Defeated!

Well, predictably the lace shawl isn't going to be ready to gift to the bride on her wedding day. It's just too intricate and lightweight to make good progress. There has been progress since the last time I posted it, but because of the thin yarn and, er, unputdownable baby, it really doesn't look that way:

In the mean time a lovely friend came for a new-baby visit and gave me two balls of spring-coloured green acrylic that she had fallen out of love with. I was in need of an instant gratification knit to go alongside the lace, and thought that the green was just crying out for a leaf pattern, so I cast on the Garden View Shawlette. The pattern is written for aran-weight, and I am just knitting it with the needles that match the green yarn, so I hope it turns out ok with blocking. It looks good already, but it doesn't lie flat at the moment.

I'm plodding on with Change of Heart. Ms Picoult really does have a very addictive writing style, very much like Joanne Harris, whose content again I find a bit "women's fiction" for my taste, but whose writing is absolutely compulsive. Looking back at recent yarn along posts, I seem always to be dissatisfied with my reading. I was discussing this with my friend on Monday, and I think it's because I'm reading a lot of the style of thing I used to read around my academic work, but no longer reading the academic texts. I think the next thing I start will have to be either something from my study shelves, or some more demanding literature. I do have some literary classics waiting to be read. Hopefully it's a sign that my brain is ready for something a little bit more engaging!

Sausages and I (and now Bob, of course, but his presence is distinctly passive at this stage!) attend a weekly outdoor playgroup held in local woodland. We really love it. We spend a lot of time outdoors, visiting national trust grounds or just the park, but this group and it's lovely leader really help Sausages to engage with the woodland in a way I don't really have the concentration to facilitate at the moment. For the last two weeks we have had wonderful weather, and this week we were treated to some brilliant daffodils, and lots of emerging insect life.

At snack time, after sharing hot potatoes, Sausages was delighted to find a star anise in his cup of hot mulled apple juice. He thought it was really special, and it was the thing he chose to tell Husband all about when they had their reconnecting time at the end of the day.

Getting out of doors really does make the day go so much better! The boys both have stonking colds (no sleep for me!), but they were both happy and settled all afternoon after a big dose of fresh air. And I was too!

I'm joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along and Tami's Work-in-Progress Wednesday this week. What are you crafting and reading? What do you do when you hit the literary doldrums? I hope you're having a lovely week and enjoying the change of seasons as much as we are.

E