Knitting Update, September

 Another month gone by just like that.  I think the best description for my August is "overheated, overworked, overwhelmed".  

So, here's to September with (hopefully) cooler weather and no more nights with a low temperature of 80 degrees with humidity running between 70-95%.  Also, the promise of the garden coming to an end (and less canning) sometime in the next four to five weeks.

I knit a little bit in the latter part of August. All on the stocking (#2 of 3) for DD1's family.

This stocking MUST GET DONE in September so that I have all of October and most of November to knit the third one and then stitch on the embellishments (like star buttons on the tops of the Christmas trees and colored beads for ornaments) on all three.

I did manage to do a fair bit of reading, mainly because I've been having continuing problems with my left knee and my dr ordered me to elevate and ice it at least twice a day for several weeks.  So, what can you do while laying on your back with your leg in the air for up to an hour each day?  (Well, what can you do in front of others, anyway, for those of you whose minds wandered in that direction!)  READ, of course!

These are the books I read while icing my knee:

Amish Midwives by Amy Clipston, Shelley Shepard Gray & Kelly Long.  My rating on this is "meh".  I wasn't too impressed with the quality of the writing by any of the three authors of this compilation of short stories.

Bone Canyon by Lee Goldberg.  First book I've read by him, and I now have a new addition to my Favorite Authors list.  If you like mysteries, you should read this one!  Well, being as this is the second in a series, you (and I) should read the first one, then read this one.  

Tin Camp Road by Ellen Airgood.  I've been looking forward to reading this second adult novel by this author, and it didn't disappoint me at all.  It's gritty, and heart wrenching, and so very true of life in many communities in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

A Simple Murder by Linda Castillo is a compilation of short mysteries involving Kate Burkholder.  Not set in any particular chronological order, they don't give away anything going on in the series, so don't worry about reading this new one before you read all the Kate Burkholder books.  If you've read the first one, you're good to go with this newest publication.

Four Legs Move My Soul by Isabell Werth and Evi Simeoni. I've been slowly reading this one for a while as my horse-related book from my own personal library, and finally just sat down and read solely on it until it was finished.  It was an interesting book, as I've been an off and on follower of Isabell Werth since we were both young dressage riders in our 20's back in the early 1990's. (Well, she was a famous dressage rider and I was a young mom with ambition to get into the show ring again someday and hopefully make it to her level of riding before I'm done.)  Lots of memories brought back to me reading through her tales of her career and the people she's trained with as well as competed with as well as the horses that have been her partners.

Xenophon: the Art of Horsemanship translated by M.H. Morgan.  Another horse book of mine.  Not exactly what I expected, but it was interesting from a historical perspective and to see how many tenets of horsemanship have been around since at least the fourth century B.C.

Currently I am reading Murder at the Cherry Festival by Richard Baldwin. The writing is a bit simplistic for my tastes, but it's not a bad book.