Sleeves

The two sleeves are finished, though they don't look too cheerful.



The winter light makes everything look gray and I am too lazy to play around with my camera to fix that. I am bracing myself for the seaming.  Side seams are not so bad, but I have to tackle the sleeve seams first, which, at least to me, are harder.

That book is Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. I thought that after so much fantasy, some science fiction might be a nice change. Well, if you like techno-geek teen stories, this book is all right. There is little consolation in knowing how plausible this "big brother" scenario might actually be. Having a geeky teenager take on the Patriot Act is quite entertaining, but there were some parts of the book that got me yawning.

One more birthday went past, which I celebrated at work with my lab assistants and two of my co-workers with an excess of the really bad carbohydrates: cake, cookies and soda. I gave in because it was a very nice detail. Most people, including myself, take off long before my birthday comes around. In fact, we must have been the only people left in the whole building. Later the spouse took me out for dinner to my favorite sushi place.

Christmas itself was a quiet affair. We spent the afternoon having cookies and cake (more  bad carbs) with some friends, and later went to have dinner proper with a different group of people my husband had met through someone from work. All of us came from different countries and we were all in different trades. The only thing we had in common was that we had all decided that flying home for Christmas was not worth the expense.

I am not complaining. I started this year with my family in Mexico and I actually got to travel home two more times during the year. I do hope everyone out there had a nice Christmas, hopefully with their families, unlike myself.

Still knitting

I've been too busy lately but I've managed to keep knitting and reading. Here's proof:



The left front joined to the back, with markers where buttons will be, so I can knit matching buttonholes on the right front. That novel is Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson. It is the first of a fantasy series and so far so good. Fantasy worlds can be very repetitive but this one is very original. It made me want to read the first novel he wrote:



As often happens, his first novel, Elantris, was not as well written as the second. Nevertheless, I found it as original as Mistborn. It seems to me that he was testing the waters before embarking in a larger project. I finished it along with the right front of the baby jacket, which has an endless amounts of ends to weave in. I should start doing that soon.


But first I will work on the sleeves. As much as I hate sleeves (and sleeve seams), knitting them is better than weaving in ends. That last book, Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, has my husband constantly making fun of me for reading teenager chick lit. I remember Jennifer mentioning to me that she was reading the second book. Well, if she liked it enough to read the second one, I reasoned that the first one must be good. And it is. It is not something my husband would enjoy, but hey, it's letting me progress nicely on the baby jacket. I don't ask for more.