WIPS & Books: Almost eventually done-ish

Source: nataliedee.com

Those who have followed the blog for a while will know that I have two never-ending projects. One is the Beekeeper's Quilt which was started almost 18 months ago (gulp) and the other is Martina Behm's  Nuvem which progressed well until our holiday last summer and which subsequently vanished into the depths of a project bag for being unwieldy and too monotonous. 

After starting the year with the first tinglings of Startitis, I made an uncharacteristic decision to finish Nuvem before casting on anything else... and would you believe it.... it's now less than 3 rounds from binding off!!!! Sadly each round is somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 stitches (far too many to count) and it's almost an hour for each round which you might think equates to just 3 hours knitting plus another hour or two for finishing off, but it doesn't quite work like that around here. I've totally given up on knitting when the children are awake and I'm very tired in the evenings at the moment. I am *hoping* to get it done this week so no photo today but do keep an eye out for the ta-dah. It's really not that far away. 

Last week I mentioned the book 'When God Was a Rabbit' by Sarah Winman which is now finished. Starting in 1968 and touching on major world events from the death of Martin Luther King to the aftermath of 911 this is the tale of Elly Maud Portman, her brother Joe and best friend Jenny Penny. A well written novel rich with interesting characters (who may appear far-fetched in any other book, but are totally fitting in this slightly eccentric story) including a 'talking' rabbit and a Shirley Bassey impersonator. The main themes of the book are love - in it's various forms - and loss, and I must admit to shedding a few tears at one point. I don't want to say any more to spoil it for anyone who may go on to read it. This will certainly be added to my "read again" list - I didn't want to put it down, but also didn't want it to end, which seems to be the most telling sign of a good book. 

Thanks to everyone who emailed/ tweeted/ left comments on my post about the first Knitalong of 2013. I'll be back tomorrow with the details and a special offer for participants. In the meantime, you may like to visit WIP Wednesday and the Yarn Along for more WIPs and books (although I'm posting earlier than the hosts today so you may need to wait a little while).