Relearning

Look at me, remembering that it's Wednesday. What an accomplishment. But at any rate, I'm linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along again.

I have just dug out and semi-unpacked my yarn box and found the box that had my crochet hooks in it, which had me worried for awhile because I couldn't find it anywhere. And I have a lot of hooks. So this week, because I love working with thread, I have begun getting back into something I haven't done in ages: Irish crochet. It's wonderfully fun to make, because many of the motifs have a 3d aspect to them. (Such as that unfinished rose in the photo. When it's done it will have three layers.) It's basically multidimensional lace.

Right now I'm just making a sampler; I haven't done it in so long that I need to get into the habit. There's a technique to it, but hopefully it will be like riding a bicycle. The big thing so far has been reaquainting myself with the padding. I'm a traditionalist and don't believe in "cheating" (a.k.a. the modern method) so it's a necessary annoyance.

As for the reading, a friend of mine recently gave me this book by C.S. Lewis called The Discarded Image. As you can read in the tagline, it is "an introduction to medieval and renaissance literature", which is very much my thing. Everyone should read some old story-poetry (there must be a technical term for that, but I can't seem to remember it) at some point, in middle English. With notes of course, because some words are completely different, but it is so much fun. But I digress. The book I am actally reading is also brilliant so far, which is up to about the third chapter. I've only just started, although it seems to be one of those intelligent books that do not make for quick reading.

My goal is to keep posting with the Yarn Along on Wednesdays, so I don't end up swamped with sampler progress that I never put up. We'll see how that goes.

Slán go fóill,
Giselle