Whoever invented “Wednesday” needed spell check. Who hasn’t said “Wed-nes-day” ? I remember when I was learning to read I thought “Language is so strange.”
My dad was a reporter, sports reporter, sports broadcaster, and then an editor for newspapers. He taught me to read when I was three. He would have me cut the large print headlines out of the paper….individual letters….and paste them onto paper to make words. He probably did it to keep me out of his hair whilst he was working on some project. My first efforts looked like really bad ransom notes. At times, I think he did me a great service and at others I think a disservice.
I was always bored in school because I could already do things. When I was seven, I read my first adult novel….”Tall in the Saddle”. I scared myself senseless when I read “Treasure Island” later that same year. I could not sit at breakfast without reading the cereal boxes. I cannot go a day without reading, if only for a few minutes before I nod off to sleep. I am as addicted to reading as I am knitting.
When each of us turned five years old, my mother would take us to the library to get our first library cards. It was a very important right of passage. She would hand it over and say “This is your passport to lands you will never visit and people you will never meet”.
I remember asking her and the librarian how many books could I take out and they both said, “As many as you can carry”. We lived across town and walked everywhere, so an armload of books was a difficult feat. The second time we went, I took my little red wagon and filled it up. I made many trips to the Huntington Library on Chestnut Street in Oneonta, NY. It’s still there.
In every place I have lived, the first place I find is the local library. Even when I was in the Navy, the first place I would find was the base library and the second was the local library. It was not the habit of the East Greenwich, RI, library to give library cards to naval personnel, but I got one. The librarian there helped me plot my college plan. I was accepted at Cornell College in Clinton, Iowa and planned to go on to the University of Minnesota or somewhere in that region for a Masters in Library Science. I eventually wanted to get back to Washington, DC, and work for the Library of Congress. Ah, but life has a way of fooling with your plans and your road goes in different directions. I did work as an assistant librarian at one time, so that part of the dream materialized.
I’m sittin’ and knittin’, waiting for a new circular needle to come in the mail. I broke the needle that the Quicksilver shawl was on and had to rip back the shawl a bit. I’m working on the Scatterby Socks, which is a free pattern on Ravelry. There is a multi-part Youtube video by Purl Together….if you ever wanted to try a toe-up sock….this is a perfect way to do it. I do two at a time/magic loop on separate needles….not two on the same needle. If I make a mistake, I do not want to tear back two socks to fix it.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/scatterby-socks
Mine are done in the colorway “Pin Up” by Yarn Ink. I love their yarns. This was a pairing with Mrs. Brown’s Bags and I finally found the right recipe for the yarn.
Well, coffee is gone. Time to move on with my day.
oh, look………shiny