Work in Progress Wednesday - #14

I skipped last week's WIPW because I am a political geek, and my head was filled with numbers. (Also, except for the governor's race in my state, I was pretty upset about the results. 'nuf said - except that I am THRILLED with our new governor!! He is making all sorts of really great early decisions.) Anyway, this is part of Tami's WIPW ring, and I hope that you go check out the rest of the lovely projects in progress this week.

Here is the progress I made on the Cone Nebula quilt this past week:

Will you trust me that these two piles took several hours to iron and cut? I truly don't know how much I cut, but I figured I could make a good start. After making that first block and analyzing the picture, I decided it would make a lot more sense to do the layout in chunks of several blocks. I have a picture in my head of how I want the colors to interact with each other - and I keep going back to the Spitzer Telescope picture as reference. This coming weekend, I'm hoping to get some actual layout and sewing done.

The Haiku jacket for my great nephew is looking like this:

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I was commenting that the fabric of the jacket wasn't quite right. I was on size 6 (4mm) needles. I swatched on size 5 (3.75 mm) needles, but that wasn't much better. I didn't have a pair of size 4 needles in the right length, so I tried size 3 (3.25 mm) needles, and the fabric has a nice, tight weave (no tiny fingers will be able to poke through!), and the fabric has a better drape. The jacket's lapel is at the bottom of the picture, and that part that is sticking out is the shoulder area of the front (just to give you a reference).

Several months ago, Hubby dearest finally went through his clothes bureau and cleared out ill-fitting and worn-out clothes. This past Saturday, I went through those and sorted into four piles: trash, cleaning rags, rug rags, and St. Vincent's Thrift Shop. The rug rags I tore into strips, and this week, I have started warping a rug on the loom that I bought at the guild's summer show (because working full-time, doing volunteer work, reading good books, and having two three intense hobbies aren't enough). Anyway, I have wanted to weave ever since I was a little kid watching the neighbor lady on her big garage-sized rug loom. I go to places like Colonial Williamsburg and hang out in the weaving shed. Something about turning 50.....

It's a start, and I'm thrilled. I figure if I add a few strips every time I go into the basement, then I'll eventually have a rug.

I've also been reading. I finished the book on Chinese history and picked up Jacquelyn Mitchard's Still Summer. She has a podcast and a blog! Must seek out! I will say that I dearly love this woman's books. Her characters are like the people I encounter in my daily life, the problems they face are real, and the way the issues get resolved make sense. This book is really intense and quite frightening. She builds the suspense nicely and handles the resolution well. It is about a Caribbean cruise taken by four women who have known each other all their lives. Bad stuff happens, and they have to deal with it. I really don't want to spoil the plot beyond that.

This past week I read Barbara Vining's (Ruth Rendell's) Anna's Book. I've mentioned Lady Rendell before. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her writing. I'm not sure if I've mentioned here how I found her. I was in Aunt Agatha's bookshop in Ann Arbor a year or so ago, looking for a novel by P. D. James that I hadn't read. Unfortunately, I had read all of the novels they had, but there was a sign saying, "If you like P. D. James, you might also like Ruth Rendell."

Anna's Book takes place in both London in 1905 and London in the late 1980s. A baby is born in 1905 and dies as an old woman in the late 1980s, but who is this child and how did she come to be in the life she lived? Rendell knows how to set a scene, how to spoon out information, and how to keep you reading until the very end. It was a very engrossing book.

Right now I am reading Monica Ali's Brick Lane about a young Bangladeshi woman in an arranged marriage to a much older man. I'm only about 30 or so pages in, but it's good so far.

What are YOU reading? working on? worrying about? Let me know.

Oh!! Oh!! Oh!! So exciting! This evening, I'm going to a live taping of the Slate Political Gabfest! It's going to be in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan law school. I have been listening to this podcast for about four years, and it is my favorite podcast. I am SO thrilled.