Now that I have that whole figuring-out-how-to-use-the-camera hurdle conquered, I thought it would be fun to start participating in Yarn Along each Wednesday. Yarn Along is hosted by Ginny on her blog Small Things, and the idea is that each Wednesday she (and everyone else who participates) posts a photo of whatever she is reading at the time alongside whatever she is currently knitting.

I’ve been reading Ginny’s blog for a couple of years now. I don’t remember how I found it, but I’m sure it was either a knitting-related Google search or an accidental discovery that came from following knitting-related links from other sites. The reason I’ve continued to visit her site, though, is partly for her knitting patterns and ideas but mostly for the absolutely beautiful pictures she posts of her children and the wry tone in which she writes about them.

I started knitting when I was nineteen, when I took an enrichment class at my college. Knitting was serious business among college students back then – there was this whole school of thought that knitting during lectures could enhance retention more effectively than taking notes (a theory I was always dubious about) and that knitting is one of the best things a person can do to relax (a theory I highly support). Basically, knitting is a process of turning chaos into order, and when my hands are creating something beautiful out of a chaos of yarn, my brain has an easier time making sense of whatever chaos it is trying to sort through.

I am exactly at the halfway point of Middlemarch right now, and I plan to write a bit of a progress report sometime soon about this book, since it’s long enough to deserve more than just a single review. I’ve been reading it really slowly, but I’m liking it a lot. I like George Eliot’s unapologetic willingness to intrude on her characters in that 19th-century way. I like the way she makes the very ordinary – even dull – preoccupations of her characters seem monumental. Most of all, I like the fact that I finally have the patience to read and enjoy this novel, which I must have started twenty times in my college and grad school years and just couldn’t quite find the wherewithal to finish.

The sweater in the picture above has a story behind it, but I’m going to wait a week or two to tell the story, if you don’t mind. Telling it now would ruin a surprise for someone who might be reading this blog, and I don’t want to do that. Of course, telling you about why I am not telling you will make everyone who reads this post think I am knitting him or her a sweater. I really can’t win, can I?

You can see my Kindle peeking its way into the photo as well. I’ve barely been reading my Kindle at all lately, since my move is making me want to read through books that I can give away. But I’ll be making a couple of trips out of town soon and will be bringing the Kindle on the plane – and once I’m settled on the west coast I’m looking forward to spending some serious quality time with it.

So more on this little green sweater sometime soon – and more on Middlemarch soon too. Happy Wednesday!