I’ve been reading this short story anthology since before Christmas. It’s hands-down the best story anthology I’ve ever read, and I was sort of stunned when I found it that I had never heard of it before and had only previously read four of its 36 stories. The authors in the story include the usual suspects of 20th-century fiction as well as some less well-known names whose stories are nonetheless fantastic. The story I’m reading right now is not one of my favorites – it’s one of those stories in which a father takes a son hunting and it’s a metaphor for something – but it picks up when the son gets his hand chewed off by a bear and then accidentally shoots his father in the kneecap. But I’ve flipped ahead, and I know that I’m in for another fifteen pages of the two of them slowly, painfully hobbling out of the woods. It’s like “The Open Boat,” but with bears.

But the rest of the stories in the collection are great. I recommend it highly.

I am loving the scarf I’m working on now. It’s the same old “Forgiving Scarf” pattern, using a variegated yarn that includes several different shades of red and purple, with the occasional olive green and midnight blue to mix things up. I love it. I’m even thinking that it might be about time for my once-every-five-years ordeal of trying to knit myself a sweater (Long story. I’m a perfectionist.), and I’m considering using this yarn. But I wouldn’t wear the sweater and the scarf at the same time – because that would just be too damn precious.

I’m getting ready to start some felted slippers too. I’m excited!

Yarn Along is hosted each Wednesday by Ginny on her wonderful blog, Small Things.