A Late-to-the-party Book Review, and Some Socks

I am enjoying a nice, week-long stretch off of work, and a two-week break from school. Christmas was great... we mostly relaxed at home, went to a fantastic Church service, ate a low-key dinner and have been enjoying watching the kiddos play with all the new Christmas loot.

My knitting and reading time has increased during this little break from work and school, and look what I finished:

This is a pair of plain stockinette socks for Mom. The knitting was boring, but the yarn was fun.
They are a large woman's size, about 9"/72 stitches around, and using the Yarn Harlot's plain sock recipe from Knitting Rules.


I also finished the March Rockin' Sock Club installment, "Rogue Roses" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (who is the same as the Yarn Harlot) in the Gertrude Skein Colorway.


I think these socks are beautiful, but the rosebud pattern twines up the leg in a biased pattern, and they really twist up when they are not on my feet. But honestly, they are normal-shaped socks when I am wearing them.

On the reading front, I finally started reading the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I feel it would almost be insulting to link to them, since I am pretty much the only person I know who hadn't read them yet. In the last 10 days, I have read the first 5 books in the series. I personally think the J.K. Rowling is a genius. I love how the books, which are intended for a younger audience, grow in length and difficulty as the series progresses, and how the "wizard words" which are new in the first book become normal vocabulary for the reader as you progress through the series. Muggle, grindylow, and polyjuice potion, for example.

I also finished knitting an awesome hat yesterday, but it will photograph better tomorrow in the sunshine, so standby for details.