villette

Villette is quite possibly my favourite novel, and Charlotte Brontë is certainly my favourite author. I remember as a child - how old would I have been? - when my mother read Jane Eyre and recounted the story to me as she read it. I didn't read it myself until many years later and Villette only because it was a prescribed text in my 'Women and Fiction in the 19th century' course at uni.

I really enjoyed that course and several of the themes and topics that we discussed have stayed with me, including the origins of the urban myth that the Victorians were such prudes that they invented piano skirts to hide the instrument's legs (origins which I now can't remember).

Anyway, I don't think that I actually read Villette at the time (400 pages of Victorian fiction each week was a big ask!) and ended up instead taking it with me travelling, hence my well worn copy. I have since also read Charlotte Brontë's other works - The Professor and Shirley. I love her prose, the long complicated sentences, her way of stating things. In fact, my memory of Villette is so sweet that I dare not read it again, just in case.

Since becoming an avid knitter I must admit that I do not read as much as I used to. At one point there I made a conscious decision to read on the train in the morning instead of knitting which helped until I went on maternity leave. So, speaking of knitting - I have completed one of the socks for Tim's dad. I won't have the pair ready for father's day, alas, and the weather will probably have warmed up by the time the second sock is finished but they'll keep until next winter. I think that the trick is to not lose momentum and cast on for the second sock immediately.

Progress has also been made on the linen baby ballerina top - back complete, left side complete, right side cast on and 13 rows in. I'll have to make a detour to Coles tomorrow - when I want to know exactly how much my knitting weighs, I just pop it in one of those clear plastic bags and put it on the digital scales in the fruit and vegetable section. I want to check how much the left front weighs to give me an idea of how much yarn is left and whether it will be short sleeves or long.

And now that I am back at work two days a week you would think that there would be some reading time. But, as I suspected, sock knitting is very portable and you do get lovely compliments from other commuters.