Saturday, June 6, 2026

Who's on first? Krokbragd done

 This morning started too early. Here's a sample text thread with patient Handsome Son adjusting kindly to my confusion. I'm in blue. 



Things did improve after that. I walked early before it got hot, then spent the morning on the weaving and got it done 


Here it is, still on the loom


Here the moment of truth where you cut it off and see if it keeps its shape. It did.


Here's the back with all those ends woven in 


And the reveal, the front, with a row of pink tulips on gold,  and it's done. 

This was a great learning curve in several ways. I developed more skill in reading the work, and it's going to carry over to the bandweaving when I resume it.

Tea and cake arrived after a tuna sandwich lunch.


 Also strawberries.

I finished the Ayelet Waldman, hm, a bit long and drawn out, more years than I was up for, but still worth reading. It starts with a tragedy and goes in all directions from there 



Then there was Whistler, the latest Ann Patchett.  


As always, it's very readable and the characters are very annoying. It takes a while to find out what the title is about, and it's intriguing.

But, big minus for me, there's a lot of the publishing world in it, tiny world that writers think is significant and important. 

Well, they would, wouldn't they, to quote a very different lady in a very different but equally navel-gazing context.

And now I'm deep in The Matchmaker's Gift
 


At first I was all oh, not another East Side novel, then I got into it and it's not just another East Side novel. It's got generations and they're easy to keep straight when the story swerves back and forth, possibly a side effect of the wit sharpening involved in learning krokbragd. 

There's a steady forward drive of story.
There's magic realism, in good hands, it works. Take that, Allende! There's someone besides you who can do it. 

But there are plenty of writers who try and don't manage it, names redacted to protect the guilty. But I have a little list.

Anyway that's the current reading. Happy day everyone.  Read all the things worth finishing but stop when you want. We don't have to finish something just because we started it. So there!










26 comments:

  1. Your weaving is wonderful. I wish I could settle long enough to read. I used to read a lot but not lately
    Cathy

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    1. I've had periods where I was too restless to read. Nowadays it's an afternoon thing after a morning's exertion.

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  2. You weave and read well-woven stories.

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    1. The language around weaving is the gift that keeps on giving. To AC, anyway!

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  3. "I have a little list" reminds me of that character in The Mikado, "Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner of Titipu"
    The finished band looks very pretty.

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    1. That's who I was quoting, so you're right. Thank you for the nice words about the weaving.

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  4. So glad you’ve focused on this new skill, which enhanced your mental capacities of course.

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    1. It also tired out my brain a bit. I think I'll do something easier next.

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  5. It took me years to accept that I didn't have to finish a book if I wasn't finding it worthwhile.

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    1. I think our upbringing, finishing what you start, gets us a bit carried away! If it was a mistake to start, it's wise to stop.

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  6. The flowers and tulips are wonderful. And so’s that tea and cake!

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    1. The cake plus strawberries is pretty good. Very Juneish. The weaving was tricky, and I think I'll do something easier now, a bit of lucet braiding maybe.

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  7. Weaving will forever remain a mystery to me, which is ok. Mysteries are interesting. The cake looks good!

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    1. You don't need to weave in order to enjoy seeing it. Good thing, too!

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  8. I've been wondering about the new Patchett. Her last few books have disappointed me sorely and I hate that.
    Surely not just the weaving but doing it from a second language instructional video is absolutely excellent for your brain.

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    1. I think I'm done with Patchett. Judging from how tired I got I'd say the weaving was a brain workout.

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  9. Interesting reading. I knew Waldman wrote for television but didn't realize she's primarily a novelist, as seems to be the case.

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    1. I didn't know she wrote for TV, but I can see it, since her novels are very visual, scene setting, place for incidental music, all that.

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  10. The weaving turned out really nice. Will you use that as a bookmark? You sure are reading lots of books - you get through them faster than I seem to do. I just finished the last one by Anne Perry that was completed by a friend of hers after Anne's death. I think I may go back and read Anne's books again. I always liked them.

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    1. Someone will have it as a bookmark, probably not me, though.
      After I discovered Anne Perry was a murderer in real life, as a teenager, I lost interest in her fiction.

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  11. I absolutely love the weaving.
    You just be ready now to do it in a large project
    A hall runner perhaps? Lol

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    1. I can definitely see a hall runner in my future!

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  12. Your weaving experiments are endlessly fascinating to see from my standpoint - but no doubt far more in the fascination factor for you, the weaver. As for disappointing books, they seem to abound lately, at least from the ones I've been getting from the library. My friend loaned me one she thought was really good, but I couldn't get past the over enthusiastic usage of the 'f' and 'c' words in the first few pages. I'm not a prude, but don't need a dose of that sort of thing when there's so many books that can tell a story without the potty mouth.

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    1. Do you think we get more demanding as our tastes in books matures (!) with us? I certainly get more cynical about publisher blurbs.

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