I kind of enjoyed my two weeks without my cell phone. I did have my old one reactivated for emergencies, but I hardly ever brought it anywhere. I enjoyed the feeling, once so familiar, that my time was my own and could not be intruded upon. It helped that I was on vacation from work, of course, and when I found my phone (buried under a pile of crap – duh) I was happy to see it. This sweater is going through a bit of an awkward stage. It’s not very photogenic right now, but it’s coming along nicely, and the yarn is extremely light and soft.

The novel in the photo is Laurence Cossè’s Bitter Almonds. It’s about a woman teaching her housekeeper to read – and that’s it. And it’s really good. Most of the time, I like grand, sweeping novels, the kind that follow multiple characters across great expanses of time and space, but every so often I enjoy a really focused novel. When these simple, focused novels work, I really admire them. For all intents and purposes, this novel has two characters (others are talked about and appear occasionally). The action of the novel only occasionally leaves the protagonist’s apartment. There is no exposition or backstory – just pure narration. The housekeeper struggles to learn the basics, so this is a novel in which, no joke, scene after scene is about this woman trying to print her own name and not succeeding. But it’s still really good, and I admire it.

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