Monthly Recap: September
- kniteweup
- Oct 3, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 8, 2019
Ah, September. The start of crisp autumn mornings, cozy weekends, and the return of school stress. My return to university means a slight shift here on the blog: a likely decrease in knitting (and sewing) projects as I balance creative time with study time. But never to fear, the bookish section of the blog will be in full swing! As an English and Art History major, my courses are filled to the brim with interesting reads; I'll spare you the innumerable journal articles, but the books will be highlighted here.
The Aveiro Sweater by Orlane Sucche -- Work on this gorgeous stripey number was quick, but not quite quick enough! I had hoped to have it all finished by the end of September so it would be ready to show off at Knit City in the first weekend of October... but here we are, already creeping up to that date, and I still have half a sleeve and the neckline to go! I'm confident I'll get it done before I leave for Vancouver, but I sure am cutting it close. I made a few modifications to the pattern as well, which I will detail on my Ravelry project page once I've finished knitting it up.
The Spray Lake Socks by Nicole Bracey -- I'm still toiling away at these adorable socks! Of course, after a bit of a break from knitting, my yarn overs were a bit too loose, and I miscounted something somewhere, so I had to rip back a bit and fix it. I'm very excited to be finishing these up though, and know they'll be in heavy rotation once they're off the needles.
The North Shore Beanie, a Knit Ewe Up original pattern -- I thought I'd cast on one of my own patterns, the NSB (read the post about it here) to take with me to Knit City... I figured if I had a WIP to keep my hands busy, I'd be less likely to overload my stash! Does anybody else lose all control once they start squishing all the gorgeous yarn skeins??
While I don't have any finished project photos (or even WIP shots) to share here, I thought I'd mention that I have a few more Demeter Dresses on the docket! They're in varying stages of progress, due to the amount of reading and writing I've been assigned through university, but it's nice to have such an easy, enjoyable project to turn to in my spare time.
September was a full month for reading! As I mentioned in my last post, I started Child of Light: Mary Shelley, the gorgeously written biography by Muriel Spark, and I've kept it handy for any spare reading time I might have... which I'll admit isn't a lot at the moment! In the meantime, I've read some very interesting novels...
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë -- This amazing Gothic romance is a reread for me, but it was so nice to revisit it for my Victorian Literature class! I love Brontë's writing style, and the Gothic imagery -- moody moors, grand manors, and supernatural touches -- always ignites my imagination.
Obasan by Joy Kogawa -- What a gorgeous novel! I was enamoured only two sentences in; Kogawa perfectly captures the complexity of emotions and memories, entangling fact and fiction so beautifully. The story follows Naomi, a Japanese Canadian who grew up during the internment during the Second World War, as she cares for her elderly aunt and learns about the missing pieces of her childhood. This novel is now full of pencil markings, from underlined sentences that made me cry to heavily notated passages regarding the horror of internment. Kogawa's story is eloquently, beautifully written, and I highly recommend it.
Our Familiar Hunger by Laisha Rosnau -- I was so excited to see this poetry collection included in my university reading list, as I had added it to my Goodreads "Want to Read" list months before! And yes, I'll admit that the striking cover is what initially caught my eye, but as with Obasan, I was immediately, completely in love with the writing. Rosnau manages to make even the most difficult, the most heartbreaking feelings beautiful, invoking an immediacy and intimacy which intensifies her words, the poetry leaving a deep impression even hours after reading. Again, I underlined so many lines and verses, and was struck to my core by many of Rosnau's poems.
New Reads: I've been making steady headway on George Eliot's massive novel The Mill on the Floss, another read for my Victorian novel course, which I'll admit is a bit slow going. Eliot takes her time setting up the characters and giving a strong sense of place, but that attention to detail seems to be slowing the plot a bit; still, I'm enjoying the story and am very interested to see where it goes.
Another assigned reading is Diamond Grill by Fred Wah; I've only just begun on this one though, so you'll have to wait for next month's update to hear my thoughts!
And so begins the onslaught of reading that always accompanies my university courses! During school months, the monthly roundups will likely mirror this one: light on the creative updates, heavy on the reading side. That said, October holds the exciting promise of Knit City, so there will be a bit more knitting talk to keep things balanced!
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