Yarn Along #12 Sock It To Me!

Busy Wednesday, I was beginning to think I might not get a chance to join Ginny's Yarn Along this week.  And I even have a finished (well, off the needles, still in need of blocking) object to show off:

The oaklet shawl:

Now that it's done, and knowing who I intend to give it to, I kind of wish I'd gone ahead and done the math to make the shawl a bit larger.  Oh well, The intended recipient is most likely to wear it around her neck than over her shoulders anyway.


I finally feel like I've gotten to spend some time knitting again in the past week.  Not only did I finish the oaklet shawl, I managed to get three (of four) pattern repeats done on the leg of Athos sock #2.   Yay!  That means I will be working on the heel this weekend :0)

I'm getting rather anxious to be done with this pair of socks.  Normally a second sock only takes me a week or so to get done, and I'd originally planned to have the entire pair done by the end of October.  Which means, according to my time table I'm running behind.  Therefore, no casting on anything new until this sock is done!  I need to focus. Sock. . . sock. . . sock. . .

Reading wise, I started the book Quiet over the weekend.  It's kind of interesting, but a bit dry.  I will keep reading it, but wanted something a little quicker as my main  reading.  So, yesterday I picked up The Meaning of Names from the library.  I've only gotten into the second chapter so far, but I think I will like this book.  It is a fiction account of a German-American family in the Midwest during WW1.  I can (just barely) remember my great-grandmother --who was first generation German-American, born in 1889 and died in 1984 when I was 12 years old--talking about how, during the World Wars, they were careful to not speak German in public and how they were discriminated against because of their ethnicity.  So even though I am a long time removed from that era, this book is something I can relate to.  I'm looking forward to reading further.