New Year!