It's Monday! What Are You Reading - November 21, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is one of the longest lasting book-memes I know of. I've been a participant since the days it was hosted over at J Kaye's Book Blog, and then on Book Journey. Now It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted at Book Date.

The idea of It's Monday! What Are You Reading is to share the books you read last week and also what you are currently reading. I've discovered the hard way that it's a dangerous meme for your TBR piles as frequently I end up adding books to my wishlist thanks to the intriguing descriptions and reviews that others share.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon.

The amazon.com product description:

It began in Scotland, at an ancient stone circle.  There, a doorway, open to a select few, leads into the past--or the grave.  Claire Randall survived the extraordinary passage, not once buy twice.  Her first trip swept her into the arms of Jamie Fraser, an eighteenth-century Scot whose love for her became legend--a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child.  Her second journey, two decades later, brought them together again in frontier America.  But Claire had left someone behind in the twentieth century.  Their daughter Brianna...

Now, Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the stone circle and a terrifying leap into the unknown.  In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she is risking her own future to try to change history...and to save their lives.  But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past...or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong...

This week is going to be much the same as last week. I'm still working away at Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. When I'm actually reading the book, I'm loving it and don't want to put it down. It's just that I'm making it to the stage of picking the book up a lot less than I keep thinking I will. Still, I'm almost 800 pages in as of last night.

Instead, as I noted yesterday in Netflix and Crafting, I find myself watching Netflix instead (usually Star Trek with my husband), although I've found myself firmly hooked on The Crown, and working on a crochet shawl or spinning. Or, cooking. Yesterday led to a load of orange slices in the dehydrator - we'll have to see how they turn out. I've never tried drying orange rings. Pineapple - yes! Oh Yes! Pineapple is my favorite fruit to dry. It's so much less expensive to do it yourself. Pears! Delicious! Apple - the mainstay of my fruit drying. I've even managed to dry some of my herbs. But that wasn't the only cooking I did yesterday. For the first time in about five years I dug out the muffin tins to make an old family favorite: Orange Date Muffins. Delicious!

Progress on the shawl is coming along quite satisfactorily as well. Since I picked it up again, I've been averaging about two rows a day - and the rows are getting pretty long!

I've also finally made it past the half-way point on the Eternal Lace Project (I think it's about two and a half years and counting). I've only got another 90 grams or so to go. Maybe another two years worth at my current pace. I can't wait to see how it plies up though, with a plan to chain-ply the whole thing so I can preserve the color changes.

Anyway, to go back to reading (as that is the theme of this meme), should I get Drums of Autumn finished this week, I'm planning to pick up The Fiery Cross. Other than that, I'm contemplating picking up a shorter book to read as a change of pace if I get the time. A big "if" there, I have to admit. I'd really like to have a book review to post some time this week. Whether or not that will actually happen, I don't know.

Netflix and Crafting

Those blog posts you see about how Netflix is bad for your reading time? All true. All very, very true. We signed up for Netflix this past month - it was cheaper than buying the seasons of all the Star Trek shows - initially mostly for my husband. I did have hopes though that they might have Outlander - my current favorite T.V. show. No luck. That, among a number of other shows and movies I'd like to see are not a part of the Canadian version of Netflix currently. Didn't think I'd be using it that much... Most of the shows I watch I own on DVD or Blu-ray already.

Then I started to go looking. They had the David Attenborough shows, even the ones I hadn't bought yet - though not the one about the Great Barrier Reef - for which I've only seen the final episode unfortunately. Downton Abbey. I've wanted to watch that one. And then I discovered The Crown. Firmly down the rabbit hole now, and my "to watch" list is growing. Mostly historical drama series and animal shows.

Add to this that I've gotten back into crochet again after about a month of doing next to none. And the project of the day is the beaded shawl I've been working on for the last three or so years. The one I tend to refer to as "what the heck was I thinking" especially when I get to a beaded row.  I have to admit however, that I know exactly why I've picked up this project again. It's thanks to the Knitters Pride blocking mats I just bought. I want to have a project finished so I can try them out. I'm making some pretty good progress too - about four rows in the last week. I really do need to get some photographs taken to show it off.

Up until now I've been using some of the bigger foam mats bought at Canadian Tire. They've worked well enough, but they're no fun to store. I think that right now, a couple of them are behind the basement sofa, one is in the furnace room and the final is hiding in the closet under the stairs. All of them though, are collecting dust, and are highly awkward to stash away.

These new mats are smaller, and come in a neat carrying case - they're always going to be nice and clean and ready to use. No "where is the final mat hiding this time" issues to deal with any more. I do wonder though if the Knitters Pride mats will interlock with my older mats should I need to expand the area for a larger project. Any other knitters/crocheters have the answer?

My final snark of the day on crafting concerns crochet hooks - and I'm not referring to the tiniest ones that got bent trying to open up an old family filing cabinet that was missing its' key (attempt failed by the way). No, those are still on my "to replace" list and the attempt can be filed under "unusual ways of using crochet hooks" of which I have a few stories.

Instead I'm referring to the Addi Comfort Grips crochet hooks I'd been buying a few years ago. I've got something like four or five of them now, and over the last five years, all of the handles have cracked. I'll admit that I've not been overly careful with them - keeping them in traveling project bags for example, but I also don't think I've been all that rough with them either. Still, I most definitely expect better durability for the price I paid for each hook.

I don't think they're worth what I've paid for them, and I'm fully intending to go back to using the Boye metal crochet hooks - which have never had a problem - unless I've been using them for non-crochet purposes like picking a rock out of a truck wheel mechanism. No, my plan as I finish each of the projects that uses one of these hooks is to retire it and take up any new projects with the Boye hooks again. They're nearly as comfortable to use and far less expensive, which is good as I prefer to keep the correct hook with each project I'm working on - thus I can have four or five of the most commonly used sizes.

I'd love to know though what your favorite crochet hooks are - maybe I'll give them a try.

At any rate, all of the above has been quite bad for my reading time - especially since I've now joined my husband in watching two to three episodes of Deep Space Nine in a day - from part way through season 5 and I'm now hooked for the most part. It makes for a good time to do some crocheting. Reading time? What reading time?

I'm still claiming to be reading Drums of Autumn though, and am about a hundred pages farther in than I was last week.