kmkat & her kneedles

I am having the best time knitting this Boxy. The garter stitch border took roughly forever, but now that I am in the acres-of-stockinette portion, it is nothing but mindless relaxing fun. After arranging all the cakes of red fingering weight on my tv table I realized that I have a bit more solid red than tonal or variegated, which means I need to take that into account when choosing the next cake. I am using helical stripes to blend the color–

Ooh, ooh, I just figured out how to apportion the colors! Four helical stripes of a solid, three helical stripes of a tonal/variegated! That should use up the yarns at roughly the same rate.

Rough Treatment by John Harvey. I finished this, the second book in the Charlie Resnick series. Writing was engaging, plot was a bit weak although better than book one in the series. 3★

Nighttown by Timothy Hallinan. Another newly-discovered series! This is number seven in the Junior Bender series. The protagonist is a burglar (!) so it is roughly the opposite of a police procedural. Engaging, dry humor, reasonable although not fabulous plot line. Good enough that I might just read more of them. 3★

Stashbuster Knits by Melissa Leapman. Nothing here that grabbed me… except for the page where she lays out what weight/gauge one would end up with when holding two strands of yarn together. I am quite fond of that technique, so I shall scan that page of the book for future reference. As to patterns or inspiration, YMMV.

Stash Knitting: 25 Quick and Easy Projects to Make by Emma Osmand. Ditto the above stashbuster book, except this one lacked that one useful page. As to patterns or inspiration, YMMV.

Not a book, but something I highly recommend: Home Fires, a British series available on Amazon Prime (we are watching the DVDs, which I got from the library). Smokey happened to catch one episode on our PBS affiliate in the middle of the night and said that he thought we would enjoy it. The acting, plots, cinematography, and even the background music are all excellent. (I liked the music so well I just ordered the soundtrack CD.) The series is set in Britain at the beginning of WWII and focuses on the women on the home front. Tragically, there are only two seasons.  Highly recommend!

Go check out the other linked posts on Kat’s blog!