Knitting Update, January

 I forgot to take a picture of the Rubia socks made for my Dad's Christmas present.  Luckily, he likes them so much he took a picture of them on his feet and sent it to me. They are actually made with a gray yarn, not white like the photo looks.  But the blue is pretty spot on.

In December I decided I wanted to make myself another pair of short socks.  They were a quick and easy mostly stockinette pattern, Racing purls, that I adapted to the length of leg that I wanted.  I finished them just before Christmas.  (And forgot to take a pic before wearing them; but did take a picture before tossing them in the laundry which is why they look a bit grimy.) The colorway is a (I believe) discontinued Knit picks one that I bought several years back called Frog Prince.  And the picture doesn't do it justice.  Minty green with pale yellow and blue,and brighter longer sections of purple and pink.

Currently on my needles is the annual socks for my Mom.  Where she buys herself a skein of yarn, and gives it to me with the request that I please knit her a pair of socks in my choice of pattern. So, this year, I chose the pattern Fallreep, with it's single panel of cables. The yarn is some Dream in Color that came with a mini skein for heel, toe, and cuff (at least, I hope there's enough for cuff and not just heel and toe!).  I knit all the way from cast on through the heel between Christmas and New Year's, and just finished the gusset this afternoon while Faline was napping (hence the messy with toys and books background in the photos)

cables close up

Unless January goes to hell (I'm sincerely hoping not, but it's not been very nice so far) I should have both socks done by the end of the month. Mom's birthday is in early February and I know she's hoping these socks will be delivered to her then.

Here's a quick review of books I read since the December knitting update:

Missing by Shelley Shepard Gray--rather a disappointing read.  Murder mystery, Amish, but also quite a bit of romance thrown in disjointedly into the mystery????  I feel like this author probably writes so-so romance novels and is trying to branch out into Amish mysteries.  Unfortunately this is the first in a series, and I was curious what had actually happened to the victim and who the murderer was, so I trudged through the second book The Search as well as the third Found to finish out the long and rabbit-trailed and too much unrealistic falling in love among many characters mystery. If you like this author, go ahead and read this series.  If you haven't read anything from her yet, my opinion is that you should just skip it.  Brutally honest.

Bringing Maggie Home by Kim Vogel Sawyer--better than the book series mentioned above, but didn't fully grab my attention from beginning to end.  A nice feel-good story, though. Apparently there is a sequel, not sure I'll read it.

Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon--a Mitford novel, and while I sometimes found it hard to follow which character was 'speaking' in which chapter, it does come together to tell a nice story that makes sense.  Reading the other Mitford novels first in order is an absolute must though, to be able to understand and get the full effect of this book.

Right now I'm reading Daughters of Northern Shores by Joanne Bischof.  It's a sequel to Sons of Blackbird Mountain, which I liked, so I'm hoping this book will also be good.