Words and Wool

Since my last wool post I have managed to finish this crewelwork pillow! I just need to sew it up and plop it on my couch -- it will be the perfect addition for fall. I love the colors.

I've also managed to sew some blue roses for this tea cozy. I just need to fasten them on and upload this to Etsy!

And I did get this cozy finished and uploaded.

This one was made for a friend who chose the colors. The photo didn't capture the orange of the roses very well. It was a lovely color choice.

As for reading, that's what I've spent much more of my time on!




Through the Pages of My Life: And My Encounters with Beatrix Potter by Willow Taylor was a short little memoir of a woman who grew up at the Tower Bank Arms just around the corner from Beatrix Potter's Hilltop. It was interesting to get some firsthand "snapshots" of what Beatrix was like and what village life was like. Of course it makes me just want to go back to Far Sawrey in the Lake District.


Middlemarch (Penguin Classics) by George Eliot. This has been on my list for awhile and this summer I attempted it. I finally gave up half way through. It was just becoming too much of a chore and hard for me to plow through the tedious chapters. Perhaps part of my problem was that I was not putting hours at a time into the book which may have helped to tie it together more. Anyway, I think I'll just take a shortcut and watch the BBC production of it and move on to other things.


Walk the Worlds Rim by Betty Baker tells the fictionalized story of a young Indian brave, a African slave, and several Spanish explorers in the 16th century as they explore the American southwest. I wasn't overly impressed with the book but there are not that many children's books out there for this time period and this subject so I felt it did add something to our early American studies.

Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith. I'm actually not a fan of Jane Austen re-tellings but since Smith is a well-known author whose writings I have enjoyed I thought I would read this for a little light entertainment. There was nothing revolutionary about it -- we know the characters and the plot line. However, what I found most interesting and enjoyable was watching how Smith took a classic and brought it into the present. He kept the book fairly clean -- I think there was a small amount of language and he hinted at one or two things that he didn't need to but of course fit his modern interpretation.

I have a number of good books in process right now! Can't wait to share them.....

For more ideas on wool crafts and reading, please visit Ginny's Yarn Along.

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